518 



vensis." But we must take leave of this subject, which we do most 

 reluctantly, consoling ourselves as best we may with the following 

 extract from Turner's Herbal, being a description of his " Lukken 

 Gollande," which is believed to be no other than our Caltha palustris, 

 though from Hodgson's ' History of Northumberland ' it appears that 

 the names " locken-gowen " and " goudie-locks " are equally applied 

 to Trollius europaeus. 



' " Thys herbe usetb to growe comonly about water sydes, and in watery meadowes, 

 tbe proporcion of tbe leffe is much like unto a water-rose, otherwyse called nunefar, 

 but the lefe is sharper and many partes lesse, and there grow many leves on one stalke, 

 and in the toppe of the stalke is a yelow flowre like unto the kyngcuppe called ranun- 

 culus; but the leaves of the floures turne inwarde agayne, in the manner of a knoppe 

 or lyttell belle.' — A new Herball, &c. &c., by Wylliam Turner, Physicion unto the 

 Duke of Somersettes Grace. Lond. 1551. Fol. k. v." 



In August the club met at Abbey St Bathans, being led thither " by 

 its retired position and celebrity for natural beauty." " In such a lo- 

 cality," it is remarked, "the club finds the material for forming a cor- 

 rect idea of the nature, extent, and composition of the ancient forests 

 in which their forefathers may, perchance, have hunted the deer, with 

 hound and horn, in the gallant company of a Douglas or a Percy." 

 The following is a fancy sketch, or rather a restoration, of an ancient 

 border forest scene, drawn from materials still existing at Abbey 

 St. Bathans. 



" In the many ravines which descended from the moor above, and in whose bot- 

 toms a runlet had cut its way amid shelving rocks, we found many springy spots oc- 

 cupied principally with some shrubby wUows {Satix aurita and cinerea), intermingled 

 with arching briars and wild roses. In others the alder grew predominant, while rush- 

 es and meadow-sweet and marsh thistles filled up the under ground, leaving often a 

 middle space carpeted with mosses of yellow-green, and too moist for the growth of 

 other plants than the willow-herbs, the forget-me-not, the ranunculus, and other semi- 

 aquatic herblets. But the drier ground was mainly occupied with the birch, rising up 

 from amid a bed of tall heather or of blaeberries ; while a tree of oak, of the mountain 

 ash, and of the tree willow {Salix caprea), grew up among the birches, marked, each 

 of them, by its peculiar shade of green. Where, again, the streamlet had cut its chan- 

 nel deeper, and at a lower level, the vegetation became more free and various ; the al- 

 der was more common and luxuriant ; the rose and briar arched their bows with greater 

 freedom; the rowan-tree assumed a taller habit, and by its side the hagberry grew, as 

 if conscious Nature had pleasure in the augmented beauty which each derived from 

 the contrast between their intermingled foliage, flowers and fruit. Here all the under- 

 ground was occupied by luxuriant ferns, bending in graceful plumes over the shelving 

 edges of the banks, with tall nodding rushes and grasses, wild geraniums, hypericums 

 and willow-herbs, and various umbelliferous and compound syngenesious plants. 

 Every spot is a picture, and every one so fertile in flowers, that the botanist may cull 

 there alone a richly varied herbarium, from the green moss, through whose dense 



