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SMAILHOLME TOWER.

THIS ancient fortalice is seen from a considerable distance in every direction; it occupies a high and commanding situation amid a cluster of wilds rocks on the north side of the Tweed, and on the northern boundary of the county of Roxburgh, about six miles distant from Melrose, and two from Dryburgh. Its site is one of considerable natural strength, being surrounded on three sides by a precipiece and morass, and only accessable from the other by a steep and rocky path. It is built in the usual form of a border keep, a high square tower surrounded by an outer wall, the apartments placed above one another, and communicating by the narrow winding stair common to such buildings. On the roof are two bartizans or platforms, used for defence or pleasure, as

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circumstances might require. The walls, which are exceedingly strong, being fully nine feet in thickness, had the honour to stand a battering from Cromwell's cannon at the time that he besieged Home castle, when John Pringle, the then warlike proprietor of Smailholme tower, refused to surrender till the chapel was battered down.

The view from Smailholme tower is remarkably fine, and is thus vividly described by a recent tourist. "The windows are three in number, and each of them commands a distinct landscape, remarkable both for beauty and extent. From that, looking to the south, one beholds a lovely and well cultivated country, finely wooded and watered by the Tweed and Teviot, and bounded by a beautiful range of the Cheviot mountains. Going to the eastern window, one thence looks along the vale of Tweed, down the banks of which rises above the trees the smoke of the fair town of Kelso; and then roams over the rich Merse, stretching in all its homely beauty, and high cultivation, away to the German ocean. On the left stand, at some distance, in bold relief against the sky, the majestic ruins of Hume Castle, the an

cient seat of the once powerful family of the Humes. More to the north Mellerstane House, embosomed among noble and extensive woods. The view towards the west is equally extensive and varied. High above a crowd of humbler eminences rise the famous Eildon Hills, that witnessed of old the magical exploits of Michael Scott, and that shield from the western blasts the town of Melrose and its glorious abbey. They are three in number, and are nearly of the same height, changing greatly their appearance, and, as it were, their attitude with the point of view, at one time one of them being only visible, at another time two, and again all the three; they form an important, peculiar, and romantic feature in the scenery of the Tweed. They are still to the eye of imagination what they once were in the common belief-wizard hills-they are the subjects of wild traditions and unearthly adventures; beyond these strange mountains, westward, stretches a sea of pastoral hills, that annually send a thousand flocks to the richer pastures of the south. Nor are their wanting intervals of level and highly cultivated ground, to add to the richness and beauty of the scene. But we are

now on the bleached, and battered, and grasstufted summit of the old Tower, and behold these three distinct landscapes blended into one; and a fairer, whole broad Scotland, with all her stores of exquisite scenery, cannot well afford. We gaze on a lovely variety of hill and dale, mountain and wood, fertile fields and primeval pastures; we contemplate the classic land of Tweed, that queen of Scotland's waters, that river broad and deep,' which traverses so many heroic fields, and washes the sides of so many hallowed towers, and steeples, and tombs, that will ever be dear in the sight of the admirers of patriotism and genius; the land of Scottthe land where that mighty minstrel spent his youthful days, and his life's glorious prime-which beheld the lofty struggles of his declining years, and which now contains his honoured grave."

Smailholme tower is supposed by some to be the Avenel castle of the monastery, from its answering both in situation and external appearance to the description of the latter; and also, says Sir David Erskine, from the circumstance of Gilbert de Avenel being made mention of in the "Memorials of the Halli

burtons."

This however is doubtful, and were it even fully certified, we do not think that it would add greatly to the interest with which it is already regarded. What gives the principal charm to Smailholme tower is its having been the spot where Sir Walter Scott spent the days of his childhood, and which became afterwards the scene of "the Eve of Saint John," one of the finest ballads he ever wrote, and with which we shall conIclude this sketch.

THE EVE OF ST. JOHN.

The Baron of Smaylho'me rose with day,
He spurr'd his courser on,

Without stop or stay, down the rocky way,
That leads to Brotherstone.

He went not with the bold Buccleuch,
His banner broad to rear;

He went not 'gainst the English yew,
To lift the Scottish spear.

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