DR JOHNSTON'S ADDRESS. 47 



progress about that ancient village.* Thence they returned in almost 

 a straight lino to Greenlaw, where dinner awaited them. The party 

 consisted of Dr Johnston, Dr R. D. Thomson, P. J. Selby, Esq., Dr 

 Clarke, Dr F. Douglas, Mr J. Boyd, and Thomas Tancred, Esq., who 

 were honoured with the company of Mr Gourlay, a well known botanist 

 resident in Glasgow. 



The good weather that had favoured our previous meetings did not 

 forsake us on the 26th of July, when the Club assembled at the pleasant 

 and pretty town of Yetholm, the metropolis of the gypsies of this district, 

 and of a parish fortunate in having a fellow-member for its minister. 

 You would scarcely excuse me, I am sure, did I fail just to remind you 

 of the unwearied exertions of that reverend gentleman towards the 

 amelioration of the condition of the gypsies, and of his services in gene- 

 ral towards his people, especially in regard of the education of the young. 

 The manse, embowered in trees planted with his own hand, and glad- 

 dened with a garden laid out by his own taste, received a large party to 

 breakfast, amongst whom were the following members of the Club, viz : — 

 Dr Johnston, Rev. J. Baird, P. J. Selby, Esq., Captain Carpenter, 

 Geo. Darling, Esq., Dr F. Douglas, Mr Melrose, Mr Rowe, Mr John 

 Boyd, and Mr Home. Having, with our characteristic humanity, 

 speedily eased the table from the burden under which it groaned op- 

 pressively, the party, with that feeling of self-satisfaction which the 

 performance of a good deed imparts, began a laborious walk of alternate 

 ascent and descent amid the lower range of Cheviot Hills — a part of the 

 once great forest that was the hunting-ground of the Douglas and Percy, 

 — but hills now covered with a close green sward, nibbled by flocks of 

 stupid sheep — it would not do, — imagination nor heard nor saw nor hound 

 nor horn ; and so we travelled on under a sudorific sun, and apparently 

 under disfavour, for neither Fauna nor Flora proffered to us a single 

 new gift.f To such hot wooers this was cool treatment; but we were 

 not cooled, and I find myself as warm an admirer as ever of these silvan 

 sirens, and mean to continue faithful — 



" How gladly I recall your well known haants, 

 Beloved of old, and that delightful time, 

 When, all alone, for many a summer's day, 

 I wandered through your calm recesses, ItA 

 In silence by some powerful hand unseen. 



♦ See the New Stat. Account of Berwickshire, p. 38. 



t Mr Hislop has favoured me with the names of the few Beetles that he picked 

 up, viz : — 1 . Patrobus rufipes ; 2. Harpalus limbatus ; 3. Calathus piceus ; 4. Aphodius 

 rufescens ; 5. Necrobia violacea ; 6. Otiorhynchus ovatoa ; 7. Cataphagus obacams. 



