234 THE WILD-FLOWERS OF SELBORNE 



will tye the Tongues of Houndes, so that they shall 

 not bark at you, if it be laid under the bottom of your 

 feet, as Miraldus writeth," The name, however, was 

 probably given because of the shape and soft surface of 

 the leaves, in contradistinction to those of the bristly 

 ox-tongue. Other flowers may be found, although it 

 is autumn. The beautiful white-veined leaves of the 

 virgin thistle stand out boldly against the dark under- 

 growth. The little eye- bright, once a famous remedy 

 for ophthalmia, is everywhere, and so are such coarser 

 plants as hawkweed and ragwort and fleabane. Here 

 and there a bushy plant of gromwell, or grey millet, 

 may be seen. Its scientific name of Lithospermum 

 well describes the stone-like seeds, which show white 

 and polished in the sunlight. In one hollow, formed 

 by the peculiar conformation of the ground, a dark 

 pool of water is hemmed in by rushes, and pink 

 persicaria, and the red spikes of rumex ; the air is 

 fragrant with the scent of wild-mint, while in the tiny 

 stream, which flows from the pool, water-cress, still 

 in flower, grows in abundance. 



When, in Persuasion, Jane Austen writes of " the 

 fine country about Lyme," she is only speaking the 

 literal truth. The walk up the valley of the Lynn to 

 " the cheerful village of Up Lyme " is full of interest 

 and beauty. Several disused mills and factories are 

 passed in picturesque decay. A pair of water-ousels 

 may mostly be seen wading in the swift stream. 

 Colway Farm, the headquarters of Prince Maurice 

 during the famous siege of Lyme in 1644, is noticed 

 on the right, now a simple farmhouse, but the broad 

 drive, bordered with ancient elms leading up to the 

 Tudor doorway, speaks of former magnificence. Tradi- 

 tion says that numbers of soldiers killed during the 

 siege were buried in their armour in the meadow 



