S25 



Verier Wells. By James Wood, Woodburn, Galashiels. 



Medicinal or "Verier Wells," that is wells possessiug 

 virtue or power of healing, if ever they were common in 

 Berwickshire, are certainly less so than they were a century 

 ago. The diminution in the number of these wells is, no 

 doubt, largely due to the progress of agriculture ; farmers, 

 naturally, having been more anxious to produce good crops 

 than to save " Verter Wells." The wells, deprived of their 

 local habitation through the drainage of the land, are now 

 only known by name, and, unless some record is made of 

 them, their name and fame will, ere long, be forgotten. 



One of these wells, on the East Moors of Earlstouu, seems 

 not only to have been one of great repute, but to have been 

 very old, as the farm on which it was situated was apparently 

 indebted to the well for its name, "The Whitecleuch Well." 



The water of this well was so highly valued that people 

 came from long distances to drink of it, or otherwise make 

 use of it for the relief and cure of their various ailments. 

 The late Dr Hewat of Earlstouu used to say that it was 

 considered good for "sore eyes," and that it was a common 

 thing, in his young days, for people to go to the East Moors 

 to wash their eyes in the " Verter Well." The water of 

 this well came oozing out from the side of a knowe near the 

 burn side, but the moor having been ploughed up some 

 years ago, there is now no trace left of the whereabouts of 

 the old well. 



The farm of "Whitecleuch Well," I may remark in 

 passing, was, in the end of last century, in the occupancy 

 of a rather singular character, an old soldier, who had been 

 many years in India, but had beaten his sword into a 

 ploughshare and his spear into a pruning hook, and had 

 come home to spend the rest of his days as peacefully as 

 he could. In addition to his farming Whitecleuch Well, he 

 carried on the business of a showman, going to all the local 

 fairs with a hobby-horse, and, as he was a tenant on the 

 Mellerstain estate, regularly attended the market which was 

 held at Mellerstain at that time. From his Indian experiences, 

 and probably from having been present at the storming of 



