Coldingham, whence this Moor derives its Name, was an old Monaftery, built by Edgar, King of Scotland, about the Year 1100. and famous for its Lady Abbefs Ebba, of whom they tell us the following Story.

This Lady was the Daughter of Edelfred, King of Northumberland; and, when her Father was taken Prifoner by the Pagan Mercians, she got into a Boat in the Humber, with three other Women; who, by their own Prayers only, were miraculously preferved, and carried as far as Scotland, where, under a Promontory, they were driven on Shore by a Storm, and their Boat dafhed in Pieces.

When they got afhore, they laboured with, their Hands, and made themselves a little Hut to lodge in; they continued their religious Way of Living, and the Country-people fuftained them with Food; till at length, acquiring a great Character by their Sanctity and Austerity, they were addreffed to, far and near, for their Prayers; and, by the Charity of the People, got enough to build a Religious House at Coldingham.

Here, as Fame fays, when the cruel Danes came on Shore, the religious Lady (who, it feems, was very beautiful too!) cut off her Nofe, and upper Lip, and made all her Nuns do the fame, in order to preferve their Chastity. Whereupon the barbarous Danes, enraged at their Zeal, fired their Nunnery, and burnt them all alive. From this Lady, who, it is faid, was fainted for these Sufferings, the Promontory, where the landed, is to this Day called St. Ebbe's-Head, and vulgarly, by our Sailors, St. Tabbe's. There was once, upon the Point of this Promontory, a ftrong Fort, called Faft-castle, belonging to the Earl of Hume; but it has been fome time demolished.

A little to the North-weft is the Town and Caftle of Duns, remarkable for the Birth of John Duns Scotus, Anno 1274. fome of whofe Family were then in Being there. Duns Scotus was a Friar Minor, and the

greatest

greateft Scholar of his Age. Scaliger fays, there was nothing his Genius was not capable of. But his chief Study was in Points more nice than neceflary, whereupon he was called Doctor Subtilis. His Followers, called Scotifts, were great Oppofers of the Thomists, another Set of Scholaftics, fo named from Thomas Aquinas. He ftudied at Oxford and Paris; and died of an Apoplexy at Cologne. After Berwick was taken by the English, the Sheriff-Court was kept here, which was but lately removed to, a Market-town, called Greenlow; which is also a Royal Burgh, and the principal in the Shire, belonging the Earl of March

mont.

Duns was alfo remarkable for the Encampment of the Scotish Army, under General Lefly, affembled to oppofe King Charles I. when he came to the Englisb Borders with an Army, to perfuade that Kingdom to Obedience. It has the beft weekly Market for Cattle in Scotland, and is a Place of the best Trade in this County.

Coldstream is alfo a Market-town, in this County of Merfe, where was antiently an Abbey. In the Year 1703. An Act paffed for Repairing and Widening the Road from Deanburn-bridge, through Greenlow, and Part of the Jedburgh Road, by Lauder, in the Shire of Berwick, to Cornhill in the County of Durham; and for building a Bridge over the Tweed, near Coldftream.

Eccles alfo is a Market-town: and Erfilton is noted for the Birth-place of the rhyming Poet Lermouth, so much admired by the vulgar Scots. Hume was formerly the Refidence of the Earls of that Name, which they derived from the Town; and they had a strong Castle there, now demolished.

The inconfiderate Vanity of the antient Scotish Gentry and Nobility, of deriving their Names from the Places of their Refidence, had this Inconvenience attending it, that, in a few Generations, it loft the old Name of the Family from whence the Changelings defcended.

1

In like

Scotl. fcended. Thus the Dunbars and Humes, originally the fame, came to be thought two diftinct ones. manner, the Gordons, Swintons, Ridpaths, Nifbets, and the Spotfwoods, as fome fay, though all of the fame Original, must have loft the Knowlege of it, had it not been for Tradition, or the Armorial Bearings of the several Families, which befpeak them to be of the fame Lineage. This Hint may ferve, once for all, as to those Families called of that Ilk; i. e. whofe Surname › and paternal Estate are the fame, and are generally efteemed antient and honourable.

