A mile or two higher up, but still into tide-water, flows in the Whitadder, which with its tributary8, the Blackadder, comes out of the recesses9 of the Lammermoors to drain the fertile Merse, passing on its way many scenes that must have tempted11 Sir Walter to make its valley the stage of one of his romances. His fancy may have played with the idea. But beyond an occasional allusion12, or the dispatch of one or two of his characters through it, in hot haste for some other arena13 of action, he never specifically annexed14 this heritage of the Humes and earlier Lords of Dunbar and Merse to the “Scott Country”, though some have attempted to identify Cranshaws Castle or Wedderlie with Ravenswood. Wedderburn recalls the “Seven Spears”. Polwarth and Marchmont, Ninewells and Nisbet, Kimmerghame and Langton, Edrington and Hutton, Chirnside and Bunkle, Duns and Greenlaw, are names steeped in the spirit of Border poetry as well as noted15 in local and national annals. The valleys in which lie Abbey St. Bathans, on the Whitadder, Priestlaw, on the Faseny, and Longformacus, on the Dye, seem to beckon16 for an interpreter of their almost forgotten stories; while that of the mysterious “Edinhall”, on Cockburn Law, the largest and most southerly of Scottish “brochs”, is wholly lost. At Ellemford, James IV was brought to a halt, in the futile18 “Raid of Ellem”; and his descendant Charles I came to a turning-point in his fortunes when he was faced by the Covenanting19 Host, encamped on Duns Law. From Haliburton, hard by the “Blackadder Rings”, Scott derived20 one line of his descent. Yet this region of the Merse serves at most only as a background in his Border Romance.
Higher up the main stream, beyond Paxton, and Horncliffe, and Horndean, one comes to Ladykirk, 14 whose fine old sixteenth-century church is said to have been founded and dedicated21 to the Virgin22 in gratitude23 for an escape from drowning in the Tweed. Behind it is Swinton, the home of an ancient and knightly24 family from which Sir Walter was descended25, on his mother’s side. Over against it are the “castled steep” and “flanking walls” of Norham, the guardian26 of England and of the heritage of the Prince-Bishops of Durham, to the siege of which “Mons Meg” has travelled in her day—the scene, too, of quarrels and of conferences, at one of which Edward I decided27 between the rival claims of the “Competitors” for the Crown of Scotland.
At Tillmouth and Twizell Castle, where the Till brings down waters—Glen and Bowmount, Breamish and College—drawn from both skirts of Cheviot, one is close to ground yet more closely bound to the tragedy of the Kingdoms and to the genius of Scott, for near here is Ford17 Castle, where the Scottish King is supposed to have dallied28 too long with Lady Heron; the bridge across which he allowed the English van to cross and attack him on flank; and the hill-slope of Flodden, down which, in 1513,
“From his mountain home
King James did rushing come”—
to meet disaster half-way, and to fall in the midst of the flower of his nobles and of his kingdom.
15
At Coldstream, Longshanks crossed the Tweed on the fatal enterprise of invading and subduing29 Scotland; Leslie, on his way to join Cromwell at Marston Moor10, and Monk30 on the march to proclaim Charles II in London. Wark Castle, in which, according to tradition, the Order of the Garter was instituted—with Carham beside it, where, at a much more distant date, a generation before Macbeth, Malcolm II, King of Scots, won a victory that brought the boundary of his realm in permanence to the Tweed—stands within easy reach of Kelso. So also, on the opposite or Scottish bank, does Birgham, the soil on which William the Lion and the Scots prelates disowned the supremacy31 of the English Church, and where was signed the Treaty for that projected marriage of the heirs of the two Kingdoms—Prince Edward and the Maid of Norway—which, but for evil chance, might have united them without the intervention32 of three centuries of desolating33 war.
