This house is now, in 2008, divided into “House of Meg” tea-rooms below and a flat above and is known locally as Mumps Hall, although spellings, and in particular, punctuation of the name have varied widely. It is popularly associated with Scott’s characters such as Meg Merrilies, Dandy Dinmont and Tib Mumps/Meg O'Mumps, and with various tales of how the treacherous occupants would rob and murder unaccompanied travellers. There is also a legend of a tunnel linking Mumps Hall with a building on the site of Merrilies Cottage."

“Mump's-hall, 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 who had money." - Hodgson's History of Northumberland 1841
4, Hall Terrace is universally known as Mumps Hall, and no reference is made to Merrilies Cottage or its site as being of any especial interest except for the legend of the tunnel joining it with Mumps Hall."

The legend of Meg Merrilees was elaborated and made famous by Sir Walter Scott in his novel Guy Mannering where Meg had heroine status.

A poem by John Keats