255 



" Not, though in northern clime, obscurely bright, 

 But one unclouded blaze of living light." 



Our walk from Dumfries was a perfect martyrdom, the road nearly 

 to the foot of the hills being entirely unsheltered, and the ground 

 rising the whole way, while not a breath of wind stirred the glowing 

 air. Just before entering the pass for the side of which we were 

 bound, and about that part of the road where the Cumberland moun- 

 tains first break on the view away over Mabie Moss and the Solway 

 Firth, in the corner of a field on the right, is the first station I knew 

 for Sanguisorba officinalis, which is not, however, anywise uncommon 

 in our neighbourhood. A little further, nearly opposite the road 

 through the moss, T picked in the hedge, from one of a number of 

 plants of Linaria vulgaris, an imperfect specimen of the Peloria variety. 

 The lower lip of the flower was quite fiat, long, and curiously awry ; 

 the spurs were two in number. I have found many incomplete, 

 never a perfect example of this variety, growing on the bank now 

 noticed. About a quarter of a mile onward we struck off the road 

 to the left, and commenced the ascent of the hill by a foot-road, 

 steeper in many parts than the roof of an ordinary house. Here, 

 among immense quantities of the wood strawberry, the bilberry, 

 Polypodium Dryopteris, and other neighbours more characteristic of 

 the oak copse lately cut down than the present comparatively bare 

 condition of the hill side, and near its summit, we found a few stray 

 specimens of Rubus saxatilis in fruit; but my companion, more of an 

 epicure than a botanist, who preceded me, had plucked and eaten the 

 ripe drupes before I knew or could prevent him. We had now arrived 

 at a limited upland, partially cultivated, and affording sites for two 

 farm-houses, the northernmost named, I believe, Hillhead. Passing 

 this quickly, we pushed up the hill, but were soon forced to throw 

 ourselves, panting, under the welcome shade of a stunted, though, 

 fortunately for us, an umbrageous tree. Indeed, I never recollect 

 being exposed, on a similar occasion, to such intense heat. By-and- 

 bye, however, 



" There crept 



A little noiseless noise among the leaves, 

 Born of the very sigh that silence heaves,' 



which later in the afternoon increased to a refreshing gale ; and a 

 haze having also partially veiled the sun, the remainder of our ramble 

 was accomplished with something like comfort. Yet, apart from 



