For Scotia from her hills hath come,
And Albion o'er the Tweed,
To give the mountain breeze the feuds
That made their noblest bleed;
And like two friends, around whose hearts
Some dire estrangement run,
Love all the better for the past,
And sit them down as one.
Friday, Oct. 2, 1840.
Among the features of Scottish scenery, which after crossing the Tweed begin to reveal themselves, are the little circular sheep-cotes at the base of the bare hills. The different races of sheep, and their comparative merits, are subjects of earnest discussion among the northern farmers. In some regions of the Cheviots the flocks have been noted for the productiveness of their fleece.
After the removal of Scott to his rural residence at Ashestiel, in writing on this subject he says, "for more than a month my head has been fairly tenanted by ideas, neither literary nor poetical. Long sheep and short sheep, and such kind of matters, have made a perfect sheepfold of my understanding." The Ettrick shepherd relates an apposite anecdote of one of his interviews with him in 1801. "During the sociality of the evening, the discourse ran much on the different breeds of sheep. The original black-faced Forest breed being always called the short sheep, and the
