Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
The Bluebells are sometimes called also Crawtaes. I 
think this is a Galloway name if I remember right. I 
planted some seeds of the grey-blue Asperula last year, but 
apparently they have not come up. Next year, I think, 
I shall try putting out grown seedlings. Woodruff is from 
the Saxon word Wuderofe , or Woodrow, meaning wood- 
sweet. Woodrowel was a name in use in Queen Anne’s 
time, probably from the likeness to a spur rowel. People 
used to put little dried flowers of Woodruff — Sweetgrass as 
it was called hereabouts — in old days inside their watches. 
The song “ Bluebells of Scotland ” is said really to refer to 
the Blue Harebell, of which there is abundance later in the 
year; Hairbell {Campanula rotundifolia). Caroline Symmons, 
in 1788, wrote such a pretty poem about the Harebell. 
Sir Walter Scott calls the Harebell, Bluebell. Here they 
are sometimes called Ladies’ Thimbles and Our Lady’s 
Thimble. A pretty French name for the white Harebell is 
Nonne des Champs. 
I like an old story I once heard that they are called 
Harebells because the Hares ring them to tell each other which 
way they have passed. Certainly I have seen the tiny bells 
quivering. Witches’ Thimbles is another name for the 
Harebell, which, however, in Teviotdale is given to the 
Foxglove. And, alas ! whether they used them or not, 
witches are said to have haunted the Border; and not many 
miles from here, near the Castle Loch, is a Beech-clad hill 
where, tradition declares, the Last of the Witches was burnt 
to death. To dance a reel was at one time considered a 
sign of a witch. This seems curious when one considers 
how fond Scotch people are of dancing and of reels. “ Cum- 
mer goe ye ” is the name of a reel known as the “ Witches’ 
Dance.” There are many dark stories about witches, and 
more than one hamlet hereabouts is credited with having 
been inhabited by witches. The “ 111 Man ” must, however, 
take but poor care of his “ ain,” since his votaries always 
seem to have been very poor and miserable. There is a hill I 
know of, still called the Witches’ Knowe, where in the last 
century two wretched old carlines were burnt to death, 
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