Some eighteen years ago, the writer of the following sonnets, by the
kindness of the proprietors of a pleasant house upon the banks of the
Teviot, enjoyed two happy autumns there. The Roman road which runs
between the remains of the camp at Chew Green, in Northumberland, and
the Eildon Hills (the Trimontium of General Roy), passed hard by. The
road is yet distinctly visible in all its course among the Cheviots, and
in the uncultivated tracts; and occasionally also, where the plough has
spared it, among the agricultural inclosures.
The house stands near the base of the hill called Penniel or
Penniel-heugh: and it is hoped that the etymological derivation of that
word now to be hazarded will not imply in the etymologist the credulity
of a Monkbarns. _Pen_, it is known, signifies in the Celtic language "a
hill". And the word _heil_, in the Celto-Scythian, is, in the Latin,
rendered _Sol_. In the Armoric dialect of the Celtic also, _heol_ means
"the sun:" hence, _Penheil_, _Penheol_, or _Penniel_, "the hill of the
sun." Beyond the garden of the abode there stood, and, it is believed,
yet stands, a single stone of a once extensive Druid circle, not many
years ago destroyed by the then proprietor, who used the sacred remains
in building his garden wall. A little farther antiquarian conjecture is
necessary to clothe the country with oak woods. Jedwood or Jedworth
Forest was part of "the forest" which covered Selkirkshire and parts of
the counties around. The Capon Tree, and the King of the Wood, two
venerable oaks yet flourishing on the water of Jed, attest the once
wooded condition of the land; which is farther irresistibly corroborated
by evidence drawn from the interesting volumes of the _Rotuli
Parliamentorum_. The Bishops of Glasgow had a religious establishment in
the neighbouring sunward village of Nether Ancrum. Of their buildings,
of the vicar's house, or of the ancient gardens existing in the memory
of persons living, not a vestige now remains. In the first volume of the
_Rotuli_, p. 472., there is a Petition, of uncertain date, by the Bishop
of Glasgow to Edward I., then in possession of Scotland, in these
terms:--
"Derechief pry ly dit Evesqe a soen Segur le Roy qe ly plese
aider &c.... e sur ceo transmettr', sa lettre al vesconte de
Lanark. E une autre, si ly plest, a ses Forresters de Geddeworth
de autant de Merin [meremium, meheremium, wood for building]
pour fere une receite a Allyncrom (Ancrum) desur la marche, ou
il poet aver recett e entendre a ses ministres qut il le
voudrent aver."