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HISTORY

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE

SV EVEALISTS’ CLUB.
INSTITUTED SEPTEMBER 23, 1831.

“MARE ET TELLUS, ET, QUOD TEGIT OMNIA, CHLUM.” ~-

1850—1856.
ee

Pad

PRINTED FOR THE CLUB

BY TAYLOR AND FRANCIS, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET.

1857.

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PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB.

Address to the Members, delivered at the Anniversary Meeting,
held at Warkworth, September 18, 1850. By Wi.i1am
- Broperick, Hsq., President. |

GENTLEMEN,

Sincz by your favour I have been placed in the honourable po-
sition of your President, on this occasion it becomes my duty, as
well as pleasure, to offer you a short account of our proceedings
during the year, and resign the Chair I have for that period
been permitted to occupy.

Our last Anniversary Meeting was held at Etal, and I must
mention with regret that it was so thinly attended, both as
being an anniversary meeting, and also because our President
had provided most liberally those “creature comforts” which
add so much to the physical gratifications of the day; yet toa
table furnished for twenty, but six members sat down, greatly
to the disappointment of our most hospitable President. The
dinner party was increased by only one, the members present
being Capt. Carpenter (President), Dr. Johnston, Dr. Clarke,
Rey. Thomas Knight, Rev. H. Evans, Mr. Gregson, and Mr.
George Carpenter. The weather being favourable for a walk,
the Club, after breakfast, strolled along the sides of the Till below |

B.N.C.—VOL. III. N°. I. B

2 Anniversary Address.

Etal, where the following plants were noticed :—Campanula lati-
folia, Parietaria officinalis B. erecta, Rosa villosa, Aspidium
aculeatum, Agaricus rotula, Collema crispum, and Nostoc mus-
corum. The latter is new to our district.—After dinner the
Address from the Chair was read, and Mr. Broderick was after-
wards unanimously elected President for the ensuing year.
Mr. Gregson exhibited a locust which had been taken on Bows-
den Moor a few days previously. Another specimen had been
captured about the same time at Tweedmouth. Capt. Car-
penter proposed Dr. Francis S. Cahill as a member, and the
motion was seconded by Dr. Johnston. Mr. Stephens was ad-
mitted a member.
Berwick upon Tweed, October 18th, 1849.

On this day the Club mustered in strength, and commenced
a very pleasant meeting by doing justice to the cheering and
well-furnished breakfast-table of Mr. Macbeath. They were
afterwards jomed by other members, and the meeting embraced
the following names :—The President, Dr. Johnston, Mr. Emble-
ton, Mr. Selby, Capt. Carpenter, Dr. Clarke, Rev. J. Dixon
Clark, Mr. Macbeath, Rev. W. Darnell, Mr. Home, Mr. J.
Turnbull, -Rev. H. Evans, Major Elhott, Mr. Clay, Mr. Turn-
bull, Mr. Renton, and Dr. Hood.

The Minutes of the Etal meeting having been read and con-
firmed, Dr. Francis 8. Cahill was elected a member.

Captain Carpenter moved that henceforth a list containing
the name and address of each member be printed annually, and,
upon the votes being taken thereon, the motion was carried in
the affirmative.

The following places were agreed upon for the meetings of the
ensuing summer : viz.

May, Ist Wednesday, Cornhill.

June, 3rd Wednesday, Preston.

July, last Wednesday, Dunsdale.

September, 8rd Wednesday, Warkworth.

This necessary business having been completed, the members
separated until the dinner-hour. A party proceeded to Hutton-
mill Bridge, whence they followed the smuous Whiteadder down-
wards for about three miles to Edrington Castle. The walk
was in every respect a delightful one, the air balmy, the river
full to its margin, and its banks and haughs beautiful in the

Anniversary Address. 3

extreme, with a vegetation enlivened everywhere by the tints
of autumn. During the walk, little was noticed beyond the
general effect and beauty of the varied scenery. The Anacharis
alsinastrum was pointed out by its discoverer there (Dr. John-
ston) in profuse abundance, and still flowering freely. Rubus
cesius and Scrophularia Ehrharti were also amongst the plants
noticed. Inula dysenterica was looked for in its station in Tibby
Fowler’s Glen, but in vain.

At four o’clock a most comfortable dinner awaited the Club
at their house of rendezvous—the Red Lion; after which the
following papers were read:—Ist, “On the Antiquities and
Remains of Abbey St. Bathans,’” by George Turnbull, Esq. ;
2nd, “On the Insect Miners of the Primrose Leaf,” by Mr.
James Hardy; and 8rd, “ Notes on Convallaria polygonatum,”
-by Dr. Johnston.

Mr. Selby exhibited a drawing of the Blue Shark (Carcharias
glaucus, Cuv., Yarr. Br. Fish. ii. p. 498), made from a specimen
captured near Scarborough during Sept. 1848: also a drawing
of an apparently undescribed species of Agaric, which-he found
growing on the moors above Twizell House in Sept. 1849.

Dr. Johnston exhibited a specimen of Barley, in which no less
than seven heads grew from the summit of the same straw, ana-
logous in this respect to the variety of Egyptian wheat. The
specimen was gathered at Linthaughlee, Roxburghshire.

Dr. Hood exhibited a specimen of the Vanessa C. album butter-
fly, captured by himself in Berwickshire during the summer of
1845; and a specimen of Locusta migratoria, taken during that
harvest in a field on his farm near Coldingham.

Mr. Macbeath proposed Mr. W. H. Logan, Berwick, as a
member, and the motion being seconded by Mr. Home, was
ordered to be placed on the Minutes.

Cornhill, May Ist, 1850.

The members who attended this meeting were :—The Presi-
dent, Dr. Johnston, Rev. John Baird, Mr. Selby, Capt. Car-
penter, Dr. Clarke, Rev. J. Dixon Clark, Mr. Macbeath, Mr.
Rowe, Mr. Boyd, Rev. Geo. Walker, Mr. Gregson, Rev. Wm.
Lamb, Mr. Hepburn, and Mr. Douglas.

The morning walk was directed from Cornhill to Coldstream
Bridge, thence down the south side of the Tweed to its conflu-
ence with the Till, thence to Saint Cuthbert’s ruinous chapel, and

BQ

4 Anniversary Address.

by the more pleasant and picturesque banks of the Till to Twi-
zell Castle ; whence the party returned to Cornhill by following
the public road. The plants observed during the walk, though
not worthy of mention from their rarity, were many of them
lovely to look upon, and such as usually greet us at every May
meeting. Ballota nigra was noticed in the churchyard at Corn-
hill; and on the margin of the Tweed opposite Lennel, Stellaria
nemorum in two or three large patches. The banks of the Till,
between the Chapel and Tillmouth Bridge, were enlivened with
sloes and geans ; and a tree of the bullace plum, in the same
locality, furnished some good specimens for the herbarium.

Mr. Hepburn has kindly furnished his notes of the birds and
insects worthy of notice. The Tree Pipit (Anthus arboreus) and
the Willow Wren (Sylvia trochilus) were widely distributed over
the Cornhill district ; and with the exception of a pair of Sand-
pipers (Totanus hypoleucos), at the mouth of the Till, these were
the only summer birds of passage observed. We collected the
followmg insects :—AHelobia nivalis, Stomis pumicatus, Phedon
marginella, P. tumidula, Philonthus decorus, Tachinus rufipes,
Othius fulvipennis, Haltica nemorum, and Andrena Trimmerana @.
The Coleoptera were chiefly obtaimed by the banks of the Till;
and the Sandbees as they were sleepily basking by their burrows
on the banks of the Tweed.—At this meeting Mr. Logan was
admitted a Member.

On the 19th of June the Club assembled at Reston, antici-
pating with pleasure a visit to the noble cliffs of St. Abb’s Head,
and in this they were not disappointed. The day proved most
propitious, and after breakfast the larger portion of the mem-
bers present started for the coast. From arriving too late, the
Secretary was unable to join in this ramble, but with Dr. Clarke
sauntered up the Eye as far as Houndswood; and near Covey-
heugh Mill, hard by the railroad, he discovered Rosa Sabini, for
the first time noticed in Berwickshire ; there were several bushes
of it growing intermixed with Rosa spinosissima.

The rest of the party followed the high road as far as the vil-
lage of Coldingham, after which the walk was over more inter-
esting ground. The grand and broken cliffs which guard this
part of the coast were soon reached, and formed a striking con-
trast to the unruffled surface of the ocean, which, on this ocea-
sion, had laid aside all its terrors and assumed the form of perfect

Anniversary Address. 5

peace. Our numbers appeared but little to disturb the flocks of
guillemots and gulls which had here selected their breeding-
place, and were at this time busily employed im fulfilling the
universal impulse to increase and multiply. After proceeding
for some little distance along the brink of the cliffs, the party
turned their thoughts homeward, visiting Coldmgham Lough
and Moor, on which latter spot numbers of that pretty little
butterfly, the Melitea Artemis, arrested their steps; and after
the entomologists had added various specimens to their collect-
ing-boxes, the order of march was resumed, as the appointed
dinner-hour was rapidly approaching, and continued at a pace
too rapid for useful observation.

Of the insects collected during the day, as communicated by
Mr. Hepburn, the most interesting was undoubtedly the Melitea

‘ Artemis, which proves new, not only to Berwickshire, but also to
the Scottish fauna. Mr. Hepburn had previously captured six
specimens in the same locality. The Pontia Cardamines, Pontia
Rape and Napi were noticed, and the Polyommatus Artaxerzes,
once so highly prized, was taken about the “Head”; with the
common Polyommatus Alexis. The Lycena Phileas and the Hip-
parchia AEgeria were seen so bright and beautiful, as to duce
one to suppose that the second brood for the season had appeared.
Of the day-flying moths, Euchdia Mi was taken on the cliffs,
and other specimens were elsewhere observed. On a hedgerow
beyond Coldingham, Cimbex femoratum was taken, and also Al-
lantus viridis, a smaller species of the same family. Se/atosamus
@neus was very common about the Head. Carabus violaceus was
seen; and Hylobius abietis, of very large size, was taken on the
brink of a precipice far from any wood.

The members assembled at dinnef were:—The President,
Dr. Johnston, Mr. Selby, Captain Carpenter, Dr. Clarke, Rev.
J. Dixon Clark, Rev. G. Walker, Mr. Dunlop, Rev. Geo. Rooke,
Rev. H. Evans, Mr. Hepburn, Mr. Renton, Dr. Hood, Rev. S.
Fyler, Rev. W. Darnell, and Dr. F. 8S. Cahill.

After the Minutes of the last meeting had been read, Mr.
Selby nominated John Church, Esq., as a member, and this was
seconded by Mr. Broderick. The Rev. G. Rooke proposed Wm.
Gray, Esq., of Hast Bolton; the seconder being the Rev. J.
Dixon Clark.

Mr. Selby next laid before the Club specimens of the horns

6 Anniversary Address.

of the Fossil Ox (Bos primigenius), with Notes of the occurrence
of that species in our district.

Mr. Hepburn communicated to the meeting a paper on the
habits of the Rook.

Dr. Johnston exhibited a specimen of Filaria Carabi, 114 inches
in length, which had been taken from the body of a Carabus
violaceus. ‘

Mr. Hepburn exhibited some rare insects; and he made also
some remarks on the use of chloroform in killing insects, and
more especially the Myriapoda.

The President exhibited specimens of the new Nemophila ma-
culata, a double Pansy, and a new variety of Fuchsia, with the
expression of a hope that his example in this particular of show-
ing new flowers would be followed by other members.

Since the meeting Dr. Johnston has received specimens of
Thlaspi arvense from the Rev. John Baird of Yetholm. It has
appeared in a field within 100 yards of the manse in great pro-
fusion, and for the first time in the parish, so far as is known to
Mr. Baird. It may have been imtroduced with corn and clover
seeds ; but some doubt hangs over its origin*.

Dr. Johnston has also detected at Lamberton Shields, in a
hedge on the road-side, the Rosa gracilis of Smith, whose de-
scription is truly excellent and characteristict.

Dunsdale, July 24th.

On this day the heavens, which usually smile so favourably
on our meetings, presented nothing but frowns and tears. The
range of hills, amidst which our place of rendezvous was situated,
at an early hour became enveloped in mist and rain; and al-
though a few adventurous members were found sufficiently
zealous to set the elements at defiance in the pursuit of science,
still the pleasures of the day were entirely broken in upon, and
the hopes of any gratifying discoveries effectually dissolved.

The members present at dinner on that occasion were, the

* Mr. Baird has since gathered in the same field the Galeopsis Lada-
num, hitherto unnoticed in our district.

+ Ranunculus hirsutus. In a field near the Heather-house, Bambro’-
shire, Mr. Geo. R. Tate.

Rumezx pratensis. Not uncommon in the district, but overlooked until
the character of the plant was pointed out by Wm. Borrer, Esq., during
his visit to Berwick in September last.

Anniversary Address. 7

Rev. .J. Dixon Clark, Mr. Embleton, Rev. George Rooke, Mr.
John Boyd, and Mr. J. Turnbull.

John Church, Esq., and William Gray, Esq., were elected
Members ; and W. Smellie Watson, Esq., of Edinburgh, and
John Craster, Esq., of Craster Tower, were proposed.

The majority of the small party, which formed the meeting
on this occasion, were tempted to start from Belford Hall by the
treacherous cessation of the rain of the early morn, and were
fortunate enough to reach Heathpool without encountering any-
thing beyond threats; there, however, these threats became
realities, and the rain descended in torrents. Having come,
however, so far towards the place of meeting, forward was the
word; and the party having reduced their nether garments as
nearly as practicable to the Highland form, but retaining the more
‘ Southern weapon, the umbrella, despite of wind and rain, reached
Dunsdale. Messrs. J. Turnbull and Boyd, who had already pro-
vided an ample supply of trout, met them on the way. Here the
great desideratum was to get rid of the acquired moisture, in which
the worthy Shepherd’s wardrobe played its part by contributing
to a change of costume. An excellent dinner, which had been
furnished through Mr. Boyd, and a little more “‘ mountain dew,”
this time internally applied, restored the feeling of comfort to
all; and a pleasant drive home, during a warm and fine evening,
closed the day.

The only plants gathered were Galeopsis versicolor, Pinguicula
vulgaris, and Narthecium ossifragum.

A most interesting paper upon “Linton and its legends,” in-
tended for this meeting, has been contributed by Dr. Wilson.

This day, Gentlemen, terminates the nineteenth year of our
Club’s existence, an existence to which each year appears to add
strength and value. Since our last anniversary we have had the
pleasure of enrolling six additional names amongst the lovers of
nature ; and although it is not to be expected that in all should
be found the same zeal for, and success in, investigating the
wonders of creation which distinguish many of our number, still
to no one, I feel convinced, will-the time passed in these our
cheerful gatherings be ever remembered with any other feelings
than those of gratification, if not instruction.

The only painful part of my duty, on this occasion, is to ex-

8 Anniversary Address.

press the deep regret (in which I am sure the Club will fully
join with me) we must all feel for the lamentable and fatal acci-
dent by which, since our last anniversary, one of our members
(George Darling, Esq., of Fowberry) has passed from amongst us;
one, whose pen has added to the instructive pages of our Annals,
and whose kind and energetic disposition will not soon pass from
the remembrance of those acquainted with him.

In conclusion, I may perhaps be allowed to express a hope,
that, while we are endeavouring to spread far and wide a taste
for the pleasure we ourselves feel in investigating Nature’s
handy work, we may not at the same time be assisting to narrow
the field of enjoyment for our successors. Many tribes both
of birds and beasts, as well as plants, have already almost dis-
appeared from the scene, and are become more the objects of
curiosity than of observation. This has been effected, as far as
the animals are concerned, not by naturalists, so much as by
the general license granted to gamekeepers to destroy everything
considered injurious to game. Here many of us might have
much influence in checking the fatal persecution; and then,
those amongst us who think this world wide enough for all, and
delight in seeing the Creator’s work (even though its pursuits be
carnivorous) enjoying its brief existence, might more frequently
be gratified by the sight of the hawk’s aérial path, the wild ery
of the raven, or the noiseless wing of the owl. With the loss
of plants probably the improvement in agriculture has much to
do; and were this the only cause of their disappearance, no
room would be left for regret. In some cases however, where
the discovery of an object of rarity conveys so much pleasure to
the finder, the recollection that many an eye besides our own
might, through our consideration, be equally gratified, would
often stay the hand and spare the prize when not absolutely re-
quired. ;

With many apologies for the deficiencies of this Address, it
only remains for me to thank you for the honour you have done
me in placing me in the position to offer it.

An Account of Edin’s Hall, in the Parish of Dunse, and County
of Berwick. By Gnuorcr TurnBuut, of Abbey St. Bathans,
W.S., F.R.S.E.

Introduction —The ruins of Edin’s Hall, lymg within the di-
strict of our Society, exhibit a specimen of a peculiar kind of
building, of which I believe no other example exists in the Anglo-
Saxon part of Great Britain.

It is to be regretted exceedingly that this smgular edifice has
been allowed to fall into a state of almost entire decay. The
dilapidation of it must have been commenced at a remote period,
because, prior to the earliest accounts which we have of it, im-
mense quantities of its materials had been rolled down the banks
on which it stands, where they are still to be found. Until nearly
the end, however, of the last century, the walls of it remained
to the height of seven or eight feet, and the doorway was ex-
tant. About that period a large quantity of stones was carried
away from it to form dikes for the adjoining fields, an opera-
tion which greatly impaired the distinctive features of the build-
ing. What remained of these features is fast disappearing, in
consequence, as it is believed, of persons turning over and dis-
placing the stones, in the hope of finding articles of value or
curiosity among them. The ruins now exhibit, at first sight,
nothing but a considerable quantity of loose stones heaped to-
gether in a large circle. On closer examination, however, the
building and its peculiarities are still discernible among the
rubbish. But such an examination will ere long prove fruitless,
so rapidly is the work of destruction gomg on. The present
therefore is the proper time for preparing, from actual inspection,
an account of this teresting monument of antiquity. Nor is
such a work unnecessary ; for although there exist several descrip-
tions of the ruins, yet all of them are more or less inaccurate in
their details *. These accounts, too, are meagre and unsatisfac-
tory on the important: question as to the origin of the building,
a question which admits of further illustration.

* See the Scots Magazine for 1764 (vol. xxvi. p. 431), Sir John Sin-
clair’s Statistical Account of Scotland (parish of Dunse), Chalmers’s Cale-
donia (vol. ii. p. 211), and Statistical Account published in 1841 (Berwick-
shire, Dunse). The notice of Edin’s Hall given in the last of these pub-
lications was prepared by the author of the present paper, and on that ac-
count he is the more anxious to correct the inaccuracies it contains. For
these inaccuracies the only apology he can plead is, that having been called
on hurriedly to write the article, he was led to make some statements from
memory and others from testimony, without verifying them himself on the
spot. Such indirect evidence, however, ought always to be adopted with
caution.

10 Mr. G. Turnbull on Edin’s Hall.

Desirous to supply the defects referred to, I have made the
necessary examinations, measurements and inquiries, and I now
submit the result to the Society.

Name.—The name given by the inhabitants of the district to
the ruins about to be described is Hedins Ha’. In conformity with
this their oral designation, the ‘ Scots Magazine,’ which is the first
publication that notices them, calls them Eedins Hall. In a MS.
account of them by the late Mr. John Blackadder*, the name is
written Idenshall; but it will be recollected that in Scotland the
letter I was formerly and is yet often pronounced like He. On
Armstrong’s and Blackadder’s maps of Berwickshire, and on
that published by Messrs. Sharp, Greenwood and Fowler, the
building is designated Wooden’s Hall. The ordinary ortho-
graphy of the name, however, is that adopted in the present
paper.

Site.—Edin’s Hall hes about a mile east from Abbey St. Ba-
thans, on the hill called Cockburn Law, one of the range of the
Lammermoors. This hill rises to the height of 1049 feet above
the level of the seat. From its summit an extensive prospect of
the country towards the south is obtained, including the Merse
and a considerable portion of the fertile plain watered by the
Tweed and its tributaries, and bounded by the Cheviots at a
distance of more than twenty miles, and the remoter hills of the
county of Roxburgh. The sea is nearly hidden by part of the
mountain range, which runs inland from St. Abb’s Head, and by
the high ground which stretches from that range by Colding-
ham, Ayton and Lamberton towards Berwick. Yet glimpses
of it are got at two or three places where there are depressions
in the land.

Edin’s Hall itselfis not so situated as to command any exten-
sive prospect. Its site is on the northern side of Cockburn Law,
where the horizon is much circumscribed by the adjoining hills,
and where the view is confined to a few miles of the valley of
the Whitadder, and of the adjoining valley of the Eye.

* Mr. John Blackadder, of Blanerne East-side, an accurate land mea-
surer and surveyor. He was the author of the best map of the county of
Berwick, prior to that of Messrs. Sharp and Co., published in 1826.

+ The height of Cockburn Law above the sea is usually stated to be
912 feet ; this however is incorrect. The following may be regarded as
a near approximation to the true height :—

feet

Platform of Railway Station at Grant’s House above the sea.. 366
St. Bathans Cottage above the said platform..............4. 109
Summit of Cockburn Law above that cottage ............. . 574
Teale cont. Chieti 1049

Of these measurements the first was ascertained by levels taken for the
North British Railway, and the two last by several sets of barometrical
observations.

Mr. G. Turnbull on Edin’s Hall. 11

Relatively to the hill on which it stands, Edin’s Hall lies at
about the sixth or seventh part of the distance from the base to
the summit, that summit bearing south-west. The ground here
is comparatively level, though uneven on the surface. The plat-
form of the building, as it may be termed, is bounded on the
south-west by the acclivity of the hill, on the north-west by the
bank of a deep hollow, on the north-east by a steep bank washed
by the river Whitadder, and on the east by a more gentle but
irregular descent to the low ground. In perpendicular height
the site is 254 feet above the channel of the river, and 384 feet
below the top of the hill.

Masonry.—The building is constructed entirely of stone,without
any other material. The kind of stone is whin (greywacke), ob-
viously taken from the adjoming hill. The larger blocks, which
mostly occur in the exterior side of the wall, measure between
two and three feet i length, but there are many of greater size.
None of the stones seem to have been dressed, but they retain their
original irregular shapes. They are angular, as if they had been
quarried or gathered before being rolled to any distance from the
mass of which they are fragments. They have not been united
by cement or even clay. They have however been very accurately
adjusted in their places, their irregularities being fitted into one
another or filled up with smaller stones. The face of the wall
is regular and smooth, particularly on the outside of the build-
ing. The whole presents a very perfect specimen of what is
called dry-stone masonry. (Plate I.) 2

Form.—The form of the edifice is circular *. The entire circle
remains, except for a short space on the south, where the
building is now reduced to the level of the surrounding debris.
The outward face of the wall runs nearly, though not correctly,
in a circle, but that of the interior departs considerably from
this figure. One may suppose that before the building was
erected the outer circle was traced upon the uneven surface of
the ground, and that the line within was left to the eye of the
workmen. The following are the lengths of the exterior dia-
meters nearly :—

Pron’ N. to SP ew WAR ina How O21 feet
From E. to W. Re cee eee i Oe hegy
BeomtS- tito NeW cscs) si, >. Gee. 3

Ona GS WV enGOeING Bie eiyecwlhs cow ssh ORs m vay

* See Plan (Plates ].andII.). In the account of the building given in the
“Scots Magazine’ it is said, ‘“‘ The form of it consists of three concentric
circles, 6 or 7 feet distant from one another, and the diameter of the in-
nermost is about 20 feet.”? But there is not at present any vestige of three
circles, nor are they delineated on a sketch of the building made by Mr.
Blackadder in or about the year 1793.

12 Mr. G. Turnbull on Edin’s Hall.

Wall.—The thickness of the wall varies at different places from
15 feet 3 inches to 19 feet 2 inches. There is nothing to show
that a bench or narrow terrace ever existed round the bottom of
the wall in the interior. The portions of the wall still re-
maining are quite perpendicular.

Doorway.—The doorway and passage which led through the
wall from without to the area within, lay on the east side of the
buildmg. This passage may still be partially traced, but not so
as to admit of admeasurement in all its dimensions. It appears
however that the length of the passage was 17 feet. The external
entrance of it was entire about the year 1793, and is said to have
been low and narrow, and covered with very large stones. IJn-
deed some large stones still he at this part of the rum. At the
place where the inner doorway of the passage must have existed
there are two large stones, 5 feet 4 inches apart, which may have
been its corners. No doubt a door of this width could uot,
like the one on the outside, be said to be narrow; but if the
passage between them went through a chamber in the interior
of the wall, as there are some reasons to believe, it may have
been made wider at one place than the other*.

Cells.—In the heart of the walls open spaces formerly ex-
isted. These spaces are now filled up with rubbish, but the
sides of them are more or less apparent in most parts of the circle.
In two places we can trace the entire figures of distinct cham-
bers. These form long narrow apartments, of which the ends
are semicircular and the sides partake of the curvature of the
walls. In breadth they are both about 7 feet, and in length
they are respectively about 33 and 238 feet. One of them seems
to have been divided by a partition with a doorway in it. There
are indications of an entrance to each of these cells from the
central area of about 3 feet in width. Other two cells lie on
each side of the entrance passage, both of the same breadth as
the rest. It does not appear whether they had any direct com-
munication with that passage by doorways, or whether they
were not entirely open to it, forming in that case one large
chamber with the passage going through the middle of it. The
other vacant spaces are all of the width of 7 feet, except one

* «There was a low narrow door covered with immense large stones on
the east side that led into the interior of the building, all of which have
been long ago removed for enclosing the adjoining fields.” (Blackadder’s
MS. 1834.)

Chalmers in his description of the building says that it had “two entries,
one on the south, and the other at no great distance on the south-west.”
But in making this statement he has misconceived the authority which he
has referred to. That authority is the ‘Scots Magazine,’ and the entries
there spoken of as on the south and south-west are expressly said to be
those “ which run over the trenches.”

Mr. G. Turnbull on Edin’s Hail. 13

whose sides converge to 2 feet 6 inches at one of its ends. Like
those that are more entire, they may have had entrances from the
inner court, but these entrances are not at present discernible.
It is said that these openings were covered, but this fact cannot
be ascertained in the present dilapidated state of the building.
Neither can it be ascertained whether any of them were used as
staircases or inclined ascents to the top. In the earlier accounts
they are all described as separate cells*.

Windows.—lf windows ever existed in the building, no indi-
cations of them now appear, nor indeed could reasonably be
looked for, in consequence of the very inconsiderable height of
the remains of the walls. In none of the accounts of it is any
mention of windows made.

Height.—It is impossible to form any conjecture as to the
original height of the structure, but it must have been consider-
able, as may be inferred from the quantity of materials rolled
down the bank and carried away, and from what still lies within
and around the building.

Roof.—It is very improbable that an edifice of such magni-
tude, and erected by rude artists, could have had a roof which
covered the whole of it.

Such was the principal building, or what may be called the
Keep of Edin’s Hall+.

Subordinate buildings.—Kastward from this keep the ground
is marked by the foundations of other buildings. These foun-
dations are now mostly overgrown with turf, and exhibit the
appearance of low mounds, having the larger stones protruding.
On a careful examination of these mounds, the foundations of
four circular buildings can be traced, and there may have been
others ; but this circumstance is uncertain, the mequalities of the
ground not being sufficiently unequivocal to establish it. Of
these subordinate buildings, the largest, and now the most di-
stinct in its remains, is situated at the distance of about 75 feet
south-east from the Hall. Its diameter outside is 62 feet, and

* In the ‘ Scots Magazine’ the cells are described thus :—“ In the heart
of the walls there are several square holes, which seem to go perpendicular
downwards.” In Mr. Blackadder’s MS. it is said, that at the time he sur-
veyed the ruins (about 1793), “ the cells were quite distinct, and apparently
had been closed at the top with large stones in the form of an arch.” It
is impossible, however, to suppose that the builders of a structure in which
no cement was used understood the art of forming an arch. It is more
probable that the roofs of the cells, if they had any, were constructed of
large stones projecting the one over the other (a mode of construction called
corbelling by masons). If this were the case, when the building became
ruinous, these stones falling against and resting on each other would pro-
duce the appearance of a rude arch.

+ It is extremely probable, that by carefully removing the rubbish with-
out disturbing the stones built on one another, the entire ground plan may
be recovered.

14 Mr. G. Turnbull on Edin’s Hall.

the thickness of the wall is 7 feet. This wall seems to have con-
tained no chambers or galleries. The next in importance of the
circular edifices measures 35 feet in external diameter, having its
wall 6 feet thick. Other two he near what was probably the
original entrance across the ditches and ramparts, to be after-
wards noticed, and seem each to have been about 30 feet in ex-
ternal diameter. The other foundations run in lines nearly
straight, and meet at several points. Whether any of them
formed rectangular houses is uncertain, because the four sides of
such a house are nowhere to be seen. It may safely, however,
be assumed that most of them were merely the division-walls of
open spaces, these spaces being of considerable size. Some of
these walls abut upon the towers, as if the latter had been con-
nected with court-yards.

Fortifications.—The buildings have been protected by rude
fortifications. The keep is surrounded, or nearly so, by a wall,
enclosing an area of a very irregular shape, measuring from north
to south about 210 feet, and from east to west about 180 feet.
This wall joins the principal subordinate building already de-
scribed; on the east, north and west it is composed of stone,
the foundations measuring at different places 6} and 7} feet in
thickness; on the south towards the hill, this wall is composed
of earth thrown up into the form of a high mound, having a
trench on its outer side. Beyond this defence, sweeping round
all the buildings, where the ground naturally affords the easiest
access to them (that is to say, on the east, south and
south-west), are two mounds or ramparts of earth, having a
trench or dry ditch on the outer side, and a similar ditch be-
tween them. These ramparts and trenches vary in magnitude
at different places, being greatest where they face the hill. At
one place the ditch, notwithstanding the effect of time in fill-
ing it up, is still 13 feet deep, measured from the level of
the top of the rampart. On the west and north, where the
banks above the river form a natural defence, a single trench,
comparatively shallow, runs behind the wall which encloses the
keep, and is thence continued with the wall also till it meets the
other works. From the edge of the outer ditch, on the south-
western side of the fortress, a wall without trenches, of about
180 yards in length, runs down the hollow on the west until it
reaches the top of a small ravine descending to the river. The
entrance to the ground enclosed by these works seems to have
been on the east, as indicated by the mounds there. At differ-
ent places, particularly on the east and west, the ramparts are
now nearly levelled, and the ditches filled up to the surface of
the adjoming ground. Where the ramparts still remain there
are two openings through them, the one on the south and the
other on the south-west. These, though not apparently of mo-

Mr. G. Turnbull on EHdin’s Hail. 15

dern construction, do not seem to have been cozval with the
works themselves, but were probably formed when these works
had become no longer requisite as means of defence.

Well.—There is no spring within the fort. As it is not likely,
however, that the inhabitants would choose to rely at all times
_on obtaining water from without, it is probable that this neces-
sary article was procured by means of a pit-well; but of such a
well no marks can be found. It must long ago have been filled
up or covered over.

Neighbouring camp.—It may be mentioned that the summit
of the hill on which Edin’s Hall stands is surrounded by
trenches. These, like the trenches at the Hall, are adapted to
the nature of the ground; that is to say, where it is steepest
there is one ditch only, but where it is easier of access there are
two and three. They must either have originally been shallow,
or are now in a great measure filled up. In this respect the
camp on Cockburn Law is unlike what are understood to be
Danish camps in the same district, these having their trenches
much deeper, and being altogether in better preservation. This
circumstance may perhaps lead to the inference, that this camp
is not of Danish but of Saxon origin. In the middle of the
entrenched ground a shaft has been sunk, which is lined at the
mouth, if not deeper, with building of uncemented stone, formed
not into a circle but an oblong. It was no doubt a well, but is
now nearly filled with stones.

Similar buildings.—Although no remains similar to those of _
the Keep of Hdin’s Hall are to be found in England or in the
Lowlands of Scotland, there are numerous examples in the High-
lands, in Orkney and Zetland, in the Hebrides and in Ireland*.
In Scotland they are called Burghs by the Saxon inhabitants,
and Duns by the Celtic. There are distinctions, however, be-
tween these burghs or duns and Edin’s Hall. In size they are
less, the openings within the walls are smaller, being in general
from two to three feet only in width imstead of seven, and these
openings are of a different construction, bemg commonly conti-
nuous passages all round the building, and not separate cham-
bers. In the very remarkable ruin near Londonderry, called the
Grianan of Aileach (which was the residence of Irish kings till the
twelfth century), the galleries are two in number, entering from
the inner court, and occupying each nearly a quarter of the circlet.

Origin of such buildings—Such buildings must have been

* See Gordon’s Itinerarium Septentrionale, p. 166; Pennant’s Tour ;
Sir Walter Scott’s Notes on the Castle of Conimgsburgh in Ivanhoe, and
on the Castle of Moussa in his Journal of a Voyage round Scotland, pre-
served in his Life by Lockhart.

+ Ordnance Survey of Londonderry.

16 Mr. G. Turnbull on Edin’s. Hall.

erected by a people very little advanced im the arts. It is pro-
bable that they originated in a wall raised as a screen around
the fire of a family. In process of time, in order to afford pro-
tection from enemies, the wall would be mereased in thickness
and height. When it reached so great a width as twelve or
fifteen feet, it would be natural to construct apartments within
it. The more massive of such structures would be appropriated
to chiefs ; and while they and their immediate dependents would
occupy the great stronghold, outhouses would be built for the
rest of their followers and for horses, cattle and other moveable
property. All these would of course be surrounded by trenches
and ramparts. Thus may be supposed to have arisen such
works as Edin’s Hall.

Residences of this kind are little suited to our modern ideas
of comfort ; yet it is not to be supposed that their inmates were
at all times exposed to the open sky. Sheds would probably be
erected within the enclosure, and if carried round the wall
would be open only towards the fire in the midst. Entering
from these sheds, the apartments in the wall would afford places
for retirement, rest and security*.

It is curious to remark analogies between these and the
houses of more civilized nations. In the villas of the ancient
Romans, the principal hall (Atrium) may be described as an open
court surrounded by sheds, from which apartments entered; but
as a fire was not required, a tank (Impluvium) was formed in
the midst, which received the rain-water from the roof.

The hovels of the inhabitants of northern climates, who have
made little progress in civilization, are derived from the same
primary model. A wall surrounds a fire, and a roof is con-
structed on this wall, with a hole in the centre of it for the
egress of the smoke.

Origin of Edin’s Hall.—No historical notice has been found
referring directly to Kdin’s Hall. Its origin and purpose, there-
fore, can be inferred only from circumstances. On this subject
many conjectures have been formed. Among others, are the
hypotheses that the building was a Druidical temple—a temple
of Woden, a temple of the god Terminus, a station for an army
of observation against the Danes, and a storehouse of provisions
for a chain of camps on the Lammermoors, formed to repel the
English and other enemies. Most of these conjectures are evi-.
dently groundless, and it is needless to discuss any of them, if

* Tf, as is said to have been the case in one of the descriptions of it,
there were at any time walls within the area of Edin’s Hall concentric with
the great building, these may have been intended as supports for the roofs
of sheds. Of course these walls would have openings through them towards
the centre. .

Mr. G. Turnbull on Edin’s Hall. 4

the real purpose of the building can be shown to be different
from them all.

Is a palace of Edwin.—The most probable account of the ori-
gin of Edin’s Hall is, that it was erected as a palace for Edwin
king of Northumbria, who reigned between the years 617 and
633. The evidence in favour of this proposition shall be detailed.

Lies within his kingdom.—lt is now generally admitted by
historians that the south-eastern part of Scotland, that is, the
district between the Firth of Forth and the Tweed, was included
in the ancient kingdom of Northumbria*. Hence Edin’s Hall
was situated within that kingdom. Indeed, an ancient historian
states that the country watered by the Whitadder, the very river
on whose banks the hall of Edwin stood, formed part of the
bishopric of Lindisfarne when it was presided over by the cele-
brated St. Cuthbert, and which was then situated within the
territory of the Saxonst. St. Cuthbert flourished only about
fifty years after Edwin.

Bears his name.—While Edin’s Hall was thus situated within
the territory subject to Edwin, it further bears his name. In
the compound word Edinshall, Edin is evidently used as a

* The authority for this statement may be shortly mentioned. Bede
says that the monastery of Abercurnig lay two miles distant from the Ro-
man wall which jomed the Firths of Clyde and Forth (Beda, Eccles. Hist.
B. i. c. 12). And in another place the same author expressly states that
the monastery of Abercurnig was “seated in the country of the English,
but close by the arm of the sea which parts the lands of the English and
the Scots ”—“ posito in regione Anglorum, sed in vicinia freti quod An~
glorum terras Pictorumque distermmat”’ (Beda, B. iv. ec. 26). Hence the
country of the English or Northumbria was bounded by the Firth of Forth.
The place called Abercurnig by Bede is the modern Abercorn.

t ‘‘ Hic est Lindisfarnensis terre terminus: a fluvio Tweoda usque ad
Pharnamuthe, (Warrenmouth ?) et inde superius usque ad illum locum ubi
heee aqua que vocatur Pharned (Warren ?) oritur juxta montem Hybbern-
dune, (Hebburnbell ?) et ab illo monte usque ad fluvium qui vocatur Bro-
mic, (Bremish?) et inde usque ad fluvium qui vocatur Till, et tota terra
que jacet ex utraque parte ipsius fluminis Bromic usque ad illum locum
ubi oritur; et illa terra ultra Tweoda ab illo loco ubi oritur fluvius Edrz
(Whitadder) ab aquilone usque ad illum locum ubi cadit in Tweoda, et
tota terra quee jacet inter istum fluvium Edre et alterum fluvium qui vo-
catur Leder (Leader) versus occidentem, et tota terra que jacet ex orien-
tali parte istius aque que vocatur Leder usque ad illum locum ubi caidit
in fluvium Tweoda versus austram ; et tota terra que pertinet ad monas-
terium Sancti Balthere quod vocatur Tinningaham a Lombermore (Lam-
mermoor) usque ad Escemuthe (Eskmouth, Inveresk).”” (Twysden’s Scrip-
tores Decem—Historia de Sancto Cuthberto, col. 68.) The river called Edra
in this quotation can be no other than that which flows into the Tweed
near Paxton. Hence are derived the names of places on its banks—Edra-
tun (Edrington) and Edra-ham (Edrom). Hence also its principal tribu-
tary, which is of a dark colour, bemg impregnated with moss, is called
Black-edra (Blackadder), and hence too, in order to contradistinguish this
branch from the main stream, the latter is called White-edra (Whitadder).

B.N.C.—VOL. III. N° I. Cc

18 Mr. G. Turnbu!l on Edin’s Hall.

proper name in the possessive case. Hdinshall therefore means
the hall of Edin. Who then was Edin? He must either have
been the god Woden or the king Edwin, for to none else has
the name ever been attributed. But all the derivatives from
Woden are spelled with the letter W, as Wanborough, Wood-
nesborough, Wonston, and eleven others mentioned by Kemble*,
and the word Edin wants this characteristic. On the other
hand, Edin is the ordinary abbreviation of Edwin. Thus, of
the two derivations, that from Edwin is the more probable.

The affix “ Hall” strengthens the inference. It 1s an Anglo-
Saxon word+, and therefore the building, if erected by Edwin,
may have borne its present appellation from the first. If it
had been called by any name of Celtic or Roman origin, the
inference that it is a Saxon work would have been more than
doubtful.

Exhibits the architecture of his time.—We have found no
contemporary account of the architecture of the Anglo-Saxons
in the time of King Edwin, insofar at least as regards build-
ings of stone. We may infer, however, from incidental notices
and other circumstances, that it was similar to that exempli-
fied in Edin’s Hall. (1.) The art of building with mortar or
cement was then unknown in Northumbria. “The truth is
that the Anglo-Saxons, at their arrival in this island, were
almost totally ignorant of this art, and, like all the other
nations of Germany, had been accustomed to live in wretched
hovels built of wood or earth and covered with straw or the
branches of trees. Nor did they much improve in the know-
ledge of architecture for two hundred years after their arrival {.”’
The first stone buildings in this district m which cement was
used were the Cathedral of Hexham and the Monastery of
Weremouth, and these were constructed by masons brought
for the purpose from Rome and France towards the end of
the seventh century. Hence any edifice of stone, erected
during the reign of Edwin, must, like Edin’s Hall, have wanted
mortar. (2.) The stone buildings of the tribes on the continent,
who were neighbours to the Saxons and of the same race, were
probably of the same kind as Edin’s Hall. This inference arises
from the similarity between this ruin and the Burghs or Duns

* Kemble’s Saxons in England, vol. . p. 344.
* + Johnson’s Dictionary. The followmg mstances occur in the Saxon
Chronicle of places called by the name of Hall. ‘ Pincan heal,” Pencans-
hall, now Finkley m Durham. “ Rihala,’? Roughhall, now Ryall im Rut-
landshire. (Henry’s History, vol. 11. p. 609.) The word Hall occurs in the
following passage in the Saxon Laws :—“‘If a man fight or draw weapon
in the Kimg’s Hall and be taken in the act, he shall lie at the King’s mercy
to slay or pardon him.” (Kemble’s Saxons, vol. ii. p. 50.)

+t Henry’s Hist. vol. ui. p. 391.

Mr. G. Turnbull on Edin’s Hall. 19

of the Highlands and islands of Scotland. These are acknow-
ledged to have been the workmanship of the ancient Scandi-
navians, whose place of settlement im Denmark adjoined that of
the Saxons in Jutland, and who were members of the same
Teutonic race. It is reasonable to assume therefore that both
used the same style of architecture and masonry. If the ancient
Danes and Norwegians built edifices of uncemented stone, so
probably did the continental Saxons, who afterwards settled in
England.

Agrees with accounts of sites. —The site of Edin’s Hall agrees
with what appears, in most instances, to have been that of
the residences of the first Saxon kings of England. These
residences were situated not so frequently in towns as in the
country. Bede calls them “Regie ville,’ royal vills, com-
monly translated royal country-seats. These are distinguished
by him from “Urbes,” cities or towns*. Kemble, referring
‘generally to the situation chosen for the fortresses of kings
and chiefs, describes it thus:—“A gentle hill crowned with a
shght earth-work or even a stout hedge, and capacious enough
to receive all who require protection}.”” Such is nearly a de-
scription of the site of Edin’s Hall. And it may be remarked
that Adgefrin, now Yeavering, on the river Glen, noted as the
place where three of Edwin’s children and a multitude of his
followers were baptized, is situated in a district not dissimilar
to that of Edin’s Hall. Near to both places are considerable
eminences (viz. Cockburn Law and Yeavering Bell) commanding
prospects of extensive districts of country.

Illustrates a passage in Bede.—There is an interesting passage
in the ‘ Ecclesiastical History’ of the Venerable Bede, which
throws light on the subject of this memoir, and which is itself
illustrated by it.

We are told that King Edwin, though a pagan, espoused a
christian princess, named Ethelberga, who was daughter to the
king of Kent. By her influence, and by the preaching of the
missionary Paulinus, who had accompanied her to Northumbria,
Edwin was persuaded to embrace her faith. He resolved, how-
ever, to delay the public acknowledgement of his conversion
until he had consulted the great council of his kingdom. He
assembled therefore the Witena-gemote, and asked the members
what they thought of the new doctrine and worship. One of
them made the following reply, which is described by Kemble
as the earliest specimen of English parliamentary eloquence :—
“It appears to me, O king, that man’s present life on earth is

* Bede, Ecel. Hist. B. iii. c. 17. + Kemble’s Saxons, i. 301.
c2

20 Mr. G. Turnbull on Edin’s Hall.

such, in comparison of that time which is unknown to us, as if,
whilst thou, with thy generals and ministers, art sitting at sup-
per, in the season of winter, having a good fire kindled in the
midst, and a warm place for the repast obtained, but storms of
rain or snow raging everywhere without, a sparrow were to
come in and fly rapidly through the house, entering by one
opening and immediately going out by another. So long as it
remains within, it is not affected by the storm; but the short
space of serenity being past, it immediately returns into the
wintry air whence it came and vanishes from thy sight. So this
life of man appears for a moment ; but what is to follow or what
preceded it, we are entirely ignorant of. Therefore, if this new
doctrine should bring any thing more certain, it seems to de-
serve to be followed*.” Other members spoke to the same effect ;
and after an oration from Paulus, even the pagan high priest
Coiffi expressed his conviction, and then led the way in destroy-
ing the temples and idols.

The illustration given by the ancient Saxon counsellor could
hardly have occurred to a modern orator. Accustomed as we
are to closed apartments, it would have been imappropriate and
far-fetched to have spoken of a fire in the midst of a banqueting
hall, and the entrance and flight of a sparrow through it. But
these are circumstances very likely to have occurred in a house
having no roof, or only a partial one.

The circumstances now mentioned render it, we think, more
than probable that Hdin’s Hall was really a palace of Edwin,
King of Northumbria.

Edinburgh.—The affinity of the name of this building to that
of the metropolis of Scotland cannot but be remarked. Indeed
it is now generally held that Edwin was the founder of that city.
If this be true, he probably erected there a Burgh or Dun similar
to Edin’s Hall. Accordingly the place is called Edinburgh (Ed-

win’s Burgh) in Saxon, and Dunedin in Geelic.

* «Talis, inquiens, mihi videtur, Rex, vita hommum presens in terris,
ad comparationem ejus quod nobis incertum est temporis, quale, cum te
residente ad coenam cum ducibus et ministris tuis tempore brumali, accenso
quidem foco in medio et calido effecto ccenaculo, furentibus autem foris per
omnia turbinibus hiemalium pluviarum vel nivium, adveniensque unus
passerum domum citissime pervolarit, qui cum per unum ostium ingrediens
mox per alind exierit ; ipso quidem tempore quo intus est hiemis tempes-
tate non tangitur, sed tamen minimo spatio serenitatis ad momentum ex-
curso, mox de hieme in hiemem regrediens tuis oculis elabitur.” (Beda,
Eccles. Hist. lib. i. c. 13.) We have translated “ostium” not by the
word “ door,” but by “ opening,” because it cannot be assumed that in a
period of constant warfare the Saxon chiefs would hold entertainments with
open doors amid a hostile population.

Plate I

a ~
10 5 o 10 20 30 40 50
i

—t —— —— —_—. |

Scale of Feet

_Primcipal Building of Edin’s Hall.

Scale of Feet.

Masonry of Kdin’s Hall.

Ford & George, Lithographers 54,Hatton Garden

3291 P e809
os OF Lola

WET Tat Si ASN

21

Linton and its Legends, By Cuaries Witson, M.D.

On approaching, from the northward, the narrow outlet through
which the mountain stream of the Kail issues from the range
of the Cheviots, to meander through the more open plain which
expands itself at their base, we come suddenly, by a short and
abrupt descent, on the romantic site of the little church of
Linton.

The prospect from the brow of the height which overhangs
the church is one of quiet and simple beauty. Its leading fea-
tures are the stately woods surrounding the mansion-house of
Clifton; the church itself, with the remarkable grassy knoll
upon which it is elevated; the level expanse tracked by the
windings of the little river; the village of Morbattle perched on
an eminence beyond it; and the heights of the Cheviots, ascend-
ing in gradations till their loftier summits bound the distance.
A farm-hamlet, or a group of cottages, strewed here and there
among the corn-fields, or on the green slopes, denotes the rural
character of the population; who live here peacefully in that
seclusion which is not obscurity, surrounded by the tokens of
their skilful industry ; and virtuously in the aggregate, or with
faults which rarely pass beyond an occasional excess at the vyil-
lage tavern, or a breach of the game-laws. It requires a closer
Inspection to point out to us the roof of the manse, peering from
behind its screen of foliage; the humble tomb-stones scattered
over the church knoll; and the lane, overshadowed by elm and
ash-tree, that leads, with a solemnizing influence, to the spot
where, for long centuries, the path to eternity has been marked
forth from among the mouldering relics of time.

There are few modern associations, connected with the locality
or its inhabitants, which are sufficiently prominent to impress
themselves upon the memory: though he would be but a cold
observer who could not look with pleasure on the small pastoral
estate of Wideopen, which is seen rising eastward from the Kail,
and which was once the inheritance of the poet Thomson, who
is said to have here composed his Winter, and to have gathered
many of the materials for its scenes and incidents, and descrip-
tions, from the ordinary experience of life among the “ hopes
and scaurs” of the surrounding hills.

And yet there is no locality im this district, on which the
history of the more remote past is written with deeper traces,
than on that now before us. ‘The designations of many of the
separate elevations of the range of the Cheviots reveal to us the
ancient occupation of the country by a tribe of the Celts; while
the names of the hamlets, as Tofts, Morbattle, Caverton (A.-S.
Ceafertun, a hall, an inclosure), Otterburn, Whitton, Linton

22 Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends.

itself, and many others, tell plamly of the later immigration of
the Anglo-Saxon race; and speak also, though with less distinct-
ness, of a more limited and less enduring settlement on the part
of the Frisians and Danes. The condition of a still later period
portrays itself in the rumed towers of Cessford, Whitton, and
Corbet, and in the recollection of others now levelled with the
ground; all unhappily teeming with traditions of that feud,
bloodshed and rapine, which were here the prevailing character-
istics of the “ good old times.” It is, however, with the legends
and traditions immediately relating to the church of Linton that
the following observations will chiefly connect themselves: and
it is hoped it may be shown that these traditions are invested
with a degree of real interest, which certainly may be easily sur-
passed elsewhere, but which has at least no parallel among the
similar records of the neighbouring rural fanes. Such subjects
of inquiry have frequently been suggested as coming properly
within the limits of the Club’s researches; and I have, there-
fore, no apology to offer, unless for defects of execution, im
laying before the scholar and the antiquary, or the observer of
mankind, these easy illustrations, gathered almost at random from
among severer studies, of the early evolvements of our dawning
civilization, with its crude yet bold imaginations, simple in the
infancy of culture as in the infancy of age.

Let us*then descend from the eminence, the prospect from
which, with its wide associations, we have just faintly character-
ized ; and passing by, in the meantime, the sheltered churchyard
lane, let us wind our way towards the closely adjacent mill of
Linton, whose once picturesque aspect has recently receded be-
fore the progress of improvement ; and here, seeking the stile
leading into the little meadow on the right, we at once find our-
selves beside the low, irregular mound, which hides, with its
covering of grove and verdure, all that now remains of the ancient
stronghold of the barons of Linton. ‘The first notice of Linton
which has occurred to my observation dates towards the middle
of the twelfth century; when Karl Henry, the eldest son of
David I., bestowed it as a manor upon Richard Cumyn, the
earliest of that powerful race who obtained possessions in Scot-
land. It appears, however, to have remained only a short time
in the tenure of the Cumyns, for we find that im 1174 it was
transferred to John Somervill, a baron of Norman descent, and
a recent settler from England. This baron is said to have
reared the tower of Linton; and, dying at a ripe age, was buried
im the quer of the adjoiming church*. His descendants appear

* ©Memorie of the Somervills,’ from the MS. of James, eleventh Lord
Somerville, 1679. The facts are there stated to have been gleaned “ mostly
in ther oune charters and those of ther vassals.”

Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends. 23

to have made the fortalice their usual residence till about the
year 13820, when Carnwath, a still more ancient possession, be-
came their principal seat. Under pretence of forfeiture of the
family, who had faithfully preserved their allegiance to the Scot-
tish monarch, the lands of Lynton were seized, circiter 1848, by
Edward III., and conferred upon Richard of Kirkbride (V. Rot.
Scotia). The more supple courtier did not long profit, however,
by his subserviency ; for the mock forfeiture was annulled by
David II., who, on his return from captivity, re-established the
Somervilles in their possessions, granting them the necessary
confirmation of all previous charters.

For nearly two and a half centuries, the barons, with rare ex-
ceptions, continued to be buried in the choir of Linton Church ;
and as late as 1426, Thomas Lord Somerville appears to have
“caused repair the church and queir of Lintoune, and the tower
of Lintoune.” But they were gradually clinging less closely to
_ the domain and burial-place of their fathers: and before the
close of the fifteeuth century it was wholly alienated from their
race, and became the property of the Kers, in the person of
James Ker, the second son of Andrew Ker of Auldtonburn and
Cessford ; unless, indeed, that the feudal superiority seems still
to have been retained, as a sole vestige of the ancient possession.

Linton continued in the possession of the Kers for about two
centuries, during the earlier part of which the events in its
history were simply those which related to the position of its
owners, as the vassals of a powerful sept, struggling among the
most desperate in the marauding contests of the times. In
1502, James Ker of Lintoune appears characteristically as a surety
for certain border thieves*. On the 20th July, 1522, the tower
was burned to the “bare stane walles” by the English, when its
garrison of sixteen men was saved by the lucky expedient of
placing themselves between the battlements and a stone gable
on the roof, which protected them from the flames. In 1523,
its destruction was completed by Surrey, who razed it to the
ground. In 1528, George Ker of Lyntoune was “ amerciated
for not appearing to underly the law,” his undignified offence
being that of chasing and wounding the “parkit deir” of Cok-
burne of Ormistounet. About the termination of the seven-
teenth century the barony came, by purchase, into the posses-
sion of the Pringles of Clifton, and is now held by Mr. Elhot as
heir of entail of that family. Not a stone from the battlements
of the fortalice lies now above the surface to give token of its
former existence. Its last relic was an iron door, which was dug
out, about thirty years ago, from the mound concealing the
shattered foundations. The traces of these denote the fabric to

* Pitcairn’s Criminal Trials, vol. 1. p. 32. + Ibid. p. 140.

24 Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends.

have been of considerable extent; and the local tradition states
it to have been defended by a moat, the water for which was
supplied by a tiny rivulet, still to be seen passing along the
eastern side of the road. —

A few paces westward of the site of the castle, rises the more
elevated knoll which has already been mentioned as sustaining
the church. The original church of Linton is of very remote,
though uncertain, antiquity, and there is some reason to believe
that it may have first risen on the ruins of what had been pre-
viously a heathen temple. The religious structures of our Teu-
tonic forefathers, before the introduction of Christianity, were
rarely, if ever, regular edifices, but consisted merely of some con-
spicuous eminence, placed either in the forests or in some sheltered
grassy meadow, and surrounded by a simple stockade, a circle of
ash-trees, or a ring of heaped stones. Bede, in his ‘Church
History,’ describes the “ aras et fana idolorum, cum septis qui-
bus sunt circumdata:” and we have an additional proof of the
usual slightness of their fabric in the fact that, as well in this
country as in Germany and Scandinavia, there is an almost total
absence of distinct remains of buildings which had been evidently
so appropriated. Partly, m all hkelihood, from a lingering re-
gard, in the spirit of the common people, for the inherent sane-
tity of these places, and partly from a desire, im the leading
apostles of the new and better faith, to proclaim im the most in-
disputable manner the extinction of the old idolatry, we find that
at this early period the frail sanctuary of paganism was fre-
quently made to give way to the more solid structure of the
Christian church; and that the rites of a purer religion super-
seded, not only in the hearts of the converts, but at the very
altars of superstition, the gross and blood-stained worship which
had been newly abolished. Besides, the temple of the early
Teutonic races was also ordinarily the “ Thing” (Folkmote), or
place for the assembhes of the people, whether for the promulga-
tion of laws or the distribution of justice*. Here too were cele-
brated their principal festivals +; and in the vicinity was usually
the residence of their chief. Thus all things combined to knit
the locality with the feelings and affections of the people; and
it was but following the course of nature and of habit, when the
Angle turned to worship the one God, on the spot which had
been recently dedicated as the shrine of Woden or of Thor.

Paganism, as manifested in the fanciful mythology of the North,
may be considered as having been predominantly established in
this district for the-space of nearly a century; dating from the

* Allen’s Haandbog 1 Fedrelandets Historie (Om Nordens eldste Ind-
vaanere).

+ Grimm, Deutsche Mythologie, p. 77.

Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends. 25

period when Ida, the founder of Bamborough, had made a first
attempt at permanent conquest. It was towards the middle of
the seventh century that Paulinus succeeded in introducing
Christianity ; but there were still struggles against the new doc-
trines, and it was not till the close of this century that they could
be regarded as having been generally adopted. A century and a
half later, however, there was again a fresh ingression of pagan-
ism under the Danes ; though before the termination of the ninth
century the Danish ruler had himself embraced Christianity, and
the struggle finallyceased. Thus, at the time when Richard Cumyn
became possessor of the manor of Linton, or shortly before the
middle of the twelfth century, the country had been fully chris-
tianized for an extended series of years: yet the remembrance of
the past conflicts would doubtless still dwell freshly in the me-
mories of the people, who had been taught, by loug experience,
to look upon heathenism as at once their spiritual and their
temporal enemy, and who doted too fondly on their traditions
to allow them easily to pass into oblivion.

But there is little probability that any portion of the actually
existing fabric of the church of Linton can date from a more
remote period than that of Richard Cumyn, though there seems
reason to believe that its foundation may have been really the
act of that individual, and thus nearly contemporary with that
of the magnificent abbey of Kelso, of which it became afterwards
an appendage. The grateful Cumyn, with a just regard for the
memory of his benefactor, bestows it, under its then name of
Lyntunruderic, upon the church “ Sancte Marie de Kelchou, et
monachis ibidem deo servientibus ;’ along with half a plough-
gate of land in the villa of Lyntunruderic, “ pro animé Henrici
comitis domini mei, et pro anima Johannis fil’ mei,” whose
bodies were interred in the abbey to which he makes the benefac-
tion. He stipulates also piously for his own soul, and for the
souls ot his predecessors and successors; and adds the curious,
though not rare, trait of the superstition of the times, that the
abbot and convent had received him, and Hextilda his wife, and
their children, into their fraternity, and had conferred upon them
the benefits of the church*. As Karl Henry died in 1152, and
as the grant of Cumyn is specified in the celebrated charter of
Malcolm IV., to which is assigned the date of 1159, as “ eccle-
siam de lintunrutheric, ex donatione Ricardi Cumin,” we touch
very closely upon the precise period of this interesting and early

“notice of the church of Linton. In a Confirmation by Herbert,

Bishop of Glasgow (1160-64), we find it mentioned as the

church of Lintun Ruderich, while in the rubric of the same deed

it is styled Lyntunruderyc. In the Charter of William the Lion,
* Liber S. Marie de Calchou, N. 274.

26 Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends.

which must have been dated prior to the year 1214, it appears
as Lyntonrotherick ; and in a later Confirmation by Bishop Walter
(1232) it is Lintonrotheric. The Rotulus Redituum Monasteru
de Kalkow (c. 1290) values the rectory of Lynton rothrig at
twenty marks yearly. In the more recent “ Rentall of the
Abbacie, 1597,” the name occurs simply as /yntowne; the affix
ruderic, or rotheric, having ceased to be employed.

It will be less easy to trace the order of the changes m the
fabric of the church than that of the orthography of its name.
Not a single feature remains in its architecture sufficiently di-
stinct to enable us to judge with precision as to the style nm
which it has been originally constructed. No massive pier, nor
circular arch, nor deeply recessed doorway, nor chevron mould-
ing presents itself to denote the Saxon or early Norman charac-
ter of the period at which we have supposed it to have been
founded ; or, more probably, in which it was re-edified. Still the
character of the basement, which can be traced at intervals round
nearly the whole of the exterior of the building ; and that of one
or two of the lower courses of its masonry, solid, regular and
carefully executed, which bear distinct marks of antiquity, and
are undoubtedly remains of the original structure ; poimt to an
age when the devotion of our ancestors gave to church architec-
ture a strength and a dignity which, at least in such obscure
positions, it has never attained in our more calculating times.
Any sacred. edifice, constructed even in the thirteenth century,
or at any later period, with masonry thus finished in execution,
would hardly have failed to have presented some of the other
attributes of the then prevailing ecclesiastical style in its more
perfect forms; and, in particular, the essential feature of the
buttress could scarcely have been omitted, the foundations of
which might still have been traced in the basement of the struc-
ture. But the buttress formed no part of the early Norman
style, which prevailed up to the close of the twelfth century ; and
it becomes important to note that no trace of the buttress can be
perceived in the ground plan of Linton. On the other hand, we
have nowhere evidence, from other subsisting remains, that the
art of the builder had acquired any marked perfection m this
country prior to the era of David, when the munificence of that
monarch raised it at once to a distinguished position. On
grounds so slight as these, and which are all that appear attain-
able, 1 am inclined to fix the first date of the existing structure
at Linton at a period near that of the death of Harl Henry ; and
to attribute its erection to the liberality of Cumyn, who, in be-
stowing it on the monks of Kelso, seems to have desired to have
rendered it worthy of its destination, and of the grateful piety of
his object.

Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends. ar

The ground plan of the building, as it now exists, presents an
outline of the body of the church, measuring about 48 by 26
feet ; and a choir, or chancel, the dimensions of which appear to
have been about 21 feet in breadth, by 12 or more in depth. At
the north-east angle of the main building, and in the adjoining
part of the choir, it seems possible to distinguish the repairs exe-
cuted by Lord Somerville in 1426, when the original structure
was already of considerable antiquity ; the masonry being here,
to a considerable height im the wall, of equally skilful execution
with the basement courses, and in still more perfect preservation.
On recently making some slight excavations in the close vicmity
of this portion, two oblong stones were discovered, having an
enriched fillet running along their centres, and of such a shape
as to render it probable that they had formed part of the broken
lid of a stone coffin. From the character of the fillet, this coffin
has probably been as old as the beginning of the fifteenth cen-
tury. With one remaining exception, the rest of the exterior of
the building is now merely a poor and characterless re-fabrica-
tion from the old materials, executed, I believe, chiefly within
the last half-century. The interior is wholly without mark or
memorial; the seat of the laird occupies, within the little choir,
the position of the altar ; the font**, with its ornaments carved in
a style which has many analogies in the early Norman period,
has been transferred to a neighbourmg blacksmith’s shop, where
it may still be seen as a receptacle for small-coal ; and only the
shattered pavement remains, to show where, through remote
centuries, heroes, the companions of kings, knelt for worship, or
perhaps, in the stern fashion of the Northern proselytes, stood
up when the Creed was read, laid their hands on the hilts of
their swords, and half unsheathed them, in token that they were
ready to fight to the death in defence of their faith +.

The exception in the exterior to which I have alluded is the,
im many respects, remarkable sculptured stone { now built into
the wall near the south-western extremity of the church. The
work is in low relief, and considerably defaced by time, though
the figures can still be traced with tolerable accuracy. The ac-
tion represents a knight on horseback, clad in a tunic or hau-
berk, with a capuchon or round helmet, urging his horse against
two large animals, the fore parts of which only are seen, and
into the throat of one of which he is plunging his lance. Be-
hind him the outline of a figure, resembling that of a bird, or,
perhaps, still more probably, that of a lamb with its hinder por-
tion obliterated, is famtly discernible. The sculpture is undoubt-
edly rude: but there is a certain just proportion preserved be-

* PL IIL. + Afzelius, Swenska Folkets Sago-hafder, 11. D. p. 87.
OM 2

28 Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends.

tween the body of the horse and that of his rider; and as the
girth of the animals attacked equals that of the former, we may
infer the magnitude of which it was designed to represent them.
The attitude and character of the heads, and the shortness of the
legs as contrasted with the bulk of the carcase, are not unlike
the ancient representations of the dragon*, though the want of
the hinder parts renders it impossible to decide as to the precise
description of monster intended. Beneath are the faint vestiges
of what may have been the letters of an inscription, raised also
in relief, but now utterly illegible. The stone is traditionally
reported to have been removed from above the former door of
the church, and from its size, and semicircular form, this is ex-
ceedingly probable, as in the early Norman churches a square-
headed door was often placed beneath a circular arch, and the
intervening space occupied by sculpture. Whoever will compare
the figure of the rider with that on the reverse of the seals of
David, Earl Henry, or Malcolm+, will perceive an additional
reason for fixing the date of the sculpture, and, by implica-
tion, that of the church also, at the period to which we have
assigned it.

Of the purport of this monument, which is, at least, evidently
not sepulchral, the local traditions offer a ready explanation. If
we ask any of the peasantry of the neighbourhood, they will tell
us, that at some ancient time, they know not when, the district
surrounding Linton was infested by a monstrous worm or dragon,
whose fierceness and voracity spread terror and devastation on
all sides. Its den, which a resident rural poet, whose attain-
ments are far beyond his station, has described as—

“On a smooth sloping upland, which rose near a fen,
In a torrent-scooped basin {,”

lay in a hollow, still named the “ Worm’s Hole,” to the eastward
of the hill of Linton ; and from this retreat the monster scarcely
required to stir itself, as, with its sweeping and venomous breath,
it was able to draw the flocks and herds, and other living objects
around it, within reach of its fangs. Such was its size, that it
used to coil itself in huge folds round an eminence of consider-
able height which adjoined its den, and which retains now the
name of Wormington. Liberal rewards were offered for the de-
struction of so terrible a pest; and at length the feat was ac-
complished by the “ wode laird of Larristone,” who, after being

* That there should be two dragons is by no means without a parallel.
In the Danish ballad of ‘ Kong Didriks og Lovens Kamp med Lindormen,”’
the dragon has eleven young ones. The ballad is vigorously worded, and con-
tains many curious details. Ochlenschlager, Gamle danske Folkeviser, p. 15.

+ Anderson’s Diplomata Scotiz, pl. 12, 20, 22.

{ Poems by Robert Davidson, p. 208.

Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends. 29

once foiled in an attack with ordinary weapons, resorted to the
expedient of thrusting a live peat down its throat by means of his
lance, which proved completely successful. The recompense for
his bravery consisted in the gift of extensive lands in the neigh-
bourhood upon which he had conferred so signal a benefit. The
story is a favourite at the cottage hearth, and is received with
unhesitating belief; no one daring to dispute such proofs as the
stone in the church wall, the den still visible at Wormington on
the farm of Greenlees, and the ancient triplet, with its charac-
teristically rude alliteration and ruder rhymes, which tells that
“The wode laird of Larristone

Slew the worme of Wormiston,

And wan a’ Linton parochine.”’

The family of Somerville claims the merit of this exploit for that
John Somerville, who has been already mentioned as having ac-
quired the barony of Linton in 1174; the lands, it is asserted,
having been then conferred upon him by William the Lion, as a
reward for the destruction of the Worm. The author of the ‘ Me-
morie of the Somervills’ enters into an account of the adventure
with such minute circumstantiality, as to prove how much his ima-
gination, or that of his informant, was engaged in the narrative.
Yet the size of the monster sinks, with him, into insignificance,
when compared with that in the more usually received tradition ;
and the giant folds, which encircled a little hill, dwindle into a
length of “ three Scots yards, and somewhat bigger than an or-
dinary man’s leg, with a head more proportionable to its length
than greatness, in form and colour like to our common muir-
edders.” It says little for the gallantry of the Scots, a century
after the Norman conquest of England, that such a creature be-
came the “ terror of the country people ;” and the prowess of a
Norman baron was scarcely worthily tested by the risk to be
encountered in its subjection. That an animal of these dimen-
sions swallowed oxen whole, “ instantly devouring them,” ren-
dered the country desolate, not by diffusing any poisonous at-
mosphere, but by its simple voracity, and struck the inhabitants
of Jedburgh, ten miles distant, “with such a panic fear that
they were ready to desert the town,” is merely part of the
inconsistencies of a tale, which wants all the qualities of the
genuine legend, with its uncumbered breadth of outline, and
details which, however opposed to the truth as it really exists, are
at. least usually in unison with each other, and with the prevalent
notions of the times in which they claim their origin, or as a
reflection from which they own their chief value. The informa-
tion he has given could not, on this head, be gleaned from the
family charters, and it is evidently no pure oral tradition. We
can here, therefore, accept nothing farther from the author of

30 Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends.

‘The Memorie’ than a corroboration of the general impression,
that at some unascertained period, and to some unascertained
champion, the district was indebted for a signal deliverance from
an evil scarcely better defined, which had, however, oppressed it
heavily, and the release from which was long gratefully remem-
bered.

It can scarcely demand a serious disproval, that no such ani-
mal as the dragon could possibly exist in Scotland at the period
of the alleged grant of William the Lion ; but we may even assert
farther, that no event, of which the legend might be accepted as
the paramyth, occurred at that era and in this locality. At an
earlier period, when the country was probably covered with
trackless forests, and when the untutored natives had no better
weapons than the stone axes, or the arrow-heads of flint, which
are still occasionally discovered in our fields, it could be no wonder
that every savage animal of more than ordinary dimensions
should become elevated into a monster; and it was but a natu-
ral result, that the primitive hunter who succeeded, thus feebly
armed, and with instincts scarcely beyond those of his prey, in
destroying some huge wolf or gigantic boar, should be worshiped
as the hero of his horde and a general benefactor. Guarini was
but chanting the traditions of the remotest ages, when he de-
scribed the triumph of his hero over the terrible boar,—

“*Strage de le campagne
E terror dei bifolehi*,”

and no exaggeration was required to render the contest arduous.
But when the armed chivalry of the middle ages were brought
imto such contests, their superior weapons could only obtain
credit when employed against antagonists invested with greater
terrors; and Sir Eglamour of Artoys would have had no merit
in slaying his boar, had its tusks not been described as measuring
a yard in length. Scotland, however, at least in its south-eastern
division, was, in the twelfth century, no proper field for the origin
of such fables. The foundation of several large and richly en-
dowed monasteries showed its resources in wealth and in the
arts ; and its progress in the latter might also be held as evinced
by the elegance of its charters, of which that of Malcolm to the
abbey of Kelso remains a remarkable specimen+. Qn the other
hand, that it was extensively cultivated is proved by the liberal
donations of malt, of meal and of wheat levied at the local mills,
and bestowed upon the same abbey through the munificence of
David; while the multitude of villages and of churches, named

* Tl Pastor Fido, A. I. Se. L., and A. IV. Se. VI.
+ See the fac-simile in Anderson’s ‘ Diplomata Scotiz,’ and in the ‘ Liber
S. Marie de Calchou.’

