Strange Pages from Family PapersThiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
History
Strange Pages from Family Papers
Thiselton-Dyer, T. F. (Thomas Firminger)
Legends; Superstition
But such stories are not confined to any special locality, and there
is, in most parts of England, a popular belief that vast treasures are
hidden beneath the old ruins of many houses, and that supernatural
obstacles always prevent their being discovered. Indeed, Scotland has
numerous legends of this kind, some of which, as Mr. Chambers has
pointed out, have been incorporated into its popular rhymes. Thus, on
a certain farm in the parish of Lesmahagow, from time immemorial there
existed a tradition that underneath a very large stone was secreted a
vast treasure in the shape of a kettleful, a bootful, and a bull-hide
full "of gold, all of which have been designated 'Katie Neevie's
hoord,'" having given rise to the following adage:
Between Dillerhill and Crossford
There lies Katie Neevie's hoord.
And at Fardell, anciently the seat of Sir Walter Raleigh's family, in
the courtyard formerly stood an inscribed bilingual stone of the Roman
British period; the stone is now in the British Museum. The tradition
current in the neighbourhood makes the inscription refer to a treasure
buried by Sir Walter Raleigh, and hence the local rhyme:
Between this stone and Fardell Hall
Lies as much money as the devil can haul.
A curious incident happened in Ireland about the commencement of the
last century. The Bishop of Derry being at dinner, there came in an
old Irish harper, and sang an ancient song to his harp. The Bishop,
not being acquainted with Irish, was at a loss to understand the
meaning of the song, but on inquiry he ascertained the substance of it
to be this--that in a certain spot a man of gigantic stature lay
buried, and that over his breast and back were plates of pure gold,
and on his fingers rings of gold so large that an ordinary man might
creep through them. The spot was so exactly described that two persons
actually went in quest of the garden treasure. After they had dug for
some time, they discovered two thin pieces of gold, circular, and more
than two inches in diameter. But when they renewed their excavations
on the following morning they found nothing more. The song of the
harper has been identified as "Moiva Borb," and the lines which
suggested the remarkable discovery have been translated thus:
In earth, beside the loud cascade,
The son of Sora's king we laid;
And on each finger placed a ring
Of gold, by mandate of our king.
The loud cascade was the well-known waterfall at Ballyshannon, known
as "The Salmon Leap" now.
[Illustration: THERE CAME IN AN OLD IRISH HARPER AND SANG AN
ANCIENT SONG TO HIS HARP.]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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