the nations of the earth; who were the chosen instruments to punish the rebellious Jews, and lay waste the beautiful land of Palestine. A people, whose power was so great, that the words "I appeal to Rome-I am a Roman citizen," uttered by any one in danger, paralysed the arm that was ready to strike, and stayed the execution of the sentence of the judge, -a people skilled in all the arts and sciences-who produced the greatest lawgivers and statesmen, and whose orations are yet quoted as models of eloquence. In many places the Causeway of that great undertaking still exists as it was laid by the hands of the legions of Rome. To the common observer, the road presents nothing of interest, but to the antiquary every feature of it is full of the deepest import. It recalls to his mind that period when the eagle of Rome first appeared upon the heights of the Cayle, the Oxnam, and on the margins of our dusky Jed, flushed with victory, and thirsting for further conquests. It speaks to us also of our ancestors, of their bravery and devotion: who exposed their naked bosoms to the steel-clad warriors of Rome: the ramparts of earth raised parallel to the Roman fortifications, prove that every inch of ground was disputed with the Roman conquerors. It may also be our proud boast, that although the Romans swept over kingdoms like a mighty ocean wave, Caledonia, stern and wild, stood the force of the tempest, and against her iron mountains the waves beat in vain. But the Romans came not to root out or destroy the native people. Wherever the eagle of Rome appeared,

it was accompanied by civilization. They not only made roads and built bridges, but introduced the habits and customs of civilized life among our British forefathers. The primary object which they seemed to have in view, was to facilitate communications from one district to another. The Roman soldiers, instead of loitering in the camp, or rioting in towns, enervating their strength and corrupting their morals, were kept regularly at work, in making roads, bridges, and in agriculture. No doubt many of our hills on the line of these great highways were turned up by the Roman plough, and it may be inferred with safety, that the after granges of the Monks, were on the models furnished by the Roman legions. With the exception, however, of this road, and a few appearances of camps and forts along its line, nothing now remains. in this district of that once mighty people. Occasionally indeed the labourer of the present day turns up part of the trapping of a Roman horseman, or a broken tile of a once paved court of a Roman camp, as it were in very mockery of human weakness and insignificance. One after another the legions of Rome were called home to defend their own soil from the foot of the invader. They, who had carried their arms into every land, laid waste the mountains of Palestine, and made the streets of Jerusalem flow with blood, were forced to witness the destruction of their own cities. If it be possible to find one spot in the map of the world more miserable than another, it is Rome at the present day.

The only memorials of the original inhabitants, at

least so far as known to us, are to be found in the names of the mountains, hills, rivers, and streams: in the names of places and a few hillforts. After the Romans left this country, the Romanized Britons formed that vast ditch, twenty-six feet broad, with a rampart on either side ten feet high, which runs from Gilsland to the Forth. Throughout its course in this county to the Galawater, near Mosalee, close on Galashiels, it is lined with forts, and even continues itself by an additional chain of castles along the Gala. This stupendous work was erected as a defence by the Britons against the encroachments of a new people who had entered upon the land by the mouth of the Tweed and Forth: no doubt a seafaring people. The place in which we dwell was possessed, after the Romans left, by Romanized Britons, on whom the Saxons moved in swarms. Between these people, and the Britons on the west, an incessant war was waged. The tide of Saxon immigration rolled on till they again were forced to yield to the genius of another people.

The beautiful Abbey, which forms so great an ornament to our Burgh, connects itself with the most important part of the history of the district, and indeed of the world. It is, in fact, itself a history of many volumes. Not a stone from the foundation to the summit but affords to the enquiring mind matter of deep reflection. We cannot turn our eyes to its form, without the mind reverting to that glorious period, when Christianity was first introduced into our lovely island, when Pagan rites had yielded to the ensign of the Gospel blazing round immortal truth. The Abbey

also recalls to the mind a period of the history of our country, of which every true-hearted Scotsman has so much reason to be proud. When the rapacious Edward wished to subjugate the kingdom, the Abbot of Jedburgh boldly defied the English tyrant, supported the claims of the Bruce and the country with all the force of his fervid eloquence before the Parliament held at Birgham. On the councils of Edward prevailing, he joined the gallant Burghers, and, under the banners of the Douglas on the field of Bannockburn, did good service to his country.

As to the exact period when the Abbey was founded, no satisfactory evidence can be adduced. Some contend that the Saxons were the founders; others again wish to confer the honour on the Normans; and there are a different class who maintain that it owes its origin to a far later date. The exact time at which the first religious establishment was founded, is involved in the gloom of antiquity. All investigations of this kind are matters of serious difficulty. Even the existence of a people is hard to trace, and, but for enduring monuments left behind, would be altogether impossible. At that early period, the lamp which guided future investigators was not lighted: darkness brooded over the land. It was a common practice too, in early times, for each succeeding wave of people to destroy every vestige of the Temples of those who had gone before them. Many there are who deplore this, on account of the destruction of the fine specimens of antiquity; and much abuse is heaped on our never-to-be-forgot

ten John Knox, for his alleged share in the destruction of the Roman Churches-forgetting that the great Reformer was obeying the high behests of the Owner of all. And it is not a little singular to notice, in the destruction of the Temples by each succeeding people, the carrying out of the command of God to the chosen people before they took possession of the land of Palestine. I have no doubt whatever that the destruction of all these places of worship was in imitation of the practices observed by the Children of Israel in their palmy days. So long as the Temples of a previous race stood, they would remind the remnants of the people that existed of their former state, and ensure the return to the same worship when opportunity occurred. But destroy the Altars, and the worship therein would be blotted out from their remembrance. It is therefore seen, that the doings of the Reformers at the Reformation, were not only the wisdom of human policy, but in obedience to the commands of the Supreme Being.

The Romans cut down the groves of the Druid, and the Temples of the Romans fell before the Saxons. The Pagan Danes next levelled the structures of the Saxons; but when the early missionaries whispered into the ears of those rude but gallant people, the still small sound of the Gospel, they became not only zealous converts, but reared the most magnificent Temples for the Worship of God. Long previous to the time of the Pagan Danes visiting our land, it is proved by history, and Charters which are the light of history, that at the beginning of the Ninth Century,