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That Netherby is believed to be haunted, we all know. I need 

 not tell you of Lady Widdrington's ghost at Warren Burn ; about 

 the turning of the pictures nightly on the walls at Netherby, and 

 the curious sounds heard. Nor will time permit me to introduce 

 you to the white woman who used to be seen near the Fauld, or 

 her cousin who terrorised the inmates of the Hallburn Workhouse 

 some years ago by her nocturnal perambulations. Nor need I 

 point out to you that at certain places certain kinds of boggles 

 were seen ; and that hardly any road was without its apparition. 



There might be an excuse for those who put such faith in 

 witches ; but we can hardly sympathise for a moment with those 

 who take the " Belfast Almanack'' for their prophet and friend in 

 weather matters. An old farmer, yet living, once invested in a 

 Belfast penny almanack. He, however, did not find it so trust- 

 worthy as he expected, and one day he exclaimed, '•' That penny 

 almanack tells nowt but lees ! The furst time I gan ta Carel I'se 

 gan ta git a sixpenny 'en : it'll tell the truth, an' last a few years !" 



The belief in dead lights is not itself quite dead. The general 

 belief was, that on the death of any person, his spirit, in the form 

 of a flame, passed along the "burial road" to the church, up to the 

 place where the coffin would rest, and thence to the grave. Once 

 near Wisk the horse drawing a hearse stopped in the road, and 

 refused, in spite of blows or kind treatment, to go on. Then some 

 one told of his having, when on this particular horse, met the dead 

 light, and about its passing between the legs of the horse. The 

 coffin had to be taken out of the hearse, put through below the 

 horse the way the light had gone, replaced in the hearse, and then 

 the horse went quietly on as before. 



There is a border superstition relating to baptism, which is not 

 common in our own neighbourhood. Mr. Bulkley, of I.anercost, 

 tells that a south-country clergyman was doing duty for a friend 

 near the border, and was about to baptize a family of children, 

 taking up the youngest first, when he was stopped by an old woman 

 plucking his surplice, and crying out, " Ye mauna christen a lass 

 afore a lad !" All present joined in the protest, and he yielded to 

 them, but asked the reason : " Why, he'll hae nae whiskers ! " In 



