366 Report of Meetings for 1&80*. -By J. Hardy. 



the fatal array convened at the Sheriff Muir, and after being in- 

 spected, marched straightway up Lyne water to the Borough- 

 moor of Edinburgh. 



" They passed hag, burn, aud scaur. 



Passed through dim pastoral solitude, 



Where cot and farm in quiet stood, 

 To dire dread shock of war. 



" And here and there, through lone peel bole, 

 Peered mothers', maidens' eyes. 



Who crossed themselves, and prayed, and blessed, 



As line on line still onward pressed — 

 Sons', lovers', bold emprise." 

 Mr Alexander Blackwood — to whom I am much indebted for 

 information about several of the places visited on this occasion, 

 as well as for ready help wherever it was required — writes me : 

 "I do not know whether you noticed a hollow on the left hand 

 side of the road when crossing the Sheriff Muir opposite two 

 standing stones on the right hand side of the road, as you drove 

 up from Peebles. This hollow is called Pinxie's or Pinkie's 

 hole. Armstrong says of it : ' Pinkie's hole is probably the 

 general repository of those who deserved not a particular inter- 

 ment ; and the two erect stones hear this are undoubtedly the 

 site of a grave.' A local tradition says a great battle was fought 

 here, and the dead were buried in Pinkie's hole. To former 

 generations it was a place of awe, and persons passing at nights 

 saw ghosts and white lights. The latter may be accounted for, 

 if it was used as a place of burial." The Statistical Account 

 (Peeblesshire, p. 123) says the cavity or basin was 90 paces in 

 circumference, and in the centre, six and seven feet below the 

 level of the adjacent plain. The grass grew luxuriantly in the 

 inside. The minister's idea was that it was enriched by the 

 decay of bodies therein interred, and those who had fallen in 

 battle. There were once " two cairns of stones on this moor, and 

 single stones about a foot in height planted at regular distances." 

 The Lapwings have not forgotten their old place of assemblage 

 on what had always been " Peasweep ground." There were 

 hundreds mixed with rooks in the field as we passed. 



Easter Happrew was pointed out. In Wallace's latest open 

 fight against the English, he and Sir Simon Fraser were de- 

 feated by the Lords William de Latymer, John de Segrave, and 

 Robert de Clifford, in March 1304, at Hopperow. (Burns' Scot- 

 tish War of Independence, n., p. 126 ; Prof. Teitch's Tweed, p. 



