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The Popular Rhymes of Benoiclcshite ; to which are added, a few lllustra' 

 tions. By Mr Hexdersoi^, Surgeon, Cliirnside. 



Pebhaps there are few counties in Scotland which possess so many 

 rhjTnes of a popular nature, as that of Berwickshire. "Whether it be 

 owing to the circumstance that " Thomas the Ehjoner " was a native 

 of this district, and to whom the authorship of several of these rhymes 

 is attributed, — or whether the people of the Merse are in general 

 disposed to encourage this species of ancient lore, we will not waste 

 time in a vain endeavour to determine. The fact of itself is sufficiently 

 obvious from the following collection, and perhaps it might still be 

 enlarged. The memory of " Thomas the Rhymer " is still highly 

 honoured in his native county, and the people hitherto have placed 

 undoubted confidence in his prophetic enunciations, although these 

 are certainly now beginning to be numbered among the "wreck of 

 things which were." 



As Sir Walter Scott, in his " Border Minstrelsy," &c., has, with his 

 usual pleasing and happy mode of illustration, brought together all 

 the facts that can now be discovered of the Minstrel of Ercildoune, it 

 would be superfluous for us to enter here into any discussion relative 

 to the history or merits of that singular being, who lived so long with 

 the Elf Queen (according to rhyme and tradition), and who yet " dreos 

 his weird " in Fairy land. All that we have set ourselves to do is to 

 collect, into one place, all the popular rhymes connected with this 

 county, as far as we are acquainted with them, and append thereto 

 such notes as an explanation of them seems to demand ; and if we 

 can hereby be the means of preserving these curious relics of a former 

 day from falling into utter oblivion, the little trouble which we have 

 taken in collecting them will be amply rewarded. 



In the fii'st place, we shall introduce those Rhymes which have been 

 for many generations attributed to " True Thomas," and then add the 

 others, which are imclaimed by any author. 



1. " The hare shall kittle on my hearthstane, 



And there never will be a Laird Learmont again." 



Thomas here prophesies the ruin of his own house. It appears that 

 he had granted his property to the Hospital of Soltra, and that none 

 of his descendants ever after inherited his patrimony at Earlstoun. 

 About a century ago, it is said, that a hare actually took up her resi- 

 dence in the "Rhymer's Tower," and produced her young upon the 

 hearthstone of the dilapidated tenement. About this time a person of 

 the name of Murray inhabited this ancient edifice. According to 

 Chambers he was " a kind of herbalist, who, by dint of some knowledge 

 in simples, the possession of a musical clock, an electrical machine, and 

 a stuffed alligator, added to a supposed communication with Thomas 



