The poetical works of Sir Walter Scott, with memoir of the author.

58 THE LAY OF LCANTOI.
Letter nor line know I never a one,
Were't my neck-verse at Hairibee."'
XXV.
Soon in his saddle sate he fast,
And soon the steep descent he past,
Soon cross'd the sounding barbican,2
And soon the Tevoit side he won.
Eastward the wooded path he rode,
Green hazles o'er his basnet nod;
He pass'd the Peel3 of Goldiland,
And cross'd old Borthwick's roaring strand;
Dimly he view'd the Moat-hill's mound,
Where Druid shades still flitted round: 4
In Hawick twinkled many a light;
Behind him soon they set in night;' Hairibee, the place of executing the Border marauders at
Carlisle. The neck-verse is the beginning of the 51st Psalm,
Miserere mei, &c., anciently read by criminals claiming the
benefit of clergy. [" In the rough but spirited sketch of the
marauding Borderer, and in the naivete of his last declaration,
the reader will recognize some of the most striking features
of the ancient ballad."-Critical Review.]
2 Barbican, the defence of the outer'gate of a feudal castle.
3 Peel, a Border tower.
4 This is a round artificial mount near Hawick, which, from
its name, (Mot. Ang. Sax. Conciliumn, Conventus,) was probably
anciently used as a place for assembling a national council
of the adjacent tribes. There are many such mounds in
Scotland, and they are sometimes, but rarely, of a square
form.