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went into the passage, but searched the rooms and a place where 
wood was stored, and could see no one. It is not within the 
scope of this paper to endeavour to explain these things. They 
are given as they were related to me. 
Nearly half-way between Prestonmill and Mainsriddell is a 
lonely and gloomy part of the road known as the “ How o’ the 
Derry’s Hills,” more briefly the ‘“ Derry’s How,” or, in English, 
the “Dairymaid’s Hollow.” This place was haunted by an 
unearthly thing in the form of a black dog—a common enough 
form in demonology. There seems also to have been a belief that 
this “ bogle,” as it was called, assumed various forms, and one 
dark night when three women were passing along the road at 
this place they were alarmed by a strange rushing sound which 
seemed to come over the hedge to cross the road, and then go 
over the hedge on the side opposite to that by which it entered. 
Two of the women, unhesitatingly affirmed that it was ‘the 
bogle,” but the third, who had little faith in the supernatural, 
thought it might perhaps have been one of the peacocks from the 
adjacent farm of Torrorie. A medical man who lived in one of 
the neighbouring villages, and whose profession caused him to 
traverse the district at all hours, used to say that one night in 
going through the “‘ Derry’s How” he saw the form of a lady 
dressed in white. The only other ghost I have been able to hear 
of frequented a field called the ‘“ Murder Fall,” above Torrorie. 
This ghost is said to have been that of a man who had been 
hanged in this field, and whose appearance, to say the least of it, 
must have been a little singular. When seen he had a pair of 
“cleps” round his neck. ‘‘Cleps” are moveable handles which 
were placed on large pots, such as those formerly used for wash- 
ing purposes, or for boiling pig’s-meat. Nothing seems to have 
been known of who this man was, or what was his offence. 
As showing that ghosts were generally believed to follow upon 
deeds of violence, the following incident may perhaps be 
appositely given now :—A tradesman in the parish had, in a 
moment of passion, struck his apprentice a blow with his hammer, 
which is said to have caused the death of the lad. From that 
time the man dared not enter his workshop after dark lest he 
should be confronted by the ghost of the dead apprentice. More 
than this, for at least some years after the sad occurrence he would 
not fall asleep at night if he knew there was even the smallest 
quantity of water in the house. He was afraid that he might be 
