91 Anniversary Address. 



tented with it, I can attest that he enjoyed it exceedingly. The 

 day was pleasant — one of that description when they who are 

 abroad are disposed sincerely to pity the poor creatures confined 

 at home — when we feel " it were an injury and sullenness against 

 Nature not to go forth and see her riches, and partake in her 

 rejoicings with heaven and earth." 



Choicelee is the " Chouselaw," mentioned in vol. i. of our 

 Transactions, p. 219, as famous for "as good cheese as ever was 

 chewed wi chafts*." 



The common "green" at Polwarth is capable of being made 

 highly ornamental ; but the pigs and the geese have unstinted 

 privilege over it, along with the donkeys ; and it is uncomfort- 

 able and rough for lack of draining. The world-famous thorn 

 fell at first glance from the height to which song and our fond 

 fancies had before translated it. We saw three common-looking 

 bushes, surrounded with an unseemly dwarf wall, which robs 

 them of all rural grace, and at the same time suffocates them by 

 the unchecked luxuriance of noisome weeds it encourages. Dr. 

 Johnston has addressed a gentle remonstrance to Sir H. Hume 

 Campbell on the subject, who has acknowledged its receipt, and, 

 as we trust, will in due time correct the evils pointed out. 



We found nothing worth adding to the traditions of the vil- 

 lage, which Mr. Robert Chambers has so well collected in his 

 ' Picture of Scotland/ vol. i. p. 37. The last couple that " danced 

 about the thorn" on their marriage, fifty years since, had left 

 the village last Whitsunday. The church, which is nearly a mile 

 from the village, has a certain amenity about it not very com- 

 mon to parish churches in Scotland. The ivy which overgrows 

 its southern wall has passed through the roof to the interior, so as 

 to place the congregation under a graceful canopy of green leaves. 

 Some ancient tombstones (one with the date of 1362 upon it), 

 with long Latin eulogies upon former lords of Polwarth, have 

 been built into the south wall; and beneath the church is the 

 vault where Sir Patrick Home hid himself in the latter end of 

 Charles the Second's reign, and was stealthily and heroically fed 

 by the charming Grizel Baillie, who was too young to enact the 



* The saying as pronounced by the natives is, "There's as gude sheese 

 in Shousely as ever was showed wi' shafts." The Borderers often transpose 

 " sh " and " ch " just as cockneys do the " v " and " w." " SAop " with 

 them is " cAop." Some older people call " church " " sz/rch." 



