WHITEHOUSE 



loving flowers Horas non numero nisi serenas " I 

 take no account of hours that are not sunny/' 



Like the dial, these crocuses are no affair of 

 yesterday. Who shall declare how many generations 

 of men have passed away since the original bulbs 

 were planted. Brought thither they must have 

 been by hand, for, although the purple Crocus vernus 

 is admitted to the list of British plants, it is not 

 native to North Britain. Spring after spring, for an 

 untold number of years, they have multiplied and 

 spread, covering the turf with their imperial flush. 

 It may be that King James V. in his incognito 

 wanderings may have noted the pretty flowers as 

 he passed that way. For he had a pretty adven- 

 ture just outside this garden. 



He was a monarch of many fancies, some of 

 which were highly offensive to Angus "Bell-the- 

 Cat," and other haughty lords. Among these 

 fancies, it was James's humour to wander about 

 the country disguised as a peasant, or, at best, a 

 bonnet laird. Thus, coming one day alone to the 

 bridge of Cramond, he was beset by a party of 

 gypsies, who were for relieving him of the contents 

 of his pockets. All men went armed in those days, 

 as constantly as do Albanians and Montenegrins at 

 the present ; so the King out with his sword, and 

 running upon the steep and narrow bridge, managed 

 to make good his defence for a while. Yet numbers 

 must have prevailed in the end ; and it was well 

 for King James that a real husbandman, threshing 



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