THE following traditionary tragic story was recorded by the famous Glasgow rambler, Mr. Hugh Macdonald.

On visiting Carmyle for the first time, a goodly number of years since, we were conducted to a waste spot in the vicinity, which, in bygone days, was the scene of a melancholy tragedy. The story, as told to us, was briefly as follows :—In the olden time there lived—the one at Carmyle, the other at Kenmuir—two young men who had been from boyhood bosom friends. Similar in tastes and dispositions, nothing ever happened to mar the harmony of their intercourse ; and, in weal or in woe, they seemed destined to be all in all to each other throughout life.

At length, however, a stranger maiden came to reside in the village, and, as fate would have it, the youths fell simultaneously in love with her. The friends were rivals. One was preferred: the other, of course rejected. The unfortunate suitor, frorn an affectionate friend became all at once—"such power has slighted love "—transformed into the most bitter enemy. Meeting by accident one day at the spot alluded to, angry words passed between the two who lately would have died for each other. Swords were ultimately drawn, and one fell mortally wounded. Filled with remorse at what, in his blind passion, he had done, the other, in a fit of anguish, laid violent hands upon himself, and both were found lying dead among the summer flowers, whch were stained with their life-blood.

What afterwards befell the fair and innocent cause of all their woe tradition sayeth not; but the friends, who had been so unfortunately and fatally estranged, were laid by their mourning relatives at peace in one grave, dug at the place where they fell, which has ever since been known as the Bluidy Neuk. A ferruginous spring in the neighbourhood was long looked upon with horror by the good folks of the village, who saw in the red oxydised earth around it a mysterious connection with the blood that had been shed.