Mil- lol I I \i: RIIYTHMFS OF BEBWK KSIIIRR. 14| 



delighted in horrid and wicked transactions ; but the lines are hardly 

 such as to be fit for hearing. 



With regard to the last mentioned personage in the above rythme, it 

 is only necessary to say, that the passage over Billy Myre, between 

 Auchencraw and Chirnside, was long infested with a ghost, the " Bogle 

 bo' " of the Rythme, which bore the cognomen of " Jock o' the Myre." 



9. " The Rye kail o' Reston 



Gar'd a 1 the dougs dee ; 

 The browster gied us a* a gliff 



Wi* his barley bree, 

 And gar*d Meg o' the Gurl hole 



Awa' wi' Bawtie flee." 



This rythme has been often confounded with one of those alluded to. 

 We are convinced, however, that it is altogether distinct from it, and re- 

 fers to a totally different subject. It is, however, apparently imperfect. 

 The village of West Reston is pleasantly situated upon the south bank 

 of the Eye, in the parish of Coldingham, and contains between two and 

 three hundred inhabitants. In old time it was the seat of a baronial 

 castle, and a chapel dedicated to St Nicolas, to which the beneficent 

 Davidde Quixwood granted a yearly allowance of some harts from his 

 territory in Lammermoor. The disaster to the dogs, which the rythme 

 relates, may have been caused by diseased rye, or rye infected with the 

 Secale cornutum. The latter part of the rythme is rather obscure. It is 

 probable that the person indicated by " Meg o' the Gurl hole" shared 

 the same fate of the dogs, as Bawtie is well known to be a sort of generic 

 name for a colly or shepherd's dog, among the peasantry of Scotland. 

 There is still a house in Reston known by the name of "the Gurl." 

 What is the meaning of the term we know not, and a field on the farm 

 of Greenhead, in the immediate neighbourhood of the village, is still 

 called " the Browster butts." 



10. St Abb, St Helen, and St Bey, 



They a' built kirks whilk to be nearest the sea. 

 St Abb's upon the nabs, 

 St Helen's on the lea, 

 St Bey's upon Dunbar sands 

 Stands nearest to the sea." 



" St Abb or St Ebba, St Helen, and St Bey, were, according to the 

 country people, three princesses, the daughters and heiresses of a king of 

 Northumberland, who being very pious, and taking a disgust at the 

 world, resolved to employ their dowries, in the erection of churches, and 

 the rest of their lives in devotion. They all tried which should find a 

 situation for their buildings nearest to the sea, and St Bey or St Ann 

 succeeded, her church being built upon a level space, close to the water 

 mark ; while St Abb placed her structure upon the points or nabs of a 



