And the temperature of the air should be observed, as well as the pressure, and the fisherman must learn to read the thermometer as well as the barometer. It will tell him beforehand what the day will bring forth; for it is now a well-ascertained fact, that a difference of a few degrees of temperature makes a considerable difference in the take of fish. In the herring fishery it is especially important and observable. Mr. Glaisher says, "The best catches are when the temperature is between fifty-four and fifty-seven degrees. At temperatures below fifty, the proportion of catch to miscatch is almost equal; between fifty and sixty degrees the proportion is about four catches to one miscatch."

Hence, it seems clear that distressing accidents may be avoided and industry promoted by meteorological observations, and the sooner the observers are set to work the better. I had been told that a beginning was made, but in all my walk along the Northumbrian coast, could not hear anywhere of a fisherman's barometer. The nearest approach was the intention of the Beadnel men to subscribe and buy one.

There was no sound of fine weather in the roll of the breakers upon the beach when I awoke the next morning, nor any sign of it at breakfast time. "If the wind would only get up," said honest Robin, while going about assiduous among his floats and nets. But the wind did not get up. Once there was a slight lift to seaward, and a gleamy brightness shone through the fog; but presently all settled down again and darker than before. I waited till near noon, and then took up my knapsack and walked to Bamborough. The hostess of my Lord Crewe's Arms was just sitting down to dinner with her maids, and there was such a relishing

smell of good cookery, that I asked to join, and was made "heartily welcome."

Northumberland is no exception to the rule, that the world is full of compensations. Not one penny would the hostess take for my dinner. I might pay her for the ale, but, as regards the rest, had she not bidden me welcome ? Well, I would not argue the point sorely with so good-humoured a lady, who keeps her house so admirably clean, and has besides a readingroom, where you may see The Times and other papers, and take your pleasure in a good selection of books.

The weather would not put off its sullenness; rain began to fall. I thought I would go to Berwick by way of change, and walked through the rain to Lucker station, fancying myself in unhappy plight till I saw a man and girl who had driven over in an open cart. They looked wretched. And very wretched did Tweedmouth and Berwick look, as the train rolled across the lofty bridge amid a smoky fog that reminded me of a London November.

A week's residence, some years ago, had made me pretty familiar with Berwick; so I had only to walk about and refresh my memory. Anxious on the question of weather, I walked down to the pier, but saw nothing cheerful. The salmon-fishers rowing in their boats from Spittal Snook, looked strange and spectral through the mist; and if Tweed had anything to say concerning his birthplace in the western hills, and his travel along the Border land, it was stifled by the gloom, and I heard it not.

CHAPTER XVII.

Hawings for Breakfast-A Walk round the Walls-The Two Bridges—A Scotchman's Reason Why-Berwick Bounds-Historic Associations— Kings, Queens, and Butchers-Countess of Buchan and Grizel Cochrane-Johnny Cope-Proxy Church-bells-A Dry Preacher-The Pier -The Snook-Bamborough again-A Pleasant Village-Grace Darling's Tomb-The Broken Column: a Catastrophe-Church and Crypt -The Wandering Shepherdess-The Laidley Worm of Spindleston Heugh.

"You'd like some hawings ?" said the waiter at the Red Lion, with the complacency inspired by a conviction that the first-fruits of the herring season could by no means be refused for breakfast. I had not risen early, but was up, nevertheless, before the wind, and so had no need to hurry over the dainty dish which, a little earlier, had been swimming in the sea. Once in Holland the twentieth portion of a July herring was handed to me as a special treat; but Berwick gives two whole ones, and would not begrudge more.

We will not be lazy though the wind is, and will go forth to meet whatever inspirations may come to us through the drizzle. We can walk all round the town on the walls which have been standing ever since the days of Queen Elizabeth, and enjoy a varied and pleasing view; that is, in fine weather. You can look up the vale, or down to the river's mouth, where spreads the sandy flat on which the fishermen of Spittal dry their nets, and their village on the edge of the beach a village with a mineral spring and

A WALK ROUND BERWICK.

245

lodgings for bathers. You can see Tweedmouth on the English side of the river; and the old bridge of fifteen arches, which was twenty-four years a-building; the new bridge-the Royal Border Bridge-across which the railway runs from kingdom to kingdom, two thousand feet long, and one hundred and twenty high, was built in three years. To see a train approach from the south along the lofty embankment, as it were on a hilltop, to the range of twenty-eight tall arches is a striking spectacle.

For many a year did "our town of Berwick-uponTweed" claim to be mentioned by itself in all royal proclamations, as it were a little state, independent of the mighty states on either side. A Scottish schoolmaster, with whom I once foregathered on the banks. of the Tyne, told me how it happened that the ancient. burgh belonged neither to England nor Scotland, and his explanation was this: During the Temptation, while the Evil One was showing to the Holy One all the kingdoms of the earth, he kept Berwick hidden beneath his thumb, wishing to reserve it as his own. little nook.

Tradition apart, we shall do well to keep in mind that "Berwick Bounds" comprehend a territory of about eight square miles, all on the north side of the Tweed, and with a frontage of three miles towards the sea. The rulers over this territory, and the administrators of its ten thousand pounds of annual revenue, are the corporation of Berwick. Sloping up from the river, crowning a high precipitous bank, where the railway-station occupies the site of a castle, the town is one full of interest to a stranger. The walk round the walls on a fine day from gate to gate, and from bastion to bastion, presents a fine and varied prospect to

the eye, wherein the mind finds multiplied associations. We are reminded that William the Lion was made to give Berwick to the English, to ransom himself from that royal captivity into which he fell at Alnwick. Lion-hearted Richard, when providing ways and means for his crusades, gave it back to the Scots for ten thousand marks. Fox-hearted John took it by storm in 1216, with execrable cruelties; but the Scots rebuilt the town, and during the reign of Alexander III. it became the wealthiest port in all the realm. Again siege and storm in 1296, by Edward I., and seventeen thousand souls butchered without mercy, so that as the old chroniclers say, the very mills were set a-going by the streams of blood.. Then siege and storm, capture and re-capture, burning of ships, hanging of hostages through succeeding reigns, recalling the names of Bruce and Baliol, of the three Edwards, of Wallace the deliverer. Yonder, on the road to Dunbar, rises Halidown Hill, where the Third Edward defeated the Scots under Archibald Douglas, with direful slaughter. How various are the personages herewith associated! The Countess of Buchan, shut up for six years in a wooden cage, for her share in the coronation of Bruce; Grizel Cochrane, robbing the mail, on the moor beyond Tweedmouth, to get possession of her father's deathwarrant; Princess Johanna, daughter of Edward II., hailed as Makepeace by the people, coming down to marry Prince David; Princess Margaret escorted hither to espouse James IV.; Queen Mary coming to view the town; James VI. passing through on his way to mount the throne of England; and the gate which looks northwards will remind us of Johnny Cope, hurrying in with the news of his own defeat.

While sauntering round, you will remark that the