Vol 13 - Dumfriesshire & Galloway Natural History and Antiquarian ...

24 Antiquities of Eskdalemuir.
his ground from the farm of Billhohu. Immediately over this
dyke, in what is called Airdswood Moss, there was discovered a heap
or pile of stones— (a " tumulus " would, perhaps, be the more correct
and classic name for it)—but whatever be its proper name, I was
told by Mr Bell himself that no fewer than 150 cart loads of stones
were taken from it to build a portion of the above-mentioned march
dyke between Billholm and Castle O'er. In the centre of this
heap was found a rude slab-formed g-rave or " cist " in which a
human body had evidently been interred, for some bones, and
particularly a thigh bone, was long possessed by the late Geo.
Graham Bell, Esq., of Castle O'er, but is now unhappily non est.
There was a further find in the shape of a tooth which a local bard,
William Park, at that time resident at Bridgend, has done his best
to immortalise in a poem, entitled "Verses addressed to a tooth
dug' out of the cairn on Airdswood Moss."
" Tooth of the olden time, I'd wish to learn
Thy living history what ; age and nation
Thou represented'st underneath the cairn,
Fruitful of antiquarian speculation.
What was thy owner, then ? a warrior dire,
Who liv'd and died amid the din of battle 1
Was he some consequential Feudal Squire,
Who bouglit and sold his serfs like other cattle ?
'Twere an uncourteous question, did'st thou fare
On luxuries which modern teeth disable 1
Thy hardy frame and healthy looks declare
That no such trash e'er trifled on thy table,
Thine was the food of undegenerate ages,
Else never had'st thou figured in my pages.
And here thou art, a prodigy—a wonder
A monument of undecaying earth.
Nor more of thee we'll know, till the last thunder
Shall from his slumbers call thy master forth ;
These puzzles which I grapple with in vain
Shall then be solved—and all thy case seem plain."
To return to the subject of cist-burial, there were (as far as I
can make out) two kinds of it ; the one was simple cist-burial
underground, the other was cairn-burial above ground ;
—
both kinds
seem to have been common enough ; the example I have just
described is clearly a cairn-burial ; that is to say, the body
discovered had been buried in a cist or stone coffin on the surface