REVIEWS. 49 



advantageous to carry bee-hives to the moors, as is practised in several places 

 in the district. There are few flowers which yield more honey, and since they are 

 twenty-fold more numerous in the same space than any others, the bees collect their 

 stores with rapidity — 



' Upon thy sloping banks and lonely glens, 

 Thy wide-extended moors, and mountains hoar, 

 My country, many a beauteous flower beneath 

 The eye of morning smiles in gracefulness 

 And beauty ; but, the chief o'er all the rest, 

 Old Scotland's " symbol dear," which he, the Bard 

 Of Coila, hath immortalized, and spared 

 The inspiring emblem waving in the breeze, 

 I love to mark ; nor less the heather flower, 

 Of scent delicious, and inviting still 

 The eye to rest upon its beauty, spread 

 For miles athwart the moor, where wild fowl haunt, 

 And where the industrious bee collects her sweets 

 Medicinal, and ministers alike 

 To luxury's claims, and to the comforts which 

 Sometimes descend to cheer the poor man's heart.' — Ckease. 



The plant appears to be affected, in its secretion of honey, by the nature of the soil 

 on which it grows. Around Wooler there is a sandstone and a porphyritic soil. 

 The bees on the latter produce considerably greater quantities of honey than those 

 pastured upon the former. Heather honey is of a brown colour, and has a peculiar 

 flavour — which raises it in the estimation of many. 



' The tiny heath-flowers now begin to blow; 

 The russet moor assumes a richer glow ; 

 The powdery bells, that glance in purple bloom, 

 Fling from their scented cups a sweet perfume ; 

 While from their cells, still moist with morning dew, 

 The wandering wild bee sips the honied glue ; 

 In wider circle wakes the liquid hum, 

 And far remote the mingled murmurs come.' — Leyden. 



Those shepherds who have passed their youth amongst the Lammermuirs have 

 their gaits so affected by traversing the rough heath, that, for the rest of their lives, 

 they are accustomed, in walking, to lift their feet higher than other people. This 

 practice is called by the lowlanders 'heather-lamping.' In a long- continuous storm 

 it is customary to drive sheep to some heathery spot, as the snow is usually drifted 

 from the moors, and the heather lies bare, offering a welcome pasturage. 



" That the Picts knew the art of distilling an ale from heather, some antiquaries 

 consider a myth, and some a fact ; and of the latter some maintain that there exist 

 remains of the breweries in which this ale was made (see Wilson's Archaeology of 

 Scotland, p. 76). The secret died with the people ; and the tradition of how it 

 died so worthily is well told by Mr. Chambers, as it still lingers amidst the Lam- 

 mermuirs, u the last ground contested by the Scots and Picts." 



We have already alluded to the meetings of the Berwickshire Naturalists' 

 Club, which, like the "Friday Club" celebrated in "Lord Jeffrey's Life," 

 owed its success to the result of some negatives, as its members were 

 troubled by no written laws, no motions, no disputes, no ballots, no fines, no 

 business of any kind, except what was managed by one of ourselves as 

 secretary. Under Veronica chamcedrys we have a sketch of one of its 

 meetings, which we extract, trusting that the pleasing picture it presents 

 may tempt the speedy formation of similar clubs in districts where none 

 yet exist : — 