4

Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends. 31

everywhere in contemporary documents, shows that it was closely
peopled. There could be here no near refuge for the monstrous
or the terrible, though the credulity of the people would still easily
accept whatever prodigy reached them, when half intercepted, and
wholly distorted, through the haze of distance of time or space.
Accordingly, we find no such notices recorded by those monk-
ish chroniclers who resided within the district, and who were not
unfrequently the minute observers of events occurring around
them. The ‘Chronica de Mailros,’ though, previously to 1140,
probably merely a compilation from already existing histories,
seems after that date to be the production of individuals who were
contemporary, or nearly so, with the events they register; and
their work has thus all the credibility which belongs to the cir-
cumstances of its time and the peculiar situation of its authors.
Yet, though the reign of William affords them opportunities
of recording that “tonitruum horribile mugit xv kalendas
Septembris ;” or that (in 1173), “tussis queedam mala et inau-
‘dita omnes fere longe lateque occupavit, in qua vel ex qua peste
multi mortui sunt* ;” or that (m 1182), “ multi piscatores cum
navibus suis mense Septembri in mari inter Hertelpol et Vitebi
nocte miserabiliter perieruntt ;” we nowhere find that the greater
event of a public calamity warded off, or a public enemy de-
stroyed, in whatever literal sense the circumstance was to be
regarded, has been noticed as having occurred near the same
period in their own vicinity, though the alleged champion was of
a family who were afterwards liberal benefactors of their mo-
nastery, and one of whom at least (Willielmus de Sumerville;
12421) was interred within its walls. Besides, instead of Linton
having been really a direct grant from the Crown to the Somer-
villes, there is reason to believe that they held it merely as a
sub-fief from the Cumyns ; otherwise, why the necessity of the
“charter of new infeftment ” which was obtained in 1500 by the
then Lord Somerville, “for holding of the barronies of Carnwath
and Lintoune dlenche, which formerly held black waird of the
croune$?” When we add, that it was by no means necessary for
a Norman baron to perform any peculiar exploit, in order to ob-
tain a settlement and liberal grants im this country in the time
of David and his immediate successors ; and that, when he mixed
with the Anglo-Danish population which was then predominant
in Northumbria and the south of Scotland, and whose Dano-
Saxon dialect || remains easily distinguishable from the milder
Anglo-Saxon of the south, he found himself amid a closely con-
generous race, from whom he received a ready welcome, and with

* Chronica de Mailros, p. 86. T Ibid. p. 92. t Ibid. fol. 45.
§ The Memorie of the Somervills, vol. i. p. 304.
|| Rask, Angelsaksisk Sproglere, Fortale, p. 30.

32 Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends.

whom he could naturally associate ; we have stated all that is
requisite to show, that it is neither to the times of William the
Lion, nor to the family of Somerville, that the legend of the Worm
of Wormington can bear any true reference.

There could be little profit in unravelling the tangled skein of
an old legend, were it not for the glimpses it brings before us
of the modes of thinking and states of existence of ages long past.
And yet, to own an interest in the particular legend of the dra-
gon, for its own sake merely, is nothing more than to confess
the influence of that fascination which has long rendered it a
special favourite of the most diversified and widely separated
nations. Transferred by the Greeks from the garden of the Hes-
perides to shine as a constellation in the heavens, and occupy-
ing a prominent place in our own sacred writings, it reappears
among the myths of the Romans, and performs a conspicuous
part in the early tales-of chivalry ; while China, in the far Kast,
is equally renowned for its dragons and its porcelain. This
universality of the tradition, like that of the deluge, seems to
denote its origin in fact: and nature had indeed its prodigies in
the primeval world equal to those that romancers have fabled.
It is true that we have not the slhghtest grounds for believing
that the existence of man was coetanecus with that of the mon-
sters of the early world; but if the later Mammoth (Hlephas
primigenius), in even our own day, has been found with its skin
and flesh and eyeballs entire, amid the ice blocks of Siberia,
does it not come within the limits of possibility, that some acci-
dental denudation of the strata, or some extraordinary circum-
stances of preservation, may have presented to man, in his first
stages of being, the vast outline of the Megalosaurus, in the per-
fection and fulness of its giant proportions, such as can never be
witnessed in our times? Once seen by the naked savage, feebly
armed with his hatchet of stone, the appalling image would
never afterwards forsake his memory, nor the tradition that of
his descendants ; mingling itself, undoubtedly, like all other tra-
ditions, with extraneous matters, and confusing itself gradually
more and more, as well through the influence of really existing
analogies, as through the rudely fanciful creations belonging to
a poetry and mythology looming through the twilight of a far-
distant period. Thus the tradition would slowly diffuse itself,
and be transmitted to us darkly, yet as an actual memory of the
prodigies of a former system of creation ; till at length the newer
investigations of the geologist might seem to entitle us fairly to
assume, that the fossil Saurian which he has reconstructed from
a few of its fragments, and the dragon of the fabulist, are one and
the same being.

As the dominant race in the south of Scotland, at the time

ow)

Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends. 3

when we have supposed the church of Linton to have been
founded, was clearly of Teutonic origin, it will be proper to con-
fine our general notices of the dragon to such as may be gleaned
among the early records of that people or of its different sub-
families. With regard to its name, it was called sometimes in
Norse, ormr, in Anglo- Saxon, vyrm or wyrm, in old German,
wurm, in the Gothic, vatirms, as in our own local dialect, worm.
In the ‘ Nibelungenlied’ it is termed lintrache, lintdrache ; and in
‘Siegfriedslied,’ Antwurm. There is something like a tautology im
this, for, in the old Norse, dinni also signifies a serpent ; while in
the same language it is sometimes styled /yng-ormr (heath-worm),
in token of its frequently imhabiting heaths or desert places*.
In modern German it is /indwurm, as in the Danish and Swedish
ballads it is dindorm ; though in the latter the monster thus named
is sometimes confounded with the ivita orm, a creature not only
harmless, but popularly believed to be possessed of singularly
precious endowments}. The name /ing-orm, or Ijung-orm, be-
comes then reserved for the more destructive animal.

It was ordinarily described as breathing forth poison and fire,
as if its formidable dimensions could not alone excite sufficient
terror. When winged, it was particularly entitled to the name
of dragon ; but wings were only occasionally ascribed to it. The
impenetrability of its scales was one of its unfailing attributes,
hence it was by thrusts in its throat that fatal wounds were
usually inflicted ; when the champion, beyond even the credit of
his victory, might secure to himself the power of understanding
the language of animals, by eating of its heart, and an unyielding ~
temper to his weapons, and invulnerableness to himself, by
smearing with its blood. In our own romance of Merlin, we are
told that—

“The mouthe he hadde grinninge,
And the tonge out-plattinge,
That out kest sparkes of fer,
Into the skies thot flowen cler.
This dragoun hadde a longe taile,
That was wither-hooked, sans faile.”’

But as Guy of Warwick slew a dragon in Northumberland, for
King Athelstan, his romance becomes a better local authority,
and it fortunately provides us with the following description :—

“* He is as black as any coal,
Rugged as a rough foal:
His body, from the navel upward,
No man can pierce, it is so hard.

* Grimm’s Deutsche Mythologie, pp. 652-5, 2nd edition.

+ Svenska Folk-Visor, utgifne af Geijer och Afzelius, D. 11. pp. 121-
239; D. ui. pp. 71-252.

B.N.C.— VOL, III. N° I. D

34. Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends.

His neck is great as any sommere ; ©

He runneth as swift as any destrere.

Paws he hath as a hon,

All that he toucheth he slayeth dead down ;

Great wings he hath to flight,

There is no man that bar him might.”
In the “Reis van Sente Brandaen,” a Flemish poem of the
12th century, the Draken, as well as the Lijntworme, is repre-
sented as vomiting forth fire :—

* Draken groet gruwelije,
Ende lijntworme vreselije,

Die worpen t’ allen stonden,
Dat vier uten monden *.”’

Even the gods were not always destined to withstand powers
so tremendous. At the end of the world, Thor is to slay the
famous Midgards-wurm; but he is himself to fall, at nine paces
from it, destroyed by its poison.

As to the precise dimensions of the monster, though its gene-
ral vastness is often dwelt upon in terms sufficiently extravagant,
the narrators rarely descend to any exact measurement. We
have seen, however, that the subject of the prowess of John de
Somerville reached only some ten feet in length; but the timi-
dity of the modern fabricator has evidently embarrassed him in
his description. Sir Degore, in the romance of that name, beat
out the brains of one with a club, which was

“« Twenty-two foot, withouten fail,
Full of fire, and also venym.”
In the Anglo-Saxon poem of Beowulf, which probably dates
towards the end of the fifth century, the hero encounters a
dragon, and succeeds in destroying it, but perishes soon after
from the injuries received in the conflict. It measured fifty feet
in length, when extended :—
“se wees fiftiges
fot-ge mearces
lang on legere.”
But the descriptions of the dragon often imply dimensions far
beyond these ; and its strength was represented to be such, that
its writhings shook the ground under which it lay, or the surface
was deeply indented by the lashing of its tail. Its retreat was
usually chosen in some secluded valley or glen.

A monster, portrayed with attributes so terrible, could not
fail to take a strong hold of the popular imagination, at a time
when every hearth had its goblin, and every stream its nixy, and
when credulity was sure to people the unknown gloom with still

* Blommaert, Oudvlaemsche Gedichten, der xii®. xiii®. en xiv®. Eeuwen.
—D.1. p. 114.

Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends. 35

more dreadful and mysterious shapes. That which of all other
creatures appeared the most fruitful of evil, began at last to be
adopted as the symbol of evil, and it became then an easy trans-
ition to consider it as only another name for the principle of
evil itself. Dragons were seen in the air, as the portents of re-
markable calamities. ‘‘ Anno pccxci11,” says the Chronica de
Mailros, “ visi sunt in aere flammei dracones, quod signum duze
pestes subsecute sunt, prius intolerabilis fames, deinde sevicia
gentis paganorum et Norwagensium, qui eodem anno Lindis-
farnense Monasterium destruentes, monachos occiderunt, et
Northumbriam miserabile strage percusserunt*.” With the
ruthless northern spoilers the dragon was given as a name to their
ships, and it appeared on their helmets, their standards, and
their shields. In the romance of Merlin, as in an episode of the
history of Nennius, the red and white dragon are used as em-
blematical of a good and bad cause ; the white representing the
aggressor. The principle of evil bemg thus symbolized, the dragon
and Satan next stood to each other as interchangeable terms.
Another transition was to elevate the principle of evil into the
god of evil, a form of superstition which had a wider range than
the heresy of the Manichzeans, or the faith of the more ancient
Magi; and the dragon became now actually an object of adora-
tion, of which instances may be easily gathered from among the
pagan practices of the northern tribes +. Thus, as the dragon
had become the symbol of social evil with the imaginative hea-
then, it became the symbol of religious error with the early
Christian, scarcely less prone than the other to personify an
abstract principle. Hence to crush heathenism, or to subdue
heresy, was to destroy the dragon {. The legend of St. George
of Cappadocia is thus merely a Christian myth, admitting this
explanation ; and it will be observed, that, through all the va-
riations of the legend among different nations, one uniform result
of the victory, or rather condition of the contest, was the con-
version of the people whom the saintly knight delivered from
the monster. There is a beautiful tradition, connected with the
Drachenfels on the Rhine, which informs us that in ancient
times a dragon lay there, which received the worship of the in-
habitants of the district, and was propitiated by human sacrifices.
A young and noble Christian maiden, of singular beauty, and
who had been taken captive, was devoted as a victim. Robed
in white, and with a wreath of flowers in her hair, she was led
up the steep mountain, and bound to a tree near the dragon’s
den, beside which was a large stone that served as an altar.

* Chronica de Mailros, a.p. 793.
ft Grimm’s Deutsche Mythologie, p. 40.
t Ducange, Glossarium Med. et Infim. Latin. v. Draco.

D2

36 Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends.

The worshipers gazed at a distance, not without pity minghng
with their adorations. The maiden looked intently towards
heaven. At sunset the dragon issued from its retreat and
hastened towards the altar. But a new power was to be opposed
to it: innocence, shielded by the virtues, and armed with the
symbol, of the true faith. The maiden drew from her bosom a
small crucifix which she carried, and pointed it towards the
monster, who shrunk back trembling, and reeled over the abyss,
to disappear for ever. The people, strangely excited by the
spectacle, approached the maiden, loosened her bonds, and gazed.
with astonishment on the little cross. She explained to them
the sacred emblem ; when they fell on their knees, beseeching
her to return to her native country, and to procure for them mini-
sters of her holy religion to struct and baptize them. Thus
was Christianity introduced into their land; and a chapel was
founded on the spot where the altar of the dragon had stood *.
We have already seen that it was usual with the first converts
to Christianity to build their churches on the sites of the heathen
temples. These primitive churches are still known, in some
parts of Scandinavia, as “ Our Lady’s churches; ” having been
nearly uniformly dedicated to God, under invocation of the
Virgin Mary. The heathen temple had always, in its near vi-
cinity, its sacred well, in which the victims for sacrifice were
washed and purified. These too were usually assumed by the
converts of the new religion, who strove to occupy every strong-
hold of the ancient superstition, to be used as vantage ground
for the triumph of the better faith. The holy wells were dedi-
cated to the Virgin, or to some favourite samt, and were often
accredited with peculiar virtues. It is now worthy of remark,
that the principal early churches in this district, Kelso, Dry-
burgh, Melrose, Jedburgh, Eccles, and Coldingham, had also
their chief dedication to the holy Virgin; and we may therefore
infer that the humbler church of Linton was similarly devoted.
If Linton had been the site of a pagan temple, it would have
possessed its sacred well ; and when both were transferred within
the pale of Christianity, to acquire a new sanctity, the spring
would naturally be hallowed through. the same dedication as the
church. The fact, therefore, that there exists a well, called the
“Lady well +,” at a short distance eastward from the church
knoll, is only confirmatory of the opinion which has already been
hinted, that Linton especially, like so many others of the first
churches, has been reared upon the ruins of a former shrine of

* Schreiber’s Handbuch fiir reisende am Rhein.

+ In 1686, Janet Pringle was served heir to her father, Robert Pringle of
Cliftoune, in part of the barony of Lintoune, and amongst others in Lady-
well brae, with the privilege of commonage in Worm-den.

Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends. 37

paganism. It was upon this spot, then, that the dragon was
subdued ; and here, too, it was fitting that the monument should
be erected which was to serve as the emblem of the conflict, and
to perpetuate the triumph.

But if the sculpture at Linton be merely a symbolical repre-
sentation of the victory of Christianity over the old idolatry, it
ought to be held as probable, that where churches have been
founded elsewhere under similar circumstances, we should meet,
at least occasionally, with a similar monument. And there are,
accordingly, many instances, in countries inhabited by races
congenerous with those who occupied this district at the period
of the introduction of Christianity, where sculptures represent-
ing dragon conflicts appear on the ancient church walls. To
these countries we shall purposely, as hitherto, confine our illus-
trations: and we are the more willing to introduce them here,
because none of our best antiquaries, such as Scott and Chal-
mers, who have touched upon the legend of Linton, have at-
tempted to place its subject in a similar light. Thus, in the
church of Oberbirbach, in Hesse Darmstadt, a district which was
early christianized, there is a monument of a knight, Hans von
Frankenstein, standing upon a dragon which he has subdued.
In the chapel of St. Margaret, at Burgdorf, in Berne, there is
a similar monument ; the era of the story connected with which
is laid as far back as the year 712*. At Nyborg, in Finen,
there was in ancient days a temple, the abode of a frightful
dragon, which exacted daily the offering of a human victim. The
monster was destroyed by the knight Sir Jorgen, and on a bell-
in the tower of the neighbouring church of Svendborg may still
be seen a representation of the conflict +. Two dragons had
their nest at Lyngby, in the old times, so close to the church as
to keep the Christian worshipers in perpetual danger and alarm.
Both were siain ; and in the churchyard there is still a sculptured
stone which bears witness to the event. At Alsted church, near
Sord, m Seeland, there is a monument in commemoration of a
similar occurrence ; and there is the same tradition regarding a
church at Hoiby. Over the door of EKiby church, also in See-
land, there is a dragon sculptured, with an illegible inscription.
The tradition connected with it is a recurrence of that at Lyngby.
A dragon infested the cathedral church of Aarhuus, in Jutland,
which was destroyed by a singular contrivance, the memory of
which is still preserved by a piece of sculpture within the pre-
cicts{. In the principal church of Ladvig, in Norway, there
was guarded, from time immemorial, a banner, on which was re-

* Grimm’s Deutsche Sagen, N. 216-219.
+ Thiele, Danmarks Folkesagn, D. i. p. 275. t Ibid.

38 Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends.

presented St. Olaf, in full armour, trampling on a dragon. St.
Olaf, it will be recollected, established Christianity im Norway
towards the commencement of the eleventh century ; proselyti-
zing sometimes by not the gentlest of methods. The mtention
of the symbol is, therefore, here as distinct as it is appropriate*.
In Sweden, Afzelius mforms us, there are many churches in
which representations of dragon conflicts are sculptured in
stone +. The banner of St. Eric (1155-61), the palladium of
victory with the ancient Swedes, was kept in the cathedral
church at Upsala as a sacred relic. On one of its sides was em-
broidered in gold a lamb and a dragon; and the accompanying
imscription denoted that these were to be held as typical of the
mildness of the sainted monarch in peace, and of his prowess in
war :—
: “1 helgd oeh frid

Som Lambet blid,

I fejd och krig

Som Lindorm wig.”
We are thus reminded of the indistinct outline, which we have
surmised to be that of a lamb, behind the figure of the knight
at Linton ; and this animal here peculiarly suggests itself as an
ordinary emblem of the purity and mildness of the Christian
faith. Turning to Flanders, we find, that m the church at
Wasmes, in Hainault, was preserved an ancient picture to com-
memorate the destruction of a dragon about the year 1133.
The champion was Gilles de Chin; and under the picture, in
which he is represented kneeling before an image of the Virgin,
is the following quatrain :—

‘* Sainte Vierge en ce jour
Je viens pour t’implorer,
De détruire en ce jour
Un dragon, qui vient nous dévorer.”

There is a curious legend of a dragon at Ghent, in which the
image of the creature appears to have been solemnly baptized f.
But the church of Our Lady at Kerselarberge was, of all others,
the most fortunate ; for Arnoud van Pameln, who slew the
monster, placed, says the tradition, the identical carcase within
the sacred walls, as a perpetual memorial §.

We have forborne from entering into the minute details of
these traditions, though all of them are curious relics of their
times. It will have been observed that sometimes the name of
the knightly champion is recorded ; but in others the successful

* Nordisk Tids-skrift for Oldkyndighed, B. ii. p. 250.

+ Afzelius, Swenska Folkets Sago-hafder, D. ii. pp. 148-170.
t Wolf, Nederlandsche Volksoverleveringen, p. 155.

§ Ibid. “ De lieve Vrowen-kerk te Kerselarberge.”

Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends. 39

combatant is an ox, which has been specially nourished on pure
sweet milk for a series of years, till it had acquired strength
tremendous enough for so fierce acontest. In Eiby church there
is preserved a portion of the horn of the ox, in farther sure tes-
timony of the authenticity of the story*. All the traditions
agree in one essential point: that legends of dragon conflicts
have connected themselves with a number of ancient churches,
and that representations of these have been preserved, for the
most part in stone carvings, within the precincts of the buildings.
That the tradition should have varied as it passed from land to
land, gathering a trait here and a peculiarity there, as it mingled
itself with other popular fancies or recollections, while it still
carried with it the expression of a general fact which found a
home everywhere, is only a proof that one common and original
idea existed as the groundwork of the widely accepted belief’;
and that idea was manifestly the subjugation of the cruel and
terrible system of northern polytheism to the milder religion of
the cross. Thus the legend of the Worm of Linton appears as
a Christian myth, of which the carving on the stone is simply the
artistic embodiment : and the credit of the exploit falls away from
the shadowy grasp of its ancient possessors, the monument, as
in a thousand other instances, having given rise to the story,
and not the story to the monument.

There is a peculiarity in the church knoll of Linton, which
must have attracted observation at an early period, and which
has led to a prevalent belief that it is wholly of artificial con-
struction. In digging into it for the purposes of interment, the-
‘sexton cuts only through a fine, compact sand, which has no-
where hardened into stone, but the particles of which cohere so
closely, that the sides of the newly opened grave appear smooth
and perpendicular as a wall. Excavations to the depth of fifteen
feet have been made without any other substance being encoun-
tered; not even a single stone or pebble bemg imbedded in the
mass, or found anywhere, unless such as may chance to have fallen
upon the thin layer of mould which clothes the surface. The
structure of the adjoining heights is wholly different ; and it is
evident that causes have operated at this spot which have shown
no agency elsewhere in the vicinity. But the love of the mar-
vellous has here again stept in, and Linton has its second legend
in the churchyard knoll.

Long, long ago, says the tradition, a young man killed a priest,
and was condemned to die for the crime and sacrilege. Strong
intercessions, however, were made in his behalf; and it was at
last agreed, that if his two sisters would undertake the penance

* Thiele, Danmarks Folkesagn, D. 11. p. 286.

40 Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends.

of sifting as much sand as would form the mound upon which
Linton church was to be built, his life might be saved. Female
hearts are kind, and endurmeg im their affections; and the fond
sisters bent themselves to the task, which, through patient toil,
was at length completed, though at the sacrifice of one of
their lives. Thus the youth was delivered, and the stoneless
heap remains now as a clear testimony to many of the truth of
the legend, while a hollow, a short distance to the westward,
marks the spot from which the materials were taken.

If we cast our eye, from this very eminence, over the plain
beneath us ; and, still more, if we follow the course of the Kail
towards the narrow outlet at Marlefield; it will appear evident
that the whole of the flat expanse has formed, at one time, the
bed of a considerable lake, of which a miserable remnant still
remains to the eastward, but by far the greater part of which has
been drained off, partly by being filled up through the debris
carried down from the hills, and partly by a gradual alteration
of the levels at the lower extremity. ‘There would necessarily
be a time, before the Kail had completely worn its channel
through the old red sandstone at Marlefield, down to the existing
level, when, with every alternation of the seasons, as drought or
moisture prevailed, the bed of the lake would present either a
dry and barren surface to be swept over by the winds, or a wide
expanse covered by the waters of the freshet, charged with the
particles of fine silt or sand, the detritus of the Cheviot por-
phyries, which every tributary streamlet would sweep with it in
its course. On the subsidence of the waters, each new deposit
of sand would again be subjected to the mnfluence of the sun and
the breeze ; and the prevailing south-westerly winds, passing with
violence over an expanse bare of herbage, would whirl it up in
clouds, and carry it eastward. The nearest of the neighbouring
eminences, so placed as to break the force and change the direction
of the gale, would cause it to deposit its burden; and the sand,
eddying as it fell, would accumulate in heaps under the brow of
the height. A recurrence of this process, at short intervals,
through no very protracted series of years, would suffice to raise
such a mound as that of Linton ; and it was thus, in all proba-
bility, that the knoll was actually raised.

The legend of the sisters must at once be abandoned, owing
to its incredibility. Even in these days, when our command over
the material world has risen so high, we can scarcely be asked to
contemplate the possibility of two maidens, though they had
toiled, each for three lives, with every conceivable amount of pa-
tience and ingenuity, being able to sift, into a material so exceed-
ingly minute in its particles, a mound of the dimensious of that of
Linton; which at a rude estimate, but certainly not an exagge-

Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends. 41

rated one, must have a solid content of considerably upwards of
half a million of cubic feet. The process, however, which has
just been suggested, is precisely that by which so fine a material
was likely to have been first gathered and set im motion; while
the site of the mound presents also those conditions which would
be equally favourable for its ultimate deposition. Neither is
any special wonder requisite for its accomplishment ; for the
same process has been often witnessed elsewhere, and there are
many situations m which it isin progress even now. Consider-
able villages, forests, and cultivated lands have disappeared under
these drifted heaps. In the department of the Landes, a hill
more than sixty feet high may be said to be seen advancing upon
the village of Mimisan, which is in danger of being overwhelmed ;
and the Adour, though flowing generally with a full and rapid
current, is known to have been turned nearly a thousand fathoms
from its original course. On the margin of the great American
_ lakes, especially at the eastern extremity of Lake Superior, sand-
hills are said to have been thrown up to the height of 150 feet.
But even in the immediate vicinity of Linton, something like the
same set of causes has recently shown itself in brief operation.
In March of the present year there was a remarkable tract of
cold and dry weather: the seed corn had not yet vegetated, and
the fields were bare of verdure. On the 30th of the month
arose a violent tempest of wind, without ram. The effect of this
was to raise the dry soil as a fine dust from the surface of the fields,
and to drive it towards the north-east, the gale having been
south-westerly. Of this drifted soil not less than 200 cart-loads
were removed from a small extent of the road leading from the
valley of the Kail towards Caverton. The same process, a hun-
dred times repeated, at a period when there was more frequently
a fitting concurrence of circumstances for its agency, would have
sufficed to produce the effect which we have conceived at
Linton.

Even if it should be proved that the Linton knoll had been
used as a tumulus for purposes of ancient burial, this would
neither demonstrate its artificial origin, nor be in any way incon-
sistent with the other purposes to which we have supposed it to
have been adapted. There are many instances to show that na-
tural tumuli have been selected as places of sepulture ; and where
the remains of a revered chieftain or king were deposited, was
also a favourite resort of the people on their great occasions of
assembly. But the legend of the sisters had, nevertheless, its
basis ; and that lay undoubtedly im the anxiety of the Catholic
priesthood to promulgate the loftiest ideas regarding the sanc-
tity and inviolability of their office. A deep thought thus lies
under the wild fancy; and a natural phenomenon, otherwise

42 Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends.

imexplicable to the many, was seized upon to show how heavy
and how peculiar had been the penance, and yet how tempered
by mercy, which had followed the perpetration of a sacrilegious
murder. The manner of inculcating the lesson was in the true
spirit of the times, when credulity was rarely startled by the
imposture which simplicity and ignorance were careless to de-
tect, and around which bigotry threw a veil which it would have
been profanation to have withdrawn. To induce faith im such
a legend was at once to shield themselves behind the fears and
the affections of the people.

The twin legends of Linton suggest a speculation regarding
the origin of the name, which it may be interesting to notice.
Tt will be recollected that in the early charter of Richard Cumyn,
dating about the middle of the twelfth century, the name appears
as Lyntunruderic ; while in the Confirmation of Bishop Herbert,
only a few years later, it is mentioned as Lintun Ruderich in the
body of the deed, and Lyntunruderyce in the rubric. We have
seen that in the old Scandinavian dialects linni signified a ser-
pent ; and we have evidently in this word the root of the terms
lintrache, lintdrache, and lintwurm, which appear in the ancient
German, and which signify a dragon. Tun is the well-known
Anglo-Saxon word, signifying an enclosed space, a dwelling, or
an aggregation of dwellings, and which has been universally
modernized into ton, or town. Linton may therefore be easily
understood as the “ Dragon-town.” An etymologist so eminent
as Grimm considers that Limburg, in the Netherlands, has been
similarly derived, and was originally Lint-burg ; while Lindholm,
in Jutland, and Lindam, a locality near Colding, in the same pro-
vince, are both of them connected with legends of dragons, to
which they are probably indebted for their name. On the other
hand, hridrian in Anglo-Saxon signifies to riddle, or sift, and
hridrud, or (sed) hridrude, siguifies sifted. Hrig or hric (rick) is
the term for a heap ; and hridrudhric, therefore, easily contracted
and softened into ruderic, would denote the “ sifted heap.” If
Lyntunruderic, then, imply the “ Dragon-town at the sifted
heap,” as it may be understood with much appearance of pro-
bability, we have in the double appellation a singular revelation
of the whole traditionary history of the locality: and we have
here a proof also of the considerable antiquity of the legends
themselves, or of the foundation which we have supposed for
them ; for if these have given a designation to the locality, su-
perseding that by which it may have been anciently known, it
is clear that they must have been in existence prior to the middle
of the twelfth century, when the name first occurs, and of
course prior to the era of the fabulous exploit of John de
Somerville. We are thus onee more carried back towards the

Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends. 43

period of the final triumph of Christianity over heathenism, as
that near which we are to date the real origin of the dragon tra-
dition of Linton. The legend of the sisters has been probably
somewhat more recent.

The church and fortalice of Linton would naturally collect
around them a considerable body of retainers and dependents ;
and we find accordingly that in former times the village was of
considerable extent. Many of the old dwellings have been re-
moved, even within the memory of those still living; and the
foundations of others are still occasionally detected by the plough.
Tradition states that the cross stood nearly opposite the present
farm-house, and in the close vicinity were the Butts, where the
inhabitants met to practise archery. A circular encampment,
the relic of a far more ancient system of warfare, existed on the
hill of Wormington, within which, now forty years ago, several
weapons of brass were discovered. The whole neighbourhood,
indeed, is teeming with the remains of a remote antiquity, which
- neither my scope nor limits permit me to notice, but from which,
however, as from the Bautasten on the contiguous moor of

Whitton,

** Where on the heath, beneath the stone,
The monarch lies in peace *,”’

I turn with some reluctance. I shall only add, as a compara-
tively recent trait of the inhabitants of the village itself, which it
may be interesting to the members of a Berwickshire Club to
learn, that on the “first daie of Februarie,’ 1596, “ Robyn
Daglisse and John a Daglisse of Lynton,” with two others,
came into the “ Bowndes of Barwicke,” and took six horses
“ owt of the Snooke and Mawdlen fildes:” for which act of
temerity they suffered a severe retribution, one of the party
having been afterwards taken within his house by a troop of
English horsemen, who “cutt him all in peces, and so came
their waies, all the countre beinge up at the cryes +.”

Such are the associations which gather themselves round the
little church of Linton. Many of them belong to that remote
period, which occurs in the history of every people, when the
myth and the authentic narrative approach and melt into each
other. Through this neutral ground we are led to wander,
darkly for the most part, yet not always doubtfully ; for if the
objects we contemplate seldom reach us clearly through any hight
of their own, it is yet often possible to reflect other lights upon
them, so as to enable us to discern each with tolerable accuracy.
There is something soothing in the calm interest with which we

* Swedish ballad of ‘“ Kung Anes Fall.”” Afzelius, D. 1. p. 95.
+ Letter of Sir John Carey to Lord Hunsdon, 3rd July, 1596.

44 On a Meteorological Table kept at Chiswick in 1849.

explore events and themes so far removed from us: and so wide
is their suggestiveness, that the reflective observer may read,
even on this narrow field of Linton, the continuous history of his
country’s fortunes and of its growth in civilization. The records
of the little spot seem to expand themselves into the general re-
cords of our race; and the subject rises into importance enough
to show, that such topics are only trifling when they are looked
upon with the eye of the trifler.

Kelso, 13th July, 1850.

A Meteorological Table from a Daily Register kept at Cheswick
House, in lat. 55° 41' N., long. 2° 03! W., for the year of our
Lord 1849. By Atexanper Atrken, Gardener to Joun S.
Donaxpson SELBy, Esq.

a Barometer. Thermometer. , = 3
Sig A 2 é bs ra g Ss
Ss| 26 | Fa bm, | 8s] 8s Son| S| a
Months, “eel es|ee| @ |22(e2\se| 2 lea lazel els
A | ee lee | Ss) Se ee ea) See iee ee
Ae | ke He lie eS e

Inch: | Inch. | Inch.}| Inch.| , a 5 oli Lach
January ...... 81 | 28-60) 30 19) 29°39| 29-59/10 |45 |27 |32 1-99} 18) 138
February ...... 28 | 28°96) 30-60) 29-78] 29-9220 (47 |43 |36 0-83 | 23) 5
Marehccn css. 31 | 29:27) 30°30} 29-78) 29:90|20 (57 138 |87 1-42} 21) 10
SCPE ee ste veto 30 | 29°35) 30 24) 29-79) 29-61/24 59 |41+|38+] 2-23] 17] 13
Niciveeepccs sei 31 | 29:10) 30°24) 29 67| 29:86/387 |65 [51 47 2-00] 20) 1]
Ue: Te eces sae 30 | 29-60) 30:18) 29-89) 29:93/385 |67 |51 (49 1:79 | 19) 11
iulivpcanseise si 81 | 29°34) 30:36, 29-85) 29'46/40 |70 155 [53 | 2-26} 16) 15
August ...... 31 | 29-18) 30-14! 29-66) 29-83\86 (64 (50 [52 2-25 | 18} 18
September ...| 30 | 29-05) 30-50) 29-79 29-95\34 (61 |47+/46 | 1-49} 19) 11
October %...%: 81 | 29-42) 30°50) 29-95) 29 74,25 [58 /414-/37 2-61 | 21) 10
November ...| 30 | 28°66| 30°10) 29°36) 29°66/20 [50 |85 (35 | 1:60} 18] 12
December ...| 31 | 29:30) 30-70) 30:00) 29-83/20 4 |30 (33 2°95 | 18) 18
Mean for the year | 29-15) 30°33) 29-74) 29-77/26°7 |56°7 |41:5 |41-2 23-42 228/137

Extremes of Barometer and Thermometer during the Year.—
Barometer was highest on December 28rd, viz. 30°70 inches,
and lowest on November 5th, viz. 28°66 inches. Thermometer
was highest on July 8th and 10th, viz. 70°, and lowest on
January 3rd, viz. 10°. The hottest days were July 8th and 10th,
the mean = 63°. The coldest day was on January 3rd, the
mean = 15°.

Rain Gauge.—The greatest fall of ram was on July 28rd,
which was 0°78 inch. The wettest month was December ;
rain fell during the month=2-95 inches: and the driest month
was February; the rain fell durig the month=0°83 inch.

August 4th, observed the bight on the potatoes, and found

|

e

a _____
UOLaIT Le KUOLS GaUMLd Nos LUT DUY

= Snead TANGY NE < ANWAR SRG -
ae os anlage Lat
Che

x

ttn
WERE PS

f,

“wee hoe

.
#

Mr. P. J. Selby on Fossil Remains of the Bos primigenius. 45

the first rotten one on the 15th. The depth of rain fallen this
year is=23°42 inches. The dry days in the year are=228,
and wet days=137 ; this year containing 365 days.

In the year 1848 the rain that fell was 27-93 inches, as ob-
served at Cheswick.

Feb. 19th, 1849, a luminous arch in the heavens was observed
about 10 p.m., extending from the south-west to the north-east
quarters of the sky. The appearance lasted half an hour; those
parts of the arch nearest to the horizon continuing longest
visible and being the most brilliant in colour, which displayed all
the hues of the rainbow.

July 4th, 1849. A double rainbow of great brilliancy of colours
was observed, and a great deal of rain fell about this time.
Wind north.

Notice of some Fossil Remains of the Bos primigenius, Owen, &c.
By P. J. Seay, Esq.

Tue interesting fossil remains of the Bovine animal now ex-
hibited to the members of the Club, were found many years ago
in cutting a deep drain about a mile and a half from Twizell, in
a low, flat district, known by the name of the Adderstone Mains
Bog, through a portion of which the Newcastle and Berwick
Railway now runs, to the north of the Lucker station. The upper
stratum or surface of this flat consists of a thick deposit of peaty
earth, and at that time, in some of the wettest parts, was over-
grown with willows, aquatic plants, and reeds; and, in the drier
portions, covered with a natural turf, consisting of grasses and
plants usually found in such localities, but which now, in conse-
quence of having been drained, produces abundant crops of corn
and turnips. Beneath this covering of peaty soil is a water, or
post-pliocene deposit, consisting of whitish clay, gravel, and
water-worn stones, in which, but not deeply imbedded, the bones
now exhibited were found. The portions brought to me con-
sisted, lst, of the core of a horn, much broken forwards or to-
wards the tip, but with the circumference perfect at the base,
and to which a portion of the frontal part of the skull was at-
tached; and 2ndly, the upper surface of a part of the core of
the opposite horn, also with a similar and nearly equal portion
of the frontal bone. I do not now recollect, nor can I find any
notes made at the time, to inform me whether any other bones
were stated to have been met with or observed associated with
the remains of this interesting skull, or whether the skull itself,
when first discovered, was in a more perfect state than when
brought to me by one of the workmen employed in cutting the
dram. At that period, now upwards of thirty years ago, geo-

A6 Mr. P. J. Selby on some Fossil Remains

logy, as compared with the science in its present advanced state,
was in its infancy, and had scarcely estimated the aid it was
afterwards to receive from the study of zoology, or the more re-
cent science of paleontology, a science which the acute and dis-
criminating powers and the philosophic views of an Owen, fol-
lowing in the footsteps of the illustrious Cuvier, has so beauti-
fully and, I may add, wonderfully carried out and illustrated,
bringing into view as it were the perfect forms of creatures be-
longing to different epochs, and whose osseous remains have
lain buried in various strata of the earth for thousands of years.
After a careful inspection of these remains, my attention having
been arrested by the size of the horn core, mdicating its pos-
sessor to have been an animal of much greater bulk than any of
our domestic cattle, I had them carefully put away in a situa-
tion where they were not likely to be injured or molested. In
the course of time, however, the circumstance and the place
where the bones were deposited had become so far forgotten,
that when my attention at a later period was called to palzonto-
logical subjects, by the works and writings of Mr. Owen, and
still more recently by the papers of Professor Nilsson, contained
in the ‘ Annals of Natural History,’ “ On the extinct and existing
Bovine Animals of Scandinavia,”—it was not till after a long
and laborious search that I at last discovered, if I may so express
it, the place of the second sepulture of these ancient fossil re-
mains. On referring to Owen’s ‘ British Fossil Mammals and
Birds,’ and to the papers before mentioned of Professor Nilsson,
and after an attentive comparison of the remains now before
you, with the figures and descriptions of the different Bovine
animals mentioned by these two eminent paleontologists, I have
little hesitation in considering them to have belonged to that
species of the genus Bos, designated by them as the Bos primi-
genius, the presumed Urus of older writers,—an animal of great
bulk, and which, as having its remains associated with those of
the Mammoth, Tichorine Rhinoceros, and other fossil animals,
must have been contemporaneous with them; at the same time
strong and powerful reasons are adduced by these and other
authors to show that, though now extinct, a species with the
osseous characteristics of the fossil animal, and of equal bulk,
existed within the historic period, or since the creation of man,
as remains of such a bovine animal have been found in the most
recent deposits in company with those of the existing species of
Reindeer and Elk. Nilsson also mentions a skeleton of this spe-
cies in the Museum of Lund, which bears on its back, he says,
the palpable mark of a wound from a javelin ;” and he also
further infers, from older authors and other authentic sources,
that an animal bearing all the features of the fossil Bos primi-

of the Bos primigenius. 47

genius, and distinct from the Bison priscus, or great Lithuanian
Bison, which still inhabits the forests of that country, existed
during and did not become extinct till towards the middle of
the sixteenth century. In addition it may be stated, that at the
period when the Roman legions first penetrated the forests of
Germany, two huge species of oxen are recorded to have been
met with, and from the accurate and circumstantial description
given by Cesar and other Roman authors of these two animals,
there can be little or no doubt but that the species now extinct
and agreeing in its osseous characters with the Bos primigenius,
and the great Aurochs or Bison priscus of Lithuania, were the
animals so described. In Britain, where the remains of the Bos
primigenius and also of the Bison priscus are found in the older
and more recent deposits, as no mention of them is made by the
Romans, it is presumed that they had become extinct before the
invasion of that nation; but that I may not trespass too far
upon your patience, I refer you to Mr. Owen’s interesting volume
for further particulars in regard to these two Bovine animals and
the various localities in which their respective remains have been
found in Britain.

From the Bison or Aurochs the genus Bos is distinguished
by important characters of its osseous frame, among which the
form of the skull and position of the horns are eminently pro-
minent. In the Bison the forehead, instead of being flat or
rather concave, as in Bos primigenius, is rounded or convex ; the
horns again of Bos are attached to the extremity of the highest
salient angle of the head, viz. that which separates the forehead
from the occiput, whereas in the Bison or Aurochs, this line is”
two inches behind the root of the horns. An inspection of the
bones now exhibited shows that the former has been the posi-
tion of this animal’s horns, and also that the portion of the
frontal bone which still remains, indicates a flatness or concavity
of that part of the head; the form of the core of the horn which
still remains is also similar to that described and figured in the
works already mentioned, though a surmise only can be made
as to the probable length of the entire horn. The circumference
of the root of the horn-core is almost exactly the same as that
given by Nilsson of a specimen at Lund, being 1 foot 24 inches
in girth. Some of the British specimens mentioned by Owen
seem to have been of still larger dimensions. With other conti-
nental as well as British species of fossil or extinct bovine ani-
mals these remains cannot be confounded, the Bos longifrons,
whose fossil remains have been found also in Britain, having
been an animal greatly inferior in size, with comparatively small,
short, and differently curved horns; and the Bos frontosus of
Nilsson, a Scandinavian fossil species, is described as having

48 Mr. Hepburn on the Habits of

had horns springing from long bony pedicels, and with some-
what of the convex forehead of the Bison.

In conclusion I may observe, that various speculations have
been entertained as to the origin and descent of the different
races or varieties of domesticated cattle, and of such as still live
in a wild or a half-reclaimed state, as the White Cattle of Chil-
lingham and other parks. By some, the gigantic Bos primigenius
is supposed to be the type or root from whence they are all
derived ; others, and I think with greater probability, are of
opinion that they owe their origin to other primitive varieties or
species, the intermixture of which has produced the numerous
races of domestic cattle of this and other countries ; a deduction,
however, which renders the determination of the type or root
from which each has been derived a matter of most difficult solu-
tion, but which also holds good in regard to the origin or types
of other animals long domesticated, such as the Dog and the
Horse.

Notes on the Habits of the Rook in East Lothian.
By ArcuisaLp HEppurn.

As the Rook is a bird which derives his chief subsistence either
directly or indirectly from the labours of man, so reasoning,
partly from a few data and partly from analogy, we may infer
that the numbers of this species have kept pace with the pro-
gress of agriculture. The following extract from a Statute rela-
tive to these birds, of date 14.24, throws some light not only on
this subject, but upon the physical features of the country.

“Ttem,—For thy that men considderis that Ruikes biggand
in Kirk zairdes, orchardes, or trees, dois greate skaith upon
cornes: It is ordained, that they that sik trees perteinis to, lette
them to big, and suffer on na wise that their birdes fhe away :
And quhair it be tainted that they big, and the birdes be flowin,
and the nest be funden in the trees at Beltane (1° of May) the -
trees shall foirfaulted to the King, and hewin downe, and five
schillings to the Kingis unlaw.”

About the middle of last century a spirit of enterprise broke
out amongst the farmers in the south of Scotland, which led to
splendid results. The proprietors planted. woods and enclosures
for profit and shelter; the tenantry began to drain, to fallow
their lands, to cultivate turnip, red clover, and potatoes in the
field ; the sheltering woods, the variety of crops, and the frequent
stirrings of the land consequent upon improved practices, were
all conducive to the increase of the Rook; so much so, that in
the united parishes of Whitekirk and Tynnmgham, wherein

the Rook in East Lothian. 49

stands Binnie Wood*, the oldest and noblest of all our woods,
the tenantry, during a period of thirteen years, assessed them-
selves in the sum of £142 14s. 7d. to pay for the destruction of
76,655 rooks: about that time they began to attack the turnip
in the winter season, and it was believed that these birds arrived
in vast flocks from the north on the approach of winter, and
departed again in spring}. I think this 1s extremely probable,
and after observing the comparative difficulty that the Rook has
in obtaining subsistence during inclement winters of the present
era, with all the modern /wxuries of turnip and newly-sown
wheat, I have no doubt that there was a time when the Rook was
a regular migrant from Scotland.

During the present century rooks have increased so much in
most parts of this county, as to become a serious nuisance to
agriculture; few proprietors have allowed their rookeries to be
destroyed, though in general they permit the young to be killed
when nearly fledged. In 1845, Lord Elcho kindly permitted
the nests in the extensive rookery in Aimesfield park, near Had-
dington, to be taken down in the month of March, by a gang
of men paid by the tenantry ; few birds ever returned to breed
in their favourite grove ; no harm, but, on the contrary, much
good resulted to the neighbouring fields from its destruction.
During open weather in winter, rooks find subsistence by attend-
ing’ on the ploughs, in turning over the droppings of cattle, and.
in digging for insects and worms in pasture fields: they are
welcome to the gleanings of our stubbles, and above all to the-
seeds of the wild oat, Avena fatua, that terrible scourge of some
of our finest corn lands, to obtain which they will sometimes
stock up young clovers, and even feed upon the latter during
hard weather. Within the last ten or twelve years they have
begun to attack the turnip, even in open weather, and this valu-
~ able root is never safe until carried off the field; water lodges in
the perforations, and decay soon follows in our changeful climate.
But all the damage that they do to other crops is but small when
compared to their ravages on wheat, the staple production of the
county, and of which a large breadth is annually sown at various
periods, and at different elevations above the sea, from the Ist
of October to the end of March. From the day that the seed
is sown until the young plant has exhausted the seed and ac-
quired a firm hold on the ground, the crop is never safe from
their ravages ; and if the herd-boy is not armed with a gun, the
flock will merely fly up on his near approach and again alight
on the same field. Ifa knoll or hill-side is swept bare of snow

* Planted by the Earl of Haddington in 1720. His Countess sold her
jewels to defray the expense.

t+ See General View of the Agr. of E, Lothian (1794), pp. ee 142.
B.N.C.—VOL. III. N°. I.

50 Mr. Hepburn on the Habits of the Reok.

during a storm, unless closely watched, every plant will be
stocked up; and at such times they more especially frequent
sheep folded on turnip, and pilfer from the stackyard and from
the dunghills in process of formation. In spring they feed upon
all our cultivated grains (tares excepted, so far as I know), and
upon the germinated seed so long as it is succulent, and the
latest sown field or headrig is sure to be the haunt of all the
vagabond rooks in the neighbourhood: of late years they have
shown a strong partiality for bean-fields, and their attendance
on the potato-fields is but too well known. During severe
droughts in summer they often suffer greatly from hunger, and
attack the stacks even close by the onstead with much perti-
nacity, and fields of clover-hay are often much spoiled for mow-
ing, by their settling to feed on the seeds of the rye-grass: on
the approach of harvest they attack the crops where these are
lodged, or of stunted growth on the rocky knolls so common on
our trap formation. The labours of this bird in destroying in-
sects and grubs in their season, are apparent to all, and 1t would
appear that when a sufficiency can be obtained, they are preferred
to anything else. What a scene of busy industry does the later
cleared turnip-field present! The rooks hardly move out of the
way of the ploughs and harrows; the large fleshy grubs of two
root-devourmg moths, Agrotis exclamationis and Agr. segetum,
which drill holes in the turnips larger than a goosequill, and
also destroy them in toto shortly after being singled, and a host of
other injurious insects, are greedily devoured or carried off to
their young; and, in the adjoining oat-field, perhaps every clod
and turf has been upturned in searching for the grub of the
erane-fly and the wireworm; so that it is probable, if we were
better acquainted with the habits of our insect foes, we should
prize rooks more highly.

T am well aware that much has been written both in their praise
and condemnation: I can conceive that in the badly ploughed
and badly managed districts in England, having a large breadth
in pasture, and where insect-life is much more vigorous than
with us, a large body of rooks might subsist in comfort and
prove a blessing to the farmer; but here, where the land is an-
nually, or at all events biennially, under the plough, that they
have been suffered to increase, under the protection of ignorant
and selfish landlords, beyond their natural means of subsistence,
until they have become a curse rather than a blessing, is a fact
no less evident to our farmers, than that they had a station
appointed them by the all-wise Creator in the great system of
nature.

November 1849.

51

MEMBERS.
Date of
Admission.

1. George Johnston, M.D., Berwick-upon-Tweed .... Sept. 22, 1831.
2. Rev. John Baird, of Yetholm .................+ Sept. 22, 1831.
3. William Baird, M.D., British Museum, London.... Sept. 22, 1831.

4. Robert Dundas Thomson, M.D., Lecturer on Che-
mistry in the University of Glasgow ............ Sept. 22, 1831.
_5. Mr. Robert C. Embleton, Surgeon, Embleton...... Sept. 22, 1831.
6. Prideaux J. Selby, Esq., of Twizell House, by Belford April 20, 1832.
7. Rev. Joseph W. Barnes, Vicar of Kendal ........ June 18, 1832.

8. Sir William Jardine, Bart., of Jardine Hall, Dum-
PERU RILILCHT s We ua le hneve 2%5 cco scornda quae eae he Scant foals Sept. 19, 1832.
9. George C. Carpenter, Esq., The Cottage, Ford .... April 16, 1833.
10. Rev. Thomas Knight, The Rectory, Ford ........ April 16, 1833.
11.. Henry Geo. C. Clarke, M.D., Berwick-upon-Tweed April 16, 1833.
12. Francis Douglas, M.D., Hast Indies.............. July 30, 1834.
13. Admiral Mitford, of Hunmanby, Scarborough...... Sept. 17, 1834,
14. Rev. J. Parker, of Ilderton, by Wooler .......... Sept. 17, 1834,
15. J. S. Donaldson Selby, Esq., of Cheswick ........ May 6, 1835.
16. Rev. W. S. Gilly, D.D., Vicar of Norham ........ May 4, 1836.
17. Rev. Thomas Riddell, Vicar of Masham, Bedale.... May 1, 1838.

18. Frederick J. W. Collingwood, Esq., of Glanton Pyke,
nae WN Gt ATA” ects o. < diei alete sein war Sin cog Shegsene se May 6, 1840.
19. Mr. Jonathan Melrose, Coldstream .............. May %, 1840.
20. Rev. J. Dixon Clark, The Hall, Belford.......... Dec. 16, 1840.
21. Mr. David Macbeath, Berwick-upon-Tweed ...... Dec. 16, 1840.
22. Mr. Rowe, Surgeon, Coldstream ................ Sept. 15, 1841.
23. John Boyd, Esq., Cherry-Trees, Yetholm ........ Sept. 15, 1841.
24. Robert Home, Esq., Berwick-upon-Tweed ........ June 15, 1842,
Zea lL nomas, Tanered, Barts) af sits eideic a ies ayes 3 Sept. 28, 1842.
26. Wilham Murray, Esq., of Marshall Meadows ...... Dec. 15, 1842.
27. Charles, Wilson, M.D,, Kelso...5 62.00.50 es eucs July 26, 1843.
28. James Tait, Esq., Edenside, Kelso .............. July 26, 1843.
29. Mr. James Douglas, Commercial Bank, Kelso .... July 26, 1843.
30. William Dickson, Esq., of Amisfield, AlInwick...... Sept. 20, 1843.
a1.) William Broderick, Esq.,, Belford ........6. 060006 Sept. 20, 1843.
32. John Turnbull, Esq., 16 Thistle Street, EKdmburgh.. Sept. 20, 1843.
ea wivev, Georze Walker, Belford 2...........0:0000% Sept. 20, 1843.

52
Date of
Admission.

34. Ralph Carr, Esq., Dunstan Hill, Gateshead........ Oct. 18, 1843.
35. Rev. J. C. Atkinson, Danby, Gisborough, Yorkshire May 1, 1844.
36. Rev. Dr. Thomson, 32 Danube Street, Edinburgh... Oct. 30, 1844.
37. Rev. Thomas Witham, of Lartington, Barnard Castle May 7, 1845.

38. Rev. William Ritchie, Berwick-upon-Tweed ...... May 7, 1845.
39, Mr. William Dunlop, Mayfield, Reston .......... May 7, 1845.
40. Colonel Younghusband, Belford ..............+. Sept. 3, 1845.
41. Rev. Matthew Burrell, of Chatton, by Belford .... Sept. 3, 1845.
42. Rev. George Rooke, of Embleton, by Alnwick .... Sept. 3, 1845.
43. Charles Selby, Esq., of Earle, by Wooler ........ Sept. 3, 1845.
44. Archibald Jerdan, Esq., Mossburnford, Jedburgh .. Oct. 3, 1845.
45. Henry Gregson, Esq., of Lowlinn................ May 3, 1846.
46. Rev. Hugh Evans, Scremmerston..............45 May 3, 1846.
47. Rev. William Lamb, of Ednam, by Kelso ........ June 3, 1846.
48. Wilham Stevenson, Esq., Berwick-upon-Tweed.... June 3, 1846.
49. Major Elhott, Berwick-upon-Tweed.............. May 5, 1847.
50, Mr. Archibald Hepburn, Whittingham, Prestonkirk. May 5, 1847.
51. Patrick Clay, Esq., New-water Haugh............ May 5, 1847.
52. Rev. John Ayton Wood, of Beadnell, AInwick .... June 16, 1847.
aoc Mr.“George ‘Pate, Alnwick). 222.7. te. sin eepans ok June 16, 1847.

54. The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Home, Hirsel, Coldstream Oct. 20, 1847.
55. David Milne, Esq., of Milne Graden, Coldstream .. Oct. 20, 1847.

56. Rev. L. Shafto Orde, of Shoreston, Bamburgh .... Oct. 20, 1847.
By ew. Mri Warr, Norham 3:2 Vee. Serene 3: Oct. 20, 1847.
58. George Turnbull, Esq., of Abbey St. Bathans...... Oct. 20, 1847.
59. James Renton, Esq., of Highlaws, Eyemouth...... Oct. 20, 1847.
60. A. Hood, M.D., Amisfield, Coldmgham .......... May 3, 1848.
61. Rev. Christopher Robinson, Kirknewton, Ford .... June 21, 1848.

62. Rev. Hamlet Clarke, Sheep Street, Northampton .. July 26, 1848.
63. J. Campbell Renton, Esq., M.P., of Mordington .. July 26, 1848.

64. Mr. George Carpenter, The Cottage, Ford........ July 26, 1848.
Hehe samuel Fyler, Cornhilkicis! 0060. Jee ee June 25, 1849.
66. Rev. W. Darnell, Bariburgin ieee ec. oo ee «kes July 25, 1849.
67. Mr. Alex. Douglas, Surgeon, Belford ............ July 25, 1849.
68. Henry Stephens, Esq., Redbraes Cottage, Bonning-

tha, Hdinbuegh : -..',.: ieee ee oe ee Sept. 12, 1849.
69. Francis S. Cahill, M.D., Berwick-upon-Tweed oes Get? Tey Ts849.
70. Mr. W. H. Logan, Berwick-upon-Tweed.......... May 1, 1850.
71. John Church, Esq., of Bell’s-Hill, Belford ........ July 24, 1850.
72. William Gray, Esq., of East Bolton, Alnwick...... July 24, 1850.
73. W. Smellie Watson, Esq., Forth Street, Edinburgh Sept. 18, 1850.
74. John Craster, Esq., of Craster Tower, Belford .... Sept. 18, 1850.
75. Rev. Wilham Dodd, of Chillingham, Belford ...... Oct. 23, 1850.

76. J. R. Forster, Esq., of Tughall Hall, Belford ...... Oct. 23, 1850.

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB.

Address to the Members of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club,
delivered at the Anniversary Meeting held at Grant’s-House,
September 3rd, 1851. By the Rev. W. S. Giuty, D.D.

GENTLEMEN,
Ir is usual for the President, at our Anniversaries, to read .a
summary of the last year’s proceedings of our Club, but having~
been prevented from attending your pleasant meetings, I am in-
debted to your indefatigable Secretary, Dr. Johnston, for the notes
which enable me to perform this part of my duty. Most sin-
cerely do I congratulate Dr. Johnston on the continued success
of our Association, which he so happily established twenty years
ago, and which has flourished more and more under his watchful
and genial auspices.

“¢ Warkworth, Sept. 18, 1850.—Seduced by its fame, the Club
were led beyond their legal limits to meet at Warkworth this
day, and the great beauty of the place, independently of its his-
torical and legendary associations, might well be pleaded in ex-
cuse of the trespass. The attendance of members was consi-
derable. The company consisted of Dr. Johnston, Mr. Embleton,
Dr. Clarke, Mr. Broderick, Mr. Collingwood, Rev. J. Dixon

B.N.C.— VOL. III. N°. II. F

54 Annwersary Address.

Clark, Rev. Geo. Rooke, Mr. Jerdan, Rev. J. Ayton Wood,
Mr. Tate, Dr. Hood, and Mr. Church.

“The day was very favourable, and discovered every beauty
of the scene. The walk was directed, in the first place, to the
‘ Hermitage,’ which one member aptly remmded us might have
stood as the model for the description of the Hermitage in the
‘Fairy Queen’:

A little lowly hermitage it was,
Down in a dale, hard by a forest’s side,
Far from resort of people, that did pas
In traveil to and froe: a little wyde
There was an holy chappell edifyde,
Wherein the hermite duly wont to say
His holy things each morn and eventyde :
Thereby a cristall streame did gently play,
Which from a sacred fountaine welled forth away.
Book i. canto 1.

“ After lmgering here awhile, the walk was continued along
the river-banks to the wear, or trap, made for the capture of the
bull-trout in which the Coquet abounds; but no fish were taken.
During this walk there were noticed Rubus macrophyllus, Mentha
rubra, Carex pendula, Campanula latifolia, and. Equisetum hyemale.
Retracing their steps the Club next examined the ancient Castle ;
and when curiosity was satisfied there, the members, follow-
ing the public road to Amble, strolled as far as the Breakwater
constructing at the mouth of the Coquet, and to the adjacent
quarries. Many plants, that are only to be found in salt-water
marshes, were observed, amongst which we may mention Cheno-
podium maritimum, Atriplex littoralis, Arenaria marina, Glaux
maritima, &e. ; and amongst the rubbish of the quays, Diplotaais
tenuifolia in considerable quantities, and Chenopodium urbicum
sparingly.

“This long and varied ramble prepared the members for a
dinner, which was enjoyed in the Club’s usual genial and pleasing
manner, and disposed them to listen, with an acquiescent com-
placency, to the address of Mr. Broderick, their President. The
Rev. Dr. Gilly was unanimously elected to be his successor in
the chair. Mr. William Smellie Watson and John Craster, Esq.,
of Craster-Tower, were admitted members ; and the Rev. William
Dodd, of Chillingham, and J. R. Forster, BING! of Tughall- Atal,
were named pe es for admission.

Anniversary Address. 55

“ Berwick-upon-Tweed, Oct. 23rd, 1850.—The Club break-
fasted with Mr. Home. The members who attended were
Dr. Johnston, Mr. Embleton, Dr. Clarke, Rev. J. Dixon Clark,
Mr. Home, Mr. Broderick, Mr. John Turnbull, Major Elliott,
Dr. Hood, Rev. Mr. Darnell, and Dr. F. S. Cahill.

“The Rev. Mr. Dodd and Mr. Forster were admitted mem-
bers; and the Rev. William Rigge, of Howick, was proposed for
membership.

“The Secretary submitted to the Club a statement of the ex-
penditure and receipts for the past year, and an estimate of the
expenditure for the ensuing session, whereupon it was ordered
that the subscription should be fixed at 7s. 6d.

“A pretty sketch of the Inn_at Abbey St. Bathans, by Mr.
Smellie Watson, was exhibited; and drawings of several fishes
taken in Berwick Bay, by Mrs. Johnston. There were also shown
specimens of Galeopsis Ladanum gathered by the Rev. John
Baird near Yetholm. Dr. Baird contributed a ‘ Notice of the
capture of Sertcomyia borealis on one of the Cheviot Hills in
August 1850.’

“The following were agreed to be the places of meeting during
the ensuing summer: viz.

May, Ist Wednesday, Cornhill.

June, 2nd Wednesday, Belford.

July, 3rd Wednesday, St. Boswells.

September, 1st Wednesday, Grant’s-House.

“The walk lay along the sea-banks northwards, but nothing
novel was observed. The rolling of the wide ocean, and the
breaking of its waves at their feet, gave origin to the discussion
of a question which has agitated debating-clubs since their be-
ginning to this day, and which is always preceded with a motte
gathered from Lucretius, De Rerum Natura, lib. u. 1-4.:—

~

Suave, mari magno turbantibus zequora ventis,
E terra magnum alterius spectare laborem ;
Non quia vexari quemquam est jucunda voluptas,
Sed, quibus ipse malis careas, quia cernere suave est.
“Cornhill, May 7th, 1851.—The members who attended this
meeting were Dr. Johnston, Captain Carpenter, Mr. Broderick,
The Rev. S. A. Fyler, Mr. Gregson, and Dr. Wilson. Mr. Fyler
entertained the Club to breakfast, but as there were only three
members at the hour, no regular walk was afterwards undertaken
F2

56 Annwersary Address.

—at least the walk was more for exercise than research. However,
Captain Carpenter was fortunate in procuring a white variety of
the Myosotis palustris, hitherto unnoticed in our district.

“An excellent dinner was provided at the Collingwood Arms,
seasoned with a pleasant conversation. Mr. Hepburn contri-
buted an interesting paper on the Beasts and Birds of St. Abb’s
Head. The Rev. Mr. Rigge of Howick was admitted a member;
and, after some discussion as to the recovery of the arrears in
subscriptions due, the Club separated.

“Belford, June 11th, 1851.—This meeting was unexpectedly
small. Only six members attended it, viz. Dr. Johnston, Mr.
Embleton, Dr. Clarke, Rev. Mr. Walker, Mr. Gregson, and Mr.
Tate. The company breakfasted at the Hall, and after a stroll
through the gardens they walked along the face of the Crags
northwards. Two members went as far as Swinhoe Lake to see
what was to be seen there. The walk to younger botanists would
have been most fruitful. On the Crags the spindle-tree grows in
great profusion. We also gathered on them Anchusa sempervirens,
Geranium lucidum, Asplenium adiantum-nigrum, and a host of
other summer flowers; and in Swinhoe Loch Mr. Embleton
gathered many specimens of Potamogeton rufescens.

“Mr. Tate examined the geological features of the district
passed over by the Club. Part of the town of Belford stands on
basalt, being a continuation of the range from Spindlestone and
Bambrough, and which, proceeding northwards, forms a series of
steep cliffs with basset faces to the west. At Middleton, one mile
north from Belford, there is an interesting section showing that
the basalt is a stratum interposed between limestone and sand-
stone beds. On the west side of the Great North Road, basalt
15 feet high is seen resting on blue carboniferous limestone, and
on the east side of the road the basalt is overlaid with 20 feet of
sandstone. It is remarkable that while the underlying lime-
stone is quite unaltered, the overlying sandstone is much indu-
rated at the pomt of contact with the basalt, exhibiting the
usual metamorphic influence of a fire-formed rock. These beds
are very undulating,—a phenomenon common in Northum-
berland in the neighbourhood of basalt; the general dip is to
the N.E.

“Mr. G. R. Tate extended his walk to Kyloe Crags, and exa-
mined this favourite haunt of our rare plants, as well as the moor-

Anniversary Address. — 57

lands lying to the south-west from them. The Crags are basalt,
but the moorland rocks are sandstone and shales. In the course
of his ramble he noticed the Convallaria polygonatum growing in
great beauty on the cliffs—one specimen was observed with five
flowers ; lsplenium septentrionale; Saxifraga granulata; Arabis
thaliana; a Thalictrum agreeing pretty nearly with Babington’s
description of 7. majus ; Allium oleraceum ; Euonymus europeus ;
Erica tetralizx (flore albo). On the moorlands the following
were noticed: Genista anglica; Gymnadenia conopsea (not im
flower) : a small patch of Carduus heterophyllus was seen in the
wood at the south-east end of the Crags. At the Beal railway
station Tragopogon porrifolius was found growing; but this has
evidently been introduced.

“Mr. Tate read a very interesting paper, illustrated with plans
and figures, on some Burial Urns which had been dug up at
Lesborough near Alnwick.

“St. Boswells, July 16th.—The Secretary has not been fa-
voured with any minutes of this meeting, which he was prevented
attending.”

After reading these notes, Dr. Gilly continued :—

You selected for your President, at the last nomination, one
who does not profess to throw any light whatever, by his own
personal researches, on either of the scientific subjects which
usually engage your attention. It is therefore as well that the
time has arrived for the termination of his office, and that he
should resign the chair, with many apologies for his inefficiency,
and with a short address, which will be more consistent with his
own un-scientific habits, than with your expectation of a suitable
prelection.

I will say a few words to you on the origin of the study of
Natural History, rather than hazard remarks of my own on any
of its branches.

Entertaining, as I do, some strong convictions on the grea
moving principle which first directed the mind of man to the
acquirement of every kind of knowledge, which elevates him
above creatures on earth, I cannot but express my satisfaction, in
looking over the records of your proceedings, to find that a
reverential ascriptién of “Glory, and honour, and thanks ” for all
we know, and all we enjoy, to Him who liveth for ever and ever,

58 Annwwersary Address.

appears on the face of almost every address which has been de-
livered to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club.

On this anniversary, the twenty-first meeting of your happy
and flourishing and harmonious Association, and with the pre-
eedent of twenty printed reports before me, it would ill become
me if I did not follow the example which has been so well esta-
blished, and offer a grateful homage to the Fountain of Wisdom
from which all knowledge flows.

In speaking of the origin of the study of Natural History, it is
not my intention to detain you with anything like a recondite
disquisition, but to recall some striking facts to your recollection,
and to add to the interest of this gathering by the mention of a
few traits and anecdotes which may serve to quicken your zeal
m investigations which are always accompanied with pleasure
and improvement.

The philosopher who has very properly been called the Prince
of Philosophers, “ Prmceps Philosophorum,” and the first who
made an accurate division of the several sciences, and showed how
they should be systematically treated, was He, whose school ob-
tamed the name of Perrparertic, because his disciples collected
and interchanged much of their knowledge, as you do, while they
were walking about. They had their morning stroll.as you have,
and they had their afternoon lecture as you have.

Cuvier, the emment modern Professor of Natural History, as-
signed to Aristotle the honour of leading the way, and of domg
more for science than any other who had gone before him, espe-
cially for that department of science which is called the Natural
History of Animals. Buffon thought Aristotle’s system of clas-
sification to be so original, and so worthy of notice, that he
explained it at considerable length in the first volume of his
‘ Histoire Naturelle’; and Kidd in his Bridgewater Treatise, com-
paring Aristotle’s account of Animals with the discoveries of
modern science, does not hesitate to say, that the ancient philo-
sopher’s division of the Animal Kingdom has deservedly been the
model for succeeding naturalists. His method has indeed some-
times been abandoned, but for the most part it has been adopted.
With such attestations to the merit of the great master, with
whom originated the systematic study of nature, and the best
mode of classifying objects of natural history, I think you will
take an interest in tracking some of the steps of your famous

Annwersary Address. 59

predecessors, in a path which is so much to your own taste.
And what if we can trace them to the same Fountain Head,
which we believe to be the source of every science ?

Whatever progress Europeans may have made in the cultiva-
tion of other arts and sciences, there was but little inquiry, either
among the Greeks or Romans, about plants, minerals, fossils, and
animals, before the middle of the fourth century before Christ.

Pythagoras was an Asiatic, and his first studies were in Egypt.

Democritus obtained the name of the “ laughing Philosopher,”
because he turned to ridicule the absurd theories which prevailed
-before his time ; and the genius of Empedocles was rewarded, for
his attempt to correct some of the many errors of his day in
medicine and natural philosophy, by the fable of his suicide in
the crater of Mount Attna.

Aristotle was the son of a physician, and his early medical
studies first led him to the contemplation of animal and vegetable
structure. With such ardour did he pursue his investigations,
that he did not confine them to objects on the surface of the
globe, but he penetrated into the depths of the earth and sea,
to make himself acquainted with the secrets of nature. One of
his contemporaries had said, “‘ Nature is concealed under a brazen
veil, which the united efforts of men and ages cannot lift up.”
But Aristotle thought otherwise, and so determined was his re-
search, that to keep his mind on the alert, and his eyes open
when they were heavy, after a day’s hard labour, he used to read
with a metal ball in his hand over a brazen vessel, that it might
fall and waken him if he fell asleep.

In those days the labours of men of science were encouraged
by princes and public authorities, and Alexander the Great em-
ployed many persons—several thousands it is said—to collect
animals for Aristotle, from all parts of the world. Alexander not
only gave him money to assist him im the promotion of his un-
dertakings, but absolutely laid his commands on those in Europe
and Asia who lived by hunting, fishing, and bird-catching, that
they should supply Aristotle with all sorts of animals for his ex-
periments. No wonder then that he was able to adopt a plan
of classification and to give descriptions which have been so
useful to modern writers. His own personal experience, added
to the information which he gathered industriously from others,
gave him opportunities of methodizing his knowledge more ac-

60 Anniversary Address.

eurately than many who went before him, or have come after
him in the same path, and he was able to establish a real differ-
ence between objects which his divisions of natural history were
meant to distinguish.

It may be worth while to remind you, that among the obser-
vations of this Father of natural history, he noticed, that animals
were more ferocious in Asia, stronger in Europe, and of more
varied forms in Africa; that they were more mischievous in
mountainous countries than in the plains, and that they were
fiercer in the extreme of cold and hot climates than in temperate.

Buffon disputes some of his observations as to the age of
animals, but on the whole admits their accuracy. The reader
is carried agreeably on, amidst many rough places of Aristotle’s
Natural History, by some amusing anecdotes, such as that of the
old mule who lived to the age of eighty, and became such a public
favourite, that it was permitted to go at large, to feed where it
liked, and to eat out of the baskets of grain and fruit brought to
the markets.

I cannot refram from mentioning that Aristotle directed at-
tention to the same wonderful part of man’s organization, fis
hand, and its exquisite touch, which formed the subject of one of
the Bridgewater Treatises. Aristotle ascribed to the sensibilities
of the hand, much of man’s superiority over other animals, but he
failed in his opportunity of making a wise theological application
of this truth. Huis theology was not a branch of science which
he pursued in a manner deserving of our commendation, although,
strange to say, a portion of his works used to be read in the
churches of Germany during the middle ages, instead of the
Gospels! Luther said of him, “ Whoever wishes to philosophize
with Aristotle must first be stultified in Christ :’’—and yet he
was among the purest and most moral of ancient philosophers.

While I am on this subject, let me mention by the way, that
Cuvier did honour, by his moral character, to the tendency of
natural philosophy to purify the mmd; but Buffon often dis-
graced himself and his pursuits by the worse than levity of his
life and conversation. It is curious that in one respect there
was a resemblance between Aristotle and Buffon,—each of these
philosophers exposed himself to derision by his ridiculous fond-
ness for dress. %

But to return to the point from which I set out, the origin of

Annwwersary Address. 61

the study of Natural History. That Aristotle had a great share
in drawing the mind closer to the contemplation of the myste-
ries of animate and inanimate nature, than was previously the
case, is an undoubted fact. But with whom originated the study ?

When Aristotle was charged, by envious contemporaries, with
deriving some of his knowledge from Democritus, Empedocles,
and Pythagoras, he admitted it. But whence had they their
information? Pythagoras acknowledged that much of his wis-
dom came from Egypt and the East. Can we then discover
vestiges of the science of Natural History in that region of the
East where we should most wish to find it ?—in the Holy Land ?
Yes: five or six hundred years before Pythagoras, Solomon
“spake of trees, from the cedar-tree that is in Lebanon even
unto the hyssop that springeth out of the wall: he spake also of
beasts, and of fowl, and of creeping things, and of fishes.”
(1 Kings, iv. 33.) Natural History therefore was cultivated in
the Holy Land, where the oracles of Divine Revelation were pre-
served. The knowledge of the great Lawgiver of the Jews in
that department of science must have been very considerable, to
judge from his accurate acquaintance with the organization of
animals. Witness his notices in the Book of Leviticus, of the
characteristics, nature, and properties of animals.

Job, whose writings were collected by Moses, has left on record
proofs of his familiarity with the kingdoms of nature. Antedilu-
vian knowledge must have been more extensive than we are in the
habit of considering, from the very fact of the long lives of the an-
tediluvian patriarchs. Their opportunities of observation, through
centuries of existence, gave them an advantage over all others of
human kind who came after them. But another consideration
adds weight to the conjecture I am venturing to submit to you.
Many ofsthem were enlightened, and directed to paths of wis-
dom, by the All-wise Himself. Adam could not have spoken any
language had he not been taught by the Creator, and it is di-
stinctly told us, that under the divine instruction, “ Adam gave
names to all cattle, and to the fowls of the air, and to every beast
of the field.”

