122 MR HENDERSON ON THE PROVERBS AND POPULAR SAYINGS 



commentary, which I have once or twice heard, so far explains the mys- 

 tery why he was so celebrated. 



" He's faither's better, cooper o' Fogo, 

 At girding a barrel, or making a coggie, 

 Touming a stoup, or kissing a rogueie." 



10. " Dunse dings a'" 



For what no one can tell. May it not have originated in consequence 

 of the encampment of General Leslie on Dunse Law, with his 20,000 

 men, in May 1639? Dunse might then have been said to beat all the 

 country. 



11." Ilka bannock had its maike (equal) but the bannock o' Tollishill" 



Tollishill is a farm in Lauderdale, and its bannock was unequalled, 

 because gold was baked in it for the purpose of being conveyed to John, 

 first Duke of Lauderdale, a loyal adherent of Charles II., and remark- 

 able in after times for his political power and rapacity, when he was 

 confined in the Tower, after the battle of Worcester, in 1651. The 

 heroine who baked the bannock and conveyed it to her landlord, for 

 which purpose she went up to London, was Margaret Lylestone, wife to 

 TJiomas Hardie, tenant in Tulloshill. There were anciently three farms 

 of Tullos in Lauderdale, and from her abode, by way of distinction, she 

 was called Midside Maggie. For further information on this matter, we 

 refer to the late John M. Wilson's " Tales of the Borders;" a tale on the 

 same subject by Miss Margaret Corbett, in Chambers' Journal, No. 146 ; 

 and to a ballad, entitled The Gudewife of Tulloshill," by James Mil- 

 ler, author of " St Baldred of the Bass." 



1 2. " You'll hae your ain way like the miller o' Billymill, although the 



Merse should sink.' 1 



What the particular way of the miller referred to was, we cannot 

 learn, but we have heard it (and that only once) applied to those who 

 are particularly headstrong and self-willed. Billymill stands upon a 

 small stream in the parish of Buncle, and is a lonely place, quite out of 

 the thoroughfare of any road. 



1 3. " You're like the Miser o' Reston, you'll rather be drmvned than 



pay for a tJieeker." 



It is said that a person of considerable property, who died in Reston 

 about forty years ago, was so parsimonious, that rather than give a few 

 shillings to a thatcher to mend the roof of his house, he allowed the rain 

 to descend upon him at his own fire-side, only warding it off as well as 

 he could with a large wecht and the girdle ; and hence the saying is ap- 

 plied to those who are excessively niggardly and economical in their 

 habits. 



