Correspondence. 351
^^ Kirk Session Records ; Durris, Kincards. A?ino 1787.
" Extract from the will of Alexander Hogg of Twickenham, in the county of Midlesex \_sic\ gentleman, dated the iSth day of April, 1786:
' I give and bequeath to the Kirk Session of the parish of Durris, in the county of Kincardine, otherwise the Mearns, North Britain, and to their successors in office the Kirk Session, the sum of five hundred pounds old four per cent. Bank Annuities .... upon Trust and to and for the uses, intents, and purposes here- after mentioned .... and the Kirk Session shall pay annally for ever [such and such sums] and also ten shillings annually for ever to the Herds round Cairn-Shee for their mid-summer fire, as reside in Bogg, Upperton, Mains, The Mill Standing Stones, Quithlehead, two Newtowns, Barns, and CairnhilL' "
The herds — lads used for keeping cattle in Scotland (till sixty years ago) when the country was still unfenced — at these ten farms, got sixpence each.
A. Macdonald.
The Petting-Stone. (Vol. xiii., p. 226.)
I FORWARD the following cutting from the Newcastle Daily Journal, ii April, 1904.
" At the Parish Church, Eglingham, in the presence of a large congregation of relatives and friends, the marriage took place of Mr. Thos. Bowey Burn, eldest son of Mr. E. Burn, The Croft, Eglingham, and Miss Alice Maud Rogers, eldest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, Upnor, Kent .... On leaving the church the newly-wedded couple were met with the usual shower of rice and confetti, and, again, on passing from the churchyard another ancient custom had to be observed, that of surmounting the ' petting stool.' Both ordeals having been successfully gone through, the happy couple drove to the Croft," &c.
W. Crooke.
