Candlemas to Lammas 
distance deemed it an “ unco’ big bleeze ” (meaning a bon- 
fire), as they said afterwards. And then what desolation ! 
mouldering heaps of contorted rubbish, charred rafters and 
stones littering the once pretty Rose-garden, and nothing 
beautiful amid the ruins except a bed of rush-leaved Iris 
uplifting their graceful blue heads, not a whit the worse for 
all the turmoil. Seen framed in the ghastly gap in the 
wall caused by the total disappearance of the drawing-room 
bay window, it was Peace in thei midst of Ruin. Then came 
the builders to rebuild the wrecked nest, with all their 
noise and dirt, lime-heaps, chips, and cartloads of unsightly 
material dumped down anywhere. Yet the birds came 
back to the ivy and fly in and out of the empty window- 
frames. Curiously enough, I remember hearing that, when 
the Opera Comique in Paris was burnt, little cries were to 
be heard amongst the ruins, particularly at nightfall. These 
were the small birds who returned to their nests after the 
fire, and were only driven away as the clearing of the ruins 
proceeded. 
May 30. — Whit Monday. I have never seen many 
gipsies about here, and their delightful carts hung with 
basketwork do not often come this way. But still there 
are Border gipsies away in the Cheviots, and to-day, hearing 
there was to be a king crowned amongst them, some of us 
cycled over to see the coronation. I could not go, but 
this is what they saw, as described by one of the party : 
“ The little village of Yetholm, which is picturesquely 
situated amongst the Cheviots of the borders of Roxburgh 
and Northumberland, was the scene of an unusual stir and 
excitement on Whit Monday. People from all the Border 
country round assembled in thousands to .witness the 
coronation of the King of the Gipsies, which ceremony 
took place at noon on Yetholm Green. Yetholm consists 
of two villages, Town Yetholm and Kirk Yetholm, separated 
by a valley, through which runs the Bowmont Water, a 
tributary of the Till. On Monday the weather was all that 
could be desired, and the village on the hillside was steeped 
87 
