Page:Types of Scenery and Their Influence on Literature.djvu/43

 to open up these solitudes, the natural features remain essentially unchanged.

It was among these uplands that the Border ballads had their birth. We may therefore pause for a few moments to inquire what trace may still be discernible of the influence of the landscape upon the tales of war and love, of feud and raid and rescue, which have made that Border-land famous in our literature.

At the outset it is desirable to realize the all-important character of the valleys in the human history of the uplands. From time immemorial, these strips of more sheltered and cultivable ground, deep sunk below the general level of the moorlands, have been to a large extent cut off from each other by high tracts of fell and moss. Each of them took its name from the stream which, rising far up among the moors, and gathering tributary rivulets from glens on either side, winds down the strip of haugh along the valley-bottom. For generations past the people have looked on their native stream with an affectionate regard. It has been the bond of union that has made the natives of each dale into one family or brotherhood. The valley itself may vary its scenery as it passes across different parts of the upland, here narrowing into a glen, there widening into a strath;