Some Traditions about Traquair. 333 



or her father or mother, who had seen the fairies ; but it 

 was in the haugh at Ashiesteel, and " they had black faces 

 and wee green coaties, and they nickered and leugh and 

 danced." The black faces, I think, are new in fairy mythology; 

 nickered and leugh means neighed or laughed shrilly. 



However, he had asked Mrs Eodgers for the story so 

 often, that she got reserved about it, and said he only 

 meant to laugh at her ; which is interesting, as showing 

 she took it seriously. 



Mrs Duncan, the old housekeeper at Ashiesteel, is the 

 authority for Will Hadden having seen the fairies on what 

 must have been a dififerent occasion. He was alone, on a 

 Sunday, in his house, on the site of the present cart shed, 

 near the mansion house, and the fairies came and looked 

 in at the window ; when he ran out and chased them down 

 the bank into the haugh, where they disappeared in the 

 Goat — the channel of the burn crossing the haugh, which, 

 till it was partly covered over, divided it in two. 



Some Traditions about Traquair. By Miss Russell. 



The great gate of Traquair, at the head of the avenue, 

 as is well known in the neighbourhood, is never opened ; 

 and, for a long time back, it has been asserted that the late 

 Lord Traquair would never allow it to be opened after his 

 father's funeral had gone out of it. This was by no means 

 an unlikely suggestion, for he had many queer whims, and 

 it is said to be a fact that he would not pass the family 

 burying-place ; at all events, when he went to visit at 

 Thirlstane, in Ettrick, he used to go down the Tweed and 

 round by Selkirk, which made a journey of some thirty 

 miles, as the considerably shorter route he might have 

 taken, involved passing the burying-place. The late Dr 

 Anderson is the authority for this. 



I certainly, on one occasion, before Lady Louisa Stuart's 

 death, heard the housekeeper say that the story was not 

 true. She was standing at the door of the house, and 

 pointing out the position of the gate to a stranger. She 



