356 WILD FLOWEBS OF 



as the Cotswolds and the chalk strata, where it occurs 

 in extreme profusion ; and on the cliffs of the Isle of 

 Wight it is found in an exceedingly diminished state. 

 But the Ivy-leaved Bell-flower (C. Seder aced) , is, 

 undoubtedly, the most exquisitely delicate of all. This 

 fairy gem is mostly confined to mountain bogs, whose 

 surface it besprinkles with the palest yet loveliest 

 azure ; and hence the sight of it recalls a host of past 

 rambles in secluded spots of Alpine beauty : it is, in- 

 deed, a true mountaineer, loving the splashy mossy 

 spring, that feeds the bubbling tenant of the dark 

 ravine below, where the brown Dipper (Cinclus aqua- 

 ticus), is rejoicing in the pellucid stream, or the [Ring- 

 Ouzel runs hiding its snowy circlet as it treads the 

 labyrinth of the stiff bilberry bushes. I have gathered 

 this fairy bell amidst the dark turbaries of Plinlim- 

 mon, by Llynn Teivy and its sister lakes that fill the 

 craters and hollows of the mountain above Strata Flo- 

 rida Abbey, Cardiganshire ; on the fort-like hills that 

 barrier the course of the infant Severn about Llanid- 

 loes ; and in the summer of 1839, most profusely, as I 

 pilgrimaged across a mountain between Pont-y-pridd 

 and Caerphilly Castle, Glamorganshire. 



The Ivy-leaved Bell-flower also occurs in great 

 luxuriance trailing along the mossy glens bright with 

 Nartheciurn and the Bog St. John's Wort, that border 

 the sombre tract of Exmoor, in Devonshire. It is 

 very plentiful in marshy spots about Hart -Knoll 

 Woods, between Barnstaple and Ilfracombe, tinging 

 the copsy scene with poetical loveliness. 



The mountain rambler must often have noticed, 

 about this period, the relics of a custom once highly 

 honoured in olden times the Rush-gathering, an occu- 



