is due to the fame which it acquired from the poems and stories of Scott.  The thousands of pilgrims who come every year are attracted by this alone, since the abbey had no extraordinary history and no tomb of king or hero is to be found in its precincts.  Were it not for the weird interest which the “Lay of the Last Minstrel” has thrown around Melrose, its fame would probably be no greater than that of the abbeys of Jedburgh and Kelso in the same neighborhood.  Abbottsford House is only three miles from Melrose, but it is closed to visitors after five o’clock and we missed a second visit, which we should have liked very much.  Upon such things the motorist must fully inform himself or he is liable to many disappointments by reaching his objective point at the wrong time.

We returned to Edinburgh by the way of Galashiels, a manufacturing town of considerable size that lay in a deep valley far below the road which we were following along the edges of the wooded hills.  This road abounded in dangerous turns and caution was necessary when rounding sharp curves that, in places, almost described a circle.  We had a clear right-of-way, however, and reached Edinburgh before nine o’clock.  A delightful feature of summer touring in Britain is the long evening, which is often the pleasantest time for traveling.  The highways are usually quite deserted and the mellow effect of the sunsets and the long twilights often lend an additional charm to the landscapes.  In the months of July and August in Scotland daylight does not begin to fade away until from nine to ten, and in northern sections the dawn begins as early as two or three o’clock.  During our entire tour we found it necessary to light our lamps only two or three times, although we were often on the road after nine o’clock.  Though Edinburgh has unusually broad and well paved streets, it is a trying place for a motorist.  The people make little effort to keep to the sidewalk, but let the fellow who is driving the car do the looking out for them.  In no city through which we passed did I find greater care necessary.  Despite all this, accidents are rare, owing to the fact that drivers of motor cars in Great Britain have had the lesson of carefulness impressed upon them by strict and prompt enforcement of police regulations.

We left Edinburgh the next forenoon with a view of making Berwick-on-Tweed our stopping place for the evening—­not a long distance in miles but a considerable one measured in spots of historical importance.  The road much of the way skirts the ocean and is a magnificent highway leading through a number of quaint towns famous in Scotch song and story.  Numerous battlefields are scattered along the way, but we found it difficult to locate a battlefield when we passed it, and generally quit trying.  In fact, in the days of border warfare the whole south of Scotland was the scene of almost continuous strife, and battles of greater or less importance were fought everywhere with the English in the centuries of fierce