But it is at Kelso Bridge, below the meeting of Tweed and Teviot, that we come fully34 within the circle of the Magician’s charm—where every stream and wood and glen seems to take light and colour from the imagination of Walter Scott. The scene has been admired and praised by a host of poets and travellers before and since his time. Burns looked down upon it from different points of view and owned himself “enchanted”. 16 It has been extolled35 by, among others, James Thomson, of the Seasons, who was born at Ednam Manse on the Eden Water, only two or three miles away, and by Thomas Pringle, Scott’s fellow-pupil at Kelso and the first editor of Blackwood, who sang, from the South African veld, of “Bonnie Teviotdale and Teviot’s mountains blue”. The parent river makes a wide sweep, and, with its bold wooded banks, seems to embrace and protect the houses of the little market town, in the midst of which rise the ruined western towers and a fragment of the nave36 of the renowned37 Tyronesian Abbey. The place, standing38 so perilously39 near the English border, was guarded on the south and on the north by two great strongholds. Of Roxburgh or Marchmont Castle, on the narrow ridge7 between Tweed and Teviot, only a few walls, rising a few yards above the sod, remain. Its history would fill a volume. But one remembers chiefly that James II of Scots—he of the “Fiery Face”—was killed by the explosion of a cannon40, while directing attack upon it from the farther bank of the Tweed, leaving the country, as was so often its fortune under the Stewart Dynasty, to the hazards of a long minority. On the town of Roxburgh—which once, as one of the “Four Burghs”, was a leader in the path of municipal and commercial progress—a more sweeping41 fate has descended; not a stone has been left above another on a site upon which for long was held “St. James’s Lammas Fair”.
Hume Castle, Kelso’s other bulwark—or, if it happened to be in the hands of an enemy, its thorn in the flesh—stands on high ground to the north, where its square-set form, now reduced to a shell, can be seen from all parts of the ground that lies between the Lammermoor and Cheviot. But the town had strength within itself in its great Norman Abbey Church, built for purposes of war as well as of prayer. It was founded by that zealous42 abbey- and cathedral-rearer, David I, the son of Canmore and of Saint Margaret; and its head, as a mitred abbot who acknowledged only the jurisdiction43 of the Holy See, held a position that gave him a precedence, much envied and much resented, over the superiors of the neighbouring religious houses of Jedburgh, Dryburgh, and Melrose. It was endowed with rich benefices and wide territories, but its wealth and glory all vanished in the storms of the Reformation, or, more ruthless still, of the English invasions and the Civil Wars.
A large part of the Abbey heritage has passed to the Kers, of the ducal house of Roxburghe, whose stately seat, Floors Castle, planned by Vanbrugh and completed by Playfair, commands from its terraces one of the widest and loveliest views upon Tweed. Of the Kers of Cessford, who had feuds44 with the rival branch of the Kerrs of Ferniehirst, as well as with the 18 Scotts and other neighbours, it has been said that they had a genius for fighting on the winning side: “When the power of the Douglases on the Border began to crumble45, they became Crown vassals46, and their fortunes mounted rapidly. They won new lands, and held, and still hold, the old. They kept a hawk’s eye on the wild tracts47 of moor and pasture and peat bog48, where even in the old days of foray there was, as Dandie Dinmont said, ‘mair stabling for horses than change-houses for men’, and where now all is utterly49 abandoned to the curlew and the sheep. But they moved their household gods, and extended their bounds, from the Bowmont to the Kale, from the Kale to the Teviot, and finally from the Teviot to the Tweed.” Their ruined castle of Cessford stands in a lonely place, on a slope overhanging a little side-glen of the Kale Water, some eight miles from Floors. The roof is gone, and all about is bare and deserted50. A few sapling ashes grow in the crannies of the stone, but time has riven the thick walls which Surrey, in 1523, found so hard to breach51, and has thrown down the grand old Crow Tree that stood so long beside Habbie Ker’s stronghold. Long before this the family had flitted to a warmer nest, and had feathered it with the spoils of Old Roxburgh Castle and of Kelso Abbey.
Scarcely less than Melrose and Abbotsford are 19 Kelso and Floors the centre of a sanctuary52 of Border romance; and over the scene the forms of Hume Castle and Smailholm Tower seem to keep sentry-watch and to “shift places mysteriously, like the triple heads of the weird53 Eildons, as if they were pacing guard upon the hilltops”. In the setting of the picture revealed from these vantage-grounds are—along with places already noted—the hanging woods of Stichell and Newtondon; Nenthorn, Hendersyde, Mellerstain, Makerstoun; beyond Teviot, the rich woodlands of Springwood, Woodendean, and Sunlaws; the darker pine trees around the hunting seat of Bowmont Forest; the folds in which lie the “Gypsy capital” of Kirk Yetholm, the ancient Kirk of Linton, Eckford of the Douglases and Crailing of the Cranstons; the hills of Hounam and Morebattle; and, behind all, the soft blue line, rising high in Great Cheviot and sinking away towards the west, of the chain that divides the kingdoms, with peeps here and there of Haddon Rig, and Ruberslaw, and Dunion, and Minto Crags, and Penielheugh, crowned by its Waterloo monument, with other scarce less famous Border heights.
