Place Names in Kirkpatrick-Durham. 257 



the name Boglebridge. This change of habitat was so well 

 known that a local poet^ has recorded it in verse. 



" I heard folk say 

 As lang's the road gaed by that way 

 That every now and then at e'en 

 Some fleysome things were heard or seen : 

 But since the road cam' farer doun 

 Frae Galloway unto the toun 

 The fleysome things have flitted too, 

 And now and then appear in view."] " 



This ghost was not the only uncanny visitant of the parish. 

 Brooklands possesses a Fairy Hill, where the fairies may have 

 conducted their dances. The Brownie Hill also perpetuates the 

 memory of one of those Galloway phantoms of which Nicolson's 

 ballad, "The Brownie of Blednoch,' gives such a weird 

 description. 



" There cam' a strange wight to oor toun en', 

 An' the fient a body did him ken, 

 He tirled na lang but he glided ben 

 Wi' a dreary, dreary hum." 



The Gledsknowe reminds us of the " greedy gled ' ' or kite, 

 a species of falcon. 



Cushat-knowe retains the old Scottish word for the ring-dove. 



Netheryett gives us the old Scottish word for a gate. 

 " Please steek the yett." 



The names of persons have come down to us in the same 

 way. As the name of the parish tells us both of St. Patrick, to 

 whom its church was dedicated, and of the family of Dorand 

 (corrupted into Durham), who were its chief proprietors in days 

 long departed, so Lochpatrick and St. Patrick's Well bear the 

 appellation of the saint, and Durhamhill and Durham Street bear 

 the altered name of the early proprietors. In a similar way, 

 Crocketford was called after someone of the name of Crocket, 

 and Maryfield and Kate's Well, Tottleham's Glen and Dronan's 

 Craig and Chalmer's Brae tell us the names but not the history 

 of persons now forgotten. Piper Croft allows us to imagine a 

 piper whose bagpipes made the hills resound, but does not tell 

 us his name. 



5. Shennan's Poems, p. 78. 