Every Hebrew word for a thing or person is a definition;
every, Hebrew name is a description ; therefore we conclude that
Adam was made acquainted by God Himself with the properties
and nature of the animal kingdom, or he could not have given

62 Anniversary Address.

names or descriptions to animals. From Adam, therefore, and
the antediluvian patriarchs, we may believe that the elements of
many of those sciences, which have since been more profoundly
cultivated, were transmitted to after-ages, through the traditions
which the survivors of the Flood handed down to their posterity.
Job is supposed to have been contemporary with Abraham,
Abraham conversed with Shem, Shem with Methuselah, and
Methuselah with Adam. Astronomical science in particular
was a tradition from the antediluvians ; and if astronomical, why
not other sciences? This is certain, that Aristotle received as-
tronomical observations from Babylon, through those who ac-
companied Alexander on his eastern expedition, and most likely
by order of Alexander. Those observations were said to have
been made 1903 years before Alexander, 7. e. about 2234 years
before Christ. The Flood was 2349 years before Christ ; con-
sequently observations made 2234 years, or thereabouts, before
Christ, were made 115 years after the Flood, while Noah and his
three sons were yet alive.

With such facts as these,—tracing vestiges of the study of
natural history to Solomon, Moses and Job, on the testimony of
Holy Scripture, and tracing vestiges of the study of astronomical
science to a period little more than a century after the Flood, on
the evidence of profane writers, may we not delight ourselves,
and improve ourselves, and solemnize our minds with the belief,
that man was first directed to the contemplation of the mysteries
of nature and aided therein by the Creator Himself, the Fountain
of all wisdom and knowledge?

I have thus endeavoured to trace the study of Natural History
to an impulsion, which I believe came directly from on High ;
and I have supported my arguments on the authority of that
Book of Revelation, which becomes the more venerable in our
eyes the more closely it is compared with the Book of Nature.
There was a time in the last century, when smatterers in phi-
losophy thought they found contradictions between statements
in our holy volume and the investigations of science. The wiser
inquirers of our day have declared, that the sacred text is con-
firmed by the discoveries of science. As science has been ad-
vancing, each new step has brought us back to the conviction,
that the Word of God contains the elements of all knowledge,
historical and philosophical as well as divine.

63

On Cist-vaens and Sepulchral Urns in a Tumulus or Barrow
near Lesbury, Northumberland. By Grorex Tate.

Read June 11, 1851.

In November of last year, a Cist-vaen or stone chest, with an
urn, was discovered by Mr. Thomas Crisp, of Hawkhill; and
as I was present, on the following day, when others were opened,
it may not be improper for me to describe them.

These remains of antiquity were found on the summit of a
pretty high hill, about a quarter of a mile north from Lesbury,
and near to the Newcastle and Berwick Railway. This hill is
one of the elevations of the boulder formation, which modify, in
a peculiar manner, the physical features of the eastern part of
Northumberland ; it commands a view of Alnmouth Bay, and of
the Vale of the Aln with the Cheviots in the background. Five
Cist-vaens have been opened, all differmg from each other in
size, and lying in different directions. They are, however, con-
structed in a similar manner: the clay subsoil has been hollowed
out to the depth of from 2 to 4 feet; slabs of stone (generally
four) are placed on edge against each other so as to form a
quadrangular space ; these are covered over with a larger slab,
and, above this, large stones are heaped up to the height of
more than 2 feet. The structure is simple and rude enough.
No cement has been used; no ornament or inscription appears ;
and the only indications of the use of a tool are a very few marks
on the covering slabs, similar to those made by a mason’s pick.
The slabs are irregularly bedded grey sandstones, such as are
found in situ on the neighbouring coast; and the stones piled
up to form the artificial tumulus or barrow, are the boulders of
basalt, limestone, and sandstone, which occur abundantly in the
boulder-clay deposit of the neighbourhood.

The ground-plan shows the relative position and sizes of the
Cist-vaens. The largest (No. 1.) hes im the direction of
W. 85° N. to E. 85° S.; its length internally is 5 feet 7 inches ;
its breadth at the west end 2 feet 83 inches, and at the east end
3 feet; the height of the side slabs is 4 feet. The covering
slab was irregularly shaped, but somewhat quadrangular, mea-
suring 6 feet 6 inches by 6 feet, and having a thickness of 4
inches ; it would weigh upwards of 18.cwt. When opened this
Cist was partly filled with water, and partly with a fine clayey
soil, which in the course of centuries had been washed into it
through the open joimts. An urn was found in this Cist, piaced
on a flag on the north side (in the position marked) 18 inches
from the west end.

64 Mr. G. Tate on Cist-vaens and Sepulchral Urns.

The Cist (No. 2.) is very rudely constructed ; it is double, or
divided by a flag into two compartments; one being 3 feet
6 inches by 2 feet 3 inches, and the other 2 feet 6 inches by
2 feet: one large slab covers both. The general direction is
from W, 85° S. to E. 85° N. In the south compartment the
urn was found, 12 inches from the west end, as indicated in
the plan.

The Cist (No. 3.) is 3 feet 6 ches by 1 foot 10 inches, and
lies in the direction of S.W. by W. to N.E. by E. The Cist
(No. 4.) is 1 foot 10 inches by 1 foot 4 inches, having a direction
of N. to S8.; another small Cist (No. 5.) nearly adjoins this,
and lies in the same direction. No urns were found in any of
these, but several fragments of bones, in a decomposed state,
were mixed with the clay; one of them was recognised as a por-
tion of a human rib.

Careful search was made in the clay, soil and gravel, but no
coins or other remains of art were discovered. .

The urns have been made of the clay which occurs im the
neighbourhood ; and no great care has been taken in its prepa-
ration, for fragments of pebbles can be seen where the urns are
fractured. They have evidently been baked in the fire: the ex-
terior surfaces are red-brown, the interior is more or less black ;
the exterior may be scratched with the nail, but the long action
of water may have produced a softening, as the interior black
portion is much harder.

The urn (Plate V.) found in the largest Cist-vaen is harder,
more brittle, and smoother on the surface than the other ; it
has probably been fashioned with the lathe; it is also more
elegant in shape and elaborate in workmanship. Although
broken on one side, enough remains to show its form and orna-
ments. It is tulip-shaped ; the height is 10 inches, the cireum-
ference at the base 91 inches, around the middle 19 inches, and
at the top 22 inches. Without mdicating much mechanical
skill, the ornaments are effective, consisting of circles and zig-
zag work impressed around the urn, by two very simple tools,
one of them having ten square pointed teeth to the inch, and
the other about three oval pointed teeth to the mch. The
artist has used his humble mechanical appliances with taste ;
the outline is graceful and the ornaments are not imelegantly
arranged *.

The other un is much ruder in form and workmanship.
It is similar to those which have usually been found in

* By the kindness of the Rev. J. Hunter of Belford, I have received a
fragment of an urn recently found in a Cist-vaen at Warrenton near to
Belford, which is ornamented in a similar manner to the urn figured.

i a ine

GROUND PLAN

OF

N® 2

——————- es
LJ

Mr. G. Tate on Cist-vaens and Sepulchral Urns.

a

ie z

CIST-VAENS
AT
LESBURY.

Scale 3 inch to 1 foot.

WS
WOO EWI
\

\

LID

65

66 Mr. G. Tate on Cist-vaens and Sepulchral Urns.

Cist-vaens. This was taken out unbroken; the height is 5
inches, the circumference at the top 19 inches, and at the bottom
Sinches. As the surface is uneven, it has probably been fashioned
with the hand. The impressions are only simple lines, which
could have been made by any pointed object, when the clay was
soft ; each series of lines is inclined to the other, forming that
kind of ornament which resembles the “ herring-bone.”

In neither of the urns were bones observed. They were
filled partly with water and partly with earthy matter, which,
when dry, formed a brown powder ; other portions were black
and apparently charred. Both urns were standing on their base,
and not, as urns have been frequently observed in other places,
with their mouths downward.

That these Cist-vaens are ancient graves, and that the urns
contained the ashes of the dead, is, I think, unquestionable. In
the smaller Cists, where bones were found, the entire body may
have been entombed, with the knees and legs drawn up, this
being one of the most ancient modes of mterment among Scan-
dinavian nations. ‘The larger Cists are probably the graves of
distinguished persons; their bodies had been burnt and the
ashes deposited in the urns. Two different modes of sepulture
are here indicated to have been in use at the same period.

‘The different directions in which these graves lie, prove that
they are the remains of a people inhabiting Britain previously
to the troduction of Christianity. To the Romans they have
sometimes been attributed ; but that people did not raise barrows
or tumuli over their dead after the conquest of Britain ; their
tombs displayed the architectural taste of a polished nation, and
were entirely different from rude Cist-vaens; their sepulchral
urns were also more ornate and artistic than those found in
Cist-vaens, and were generally either sculptured, or had inscrip-
tions or epitaphs, or were painted and varnished.

To raise tumuli over the dead was a very ancient practice,
and prevailed in several nations in the early stages of their his-
tory. In the Book of Joshua, nm Homer, Virgil, Tacitus, and
other ancient writers, reference is made to this mode of sepul-
ture; it was, however, most general, and continued longest,
amongst the Teutonic and Celtic races, and to one or other of
them must we refer the remains. In the early chronicles and
annals of English history there is no record of the Saxons having
adopted this mode of interment in England; their coffins were
generally made of wood. Nor is there evidence to show that the
Danes constructed Cist-vaens and barrows in this country.
Indeed they were not settled here so long, as to warrant us to
suppose that they could have left memorials of their existence
in so many parts of the island as those wherein barrows and

ee

Mr. G. Tate on Cist-vaens and Sepulchral Urns. 67

Cist-vaens have been discovered; for not only in Northum-
berland, but also in Wiltshire, Dorsetshire, along the Welsh
borders, and in Scotland, these relics of a distant age have been
observed. These remains must, therefore, be referred to the
ancient British.

Richard of Cirencester, in his account of the original mhabit-
ants of Britain, says :—“ Their interments were magnificent, and
all things which they prized during life, even arms and animals,
were thrown into the funeral pile; a heap of earth and turf
formed the sepulchre.” This description in its full extent may
be more applicable to the inhabitants of the southern part of
the island ; less magnificence would be displayed in Northum-
berland, where the people, more distant from the commerce and
more civilized manners of the continent, were in a poorer and
ruder condition. From a fragment of one of the British bards
we are further informed that the British buried their dead on
the top of hills and lofty cliffs, on declivities, in heaths and
secluded valleys, on the banks and near the fords of rivers, and
on the sea-shore, where the ninth wave breaks. In Northum-
berland, the ancient British graves have generally been on ele-
vated ground. A few years ago an urn similar to our ruder one,
and containing bones, was found on Abberwick Hill; others have
been discovered at Millfield Hill, Humbledon, Glanton, Threwitt,
Warrenton,—all hills or high situations.

That the urns were of native manufacture, and not imported
into the country by the Phcenicians is, I think, pretty certain,
since the clay of which they are formed is the same as that which
is abundant in the neighbourhood where they have been en- -
tombed. The people who constructed war-chariots were surely
able to make coarse pottery ; in fact, the potter’s art is one of
the earliest cultivated ; it was even practised among the abori-
ginal inhabitants of North America.

No Roman coins or works of art have, as far as I can learn,
been found in any Cist-vaen which has been examined ; it is,
therefore, highly probable that these ancient British graves con-
tain the remains of a people who lived anterior to the conquest
of Britain by the Romans.

As suggestive for further researches it may not be useless to
add, that the name Lesbury would lead us to expect that
antiquities would be found in that neighbourhood ; since the
word Barrow is derived from the Saxon Beorg, Borh, or Byrig,
words applied to a town or fortress, a hill or a mound, and
whence come the words Borough and Bury. Sir R. Hoare, who
made careful and extensive investigation of ancient British re-
mains, states, that “near to places terminating with ‘bury’ I
have almost invariably found some ancient camp, or earthenwork,
which gave rise probably to the termination.”

68 Dr. Baird on the Capture of Sericomyia borealis.

Notice of the Capture of Sericomyia borealis on one of the Cheviot
Hills, in August 1850. By W. Barrp, M.D., F.L.S.

On the 14th of August last, while seated along with my brother,
the Rev. John Baird of Yetholm, on a cairn of stones on the top
of Kout’s Nouth, one of the highest of the Yetholm range of the
Cheviot Hills, we were simultaneously struck by a peculiar shrill
musical sound proceeding apparently from amongst the loose
stones scattered around the base of the cairn on which we sat.
The note raised was loud and distinct, and clear as that of a
musician’s pitch-key. It was some time before we ascertained
from whence the sound proceeded. At first the note was single ;
then two or three were heard ringing clear through the air, the
sound being like that of a precentor striking his key-note with
his pitch-key before he commences his tune. No other sound
was heard on the solitary hill, and we might, with the aid of a
little imagination, have easily supposed the music to come from
the little elves or fairies that were said, in the good old times gone
by, to have sported on our beautiful border hill-sides and peopled
our romantic little dells. At last we observed some fine large
flies hovering about the stones, and occasionally flymg past us
with a loud hum. Upon attentive examination we found that
these flies were of two kinds; one large and of a uniform dark
colour, the other distinguished by having its abdomen horizon-
tally barred by several bands of a yellow colour. This banded
variety particularly engaged our attention, and upon watching
the motions of one of these we found that it darted past us very
rapidly with a loud hum or buzzing noise, and then alighted
gently upon the surface of a stone. Immediately it alighted it
became apparently immoveable, and then the clear musical note
burst forth, swelling on the ear in a remarkable manner. We
discovered no motion in the creature when producing this music,
though that might in part have been because of its shyness in al-
lowing us to approach very near to it. As soon as we came close
to its station on the stone, it darted off with a loud buzzing noise,
totally different from the clear sonorous pipe it had been treating
us to previously when at rest. This buzzing noise it continued
while on the wing, but no sooner did it settle again upon a stone
than the same clear musical sound once more streamed forth.
Having no nets or means whereby we could capture a few speci-
mens, we were long before we could secure an individual for ex-
amination. At last we succeeded in striking one down without
killing it, and carried it home. It must have been injured how-
ever, for though it lived in a tumbler during the night, it died
next morning, without our having been able to watch its moye-
ments or hear its song.

The day was very hot in the low ground, with bright sunshine ;

a 8 ie

Dr. Baird on the Capture of Sericomyia borealis. 69

but on the eminence where we found the fly, it was cool and

comfortable. There were two cairns, one on the very summit of.

the hill, the other a little lower down. These flies were found
by us on both the cairns, but nowhere else, though in our de-
scent we kept a good look-out for them till we reached the base
of the mountain.

The subject of this notice belongs to the genus Sericomyia of
Meigen*, one of the family Syrphide, a family composed of va-
rious members of the genus Musca of Linneus. A species of
fly nearly resembling this was described by Linneus in his
‘Fauna Suecica’ as an inhabitant of Lapland, and called by him
Musca lappona. De Geer, a few years afterwards, figures what he
considers the Musca lappona of Linneus, and describes it at
some length under the same name. More lately, Fallen in his
‘Diptera Sueciz’ has noticed, as a native of Scania, the same fly
figured by De Geer, and describes it with great circumstan-
tiality. Linneus describes fis Musca lappona as having three
white bands running across the abdomen. De Geer figures his
with four, and describes them as yellow. Fallen retaims the
name of lappona for the fly with three white bands, and forms
another species for the four yellow-banded variety. This he
names Syrphus borealis, and in his distinction between the two
species he is followed by Zetterstedt and succeeding entomolo-
gists. None of these authors, however, make any mention of its
possessing the peculiar musical note when at rest I have described
above; and perhaps this may be the first time it has been re-
corded.

Fallen in his ‘ Diptera Sueciz,’ Syrphici, p. 3, m describing
the characters of the family, says: “flores sedulo visitant ; im-
primis in arbustis, et in pratis sylvaticis, uliginosis, susurro
pipiente, velocissime seepe volitant ; interdum in aére quasi pen-
dentes, totam sylvam, estate serena, sono sibilante implent.’’
This is a totally different sound, however, from that I have taken
notice of as only heard when the fly was at rest and not on the
wing. Mr. Westwood, in his admirable ‘ Classification of Insects,’
vol. 1. p. 557, m speaking of the same family, says: “They fly
with amazing rapidity, and many delight to hover immoveably
over certain spots, to which they will return, if disturbed, for a
considerable number of times.” He does not take notice of
~ their possessing any peculiar sound; but in another passage in

_~ the same page, he says that he had observed, in experimenting

upon the buzzing of some of these insects, “an organ not hitherto
noticed, connected with the thoracic organs of respiration, and
the instruments whereby the buzzing is produced; this consists

* Versuch. ein n. Gattungs d. Eur. zweifl. Ins, in Ill. Mag. 1803,
ByN.C.—-VOL. 111. N°. 11. G

at

70 Mr. A. Hepburn.on some of the Mammalia and Birds

of a slender elongated filament clothed with very long and deli-
cate hairs, fixed near the under side of the alula at its base, and
at a little distance from the base of the balancer.” It is perhaps
in some such organ as this that we are to look for the origin of
this musical pipe; a sound which, though not described by any
author with regard to the Syrphide, one or two entomologists
have informed me they have heard in other insects.

Order DIPTERA (Aristotle, Linn., Latreille, &c.).
Family Syreuip# (Westwood, Macquart, &c.). (Syrphici, Fallen.)
Genus Sericomyi1a (Mezgen, 1803 ; Latreille, 1806, &c.).
Sp. SeRICOMYIA BOREALIS.
Syn. Musca lappona, De Geer (not Linn.), Mém. pour serv. a
? Hist. des Insectes, vi. 141. no. 6, t. 8. f. 14 (1776).
Musca silens, Harris, Kxposition of English Insects, p. 59.
told. di, L4o( 1.78],
Sericomyia lapponum, Latreille, Gen. Crust. et Ins. wv. 822
(1806).
Syrphus borealis, Fallen, Dipt. Suec. Syrphici, 20. no. 7
(1814-17).
Sericomyia borealis, Meigen, Diptera, 11. 343. no. 2. t. 31.
f. 9 (1822); Macquart, Hist. Nat. Dipt.1. 496. no. 3
(1834); Zetterstedt, Insecta Lapponica, 590. no. 1
(1840); Walker, List of Diptera in Brit. Mus. 594
(1849).

Notes on some of the Mammalia and Birds found at St. Abb’s
Head. By Arncuipatp Herpurn.

On the 20th of June last, accompanied by my friend Mr. Robert
H. Broughton, I hired a boat at Coldmgham shore, to visit St.
Abb’s, for the purpose of procuring specimens of birds, and
making observations on their habits and distribution along the
coast. Our intelligent boatman, Hugh Grant, communicated
some of the following notices of the mammalia found about the
Head, and which appear to possess some interest in a local point
of view.

The otter (Lutra vulgaris) is pretty common on the sea-shore,
his favourite retreats bemg amongst loose boulders and in rocky
coves ; and it would appear, from tracks on muddy ground, that
they frequently travel overland from Pennywick to the Well-head
Coves, which are situated at either extremity of the deep valley
dividing the mass of rock composing the headland from the
mainland. This animal frequently occurs on the wild coasts of
Ireland, the Hebrides, and Western Highlands; and as for his

+ e

i

found at St. Abb’s Head. 71

travelling propensities, I have occasionally heard of his capture
at a distance from the Tyne in East Lothian, when journeying
to the streams which drain the uplands of the county. An old
trapper residing at Linton used to get one guinea per skin in
winter, but at present the price is much lower; the traps were
pitched on little banks of sand or mud by the brink of the
stream, on which the footprints of the animal were visible.

Within the last thirty years the numbers of the fox (Canis
vulpes) have been greatly reduced, but at that period they were
so numerous and audacious as to cross the country im open day.
Their approach to a farm onstead was notified by the poultry,
which, with loud cries, sought refuge by retreating either to the
yard or to the branches of some friendly tree ; the fox was often
seen to resort to the latter, and after vainly endeavouring to
reach his prey, departed, after indulging in those feelings, which,
I dare say, Ausop has interpreted with much truthfulness in his
well-known fable. Lambs were frequently destroyed, so that it
was necessary to watch them by night and by day; the shepherd
hounded his dogs, and the farmer a brace of wire-haired grey-
hounds at the fox, and the latter generally fled towards his rocky
home. Dogs brought up in the neighbourhood learned to ap-
proach the cliffs with due caution ; but the county pack of fox-
hounds suffered so severely from the loss of the best dogs falling
over the cliffs whilst in hot pursuit of their artful quarry, that
the huntsmen purposely avoided drawing such covers as con-
tained outlying foxes from St. Abb’s Head. One of my farm
servants, who spent part of his youth in that neighbourhood, once
succeeded in cutting off a fox’s retreat to the cliffs with a brace
of shepherd’s dogs, on which the former boldly dashed into the
sea and swam for a distant point, but the dogs dragged him on
shore and despatched him.

Our boatman Hugh Grant once procured a wild cat (Felis
catus) when quite young, which resided five years in his house,
and produced several litters of four and five each, but invariably
deserted her family when they were four or five days old; she
was a notable hunter, and although perfectly tame, showed great
animosity on being irritated.

During snowy weather and high gales of wind, great num-
bers of hares (Lepus timidus) resort to the cliffs as well as to
the more shelving parts of the coast, and repose on the stony
beach just above high-water mark, even when it blows hard from
the open sea.

Four pairs of the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) breed
on the coast of Berwickshire ; one at Burnmouth, one at Penny-
wick Cove to the west of St. Abb’s, one at Ernesheugh, and a
fourth at Fast Castle, to which I may add two localities in Kast

G2

72 Mr. A. Hepburn on some of the Mammalia and Birds

Lothian, viz. the Bass Rock and the islet of Federa; a pair of
young birds formerly sold for two guineas, but now they can be
purchased for five or ten shillings. The kestrel and sparrow-
hawk were the only other birds of prey seen about the cliffs:
the white-rumped swallow (Hirundo urbica) builds on the cliffs,
as I have noticed elsewhere.

A solitary pair of ravens (Corvus corax),on Weston Thirl cliff,
is the only representative of a once numerous and daring band of
plunderers. Many years ago their depredations on the young
lambs were so serious as to render their destruction a matter of
great importance to the flock-masters ; these birds used to watch
for the birth of a lamb, and before the mother was able to attend
to its safety, its eyes and tongue were pecked out, the umbilical
cord was rudely seized, the intestines were thus uncoiled and
dragged forth, and the little sufferer soon dropt to rise no more:
such misdeeds have been attributed to the carrion crow (Corvus
corone) by at least two authors*. The misdeeds of the ravens
called down persecution : they were shot and trapped at all hands,
and bold young men were lowered down the face of the cliffs by
means of ropes to destroy their nests. It is curious to note the
habits of birds in different districts: m the Hebrides, the raven
feasts only on carrion; and “the shepherds and farmers, so far
from molesting the ravens, are pleased when a pair of them breed
on their ground, because they help to keep off the eaglest.”” Two
or three pairs of ravens haunt the rocky islets off North Berwick.

Jackdaws (C. monedula) are very common about the cliffs, and
along with the grey-backed crow (C. cornix), feed largely upon
eges; of the latter only two or three pairs frequent the cliffs ;
they may be seen about the upper waters of the Whitadder 1 in
summer ; they are sparingly distributed along the shores of the
Firth of Forth during the same season, but are common in
winter: there are some old people who aver that these birds were
once far more abundant in these parts than the carrion crow
(C. corone). The interesting chough or red-legged crow (Pyr-
rhocorax graculus) is now extinct, except a solitary pair, which
I was informed seldom strayed far from Fast Castle, a few miles
to the eastward of the Head.

The rock pipit (Anthus aquaticus, Bechst.) is common on
the less abrupt precipices. The rock pigeon (Columba livia) is
asserted to breed on this coast, their chief resorts being rocky
caverns in Hast Harker’s Cliff, and the coves of Harlaw and
Pennywick ; but in truth, they are only domestic pigeons which
have become wild, and such as are to be met with in several

“ MacGillivray in his Hist. of Brit. Birds, vol. i. p. 521, and Hogg in
‘ Zoologist,’ vol. 1. p. 304.
f MacGillivray’ s Brit. Birds, vol. 1. p. 508.

found at St. Abb’s Head. 73

places both in the interior and on the coast. Such is the opinion
of Dr. Hood, Aimesfield, near Coldingham ; and after examining
a specimen shot by Mr. Broughton, and paying particular atten-
tion to the various parties of these birds which were observed,
noting the dark, purple, and particolors which so much prevailed,
I came to the same conclusion. The rock pigeon is the un-
doubted parent of our common house dove. Dr. MacGillivray,
who has seen thousands of the former in the Hebrides, says, “ I
have not observed any remarkable variations of form or colour*.”
On similar and equally msufficient evidence it has been alleged
that the rock pigeons bred on the Bass Rock, but from some
unknown cause, no pigeons have bred there for ten or twelve
years. The guillemot (Uria troile) breeds in countless thou-
sands ; ledge above ledge was crowded with birds sitting on their
solitary egg laid on the bare rock, and at the report of a gun the
birds would waddle to the edge: springing downwards with out-
stretched legs to break their fall, they sped away on rapid pinion
to the open sea. On approaching the base of one of the stupen-
dous cliffs, a large flock of these birds, which were reposing on a
rocky shelf a foot or two above the water, dashed into the sea ;
some fluttered along the surface ere they acquired an impetus
for flight; others swam about the boat in the most confiding
manner, and delighted us all with their graceful movements,
whether in play, or in capturing some kind of minute animal :—
what a contrast to their awkward gait ashore! A few years ago,
I captured a guillemot on Tyne Sands by cutting off his retreat
from the water; then dismounting from my horse, I waited till
he hobbled forwards and seized me by the foot. Although we
could not distinguish the young birds on the rock, still their
shrill squeaks were heard.

A fine specimen of the bridled guillemot (Uria lacrymans)
was shot, and is now in Mr. Broughton’s collection; our boatman
said it was not common. Many naturalists still contend that
this bird is only a variety of the last-mentioned species; amongst
others I may mention Mr. John Wolley, who paid great attention
to the subject when visiting the Faro Islands; and I presume his
reasons would be embodied in a “ Report”’ on the birds of those
islands, read before the British Association in August last.

The razor-bill (Alca torda) is pretty common, but not nearly
so abundant as I had anticipated from the numbers found on
the Bass; indeed they did not appear to be so numerous as the
herring gulls; they generally frequented loftier ledges than the
guillemot cared to occupy, and that in little parties, separately
or mixed with other species; and occasionally a solitary bird
might be seen tenanting a snug cranny.

* History of British Birds, vol. 1. p. 270.

74. Mr. A. Hepburn on some of the Mammalia and Birds

The puffin (Fratercula arctica) 1s a very wary bird, seldom ap-
proaching within gunshot of a boat ; they have been much perse-
cuted by idle gunners, and now only about a dozen pairs annually
build in crevices in the Foule Carr: the rocky isle of Federa, off
North Berwick, is their chief resort on the southern shores of the
Forth ; a few pairs also haunt the Bass. It is in connection with
the latter locality and the provincial name of Tammie Norrie,
and in allusion to the grotesque appearance of the bird’s face,
that the following distich* has become “the peasant’s heritage :”

“Tammie Norrie o’ the Bass,
Canna kiss a young lass.”

A few pairs of the green cormorant (Phalacrocorax graculus)
haunt the coast, but the great cormorant is the most common.
Taking advantage of the calm sea, the boat was poled into many
a dark cave, where the blow with an oar on the boat’s side
sounded deep and hollow ; but only one bird was heard to plunge
into the water, and was seen to rise to the surface about two
hundred yards out at sea. Fishing parties were seen off the
Ernesheugh, and a female was driven from a bulky nest con-
structed of turf, grass and seaweed im a crevice in the Skelly Rock
about fifty feet above the water; this is a very uncommon place
for the nest, which is generally situated in caverns on this coast.
These birds constantly haunt the brackish water at the mouth of
the Tyne, and I have heard of their being shot about five miles
up the stream.

The boatman informed me that a single pair of the great
black-backed gull (Larus marinus) breeds annually on the Flood
Carr adjoining the Skelly Rock. The Bass Rock can likewise
boast of one or two pairs of these noble birds.

Next to the foolish guillemot, the kittiwake (Larus tridac-
tylus) is by far the most numerous bird about the Head. Unlike
the other species of gulls found here, they showed no preference
for tufts of grass growing on the precipices, but built their nests
in crevices, or on ledges of rock, sometimes solitary or in small
colonies, which again were occasionally distinct from, and, at other
times, termingled with, the nests of the guillemot: this gull
derives its name from its well-marked ery, Kitty-week, sharp
stress being laid upon the last syllable when the bird is angry
or alarmed.

Of all the birds which frequent these noble cliffs, the herrmg
gull (Larus argentatus) attracts most attention: no sooner did
our boat appear off their favourite coves, than their hoarse gut-

* It is believed that it first appeared in the appendix to the last edition
of Mr. Robert Chambers’ works, having been communicated by the writer.
H.

found at St. Abb’s Head. . 75

tural cackle resembling kaak-ka-kaak, varied only by a sharp
loud scream like pee-ul, filled the air: some took to wing and
hovered overhead in majestic sweeps ; others leaving their nests
crowned some distant pimnacle far beyond the reach of»an ordi-
nary charge, but not of the deadly wire cartridge, as three indi-
viduals found to their cost. The first to notify the appearance of
danger, they are the last to indicate its disappearance. The natu-
rally watchful habits of these birds seem to be increased during
the breeding season ; for often, when shooting on Tyne Sands in
summer, I have been pursued by these birds with loud outcries,
although they were four or five miles distant from the Bass,
which is a favourite breeding-place ; there they construct their
bulky nests amongst the herbage, or in holes dug in the turf by
the solan geese for building materials, whilst at St. Abb’s they
choose only those precipices which abound in fissures clothed
with herbage, and 1t was on one of this sort, called the Chaunler
Rock, that I observed three young birds as large as partridges
running about the friendly covert: rocks of this kind are often
accessible to the bold fisherman, who frequently takes both eggs
and young ones amidst the loud outeries and threatening swoops
of the parents. This bird is not unfrequently seen foraging in the
interior of Hast Lothian, and fishing in the Tyne and other streams.

No common gulls (Larus canus) breed about the Head, but
there is a most extensive colony on the Ernesheugh, about two
miles to the westward; their nests are placed on the grassy
ledges ; and although these birds abound along the eastern shores
of East Lothian and Berwickshire throughout the year, yet this
is the only breeding-place known to me in the south-east of_
Scotland. During the greater part of the year these birds find
their chief subsistence not only along shore, but also in the fields
in the interior of the counties of Berwick and East Lothian.
Dr. Hood, Aimesfield, near Coldingham, informed me that they
do great injury to the turnip crop, especially during hard
weather, and yet, judging by their droppings, such food is not
readily digested by them. Similar complaimts have been urged
against them in Fife :—can it be that the draiming and consequent
amelioration of our climate and soil, and the more frequent stir-
ring of the latter, have of late years induced a larger proportion
of gulls to remain with us durimg winter than can possibly find
a supply of food on our shores ; and so, when the ordinary supply
of worms and grubs is locked up by the frost, the famished birds
resort to turnip-fields* ?

* The changes which the tastes of some birds undergo are very remark-
able: it is only within the last fifteen years or so that the rooks attacked
the turnip-fields in this neighbourhood, and it is about forty or fifty vears
since red grouse were observed to eat oats. See Mag. Nat. Hist. New
Series, vol. 1. p. 118.

76 On some Mammalia and Birds found at St. Abb’s Head.

Short, and m some respects unsatisfactory as the foregoing
remarks may prove, still the general result of the excursion, when
taken in connection with what had previously been observed for
the last twelve years along our shores and on the Bass, was very
instructive. With a keen eye I scanned the lofty precipices, and
the multitude of common and herring gulls which hurried to
and fro ; there, as on the Bass, I noted the great scarcity of*young
birds of the preceding year. Repeated littoral rambles and daily
observations have now convinced me, that immediately after the
breeding season the great majority of the young birds retire from
Scotland, and do not return until they have assumed the adult
plumage ; and there are some reasons for.supposing that the same
remark is applicable to the young of the greater and lesser
black-backed gulls*.

It is for the pen of the geologist to describe the order of the
rocks composing the headland,—how this has been upheaved and
that depressed; to attempt to describe their scenic effect is be-
yond my power; but if I may be permitted to note some of the
physical aspects of that coast, then must I confess, that as the
boat swept onwards through narrow straits, and across rocky
coves under the shadow of frowning crags towering in some
parts to the height of about 300 feet, which for countless ages
had opposed their eternal front to the angry waves of the
German Ocean, the mind was filled with awe; and yet the
waves were so gentle, that from out of the numerous long dark
caverns by which the rock was pierced, there came forth a mur-
mur, not of wrath, but of power; but when the tempest howls
along the rugged shore, surely the terrible in nature must be
realized! Wherever the fissures in the slopmg rocks were filled
with mould, grasses of sorts, sea-pink, rose-root, and Szlene
maritima waved im cheerful profusion, whilst the nakedness of
some rocks was relieved by patches of Ramelina ; and inside the
Skelly Rock, the golden Parmelia parietina was distributed in
linear patches, and that with a regularity which made me curious
to ascertain its cause.

But it is the presence of those vast multitudes of sea-fowl
which imparts life and animation to the scene, replete with busy
and brooding love, ledge upon ledge, crevice upon crevice,
peopled for a few short weeks by guillemots, razorbills and
kittiwakes, whose ordinary home is the great deep. ‘Thousands of
rapid pinions beat the air with measured strokes as they hurry
to and fro; the heavy-bodied species extend their legs, and then
draw them up as they launch from the ledges, and they care-
fully ascend upwards to their nests so as to break the shock to

* The following species assume the adult plumage: Larus marinus,
L. fuscus and L. argentatus mm three years, Larus canus m two years. See
Jenyns’s Manual of Brit. Vert. An. pp. 275-278.

=

On a Chantry in the Chapelry of Alnwick. i

their short legs: high overhead wheel two or three noble
herring gulls, others have chosen suitable pinnacles, and their
loud challenge is in keeping with the hollow moanings of the
guillemot and other choral cries, until a gun is fired, when all
sounds are blended in wild confusion.

Notices of a Chantry in the Parochial Chapelry of Alnwick, de-
dicated to the Virgin Mary. Communicated by WittraM.,
Dickson of Alnwick and of Whitecross in Berwickshire.

* For though in feudal strife, a foe
Hath laid our Lady’s Chapel low,
Yet still, beneath the hallow’d soil,
The peasant rests him from his toil,
And dying, bids his bones be laid
Where erst his simple fathers pray’d.””-—Marmion.

As one of the objects of our Club is to investigate the antiquities
of Berwickshire and its vicinage, I presume to place upon the
records a few notices of this Chantry, which have never ap-
peared before the public in print. It is interesting to show the
mode in which our ancestors lived and worshiped God ; besides,
it forms a link in the history of a county, and, aided by similar
inquiries, becomes of great service to the future topographer.

By way of explanation I may observe, that a Chantry or Chaun-
try (Cantaria) is a small chapel or church, or private altar, in a
cathedral or other public place of worship, with an endowment
for one or more priests, on condition that they should sing mass
and perform other divine services for the soul of the founder, and
of such also of his descendants, or other relations, as he may have
provided for by the grant.

A man might make a Chantry by licence of the King,
without the Ordinary, for the Ordinary hath nothing to do there-
with—as was the case with this Chantry. The main use and
intent of these Chantries was, for prayers for souls departed,
on a supposition of purgatory, and of bemg released from thence
by masses satisfactory *.

* That they were used for other purposes, may be learned from an in-
teresting passage in Shakspeare’s Twelfth Night :—
Act 4. ScENE 3.—Sebastian, Olivia, and the Priest.
Olivia to Sebastian. If you mean well,

Now go with me, and with this holy man,

Into the Chantry by: there, before him

And underneath that consecrated roof,

Plight me the full assurance of your faith ;

That my most jealous and too doubtful soul

May live at peace.

Act 5. ScENE l.
Olivia. Father, I charge thee by thy reverence,

78 Mr. W. Dickson on a Chantry

These endowments were however effectually abolished by sta-
tutes, which not only rendered the holding of such property
unlawful, but conferred the same upon the Crown (37 Hen. VIII.
ce. 4; 1 Ed. VI.c. 14; and 1 Eliz. ec. 29).

The reason for the dissolution of Chantries is best shown by
the preamble of the statute of Edward the Sixth, which is as fol-
lows :—

“The King’s most loving subjects, the Lords spiritual and temporal, and
the Commons in this Parliament assembled, considermg that a great part
of superstition and error im Christian religion hath been brought into the
minds and estimation of men, by reason of their ignorance of their very
true and perfect salvation, through the death of Jesus Christ, and by de-
vising and phantasing vaine opinions of purgatory, and masses satisfactory
to be done for them which be departed; the which doctrme and vaine
opinion by nothing more is maintaimed and upholden than by the abuse of
Trentalls, Chauntries, and other provisions made for the continuance of the
said blindness and ignorance: and further considering and understanding,
that the alteration, change and amendment of the same, and converting to
good and godly uses, as in erecting of Grammar Schools to the education
of youth in virtue and godliness, and further augmenting the Universities,
and better provision for the poor and needy, cannot in this present Parlia-
ment be provided and conveniently done, nor cannot nor ought to any other
manner of person be committed, than to the King’s Highness, whose Ma-
jestie with and by the advice of his Highness’ most prudent Counsel, can
and will, most wisely and beneficially, both for the honor of God and the
weale of this His Majesty’s Realm, order, alter, convert, and dispose of the
saine.””

This was a Chantry in the Chapel of St. Michael in the pa-
rochial Chapelry of Alnwick, in the parish of Lesbury, in Nor-
thumberland, dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It was founded
by Henry Earl of Northumberland, in the reign of Henry the
Sixth, and the following translation of a Licence from the Crown
will best show the reason and origin of its foundation.

Among the records in the custody of the Master of the Rolls
pursuant to Statute 1 and 2 Vict. c. 94, and preserved in the
Tower of London, (to wit) Patent Rolls, 26 Henry VI. part 2.
Memb. 18, it is thus contained :—

“ T. Cantar. fundans.

Percy et Aluis.

“The King,—To all to whom, &c.—Greeting.— Know, that, of our special
grace, we have granted and given licence, for us and our heirs, as much as

Here to unfold, what thou dost know,

Hath newly past between this youth and me.
Priest. A contract of eternal bond of love,

Confirm’d by mutual joinder of your hands,

Attested by the holy close of lips,

Strengthen’d by interchangement of your rings,

And all the ceremony of this compact,

Seal’d in my function, by my testimony.

in the Parochial Chapelry of Alnwick. 79

in us is, to our dear Cousin Henry Earl of Northumberland, to the Rev.
Father in Christ Wiliam Bishop of Lincoln, to our wellbeloved Henry
Percy, Knight, Lord of Poynings, and John Lematon skilled in the Law,
the three or two longest livers of them, to make, found and establish to the
praise and glory of God, a certain Chauntry for ever, for two Chaplaims, in
Divine honor of the most Blessed and Glorious and Pure Virgin Mary, at
the altar of the same Virgin, within the Chapel of St. Michael of Alnewicke,
within the Diocese of Durham, to sing praises daily, unless a reasonable
cause. of excuse shall mtervene, for our good condition whilst we live, and
of the said Earl, Bishop, Henry and John and all others who, lands, tene-
ments, rents or other possessions for the sustenance of the aforesaid Chantry,
or of the Chaplain of the same, shall give or contribute, or otherwise who by
any means shall lend a helping hand to the sustentation of the.Chantry and
Chaplains whilst they live, and for our soul and their souls when from this
Light we shall have departed and they shall have departed, and for the souls
of all the faithful. And for one of the said Chaplains to instruct poor boys
in the art of Grammar gratis, and without occasion of money whatsoever,
and to fulfil other works of piety, according to the orders of the said Earl,
Bishop, Henry and John, the three or two longest livers of them in this
behalf to be observed for ever.

* And that this Chantry, when it shall be so made, founded and esta-
blished, shall be the Chantry of the Blessed Mary of Alnewicke, and all
Chaplains of the same Chantry for the time being shall be called perpetual
Chaplains of the same perpetual Chantry.

“And that the Chaplams of that Chantry, when it shall have been so
made, founded and established, and their successors Chaplains of the same
Chantry, by the name of the Chaplains of the Chantry of the Blessed
Mary of Alnewicke, be persons competent in Law to prosecute and defend
all actions personal, real and mixed, suits, complaints and demands in
whatsoever Court and before whatsoever Justices and Judges spiritual and
temporal, and that they may in the same answer and be answered, and be
likewise persons capable and competent in Law to acquire lands, tenements,
rents, reversions, services, and other possessions whatsoever.

“And that the Chaplains of the Chantry aforesaid who are to sing
praises in the aforesaid Holy Chapel for the condition of the souls afore-—
said, in the form aforesaid, to be named and deputed by the Burgesses of
Alnewicke for the time being, immediately after the foundation of the afore-
said Chantry, to, shall be appomted by the aforesaid Earl of Northumber-
land and his heirs, and by him the Earl and his heirs whatsoever shall be
presented to the Ordinary of that place, and that the said Chaplains coming
m after such ceremony, by what fashion soever, and all and singular other
the Chaplaims of the Chantry aforesaid, shall be nominated to all and sin-
gular the premises on their parts in the same manner as it is permitted to
be done and exercised by the aforesaid Burgesses for the time being and
from time to time, and shall be presented by the aforesaid Earl and his heirs
in the form aforesaid.

* And that the aforesaid Earl, Bishop, Henry and John, the three or two
longest livers of them, may make and appoint lawful statutes and ordi-
nances, for the perpetual establishment and good government of the afore-
said Chantry, according to the exigence of necessity lawfully and with im-
punity, without impediment, occasion, perturbation, or molestation of us or
our heirs or any others whatsoever.

* And lastly, of our abundant grace, we have granted for us and our heirs,
that when the said Chantry shall have been so made, founded and esta-
blished, the Chaplains in that Chantry for the time bemg may acquire and
enjoy, lands, tenements and rents to the value of forty pounds per annum

80 Mr. W. Dickson on a Chantry

which shall not be held of us immediately in capite, or otherwise by mili-
tary service, from any other person or persons, willing to give, grant or as-
sign the same to them, to be had and held by them and their successors,
Chaplains of the aforesaid Chantry, as well for the Exhibition in grammar
of poor boys there as aforesaid, as for the maintenance of the said Chantry
and support of the burdens necessarily belonging to the same Chantry, ac-
cording to the ordinances of the Earl, Bishop, Henry and John, the three
or two longest livers of them, as it is permitted to be done for ever.

“And likewise by the tenor of these presents we have given special li-
cence, for any person or persons that he or they may give, grant, or assign
in form aforesaid such lands, tenements and rents of the said annual
value to the aforesaid Chaplains for the time being of the aforesaid
Chantry as is aforesaid, so long as it be found by Inquisition duly taken
and returned into the Chancery of us and of our heirs, that it may be done
without hurt or prejudice of us or our heirs or others whatsoever, notwith-
standing the Statute of Mortmain, except in those cases where express men-
tion is made of other gifts and grants by us or any of our ancestors to the
aforesaid Earl, Bishop, Henry and John or any of them in matters of small
amount existing before the date of this Licence.

“In Testimony whereof we have caused these our letters to be made pa-
tent. Witness ourself, at Westminster, the 6th day of July, in the 26th
year of our reign. [A.p. 1448.]

“ By writ of Privy Seal and of the date aforesaid.”

This Henry Earl of Northumberland was the son of the
valiant Hotspur; he held many high offices under the Crown,
and was in great favour with King Henry VI.; he was killed
at the battle of St. Albans, 23rd May, 33 Hen. VI. (1455),
fighting in the army of that king. He was succeeded by his
eldest son Henry, one of the parties named in the above Charter ;
he was summoned to Parliament in his father’s lifetime as Lord
de Poynings; his wife was Baroness Poynings Fitzpayne and
Bryan in her own right, titles which have descended from her to
His Grace the present Duke of Northumberland.

The Bishop named in the above Licence was William Alne-
wicke, formerly Archdeacon of Salisbury; he was made Bishop
of Norwich 27th Feb. 1426—was Keeper of the Privy Seal
—translated to Lincoln 19th Sept. 1436, and died 5th Dec.
1449. From his name being Alnewicke he was probably a na-
tive of that town, and so instrumental in the endowment of this
Chantry.

This religious foundation seems to have been augmented from
time to time by grants from pious individuals, and to have risen
rapidly, as it only existed for about 100 years.

At the dissolution of Chantries in 1547 this Society possessed
44, burgages in various parts of the town of Alnwick, containing
in all nearly 11 acres.

This is proved by the following extracts from an ancient Survey
of the Borough Town of Alnwick, made in the time of King
James I. (1624), and preserved in Alnwick Castle :—

in the Parochial Chapelry of Alnwick. 81

Narrowgate Street. A. R. P.

Matt” Jones holdeth a Burgage and Garth, late AnthY Hobwins,

and before W™ Grays, and before him inane Grays, late parcel

of the possessions of the Chauntry of the Blessed Virgin Mary

of Alnwick, by Fealty and suit of Court and other services... 0 0 10
Hugh Arrowsmith holdeth a Burgage, late the Heirs of J ohn

Harrison, and sometime Roger Harrison, late belonging to the

Chauntry of the Blessed Virgin of Alnwick .............. 0 0 30
Robert Grey holdeth a Burgage, late W™ Grey, his father before

him, Sr Arthur Grey before Geo. Grey and before him W™

Grey father to the said George, late belonging to the Chauntry

REMMI eters Ae nee ew ccs wie esa oly wigs si cie we shew an 0 2 35
Bondgate.
John Clay holdeth a Burgage, Toft and Garth, late parcel of the
(LETTS. (ROLE 9 Ci Re ee a 0 015

Common Lane and Town Wail.
Edward Fargus holdeth a Burgage, late belonging to the Chaun-

Pm ELIE Carga bts hac tS waa sies aialays haces pas ayeT ois 2s) HAE > Ons Typ
Market-place.
Widdow Lidhouse holdeth there a Burgage late belonging to the
PE irumt entOnesatdh rks . aside leds we Pile el Bae eee Om 2

John Clarkson holdeth there a Burgage, late Rich? Clarkson,
before Tho* Clarkson, and four Lands in the Alnwick way
Quarter in Bondgate Field, parcel of the possessions of the
rrrareyvaae Alnwick %. < fiheuicla a stitsth mal cleiale’steld sisietas settee LOM 32
Pakes Hoole.

Five Burgages late belonging to the said Chauntry .......... 0 017
Clayport Extra.
Three Burgages late belonging to the same Chauntry........ On s20G Te.

Clayport Infra.

Nicholas Farnham holdeth there one e Bureaee late belonging to
PIANO EGLY S20, coc cc safe v atttetticlala tice a's « 8 some clase ale wie 0 0 27

Finkle Street.
Two Burgages late belonging to the said Chauntry .......... Onn? 2

Common Lane.
Robt Clarke holdeth two Burgages late belonging to the said

oJ OSPTRILES a HERES ARI cok eclectic 0 2 28
Pottergate.
Alex. Clarke and others hold there eleven Burgages late be-
Seoneims to the said Chauntry 0... 6. 6 keira wie s cieeie eee ices Nae ea!)
Walkergate.

George Pawterson holdeth a Burgage late W™ Greys, and before
Ralph Grey, before James Phelips, parcel of the Chauntry of
PAULICK sf. so aan ete <\e Saar oe ae sietehaxcreteietetstohe © B Uiamene esate cy ore OP RAO

82 Mr. W. Dickson on a Chantry

A. BR. P.
Uswan Wood and others held there nine Burgages, also late parcel _
of the: said, Chaumtry, g5cefne ations ak legs Bicad ayeveres aR i oe 24026
Bayleygate.
Four Burgages late belonging to the said Chauntry.......... b yindd
In all forty-four Burgages and Lands, containing...... Acres 10 3 37

Amongst the Records of the late Court of Augmentations in
the custody of the Master of the Rolls, under the Head of “ Cer-
tificates of Colleges and Chantries,” we find the following entry
relating to this Chantry :—

( Lands and ( Willm HudsonandThomas| The yerely va-
possessions Thompson, botheof64 yeres | lue of the said
belonging to | of age, well learned, of ho- | stypendarys as
the use and | nest conversation and qua- | shall appear by
stypend _ of | lyties. The said W™ Hud- | the particular of
two Priests ; | son having one pencon of the same. £12 13 4
| the one Mas- | 100 shillings by the year,
< ter of a Gram- besyde his said stypend, the Whereof in de-
= |mer Scoole, | other having noother lyving | Cay yerely of the
and the other | but only the same stypend. | same.... £4 9 0
Master of ax And theykeep two schooles,
Synge Scoole | the one for grammer andthe | And so remayn-
wtin Alne- other for synge, to bring up eth clere.. £8 4 4
wyke afore- | Childrenin learning accord-
seyd. img to their Foundation, and
: there is no lande sold syth
the 23rd of Nov., 38th
Hen. VIII.
There is of Houseing
people 1500 within the same
parishe.

‘QUOU 94e[ q

Alnewyke.

‘QUOT Spoon

We learn from this that the population of the parish was 1500
in 1547, or thereabouts; the population is now (1851) about
7000, being an average annual increase of 18.

As the 44 Burgages only produced a rental of £12 13s. 4d.
in 1547, they must have been chiefly cottages and small proper-
ties, the average annual rental of each being under six shillings.
After the dissolution these Burgages were granted away by the
Crown by sale or otherwise, and now belong to various indivi-
duals.

The house where the two Chaplains lived was in Walkergate
Street ; it came into the hands of the Percy family, and it is
sometimes called “ Lady House” or “ Chauntry House”; it is
now a ruin, but the side walls are standing as well as the gable
(Plate No. VII.), from which the style of architecture is shown.
The rooms for living and sleeping may be conjectured, and are in
some degree shown in the sketches No. VI. and No. VII.

in the Parochial Chapelry of Alnwick. 83

The House consisted of two ends, each containing a kitchen
below and a sleeping room above for each Chaplain to dwell in;
and at the west end there seems to have been two separate
rooms, one above the other; the one probably used as a school-
room for instructing poor boys in the Art of Grammar gratis,
as is mentioned in the endowment, and the other for a Singing
School.

The fire-places are large, as in the case of old houses where
wood was uséd for firing (Plate No. VII).

The architecture has been of a collegiate and ornamental cha-
racter, and the roof and joists of oak ; some of the beams carved
and beaded still remain.

The outside stairs, which existed m 1826 (Plate No. VI.) and
for some years afterwards, have been removed; they were old,
but were not considered origmally to have formed part of the
building.

From this House there was a footway leading direct to St. Mi-
chael’s Chapel through the churchyard, which was legally closed
a few years ago as unnecessary.

His Grace Algernon the present Duke of Northumberland, not
willing that the buildig should be entirely swept away, means
to preserve it, as far as 1s practicable, and to convert it to some
useful purpose.

Thus I have traced this religious Institution from its foundation,
through its palmy days, unto its present rumous condition ; and
taking into consideration former events,—the founding and disso-
lution of these and similar religious establishments—how our
kings took possession of them from time to time, and retained
the revenues in their own hands—how all alien priories were seized”
by the Crown in the time of King Edward the First—how they
were again suppressed in the time of King Henry the Fifth—
how the endowments of the Knights of St. John were seized in
very early times—how the monasteries were taken possession of
by King Henry the Eighth, and all Chantries, Colleges, free

‘Chapels, Fraternities and Guilds founded for superstitious pur-
poses were suppressed ;—it is impossible not to come to the con-
clusion, that if ever England should witness the establishment of
such societies again and the amassing of property for such pur-
poses, it will only afford another opportunity of doing that for
which so many precedents already exist.

It may be noted here, in conclusion, that the old church of
Alnwick is sometimes said to be dedicated to “ St. Mary and
St. Michael,” and of late it has been called “St. Mary’s Church.”
But this is erroneous: nothing proves the name of the Patron
Saint more clearly than the time of celebrating the annual feast,

which is held yearly on the first Sunday after the feast of St.

84 On a Chantry in the Chapelry of Alnwick.

Michael (old style). It is curious to trace the connexion of the
old parish feasts with the patron saint’s day. These annual en-
tertainments are held on the same day in every year from gene-
ration to generation. By this rule the patron saint of Alnwick is
made out to be Saint Michael: in addition we find the effigies
of that saint on the public buildings; one on St. Michael’s Pant
and another on the church well. We also find on the ancient
seal of the old Saxon corporation of Alnwick the figure of St.
Michael (Plate No. VI.). In the preceding Licence of King
Henry the Sixth, the old church is expressly called “the Chapel
of St. Michael.” The confusion that Alnwick church is dedi-
cated to “St. Mary,” or “ St. Mary and St. Michael,” arises from
the circumstance, that this Chantry, founded in the ancient chapel
of St. Michael, was erected in honour of the Blessed Virgin.
W. D.

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ANCIENT BRITISH URN FOUND AT HAWKHILL.

HALT PEE 2 OF THE SRIGINAL

J.Storey, Del.et Lith Newcastle

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB.

>

Address to the Members, delivered at the Anniversary Meeting held
at Newtown, September 8th, 1852. By Rosertr Home, Esq.,
President.

GENTLEMEN,

Ir was to me an unpleasant surprise, that a person so incompetent
either to take a useful part in your transactions, or to give a
tolerable account of them, was, at our last Anniversary, appointed
President. A fixed rule, it seems, forbade me to decline the
honour ; but I trust this year’s experience will admonish the
Club of the importance of making in future a better choice ; for
had I not been favoured by our Secretary and by Mr. Tate with
their notes of the meetings, the address from the Chair, on the
present occasion, would have been an entire failure.

The preceding Anniversary Meeting took place on the 3rd
September, 1851. The place of the Meeting made it somewhat
interesting ; it was the birth-place of the Club twenty years
before. This is the Secretary’s note of it :—‘ Present—Rev.
Dr. Gilly, President; Dr. Johnston, Secretary; Rev. J. Baird, Mr.
Embleton, Mr. Selby, Rev. J. D. Clark, Mr. Home, Mr. Dick-

B.N.C.— VOL. III. N°. III. H

86 Annwersary Address.

son, Mr. Broderick, Mr. Turnbull, Mr. John Turnbull, Dr. Hood,

Rev. Mr. Darnell, and Rev. Mr. Rigge. »

«The party was scattered into smaller companies by the dif-
ferent periods of arrival of their respective trams. One traced
the whole extent of Blackburn-rigg Wood ; and from its western
end began their homeward course, following the Eye. In the
wooded dean some rare plants were observed, viz. Bromus gigan-
teus, a Rubus, as erect as the Rasp inits growth, Polypodium phe-
gopteris and P. dryopteris, Listera cordata, Trientalis europaeus,
and a viviparous state of Luzula pilosa. In the Eye we noticed

Chara flexilis; and in a pond adjacent the Siwm inundatum.—
Another party went the old and favourite walk through the Pease-
dean to the seashore, without, however, having been able to detect
any novel plant to create a surprise in those who had not accom-
panied them. They noticed Centaurea nigra, var. pinnatifida,
Aspndium angulare et lobatum, Atriplex rosea, and Ligusticum
scoticum. The Pulmonaria maritima was not to be seen this year.
The adder and the blind-worm were seen; and the butterflies
named Hipparchia semele, H. egeria, Polyommatus artazxerexes,
and Lycene phleas, were made captives to the butterfly-hunters.

“Concentrated at 4 at dinner, the party presented a compact
force which the amply-furnished table could not resist. Fish and
fowl, veal and mutton, and their vegetable garnitures, quickly
melted away, and the tarts and pies appeared only to disappear
with equal celerity. We have been sneered at by some sour
scientifics for our evident enjoyment of our breakfasts and our
dinners; but we can suffer the sneer so long as the meals are
enjoyable, aud hug ourselves complacently in the thought that
our snarlers are at least not men of Taste. Well! Dinner done,
and the toasts of the day duly drunk, the Rev. Dr. Gilly, Presi-
dent, read us his address, which was in all respects such a one
as we might have looked for from a clergyman of his learning
and character. He proposed that Mr. Home should be his suc-
cessor in the presidential Chair,—a proposal which was unani-
mously confirmed.

“Hugh Taylor, Esq., William Forster, Esq., and William
Dickson, jun., Esq., were proposed as new Members by Mr.
Dickson : the nominations were seconded by Mr. Turnbull and
placed on the Minutes.

Myr. Broderick showed a specimen of a sand-martin, of a

Anniversary Address. — 87

uniform fawn or cream colour: it was this year’s bird, and was
shot by himself at Belford.

“Mr. Dickson read the paper, ‘On a Chantry at Alnwick,
dedicated to the Virgin,’ which was published with last year’s
proceedings, illustrated with drawings and plans—and this con-
cluded the day’s proceedings.”

The following incident is noticed, as a proof of the singular
veneration which the disciples of Linnzus entertain for the Law-
giver of their Science. The admirable Address of Dr. Gilly
led to a conversation, in the course of which an imputation was
east on the character of Linnzus, as occasionally guilty of some
coarseness and improprieties in his common conversation.
This was a painful surprise to some of us, upon whom the great
man’s character had hitherto shone with unsullied brightness.
But our Secretary at once started up, all in a glow with zeal
and devotion, and, much to the satisfaction of the Members,
vindicated the memory of their illustrious Founder, with a happy
eloquence, and a minute knowledge of the facts, of which no
other person present could, on the spur of the moment, have
availed himself.

The next Meeting was on the 15th October last, at New
Water-haugh. This is the Secretary’s note of it :—“ Present—
Mr. Home, President ; Dr. Johnston, Secretary; Mr. Embleton,
Dr. Clarke, Mr. Broderick, Major Elliott, Mr. Clay, Mr. Tate,
and Rev. Mr. Rigge. They were breakfasted by Mr. Clay, with
a Club-like elegance and hospitality —Hugh Taylor, Esq., Wil-
liam Forster, Esq., and William Dickson, jun., Esq., were ad-
mitted Members.

“ The following were fixed upon as the places of meeting
during the ensuing summer :—May, 3rd Wednesday, Wooler :—
June, last Wednesday, Dunse :—August, 1st Wednesday, Long-
houghton :—September, 2nd Wednesday, Newtown.

“ Dr. Johnston read a paper by Mr. Hardy, ‘On Mites as the
cause of certain Vegetable Galls ;’ and ‘ On the phytivorous habits
of some carnivorous Beetles.—Mr. Tate exhibited some rare
and interesting Fossils from Holy Island, pointing out their
characters ; and he also exhibited specimens of Hieracium pre-
nanthoides and Veronica officinalis B. humifusa, which his son had

H2

88 Annwersary Address.

gathered on the Cheviots.—Dr. Johnston exhibited a drawing
of the Sun-fish, taken from a specimen captured in Berwick Bay
about a month before; and on the day of the Club’s meeting a
very fine specimen of the Brama Raw was procured from Burn-
mouth.”

The next Meeting was held at Wooler, on the 19th May last.
There is a double record of this meeting. This is the Secretary’s
note :—-“ Present—Mr. Home, President ; Dr. Johnston, Secre-
tary; Mr. Selby, Captain Carpenter, Dr. Clarke, Rev. J. Parker,
Rev. J. Dixon Clark, Mr. Broderick, Rev. Geo. Walker, Mr.
Gregson, Mr. Tate, and Rev. Mr. Rigge.

“The walk of one party was directed to Holmedon—to the
Cleugh or hill above it—-and thence to a hill on the north of it
whose scarred sides held out some promise to the botanist ;—and
from this hill the party descended so as to enter on the head of
the planted dean at the foot of which the onstead of Akeld is
placed. From Akeld the party were led direct home to their Inn
by the turnpike road.

“At Holmedon the corn-craik was heard uttering its peculiar
cry for the first time this year by any of the party. The village
was passed with some remarks as to its former fame and size.
The latter is still indicated by heaving mounds, the remains of
old walls now concealed by a close green sward. There is also
the remnant of an old orchard; and the sites of houses of former
days, wide apart from the present hovels, were revealed by certain
plants which love a hidden ruin as well as doth the antiquary.
The most marked of these were the wormwood and the feverfew
(Scottice, ‘ Feather-foulzie’). Leaving the hamlet we commenced
the ascent of the hill, which was done leisurely and without
meeting with anything worthy of remark. The Viola lutea was
the only plant seen of interest sufficient to mark its locality. On
our descent on the north side a greater variety of plants were

noticed, but none of any rarity. The Ovalis acetosella, Orobus
tuberosus, Stellaria holostea, Polygala vulgaris, Bartramia fontana,
Hypnum dendroides, Vaccinium myrtillus, and Galium saxatile,were
gathered merely to make a nosegay to be admired and thrown
away. On the stony side of the opposite hill there were several
tufts of the broom in full bloom, and two or three bushes of Rosa
tomentosa, and probably both plants had here attained their

Anniversary Address. 89

highest limits on the Cheviots. No bramble ascends to this
height. It was also observed that the only slug noticed on the
hills was Limax ater, and the only snails Helix nemoralis and
H. alliaria, and these were rare. But in the dean above Akeld
we found also Limaa cinereus, arborum and fuscus, with Pupa
muscorum. The dean proved a rich botanical habitat ; it is the
best station I have yet seen in our district for Geranium lucidum
and Asplenium adiantum-nigrum. ‘There were likewise gathered
in it, Mercurials perennis, Luzula sylvatica, Stellaria holostea,
Cardamine amara, Chrysosplenium oppositifolium et alternifolium,
Asperula odorata, Cardamine pratensis et sylvatica, Myosotis syl-
vatica, Geranium robertianum, Viola canina, Potentilla fragari- |
astrum, Veronica serpyllifolia, Rubus macrophyllus et corylifolius,
Rosa canina, &e.

“Our homeward walk was much occupied with Holmedon and
its battle, and with the notes of the various birds which attracted
attention. It was noticed that there could be no doubt that this
year the oak had decidedly anticipated the ash in putting forth
its folage; and this was hailed as an augury of a good harvest
to come.

“T have omitted to mention the terraces on the hills we
climbed, but they were not unnoticed ; nor the remains of the
British camps which encircle the summit of each. The terraces
are conjectured to be roads leading from British settlements to-
the great temple of Druidical worship on Yeavering ; and at a
period not remote, used by moss troopers, and still more recently
by smugglers of whisky on their way to England. That they
were so used is, I believe, well known. Their original object is
entirely conjectural. Mr. Pennant gives the following account
of them :—‘ Observe on the right several very regular terraces cut
on the face of a hill. They are most exactly formed, a little
raised in the middle like a fine walk, and about 20 feet broad and
of a very considerable length. In some places were three, in
others five flights, placed one above the other, terminating exactly
m a line at each end and most precisely finished. I am told that
such tiers of terraces are not uncommon in these parts, where
they are called baulks. Mr. Wallis conjectures them to be places
for the militia to arrange themselves in time of war, that they
might show themselves to advantage thus placed rank above
rank. Mr. Gordon describes several which he saw in Scotland,

ad

90 Anniversary Address.

which he conjectures to have been Roman, and formed for itine-
rary encampments ; in my opinion a less satisfactory account. It
appears more reasonable that they were designed for what Mr.
Wallis imagines, as nothing could more highly gratify the pride
of a chieftain’s heart, in this warlike country, than to review at
one glance his vassals placed so advantageously for that purpose.’
——Tour in Scotland, 1772, p. 281.

“ Dr. Johnston read a paper by Mr. Hardy, ‘On an assemblage
of Celtic sepulchral monuments in the Hast of Berwickshire.’—
The following nominations for Membership were placed on the
Minutes :—1. Rev. Geo. Selby Thompson, Vicar of Alnham—
by Mr. Tate and Rev. Mr. Parker :—2. Sir John Marjoribanks,
Bart.—by Rev. Mr. Fyler and Captain Carpenter :—3. Dr. Matt.
Jas. Turnbull of Coldstream—by Captain Carpenter and Dr.
Clarke :—4. Capt. the Hon. Frederick Gray—by Rev. Mr. Rigge
and Mr. Tate.”

This is Mr. Tate’s note of the same Meeting :—

* My son and myself, on our way to the meeting, observed
growing on the wayside near to West Bolton, Doronicum parda-
hianches. According to Gerard, this plant was gathered on the
cold mountains in Northumberland by Dr. Penny more than
250 years ago. Although carefully sought for, it has not since
been observed on these mountains. It has undoubtedly been in-
troduced to its present locality.

“The highly picturesque dean at Roddam we examined, and
found its geological structure as interesting as its external features
are beautiful. One very rare plant we found—the Orobus niger,
which, we believe, has not been recorded for any other locality in
England; it was not however in flower. Sawifraga granulata,
Chrysosplenium alternifolium and Vicia sylvatica are the only
other plants noticed which are not common.

“Wooler, the place of meeting, is not devoid of geological
interest ; for here are seen, near to each other, the porphyry of
the Cheviot range and the lower sandstone of the carboniferous
formation. Our walk was chiefly along the boundary-line of
these formations and up some of the gorges where the porphyry
cliffs are exposed. Generally the porphyry is of a reddish colour,
being composed of a compact felspar base, with numerous crystals
of common and glassy felspar imbedded ; occasionally a little

Anniversary Address. on

hornblende is intermixed with these minerals. Veins of calcareous
spar not. unfrequently pass through the rocks of this formation ;
and in some parts, as at. Humbleton Mill, bright yellow crystals
of sulphuret of iron have deluded the discoverers into the hope,
that a Cheviot gold-mine was sparkling before their eyes. The
porphyry terminates a little below Humbleton Mill.

“The carboniferous sandstone is seen on the banks of Wooler
Water and at Wooler-haugh ; it is fine-grained, rather soft, and
of a reddish hue. It also forms the high grounds ranging along
by Whitsun-bank towards the Till. At Wooler this sandstone
is covered over with an accumulation of sand, clay and gravel.
A section of these superficial deposits is exposed in Humbleton
burn, where it consists of a deposit of gravel or small pebbles
of porphyry, 6 feet; and a lower mass of sand and clay in which
are imbedded large blocks of the red sandstone, with a few por-
phyry blocks, 20 feet. Sandstone blocks are not seen in the
superficial covering over the porphyry. The facts noticed accord
with what we have elsewhere remarked regarding the boulder
formation of Northumberland—it has chiefly been derived from
the breaking up of the rocks of the district ; far-travelled blocks
are the exception—not the rule.

“Nearly one mile west of Wooler, on the summit of Kettle-
hill, we found a large Roman camp of quadrangular form and
having four vallums on the north. It is called Greenside Camp,
and sometimes Cauterdale. The hill rising steeply on all sides,”
the position must have been exceedingly strong. It commands
an extensive prospect ; all the prominent objects to the east and
south being visible from it. Roman coms and a broken sword
were found here some years ago. On the south extremity masses
of porphyry are exposed in a cliff, which formerly bore a rude re-
semblance to a chair; it is now called ‘The King’s Chair ;” and
tradition says that a king sat hereon, and, through an opening
in the hills, beheld a battle fought on the lower grounds to the
south.

“On the north side of Humbleton burn is a conical hill trun-
eated at the top, and rising abruptly about 100 feet above the
level of the burn; the slope, though considerable, is less steep on
the other sides. This was one of the strongholds of the ancient
Britons. A rampier (now obliterated) ran around that part of the
hill not protected by the ravine of the burn. The summit of the

92 Annwersary Address.

hill is 180 yards in circumference, having a hollow in the centre
of the area; it is surrounded by a rampier of stone and earth,
which is yet in some parts 3 feet high. This entrenchment is
commonly called ‘The Cup and Saucer Camp.’ Another camp
of a similar kind, but nearly obliterated, is seen on a hill half a
mile to the north-east. But, indeed, almost every hill is crested
with some remains of the aboriginal inhabitants of our country.

“ A curious ancient custom is still observed in this neighbour-
hood. In the ravine at the base of Kettle-hill there is a well,
which was formerly visited every May-day by both old and young.
Into this well the pilgrims dropped a crooked pin, ‘wishing a
wish’ at the same time, in the fond belief that before the year
closed, the presiding fairy or genius of the well would cause
the wish to be realized. The formal procession on May-day
morning has for some time been discontinued, but the supersti-
tion still lingers on; for, at the present time, young people, when-
ever they pass the well, drop into it a crooked pin, and ‘wish
their wish. Still some persons even advanced in life hesitatingly
express a doubt about the virtue of the observance. We saw a
number of crooked pins at the bottom of the well. The Rev.
Mr. Rigge informs me that a similar custom is observed in Lan-
cashire. A well springs out of the base of Humphrey’s-Head,
a promontory running into Morecomb Bay; it is called the
‘Fairy’s Well ’—and formerly every passer-by cast a pin into it
as an offering to propitiate the fairy who presides over the well—
and the ceremony is still observed by the superstitious.”

Mr. Tate intended to accompany this note by a paper on
the Geology of Roddam dean. But to complete this paper it
was necessary to revisit the dean. The elements (mayhap the
fairy or genius of the dean) showed, however, a singular aver-
sion to any further exploration to the records which nature
has there left of her operations and exploits in the bygone ages.
“Sir,” (he writes) “eight years before, when making researches
on Cheviot, I encountered near the summit the most fearful
thunder-storm I ever witnessed; and this year having set off to
Roddam dean, I was overtaken by that awful thunder-storm
which lately did so much damage, and thus my further examina-
tion was cut short.” After two such warnings, I would not be
the man to urge Mr. Tate to make a third attempt.

The next Meeting was at Dunse, on the 30th day of June. At

Annversary Address. 93

breakfast only the President and Secretary and Mr. W. Dunlop
attended. Dr. Hood was present at dinner. But we had as a
visitor, Lieutenant Johnston, R.N., the only son of our Secretary,
who has chosen a profession very opposite in its object to that
of his father (the one intending to destroy men’s lives, the other
to save them) and has already distinguished himself in it—so
that we may confidently expect him to earn a fame and success
in his career not inferior to what his father has won in his more
pleasing pursuits.

The following is the Secretary’s note of this Meeting :—“ On
our way to Dunse the only noticeable thing was Galium boreale,
seen in a ditch on the roadside near Edrom. The walk from
Dunse to Polwarth was, botanically, very unproductive ; and the
fewness of the insects was remarkable enough. The limes at
and about Langton House were principally Tila grandifolia,
whereas the fine avenue leading to Dunse Castle is bordered with
a goodly row of Tilia europea on each side. At the bridge over
Langton burn we noticed Barbarea vulgaris and Veronica anagallis,
growing in abundance and in full flower. At Choicelee we ob-
served the hemlock in vigour and abundance, and we noticed it
nowhere else during our walk, till, on our-way home, it was seen
again on the roadside near Dunse. I am persuaded the distri-
bution of the hemlock is partial, and regulated by circumstances
yet unascertained. :

“The fine fertile landscape which lay before us, when looking
down upon the Merse from Choicelee, is worth seeing :—and_ so
we passed on to Polwarth. The poor houses—the undrained
common—the ill-treated thorns—did no credit to the lord of the
manor. We saw nothing im our walk from Polwarth to the
church, but a manse out of place and out of proportion to the
living. The church is worth notice.

“On our walk back to Dunse, I did not see a single plant of
any rarity, with the exception of Salix pentandra at Chatterton
Bridge.

“The very good dinner was worthy of the Club.

“ Sir John Marjoribanks, Bart., Dr. Matt. James Turnbull,
Rev. G. S. Thompson, and Captain the Hon. Frederick Grey,
were admitted Members. No papers were read.”

