Page:A tour through the northern counties of England, and the borders of Scotland - Volume II.djvu/62

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English borders. No place of worship is set apart for those of our church a proof of the few English that live in the town. Its population is about 3000. On all sides round Hawick the hills rise amphitheatrically, sheltering it from every wind that blows. The river Tiviot murmurs through it over a pebbly bed, and gives at once health and pieasantnesss to its streets; whilst its environs ex- hibit a second elysium, in large tracts of garden- ground, disposed with the utmost judgment and regularity. On climbing the high hill at the south- western extremity of the town, we observed, in a field to our left, a lofty mound of earth, in shape conoidal, with a truncated summit; called the mole, and preserved with great care by order of the noble owner of this domain, the Duke of Buccleugh. It seems not to have been of such high antiquity as the Druid times, whose priests were wont in their 'judicial character to promulgate laws and pronounce judicial sentences from similar tumuli; but to have been one of those monies placiti, of which there are some others in Scotland, where the prince of the district sat to determine the litigations of his

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vassals, and to administer the imperfect justice of the times. The name which it bears at present, the Mote-Hill, points out its ancient designation, ourt or meeting being the meaning of the word.

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