OF BERWICKSHIRE. 121 



6. " We'll gang a' together, like the folk o' the 



I have heard that Lammerton Shiels is the place here referred to. 

 Others say it is a Shiels somewhere in the Merse, but the name is BO 

 common in Scotland, that we have some doubts whether it ought to be 

 admitted as a peculiar proverb of this county. It is, however, very com- 

 mon in the mouths of the peasantry, when any party of them wish to 

 accompany another to their homes from kirns and other social meetings. 



7- " Go to JBlrgham and buy bickers? 



This is said to a person whom one is desirous to get rid of. Birgham 

 is a small but ancient village on the north bank of the Tweed, a few 

 miles below Kelso. The Scottish competitors for the crown, in the time 

 of King Edward I., met here in 1291 to acknowledge that ambitious 

 king as their supreme lord and master ; and hence the place became 

 odious to all true patriots of the Scottish nation, and was associated in 

 their minds with the abominable transaction of those who bartered away 

 the independence of their country for a precarious crown ; and it is sup- 

 posed that this popular saying originated in the contempt with which 

 the common people viewed the ignoble transaction of their superiors. 



8. " We're like the folk o* Kennetside-heads, we hoe it a' before us" 



Kennetside-heads is a farm in the western extremity of the parish of 

 Eccles. The occasion which gave rise to this proverb, is said to have 

 been the following : A person passing the place on an afternoon, about 

 the end of harvest, found a band of reapers taking their ease by the 

 road-side. He asked them, Why were they resting so long, when they 

 had so much corn to cut ? One of the band answered, " It is our kirn 

 day, and we hae it a* before us, before the sun is down," meaning 

 thereby, that they had it fully under their command. But when the 

 traveller returned pretty late in the evening, he found the " folk o* Ken- 

 netside-heads" still shearing by moonlight ; and hence the saying is fre- 

 quently used by the labourers in the time of harvest, in a sort of mock 

 way, to indicate that they need not work too hard, because they have it 

 all before them. Or it is applied as a warning to those who are too con- 

 fident in their own powers, and who are hence rather lax in their exer- 

 tions " not to be like the folk o' Kennetside-heads." 



9. " He's father's better, cooper o' Fogo." 



The village of Fogo, which at one time seems to have been of consi- 

 derable size, has now dwindled down to a few houses, and all its coopers 

 have become extinct. This proverb is very common in Berwickshire, 

 and is applied to the son who equals or surpasses his father in any handi- 

 craft or profession, although it is oftener used in a bad sense. Who the 

 far-famed cooper was, we have no accounts, but the following rhyming 



