Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/125

Rh The town of Hawick is old and shabby, at least that part of it which a short half hour of cessation of rain gave me an opportunity of seeing. I walked over the bridges, and below them to the water's edge, and into the churchyard. Curiosity soon collected a small group about me, and I was somewhat mortified to find their language unintelligible to me; I learnt, however, there was a manufactory in the town, of carpets, &c. but could not acquire a knowledge of particulars. Here I was confirmed in what I had often before observed, that those who find they cannot be understood, immediately conclude the person spoken to must be deaf. Some young lads passing through the churchyard at Hawick, whilst I was in it, with dogs, and some strange looking things on their backs; I inquired what they were, and what they were going to do with them; but their language, to me, was as Arabic. On my shaking my head, as a token of not understanding them, they began screaming in the highest note of their voices; taking me, I suppose, for a deaf woman: and at last we separated, laughing at our inability of understanding each other.

The morning after my arrival at Hawick was fine, and I left the uncomfortable inn with