THE COMMON BITTERN. 57 



waters of the various rivulets, and the drainage of the 

 watershed above mentioned. The superfluous waters of 

 this great bog, which varied from one hundred to two 

 hundred yards in width, were drained off towards the west 

 by a stream known as Billie Burn, which joins the 

 Whitadder near Chirnside Mill, and to the east by the 

 Horn Burn, which flows into the Eye, in the vicinity of 

 Ayton. During summer a great part of the surface of the 

 Mire was thickly covered with immense beds of tall and 

 luxuriant reeds,^ bulrushes, flags, and other aquatic plants 

 of many kinds, which grew on the shallows, whilst here 

 and there the deep black pools were fringed with low grey 

 willow trees — 



Where countless reeds once clothed yon narrow vale, 

 Their feathery heads wild streaming in the gale, 

 There lay the Myre, with moss-pools dark and deep, 

 Round whose black margin foul toads loved to creep : 

 The wild grey willows waving there you'd see, 

 Their silvery blossoms opening to the bee ; 

 Thei'e red marsh-cinquefoil and the buck-bean grew, 

 And hoary cannacli waving in the view ; 

 The yellow marigold long flourished there, 

 And purple orchis — Flora's offerings fair. 



Scenes of Boyhood, Dr. Henkeeson.2 



1 Mr. John Wilson of Welnage told me on the 7th of August 1S84, that he 

 remembered that, when he was a boy, Billie Mire was comparatively undrained — lie 

 was born in 1810 — and that it used to be overgrown with tall reeds, which looked 

 like a field of wheat. 



2 In some MS. Notes on Billie Mire by the late Dr. Henderson of Chirnside, 

 for the use of which I am indebted to his son, Mr. R. Henderson, chemist, 

 Chirnside, I find the Doctor, writing about 1835, says : "A few years ago the Mire 

 was thickly covered with the Arundo phragmitis (Common Bog-reed), Angelica 

 sylvestris (Wild Angelica), several species of Carex (Sedge), C(dtlia palustris 

 (Marsh marigold), Hydrocotyle vidgaris (Conmion Wliite-rot), CortMrum palustre 

 (Marsh Cinquefoil), CEnanthe crocata (Hemlock Water-dropwort), Menyanthes 

 trifollata (Bog-Bean), Siuni nodiforum (Procumbent Water Parsnip), Viola 

 palustris (Marsh Violet), Veronica beccabwnga (Brooklime), Nccsturtium officinale 

 (Water Cress), Cardaviine pratensis (Cuckoo-liower), several species of Eriophorum, 

 Scirpvs, and Sallx, Iris 2}seudacori(s (Yellow Iris), Typha latifolia (Black-headed 

 Reed), several species of Juncus, Foiamogelon, Senecio aquaticus (Marsh Rag- 

 wort), Myosotis palustris (Forget-me-not), and many other marsh plants. He 

 adds that before the Mire was drained there was also found in it in considerable 

 abundance the medical leech {Hirudo offi/:inalis). 



