The Borders - Hardcover

Banks, F.R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 071340289X ISBN 13: 9780713402896

Publisher: HarperCollins Distribution Services, 1977

Synopsis

Sir Walter Scott can be said to have created the Border Country, for it was he who first gave the area that sense of identity now so strongly felt both by those who live there and by visitors. In one respect that identity was misconceived for it suggests that the Border stretches only northwards into Scotland. F. R. Banks here redresses the balance, and not before time since the English side of the Border is not nearly so well known as the Scottish one. It is, however, supremely well worth knowing. Northumbria, apart from Tyneside, is thinly populated, little spoilt and scenically remarkable; its pele towers, its great castles, Alnwick and Bamburgh among them, its abbeys and priories - Hulne, Hexham, Brinkburn, Holy Island - give it distinction of architecture as well as of landscape. And that is to ignore other equally remarkable features of the English border country: Hadrian s Wall, Coquetdale and Redesdale, the Vale of Whittingham, the Cheviots, the splendid coastline, and further south, Carlisle and the Solway Firth. Of all these aspects Mr Banks writes with equal knowledge and enthusiasm. But of course the Scottish side of the Border also attracts many visitors. The Scott Country, Kelso and Teviotdale, Jedburgh, Liddesdale, Hawick and Eskdale: for Scots people especially this is the heart of the matter, and certainly there can be no complaint that the author has neglected them in this book. Some excellent illustrations and a sketch map add to the attractiveness of a book on an area that is itself exceptionally attractive.

Edition details

• Publisher: HarperCollins Distribution Services
• Publication date: 1977
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 071340289X
• ISBN 13: 9780713402896
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 200