228 Report of Meetings for 1880, by James Hardy. 



James Paterson, 1824-1855. 

 William Stotbs, A.M., 1855. 



The trees and shrubs about the village had not suffered much 

 from the winter ; the ivy in particular was unimpaired. At the 

 manse, however, under the shelter, the Laurestinus ( Viburnum 

 Tinus) and a variegated shrubby Veronica were killed ; and the 

 common laurel-bay was cut down to the ground. None of the 

 yews nor hollies were hurt, and the box was uninjured. After 

 a time, I was told, apple trees get lichened in the garden, and 

 gooseberries do not bear well. This year the apex of the shoots 

 of the gooseberry, here as elsewhere, were attacked in an ex- 

 treme degree by Aphis Grossularia. A fine double-hosed cowslip 

 of the elatior form is cultivated in the flower border. 



At Gordon, Mr Thomson picked up the following scrap of folk- 

 lore : — " There is a good story told of some worthy Gordonians 

 who, wishing to have perennial spring and summer, thought to 

 attain their object by building a high wall round a place fre- 

 quented by the cuckoo. But the bird escaped, and the ' Gowks 

 o' Gordon' consoled themselves by the reflection that the wall 

 had not been built high enough. Some worthy ' Gowks' in the 

 village also tried to drown eels in a pool near where the railway 

 station is now situated, but, being unsuccessful, alleged the 

 water was not deep enough." Both specimens of Gothamism, I 

 have mentioned in an article on the "Popular History of the 

 Cuckoo," in the Folh-Lore Record, ii. pp. 67-69, but not as applic- 

 able to Gordon. The cuckoo story is found at Lorbottle, in 

 Northumberland. Some of the inhabitants in the vicinity, 

 although they have no documentary evidence, have traditions of 

 the long continuance of their families in one holding. The 

 family of one of the farmers in the parish has been in occiipancy 

 of the same place for 200 years. An old man has lately come to 

 the parish from Hume, where, it is the family belief, his 

 ancestry had lived for 400 years. 



To widen the sphere of observation, three sections were 

 formed ; one party betook themselves to Mellerstain woods 

 and Gordon Moss ; the other two, one on foot and the other 

 by conveyance, passed to Greenknow and Bassindean, but 

 afterwards held a separate route ; and each of them at the 

 close had something distinctive to relate. The first headed by 

 Mr William Boyd and Dr Charles Stuart, was the earliest to 

 start. The walk was most productive of plants In Mellerstain 



