Report of Meetings for 1881. By Jas. Hardy. 487 



Proceeding onwards an interesting spot is neared. The Quair 

 water is seen running on the right, at some distance from the 

 road. Above it, on the face of the hill, " The Bush aboon Tra- 

 quair," celebrated in Crawford's song, with its singularly plain- 

 tive (Principal Shairp says " blythe !") air, once grew. It stood 

 near the base of the hill called the 1 irks, and fell down early 

 in the century, although it still survives in books. " The l^ush 

 aboon Traquair," like ''The Broom o' Cowdenknowes," "The 

 Birks of Aberfeldy," and "The Birks of Invermay," Allan Cun- 

 ningham remarks, *' continue to supply the curious with snuff- 

 boxes and drinking-cups," although there is not a stick left of the 

 majority of them. 



Orchard-mains, a farm once the property of the Earls of South- 

 esk, was passed, and then after a drive of two miles up the cir- 

 cuitous valley of the Quair, the woods enclosing the fine modern 

 baronial mansion of The Glen, the seat of Charles Tennant, Esq., 

 M.P., are reached. It is not without surprise that one finds a 

 palatial residence, surrounded with so many natural attractions 

 of wood and water and variegated hill-slopes, to which taste and 

 art have added the final touches, within the sight of the brown 

 heath on the mountain's shaggy brow, and not remote from bar- 

 ren acclivities, where vegetation struggles for existence. 



The more recent part of the mansion at The Glen was erected 

 by Bryce in 1855 ; and in 1873 large additions were made. The 

 gardens and grounds are in keeping with the house. The lawns 

 and terraces are kept in the very best of order, the former being 

 trimmed almost as smooth as velvet. The place was remarked 

 on in its modern beauty as a marked contrast to Traquair, the re- 

 presentative of departed greatness. The extensive green-houses, 

 kitchen-gardens, vineries, pine-stoves, fig and peach, and tomato 

 houses, shrubberies and flower gardens were passed under min- 

 ute review. The most notable plants in the conservatories are 

 the tree ferns Cibottum Schiedei and C. princeps ; the Crotons, 

 Bougainvillea glabra trained over an arch, and Clerodendron on a 

 globe ; Ixora coccinea an old fashioned shrub ; and the old Erica 

 elegans. In the Orchid-house the more remarkable were Vanda 

 tricolor, V. teres, Peristera elata and Anthurium Scher%erianuin. 

 Eor the most part Glen, which stands almost 900 feet above the 

 sea, has escaped the ravages of the recent severe winters ; but 

 several of the Araucarias were singed, and the yews, and especi- 

 ally the laurestinuses and Portugal Laurels bore many tokens of 



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