From Robert Chambers to William Kemp   29 May 1847

Dear Sir,

I have this morning received your letter of the 27th, with its valuable accompaniment. I can hardly sufficiently thank you for the trouble you have taken. It certainly makes me very complete as to the Versailles Beach (as I call it) in the vale of the Tweed. We now have it from Melrose to Peebles.

I took some pains to examine the country between Melrose and Kelso, and come at length to the notion that it may have been the basis of a great blockage similar to that which held in the Glenroy Lakes. Suppose two subaqueous vallies, one with a river bringing in large quantities of detritus, the other not, and the two joining about the place where the detritus is laid down. In that case, the second valley will have a subaqueous barrier laid across its mouth, which, after elevation, will necessarily make all above that point a fresh-water lake. If the Teviot brought down such detritus and laid it down from Kelso upwards, the result might be a lake extending from Melrose to Peebles and insulating the Eildons &c. What makes some such view almost necessary is the peculiarity of such markings as you have found in the Tweedside hills. They are found in very few places. Some peculiar cause must be obtained for them. I suggest the above. Think of it.

At Kelso I found all the three terraces together—112, 128, and 170. They meet at Fleurs so as as to come within one drawing, the house being upon the uppermost.

I am now busy in preparing sections, drawings, &c. to illustrate my paper—a very heavy, but yet most agreeable task.

Believe me, | dear sir, | yours very faithfully, | R. Chambers.