ills and factories,
seventeen churches, and boasts a population of nearly twenty thousand.

From Hawick to Kelso the distance is 21 miles, with a finely undulating
road all through. The railway journey _via_ St. Boswells is about double
the distance. Our way lies through some of the most storied scenery in
the Lowlands. The names on the map will give us an idea of the
exceedingly romantic character of this second half of the Teviot. Here
we come into touch with such song-haunted tributaries as the Jed and
Oxnam, the Rule and Kale, and Ale, and with many of the great houses
whose history has contributed more than any other to the making of the
Border Country. The names of Scott and Ker, Elliot and Douglas, Turnbull
and Riddell are patent to every parish through which we pass. At Minto,
the home of the Elliots and seat of the present Indian Viceroy, one is
reminded of the distinguished place which that family has held both in
the stormy and in the more peaceful times of Border story. Here Jean
Elliot wrote the "Flowers of the Forest," and Thomas Campbell his
"Lochiel's Warning." From Minto Crags, crowned with Fatlips Castle and
Barnhill's Bed, (729 feet) there is no more pleasing prospect in the
Borderland. The windings of the Teviot are traceable for miles, the
Liddesdale and Dumfriesshire heights hemming in the view on one side,
and the blue Cheviots on the other. Ruberslaw rises immediately in
front, with Denholm Dene on the right, and the narrow bed of the "mining
Rule" on the left, while behind to the north are distinctly seen the
three-coned Eildons, Earlston Black Hill, Scott's Sandyknowe, Hume
Castle, and the wavy line of the Lammermoors. Hassendean (suggesting
"Jock o' Hazeldean") Cavers, a Douglas house, where the pennon of the
great Earl, and the Percy gauntlets are still shown; Denholm, Leyden's
birthplace, Henlawshiel and Kirkton, scenes in his boyhood, lie all in
the neighbourhood. Dr. Chalmers was for a time assistant in Cavers Kirk,
and in later life delighted to recall his connection with the Border
district. Adjoining Minto, Ancrum stands bonnie on Ale Water--a village
of considerable antiquity. Its Cross, dating from David I.'s time, is
one of the best-preserved of the market-crosses of the Border. Ancrum
was the birthplace of Dr. William Buchan of "Domestic Medicine"
celebrity, and John Livingston, its minister during the Covenant, was a
man of mark and piety in his day. The place naturally suggests Anc