Though the day was, scientifically, barren, and it might seem,
from the tone of the Secretary’s note, as if he had been discon-

94 Anniversary Address.

tented with it, I can attest that he enjoyed it exceedingly. The
day was pleasant—one of that description when they who are
abroad are disposed sincerely to pity the poor creatures confined
at home—when we feel ‘it were an injury and sullenness against
Nature not to go forth and see her riches, and partake in her
rejoicings with heaven and earth.”

Choicelee is the “ Chouselaw,” mentioned in vol. i. of our
Transactions, p. 219, as famous for “as good cheese as ever was
chewed wi chafts*.”

The common “green” at Polwarth is capable of bemg made
highly ornamental; but the pigs and the geese have unstinted
privilege over it, along with the donkeys; and it is uncomfort-
able and rough for Jack of draming. The world-famous thorn
fell at first glance from the height to which song and our fond
_ fancies had before translated it. We saw three common-looking
bushes, surrounded with an unseemly dwarf wall, which robs
them of all rural grace, and at the same time suffocates them by
the unchecked luxuriance of noisome weeds it encourages. Dr.
Johnston has addressed a gentle remonstrance to Sir H. Hume
Campbell on the subject, who has acknowledged its receipt, and,
as we trust, will in due time correct the evils pointed out.

We found nothing worth adding to the traditions of the vil-
lage, which Mr. Robert Chambers has so well collected in his
‘Picture of Scotland, vol. i. p. 37. The last couple that “danced
about the thorn” on their marriage, fifty years since, had left
the village last Whitsunday. The church, which is nearly a mile
from the village, has a certain amenity about it not very com-
mon to parish churches in Scotland. The ivy which overgrows
its southern wall has passed through the roof to the interior, so as
to place the congregation under a graceful canopy of green leaves.
Some ancient tombstones (one with the date of 1362 upon it),
with long Latin eulogies upon former lords of Polwarth, have
been built into the south wall; and beneath the church is the
vault where Sir Patrick Home hid himself in the latter end of
Charles the Second’s reign, and was stealthily and heroically fed
by the charming Grizel Baillie, who was too young to enact the

* The saying as pronounced by the natives is, “'There’s as gude sheese
im Shousely as ever was showed wi shafts.”” The Borderers often transpose
“sh” and “ch” just as cockneysdothe “v” and “w.” “ Shop” with
them is “ chop.” Some older people call “ church” “ surch.”

Annwversary Address. 95

whole part of the Grecian daughter. Berwick-upon-Tweed was
for many years the residence of Sir Patrick ; and he died there ;
and his grandson represented the borough in Parliament; and
I feel a little sore at the rough way in which Mr. Macaulay*
has handled one, who, for his name as well as for the town’s

sake, was
CCN iene clarum et venerabile nomen

Gente mea, et multum nostre quod proderat urbi.”
I console myself with the thought that the Whig historian
scarcely does justice to any of the Scotch sufferers of the period,
especially to those of any rank; and that there are two ways of
telling Sir Patrick’s story. But the Club have nothing to do
with this controversy.

The last Meeting was held at Longhoughton, on the 4th August
last. The following is Mr. Tate’s note of that Meeting :—
“ Present—Dr. Johnston (Secretary), Mr. Selby, Mr. Embleton,
Rev. J. D. Clark, Mr. Broderick, Mr. Tate, Rev. George Rooke,
Rev. Mr. Rigge, Captain the Hon. Frederick Grey, and Mr. Wil-
liam Grey.

© After an excellent breakfast at the neat and comfortable Blue
Bell Inn, the Members of the Club walked over to Howick Grange,
where they were joined by the Hon. Mrs. Grey and Rev. H. Bell.
Proceeding thence through the Howick grounds, they visited
the church, which has recently been rebuilt, in the later Norman _
Gothic style, and having the chancel windows filled with beau-
tiful designs in stained glass. Here is placed the elaborate monu-
ment, well-executed in Caen stone, to the memory of that di-
stinguished statesman, Karl Grey, whose remains are interred in
a vault below the church. The Members went from thence to
Cullernose, and traversed the coast upwards of a mile, examining
its geological features. Leaving the coast at the Burn-mouth,
they then proceeded to Ratcheugh Crag, where they were much
delighted with the extensive and picturesque view, and with the
instructive geological facts which it presents.

“Mr. Embleton noticed Picris hieracioides on the sea-walk
near Howick, Samolus valerandi and Carex vulpini at Cullernose,
and Arabis hirsuta on Ratcheugh Crag.

“Mr. Selby mentioned that he had captured for the first time

* Macaulay’s Hist. vol. i. p. 540.

96 Anniversary Address.

Sesia fusiformis at Twizell, and he had procured a specimen of
Sirex gigas at Warenford.”

This ends the statement of our last year’s Meetings; and I
might here, with great propriety, have concluded my Address.
But I recollect, in order to remind the Club of the fact, that it
has now attained the completion of its twenty-first year, and has
become, if the analogy with human life is to be kept up, more
responsible to a wider public for its conduct. If my own at-
taiments had not been so scanty, I have no doubt I might have
seized this very appropriate opportunity to suggest some im-
provement both in its efforts and their objects. But, as it is,
any I can make would be wanting in utility as well as in author-
ity. Asa humble learner, however, I may perhaps be allowed
to put the following queries :—

Could not the communications on two distinct branches of
knowledge be so managed that each might aid and throw light
upon the other, and be shown to do so in the communications
themselves? Are not geology and botany so related as to be
rendered useful in this way to each other? I can conceive it
possible—if not at present, yet at a more advanced stage im these
studies—that on seeing a flower one may be able to tell not only
the quality of the soil it grows upon, but what all the strata
which intervene between it and the molten bowels of the earth
consist of ; and from thence to deduce other and better, or the
best uses, social and economical, to which that portion of the sur-
face of the globe might be applied.

Have we not been deficient in attention to the meteorology of
the district? at least, since Mr. J. S. D. Selby left us? And is
not this a matter of some consequence? At least it holds a con-
spicuous place in our motto—“ Mare et Tellus, et, quod tegit
omnia, Calum.”

Could we not usefully add statistics to our inquiries ?

I congratulate you on the increased attention, by our Mem-
bers and correspondents, to the cairns, barrows, sepulchral re-
mains, and other antiquarian matters in the district. That kind
of research has acquired fresh value from some recent highly-
creditable attempts (by Dr. Daniel Wilson and others) to throw,
by this means, greater light upon the successive races who have
inhabited this island, and upon their varied habits and pursuits.

Anniversary Address. o7

It may be sneeringly asked, “ And of what importance, even
when made, are such discoveries?” But the same sneer may be
directed against the greater part of all other historical researches ;
and it may be met with the same answer. They relate to the
natural history of man ; and to us, whether as naturalists or hu-
man beings, that can never be foreign or uninteresting. This is
the “ quid fuimus” which leads to the “ quod futuri gignimur.”
It occurred to me, on the 19th May last, when on the hill of
“the Cup and Saucer Camp,” mentioned by Mr. Tate, that the
top of it had been the usual summer residence of some of the
aboriginal race, at a time when Milfield Plain was either a lake,
or covered with one thick and tangled forest ; which encroached
to near the very summit of that hill and of all the others in the
neighbourhood ; and was then infested with ferocious animals or
dangerous reptiles. This hill had been selected because its naked
and half-famished occupants could best descry from it any ap-
proaching danger; and when that came, could there best defend
themselves against it: for these earliest specimens of humanity
(like the martyrs of our species) “ wandered about in wolf-skins
and edk-skins—being destitute, afflicted, tormented—flitting from
deserts to mountains, and into dens and caves of the earth.”
«The Cup” was intended for the chiefs of the clan, “the Saucer”
for the multitude; and no doubt they needed to fortify their
residence by the stony munitions we noticed; for see! a band
of hostile savages, probably of fresh invaders, and of a different
race, occupy a hill at no great distance ; and these will not leave
the aboriginals long unmolested. It is easy to fancy the rest—
the stealthy nocturnal approach—the sudden attack—the fierce
struggle—the rampart foreed—and the final massacre.
Sivatetered din « they roll
Mothers with infants down the rocks; their moans

The vales redouble to the hills, and they
To heaven.”

Looking upon the scene which the summit of that hill now pre-
sents, and upon the Members of the Club around me, I could
not help asking myself, “ What has caused the difference be-
tween that pre-historic period and our own times? and will not
the causes that have produced that difference, acting with in-
creasing momentum amid greater facilities, at last bring on an

98 Anmversary Address.

era when our posterity will look back upon us with as great
wonder as we do upon our barbarous predecessors ?”

At the close of several of the Addresses of my predecessors in
office, I have observed something like an apology for the small
performances of the Club during the antecedent year. I confess
I do not feel disposed to view the labours of my Fellow-Mem-
bers hitherto with any other than grateful emotions. The least
important of these labours—the noting of the names and habitats
of plants and imsects—may seem easy; but to do it to purpose
requires observation and attainments which few possess; and it
should be remembered, that to “name the animals” was one of
the first tasks assigned to man by his Maker, as an element of
his intended dominion over them*. While humbly followmg
this high precedent, our Members, as we see, have not neglected
other collateral branches of science. And in carefully laying
up a store of facts and observations from our own district, we
are performing a function of which a coming age may reap some
advantage. We may be supplying helps to we know not what
future triumphs of intellect! We may be adding one stone to
the bridge which is hereafter to span a gulf now separating
different sciences ; or paving a small portion of the road that
leads to the metropolis of universal knowledge; or laying a step
on which higher and higher generalization shall culminate at last
to a point from whence may be scaled the highest heaven of
science! “ The vultures which bask one above another in the
heights of the air, observe and follow the flight of those below ;
and thus appear, as if by enchantment, at once upon the field of
action.””— Douglas, Advancement of Society, p. 131.

* The discovery of them can be recorded only by “ naming ” them, and
the progress this has lately made is extraordinary. Linnzus, in 1735, could
only name 47 genera and 117 species of birds ; all that he, “the lynx-eyed,”’
had then discovered. Now, the Grays and the Goulds name 800 genera and
7000 species.

v7

99

Sketch of the Geology of the Howick Coast and Ratcheugh Crag,
visited by the Club on the 4th of August, 1852. By Grorce
Tarte, F.G.S.

Tue geological features of the coast from Cullernose to Howick
Burn and of Ratcheugh, which were this day examined by the
Club, are entitled to more than a passing notice ; for there is no
part of the country which presents, within so hmited an area,
a greater number of important and interesting geological phe-
nomena.

A cliff, facing the sea, extends from Cullernose on the north
to Howick Burn, varying in height from 20 to 120 feet. The
_ rocks are limestone, shale, coal, and sandstone, belonging to the
carboniferous formation, intersected by basaltic and clay dikes, and
covered over, in one part, with a great overflow of basalt. Cul-
lernose is the southern termination on the coast of this overflow,
and rises in majestic columns of basalt from the sea to the height
of upwards of 100 feet. The name seems descriptive of its high,
exposed situation ; Nose, Ness, and Naise indicating a promontory
or cape, and Culler bemg probably another form of Caller, used
in Northumberland and Scotland to express such an amount of
cold as would be experienced when a strong wind is blowing over
high ground. A gritty sandstone is visible at low water under-
lymg this basalt, which along with the stratified rocks dip to-
wards the north-east. Basalt extends along the iron-bound coast
northward to Dunstanborough, where it forms another lofty cliff,
under which the sandstones, coal, shale, and limestone are again
found. Sandstones and shales, torn from their beds by the vol-~
canic outburst, are mingled in a confused mass with basalt on
the south side of Cullernose. Limestones and calcareous shales
pass under the sandstone ; they are much contorted, and undulate
im a succession of ridges and hollows along the shore. These
beds contain an abundance of remains of marine animals. In
the calcareous shales, which are similar in mineral character and
organic contents to the “ Calp ” in Ireland, there are many fossils,
several of them being coated over with iron pyrites, or sulphuret
of iron; when recently washed by the tide, the dark grey rocks
seem studded with golden ornaments. The following are some
of the fossils which have been found, and will give an idea of
the fauna of this ancient sea: viz.—

Cyathophyllum fungites. Fenestella plebeia, M‘Coy.
Cyathaxonia costata, M‘Coy. Cyathocrinus planus, Miller.
Glauconome pluma, Phil. Serpulites membranaceus, M‘Coy.
pulcherrima, M‘Coy. Phillipsia mucronata, M‘Coy; the
Fenestella membranacea, Phil. trilobed tails are abundant; occa-

—— undulata, Phil. sionally portions of the head and

100

shield are found; and I have spe-
cimens showing the reticulated
structure of the eye of this Trilo-
bite.

Nucula gibbosa, Flem.

Leda attenuata, Flem.

Solemya primeva, Phil.

Chonetes Hardrensis, Phil.

Lingula elliptica, Phil.

marginata, Phil.

Orbicula

Orthis arachnoidea, Phil.

Mr. G. Tate on the Geology of the Howick Coast

Productus fimbriatus, Sow.
Flemingu, Sow.

—— giganteus, Sow.
semireticulatus, Martin.
Spirifer glaber, Sow.

—— trigonalis, Sow.

Uri, Flem.

Reticularia lineata, M‘Coy.
Euomphalus carbonarius, Sow.
Murchisonia elongata, Port.
quadricarinata, M‘Coy.
Pleurotomaria atomaria, Phil.

Michelini, Lév. Bellerophon striatus, Flem.
resupinata, Phil. &e.

A white flaggy sandstone underlies these calcareous beds, and
contains a remarkable vermiform fossil, the nature of which has
not yet been satisfactorily determined.

The limestone and sandstone beds are cut through, nearly
perpendicularly, by a small basaltic dike, which runs from the
shore into the sea m a perfectly straight direction, east 50° north.
It is only 4 feet wide; but standing above the stratified beds,
and appearing like a wall built up by human hands, it is a sin-
gular and interesting object. The adjacent beds are not affected
by it, either in position or structure.

Proceeding southward, arenaceous shales with ironstone no-
dules, thick beds of blue cprasione and another stratum of “Calp”
rise out from beneath the flaggy sandstone. But nearly opposite
to Howick village, these beds are cut off, by a great fault,
which has rent the beds and considerably altered their position.
This fault “hades” or slopes to the south, and the strata on
the north side have been thrown up; it is filled partly with
shattered fragments of limestone and calp and with basalt; it 1s
in fact a small vein containing, mixed with the vemstones, galena
or sulphuret of lead. It runs in the direction of east by north ;
and as a lead-mine was formerly worked at Little Houghton,
both are probably parts of the same vem. This great rent in
the earth’s surface appears to be the result of the volcanic out-
bursts, which threw up from the molten depths, the basalts spread
over the eastern part of the district ; for there is a mass of amor-
phous basalt in this vem, connected with a stratum of basalt foreed
in between the limestone and sandstone on the north side of the
dike, the sandstone being in a shivered and indurated state. In
the basaltic mass, small but fine crystals of quartz, some of them
amethystine, have been found.

On both sides, the beds rise towards the fault ; on the north
side the dip is at a high angle to the N.E.; but on the south side
itis E.S.E. The series of beds is also different ; for, on the south
side neither the limestone nor the calp appears. From this point

and Ratcheugh Crag. 101

onward to Howick Burn, there are sandstones of great thickness,
arenaceous and carbonaceous shales, and beds of coal, in which
are well-preserved aud characteristic specimens of the carboni-
ferous flora. Several of the sandstone layers exhibit well-defined
ripple-marks. Although these beds are of great thickness, the
only calcareous strata are a very impure buff limestone of one
foot thick, with a coarse plate-bed holding calcareous matter ;
both containing marine fossils, among which are Pinna flabel-
liformis, Martin, which is seldom found in Northumberland, and
the very rare Echinocrinus Uru, Flem.: both the plates and the
long muricated spines of this Echinoderm are found south of the
Burn.

Near to the Howick Boat-house, the high tide in 1849 laid bare
a submarine forest, giving evidence of a change of level in the
coast within a comparatively recent period. ‘This forest consisted
of a number of oak, fir, alder, and hazel trees, some lying pro-
strate, and others still rooted and having short upright stems ;
hazel nuts were also found: these vegetables were imbedded in
peat. Similar forests, extending into the sea, have been observed
at various parts of the eastern coast. Ihave seen them at Newton
by the Sea, and at Hartlepool, where a six-feet deposit of vege-
table matter is covered over with a large accumulation of recent
marine shells.

Leaving the coast and passing by a circular British camp
cresting the hill near the mouth of Howick Burn, the members
of the Club wended their way to Ratcheugh Crag, which is two
miles to the south-west. This crag is part of a range of basaltic
eminences running inland from Cullernose ; it commands an
extensive prospect along the coast, up the vale of the Aln, and
onward to the Cheviot Hills. With a slope to the east, it pre-
sents a bold cliff face to the west, formed of huge basaltic columns
capped with beds of carboniferous limestone, which on the slope
of the hill is covered by a metamorphic shale contaming the same
fossils as those found in the “ Calp ” at Howick. At Snableazes,
about 300 yards to the south, is another basaltic eminence, having
beneath it a metamorphic shale identical with that on the slope
of Ratcheugh, beds of blue limestone, and a thin stratum of
basalt. The basalt dips with the other beds generally south-east
15°, subject however to undulations; and as the Snableazes
quarry is nearly in the line of dip, and as, moreover, the shales
in both localities are the same, I consider the thin stratum of
basalt a continuation of that at Ratcheugh, which therefore seems
to be of very irregular thickness and to have a wedge form.
Connecting the two localities, the succession of the beds is as
follows, commencing with the uppermost : viz.—

B.N.C.— VOL. II. N°. 111. I

i102 Mr. G. R. Tate on Asplenium germanicum.

1 Colummar basalt at Sudbleazeslccnese tect. cass cavecce space nceneehe 64

2. Metamorphic shale, with Phillipsia mucronata, 8&C.......0..40000

3. Limestone, with encrinal stems and mountain limestone fossils. 14

4, Basalt, columnar at Ratcheugh, where it is 80 feet in height,

but thinning out, and stratiform at Snableazes, where it is
OU Y say steamed ce smenaad cent seat <0 cea pt ediemaer arene see tan eae 2
Below this are shales, sandstone, coal, and other limestones.

Although the phenomena described have a bearmg on the
question, I do not attempt at present to discuss, whether these
basalts have been overflows, taking place while the carboniferous
beds were in course of deposition, or dikes injected laterally
amongst them subsequently to that period. The marked effect
of the intrusion of basalt on the sedimentary strata may, however,
be noticed. Some of the limestones above the basalt at Rat-
cheugh have been changed into granular marble ; the shales below
the Dunsheugh basalt are converted into porcelain jasper, and
where in direct contact with it, into a black mineral, with a con-
choidal fracture similar to Lydian stone. When the basalt above
the shale is thin, organic remains are found; but where there is
a considerable mass, the organisms have been completely obli-
terated.

Nearly one quarter of a mile south of Dunsheugh, a limestone
quarry is on Hawkhill Farm. A tough, red clay, with some large
and many small boulder stones scattered through it, overlies this
limestone. The surface immediately below this clay is polished,
scratched, and grooved, the limestone is bright and smooth like
that of marble artificially polished, and the scratches and grooves
have a general direction of from north to south. As the quarry
is not at present worked, the members of the Club, when visiting
it, could not obtain a complete idea of the phenomena presented
when a large area had been laid bare. The facts, however, were
carefully noted three years ago, and a description given in a paper
published in the first volume of the ‘Transactions of the Tyne-
side Naturalists,’ where these polished and scratched rocks are
viewed in connection with the Boulder formation in Northum-
berland.

Notice of Asplenium germanicum. By Geo. R. Tars, Alnwick.

Tuts rare fern I have, this month, discovered on the basalt at
Kyloe Crags, Northumberland; and as it has not been observed
before in England, a brief notice of its characters and distribution
may not be unacceptable.

ASPLENIUM GERMANICUM, Weiss. Fronds linear-lanceolate ;
pinnules alternate, narrow wedge-shaped, notched at the top,

Mr. J. Hardy on Sepulchral Monuments. 103

the lowermost ternate; indusium entire along the margin.
Fronds from 2 to 3 inches high.—Asplenium Breynii, Retz.
Asplenium alternifolium,Wulfen. Amesium germanicum, New-
man. Scolopendrium alternifolium, Roth.

This fern is distinguished from Asplenium Ruta-muraria, to
which it is most allied, by its simpler form, by its narrower
wedge-shaped pinnules, and by its indusium not being jagged
along the margin.

It is recorded from near Kelso, Perth and Dunkeld, and alsu
from Caernarvonshire in Wales. It was first found by Breynius
near Langen-Schwalbach, and since then in some other parts of
the Continent.

Asplenium germanicum appears to me a distinct species. If it
were merely a variety of Asplenum Ruta-muraria, we should
naturally expect to find the latter growing in the same locality ;
this fern, however, has never been found on the Crags or in their
vicinity. The other Aspleniums occurring at Kyloe, viz. A. sep-
tentrionale, A. adiantum nigrum, and A. trichomanes, bear little or
no resemblance to .4spleniwm germanicum.

Alnwick, Aug. 28, 1852.

An Account of an Assemblage of Ancient Sepulchral Monumenis,
in the East of Berwickshire. By Mr. James Harpy.

‘<The dismal efforts, which in the earliest periods, and in the first inhabited
parts of the world, were exerted, to cause human greatness, if possible, to
survive its certain wreck.”—Kine’s Munimenta Antiqua, 1. 269.

“A barbarous age is unfriendly to human fame. When the clods of his~
hillock are scattered, or his funeral stones are thrown down, the glory of a
savage perishes for ever.”—TUuRNER’S Hist. of the Anglo-Saxons, i. 182.

‘‘ History, not wanted yet,
Lean’d on her elbow, watching Time, whose course,
Eventful, should supply her with a theme.”—Cowpker.

THE east of Berwickshire, like the other Border districts, till the
extension of agriculture within recent times, presented numerous
memorials of the ancient population. ‘These consisted chiefly
of their ring fortlets or chesters, and their sepulchral barrows or
cairns. These appear to have been often associated together,
in the manner of our villages and churchyards; the one as the
chief residence of the living, the other as the mausolea of the
dead. A conspicuous assemblage of these primitive monuments
existed till of late years on the immediate confines of the western
boundary of the parishes of Coldingham and Cockburnspath.
One of the most noted, as being situated on a hill, was called
St. David’s Cairn ; a name derived from David I., a liberal patron
12

104 Mr. J. Hardy on Sepulchral Monuments.

of the religious house of Coldingham. Being a landmark, it
was always regarded with the interest attached to a remarkable
feature of the landscape; an interest which its mysterious his-
tory heightened, seemg that the remains of a potent king or war-
rior might have been entombed beneath it. But these proved
but ineffectual barriers to repel modern curiosity in the first in-
stance; and the demands of rural requirement after its sanctity
had been violated. This event happened in 1829, when work-
men were employed to effect an entrance to its centre, with the
view of ascertaining what it contained. On removing the stones,
they came to what appeared to be a grave, which was placed east
and west ; but all vestiges of humanity had disappeared in the
lapse of time, and there remained only a portion of black earth
to relate the story. The stones were finally carted off, to be ap-
plied to the agricultural purposes of the farm on which it stood.
It occupied a space in diameter about 70 feet, or about 4272
square yards. Its height may have been 9 or 10 feet in the
centre ; but where it expanded outwardly at the base, it was of
no great depth. Other two large cairns, of nearly similar form,
and scarcely smaller dimensions, lay in a hollow to the north,
and at a very short distance from it. They had every appearance
of having remained untouched from the most remote antiquity.
They were removed in the course of cultivation, and applied to the
same uses as their principal. One of them was encircled with a
rude stone wall, either for protection, or as supplying the means
of additional sanctity. Besides these, the adjoining moor was
strewn with tumuli of various dimensions, the least contaiming
from two to three cart-loads of stones. About thirty may still
be reckoned, but they are but a scantling of the origimal num-
ber. They are mere rounded conical eminences, overgrown with
heath or long grass, with lichen-covered or white bleached stones*
peering through. Tradition tells that they were put together by
“little strong men,” called “ Pechs+.” This is so far correct, if
we regard the name “ Pechs,” as one applied indiscriminately to

* A moist peaty soil has the effect of externally whitening the grey-
wacke stones enclosed in it, probably by extracting the iron combined
with them.

+ This belief is far from being a local one. Sir James Foulis remarks,
that in several parts of the Highlands he observed heaths, from which it
appeared the stones had been carefully gathered off; and upon inquiry of
the neighbouring peasants, he was told that it was believed the Pechts had
carried off the stones for the convenience of mowing the heather. (Trans.
Soc. Antiq, Scot. i. 19.) The same tradition is repeated by Heron, in his
Journey through Scotland, 11.302, 303. On the moors of Northumberland,
such heaps are pointed out as places where a Pict’s apron-string had broken,
as he was carrying a load of stones to some of his superhuman erections.
(Rambles in Northumberland, 104.)

Mr. J. Hardy on Sepulchral Monuments. 105

any of the original native tribes*; and affords an indication that
they belong to a class of antiquities, unconnected with the pre-
sent Saxon population, and placed beyond the era of their tra-
ditional reminiscences. As they lic in close proximity to the
cairns, and afford in the slabbed coffin of some of the larger
heaps, evidences of a common origin and object, we cannot look
upon them in any other view than as sepulchral. In the whole
group combined, there is doubtless before us here the burial-place
of a numerous race of men, where the prince lies undistinguish-
able from the peasant only by the height of his heap; the one
indeed dignified with a rude coffin, the other committed to the
bare earth; but both equal at last, in the impenetrable oblivion
entailed on all such modes of commemoration.

Another of these heaps, that rose to the dignity of having a
name, was called Craw’s Cairn, of which the last vestiges disap-
peared in 1823. Report speaks of an urn having been found in
it, about the commencement of the century. This is not impro-
bable, since this mode of sepulture has been observed in various
instances within the immediate vicinity. On the 11th of May,
1825, an urn was turned up by the plough, under some small
heaps of stones, near Bankhouse. Another was found in 1830,
at the foot of Penmanshiel Wood, nearly in a line with the cairn,
and not more than a quarter of a mile from it, and at no great
distance from some old “camps” that once existed on Bushiel
Farm; and a third was found, May 23rd, 1844, above Aikieside,
on the farm of Aldcambus Townhead, someway near the site as-
signed by tradition to a small fortified circlet. The first is now in
the possession of Sir Samuel Stirling, of Glorat and Renton; a por-
tion of the second is in my possession ; and the third is preserved
by Mr. Hood, the tenant of the farm on which it was discovered.
The urns were of a primitive sort, of native manufacture, from
the “ha’” or ochrey clay of the ditches. They had originally
been baked in a fire, being of a dun colour without, but black
internally ; an appearance assumed by the clay of which they had
been fabricated, when it is heated for a short time in an open fire.
The patterns were nearly uniform. The one in possession of
Mr. Hood is one foot in diameter at the mouth, and as much in
depth, and from 3 feet 4 inches to 3 feet 6 inches in circumfe-
rence at the greatest girt. The lip or brim is about an inch wide,
and has a single row of herring-bone ornament. The lip projects
exteriorly like a rim; and beneath it there are other two elevated
encircling ridges, with slightly depressed intervals, ornamented

* The country from Leeds westward, over great part of Lancashire, was
thickly populated in the Saxon times by Cymry, whom old authors call in-
differently Britons, Picts, Wallenses, and Galwegenses. (Hodgson’s Hist.
of Northumberland, Part II. vol. iii. 22.)

106 Mr. J. Hardy on Sepulchral Monuments.

by about five rows of the usual herring-bone indentations*. The
girt is nearly uniform from the mouth to the second ridge; after
which the urn suddenly slopes, and narrows in a conical manner.
The bottom was fractured by the plough striking on it, it being
the part that was uppermost, the mouth having been applied to
the ground. It contained only ashes and calcined bones, of
which a fragment of a rib was still entiret. These urns were,
in all hikelhood, of a kind sui generis, peculiar to the race that
used them, without being, as has been supposed, borrowed by
- imitation from the Romans, whose footing in the district appears
never to have been so permanent as to induce the inhabitants to
adopt changes mm customs so tenaciously held, as those that
respect the obsequies for the dead, united as they were with re-
ligious rites and scruples, with which the Romans rarely mter-
fered. We know that in Cesar’s time, cremation of the dead
was customary among the Gauls, who were in many respects at
one with the Britons in their customs and observancest ; and
this mode of sepulture is found to have been practised in remote
parts of the Highlands, to which the Roman invader never had
access§. It is also worthy of remark, that the urns were placed,
as the want of a base in the bottom part indicates, in a reversed
position. In this respect they agree with those “ sundrie earthen
pots” found in Anglesea, mentioned by Harrison, which were
“set with the mouthes downeward, contrarie to the vse of other
nations, which turned the brims upwards||.” As the two kinds
of sepulture—that in which the body was mhumed entire, and
that, in which, after being burned, the ashes were enclosed im an
urn—-prevailed in close contiguity, it may be surmised that they
may have been coetaneous; the one kind or the other being, as
among the early Romans, matters of choice or convenience]. Or

* King, in his Munimenta Antiqua, i. 309, mentions several urns with
this zigzag kind of decoration, found m Devonshire and elsewhere; and
justly remarks, that their rough rudeness and simplicity of ornament dis-
countenance the idea of their Roman origin.

+ See an account by Dr. Johnston of similar urns found at Murton, near
Berwick-on-Tweed, in the Proceedings of the Club, vol. i. p.53. The left-
hand figure gives a general idea of the form of that which I am describing.

+ Cesar, De Bell. Gall. 1. vi. c. 19.

§ Huddleston, Edinburgh Magazine, Dec. 1818, p. 525.

|| Holinshed’s Chronicles, i.64. Descript. of England by W. Harrison,
chap. 10. Urns, similarly placed, have been noticed in Northumberland.

{| According to Plutarch (Vit. Num.), Numa directed his body not to be
burned, whence we may conclude that cremation of the dead was practised
at that early period of Roman history. The Danes, also, have an wra in
their history, dating from the time when burning of the dead was abolished,
and the imtroduction of tumuli, in which dead bodies were placed uncon-
sumed. The previous age was known as Brandalter, or age of burnmg. The
alteration took place in the reign of Dan the Magnanimous, the sixth king
of the race of Odin, A.p. 270. (Menzel’s Hist. of Germany, 1. 264.)

a

Mr. J. Hardy on Sepulchral Monuments. 107

they might have served as a token of distinction between the
warrior and the civilian—the hero who died fighting gloriously,
and him who was gathered to his fathers in peace.

For a long period there existed, at a nearly equal distance
between the last-mentioned cairn and the British chesters at Old
Penmanshiel, a singular structure, which long defied the con-
jectures of the rural antiquary. It was of a horse-shoe shape,
hollow m the centre, with a raised ring on all sides except the
south-west, where it admitted an entrance nearly on a level with
the interior space. Had it been a little larger, it might have been
regarded as one of those structures, half-sepulchral, half-judicial,
to which, from assemblies of the people being held around them,
as being adapted to the simple tribunal ring of their senatus, the
Saxons applied the term of mote*. Being but diminutive, it had
the reputation of being one of the old kilns employed for drying
corn, at a period when meal, rather than unmanufactured pro-
duce, formed an object of traffic. On being broken up, however,
about 1832, it was found to consist of six or seven graves, formed
of huge slabs of rock, and overtopped with a mound of earth and
gravel, seemingly derived from the excavated interior. All the
graves were empty. It may have served the purpose of a family
burying-place, or perhaps once contained the remains of some of
the leaders of the people, conveyed thither for terment. On
the former supposition, the vacant space at the south-west would,
but for some interruption, have been at length filled up, when it
would have presented the appearance of the circular barrows in
other departments of the island}. From its vicinity to the old
ring fortlet, it would appear to belong to the same class of anti-
quities, as were, in all likelihood, the monuments already de-~
scribed. It is an old opinion that these cairns-and tumuli were
the memorials of a battle, and that the dead were entombed where
they fell. When such an event happened, however, it is more
likely that the fallen, instead of being buried in widely scattered
localities, would be, as was customary among the Danes and
others, consigned to one general tombt. A soldier’s funeral on

* Mote, a place of meeting, a convention, a court of justice.

+ Similar barrows have been discovered in various parts of England.
King mentions one in Devonshire, containing five skeletons (Mun. Ant. i.
309) ; one in Gloucestershire, opened in 1787, containing at least six bodies
(Ib. 312); and one in Westmoreland, removed in 1792, in which were six
bodies, placed on the ground, in kist-vaens, or stone coffins made of the
slate common in that country (Ib. p. 321).

{ In 1016, Canute, after a great battle with Edmund Ironside, cast up
four hillocks to commemorate the event, two of which being opened, pro-
duced great quantities of bones, and chains like bridle-bits. Three mounds
were raised after the battle of Culloden, in 1746. (Rev. J. Hodgson, mm
Archeologia Aliana, i. 7.)

108 Mr. J. Hardy on Sepulchral Monuments.

the field, must have been on most occasions a hasty one; but all
of these for a rude people, provided with few means of trans-
port, and defective implements, must have been attended with
a very considerable degree of labour. The huge fragments that
compose the sides and tops of the graves had all to be quarried,
and conveyed from a distance, at a time when there were no
roads in existence ; and although detached stones are everywhere
numerous on the low grounds, a considerable time must have
elapsed before they were piled together. Wormius informs us
of two petty princes, with very expensive labour, employing them-
selves for successive years in erecting a single barrow*. It is
deserving also of mention, that these monuments are most nume-
rous in places where loose stones abound, and that they terminate
where none are to be met with. There is in one place near the
outer boundary the foundation of a cairn, apparently as ancient
as the others, that has either from defect of materials been aban-
doned after its commencement, or the stones that composed it
have been carried off to raise another’s heap. This is enough
to convince us that these monuments are neither the result of
transitory labour nor temporary circumstances; nor, as some
have conjectured, the memorials of invading nations, but the
testimonials of native tribes to their own heroes and forefathers
in their common places of sepulture. These we find to have been
situated on the outskirts of fields, the borders of woods, the limits
of pasturages, or in desolate uncultivated spots, where they would
have little risk of being disturbed from generation to generation.

The fortification to which several of these monuments appear
to have been attached, occupied an area of about an acre, and.
was defended by a single but very strong elevated ring, and was
connected with a smaller circular outpost lying towards the west,
and lower in position. It was situated at the head of a bank, in
a field to the west of Old Penmanshiel, and was popularly known
as “The Chesters,” the Saxon appellation for the British Caers
or hill-fortlets. It contained two compartments of unequal extent,
one of which may have been designed to accommodate the human
eccupants, the other for the safety of their cattle. The interior
was very unequal and full of stones, the vestiges probably of the
rude hovels of early times. A rude hand mill-stone, composed
of a sandstone originally white, but now yellow with age, dug
from amid the ruins, afforded an evidence that the inhabitants
had added the consumption of grain to the milk and flesh of
their flocks and herds,as the means of subsistencet. The “camp”

* King’s Munimenta Antiqua, 1. 287.

+ Cesar, Strabo, and Dio Cassius, agree that the interior tribes sowed
no corn, but lived on milk and flesh (De Bell. Gall. 1. v. c. 14. Strabo, iv.
p. 200. Dio Cass. 1. Ixxv.). In the report given by Tacitus of the speech of

Mr. J. Hardy on Sepulchral Monuments. 109

was finally removed about 1831. In taking it out, two or three
slab-formed graves were turned up; an approach to the modern
custom of interring the dead among the dwelling-places of the
living, of which I have not met with any other instance. It is
possible they may have been unconnected with the fortlet, and
may have been placed there after it had been abandoned. At a
short distance from it to the north-east, on the summit of a
swelling height, lay another circlet, but smaller and less strongly
fortified. Hard by it there rose a large and conspicuous cairn,
and the moor adjacent offered many lesser heaps, all of which
have disappeared to make way for the plough. In some of those
lately taken up, the sides of the grave consist of three or four
large stones set edgewise, instead of one solid slab. It is often a
source of remark, that none of these sepulchres are of sufficient
length to contain the body of a full-grown man. Some, indeed,
are square rather than oblong. It is hence inferred that the
corpse has been doubled up. This is not, however, matter of
mere conjecture, since an instance occurred several years since,
on the farm of Thornton Loch in East Lothian, in which a skeleton
enclosed in a cist-vaen was laid bare in the course of tillage, placed
almost in a sitting position. Evidences of the prevalence of this
practice exist in various parts of the island. May not the popular
belief of the pigmy stature of the former inhabitants of the island,
be founded on observations made on their mode of interment ?

On the march between Aldcambus and Penmanshiel, about
half a mile distant, there are still the remains of a cairn, called
Andrew’s Cairn. It is about 30 feet in diameter, but affords
no correct idea of these monuments, being low and flat and over-
grown with turf. It is composed of the large boulder stones_
which are sparingly scattered over the adjacent moors. Like
several of these ancient heaps, it now serves as a boundary-mark;
a purpose to which these structures have been put from the
earliest ages*.

The largest, however, of the cairns remains to be noticed. It
was called Winden Cairn, from the neighbourmg small dean,
remarkable only for its tortuosities. It lay ima line with St. Da-
vid’s, about half a mile to the east of it, and, like the last-men-
tioned, was regarded as a limes or boundaryt. Jike the mounds

Galgacus, we find, however, a distinct reference to the supplies of grain that
the Romans had derived from those under his command ( Vit. Agric. c. 31).
These millstones have been found in other “‘ Chesters ” in the vicinity ; and
this, taken in connection with the situation of many of the smaller ones,
placed amidst cultivated fields, confirms the opinion that the cultivation of
the soil was not unknown to those who lived, or took refuge within them.
Many farm-places, as cities elsewhere, have arisen from their ruins.

* Homer and the Charters, passim.

+ The farm adjacent to this and St. David’s is called Harelawside, a
Saxon compound, signifying the side of the boundary hill.

110 Mr. J. Hardy on Sepulchral Monuments.

of Beowulf and Themistocles, it was a solitary pile, conspicuous
from afar*. Its singleness might have been occasioned by the
stones within its precincts being exhausted in rearing’ it. It was
surrounded by a coarsely-piled ring-fence, described as resem-
bling an old fold. Its diameter was about 96 feet, and its area
8048 square yards. The height equalled that of St. David’s.
It was begun to be demolished in the same year as that cairn.
A few remnants of bone, described as being like pieces of chalk,
were all that repaid the proprietor for his labour. Most of it
was led away to fill up drains and erect stone fences. The quan-
tity of stones contained in it must have been immense. It was
popularly reported that this was one of the spots where the
plague was buried, and that if the cairn was lifted, the pesti-
lence would reappear. It was believed that the plague, like
other mysterious distempers, was some gross matter that “ flew
in the air,” from which it was possible to attract it by means of
some substance, to which, from some elective affinity, it would
ally itself. The most popular of these was a piece of raw meat
carried up into the atmosphere by means of a paper-kite, which
collected and brought down.all the virus in a concentrated state
to the ground, where, for the common preservation, it was carefully
smothered with stones. Such places are not uncommon m
various districts of Scotland. Dr. Leyden mentions that the
plague is frequently represented as having combined its virulence
with a pot of gold}. When the great plague raged in London,
it was recommended to have large quantities of onions exposed
in boats on the Thames, to withdraw from the air “the vast
number of mmute, unwholesome ” animalcule, which were sup-
posed to be the occasion of itt. A great sickness, we are told,
prevailed in Paris in the early part of 1754; for which the phy-
sicians could not assign any adequate cause. Some accused the
water, but at length it appears to have been agreed that the air
was corrupted. The following experiment was devised by “ these
gentlemen ”’ :—“ One morning at eight o’clock they fastened to
a very long pole at the top of the observatory, a piece of the
freshest and soundest meat ; at nine it was taken down and in-
spected, when it was entirely vitiated in colour, taste, smell, and
touch !””

Such are the memorials of the ancient inhabitants of this part
of Britain, of which, blotted from the landscape, and fading from

* “Wrought then the people of the Westerns a mound over the sea, it
was high and broad to the sea-faring men, to be seen afar.” (Beowulf.)
The tomb of Themistocles overlooked the Pirzus (Plutarch, in Vit. The-
mist.). Vide Wright, Biograph. Britan. Literaria: Anglo-Saxon Period, 11,12.

+ Scenes of Infancy, note to Book II.

~ Bradley on Plantmg and Gardening; Gentleman’s Magazine, April
1838, p. 379. § Newcastle General Magazine, June 1754, p. 329.

Mr. J. Hardy on Excrescences from Mites. 11]

recollection, | have endeavoured to draw out the frail record. It
is a melancholy reflection, albeit a common one, that thus, in the
lapse of years, shall pass away the vestiges and the memories of
those who have come behind them; and that another race, un-
conscious of the past, will, with like irreverence, tread upon their
ashes and deface their proudest devices. Is it in reference to
such futile attempts to become renowned, that the philosophic
Roman historian drops a comment on the tomb of Otho ?—“ A
sepulchre was raised to the memory of Otho, but of an ordi-
nary structure, protected by its meanness, and therefore likely
to last ! 7 *

On some Excrescences, &c. on Plants occasioned or inhabited
by Mites. By Mr. James Harpy.

A FEw days ago, I met with several small galls on the leaves of
the hackberry (Prunus Padus), which 1 expected would furnish
the larva of a gall-midge (Cecidomyia) or gall-fly (Cynips). They
are green or slightly purplish, obovate, thickish, white, hirsute,
and are scattered over the upper surface of the leaf, like a crop of
minute mushrooms. On opening them I found them hollow,
without any apparent inmate, nor anything remarkable except a
few hairs, the continuation apparently of a thick crop placed at
their orifice im the depression on the underside of the leaf. A
few pink objects, however, at length caught my attention; and
on reflection, knowing that such excrescences were sometimes
ascribed to mites, I resolved to ascertain if these were not such.
Next day, on shaking a few upon a slip of glass, and placing
them under the microscope, I observed that they exhibited motion ;_
and some of them were not long in pushing out their legs and
crawling slowly about. They were all in the larva state, are
elliptical, round-bodied, have four short legs placed close behind
the head ; the abdominal part is long and flexible and has about
four hairs before the tip, and about as many near the shoulders.
They are too minute to be seen with the naked eye ; even under
a triple lens they are mere linear atoms, without vestige of
limbs. They are white, yellow, pale brown, or pinkish. Two
species of mites were found on the outside; one a yellowish, rapid
running species, common upon foliage, that appears to deposit
its ova upon the hairs of the plants on which it occurs; the
other was a true, flattish, pale whitish testaceous Acarus, and is
most likely the parent of the young mites in the gall.

Knowing there were many similar galls on leaves, I next in-
vestigated those hairy purple warts so abundant near the midrib

* “ Othoni sepulchrum exstructum est, modicum, et mansurum.”—
Tacit. Hist. u. c. 49.

112 Mr. J. Hardy on Ezcrescences from Mites.

of the sloe, and found them likewise to be nests of apparently
the same species of Acarus.

The alternate blisters along the sides of the alder leaf, and
occasionally found on that of the birch, gave the same result.
The species on the alder is probably different. The old mite
accompanying them is a mere point, and is well distmguished by
two or three squarish brown spots near the tip of the abdomen.

The leaf of the Salia aurita offers not less than four different
galls; one large and smooth, occasioned by a black saw-fly
(Linn. Fn. Suec. 2301) ; two ‘caused by the larve of unknown
species of gall-midge (Cecidomyia) ; and a fourth minute purple
one, which is very abundant, and is analogous to those occurring
on the sloe and bird-cherry. The last, like them, contains only
young mites.

Another locality for mites I find in some round bud-like pro-
ductions on the twigs of hazel. From green they becomeyellowish,
and then wither. The larva is white; as is the accompanying mite.

A rough, pale-green, or purplish, fungus-like gall, which
opens from the underside of the leaf, is abundant on the foliage
of the alder in some of our deans. This is also a nursery of
young Acari.

A conspicuous yellow gall near the summits of the stalks of
Galium verum growing on the sea-coast is also owing to mites.
The round fleshy galls of this plant are caused by the larve of a
Cecidomyia.

Colonies of young mites distort the leaves of Galium Aparine,
Lotus corniculatus, Polygala vulgaris and Campanula rotundi-
folia, by causing them to assume fantastic shapes, to become
discoloured, to thicken, or their margins to roll inwards. The
foliage of Galium Aparine is also affected in this manner from
the presence of the larvee of Psylla velutina of Foerster (Verhand.
Natur. Vereins. Preuss. Rheinlande, 1848, p. 87) ; which ap-
pears not to differ from Ps. Gali of the same author. This Psylla
produces similar effects on Galhum palustre and G. uliginosum ;
and it lives likewise upon the leaves of Comarum palustre.

The hoary, rounded, woolly tufts, so abundant in some places
at the summit of the shoots of the wild thyme, are also the pro-
duction of a crowd of young mites, as was first ascertained by
Loew (Dipterologische Beitr. iv. 24). Lightfoot (Flora Scot. 1.
318) attributes them to a Chermes (Psylla) ; and Bremi thought
they were owing to the larvee of a gall-midge. The two Bauhins
considered plants in this condition as a distinct species; the
Serpillum vulgare, minus, capitulis lanuginosis, C. Bauhini, Pi-
nax 220; S. vulgare, capitulis tomentaceis, candicantibus, J. Bau-
hini, Hist. Plant. m. 269. Tournefort, however, conjectured
that such appearances were owing to the irritation occasioned by

Dr. Johnston on the Acarides of Berwickshire. 113

some insect pricking the buds (Hist. Plantes des environs de
Paris, 149: Paris, 1698).

Another alleged production of mites is the white tufts so
abundant in some places at the sumniit of the shoots of wild
thyme. I have not had an opportunity of examining them
lately ; but young specimens that I brought from Northumber-:
land in July, afforded no traces of a gall-midge to which they
had been ascribed by various writers.

In conclusion, I may mention, that I shall feel obliged to any
member of the Club for fresh specimens of the following galls,
should they ever occur during their researches :—

Smooth galls on the leaves of the beech.

Smooth galls on the leaves or buds of the lime.

Galls on the dyer’s green weed (Genista tinctoria).

Galls on the bryony and the box-wood.

Galls and excrescences on Salix alba, S. purpurea, and S. fragilis.
Large gall on the stalk of Hieraciwm sabaudum and Cnicus arvensis.

The AcarivEs of Berwickshire specifically described.
By Gzorce Jounston, M.D.

[Continued from vol. ii. p. 373. ]

28. RHYNCHOLOPHUS ERRANS.

R. levis ruber thorace pedibusque coccineis, dorso foveolis notato setis
brevissimis (nec sine speculi auxilio conspicuis) falcatis et ad basim
incrassatis velato, setis crurum acutis simplicibus. Long. 12 lin.

Descrip. Mite blood-red with scarlet thorax, legs and palpi,
smooth to the naked eye. Body ovate, rostrate in front, broadest
at the shoulders, rounded and entire behind and on the sides,
clothed with very short curved spines with a bulbous base (fig. a),
to be seen only on the margins under a high magnifier; the
back flattened, uneven, marked with a foveolate furrow along each
side and with a large depression just above the extremity; the
venter convex, even and smooth, of the same colour as the back ;
the anus inferior and subterminal; the generative pore twice as
large, mammillary, and nearly central. Thorax distinctly sepa-
rated by a transverse line from the body and narrower than it,
triangulate, uneven, with a black eye at each side on a mammil-
lary swellmg. Mandibles porrect, consisting of two parallel,
elongated, tapered, smooth shafts, terminated each with a small |
claw (fig. 5), and having a protrusile stylet between them.
Palpi (fig. c) large and pediform, hirsute, porrect, the two basal
joints short, subequal and narrow; the third large, bulged, and
twice as long as the fourth, which tapers gradually into the fifth,

114 Dr. Johnston on the Acarides of Berwickshire.

a shorter joint, on which is articulated the elongated curved and
clawed terminal one, and the equally long elliptical hirsute ap-
pendage. Legs eight, filiform, lateral in their origins, the an-
terior remote from the pos-
terior pairs; fourth pair long-
est, then the first, which are
only a little longer than the
third ; the second pair short-
est and about half the length
of the posterior, that again are
more than twice the length of
the body ; seven-jointed ; first
joint very short ; second long-
er and larger, bulged and con-
vex on the front side (fig. d) ;
third longer, narrowed at its
junction with the second,
otherwise cylindrical; fourth
longer and cylindrical ; fifth
like the fourth ; sixth rather
longer and narrower, cylin-
drical; seventh nearly equal
to the sixth, cylindrical, with
a tendency to become ellip-
tical in the first pair only, ab-
ruptly truncate at the end,
and armed with two powerful
simple curved claws capable
of being bent back into a wide
sinus on the distal or external
aspect (fig. e). The legs are
all clothed with slightly curved apeaaie Cae
spinous hairs pomted down-

wards and arising from a bulbous root; and from the number
and disposition of these bulbs, the articulation gets a somewhat
striate and nodulous appearance (fig. e). The hairs are all sim-
ple and smooth, and not barbed; and those of the tarsal joint
are more delicate than the others.

This is a large mite, equal in length to the Trombidium holo-
sericeum, but different in shape. It belongs to the genus Rhyn-
cholophus, but the tarsal jomts are not heavy and elliptical as
in other species. Nor is it nearly so quick in motion as the
R. phalangioides, although it moves at a tolerably quick pace, la-
bouring, as it were, to hurry its rate. When molested, it does
not stop and simulate death; and if overturned, it rights itself
readily and attempts again to escape. The hairs of the body are

e

Dr. Johnston on the Acarides of Berwickshire. 115

remarkable for their hookedness and the large sheath at their
base. The eyes appear to be supported on a very short pedicle ;
and there is a pair on the summit of each pedicle.

The specimen from which this description is made was taken
during the walk of the Club, May 1, 1850, near Twizel Castle.
The mite is not a characteristic Rhyncholophus, but stands, as it
were, between that genus and Trombidium. Of those species
figured by Hermann, it approaches very near to Trombidium
guisquiliarum; but I am afraid to identify it with that species,
because, in the figure, the thoracic portion of the body is not
represented as separated from the abdominal, but continuous with
it; and the tarsal joint of all the legs is figured as being ellip-
tical and enlarged, and much shorter than the penultimate,
which is a state of parts far otherwise in our insect.

29. BRYoBIA HAUSTOR.

Rhyncholophus? haustor, Wardy in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist.
Ser. 2. vi. 187.

R. atro-sanguineus fronti vittéd dorsali pedibusque coccineis, cor-

- pore nudo, pedibus anticis gracilibus extensis posterioribus duplo
longioribus.

Desc. Mite small, of a dusky brownish-red colour with a scarlet
vitta along the centre of the back, and scarlet front and legs.
Body ovate, rather depressed, triangulate in front and broadest
at the shoulders, rounded and entire behind, roughish but naked ;
the venter coloured like the back, with a large scarlet spot round
the anal pore, rather convex; the posterior half beautifully marked
with undulated cutaneous plaits when subjected to pressure.
Thorax scarlet, separate by a raised line from the abdomen.
Eyes sessile, forming a round dark spot on each shoulder, and
almost marginal. Palpi short, very thick at the base, conoid
and tapered, armed with a stout claw, and under the claw there
is a small oblong setigerous appendage scarcely larger than the
claw itself. Legs eight, gracile, filiform; the anterior longer
than the body, porrect and slender; the fourth and second pairs
half as long, and the third pair shortest, all a little stouter than
the first ; first pair with the first jot short and bulged; second
equally short but smaller; third greatly elongated ; fourth about
half as long; fifth considerably longer than the fourth, and
thickened outwards; sixth about the length of the fourth, a
shade thicker than the penultimate and more setose, cylindric,
oblique at the end, and armed with two pedunculated curved
claws, provided with short bristles on their inferior aspect.
Bristles of the legs’ basal joimts distant, short, thick and roughish,
but those of the distal jomts (particularly of the tarsal joint) are
longer, simple and sharp. The joints of the other legs are pro-

116 Dr. Johnston on the Acarides of Berwickshire.

portionally the same as of the first, but their tarsal joint is ta-
pered to a point and less setose, and the sete are also much
shorter and more like those of the basilar joints.

The oral apparatus consists of a triangular process with a
rather suddenly contracted apex. It is formed of two short and
adnate mandibles, from between which two filiform simple sty-
lets can be forced by compression.

The body appears to be naked, for I could discover no bristles
on it, and there are only visible, with a high magnifier, a few
obtusely headed, very short setose appendages on the back and
margin, the nature of which is not very obvious*. I have seen
in several specimens one or two oviform bodies of a red colour,
and consisting of a congeries of minute globules; and I believe
these to be really the ova. They are comparatively large, and
occupy nearly the centre of the body. This is hable to some
slight variation in colour. It is sometimes of a uniform dark
red colour with duskier shades, but there is, in by far the larger
number of individuals, a brighter-coioured band down the centre
of the back.

I refer this Mite to the genus Bryobia. The legs, in propor-
tion to each other, and in their form, are like those of this genus,
or of Linopodes ; it is here in the first pair only that the tarsal
joint makes an approach to the heaviness and enlargement it
has in genuine Rhyncholophi; and in the other legs that joint
tapers to the end. As in Bryobia, the thorax is separate from
the abdomen by a line or transverse suture; but in Linopodes
the palpi are otherwise constructed and seem to have no pendent
appendage.

The species is not figured by Hermann. It is moderately
quick in its motion, which offers no peculiarity for notice. I
have received numerous specimens (June 1, 1850) from Mr.
Hardy. He finds it swarming under stones by wall-sides at
Penmanshiel at an earlier part of the season; ‘ and now it has
issued forth, and is attacking the grasses, in the manner of the
red-spider. The quicken is most affected, the leaves bemg quite
speckled with white, and they leave behind them a number of
black excrementitious spots which shine like honey-dew. They
occur likewise upon Ranunculus repens.” I found several spe-
cimens in a tuft of moss which I brought from the dean above
Akeld.

The dorsal scarlet fascia is more or less distinct, sometimes
only a spot near the extremity.

* These are similar to the appendages figured by Koch on Bryobia
speciosa, but they are scarcely so regularly placed. On a careful inspection
I perceived that the back of the mite was crossed by three raised lines, one
from shoulder to shoulder and two farther back, and the clubbed processes
are placed on these lines. But I could not often nerceive these lines at all.

Dr. Johnston on the Acarides of Berwickshire. 117

30. Scrrus LatrrostRis, Herm.

Scirus latirostris, Herm. Mem. Apter. 62. pl. 3. fig. 11.—Am-
monia latirostris, Koch, Ubers. 76.—Bdella latirostris, Ger-
vais in Walck. Ins. Apt. i. 157.

Desc. Mite very small, scarlet with ochre-yellow legs. Body
oblong, narrowed. forwards and rostrate, rounded and entire be-
hind, even and rather glossy, bristly with distant and rather
strong sete, and armed on each side near the shoulder with a
very long pricker; venter coloured like the back with a yellow
spot in the middle. Rostrum short, furnished with a few curved
bristles on the sides, the pair near the truncate apex very short.
Mandibles as long as the rostrum, thick and stout, armed with
stout, curved, faintly tinted chelxe, one of which only is moveable

1 ee

Scirus latirostris.

v

(fig. a). Palpi elongate, gracile, geniculate, the second joint
greatly elongated, cylindrical, sparingly bristled, the third and
fourth very short, the fifth or terminal again elongate but scarcely
half the length of the second, incrassated outwards and truncate,
the apex armed with two long unequal sete, and with a short
one on each side underneath (fig. 5). Legs eight, equidistant in
their insertions, and of nearly equal length and thickness, shorter
than the body, tapered, bristly, six-jomted, the tarsal joint ta-
pered, three times longer than the penultimate, more copiously
setose, and furnished with two minute claws and an intermediate
pulvillus.

This is very closely allied to Scirus vulgaris, with which it
corresponds in size and in habits. My description is taken from
a single specimen, and hence it may be found that the yellowish
legs are rather the peculiarity of the individual than the cha-
racter of the species. The principal character which separates
it from the S. vulgaris is the short rostrum. There is a close

B.N.C.—VOL, III. N°, III. K

118 Dr. Johnston on the Acarides of Berwickshire.

sameness in the structure of the palpi, but in S. latirosiris,
I think, the mandibles are stouter, the back is more convex and
glossy, and the skin shows no appearance of striz under the
magnifier. .

31. AMMONIA MEGACEPHALA.

A. rubida dorso irregulariter infuscato sparse setoso, rostro pedi-
busque clarioribus.

Ammonia megacephala? Koch. Ubers. 75. tab. 9. fig. 42;
Walck. Ins. Apt. iv. 531.

Desc. Mite ovate-oblong, narrower and rostrate in front, soft,
of a reddish colour with dusky blotches on the back, the rostrum
and legs paler and clearer. Body divided into rostrum, thorax,
and abdomen. Rostrum longer than the thorax, triangular,
rather suddenly narrowing about the middle, furnished on the
sides with three sharp slightly curved bristles, and the apex with
a coronet of minute sete. Hyes four, a pair on each side at the
suture which divides the thorax from the abdomen, of a red
glossy colour. Abdomen convex, slightly indented at the sides,
sparingly covered with short bristles, rounded and entire behind.
Legs as long as the body, gracile, somewhat tapered, bristly,
the fourth pair longest, then the third, and the two anterior
pairs a little shorter; first jomt minute, second elongate, third
and fourth short and equal, fifth as long as both of them, sixth
elongate, tapered, armed with numerous strong short sete on
the innér or inferior side, suddenly angled near the extremity,
and furnished with a pair of claws with an intermediate cushion
or pulvillus.. Skin very minutely striolate.

The rostrum is made up of a central piece, and of two man-
dibular shafts, each terminated with a pair of small neat chele,
the larger claw only being moveable. The palpi arise from near
the base of the rostrum, and are nearly twice as long as it; they
are filiform, geniculate, bristly, five-jomted; the basal joint
minute, the second elongate, the third and fourth small and
equal, the fifth nearly as long as the second and a little slenderer,
with the apex armed with two long subequal bristles; and the
bristles on the sides are longer than those on the lower joints.

This mite is quick in its motions; and, when arrested in its
progress, it backs with alertness. I found the specimen in my
garden. The species is not represented by Hermann, but it
agrees in many respects with his Scirus longirostris. It be-
longs to Koch’s genus Ammonia, and may be his Am.megacephala ;
but the terminal joint of the palpi is represented in this to be
naked, and there are a few longer bristles on the legs, which we
did not notice in our mite.

Dr. Johnston on the Acarides of Berwickshire. 119

32. GAMASUS LUTEUS.

G. luteus oblongus setiger levis, dorso convexo sutura transversa
dimidiato postice albo et utrinque setd validiore armato. Long.
2 lin.

Gamasus luteus, Koch, Ubers. 86.

Desc. Mite minute, of a uniform pale yellow-brown colour,
with two short dusky vittz on the back behind, and the anal
margin white and membranous. Body oblong, shouldered in
front, covered rather sparingly with strong slightly curved bris-
tles, the back convex and even, divided into two equal halves by
a pale transverse line or suture, the coriaceous portion behind
semioval ; the venter of the same colour as the back, even, with-
out any distinct sternal plate, the anal pore coriaceous, round
and submarginal ; oral apparatus similar to that of G. coleoptra-
torum, the mandibles with pale brown chele mmutely denticu-
lated on the cutting edges; the palpi bristled more especially at
the apices. Legs eight, more transparent than the body, bristly,
tapered, first pair more slender than the others and longest,
fourth nearly as long, third considerably shorter, and the second
a little shorter than the third; they are all six-jointed, the basal
joint thick and femoral, the second very short, the third as long
as both, the fourth and fifth rather shorter and subequal, the
sixth elongated, and terminated with a pedunculated vesicle
and two minute claws; the tarsal joint of the first pair is almost
cylindric, but it tapers decidedly in the other legs. Bristles
with a little bulbous base, pomted downwards, smooth and
sharp, those on the tarsal joints longest. Two rather stout
bristles are placed on the front of the body; and on each side of
the dorsal suture there is a strong pricker, darker coloured than
the bristles, and one-half the length of the body.

I find this mite in profusion in cucumber beds. It runs very
quickly, holding its fore legs forwards, and bent at the articula-
tion between the second and third joints. These legs are rather
longer than the body.

The species is nearly allied to Gam. coleoptratorum, from which
it differs in its colour, in its greater transparency, and in its
more oblong and convex form. It is also more hispid.

33. NOTASPIS MARGINATUS.

N. tardigradus, corpore orbiculato depressiusculo fusco-castaneo
margine albo circumdato levi inermi. Long. } lin.
Notaspis marginatus, Koch, Ubers. 94:

Desc. Mite roundish, rather depressed, narrowed in front and

truncate, of a chestnut-brown colour margined with a white or
K2

120 Dr. Johnston on the Acarides of Berwickshire.

colourless border, broadest behind, the margin even and entire,
the back smooth and even, minutely punctured, almost naked,
and the few sete are scattered and very short; venter dark
brown, convex, smooth, with an oblong sternal plate, which is
minutely punctured and has a dark pore (vaginal) in its centre.

Notaspis marginatus, Koch. <A view form the ventral aspect.

Palpi (fig. a) filiform and curved at their obtusely rounded apices,
which are very bristly ; and there is a short cylindrical moveable
seta on the inner side of the penultimate joint. Legs eight,
gracile, shorter than the body, of a uniform brown colour,
tapered, sparmgly furnished with very short sete, and armed
with a beautifully bilobed pedunculated vesicle and two powerful
claws; they originate from the sides of the sternal plate, occupy
the anterior half of the venter, and are equally distanced; the
first pair (fig. 6) are rather the longest, and of them only the
tarsal jomt is very bristly and has a long terminal seta which
extends far beyond the vesicle. The legs are six-joimted, first
joint thick and conoid, second short and thick, third elongate,

Dr. Johnston on the Acarides of Berwickshire. 121

incrassated outwards, fourth and fifth not half so long as the third
and subequal, sixth as long as the third.

The oral apparatus is concealed or invisible in the living in-
sect, but becomes very obvious when the mite is compressed. It
consists of two elongated four-joited mandibles, which are pro-
trusile and taper to a sharp pomt; but this pomt seems to be
entire and unfurnished with chele (fig. c). Over the base
there is a tricuspid plate or labrum; and on each side of this,
externally, a peduncle with a long seta. The central division of
the labrum is the longest or most projecting ; and between each
division we find a seta that reaches beyond the points. The
structure is, as a whole, very characteristic of the Gamaside.
The figure is a view from the ventral aspect.

The mite is nearly allied to our Uropoda cassidea, and is refer-
able to the same genus, notwithstanding the differences in the
oral armature. It is of the same size, and has the same Cercyon-
like habit and texture. It is, however, greatly more tardigrade,
being a very sloth in its walk; and when placed on its back, it
cannot recover the right position. The fore legs are kept for-
‘wards, and are kneed, from a bend at the second joint, whereon
their movements are principally made.

I found my specimens in May, on the sea-shore, above high
water mark,

34, CARABODES NITENS.

Mite small, roundish-ovate, narrowed forwards, convex dor-
sally, of a uniform glossy pitch-black colour, smooth, with gra-
cile legs, shorter than the body. Cephalo-thorax triangulate,
declined, armed on each side with a bristle that projects a little
beyond the snout, the margins shouldered with a narrow pro-
jecting plate, sharp in front. Back even and smooth, marked
with two or three minute foveolets, the margin entire and
rounded behind; venter rather convex, even, of the same colour
as the back. Legs of a clear brown or piceous colour, bristly,
subequal; the first and fourth pairs longest and about equal,
the second pair scarcely longer than the third, six-jointed ;_ basal
joint (fig. a) short but swollen, with a single bristle; the second
joint larger and more dilated, compressed, with a convex outer
edge armed with a single bristle, the inner edge straight ; third
joint very slender and short; the fourth elongate, thickened
downwards, and armed with a long bristle near its distal end;
fifth as long as the fourth, suddenly declining into the tarsal,
which has a pair of long curved claws, and is more bristly than
the other joints. Bristles all setaceous, those on the outer edge
curved and moveable, those on the inner side immoveable and
pointed downwards.

The mouth or rostrum is a complicated structure, nor am I

122 Dr. Johnston on the Acarides of Berwickshire.

able to describe it correctly ; for when crushed so as to be made
an object for the microscope, the parts are dislocated and con-
fused. There are two strong mandibles laid parallel to each

other, and each of them terminated with a pair of minute curved
claws, one of which only is moveable. External to each man-
dible, and perhaps adnate to it, there is a slender joimted palpus ;
and underneath? the mandibles a pair of triangular plates
(labrum), from the poimt of which protrudes a sharp bristle or
stylet (fig. 0).

This mite is tardigrade. It resembles a small Cercyon, and
is covered with a skin of the same coriaceous character as the
cases of that beetle. When crushed, the skin is shown to be of
the same fine ferruginous colour as the legs, deriving its darker
hue only from the thickness of the viscera it encloses. The
largeness of the basilar joints of the legs is surely a singular
character in an insect which does not leap, and so slow and
deliberate in its walk. I cannot conjecture a reason for this
collection of muscular power in the limbs. In the fore legs the
basilar joints are elliptical (fig. c); and the second joint of the
second pair has a narrow wing or border (fig. d) on the inferior
edge. ‘

The mite is common. It lives in moss on walls, and I have
found it on agarics in spring and summer.

I refer the insect to the genus Carabodes of Koch; but I
could not discover any clavate bristle on the thorax, although
attention was directed particularly to this character.

Mr. J. Hardy on the Frugivorous Habits of some Geodephaga. 123

On the Frugivorous Habits of some Geodephaga.
By Mr. James Harpy.

It is now I believe agreed on all hands, that Zabrus gibbus occa-
sionally feeds upon grain; and some of the larvee of Amare have
been ascertained to be vegetable feeders. This, however, is the
amount of information that we possess on the subject; all the
other beetles of this division have been ranked as carnivorous,
an inference drawn principally from the structure of their mouths
and stomach. Notwithstanding this, however, it appears that
several of those so-called carnivora mix with their stronger meals
a certain proportion of vegetable diet. Of the Amare I have
observed two feeding on plants: Ist, Amara plebeia, which often
mounts Poa annua to eat the pollen; and A. famiharis, which
tears the capsule of the mouse-ear chickweed (Cerastium viscosum)
and devours the half-ripened seeds. Omaseus melanarius, a well-
known destroyer of earth-worms, I have detected eating the
nearly ripe seeds of the hemp-nettle (Galeopsis tetrahit). Cur-
tonotus piceus is well known to occur frequently upon the knap-
-weed, and to thrust its head down amongst the seeds, with, it
was supposed, the intention of obtaining the dipterous maggots
that feed upon the seeds of the plant. I have now little doubt
that its object is the seeds alone, as only yesterday I found one
employed in a similar manner upon the bog-thistle, after it had
devoured the skin of one of its seeds, the interior having been
eaten before my arrival. [afterwards saw another pull up a seed
from the head of an autumnal dandelion (Apargia autumnalis)
and then proceed to make a meal of it. Calathus cisteloides will
probably be found to have similar habits. One evening I found
four individuals near the summits of the rag-wort; but they
observed my approach, and either hid themselves amongst the
foliage, or dropped to the ground.

Since these notes were put together, I have met with another
istance of a Geodephagous vegetable-feeder in Pecilus cupreus.
At the meeting of the Entomological Society of London, May 6,
1844, Mr. Ingpen exhibited a specimen of this beetle which was
taken in the act of devouring a common pea.

Notice of two ancient Tombs or Graves discovered and opened in
Spring 1851, upon Adderstone Low Mill Farm, in the Parish
of Bamburgh. By P. J. Suxsy, Esq.

THESE graves were found when draining the field, about 3 feet
from the surface ; they were situated upon the crown of a rise
or hillock, the highest part of the field, and pointed due north
and south. The larger one formed of smooth-faced stones, each

124 Mr. P. J. Selby on two ancient Tombs.

side and end being formed of one stone; the chest or cavity,
about 3 feet 6 inches long, the width 3 feet, and the depth about
2 feet, was covered with a heavy block of limestone nearly 6
inches thick. The second grave, about 6 or 8 yards to the west
of the other, is smaller, but formed in the same way, and also
- covered with a block of limestone. In the larger chest was an

A. Recess at east end of grave. B. Urn, broken in removing the cover. C. Bones.

urn, of the usual form and manufacture found in the ancient
graves and cairns of the district (several of which have been
opened upon Twizell, Warenton, &c.), containing a few ashes,
and some of the larger bones lay upon the floor of the tomb.
No urn was found in the second or smaller grave, but small por-
tions of the skull and other bones mixed with the earth of the
floor. In the larger tomb there was a small recess at the eastern
corner ; but whether this had been made or left intentionally, or
had arisen from the stones of the side and end not meeting at
this point, is doubtful.

Limestone

Cover.

D. A hole through the block, but apparently natural or water-worn. These limestone blocks
were probably brought from the bed of the river at Bradford, distant about half a mile, where the
water runs upon the limestone rock.

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB.

Address to the Members at the Anniversary Meeting held at
Embleton, September 7th, 1853. By Grorex Tats, F.G.S.,
President.

GENTLEMEN,

I nave the pleasure of congratulatmg you on the Club now
having attained its majority. Starting imto life under the
fostering charge of experienced and distinguished naturalists, it
had scarcely an infancy ; its first efforts were manly, and even
its early contributions to natural history took their place among
the original authorities in scientific literature. For twenty-one
years the district has been vigorously explored; and it may be
regarded as a happy augury of the future, that time has not
deadened your love of nature; the scenes which charmed when
first visited, and furnished materials for scientific observation, *
and themes for picturesque and glowing description, were found,
when revisited, to have lost none of their attractions. Our
meetings during the past year have been gladsome, instructive,
and suggestive of new trains of inquiry. Indeed, I know not
where the young naturalist could have been more delighted and
improved ; for the experienced Members were ever ready to
E.N.C.—VOL. III. N®. IV. L

126 Annwwersary Address.

assist and encourage, to explain what is obscure, and to point
out whatever is beautiful or interesting.

In presiding over you, I have felt my duties to be honourable
and pleasant, rather than laborious; and any difficulty I might
have had in presenting you with an Ser ouit of our proceedings,
has been lessened by the valuable notes made at the several
meetings by the Secretary and other Members.

The last Anniversary was held on September the 8th, 1852,
at Newtown St. Boswells; and of this Meeting the Secretary has
furnished notes :—‘ The Members who attended were Mr. Home,
President, Dr. Johnston, the Rev. J. Baird, and Mr. Boyd.
Breakfast over, the party started for a walk, to which the fine-
ness of the day tempted them to give a pretty wide circuit.
They first followed the main road leading towards Melrose for
about two miles, when they diverged abruptly into a lane that
led up to the Eildon Hills, and reached the summit of the most
eastern. Silaus pratensis occurred repeatedly during the first
part of the walk; and at the base of the hill Sanguwisorba offici-
nalis occurred in three or four places. A large number of swal-
lows were coursing over the sward of the side of the hill, exer-
cising themselves, no doubt, to fit them for their approaching
departure. Descending the hill on its south side, the Allosorus
crispus was found abundantly. The party now retraced their
steps, and proceeded to visit Old Melrose. They threaded the
beautiful grounds around the old mansion, and gained the side
of the Tweed, whose banks here are very worthy of the beautiful
streams they overhang and adorn. The walk up the green
haugh was delightful. An effort was made to reach Leader
Bridge; but the distance being greater than was calculated upon,
the party were fain to be ferried across the river at Gledswood,
whence they began their homeward journey. About Old Mel-
rose some hemlocks were observed fully 10 feet in height. Cu-
nopodium vulgare and Myrrhis odorata were gathered opposite
Gledswood ; and on speeling the steep eastern bank of the river,
the front of which is precipitous and craggy, we found it almost
covered with Gnaphalium rectum. The walk was now directed
by the shortest route, without regard to road or admonitory
notices, to the huge and giant-like statue of Wallace, more fit to
frighten children than to honour the patriot ; whence a foot-

Anniversary Address. 127

path conducted us hastily to Dryburgh. Crossing the Tweed
again, we traversed the fine dean which leads from its bed to
Newtown. Here Astragalus glycyphyllos and Clinopodium vul-
gare were gathered; and in a stubble-field above the dean, Hu-
phorbia exigua was growing in great profusion.

