Minstrelsy of the Scottish border - National Library of Scotland

22 MINSTRELSY OF
tei'ing with his lance, in full career, a sort of monster,
which the common people call a norm, or snake. Tradi-
tion bears, that this animal inhabited a den, or hollow,
at some distance from the church, whence it was wont
to issue forth, and ravage the country, or, by the fasci-
nation of its eyes and breath, draw its prey into its jaws.
Large rewards were in vain offered for the destruction
of this monster, which had grown to so huge a bulk, that
it used to twist itself, in spiral folds, round a green hil-
lock of considerable height, still called Wormeston, and
marked by a clump of trees. When sleeping in this place,
with its mouth open, popular credulity affirms, that it
was slain by the Laird of Lariston, a man brave even to
madness, who, coming upon the snake at full gallop,
tlu-ust down its throat a peat (a piece of turf dried for
fuel,) dipt in scalding pitch, and fixed to the point of his
lance. The aromatic quality of the peat is said to have
preserved the champion from the effects of the monster's
poisonous breath, while, at the same time, it clogged its
jaws. In dying, the serpent contracted its folds with so
much violence, that their spiral impression is still dis-
cernible round the hillock Avhere it lay. The noble fa-
mily of Somerville are said to be descended from this
adventurous knight, in memory of whose achievement
they bear a dragon as their crest.
The sculpture itself gives no countenance to this fine
story ; for the animal, whom the knight appears to be in
the act of slaying, has no resemblance to a serpent, but