AND NEWCASTLE-UPON-TYNE.
1885.
CONTENTS.
[The Solitary of the Cave, (John Mackay Wilson)]
[The Maiden Feast of Cairnkibbie, (Alexander Leighton)]
[The Professor's Tales, (Professor Thomas Gillespie)]
[Early Recollections of a Son of the Hills]
[The Suicide's Grave]
[The Salmon-Fisher of Udoll, (Hugh Miller)]
[The Linton Lairds, or Exclusives and Inclusives, (Alexander Leighton)]
[Bon Gualtier's Tales, (Theodore Martin)]
[Country Quarters]
[The Monk of St. Anthony, (Alexander Campbell)]
[The Story of Clara Douglas, (Walter Logan)]
[The Fair, (John Mackay Wilson)]
[The Slave, (John Howell)]
[The Katheran, (Alexander Campbell)]
[The Monks of Dryburgh, (Alexander Campbell)]
WILSON'S TALES OF THE BORDERS, AND OF SCOTLAND.
THE SOLITARY OF THE CAVE.
On the banks of the Tweed, and about half a mile above where the Whitadder flows into it on the opposite side, there is a small and singular cave. It is evidently not an excavation formed by nature, but the work of man's hands. To the best of my recollection, it is about ten feet square, and in the midst of it is a pillar or column, hewn out of the old mass, and reaching from the floor to the roof. It is an apartment cut out of the solid rock, and must have been a work of great labour. In the neighbourhood, it is generally known by the name of the King's Cove, and the tradition runs, that it was once the hiding-place of a Scottish king. Formerly, it was ascended from the level of the water by a flight of steps, also hewn out of the rock; but the mouldering touch of time, the storms of winter, and the undermining action of the river, which continually appears to press southward, (as though nature aided in enlarging the Scottish boundary,) has long since swept them away, though part of them were entire within the memory of living men. What king used it as a hiding-place, tradition sayeth not: but it also whispers that it was used for a like purpose by the "great patriot hero," Sir William Wallace. These things may have been; but certainly it never was formed to be a mere place of concealment for a king, though such is the popular belief. Immediately above the bank where it is situated, are the remains of a Roman camp; and it is more than probable that the cave is coeval with the camp, and may have been used for religious purposes—or, perchance, as a prison.