The County of Merfe, or March, formerly gave Title of Earls of March to the Family of Dunbar, who, according to Camden, derived their Origin from the famous Gofpatrick, Earl of Northumberland, who retired into Scotland on the Norman Conqueft, and was honoured with the Earldom of March, and Caftle of Dunbar, by the then King Malcolm Canmore, whence his Pofterity took the Name; while another Branch, being poffeffed of the Barony of Hume, affumed that for their Surname, which they ftill retain. George de Dunbar being profcribed in the Reign of James I. of Scotland, the Title of Earl of March was conferred on the Duke of Albany, then one of the Family of Stewart and Lenox; which being extinct, King William IH. conferred it on William Douglas, Brother to the Duke of Queensberry.

Having paffed over Coldingham-Moor, called alfo Lamber-Moor, the Lowlands of East-Lothian fhew themselves from the Top of a steep Hill, and give a Profpect of a fruitful and pleafant Country. As foon as we come down the Hill, there is a Village, called Cockburn path, or Cobberfpath, where Nature forms a very fteep and difficult Pafs, and where roco Men, well-armed, and doing their Duty, could keep out a great Army, if there were Occasion for it.

The next Shire is that of Eaft-Lothian; and the firft House of any Note we met with in it, was that of Dunglass,

Dunglafs, the Seat of Sir James Hall. Dunglafs is a fmall Village, of the fame Clafs of Filthinefs and Mifery, as thofe of Ayton, Aymouth, &c.

But here we began to fee, that Scotland is not naturally fo barren, as fome People reprefent it; but might be made equal even to the richest, most fruitful, most pleasant, and beft improved Part of England, if the Scots had the fame Methods of doing it, and were as good Bufbandmen, as the English; and this might eafily be brought to pass, would the Gentry fet about: it.

The Truth is, the Soil hereabouts is very good, and the Sea-ware, as they call the Weeds which the Sea, cafts up, abundantly fupplies the Defect of Marl, Chalk,, or Lime-ftone; for by laying this continually on the Land, they plow every Year, without letting it lie fallow, as we do; and I found they had as much Corn, as our Ploughmen exprefs it, as could ftand upon the Ground.

The next Town of Note is Dunbar, a Royal Burgh, which, in Scotland, is much the fame with what we call a Corporation in England; and fends Members to Parliament in like Manner; only, in Scotland, these Burghs have fome particular Privileges feparate to themselves; as that, for Example, of holding a Sort of: Parliament, called a Convention of Burghs, a Method taken from the Union of the. Hans Towns in. the North, in which they meet and concert Measures for the public Good of the Towns, and of their Trade,, and make By-laws, or Acts and Declarations, which. bind the whole Body. Nor have they loft this Privilege, by the Union with England, but it is preferved: intire, and is now many ways more advantageous to → them than it was before, as their Trade is more confiderable than before.

This Town of Dunbar is an handfome, well-built Town, fituated in the Mouth of the River Firth on the South-fide towards the German Ocean. The

Houfes,

Scotl Houses, as in most of the principal Towns, all built with Stone, and covered with Slate. It hath been fenced in with a strong Stone Wall; but that is now decayed. On the oppofite Side of the Haven appear the Ruins of a Castle, almost covered with the Sea at Flood-tide, which formerly was remarkably ftrong; and was the Seat of the Earls of March, afterwards filed Earls of Dunbar; a Fortress often won by the English, and as often recovered by the Scots; but demolished in the Year 1656. by Order of the Commonwealth, to prevent its being a Retreat for the Royalifts, then called Rebels.

Dunbar is a very confiderable Port, and of great Advantage to all Ships in the River, in cafe of Strefs of Weather; but yet its Entrance was fo difficult by fteep Rocks, in the Mouth of the Harbour, that the Corporation had exhausted itself by endeavouring to cut through them; and, being unable to proceed farther in it, and, at the fame time, the Town-house and School of the Town being run to Decay, and the Town itself deftitute of fresh Water; to answer all thefe good Purposes, they procured an Act to pass, in the Year 1718. intituled, An Act for laying a Duty of Two Penies Scots, or One Sixth Part of a Peny, upon every Pint of Ale or Beer that fhall be fold within the Town of Dunbar, for improving and preferving the Harbour, and repairing the Town-houfe, and building a School, and other public. Buildings there; and for fupplying the faid Town with fresh Water.

This Duty has been of great Service to the Town, and has enabled them to make a great Progrefs in the intended Improvements: but the principal Works, which were to dig up Part of a Rock at the Bottom of the Harbour, to carry out the great Pier to the Rock called The Beacon Rock, to cut the Slope of the Island down to a Perpendicular, and to fupply the Town with fresh Water, remaining undone; and the Act ex