WHERE HAIG IS BURIED.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 32, 8 February 1928, Page 6

WHERE HAIG IS BURIED.

DRYBURGH ABBEY AND ITS

ASSOCIATIONS.

* (By PILGRIM.)

Whore shall we lay tlie man whom we deplore? Here, in streaming London's central roar, Let the sound of those he wrought for, And the feet o£ those he fought for Echo round his bones for evermore.

This was the burial the nation would have given Haig, who if he had not Wellington's genius, at least had "iron nerve to true occasion true," and "stood,four-square'to all the winds that blew." Haig, however, wished otherwise. His heart was in the valley of the Tweed, the home of his ancestors, and he lies there now, not as one of the soldiers who saved Europe, but as border chieftain and head of his house. Though his grave is far from tho busy haunts of men, in reality it is in a stream of humanity. The lovely ruins of Dryburgh Abbey are part of the scheduled tourist programme for the valley of the Tweed. are only a few miles from Abbotsford, Scott's home, and most people who visit Abbotsford and Melrose Abbey go to Dryburgh the same day. The district is within easy reach of Edinburgh. When the writer went there in 1926— mainly to pay a colonial's homage to the memory of Scott—his party liad lunch at Galashiels, visited these three places in the afternoon, and were back in Edinburgh for dinner. The places were crowded with tourists, most of whom were a specially conducted party of travellers from the Argentine. We may say, then, that all the tourist world will go to Haig's grave. The young British nations whose armies he led, America, some of whose troops served under him, enemy and neutral countries—all will send men and women who will find at Dryburgh an additional interest because it is the resting place of Britain's military leader in the greatest of wars.

The spot is one of the loveliest in the kingdom. The writer saw Glastonbury, Tintcrn, and Dryburgh, and for beauty of surrou lidings would not place the Scottish ruin much below Tintern. By reason of its history Glastonbury is more interesting, but it may be doubted whether it has quite the natural beauty of Dryburgh. Melrose is more famous than Dryburgh, but its surroundings are greatly inferior. It is up against an hotel, and it lacks Dryburgh's woodland seclusion. Dryburgh is a perfect haunt of ancient peace. You approach it through a tuunel of foliage, and the swarded ruins are embowered in trees. All this border country is steeped in history; it knew centuries of violence. The Abbev dates from as far back as the twelfth century. To-day the valley of the Tweed compares in ordered and peaceful loveliness with the best of English rural scenery. ®

The memory of Scott permeates this Scottish' landscape. He loved the Tweed, and when he came home from the Continent to die, he could hardly bo restrained as he caught sight of the! woods and towers of his home. On the day he died the sound of all others most delicious to vv e , ar, „ the gentle ri PP le of the Tweed over its pebbles, was distinctly audible. They laid him— the greatest of Scotsmen—in Dryburgh Abbev and now another Scot whose name for a period was m all men's mouths, has been laid beside him. In some respects the two men present a sharp contrast. On Scott the marks of genius are plain for all men to see. Though it is contended in some quarters that Haig was one of the greatest soldiers of the war, and it is possible that posterity will rank his capacity higher than it is generally placed to-day, it is doubtful if genius has ever been boldly claimed for him fS, W w a , ma " ° f lettcrs; Hai S » man of action. We know as much about Scott the man as we do about any great man in history. He i lself f i' eel >'- We know ver7 little about Haig apart from the soldier. Ho had all the traditional reticence of his class. Both men however, belong to the noble brotherhood of hi"h and sustained character. In his books Scott preached the importance of character, and lived it m his life. Haig s greatest qualities were moral rather than intellectual. He never lost heart never repined, never intrigued; in the darkest hour he brought to duty an iron resolution and a serene mind. In the few years of leisure left to him after victorv he Jade the welfare of his soldiers his chief concern, for which Scott would have loved him. Both men illustrate Sis?' char,cler ,hat