60 THE COMMON BITTEEN. 



cast which was made in 1801 or 1802 removed only a 

 part of the water from the Mire, which therefore remained 

 much in its natural state, and that the inhabitants of the 

 neighbouring farms still occasionally heard 



The Bittern sound his drum, 

 Booming from the sedgy shallow, 



SCOTT, Lady of the Lake, 



for Mr. William White, Lennel Hill Farm, has informed 

 me that he remembers hearing the Mire Drum in the Mire 

 when he was a boy living with his father at Causewaybank 

 between 1815 and 1825. He went to reside at Causeway- 

 bank in the former year, and lived there for upwards of 

 sixty years. He says that the Mire was then much in its 

 natural state, and that it was not effectually drained until 

 about 1830 or 1835. 1 



Mr. John Blackadder states that the late Mr. David 

 Aitchison, Oldcastles, told him that his (Mr. Blackadder's) 

 father, about the beginning of this century, shot the last 

 Mire Drum that was seen in Billie Mire, and that it was 

 killed towards the east end of the bog, near Blackburn ; also 

 that the late Mr. Archibald Hood, Sunnyside, who often 

 went out to shoot in company with the late Mr. Blackadder, 

 gave a corroborative account of the incident. 



Mr. Wilson of Welnage informed me on the 4th of May 

 1886, that an old man named Jamie Slight, who used to 

 live at Nethermains, near Chirnside, told him that he had 

 frequently shot the Bittern at Billie Mire before it was 



1 During the drainage operations the roots of oak and other trees were dis- 

 covered. The farm steward at Causewaybank informed me when I visited the site 

 of Billie Mire with Mr. John Blackadder on the 28th of April 1886, that when Mr. 

 White, the tenant of Causewaybank, had occasion to bury horses or other animals 

 which died on the farm, graves were dug for them in the soft soil of the Mire, and 

 at the depth of five or six feet pieces of bog oak were found, also hazel nuts. He 

 said that some years ago a considerable quantity of bog oak was discovered, and 

 that a gentleman in the neighbourhood got it for the purpose of having a table 

 made with it. 



