It has to be said that the north of England is a bit rugged. The snow-clad Penines were quite an adventure, but enough is enough, and we were ready for a bit of civilisation.

From the Wall we took a B-road through a few Cumbrian valleys, down one steep one across an old stone bridge and up the other side -

...and suddenly we were in Scotland, just like that.

There was no-one to talk to right by the border - Liddel Water, a tributary of the River Esk - but we stopped in the first place after that, Langholm (that must be a Viking settlement, surely, though there was no sign of a Long Island anywhere...). And it was all so Scottish - even the Indian lady serving in the grocer's had an accent you could cut with a knife.