418 Notes on Yarrow. By James Hardy. 



peculiar shape, where there is an entire blank in our figure ; 

 which I could not account for the absence of, since it is given in 

 the figure in Chambers' "Hist, of Peebleshire," p. 413, and in 

 the " Scottish Journal of Topography " &c. i. p. 413, from which 

 Dr. Chambers' cut is derived. Neither of these is an exact 

 representation, according to the drawing sent by Mr Shaw. The 

 cross which Mr Currie fancied he faintly saw traced on the shield 

 does not appear on the new drawing. Another drawing of the 

 cross and its accompaniments is therefore desirable. The cross 

 has a calvary base (of 6 steps) and stalk, and the summit might 

 be compared to a flame bursting out of a bowl, in three succes- 

 sive tiers of lateral jets, the lower-most the most projecting, and 

 an apical one. The height of the basis or pedestal is 6^ 

 inches ; length of cross 4 ft. 8 in. ; breadth of stalk 2^ inches ; 

 length of ornamental head, 8 J ; height of surmounting shield 18 

 inches ; whole length of slab, 6 feet 5f inches ; breadth of slab 

 at base, 18|- inches. 



The inscription revealed by the clea;nsing process is nearly that 

 given in Chambers' Peebleshire, viz. ** "^^txt Igis gcrgs of Colibwrnc 



10. Antiquities of Meg get-land. 



Mr Shaw favoured me with some replies to questions I had 

 submitted to him about the remote district where he has spent 

 many years. I cannot find a more suitable place to record them 

 as a contribution to our scanty knowledge, and it is to be hoped 

 that ere long he will be enabled to tell us more. 



" After making enquiries of some of my neighbours, who have spent all 

 their lifetime around St Mary's Loch, William Eichardson, son of the 

 well-known ' Tibbie Shiels,' says he remembers the finding of the horn of 

 the Urus [Bos i^rimiffenius) at Kercleuch in the bottom of a moss-hag, 8 

 feet deep. That happened some 40 years- ago. The length of the horn 

 was nearly 2 feet. When a part of the Megget road was made passable 

 for about one half mile above Henderland, some bronze articles were 

 found — now lost. 



Near the confluence of Winterliope burn and Megget there is a flat 

 called the Bloody Moss, said to have been the scene of a fierce contest be- 

 tween two bands of freebooters. In the moss several articles have been 

 come upon at peat-casting time, which seem to give colour to the tradition. 

 Some of these I have seen. One was a small horse-shoe circular in 

 shape, with two cross bars ; and the remains of what looked to have been 

 a strong horse-comb. They were found deep in the moss. Mr Mitchell, 

 the present farmer of Henderland, informs me that 14 or 15 years ago, an 

 iron hammer, evidently of ancient manufacture, was found in the ruins of 

 Cockburn's Castle. Mr Mitchell regrets that it has fallen aside meantime* 



