In the Border Country   By: W. S. Crockett (1866-1945)

POPULAR BOOKS ON ART.

Edited by W. Shaw Sparrow

THE ART AND LIFE LIBRARY. 1. "THE BRITISH HOME OF TO DAY" ( out of print ). 2. "THE GOSPELS IN ART." 3. "WOMEN PAINTERS OF THE WORLD." 4. "THE OLD TESTAMENT IN ART," Vol. I. 5. "THE MODERN HOME" ( out of print ). 6. "THE OLD TESTAMENT IN ART," Vol. II. 7. "THE APOSTLES IN ART."

HISTORY, TRAVEL, RUSTIC LIFE. 1. "MARY QUEEN OF SCOTS," with 26 Pictures in Colour by Sir James Linton, R.I., and James Orrock, R.I.; the text by Walter Wood. 2. "IN THE BORDER COUNTRY," with 25 Pictures in Colour by James Orrock, R.I., and Historical Notes by W. S. Crockett. 3. "IN RUSTIC ENGLAND," with 25 Pictures in Colour by Birket Foster; the text by A. B. Daryll.

THE ART AND LIFE MONOGRAPHS. 1. "ETCHINGS BY VAN DYCK," in Rembrandt Photogravure the full size of the Original Proofs. Also an Édition de Luxe with Carbon Print Photographs of all the Etchings; the text by Prof. Dr. H. W. Singer. 2. "INGRES MASTER OF PURE DRAUGHTSMANSHIP." Twenty four Rembrandt Photogravures of important Drawings and Pictures; the introductions by Arsène Alexandre and W. Shaw Sparrow.

ARTISTS OF THE PRESENT DAY. I. "FRANK BRANGWYN, A.R.A." the introductions by Léonce Bénédite and W. Shaw Sparrow. 2. "LUCY E. KEMP WELCH," the introductions by Professor Hubert von Herkomer and Edward F. Strange.

SERIES OF BIBLE PICTURES. "THE SAVIOUR IN MODERN ART."

London: Hodder & Stoughton

[Illustration]

FRONTISPIECE

VIEW OF DUNSTANBOROUGH

FROM A WATER COLOUR SKETCH

PAINTED BY

JAMES ORROCK, R.I.

IN THE BORDER COUNTRY

With Pictures in Colour by

JAMES ORROCK R I

And Historical Notes by

W. S. CROCKETT

Edited by W. Shaw Sparrow

Hodder & Stoughton London 1906

DEDICATED TO THE MEMORY OF SIR WALTER SCOTT

PREFACE

Most of us prefer to spend our holiday tours away from our own country. There is a feeling of mild adventure when the land we behold is unknown to us, and when the language we hear filters into our questioning minds through an interpreter's suavity and chatter. And if we go to Switzerland we may earn even a reputation for intrepid pluck among the friends who listen to us on our return home, while the unlucky guides, who found for our trembling feet a pathway around each danger, will amuse their families during the winter with little tales at our expense, told with rough satire and with short, gruff peals of laughter resembling the noise of a crackling ice sheet when it begins to slip downhill.

No doubt, heroism on the hillside has a vast attraction to brave, fearless hearts like our own; but we should find, here in our own country, quite as much adventure as is good for us, and quite as much novelty also, if only we could bring ourselves to believe that knowledge of native scenes and traditions does not come to us in baptism or by virtue of our birth as British folk. If you ask a friend whether he knows the Border Country, he will probably answer yes, and then go on to say that he when a lad at school was a great reader of Scott, and thank heaven! his memory is a good one. Push the matter further, ask whether he has verified the truth of Scott's descriptions by a visit to the places described, and you will probably hear that your friend would rather dream of the North Pole or be bitten fiercely by the swarms of lively insects treasured throughout Brittany in every cottage and hotel.

All this being somewhat commonplace, you may wish to get closer to this subject, and your friend at last, driven to bay, comes to the real point that pricks and distresses him. "You see," he will say, "a holiday tour at home is such a dickens of a gamble. You can't say how much it will cost. The only thing at all certain about it is that the cost will be more than you can afford. Wherever you go you become a goose to be plucked."