ce Sir Walter's appointment to the sheriffdom of Selkirkshire, he
had resided at Ashiesteel, on the banks of the Tweed, of which he was
but the tenant. He was now desirous to purchase a small estate, and
thereon build a house according to his own taste. He found a desirable
site six or seven miles farther down the Tweed, in the neighbourhood
of the public road between Melrose and Selkirk, and at nearly an equal
distance from both of those towns: it was then occupied by a little
farm onstead, which bore the name of Cartley Hole. The mansion is in
what is termed the castellated Gothic style, embosomed in flourishing
wood. It takes its name from a ford, formerly used by the monks of
Melrose, across the Tweed, which now winds amongst a rich succession
of woods and lawns. But we will borrow Mr. Allan Cunningham's
description of the estate, written during a visit to Abbotsford, in
the summer of 1831:--"On the other side of the Tweed we had a fine
view of Abbotsford, and all its policies and grounds. The whole is at
once extensive and beautiful. The fast rising woods are already
beginning to bury the house, which is none of the smallest; and the
Tweed, which runs within gun-shot of the windows, can only be
discerned here and there through the tapestry of boughs. A fine,
open-work, Gothic screen half conceals and half shows the garden, as
you stand in front of the house--(_see the Engraving_.) It was the
offspring of necessity, for it became desirable to mask an unseemly
old wall, on which are many goodly fruit-trees. What we most admired
about the estate, was the naturally useful and elegant manner in which
the great poet has laid out the plantations--first, with respect to
the bounding or enclosing line; and secondly, with regard to the
skilful distribution of the trees, both for the contrast of light and
shade, and for the protection which the strong affords to the weak.[8]
The horizontal profile of the house is fine, crowded with towers and
clustered chimneys: it looks half castle, half monastery. The
workmanship, too, is excellent: indeed we never saw such well-dressed,
cleanly, and compactly laid whinstone course and gage in our life: it
is a perfect picture."[9] "The external walls of Abbotsford, as also
the walls of the adjoining garden, are enriched with many old carved
stones, which, having originally figured in other situations, to which
they were calculated by their sculptures and inscriptions, have a very
curious ef