Roxburgh, Selkirk, and Peebles. By Sir George Douglas, Bart. (Blackwood.
75. 6d.)—This is an interesting and valuable addi- tion to that excellent series of "County Histories of Scotland" now being published by Messrs. Blackwood, and upon which it may be assumed the future exhaustive history of the Northern Kingdom will be to some extent based. Dealing with the enchanted Borderland with which nine-tenths of the legend and a very fair amount of the poetry of Scotland are associated, Sir George Douglas has taken great pains to separate fascinating fiction from possibly rather too prosaic fact, indeed, in his caution, he has allowed his narrative to become at times almost too tame. One regrets to find that some delightful stories have to be parted with on the ground of inaccuracy or incredibility. Such, for example, is Sir Walter Scott's account of the marvellous marriage of his grandfather's great grandfather, the son of Wat of Harden with " Muckle- mouthed Meg." Sir George Douglas is able to show, from documents in the charter-room of Wat's descendant, Baron Polwarth, that the bride's name was not Margaret, but Agnes ; that instead of being tocherless, she had a dowry of 7,000 marks ; and that "far from the marriage being hasty and compulsory, the preliminary arrangements on either side were even unusually careful and protracted, occupying many months in consideration and being finally embodied in a closely written legal instrument measuring no less than seven feet in length." Fortunately the greatest of all the Border stories, such as the Battle of Otterburn and the story of Johnnie Armstrong and the rescue of Kinmount Willie remain practically untouched by historic scepticism. Sir George has carefully examined all the authorities dealing with the history of the Border and in his narrative has reproduced in an admirably condensed form the results of his investigation. His chapter on the social, material, religious, and literary progress of the three counties he has dealt with in his monograph is also written in an agreeable fashion. Altogether this book is a model of conciseness and literary modesty.
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