THE PROVERBS AND POPULAR SAYINGS OF BERWICKSHIRE. 119 



part of the sky, the air and aqueous vapour will in that quarter have 

 sustained an increase of temperature becoming thus more elastic, and 

 rising up in the atmosphere, a greater or less degree of vacuum will be 

 produced the colder air from the south will rush in to supply its place 

 condensation of the aqueous vapour will be the effect and rain in all 

 probability will fall. 



The Proverbs and Popular Sayings of Berwickshire. By Mr HEN- 

 DERSON, Surgeon, Chirnside. 



IN laying before the Club the following proverbs, with the few re- 

 marks thereto appended, my motive is to preserve, as far as possible, 

 some scattered remnants of the " rude forefathers of the hamlet" and 

 the shieling ; and I hope I will be excused in this humble attempt to 

 illustrate these faint traces of the spirit and manners of the men of 

 other times, seeing that the immortal Ray himself did not think it be- 

 neath his notice, to collect the apophthegms of bygone ages. The most 

 of these sayings and proverbs may still be occasionally heard among 

 our aged peasantry, but it is probable that in the course of one or two 

 generations more, they will be entirely forgotten, and hence the necessity 

 of giving them a permanent form in the Transactions of this Club. In 

 other districts of the county, it is possible that other sayings may still 

 be in common use among the people, as several of those noticed are of 

 a very local nature, and seem to be confined to the eastern part of the 

 shire : they are all, however, which I have been able to collect. 



1. " He has a conscience as wide as Coldingham Common" 



Before the year 1777, Coldingham Common was an extensive and un- 

 dirided waste, containing about 6000 acres. Since that period, some 

 portions of it have been planted and improved, and during the last ten 

 years, several feuars have taken up their residence upon it, and there pro- 

 tracted an uncomfortable existence on the scanty crop which it produces ; 

 but the greater proportion still remains covered with heath, interspersed 

 with bogs and mosses. In ancient times, this Common constituted part 

 of the forest belonging to the Abbey of Coldingham ; and it seems to 

 have been then partially covered with trees and brushwood the roots 

 of oak, birch, and hazel being still frequently found in the soil, and the 

 peat-mosses being full of their decayed trunks and branches. This moor 

 has a singularly wild, bleak, and dreary aspect, and extends several 

 miles in extent in every direction : hence the proverb is with great ap- 

 propriateness applied to those persons of lax principles who can accom.- 



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