_Rhymes upon Places_ (Vol. vi. p. 281.).--Perhaps you will think the
following rhymes upon places worth insertion:
"I stood upon Eyemouth Fort,
And guess ye what I saw?
Fairmiside and Furmintong,
Neuhouses and Cocklaw,
The fairy fouk o' Fosterland,
The witches o' Edincran,
The bly-rigs o' Reston;
But Dunse dings a'."
Near the seaside village of Eyemouth, in Berwickshire, is a promontory
marked with a succession of grassy mounds, the remains of a fort built
there in the regency of Mary of Lorraine. A number of places are
represented as visible from the fort: but here fact is not strictly adhered
to.
Fosterland once existed in the parish of Bunkle as a small village; but
even its vestiges are not now visible on the brown moor where it once
stood. Edincran, properly Auchinchran, is an estate in the vicinity of
Fosterland, as is Reston also. There is a variation as follows:
"The fairy fouk o' Fosterland,
The witches o' Edincran,
And the rye-kail o' Reston
Gar'd a' the dogs die."
The rye-kail alluded to must have been a broth chiefly made from rye, which
grain, it is well known, is sometimes so much tainted as to be poisonous.