While, above the junction54, the ascending55 valley of the Tweed holds its way westwards, so that the water-sheds of its northern tributaries56 are in common with those of streams flowing to the Forth57 and the Clyde, 20 Teviotdale keeps throughout a line that is parallel with the Marches of the Kingdoms, from which its main channel is nowhere more than a dozen miles away as the crow flies. It follows that there is more of hazard, and with this more of romance, crowded into its annals than perhaps into those of any other area of like extent. It is sprinkled over with battlefields and with peel towers, most of them now in ruin; every dale has been the scene of a fray58, and every burn has a song or ballad59 tacked60 to its name. These Middle and West Marches were a centre of power and action, first of the House of Douglas, and then of the “Bauld Buccleuch”. The “Good Sir James of Douglas” kept the peace of this troubled frontier for the Bruce; his son, the “Knight of Liddesdale”, expelled the English from Teviotdale, and was killed while hunting in Ettrick Forest; his grandson, the first of the Douglas Earls, also chased out the invaders61 and brought back spoils from the English side; his great-grandson, the second Earl, captured Percy’s pennon at Newcastle, and was slain62 at Otterburn, while riding home by the road of Redesdale and the Carter Bar with his prey63; while it is of a later descendant, “Earl Tineman”, captured at Shrewsbury by a later Hotspur, that the canny64 saying is quoted in The Fortunes of Nigel: “Poortith (poverty) takes away pith, and the man sits full still who has a rent in his breeks”.
A Scott of Buccleuch accompanied James V when he hanged Johnnie Armstrong of Gilnockie and all his company at Carlenrig near Teviothead; and the “rank reiver’s” reproach, given in one version of the ballad, was not without edge:
“Now haud your tongue, Sir Walter Scott,
Nor speak o’ reif and felonie;
If ilka man had his ain coo,
A richt poor clan65 your name would be.”
It was from Branxholm, on the Teviot above Hawick, that another Scott of the name—generation after generation were Walters—rode forth to rescue “Kinmont Willie” from prison in Carlisle. The Minstrel’s tale, in the Lay, opens at and returns again and again to Branxholm Ha’; it was at the Tower Inn, at Hawick, where the Duchess Anne of Buccleuch and Monmouth held her receptions, and that the greatest of all the Sir Walters parted from his guests the Wordsworths.
点击
收听单词发音
收听单词发音 |
1
poetic
|
|
| adj.富有诗意的，有诗人气质的，善于抒情的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
2
contention
|
|
| n.争论，争辩，论战；论点，主张 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
3
territorially
|
|
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
4
situated
|
|
| adj.坐落在...的，处于某种境地的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
5
relic
|
|
| n.神圣的遗物，遗迹，纪念物 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
6
preservation
|
|
| n.保护，维护，保存，保留，保持 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
7
ridge
|
|
| n.山脊；鼻梁；分水岭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
8
tributary
|
|
| n.支流；纳贡国；adj.附庸的；辅助的；支流的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
9
recesses
|
|
| n.壁凹( recess的名词复数 )；（工作或业务活动的）中止或暂停期间；学校的课间休息；某物内部的凹形空间v.把某物放在墙壁的凹处( recess的第三人称单数 )；将（墙）做成凹形，在（墙）上做壁龛；休息，休会，休庭 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
10
moor
|
|
| n.荒野，沼泽；vt.(使)停泊；vi.停泊 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
11
tempted
|
|
| v.怂恿（某人）干不正当的事；冒…的险（tempt的过去分词） | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
12
allusion
|
|
| n.暗示，间接提示 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
13
arena
|
|
| n.竞技场，运动场所；竞争场所，舞台 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
14
annexed
|
|
| [法] 附加的，附属的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
15
noted
|
|
| adj.著名的，知名的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
16
beckon
|
|
| v.(以点头或打手势)向...示意，召唤 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
17
Ford
|
|
| n.浅滩，水浅可涉处；v.涉水，涉过 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
18
futile
|
|
| adj.无效的，无用的，无希望的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
19
covenanting
|
|
