Witchcraft and superstitious record in the south-western district of ScotlandWood, J. Maxwell (John Maxwell)
History
Witchcraft and superstitious record in the south-western district of Scotland
Wood, J. Maxwell (John Maxwell)
Folklore -- Scotland; Witchcraft -- Scotland
Long ago a Monkland farmer, accompanied by one of his farm-lads, was on
his return from Kirkcudbright at a very late hour. The farmer was riding a
small Highland pony, the boy being on foot. It was about midnight when
they got to that part of Buckland Glen where a small bridge crosses the
Buckland Burn. They had just crossed the bridge when the pony suddenly
stood up and swerved, almost throwing the farmer out of the saddle.
"What's wrang wi' ye the nicht, Maggie--what's tae fricht ye, my lass?"
"Eh, Maister, did ye see that?" whispered the lad. "See--yonner it's
again!"
The old man looked, and muttering to himself whispered, "Aye, it's there,
laddie! It's a' true what hes been mony a time telt! That's the ghost o'
the headless leddy wha was murdered in the glen in the aul' wicked times.
We'll no gang by, but gang doon the lane and slip hame by Gilroanie."
Turning the quivering pony they wended their way along the woods which
thickly fringe the Buckland Burn, as it leads to the shore at the
Manxman's Lake, and reached home without further difficulty than keeping
in hand the frightened pony. The curious fact was a week later discovered
that two disreputable characters had lain in wait, for the purpose of
robbery or perhaps worse, at a lonely turn on the Bombie road about a
quarter of a mile from Buckland Brig. They had learned that the farmer had
been to Kirkcudbright to draw a sum of money, and, had the sudden
appearance of the Buckland ghost not turned their path, another tragedy
might have been that night enacted in the Buckland Glen.
[Illustration: THE GHOST OF BUCKLAND GLEN. Sketch by J. Copland,
Dundrennan.]
Concerning the parish of Rerwick the account of "A true relation of an
apparition, expressions, and actings of a spirit which infested the house
of Andrew Mackie, in Ringcroft of Stocking, in the parish of Rerwick, in
the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright in Scotland, 1695, by Mr Alexander Telfair,
Minister of that parish, and attested by many other persons who were also
eye and ear witnesses," will be found in its original form in the
Appendix.
One of the most interesting weird stories connected with Galloway, centres
round a mansion-house in the neighbourhood of Castle-Douglas.
A lady renting it for a few years tells how she was twice or thrice
disturbed in the night by hearing a horse trotting round to the front
door, and on getting up to look out of the window always found there was
nothing to be seen, and nothing to be done but to return shivering to
bed. Several years after, returning to the neighbourhood, she met the
owner of the house, who asked her to go and see the improvements he had
recently effected. On being shown over the house she was told that the
room she had slept in had had the partition taken down between it and the
dressing-room next it to make a large room, and strangely enough, when
taking down the wall, a horse's skull was discovered built into the wall.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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