slauchter, when they see onie trublus tyme. Thir theuis "(because they heve Inglismen thair perpetuall enymes lyand "dry march apon thair nixt bordour) inuadis Ingland with "continual weris, or ells with quiet thift; and leiffs aye ane pure and miserabile lyfe. In the tyme of peece they are so "accustomed with thift, that they can nocht desist, but inuadis "the cuntre with ilhand herschippis." Of the still earlier inhabitants, the venerable historian, says "they abhorrit nocht "to eit the flesche of yelding prisoneris. The wyvis usit to slay thair husbands when thay wer found cowartis or dis"comfist be thair enymes to give occasion to others to be more bold and hardy when danger occurrit." This seems to forestall Voltaire's famous sarcasm that the English shot Admiral Byng to encourage the others. When witchcraft was rife in Scotland, (and some hold that it is not eradicated even now,) the preparation of food was one of the domestic processes often impeded or marred by spell and incantation. The vagaries of a haggis-that, "great chieftain of the pudding race" which was bewitched, probably to punish niggardliness or lack of hospitality, are recorded thus "The haggis of Benga' Lap out o' the pot and waured them a'; "Willie rade and Jennie ran, "But down the burn the haggis wan." Bengall, the Gaelic-derived name of which bears exactly the signification of the Roman-named Egremont, is a farm in the parish of Dryfesdale. The parish of Tundergarth bounds that of Dryfesdale on the east, and, when I knew it, "the sound of the church"going bell" was never heard there. My poetical friend Susanna Hawkins, at her last professional visit to Liverpool, gave me to know that this important want has long been supplied; but formerly there was no bell to Tundergarth kirk. Its absence was accounted for by a tradition, that it was stolen by a party of English reivers, and appropriated by the worshippers at the parish church of Bowness on Solway; moreover, it was averred, that the bell itself has ever since protested against the theft, by making its chimes syllable themselves into a reiteration of the words " carry me back." Hence the local saying, "Carry me back says Bowness bell." Hoddam, the parish south of Tundergarth, possesses, amongst other beauties, a fine conical hill, and, on its summit, commanding a view of the whole firth of Solway on one side, and an extensive inland prospect on the other, stands a square tower, which has all the appearance of having been a beacon or watch tower. Tradition assigns to it a different purpose and origin. It is said that a lord of Hoddam, when returning across the firth from a successful raid into Cumberland, laden with spoil and prisoners, found it necessary to lighten his boat; and as men and women were less needed at Hoddam Castle than plenishing, he threw the live lumber overboard, and so reached the shore in safety. Being afterwards seized with remorse, he built this tower for a place of retirement, and a monument of his contrition. Hence it has been called, time out of mind, "The tower of Repentance." A popular verse celebrates it and the loveliness of the adjacent scenery, taking special notice of its second most prominent feature:Repentance stands upon a hill, 66 66 Most beautiful and fair, "Hard by another wooded hill 'Far kenned as Woodcockair." There is a curious anecdote told of Sir Richard Steele, in connection with this edifice, and, as it has given rise to a popular saying, and has never as yet been quite correctly put in print, I give it room here. It is said, that this great essayist, travelling in the south of Scotland, came upon a herd-boy reading intently, who, in reply to Sir Richard's enquiry as to the nature of his studies, said he was learning the way to heaven. On being asked if he had found it, the boy replied, "Yes! we have to gang by yon tower and "then come in by that farm toon." The boy's meaning was made clear to Steele, on his learning that the tower was called Repentance, and the farm, Relief, and the common saying remains, that “ The way to heaven is o'er by Repentance, and "in by Relief." Such a play upon words, even on so solemn a subject, is by no means rare in Scotland. We are upon classic ground here, for the tower of Repentance almost flings its shadow over the birthplace of Thomas Carlyle; and Susanna Hawkins, the poetess, has built herself a bower on the estate of Relief, and lives there in comfort and respect upon the proceeds of her literary labours. The parish of Hoddam also, has the honour of containing the town of Ecclefechan, proverbial throughout Scotland for high breeding and politeness, insomuch, that it is common to hear rude or vulgar people advised to "gang to Ecclefechan, for half a "Saturday, to learn manners." The period assigned as sufficient for the purpose, is suggestive of the means of improvement in operation there. A proverb formerly current along the Border