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Ennerdale was no doubt at one time well timbered, and on seeing 

 this vigorous young plantation of forest trees, one cannot help 

 wishing that other owners of land in the district may emulate the 

 example set by the owner of Braemer, and restore to the district 

 its well-wooded hills. After passing Braemer wood we find our- 

 selves in a green lane, rich in a variety of ferns and wild flowers, 

 amongst which are the fox-glove and the hare-bell, intermixed with 

 a variety of yellow and purple flowers. We may now stay for a while 

 to examine one of the purple-flowered plants, which bears at the 

 end of the stem a short spike of flowers, and below at regular 

 intervals little clusters of like flowers. We may recognise it as 

 betony. This plant was in old times in so much repute that a 

 physician to one of the Roman Emperors wrote a volume in its 

 praise. The herbalists of later date greatly esteemed it. Dr. 

 Salmon, in his large folio, treats on the plant and its various 

 preparations at great length, such as the liquid juice, the decoction, 

 the oily tincture, the spirituous tincture, and so on, through thirteen 

 different preparations, all of which (according to the writer's belief) 

 have some value in alleviating or removing disease. It was sup- 

 posed, however, to have a higher quality than that of a medicine 

 to remove diseases of the body ; for if it were hung up in a house it 

 prevented the inmates from being bewitched. Even at the present 

 day it is said there is a proverbial wish amongst the Italians to this 

 effect, " May you have more virtue than betony." 



Leaving for the present the further consideration of these 

 virtues, let us take a few steps onwards towards How Hall. Near 

 this farm we find the hop growing vigorously in the hedge by 

 the roadside. It is a matter of dispute whether this plant is a 

 native of this country or not. It grows in the south of England 

 in a wild state, but the cultivated plant was no doubt introduced 

 about the time of Henry the Eighth. For the old couplet says : — 



" Hops, Reformation, bays, and beer, 

 Came into England all in one year." 



The hop is closely allied botanically to the nettle, and bears the 

 male flowers in loose panicles on one plant, and the female flowers 

 in a catkin on a separate plant — these catkins being that part of the 



