THE POPULAE RHYMES OF BERWICKSHIBE. 149 



With regard to the last mentioned personage in the above rhyme, it 

 is only necessary to say, that the passage over Billy Myre, between 

 AucheHcraw and Chirnside, was long infested with a ghost, the " Bogle 

 bo' " of the Ehyme, which bore the cognomen of " Jock o' the Myro." 



9. " The Eye kail o' Eeston 

 Gar'd a' the dougs dee ; 

 The browster gied us a' a glif£ 



Wi' his barley brce, 

 And gar'd Meg o' the Gurl hole 

 Awa' wi' Bawtie flee." 



This rhyme has been often confounded with one of those alluded to. 

 We are convinced, however, that it is altogether distinct from it, and re- 

 fers to a totally different subject. It is, however, apparently imperfect. 

 The village of West Eeston is pleasantly situated upon the south bank 

 of the Eye, in the parish of Coldiugham, and contains between two and 

 three hundred inhabitants. In old time it was the seat of a baronial 

 castle, and a chapel dedicated to St Nicolas, to which the beneficent 

 Davidde Quixivood granted a yearly allowance of some harts from his 

 territory in Lammermoor. The disaster to the dogs, which the rhyme 

 relates, may have been caused by diseased rye, or rye infected with the 

 Secale corniitum. The latter part of the rhyme is rather obscure. It is 

 probable that the person indicated by " Meg o' the Gurl hole" shared 

 the same fate of the dogs, as Baivtie is well known to be a sort of generic 

 name for a colly or shepherd's dog, among the peasantry of Scotland. 

 There is still a house in Eeston known by the name of " the Gurl." 

 What is the meaning of the term we know not, and a field on the farm 

 of Greenhead, in the immediate neighbourhood of the village, is still 

 called "the Browster butts." 



10. " St Abb, St Helen, and St Bey, 



They a' built kirks whilk to be nearest the sea. 

 St Abb's upon the nabs, 

 St Helen's on the lea, 

 St Bey's upon Dunbar sands 

 Stands nearest to the sea." 



'*8t Abb or StEbba, St Helen, and St Bey, were, according to the 

 country people, three princesses, the daughters and heiresses of a king 

 of Northumberland, who being very pious, and taking a disgust at 

 the world, resolved to employ their dowries in the erection of churches, 

 and the rest of their lives in devotion. They all tried which should 

 find a situation for their buildings nearest to the sea, and St Bey or 

 St Ann succeeded, her church being built upon a level space, close to 

 the water mark ; while St Abb placed her structure upon the points 

 or nabs of a high rock overhanging the German Ocean, and St Helen 



K 



