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[precipi]tous and more richly adorned with mosses, and the
paths, if not so trim, are more in keeping, and lead by
natural windings through copsewood and flowering broom,
golden-blossomed whins, and tangled briers.
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WETHERAL SAFEGUARDS.
The Caves of St. Constantine, or Wetheral Safeguards, may be
explored. They are three in number, deeply excavated, and
protected by a breastwork of masonry, in which is a
fire-place and three small lights. There is now a wooden
gallery, by which they are rendered accessible: formerly
they were approached by a dangerous path from the bottom,
and gained by a ladder, which was afterwards drawn up.
Tradition says they were originally the retreat of an
ascetic of the name of Constantine; but it is far more
probable that they were formed by the monks of the priory,
as places of safety in which to deposit their plate,
vestments, and relics. Since then, they have undoubtedly
been devoted to the same purposes by the inhabitants, as
safeguards in the disturbed state of the Borders.
Further on is a summer-house, generally called the Folly,
which presents a view of unrivalled magnificence. Far below,
the Eden foams and thunders over its rocky channel, which
here pursues a serpentine course; on either hand steep banks
arise, hidden beneath the dense foliage of the Corby
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