REPORT OF THE MEETINGS FOR 1899 25 



sport, 80 called. Some years ago a residenter of Earlston, 

 whom I knew, met a badger quietly trotting along the 

 street one early morning. When it saw him it ran into a 

 drain under the Red Lion Hotel, from which I saw it 

 captured. When shooting at Legerwood and at West 

 Morriston, I have on several occasions seen badgers. In 

 most districts, however, they are now very scarce. 



" The Broom o' the Cowdenknowes " is one of our very 

 oldest songs ; but so far as regards the broom itself and its 

 local habitation, the glory is departed. There is comparatively 

 but little broom now on or about Cowdenknowes. I think 

 I saw about the last remnants of what might have been 

 called the ancient broom of Cowdenknowes. This was in 

 1858, and it was then drooping and dying. Some six or 

 eight bushes were still in existence. Their noble stems, 

 some of them nearly twenty feet in length, with thickness 

 in proportion, were stretched along the ground and half 

 covered with mosses and grass, while here and there a green 

 branch or twig showed that some little life still lingered. 

 These remains were in a fir plantation on the Black Hill, 

 facing Cowdenknowes Mansion House. The late Miss Whale, 

 of gingham celebrity, told me that on the White Hill, 

 facing Earlston, on the Cowdenknowes estate, the broom 

 about the end of last century was famous for its growth 

 and strength, so much so that a man on horseback could 

 ride unseen along a path that led through it. Broom, 

 however, does not attain a very old age. The very severe 

 frost of 1861 killed all the broom in Lower Lauderdale. 

 Until it again grew from the roots, the Broomy Brae on 

 the road to Carolside was quite bare. 



It was in the red sandstone quarry on the Black Hill, 

 above mentioned, that the geologists of the Club, in 1866, 

 found excellent specimens of the Holojjtychius nohilissimus. 

 This was really an interesting discovery, and settled for all 

 time what had hitherto been unknown, namely, that the 

 Black Hill is of the old red sandstone formation. 



When Corsbie Tower and Moss were reached, the Secretary 

 read the short historical notices of the Tower and of the 

 Cranston family, which were contributed by Dr Hardy to 

 the Club's Proceedings for 1880. 

 E 



