Martinmas to Ladyday 
by numberless birds ; such a delightful pl^e to take refuge 
in on a windy day, with low apple-trees and white lilies in 
front, and a pretty view of the little church on the grassy 
brae beyond the river ! Wallace is said to have hidden once 
upon a time, when hard pressed, in a holly hedge. I should 
think it would hide any one well, it is so thick. Holleyns 
they are called here ; a very old name, which is used in many 
an antient Border ballad. Pliny declares holly flowers 
make water to freeze, and if a holly-stick be thrown at any 
creature, it so affects it that the animal is obliged to lie 
down beside it. In Derbyshire a cure for chilblains was 
to beat the sore place with a holly spray ! I have heard it was 
customary at Roman weddings to present wreaths of holly. 
The name “ holly ” is said to come from holy-tree because it 
was used to deck churches at Christmas-time, and an old 
name for the holly was Christmas. This custom is by 
some people believed to have originated with the Druids, 
who took branches of woodland trees into the shelter of their 
homes with the fancy that the spirits of the wood should 
have a refuge from the winter cold till the trees were green 
again ; rather a pretty idea I think. Southey admired the 
holly-tree very much and wrote a charming little poem 
about it. It used also to be called Holme and Hulver ; this 
last is, I believe, a corruption of the French word Olivier , as 
it did duty for olive branches in old Church festivals. The 
catkins are out in the lane now ; how pretty they are, like 
drops of snow caught on the bare brown branches of 
the saughs ! This word is probably a survival of the 
Anglo-Saxon “ sealh-sallows,” a name, I think, from the 
Finnish “salawa.” “Catlings ’ 5 and “pussies” the children 
here call them, and sometimes “ goslings “pussy willow ” is 
the American name. It is odd that the German name should 
be also Katzchen, or “ little cats.” In Hans Andersen’s 
“ Story of the Year,” which is one of the most charming 
word-pictures I think I know, “ Fairy Andersen ” says, “ It 
was a beautiful spring, but the willow-trees wore woollen 
mittens over their blossoms, they were exceedingly careful, 
and that is tiresome.” “ Mittens ” is an old Scots term for 
