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ed? I heard the cushies croon Thro' the gowden afternoon And the Quair burn singing doun to the Vale o' Tweed. "And birks saw I three or four, Wi' grey moss bearded owre,-- The last that are left o' the birken shaw, Whar mony a simmer e'en Fond lovers did convene, Thae bonny, bonny gloamins that are lang awa'. "Frae mony a but and ben, By muirland, holm, and glen, They cam' ane hour to spen' on the greenwood swaird; But lang hae lad an' lass I Been lying 'neth the grass, The green, green grass o' Traquair kirkyard. "They were blest beyond compare, When they held their trysting there, Among thae greenest hills shone on by the sun; And then they wan a rest, The lownest and the best, I' Traquair kirkyard when a' was dune. "Now the birks to dust may rot, Names o' lovers be forgot, Nae lads and lasses there ony mair convene; But the blithe lilt o' yon air Keeps the bush aboon Traquair, And the love that ance was there, aye fresh and green." PLATE 17 DRYBURGH ABBEY AND SCOTT'S TOMB FROM A WATER-COLOUR SKETCH PAINTED BY JAMES ORROCK, R.I. (_See pp. 35, 39, 91, 92, 103_) [Illustration] Traquair House--possibly Scott's Tully-Veolan, "pallid, forlorn, stricken all o'er with eld," claims to be the oldest inhabited house in Scotland. It certainly looks it. The great gate, flanked with the huge Bradwardine Bears, has not been opened since the '45. There seems no reason to question the legend. It is not so "foolish" as Mr. Lang supposes. Innerleithen, Scott's "St. Ronan's," is near at hand, and the peel of Elibank--a mere shell. Harden's marriage to Muckle-mou'ed Meg Murray was not quite accounted for in the traditional way, however,--a choice between the laird's dule-tree and the laird's unlovely daughter. The legend is not uncommon to German folk-lore. At Ashestiel, thrice renowned, Scott spent the happiest years of his life (1804-1812), writing "Marmion," the "Lady of the Lake," and the first draft of "Waverley." In many respects the place is more important to students of Scott than Abbotsford itself. Yet for a thousand who rush to Abbotsford only a very few find their way up here. Yair, a Pringle house, and Fairnalee, comfortable little demesnes, lie further down the Tweed. At the latter, Alison Rutherford wrote her version of the "Flow
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