rt and intellectual culture whose ruins now
strike us with marvel and regret. There is probably no other country
district equally small in area that can boast a group of ruins at once
so grand and interesting as those that lie within a few miles of each
other along the banks of the Tweed and Jed. Founded almost
contemporaneously, they were destroyed about the same time, by the same
ruthless hands. The story of each is the story of all--burned and
rebuilt, then spoiled and restored again, time after time, until finally
at the dismal Hertford Invasion, in 1545, they all received their
death-stroke. Other religious centres on the Scottish side were
Coldingham in Berwickshire, founded in 1098 by King Edgar, son of
Canmore and St. Margaret; Dundrennan, in Kirkcudbrightshire, founded in
1142 by Fergus, Lord of Galloway; and Sweetheart or New Abbey, founded
in 1275 by Devorgoil, great-great-granddaughter of David the First. On
the English side, the Church had a less vigorous growth, having no such
munificent patron as King David, but there, too, it could boast of
Carlisle Cathedral, the Abbey of Alnwick, the Priories of Lanercost, and
Hexham, and the still more renowned and classic Lindisfarne. The history
of the latter began, as we saw, with the year 635, when Saint Aidan
accepted the invitation of King Oswald to teach the new faith to the
Northumbrians. Aidan's church, built of wood, and thatched with the
coarse bents of the links, could not long withstand the storms or the
brands of the wild sea-rovers. And of the stone sanctuary reared under
the rule of succeeding bishops no portion of the present ruin can be
considered as forming a part. Sir Walter Scott has thrown the spell of
his genius around the picturesque ruins, but the tragical story of
Constance of Beverley has no foundation in fact.

PLATE 4

HOLY ISLAND CASTLE:

HARVEST-TIME

FROM A WATER-COLOUR SKETCH

PAINTED BY

JAMES ORROCK, R.I.

(_See pp. 32, 33, 36_)

[Illustration]

BORDER WARFARE

Of Border warfare it were impossible to treat within the limits of a
library. In no part of the kingdom was the fighting and raiding spirit
more rampant. The Border clans were constantly at war with one another,
the slightest excuse provoking an attack, and not unfrequently was there
no _raison d'etre_ whatever for the accompanying ruin and desolation. It
ran apparently in the blood of those old Borderers to live on unfriendly
terms with their ne