“The party may be said literally to have walked in beauty ;
and the interest in the scenery was increased by the perfect
knowledge of it possessed by our President and guide, who was
ever ready to inform us of the events and traditions that render
the ground classical.

“‘ After dinner, the President, as usual, read the Annual Ad-
dress. He nominated Mr. Tate for his successor; and he was
elected accordingly. Mr. Tate, jun., was admitted a Member ;
and a notice by our young colleague of his discovery of Asple-
nium germanicum on Kyloe Crags, and for the first time in Eng-
land, was afterwards read.”

The next Meeting was held at Belford, on the 13th of October,
when there were present—Mr. Selby, Mr. Embleton, the Rev.
J. D. Clark, the Rev. W. Rigge, Captain the Hon. F. W. Grey,
with his friend Mr. Sullivan, Mr. G. R. Tate, Dr. Clarke, and
Mr. Broderick. From minutes made by Dr. Clarke, I learn that
the party met with a hospitable reception, and enjoyed a sump-
tuous breakfast at the house of Mr. Broderick. Drawings for
Dr. Johnston’s work ‘On the Natural History of the Eastern
Borders’ were shown, and elicited strong marks of admiration
from the correctness of eye and fidelity of pencil displayed by
the fair limner. Sketches of incised rocks at Ford and Bewick,
sent by the President, were examined, and led to a discussion
as to their age and meaning, which issued in a determination to
see these singular and mysterious inscriptions on the spots where
they yet remain. The following places of meeting for next year
were then fixed on: viz. May Meeting at Ford; June, at Cock-
burnspath, for Dunglas Dean; July, at Grant’s-House, for
Abbey St. Bathans; September, at Christon Bank, for Emble-
ton ; October, at Berwick.

The party afterwards walked through the wood, which partly
screens and partly reveals the rudely-columnar basalt forming
the hill of Belford Crags, with the chaotic debris at its base, and
gradually emerged into the open country. They met, by ap-

L 2

128 Annwersary Address.

poimtment, with Mr. Broderick on the higher and more open
ground, to witness the flight of his falcons. One partridge these
falcons succeeded in killing ; but grouse appearing shy, and the
partridges seeking the safe covert of the turnip fields, a pigeon
was let off, and was pursued by the two falcons; but the evolu-
tions of the poor bird were so rapid and sure, that it escaped the
fate so constantly hanging over it, and found in a corn rick a
secure shelter. Two merlins were then tried at larks; but
having been accustomed only to fly at blackbirds and thrushes,
they soon gave up the toilsome pursuit ; and the shrill lark not
long afterwards carolled high and safe from his aérial tower. At
dinner, the Club was joined by the Rev. H. Parker and his son.

Though no new facts in natural history were noticed at this
Meeting, the day nevertheless was pleasantly spent. The neigh-
bourhood is interesting to the archeologist, the geologist, and the
botanist. Bamburgh Castle, with its historical associations, is
not far distant. Budle schists are near, filled with rare and beau-
tiful remains of fossil plants and animals belonging to the car-
boniferous era; and the basaltic columns of Spindlestone are
but a short way off, with.a remarkable assemblage of rare living
plants, among which is Allium Schenaprasum, recently discovered

there by Mr. William Richardson of Alnwick.

The Meeting at Ford was held on the 11th of May; and not-
withstanding the beauty and interest of the locality, the number
attending was small, owing probably to the unfavourable state
of the morning. There were present,—Dr. Johnston, Mr. Selby,
the Rev. J. D. Clark, the Rev. G. Walker, the Rev. W. Darnell,
and the Rev. 8. A. Fyler. The notes of the Secretary state
“that the Club first visited the parish church, to examine the
improvements which are being made on the venerable structure,
and which promise to make it one of the most becoming for its
sacred purpose of any in the district. The Members then walked
to Routin Linn, a distance of about three miles, to see some sin-
gular circular markings, which are cut on the scalp of an exposed
sandstene rock, and which have recently excited a good deal of
interest amongst antiquaries. The rock was readily found; but
it was not so easily decided by whom, and for what purpose, the
engravings were made. I must leave this question to the Pre-
sident’s decision.”

Anniversary Address. 129

I am tempted to offer a few additional particulars and ob-
servations. The sculpturings referred to are grooves of moderate
depth, chiefly forming incomplete single circles or series of con-
centric circles, in some cases as many as four, around a central
hollow, from which a straight groove proceeds through the series
of circles and beyond them. The straight grooves in one or two
mstances unite ; and from this combination of circles and grooves
a device results not unlike the “Prince of Wales’s feathers.”
Other sculpturings are of the shape of horse-shoes, graduated in
size, and placed within each other, but having still the central
hollow with the straight groove. They are scattered over the
rock, and vary in size, the largest being upwards of 2 feet in
diameter. <A plate in Dr. Johnston’s ‘ Natural History of the
Hastern Borders’ will, however, give a better idea of their forms
and arrangement than any written description. The Rev. Wil-
liam Greenwell described them, and presented drawings of them
- to the Archeological Institute at Newcastle; but the antiqua-
rians there failed in their attempts to throw light on their origin.
When “learned doctors differ,” or hesitate to give an opinion,
it would be presumptuous in me to adjudicate. Indeed, if these
sculpturings stood alone, the fear of Edie Ochiltree might scare
any one from indulging in a conjecture; but, when viewed in
connexion with other facts, some mferences may reasonably be
drawn. That they are of great antiquity is proved by the depth
of peaty soil which covers part of them, and which amounts, even
on the slope of the rock, to as much as 9 inches; beneath this
soil, the incisions are sharper and more distinct than those on the
exposed surface. Similar sculpturings have been discovered by
Mr. Langlands on Old Bewick Hill, which is twelve miles distant
from Routin Linn, on sandstone rocks standing out from the
mass of which the ill is formed. The incisions are upon a more
gritty stone than that at Routin Linn, and they have been more
obliterated by the elements; but enough remains to show their
analogous character. In both localities the sculptured rocks
stand eastward of ancient camps, which have the Celtic form and
construction ; and from this connexion, they may, without much
hesitation, be referred to the ancient British inhabitants of the
county. Some significancy, moreover, seems to be involved in
an eastward position; for I find that the remains of Celtic
dwellings, still to be seen, on Beanly Moor and on Hartside

130 Anmversary Address.

among the Cheviots, have their openings to the east. May
there not be in this some indication—it may be faint—of the
worship of the Sun—a fragment of Hastern superstition, which
regarded light, and the Sun, the greatest of all lights, as the
type of the good Spirit ?

These sculptured rocks are near to camps, but others have
been found connected with sepulchres. Captain Carpenter dis-
covered that the cover of a Celtic cist at Ford West Field was
incised similarly to the Routin Linn rock; and Dr. Wilson has
figured, in his ‘Archeology of Scotland, another remarkable
incised cist cover from Coilsfield in Ayrshire, the chief form on
it being a series of concentric circles very like those at Routin
Linn ; beneath this slab was an urn filled with incinerated bones.
Incised stones, having a like character, have been observed at
places far distant from each other, but which had been peopled
by the Celtic race ; they have been found at Annan Street, and
near Craigiehall in Scotland, in Ireland, and even in Brittany.

Independently of their meaning, these relics cannot be viewed
without interest, as the earliest examples of sculpture in our
island. I cannot regard them as the amusements of an idle
soldiery, nor as plans of camps, nor as exercises of incipient en-
gineers ; for their wide distribution, and, notwithstanding dif-
ferences m detail, their family resemblance, prove that they had
a common origin, and indicate a symbolical meaning, repre-
senting some popular thought; and though I cannot spell the
rude lettering, I fancy, since they are associated with the last
remains of Celtic heroes and sages, they tell of the faith and
hope of the aboriginal inhabitants of Britain.

From Routin Linn the Club proceeded to traverse the Horse
Bog, which they did throughout its entire length, but without
making any discovery of novelty. A pleasant and varied con-
versation was the sole refreshment they had on their walk, and
they returned to their mn without a feeling of fatigue. The
plants actually examined—for many besides were noticed and
praised—were Bryum punctatum, Bryum hornum, Adoxa moscha-
tellina, Myrica Gale, Juniperus communis, and Callitriche verna.
No insects nor other animals were captured. After dinner there
were read,—“ A Note on the Habits and Ciconomy of the
Long-eared Bat,” by Mr. Selby; “A Notice of the Capture of
Atelecyclus heterodon in Embleton Bay,” by Mr. Embleton ; and

Anniversary Address. 131

a paper “On a Cist found at Broomhill near Dunse,” by Mr.
Stevenson. It was moved and agreed to, that in future one card
only of Notice of the Meetings of the Session be sent to each
Member, at least eight days before the Meeting in May.

A beautiful morning ushered in the 18th day of June, when
the Club met at Cockburnspath. There were present,—the
President, Dr. Johnston, Mr. Home, Mr. Embleton, the Rev.
J. D. Clark, the Rev. W. Rigge, Mr. Hepburn, and Mr. G. R.
Tate; Mr. Stevenson joined the party in the evening. Dr.
Johnston, Mr. Rigge, and Mr. Embleton, who had arrived early
at the place of rendezvous, enjoyed the advantage of exploring
the Dunglas Dean. “A short and pleasant walk,” Mr. Rigge
reports, “brought us to the most magnificent part of this cele-
brated dean. Nothing could be more beautiful and impressive
than the scene which here opened before us. The narrow gorge,
‘ with its steep and precipitous sides, was overhung with stately
trees of various hues of foliage, the face of the rocks bemg en-
livened by the cheerful green colour and elegant forms of the
ferns and other plants which sprung from every crevice; a little
streamlet glided over its channel, now sparkling in the open
sunshine, now obscured in the deep shade of abutting rocks or
overarching trees ; and the fine mansion of Sir John Hall crowned
a precipice, standing on its verge, and overlooking the dean in
its deepest part. Rarely indeed can a scene be met with com-
bining so much of the wild and romantic with the beautiful. To
enumerate all the plants that attracted our attention would be
to name those that are familiar to the Members of the Club;
but the profusion in which they were scattered, and the luxu-
riance both of flower and foliage were especially noticed. The
pure white flowers of Sazxifraga granulata contrasted with the
bright crimson of Lychnis diurna, whilst the golden cups of Ra-
nunculus repens, nearly as large as Caltha palustris, blended with
the less conspicuous flowers of Cardamine amara, Symphytum
officinale, and Myosotis sylvatica. The rocks on both sides were
canopied with magnificent specimens of Aspidium Filix-mas and
femina, Aspidium dilatatum, Aspidium aculeatum, and Scolopen-
drium vulgare. Under these we gathered Hookeria lucens, Hyp-
num dendroides, and Bryum roseum in fruit. The yellow hairy
moss, Hypnum commutatum, was seen encrusting many a drip-

132 Anniwersary Address.

ping shelvmg rock. The bright unclouded sunshine of the
morning was made more beautiful when reflected from the masses
of dark green Marchantia polymorpha, which covered the bases
of the sandstone rocks.”

The party, jomed by their colleagues at the foot of the dean,
traversed the coast southwards. In passing along the shore, the
following plants were observed in considerable abundance :—
Eippophaé rhamnoides, Poa glauca, Glaucium luteum, Blysmus
rufus, Populus tremula, Ligusticum Scoticum, Trifolium fragtfe-
rum, aud a beautiful pink-coloured variety of Lychnis diurna.
On the beach, Fucus ceranoides was found for the first time;
subsequent investigation has, however, proved it to be frequent
on our coast. An eager but unsuccessful search was made in
the rocks near the Pees’ mouth for remains of Old-red-sand-
stone fish.

To Mr. Hepburn we are indebted for some interesting zoo-
logical jottmgs. ‘“ Having,” he says, “jomed the party some
time after they had left Dunglas Dean, and our subsequent route
embracing no woodland, no opportunity occurred for noting the
appearance of summer birds with the exception of swallows,
chiefly the house martin (Hirundo urbica), which is exceedingly
abundant about the rocky shores of the Cove of Dunglas. There
is no extent of permanent pasture; corn waves on the brink of
the cliffs, whose base is washed by the sea twice in the twenty-
four hours; hence we may reasonably presume that the numbers
of insects which in their larva state find food in the beds of
alge, and in their perfect form exercise their powers of flight
and faculties in the immediate neighbourhood, must far exceed
what is generally supposed. Two or three kestrels were ob-
served sailing along the face of the cliffs, but there were no
waders along the shore, and no water birds in the offing. The
sky was too much overcast and the wind too strong for the en-
joyment of insects; and none of the party bemg provided with
a sweep net, only a few of the more common butterflies and
humble bees were observed. Of Diptera, Rhingia campestris
haunted a small patch of turnip in flower, and a species of Sar-
gus flitted sluggishly about the buttercups. A fine specimen of
that beautiful bee, Bombus Scrimshiranus, was seen in a bramble
thicket near the mouth of the Pees’ Burn, the very spot where,
according to Dr. Johnston, it has repeatedly occurred to Prideaux

Anniversary Address. 133

Selby, Esq. It would appear that the species is very local, and
by no means plentiful. On a steep sand-bank overhanging the
Heriot Burn, a large colony of sand bees (Andrena Trimmerana *)
was found ; two or three species of parasitical Hymenoptera were
in close attendance; and the rapid motions of several tiger
beetles, Cicindela campestris, coursing about in quest of prey,
imparted additional animation to the busy scene.”

The party separated at the mouth of the Pees, the Secretary
and most of the Members taking their route through the deep
ravine of the Pees, and the President and Mr. Home climbing
the steep cliffs, and proceeding along the coast as far as Siccar
Point. St. Helen’s ruined church, standing “on the lea,” soli-
tary and exposed, and overlooking the sea, claimed from us a
passing notice. It is a plain erection, without any pretensions
to architectural beauty ; and it wants that aspect of “ hoar anti-
quity” which gives picturesqueness to any object; for being
* built of the sandstone of the district, which is of a deep red
colour, it appears, as we approach, like a common brick building.
A popular legend and rhyme, which have been recorded by Mr.
Henderson, invest, however, this church with some interest. As
an ordinary place of sepulture the churchyard is now deserted,
but bodies found on the coast are still interred here.

To the geologist this coast is classic ground. Hutton and
Playfair found materials here for their bold generalizations, and
their descriptions have given celebrity to Siccar Point. The chff
section from this point to Dunglas Burn is highly instructive, for
three different formations appear in succession,—the Lower Silu-
rian, the Upper Devonian or Old Red Sandstone, and the Lower
Carboniferous. The lofty and exposed headland of Siccar Point
itself is formed of greywacke strata, rising nearly vertically from
the sea, and capped by flesh-red sandstones and conglomerates,
which lie unconformably on the upturned edges of the greywacke,
and dip away northward at an angle of 20°. This unconform-
ableness indicates that the greywacke had been raised into their
vertical position before the sandstones were deposited ; and the
high inclination of these sandstones proves that there had been
a subsequent upheaval, which lifted the greywacke rocks further
upward, and along with them elevated the sandstone. A broad
belt of greywacke rocks extends from this point across the island
in a N.N.W. direction, forming the Lammermuir range, and

134. Anniversary Address.

other hills of a like character. Fossils have not yet been dis-
covered in Berwickshire to mark their age; but organisms have
been found in Peeblesshire and Dumfriesshire, which show that
they belong to the Lower Silurian formation, the most charac-
teristic of these fossils being several species of Graptolites, which
are corals allied to recent Virgulariz. On the south side of the
belt at Burnmouth, red sandstones also lie unconformably upon
the greywacke ; and it may not be uninteresting to notice that
similar sandstones and conglomerates, deep red in colour and
frequently ripple-marked, rest upon the flanks of the Cheviots
in Roddam Dean. These red sandstones and conglomerates,
which are of considerable thickness, appear in many successive
beds along the coast to a little beyond the Pees’ mouth, near to
which the Club in 1846 discovered remains distinctly deter-
mining their age; these were scales and plates of Holoptychius
nobilissimus and Pterichthys major, which are characteristic of the
upper beds of the Old-red-sandstone formation. The conglome-
rate beds, made up of the wreck of rocks older still, and the
deep ripple-marks on several of the strata tell of violent and
destructive agencies, and of shallow waters frequently agitated
with tumultuous heavings, and breaking with violence on the
shore.

No distinct line marks the division between the Old-red-sand-
stone and Carboniferous formations. Disturbances appear, as at
Cove Harbour, where the strata are nearly vertical, but no dis-
location breaks the sequence of the series, for all the beds above
the greywacke from Siccar Point to Dunglas Burn are conform-
able to each other. Fossiliferous beds, however, which have been
noticed both by Mr. Stevenson and myself, furnish interesting
evidence as to age and equivalency. Remains of fish, entirely
different from those in the Old red sandstone, and of Entomo-
straca and of plants, occur in cherty and slightly calcareous
beds not far northward of the Pees’ mouth; and interstratified
with these beds is a thin seam of coal.. The plants are Lepido-
dendrons and Sigillariz; and at the very base of the Carboni-
ferous formation, the remarkable Stigmaria ficoides appears mm a
bed beneath the coal seam. Other rocks succeed, consisting of
greenish, white, pale red, and yellowish sandstones, along with
a few shales. They synchronize with the lower carboniferous
beds which appear on the Whiteadder and on the Tweed. At the

Anniversary Address. 135

Cove Harbour coal again occurs ; and below the Fishers’ Houses
remains of fish and of plants are remarkably abundant in a
black carbonaceous shale and in a fine-grained sandstone. The
fish are the same as those at Burdie House, and some scales are
similar to Holoptychius Portlocki, obtained from the carbonife-
rous beds in Ireland. Fine specimens of Sphenopteris affinis
occur, showing beautifully the venations of this graceful fern,
which seems to be confined to the lower portions of the carboni-
ferous series, and which also is one of the most characteristic
remains of the Burdie House limestone. Besides this plant, I
also noticed Sphenopteris bifida, Sphenopteris obtusiloba, Lepido-
phyllum intermedium, and Coniferites? verticillatus, which was
first observed in the shales below Lammerton. Beneath this
shale lies a thin coal seam, and under it is a fire-clay, penetrated
vertically by obscure vegetable remains, apparently the roots of
the plants which had supplied the materials of the coal bed. The
-rocks which I have attempted to describe form a distinct division
in the Carboniferous formation, lying far below the Productal and
Encrinal limestones of Northumberland and East Lothian, and
are well marked by the abundance of fish-remains, by the com-
paratively small amount of carbon, and by the slight indications
of marine conditions. The coal beds are thin and unimportant,
but they are the earliest that appear; they are the dawn of the
Carboniferous zra, when the earth was clothed with a vegetation
marvellously luxuriant, which was entombed within the rocky
strata, to furnish a source of light and heat for the intellectual
and moral beings who were ages afterwards to people the earth.
The connexion between the outline of a coast and the relative
hardness of rocks and their inclination to the sea, is well illus-
trated by a comparison between Siccar Point and Cove Harbour ;
at the former the rocks are hard and dipping towards the sea,
and the destructive force of the wave is lessened by the inclined
surface, and hence this headland juts far into the waters ; but at
the latter, soft sandstones and softer shales present the edges of
their highly-tilted strata to the sea, and the roll of the billow
beats with full force against them ; hence the coast is here deeply
indented, the rocks are caverned and perforated, and a few of the
harder and less exposed stand apart from the cliff, worked by the
elements into picturesque forms resembling pinnacles and ruined
towers in the midst of the waters. One mass seemed to me like

136 Annwersary Address.

a colossal creature from the ruins of Nineveh, lying at rest, with
the head partly defaced, yet looking tranquilly over the wide and
troubled ocean before it.

The different parties reunited at Cockburnspath in time for
dinner, to which, after their long and interesting rambles, they
did ample justice. After dinner, several mountain limestone
fossils, recently obtained from Alnwick Moor, were shown by
the President, among which were Avicula Verneulit and Ptero-
nites angustatus; and also stems of Ulodendron ornatissimum,
with finely sculptured fruit-scars, measuring 15 inches in cir-
cumference. <A rare specimen of this smgular fossil tree, ob-
tained from the same locality, shows that the mode of branching
was dichotomous, that the leaf-scars were rhomboidal like those
of Lepidodendron, and that the fruit-scars were in vertical rows
on opposite sides of the stem and branches, so that the branches
and fruit-scars were on the same plane.

The loveliness of the morning, the beauty of the scenery at
Abbey St. Bathans, and the associations around Grant’s-House
as the birth-place of the Club, ought to have tempted a larger
number of Members to assemble on the 20th of July than
actually met. There were present,—the President, Dr. Johnston,
Mr. Selby, Mr. Jerdan, and Mr. Elliot; the Club was favoured
with the company of Mr. Hardy of Penmanshiel, Mr. Stevenson
of Dunse, and Mr. Thomas Tate of Kneller Hall College. The
party proceeded at once across the high ground towards Abbey
St. Bathans. The day was bright, the breeze refreshing, and
the conversation agreeable; otherwise these moorlands would
have appeared dreary; naked hills succeeding each other, with
few plants of interest, and with scarcely any trees or human
habitations to break the monotony of the scene. Greywacke
rocks were beneath, which on decomposing form a clayey soil
retentive of moisture, but the vertical position of the beds helps
the natural drainage. Before descending to the valley of Monnie-
nut, Erica cinerea was observed in great beauty and luxuriance ;
but its relative the common heath, Calluna vulgaris, had not
yet begun to flower. Luzula congesta was also noticed. Passing
by Butterdean and Quixwood, the party reached the valley of
the Whiteadder, where the sequestered and peaceful Abbey St.
Bathans reposes enclosed by hills, amidst verdant woods and

Annversary Address. Los

bright streams, and appearing the more lovely after the eye had
been wearied with the dull monotony of the moorlands :—

seg fee aie desu full many a spot

Of hidden beauty have I chanced to espy
Among the mountains ; never one like this;
So lonesome and so perfectly secure ;

Not melancholy—uno, for it is green,

And bright, and fertile.”

Here the party separated, the Secretary and most of the Mem-
bers following the course of the Whiteadder on the north side.
According to Mr. Selby’s notes,—“ A specimen of Polyommatus
Artaxerxes and several of Polyommatus Argus were taken on the
banks of the Whiteadder. The dearth of summer birds was
noticed, a remark which attaches, so far as my observation ex-
tends, to other parts within the limits of the Club. A leash of
wild ducks, Anas Boschas, in a secluded nook of the river, were
_ the only birds which attracted notice.” Mr. Jerdan has fur-
nished the following botanical notes :—“ The sides of the valley
of the Whiteadder are in many places clothed with natural wood,
consisting chiefly of oak, Quercus sessiliflora, and hazel, and in
wet spots of alder, intermixed however frequently with mountain
ash and aspen; the last tree was particularly noticed nearly op-
posite to Abbey St. Bathans. Before reaching the river, a pretty
road-side spring was observed canopied and lined with mosses,
principally Hypnum commutatum? In its vicinity grew Carer
pulicaris and Aspidium Filia-feemina, the latter in profusion. Pro-
ceeding thence by the banks of the river, there were noticed a
Salix (pronounced to be Sale cinerea by Mr. Selby), a patch «f
Mentha viridis, apparently wild, and a bramble resembling Ruius
cordatus. On the rocky parts of the river side, Solidago virgaurea
grew in great beauty ; and in the woods, Mieracium tridentatuin
and Melampyrum pratense, var. @. (with entire lanceolate leaves),
were found. Ina plantation near the Retreat, Carex binervis and
Agaricus tener were observed. The party returned by the road
from the Retreat Gate to Grant’s-House, passing by a beautiful
thicket of honeysuckles, on the banks of the Eye, near the rail-
way station.”

The President and Mr. Hardy crossed to the opposite side of
the river, and attempted to reach the summit of Cockburnslaw.
Want of time prevented them accomplishing this; but the space

138 Anniversary Address.

traversed gave an idea of its rocky structure. Here syenite,
which, according to Mr. Stevenson, sometimes passes into a true
granite, has lifted up, and on the sides of the hill pierced through,
the greywacke rocks. These rocks are well seen in the banks
of the river, to which they give a picturesque effect. Near to
the Giant’s Leap several intruded trap rocks appear, showing
that the district had been subject to frequent disturbance from
volcanic upheavais and outbursts. In our route Edin’s Hall was
visited, one of the most curious remains of other times, standing
on a lower platform of Cockburnslaw, and overlooking the river.
Of this remarkable structure an able and elaborate description
has been given in a former Number of our Transactions by
Mr. Turnbull. We observed in one of the cells in the wall the
remains of what was originally a rude approximation to an arch,
such as is seen in a more complete state in the Aberdeenshire
“ Weems,” and in the “ Picts’ Houses” of Orkney. In these,
large stones overlap each other in succession, so that the walls
converge towards the top, and the whole was completed by a
single block covering the remaining space. Mr. Hardy has been
informed, that near the summit of the hill there was formerly a
hollow surrounded by stones, and called the “ Pech’s grave ;”
these however have disappeared. The steep banks of the river
were covered with Vacciniwn myrtillus, and the berries, which
were ripe and vastly abundant, furnished an agreeable refresh-
ment. Wild fruits generally have this year been plentiful.
Noops, the fruit of Rubus Chamemorus, have never been more
abundant on the Cheviot. Opposite to the Retreat we noticed
Polypodium phegopteris, Listera cordata, and Lycopodium cla-
vatum.

After dinner, a paper was read from Dr. Baird, entitled “ Some
Remarks upon Entozoa or Intestinal Worms, with a list of the
species at present known as occurring within the limits of the
Club.” The evils which they inflict on mammalia and other
animals, and which are pointed out im this able paper, especially
the ravages they commit among sheep and cattle, render the
subject practically not unimportant. An observation of Dr.
Wolfring on the distribution of one group of them, the Hel-
minthes, shows that these humble creatures even have a con-
nexion with one of the great practical questions of the day, the
sanitary condition of a district ; for he found, that in the district

Annwersary Address. 139

of Thalmessingen, where the water was hard and contained many
earthy ingredients, the soil very damp, and the food of the in-
habitants mostly meal, salted and smoked beef, and much pork,
the disease of worms was very common, Tenia solium and
Ascaris lumbricoides bemg particularly abundant ; but a league
beyond this district, where these conditions were absent, the
disease is very rare*. Communications were read from Dr.
Wilson, in which evidence was given, that full-grown herring
had been found in the stomach of Norway salmon. The Presi-
dent read a short notice of Celtic sepulchral remains in the
neighbourhood of Wooler.

Mr. Stevenson favoured the Meeting with an account of some
interesting meteorological observations he had made in Berwick-
shire. The connexion between the periodic maxima and minima
of the solar spots has been known for some time ; but Mr. Ste-
venson has succeeded in proving that the auroral displays also

_have their maxima and minima corresponding with those of the
solar spots—a conclusion he was led to expect from the well-
established connexion between magnetic disturbances and the
appearance of the aurora. This result, and the records proving
it, were communicated to Professor Faraday, who induced the
author to publish them in the Philosophical Magazine.

Mr. Jerdan exhibited some specimens of white clover, Trifo-
lium repens, with greatly elongated peduncles and luxuriant caly-
cine leaves, found at Reston Station ; and it may here be noticed,
that Mr. Selby took, at Twizell, in the early part of August, a
beautiful specimen of Hipparchus papilionarius, a moth rare in
the district.

In the Transactions of our Club are several sketches of scenery,
some notices of legends, pastimes, customs, and ruins, belonging
to the olden time, and many notes and descriptions of plants and
animals. At a fitting time, Dr. Johnston, the Founder and
Father of the Club, has, in one department, combined these
scattered materials, and, along with his more extended and varied
observations, presented them to the world in a volume of great
value and interest,—‘ The Natural History of the Eastern Bor-
ders.’ This publication may be regarded as an important part
of our own Proceedings, for the author professedly records the
discoveries of the Club, describes the Meetings, and the scenes

* Siebold on Helminthology, in the Ray Society’s Reports, 1845.

140 Anniversary Address.

which it has visited, and gives expression to the genial spirit by
which it has been actuated. In this volume the district is gra-
phically described ; all the plants are registered, from the hum-
blest Conferva, that appears as green slime on the waters, to the
noblest tree adorning the forest ; but the peculiarity of the work,
by which indeed it stands pre-eminent over every other flora, is
that truths are here seen in their connexions, and made mutually
to illustrate each other; for whatever of interest is associated
with plants—whether beautiful scenery or descriptive poetry—
whether legends or historical events—the folk-lore of a district
or the memories of the wise and good—is brought to make these
plants delightful instructors of the mind and heart. The work
belongs to a class which is unfortunately too small, wherem the
resources of a powerful imagination and a cultivated taste lend
a charm to exact science. Pervaded throughout by an ardent
love of nature, and contaiming many lovely pictures of natural
scenery and of pastoral life, and written in a style beautiful and
eloquent, it will spire others with a love of nature, and send
them forth from confined towns and dissipating pursuits to the
brae side, the wooded glen, the hill top, and the sea-shore, to
observe her varied productions, and “ hold communion with her
visible forms.” And this will be productive of an important
moral and social benefit; for, as the author well says,—“ The
studies that woo the spirit away from grossness, that keep the
mind in life and action, and, furnished with varied and ever-
germinating matter of thought and illustration, are useful to all ;
and, as ours contemplate only the beautiful and the perfect, yet
are full of emblematic teachings and moralities, they must ame-
horate the man,—at once adorning and relieving the toils and
vexations of a busy life, and refining and exalting the enjoyments
of a social one.”

This is not an unfitting time for the Club to look inquiringly
into the future. I demur to the notion, that because so much
has been reaped during the past, nought save scanty glean-
ings remain for future cultivators. Some departments yet pre-
sent broad and rich fields of labour. Many of our ancient
dwellings, sepulchres, hill fortlets, and camps, which are scat-
tered pretty numerously over the wilder and secluded parts of
the district, yet remain unnoticed and undescribed ; the more
interesting of our venerable churches, with their quaint memo-

Annwersary Address. 141

rials, might receive more than a passing notice; the geology of the
district still requires to be treated with the aid of organic remains ;
and in palzontology, so essential to complete the natural history
of the district, the ground is to a great extent unbroken. One
attempt has this year been made to supply a want; a fossil flora
appears for the first time in ‘ The Natural History of the Eastern
Borders.’ Drawn up from rather scanty materials, the list is
necessarily imperfect ; and from what I have this season noticed
in Berwickshire, I feel sure that it will yield other interesting
and new floral forms. As more abundant materials have been
collected for the fossil fauna, it may be hoped that the forms in
this division will ere long be more successfully chronicled and
described.

But even if the whole field had been explored, there would
still remain verge enough for every earnest-minded observer.
Each generation has its own points of sight from which it views
objects, and its own method of grouping them; and hence con-
‘tinued observation leads to new truths, even in a frequently
trodden path. Nature is inexhaustible, and we can never reach
to the uttermost “height of her great argument ;” but the
labours of the past place us on a vantage-ground, since the more
we know of the works and wonders of nature, the better able
will we be to pierce her deeper mysteries. “The light,” says
the immortal Milton, “ which we have gained, was given us, not
to be ever staring on, but by it to discover onward things more
remote from our knowledge.”

B.N.C.—VOL. III. N°, IV. M

142

Some Remarks upon Entozoa or Intestinal Worms, with a Last
of the Species at present known as occurring within the Bounds
of the Club. By Wii11aMm Bairp, M.D. &c.

Tue natural history of the Entozoa, or Intestinal Worms, is a
subject which has never yet, I believe, engaged the attention of
the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club. With very few is it a popu-
lar study ; to many indeed it is a repulsive one; yet, when fairly
entered upon, how interesting it becomes! Seldom have natu-
ralists in this country paid any attention to these remarkable
creatures ; and if, in the remarks which I now propose to make,
I shall induce any of the Members of the Club—a Club com-
posed essentially for the most part of practical out-of-door natu-
ralists—to devote some part of their time to the elucidation of
their history, I consider that I may have done science a service.

I. With regard to their Origin.

Intestinal worms are found in all animals, from man, the
monarch of creation, to the caterpillar which crawls under his
feet ; from the lion, which roams the forest in awful majesty, to
the fly which buzzes about his ears. In the human subject
they are found in all ranks, in the palace and the cottage, mm
both sexes alike, in all ages, and not unfrequently even im the
new-born infant. They infest almost every organ of the body
of the animals in which they occur. They are found in the
brain, the eye, and the different cavities in the head; in the
windpipe, in the lungs and blood-vessels of the chest; im the
liver and other organs of the abdomen; in the kidneys, urimary
bladder, and under the skin; the only organ, I believe, in which
they have not been found being that puzzling organ, the spleen*.
We can readily understand how they may be found in the
stomach and intestinal canal; but it is very difficult to compre-
hend how they occur in the brain, the humours of the eye, or in
the blood-vessels. If the Harveian dictum, “ Omne vivum ex
ovo,” be correct, how came their eggs to obtain entrance to such
places as these? The difficulty of accounting for such facts has
led to various conjectures amongst philosophers, and has given
origin to several theories of generation. The ancients believed
in spontaneous, or, as it is sometimes called, equivocal genera-
tion. They imagined that new living bodies sprang from the
putrefaction of old bodies; that while organic substances by the
action of the chemical forces were undergoing decomposition,

* One instance only has been recorded, and that the spleen of a species
of toad.

Dr. Baird on ‘Entozoa, or Intestinal Worms. 143

the like forces effected the reunion of their elements, and brought
about the formation of the simplest kinds of animal organism,
and these by aggregation constituted the more complex struc-
tures. The modern advocates of spontaneous generation, such
as Rudolphi, Bremser, &c., very properly treat this notion as
absurd; but they contend, nevertheless, that the intestinal worms
must either enter the bodies of the animals in which they live
from without, or that they must spring spontaneously into exist-
ence. As Entozoa are found in the unborn foetus of many ani-
mals, they cannot, they say, in these cases be produced from
without. As they only live in living bodies, dwelling according
to the different species in the deepest and most impenetrable
parts of the body, they cannot be introduced into those parts
from without. When an insect of any kind introduces itself into
any part of a body, it is always attended with pain. Entozoa,
on the contrary, frequently live in the bodies of animals for a
length of time, without letting their existence be known. Many
animals have worms peculiar to themselves. If the worms, or
their ova, come from without, each animal might possess any
‘one or all of the species. Intestinal worms have a peculiar struc-
ture, which we do not see in any other class of animals ; they only
live upon an aliment already elaborated or assimilated in living
bodies. Solitary hydatids exist, these advocates continue, in the
brain for instance, which have no sexual organs; how then can
we suppose them to have the faculty of propagating themselves,
or transporting themselves from one body to another? They
conclude by asking,—Is it impossible that mucous particles
existing in the humours of the animal body might approach each
other, unite, and arrange themselves in the form of worms by
the vital powers of the organs, in places favourable for their pro-
duction, and finish by becoming animated living beings? Ana-
logy, however, is strongly opposed to this doctrine. From the
highest orders of the Mammalia down to the minutest insects
which our microscopes enable us to investigate, all nature pro-
tests against it; and our knowledge with regard to the origin of
those animals we have been able to examine affords a strong pre-
sumptive proof, that if we could, by more perfect means of ex-
amination, follow up their history, we should find that these
creatures, obscure though they be, are produced and multiplied
like all other animated beings.

Needham, in the early part of the last century, advocated another
theory. In studying the natural history of the Infusory Animal-
cula, seeing these creatures produced in myriads im situations
where he did not suppose ova could exist, he conjectured that
their appearance could only be accounted for by vegetation, or by
what he called a “ vegetative force.” This he conceived to exist

M2

144 Dr. Baird on Entozoa, or Intestinal Worms.

“in every microscopical point of matter, and every visible fila-
ment of which the whole animal or vegetable texture consists.”
“T suppose,” he says, “all semen, of any kind, to be an exalted
portion of animal or vegetable matter, secreted from the aliment
of every generating subject when it is adult, and no further de-
mand is made for its increase and growth; this I suppose to be
endowed with a proportionable vegetative force ; to be various in
various circumstances, and heterogeneous in different subjects ;
but to be uniform in its productions when it falls into a matrix,
where it finds matter to assimilate of a quality or quantity sufli-
cient to form that specific bemg*.” This vegetative force he
applied to account for the origin of Entozoa also.

At the time Needham was advocating his peculiar views upon
this subject, Buffon was expounding a different theory. Animals
and plants he conceived to be formed by a particular combina-
tion of organic molecules. ‘These he supposed, by coalition,
to constitute the prima stamina of all animal and vegetable
bodies, simple, uniform, common to all, and consequently to be
found in a certain quantity in every portion of food, aliment, or
nutritive juice; and from thence to be digested, and when the
subject became adult, secreted and strained, for the formation of
the seed of every plant or animal; and in this fluid or substance
to be consequently found in much abundance. He further sup-
posed these original parts to be moving when disengaged, living
in appearance, and gifted with certain organs, but extremely
simple in their composition }.”

These theories have long been exploded. But though the
labours of Harvey, Spallanzani, and many other naturalists who
have succeeded them, prove incontestably that all animals, as far
as our observations can as yet carry us, have their origin from
ova or pre-existing germs, it must be confessed, that the intro-
duction of ova into such situations as those m which we discover
many Entozoa is exceedingly difficult to be accounted for. It
would appear, from some of the experiments of Spallanzani upon
Infusory Animalcules, that it is most probable that the ova or
germs of some of these curious little creatures can sustain a great
degree of heat, even boiling, for a certain space of time. If this
be correct in regard to Infusoria, it may be equally true with
Entozoa; and thus it. is possible their eggs may be conveyed
alive into our stomachs with our food. Steenstrup has some
curious observations upon the method in which intestinal worms
can insinuate themselves from without into the internal organs
of the animals in which they are parasitic. In his experiments

* Needham, Observations upon the Generation, &c. of Animal and
Vegetable Substances, p. 49. ;
+ Needham, J. c. p. 20. -

Dr. Baird on Entozoa, or Intestinal Worms. 145

to prove his theory of the alternation of generations, he shows
that several of the species of Distoma, or fluke, which we find in
the liver of some of our freshwater mollusks, are, previous to thei:
taking possession of their habitat, in the body of the snail, free
and unattached, enjoying the power of locomotion in the water
in which the mollusks themselves are found. In this stage of
growth they have been described as a distinct genus, under the
name of Cercaria. These Cercarie he has often seen attach
themselves to the body of the snail, get rid of the tail which in
their free state they possessed, and after a short time make for
themselves a circular cavity in the mucous integument of their
host. The mucus gradually hardens, and forms a tough, nearly
transparent case around them, in which they he concealed for
months in the state of a pupa. Emerging from this pupa state,
they penetrate deeper into the skin, and following the course of
the aqueous canals of the snail, they at length enter the organs
in which as true Distomata they are found. In the same manner
this ingenious naturalist accounts for several of the Entozoa oc-
_ curring in the eyes of fishes. At first swimming free and unat-
tached in the water, they after a time fasten themselves to the
cornea, or in the immediate neighbourhood of the eye, of the
fishes they are destined to inhabit. Afterwards assuming the
pupa state, they make for themselves a nidus under the skin, or
under the cornea, where they remain for a certain period of time,
till, emerging from their pupa state, they are able to penetrate
into the substance of the eye itself. We thus see that the origin
of the Entozoa is a subject abounding in extraordinary interest ;
and I hope some of the Members of the Club, who may have
opportunities of observation, may be induced to devote some of
their time and attention to it.

II. The Evils they inflict upon Mammalia and other Animals.

I will not enter at present upon the subject of the mischiefs
which man suffers from the presence of the Tzenia, or tape-worm,
the Ascarides, &c., in the intestinal canal ; the encysted Entozoa,
such as the Echinococcus, in the liver, &c., these being subjects
for the investigation more particularly of the physician ; but shall
confine my remarks to a few instances of the extensive ravages
they sometimes commit upon the lower animals.

The celebrated Camper gives a remarkable instance of the
fatal effects produced in young cattle by the introduction of a
species of Strongylus into the trachea and lungs. An epizootic,
which destroyed many thousands of cattle, appeared in Holland
in 1768, and threatened the destruction of the whole stock of
horned cattle in the country. Camper’s services were called into
requisition, by his countrymen, and inoculation, which had been

146 Dr. Baird on Entozoa, or Intestinal Worms.

tried with variable success in England and other countries, was
used by him extensively. Still the disease progressed, inocu-
lation itself lalling nearly half the cattle in which it was prac-
tised, till at last, through the practical sagacity of a Dutch
farmer of the name of Rinders, he discovered that calves born of
a mother which had passed successfully through the disease
might be inoculated with perfect safety. After conquering to
a great degree the prejudices of his countrymen upon this sub-
ject, and seeing his experiments succeed to a pleasing extent, all
at once an unfortunate and unforeseen accident occurred to
throw the greatest discouragement upon his labours. Amongst
the young cattle which had been successfully moculated and
which were recovering from the disease, a new malady sprung
up, which carried off thousands. The symptoms of this fatal
distemper were, a severe cough and violent sneezing. The ani-
mals ceased to chew the cud, and they wasted away till death
terminated their suffermgs. Scarcely one attacked survived.
The farmers attributed the disease to the effects of the inocu-
lation ; and this process was obliged to be temporarily suspended.
Camper at last succeeded in discovering the cause of this fearful
malady. He opened a calf which had died of the complaint.
No disease could be discovered in the organs of the chest or ab-
domen; all appeared healthy. At last he removed the tongue
and windpipe; and scarcely had he opened the glottis, when he
perceived several thousands of worms, which filled the trachea
down to its termination in the substance of the lungs. Opening
a second, he discovered a cluster of several thousands, which ob-
structed the trachea, and had produced suffocation. This disease
is well known in England by the name of “hoose” or “ husk,”
and at times is very fatal. The first notice I have seen of it is
in the ‘Philosophical Transactions’ for 1755, by Dr. Frank
Nicholls. It attacks bullocks, he says, when young, very rarely
appearing in those of more than a year old. The symptoms he
describes are very nearly the same as those mentioned above ;
and the windpipe and its branches, in those cattle that were
opened after death, were found loaded with small taper worms
of about 2 inches long. He was assured by the farmers, that no
method of cure for the distemper was known. More recently,
Mr. Youatt, in the ‘ Veterinarian’ for 1833, vol. vi. p. 177, bears
like testimony to the fatality of the disease, which, by his account
also, is confined to young cattle. The cough, he says, is unusually
distressing ; the intermissions are short, and the paroxysms are
violent m degree. The beast gets off his food; he becomes
hide-bound ; his belly appears tucked up, his coat starmg, and
his flanks heaving. “It is heart-breakmg,” he adds, “to hear
him cough.” “The farmer knows too well the uniform fatality

Dr. Baird on Entozoa, or Intestinal Worms. 147

of the disease.” When the trachea is opened, the bronchial
passages are found choked up with worms, and in general the
mucous membrane of the trachea and bronchi presents traces of
vivid inflammation. Few or none attacked ever recover; and
the only way to prevent the fatality amongst cattle which show
the disease is to remove them from the pastures in which they
are feeding at the time, and supply them with dry hay. The
Entozoon which produces all this mischief is the Strongylus mi-
crurus, the Strongylus vitulorum of Rudolphi.

Another species of worm, belonging to the same order as the
last, the Nematoidea, infests the trachea of our domestic poultry,
producing the disease called the “gapes.” For the first account of
this worm we are indebted to Dr. Wiesenthal of Baltimore, and
afterwards to Colonel Montagu, who has published a good account
of it in the ‘ Wernerian Transactions,’ vol. i. p. 194. Young
poultry are the chief subjects of this affection, which shows itself
by the little creatures opening their mouths, and extending their
necks as if gasping for breath, sneezing, and frequently attempt-
_ing to swallow. They languish, grow dispirited, droop, and die.
Very few recover if not attended to. Montagu, upon opening the
windpipes of several of those that died, found the trachea highly
inflamed, and no less than twenty worms firmly adhering to its
surface, so completely choking up the passage that the chick had
evidently died of suffocation. Young turkeys, pheasants, and
even partridges, suffer from the same malady*.

An exceedingly fatal disease is produced in sheep by an Ento-
zoon, called the Canurus cerebralis, which has its abode encysted
in the brain. It is very prevalent and fatal in some seasons, in cold
and backward springs, and when the sheep are feeding in wet
and moorish districts. It is particularly frequent and fatal m many
parts of France, and it is calculated, Mr. Youatt says, that at least
900,000 sheep annually die in that country of this disease. In
this country it is known by the name of the “ sturdy,” and in
England it is sometimes called the “gig,” the “giggles,” and the
“turnsick.” In France it is known by the name of “ tournis.”
The malady appears during the first year of the animal’s life,
generally when it is about or under six months old. The sym-
ptoms and progress of this disease are so well described by
Mr. Youatt in the ‘ Veterinarian’ for 1884, vol. vii. pp. 519-
531, that I will transcribe the whole passage :—“The sheep
cease to gambol with their companions; they are dull; they

* Montagu mentions that he cured this disease amongst his own poultry
by mixing their food (barley or oatmeal) with urme instead of water, and
feedimg the chicks with it three or four times a day. Under this treatment,
he says, out of a large brood, not one suffermg from the disease died. All
recovered. The worm is the Syngamus trachealis.

148 Dr. Baird on Entozoa, or Intestinal Worms.

scarcely graze; they ruminate in the most languid and listless
manner; they separate themselves from the rest of the flock ;
they walk in a peculiar, staggering, vacillatory manner; they
lose themselves ; or, seeking out some ditch or brook, they stand
poring over the ruffled or flowing water. They stand there until
they appear to be overcome with vertigo, and often tumble in.
In the midst of their grazing, they suddenly stop, look around
frightened, and start away and gallop over the field. They be-
gin to lose flesh, and the countenance is haggard and the eye
is wandering and of a curious bluish colour.” As the disease
proceeds, “the animals begin to carry their head on one side,
and always on the same side*. It is with difficulty that they can
straighten the neck in order to graze, and then there is a pecu-
har undecided motion in the act of grazing. ‘Their fits of wan-
dering become more frequent; they are oftener frightened
without any apparent cause; they take increasing pleasure in
poring over the rippling brook ; there is something in the play-
ing of the light on the water, or in the murmuring sound, which
has a lullmg influence over them, and they often forget them-
selves, and topple in and are drowned. By and by they com-
mence, and even while grazing, a rotatory motion, and always in
one way, and with the head turned on the same side. Then they
almost cease to eat or ruminate, partly because the disease, from
its debilitating character, destroys the appetite altogether, and
more perhaps because they are rapidly becoming blind. They
begin to be inattentive to surrounding objects, and move among
them as if they were unconscious of their existence. The habit
of turning round increases; they will contmue to form their
concentric circles for hours together without stoppmg or until
they fall, and they will rise again only to commence the same
round; at length they die emaciated or exhausted; or death is
somewhat hastened by their bemg unable to extricate themselves
from the brook or the ditch.” Various attempts have been made
to cure this disease, but none appear to be decidedly successful ;
and Mr. Youatt, after enumerating them all, concludes thus :-—
“In the present state of our knowledge and practice, I am
afraid, that regarding the interest of your employers, you should
advise them, when the turnsick begins to appear among the

* «Tf the head should sometimes be held on one side and sometimes on
the other, it indicates that there is a hydatid in each lobe of the brain. In
a very few cases the sheep will march straight forward, with his head de-
pressed, running against everything in his way, and continually falling.
The hydatid will then be found to be attached to the corpus callosum, and
to occupy the middle scissure of the brain. In a few cases the muzzle will
be elevated and the head thrown back, and still the sheep will pursue his
straightforward course ; the hydatid will then be found on the cerebellum,
or occupying the fourth ventricle.” — Youatt, 1. c.

Dr. Baird on Entozoa, or Intestinal Worms. 149

lambs, to fatten them as quickly as they can, and to slaughter
those that may become affected the moment the disease is ascer-
tamed. This is a most lame and impotent conclusion. I am
sorry for it; but truth must be our guide.” These remarks
upon diseases of cattle and sheep I hope will not be considered
out of place here, for it has been calculated that the worth of
our cattle and sheep in this country is little, if anything, below
120 millions sterling !

Horses are not liable to such fatal affections from Entozoa as
sheep and cattle; nevertheless they suffer to a considerable ex-
tent from them occasionally. The Ascarides in their intestines
are very troublesome. A horse pestered with many of these
worms, though he will go through his business tolerably well,
and sometimes feed heartily, yet always looks lean and jaded ;
his hair stares as if he were sickly, and nothing that he eats
makes him thrive. He shows symptoms of pain in his bowels
by often striking his hind feet against his belly. These kinds
of worms are seldom dangerous; but horses are sometimes at-
tacked (and this has chiefly been observed in India) by a small
thread-like worm, which gets into the aqueous humour of the
eye, and if not attended to and extracted in time, invariably
produces blindness. This worm is the Filaria ocult.

The last disease I shall mention is one which attacks pigs, and
causes much loss to those who keep many of these animals. It
is produced by an Entozoon called the Cysticercus cellulose, and
in this country is known by the name of “ measles.” In France,
where it is equally common, it is called “la ladrerie.” It is a
disgusting disease, and manifests itself at various periods of the
animal’s life, more particularly when it is adult. It makes-its
appearance in the form of white granulations or vesicles of an
ovoid shape, which are disseminated through the different parts
of the fatty tissue, on the surface, in the interstices of the
muscles, under the coats of the viscera, at the lateral and inferior
portions of the tongue, &c. It is in the muscles that the disease,
for the most part, makes its first appearance, and it is accompa-
nied by general weakness. If you take hold of the pig by one
of its legs, the animal makes no attempt to withdraw it; it
utters a dull cry; the bristles are easily torn from the skin, and
sometimes the bulb is full of blood. As the disease progresses,
the cellular tissue ulcerates ; as the vesicles increase in number,
the pig becomes sullen, careless of everything around it, indif-
ferent even to blows; it walks slowly and carelessly ; the eyes
are dull and heavy; the mner surface of the mouth becomes of
a pale colour, often spotted with violet-coloured spots; the
respiration is slow; great weakness supervenes ; 1t cannot keep

150 Dr. Baird on Entozoa, or Intestinal Worms.

up upon its hind legs; the hinder quarters appear paralysed ;
the body exhales a bad odour; tumours show themselves in the
belly ; the extremities swell, and death at last ensues. The flesh
of pigs labourmg under this disease becomes soft and insipid ;
the fat is white, and loses its consistence; it takes salt with dif-
ficulty, and soon spoils; and it has been said that human beings,
after eating measled pork, are affected by sickness and diarrheea.
As this kind of pork is prohibited being sold, of course the value
of a pig-keeper’s stock becomes seriously injured. In France,
during the reign of Louis XIV., inspectors were appointed to
examine the tongues of all the pigs brought to market, in order
to detect any labouring under the disease, and prohibit it bemg
sold. The disease appears to be invariably fatal; and the only
thing to be done is to kill the animal as soon as the slightest
symptoms make their appearance, and before the flesh of the
creature becomes tainted.

Such are a few of the diseases and injuries produced in the
lower animals by the presence of Entozoa. Many of them, such
as those I have mentioned above, prove almost invariably fatal ;
and it therefore becomes an object of great interest and vast
importance to the farmer and grazier to find out the means of
remedying these evils. It is with this object that I now en-
deavour to call the attention of the Members of the Berwickshire
Naturalists’ Club to the history of these curious creatures.

The researches of Steenstrup, which I have mentioned above,
prove that in the cases of two or three species, they can and do
enter the bodies of the animals in which they are parasitic from
without. Since these observations were made public, M. Siebold
of Berlin has published some extraordinary circumstances in the
history of these obscure animals, which, if borne out by subse-
quent observations, will open a new field for investigation. The
Cysticercus fasciolarts, for instance, an encysted Entozoon, which
inhabits the liver of the common mouse, he has found to be the
young of a Tenia which had become vesicular, and did not as
yet possess sexual organs. This encysted worm, when conveyed
into the stomach of the cat, becomes in a short time fully deve-
loped, and takes on the form of the Tenia crassicollis, the tape-
worm of the domestic cat. The Cysticercus pisiformis, another
species of the same genus of encysted intestinal worms, which is
found in the peritoneum of the hare and rabbit, becomes, when
conveyed into the stomach of the dog, the Tenia serrata, or
tape-worm of the dog. The changes which take place in this
latter species have been followed up by Siebold ; the Cysticercus,
while alive, having been conveyed by him into the stomachs of
young pups in milk, the animals killed at different periods of

Dr. Baird on Entozoa, or Intestinal Worms. 151

time after having swallowed them, and the progress of the En-
tozoon traced to maturity. The Cenurus cerebralis, too, which
I have particularly mentioned as being the cause of the “ sturdy”
in the sheep, has been asserted by this acute observer to be like-
wise the young of a species of Tzenia, or tape-worm ; though his
observations upon that head have not been sufficiently matured
to determine the species into which it is transformed. Should
these observations be proved to be correct, it is impossible to
say of what immense value this knowledge may become ; and
M. Siebold believes that he will soon be able to poimt out to
farmers the means of preventing the development of these para-
sites, the presence of which in sheep, &c., is known to exercise
such a fatal mfluence*.

Annexed is a list of the Entozoa as yet known to me to have
been noticed occurring within the limits of the Club. In giving
the name of the species, I have referred to the lately published
Catalogue of the Entozoa in the collection of the British Mu-
seum, for its synonyms, and have in addition given a reference
to where it is described by Rudolphi or Dujardin. With one
exception, all the species here mentioned have been communi-
cated by our Secretary, Dr. Johnston :—

* M. Siebold believes that the ova of the Tzeniz of certain carnivorous
animals are occasionally introduced into the bodies of sheep and other
Ruminantia; that in them they assume a vesicular form, instead of be-
coming developed into true tape-worms; but that this change takes place
as soon as the proper habitation is secured for them. The possibility of
the ova of the Tzenize of animals of one order, as for instance the dog, be-
coming conveyed into the stomach of those of a different order, such as
the sheep, &c., derives confirmation from a fact which has come under my
own observation, viz. that it is common for dogs to discharge from their
bowels separate detached joints or articulations of tape-worms in great
quantities. Some months ago, a considerable number of these detached
articulations, which were found adhering to the hinder parts of a favourite
pet dog, were forwarded to the British Museum ; and it 1s a curious Cir-
cumstance, that since this paper was written, another instance of the same
thing has occurred to one of the members of this Club. Several detached
joints of a Tznia have very recently been forwarded to me by our Secretary
for examination, with the information that they came from a pet dog be-
longing to Mr. Clark of Belford Hall. The species of tape-worm is the
Tenia cucumerina. Now it is very possible that the articulations con-
taining (as we know they do at times contain) mature ova, may be ejected
by the dog on the moist grass in the fields, and from thence conveyed
along with the food into the stomach of the sheep grazing in the meadow ;
there to take on an encysted form, and assume the character which suits
their new habitation.

152 Dr. Baird on Entozoa, or Intestinal Worms.

List of Species of Entozoa, at present known as occurring within
the limits of the Club. |

Order I. NeMAtToIDEA. Family Fruarip2.

1. ? Filaria marina, Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 7. no. 8.
Filaria piscium, Rudolphi, Hist. Nat. Entoz. ii. pt.1.74. no. 29.
Hab. Liver of the common cod, Morrhua Callarias, from Ber-

wick Bay. From the collection of Dr. Johnston.

Family AscaRIp&.

2. Oxyuris curvula, Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 15. no. 3.
Oxyuris curvula, Rudolph, Hist. Nat. Entoz. ui. pt. 1. 100.
t. 1. f. 3-6.
Hab. Intestines of the horse, Equus Caballus, Berwickshire.
From the collection of Dr. Johnston.

3. Ascaris lumbricoides, Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 16. no. 1.
Ascaris lumbricoides, Linnaeus. Rudolphi, Hist. Nat. Entoz.
un. pt. 1. 124.
Hab. Intestines of man. From the collection of Dr. Johnston.

4, Ascaris mystax, Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 18. no. 5.
Ascaris mystax, Rudolph, Hist. Nat. Entoz. u. pt. 1. 140.
Hab. Intestines of the cat, Felis Catus domesticus. From the
collection of Dr. Johnston.

5. Ascaris megalocephala, Cloquet. Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 19.
no. 10, & 109.
Ascaris lumbricoides (part.), Rudolphi, Hist. Nat. Entoz. ii.
pt. 1. 124.
Hab. Large intestines of the horse, Equus Caballus, Berwick-
shire. From the collection of Dr. Johnston.

6. Ascaris spiculigera, Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 25. no. 29.
Ascaris spiculigera, Rudolph, Hist. Nat. Entoz. ui. pt. 1. 168.
Hab. CGAsophagus of the common cormorant, Graculus Carbo.

From the collection of Dr. Johnston.

Family Gorp1mpZ.

7. Mermis nigrescens, Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 34. no. 1.
Mermis nigrescens, Dujardin, Hist. Nat. Helminth. 295.
Hab. Abdomen of a species of Carabus, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

From the collection of Dr. Johnston.

8. Gordius Tolosanus, Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 36. no. 3.
Gordius Tolosanus, Dujardin, Hist. Nat. Helminth. 298.
Hab. Ponds and ditches in Berwickshire, &c. From the col-

lection of Dr. Johnston.

Dr. Baird on Entozoa, or Intestinal Worms. 153

9. Gordius violaceus, Baird, Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 36. no. 5.
Hab. Abdomen of Carabus violaceus, from Berwickshire. From
the collection of Dr. Johnston.

Order II. Custorpea. Family RayncHoporuRip2/.

10. Tetrarhynchus grossus, Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 68. no. 2.
_ Tetrarhynchus grossus, Rudolphi, Synopsis Entoz. 129 &
448. no. 2.
Hab. Abdomen of the salmon, Salmo Salar, from the Tweed.
From the collection of Dr. Johnston.

Family Tan1ipZ.

11. Teenia solium, Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 70. no. 1.
Tenia solium, Linn. Rudolphi, Hist. Nat. Entoz. 11. pt. 2.
160.
Hab. Intestines of man. From the collection of Dr. Johnston.

12. Teenia cucumerina, Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 76. no. 15.
Tenia cucumerina, Bloch. Rudolphi, Hist. Nat. Entoz. ii.
pt. 2. 100.
Hab. Intestines of pet dog, Canis familiaris, from Belford
Hall. From Rey. J. D. Clark, of Belford Hall.

13. Teenia elliptica, Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 76. no. 16.
Tenia elliptica, Rudolph, Hist. Nat. Entoz. u. pt. 2. 195.
Hab. Intestines of common cat, Felis Catus domesticus, Ber-

wick. From the collection of Dr. Johnston.

14, Tenia calva, Baird, Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 83. no. 37.
Hab. Intestines of the common grouse, Lagopus scoticus.
From the collection of Dr. Johnston.

This species is described for the first time in the Cata-
logue of Entozoa in the British Museum. The grouse
are known to be troubled with worms; and it might in-
terest sportsmen to examine these birds when they appear,
as they do in some seasons, sickly, and die in numbers.

15. Bothriocephalus proboscideus, Cat. Brit. Mus. Entozoa, 88.
no. 4.
Bothriocephalus proboscideus, Rudolphi, Hist. Nat. Entoz.
i pt. 2.39.
Hab. Pyloric appendage of the common salmon, Salmo Salar,
from the Tweed. From the collection of Dr. Johnston.

154:

On Celtic Remains found in the neighbourhood of We ooler.
By Georce Tarts, F.G.S.

Two cist-vaens, recently opened at Humbleton Buildings, near
to Wooler, are interesting, because distinctly showing the mode
in which the body, when buried entire, was placed in the rude
Celtic sepulchre. These cists were found 6 feet below the sum-
mit of a rounded hill; they were formed of slabs of a hard sand-
stone belonging to the district, and were 5 feet long by 4 feet
broad. In each cist was an entire skeleton of a human being ;
the head of the one lying towards the west, and that of the other
towards the north. Both were bent up, the knees resting on the
stomach, and the arms placed nearly around the neck. When
first uncovered, the skeletons were perfect, with all the teeth
entire; but soon after exposure, they crumbled into dust.
Imagination need not be taxed for mysterious reasons to account
for the doubling up of these skeletons, since this would, in most
cases, be necessary when the body was interred entire, as the
graves, formed only of single slabs set on edge, were usually
shorter than the body of a mature human being.

In this neighbourhood several other Celtic remains have, at
different times, been discovered. A cist was exposed by the
plough in a field near Humbleton Burn im 1811; it contained
an urn, and also the skeleton of a male, in a high state of pre-
servation, which must have been fully 7 feet in height. About
fifty years ago, another rude cist-vaen was found beneath a large
tumulus or barrow in a field called “ Stoney-vage,” near to
Humbleton House. This tumulus was formed of earth, clay, and
blocks of stone, and rose to the height of 15 feet, with a circum-
ference of about 150 feet. A large tulip-shaped urn, 16 inches
in height, stood in the cist; and within it were found twenty-
five beads of polished cannel coal. Thirteen of them were flat
and quadrangular, varying he an inch to 14 inch across,
and having a thickness of ;)th of an ich; one of the largest
was studded over with gold points, arranged in zigzag order ;
the other twelve were cylindrical, being 14 inch long and + of
an inch in diameter. All these beads were perforated; and
when strung, the flat alternating with the cylindrical, they had
been worn around the neck. A similar ornament was seen by
Captain Carpenter, which was obtained from a barrow in Crook-
ham Dean. The flat beads in this case were wedge-shaped, and
the others round, and each one had two perforations. They
were found strung on copper wire, and hanging around the neck
of an urn.

Golden torques, beads of glass and enamel, and articles made

Miss E. Bell’s Letter to the Secretary. 155

of bone were used as personal ornaments by our Celtic prede-
cessors ; these, however, would, owing to the value of the mate-
rial or the difficulty of the manufacture, be confined to chieftains
and persons of wealth. The more common ornament, especially
for females, appears to have been made of jet and cannel coal,
which could easily be obtained, and with little difficulty could be
cut and tastefully arranged. I have seen several necklaces of
these materials in the extensive and interestmg museum of
Mr. Bateman, near Bakewell; one of them was found around
the neck of a female skeleton in a barrow on Middleton Moor
in Derbyshire, and was formed of 417 beads, which were similar

in shape and arrangement to those discovered in Northumber-
land.

A Letter from Miss HK. Brut to the Secretary.

Spring Hill, August 22, 1853.
My pear Sizr,—On the 15th of this month, about seven in the
evening, while Miss Hunter and I were walking in a lane be-
tween Loughton and Saintfoin, to the north-west of the village
of Birgham, we saw two men on a rising part of the road coming
towards us from the west. As these men came down the slope,
we both at the same time observed that they were accompanied
by two gray shadowy forms, exactly resembling themselves.
Each shadow was placed to the north of the man it resembled,
so that all four at times seemed almost abreast ; though occa-
sionally the shadows fell partially behind, so that their heads
and shoulders only were then perceptible over the left shoulders
of the men. i

When they came nearer, so plainly were these two figures to
be seen, that I began to fancy they were not shadows; but
presently after all doubt vanished on perceiving them lengthen
out till they became much taller than the two men, and so trans-
parent that we could distinctly see objects through them. At
last, when perhaps about fifty feet from us, these tall pale gray
phantom-like figures entirely ceased to be visible.

At the time this occurred the evening was calm and gray,
without a gleam of sunshine, and the air seemed perfectly free
of all vapour: indeed we had been observing that the Cheviot
Hills were particularly clear and beautiful; yet there might
have been vapour in the air without our perceiving it, as there
was some low ground at no great distance from us, which, though
now under cultivation, was formerly marshy.

Miss Hunter and I are aware that such phantom-like appear-
ances are not unusual in mountainous countries; but never

156 =Mr. W. Stevenson on a Cist found at Broomhill.

having either seen or heard of anything similar in this flat part
of Berwickshire, we should very much like to have it explained
to us. In fact, we know far too little of optics ourselves, to
have a chance of accounting for what I have described, unless
you have the kindness to enlighten us.
Believe me, dear Sir,
With sincere regard,
Yours truly,
EuizaBetH Bex.

On a Cist found at Broomhill, near Dunse.
By Witi1am Stevenson.

In January last, in ploughing a field on the farm of Broomhill,
little more than a mile east from Dunse, Mr. Adam Black,
steward on that farm, discovered a good example of the ancient
“cist,” or stone coffin. It consisted of four slabs of sandstone, of
about 2 inches thick each, placed on edge so as to form an irre-
gular quadrangle, the sides of which measured respectively 40,
36, 18 and 12 inches. The depth was about 20 inches, and the
direction nearly due north and south. The cover consisted of a
large irregular slab, about 6 inches thick, which being only par-
tially covered with earth, was caught by the plough; and on
being removed, the interior of the cist was exposed. Near the
north end an urn was found, lying on its side, but quite empty.
This was of excellent workmanship, and of a very elegant shape.
It was about 6 inches high, and nearly the same in diameter at
the lip and shoulder, between which it contracted a little, form-
ing a collar, neatly ornamented on the outside. It tapered gra-
dually from the shoulder to the bottom, where the diameter was
34 inches. It was ornamented by seven double rows of small
round pits, running from the collar downwards. It was formed
of a coarse imperfectly baked clay, which appears to have been
procured from the immediate neighbourhood, where a similar
clay, derived from the disintegration of a variety of amygdaloid,
which is rather rare in Berwickshire, may still be met with.
It was in such a fragile state, that it broke to pieces on being
handled; but the fragments were carefully preserved.

The only other relics found in the cist were a portion of a
skull and a few fragments of bones. These were tolerably well
preserved, so much so that the absence of the remainder of the
skeleton appears rather difficult to account for. The cist was
situated upon the summit of a conspicuous knoll called the
“ Piper’s Knowe.” Similar cists have been found within the last
twenty years at Chalkielaw, Swallowdean and Dunselaw—in each

Mr. P. J. Selby on the Plecotus auritus. 157

instance apparently solitary. That discovered at Chalkielaw,
within half a mile of the Piper’s Knowe, also contained an urn,
though of a different shape and style of ornament.

The bones and fragments of the urn have been submitted by
Mr. James Black to the inspection of Dr. Daniel Wilson of
Edinburgh. Dr. Wilson expresses his conviction that the re-
mains are referable to the “Allophylian” races, who inhabited
Britain prior to the period of the Roman invasion. There can,
at all events, be no doubt that they belonged to the same people
to whom the similar cists, found near Lesbury in November
1850, are to be ascribed. See Mr. Tate’s paper, read at the
Meeting of the Club on the 11th of June 1851, which contains
a very clear and interesting account of these cists, and the urns
contained in them. Reference may also be made to Dr. D.
Wilson’s ‘ Pre-historic Annals of Scotland,’ passim, for many
interesting facts connected with cists, sepulchral urns, and the
ancient inhabitants of our island, to whom these relics are pro-

bably to be attributed.

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Note on the Habits and Ciconomy of the Plecotus auritus, or
Long-eared Bat. By P. J. Sursy, Esq., of Twizel-house.

In an out-house at Twizel, where the spars of the roof meet
together in the centre, a bat of the species Plecotus auritus, long-
eared bat, has made a small vacancy at this junction of the tim-
bers its habitat for some three or four years past. In conse-
quence, I have been induced to take some interest 1 in noticing
the habits and ceconomy of the species.
B.N.C.—VOL. III. N°. IV. N

158 Dr. Johnston on the Acarides of Berwickshire.

Hybernation, I find, extends in general from October to March,
as few or no signs of being in an active or awakened state, such
as feeces or the remains of insects upon the floor beneath, are to
be seen during this long winter-sleep. As soon, however, as
spring approaches, and the night-temperature rises to 46° or 48°,
I find the bat on such occasions in full activity; and as the
same temperature brings into active life a variety of nocturnal
Lepidoptera, which appear to be the favourite food of this Ple-
cotus, an abundant provision is ready for the support of this.
animal upon awakening from its lethargic condition. From the
observations I have been able to make, it appears that the Ple-
cotus, upon the capture of a moth, returns immediately to his
retreat, and there devours the savoury morsel at his leisure,
shearing off the wings of the msect at the shoulder with his
sharp and cutting teeth. In this way the floor beneath the bat’s
retreat, after a successful foray during the preceding evening,
exhibits the remains of the numerous victims that have fallen a
prey to his voracious appetite. To give some idea of the success
of our bat as a moth-catcher, the wings of the following species
were found upon the floor beneath his retreat on the morning of
the 19th of April last, after a warm and genial night, during
which he had revelled in all the luxury of a determined gour-
mand. As the wings were quite perfect, with scarce a scale
abraded from their surface, I was able to identify the species
without difficulty. They consisted of numerous wings of Or-
thosia stalilis, O. gracilis, O. sparsa, Semiophora gothica, Glea
satellitia, G. vaccini, and a single pair of wings of Achatia pini-
perda, a rare moth, and a species I had never taken or seen be-
fore at Twizel. Since the date above mentioned, our bat seems
to have kept close at home, as I have not observed any additional
spoils beneath his domicile. In fact, the temperature has since

been sufficiently reduced to throw him again into the lethargic
state.

The Acarides of Berwickshire specifically described.
By Grorce Jounston, M.D

[Continued from p. 122.]

35. BpELLA DORSATA.
Bdella dorsata, Gervais in Walck. Ins. Apt. ii. 157.

Body ovate, rostrate and pointed in front, of a yellowish or
pale orange colour with a large dark brown spot occupying the
greater portion of. the back, sparingly hispid; the venter pale
orange, unspotted. Rostrum tapered from a thickened base,
becoming rather suddenly narrower towards the apex, which is

Dr. Johnston on the Acarides of Berwickshire. 159

bifid, sparingly hispid. Mandibles shaped like the rostrum,
and of the same length, armed with two minute but unequal
claws. Palpi of the same coluur, but considerably slenderer
than the legs, filiform, imserted near the base of the rostrum,
and longer than it by the ultimate joint, five-jointed ; basal joint
minute ; the second elongated, with a very few scattered short
sete; third and fourth very small and equal, with setz on the
top of each ; terminal joint about a third shorter than the second,
contracted at its origin, sparingly hispid, the somewhat truncate
apex armed with two sharp setz of nearly its own length. Legs
eight, equidistant, of the colour of the body and about its
length, tapermg normally, somewhat hispid, the sete either
patent or pomting downwards: first pair shortest, second and
third nearly equal, the hinder pair longer, all about equal in
thickness; basal jomt small, the second or femoral about four
times as long, the third about half the length of this, the fourth
or knee still shorter, the fifth distinctly slenderer and as long as
the femoral; the sixth elongated, tapered, armed with more nu-
merous and stronger sete, and terminated with a pedunculated
small hairy vesicle and a pair of slender sharp claws trimmed
with hairs on the inner aspect.

