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MAP: "Georgefield" to Langholm, Eskdale, Scotland

From Langholm one may head south to Carlisle, Liverpool and London, or north to Harwick and Edinburgh, but to head up to "Georgefield" is to enter confined Eskdale. Eskdale is somewhat constricted by the Silurian sedimentary rocks, and as a narrow valley does not carry any major through routes. In 1803, when the Murrays (who migrated to "Warrawang") were living here, Robert Southey described the dale as having a "quiet, sober character, a somewhat scenic melancholy kind of beauty"..."from a mountainous sweep and swell" descending to "green pastures where man has done little". The higher areas being clothed with heather and peat are known as 'black land'; in the dale bottoms sweet vernal grass and bent grow - this is the 'white land' that the Murray family of "Georgefield" farmed. There is a remarkable similarity between the setting of "Georgefield" and that of "Warrawang" where they settled in New South Wales.

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