their origin to a period coeval with the older portions of the Abbey. The Canongate Bridge, with its deep ribbed semicircular arches, is the only piece of architecture which we can discover, that lays undisputed claims to great antiquity.

The Cross of Jedburgh and the old Towers have been removed by unhallowed hands. It is to be regretted that the former has been removed, were it for no other reason than that it was an evidence of the independent spirit of the Provost of ancient days; who, when an unpleasant message was brought him from one high in authority, loosed down the herald's points, strapped him at the Cross, and returned him from whence he came, with an indignant note of defiWho can help lamenting the old picturesque time worn memorial of past ages-the Market Cross with its playing fountain?

ance.

"O! be his tomb as lead to lead

Upon its dull destroyer's head."

There formerly existed a very powerful Castle upon the site of the present prison-a situation better adapted for the former than the latter. It might have been necessary to have castles occupying commanding positions in byegone times-they were signs of security to the inhabitants; but there can be no reason why the evidences of man's depravity should be placed in situations seen to all. We are told that in 1409 the Commons of Teviotdale rose in a body and razed it to its foundations, to prevent the English retaining it in their possession. From the fact of a

Castle existing at a very early period; at least as early as we have any notices of a village where the present town stands; we may with certainty presume that the Castlegate, the Church, and the Mill, are the oldest portions of the town. Wherever there

is a castle, in or near any town, it may be inferred that the buildings arose under shelter of its walls. The Canongate would naturally arise next, although we have evidence that, at a very early period of the High Street, with its Wynds and Closses, being filled with the sons of Tubal Cain, who worked in gold and brass.

But the most important of all the houses in the town is the one in the Backgate, from having been the residence of the beautiful and unfortunate Mary, whom a rude and bigotted people sacrificed to the caprices of one far inferior in the accomplishments of mind and person. Here, in 1566, her Majesty resided for several weeks, during which she was seized with a severe illness, caused by the fatigue she had endured in travelling from Jedburgh to Hermitage Castle, to meet her Lieutenant the Earl of Bothwell, which had nearly proved mortal. The physician that attended her was called Naw, and was highly spoken of for his skill While Mary remained here she was visited by Cecil, the Secretary of the English Queen. It was also the place where the Parliament was held, and in which her Majesty resided while administering justice to her rude Border subjects.

The exact date at which Jedburgh became a Burgh, enjoying corporate privileges, is said by his

torians, and others who have treated of the subject, to be involved in gloom. But I do not think, on a careful consideration, that we require to endeavour to dispel the mists of antiquity to discover its origin. The British people did not trade, and therefore we need not look into that period for any evidence of its corporation. Cities and fortifications were objects of the peculiar hatred of the Celtic people. It was only after the Castles and Monasteries began to be built, that villages arose under the protection of their walls. And these villages and hamlets are indebted for their rise to towns, to the English, Anglo-Normans, and Flemings, who settled in them during the twelfth century. We see this from the fact, that though the names of the towns have an earlier origin, the names of the streets, have all been imposed at a far later date, and by a different people. And the inhabitants themselves, burgesses and common people of the town, who appear in the charters of the twelfth century, are distinguished by English or Flemish names, while the names of the inhabitants of the country are Gaelic.

It is almost certain that Jedburgh was raised to the rank of a corporate town by David I. Under his reign the community first appears in charters, a pretty strong proof that it was that king who first bestowed upon it the honours of a Burgh. In the reign of his brother Alexander, the Towns of Edinburgh, Berwick, Roxburgh, Stirling, Inverkeith, Perth, and Aberdeen, appear as being possessed of communities. But there is to us a more conclusive proof that David was

the founder of the community here. The whole of this part of the country was ceded to the Scottish King by a Northumbrian Earl, and Edgar the father of David became King of the United Kingdom of North Britain in 1097, by marriage with an AngloSaxon Princess. During the reign of Edgar, no trace of a community is to be found. Before his death, which took place in 1124, he gave unto David, one of his sons, the whole of the teritory to the south of the Frith, excepting Lothian, which then included Berwickshire, as his appenage. On the accession of Alexander to the kingdom, he did not attempt to alter his father's settlement, but left David in the undisturbed possession of the territory set apart to him by his father. Owing to the sister of David being married to the English King, he often visited that Monarch, and lived at his court, where he acquired habits of refinement, and a zeal for the Monastic Institutions, unknown to the northern part of the kingdom, and which gained for him the title of the beloved Son of the Church. He married also Maud, the widow of the Earl of Northampton, and in that way acquired the Earldom thereof. We can thus see why the magnificent Monasteries arose on the Borders, and all within the appanage of the pious David I. During the reign of Alexander, Roxburgh and Jedburgh were the principal residences of David in Scotland, where he drew around him many noble families, both of Scotland and England, and in their train those who traded in the luxuries of the age. A reference to charters, shows that the community of the town

consisted of smiths, tanners, dyers, lorimers, merchants, shoemakers, locksmiths, bakers, goldsmiths, &c. In the charters of William reference is made to cloth dyed and shorn. On the whole, then, we may conclude that David was the founder of the community of Jedburgh, and erected on the old foundations the magnificent Abbey, the ruins of which are so much admired. The education and affections of David induced him, often after he became King, to cling to the southern borders which boast of Tweed's fair flood and Teviot's sparkling stream"-Jedda's walls and the margins of the dusky waters of the Jed, were dear to his soul. I may just remark here, that I think I have discovered the true derivation of "Reikmond Row." In times long gone by, leprosy was a very common disease, and the unfortunate persons afflicted with it were not allowed to mix with the inhabitants, but were compelled to live out of the town, and only enter the same at stated periods. In these circumstances the lepers thrust out of the town, and having nothing to live upon, were constantly in the habit of sitting at the principal entrances into the town, at the bridges, and the road to the church, soliciting alms, or what was called in these days, "thigging." I am satisfied that Reikmond Row was called in ancient times the "Sickman's Row," and was the abode of the Leper, who selected the spot on account of its being beyond the town, and at the principal approach thereto. Latterly a hospital was erected on the ground, which is now the property of Mr Deans; but those who did not enter the hospital would remain in their own dwellings.

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