strength. The next elevation is Winshield’s Crag, estimated to be the highest ground between the two seas: from its summit the sails of vessels upon the distant Solway may be perceived on a clear day; but the gathering shades of evening denied us this gratification, and we quickened our steps in anticipation of the tea and its accompaniments which we knew our good hostess of the Crown would not fail to set before us on our arrival.[1] Still proceeding westward, the last red ray of the sun glanced appropriately enough upon the Nick to which Dr. Bruce—who has well and truly entitled himself to stand sponsor to any hitherto unnamed portion of the Wall—has thought fit, in remembrance of the following circumstance, to endow with the ominous cognomen of Bloody Gap. North of the gap is a ridge of ground called Scotch Coulthard. When fugitive moss troopers reached this point, their escape was considered secure, for all beyond is waste and swire, where only they could find footing. Here then, between the Wall and Scotch Coulthard, was the place where, if the fugitive could not make his heels, or rather the sturdy legs of his shaggy Scotch nag, save his head, he must turn at bay; and that many a fierce encounter has here been waged is evident from the numerous skeletons turned up wherever the ground is broken for drainage operations. Further on we came to another gap, whose ominous title of Bogle Hole seemed invested with additional horror as the
↑Peremptory in her kindness, mine hostess would say, when I have arrived in the evening wet with roaming among the mosslands, or drenched by a shower, “Sir, your tea is ready, and shall be served as soon as you are dry and comfortable, but until you have changed every wet stitch, not a bit nor a sup will you get from me.”
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