I wandered out in the dusk of the evening,--for the dusk comes on
comparatively early as we draw southward,--and found a beautiful and
shadowy path along the river-side, skirting its high banks, up and adown
which grow noble elms. I could not well see, in that obscurity of
twilight boughs, whither I was going, or what was around me; but I judged
that the castle or cathedral, or both, crowned the highest line of the
shore, and that I was walking at the base of their walls. There was a
pair of lovers in front of me, and I passed two or three other tender
couples. The walk appeared to go on interminably by the river-side,
through the same sweet shadow; but I turned and found my way into the
cathedral close, beneath an ancient archway, whence, issuing again, I
inquired my way to the Waterloo Hotel, where we had put up.
ITEMS.--We saw the Norham Castle of Marmion, at a short distance from the
station of the same name. Viewed from the railway, it has not a very
picturesque appearance,--a high, square ruin of what I suppose was the
keep.--At Abbotsford, treasured up in a glass case in the drawing-room,
were memorials of Sir Walter Scott's servants and humble friends,--for
instance, a brass snuff-box of Tom Purdie,--there, too, among precious
relics of illustrious persons.--In the armory, I grasped with some
interest the sword of Sir Adam Ferguson, which he had worn in the
Peninsular war. Our guide said, of his own knowledge, that "he was a
very funny old gentleman." He died only a year or two since.
July 11th.--The morning after our arrival in Durham being Sunday, we
attended service in the cathedral. . . . We found a tolerable audience,
seated on benches, within and in front of the choir; and people
continually strayed in and out of the sunny churchyard and sat down, or
walked softly and quietly up and down the side aisle. Sometimes, too,
one of the vergers would come in with a handful of little boys, whom he
had caught playing among the tombstones.