Amiioersary Addi^ess. 247 



Cockburiilaw, near Dunse, known by the various names of 

 Edin's Hall, Wooden's Hall, or Eetin's Hald. This curious 

 relic of a by-gone age, has long been an object of mystery 

 among the inhabitants of the district, and of interest to anti- 

 quarians. It has given rise to a legend handed down from 

 one generation to another, that it was once the residence of a 

 giant ; the particulars of which, Dr. Hood of Maines, has at 

 my request embodied in a letter which I shall lay before the 

 club. The place was described in the year 1764, by a 

 writer in the Scots Magazine ; next by Chalmers in his Cale- 

 donia ; and also in the two editions of the Statistical account 

 of Scotland. The most accurate description, however, was 

 given in the year 1850, by the late Mr. Turnbull, of Abbey 

 St. Bathans, one of our members, and whose paper was pub- 

 lished in our transactions. The place had been visited by our 

 club a few years ago, and probably most of the members had, 

 like myself, made pilgrimages to it on other occasions. The 

 fact of our club having resolved to pay a second visit, and that 

 so many members assembled, indicated pretty plainly a con- 

 viction, that the subject was not exhausted — that the riddle 

 of the origin and object of the edifice had not been solved. 

 How true it is, that — 



" There is a power 

 And magic in the ruined battlement, 

 For which the palace of the present hour 

 Must yield its pomp, till ages are its dower !" 



Mr. Turnbull considered this structure to have been a 

 palace of Edwin, king of Northumbria, who lived about the 

 year 620, and whose kingdom then embraced Berwickshire — 

 relying for that view a good deal on one of its names, 

 Edin's Hall. Mr. R. Chambers, who is no inconsiderable 

 authority in such matters, disputes this theory, and considers 

 that the name is more properly Eetin's Hald, — according to 

 the testimony of old inhabitants ; and as Eetin is an old 

 Scotch word for a giant or monster who had an insatiable 

 appetite for red or raw flesh, Mr. Chambers' view received 



