96 SAMBXICUS. 



we do with less "peching" than did our equestrian pioneers; and all 

 we regret is that the old salvage character of the hill has disappeared, 

 — and all we look for are hits of rough ground, or a green oasis, or a 

 steeper bank whereon we may, perchance, pick some yet unrecorded 

 novelty. At least we renew an acquaintance with many an old friend, 

 and well we love to do so; nor can we altogether refrain from carrying 

 away in our vasculum some few especial favourites, the Comus for 

 example. And so we reach the top,— broad, level, and dirty, and 

 seamed over with many deep ruts, more or less filled with water ; and 

 it is in them that Carex rigida grows in tufts. The landscape scanned, 

 the Club descend, some by the way they came, some by a more dif- 

 ficult route ; and all meet in the vale, which they retrace with quickened 

 steps that they may reach the Tankerville Arms in good time for 

 dinner. After two hours' chat, the Members separate each to go 

 home his several way, and pleased with their little excursion. 



267. Sambucus ebulds. Waste grounds, rare. B. Near Col- 

 dingham. Rev. A. Baird. Banks of the Tweed and of the Leet near 

 Hirsel, Miss E. Bell and Miss Hunter. Linton church-yard; and at 

 the church-yard of Longformacus. 



268. S. NIGRA. Don Gard. Diet. iii. 437. — /3. with laciniated leaf- 

 lets in Bunkle wood, and in a hedge below Lintlaw. — Cl)t (!BK(tr : 

 JSorral, 33oon, or 33our«tvce. Well known to every schoolboy in the 

 district, who fabricates his pop-gun from its pithy branches. — 

 " That's a perilous shot out of an elder gun, that a poor and private 

 displeasure can do against a monarch." King Henry V. The abun- 

 dance of heart that it possesses, and its extreme " bruckleness," are 

 subjects of common remark. I suppose it is from the latter circum- 

 stance that, in Shakespeare, it is said, "Judas was hanged on an 

 elder." — The word aaf-tjivicri signifies a musical instrument, to construct 

 which this wood seems to have been applied. Such an instrument I 

 have seen used as a flute, but extremely rude in form, and to the ear 

 as grating as a "scrannel pipe of wretched straw." — J. H. 



The Elder is truly indigenous with us. It is found in several of 

 our most sequestered deans, even amidst the Cheviots, as in the 

 beautiful haugh down which the CoUedge runs on its way to the Glen. 

 I saw several fine trees of it a little below Heathpool linn*. It is 

 more common as a cultivated shrub, planted in hedges to screen 

 garden plots, or as a single bush in shrubberies. As a hedge it is 

 found from the sea-side to the shielings in our high moors ; and old 

 bushes may generally be seen growing, all knaggy and wormed, about 

 decaying onsteads in our most sequestered parishes. Its quick growth, 

 and indifference to civil treatment, have had their share in recom- 

 mending the Elder for fence purposes ; but it is also knovni that our 

 forefathers environed their dwellings vpith it from a belief that it was 

 a bidwark against warlocks, witches, and their fascinations. Keight- 



* On the indigenous claims of the Elder, see Bromfield in the Phytolo- 

 gist for 1849, p. 416. He is, however, wrong in supposing that it is 

 " naturalized " only in Scotland. 



