Harvesting the Hedges 
village children would never offer Blackberries for sale after 
the end of September, alleging they became poisonous 
then. The Saxons called Blackberries “ Bramble-apples.” 
Raspberries used to be “ Hindberries,” a name which 
lingered long here, but seems now to have given place to 
“ Rasps.” Waterton tells a funny legend about the origin 
of the Bramble. Long ago the Cormorant was a wool 
merchant, who entered into partnership with the Bat and 
the Bramble. They freighted a large ship with wool, she 
was wrecked, and the firm went bankrupt. Ever since, 
the Cormorant is always diving into the deep in search of 
the lost ship, the Bat skulks round till midnight to avoid 
his creditors, while the Bramble catches hold of every 
passing sheep to try and make up for his loss by stealing 
wool. The Strawberry-raspberry, which is like a creeping 
Raspberry in appearance, is said by some people to be 
worth cultivation, by others not. I have had as yet only 
flowers. I hear a delicious jelly can be made from the 
orange-coloured pealike fruit of the Sea Buckthorn ( Hippo - 
phce Rhamnoides ), very nice to eat with roast meat. But 
although the Buckthorn, sometimes called Rainberry, grows 
freely in thickets by the sea not very far from here, I do 
not hear that the fruit is ever plucked, except by the 
Hoodie Crows, who soon pick the bushes clean. On a soft 
grey day, when the sea looked grey, the Buckthorn-bushes 
grey, with only the abundant berries glowing orange-red, 
and the distance grey, the scene was a complete Japanese 
Kakimono, as worked in grey and orange tones of silk. 
In India, in the Himalayas, I believe the natives set 
great store by thickets of Buckthorn ; they are communal 
property, and great gathering parties take place, and jam is 
made of the fruit. It is one of those strange plants which 
are male and female, like Ferns and Aucubas. It is 
curious what a difference the vicinity of the sea seems to 
make to plants. Only twenty miles away from here I saw 
the other day a beautiful Arbutus or Strawberry-tree full of 
flower, though the month is chill November, and Sweet 
Geranium in open garden-beds in very abundant green leaf, 
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