J. F. Campbell Collection > Popular rhymes of Scotland

POPULAR REPROACHES. 73
people. Upon the occasion, say they, of nearly twenty
criminals being- tried for one offence, the jury were equally
divided in opinion as to a verdict, when one, who had been
asleep during the whole trial, suddenly awoke, and being-
interrogated for his vote, vociferated, ' Hang them a' ! '
The English phrase Lidford Law, commemorated by
Grose, bears the same signification.
BOWDEN — (^Roxburghshire).
Tillieloot, Tillieloot, Tillieloot o' Bowden !*
Our cat's kittled in Archie's wig ;
Tillieloot, Tillieloot, Tillieloot o' Bowden,
Three o' them naked, and three o' them clad !
Bowden is a small village on the south-east slope of
the Eildon Hills. To the worthy natives, this quatrain,
sung to the tune of the Hen's March, has a meaning hidden
from all the rest of the world ; they never fail to accept it
as the sounding of a note of defiance and insult.
In the south of Scotland there is a proverbial expression
used when one observes a trick taking effect, or intended —
'There's day enough to Bowden.' It's origin is said to
have been this : A stranger one day applied to a stabler in
Kelso for a horse to convey him to Bowden. It was after-
noon, and the hostler, in bringing out the steed, remarked
that there would scarcely be time to reach the village before
nightfall, ' Oh, there's day eneuch to Bowden,' quoth the
stranger — meaning there was daylight sufficient for his
journey. He never returned with the horse, and his last
words became proverbial in the above sense accordingly.
ELLIOTS AND ARMSTRONGS.
Elliots and Armstrongs, ride, thieves a' !
The Elliots and Armstrongs were the predominant clans
in Liddisdale, and generally engaged in thieving during*
the days of Scottish independence. Their neighbours still
keep up this allusion to former habits ; and though their
Border spears have long been converted into shepherds'
crooks, they have not yet become quite insensible to the
taunt.
Previous to the middle of the last century, as the Lords
of Justiciary yearly passed on horseback between Jedburgh
* Tillieloot— an old Scottish term for coward or chicken-heart.