Tranaactiona. 15 



went into the passage, but searched the rooms and a place where 

 wood was stored, and could see no one. It is not within the 

 scope of this paper to endeavour to explain these things. They 

 are given as they were related to me. 



Nearly half-way between Prestonmill and Mainsriddell is a 

 lonely and gloomy part of the road known as the " How o' the 

 Derry's Hills," more briefly the " Derry's How," or, in English, 

 the " Dairymaid's Hollow." This place was liaunted by an 

 unearthly thing in tlie form of a black dog — a common enough 

 form in demonology. There seems also to have been a belief that 

 this "bogle," as it was called, assumed various forms, and one 

 dark night when three women were passing along the road at 

 this place they were alarmed by a strange rushing sound which 

 seemed to come over the hedge to cross the road, and then go 

 over the hedge on the side opposite to that by which it entered. 

 Two of the women, unhesitatingly affirmed that it was " the 

 bogle," but the third, who had little faith in the supernatural, 

 thought it might perhaps have been one of the peacocks from the 

 adjacent farm of Torrorie. A medical man who lived in one of 

 the neighbouring villages, and whose profession caused him to 

 traverse the district at all hours, used to say that one night in 

 going through the " Derry's How " he saw the form of a lady 

 dressed in white. The only other ghost I have been able to hear 

 of frequented a held called the " Murder Fall," above Torrorie. 

 This ghost is said to have been that of a man who had been 

 hanged in this Held, and whose appearance, to say the least of it 

 must have been a little singular. When seen he had a pair of 

 " cleps " round his neck. " Cleps " are moveable handles which 

 were placed on large pots, such as those formerly used for wash- 

 ing purposes, or for boiling pig's-meat. Nothing seems to have 

 been known of who this man was, or what was his offence. 



As showing that ghosts were generally believed to follow upon 

 deeds of violence, the following incident may perhaps be 

 appositely given now : — A tradesman in the parish had, in a 

 moment of passion, struck his apprentice a blow with his hammer 

 which is said to liave caused the death of the lad. From that 

 time the man dared not enter his workshop after dark lest he 

 should be confronted by the ghost of the dead apprentice. More 

 than this, for at least some years after the sad occurrence he would 

 not fall asleep at night if he knew there was even the smallest 

 quantity of water in the house. He was afraid that he might be 



