The Republic of Scotland

to the enticements of words, that they strongly move even judges and adversaries, however severe, if not to mercy, at least to admiration and pity as well.

Now, that we may return again to the Forth, it encloses Lothian from the east: the Cockburn Path and the Lammermuir hills separate it from the March. It then touches, having bent a little toward the west, Lauderdale and Tweeddale, the one named from the town of Lauder, the other from the river Tweed which cuts through its middle. To the south and west, Liddesdale, Nithsdale, and Clydesdale touch Tweeddale. The river Nith gave its name to Nithsdale, flowing through it into the Irish Sea.

Lothian is named from Loth, King of the Picts. From the summer east it is bounded by the Forth, or the Scottish Sea. It looks toward Clydesdale from the winter west. This region by far excels the others in the cultivation of humanity and in the abundance of necessities for the use of life. It is irrigated by five rivers: the Tyne, the two Esks (which join into a single channel before they fall into the sea), the Leith, and the Almond. These flow down into the Forth, partly from the Lammermuir mountains and partly from the Pentland hills. It has the towns of Dunbar, Haddington, Dalkeith, Edinburgh, Leith, and Linlithgow.