k place amongst them:--

"Why," said one, "but even Rothbury here, secluded as it is from the
world, and shut out from the daily intercourse of men, is a noted place.
It was here that the ancient and famous northern bard and unrivalled
ballad writer, Bernard Rumney, was born, bred, and died. Here, too, was
born Dr. Brown, who, like Young and Home, united the characters of
divine and dramatist, and was the author of '_Barbarossa_,' '_The Cure
of Saul_,' and other works, of which posterity and his country are
proud. The immediate neighbourhood, also, was the birth-place of the
inspired boy, the heaven-taught mathematician, George Coughran, who
knew no rival, and who bade fair to eclipse the glory of Newton, but
whom death struck down ere he had reached the years of manhood."

"Why, I can't tell," said another; "I don't know much about what you've
been talking of; but I know, for one thing, that Rothbury was a famous
place for every sort of games; and, at Fastren's E'en times, the rule
was, every male inhabitant above eight years of age to pay a shilling,
or out to the foot-ball. It was noted for its game-cocks, too--they were
the best breed on the Borders."

"May be so," said the first speaker; "but though I should be loath to
see the foot-ball, or any other innocent game which keeps up a manly
spirit, put down, yet I do trust that the brutal practice of
cock-fighting will be abolished, not only on the Borders, but throughout
every country which professes the name of Christian; and I rejoice that
the practice is falling into disrepute. But, although my hairs are not
yet honoured with the silver tints of age, I am old enough to remember,
that, when a boy at school on the Scottish side of the Border, at every
Fastren's E'en which you have spoken of, every schoolboy was expected to
provide a cock for the battle, or main, and the teacher or his deputy
presided as umpire. The same practice prevailed on the southern Border.
It is a very old, savage amusement, even in this country; and perhaps
the preceptors of youth, in former days, considered it _classical_, and
that it would instil into their pupils sentiments of emulation; inasmuch
as the practice is said to have taken rise from Themistocles perceiving
two cocks tearing at and fighting with each other, while marching his
army against the Persians, when he called upon his soldiers to observe
them, and remarked that they neither fought for territory, defence of
country, nor