twenty years. Some of the best land close to Jedburgh lets at the very high rate of 61. and 77. per acre; the average rent is 21. 5s. per acre. Turnips are much cultivated in the neighbourhood, where, as is the case in the Borders towards Hesleyside, the rise in the value of land has been astonishing. A respectable farmer informed me, that a farm belonging to the Marquis of Lothian, not far from Jedburgh, which was formerly let for 2261. was upon the expiration of the lease lately re-let for 1,010l. and that another rose from 120l. to 6801. per annum. The inhabitants derive their principal support from a considerable woollen and a small stocking manufactory, and bleacheries. The walks near the town are extremely beautiful, particularly that which leads to the Steward Field, to which as I was wandering, I was much pleased with the urbanity of three little girls, who were returning to the town, each the proud and merry mistress of a large nosegay, or, as it is called in Scotland," a flower," and who, unasked, presented me with the finest roses in their possession. I thought myself in the neighbourhood of Lyons. These little traits are characteristic of the natural urbanity of a people, and therefore worthy of being noticed in the traveller's journal. Upon the banks of the river are shewn the vestiges of artificial caves, used as places of concealment during the Border wars.

The prison is over the gateway; it is small, but clean

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and well ventilated: there were only two male and two female prisoners in it, a circumstance very honourable to the morals of the country. Each prisoner is allowed eightpence per day. The objections to this prison are, that there is no yard for exercise, and no privies. It is under the superintendence of a provost and four baillies.

I much regret that my arrangements did not admit of my going to Kelso, one stage distant, as I was well informed that the scenery all the way, and the town itself, are highly beautiful and interesting. About two miles after leaving Jedburgh, the charming meanders of the Tiviot attract the eye of the traveller; and, as I passed the park of Sir John Scott, I observed some of the finest oak, ash, and elm trees, I ever saw. Lord Minto and Admiral Elliott have delightful seats and grounds in the neighbourhood. On my left I passed Eildon-hill House, apparently in an unfinished state it was erected by a gentleman who had a lucrative contract for victualling French prisoners. Immediately behind this mansion, the Eildon Hills, whose conical tops are seen at a great distance, arise very abruptly from a flat corn country. The genius of Walter Scott has raised a great portion of this country to the rank of classic celebrity in his Lay of the Last, and, as it was well observed, the sweetest, Minstrel, he speaks of a wizard, called Michael Scott-

Upon the summit of the most northerly hills are the vestiges of a Roman camp. Melrose is the first stage from Jedburgh to Edinburgh; here the great attraction is the abbey, or abbacy, of that name, founded, as before observed, by David the First, of Scotland, in 736, and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, and long celebrated for the venerable and exquisite beauty of its Gothic architecture, which, when time shall have levelled its last column with the dust, will excite the interest and admiration of distant times, in the commemorative lines of the poet I have just quoted, who has an estate and country house in its neighbourhood. This abbey is said to have been the largest in the island, and its beautiful ruins now measure 943 feet in circumference. Melrose has been so often described that it is unnecessary for me to attempt that delightful task; I shall content myself with observing, that in elegance of design, in delicacy of form, and in justness of proportion, it is not surpassed, perhaps not equalled, by the remains of any other pile of sacred antiquity in the kingdom. Many of its minuter ornaments, representing oak-leaves, cabbages, &c.

are of the most exquisite workmanship. The eastern window has long been a subject of merited eulogy. This abbey in some degree resembles York minster, particularly in the buttresses and pinnacles; in its smaller ornaments it is much superior; it exhibits the finest specimen of Gothic architecture and sculpture to be found in Scotland. There, as at Jedburgh, the body of the abbey is converted into a kirk of Presbyterian worship.

How creditable to the country and gratifying to the traveller would it have been, had the Scottish reformers, when they placed their pulpits within the walls of these august remains, imbibed some portion of the exquisite taste which raised them, and imparted it to their more modern edifices of devotion! Who, without a sigh, can contemplate the blind zeal which prostrated to the earth so many stately papal structures? Who will not be thankful to the great but furious hero of the reformation in Scotland, for not having laid low the beautiful abbey of Melrose?

This, and many other fine remains, incontestably prove the great progress which the Scotch had made in the arts at a very early period, and remain as so many monuments of their exalted taste and munificence. Walter Scott has so finely described the abbey, and has so forcibly told the reader, “Go visit it by the pale moon-light," that it is now

A LUNAR MISTAKE.

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much the fashion to contemplate it by the rays of that mild luminary. It is related of one enthusiast, whose pressing engagements prevented him from devoting more than two hours to the contemplation of this venerable object, and who resolved upon minutely following the recommendation of its minstrel, that by a sad mis-calculation he arrived at Melrose after the last quartering of the moon, and was obliged to return without being able to see

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-the cold light's uncertain show'r, Stream on the ruin'd central tow'r."

presume that one reason why the Bard has made this recommendation is, that the building may be more insulated to the eye, as its close neighbourhood to the town is a circumstance much to be regretted. The shadows of the night have no doubt the effect of detaching it from the profane society of the adjoining dwellings, and of giving it the appearance of more becoming solitude.

There is nothing in the town worth seeing. The road to the Caledonian capital crossed the Tweed, and lay through a rich country generally interesting, and exhibiting high proofs of cultivation. This beautiful river opened in the most exquisite manner, flowing clear, full, and majestically, through groves of fine and venerable wood, lofty craggy hills half-covered with brush-wood, and verdant banks