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was blamed with wrong and slandered and doomed to the death, 

 and to be burnt in that place, to the which she was led, and as the 

 fire began to burn about her she made her prayers to our Lord, 

 that alwisely as she was not guilty of that sin, that He would help 

 her and make it known to all men, of His merciful grace. And 

 when she had thus said, she entered into the fire, and anon was the 

 fire quenched and out, and the brands that were then burning 

 became red rosaries, and the brands that were not kindled became 

 white rosaries full of roses. And these were the first rosaries and 

 roses, both white and red, that ever any man saw, and thus was 

 the maiden saved by the grace of God." 



There is another plant to which a legend attaches, which has a 

 more local interest. The Dwarf Elder is not uncommon in our 

 Bath flora, but is most abundant at Slaughterford, near Chip- 

 penham, a place where there was once a great victory gained over 

 the Danes. The plant is called Danewort, and is an evil-smelling 

 and noxious plant, and the legend teUs us that it derived its evil 

 qualities of all kinds from the Danes, on whose graves it grew so 

 luxuriantly. 



There are three of our commonest and prettiest flowers that I 

 must not, pass over, because their names, which seem at first so 

 easy of explanation, have really a totally diff"erent meaning to the 

 one that lies on the surface. I mean Snowdrop, Primrose, and 

 Pink. " Snowdrop " is not a drop of frozen snow, or an icicle, but it 

 is the white drop, the word "drop" being the old English word for 

 the pendants which the ladies wore either as earrings or brooches. 

 "Primrose" is not the "first rose" of the year. No one could ever have 

 likened it to a rose. It is a corruption of the French and Italian 

 words, meaning the first spring flower, and only in modern times 

 has the name been attached to our primrose. In all old books, and 

 on the continent, where the primrose is very rare, the name belongs 

 to the daisy. 



" Pink " is not so named for its colour ; it comes by an easy and 

 well ascertained course from " Pentecost," and is in fact the Whit- 

 suntide gillyflower of our ancestors ; and speaking of the Pink I 

 should tell you that its near relation, the Carnation, is not so named 

 for its colour ; it is a corruption from its old name " Coronation," 



