THE POPULAR RnYMES OP BERWICKSHIRE. 151 



these shaking quagmires are to be seen in this part of the country. 

 It is probable, I think, that this curious rhyme has some distant 

 allusion to the introduction of Christianity into our island, to the dis- 

 comfiture of a dark and horrid superstition, which formerly held in 

 bondage the souls and bodies of our Pagan progenitors. 



12. " Huntly wood — thy wa's are down, 

 Bassendean, and Barrastoun ; 

 Heckspeth wi' the yellow hair, 

 Gordon gowks for ever mair." 



' ' The people of Gordon were recently a very primitive race ; some 

 of them having lived in the same farms from father to son for several 

 centimes. It was perhaps on this account they were stigmatized as 

 the ' gowks o' Gordon ' in the above pox^ular rhyme." — Chamhers. The 

 other places mentioned in the rhyme lie in the neighbourhood of 

 Gordon, but we know not to what circumstances the rhyme refers. 

 In fact, it is a rh_yTXLe without any obvious meaning — a rhyme tvithout 

 a reason. 



13. " The hooks and crooks o Lambden Burn, 

 Fin the bowie,* and fill the kirn."t 



Lambden is in the parish of Greenlaw, where there was anciently a 

 chapel. The rhjmie relates to the fertility of the banks of " Lambden 

 Burn," remarkable for its many sudden turnings and windings. It 

 is a tributary of the Leet. 



14. '■'■ Bughtrig and Belchester, 



Hatchet-knows and Darnchester, 



Leetholm and the Peel : 

 If ye dinna get a wife 

 In ane o' thae places, 



Ye'll ne'er do weel." 



The places enumerated in this rh;yTne are all within four or five 

 miles of Coldstream. The rhyme should be widely disseminated, for 

 the especial benefit of all bachelors and widowers. 



15. " Little BiUy, BiUy MiU, 



Billy Mains, and BiUy HiU, 

 Ashfield, and Auchencraw, 

 BuUerhead, and Pefferlaw, 

 There's bonny lasses in them a." 



The first five places enumerated in this rhyme are in the parish of 

 Buncle. BuUerhead and Pefferlatv lie in the parish of Chirnside. 



* Bowie — a wooden shallow vessel for holcliiig milk. f Kirn — a churn. 



