140 PYROLA. 



and when we get amongst them, we feel as if the spirit was freed 

 from bondage, and might be left safely to take its flight and freaks, 

 " playing with words and idle similes." 



368. P. SECUNDA. N. Yevering Bell. During an excursion of 

 the Club in June 1834 (See Trans, i. p. 56), two specimens were 

 picked, of which one was presented to the late N. Winch, Esq. of 

 Newcastle, and the other is preserved in my herbarium. In a sub- 

 sequent excursion the plant was not observed. It is, therefore, a 

 point for the district botanist to settle, — Were the specimens gathered 

 by the Rev. J. Baird and myself the last of their race, or was our 

 research incurious or careless ? The latter alternative may well be 

 the correct one, for the days of our visits rained heavily. And there 

 are other inducements to draw the botanist to the Bell, which, in 

 several respects, is undoubtedly the most interesting of the Cheviots. 

 " Paulinus at a certain time coming with the king and queen to the 

 royal country-seat, which is called Adgefrin (= Yeverin), stayed there 

 with them thirty-six days, fully occupied in catechising and bap- 

 tizing ; during which days, from morning till night, he did nothing 

 else but instruct the people resorting from all villages and places, in 

 Christ's saving word ; and when instructed, he washed them with 

 the water of absolution in the river Glen, which is close by. This 

 town, under the following kings, was abandoned, and another was 

 built instead of it, at the place called Melmin (=Millfield)." Bede. — 

 A pilgrimage to the birth-place of Christianity in his district does 

 not comport with a pic-nic party, but it consorts well with the pur- 

 suits of the botanical rambler, and hallows his walk. 



The Bell is the central hill of a sort of amphitheatre, flanked, on 

 the south, by the Tors, and lapsing, on the north, into a ridge that 

 continues the Cheviots to Heathpool. It rises abniptly to the height 

 of little less than 2000 feet, and forms a bell-shaped mass pretty well 

 defined and separate from its neighbours. The botanist ascends it 

 to most advantage on the south-east side, which is the steepest. He 

 may start from Copeland Castle, where he crosses the Glen, and im- 

 mediately reaches the hill. The base and side is covered to a con- 

 siderable height with wood, little better than copsewood, but it gives 

 shelter to many flowers which, whatever may be the season, impart 

 their peace and joy to the wanderer. The wood is threaded deviously ; 

 and the trees have dwindled to brushwood as he begins to emerge 

 from it above. Here there are many large irregular stony spots, 

 with tufts of ferns and foxglove, and other plants jambed between the 

 stones ; and there are beds of the Brakens ; but upwards of this, the 

 hill is well-covered with green-swarded turf and heather, intermingled 



moors, utters the suggestion that the plants there are the descendants of 

 the race that blushed unseen in the woods which once occupied the heath. 

 There is something to say in favour of this conjecture. I have noted that 

 some of the muir habitats of the Anemone still retained a look of having 

 been once the site either of brushwood that hung over a former loch or 

 moss, — as on Lambcrton muir ; or of thickets of Birch and Mountain-ash, 

 as on the muirs above Abbey St. Bathans. 



