Rhyming tales help folk remember events and characters past. Discover old sayings, songs, rhymes and proverbs about some of the colourful characters or weird and wonderful places, which ought not be forgotten.
Burns at Berrywell
Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns visited Berrywell, near Duns, in 1787. The town features in his song ‘Robin Shure in Hairst’.
George Henderson – the bard from Billy
George Henderson, born here in 1800 at Little Billy Farm (later known as Billy Mains), collected many poems, rhymes, ballads and anecdotes about his local area and the wider region.
Tam O'Crumstane
This old poem puts a local spin on the phrase ‘pride comes before a fall’: ‘He flew owre his yaud, and fell i’ the midden.’
The Pech Stane
The Pech Stane is an enormous boulder near Billie Mains which features in an old rhyme:
Grisly DRŒDAN sat alane
By the cairn and PECH stane …
Thomas the Rhymer and the three castles
In his rhyme about the decay of three castles, Buncle, Billy, and Blanerne, foresaw the loss of the Scottish Crown.
Water Scott’s ‘The Bride of Lammermoor’
One of Scotland’s most famous writers, Sir Walter Scott (1771-1832), was active in this area. Could Nunraw be the castle featured in one of his novels, dubbed ‘the Romeo and Juliet of the Scottish Lowlands’?