In the version given on Mysterious Britain, a worm lived in a hollow on the north east side of Linton Hill and roamed the country eating livestock and laying waste the land, so that people avoided the area. Sommerville of Lariston heard the story in Jedburgh, where many country people had fled, and heard conflicting rumours that the creature had wings or fiery breath. He rode to see it. The worm came halfway out of its lair and stood gazing with its mouth open, but did not attack.
Sommerville had a blacksmith forge a long lance with a small iron wheel a foot behind the point, and put a burning peat dipped in pitch and brimstone on the point. He practised riding with it until his horse tolerated the smoke. At sunrise next day he waited at the lair with a servant, who lit the peat. When the worm lumbered out, he rode at it and pushed the burning peat into its open mouth, killing it. He was knighted, made royal falconer and became the first baron of Linton.
This is a folk legend and not a report of an animal. Dragon slaying stories of this shape are told in many parts of Britain, and I have not seen a source older than the eighteenth century for the Linton version.
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