SUNDEKLAND HALL 



SELKIRKSHIRE 



" ' the broom and the bonny, bonny broom, 



The broom o' the Cowdenknowes ' 

 And aye sae sweet as the lassie sang 

 In the bucht milking the ewes." 1 



OW the old lilt ran in my head as I 

 travelled one hot morning in June 

 from Galashiels to Lindean, for the 

 golden broom was in full glory on 

 the river banks such glory, that if 

 it were a tender exotic, requiring careful coddling 

 and nicety of soil, I think we should build glass 

 houses for its accommodation, as now we do for 

 costly orchids. Truly, it seemed vain to seek in 

 garden ground for colour more pure or fragrance 

 more perfect than were so lavishly offered in field 

 and hedge and hanging copse, for what can excel 

 the broom in splendour or the may-blossom in 

 scent? Nor could there be devised a more charm- 

 ing contrast to the glowing gold of the broom than 



1 Southerners will miss the rhyme unless they follow the Scots in pronouncing 

 " ewes " as " yows," for thus the sound of the Anglo-Saxon eowu has been pro- 

 nounced in the northern dialect, as it has been in many other words. 



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