This mite is a small species, and of the usual Apion-like shape,
possessing only a moderate degree of quickness in its walk. It
recovers its position with difficulty when laid on its back on a
level surface ; but, as it lives amongst moss, this accident can
rarely or never occur to it.

The specific character may be derived from the colour, which
is a pale yellow tinted with red on the body and all its members ;
but the large dusky spot which occupies the back is what ren-
ders the little creature most obvious to the eye. I believe it to
be the Bdella dorsata of Gervais. The name suits our animal
well; but there are some points in the description which seem
to mark a difference, especially the apparent absence of eyes,
of which, in B. dorsata, there are four, of a waxen red colour,
imbedded in the black part of the back. Now, in our mite there
is a red spot anterior to this dorsal patch, and near the middle
of the back, but I could not determine that it was made up of
eyes, nor would analogy lead us so to conclude, for the eyes, in
this genus, are lateral when present.

Our species belongs to the genus Bdella as defined by A.
Dugés, Ann. des Sc. Nat. 2de Ser. i. p. 44.

36 ACARUS DESTRUCTOR.
Acarus destructor, Tuch. Gmel. in. 707.

Mite minute, of a uniform white colour. Body divided into
three segments, ovate-oblong, narrow in front, rounded behind,

160 Dr. Johnston on the Acarides of Berwickshire.

armed with scattered bristles, of which those on the anal edge
are the longest. Rostrum declivous, obtuse, armed with man-
dibles at the apex. Front with several bristles, two of them long
and porrect. Legs eight, much shorter than the body, m two
sets, colourless, subcylindrical, bristly, armed with a long bristle
at the tibial joint; the tarsi with short stout bristles and claws ;
the anterior pair of legs are stouter than the posterior, and equal
in size and length; the third pair longer than the fourth, which
are the shortest of any.

This differs from Ac. lectis in being narrower behind, in the
legs being proportionally shorter, in the colourless hue of the
rostrum and legs, in having the last pair of legs shorter than
the third pair, and in the greater distinctness of the mandibles.
I could not discover the tarsal vesicles. The bristles vary in
different individuals in length, probably from the points in some
having been broken off. In one or two specimens there was a
semicircular plate at the anus, from the upper surface of which
two bristles originated. The larve have only six legs. The
eggs are elliptical and smooth.

We virtuosi-—the unhappy objects of some happy ridicule—
would willingly permit the cheese-mite his full liberty m waste,
could we exchange that liberty for the imprisonment of its
brother mite, whose peculiar vocation it 1s to reduce to dust and
ashes our cherished insects and skins, and other prized curiosities.
No drawer is close enough to exclude him; and verily oft we m
wonder ask, how the devil he got there*. Many recipes have
been recommended to prevent its appearance; but none prove
of any avail, although some of them are effectual enough m
killing the insects when their presence is detected, usually how-
ever with some loss of perfection to the infected specimenst.
They show a preference to dung-beetles (as Geotrupes, Necro-
phagus, Hister, Aphodius, Silpha, &c.) and to humble-bees,
which have an abundance of animal matter in their interior ; but
they prey upon the entire class of insects. “One of the worst
plagues of the entomologist,” say Kirby and Spence, “are the
mites (Acarus destructor, Schrank.). These, if his specimens be
at all damp, eat up all the muscular parts (Lytta vesicatoria
being almost the only insect that is not to their taste), and thus
entirely destroy them.” (Introd. to Entom., 1. p. 240.)

* Thus did the good Antony Van Leeuwenhoek wonder,—* And indeed
I have often found mites feeding on things in places where I wondered
they could so soon discover their food.” (Select Works, ii. p. 39.

f+ As Leeuwenhoek has found that mites greatly dislike nutmeg, and
are soon killed by its odour, it might be used to protect insect-drawers.
(Select Works, i. p. 289.)

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB.

The Annual Address to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, de-
livered at Bamborough, on the 13th September, 1854. By the
Rev. Grorce Rooke, M.A., Vicar of Embleton, &c., and
President of the Club.

GENTLEMEN,

I accreprep the office of President of this Club in compliance
with an established rule, which forbids any one nominated to the
Presidency to refuse the honour conferred on him, however ill-
qualified or unworthy of it he may judge himself to be. It is
in compliance with our rules that I now venture to address you
on retirmg from the chair; and in the performance of this, my
last duty, I have especially to bespeak your indulgence. Original
notices and observations on Natural History are not to be ex-
pected from one who, though he can join with the best of the
Club in acknowledging the Creator’s wisdom and bounty mani-
fested in his works, yet has no pretensions to a scientific ac-
quaintance with them.

It is, indeed, no more than may be reasonably expected in a
Club composed of members of all professions—nor will it be a
great mconvenience—if the annual address from the chair is

B.N.C.—VOL, Hl, N. ¥- 0

162 Anniversary Address.

found to vary somewhat in its character from year to year, with
the peculiar pursuits of the individual who happens to have been
chosen to be President. On the present occasion,
“How the subject theme may gang,
Let time and chance determine ;
Perhaps it may turn out a sang ;
Perhaps turn out a sermon.”

If my address, Gentlemen, should savour most of the latter
character, you must bear in mind that you have brought it upon
yourselves, by your own act, in choosing a clerical President who
is not a naturalist.

Last year the Club was congratulated on having attained its
majority. This year it may be made matter of just congratula-
tion that it has increased its progeny, and bids fair to be the
parent stock of numerous descendants, another Naturalists’
Club, formed upon the model of this, having started ito life at
Greenwich.

Several valuable papers upon the natural history and antiqui-
ties of this district have been read this year at the ordinary
meetings of the Club; and these I now produce, viz. one by Mr.
Henderson, entitled “ Chirnside, its Church and Churchyard ;”
two by Mr. Selby, “On the Flight of Aphides, September 12th
and following days, 1853 ;” and “On the Wasps observed within
the limits of the Club;” by Dr. Johnston, “A Description of a
specimen of Eschara cervicornis, from Embleton Bay ;”’ by Mr.
George Tate, “An Account of round-headed Porpoises or Caaing
Whales (Phocena melas), which came ashore on the Northum-
berland Coast on the 19th day of March 1854; ” and we have
a paper from Mr. Donaldson Selby, “ On the Megalithic or
Druidical remains of Carnac or Kernac in Brittany and in
Jersey.”

I have been favoured by our Secretary with Notes of the Ex-
cursions made this year by the Club, all but one of which I was
myself hindered from joining, by absence from the county during
three of the summer months. These notes I will proceed to
read :—

Embleton, September 7, 1853.—‘ The Members who attended
this Anniversary Meeting were,—Mr. Tate, President, the Hon.
Capt. Gray, Mr. Selby, Rev. G. Rooke, Mr. MacBeath, Rev. H.

Anniversary Address. 163

Parker, Dr. Clarke, Mr. Clay, Mr. Embleton, Dr. Johnston,
Mr. Home, Mr. G. R. Tate, Rev. J. Dixon Clark, Rev. M.
Burrell, Rev. William Darnell, Mr. Craster, and the Rev. Mr.
Rigge.

“The Club breakfasted with Mr. Embleton. After breakfast
the Members visited the church, which has been recently enlarged
and improved, so as to make it worthy of the sacred purpose to
which it is devoted. Before starting on their walk, the President
exhibited a series of fossil vegetable remains in sandstone, from
the quarry near Swinton, in Berwickshire, which he seemed in-
clined to believe were fucoids. It was agreed that Mr. Tate
should procure figures of the more marked specimens, and draw
up a report for the Proceedings. Mr. Selby showed some leaves
which were branched and divided like an elegant fern, and had
the colour and texture of a purple Jungermannia. These were
leaves of Cardamine hirsuta, modified by growing on wet stones
_ In a burn, and probably in shade, and were not readily to be
identified. The walk was directed to Beadnel. During it there
were observed, a white variety of Bartsta Odontites in abundance,
the flowers of some specimens very delicately tinted with rose-
colour about the aperture; Hyoscyamus niger, which grew in
‘many places on the line above the shore; the banks were
covered with Geranium sanguineum; and, on spots, the Parnassia
and Gentiana amarella abounded. A Chenopodium, presumed to
be C. rubrum, was picked up in one locality, and one only ; and
this had been the site of a dunghill. As we walked across -the
sands of Beadnel Bay, many delicate alge were seen in abun-
dance, but all of them common species, with the exception of
three. The most remarkable of these was Desmarestia ligulata,
which has not been met with on the coasts of N. Durham or of
Berwickshire. Two specimens of the very rare Spherococcus
cristatus were picked up ; and numerous specimens of the beau-
tiful Dasya coccinea.

“The party were interested in watching the blowings of several
whales in the offing, which were there waiting upon the shoals
of herrings; and on the shore the Limpet arrested us for a time,
for here the animals had excavated for themselves holes in the
rock, varying in depth from one-eighth to a quarter of an inch,
in which they rested secure and irremoveable by any storm that
could roll over them. How the Limpet makes the excavation,

02

164 Anniversary Address.

which is quite smooth and even at the bottom, and correspond-
ing in shape to the periphery of the shell, has not been settled.
It has been attributed to the chemical action of a secretion from
the foot ; perhaps maceration in the ordinary mucous fluid which
is always excreted from the foot, assisted with its continual
motion, might be sufficient to produce the cavity. Mr. Hancock
attributes this to the action of siliceous granules, which, he says,
are imbedded in the sole of the foot, and make a part of its
organization.

“ Another object of interest led the Club still nearer to Beadnel,
viz. a trunk of a fossil tree which stands erect, to the height of
about 4: feet, on the face of a limestone quarry. The trunk is
round, and about 2 feet im circumference. The root is not ex-
posed, nor can the species be determined, although the fossil
may be referred to the genus Sigillaria.

“‘ After the refreshment of a good dinner, and the usual pre-
liminary toasts, the President read the Annual Address, which
was listened to throughout with mterest and pleasure. On his
nomination, the Rev. G. Rooke was unanimously elected Presi-
dent for the ensuing year. Mr. W. Stevenson, of Dunse, was
admitted a Member; and Dr. James Wilson, of Berwick, was
nominated by Dr. Johnston and seconded by Mr. Embleton.
Mr. William Boyd, of Cherry-trees, was proposed by Dr. Baird,
and the proposal seconded by Dr. Johnston. ©

“There was next read a notice by Miss H. Bell, of certain
shadows witnessed by her near Birgham. This paper gave origin
to a conversation of interest relating to analogous phenomena,
but none exactly similar could be remembered. The thanks of
the Club were voted to Miss Bell for the communication.

“Dr. Johnston then read the following notices :—

“<< September 3.—To-day I saw a living specimen of the
Death’s-head Hawk-moth, which had been caught at sea, about
four miles from land, off Holy Island.

“ «September 1.—A Sturgeon was caught at the mouth of our
river, which was 7 feet in length, and weighed 140 lbs. It was
not the Acipenser Sturio, if Yarrell’s figure is a correct figure of
that species ; nor was it the broad-nosed Sturgeon of Parnell.
The scales on the back were very large and raised to a sharp
edge, but not spmous nor curved backwards. There was no
time given to make a description or figure; nor have I had an

Anniversary Address. 165

opportunity of comparing it with other species. It seemed to
me the same as that usually found on our coast.’ ”

October 12th, 1853.—“ There were present at this Meeting,
Dr. Johnston, Dr. Clarke, Captain Carpenter, Rev. Joseph W.
Barnes, Rev. J. Dixon Clark, Mr. Home, Mr. Clay, Mr. Tate,
Rev. George Carpenter, Dr. Cahill and Mr. Logan. The party
were breakfasted by Mr. Home. Afterwards, the Meeting being
constituted by the senior Member present taking the chair, the
Minutes of the previous Meeting were read and confirmed; and
Dr. James Wilson and Mr. William Boyd were duly admitted
Members. ,

“The Meetings for the summer of 1854 were arranged to be
as follows :—May, the 3rd Wednesday, Cornhill; June, the 3rd
Wednesday, Bamburgh; July, the 38rd Wednesday, Blue-bell,
Paulinsburn ; August, the 3rd Wednesday, Powburn ; Septem-
_ ber, the 2nd Wednesday, Bamburgh.

“ The Secretary exhibited specimens, beautifully preserved, of
several Algw which had been collected in Berwick Bay by Mrs.
Alfred Gatty, and which were new and interesting additions to
our flora. For this communication the vote of thanks of the
Club was ordered to be given to Mrs. Gatty. Then, a notice of
the hosts of Aphides which have lately appeared in the district,
was read, from Mr. Selby ; who also sent a still more interesting
communication descriptive of our Wasps. Dr. Johnston next
exhibited a skull of the Chillingham Bull; and a series of the
Lepades, found in Berwick Bay, with the view of explaining the
discoveries of Mr. Darwin relative to their sexes and g’eneration.
Mr. Tate exhibited some specimens of scales of fossil fish which
he had just procured near Cockburnspath ; and some beautiful
specimens of fossil ferns from an adjacent locality.”

Cornhill, May 17th.—‘ The Club resumed its meetings, and
had a favourable day to begin upon. It breakfasted with the
Rey. S. A. Fyler, who became the guide to those Members who
spent the hours between breakfast and dinner in a walk of
research. We were conducted first to the ‘ Bathing-well planta-
tion,’ flushed with a show of flowers that no horticultural society
could emulate. A large extent of this plantation was covered
with a Myosotis—either palustris or sylvatica—in large patches

166 Anniversary Address.

and in full flower; and the beauty of those beds influenced the
most indifferent to sights, and elicited unbounded admiration.
There were beds of less extent, but of equal beauty, of the Vero-
nica Chamedrys, occupying the drier ground; and the whole
was intermingled and contrasted with the large blossoms of the
golden-yellow Marsh Marigold. Geum intermedium was likewise
remarkably abundant and ornamental. There were two varieties
of it, one in which the plant had been impregnated with the
pollen of G. rivale, and the other produced by G. rivale having
been fertilized by G. urbanum. It was very easy to distin-
guish these hybrids; and the finest was that in which G. rivale
was the mother plant. We found also, in this plantation,
Allium arenarium in great abundance, Listera ovata, and Dip-
sacus sylvestris, the latter sparingly. We were next conducted
to the site of a Roman encampment, whence there is a fine view
of the country around; and thence we proceeded to Learmouth
bog, about the best locality for the botanist in our district. The
dry spring had made the surface sufficiently firm to enable us to
penetrate into every part of the bog, but the vegetation was not
far advanced. Hriophorum vaginatum showed best and farthest
off; and the sight of such a pure-air moor plant was very grateful
to such of us as are now pent up in the town’s dust and smoke,
albeit our young days were amidst the bogs and muirs that the
cotton-grass whitens with its waving tresses, white and pure as
the new-washed sheep that graze amidst its grounds. The
Cranberry was abundant and partially in flower. Cardamine
pratensis grew here very fine ; and so did Valeriana dioica. We
found a few tufts of the umbellate variety of Primula vulgaris ;
and a Pyrola was plentiful, but not m flower. There was a
large quantity of Salix repens, and of Salix tenuifola, its only
habitat in our district. It was when we reached the place oc-
cupied by these willows jointly, and with small trees of the
Birch, and bushes of Salix aurita, that we came upon the more
especial object of our search, viz. Aspidium Thelypteris. The
fronds were only lifting up their croziered heads, but it was
easily detected, and there is great plenty of it here, so that we
may hope that it will not be eradicated in our days. From this
bog we returned by a road, partially adorned and sweetened
with a profusion of May, to a lesser bog than the Learmouth
one, but of the same character, yet not possessed of the Fern.

Anniversary Address. 167

We found nothing in this bog we had not seen in the other;
and so we returned to the Bathing-well plantation to renew and
refreshen the enjoyment we had there in the morning. The
extent and brilliancy of the show was, indeed, surpassing fine.

“ At dinner we mustered a party of thirteen, viz. Dr. Johnston,
Rev. J. Baird, Captain Carpenter, Dr. Clarke, Rev. Dr. Gilly,
Mr. Home, Rev. 8S. A. Fyler, Mr. Tate, Rev. George Carpenter,
Rey. Mr. Rigge, and Mr. Boyd,—with William Majoribanks,
Esq., and Dr. George Douglas as visitors. These gentlemen
were duly nominated as candidates for the membership.

* After dinner there was a good deal done im the talking-way,
and much of it was very amusing. It was varied with some
conversation more to the purpose of the meeting by Mr. Tate,
who gave us an account of some fossil fish he had recently dis-
covered at Lamberton, near Berwick ; and he also exhibited the
specimens he had collected this day on a walk down the Tweed-
side as far as the Till, One of these was a specimen of Stigma-
ria ficoides, with the rootlets attached. Dr. Johnston gave an
account of a little worm that bores into the most compact bivalve
shells on our coast, and showed a figure of it, under the belief
that it was a nondescript ; but he has since ascertained that the
worm had been described by Orsted, under the name of Dode-
cacerta concharum.”

Bamborough, June 2].—‘‘ This Meeting was a very success-
ful one. The Members who attended were Dr. Johnston, Mr.
Embleton, Mr. Selby, Rev. J. D. Clark, Mr. Boyd, Rev. George
Walker, Mr. Tate, Rev. S. A. Fyler, Rev. W. Darnell, and the
Rev. L. S. Orde. After breakfast the party proceeded to ‘Monk’s
house,’ where- they took boat, and sailed on a voyage of disco-
very to the Ferne Islands. The sail was pleasant, and effected
without any disagreeable incident; and every individual was
gratified with the scene and the various objects which occurred.
Circumstances prevent me giving a detail of what was noticed :
my own specimens lie yet unexamined. I believe, however, that
there was nothing got but what had been previously recorded as
being found on these isles. We had the gratification of seeing
the father of Grace Darling, and several members of his family ;
and on the landward isle we viewed with reverence the small and
exquisitely beautiful chapel built by the liberality and taste of

168 Anniversary Address.

the venerable Archdeacon Thorpe, who has dedicated it, with a
propriety every one must feel, and with a gratitude we must all
participate, to St. Cuthbert,—who had here his cell and chapel.

“After dinner the Minutes of the Cornhill Meeting were
read; and Mr. W. Majoribanks and Dr. George Douglas were
admitted Members. The Secretary next gave a short account
of some recent additions to the Flora and Fauna of the district.
He next read a paper entitled ‘ Chirnside, its Church and
Churchyard,’ by Mr. Henderson ; and laid before the meeting
a paper by Mr. Donaldson ‘On the Megalithic Stones found in
various parts of the North of Europe.’

“Mr. Tate now read a very excellent report on the capture of
a herd of the Delphinus deductor, on the coast near Beadnel.

“Dr. Stewart, of Chirnside, was proposed as a Member by
Dr. Wilson; seconded by Dr. Johnston: and the Rev. Frederick
Robinson Sa on was proposed by the Rey. W. Darnell ;
seconded by the Rev. George Walker.

“Mr. Embleton brought a most interesting collection to ex-
hibit. It consisted of three large and fine specimens of Gonzas-
ter abbensis; Comatula rosacea; a living specimen of Eschara
foliacea, and another of Eschara cervicornis. The two last had
not been found previously on these northern shores. There were
likewise shown several of the rarest of our native shells, but they
were not from our district.”

The Blue-bell, Paulinsburn, July 19th.— The Meeting was
an entire failure. Mr. Jerdan came from beyond Jedburgh, and
finding no other member, he left about noon: shortly afterwards
Captain Carpenter arrived with a friend; and they also left
without constituting a club. From Mr. Jerdan I received the
following letter :—

, ““¢ Mossburnford, 20th July, 1854.
“<< Tear Sir,

““¢T reached the ‘Blue-bell’ yesterday morning about half-
past ten, but none of the Club had made their appearance, though
the landlady had expected a number to breakfast. After waiting
a short time, I took a stroll through the village of Crookham
down to the river-side. On returning to the inn, I still found
that no Members had appeared, and [ therefore set off, about
twelve o’clock, on my way homewards, as I had-a long ride

Anniversary Address. 169

before me. Near Crookham I found a plant new to me, viz.
Malwa rotundifolia, Itisamuch prettier plant than the common
Mallow. I observed also several plants which do not occur in
this district, viz. Ballota nigra, Parietaria officinalis, and Sinapis
alba, in the neighbourhood of Crookham ; and Cerastiwm arvense,
near Wark, on my way home. I also observed on the road
between Kelso and Coldstream, on my way down, a quantity of
Parsley (Petroselinum sativum), on a dry bank by the road-side,
and apparently wild. Scirpus lacustris appears to grow in the
pond at Paulinsburn, and some other plants which I could not
make out from the road. The road-sides between Cornhill and
Wark were quite b/ue with the beautiful Geranium pratense ; and
Tanacetum vulgare was also most abundant.

“+ Yours truly,

“© ARCHIBALD JERDAN.’ ”

Powburn, August 16th.—“ The locality is difficult of access,
but in every respect otherwise well fitted to be a field for the
Club’s exertions and researches. Partly from its inaccessibility,
and partly from the uncertain state of the weather, few members
attended. These were, the Rev. G. Rooke, Dr. Johnston, Mr.
Collingwood, Ralph Carr, Esq., Mr. Tate and Mr. G. R. Tate.
A walk begun after breakfast was abruptly stopped by heavy
rain, and the members found nothing better to do than to beguile
the time by desultory conversation, under the shelter of a cart-
shed. The very little that was noticed will be brought before
the Club by Mr. G. R. Tate, in a separate communication.

« After dinner the Minutes of the two previous Meetings were
read and confirmed. Dr. Stewart and the Rev. F. R. Simpson
were admitted Members. The Rev. Mr. West was proposed by
Capt. Carpenter, and seconded by Dr. Johnston; and George
Cully, Esq., of Fowberry, and Mr. Charles Rea, of Doddington,
were proposed by the Rev. H. Parker; seconded by R. Carr,
Esq.

“Dr. Johnston gave a description of the Eschara cervicornis,
from Embleton Bay.. No other communication was made.

“On the day previous to our meeting, I made a short walk
amid the Cheviots, which, in a natural-history aspect, was most
unproductive. On an old dyke above Ilderton, on the road to
the Dod, Sedum album grew in great beauty and profusion, and

170 Anniversary Address.

although it is now naturalized, the suspicion remains that it has
come from the garden originally. A hind’s garden-plot is not
far off, and the house was long tenanted by the blacksmith, a
sort of man not unlikely to cultivate a flower of its class. On
crossing the moor, Listera cordata repeatedly occurred ; and the
Scutellaria galericulata was found in rough boggy ground, amidst
the alders that grow on the higher parts of Lilburn stream.
Here all our common Ferns grow luxuriantly ; but no rare species.
I crossed now to Roddam-burn, which I followed down to and
through its romantic and beautiful dean, without being rewarded
by any new discovery. Valeriana succisefolia grew here in
great profusion, and few plants of it could be referred to V. off-
cinalis. There was really no plant of any rarity noticed, unless
it were Cnicus heterophyllus, which was gathered near the lower
part of the dean. Campanula latifolia was abundant in the
dean. No animal was noticed beyond the Rabbit. The
Carrion Crow, Grouse and Black Cock were the only birds;
and the rarity of the insect tribe was remarkable. This was
easily accounted for by the wet condition of the moors, and the
heavy rain that fell at intervals, soaking everything. Even the
Black Snail was seldom seen; and others had remarked its
scarcity during the season. In Roddam dean I picked Helix
arbustorum, caperata and fusca. I noticed Limax brunneus oc-
casionally on moss-grown banks; and Zonites crystallinus was
found repeatedly at the roots of such mosses as grow in tufts.”

Before quitting the chair, I would say a few words upon a
question which has occurred to my mind frequently and forcibly,
especially in my walks with the Club, when our attention has
been attracted by the beauty of the scenery, the luxuriance of
the crops, and the rich and endless variety of the natural pro-
ductions of this district ;—the question occurs, can this fair land-
scape be still under a curse, such as was laid on Adam? ‘Cursed
be the ground for thy sake: in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all
the days of thy life.” I cannot but believe that this curse, once
laid on the ground, has since been remoyed.. It is for those who
have penetrated deepest into the secrets of nature to say whether
they can detect unequivocal signs of a curse or otherwise, in the
various productions of the earth. To a superficial observer, it
appears rather that all we see around us tends to minister to

Anniversary Address. 171

man’s use and enjoyment, than that the ground is under a curse,
and that man is doomed to partake of the fruits of it in sorrow.

But it is safest, perhaps, to reason, upon a sacred question like
this, from the sacred records themselves : and, in the first place,
I cannot detect in our walks through this district any of those
signs of a ground which the Lord has cursed, which the Scrip-
ture itself leads us to look for; such as that which was said to
Cain: ‘ When thou tillest the ground, it shall not henceforth
yield unto thee her strength.’ Lamech too, the father of Noah,
speaks as if he were smarting under the pain of profitless labour,
when he complains of ‘The work and toil of his hands because
of the ground, which the Lord hath cursed.’ The practical
agriculturist knows that the ground does not now withhold
her strength from the skill and perseverance that seek to bring
it out.

The barrenness of a land that is cursed is described in another
place of Scripture, in terms such as these (Deut. xxvii. 23, &c.) :
‘Thy heaven that is over thy head shall be brass, and the earth
that is under thee shall be iron. The Lord shall make the rain
of thy land powder and dust.’ This cannot be said of the land
we inhabit, in which we see seed-time and harvest, cold and heat,
summer and winter, day and night, following each other in
regular succession.

Neither can I reconcile with the notion of a land that is cursed,
the Scripture account of the state of some parts of the world in
times not many years after the flood; such as that which Lot
occupied: (Gen. xii. 10.) ‘Lot beheld all the plain of Jordan,
that it was well-watered everywhere, even as the garden of the
Lord:’ or that glowing description given by Moses of the Land
of Promise: (Deut. vin. 8 and xi. 11.) “A land of wheat and barley,
of vines, fig-trees and pomegranates; a land of olive oil and
honey; a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills thou
mayest dig brass.’ ‘It is a land of hills and valleys, and
drinketh water of the rain of heaven. The eyes of the Lord thy
God are always upon it from the beginning of the year even unto
the end of the year.’ This land at least was not under a
curse. :

I think therefore there is great reason for interpreting in its
hteral sense the promise made to Noah after the flood: ‘I will
not again curse the ground for man’s sake’ (Gen. vili. 21); and

172 Anniversary Address.

that the original curse laid on the ground was then cancelled.
And the more so, because we read in Scripture that every blessing
and privilege regarding the earth and its produce conferred on
Adam at the time of his creation, was repeated almost verbatim
to Noah, and even enlarged; so that in regard to the earth on
which he trod, Noah was in no respect in a worse position than
Adam was when he stood in his first innocence.

If it is said that the original curse must remain, because man
must still ‘eat bread by the sweat of his brow,’ and that ‘ the
ground still brings forth thorns and thistles,’ I confess I can
detect no great physical evil in the existence of these thorns and
thistles, and other weeds, such as they now are, of which indeed
there seems to be a great abundance and variety, to supply oc-
cupation to the botanist, and to furnish his box with specimens ;
but certainly they do not deform the earth’s surface, and they
appear to have each their appropriate usefulness. No one will
say of this district that it is a mere nursery of thorns and
thistles.

And if man must still labour for his bread, so, it must be
remembered, was Adam put into the Garden of Eden ‘to dress
it and to keep it.’ Adam certainiy had his share of work; and
who will venture at this day to specify the amount of labour
which may have been necessary to check the superfluous growth
of the weeds or wild flowers in Eden? Or who will assert that
the exercise of remunerative labour is a curse to man,—or that
it does not add to his happiness, and is necessary to it? ‘ Labor
voluptasque, dissimillimaé natura, societate quadam naturali inter
se sunt juncta.’

I will not, however, Gentlemen, practically confute this part of
my own argument, by condemning you to the tedious labour of
listening to the further prosecution of this subject, but retire
with the hope that we may for years to come enjoy the self-im-
posed labour of making many a long pedestrian excursion over
the hills and by the burn-sides of this county; and that the
gratifying labours of science may continue to produce among us
such fruits as they have already yielded in the books of more
than one distinguished Member of our Club.

One remark more only I would add, viz. that the manifest
removal of the curse of physical evil from the ground leads the
mind to look forward with hope and confidence to the time when

Anniversary Address. 173

moral evil also shall be gradually abated, and ‘the earth shall
be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the

sea.’

MISCELLANY.

1. Viola flavicornis, Smith. On Holy Island Links, scattered.
A small variety of the V. canina, Sm., grows abundantly on the
same links, and care must be taken not to confound the species.

2. Potamogeton prelongum. In the Tweed at Birgham, Dr. R.
D. Thomson. I have specimens from this habitat from Miss E.
Bell and Miss Hunter. The species occurs also in the Tweed at
the Chain Bridge, intermingled with P. lucens.

3. Glyceria distans, Smith. On the shore near Goswick, Mr.
R. H. Clay.

4. Asplenium germanicum. ‘ Specimens were sent to me last
month from Minto Craigs, R.; and it was said to grow in some
abundance in particular spots. On Minto Craigs grows also
Asplenium septentrionale.’ A. Jerdan. Sept. 11th.

5. Eolis coronata. On the shore in front of the Coves in
Holy Island.
6. Echinus lividus. In the same locality.
G. J.

174 Selby on Aphides.

Note on the Flight of Aphides, September 12th, 18538, and follow-
ing days. By P. J. Surpy, Esq.

On Monday the 12th, and two following days, the weather
being remarkably calm, with a warm, hazy atmosphere, millions
of winged Aphides filled the air in every direction, not only at
Twizell, Belford, Bamburgh, &c., but to a very wide extent, as
the same phenomenon was observed at Dissington, not far from
Newcastle, and in all probability prevailed over the whole extent
of the county. The Aphides during the first two days appeared
all of the same species, being a small greenish-black kind, such
as infests the peach, plum, padus, &c. On the morning of the
14th, upon inspecting the leaves of the peach and nectarine trees
in the garden at Twizell, the lower surface of every leaf was
found beset with winged Aphides, which had already given birth
to thousands of young larve; for upon inspecting the leaves
with the microscope, I found what I had at first imagined to be
eges, were in reality young Aphides in an active state. Thou-
sands had also settled upon the leaves of the rose, padus, &c.,
where the same rapid process of reproduction was going on.
From the observations I have been able to make, the whole of
this innumerable host were impregnated females, ready to pro-
duce their young the moment they alighted upon a leaf suitable
to the ceconomy of the species. As may be supposed, millions
perished without attaining the object in view; and it was a
curious sight to see the webs of the various spiders thickly
covered with the prey their meshes had entangled, producing on
the aggregate a rich repast to the weaver of the snare. On the
15th, I observed, among the myriads which still filled the air, a
second species, of a lively pale-green colour, but not m such
numbers as the dark-coloured species. The Aphides continued
to appear in considerable numbers for several days afterwards,
whenever the air became still, warm, and moist. It may be
worthy of remark, that this extraordinary flight of msects was,
as remarked on a former occasion, contemporary with the out-
break of that dreadful scourge, the cholera; this fatal endemic
having broken out at Newcastle with a virulence far beyond its
former ravages, at the time the Aphides came forth in such
countless myriads. This apparent connexion between this fear-
ful disease and the flight of the Aphides, results, I imagine,
from the peculiar state, whether electric or magnetic, as well as
the warmth, moisture, and calmness of the atmosphere; these
qualities being apparently required, or at least conducing to
render the virus of the disease more violent and concentrated,
and at the same time being such as to favour the development

Johnston on Eschara. 175 }

and flight of the delicate-winged and easily-injured body of the
Aphis. I have been informed, that the electric forces at the
time were in a most anomalous state, the telegraphs on the
railroad refusing at one time to emit a spark or convey intelli-
gence, and at another acting with great intensity.

Description of Aphis.—Antennz with the three basal joimts
black, the setaceous part dark dirty-green. Head and thorax
black ; abdomen in most of them dirty-ochreous, yellow spotted,
and varied more or less with black. Nectaria a little longer
than the abdomen, dark. Legs, the thighs dark at the top,
tibize light greenish-yellow, the feet dark. Wings clear, trans-
parent, with the nervures pale dirty-green.

Description of a specimen of Eschara cervicornis, from Embleton
Bay. By Dr. Jounston.

Cora calcareous, dirty-white when dead, buff-orange when
recent, rooted by a calcareous basis, frondose, expanding late-
rally, very much and irregularly divided, the divisions flat,
kneed, occasionally anastomosing, irregularly or dichotomously
subdivided, with the ends often bifid and slightly dilated, the
margin smooth, uneven. The apertures of the cells open on
both sides, and are arranged in lines, but in the older portions
of the coral this linear arrangement becomes obscurely marked.
The apertures are quite visible to the naked eye; and the space
between them is porous, but the pores are punctiform and not
to be seen without a magnifier. The cells he in a double layer,
and are separated by a wall or lamina behind. In newly-formed
portions of the coral they are slightly raised and rounded towards
the aperture, which is roundish, with a thin margin and a sinus
on its proximal side overlooked by a small denticle. But in the
old coral the cells are irrecognizable and entirely immersed, the
apertures circular, with a compact smooth depressed rim, which
is entire and level with the surface. The old parts of the coral
become also thickened by a deposition of new cells on the sur-
face; these are raised or mammiform, and many of them have
no aperture developed.

This description is derived from a specimen procured by Mr,
Embleton, in Embleton Bay, and exhibited to the Club at the
meeting on the 21st June. The specimen is three inches in its
lateral expansion, and one inch in height: the breadth of a divi-
sion varies from {5th to 74ths; and its thickness from less than.
a line to about two lines. A small specimen of Cellepora ramu-
losa grew in its interstices; and about the base there was a very
perfect specimen of Lepralia variolosa.

176 Tate on the Porpoise.

I have Mr. Busk’s authority for stating that our coral is the
Eschara cervicornis of his Catalogue of Marine Polyzoa, p. 92.
He is of opinion that it is identical with the Cedlepora cervicornis
of my ‘ British Zoophytes.’ The two specimens differ in habit,
one being attached by a solid expanded base, the other by a
cementation of the segments ;—the C. cervicornis is, moreover,
more erect in its mode of growth, and more solid in its texture ;
but these differences may be the result of age, and of peculiarities
in the sites wherein the corals were developed.

It would seem that although Eschara cervicornis has been often
mentioned in works on the British Fauna, there are very few
instances known of its occurrence on our coast. Dr. Fleming
has not included it in his ‘ History of British Animals,’ so that
the evidence for its being a native production must have been
weak when that very valuable work was published. The
specimen described in my ‘British Zoophytes’ was procured from
the coast of Devonshire. Mr. Busk did not know the exact
habitat of his British specimen, for he seems to have seen only
one. Thus Mr. Embleton’s is the third known British
specimen, and it is the more valuable as the locality is fully
ascertained.

An Account of a herd of Round-headed Porpoises, or Caaing
Whales (Phocena melas) which came ashore on the Northum-
berland coast on the 19th day of March. By GuorceE
Tate, F.G.S.

Earty on Sunday morning, the 19th day of March last, a
number of Cetacea were found stranded among the rocks near
to Howick Burn Mouth. I visited the spot on the following
day, and saw thirty-five of these animals on the rocky shore,
most of them near to the high-tide mark. Fishermen had
commenced cutting off the blubber; but as several individuals
were untouched, I had ample means of examining them, and
determining the species, which proved to be the Phocena melas.
I may be able to add little to what is known of the structure and
habits of these strange-looking animals ; yet as their appearance
on our coasts is a rare event, it deserves a record in our Pro-
ceedings.

The Phocena melas belongs to that division of the order
Cetacea which is characterized by the palate being destitute of
baleen or whalebone, by the jaws being furnished with teeth
and by the external orifice of the blow-hole being single. In,
the genus Phocena both jaws have numerous simple and equal
teeth, the head is obtuse, not beaked, and there is a dorsal fin.

Tate on the Porpoise. 177

PHOCAENA MELAS.

Specific character—Head convex and rounded on the top,
truncated in front. Teeth conical and curved inwards at the
point, about twenty-four in each jaw. Pectoral swimmers long
and narrow.

Synonyms.—Delphinus melas, Trail; Delphinus globiceps,
Cuvier; Delphinus deductor, Sowerby; Delphinus melas,
Fleming ; Globicephalus deductor, Jardine ; Phoczena melas,
Bell.

The species was first distinctly described and named by Dr.
Traill in 1809, to whom, and to Mr. Neill, we are indebted for
most of the information we possess of its habits and distribution.
Cuvier subsequently described it from a specimen found on the
coast of France, and named it “ globiceps,” from the shape of
the head. Dr. Traill’s name, having the prior claim, ought to
be adopted. .

Most of the individuals stranded on the Northumbrian coast
were from fourteen to sixteen feet long; the smallest was eight
' feet; and the largest, whieh was a male, was eighteen feet nine
inches long, and ten feet in circumference in the thickest part,
a little behind the head, from which it tapered gradually towards
the tail. The head presented an extraordinary appearance, being
high in front, short, and subglobose, with the jaws short, having
an opening of only sixteen inches, the upper jaw being thickened,
as if padded, and projecting slightly over the under, which is
rounded in front. There were twenty-four conical, sharp and
curved teeth in each jaw; in other individuals, the number
varied from sixteen to twenty-four ; they were distant from each
and not opposite, so that when the mouth was closed they would
interlock. On the top of the head, eighteen inches from the
snout, was a single crescent-shaped blow-hole, with the horns
directed forward; the eyes were small, and of a dark grey hue.
The pectoral swimmers were five feet long, narrow, and pointed,
and placed low down, two feet seven inches from the snout ; the
dorsal fin was cartilaginous, stiff, and relatively small, being
three feet long and fifteen inches high, and situated five feet
eight inches from the snout; the tail fin was cordate, and had
a breadth of five feet two inches. The external skin was of a
deep black colour, smooth and shining, excepting in front of the
pectoral swimmers and along the belly, where the hue was paler,
as if the black colour had been partially discharged. So exactly
did this external skin resemble a modern india-rubber coat,
that we might readily imagine the animal to be enveloped in-an
artificial waterproof covering, to enable it to range through the
deep unharmed by the watery clement. A quantity of blubber

B.N.C.—VOL. III. N°. V. P

178 Tate on the Porpoise.

covered the body; over the head it was twelve mches thick, and
it varied from one to four inches in thickness over the other
parts. A large mdividual, eighteen feet long, yielded fifty
gallons of good oil, which sold for three shillings the gallon:
forty gallons would be about the average produce of each por-
poise. The flesh beneath the blubber was dark and coarse,
resembling in appearance very coarse beef.

A few of these Porpoises were females; one must have had a
sucking calf, for the teats, which were small, and rather less than
those of a cow, on being pressed, readily yielded a thick white
milk. Calves were taken out of four females; one was two
feet long, another three feet and a half, and the largest, which
appeared to be nearly mature, was six fect and a half long.
From this difference in the size and age of the immature
young, it would follow that the females have no definite season
of calving.

Several of these animals lived during the whole of Sunday.
When disturbed, they snorted through their blow-holes, or
bellowed through their mouths; they struck their tail fins up
and down with great force, and moved their pectoral swimmers
as a bird does its wings; but they were very helpless, and quite
incapable of altering the position of their huge unwieldy bodies.
Thirty hours had elapsed before any of them were cut up. No
food of any description was found in their stomachs; the interval
between their being stranded and their death having been suffi-
cient to digest all the food which might be in their stomachs
when they came ashore.

Doubts have been expressed whether the noise occasionally
made by Cetacea proceeds from the mouth or merely from the
blow-hole. These doubts may have arisen from the different
observers having noticed noises coming from one or other only
of these organs. I think, however, it is pretty certain that the
Phocena melas at Howick Burn sent forth noises both from the
blow-hole and from the mouth. Mr. Dunn, architect, of Howick,
was present when one of these animals blew with great violence
through the blow-hole, to relieve itself from irritation caused by
a stone placed therem by an idle boy; the sound was dull,
somewhat lke the noise made by a blast through a large bel-
lows. A fisherman stated to me that he observed that the cry
made by another animal came from the mouth; he described it
as resembling “the routing of a bull.” Another of these
Porpoises was pierced with a sword near to the pectoral swim-
mers, but no vital part had been reached, and the animal lay
unmoved ; it was afterwards stuck in the breast—a quantity of
blood gushed out, and the poor animal, tortured with pain,
roared tremendously ; the rocks around appearing to quake.

Tate on the Porpoise. 179

Mr. Grey, of Longhoughton, who witnessed this, was confident
that the sound proceeded from the mouth. It was very loud
and hoarse, deeper than the bellowing of a bull, and more
resembling the hoarse cry of the elephant.

The home of the Phocena melas is in the northern sub-arctic
seas. Herds of them not unfrequently come ashore on the
islands of Orkney, Shetland, Feroe, and Iceland, where they
are eagerly caught on account of the value of the oil derived
from the blubber. In the Shetlands they are called the “Caaing
Whale.” ‘Their descent on our coast is, however, a very rare
event ; so rare, indeed, that none of the living residents along
the Northumberland coast ever saw or heard of a similar occur-
rence. Wallis, in his History of Northumberland, relates that
“ Sixty-three,” of what he calls the Grampus Bottle-nose or
Great Porpess (Delphinus Orca), “came on shore at Shorestone,
near North Sunderland, 29th July, 1734, about noon; sixty of
them were between fourteen and nineteen feet long, and the
other three about eight feet. They were all alive when they
_ came on shore, and made a hideous noise, but were soon killed

by the country people, who removed them one by one, with six
oxen and two horses, and made about ten pounds by the blub-
ber. The same kind of noise was heard in the sea the night
before by the shepherds in the fields, when it is supposed they
were sensible of their distress in shoal water.” I have little
doubt of Wallis’s “ Porpess” being the Phocena melas; for
although the Delphinus, or rather Phocena Orca, is gregarious,
travelling together im companies of six or eight, they do not
herd together in large numbers. Until lately, these two species
were not well discriminated; they much resemble each’ other ;
but in the Phocena Orca the pectoral swimmers are broad and
oval, while in the Phocena melas they are long and narrow; the
head of the former is rounded and obtuse, but it is not truneated
like that of the latter.

It cannot be uninteresting to inquire into the cause of a
phenomenon, which seems to present itself only at intervals of
about a century. The state of the weather will not, I think,
account for the recent stranding of these Porpoises on our
coast; for the sea, during some weeks previously, had been calm
and smooth; westerly winds had prevailed until the preceding
Saturday, when the wind veered to the north-east, but the sea
was not raised or affected by the change. Nor can the event
be attributed to any peculiar condition of the animals themselves,
for they appeared perfectly healthy, and when cut up exhibited
no symptoms of disease. The habits of the animal may, how-
ever, furnish an explanation. They are gregarious, going to-
gether in large herds, sometimes of two or three hundred, and

P2

180 Selby on Wasps.

occasionally even of more than a thousand. According to Dr.
Traill, each herd has its own leader, whom the others implicitly
follow, so that, if perchance he should guide them wrong, they
fall victims to their blind confidence. The northern islanders
turn this singular propensity to their own advantage; for, on
the appearance of a herd in their neighbourhood, they start in
pursuit of them, and endeavour to drive the leader ashore, in
order that they may secure the whole herd. These Porpoises
not only simulate humanity in submitting to government and
united action, but also in the force of their affections; they are
said to be strongly attached to each other, and especially to their
young ; when one is stranded, or in danger, the others, on hear-
ing the cry of distress, rush impetuously to his relief. Hither
cause may account for the disastrous fate of the Northumbrian
herd; the leader may have missed his way in passing along an
irregular and rocky coast, or one of the herd may have been
intercepted by some of the rocks, which, at Boulmer Point,
extend far into the sea, and the others, impelled by the amiable
instincts of their nature, may have rushed heedlessly among
rocks and shallows, from which they could not escape. Indeed,
they must have come ashore with great violence, and even leapt
out of the deeper water, since some of them were lying near to
the high-tide mark. When the bonds of their society are broken,
they appear to be miserably helpless; a few separated from the
herd, unable to guide themselves, were taken at distant places ;
two of them at Craster, three miles north of Howick Burn, and
one at Berlin Car, five miles to the south. One, indeed, of those
at Howick Burn might have escaped, for the water m which it
lay was deep enough onward to the sea for the purpose; but,
deprived of his leader and of his companions, he made no
attempt to escape, and quietly submitted to his fate.

Observations on the Wasps observed within the limits of the Club.
By P. J. Sexsy, Esq.

[ With a Plate. ]

Tur members of the family Vespide, or Wasps, are in Britain
restricted to species of the typical genus Vespa. By F. Smith,
in his Catalogue of British Hymenoptera Aculeata contained in
the British Museum, seven species are enumerated, viz. :-—V.
erabro, the Hornet; V. vulgaris, the Common Wasp; V. Ger-
manica; V. rufa; V. sylvestris, Campanular Wasp; V. Britan-
nica, Tree Wasp; and V. arborea, Northern Wasp.

Of these seven species, I have only been able (at least satis-
factorily) to make out three as existing within the limits of

Selby on Wasps. 181

our district, viz. the V. vulgaris, V. rufa, and V. Britannica.
I suspect, however, from two or three specimens I took some
years ago, but which I have unfortunately mislaid, or lost, that
the V. arborea of Smith may also inhabit the district; and as
the V. sylvestris, Scop., the V. holsatica of Fab., has been met
with as far north as Newcastle, it is not improbable that its
limits may in time be extended still further to the north, or
within the limits of our district. Of the three species above
enumerated, the V. vulgaris is upon the whole most abundant,
and more widely dispersed than either the V. rufa or V. Britan-
nica, which, in consequence of their peculiar habit and ceconomy,
are confined to wooded and enclosed districts, as the former of
these species makes its nest in hedge-banks, or among the roots
of trees, near the surface, the latter suspending their nests from
the branches of trees, outhouses, &c., whereas the V. vulgaris
mvariably nidificates in the earth, forming a cavity sometimes at
a considerable depth and distance from the surface, the adit to
it being usually the deserted burrow of the field-mouse or the
mole.

It is scarcely necessary to remind the Members of the Club,
that every wasp-nest originates with a single female* that has
survived in her hybernaculum, or winter retreat, the severities
of the previous winter storms ; or that all the colony proceeding
from her, and sometimes amounting, before the close of the year,
to many thousand individuals, perish on the approach of cold
weather, except a very limited number of impregnated females
or queens, which disperse and look out for a safe retreat during
the hiemal months. The period of egress from that dormant
and inactive state is regulated by the temperature of the season ;
thus I find that the V. Britannica and V. rufa invariably appear
in the spring before the Common Wasp, and as soon as the
temperature rises to 48° or 50°, which sometimes happens early
in April; the V. vulgaris is seldom seen before the first week in
May. In consequence of this difference in the first appearance
of these insects, the nests of the V. Britannica are already far
advanced before the V. vulgaris has commenced her labours,
and the colonies of the former species have reached their ultimate
destination, viz. the production of males and females, the latter
to become the founders of the next year’s nests, before those
of the V. vulgaris have reached a similar state. As Kirby and
Spence, im their delightful and instructive work, the ‘ Intro-
duction to Entomology,’ as well as other authors, have already
described the habits and ceconomy of the Wasp, it is unneces-

* See Kirby and Spence, Introduction to Entomology, vol. i. pp. 374
and 507; and Westwood’s Class. Ins. vol. ii. p. 248.

182 Selby on Wasps.

sary to enter into any detailed account of what must be familiar
to most of our Members. I may, however, remark, that the
diminutive nests seen in outhouses, and other situations, varying
in size from the circumference of a shilling to that of an egg,
and supposed to be the work of a particular species designated
the Campanular Wasp, are only, in fact, the commencement of
the nests of the species which thus suspend them, and which are
left in this early and unfinished state either by the desertion or
death of the parent queen.

In the composition of the paper-like substance which forms
the exterior of the nests of the three species, I find but little
difference ; all of them forming it of particles of wood procured
from gates, gate-posts, rails, &c., which have been exposed for
some time to the action of the weather, and that is worked up
into a paste with their saliva. There is, however, a considerable
difference in the mode of applying this ligneous paper. By the
Tree Wasp it is beaten and worked out in continuous tile-like
sheets (see fig. 14) which overlap each other and encircle the
whole circumference of the nest; by the V. vulgaris the sheets
are formed of a round shape, and are made to cover the exterior
in the manner of a pan-tiled house; in all, however, a beautiful
provision to exclude rain and moisture from the interior of the
nest is exhibited.

The drenching rains of the autumn and mid-winter of 1852,
and the long and severe snow and frost storm we experienced
during last February and the greater part of March, seem to
have been fatal to dormant wasps, as well as other insects. Very
few queens were observed or destroyed at the period they issue
from their retreats; and as a convincing proof of the rarity of
the different species at Twizell, I may mention that fruit of all
kinds, a favourite food, has this season remained unbroken and
untouched by wasps. In fact, at Twizell, contrary to what
usually happens, I have not seen a single hanging nest in the
woods, and have only met with one weak swarm of the V. vul-
garis.

The distinctive specific characters of the three species appear
to be as follows :—

Vespa vulgaris. Canthus, or that part of the head forming
the emargination of the eyes, entirely yellow. Antenne black.
Tegule yellow. Scutellum,—the queen with four yellow spots ;
the workers frequently with six. The colour of the abdomen
is also of a brighter yellow, and without the reddish-brown upon
the first two segments possessed by most specimens of the other
species. Nests in the ground.

Vespa rufa. Antenne black. Canthus, or emargination of
the eye, black, with a short and narrow yellow streak on the

Plate VI.

ier
Teo

PJ Selby, Det Bevan & Storey, Tith York

Selby on Wasps. 183

lower or inner edge. Tegule yellow. Scutellum with ¢wo yel-
low spots. The first two abdominal segments generally tinged
with yellowish-brown. Nests in hedges, and about the roots of
trees immediately below the surface.

Vespa Britannica. Antennze, with the scape, or first joint on
the under or fore side, bright yellow. Emargination, or canthus
of eye, black, bordered on the lower side by a narrow, short,
yellow streak. Tegule brown. A yellowish-brown spot on the
sides of the first two abdominal segments in most specimens.
Scutellum with two small yellow spots. Nests suspended in
trees, outhouses, hedges, &c.

All these species possess the anchor-shaped mark, more or
less defined, upon the forehead.

The Vespa sylvestris, which I have mentioned as having been
met with in the neighbourhood of Newcastle-on-Tyne, has the
face plain yellow. The antenne, with the frontal part of the
scape, bright yellow. Two yellow spots on the scutellum. Ab-
domen bright gamboge-yellow barred with black, and without
the side-spots possessed by the other species. Nests in out-
‘houses, &c.

PLATE VIII.

Fig. 1. V. vulgaris, showing the four scutellar yellow spots.

2. Eye, showing the yellow canthus or emargination.

3. Front view of head.

4. Antenne.

5. Figure of a worker, showing the four scutellar spots.

6. V. rufa, showing the two yellow scutellar spots.

7. Showing the black canthus of the eye with the yellow streak.

8. Side view of head.

9. V. Britannica, showing the two yellow scutellar spots.

10. Canthus of eye, black, with short yellow streak.

11. Front view of head, showing the yellow portion of the scape of
the antennz.

12. Antennz, showing the yellow upon the scape.

13. Figure of a worker.

14. Nest of V. Britannica.

15. Nest of V. vulgaris.

~

Since writing the preceding observations, I find, by a letter
from Mr. Frederick Smith, of the British Museum, that the
Wasps I took some years ago, and which I thought I had lost
or mislaid, were in fact sent by me (a circumstance that had
escaped my memory) to the Rev. H. Hope, and proved to be
specimens of Smith’s Vespa arborea. This species, therefore,
may now be added to the list, and I expect another season may
enable me to make a further addition in the form of the V. Ger-
manica.

184 The Church and Churchyard of Chirnside.

The specific characters of V. arborea, as sent to me by Mr.
Smith, are as follows :—

V. arborea ?. Head, the scape of antennee yellow in front ;
the clypeus without marks, or with two indistinct ones; a nar-
row yellow lne runs up the inner margins of the eyes, not,
or seldom, reaching the notch. The scutellum with two lunate
spots, but the metathorax below immaculate. Abdomen with a
central spot and one on each side, not touching the margin of
the base; the second segment has a narrow black basal band, a
central spot, and an oblique one on each side, the rest usually
immaculate. The posterior tibie have long black hairs.

N.B.—I recollect that the year these specimens of V. arborea
were taken, wasps were particularly abundant.

Chirnside—its Church and Churchyard.
By Grorce Henverson, Surgeon, Chirnside.

Iv has been said that there is a charm about a place having a his-
tory : we are afraid, however, that the historical associations con-
nected with Chirnside are not of sucha nature as to add much to
the charms which render it lovely in our eyes. The locality owes
more, we presume, to the amenity of its situation—the beautiful
landscapes with which it is on every side invested, and the fer-
tility and high state of culture which mark its fields and gardens;
but what remains of its antiquities, however fragmentary they
be, we are-anxious to preserve, and in the following notice this
we have attempted to perform.

The etymology of the name of the village and parish of Chirn-
side is involved in impenetrable obscurity. The idea that it is
derived from Chairn or Chirn*, (Brit.) a Cairn, and the Saxon
affix side, is that which seems to carry the greatest number of
votes. This denotes that the site of Chirnside was originally
near or by the stde of a Cairn, or monumental heap of stones.
Now it is well known that there existed, about eighty or a hun-
dred years ago, an immense cairn on the highest point of Chirn-
side hill—nearly at the distance of half a mile to the north-east
of the Church. This cairn lay close to a farm-place called Hare-
law—literally the hill of the monument—Haar in the ancient
British signifying a stone or stones of remembrance. Those
hare-stones were generally monolithic columns of rude stone set
up as memorials of some important military action, or a sepul-

* Carn, or Charn, in the Cambro-British and Gaelic languages, signifies
a heap, secondarily a sepulchral tumulus; and of this Gaehe word the
oblique case is Chairn; and to this form of the word the Saxon settlers
applied their affix side, to denote its position.— Chalmers.

The Church and Churchyard of Chirnside. 185

chral monument for some distinguished hero or leader of ancient
times. Now, at the period when the name was imposed on this
locality, the cairn just alluded to was probably the most conspi-
cuous object in the district; and what more natural to suppose than
that the first Saxon settlers indicated their village and church as
the place by the cairn, and for brevity’s sake soon learned to name
it Chairn, or Chirnside?

We have no means of ascertaining when Chirnside was first
settled by our Saxon ancestors, or whether there existed pre-
viously in the locality any station, or temple, or place of worship
belonging to the aboriginal inhabitants. It is certain that a
church and place of defence were erected here at a very early
period. The first lords or proprietors of the manor of Chirnside
of whom we have any record were the redoubted Earls of Dun-
bar. The church and its pertinents were granted by the Scottish
king, Edgar, to the Monks of Coldingham. There was then, at
that time, a church here; and probably the western doorway,
which still exists, and which we shall have occasion subse-
quently to mention, is part of the original structure. The con-
stant tradition of the village is, that this portion of the church
is as old as the Saxon Heptarchy.

In ancient times the Earls of Dunbar possessed here a strong-
hold, which was situated a few hundred yards south-west of the
church. The spot on which this castrum stood is still called
* Harbour or Herber Knowes” ; and a fine spring of water, a
little to the north, is pointed out as being the source whence
was derived a supply to fill the deep fosse, ditch, or moat which
surrounded the walls. The demolition of this “old strength ”
was not so long ago, says the Old Statistical Account,written in
1794, “ nor so entire, but that the late beadle of Chirnside, and
other old people, had seen its ruins, and its grooved stones carried
off by the masons.”

The manor of Chirnside was held by the above earls during
the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. When Earl Patrick, the
eighth of Dunbar, deserted the English imterest, Edward III.
granted a charter of the manors of Chirnside and Dunse, with
the advowson of their churches, to his faithful adherent and
soldier Thomas de Bradestan, in reward for his many efficient
services. This deed is dated at Perth, and was confirmed at
Berwick, October 5, 1336, three years after the disastrous battle
of Halidon Hill. itis not known for how long Bradestan and
his heirs possessed the manor of Chirnside*. Bradestan was

* It is probable that the Earls of Dunbar enjoyed again for some time
the lands of Chirnside, with their other possessions, before their forfeiture
in 1434.

186 The Church and Churchyard of Chirnside.

to present the king yearly a sword for Chirnside, “ reddendo per
annum ensem, in festo Nativitatis Sti. Johannis,” but we find,
that on the 20th June, 1451, the King’s lands of Chirnside and
Dunglass, which appear to have been for some time vested in
the Crown, were granted to Six Alexander Home, the first Lord
High Chamberlain of Scotland. In 1489-90, Alexander, second
Lord Home, had his lands of Chirnside and Manderston united
to the barony of Home by charter bearing date 4th January of
that year. <A decree of the same Parliament which brought
Lord Home to the scaffold in October 1516, confiscated his
estates. Chirnside, with some of his other lands and titles, was
however, restored to his son George, in August 1522, and con-
firmed to him by three successive Parliaments. In March 1646,
these lands were granted to John Home, uncle of James, Earl of
Home. About the period of the Revolution, those lands now
called Whitehall were acquired by purchase from the Homes by
a gentleman of the name of Hall, ancestor of the present Si
John Hall, Bart., of Dunglas. The last laird of Whitehall, as
individual proprietor, was William Hall, Esq., who died at
London, April 38,1800. He was fond of chemical investigations,
and possessed a fine apparatus for carrying out his experiments.
After remaining in possession of the Hall family for nearly a
century and a half, the estate of Whitehall was purchased, a few
years since, by Mitchell Innes, Ksq., of Ayton, the present pro-
prietor and patron of the Church of Chirnside. The lower part
of the estate, stretching to the Whiteadder, is beautifully adorned
with lofty groves of oak, beech, ash, elm, &c., the most of which
were planted by the Halls, shortly after it came into their
possession.

We know little of the state of the Church of Chirnside in the
times of old. In the ancient taxation, taken in 1176, “ecclesia
de Chirnesyd” was rated at 50 marks. In Bagimont’s roll, the
tenth of the rectory of Chirnside is taken at £4. Symon, “ par-
sona de Chirnesyde,” subscribed a charter of Patrick, Karl of
Dunbar, between the years 1248 and 1289, “ de restitutione
ward maritagii heredam de Nesbyth.” The successor of
Symon seems to have been William de Blda, or Blythe; he
appears on the list of Berwickshire clergy who were necessitated
to swear fealty to Edward I. at Berwick, im August 1296. In
1842, during the reign of David II., Patrick, Earl of Dunbar,
annexed the advowson and property of the church of Chirnside
to his newly-founded collegiate church at Dunbar, which was
the first establishment of that kind known in Scotland, and thus
constituted it a collegiate prebend. This annexation was con-
firmed by Landells, Bishop of St. Andrews; and more recently,
by Henry, Bishop of the same diocese, on the 23rd October,

The Church and Churchyard of Chirnside. 187

1429. At the same time that Edward III. bestowed the manor
of Chirnside upon Thomas de Bradestan, he appointed his own
chaplain, John, son of “ Roger Grey de Ruthyn,” to be pre-
bendary. He, however, recalled him from that office in 1348,
and vested the advowson in Bradestan, the new proprietor*.
Except these few and unsatisfactory notices, we hear no more
of the church of Chirnside till after the Reformation. In 1581
it is constituted a seat of a presbytery, which has continued to
be held here till the present time.

The Church of Chirnside, surrounded with its “field of graves,”
lies at the foot of a gentle acclivity which is crowned by a long
straggling village, here and there interspersed with single trees,
or groups of the same, adding much to its picturesqueness and
beauty. The view from the churchyard, especially looking to
the south, is one of great richness, extent, and loveliness. The
church itself is a long low building, of no pretensions to grandeur
of design or structure. The only thing remarkable about it is
the western door, which there can be no doubt is of great
antiquity ; but whether it is a Norman or Saaon arch, there has
been some dispute; and we are not versant enough in the science
of architecture to be able to clear up the doubt. A pretty
correct representation of this doorway may be seen in Carr’s
History of Coldingham. When the church was rebuilt in 1572,
the architect, with great care and good taste, preserved this
fragment of the ancient structure. It projects a few inches
from the line of the wall; and a few feet to the east of this door
will be found fixed into the mason-work, a few links of an iron
chain, to which was formerly attached a collar of iron or leather.
This was an old instrument of discipline in the Scottish church,
called “The Jougst+ ”—a sort of pillory, for a certain class of
delinquents, such as those who were guilty of too vigorous
scolding, brawling, fighting, swearing, drunkenness, &c. This
mode of punishment has been long obsolete. In the front
wall of the interior is a square tablet, which appears to have
been taken from the erection of 1572, and built into its present
site at the re-edification of the church at a more recent date.
This stone bears the inscription “ Helpe Y¢ Pur, 1572.7? An
addition was made to the church seventeen or eighteen years
ago, when an aisle, or burial-vault, belonging to the Lauders,
formerly proprietors of Edington, was removed. At the west

* On the 5th of August, 1450, Sir Alexander Home granted to the
Collegiate church of Dunglas, four husband lands in Chirnside. On the
4th January, 1489, James IV. confirmed an entail of the lands of Chirn-
side, &e., to Alexander Home, the Great Chamberlain of Scotland, and
grandson and heir of Alexander, Lord Home, and his heirs male.

+ Juggs, Jougs, Jogges, may be derived from Lat. jugum, a yoke. -

188 The Church and Churchyard of Chirnside.

end of the church there is a gallery called “ Whitehall Loft,”
and at the eastern extremity another gallery called “ Ninewells
Loft.” Both these galleries are reached by flights of stone
steps outside the church; and below the latter is a burial-vault
belonging to the family of Hume of Ninewells, and in which
repose the ashes of several generations. The belfry on the
western gable of the church is a very small concern, and the
bell, which emits a tone of very little effect, is rung from
without.

Chirnside, like most of our border villages, was frequently
subjected to the ravages of war; and, like some other border
churches, it possessed a castellated tower for the protection of
the villagers. This stood at the west end of the church, and
was removed eighty or ninety years ago. At the interment of
a person of the name of Middiemiss, in 1847, its foundations
were exposed to view; a large hearth-stone and fire-place were
laid open; and the foundations of ancient walls, which seemed
to have been blackened by fire. The keeper of this tower in
1524 was one Luke Aitcheson, “a man,” according to our
informant, William Crow, “above the common strength of men
in his day.” He was slain by six freebooters, who made an
attack upon the tower by night. He had repulsed this ferocious
band, who withdrew, saying they would recross the water. The
feint succeeded. The freebooters hid themselves in a thicket of
broom near the ruins of Herber-knowes ; and the valiant watch-
man was slain by them as he was, apparently, on his way to
alarm the village and raise a pursuit. In the old times of feudal
and border warfare, the villagers of Chirnside had two strong
pends, vaults, or inclosures, near the Cross Hil/, in which they
penned their flocks and herds during night, for fear of the ma-
rauders from the English Border. They had also what was called
a Watchhouse, a little to the east of the Cross Hill, or middle of
the village; and when the villagers and their neighbowrs went
upon a freebooting excursion, a large fire was kept up on this
Watchhouse, or tower, during night, to direct them the right
way home with their booty.

The Session records of Chirnside Church, extending back to
some time before the Revolution, are not of great interest; but
as they, in some instances, exhibit human nature in its stranger
and more remarkable aspects, we had intended here to have
given a few curious extracts, had our limits permitted; but as
we have chiefly to do with the church, we will present a list of
the ministers who have officiated here since the Reformation, in
so far as we have been able to ascertain them.

1. Mr. David Home appears to have been the first mmister of
Chirnside after the Reformation. He was alive in 1597.

The Church and Churchyard of Chirnside. 189

2. Mr. Alexander Smyth was minister herein 1609. He was
a witness on the trial of Mr. George Sprott, notary-public in
Eyemouth, who was condemned to death for concealing the
treason of the Earl of Gowrie and Logan of Restalrig. With
other ministers of the Merse, he was summoned before the High
Commission at Edinburgh for nonconformity to some points
pressed upon them by the Bishops, such as kneeling at the sacra-
ment, &c. He and the others were true to their resolve, and
the Bishop of St. Andrews (Spottiswood) could make nothing
of them. Mr. Smyth was alive in 1625. He seems to have
deceased soon after this date, as

3. Mr. Johne Mackmeath was minister in 1638. Of him we
have the following notice :—

“ Dec. 11th, 1638. 18th Session of Assembly.

“ Much of the tyme being spent in sentencing bishopps ;
the rere of the session was fetched upp with the accusa-
tione and censures of some ministers, all anti-covenanters (for
it is to be observed, that in these dayes nothinge could be
founde to be laide to the charge of any minister who took the
covenant), by name Mr. Andrew Lamb or Lawmont, Mr. Johne
Mackmeath (see Baillie’s Letters, vol. i. p. 188), minister of
Chirnside; Mr. Francis Harvye,—all accused of Arminianisme
and lewde lyves, and Mr. Christopher Knolls (minister of Cold-
ingham), who, to boote, was saide to have gottine a chylde in
adulterye, which his wyfe caused a freende of his tacke (take)
upon him to be father to. The triale of all these accusationes
was referred to comittyes in the respective boundes where thes
ministers lived.” Z

Gordon’s Hist. of Scots affaires, vol. ii. p. 148.
(Spalding Club Publication.)

We have not been able to ascertain the time of Mr. Mack-
neath’s decease.

4. Mr. William Galbraith was minister of Chirnside in 1660.
We have no farther notice of him.

5. Mr. James Lawtie was admitted minister of Chirnside on
August 26th, 1669; and was for nineteen years the Episcopal
incumbent here, till the epoch of the Revolution compelled him
to demit his charge. For some time after this he officiated as
minister to a small congregation of Episcopalians in Eyemouth.
When or where Mr. Lawtie died we have no accounts.

6. The next minister of Chirnside was Mr. Henry Areskine—
a man who seems to have had few equals in his time. He
belonged to the family of Erskine of Shuelfield, near Dryburgh ;
and was appointed minister of Cornfill, in Northumberland, in

190 The Church and Churchyard of Chirnside.

1649; from which place he was ejected for Nonconformity in
1662, and suffered much in the cause of Presbytery. After-
wards he was for some time minister of a Presbyterian congre-
gation at Reevelaw, near Whitsome. Soon after the Revolution
he was appointed minister of Chirnside, where he laboured till
his death, on the 10th August, 1696. Mr. Henry Erskine was
the father of the two eminent individuals, Messrs. Ralph and
Ebenezer Erskine, the originators and fathers of the Secession
Church of Scotland. It appears that the Rev. Henry Areskine
had been in great poverty during his mcumbency in Chirnside,
as we find in the Session records the following notice confirma-
tory of the fact :—“Lent to Mr. Henry Areskine, June 11th,
the year 1695, upon ticket which hes in the Box (the poor’s box),
the sum of £20:03:00.” It appears that he had not been able
to repay this during his life. But we find also in the same
record the following extract, alike honourable to his widow,
Mrs. Areskine, and the Session of Chirnside :—

May 27, 1711.

“The Minister (Mr. George Home) represented to the Sessione
that he had resieved from Misstresse Areskine, relict to the
deceased Mr. Henry Areskine, sometime minister of Chyrnside,
the soum of Sixteen Pound Scoéées, in part of payment of a
ticket of her late husband’s for Twenty Pounds Scottes, lying
in the Poors’ Box. The Sessione, considering the said soume
of Twentie Pounds has been long owing, and that the grait pairt
of it is now paide, and that the said Misstresse Areskine is not
well able to pay more of it, appoimted the Ticket to be given
up, and the said Sixteen Pound Scottes to be put into the poors’
box.”

A full account of Mr. Henry Areskine is prefixed to the Life
of his son, the Rev. Ebenezer Erskine, by the Rev. Dr. Donald
Frazer of Kennoway. The first Kirk Session of Chirnside after
Mr. Erskine’s settlement, consisted of the following members.
These names appear in the Session book in the autograph of Mr.
Erskine, May 20, 1691 :—

Mr. Henry Areskine, Minister.
David Home of Ninewells.
George Home of Chirnside Mains.
George Aitchessone, in Chirnside.
David Richardsone, there.
William Aitchessone, there.
James Richardsone, there.
William Dunbar, there.

George Ralph, there.

The Church and Churchyard of Chirnside. 191

David Cowan, in Idingtone (Edington).
John Cowan, there.
David Cowan, in Ploughland.

7. Mr. Erskine was succeeded in the pastorship of the parish
of Chirnside by the Rev. Wilkam Miller, who was ordained on
the 6th April, 1699; Mr. James Ramsay, of Kyemouth, preach-
ing his ordination sermon, from 1 Tim. iii. 1. He was trans-
ported to Meigle in 1702. “ He preached his farewell sermon
on Nov. 8, from Isai, 53 chap., i. verse.”

8. Mr. George Home succeeded him, being ordained minister
of Chirnside March 13, 1704. “ His ordination sermon was
delivered by Mr. Gilbert Laurie, minister of Hutton, from Mat.
24 chap. and 45 v.” His first Session consisted of the fol-
lowing Members :—“ George Home; Paul Aitchesson; James
Richardson ; William Aitchesson; John Pearson, in Edington ;
Patrick Forman, in Chyrnside; William Tait, in Edington ;
Robert Guthrie, in Chyrnside Mill; and Alex*™ Cockburn,
Sessione Clerk.” In 1712 the following members were added:
—‘John Home, in Nethermains; William Bald, mason in
Chyrnside ; Alexander Cockburn, (not the Clerk); John Ait-
chesson, both in Chyrnside; George Landells, tenant in Chyrn-
side; and James Landells, m Blackburn.” Mr. Home died
about the year 1750. He was the proprietor of Cadger Tower,
now Broadhaugh, in this parish; and we believe that the late
Mr. Abraham Home, of Gunsgreen, and Minister of Greenlaw,
was his descendant.

9. He was succeeded by the Rev. Walter Anderson, D.D.,
who was ordained on May 18, 1756. Where or when he was
born is not ascertained.. He had an irrepressible ambition to
be an author, and wrote and published many books, not one of
which ever obtained any celebrity in the world of letters, His
works are :—

1. “ The History of Croesus, King of Lydia, in 4 Parts.
1765.”

2. “ The History of France during the reign of Francis IT.
and Charles IX. 2vols. 4to. 1769.”

3. “ The History of France, from the commencement of the
reign of Henry III., &e. vol. 1775.”

4. “ Two more vols. appeared in 1783.”

** But these continuous efforts were not drawn forth by the
encouragement of the public; they were solely owing to the
desperate cacoéthes of the worthy writer, who would take no hint
from the world—no refusal from fame. It is said that he was
solely enabled to support the expense of his unrequited labour

192 The Church and Churchyard of Chirnside.

by a set of houses belonging to himself in Dunse*, (too appro-
priate locality!) one of which was sold for every successive
quarto; till at last something like a street of good habitable
tenements in that thriving town was converted into a row of
unreadable volumes in his library.” —Chambers.

5. “The Philosophy of Ancient Greece Investigated in its
Origin and Progress, &c.”—This work is worthy of some praise,
but it is entirely unknown to fame.

6. “A Commentary on the Psalms of David.”—A large 4to
volume.

7. He also wrote “ The Old Statistical Account of Chirnside,”
about 1794 or 1795. It is one of the best of the whole series.

