Stray Leaves from a Border Garden 
“ powdering closets ” by an ancient dame of my acquaintance, 
who remembers driving to Edinburgh in the family coach, 
and it is easy to imagine the Laird of Cockpen setting forth 
in his blue coat and cocked hat from just such an old house. 
There is an amusing story told of the man who was Laird 
of Cockpen in the days of the Stuarts, that during the 
prince’s weary exile in Holland he used to help Prince 
Charles to while away the time by playing and singing old 
Scots songs to him, among others one called “ Brose and 
Butter,” which tune I have by me in an old music-book. 
After the Restoration, Cockpen went back to Scotland to 
find, like many another loyalist, his estates attainted. 
Having tried in vain to get them back, he at last went to 
London, where at first he had no better success. Finally, 
being unable to get an audience of Charles II., he bribed 
the organist of the King’s chapel to let him take the service 
one day. At the end of it, Charles not having appeared to 
notice any change of organist, Cockpen in despair struck 
up “ Brose and Butter ” as a voluntary ! The King’s atten- 
tion was caught, he rushed to the organ-loft, and nearly 
fell over the regular organist, who protested in fear and 
trembling he was not to blame. “ You,” cried the King, 
“ you could never play anything like it in your life. Odds 
fish, Cockpen, I thought you would have made me dance.” 
To which Cockpen replied he had no heart for dancing now 
that he was bereft of bonny Cockpen. “ You shall dance,” 
cried Charles ; “ you shall dance and be Laird of Cockpen 
yet.” And the attainder was at once reversed. 
Elderflower-wine used to be made in Ireland ; my mother 
remembers tasting it in her youth, and says it somewhat 
resembled Sauterne. In the old Herbals an infusion of 
Elder-flowers is recommended as a pleasant drink, and may 
possibly be the same. In a curious old treatise on Forestry, 
over two hundred years old, by a Mr. William Ellis, he says 
of the Elder : “ All Authors that have wrote of the Virtue of 
Elder agrees, that this Tree is of a General Good to Man- 
kind, in the Liquor of its Berries, in its Rinds, and in its 
Leaves ; insomuch that I have heard it said if any one Tree 
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