FROM INFIRMARY WEEK TO REIVER’S WEEK
Beyond the Hen Poo’ there is a place known as Witches Knowe where (it is said) witches were burned. To save a woman from this death the townspeople could choose if they wished to bring her to the town and crown her Wynsome Mayde o’ Dunse. Going back over 60 years Duns had an Infirmary Week, a week of festivities and fundraising (for your bed in the Infirmary if you ever needed one). In 1944 when victory in World War II was near, it was decided to crown a Wynsome Mayde as Principal with the first being Nan Renton. The setting up of the National Health Service after the war meant that Infirmary fundraising was no longer needed and in 1949, the former Infirmary Week became known as Duns Summer Festival and a Reiver and Lass were appointed. Nan Renton, the town’s first Wynsome Mayde, later became the 1950 Reiver’s Lass.
DUNS LAW
In 1639 General Leslie and an army of Scottish Convenanters camped on Duns Law (there are still signs of their fortifications). A cairn marks the Convenanters’ Stone, which was where they set up their standard and knelt and took oath of allegiance “for Christ, Crown and Covenant”. They were there to resist an attempt by Charles I to impose the Church of England on his Scottish subjects. As a result of missions between the two camps, a peace was arranged and a National Convenant was signed at Duns Castle where a copy is still preserved. In 1640 Charles again showed signs of invading Scotland and thousands of Scots arrived at the Law, but again no battle took place. It has been said that Scotland retained her religious freedom not by Canon Law, not by Civil Law, but by Duns Law! On the west side of Duns Law, known as the Bruntons (or Burnt Town), there is a cairn marking the site of the old town of Duns. English marauders repeatedly burned the old town and following the 1558 raid, the town was rebuilt on the present site.
DUNS COMMON
The Hen Poo’ in Duns Castle Estate is an artificial lake. The following text, which starts with a reference to the lake, is taken from the publication ‘Duns Dings A’. “The island in the middle of the lake at one time formed part of the roadway from the old town to the Common.” “In 1786 Alexander Hay of Drummelzier and Duns obtained in the Court of Session a Decree of the Division of Dunse Commons (Easter and Wester). The defenders called were surrounding proprietors, various neighbouring tenant farmers and the various feuars of Dunse.” “At a meeting of the feuars held in February 1815 it was decided to sell the portions of the Easter and Wester Commons apportioned to Duns in the Court of Session Decree. Sixty five voted in favour of the sale and thirty seven against. The town was heavily in debt at the time. These portions were sold by Public Roup and purchased by Colonel Hay of Duns Castle for £1488 to have possession as at Martinmas 1814 and to pay interest from that date. The feuars retained a servitude of feal, divot and whinstone over part of the Wester Common portion – extending to about 9 acres. The debts of the town amounting to £836 were taken over by the purchaser in part payment.” This explains the token ceremony of cutting a sod (also known as a divot). That the Common was sold to pay off the town’s debts is not the whole story. The Kelso Weekly Journal of 13 December 1816 contained a report on the laying of the foundation stone of a new Town Hall in the Mercat Square in Dunse. At the ceremony a bottle containing an inscription in Latin was placed in the foundations. According to the report in the Journal the translation tells the following story: “By the favour of God, the greatest and best of beings. This house is built for a prison to confine offenders by William Hay Esquire of Drummelzier, a noble and honourable man, also many other respectable persons in the county of Berwick who promoted it by patronage and contributions; and likewise the feuars of Dunse who sold their Common Lands for the accomplishment of this undertaking in consideration of a sum to be allowed. “After being consecrated by Reverend George Cunningham, Minister in Dunse, the foundation stone of this building was laid by Alexander Christie Esquire of Grueldykes, Master of the Lodge of Dunse; several neighbouring Lodges also assisting .......” If the decision had not been taken to build the Town Hall (demolished in the 1960’s) it is possible that in time the town’s debts would have been paid off and that Duns would now greatly benefit from the rent of Common Lands as do other Border towns.
BORTHWICK CASTLE
Many years ago people passing to and from Dunse Common (where they tended their stock) were supplied with milk at a farmhouse beside the ruins of a former keep called Borthwick Castle. When Duns Summer Festival first started the Reiver, after cutting the sod at the Common, took refreshment at those ruins (by then the farmhouse was also in ruins). Following the extension of Borthwick quarry all those ruins have now, unfortunately, disappeared.
BLUIDY BURN
In 1377 the Earl of Northumberland and his men crossed the Border and camped at Dunse Wood. The local peasants frightened deer and wild cattle from their corn using a rattle. It was made of a dried skin, on a frame of thin branches bent into circular form, with a few pebbles inside and fixed at the end of a pole. That night many rattles were waved aloft making a “dinging” noise. The English woke and, finding their horses had taken fright and broken loose, retired on foot towards the Tweed in disorder. There is no written record, but it was passed down from father to son that a battle was fought and that the little burn ran with blood for three days. It is thought that the town’s motto “Duns Dings A” (meaning Duns Beats All) comes from this incident.
FASTERN’S E’EN FESTIVAL
The date of this festival was fixed as follows: First comes Candlemas Syne the new mune; The first Tuesday after Is Fastern’s E’en. For centuries prior to 1886, Fastern’s E’en Ba’ was played annually in the streets of Duns. In 1886 a snowstorm prevented the Ba’ being played on the due date. Probably this opportunity was taken to stop the festival as it had fallen into disrepute due to associated drunkenness. Three young men called “Ba’-men” were chosen by the townsmen to make the arrangements. Along with their supporters they met on the previous Wednesday to hold “the shaping of the ba”, when they all paraded the town accompanied by a drummer and fiddler singing: Never let the gree gang doon For the gude o’oor toon. Thereafter the ba’ men prepared four balls. The first was gilt and called the “golden ball”; the second was the “silver ball” and the third was spotted. The fourth was presented to the Superior of the Town. Either he or a member of his family, or his baron baillie, threw the first ball. At one o’clock all the shops were shut and shuttered and the fun began, the ball being thrown up in the Mercat Square. The object of the married men was to “Kirk the ba” by putting it into the pulpit of the Parish Church, situated in a lane off the Square, and proclaiming their success by giving the church bell a most unecclesiastical jingle. The goal of the bachelors was the hopper of any of the grinding mills of the district, the nearest of which was over a mile away. If an unmarried man succeeded in getting the ball to the mill, the miller dusted his cap and coat with meal in token of victory, and entertained him and those who were with him to pork and dumplings, the standard fare of the day. The individual kirking or milling the first ball got one shilling and sixpence; for the second the reward was one shilling and for the third, sixpence. In the evening the “Ba’-men” feasted themselves and their friends in one of the taverns in the town on the balance of the subscribed money. Nowadays, the Hand Ba’ is kept within the Mercat Square, the goal for the married men being in the corner next to the Kirk and the goal for the single men being in the opposite corner.
PAST PRINCIPALS
Reiver-Lass-Colours
PAST WYNSOME MAYDES
Wynsome Mayde - Crowned by