242 OUR WILD FLOWERS AND 



collection "^ . The following sample of them is more remarkable for 

 conceit than beauty : — 



" For 'neath its shade, in days gone by, 

 Have lovers told their hopes and fears ; 

 Its leaves have trembled in their sigh. 

 Its roots have fed upon their tears." 



The second was the " Eildon Thorn" which Thomas the Rhymer is 

 represented as having made the place of assignation between him and 

 the Queen of Fairie land. The tree grew on the slope of the hill, on 

 the road from Melrose to Kelso, and about a mile from the village 

 of Earlston ; but a storm overthrew it some years since, and now the 

 " Eildon-tree stone " marks the spot where the seer was wont to woo 

 his unearthly bride f. 



" The Eildon Tree hath pass'd away 

 By natural process of decay ; 

 We search around, and see it not. 

 Though yet a grey stone marks the spot 

 Where erst its boughs, with quivering fear, 

 O'erarch'd the sprite-attended seer, 

 Holding unhallow'd colloquy 

 On things to come and things gone by." — D. M. MoiR. 



Our third Trysting Tree stood in Polwarth Green. In the centre of 

 this green there is a small enclosed space made to protect three 

 Thorn-trees of various size, which are the descendants of the primeval 

 Thorn. The legend runs in this wise : — The estate of Polwarth 

 formerly belonged to Sinclair of Hermandston, whose family, as far 

 back as the 1 5th century, terminated in co-heiresses. At that early 

 period there used to he dreadful contentions about heiresses ; few 

 were married without having first been the occasion of one or more 

 broken heads ; and it generally happened that the most powerful, 

 not the most beloved wooer, obtained the prize. Out of all their 

 lovers, Mariota and Margaret Sinclair preferred the sons of their 

 powerful neighbour. Home of Wedderburn ; and it happened that 

 the eldest sister was beloved by the elder Home (George), while the 

 younger placed her affections on the younger son, whose name was 

 Patrick. After the death of the father of the young ladies, they fell 

 into the hands of an uncle, who, anxious to prevent their marriage, 

 that he himself m.ight become their heir, immured them in his 

 castle somewhere in Lothian. They contrived, nevertheless, in this 

 dilemma, to get a letter transmitted to their lovers, by means of an 

 old beggar ; and they were soon gratified by the sight of the two 

 youths, accompanied by a determined band of mersemen, before the 

 gate of their prison. The uncle made both remonstrance and 

 resistance, but in vain. His nieces were forcibly taken from him, 

 and carried off in triumph to Polwarth. Part of the nuptial 



* Hindmarsh's Rhetorical Reader, p. 360. 



t Stat. Aec. Berw. p. 21. — See also Sir Walter Scott's Demonology, 

 pp. 132-1.36. 



