THE

Scots Magazine,

AND

EDINBURGH LITERARY MISCELLANY,

FOR FEBRUARY 1810.

View of KELSO, from MAXWELL nave, in which there is an arch which HEUGH. communicated between the cloister and the body of the church. Small fragments of pillars, antique stones, &c. evidently belonging to this edifice, have been found scattered, often at considerable distances from it.

THIS view of Kelso is from the opposite side of the river, and intludes the bridge and the abbey. Kelso, and its vicinity, are celebrated throughout Scotland for the various Beauties both of nature and art which

they exhibit; and few spots, perhaps, Monthly Memoranda in Natural Hist

tory.

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connected with it, display a greater variety of striking objects than are to be found here represented. We have a full view of the new and elegant bridge, completed in 1805, instead of the one which was carried away by an inundation about six years before. The view includes also a full view of the abbey of Kelso, a ost ancient and venerable edifice. This abbey was founded in 1128, by St David, king of Scotland, for an order of monks called Tyronenses, who were transported hither from Roxburgh, where they had been settled two years before. It was dedicated to St Mary and John the Evangelist. It was liberally endowed, and enjoyed Tery great privileges. It is built in the Saxon style. There are still remaining the southern and western tower, which stood at the intersection of the transverse parts of the building, and a part of the south wall of the

1810. Feb. 1-8. SINCE the snow disappeared, the weather has been genial and pleasant. The crocus is coming into flower: the flowers of the white colt's-foot (Tussilago alba) are expanded: the hazel-tree has shewn its catkins; and hepaticas are flowering.

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10. The skylark has begun his morning song.

11. The wind suddenly shifted into the east, and the mercury in the barometer soon fell a whole inch.This was followed by a great deal of snow on the 13th, and by intense frost for several following days.

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14. Late in the evening the mercury in the thermometer was at 16°; lower than it has been since the remarkable cold in January 1809.

17. A gradual thaw commenced. 24. During the past week the snow

and

and ice have disappeared; and the weather has now become favourable to the operations of the husbandman and the horticulturist. The skylark,throstle, and other song-birds, which during the late snow-storm entirely suspended their carols, have now resumed them with increased vigour.

It is a fact perhaps worthy of recording, that the Stapelia grandiflora, which flowered in the dry-stove of the Botanic Garden here, late in the autumn, has completely ripened its seeds. Some other species of Stapelia producé their pods readily; but we have not before heard of S. grandiflora doing N.

$0.

28th Feb. 1810.

certaining, in ample detail, the ancient
history of North-Britain.

But, though many novel views were
given, and a thousand uncertainties
were ascertained, that volume has not
been formally controverted. Every
intelligent person has acquiesced, in its
moral certainties, however new, and un-
expected, except Doctor Jamieson a-
lone, who has attempted to controvert
them, in his Prefatory Dissertation on
the Scotish language: Yet, he, who
reasons against facts, shews little discre-
tion, as a logician; and he, who pre-
tends to out-argue demonstration, only
evinces that, as a lexicographer, he
loves theory better than truth. I shall
not, however, make, in this place, any
reply There will be found, in the
subsequent volume, a thousand facts,
which contradict his etymological spe-
culations, on the Scotish language,
which never existed, in a separate state,
from the old English; as had been pre-
viously proved, by argument, and fact,
in the Prefatory Disquisitions to my
edition of Sir David Lyndsay's Poems.

From the ancient annals of Scotland, this second volume proceeds, after some introductory intimations, to give its topographical history, in a sequence of shires; beginning with the most southern, and proceeding to the northern, in a regular consécution. The localities of each shire will be submitted to the public, in eight sections: The 1st will treat of its name; the 2d of its s¿Cale-tuation and extent; the 3d of its natural objects; the 4th of its antiquities; the 5th of its establishment, as a shire; the 6th of its civil history; the 7th of its agriculture, manufactures, and trade; and the 8th of its ecclesiastical history Thus, under those several heads, will be found, I trust, in this volume, much that is new, and something that is in-' teresting, from the various sources of authentic documents, and the intelligent correspondence of the parochial ministers; which are now laid before the judicious eyes of the inquisitive reader. Such a reader will perceive

the

Preface to the Second Volume of Mr
Chalmers's CALEDONIA.
(See Scottish Literary Intelligence.)
It is wise to observe occurrents, and let
nothing remarkable escape us: the su-
pinity of elder days hath left so much
in silence; or time hath so martyred
the records; that the most industrious
heads find it no easy work, to erect a
new BRITANNIA. Sir F. Brown,

IN prosecution of thy plant, for remos

ving the difficulties, settling the disputes, and clearing the obscurities of the history, and antiquities, of Scotland, I now presume, to lay before the Public the second volume of my donia.

For effecting those several objects, in my first volume, I treated of the more ancient history of Scotland, in four Books; the first, containing the Roman period, and ending with 446 A.D.; the second, comprehending the Pictish period, and closing with 843 A.D; the third, treating of the Scotish affairs, and finishing in 1097 A.D.; and the fourth book, discussing the colonization, and history, of the ScotoSaxon people, and concluding with 1307 A.D.: The four books thus as