150 THE POPULAR RHYMES OF BERWICKSHIRE. 



pitclied hers upon a plain near, but not exactly bordering upon tbe 

 shore. It is obvious that the situation of these churches suggested 

 the popular belief."* There are now no remains of St Bey's chapel: 

 the ruins of St Helen's are still conspicuous in the parish of Colbrands- 

 path, and the church-yard surrounding them is still used as a burial- 

 ground ; but scarcely a vestige of St Abb's remains on the high and 

 lonely point, to which she has bequeathed her name, and not a single 

 grave-stone is now to be seen raising its grey head from among the 

 nettles and thistles which cover the deserted spot, although some aged 

 people remember to have seen it used as a place of sepulture about 

 sixty years ago. 



11. " Grisly Draeden sat alane 



By the cairn and Pech stane ; 

 Billay wi' a segg sae stout. 

 Says — ' I'll soon turn Draeden out' — 

 Draeden leuch, and stalk'd awa, 

 And vanish'd in a babanqua." 



This rhyme, which I picked up when a boy from an old man (David 

 Donaldson, referred to above), who possessed a rich collection of old 

 sayings, songs, and rhymes, which I never heard any where else, 

 evidently relates to a large cairn which was situated about half-way 

 between two streams (Draeden and BiU3'burn), on the farm of Little 

 Billy, in the parish of Buncle. The cairn was siuTounded, except on 

 the south-west side, by a circle of large whin stones, many of which 

 would have weighed several tons. At a distance of about 200 yards 

 to the east of this cairn stood a large block, of a reddish sort of granite, 

 which the old man ali-eady mentioned used to call " The Altar." The 

 cairn is now removed, but this stone still stands in its original situation. 

 It is probable that the circle of stones surrounding the cairn had con- 

 stituted, in remote times, a place of Druidical worship ; and it is also 

 probable that the small stream, a little to the north of the site of the 

 cairn, derives its name, Draeden, from this circumstance ; the affix 

 draed being similar in sound to Druid, and de^i, a dean or vale — The 

 Druid's Vale. When a moss which skirted this stream, was begun to 

 be drained about twenty years ago, many pieces of oak were dug out ; 

 and I recollect of being shewn, near its northern extremity, a quag- 

 mire or hahanqua, with a slit or opening in the middle of it, on which 

 no grass or any other plant grew, owing to the constant oozing of the 

 water from its bottom, into which, it was said, a horse and his rider 

 had sunk, and were never more seen. This story rests upon tradition 

 only; but I have seen places of this description, into which, if a person 

 had sunk, he would have been in imminent danger of losing his life ; 

 but, since the incalculable improvement of draining commenced, few of 

 * Chambers' Popular Rhymes, p. 45. 



