104j Mp. J. Hardy on Sepulchral Monuments. 



of the religious house of Coldingham. Being a landmark, it 

 was always regarded with the interest attached to a remarkable 

 feature of the landscape ; an interest which its mysterious his- 

 tory heightened, seeing that the remains of a potent king or war- 

 rior might have been entombed beneath it. But these proved 

 but ineffectual barriers to repel modern curiosity in the first in- 

 stance ; and the demands of rural requirement after its sanctity 

 had been violated. This event happened in 1829, when work- 

 men were employed to effect an entrance to its centre, with the 

 view of ascertaining what it contained. On removing the stones, 

 they came to what appeared to be a grave, which was placed east 

 and west ; but all vestiges of humanity had disappeared in the 

 lapse of time, and there remained only a portion of black earth 

 to relate the story. The stones were finally carted off, to be ap- 

 plied to the agricultural purposes of the farm on which it stood. 

 It occupied a space in diameter about 70 feet, or about 427f 

 square yards. Its height may have been 9 or 10 feet in the 

 centre ; but where it expanded outwardly at the base, it was of 

 no great depth. Other two large cairns, of nearly similar form, 

 and scarcely smaller dimensions, lay in a hollow to the north, 

 and at a very short distance from it. They had every appearance 

 of having remained untouched from the most remote antiquity. 

 They were removed in the course of cultivation, and applied to the 

 same uses as their principal. One of them was encircled with a 

 rude stone wall, either for protection, or as supplying the means 

 of additional sanctity. Besides these, the adjoining moor was 

 strewn with tumuli of various dimensions, the least containing 

 from two to three cart-loads of stones. About thirty may still 

 be reckoned, but they are but a scantling of th6 original num- 

 ber. They are mere rounded conical eminences, overgrown with 

 heath or long grass, with lichen-covered or white bleached stones* 

 peering through. Tradition tells that they were put together by 

 "little strong men,^^ called "Pechst-" This is so far correct, if 

 we regard the name " Pechs,^^ as one applied indiscriminately to 



* A moist peaty soil has the effect of externally whitening the grey- 

 waeke stones enclosed in it, probably by extracting the iron combined 

 with them. 



t This belief is far from being a local one. Sir James Foulis remarks, 

 that in several parts of the Highlands he observed heaths, from which it 

 appeared the stones had been carefully gathered off; and upon inquiry of 

 the neighbouring peasants, he was told that it was believed the Pechts had 

 carried off the stones for the convenience of mowing the heather. (Trans. 

 Soc. Antiq, Scot. i. 19.) The same tradition is repeated by Heron, in his 

 Journey through Scotland, ii. 302, 303. On the moors of Northumberland, 

 such heaps are pointed out as places where a Pict's apron-string had broken, 

 as he was carrying a load of stones to some of his superhuman erections. 

 (Rambles in Northumberland, 104.) 



