90 CORNUS. 



southern slope of a long ridge of hills ; and the IvjTvood well doubt- 

 less supplied his drink. Of this cave, still called St. Cuthbert's or 

 Cuddy's Cove, Mr. Raine has given a description and view. See his 

 Saint Cuthbert, p. 21 ; and the Hist, of N. Durham, p. 4 and 15. — 

 The well may possibly have had even earlier reverence. The Christian 

 missionaries were instructed to root up the worship which our primal 

 ancestors paid to fountains (Lingard's Anglo-Saxon Church, i. 

 p. 167) ; but when they found this could not be done, they turned 

 the worship to Christian saints, by dedicating the Well to one or other 

 of them. We have many of these in our district, and I have already 

 mentioned some of them. Lady- Wells are many. There is a Lady's- 

 Well at Cbeswick, into which young maidens throw crooked pins ; 

 as they still do into a more celebrated one near Wooler. I remember 

 seeing pins that had been thus dropt into Dodd's Well near Berwick ; 

 and in Tweedmouth there is a well dedicated to the Virgin, and 

 another to Saint Mugnus, — the latter name strangely corrupted to 

 Meggie-Muggie's well. There is a Lady's- well near Lady kirk. See 

 further on this subject the Borderer's Table Book, vii. p. 132 : Stat. 

 Ace. Scot. xiv. p. 46. It is usual to visit these Wells on the 1st of 

 May before sunrise; and, after laving the face with the water, to drop 

 unobserved a pin therein, making, at the same time, a silent wish, 

 which must be buried in secresy. Hence the Wells are sometimes 

 called " Wishing Wells." 



The wood of the Ivy is believed to have no pith. Tlie leaves of the 

 high shoots lose their lobed and deltoid figure, and become almost 

 entire and lanceolate. Steeped in vinegar they are a favourite appli- 

 cation to corns ; and an ointment made with the powder of them 

 cures tetters and ringworm. 



266. CoRNus suECicA. Fl. Lapp. 38. — N. This "beautiful 

 native of the Cheviot hills was first revealed to the curious " by Dr. 

 Penny. "In Northumbriae montibus Che^doticis dictis, in latere 

 occidentali septentrionalis partis montis altissimi copiosissime," Ray. 

 It still grows in the station indicated by Ray, and apparently in un- 

 diminished numbers. See " Cheviot revisited " by Mr. James Hardy 

 in the Borderer's Table Book, vi. p. 404. 



Dr. Thomas Penny must have been a genuine man. I wish that 

 I could assert that he was a native of the north, and that it was the 

 love of the hills he had looked upon in his childhood that drew him 

 to simple amongst the Cheviots at a time when the journey was made 

 with difficulty and not without danger, — when he had to horse it with 

 guides, and carry all necessaries, "for the country was a wilderness 

 which afforded no supplies." Macaulay's England, i. p. 285. The 

 "great wood of Che-^dot " was by this time much decayed, but still 

 amidst the "many allers and other ramell wood," herds of red deer 

 and roes ranged at will ; and moss-troopers from either border hunted 

 and were hunted there. It was a fine field for a venturesome natu- 

 ralist ; and I would give a golden guerdon to see even as in a vision 



20. Coraus sanguinea. This is found only in shrubberies with us. 



