If ought befall yond lady but good. Come on, come on, my lord, he sayes; If you'll not turne yourself, my lord, Faire words, quoth he, they make fooles faine, He thought his lord then was betray'd; To tell him what the Douglas sayd. Hold upp thy head, man, quoth his lord; He did it but to prove thy heart, When they had other fifty sayld, Sayd, What wilt thou nowe doe with mee? 1 There is no navigable stream between Lough-leven and the sea: but a ballad-maker is not obliged to understand geography. What needeth this, Douglas? he sayth; Before that ever I mett with thee. Who dealt with me so treacherouslie: They landed low by Berwicke side, A deputed 'laird'' landed Lord Percye. The folio MS. reads "land," and has not the following stanza. BERWICK-UPON-TWEED. I THE PICKTREE "BRAG." O many, and in such various shapes, has the brag appeared, that it became necessary to procure the best local information on the subject, and an old woman [ M. A. ] of respectable appearance, of about ninety years of age, living near the spot, was universally referred to as knowing "most" about it; and her deposition is therefore given verbatim. She said, I never saw the "brag" very distinctly, but I frequently heard it. It sometimes appeared like a calf, with a white handkerchief about its neck, and a bushy tail. It came also like a galloway, but more often like a coach horse, and went trotting along the "lonin, afore folks, settin up a great nicker and a whinney every now and then;" and it came frequently like a "dickass," and it always stopped at the pond at the four "lonin ends and nickered and whinnied." My brother once saw it like four men holding up a white sheet. I was then sure that some near relation was going to die; which was true. My husband once saw it in the image of a naked man without a head. I knew a man of the name of Bewick, that was so frightened, that he hanged himself "for fear on't." Whenever the midwife was sent for, it always came up with her, in the shape of a "galloway." Dr. Harrison wouldn't believe in it; but he met it one night as he was going home, and it "maist" killed him, but he never would tell what happened, and didn't like to talk about it; and whenever the "brag" was mentioned, he sat "trimilin and shakin" by the fireside. My uncle had a white suit of clothes, and the first time he ever put them on he met the " "brag" and he never had them on afterwards, but he met with some misfortune; and once when he met the "brag" and had his white suit on, (being a bold man,) and having been at a christening, he was determined to get on the brag's back; but when he com to the four "lonin ends," the brag "joggled him so sore," that he could hardly keep his seat, and at last it threw him off, into the middle of the pond, and then ran away, setting up a great nicker and laugh, just "for all the world like a christian." But this I know to be true of my own knowledge, that when my father was dying, the brag was heard coming up the lonin like a coach and six, and it stood before the house, and the room "shaked," and it gave a terrible yell when my father died, and then it went clattering and gallopin down the lonin, as if, "yeben and yerth was coming together.”—Sharp's Bishoprick Garland. The following remarks from a recent publication of peculiar merit,* serve very materially to illustrate the present subject: "Sir Walter Scott, speaking of the bogle or goblin-'a freakish spirit, who delights rather to perplex and frighten mankind, than either to serve or seriously to hurt them,'-mentions Shellycoat as a spirit of this class, 'who resides in the waters, and has given his name to many a rock and stone upon the Scottish coast.' Sir Walter adds: 'He may, perhaps, be identified with the goblin of the northern English, which, in the towns and cities, Durham and Newcastle, for example, had the name of Bar-guest; but, in the country villages, was more frequently termed Brag. He usually ended his mischevious frolics with a horse-laught. With respect to the name, Bar-guest, I am inclined to think that sir Walter had been misinformed. A Bo-guest used not unfrequently to tease and frighten the inhabitants of Newcastle and the city of Durham before lamp and watch acts were obtained for those places, but a Bar-guest, I am inclined to think, they were never annoyed by. Sir Walter adds, in a note; His name [Bar-guest] is derived by Grose, from his appearing near bars and stiles, but seems rather to come from the German-Bahr-Geist, or Spirit of the Bier.' Grose's derivation is worth little, though not far-fetched; and that of sir Walter himself is not in accordance with the goblin's character. The mischevious sprite which sir Walter calls the Bar-guest was not at all associated with the bier, nor with man's going out of the world, though he was a frequent attendant on the howdy or midwife, who assists to bring him into it; following her, sometimes in the shape of a dog, a monkey, or a little deformed man, to the dwelling of the good woman who was about to make an addition to the population of the country, where he used to chatter at the window and imitate, in a ludicrous. manner, the conversation of the gossips and the out-cries of the lady in the straw.' There is a Berg-geist which haunts the German mines, more especially those in the neighbourhood of the Harz forest, and which occasionally plagues and frightens the workmen; and if ever a Barguest had played similar tricks, either above ground or below, with the miners of Northumberland and Durham, it might be conjectured with some appearance of probability, that those goblins were the same both in name and disposition. With respect to BO-a name terrific to children, and a test of manhood when addressed to a goose--Warton gives him a Scandinavian origin, and describes him as a Mighty cleaver of skulls, worthy of a high place in the hall of Odin; while Chalmers, ever willing to exalt the celts, though at the expence of the 'mighty Goths,' has provided him with a Welsh pedigree. In the great literary contest between the Goths and Celts, it is probable that the party who can clearly establish their claims to BO will obtain the victory. Great must have been the fame of this hero. The name of Marlborough, who has been dead little more than a century, is no longer terrific to the children of France, while that of BO is still potent in the nurseries of England." THE HEDLEY KOW. BOUT sixty years ago, the country people in the neighbourhood of Hedley, a small village in the south of Northumberland, not far from Ebchester, in the County of Durham, were frequently annoyed by the pranks of a bogle called the Hedley Kow. His appearance was never terrific, and, like the Barguest of sir Walter, he usually ended his frolics with a horse-laugh at the fear or the astonishment of those on whom he had played a trick. To an old woman, gathering sticks by the hedge-side, he would sometimes appear like a fad, or truss of straw, lying in the road. This the old dame was generally tempted to take possession of; but, in carrying it home, her load would become so heavy, that she would be obliged to lay it down. The straw would then appear as if quick; would rise upright, and shuffle away before her, swinging first to one side and then to another, every now and then setting up a laugh, or giving a shout-in the manner of a country dancer when he knacks his heels and snaps his fingers at the turn of the tune and at last wholly vanishing from her sight. Two young men belonging to Newlands, near Ebchester, went out one night to meet their sweet-hearts; and, on arriving at the appointed place, they saw, as they supposed, the two girls walking at a short distance before them. The girls continued to walk onward for two or three miles, and the young men to follow, without being able to overtake them. They quickened their pace, but still the girls kept before them; and, at length, when the lovers found themselves up to the knees in a mire, the girls suddenly disappeared with the most unfeminine Ha! Ha! The young men now perceived that they had been beguiled by the Hedley Kow; and, after getting clear of the mire, ran homeward as |