its magic charm.

COLLEDGE WATER.

My sire is the stooping Cheviot mist,
My mother the heath in her purple train;
And every flower on her gown I've kissed
Over and over and over again.

The secret ways of the hills are mine,
I know where the wandering moor-fowl nest;
And up where the wet grey glidders[10] shine
I know where the roving foxes rest.
[Footnote 10: Glidders = Patches of loose stones on the hillside.]

I know what the wind is wailing for
As it searches hollow and hag and peak;
And, riding restless on Newton Tor,
I know what the questing shadows seek.

I know the tale that the brown bees tell,
And they tell it to me with a raider's pride,
As, drunk with the cups of Yeavering Bell,
They stagger home from the English side.

I know the secrets of haugh and hill;
But sacred and safe they rest with me,
Till I hide them deep in the heart of Till,
To be taken to Tweed and the open sea.

--_Will. H. Ogilvie_.

BY PERMISSION OF MESSRS. W. AND R. CHAMBERS

CHAPTER VII.

THE ROMAN WALL.

"Take these flowers, which, purple waving,
On the ruined rampart grew,
Where, the sons of Freedom braving,
Rome's imperial standard flew.
Warriors from the breach of danger
Pluck no longer laurels there;
They but yield the passing stranger
Wild-flower wreaths for Beauty's hair."
--_Sir Walter Scott._
(Lines written for a young lady's album.)

Of all the abundance of treasure which Northumberland possesses, from a
historical point of view--of all its wealth of interesting relics of
bygone days--ancient abbey, grim fortress, menhir and monolith, camp and
tumulus--none grips the imagination as does the sight of that unswerving
line which pursues its way over hill and hollow, from the eastern to the
western shores of the north-land, visible emblem, after more than a
thousand years, of the far-flung arm of Imperial Rome.

From Wallsend on the Tyne to Bowness on the Solway Firth it strode
triumphantly across the land; even now in its decay it remains a
splendid monument to that mighty nation's genius for having and holding
the uttermost parts of the earth that came within their ken. As was
inevitable, after the lapse of nearly eighteen centuries the great work
is everywhere in a ruinous condition, and in many places, especially at
its eastern end, has disappeared altogether; but not only can its course
be traced by