Notes on Yarrow. By James Hardy. 397 



the above incident the pool has since the battle retained the 

 name of the ' Piper's Pool.' My information is derived from 

 my mother, whose great grandfather was one of the onlookers, 

 and who also lost his life a few years after by drowning in this 

 very pool. On this account the pool has always had a double 

 interest to the writer." 



I have in the Wilkie MSS another traditionary relation, from 

 which it appears that the Piper belonged to Montrose's side. 

 The little Memorandum Book from which it is extracted appears 

 to have been written on a voyage to Sumatra and Calcutta in 

 1818. An old lady in the town of Selkirk informed Mr Wilkie 

 that on the day that the famous battle of Philiphaugh was 

 fought, Montrose had ordered the Piper of Soney to play all the 

 day, and if he (Montrose) gained the battle, that he would pay 

 him well for his music. He was seated near the end of the 

 present bridge of Selkirk on a rising bank, where he was shot. 

 His body was thrown into an adjoining pool of water still called 

 the Piper's Pool. Hence the saying when a person is not paid 

 for his labour : 



" He is like the Piper o' Soney, 

 That play'd a' the day and gat nae money." 



Swina, or Swaney, or Svvina is one of the smaller Orkney 

 Islands, but we would expect the Piper to be a Celt, and not an 

 Orcadian. 



2. Battle Cairn at Philiphaugh. 



Mr Currie continues : " The battle was fought on the opposite 

 haughs — to westward of the bridge. Montrose's camp was 

 hastily formed at the site of the Cairn erected by the late Sir 

 John Murray. This Cairn I assisted Sir John in designing and 

 erecting over thirty years ago. It stands on the eastern mound 

 of Montrose's Camp." 



3. The GeneraVs Brig. 



" The broken bridge, called the * General's Brig,' " says Mr 

 Currie " to the best of my knowledge is comparatively a modern 

 structure, having been built by Lieut.-Gen. Mackay about 1760. 

 The general was either the son or nephew of his celebrated 

 name-sake of Killiecrankie — a relation of the Duke of Buccleugh 

 of that time — who leased the home farms of Bowhill and Carter- 

 haugh from the Duke. My grandfather was the Duke's factor 

 from 1760 to about 1780, and among the voluminous documents 

 of his factorship I notice the expenses of this bridge. I have 



