8 MR darling's address. 



its waters, to the hazel and the oak that shelter the pool beneath their 

 shade from the too hot influence of the sun. 



How diflferent again is the wood that hangs on the sides of the hills 

 rising from the valley on each side of the principal stream or river ! 

 It consists principally of oak, of moderate size at the base of the hill, 

 gradually diminishing in stature as we ascend, until we find it at the 

 summit nearly level with the surface of the ground, spreading in low 

 circular leafy bushes. This troop of oaks is intermingled with a con- 

 siderable quantity of birch, as various as the oak itself in size and ap- 

 pearance, while an ash tree rises tall above them both at distant inter- 

 vals. The *' bonnie broom" is frequent and tall on the lower line of 

 this wood, while the whin occupies the line above with a denser growth 

 than usual. The intermediate ground under and. amidst the trees is 

 full sometimes of a coarser herbage, rich in fungous growths, and 

 where lichens make the trunks all leprous ; sometimes moss predomi- 

 nates, and this is the habitat too for the Melampyrum sylvaticum; 

 in other places are long streams of stones and gravel covered partially 

 with briars, trailing roses, and with green patches of the wild sage 

 fTeucrium scorodoniajy or of the herb Mercury (Mercurialis perennis.J 



Such fancy paints our ancient border forests to have been, and pro- 

 bably there is much of reality and truth in the picture. A wide moun- 

 tainous and barren tract, intersected by a principal devious stream, 

 having, on each side of it, an alluvial plain of some breadth that afforded 

 good and abundant pasture for the horses, herds, and floeks of the 

 rude inhabitants. On each side there run up ravines of greater or 

 lesser depths, every one with a burn or rivulet in its bottom ; some 

 rocky and clean— others with plashy plsices, — while the hills are occu- 

 pied with woods such as we have attempted to describe, and the plains 

 above are brown barren moors, varied with peat-hags and covers of 

 whins and of broom, as the depth of the soil afforded a locality for their 

 growth. Through these forests herds of red and fallow deer were wont 

 to roam at freedom, and were the chase which our forefathers pursued 

 with almost savage raptures — while now the° ground is occupied with 

 new and foreign plantations, with corn, with artificial pastures, and the 

 hills are covered with flocks of sheep, obedient to the call of the shep- 

 herd, and browsing watchless, because they know no danger. 



" The sheep are on the slopes around, 



The cattle in the meadows feed, 

 And labourers turn the crumbling ground, 



Or drop the yellow seed ; 

 And prancing steeds, in trappings gay, 

 Whirl the bright chariot o'er the way. 



