ascend on the left of the point from whence the drawing was taken; and the 'SPITAL House looks to the right, south-eastward, having its back to the concavity above it where the hills meet; the 'Spital Burn, produced, and fed by them, running in a small, but rapid and sparkling stream past its eastern gable. To the right of the stand is New-Hall House, on the Esk, at some distance below the public road: Behind the station, below Bellcant likewise, is the New House at the upper side of the highway: And about half a mile beyond this Inn, on its eminence, south-westward, elevated above the turnpike, looking over it, the Wood Brae, and the Esk, to the Girt Hill, is the farmstead of Patie's Hill, between and the Carlops village, hills, and lands. The Esk, the name of which is derived from the Gaelic word uisge, or, which approaches nearer it, easc, both signifying water, rises on the other side of the wester 'Spital Hill, at a place called Esk Head, near the bottom of the eastern declivity of the Harper Rig or easter Cairn Hill. When a stream first issues from its fountain-head, or spring-well, in the low lands where the Scoto-Saxon language is spoken, it is called a well-strand; when it has run so long as to produce an acclivity on each side, a syke; lower down a burn, adopted from the Gaelic; then a water; if the distance from the sea is sufficient to enable it to attain that size from the contributions of well. strands, sykes, burns, and waters; next a river; and, finally, it frequently spreads itself into an estuary or frith, gradually incorporating with, and widening into the sea, where its mouth opens not directly into it. The words syke and rill, and burn and rivulet or brook, are synonima; but the term water, thus applied, is much wanted in the Anglo-Saxon, as there is no word south of the Tweed, to express that size of a stream, so very common, between a rivulet and a river, The stream at Glencross between and Edinburgh, at the middle of its length, is of this size; and is invariably called the water of Glencross, or, farther up, Logan water, from Logan estate, and mansion, on its banks, to which it belongs. The North Esk, says Dr Pennecuik, in his and Mr Forbes's Description of Tweeddale, " hath its rise, as is commonly thought, at a place called the Boar Stone; but rather, being the farthest course, from the easter Cairn Hill, and marcheth Tweeddale and Lothian nearly four miles," The first object he notices upon it, is "an house called Esk Head, near the top of a black, but barren mountain," Harper Rig, or easter Cairn Hill," with a park and a sort of a little garden, with a stone and lime dike built within these few years," previous to 1715, " by the deceased Mr William Thomson, writer to the Signet; a wild and remarkable habitation, hard to come by, black and barren, in view of the mansion of no other mortal." About a mile down, on the east side of the stream, in Mid Lothian, are the ruins of the back 'Spital of New Hall. "A mile and a half below this place," Esk Head, "is Fairlyhope, an old hunting house, belonging to the ancient family of Braid," near Edinburgh. Braid was long the seat of a family of the name of Brown. Among the Scots Acts William and Mary, the "Act for raising a Supply offered to their Majesties June 7. 1690," appoints Andrew Brown of Braid to be one of the commissioners "for the shire of Edinburgh." Fairly. hope, as may be seen from the prefixed map, is in Peebles-shire. "Half a mile under Fairlyhope," adds Dr Pennecuik, "is the Carlop Bridge, upon the high Biggar road, marching Lothian and Tweeddale. Then Carlops itself," &c. Descrip. of the Shire of Tweeddale, p. 9. Between the Carlops Bridge, and the station from whence the preceding view was taken, appears the farmstead of Patie's Hill, near the point of a ridge issuing eastward from the hill. In the year 1801, on digging for a foundation to, and levelling the floor of the present new dwelling-house to this farmery, four flags with a cover were laid open, |