Fairy Stones from Ellwyn (Borders)

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fairy glen borders

From Mr. Jamieson, also, I have a ‘fairy stone.’ These stones are found in the clay-banks of Ellwyn stream which runs down the Fairy Glen to join the Tweed between Galashiels and Melrose. Scott has a good deal to say about the glen and the stones in his introduction to The Monastery and in chap. ii. ‘The Scottish fairies.. . were supposed to have formed a residence in a particularly wild recess of the glen, of which the real name was, in allusion to that circumstance, Corrie nan Shian’ [phonetic spelling]. This name, however, was cautiously avoided, for to name the ‘Good Neighbours’ was to bring ill luck, and the valley was commonly known as the Nameless Dean. ‘In evidence of the actual operations of the fairy people, even at this time, little pieces of calcareous matter are found in the glen after a flood … formed into a fantastic resemblance of cups, saucers, basins and the like, in which children who gather them . . discern fairy utensils.’ After flood rains Mrs. Jamieson, as a child, used to run off to the glen on Sunday afternoons with her brother and sister to collect the coveted stones, believed to bring good luck to the finders. Banks 344

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