Holly, Yew and Box 



shall all the Argyll Campbells be destroyed, ex- 

 cepting so many as shall escape on a crooked 

 and lame white horse ; and we learn from Notes 

 and Queries that, in 1861, 'the roots were ex- 

 posed and loosened by the tide, and that the 

 grandfather of the present Duke of Argyll insisted 

 on an awkward bend being made in the line of 

 public road to avoid the necessity of cutting it 

 down.' 



" Near Dilston, in Northumberland, there is a 

 thick Holly-bush consisting of several trees close 

 together the stems scored with initials and 

 marks, which is said to have served as a * post- 

 office ' for the passage of letters between the 

 rebels and their friends in the troubled times of 

 1715 and 1745. 



" A curious custom, called * Holly bussing,' 

 was kept at N ether witten on Easter Tuesday a 

 few years ago, and may be now for all I know. 

 The young people, headed by the parish clerk 

 playing the fiddle, betook themselves to a wood, 

 where they gathered Holly, with which they 

 afterwards decorated a stone cross in the village, 

 finishing the evening with dancing." 



Several remarkable stories setting forth the 

 virtues of the Holly are recorded by Pliny, and 

 may be read in Holland's Translation of Pliny's 

 Historic of the World, published in 1601. Of 

 the nature of these stories the succeeding para- 

 graph will give some idea. 



52 



