The Club_ was Linton.]

[Footnote 100: Walter Scott of Synton (elder brother of
_Bolt-Foot_, the first Baron of Harden) was thus designated.
He greatly distinguished himself in the battle of Melrose, A.
D. 1526.]

[Footnote 101: This alludes to being lost in a fishing
excursion.]

[Footnote 102: The companions of _The Club_.]

TO {p.173} WILLIAM CLERK, ESQ.

ROSEBANK, 30th September, 1792.

DEAR WILLIAM,--I suppose this will find you flourishing like a
green bay-tree on the mountains of Perthshire, and in full
enjoyment of all the pleasures of the country. All that I envy
you is the _noctes caenaeque deum_, which, I take it for granted,
you three merry men will be spending together, while I am poring
over Bartholine in the long evenings, solitary enough; for, as
for the lobsters, as you call them, I am separated from them by
the Tweed, which precludes evening meetings, unless in fine
weather and full moons. I have had an expedition through Hexham
and the higher parts of Northumberland, which would have
delighted the very cockles of your heart, not so much on account
of the beautiful romantic appearance of the country, though that
would have charmed you also, as because you would have seen more
Roman inscriptions built into gate-posts, barns, etc., than
perhaps are to be found in any other part of Britain. These have
been all dug up from the neighboring Roman wall, which is still
in many places very entire, and gives a stupendous idea of the
perseverance of its founders, who carried such an erection from
sea to sea, over rocks, mountains, rivers, and morasses. There
are several lakes among the mountains above Hexham, well worth
going many miles to see, though their fame is eclipsed by their
neighborhood to those of Cumberland. They are surrounded by old
towers and castles, in situations the most savagely romantic;
what would I have given to have been able to take effect-pieces
from some of them! Upon the Tyne, about Hexham, the country has a
different aspect, presenting much of the beautiful, though less
of the sublime. I was particularly charmed with the situation of
Beaufront, a house belonging to a mad sort of genius, whom, I am
sure, I have told you some stories