One of the last attempts of Dr. Anderson was a pamphlet
“Against the Principles of the French Revolution.” “ This
being not only written,” says Chambers, “ in his usual heavy style,
but adverse to the popular sentiments, met with so little sale,
that it could scarcely be said to have been ever published; how-
ever, the Doctor was not discouraged : adopting rather the maxim
‘contra audentior ita,’ he wrote a ponderous addition, or appen-
dix, to the work, which he brought with him to Edinburgh, in
order to put it to the press. Calling upon his friend, Principal
Robertson, he related the whole design, which, as might be
expected, elicited the mirthful surprise of the venerable historian.
‘Really,’ said Dr. Robertson, ‘ this is the maddest of all your
schemes. What! a small pamphlet is found heavy, and you
propose to lighten it by making it ten times heavier! Never
was such-madness heard of!’ ‘Why, why,’ answered Dr.
Anderson, ‘ did you never see a kite raised by boys?’ ‘I
have,’ answered the Principal. ‘Then you must have remarked
that, when you try to raise the kite by itself there is no getting
it up; but, only add a long string of papers to its tail, and up
it goes like a laverock!? The Reverend Principal was com-
pletely overcome by this argument, which scarcely left him
breath to reply, so heartily did he laugh at the ingenuity of the
resolute author. However, we believe he eventually dissuaded
Dr. Anderson from his design.”—Chambers’s Lives of Eminent
Scotsmen.

Dr. Walter Anderson died 2nd June, 1800, after having
been forty-four years minister of Chirnside. He appears to
have lived and died a confirmed bachelor. He displayed little
power as a pulpit orator, and was popularly reckoned a poor
preacher. THe appears to have borne through hfe an unble-
mished moral character, was a simple man as to worldly matters,
and descended to the grave with the regrets of his parishioners.

* It is likely that Dr. Anderson was a native of Dunse.

The Church and Churchyard of Chirnside. 193

A marble tablet to his memory is built into the front wall of the
church.

10, The next incumbent of Chirnside church was the Rev.
Thomas Logan, M.D., a native of Lanarkshire. He was or-
dained April 16, 1801. The Doctor was one of those who, in
conjunction with Brougham, Jeffrey, Sidney Smith, &c., esta-
blished a society out of which originated “The Edinburgh
Review.” But it does not appear that he ever wrote anything
for its pages. His Medical Thesis is said to be a piece of very
elegant Latinity. The Doctor was evidently a man of superior
talent, but was not distinguished as a preacher of the gospel.
He died on the 30th January, 1838, aged 62 years.

11. The present minister of Chirnside is the Rev. James
Wilson.

The churchyard of Chirnside contains fully an acre of land,
and is clustered with an immense number of grave-stones,
most of which are of a very common-place character. A very
neat monument was recently erected by the Odd-Fellows Society
to the memory of J. Crosbie, surgeon in this village. There is a
small obelisk to the memory of Thos. Begbie, Esq. of Mains.
The only other worthy of notice is that to the memory of the
Rev. Henry Erskine mentioned above, raised by subscription in
1822. Near this obelisk, at the east side of the churchyard,
may be seen his original monument, which is supposed to have
been erected by his friend, the Rev. John Dysert, minister of
Coldingham. It is what is called in Scotland a throuch-stone,—
a broad horizontal stone placed on pedestals, and is inscribed
with the following epitaph :— ;

“M.S.

M. Henrici Areskine
Pastoris Chirnsidis,
Qui obut 10 Augusti 1696,
Adtatis suze 72.

“‘ Sanctus Areskinus, saxo qui conditor isto
Est lapis eeterni vivus in Atde Dei,
Non astu lapis hic, technave volubilis ulla
Quippe fide, in Petra constabilitus erat.

“ Under this stone there lies a stone,
Living with God above ;
Built on a Rock was such a one,
Whom force nor fraud could move.”

B.N.C.—VOL. III. N°. V. Q

194 Tate on the Meeting at Powburn.

Notes of the Meeting at Powburn. By Mr. Gzorcex Tarts, F.G.S.

Tue Club met on the 16th of August at Powburn, which, being
a locality not before visited, and remarkable, moreover, for its
archeological remains, would, if the weather had not been un-
settled and threatening, have attracted a large attendance.
There were present, the President accompanied by his two Sons,
Dr. Johnston, Mr. Collingwood, Mr. Tate, Mr. Carr, the Rev.
H. Parker, and Mr. G. R. Tate, with Mr. Clay, junior. After
breakfast, the party set off to examine the banks of the Breamish,
and purposed, if time permitted, to visit the Camps on the neigh-
bouring hills and the more interesting remains of an ancient
British town near Linhope. A thunder-storm accompanied by
a heavy fall of rain compelled the party to retrace their steps.
In the course of the afternoon, however, Crawley Tower was
visited, and the botany and geology of Crawley Dean were
noticed.

Crawley is a high sandstone ridge overlooking the Vale of the
Breamish. According to Mr. Carr, it was formerly written
Crau-law, which is supposed to be a modified form of Caer, used
by the ancient Britons to designate Roman forts, united with
the Anglo-Saxon word /aw, which has a secondary meaning of
‘lull’ On this commanding position a Roman Camp, a Peel
Tower, and a modern farm-house are singularly grouped to-
gether. The Camp is distinctly Roman, being of a rectangular
form, and near the line of a Roman road, the remains of which
are yet visible eastward of Whittingham. On the west side,
where the hill is steep, there is only a single rampier, but on the
north side, which is naturally the weakest, a double rampier and
a fosse are distinctly to be seen; the other sides have long ago
been levelled; but their foundations have in course of draining
been recently exposed; the whole originally enclosed about two
acres. Within this Camp stands a Peel 'Tower—one of those
fortified buildings which are peculiar to the Border districts, and
which were erected to protect the mhabitants and their cattle
against Border marauders. It is a massive oblong building, with
the walls, excepting that on the north, tolerably entire, and having
the enormous thickness of 83 feet. The north wall may have
been battered down during some unrecorded attack by the Scots,
for a forty-two pound cannon-ball has been found in the imme-
diate neighbourhood. Some of the original windows yet remain ;
two of them in the south wall are double and pointed, and re-
semble those in the Barbican of Alnwick Castle; they indicate
that this Tower was erected in the fourteenth century. These
ancient walls now enclose a modern farm-house. Here, within
a limited area, three widely different states of society are pre-

Tate on the Meeting at Powburn. 195

sented. The Camp tells of the military occupation of the island
by a foreign power, which while it reduced to subjection the
barbarous aboriginal tribes, whose fortlets and towns are scattered
over the neighbouring hills, nevertheless introduced amongst
them the elements of civilization. Both conquerors and con-
quered totally disappear; a more vigorous but turbulent race
succeeded, and the Peel Tower marks a period of Border raids,
of pillage, burnings and bloodshed. Another and a better change
comes gradually over the scene; hostile yet kindred nations are
united ; civilization and the peaceful arts have progressed, and
now at length the modern farm-stead, standing amid the
decaying relics of troubled times, overlooks smiling hamlets and
luxuriant fields, and sees, not far in the distance, hills and
upland pastures on which thousands of sheep browse in perfect
security.

In the walk towards the Breamish, Ranunculus fluviatilis was
seen in great abundance, adorning with its beautiful white flowers
the surface of the Powburn; in the same water were Callitriche
verna, Callitriche platycarpa, Callitriche autumnals, and along
' the banks Malva moschata was pretty abundant. Besides many
of the plants common in moist woods, the following were more
particularly noticed in Crawley Dean :— Crepis succisefolia,
Crepis paludosa, Epipactis latifolia, Campanula latifolia, Vicia
sylvatica, Anagallis tenella, Parnassia palustris, Polystichum acule-
atum, Equisetum Talmateia, and Chrysosplenium alternifolium.

The village of Powburn is in the valley between the porphy-
ritic range of the Cheviots on the west, and the carboniferous
strata on the east. As seen from Crawley, these hills are at
this season beautiful, many of them, especially those of Fawdon,
being of a regular conical form, and covered with a fine green
sward, diversified here and there by the purple bloom of the
heather. Sandstone shales and impure limestones constitute the
stratified rocks. A sandstone on the summit of Glanton Hill
furnishes one of the best building-stones in the county, and
out of it issues a spring of remarkably soft and pure water,
which is conveyed tu the village of Glanton for domestic use. As
showing the connection between the character of a rock and the
quality of the water, it may be noticed that Mr. Collingwood
found the water obtained by sinking at a lower level on Glan-
ton Pike, where calcareous rocks occur, to be hard and of
an indifferent quality; and from the same calcareous beds a
spring issues in Crawley Dean, so saturated with lime, that it
incrusts with calcareous matter the mosses and other plants it
passes over and forms what is popularly called a “ petrifying
spring.” A good section of the rocks, upwards of 100 feet in
thickness, is exposed by a cutting made on the hill-side in

Q2

196 Hardy on the Flora of Berwickshire.

Crawley Dean for the new road. They consist of sandstones
and shales interstratified with more than 20 feet of thin beds of
impure magnesian limestone, and dip at a high angle to the
north-west. After a careful examination, several highlyinteresting
organic remains were discovered in the calcareous beds. Among
these are remains of extinct genera of Ganoid Fish—an order
distinguished by having bright angular scales composed of horny
or bony plates covered with enamel: the Sturgeon and the
Lepidosteus of the American lakes and rivers belong to this order.
The specimens found are too fragmentary and detached to admit
of specific determination: a long striated tooth, a portion of a
very small jaw with ten minute teeth and a scale, could however
be recognized as those of a Holoptychius, an extinct genus which
combined reptilian with ichthyic characters. Several prettily
ornamented shining scales also occurred, belongmg to Paleo-
niscus, another Ganoid fish. Associated with these remains is
a species of Modiola, which resembles one occurring in great
abundance in the lower shales of the carboniferous formation in
Ireland. The Crawley Dean beds belong to the same lower
group ; they occupy the same position as the strata on the Tweed
about Coldstream and on the Whiteadder below Churnside, and
are below the Productal limestones and workable coal of North-
umberland.

A few Notes on Berwickshire Plants, with Localities for some
of the Species. By Mr. James Harpy.

1. Ranunculus repens. The latest autumnal flowers are very
minute, often not larger than peas.

2. R. bulbosus. Since the observation recorded in Dr. John-
ston’s ‘ Nat. Hist. of the Eastern Borders,’ 1. p. 27, of its non-
occurrence here, I have observed it growing abundantly in an
old grass field behind Cockburnspath ; also in a confined space
at the foot of the Pease Burn; and there are a few plants at the
south end of Penmanshiel Wood.

3. R. hirsutus. A single plant in a new grass field at Pen-
manshiel, introduced with foreign clover seed.

4. Caltha palustris. I have met with a proliferous, and also
a double state of this plant.

5. Ulex europeus. Whins seldom rise in heathy tracts, unless
the subsoil has been broken up; but they almost invariably
spot the surface, if the ground has formerly been cultivated.
The various old roads, by which the moors have been crossed in
former times, are either occupied by thickets of furze, or are

rapidly being filled up with them.

Hardy on the Flora of Berwickshire. 197

6. Rubus plicatus. Godscroft Woods; Harelawside Wood.

7. Alchemilla vulgaris. A dwarf variety, with the leaves and
petioles densely pubescent, grows in the gravelly haugh between
Godscroft and the Monynuts.

8. Epilobium virgatum. This is abundant in some ‘of the
peat-pits in Coldingham Moor, and generally over the Lam-
mermuirs.

9. Galium uliginosum. Small purplish conical bodies, com-
posed of minute leaves, appear at the ends of some of the shoots
in autumn. These are the nestling places of the larve and
pup of Psylla Gali.

10. Bellis perennis. The var. 2. Withering, Bot. Arrang. iii.

p- 733, with the flower globular, herbaceous, and resembling a
strawberry, grows in the fields here. It is unaltered under
cultivation.
' 11. Senecio vulgaris. Supplementary or aérial rootlets often
issue from the stem. They occur also in S. Jacobea, Achillea
millefolium, and Galeopsis Tetrahit. ‘They are most frequent at
the nodes, but the intervals have equally the power of producing
them. They are most numerous when the stem is decumbent
on the soil, but several of them never enter it. Digitalis pur-
purea and Cardamine pratensis in autumn occasionally show
rootlets on the stem, but these are connected with leafy buds,
originating in the axils of leaves or branches.

12. Leontodon Taraxacum. On the-16th of July, I observed
that the greater number of the dandelions in a piece of ground
that had been rendered very compact by frequent treadimg on,
had most of the flowers united im twos. Some were combined
to the very top, and flowered together; another was in seed,
while its companion was expanding ; a third preserved its unity
for only two-thirds of the stalk, and separated at the summit ;
while a fourth presented a symmetrical stem throughout, with-
out traces of the engrafting process apparent in others. These
conjunct heads are not unfrequent in Apargia autumnalis and
Centaurea nigra.

13. Crepis virens. On the 22nd of September, I met with a
plant among corn, in which the flowers were converted into
large green scaly heads. These were circular, and consisted of
from 24 to 28 distinct cylindrical herbaceous florets. This
state is analogous to that of the daisy already referred to. The
(receptacle) involucre was scattered in the form of bracts on the
stalk beneath the heads.

14. Mieracium umbellatum. Penmanshiel Wood. Both it
and H. sabaudum are becoming scarce, being destroyed by
the colonies of rabbits that of recent years have overrun the
woods.

198 Hardy on the Flora of Berwickshire.

15. Veronica Chamedrys. In barren spots, fleshy green nodo-
sities of irregular shapes arise in the substance of the trailing
stalks. Several of these retain their connection till spring,
when they take root, and are converted into separate plants.

16. V. Buxbaumu. This has appeared this season in a new
grass field at Penmanshiel, occupying about thirty square feet,
and nearly confined to one spot.

17. Teucrium Scorodonia. There is a variety with the leaves
crispate, and more than usually wrinkled.

18. Calamintha Acinos. A few specimens have appeared this
season in a field at Penmanshiel.

19. Galeopsis Tetrahit. There is a diseased condition of this
plant not unfrequent, which I examined this autumn. The
stem twists itself into a curve, and the florets sit close together,
are pale-coloured, and little developed. On opening the part of
the stem producing the florets, the interior is found to be of a
loose spongy texture, of a yellowish hue, and verging to a state
of decay. Among the vegetable matter I observed masses of a
white substance resembling hairs, which at length by their
movements discovered themselves to be vibriones. The species
is very similar to that occurring in the diseased stems of the
Trifolium pratense first observed by Mr. Murcott; and it may
be remarked, that the structure of the diseased portions of the
hemp-nettle and the red clover also exhibit a mutual likeness.
I could detect no vibriones in other parts of the stem, in which
the green matter under the bark was concreted into granules, a
circumstance that also takes place in the small purplish specks
formed upon the foliage of some grasses by Vibrio Graminis.
I have not paid sufficient attention to the subject to be enabled
to state whether the vibriones are the cause of the malady in
the Trifolium and Galeopsis; but that they are not always mere
agents of decay, like the Rhabdites tuberculorum of putrefymg
potatoes and turnips, appears from V. Tritict and V. Graminis
originating diseases in structures otherwise sound.

20. Scutellaria galericulata. The locality indicated in ‘ Nat.
Hist. Hast. Bord’ i. p. 164, has been destroyed by the railway
operations; but the plant occurs by the side of the Pease Burn,
a short way below the forester’s house. Solanum Dulcamara
also still survives there.

21. Trientalis europea. This still occurs sparingly on Pen-
manshiel Moor; and is scattered over the moor between Buskin
Burn and Laverock Law. It also grows at the southern end of
the fir plantation at Blackburn. The bog wherein it grew near
Blackburn Wood is now cultivated.

22. Pius sylvestris. Hitherto there has been no record of
pine-trees bemg imbedded in any of the Berwickshire peat-

Hardy on the Flora of Berwickshire. 199

messes. I find, after examining several of the cuttings made
for peats in this vicinity, that they occur in Dulaw Moss. They
are to be seen on the east side of the moss, where the peat is at
present obtained. I traced out the remains of six or seven
stumps still rooted in the moss; having been left behind, after
the peat had been dug from about them. Another, still in the
moss, lies beneath three feet of peat. They present the shat-
tered appearance of trees that have been fractured by a gale.
One of the trees, however, thirteen yards long, lies at present
exposed, with the root still attached to it. Some of the external
wood is quite sound, and of a reddish tint, and burns with a
clear flame and a resinous odour. The bark still adheres to
the base of the stumps, and layers of resin in an unaltered state
lie between the separate flakes. The diameter of the stumps
is from 12 to 23 feet, and the height of one is 3 feet. I picked
up several cones that lay scattered about, and along with them a
hazel-nut. Immense quantities of the remains of oak and birch
trees, in an extremely decayed state, lie huddled together in the
moss where these pines occur, and constitute the larger portion
of the peat. A very straight oak had been extracted, 9 yards
long and 2 feet in diameter. Although huge oaks now and then
occur, birch is certainly the predominant tree in the Lammer-
muir peat-mosses ; and young trees spring up there still. Hazel
also is pretty generally distributed.

23. Scirpus fluitans. Dulaw Moss.

24. S. caricinus. Sides of the Whiteadder, near The Retreat.

25. Triticum repens. I have met with an instance where the
root has penetrated through a portion of a sound potato, having
entered at one of the “eyes.” When I obtained it, it exactly
fitted the perforation. The Quicken is sometimes called “ ae-
pointed grass,” from the single awl-like leaflet it sends up at its
first appearance above ground in spring.

26. Polypodium Dryopteris. Banks of Monynut Water, op-
posite Godscroft.

27. Pieris aquilina. The scape sometimes bears hard woody
prominences, analogous perhaps to spines. ‘Those nearest the
root are long, slightly recurved, and brown at the apex.

28. Didymodon flexicaulis. Abundant on Greenside Hill, and
near the Blakelaws, in such barren spots in bogs as Hypnum
filicnum, H. commutatum, Bryum pseudo-triquetrum, and Lyco-
podium Selago grow in.

29. Gymnostomum fasciculare. Frequent in the upper part
of Howpark dean, by the side of the burn, fruiting in August.

30. Marchantia conica. Common in all the deans in Pen-
manshiel Wood; also in Howpark dean, and on the Monynut
Water.

200 Alge of the Eastern Borders.

31. M. hemispherica. On rocks bedewed by the spray of the
burns ; Howpark dean; Monynut Water ; side of the Whiteadder,
near The Retreat. It also occurs in Penmanshiel Moss, on the
sides of a few of the peat pits, near their base; and also amongst
the mud, where the water is shallow. This and No. 28 are
additions to the Flora.

32. Endocarpon miniatum. On rocks in the upper part of
Howpark dean.

The Alge of the Eastern Borders.

1. Polysiphonia parasitica. Berwick Bay, in the Narrow-Lane,
and on rocks in front of the Singing-Coves, Mrs. Gatty.

2. Ceramium botryocarpum. Berwick Bay, Mrs. Gatty.

3. Ectocarpus tomentosus. Berwick Bay, in front of the Sing-
ing-Coves, Mrs. Gatty. ;

4. Ectocarpus granulosus. Berwick Bay, Mrs. Gatty.

5. Ectocarpus siliculosus. Berwick Bay, Mrs. Gatty.

6. Callithamnion Hookeri. Berwick Bay, Mrs. Gatty.

7. Callithamnion Brodiat. Berwick Bay, Mrs. Gatty.

8. Rhipidophora paradoxa. Parasitical on Ectocarpus granu-
losus, Mrs. Gatty.

9. Laminaria fascia. In front of the Coves, Holy Island,
Dr. Johnston.

10. Hypnea purpurascens. Abundant about the Coves in
Berwick Bay, Mrs. Gatty.

11. Cladostephus verticillatus. Near the Coves in Holy Island,
Dr. Johnston. .

12. Sphacellaria radicans. Near the Coves, Berwick Bay,
Mrs. Gatty. _ I find that it is common both on the Berwickshire
and North Durham coasts, G. J.

13. Ceramium acanthonotum. Common on our shore, growing
on the beds of small mussels and acorn-shells, G. J

14. Laurencia cespitosa. On rocks south of Scremerston-mill ;~
and very fine in front of the Coves in Holy Island, Dr. Johnston.

15. Melobesia pustulata. oly Island, Dr. Johnston.

16. Mesogloia virescens. Common on rocks about the Coves
in Berwick Bay, Mrs. Gatty ; and in Holy Island, Dr. Johnston.

17. Ulva linza. Yn the Singing-Cove and the adjacent coves,
Mrs. Gatty; and in pools among the rocks at Hudshead, Dr.

Johnston.

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE NATURATISTS’ CLUB.

Anniversary Address, delivered to the Berwickshire Naturalists’
Club at Berwick, January 30th, 1856. By Rosrrr Empxez-
TON, Surgeon, President.

Ir, Gentlemen, on the two previous occasions, when I was, by
your kindness, elected to discharge the duties of your President,
I felt deeply how inadequate I was to do so in a manner com-
mensurate with the proud position in which I was placed, how
much more keenly do I feel my unworthiness on the present
occasion, when I am called upon to succeed him who was the
founder, the life and soul of our Club! The reasons you
assigned for the honour you then conferred upon me were such
that any one might be proud of, namely, that I was one of his
oldest and most intimate friends; but these very reasons ren-
dered the task imposed upon me more delicate and more difficult.
For, in the first place, the little knowledge I possess of Natural
History is entirely owing to his kind superintendence, cheering
me on by his example and precept, and, in the hour of doubt or
difficulty, clearmg my path from the obstructions which sur-
rounded it. How presumptuous, then, must it be thought by
all that I should attempt to give an opinion of his merits as a
B. N. C.—VOL. III. NO. VI. R

202 Annwersary Address.

naturalist or a physician to whom I owe so much! and how can
it be expected that I should delineate his character as a man,
except according to my own feelings, after an uninterrupted
friendship of more than twenty-five years? As, however, I
perfectly coincide with you, that there is no such fitting place to
record his many contributions to science as in the Transactions
of our own Club, so is there no place more suitable for a sketch
of his life and character. Imperfect indeed it must necessarily
be. I have trusted little to my own opinions or feelings, but
have contented myself with using what has already been recorded
of him by others, who were much more competent than myself
to form a correct opinion of his position in every relationship
of life.

George Johnston was born on the 20th of July, 1797, at Sim-
prin, in Berwickshire. Soon after his birth the family removed
to Ilderton, in Northumberland, and there he spent his earliest
years. He went to school for a short time at Kelso, and after-
wards to the Berwick Grammar School. From thence he pro-
ceeded to the University of Edinburgh, residing in the family of
the late Rev. Dr. M‘Crie, the author of the ‘ Life of John Knox.’
On his selecting medicine as his future profession, he was ap-
prenticed to Dr. Abercrombie, under whom he prosecuted his
professional studies, as well as all the branches connected with
it, with a steadiness and zeal which ensured his future eminence.
During these years he joined the Royal Medical Society, and
attended the usual course of lectures; but whatever benefit he
might have derived from them, he has frequently told me, he
attributed his knowledge to the care and instructions of his
friend and master. In 1817 he obtamed the diploma of the
College of Surgeons. After this he then proceeded to London,
where he studied under Joshua Brooks, and soon after established
himself in practice at Belford in Northumberland. Here how-
ever he remained only a short time, for in 1818 he removed to
Berwick-on-Tweed, where he continued to reside until his death.
In 1819 he returned for a short time to Edinburgh, for the
purpose of obtaining his degree of M.D., his thesis being ‘ De
Hydrope,’ and in 1824 he became a Fellow of the College of
Surgeons, his maugural dissertation being on the subject of
cancer. :

Although his practice in Berwick, even at the commencement of

Anmnversary Address. 203

his professional life, was much greater than generally falls to the
lot of the young practitioner in medicine, he nevertheless found
many hours unoccupied; but to him leisure did not create
idleness: he at once began to investigate the natural history of
the neighbourhood ; and how sedulously and actively he had
employed his time became apparent when, in 1829, he published
the first volume of the ‘ Flora of Berwick,’ and two years after-
wards the second, containing the Cryptogamia. During the
same period he had been quietly turning his attention to the
anatomy and habits of the invertebrate animals found upon the
coast, and the fruits of his discoveries appeared at various times
in the then popular ‘ Magazine of Natural History,’ conducted
by the late Mr. Loudon, his clear and correct descriptions being
at the same time illustrated by the faithful pencil of Mrs. John-
ston. But no department of natural history was overlooked by
him ; he carefully noted what he thought worth recording, in
whatever branch it might occur, thereby being afterwards able
to give satisfactory answers to the numerous queries that were
asked of him, when his name became so intimately associated
with European naturalists. In the first volume of the ‘ Trans-
actions of the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Natural History Society,’
appeared what may be called the first edition of his work on the
‘British Zoophytes*,’ a class, since the days of Ellis in 1755,
almost entirely overlooked. This was soon after followed, in
1838, by his ‘ History of British Zoophytes,’ the work which he
has made almost peculiarly his own. The beauty and fidelity
of the descriptions, enhanced as they were by the faithful figures
that illustrated them, naturally turned the attention of many
who had opportunities to the investigation of what they had
previously looked upon as ocean’s flowers, but now found to be
living creatures. A second enlarged and much improved edition
appeared in 1847, and it is now recognized as the text-book on
the subject throughout the world. Between the editions of
1838 and 1847, his active mind found no rest. The unattractive
sponges and lithophytes (for to him nothing in nature was
mean, but he saw that in every object some beautiful provision
of nature existed) excited his attention and investigation, and
the result was known by the appearance of ‘The History of the

* Which he named a ‘ Catalogue of the Recent Zoophytes found on the

coast of North Durham.’
mS

204 Annwersary Address.

British Sponges and Lithophytes,’ a work which may be called
almost unique in this department of British Zoology. In 1850
appeared, under a collected form, many of his earlier papers,
communicated to ‘ Loudon’s Magazine,’ on the Mollusca, under
the title of an ‘Introduction to Conchology,’ a work which was said
by his talented and lamented friend, the late Professor Kdward
Forbes, to be worthy of equal praise as the celebrated Introduc-
tion of Kirby and Spence to Entomology. How little was it
expected that two such kindred spirits should so soon joi each
other in another and a better world? The last work published
during his life was the first volume of ‘The Natural History of
the Eastern Borders,’ comprising the botanical portion, a work
which he looked upon with what I may term fatherly affection,
and in which there is shown a more correct idea of the mind of
the author than in any of his other works. At the time of his
decease, he had just completed his ‘Catalogue of the British
Worms,’ which, I am happy to hear from our member Dr. Wm.
Beard of the British Museum, will soon be in our hands, and
that it will bear out fully the character that was bestowed upon
the previous works on the Invertebrata. His contributions to
the various periodicals of the day will be found in the list I have
appended to this address. His name as a naturalist was known
all over the world, where natural history was cultivated, and he
was elected member of many societies in Great Britain and
Ireland, and the University of Aberdeen conferred upon him the
honorary degree of LL.D., whilst at the same time his corre-
spondence and intercourse with foreign naturalists became widely
extended. Under these circumstances he laid the foundation of
the Ray Society, which has given to the scientific world works
which would have been otherwise inaccessible. Thus far I have
sketched, how imperfectly you must all equally feel with myself,
his public career as a naturalist, and I now come to that point
when, if I may use the term, “ we claim him as our own.” It was
during the year 1831 that he first mentioned to me the idea of
the formation of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club. I was but
too happy to coimcide with his views; and having intimated to
a few others the design that had been formed, our first meeting
took place at “‘ Tommy Grant’s,” and, often as we have visited
the spot (and a favourite one it was to him), he would always
recall the merry meeting, and the happy inauguration of our

Anniversary Address. 205

Club, and nought of sadness ever seemed to cloud his benign
countenance except when he referred to the loss of some one who
had been then present. Under his fostering care, our Club has
not only risen to a proud position in regard to the natural
history societies which were then in existence, but I believe
it has done more than any other for the investigation and illus-
tration of our native Flora and Fauna, by being the parent of
so many similar clubs, which have been formed in various parts
of the kingdom.

In his medical capacity he had a happy facility in the dis-
crimination of diseases, a consequence naturally flowing from the
manner in which he had taken advantage of the opportunities
that were so extensively opened to him during his abode in Edin-
burgh under Dr. Abercrombie. The knowledge thus acquired
was never forgotten; and by his reading, correspondence, and
study, he was perfectly acquainted with the advancement of the
day in every department of his profession. In his practice he
was simple to a degree; and often has he said to me, that he
could never understand how medical men threw remedies to the
dogs, which they had hitherto placed such confidence in, merely
because some remedy had become popular by being introduced
by some fashionable practitioner. His idea of practice was, to
watch nature narrowly, to interfere as little as possible; but,
when necessary, to act boldly and promptly. As a consulting
physician, he was everything that both patient and the attendant
could wish for. If he found that his views coinéided with his
brother practitioner, he at once told the patient so; and, to
place full confidence in the usual attendant, he never prescribed
another remedy to effect the same purpose, merely for the sake
of doing something for his fee, which is one of the greatest blots
upon the character of the medical profession, and which, I am
sorry to say, I know from experience to be far too common. If
he thought a different treatment necessary, he took care neither
to alarm the patient nor offend the feelings of the attendant ;
and so high a sense of honour had he in his intercourse with his
fellow-practitioners, that nothing would induce him to repeat
his visit, unless he thought the urgency of the case demanded
it. In this manner he established himself as a friend with every
one. To him, in the discharge of his duties, no station in life
presented any distinction ; and, by his death, the poor have lost

206 Annwwersary Address.

one who always, by his kindness of heart, cheered their bed of
sickness, if he could not alleviate their sufferings.

In the discharge of his duties as a public man, he was “sans
peur et sans reproche.” Uncompromising in whatever was mean
or disingenuous, he courted no clap-trap popularity, nor feared
any obloquy that might be cast upon him, conscious of the in-
tegrity by which his actions were governed. Thrice he filled
the highest municipal office; and so efficiently did he perform
the duties, and carry out the hospitalities connected with it, that
his grateful townsmen presented him with a handsome testi-
monial in commemoration of the manner in which he discharged
his duties during the meeting of the Highland Society’s Show
at Berwick in 1841.

In regard to his merits as a naturalist, I would fain be silent ;
his works speak for themselves. But great as his fame is, and
widely known as his name is, I think both would have been
much more so had his works been of a more general nature and
less local. .As a botanist, his works are purely local; but the
happy mixture of scientific with popular knowledge has led many
to cultivate the science of botany, by showing them that there is
something more in its study than a few hard names and dry
descriptions ; and his last published work, ‘The Flora of the
Eastern Borders,’ has been well designated as one of the most
interesting botanical works that has ever been written. Asa
zoologist, especially a British naturalist, he has had no equal in
the Invertebrate kingdom since the days of Montagu. His
descriptions are excellent, and possess a charm about them,
which render them readable to all, without losing their scientific
value. His work on conchology is the most general of all his
works, and contains an immense mass of materials; but this
work, as a matter of course, is less origmal than any of his
others, being necessarily in great part a compilation; but the
attractive style in which it is written cannot fail to arrest the
attention of all who read it, and is well deserving the honour it
has received of being translated into German; and I believe it is
acknowledged by all practical naturalists, that he has left few
behind him who are his equals in the study and knowledge of
the habits of the Invertebrata of Great Britain.

In his character as a man, every thing about him was clear
and genuine—it was easily understood. Frankness, simplicity,

Anniversary Address. 207

and earnestness were the characteristics of his private and public
life. Huis style of thought, feeling, and expression was fresh and
buoyant as the “breath of morning.” He possessed the happy
art of using his mind—a certain continual power of seizing the
useful of all that he knew, and exhibiting it, in a clear and
forcible manner ; so that knowledge in him was true, evident, and
actual wisdom. His mind was full of imagery, and therefore
highly poetical. He possessed peculiar powers of wit and
humour, and the heartiest merriment was often enjoyed in his
company ; and it had this great advantage, that being free from
every mixture of vice or impiety, it was salutary to those who
enjoyed it. His acute observation, with something of a bene-
volent interest in what was minute and homely, and a sense of
the beautiful and humorous, akin to that of Burns or of Bewick,
with a refinement that belonged to neither, made him almost un-
rivalled in description and anecdote ; and, besides, there was an
overflowing cordial kindness, which raised our delight in his
society into fondness for the man. There was, too, an inner,
tenderer society, which I have often had the happiness to wit-
ness, bound together eutirely by the chains of love. No trouble,
if any occurred, was ever allowed to rankle in secret, but was at
once confided to his family, and borne bravely im common.
Gloom found no resting-place at his fireside, but freedom,
mirth, and playful banter. Yet that “ perfect love,” which had
nothing to fear, deepened the sense of deference; there was a
union of sentiment between father and family which required no
authority to enforce it,—it was a union more from sympathy
than obedience. Yet, with all these winning properties, his
disposition was not of that mawkish temperament which never
offends, or takes offence at anything, and is often mere indolence,
or a selfish “liking to be liked.” He hated no man; but he
thoroughly hated meanness, pretence, jobbery, and shams of
every kind. On every occasion, light or serious, it was the
same. He maintained, that the only cure for quackery was to
teach the public the folly of it; and that there was more of
quackery in the means of notoriety used by some fashionable
practitioners, than in the vendors of patent medicines, who paid
for their advertisements.

For the last two years of his life he became subject to sym-
ptoms which were very obscure as to their origin, and which

208 Anniversary Address.

often, he told me, completely took away from him any desire at
times for his favourite studies, or even to attend to his profes-
sional duties. As this state did not, however, continue long,
and is a frequent attendant on mere functional derangement of
the stomach, it gave rise to no apprehension of any serious
mischief going on. The last walk I believe he ever took in the
prosecution of his favourite pursuit, was to search for some
worms on the shore, to the north of Berwick. I had the melan-
choly pleasure to accompany him. I noticed little or no change
in the conversation that usually took place between us; but, as
soon as we had accomplished the object we had in view, he
seemed at once to become exhausted, and anxious to return
home. Soon after this he went to Edinburgh, and from thence
to the Bridge of Allan, where it was hoped the change would
soon restore him to his former self,—so obscure and so little
alarming did his symptoms appear. I visited him at the Bridge
of Allan, and having heard on my way that he was much better,
T looked forward to spend a day or two im the full enjoyment of
exploring a district that was new to us both. I shall not attempt
to describe the shock I received on entering his room. I saw at
one glance the utter hopelessness of his case, and the veil that
had hitherto so completely overshadowed his disease was at once
raised; and the symptoms, which had been so long doubtful,
were madé apparent, and at once accounted for. This was on
the 9th of July. I advised his immediate return, which was
strengthened on the following day by his friend Dr. Douglas
Maclagan. He reached home on the 11th. Day after day his
disease developed itself more; his once lively and fertile imagi-
nation became a blank ; and, on the morning of the 30th of July,
he quietly breathed his last, in the 58th year of his age.
* *k * * * *

Since the death of its founder, the Club has also to deplore
the deaths of the Rev. Dr. Gilly, Vicar of Norham, and the Rey.
Thomas Riddell, Vicar of Masham. Dr. Gilly was born at
Hawkedon Hall, in Suffolk, in 1789. He received his education
at Christ’s Hospital, and, in 1809, he received an Exhibition
from the Hospital to Caius College, Cambridge ; from thence he
removed to Catherine Hall, but his health was so delicate, as
to prevent him from that study which is requisite for taking
university honours. [His name, however, was soon brought into

Anniversary Address. 209

notice by the publication of his journey to the Waldenses, which
took place in 1823. The late Bishop Barrington was so highly
pleased with it, that he at once invited him into the diocese, and
presented him to a Stall in Durham Cathedral. In 1831 he
became Vicar of Norham. To the end of his life he continued
to take the warmest interest in the Waldenses, and he had the
happiness to live long enough to see them enjoy civil and reli-
gious liberty, after 800 years’ persecution. In the discharge of
his duties as a parish priest he was incessant; and although a
warm supporter of the Church of England, his mind was per-
fectly free from sectarian bigotry, and he ranked amongst his
friends good men of all denominations. The restoration which
he effected in the fine old Norman Church at Norham will be a
lasting monument of his fine taste. As an author, ‘ Our Pro-
testant Forefathers,’ his ‘ Life of Felix Neff, Pastor in the
High Alps,’ ‘ Vigilantius and his Times,’ have made him justly
celebrated ; whilst his Romaunt version of the Gospel of St. John
has established his fame as a scholar; and to him the working
classes are indebted for his ‘Plea for the Peasantry of the
Border. He died at Norham on the 10th of September, 1855,
in the 67th year of his age. He discharged the duties of Pre-
sident of the Club in 1851; and his noble countenance, so full
of benevolence and generosity, will not soon be forgotten by
those who had the pleasure of his acquaintance.

The Rev. Thomas Riddell, Fellow of Trinity College, Cam-
bridge, and Vicar of Masham, Yorkshire, was born at Berwick,
in the month of January 1803, and died at Keswick, Cumber-
land, from a fit of apoplexy, on the 30th of September, 1855.
He was elected President in 1839, and contributed to our Trans-
actions a paper “On the Metamorphosis of the Balanus pune-
tatus of Montagu.” As a scholar he stood deservedly high,
and our lamented President [ know was always in the habit
of asking his assistance, when in doubt upon any classical
point. He had, for a little release from his duties as a minister,
taken a tour through Cumberland, when he was suddenly
seized at Keswick with symptoms of apoplexy, from which he
never rallied. In his death the poor lost a kind and considerate
friend; and in the discharge of his duties he endeavoured, by
his example and precept, to bear witness that he believed in the
doctrines he taught.

210 Anniversary Address.

Mournful as is the retrospect of the past year, let us not
“ sorrow as men without hope;” if the bodily presence of those
who were the life and soul of our Club are removed from us,
may we not, in all our future meetings, still recall them to
memory, and fancy that, though invisible to us, they may still
hover around us, and participate, in a more exalted form, the
pleasures of which we partake? May the recollection of the
example they have left behind them stimulate each member to
- increased exertion, so that the Club may not only maintain the
position it holds, but that it may go on gathering strength and
reputation from year to year. It is the highest honour that
we can pay to the memory of our chief, to preserve it in the
position in which he hequeathed it to us. The study of Nature
is inexhaustible, and it never, when rightly pursued, loses its
relish ; and even when life itself is almost gone, memory

* Will play with flowers,
And babble o’ green fields.”

If an admiration of the works of God raises the mind and cha-
racter above the cares and troubles of this world, may we not
hope that such a temper of mind may be far more highly grati-
fied and exalted in a future state? Such a hope is in harmony
with all our best feelings, and may surely be indulged without
mischief or blame, if it does not interfere with that absolute
reference of everything connected with futurity to the wisdom
and goodness of our Creator, which ought to be not only our
duty, but delight. Under the influence of this disposition, every
enjoyment and every hope is enhanced ; and He surely cannot
be offended by our associating the admiration of His works with
any ideas or hopes concerning the happiness in store for us
hereafter.

Meetings. 211

The October Meeting was held at Berwick on the 25th, and
the only Members present were Dr. Johnston, P. J. Selby, Esq.,
Dr. Clarke, and Mr. Tate. The accounts of the Secretary were
passed, and the subscription for the current year was fixed at
5s. 6d. The Minutes of the Bamburgh Meeting were read, and
the following places fixed upon for the meetings of the ensuing
summer :—

May 2, Wednesday : . Chirnside.
June 3, fe : . Bamburgh.
July 3, ie : . Ayton.
Aug. 2, As : . Dunse.
Sept. 2, is Belford.

The Rev. Hans Hamilton, Vicar of Berwick, and Mr. William
Dode were admitted Members.

The first Meeting for the present year was held at Chirnside
on the 9th of May. The Members present were Dr. Johnston
(the President); Rev. Mr. Hamilton, Vicar of Berwick ; Dr.
Wilson of Berwick; Dr. Stuart ; Mr. Dunlop; Mr. W. Dunlop,
and Mr. Dickson of Alnwick. We met at breakfast, after
which the President held a conversation on learned points of
botanical lore with Dr. Stuart, who exhibited a beautiful speci-
men of the Dielytra spectabilis, and it was agreed by all, from its
hardiness, its elegance of shape, and profusion and beauty of its
flowers, to be one of the best plants for the cottage window. The
party separated till four o’clock. One section sought the Whitt-
adder for fishing, and Dr. Johnston, Dr. Stuart, and Mr. Dickson
first proceeded to the church to examine the Norman doorway,
which, when the church was restored, by some fortunate cir-
cumstance, had been retammed. We then sauntered leisurely
along the road, and through the park at the back of Nunland’s
house to the Paper Mills, where we were shown over the whole
of the works by the intelligent manager. They are conducted
upon an extensive scale, and provided with the most modern and
best machinery. It would be folly to describe here the well-
known process ; but nothing proves the ingenuity of man more
than to follow the dirty rags from their filthy state throughout
the cleansing, the cutting, the pulp, and the delicate formation
of the filmy fibre into paper fit for immediate use. The mills
are on the River Whittadder, in a picturesque situation. A
branch from the North British Railway enters the yard. The
village and people all partake of the air of comfort and clean-
liness pervading the works, highly creditable to the establish-
ment. We then recrossed the bridge, and proceeded down
the north side of the river, listening as we went along to the
entertaining stories and remarks of our late respected Pre-

212 Meetings.

sident—and no one could enliven the way more pleasantly. At
times Dr. Stuart and he entered into minute points of botanical
interest, and at other times he discoursed on common plants,
and on the geological character of the district, as developed in
the high scars of the opposite banks of the river, which show
each layer of rock, shale, and other matter—now horizontal and
now depressed. Still we sauntered onwards, until we came to
the grounds of Nunlands, a seat of a branch of the ancient
family of Hume, where David, the historian, spent much of his
time, and wrote many of his works. The house is modern, and
stands on the top of the bank, which slopes to the river, amidst
woods and waters—

“inter sylvas et flumina habitans.”

Half-way down the grassy slope are the Nine Wells, which
form at once a little cool, refreshing brook, lost almost as soon
as born in the waters of the stream below, which sweeps the
northern bank of this most lovely abode. From thence we con-
tinued our walk quietly through woody brake and under the
knarled oak until we came out on the road, which led us to our
place of meeting a little before the appointed time, stopping ever
and anon to hear the sequel of some interesting story or anecdote
which the Doctor told so well.

We had just time before dinner to examine Dr. Stuart’s
garden, and to admire his select flowers,—many preparing for
the forthcoming show at Berwick, where they carried off several

rizes.
: After dinner the Minutes of the previous Meeting were read,
and Thomas Sopwith, Esq., was admitted a Member. Dr.
Johnston exhibited specimens of Phronima sedentaria from Shet-
land, and read a note from Mr. Hardy on diseases of plants,
connected with mites, and a short one from Mr. Selby on the
lateness of the spring.

The second Meeting was held at Bamburgh, on the 20th of
June. The members who attended were Dr. Johnston, Rev. H.
Parker, Mr. Selby, Mr. Collingwood, Rev. G. Rooke, Mr. Tate,
Rev. W. Darnell, Mr. G. R. Tate, Mr. Wm. Boyd, Rev. F. R.
Simpson, Mr. Charles Ree, Rev. G. H. Hamilton, and Rev.
Edw. Sandys Lumsden. This gentleman was proposed for the
membership by the Rev. G. H. Hamilton, and the nomination
being seconded by the Rev. H. Parker, it was placed on the
Minutes accordingly. Mr. Huggup of Shoreston was similarly
proposed and seconded.

There was no special object before the Club, so that the
members strolled each his several way, following out his indi-
vidual bent until the hour reunited us at dinner. This done,

Meetings. 213

the minutes were read, and the Rev. Mr. Hamilton was admitted
a member. Some general conversation ensued, when the meet-
ing dispersed.

To William Dickson, Esq., Iam indebted for the following
notice :—

On Wednesday, the 18th of July, the Meeting was at Ayton.
The early morning was not propitious. I was the only member
present at the inn; but two or three came straggling there, and
finding no meeting, they left. I was not aware that the cause
of this thin attendance was the illness of Dr. Johnston. I went
on to Coldingham Abbey, to view the restorations which are
rapidly progressing. This Abbey belongs to the Crown, and I
understand the Commissioners of Woods and Forests give £800,
and the heritors of the parish provide the remainder of the
funds. It is quite out of the question to reinstate the Abbey
as it was, the only part left being the chancel. It a fine speci-
men of the early English style. The dark red sandstone and
the white, with all its various intermediate mixtures and tints,
give a richness to the work. The west end is built up, and cor-
responds with the original east end of the building. The north
wall and the interior arches will be restored to their original
beauty ; but the south wall will not: it will be pierced with a
few lancet windows, and there will be a porch at the south door,
which will be the only entrance to the church. In excavating a
few yards from the west end, under where the centre tower was,
the base of one of the clustered pillars had been exposed. What
is still more interesting to the antiquarian architect, this ancient
western column, north side wall, and circular apse of the old
Nunnery has been exposed to view,—the building which pre-
ceded the present fabric. The mason work is rude, having a
foot of plaster outside. The columns are small, and the building
narrow, and nearly the whole length of the present church. It
is probable many more interesting discoveries will be made.

On account of the melancholy death of Dr. Johnston, no
Meeting of the Club took place in August.

The members present on the 12th of September, at Belford,
were P. J. Selby, Esq., Rev. J. D. Clark, Wm. Darnell, W. P.
Rigg, G. Walker, Mr. Geo. Tate, Messrs. John and Wm. Boyd,
Dr. Clarke, Dr. Douglas, Mr. Embleton, and Wm. King, Esq.,
as a visitor. The Rev. Charles Thorpe, Vicar of Ellingham, was
proposed as a member by the Rev. Geo. Walker, and seconded
by the Rev. Wm. Darnell.

The only business transacted at the Meeting was the appoint-
ment of Mr. Embleton as Secretary and President until the next
Meeting, which was to be held some time in January.

214 Habitats of rare Plants in Berwickshire.

Additional Habitats for some of the Rarer Plants found in Ber-
wickshire. By J. Harpy, Esq., Penmanshiel.

Vaccinium oxycoccus. Abundant in the Drone and Long
Mosses on Coldingham Moor. It is called the Moss-brummle
and Moor fowl-berries.

Ranunculus hirsutus. Not unfrequent in a field near Dulan.
A few plants have occurred in grass-fields at Penmanshiel.

Thlapsi arvense. Abundant in a field on the north side of
the Dean, east from St. Helen’s Chapel.

Sagina apetala. In the Slate Quarry at Old Cambus West
Mains.

Crepis succisefolia. In the eastern part of Penmanshiel
Wood. -

Hippophae rhamnoides (page 178). I have ascertained that
this shrub was planted at no very remote period. The locality
specified is in East Lothian.

Orchis latifolia. A rose-coloured variety, that grows in a
very marshy bog on our moor, has this season had its flowers
changed to a white, or the palest pink hue. A number of
sheep-drains had been cut in the bog, early in the season, so as
to lay the ground comparatively dry.

Phleum pratense. The bulbous-rooted variety is frequent in
the Dean, at St. Helen’s Chapel.

In a paper on “ Excrescences, &c. formed by Mites,” which
was intended for the Club’s Transactions of the present year, if
I recollect aright, Geranium rotundifolium was inadvertently
written instead of G. molle. This ismy impression; but it may
be incorrect after all. The paper will perhaps come in your
way among the Club’s documents.

If ever I be able to visit Berwick, I shall not fail to call and
pay my respects to you and Mrs. Maclagan. With best wishes,
believe me,

My dear Sir,
Faithfully yours,
Dr. P. W. Maclagan, James Harpy.
&c. &e.

List of Dr. Johnston’s Works. 215

1. The Flora of Berwick-upon-Tweed. Vol. i., 1829. Vol. ii.,
1831. 12mo, Berwick.

2. On the Genus Caligus of Leach. Edinburgh Philosophical
Journal, x. p. 292. Feéruss. Bull. 1828, xiii. p. 160. Isis,
1832, vi. p. 603. |

3. Natural History of Molluscous Animals. Magazine of Natural
History. Series I. ii. pp. 22, 148; ili. pp. 39, 249, 335,
525 ; 1v. pp. 351, 523; v. pp. 31, 611; vi. p. 235; vii. pp.
106, 218, 408; vii. p. 71.

4. On a Whale, stranded near Berwick-upon-Tweed. Transactions
of Natural History Society, Newcastle, i. p. 6.

5. A Descriptive Catalogue of the recent Zoophytes found on the
Coast of North Durham. Transactions of Natural History
Society, Newcastle, 11. p. 240.

Illustrations in British Zoology. Magazine of Natural History.
Series I. v. pp. 43, 163, 344, 428, 520, 631 ; vi. pp. 40, 123,
232, 320, 405, 497; vu. pp. 13, 126, 230, 348, 490, 584,
638; viii. pp. 59, 81, 179, 202, 258, 341, 376, 465, 494,
565, 594, 668; ix. pp. 14, 79, 144, 229, 298, 353, 472.
Wiegm. Arch. 1835, i. p. 310.

7. Address to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club. Magazine

of Natural History. Series I. vi. p. 11.

8. Descriptive Catalogue of the Insecta Myriapoda found in Berwick-
shire. Magazine of Natural History. Series I. vii. p. 486.

9. Contributions to the British Fauna. Zoological Journal, iii.
pp. 175, 321, 486; iv. pp. 52,416. Edinburgh Philosophical
Journal, xiii. p. 218. Féruss. Bull. 1827, xii. p. 280; 1829,
xy. p: 262; 1831, xxiv..p. 197., Isis, 1830),x1.,p.1.156);
1831, xii. p. 1358; 1832, vi. p. 610.

10. On the Class Mollusca, in Dr. Fleming’s work on British
Animals; with Descriptions of some New Species. Edin-
burgh New Philosophical Journal, v. p. 74. Féruss. Bull.
1829, xvi. p. 133; Isis, 1832, vii. p. 700.

11. History of Conchology. Magazine of Zoology and Botany,
i. p. 238.

12. History of the British Zoophytes. Edinburgh, 1838, ed. 2.
2 vols. 8vo. London, 1847. Magazine of Zoology and
Botany, i. pp. 64, 225, 440; li. p. 319. Annals of Natural
History, ii. p. 46.

13. Miscellanea Zoologica. Magazine of Zoology and Botany, i. pp.
368, 529; ii. p. 63. Annals of Natural History, i. pp. 44,
114; xv. p. 145. Wiegm. Arch. 1837, i. p. 248.

14. Patella parva, Da Costa. Magazine of Zoology and Botany,
1838, i. p. 365.

15. Descriptions of some Entozoa. Annals of Natural History,
1. p. 431, fig.

16. On the British Aphroditacee. Annals of Natural History,
li. p. 424.

lor)
1

216
17.

18.
19.

20.

21.

22.
23.

24.

20.

26.

27.
28.

29.

30.

31.

35.

36.

List of Dr. Johnston’s Works.

On the British Nereides. Annals of Natural History, ii. p. 289 ;
iv. p. 224. Annals and Magazine of Nat. Hist. xv. p. 145.

On the British Annelides. Annals of Natural History, iv. p. 368.

On the Irish Annelides. Annals of Natural History, v. pp. 168,
305.

Description of a New Genus of British Zoophyte (Beania).
Annals of Natural History, v. p. 272.

A History of British Sponges and Lithophytes. Edinburgh,
1842, 8vo, fig. Annals and Magazine of Nat. Hist. ix.
p- 496.

A Catalogue of the Cirripeda found on the Coast of Berwick-
shire. Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club Proceedings, i. p. 63.

Description of Natica helicoides, a New British Shell. Ber-
wickshire Naturalists’ Club Proceedings, 1. p. 69.

A Catalogue of the Bivalved Shells found on the Coast of Ber-
wickshire and North Durham. Berwickshire Naturalists’
Club Proceedings, i. p. 77.

A Catalogue of the Zoophytes of Berwickshire. Berwickshire
Naturalists’ Club Proceedings, i. p. 107.

A List of the Pulmoniferous Mollusca of Berwickshire and
North Durham. Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club Proceedings,
i. p. 154.

A List of the Fishes of Berwickshire, exclusive of the Salmons.
Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club Proceedings, 1. p. 170.

A Description of the Cephalopoda which inhabit the Coast of
Berwickshire. Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club Proceedings,
i. p. 197.

On the Nests of the Fifteen-spined Stickleback, or Gasterosteus
spinachia of Linneeus. Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club Pro-
ceedings, 1. p. 200.

Notice of the Myliobatis aquila of Cuvier, or Eagle Ray of
Yarrell. Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club Proceedings, i.
p. 205.

A Descriptive Catalogue of the Gasteropodous Mollusca of Ber-
wickshire. Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club Proceedings, i.
pp. 233, 263; ii. p. 27.

. Description of a New British Sponge (Halichondria macularis).

Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club Proceedings, i. p. 196.
Annals and Magazine of Nat. Hist. xviii. p. 475.

. A Description of the Long-tailed Shark. Berwickshire Natu-

ralists’ Club Proceedings, il. p. 215.

. The Acarides of Berwickshire specifically described. Berwick-

shire Naturalists’ Club Proceedings, i. p. 221.

An Introduction to Conchology, or Elements of the Natural
History of Molluscous Animals. 8vo, London, 1850.

The Natural History of the Eastern Borders. Vol. i. 8vo, 1853.

PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB.

Address, delivered to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club at
Belford, October 29th, 1856. By Rosrrt EmBxieton, Sur-
geon, President.

GENTLEMEN,

I pip not expect that I should have been called upon to address
you a second time in one year, as I considered my reappoint-
ment to the high honour of President merely as a step in some
degree necessary for the arrangement of the affairs of the Club
in connexion with the office of your Secretary, which | had under-
taken to perform. As, however, according to our usual custom,
it was necessary to take some notice of our proceedings during
the year, I considered myself bound not to depart from it.
And in the first place I hope I may be allowed to congratulate
the Members, that during the year we have not had again to
mourn the loss of any one, but that several names have been
added to our list, and that the affairs of the Club are in a most
satisfactory position.

The Anniversary Meeting was held at Berwick on the 30th
of January, when I read to you the address which I had been
requested to prepare upon the character of our deeply-lamented

B.N.C.—VOL. III. N°. VII. s

218 Anniversary Address.

President and Founder ; and feeble and imperfect as the sketch
was, I cannot but feel a little pride it was not only acceptable to
you, but, from the letters I have received from many of his
most intimate friends, that it met with their approbation. The
Members present were, Revds. J. Fyler, G. H. Hamilton, George
Walker, William Darnell, and J. D. Clark; Mr. Selby, Mr.
Home, Dr. Clark, Major Elliott, Mr. Huggup, Mr. Stevenson,
and Mr. Embleton. The Rey. Charles Thorp of Ellingham was
elected a Member ; and Mr. Embleton was reappointed President
and Secretary. The subscription for the year was fixed at 6s.,
and the following places for the Meetings of the Club :—

Coldstream»... Pema aay Sie
Coldmgham . . . . June 25.
Danse ers Wye" se pda oO.

Alnwick’ '°2, a" 6.) Zu Septs eae

The Members who attended the Meeting at Coldstream were,
Rev. J. D. Clark, Rev. John Baird, Mr. Home, Mr. Tate, Major
Elliott, Mr. Melrose, Mr. Rea, Messrs. John and Wm. Boyd.
Mr. Selby of Earl, and the Rev. T. S. Goldie, were present as
visitors. After breakfast the party proceeded to explore the
banks of the Leet, whose course they followed to the grounds of
the Earl of Home at the Hirsel, through which they were con-
ducted by Mr. Smith, the ‘gardener. Many of our well-known
plants were found in great profusion, but none demanding any
especial notice, except Polemonium ceruleum, Tulipa sylvestris,
Eranthus hyemalis, and Lonicera Caprifolium, plants which are
now unanimously accepted by botanists as aliens to the soil.
Returning by the banks of the Tweed, Lactuca virosa and
Dipsacus sylvestris were found plentifully. No insects were
captured worthy of notice. The geological character of the
district was carefully examined by our learned friend Mr. Tate,
and the notes he has furnished me with state, that the banks of
the Leet consist of grey and greenish arenaceous shales, interstrati-
fied with slaty sandstones, and thin beds of impure buff magnesian
limestone. Some sandstones appear opposite the Hirsel, con-
taining a notable portion of calcareous matter. In some of the
shales are obscure remains of ‘plants, and in others are found
considerable numbers of Modiola angustata (Portlock) along with
Cypris Scoto-Burdigalensis.

Anniversary Address. 219

The following section may be taken as characteristic of the

whole :—
feet. in.

Slaty sandstone (lowest bed)............ssresseeseeeeereas 3 0
Grey stiale s.nrscesess. =11, aE aaa een eae 4 0
Mapnesian TMestOne’ noi... ccnewcceossennseweres eateesaes a
Dark grey shale with plants ........s.c-ceceeeceseeueeees 20 0
Lilac argillaceous sandstone, with singular casts of
WEPMMOLM OGLE) picscudtce bajo deisvenlesinina des asjojceh opviegs 5 6
Mapnesian limestone ........ccccscercnsesssensececersseeas 1 6
Grey shale with Modiola and Cypris .......s.eesssses 2 6
Very impure limestone ....-....c0seneescenneerecseeceenes Og
Gey Stale: ssecs neue sande poet -*neameer sens cicns wtcacn sr asl Lt.

These beds dip E.S.E. about 10°, and form part of an inter-
esting series which is well seen from Carham to Norham, and
on the banks of the Blackadder below Chirnside. Below Cold-
stream the sandstones abound in Lepidodendra, and fine speci-
mens of Stigmaria ficoides, with the rootlets attached ; and near
this locality, the remarkable remains of coniferous trees, with
the internal structure preserved, were first observed by Witham ;
and it is important to notice that along with these trees Mr.
Tate has found Orthocerata, Pleurotomaria, and Modiole, marine
shells, which prove that the coniferous trees had been carried
down into an estuary of the sea, and entombed and fossilized
among marine exuvie. These beds form the lowest portion of
the Carboniferous formation lying below the Productal and
Encrinal Mountain Limestone of Northumberlard, and might
properly be designated as the Tuedian group. They are distin-
guished by the peculiarity of the shales, by the thin beds of
magnesian limestone, by the absence of Brachiopods, and by the
presence of Modiole, Entomostraca, and Fish-remains. Speci-
mens of these fossils were exhibited by Mr. Tate. The Rev. J.
Baird also exhibited specimens of the curious form of Ranunculus
auricomus, first noticed by him eight years ago, and during
which period it has been sought for in vain until the present
year.—The Rev. T. 8. Goldie was proposed as a Member by Mr.
Melrose, and seconded by Mr. Rea. The day was extremely
beautiful, and spent in the usual enjoyments of manly inter-
course and feeling.

The next Meeting was held at Coldingham, on the 25th of

June, and was attended by Dr. Hood, Dr. Stuart, Mr. Hugeup,
s2

220 Anniversary Address.

Mr. Stevenson, and Mr. Embleton. After breakfast the Members
took the road leading to St. Abb’s Head, which they reached
about one o’clock ; the day was all that could be wished for,
and the pleasing change which had taken place in the weather
enhanced the pleasures of the walk. Our intention was to have
visited the Caves in a boat ; but a heavy swell from a north-east
wind on the previous day rendered it extremely hazardous. One
was visited from the mainland, and amply repaid the trouble we
had in reaching it, from the many beautiful species of Actinie
and Sponges which were profusely scattered around. Although
nothing new was observed, yet many of our favourite plants
were in beauty and profusion. The snow-white blossoms of
Arenaria verna, mixedwith the yellow Cistus, and purple blossoms
of Thymus Serpyllum and Vicia lathyroides, formed a carpet of
nature’s blending far superior to man’s handiwork ; whilst the
murmur of the waves mingled with the screams of the Gulls and
Guillemots, whose young peopled the ledges of the bold and
magnificent rocks, tended to wean the mind from everything
but what immediately surrounded us. On our way home, Orchis
conopsea and Sinapis alba were found in profusion; and the
following Lepidoptera were seen and captured, viz. Polyommatus
Alsus, P. Alexis, P. Artaxerxes, Lasiommata Algeria, Hipparchia
Semele, and Apamea oculea,a common Moth. After dinner, a
paper was read by Dr. Hood on the Abbey, which was made
doubly interesting from the many plans and drawings shown by
Mr. Gray, the architect, in illustration. The Abbey was visited,
and the improvements which have been so judiciously carried
out, reflect the greatest credit on the architect—The Rev. T. 8.
Goldie was elected a Member, and Mr. Charles Watson of Dunse
was proposed by Dr. Stuart and Mr. Stevenson.

The Meeting at Dunse, on the 30th of July, was, I am sorry
to say, a blank. An unexpected professional visit to Edinburgh
prevented my being present; and on reaching the Berwick station,
on my return, I met the Revds. J. D. Clark and Wm. Darnell,
who informed me, that on their reaching the place of meeting,
they neither found any one, nor, what was worse, anything
prepared to sustain their failing strength. Mr. Stevenson, our
worthy associate, writes, and says :—“I regret much that not
one Member of the Club appeared here on Wednesday. I called
at the Swan Hotel in the morning, but found that none of our

Anniversary Address. 221

friends had come by train ; it was a matter of deep regret, as the
day was extremely fine, and I had secured permission, from Mr.
Hay of Dunse Castle, for an unrestricted ramble through all
his grounds.” As several of our Members had either forgotten
the day, or lost their annual card, it has been thought neces-
sary to return to the original plan of sending a notice to each
Member a week before each Meeting, so that ignorance or
forgetfulness may not be pleaded in future.

The last Meeting of the year was held at Alnwick, on the
24th of September, and was attended by Revds, J. D. Clark,
Wm. Darnell, L. S. Orde, G. 8. Thompson, and John Baird; Mr.
Selby, Mr. Church, Mr. Wm. Boyd, Mr. Tate, Dr. Tate, Mr. C.
Rea, Captain Selby, and Mr.Embleton. John Church, jun., Esq.
and Mr. Wilson, architect of Alnwick Castle, attended as visitors.
John Church, jun., Esq., Rev. Thos. Lishman of Linton, and
George Hughes, jun., Hsq., of Middleton, were proposed as
Members. Captain Selby was admitted. Wm. Dickson was ap-
pointed President, and Mr. Embleton reappointed Secretary.

It was not to be expected, Gentlemen, that our Club, after the
irreparable loss we had sustained, could in the short space of
twelve months regain its vigour and previous activity ; yet, little
as may appear in our Transactions as to the results of our
Meetings in a scientific point of view, we have the pleasing satis-
faction to know that the bonds of friendly intercourse have been
kept together, and that the chain that binds us has been extended.
The path we have to follow has been too clearly delineated for
any one to err from, except wilfully. The ties that bind us to-
gether are woven by the hands of Nature; wealth and rank are
only recognized by us as Members of this Club, so far as they
are used for the advancement of that science which we profess
humbly to follow, for the advancement of our fellow-creatures
and the glory of the Omnipotent Creator. Much as we have done,
there remains much for us all yet to do. Neither the Fauna nor
the Flora of the district 1s exhausted; for Mr. Hardy of Penman-
shiel has discovered no fewer than ninety species of Lichens not
included in any of our lists previously published, and there are
many departments intimately connected with our Club which
have been as yet scarcely touched upon. The various manuscripts
left by our Founder, in connexion with his work on the Eastern
Borders, have been placed by Mrs. Johnston entirely at the service

222 Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands.

of the Club; and I sincerely hope we may be able, by uniting, to
complete the work in a manner that may reflect credit upon the
Club, and prove to the world how deeply we honour and revere
his memory.

The Farne Islands, with an Account of their Geology, Botany,
Zoology, and Ancient History. By Grorce Tate, F.G.S. -

In this Monograph on the Farne Islands I shall give a de-
scription of their physical features, accompanied with notices of
their Archeology, an account of their Geology, Botany, Conch-
ology, and Ornithology, with lists of fossils, plants, shells and
birds, and conclude with a brief sketch of their curious ancient
history.

The Farne Islands are from one and a half to five miles
eastward from the Northumberland coast ; the nearest point of
land is Monkshouse, and Bambro Castle is two miles distant.
Their number is from fifteen to twenty-five, accordimg to the
state of the tide ; for some are covered at full and even at half
tide, and others which appear only one island at low water,
form two or three when the tide is high. There are two groups
of these islets, separated from each other by the Ox Scar road,
which is about one mile broad and from five to eight fathoms
deep, and through which ships of any burden may pass, though
not without danger, as the Ox Scars—rocks covered by the sea
—lie near to the passage.

The Farne, sometimes called the House Island, is the largest
and nearest to the land, and its name is applied to the whole;
but each individual islet and rock have their own distinctive
names, given to them long ago, from some real or imaginary
quality or feature. Farne has usually been derived from a
supposed Celtic word signifying a recess; but I can find no
such root in the Celtic language; and, moreover, according to
Nennius, whose History was written early in the ninth century,
the ancient British name was ‘ Medcaut.’ Farne may, with
more probability, be referred to the German ‘fezern,’ to rest from |
labour,—a term descriptive of this secluded islet when it became
the favourite retreat of hermits, who here in retirement sought
repose from the labours and struggles of the world.

Some ancient documents printed in Raine’s History of North
Durham show, that the old names of the various islands have,
for the most part, continued in use to the present time, with
slight modifications; they appear in an early metrical Life of
St. Cuthbert; im a curious charter of the twelfth century, making

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands. 223

regulations respecting the seals caught near the islands by the
fishermen of Bambro; in a manuscript note by Thomas Lawson,
a monk of Durham ; and in a document written about the year
1690. In the following Table the names from these several

sources are given, along with those now in use.

Early Metrical

~

History of Charter of Lawson’s Document Names now in
St. Cuthbert. Twelfth Cenfury.|Manuscript Note.| about 1690. use.
Farne. Farne. Farne. House Lands. | Inner Farne.
Wedum. Wedum. West Wedoms. | Two Wideopens.| West Wideopen.
Reliqua Wedum.| Altera Wedum. | Est Wedoms. East Wideopen.
Stapheleland. | Stapel eland. Stapleland. Stapleland. Staple.
Fossheland. Fos eland. Fossland. Brownsman. Brownsman.
Bine Wawmes. | Wahum. South Walms. | Two Wawmses. | SouthWawmses.
Altera Wahum. | North Walms. NorthWawmses.
Harecarres. Harecarres. Hardcarres. Harcus. Big Harcar.
Little Harcar.
Scarfcarres. Scarphcarrs. Two Scarcars. | Big Scarcar.
Little Scarcar.
Crumbstan. Cromstane. Crumstone. Crumstone.
Langestand. Langstan. Langstane. Langstones. Longstone.
Meggestand. Duz Megstanes. | Meggstone. Megstone.
Knoke. Knokys. Noxes. Noxes.
Kumestand. Knyfestane. Knivestone. Nivestone.
Clovenstan. Cloven Carres. | Clofyncarre. peoeiae eal
Oxcarres. Ox car. Oxscar.
Merecarres. Swedman. Swedman.
Uttcarres. Outcarres.
Nameless Rock.
Nameless Rock. |< Roddam and
Green.

Northern Hares.

Most of these names are of Anglo-Saxon origin, and are

formed, as was usual with our forefathers, when giving names to
places, of a substantive and a definitive term ; carr and stan,
the Anglo-Saxon for ‘rock,’ and eland for ‘island,’ occur in not
a few ; with these are combined the definitive terms staphel, sig-
nifying a pile or heap, descriptive of the piled-up rocks forming
the pinnacles or pillars on the south side of the Staphel; cloven
or clofyn, indicating the cleft condition of the rocks forming that
island ; lang, crumb, and meg are archaic forms of ‘long,’
‘crooked,’ and ‘strong.’ Scarph Car, now corrupted into Scar
Car, comes from an old German word signifying sharp or acute.
The Mere Carres, now called Swedman, are sea rocks covered
by the tides, and the Uét Carres are modernized into Out Carres,
which are not far from Monkshouse. The Wedums, now cor-
rupted into Wideopens, are near to the Farne; and the name
may have come from wedan, to rage, and may be descriptive of

224 Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands.

the tempestuous waves which break over the island. Fossheland,
some time prior to 1690, was superseded by Brownsman ; its
position is indicated in the early poetical Life of St. Cuthbert,
where it is said, “ Stapheleland cum Fosseland conjuncta pro-
batur ;” for the two islands are separated by a narrow channel,
which is dry at low tides. The Celtic foss means a ditch or
trench, but its application as descriptive of the island is not ob-
vious. In the more modern name, as well as in Swedman, we
may have the Celtic maen for ‘rock.’ Other names, such as
Harecarres and Oxcarres, have probably been given from some
fancied resemblance which the form of the rocks had to these
animals.

On a fine summer day, an excursion to these islands is a
source of pleasure, from the novelty of the objects which arrest
attention, and from the interesting associations which cluster
around them, <A boat for this purpose, with skilful and mtelli-
gent seamen, can be obtained either at Monkshouse or North
Sunderland.

The Farne, or House Island, is the largest and most import-
ant of the group. It is of an irregular quadrangular form, and
at low water has an area of about sixteen acres, eleven of which
are almost entirely bare rock. The soil is light and peaty, rest-
ing on a subsoil of clay from 2 feet to 3 feet thick, beneath
which is the basaltic rock. Formerly, especially in the days of
the monks, barley was grown successfully upon it; in 1855 it
supported twelve sheep, but at present no animals are kept, nor
is any portion (excepting small garden plots) in tillage. We
observed on this island forty-eight indigenous plants, the rarest
being the Danish scurvy-grass (Cochlearta Danica). The south
and west sides of the island present precipitous cliffs of rudely
columnar basalt, rismg black and frowning to the height of
about 80 feet. It slopes towards the water on the east side,
where it is protected by other islands, and where there is a
fitting landing-place for boats. To the north, as an ancient
author graphically describes it, “it is open to the whole force
of the waves, in the midst of which it lies hke the broken and
defenceless hull of a shipwrecked vessel.”

All the islands are more or less deeply fissured,—a common
phenomenon in basaltic rocks. One of these fissures, on the
north-west part of the Farne, is called the Churn, and extends
from the sea into the island for some distance, bemg partly
bridged over with rock, and having an opening upward at the
farther end. When a storm comes from the north, the waters
at half-tide rush with violence up this chasm, and are forced up-
wards through the perforation, and form a magnificent column,
rising in the air to the height of 90 feet, which can be distinetly

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands. 225

seen from the shore at Monkshouse. The columnar character of
the basalt is very interestingly shown by the pinnacles or pillars
which rise out of the sea, apart from the mass of the islands.
On the south side of the Farne, one of these stupendous columns
is nearly 60 feet high. It stands in the midst of the sea in rude
majesty, like a memorial monolith dedicated to the memory of
the numerous voyagers who have been entombed beneath the
surging waters.

Not far from the landing-place on the east side of the island,
St.Cuthbert erected his lowly Oratory; and still nearer to the
water’s edge stood the Hospitium, a larger building, where the
brethren and strangers visiting the island might repose without
intruding on the lonely anchorite. All relics of the Oratory
long ago disappeared; but the Hospitium was in existence
in the twelfth century; and though that too in the course of
ages has passed away, yet a more recent, but an old building,
called in Speed’s Map “a Fishe Howse,” stands on its site, and
was, until recently, used as a stable.

