\ 



ffbe Dlnfile Dell 27 



It must have been almost in spite of himself that Scotland 

 was allowed to crown her Bobby. So sweet a singer, yet so 

 mtolerant of all authority and so very much a law unto 

 himself that it was hard for him to rank an emblem of 

 command or victory at the top of his flower favourites, even 

 when a grateful country stood vainly waiting and ready tO: 

 place that emblem on his unwilling brow. More than once 

 does Bums speak of his preference for the blossoms of his 

 own hillsides, and in no uncertain tones: 



/rm. 



''Their groves o' sweet myrtle let foreign lands reckon; 

 Where bright-beaming summers exhalt the perfume. 

 Far dearer to me yon lone glen o' green breckan, 

 Wi' the burn stealing under the lang yellow broom." 



And if the living laurel and verdant bay are emblems of 

 victory and success, so shall we find that their withering 

 and decay have been taken as portent of evil. In "Richard 

 II. " when all are in dread black doubt as to the fate of the 

 King, do we not find the superstitious Welsh Captain saying 

 to my lord Salisbury, " 'Tis thought the king is dead. We 

 will not stay. The bay trees in our country are all withered 

 And meteors fright the fixed stars of heaven. " 



But after all, our little world is full of many, many beauti- 

 ful things besides myrtle and laurel, — things with neither 

 evil portent nor love philtre within their frail cups, and bear- 

 ing to man nor threat nor promise, but only beauty and 

 fleeting pleasure. And so we wander from sunshine to cool 



\^} 



/ i 



i /. i / \ V ' / i U i 



