Rose-hill is a hill no longer. The top of the diluvial mount was thrown into the surrounding hollow, in order to afford a site for the railway station, that has assumed the name of the summit which it displaced.
In the immediate neighbourhood of Rose-hill is Mump’s-hall, formerly the residence of the Meg Merrilies of sir Walter Scott:—
'Mump’s-hall,' says Hodgson, 'according to tradition, was once a public-house, kept by a notorious person of the name of Meg Teasdale, who drugged to death such of her guests as had money. In Guy Mannering she glares in the horrid character of Meg Merrilies. But certainly all this tradition is deeply coloured with unpardonable slander against the ancient and respectable family of the Teasdales of Mump’s-hall.'
Sir Walter Scott was in early life an occasional resident at Gilsland. The broad, flat stone is pointed out, a little above the Shaws Hotel, on which tradition asserts he was standing when he declared to the subsequent lady Scott the emotions which agitated his bosom. He had therefore the opportunity of becoming acquainted with the district and its traditions.
The small thatched cottage, opposite to the road leading from the railway station, is usually pointed out as the residence of Meg, but it is not the one which was occupied by her. She lived in the larger building beyond, round which the road bends at a right angle. The front of the house is modernized, but the back of it still retains the character of a border fortress. My information upon this and other subjects respecting her, has been derived from an individual residing in the district, whose mother knew Meg well, and visited her upon her death-bed. Although the heroine of Mump’s-hall was cast in a mould somewhat suited to the state of the district at that time, she was not the fiend-like woman that she is generally represented. One murder, however, the tradition of the country lays to her charge. A pedlar having called upon Meg’s brother, who kept a school at Long Byers (mid-way between Rose-hill and Greenhead), accidentally presented to him a box filled with guineas instead of his snuff-box. The traveller was requested to convey a note to Mump’s-hall, which he did, but was not seen alive afterwards. Suspicion arising, the house was searched, and the body found concealed among hay in the barn; but the parties who made the discovery durst not reveal it, for fear of injury to themselves and families. About six weeks afterwards the body was found lying upon the moors. My informant added to his narrative—‘probably the laws were not so active in those days as at present, for these things could not escape now.’
