Page:Scotish Descriptive Poems - Leyden (1803).djvu/187

 P. 158. v. 15. Teviotdale extends, in breadth, from the banks of the Tweed to the top of Cheviot. It seems formerly to have been much greater than at present. It is sometimes represented as lying on both sides of the Tweed. Thus, "Westward, on both sides of the Tweede, lies Teviotdail; taking the name from the water of Tiot; devided from England by the hilles of Cheviot ."

P.158. v. 21. The air, says Waldron, in his Description of the isle of Man, "is very wholesome, the plague, nor any other contagious distemper, having never been known there; and the people generally live to a very great age ."

P. 158. v. 2123 [sic]. The term, "land of bowmen," is certainly much more applicable to England than to Scotland. From the period of the Norman conquest, so famous were the English archers, that the nation is characterised from them in an old prophesy, supposed to have been fulfilled at the battle or rather rout of Duplin, during the minority of David II.

So sensible was James I. of this superiority, that in his first parliament he passed an act, "That ilk man busk thame to be archaris.