becoming disclosed. Our interest in exploring some stately modern or
Renaissance city is constantly varied by finding some picturesque
mediaeval remnant; below this some fragment of Roman ruin; below this it
may be some barbarian fort or mound. Hence the fascinating interest of
travel, which compels us ever to begin our survey anew. Starting with
the same river-basin as before, the geographic panorama now gains a new
and deeper interest. Primitive centres long forgotten start into life;
pre-historic tumuli give up their dead; to the stone circles the [Page:
108] worshippers return; the British and the Roman camps again fill with
armed men, and beside the prosaic market town arises a shadowy Arthurian
capital. Next, some moment-centuries later, a usurper's tower rises and
falls; the mediaeval abbey, the great castles, have their day; with the
Reformation and the Renaissance the towns again are transformed; and
yet more thoroughly than ever by the Industrial Revolution, with its
factories, railways, steamships, and all that they bring with them.
Thus, for instance, almost more important than the internal
transformation and concentration wrought by railway and telegraph, is
the selection, amidst the almost innumerable seaports of the older
order, of the very few adapted to the deep draught of modern ships. In a
word, not only does the main series of active cities display traces of
all the past phases of evolution, but beside this lie fossils, or linger
survivals, of almost every preceding phase.

Hence, after many years of experiment and practice in teaching sociology
I still find no better method available than that of regional survey,
historical as well as geographical. Beginning with some popular
excursion of obvious beauty and romantic interest like that to Melrose,
we see with every tourist how naturally and fully the atmosphere and
tradition of the Border found its expression and world influence in Sir
Walter Scott. Thence, passing by way of contrast through the long