73
with the Teviot below Spittal. The Rule is merely the British Rhull which
means what moves briskly, what breaks out; a meaning this that is very
descriptive of this mountain torrent (y). This water may vie with the sylvan
Jed in the variety and value of its woods, but not in its picturesque scenery.
The Slitrig, rising from several springs in the Leap-hill, the Maiden-paps, and
Great-moor-hill, flows through hollow vales and green hills, during a rapid
course of ten miles, till it falls into the Teviot below Hawick, driving many
mills for that industrious town (2). Allan water issues from two springs in the
northern declivity of the same ridge, which sends the Hermitage water to the
south; and after a short course through wealthy sheep-walks, pours its fair
stream into the congenerous Teviot at Newrnill. There is another Allan in
the northern part of this shire, which mixes its waters with the Tweed above
Melrose. This stream is called Alwent, in a charter of William the Lion to
the monks of Melrose, and this term is merely the British form of the name
Al-wen. The Bowmont which may have derived its modern name from, its
remarkable curvature round some of the mounts of Cheviot, drains the parishes
of Morebattle and Yetholm, and joins its rapid waters with the Northumbrian
Till (a). Such are the streams which drain the several districts of Teviotdale,
and contribute to the elegance of its landscape as well as to the fertility of its
plains. Liddesdale is emptied of its waters, by the Liddel, the Hermitage, and
other currents which pour from the circumjacent heights. The Liddel was
" unknown in song, though there be not a purer stream," till Armstrong
" first drew air on its Arcadian banks." It rises near the sources of the Tyne
from the southern declivities of Fanna-hill, Note of the Gate, and Needslaw, the
same border mountains winch send the Rule and the Jed from their northern
declivities into Teviotdale. The Liddel rolls its rapid maze over a stony
channel towards the western main. Liddesdale, the modern name of this
district, is a corruption of the pleonastic name of Liddelsdale. The ancient
name of this " crystal stream," which it derived from the British people, was
the Lid, which denotes its natural qualities. It bore this name, without the
affix dal, when Drummond wrote his "Forth-feasting" to celebrate King
(y) Owen's Dict.
(z) Slitrig is not the original name of the water, nor is it the appellation of any place near its
banks ; but it is a Scoto-Saxon name [Slit-rig], which has been imposed from local circumstances that
cannot now be traced. In Pont's map, indeed, it is called Slit-ricke.
(a) In several charters of the 13th century, this stream is called the Bol-bent, which more recent
corruption has converted into Bowmont,
3                                                              L