Page:Pleasant Memories of Pleasant Lands.djvu/115

 90 ROSLIN-CASTLE.

From Hawthornden, we took it upon us to walk to Roslin- Castle, a distance of more than two miles. The broken nature of the ground made it a laborious effort, and we arrived, thoroughly wearied, at the ancient abode of the &quot; lordly line of high St. Clair.&quot; It is a fine ruin, and the chapel has an antiquity of more than five centuries. The Earl of Roslin is at present super intending repairs upon it ; and we saw some exquisite carvings, and also designs from scripture, sculptured in stone of a soft material. We were presented with some gooseberries, ripening in the garden, which were uncommonly large, but destitute of the flavor which our own warmer skies produce. But amid the vestiges and legends of baronial splendor, our talk was still of Hawthornden.

��Though Scotia hath a thousand scenes

To strike the traveller s eye, Clear-bosomed lakes, and leaping streams,

And mountains bleak and high ; Yet when he seeks his native clinie

And ingle-side again, T would be a pity, had he missed

To visit Hawthornden.

Down, down, precipitous and rude,

The rocks abruptly go, While through their deep and narrow gorge

Foams on the Esk below ;

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