J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular rhymes of Scotland

30 POPULAR RHYMES OF SCOTLAND.
Blendewan and the Raw,
Mitchellhill and the Shaw ;
There's a hole abune the Threipland
Would hand them a' !
The 'hole abune the Threipland' is a hollow in the side
of a hill, shaped like a basin, and which stands in rainy-
weather nearly half full of water. On the upper side of
the hollow there is a cave penetrating the hill, and nearly
blocked up with stones and shrubs. This is said to be of
considerable extent ; and, as tradition reports, gave shelter
in the persecuting times to the inhabitants of the farms
enumerated in the rhyme. Both the hole and the cave are
evidently artificial ; but it is probable that the latter was
formed at a much later period than the other, from the cir-
cumstance of there being" many such hollows in the hill-
sides of the neighbourhood, without the corresponding cave.
Indeed these hollows are supposed to have been used at a
much earlier period of warfare and danger than the perse-
cuting times — namely, in the days of Wallace and Bruce.
They might be places of military vigil, as the soldiers
stationed in them could survey an extensive tract of country,
without being themselves seen by the enemy whose motions
they watched. Threipland is near Boghall, where the im-
mortal Wallace is said by Blair to have fought a bloody
but successful battle with the English, and where, accord-
ing to tradition, various skirmishes of lesser consequence
also took place.
FARMS NEAR PEEBLES.
Bonnington lakes.
And Cruikston cakes,
Kademuu-, and the Wrae ;
And hungry, hungry Hundelshope,
And skawed Bell's Brae.
The farm of Bonnington, once full of mossy flows and
wells, called lakes, is now, under the magical influence of
draining, a smiling and highly-cultivated farm, the pro-
perty of Sir Adam Hay of Hayston, Bart. Kademuir is
a rough mountain farm, belonging to about three hundred
of the inhabitants of Peebles, to whose predecessors it is
said to have been a grant from a Scottish king. Connected
with this farm is a curious, and, I believe, nearly unique