242 THE RAVEN. 



Popular Rhymes, Mayings, and Proverbs of the County of 

 Berwick, a remarkable superstition connected with a small 

 stone said to have been taken out of a Corbie's nest at the 

 Corbie Heugh near Ayton, to which locality the above 

 rhyme refers. He says : — " Our great-grandfather lived in 

 Ayton about 1730, and he got into his possession an article 

 of glamourie which he took out of a Corbie's nest in the 

 Corbie Heugh, and which is said to have wrought many 

 miraculous cures both on man and beast." Amongst some . 

 manuscript notes of the late Dr. Henderson, which have been 

 kindly given to me for reference by his son, Mr. Kobert 

 Henderson, Chirnside, I find the following wonderful account 

 of this stone : — " It was in great repute for healing tumours, 

 swellings, and sores, and also for curing distempers in cattle, 

 horses, and sheep, and the Laird of Manderston, near Duns, 

 once sent for it to cure his cattle of some desperate disease 

 which raged amongst them, and which had carried off some 

 of his best animals ; but after the Corbie Stone was laid into 

 the pond where the cattle drank, not one of them died, and 

 they all got better in a day or two." 



There are several places in the county besides that 

 above mentioned which have apparently taken their names 

 from having been frequented by Eavens in former times, 

 when the bird was comparatively common. Of these may 

 be mentioned Corbie Hall, in the parish of Togo ; Corbie 

 Heugh Quarry, near the meeting of the Blackadder and its 

 tributary the Fangrist, in Greenlaw parish ; Corbie Hill, 

 Eaven's Brae, and Eaven's Heugh,^ in the parish of Colding- 

 ham ; Eaven's Knowe, on the Whitadder, near Edrington 

 Mill ; and Eaven's Craig, a precipice on the same river in the 



1 Part of Weston Thirl Brae, called Eaven's Heugh, because the Raven used 

 to build there. It is also known as Thomas Bookless' Heugh, from his having 

 been killed there by a fall from the cliffs while harrying a Raven's nest. — J. 

 Hardy's MS. Notes. 