| v.立约，立誓( covenant的现在分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
|
20
derived
|
|
| vi.起源；由来；衍生；导出v.得到( derive的过去式和过去分词 )；（从…中）得到获得；源于；（从…中）提取 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
21
dedicated
|
|
| adj.一心一意的；献身的；热诚的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
22
virgin
|
|
| n.处女，未婚女子；adj.未经使用的；未经开发的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
23
gratitude
|
|
| adj.感激，感谢 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
24
knightly
|
|
| adj. 骑士般的 adv. 骑士般地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
25
descended
|
|
| a.为...后裔的，出身于...的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
26
guardian
|
|
| n.监护人；守卫者，保护者 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
27
decided
|
|
| adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
28
dallied
|
|
| v.随随便便地对待( dally的过去式和过去分词 )；不很认真地考虑；浪费时间；调情 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
29
subduing
|
|
| 征服( subdue的现在分词 )； 克制； 制服； 色变暗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
30
monk
|
|
| n.和尚，僧侣，修道士 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
31
supremacy
|
|
| n.至上；至高权力 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
32
intervention
|
|
| n.介入，干涉，干预 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
33
desolating
|
|
| 毁坏( desolate的现在分词 )； 极大地破坏； 使沮丧； 使痛苦 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
34
fully
|
|
| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
35
extolled
|
|
| v.赞颂，赞扬，赞美( extol的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
36
nave
|
|
| n.教堂的中部；本堂 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
37
renowned
|
|
| adj.著名的，有名望的，声誉鹊起的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
38
standing
|
|
| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
39
perilously
|
|
| adv.充满危险地，危机四伏地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
40
cannon
|
|
| n.大炮，火炮；飞机上的机关炮 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
41
sweeping
|
|
| adj.范围广大的，一扫无遗的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
42
zealous
|
|
| adj.狂热的，热心的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
43
jurisdiction
|
|
| n.司法权，审判权，管辖权，控制权 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
44
feuds
|
|
| n.长期不和，世仇( feud的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
45
crumble
|
|
| vi.碎裂，崩溃；vt.弄碎，摧毁 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
46
vassals
|
|
| n.奴仆( vassal的名词复数 )；（封建时代）诸侯；从属者；下属 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
47
tracts
|
|
| 大片土地( tract的名词复数 )； 地带； （体内的）道； （尤指宣扬宗教、伦理或政治的）短文 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
48
bog
|
|
| n.沼泽；室...陷入泥淖 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
49
utterly
|
|
| adv.完全地，绝对地 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
50
deserted
|
|
| adj.荒芜的，荒废的，无人的，被遗弃的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
51
breach
|
|
| n.违反，不履行；破裂；vt.冲破，攻破 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
52
sanctuary
|
|
| n.圣所，圣堂，寺庙；禁猎区，保护区 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
53
weird
|
|
| adj.古怪的，离奇的；怪诞的，神秘而可怕的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
54
junction
|
|
| n.连接，接合；交叉点，接合处，枢纽站 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
55
ascending
|
|
| adj.上升的，向上的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
56
tributaries
|
|
| n. 支流 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
57
forth
|
|
| adv.向前；向外，往外 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
58
fray
|
|
| v.争吵；打斗；磨损，磨破；n.吵架；打斗 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
59
ballad
|
|
| n.歌谣，民谣，流行爱情歌曲 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
60
tacked
|
|
| 用平头钉钉( tack的过去式和过去分词 )； 附加，增补； 帆船抢风行驶，用粗线脚缝 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
61
invaders
|
|
| 入侵者，侵略者，侵入物( invader的名词复数 ) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
62
slain
|
|
| 杀死，宰杀，杀戮( slay的过去分词 )； (slay的过去分词) | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
63
prey
|
|
| n.被掠食者，牺牲者，掠食；v.捕食，掠夺，折磨 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
64
canny
|
|
| adj.谨慎的，节俭的 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
|
65
clan
|
|
| n.氏族，部落，宗族，家族，宗派 | |
参考例句： |
|
|
|
| 欢迎访问英文小说网 |