refers to a custom now happily worn out, that of making funerals occasions of festivity, and often of debauch, which indeed was the rule in all the rural parts of Scotland, and was due, no doubt, to two prominent characteristics of the Scots people. First, their disposition to make all gatherings of neighbours seasons of festivity; and, secondly, the national tendency to hospitality, impelling the friends of the deceased to entertain handsomely those assembled at their home, even for the saddest of all the offices of friendship. The proverb says, that "A Border burying is better than a Carel "(Carlisle) wedding." It serves two popular purposeslauding their own hospitality, and throwing an imputation of stinginess upon the burgesses of the nearest English town. That burials were not the lugubrious affairs they are now, is shewn in an anecdote recently forwarded to me, with the last quoted proverb, by a valued friend in the North.* A family named Ivison was remarkable for the habit of indulging in loud obstreperous mirth. Once when the inhabitants of a village were waiting out of doors to see a funeral procession pass, an old wife announced its unseen approach thus"They are coming now, I hear the Ivisons laughing!" With these funereal fragments I may appropriately conclude this small collection of shreds and patches once observable on the surface of social life in an interesting district-a district in which the contrast between present and comparatively recent times is perhaps more marked than in almost any other. Within my own limited remembrance the difference is striking, not to say saddening, to one who, in his youth, was, without recognizing their true character and significance, thrown into frequent and familiar relations with vestiges of a bygone state of society, traces of a peculiar feudalism now faded and lost, save in so far as they remain in the recollection of those who, as in my own case, have, almost unwittingly, kept them in memory to be reproduced fortuitously on some such occasion as the present. NOTE A.-In a modern local poem called "The Battle of Dryfesands,' by William M Vitie, the chiefs that followed Lord Maxwell's banner and the numbers of their several contingents, are thus recounted :— "Brave Crichton did an hundred lead, M "Dalswinton numbered eighty nine, "Had fought in many a far-famed field. * Wm. Randleson, Esq., of Crofthill, Whitehaven, "Renowned Dalziel, a veteran old, [fought, "As good as e'er encountered foes. "The Abbot of New Abbey came, "With full an hundred men of might; "Carlaverock's Vicar brought the same, "All trained and ready for the fight. "The town Dumfries two hundred sent, "All picked and chosen every one; "With them their provost, Maxwell, went, "A bold, intrepid, daring man. "Lord Maxwell's own dependents rose, "Eight hundred warriors truly bred; "Kirkconnel doth the reckoning close, "An hundred valiant youths he led." men, of which number, the rhym "So proudly marched in martial pride. Making together the sum of 2102 ing chronicler states, only 510 returned to their homes. The leaders named were all men of note; " Crichton" of Sanquhar was ancestor of the Earls of Dumfries,-Douglas of " Drumlanrig," of the Dukes and Marquesses of Queensberry," Kirkpatrick" of Closeburn of the "Knights "of Closeburn" and, by the female line, of the present Empress of the French,-" Dalziel" of Glenae, of the Earls of Carnwath,-Grierson of Lag," of the famous persecutor, from the traditions respecting whom Sir Walter Scott framed that terrible episodical tale of diablerie in Redgauntlet," and of the Griersons, Baronets. An ancestor of "Charteris" of Amisfield figures in "The fair Maid of Perth." The other Nithsdale leaders were chiefly Maxwells. Lord Johnstone is said to have been aided by the Jardines, Bells, Irvings, Armstrongs, Carrutherses, Romes, Lawsons, Grahams, Elliots, Murrays and, most important of all, the Scotts of Buccleugh. 66 NOTE B.-The old ballad of "The lads of Wamphray," recording a reiving exploit of a branch of the name located in that rural parish, proves that the character given "the gentle Johnstones" in this distich is by no means unmerited. It relates that ""Tween the Girth-head and the Langwood-en' "But and the lads o' Leverhay "They drove the Crichton's gear away. "It is the lads o' Leithenha'; "The greatest rogues amang them a'; 'But and the lads o' Stefenbiggin, "They broke the house in at the riggin'. "The lads o' Fingland and Elback hill, "They were never for good but aye for ill; ""Tween the Staywood bush and the Langside hill "They stole the brokit cow and the banded bull. "It is the lads o' the Girth head, "The de'il's in them for pride and greed; "For the Galliard and the Galliard's men, "They ne'er saw a horse but they made it their ain." The places named in this rude old ditty are all in the parish of Wam phray, which is separated from that of Johnstone by the river Annan. |