On the brow of the hill are some interesting medieval re-
mains of two chapels and a tower. One chapel was dedicated
to St. Mary, and it is now so completely a ruin, that all archi-
tectural features are lost; but of the original structure of the
other, enough is left to show its character and determine its age.
One original window in the south wall, and a small doorway at
the south-east end, are of the decorated Gothic style; the win-
dow has a pointed arch with a quatrefoil centre, and two lights,
each with a trefoil heading. This chapel is 40 feet by 18 feet,
and is placed from H.S.E.to W.N.W. The ancient accounts of
the House of Farne show, that extensive repairs, equal almost
to its rebuilding, were made m this chapel from the years A.p.
1369 to 1872. Funds for this purpose were obtained chiefly.
from contributions by the pious and collections made by the
monks. In the year a.v. 1370, gifts from divers persons were
received, amounting to £29 13s.2d. ‘Let their names,” ex-
claim the grateful monks, as they record the benefactions, “ be
for ever written in the Book of Life!” Fifty years ago, this
chapel was inhabited by the person who attended to the light
on the tower; subsequently it became roofless, and was fast
hastening to decay; but Archdeacon Thorp, with the laudable
design of preserving this mteresting relic of another age, and of
supplying a place for occasional public worship on the island,
caused it, in A.D. 1848, to be repaired and restored. This has
been effected with excellent taste ; the characteristic portions of
the old building have been preserved, and the restorations are
in accordance with the original design. The interior has been
fitted up with oak sittings, and with a range of carved oak stalls

226 Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands.

along the north and south walls. Within this sacred edifice
is appropriately placed a monument to the memory of Grace
Horsley Darling, the herome of the Islands, who died October
20th, 1842, aged twenty-six years, with a noble tribute from
the pen of Wordsworth, to
“The maiden gentle, yet at duty’s call

Firm and unflinching as the lighthouse rear’d

On the island rock, her lonely dwelling-place,

Or like the invincible rock itself, that braves

Age after age the hostile elements,

As when it guarded holy Cuthbert’s cell.”

Some other building had been connected with the chapel on
the north, for, according to Grose’s drawing in a.p. 1783, a
wall was then there nearly as high as the chapel, through which
was a gateway with a circular arch. A portion of this arch still
remains. At the west end of the chapel are the ruins of a small
chamber, which, forty years ago, was vaulted over, and was
8 feet high, and which communicated with the chapel by means
of a small window-like opening: this chamber was probably the
dead-house. One large and two small stone coffins, which had
been dug out of the ground adjoining, are lying in front of the
chapel ; the former, by popular tradition, is regarded as that of
St. Cuthbert; but this is an error, for his remains were taken
to Lindisfarne, whence they were removed, on an incursion of
the Danes into Northumberland, and, after many years’ wan-
dering, at length found repose at Durham. ‘This coffin may
with more certainty be referred to one of the masters of the
monastery. Recently a monumental slab has been dug up,
having upon it a portion of an incised cross.

A curtain wall, now broken down, formerly separated the
sacred edifices from the tower, which stands at a little distance
from them towards the north, on the brink of St. Cuthbert’s
Gut, another deep fissure in the basalt. It is usually called
Prior Castle’s Tower, as it was built “out of the grownde by
him about the year 1500 as a place of security and defence.”
It is a plain but strong structure, having much of the character
of a Border Peel, with thick walls, a vaulted under-story, stone
stairs, and small and narrow door and windows; it may have
been secure, but it was gloomy, admitting but little of heaven’s
cheerful light and air. In Queen Elizabeth’s reign, and subse-
quently, it was used as a fort; but in Charles the Second’s time
it was devoted to a better purpose, for from that period, a fire
was nightly kindled on the summit as a warning beacon to
mariners, till new lighthouses were erected on a more command-
-ing situation. Recently, Archdeacon Thorp has repaired it,
enlarged the windows, and fitted up some rooms for occasional

WING Val TELL NO CHMOD SATLSV) HOldd (NV "Tad VHO S.LeeqHE AD on oes

Waog ‘senoywnoyy m Aq pequrag Aso WL Aswg [ep eeqoIy MW

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands. 227

residence, the walls of which are panelled with old carved oak
brought from Durham. Notwithstanding these improvements,
it is still gloomy enough, even for an anchorite *.

A large cross, which formerly stood on the highest point of
the island, has been entirely removed ; and the two wells, which
monkish legends say sprung up through the miraculous agency
of St. Cuthbert, have in these degenerate days lost their sweet-
ness. None indeed of the wells either on the Farne or on the
Fosseland springs from the rock, but all come out of the super-
ficial covering, and therefore, though by digging into the subsoil,
especially at the lower levels, water is readily obtained without
a miracle, it has a brackish taste, from the ‘saline elements with
which the soil is more or less impregnated.

Eastward of the Farne and separated from it by a shallow
channel are the Wedums or Wide-opens, which along with the
Noxes form one island at low water, the connexion being made
by a long ridge of rolled stones heaped up by the tides, and
called “ the Bridges.” These islands are tenanted by rats and
rabbits, and by numbers of sea fowl. Here are the nests of the
Sea Swallow (Sterna Hirundo), the Sandwich Tern (Sterna Can-
tiaca), the Hider Duck (Somateria mollissima), and occasionally of
the Sea Pie (Hematopus ostralegus). On these islands we found
28 species of plants. In the olden times, the whole of the islands
were supposed to be the residence of demons; and one of
St. Cuthbert’s great achievements was to drive them away from
the Farne; but, according to the author of the Life of St. Bar-
tholomew, they took refuge in the Wedums. When the wind
howled and the sea broke over the islands, and the pillared rocks
frowned horrible amid the storm, we can scarcely wonder that,
in a superstitious age, solitary monks, giving rein to their morbid
imaginations, should see demon forms revelling among the rocks
and hear their shrieks in the roar of the tempest. The picture
given of these demons by this author is imaginative and stri-
king, and illustrates the superstitions of the period. “The
brethern,” says he, “when enjoying their rest after labour,
have seen them on a sudden clad in cowls and riding upon goats,
black in complexion, short in stature, their countenances most
hideous, their heads long—the appearance of the whole troop
horrible. Like soldiers they brandished in their hands lances
which they darted after the fashion of war. At first the sight
of the cross was sufficient to repel their attacks, but the only
protection in the end was a circumvallation of straws, signed
with the cross and fixed in the sands, around which the devils

* Plate II. is a view of St. Cuthbert’s Chapel (with the east window as
recently restored) and of Prior Castle’s Tower, from an excellent sketch
made by Mr. Archer, of London.

228 Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands.

galloped for a while and then retired, leaving the brethern to
enjoy victory and repose.” In the days of the hermits, the
Wedums were used as a burying-place for shipwrecked sailors.

Nearly a mile north-westward from the Farne are the Swed-
man, a bare rock covered by the tides, and the Megstone, which
is devoid of vegetation, but whitened with the dung of cormorants,
who rest here, but do not now breed upon it.

Of the outer group, the Fosseland, now called the Brownsman,
and the Stapel are the largest and most interesting for natural
objects. They have an elevation of about 40 feet above the
sea, with a scanty vegetation, as the surface is for the most part
rocky, and where there is soil, it is shallow and peaty, though in
some parts resting on a clay overlying the basalt. On these
islands we observed 33 species of plants, the rarest being Cheno-
podium botryoides, Cochlearia Danica, and a beautiful double
variety of Silene maritima. Formerly sheep were kept on
Fosseland, but. now no animal lives upon it. The effect of this
change of treatment is singular, for the grasses adapted to the
maintenance of sheep and cattle are withering away before the
unchecked inroads of the vigorous Sea Campion (Sz/ene maritima),
which is spreading over the whole island. The sea fowl are
here very numerous, especially the Sea Pie, the Puffin or Tommy
Noddy (Mormon fratercula), aud the Sea Swallow or Common
Tern; the Sandwich Tern and the Roseate Tern (Sterna Dougallt)
are less abundant. There are on this island a deserted tower,
which was formerly a lighthouse, and a house now used, during
the summeér, as a residence for the person who watches the
islands and gathers the eggs of the sea fowl. Complaints have
been made, and actions at law brought, by the conservators of
the islands, against those who for mere sport shoot these birds,
which injure nobody ; but it is surely questionable policy to rob
the poor birds of their eggs in a wholesale manner, year after
year, for the purpose of sale, especially when the tendency of this
proceeding is to destroy, and render scarce, creatures, which are
a delight to naturalists, and a source of enjoyment to all who
can relish the beautiful, the novel, and the curious.

On this island I had an opportunity of observing the tame-
ness of the Eider Duck—the favourite bird of St. Cuthbert,
who, monkish historians say, taught it gentleness and confidence.
Close to the house it sat on its nest, undisturbed by the approach
of strangers, quietly looking on with its meek eye without fear.
The description of these birds in Bartholomew’s Life is graphic:
—“Some hatch their eggs close by the altar, and nobody pre-
sumes to hurt them, or even to touch their eggs without per-

“mission. With their mates they seck their sustenance in the
deep. Their young, as soon as hatched, follow their mothers ;

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands. 229

and when once they have swum over their hereditary waves, they
never return to the nest ; the mothers, too, forget all their recent
tameness, and recover their wildness with their genial element *.”

The Stapel lies southward of the Fosseland, from which it is
separated by a narrow channel, dry at low tides. The pinnacles
from which it derives its name are three rude pillars of basalt,
about 40 feet high, standing in the sea apart from the island on
the south. Formerly there were four of these pillars, but, some
years ago, one of them was thrown down by a violent storm.
Like other trap rocks, the columns are jointed, and broken into
step-like ledges. On the summits, and on every narrow ledge
and in every crevice, the Guillemots (Uria Troile) and Kitti-
wakes or Annets (Larus tridactylus) lay their eggs and bring
forth their young. With amazing instinctive skill they drop
their eggs on spots where, according to human judgment, they
could not rest, but where they are maintained in security till the
brood is hatched. Hundreds of these birds are sitting or stand-
ing on the rocks, hovering in the air or swimming in the sea,
their plaintive cries mingling with the sound of the waves dash-
ing around the base of the columns, and, with the hoarse gurgling
of the waters up the wide and deep clefts of the rocks, add impres-
siveness to a scene, which, if once witnessed, cannot be forgotten.
Notwithstanding the vast numbers of the birds crowded on and
around these pinnacles, there seemed no contention among them
—no striving for the mastery—no oppression of the weak by
the strong; and I could not, on witnessing the harmony which
prevailed, but wish that rational men would learn from the fowls
of the air to live together in peace, trusting that the benevolent
Father of all has provided enough for all his children.

The Wamses are two pretty large islands northward of the
Fosseland, having a scanty vegetation on a peaty soil impregnated
with the exuvie of birds. On the North Wamses only five spe-
cies of plants were observed, and on the South Wamses nine
species,the principal being Cochleariaofficinalis and Silene maritima.
The North Wamses is remarkable as the chief breeding-place of
the Cormorant (Carbo cormoranus) ; and when approaching from
leeward, a disagreeable smell is perceived at some distance, arising
from the filthy nests of these voracious birds. Besides the Cor-
morant, the Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus), the Herring Guli
(Larus argentatus), the Hider Duck, the Puffin, and occasionally
the Sheldrake or Oyster-Catcher (Hematopus ostralegus), find
here a fitting place for bringing forth their young.

The two Harcar Islands, which are a little to the east from the
Wamses, and which at low water form only one island, demand
a passing notice; for on these, the Forfarshire steamer was

* Donovan’s Middle Ages, vol. iv. p. 239.

230 Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands.

wrecked on the 5th September 1838, when 43 persons perished ;
nine only escaped in a boat, and nine others were saved by the
noble exertions of Mr. William Darling and his heroic daughter.
Part of the unfortunate vessel yet remains wedged into a cleft
of the basaltic rock. There are a few patches of vegetation on
these islets, consisting chiefly of Silene maritima and Glyceria
maritima; here, however, are large colonies of birds—of the
Gulls and Eider Duck, with a few of the Oyster-Catcher, which
is usually a solitary bird, building its nest as far away from its
congeners as possible.

The Northern Hares are little more than rocks raising their
black backs above the sea; the Sagzna maritima and Glyceria
maritima only live here in small patches; but along the margin
of the sea, the Eider Duck, the Sea Swallow or Common Tern,
and the Sandwich Tern build their nests. Most of the other
outer islands are rocks—hare, cleft, and fissured; on one of them,
the Longstone, the far lighthouse is placed. This island is only
4 feet above high-tide mark, and when the storm rages, the sea
spray is driven over it. A few years ago, so great was the mass
of water breaking upon it, that the keepers with their families
were compelled to flee for shelter to the upper rooms of the
lighthouse. Five plants only occur in this island, the most
abundant being Glyceria maritima, which flourishes, although
frequently covered with salt water. The Oyster-Catcher or Sea
Pie, the Common and Sandwich Tern, and the Eider Duck breed
here. Additional interest is given to this island, because in
this secluded sea-home Grace Darling passed the greater portion
of her short life, and from this rock she and her father went
forth on their mission of mercy to save the perishing voyagers
of the Forfarshire.

The Crumstone is more than a mile southward from the Long-
stone,—a dark mass of irregular basaltic rocks washed over by
every high tide. No land plant lives here, nor can birds find a
secure place for their nests. Crowds, however, of Cormorants
rest upon it; and their appearance when I saw them was sin-
gular, for, ranged in arank, with their long necks stretched out
and their short wings extended, they seemed in the distance like
memorial crosses. But the Crumstone is chiefly interesting as
being the only island on which the Great Seal now breeds. Mr.
Selby was the first to determine the species to be the Halicherus
griseus of Nilsson. Previously to the erection of the hghthouse
it frequented the Longstone and neighbouring islands, but the
presence of man has scared it away from them. These animals
were formerly numerous; as many as forty individuals have been
~ seen at one time resting on the Crumstone. Their usual length
when full-grown is from 6 to 8 feet; the largest ever killed was

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands. 231

9 feet long, it weighed 40 stone, and yielded 20 gallons of excel-
lent oil. The female brings forth one calf, in the month of
November, which at first is 3 feet long, and is able in two weeks
to follow its dam into the water. The Great Seal rarely wanders
far from the Farne Islands. Another species, the Common Seal
(Phoca vitulina), is occasionally seen swimming among tie islands,
but it does not breed on any; it formerly resorted m consider-
able numbers to Holy Island, where it is still observed to bring
forth its young*.

The temperature of the islands is more equable than that s
the mainland; the highest observed on the Longstone was 66°
it is rarely at freezing-point ; the lowest was on the 17th of
February 1855, when it was 24°5°, while on the same day it
was 9° below zero at Chillingham 1 in Nortliumberland.

GEOLOGY.

Though the Farne Islands are of limited area, their geology is
not without interest. All the rocks above high-water level are
basalt, which is of the same character and age as that on the
neighbouring coast at Bambro. It is composed of black augite
and whitish felspar, the former being usually most predominant ;
occasionally it is amygdaloidal, the cavities being filled with cal-
careous spar. Externally it is black, but a fresh fracture presents
a dark grey colour. The iron which is diffused through it is in
the state of a protoxide, and hence it 1s-magnetic ; indeed, some
‘specimens from the south-west corner of the Farne I found to
possess polarity. It is of irregular thickness, but where it is in
greatest mass it is about 90 feet in depth. Itis rudely columnar,
of which the Pinnacles afford a characteristic example. Though
fissured in various directions, there appear to be some master
fissures which have a more or less northerly course, and which,
by the action of the tides and storms, have been converted into
deep chasms. Of this description are the Churn on the Farne,
which runs N.W. by N., and St. Cuthbert’s Gut, which runs
N.N.W.; others on the Stapel have a direction of NW. by N.,
and N.W. The cliff-faces are towards the south and west ; and the
usual inclination or slope of the rock is towards the north-east.
Sedimentary or stratified rocks are visible at two points—in
the channel between the Farne and the Wedom, and on the
south side of Fosseland. The beds eastward of the Farne can
only be seen when the tide is low; they consist of the following
ascending series :—
Red metamorphic shale, very hard, immediately above the
basalt, and containing a large number of Productus Flemingii
and Spirifer trigonalis, along with Orthis crenistria ;

* In the Annals of Natural History, vol. vi. p. 462, is an interesting
account of the Great Seal of the Farne.

232 Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands.

A thin bed of hmestone, from which the rolled blocks
have been derived that are ‘piled up along the shore of the
Wedom and Noxes.

White fine-grained sandstone, which is seen near to the
Noxes when the tide is low.

These beds appear to lie in a hollow of the basalt; for at the
Farne the dip is along with the basalt N.E. by E., but at the
Noxes the sandstone dips westward.

The other group of stratified rocks, which oceupy a depression
i the basalt southward of Fosseland, is of a more interesting
character, for the organic remains are more varied and abundant,
and the section, although partly obscured by overlying loose
stones, is covered only by the highest spring tides. The position
of these rocks is peculiar: they lie upon basalt which has a cliff-
face 20 feet high towards the south, and they abut against
another basaltic cliff which rises 20 feet higher; while around,
at a greater or less distance, are basaltic rocks.

Of these stratified beds there are about 90 feet, and their
succession, as far as I could determine, in an ascending series is
as follows :—

Indurated sandstone immediately above the basalt ;

Arenaceous calcareous shale much indurated and fossili-
ferous ;

Chert or metamorphic shale with a conchoidal fracture,
sharp edges, and very hard, also fossiliferous.

Limestone very much altered, and varying in character ;
eherty, compact and dark in one part, buff-coloured and
magnesian in another, and in others red and crystalline.

Indurated or cherty beds abutting against the basalt,
and perpendicular in position.

The general direction of the group is from N.W. to 8.E.,
and the dip is very considerable, though irregular, being in
one part with the basalt E.N.E. 20°, and in another perpen-
dicular. These beds present a striking instance of metamorphic
action from basalt, and a distinct proof of the igneous origin of
that rock. The limestones are indurated and crystalline ; and
the shales, which in ordinary localities are soft and earthy, are
here converted into chert and jasper. They have been torn from
the mass with which they were originally connected, lifted up,
altered in structure, and squeezed into their present position by
the outburst of igneous rocks.

Fossils are not observable in the sandstone or limestone; but
in the cherty shale beds, notwithstanding their metamorphism,
several organisms are sufficiently well preserved to admit of de-
termination. The most interesting of these remains are two
entire specimens of Trilobites, with the head, body and tail con-
nected. Detached parts of this curious animal I have frequently

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands. 238

found in several localities in Northumberland, but never pre-
viously a complete specimen. It belongs to the genus Griffithides
of Portlock ; but as it differs from any recorded species, I have
described and named it, after the locality, Griffithides Farnensis.

From the stratified beds of Farne and Fosseland, I have deter-
mined twenty-eight species of organisms, the greater proportion
of which are Brachiopods ; they correspond generally with those
found at North Sunderland, and more especially at Howick, and
they indicate the Farne strata to be of equivalent age, and to
belong to one of the lower groups of the Mountain Limestone
formation.

On these islands are patches of the Boulder formation, which
covers over many parts of Northumberland ; it forms the subsoil
of the Farne, and on the Stapel this same clay is 3 feet thick,
overlying the basalt.

The basalt of these islands is not a dyke passing vertically
through the strata, but a portion of the overlying or interstrati-
fied igneous rocks, which, commencing at Kyloe, and passing by
Belford, Bambro, Craster, Howick, Ratcheugh, Alnwick, and
Shieldykes, extend south-westward through the county, and
which, appearing like a stratum among sedimentary rocks, are
frequently called the Whin-sill. Regarding their origin and intro-
duction among the strata, different opinions have been advanced ;
Professor Sedgwick maintaming that the basaltic lava was
erupted subsequently to the deposition of the carboniferous beds,
and forced among them along their surfaces of stratification ;
while Mr. Hutton is of opinion that the basalt was erupted at one
or several different periods during the deposition of the carboni-
ferous rocks, so as to be covered up by portions of them, and to
be thus interstratified with them. With the limited number of
facts presented by the Farne, it would be out of place to discuss
the general question here; but it may be conclusively inferred
from these facts, that the basalt of the Farne was erupted subse-
quently to the deposition of the sandstone, limestone, and shale
beds on Fosseland, for that eruption has obviously been the
cause of the isolated, metamorphic and disturbed condition of
these beds,

LIST OF FOSSILS.

BRYOZOA.

Fenestella plebeia, M‘Coy. In red shale and chert, Fosseland.
—- undulata, Phil. Fosseland.
+—— crassa, M‘Coy. Fosseland.
Sulcoretepora parallela, Phil. Fosseland.
B.N.C.— VOL. Ill. N°. VII. T

234 Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands.
BRACHIOPODA.

Spirifer trigonalis, Mart. Farne, Fosseland: one of the commonest fossils
in the Mountain Limestone of Northumberland.

glaber, Mart. Fosseland.

— lmneatus, Mart. Fosseland.

— imbricatus, Sow. Fosseland.

sexradialis, Phil. Fosseland.

Orthis crenistria, Phil. Farne.

Productus Flemingii, Sow. Farne, Fosseland.

—— lobatus, Sow. Farne, Fosseland.

seabriculus, Mart. Fosseland.

semireticulatus, Mart. Farne.

— Martini, Sow. Fosseland.

punctatus, Mart. Fosseland.

Chonetes sordida, Sow. Fosseland.

Diseina nitida, Phil. Fosseland.

Lingula marginata, Phil. Fosseland.

CONCHIFERA.

Amesium Sowerbyii, M‘Coy. A pretty species with zigzag markings on
the surface. Fosseland; it is also found at Denwick and Howick.

Aviculo-pecten zqualis, M‘Coy. Fosseland.

Hardingii, M‘Coy. Fosseland.

Myophoria carbonaria, Sow. Fosseland : this species occurs at Holy Island.

GASTEROPODA.
Naticopsis plicistria, PhiJ. Fosseland.

CEPHALOPODA.
Nautilus globatus, Sow. Fosseland.

CRUSTACEA.
Genus GriFFitHIpEs, Portlock.

Cephalic shield semielliptical ; glabella gibbous, rounded in
front, contracted posteriorly into a narrow neck, without seg-
mental furrows; eyes lunate ; thorax of nine segments, or with
the neck-segment ten; pygidium with segmental furrows in
both axal and lateral lobes. This genus has been found only
in the Mountain Limestone formation ; six species from Britain
have been described.

GRIFFITHIDES FarneEnsis, n.s. Fosseland. Plate I. fig. 4.

Ovate: length including mucro ‘92 inch, greatest breadth °53 ;
glabella pyriform, rounded in front, and gradually narrowing
towards the base; eyes prominent, with numerous hexagonal
lenses ; wings broad, convex, with about ten longitudinal parallel
striz on the outer side, partly concealed in front, and extending
posteriorly, and ending in spines near the sixth thoracic segment ;
thorax, length :22, breadth :15, anterior axal segments broader

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands. 235

than those of the sides; pygidium, length :25, breadth °35, with
sixteen axal and ten lateral segments, a distinct broad margin
with faint irregularly bifurcating striz and minute granulations
prolonged imto a pointed mucro; both the axal and lateral
segments are ornamented with one row of small tubercles, which
are more prominent on the axal segments; the mucro is in
length usually -15, but in some specimens extends to °2.

The species allied to G. Farnensis are G. mucronatus and
mesotuberculatus of M‘Coy, and G. Eichwaldi of Fischer ; but the
two latter are rounded posteriorly, and the former has a smooth
pygidium, while our species has a mucro, and is ornamented by
tubercles. It occurs also at Holy Island, North Sunderland,
Budle, Howick and Denwick. The tail ofthis trilobite was
figured by Dr. Buckland in his Bridgewater Treatise, but under
the wrong name of Asaphus caudatus, which is a Silurian species.

BOTANY.

The Botany of the Farne Islands affords but little that is
‘peculiar, less indeed than might have been expected, as on
basalt, in other localities, the rarest of our indigenous plants are
found. No trees grow upon the islands, and it is remarkable
that no Fern nor any of its allies is seen there. There is, how-
ever, little shelter for the more delicate vegetable productions.
The plants which are most abundant are such as delight in a
marine habitat ; the Silene maritima adorns several of the islands
with its white flowers, and the pretty little pmk Glaux maritima
spreads along the sea margins. The plants of greatest rarity are
Cochlearia Danica and Chenopodium botryoides, which has only
recently been noticed as a Northumberland plant. The total
number of indigenous species observed is sixty-two, which are
given in the following list, the materials for which have been

chiefly furnished by my son, Dr. G. R. Tate :—

PLANTS.
Class DICOTYLEDGNES. Order CARYOPHYLLE&.

Silene maritima.

Sagina maritima.

Ranunculus aeris. Farne, Wedom. procumbens. Wedom, Foss.,
repens. Farne, Wedom. Stapel.

Alsine marina. Longstone.
Stellaria media Farne, Stapel.
Cerastium triviale. Farne, Foss.,

Order RANUNCULACE.

Order CRUCIFERS.

Cochlearia officinalis. Stapel.
Danica. Farne, Wedom, Foss., atrovirens. Farne, Foss.,
Stapel. Stapel.

Cakile maritima. Wedom, Northern semidecandrum. Farne, Foss.,

Hares, Noxes. Stapel.

rT 2

236

Order LEGUMINOS&.

Lotus corniculatus.
Trifolium repens.

Farne.
Farne.

Order Rosacrz.
Potentilla anserina.

Order UMBELLIFER&.
Conium maculatum. Wedom.

Order RUBIACEA.

Galium Aparine. Foss., Wawmses.

Order Composir2.

Farne, Wedom.
Arctium Lappa. Farne, Wedom.
Senecio Jacobea. Farne, Wedom.
Leontodon Taraxacum. Farne,Foss.,
Stapel.

Carduus arvensis.
lanceolatus.
Sonchus oleraceus.

Bellis perennis.

Farne.

/
Order BoRAGINE.

Farne.
Farne.

Lycopsis arvensis.
Myosotis arvensis.
Order LaBiaTa@.

Prunella vulgaris. Farne.

Order PRIMULACES.
Glaux maritima.

Order PLUMBAGINES.

Armeria maritima. Farne, Foss.

Order PLANTAGINE.
Plantago Coronopus.
——- maritima. Longstone.
Order CHENOPODIACEA.

Chenopodium botryoides. Foss.
Atriplex rosea.
angustifolia.

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands.

Order PoLYGONACES.
Rumex acetosa.
crispus.
obtusifolius.

Farne.

Order URTICACE.

Urtica urens. Farne, Wedom, Foss.
dioica. Farne.

Class MONOCOTYLEDONES.

Order ORCHIDE&.

Orchis latifolia. Foss.

Order IrR1IDE#.

Iris Pseud-acorus. Farne.

Order JuNCACE.

Juncus supinus. Foss.
Gerardi. Farne.
Luzula campestris. Farne.

Order CyPpERACE.

Carex distans. Farne.
glauca. Farne.
vulpina. Farne.

Order GRAMINEA.

Agrostis vulgaris.
alba. Foss.
Avena flavescens.
Holeus lanatus.

Stapel.

Farne.
Foss., Wawmses,

Stapel.

Poa annua.
trivialis. Farne, Wedom.
pratensis. Wedom.

Sclerochloa maritima.
Dactylis glomeratus.
Festuca rubra.

ovina.

— duriuscula.
Triticum caninum. Foss.,Wawmses.

Farne.

Through the kindness of Mr. Darling of the Longstone, who has
supplied me with many specimens, | am enabled to give a pretty
large list of the Mollusca which live on and around the Farne
Islands. Some additional interest may be given to the list from
the circumstance, that many of these specimens were gathered by
Grace Darling. Most of the species were found after high tides
and stormy seas among the shell-sand between the Northern

Hares and the Longstone.

The littoral species, such as Rissoa

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands. 237
and Littorina, have been chiefly obtained from the shores of
Fosseland. This assemblage of shells consists of sixty-six species,
three of which are land-shells, and for the most part they belong
to what the late Professor Forbes designates Kuropean and Celtic
types, with a few Boreal forms. Murex erinaceus, which is a
southern shell, has been doubtfully recorded as a Northumber-
land species, as only two dead specimens had been found among
ballast ; but as several specimens, some of them living, have
occurred at the Farne Islands, there can now be no doubt of this
species being a native of our seas. Psammodia tellinella, Lucina
borealis, and Arca tetragona are among the rarer species. One
specimen of Acmea testudinalis has been found,—a species not
uncommon on the western coast, but which has not before been

seen in the Northumberland seas.

u

MOLLUSCA.

Class GASTEROPODA, Cuvier.
Ord. PRosoBRANcHIATA, M.-Edw.

Fam. Muricip#.
Murex erinaceus.
Fusus Islandicus, Chemnitz.
Fam. BuccInID&.

Buccinum undatum.
Nassa reticulata.
Purpura lapillus.

Fam. CyPR#EID&.
Cyprea Europea, Montagu.

Fam. NATICcIDz.

Natica Alderi, Forbes.
Velutina levigata.

Fam. CeERITHIADA.
Aporrhais pes-pelicani.
Fam. TURRITELLIDA.
Turritella communis, Risso.
Fam. LirroriInip& *.

Littorina littorea.
neritoides.

rudis, Donovan.
tenebrosa, Montagu.
patula, Jeffreys.
Lacuna pallidula, Da Costa.

Lacuna vincta, Montagu.
Rissoa striata, Montagu.
ulvee.

parva.

parva, var. interrupta.
Skenea planorbis.

Fam. TuURBINIDZ.
Trochus cinerarius.
ziziphinus.
helicinus.

Fam. FissuRELLID&.
Emarginula reticulata, Sowerby.
Fam. CALYPTRAID.
Pileopsis Hungaricus.
Fam. PATELLID&.

Patella vulgaris.
pellucida.

leevis.

Acmeea virginea, Miiller.
testudinalis, Miller.

Fam. CHITONID&.

Chiton cinereus.

Order PULMONIFERA.
Fam. HEvicip&.

Helix virgata.
ericetorum.
alliaria.

* To my friend Mr. Pickering, of London, I am indebted for assistance
in determining the critical species of this family.

238

Class CONCHIFERA, Lamarck.

Fam. OSTREID.

Anomia Ephippium.
aculeata.

Pecten pusio, Pennant.
maximus.
opercularis.

—— tigrinus.

Fam. MytTiLtiva.
Mytilus edulis.
Modiola Modiolus.
barbata.
Fam. ARCAD.
Arca tetragona.

Fam. CARDIADA.
Cardium edule.
Norvegicum.

Fam. LuciInipDa@.

Lueina borealis.
Kellia suborbicularis, Montagu.

Fam. CyPRINID&.
Cyprina Islandica.

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands.

Fam. VENERID&.
Venus fasciata, Donovan.
striatula, Donovan.
casina.
Artemis exoleta.
Tapes pullastra, Wood.
virginea.

Fam. MacTRID&.

Mactra solida.

Fam. TELLINID.
Tellina crassa, Pennant.
Psammobia Ferréensis, Chemnitz.
tellinella.
Syndosmya alba, Wood.
Donax anatinus, Lam.

Fam. SOLENID&.
Solen siliqua.

Fam. Myacipa.
Mya arenaria.
Saxicava rugosa.
arctica.

Fam. ANATINID&.

Thracia phaseolina, Lam.

CRUSTACEA.

Subclass MALACOSTRACA.
Order DEcAPODA.
Fam. BRACHYURA.

Hyas araneus, Linn.
Cancer pagurus, Linn.
Portunus puber, Linn.
depurator.

Fam. ANOMOURA.

Lithodes Maia, Leach.
Pagurus Bernhardus, Linn.
Porcellana longicornis, Linn.
Galathea strigosa, Fabr.

A few incidental notices of the Birds on the Farne Islands
have been given in the general description, but I am enabled,
through the kindness of one of our Members—the distinguished
ornithologist, Prideaux Selby, Esq.,—to present the following
complete

“ Catalogue of the Birps which inhabit or resort to the Farne
Islands.

Order INSESSORES, Vigors.
Tribe Fisstrostres, Cuv.
Fam. Hirunpinipa, Vig.

Genus H1runpo, Linn.

Hirundo rustica. Common or Chimney Swallow.

Breeds in the tower of the old lighthouse and chimneys of
the dwelling of the lighthouse keeper.

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands. 239

Tribe DentTIROSTRES, Cuy.
Fam. Sytviapa, Vig.
Genus Antuus, Bechst.

Anthus aquaticus, Bechst. Rock Pipit.

Is a permanent resident upon the different islets; breeds in
the clefts and upon the shelves of rocks; feeds upon marine
insects and flies.

Tribe Controstres, Cuv.
Fam. Corvipa, Leach.
Genus Corvus, Linn.

Corvus monedula. Jackdaw.

Breeds in the rabbit-holes upon the Farne, as well as in the
clefts of the perpendicular rocks.

Order GRALLATORES, Il.
Fam. Scotopacip#, Vig.
Genus Trinea, Linn.
Tringa maritima, Brunn. Rock or Purple Tringa.

A few pairs of this species generally remain, and breed upon
some of the islets; the great body retire in the spring to higher
latitudes.

Fam. CuarapriaD@, Vig.
Genus Hamartopvs, Linn.

Hematopus ostralegus, inn. Pied Oyster-Catcher, or Sea Pie.
Breeds upon several of the islands; though not strictly web-

footed, it swims well.
Genus Cuaraprivs, Linn.
Charadrius hiaticula, Linn. Ring Plover.

Breeds upon the gravel beds in some of the creeks and bays
of the islets.

Genus Srrepsizas, Il.
Strepsilas interpres, Leach. Turnstone.

A few generally remain during the summer, but their nest
has not been found.

240 Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands.
Order NATATORES, Il.

Fam. Anattpa, Leach.
Genus Somateria, Leach.

Somateria mollissima, Leach. Eider, or St. Cuthbert’s Duck.

These birds having been protected for some years, are now
pretty numerous. Towards the middie of April the Eiders
assemble in groups along the shores of the mainland, from
whence they cross to the islands early in May. The down of
the Hider is remarkable for its softness and elasticity.

Fam. Aucipa, Vig.
Genus Uris, Briss.
Uria Troile. Guillemot.

A large colony of this species breeds upon the summits of the
pinnacles, and upon the ledges of the adjoming rocks; they
make no nest, and lay but one large egg, which by its shape,
being very narrow at one end and broad at the other, is pre-
vented from rolling to any distance. Young herrings and sprats
constitute their chief food.

Alca Torda, linn. Razor Bill. Auk.

A few of this species annually breed in company with the
Guillemots ; their eggs are not easily distinguished from those
of the latter bird.

Genus Mormov, Ill.

Mormon fratercula, Temm. Puffin. Tommy Noddy.

Resorts to the Wawmses, where it burrows in the vegetable
mould; it lays but one egg, yellowish white, and sits for a
month.

Fam. PEtecanip#, Leach.
Genus Caro, Meyer.

Carbo cormoranus, Mey. The Cormorant.

These birds, which breed in company, have frequently changed
the place of their resort. They make a large nest of sea-tangle,
sometimes more than 2 feet in height, and Jay from four to six
eggs, small in proportion to the size of the bird, coated with a
rough, white, calcareous deposit.

Carbo cristatus, Temm. Crested Shag, or Green Cormorant.

Now a rare bird upon the islands. Formerly a few pairs
bred annually in the clefts and upon the ledges of the pinnacles.

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands. 241

Fam. Laripa, Leach.
Genus Srerna, Linn.
Sterna arctica, Temm. Arctic Tern.

Differs from the Common Tern (Sterna Hirundo) in having
the breast and under parts of the same grey as the back; bill
shorter, and generally wholly red; outer tail-feathers longer.
The largest colony occupies a considerable portion of the
Brownsman.

Sterna Dougalli, Mont. Roseate Tern.

Rather larger than the Arctic Tern ; the back of a paler grey ;
the breast and belly of a rich salmon colour, and the tail longer ;
breeds upon the Brownsman and one of the Wawmses.

Sterna Cantiaca, Gmel. Sandwich Tern.

Much larger than the two former, and was sometime ago very
numerous.

Sterna Hirundo. Common Tern, or Sea Swallow.

A few pairs of this species occasionally breed in company with
the Arctic Tern.

Genus Larus, Linn.

Larus fuscus, Linn. Lesser Black-backed Gull.

Breeds in large numbers upon the Wawmses and Harcar Island.
The eggs are rich, and when hard-boiled, highly esteemed.

Larus argentatus, Brunn. Herring Gull.

A few individuals breed annually in company with L. fuscus ;
they are easily distinguished by the paleness of the upper parts
of the body, their flesh-coioured legs and longer bill.

Larus tridactylus. Kittiwake.

Great numbers of this oceanic species breed in the clefts and
narrow ledges of the pinnacles and perpendicular rocks opposite.
They differ from the more typical Laride in the structure of the
hind toe, which is merely a stump, and unprovided with a nail.
They arrive in May, and leave this coast as soon as the young
have quitted the nests, for warmer climes.

In addition to the foregoing list, the Common Wild Duck,
Anas Boschas, the Teal, Querquedula Crecca, and the Wigeon,
Mareca Penelope, frequently visit the islands during winter in
stormy weather and severe frosts.”

ANCIENT HISTORY.

In the general description of the Islands, some notices were
necessarily given of its ancient history ; but as that history is

242 Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands.

both curious and instructive, this paper would be incomplete
without some further details.

Soon after the introduction of Christianity into Northumber-
land, these desolate rocks were selected by religious persons as a
retreat from the world. Aidan, who was the first Bishop of
Lindisfarne, and who held the see from a.p. 635 to a.p. 652,
occasionally retired to the Farne for the sake of solitude and
secret prayer. But St. Cuthbert, the popular Northumbrian
saint, gave celebrity to the island. His history and character
were remarkable. Originally a shepherd-boy, he was succes-
sively a monk at “ Mailross,” Guest-master at Ripon, and rose
to be Prior to the fifth Bishop of Lindisfarne. In this office he
was distinguished by his piety, zeal, and self-denial, and by his
labours to convert and instruct the barbarous Northumbrians,
frequently taking journeys for this purpose into the desert and
mountainous parts of the county. His mind, however, was
deeply tinctured with the superstitions of the period; and in
A.p. 676 he retired from the society of his fellow-men to the
solitude of the Farne. Here, near the sea-shore, he erected a
lowly Oratory, of a circular shape, and five perches in diameter ;
the wall was made of unhewn stone and turf, and on the out-
side was not higher than a man; but within, the cell was deep-
ened by the excavation of the earth, so that the eyes might be
kept from wandering, and might gaze on nothing except the
heavens above. The roof was constructed of rough timber and
thatched over with bent-grass ; a slight partition divided it mto
two parts, in one of which he lived, and in the other prayed.
To accommodate strangers who might visit the island for ad-
vice or devotion, he built a larger house, called the Hospitium,
close to the shore at the landing-place. In this lonely end rude
dwelling the hermit lived nine years, engaged partly in culti-
vating the soil and in raising barley with success, but chiefly in
practising austerities, in giving instruction and consolation to
those seeking his aid, and, according to the monastic histories,
in working wonderful miracles.

On the deposition of Timberet, the first Bishop of Hexham,
St. Cuthbert was, in a.p. 684, elected his successor by a general
synod, which met at Twyford on the Alne; but it was not until
Egfrid, king of Northumbria, attended by his nobility, had
sailed to the island, and besought him on bended knees to
accept the episcopate, that St. Cuthbert consented to become
Bishop of Lindisfarne, Hata being translated to Hexham. He,
however, had occupied his dignified position only two years,
when his passion for solitude revived. He resigned his see,
abandoned his duties and honours, and again retired to his Ora-
tory on the Farne, where, in the course of three months, he fell

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands. 243

a victim to his austerities, in A.p.687. His desire was, that his
body should be buried near his Oratory, on the eastern side of
a holy cross he had erected there; but, yielding to the earnest
entreaties of his brethren, he consented that his remains should
’ be interred within Lindisfarne Church.,

In a superstitious age, there was no lack of successors to one
who was canonized for his real or supposed virtues. Hthelwald,
originally a monk of Ripon, had his solitary abode on the Farne
from A.D. 687 to a.p.699. He repaired the Oratory of St. Cuth-
bert, which had gone to decay, but m so humble a manner, that
the chinks in the wall were stopped with hay and mud; and to
protect himself from violent winds, he suspended a calf’s skin in
one corner. Felgeld, a contemporary of the Venerable Bede,
appears as the next hermit, and for him, EKadfrid, the eighth
Bishop of Lindisfarne, rebuilt St. Cuthbert’s Oratory, which had
again become ruinous. Other hermits succeeded, few of whose
names are preserved. But the Farne emerges again from ob-
scurity in A.D. 1149, under Bartholomew, one of the notable men
in the North of England in the twelfth century, and whose Life,
by Galfrid of Coldingham, which is printed im the “ Acta Sanc-
torum,” is a curious specimen of medieval literature. He was
born in the neighbourhood of Whitby, and his early life was disso-
lute; but after travelling in Norway, and being favoured with
“visions,” he became a monk of Durham. According to the
monkish biography, his career was fullof miracles. On his first
visit to the church of Durham, the huge crucifix returned his salu-
tation! But his future history was determined by another vision.
St.Cuthbert appeared to him, took him to the Farne, and told him
that the Oratory and Hermitage there were reserved for him,
Obedient to this supposed call, with the permission of his Prior,
he left his convent and retired to the Hermitage. He found it,
however, preoccupied by Elwyn, who received him ungraciously,
and the Oratory—sacred in the estimation of the pious—used
as a sheepfold, and filthy. Here he lived, sometimes with a
companion, but usually alone, for forty-two years and a half.
His life, at first austere, became more rigorous as it advanced.
At first he mdulged himself with fish, but that luxury was
abandoned, and at length he even denied himself water, and
existed exclusively on bread and roots. His fame was widely
spread; he was deeply reverenced by men, but envied by the
«vil One,’ who appeared before him as a tempter in every
shape. Thomas the First, ex-Prior of Durham, dwelt on the
island for about two years, while Bartholomew was there; but
so holy had been his life, that Bartholomew saw the devil sitting
in a corner, lamenting that the dying man had no sm! Such
were the popular legends of the period! The last of the hermits
was Thomas de Melsonby, Prior of Durham, who, in oppo-

244. Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands.

sition to the wishes of King Henry III., was elected Bishop of
Durham by the monks ; and although he resigned his preten-
sions to the see, yet, dreading the resentment of the King, he
took refuge in the Farne in a.p. 1244, where he spent the re-
maining two years of his life in austerities and devotion. He
was interred among the bishops at Durham, and miracles are
said to have been wrought before his tomb.

Not long after this event, the Convent of Durham established
a monastic house at Farne, to which two monks were ap-
pointed, one the Master, and the other the Associate. The
name was changed from ‘“ The Hermitage” to “The House of
Farne’’; and the House existed from a.p. 1255 till the disso-
lution of monastic bodies by Henry VIII. in 1536. The taste
of the middle age was strongly favourable to monastic bodies,
and hence the House of Farne was, from an early period, amply
endowed by various individuals. These endowments may be
succinctly stated, as giving interesting local illustrations of the
character of the period.

Eustace de Vesci, Lord of Alnwick, gave seven horse-loads of
wheat yearly, of Alnwick measure, from the manor of Swinhoe ;
Sir William de Scremereston gave two bolls of wheat yearly
from Scremereston ; Simon de Lucre gave liberty to dig peats in
the peat-moss at Lucker, and five roods of land for building pur-
pose at South Charlton, and pasturage there for six cows with
their followers up to the age of three years, for two oxen, one
horse, and forty sheep with their followers, from Christmas to
Michaelmas ; Sir James de Howburn, Kut., gave leave to dig
yearly forty cart-loads of peats in his great Peatery at Howburn,
called Mosse ; Sir Henry de Ditchend gave leave for forty cart-
loads of peat, from the “ Michelmos” of the Lord of Houburn,
over the great Moor of Dichend; Rob. fitz Goldewyne and
others gave houses and an acre of land in Bamborough; Ber-
tram, Prior of Durham, assigned the corn-tithe of Aldcambus ;
John Fitz John Vecunte de Stanphord gave an acre of meadow
in Newton-by-the-Sea; Walter Corbet gave twelve pence for
ever from the mill in Newton in Glendale; Philp Bishop of
Durham gave two quarters of wheat for ever, from the manor of
Fenwick ; Robert de Neville, Lord of Raby, gave an annual
rent of twenty shillings from the manor of Raby ; the Mayor
and Corporation of Newcastle gave yearly ten quarters of wheat
and two casks of wine out of the farm of the town; William
King, of Scotland, gave half a chalder of wheat from the mill at
Berwick; and King Henry III. in a.p. 1257 granted a plot of
ground near his mill of Brokesmouth, now called Monkshouse*.

* Fuller accounts of these grants are in Hutchinson’s ‘ History of North-
umberland,’ and Rayne’s ‘ North Durham.’

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands. 245

Few of these endowments were in money; but, consisting of
food, wine, fuel, pasturage, land and houses, they indicate the
little advance which commerce had made in the twelfth century.
From the great quantity of peat given, it would appear that it
was the common fuel at this period ; but the accounts of the
House show that as early as the fourteenth century peat had
been superseded by coal in the monastery.

The House of Farne was subordinate to the Convent of Dur-
ham, and hence an account of its receipts and expenditure was
yearly sent to Durham, where the rolls from the year a.p. 1357
till a.p. 1537 have been preserved. Lengthened extracts from
them have been printed in Mr. Rayne’s excellent History of
North Durham ; and they furnish materials for some interesting
illustrations of the character and history of the little fraternity
of Benedictine monks, who for 800 years enjoyed the solitude
of the Farne.

Usually there were but two monks on the island, with one or
two servants; occasionally there was but cne, and, for a short
time, there was a third monk, but the additional burden for his
support was borne by the Master of Jarrow, who in a.p. 1518
paid £5 for “the exhibition of a third associate.”

In a.p. 13857, when the accounts commence, the revenue of
the House was £34 18s. 81d., and the expenditure £34 18s. Wid.
This was no small income, for, judging from the price of labour
at this period, it would be equivalent to about £500 at the pre-
sent time; and when to this are added the endowments in kind,
the House must be regarded as wealthy. The ordinary revenues
were increased by gifts from the pious. Considerable sums, as
has been stated, were received for rebuildmg the chapels:
£12 7s. 10d. were given by divers persons in 4.p. 1362, “to be
partakers of the prayers offered up at Farne;” and a box to
receive donations at St. Cuthbert’s Chapel yielded 10s. in the
year A.D. 1486. The produce of the islands themselves and of
the sea around them further augmented the income of the House :
the herbage of the Farne yielded 5s. in a.p. 1360, and for the
produce of the outer islands, 3s. were received in a.p. 1876.
A barrel of oil was sold in a.p. 1837 for 26s. 8d.; and in a.p.
1360 the large sum of 58s. 6d. was realized by the sale of fish
and oil, the “oyl” having been derived from the “ celys ” (seals)
and porpoises caught by the monks. The right of pasturage at
South Charlton appears to have been turned to advantage, for
besides there being an ample supply of beef and mutton for
“the House,” cattle were frequently sold; in a.p. 1861, a cow
brought 6s., a heifer 5s., and in a.p. 13851, a bull 7s. The
storms which rage with violence around these islands paid their
tribute to the monks: in a.p. 1857, 40s. were borrowed on credit

246 Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands.

of a wreck not broken up, and the account in a.p. 1361 is
swelled by £4 5s. 7d. for a “shipwreck.” The disturbed state
of the kingdom at particular periods, and the repeated ravages
of the Scots in Northumberland, caused, however, the endow-
ments to be irregularly paid, and not unfrequently the revenue
fell short of £20. .

These rolls afford interesting information as to the price of
various articles and of labour in the middle ages. An acre of
meadow land at Newton was, in a.p. 1361, let for 3s., and an
acre of arable land at Bamborough for ls. 8d.; in a.p. 14380, the
rent of a tenement at Bamborough in “ Raton Raw” was 3s. 4d. ;
and in A.D. 1536, a tenement and two acres of land at Bam-
borough produced only 5s. A fat pig in a.p. 1860 sold for 6s. ;
a horse for the mill, in a.p. 1420, cost 13s. 4d.; two ox-hides, in
A.D. 1861, sold for 15d.; for a new boat and oars, in a.p. 1423,
there were paid 44s. 4d.; and a horologium (clock), in a.p.1371,
cost 45s. For four chalders of coals, 13s. 4d. were paid in a.p.
1439; and in a.p. 1455, “eight chald of coals won on the sea-coast
at Sunderland with carriage,” cost only 6s. 8d. Wheat in A.D.
1453 was valued at 6s. 3d. per quarter. Wages, however, during
the 14th and 15th centuries were low: “ sclaters” and carpenters
received 3d. and 4d., and masons 4d. and 6d. per day.

These rolls further show how the monks lived, what sources
of information they enjoyed, how they occupied their time, and
what dangers they were exposed to and sufferings they endured.

Their food consisted of beef, mutton, bacon, poultry, souce or
tripe, salmon, codlings, red herrings, and lobsters. Bread was
made of wheat and maslin; oatmeal was used, probably to make
“crowdy” and “hasty-pudding ;” their vegetables were split
beans and peas; butter was also an article of diet ; and for con-
diments they had saffron, salt, mustard and pepper, the latter
being ground by themselves in pepper and mustard “ querns.”
Porpoises and the sea birds, though now despised even by vulgar
tastes, were used as food, and even regarded as delicacies, for
they were sent from the islands to Durham to add to the plea-
sures of the table on feast-days: at the feast of St. Andrew’s in
Advent a “porpais” was sent, and in another year six dozen
“ wyelfoyle” (wildfowl) and four puffins. For drink, the monks
had wine, which they would receive annually from the corpora-
tion of Newcastle, and ale which they brewed in considerable
quantities both from the malt of barley and oats. The brew-
house was amply supplied with brewing utensils, and in a.p.
1370 there were laid up in the granary 123 quarters of barley
malt and 12 quarters of malt oats. Their household utensils
were chiefly of wood, with a few of tin, lead, brass, and horn.
Earthenware is not mentioned; and of glass there were only

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands. 247

“two pots,” which, however, were stolen in 4.p. 1430. One cup
they had which must have been a valued relic—a cup of “ mur”
or maple hooped with silver and gold, reported to have belonged
to St. Cuthbert. The monks had “trensors, horn spungs, zet-
lings, zett pans, frying pannes, kettills, kytts,” which are still
household words in Northumbrian cottages. They lived well,
and their extensive culinary apparatus proves that cooking
formed no unimportant part of the business of life. Coals, from an
early period, had been probably their principal fuel, for though
they had a right for peats both from “ Howburne” and “ Dich-
end,” there is no evidence of their having exercised it; but in
the first account there is an entry for 20 chaldrons of coals;
these are stated in other entries to have been procured from
North Sunderland.

Amply provided for, and with abundance of leisure, it might
be expected, that these monks, who had generally been educated
in the cloisters of Durham, would have devoted themselves to
the instruction of the rude inhabitants of the county, or by study
have left a precious legacy of thought to after-times. So far,
however, as the rolls show, they taught no schools nor gave any
public instruction; their prayers were sought, paid for, and
given. They however occasionally acted as physicians, for in
A.D. 1406, one of the masters is ordered, “that when any one
wants your medical assistance, let him send you a horse to ride
upon.” The library of the Farne House furnishes a curious
and instructive catalogue; it may be taken as a type of that of
a provincial monastery; it numbered more volumes than the
wealthier and larger Priory of Lindisfarne. In a.p. 1894, when
it was largest, it contained the followimg books :—two missals,
one of them in decay ; a gradal*; two antiphonars+; an ordinal};
two portifors$; a psalter; a legend of the saints; the book of
sentences ; a book of decretals ; “a good book containing many
tracts, procured by D. James Crank ;” the hfe of St. Bartholo-
mew of Farne; a book containing thirteen tracts in thirteen quires;
the rule of St. Augustine; another book of tracts; meditations
and prayers; a book containing the miracles of St. Cuthbert ; two
books of services for the dead, with a treatise on the articles of
faith ; a book of miracles of St. Mary, the purgatory of St.
Patrick and other notable matters, by Robert de Bra. What a
miserable library for a learned community! It does not contain

* Book containing parts of the mass which were chanted responsively
by the choir. r

+ Book containing services, one verse of which was chanted by the
priest, and another by the choir.

t Book of Common Prayer.

§ Small portable copy of the Ordinal.

248 Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands.

a copy of the Bible—not one classical author, not one historical
or scientific work! The few volumes which may be found on
the shelf of many a cottage in Northumberland teach more
knowledge than this monastic library, and yet it dwindled down
in A.D. 1518 to eight books! During the course of nine cen-
turies, Farneland with its hermits and monks produced only one
literary work; it is entitled, ‘ Meditationes cujusdam apud
Farneland quondam Solatarii.” Mr. Hutchinson states that
they were written by Bartholomew; but Mr. Rayne, who has
examined the manuscript, which is in the Durham Library, says,
that the handwriting seems about a.p. 1350 or 1360, or perhaps
somewhat later, which is about two centuries subsequent to the
time of Bartholomew. The subjects discussed are characteristic
of the age, being on Angels, on the Holy Virgin Mary, on the
blessed John the Baptist, on the blessed Cuthbert, and similar
topics. Some extracts from these meditations have been printed
by Mr. Rayne; they indicate a pious but superstitious mind,
they are feeble and trite, and are altogether deficient in the sub-
tlety and metaphysical acumen for which the schoolmen were
distinguished. One specimen will be sufficient: the monk
addressing the angel appointed to take charge of him, says,
* How often, when I have been cuttmg wood with a hatchet or
an axe, should I have mutilated my members, hadst thou not
turned away the blow, and warded off the danger! How often,
when I would have slept beyond the hour, hast thou awakened
me!” The lights, which now shed their guiding rays over the
waters from the rocky islets of the Farne, contrast in brilliancy
and usefulness with the feeble glimmerings which have proceeded
from the intellects of the monks, and we need not repine because
so few of their meditations have reached our own time.

The occupations of the monks appear to have been more
mechanical than intellectual. They were agriculturists and
carefully cultivated the soil, and here the contrast with modern
treatment is in their favour. There is now no land in cultivation
on the islands (excepting small gardens), and neither cattle nor
sheep are maintained; but in a.p. 1369 three acres were sown
with barley, and of the produce “ grown on the croft within the
island,’ 3 quarters and 3 bushels were sold; and there were
also “in the island two horses, two bulls, three cows, two heifers,
and a pig;” im the year a.p. 1518, there were fourteen sheep
and six lambs. The monks possessed ploughs, harrows, “cultres,”’
“ ovapes,” “ sheringhucks,” and other agricultural implements.
The larger repairs and new buildings were done by artificers
from the mainland; but the monks seem to have been, to a con-
siderable extent, their own masons, joiners, slaters and millers,
for we find they had constantly on the island quarrying tools,

Mr. George Tate on the Farne Islands. 249

joiner’s tools, mells, spades, shovells, “milne stones,” and
“ pykkes ” for cutting the millstones; they also kept a stock of
“nayls,” “stanbrodys,” “ Estland bords,” &c. Fishing, how-
ever, was one of their principal employments; they usually had
a “cobyll” and a boat, with “grete lynes 50 fadoms long,”
“smallynes,” “lopster nets,” “grethukys,” and other fishing
tackle; and that the monks were not unskilful fishers is manifest
from the large sums received for fish, which they sold after their
own table had been supplied.

Seclusion from the world is no security against temptation and
sin. Bad monks appeared from time to time even on the sea-
girt Farne. John de Rypon was dismissed in a.p. 1407, for he
had by his extravagance brought an excessive debt on the House ;
he had kept horses and strolled about the country, being absent
from the island without leave from the Prior, frequenting eat-
ings and drinkings upon the main. Another master was dis-
missed in a.p. 1443: he had pawned the chapel’s best chalice
and best set of robes and divers spoons, and had even been so
criminal as to offer them for sale; he also associated with ribalds
‘travelling on foot over the country in garments rent, torn, and
covered with mud. John Kirke, in a.p. 1461, was severely re-
buked for several offences, but especially for “‘ haunting a womanse
house over oft a for noon.” In a.p. 1485, the monks were
charged with being disorderly ; but the sins laid to their door,
however much opposed to monastic rule, do not seriously
violate the Decalogue: one is blamed for wearing daily “a sark
of linen cloth,” for going to the land without leave from the
master, for resorting to places among suspected persons, and for
departing from the fellowship of the master.

While seclusion from the world was no security from tempta-
tion to evil, it was but a slight protection_in troubled times
against lawless aggression. For many centuries before the
Union of England and Scotland, the borders were the battle-
field of the two nations; raids were frequently made, during
which property was destroyed or stolen, and human life sacri-
ficed. The House of Farne suffered sadly in these evil days.
In a.p. 1876, the monks were driven from the island and took
refuge at Bamborough, where they incurred expenses during
their exile “ on account of the Scots ” to the amount of 34s. 4d. ;
they found it expedient to purchase a “surety” from the Earl of
Douglas, for which they paid 2s. 6d. A heavier calamity befell
them in 4.p. 13880, when “things” to the value of 33s. 8d. were
stolen by the Scots, and 74s. 9d. were expended upon the land
for bread and ale and for the master and his servants. Few and
short were the intervals of peace and rest for the poor monks:
in A.D. 1413 they again fled to the land on account of the war,

B.N.C.—VOL. III. N°, VII. U

250 Mr. R. Embleton on a new Eudendrium.

and expended in consequence 70s. 3d.; the fear of the Scots in
A.D. 1418 drove them to the land, and cost them 20s.; and in
the following year, ‘on account of Scots and thieves,” they spent
15s. on the land: again they found it necessary to purchase a
‘protection from the Earl of Dunbar for 3s. 4d. The expenses of
the House were in A.D. 1430 much more than the income, for
their property had been stolen by “Scots and thieves ;” and in
A.D. 1436 one of the servants was taken by the Scots, and ran-
somed at the cost of £4. Two years after this the island was
deserted by the monks, because the town of Newcastle refused
to pay the pension due by the tewn, and because of the defalca-
tion of other revenues, owing to the troubled state of Northum-
berland. Redress, however, was obtained from Newcastle, 1s. 6d.
having been presented to the chamberlains to keep them, as is
stated, “in humour,” and the monks once more return to their
island home. Most rapacious were the Scots—the little monastic
library had no sanctity in their eyes; for about a.p. 1449, they
robbed the House of six volumes, and it proves that at this
period books had a high money value, when 53s. 4d. were paid
for the restoration of these literary treasures. War broke out
again in A.D. 1456 between the English and Scots; but the
heaviest blow fell upon the House in 4.p. 1464, when goods to
the value of £57 were taken from the Farne by “ Scottish
thieves.” These records present a fearful picture of the times :
when a monastic house, usually held sacred, in a remote situa-
tion and of difficult access, was so repeatedly plundered, we may
be assured that the suffering and wretchedness of the border
population must have been awfully severe during this period of
lawless burnings, harryings and murder.

The last account, which is for the year a.p. 1537, remains
unbalanced ; the act passed in the 27th year of the reign of
Henry the Eighth having dissolved the monastery and driven
away the monks from the island ; and though no act is recorded
to dignify their names, and few which benefited the age in which
they flourished, yet posterity may feel grateful to them for
leaving behind accounts at once amusing and instructive.

Zoological Notices. By R. Empxuton, President.
[| With a Plate. |

HuDENDRIUM CAPILLARE, n.8s., Alder. Plate I. figs. 1, 2, 3,

Polypidom minute, very slender, thread-like, a little branched,
transparent, pale horn-coloured, smooth excepting two or three
faint rings near the origin of each branch. Polypes terminal on
the upper branches, vase- or pear-shaped, with a single row of

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Dr. C. Stuart on a Font from Coldingham Abbey. 251

eighteen or twenty long, slender tentacles: reproductive capsules
on separate short branches, near the lower part of the stem, on
clustered or verticillate pedicles, two or three capsules in linear
series on each pedicle. Height } inch.

Parasitical on Antennularia ramosa. Embleton Bay, R. Em-
bleton.

_ Pecten septem-radiatus. New to Berwickshire, and the second
specimen that has been taken on the Northumberland coast.

A beautiful specimen of the Gilt Head, Pagellus Centrodontus,
was sent to me by the Rev. J. D. Clark : it was caught in Berwick
Bay. It isa rare fish on this coast, and is the second specimen
I have seen.

A specimen of that very rare fish, Torpedo vulgaris, or Electric
Ray, was taken in Embleton Bay in the month of June last.

An Account of a Font from Coldingham Abbey.
By Cuarzes Stuart, M.D.

NearRLy a hundred years ago there lived in the village of
Coldingham a builder named William Spouse. The father of Mr.
John Fish (the present tenant at Hutton Barns in Berwickshire)
married the only daughter of the said William Spouse, who in-
herited her father’s property at his death. Among other things,
she came into possession of the Font belonging to the Abbey,
which was found at the bottom of a heap of rubbish, bought by
her father there. After her marriage the font was removed to
Ayton, the residence of her husband ; and when they removed to
Nancefield, in Hutton parish, thither the font went also. Twenty-
five years ago Mr. J. Fish became tenant at Hutton Barns; but
the font was left behind and forgotten at Nancefield. About
four months ago, however, in the course of a conversation with
Mr. W. Fish, brother to Mr. John, anent the Abbey of Colding-
ham and its restoration, he informed me that “he once had the
stone the monks kept the holy water in,” and added, “ that I
could not guess the use the stone was put to.” I could not
guess, but was not a little astonished to hear that it was used as
a pig’s feeding-trough. He farther stated, from its size and
solidity, he had no doubt it was still in existence. He went on
to say that at any rate it was all safe when they left Nancefield
twenty-five years ago, and that he would make over his right to
it to me, if it could be found. An inquiry and search were forth-
with instituted at Nancefield, and the object of our search
discovered in one of the cattle courts. Twenty-five years’ pos-
session, however, constituted a pretty fair title to ownership with
u2

252 Dr. R. Hood on Coldingham Priory.

the present tenant there; but he kindly gave over the font to
me, upon promise of a substantial pig’s-trough being sent in
exchange. From the continued rubbing it has endured from the
snouts of the porcine genus, who have fed out of it, the sides are
a good deal worn, and there is also a mutilation, where it had
evidently been built into the wall of the Abbey, and had forcibly
been broken off, from the effects of some heavy mass falling upon
it—it might be ‘when the Abbey was cannonaded by Oliver Crom-
well—otherwise it is in wonderful condition, considering its age.
It is composed of a close-grained freestone, such as is seen at
present at the church of Coldingham. It is so massive that it
- 1s almost impossible for one person to lift it, and the carving on
the outside is a good example of the style of the period in which
it was executed.

Thinking that it might interest the Members of the Club—an
account of the adventures this stone has gone through—I have
ventured to bring it under their notice, and trust they will
pardon the imperfect description I have produced.

Chirnside, 27th October, 1856.

Remarks on Coldingham s«riory.
By Rozert Hoop, M.D., Edinburgh.

[With a Plate. |

Tue antiquity of Coldingham is ascertained by its being marked
in Ptolemy’s map under the title of ‘Colonia,’ being the La-
tinized name of the Cole; which latter word is frequently met
with as the name of persons and places in Britain, and appears
to be a word used by the early inhabitants of this island. Some
places in Denmark still retain the name of Colding, ding or ing
in the Scandinavian signifying ‘ vale,’ which leads to the suspi-
cion that this district was early peopled by the inhabitants of
the opposite continent. The rivulet that runs past Coldingham
to the sea is named Cole, and a mill near to its mouth is still
called the Cole Mill, and a marshy piece of ground near by,
Colebogue, Colebog. By this view, the Saxon ‘ ham,’ or village,
will be, the town in the vale of the Cole.

Christianity must have been very early introduced into this
district, as, when St. Ebb drifted ashore in her ‘lone bark’ at
the headland called, in the Saxon period, Coldbury Head, she
was received by the members of a religious establishment al-
ready fixed there, but for how long before is unknown. St. Ebb’s
advent is considered to have taken place in a.p. 640, leaving
thus several centuries to mtervene between this and the Roman
notice, so that some of the emissaries of St. Palladius may have

Plate TL.

PLAN OF THE REMAINS OF
h 1-7 =
ghant Prise.
As measuredin 1856, and
are shewn thus a7
The dotted hnes indicate the
position of old foundations which
were come upon while excavating
and levellms the churchyard
The drawing also exhibits a

CAR

| amg portion of the walls of the Nunnery
" Y which were laid bare in 1855 and
i) gee are shewn on the plan thus zw the
Y walls were plastered on both sides
J Y & were about 3 ft im height the floor
| Yy of the Priory ee 32 ft above the
il Yy foundation of the Nunnery-
| A croir Hee oe of Priory 2eb ht.
; Total wi ae .

te)

AISLE : : CHAPEL

NORTH TRANSEPT

SOUTH TRANSEPT

PATS Ween: NAVE SAIS UESS:

100 eek

Sealeofio 5 0 10 20 30 4.0 50 60 70 80 90 4

Tey. del 3. Storey bth

Dr. R. Hood on Coldingham Priory. 258

laboured here, and been successful in converting the Pagans to
the Christian worship. But it might be at a later period, by
St. Ninian, or even still later, by St. Colome in a.p. 570.

No mention is made of nuns existing there previous to the
arrival of St. Ebb at Coldbury Head, now called St. Ebb’s Head,
but, from the undoubted authority of Bede, she was installed
superintendent over the monastery, which then, at least, must
have been a double one. She died in a.p.679, and soon after
her death the edifice was accidentally consumed by fire. The
foundation, strong and massy, of a building still remains on
the verge of a precipice that overhangs the ocean, and on a hill
at a little distance the foundations of a church are still discern-
ible, surrounded with a burying-ground, which was used within
the last hundred years for interments.

All doubt concerning the site of the next building is set aside
by the discovery of its ruins within the present church, the
foundations of the chancel having been come upon during
the recent excavations that have taken place in executing the
_ present renovations. They consist of a wall, finely stuccoed inside
and out, which is shown in the Plan (PI. III.), running parallel
with, and within, the north, and under the south wall. The
east end is circular, and the west opened with an arch, probably
in connexion with a nave, all traces of which, however, are ob-
literated. The foundations of the pillars which had supported
the arch were exposed, but, from their low position, as well as
the foundations, had to be covered up again.

This building stood till about a.p. 870, when it was burned
by the Danes, and the nuns butchered with savage cruelty ; but
as no mention is made of monks, it seems that this building
had contained nuns only, seeing that, if there had been monks,
they would not have escaped the barbarity of the invaders. It
is almost needless to conjecture what the structure of the nun-
nery had been, as we have nothing but the foundations of the
body of the chancel to guide us; but from these we ascertain
that it had been well and solidly built of stone and lime, and
not of wood, and, from the walls being plastered outside, that
the body of the chancel had had aisles.

A little more than two hundred years after the ravage of the
Danes, A.D. 1098, King Edgar founded the Priory of Colding-
ham, and richly endowed it. He procured a detachment of Be-
nedictine monks from Durham to occupy it, and dedicated the
building to the three saints, Cuthbert, Mary, and Ebb. Suc-
ceeding kings and nobles bequeathed also liberally, so that the
Prior drew rents from the greater part of Berwickshire, then
called Coldinghamshire. Mr. Carr, in his very pains-taking
History, states the name of the first Prior, he could find on

254 Dr. R. Hood on Coldingham Priory.

record, to be Symon; a.p. 1141, and gives the succeeding list
until the year 1622. :

Whether the monastery anterior to this was double or not
may continue doubtful, but Edgar’s erection contained monks
only. The chief remains of Edgar’s magnificent structure are ©
the north and east walls of what is stated to have been the
choir of the church, built, as has been before stated, over the
ruins of the chancel of the former nunnery;—the south transept,
to the height of about 8 feet, which last the Heritors have re-
cently wholly disinterred, having been filled up with rubbish ;
it has a circular arch at the upper part, which communicated
with the aisle of the nave;—the foundations of two massy
clustered pillars, also recently disinterred, which had supported
the arches situated between the body of the transept and its
east aisle. To the south, and parallel with the present church,
and running nearly in a line with the south end of the transept,
was an apparently shapeless massy wall, which traditionally went
by the name of Edgar’s Walls, or Palace. This the Heritors
have also disinterred, to the depth of about 10 feet, and have
been rewarded with the discovery of the Refectory. A noble
dining-hall it must have been, reaching nearly the whole length
of the present church. The under portions of the east and
north walls are all that remain, and these show portions of the
pillars from which the arches that supported the roof had
sprung. At its east end had been the kitchen ; and the knead-
ing-trough and oven have been uncovered, as well as the ash-
pit, containing the ashes, with small pieces of wood charcoal.
There is also a portion of massy wall to the east of the church,
which has been preserved from being used as a quarry, lke
many other portions of the ruins, by being constituted part of a
hearse-house, which last has been removed. The north and
east walls of the choir were, fortunately, im a state of good pre-
servation, and, with the recent renovations, which do very great
credit to the architect, show how magnificent the whole fabric
must have been.

Mr. William Gray, whom the Heritors employed as architect, has
very kindly furnished me with the accompanying Plan (PI. III.),
which he was enabled to trace in the recent excavations that have
been executed. The north transept is incomplete, on account of
its having stretched into where many interments take place, but
a massy tower is stated to have existed at the north-west angle,
which had been frequently fortified, and stood sieges. This,
Cromwell, on his invasion of Scotland in 1648, knocked down
with his artillery, and at the same time blew up the church with
gunpowder, the north and east walls of the choir beimg saved
alone from destruction. Although Mr. Gray has not traced it

Dr. R. Hood on Coldingham Priory. 255

on his Plan, an aisle similar to that on the north of the choir
had existed on the south side, as I recollect its foundation
having been dag out many years ago, for stones to be used for
some purpose or other. The original south wall would most
likely be arched similar to the side aisle communicating with
the transept. Home, the then proprietor of Coldinghamlaw,
rebuilt the front wall, and a gable and steeple were added to the
east end.

Such is the church Grose, in his ‘ Antiquities,’ pictures.
Early in this century the Heritors found it necessary to remove
the roof, which was flat and covered with lead, and to substi-
tute a raised slate one instead; but, several years anterior to
this, they, for the accommodation of the parishioners, had
to erect a gallery along the end and north walls, which very
much hid the fine ancient structure. In this-state the church
remained until a year or two ago, when the Heritors applied to
the Commissioners of Woods and Forests, who agreed to restore
the old walls; and the Heritors have removed the galleries and
. re-seated the area. They have also removed the steeple and
west gable, and rebuilt the last in uniformity with the north and
east walls, with most extraordinary success ; having also pierced
the front wall with lancet-shaped windows, redressed the outside,
and added a neat porch, with belfry, which altogether give the
church a handsome appearance.

As is the case with all ancient buildings, the débris had accu-
mulated to a great extent around the exterior walls, and this has
also been removed, and the churchyard levelled. The oldest
legible grave-stone dates from 1628, and there are several a few
years only later; that of John Paxton is 1661. He was the
lineal descendant of the De Paxtons, who, after various confisca-
tions and restorations, finally settled at Auchencrew, where the
last male heir, Robert, died, n 1722. Huis tombstone is still very
perfect. He left two daughters, one of whom was my grand-
mother. But a much more ancient burying-ground is that of
the Crows, although the memorial stones, if any ever existed,
have all been destroyed, except that of the Netherbyres family,
which is of late date. The Crow family were the original Au-
chencrows, and, from the name, must have been a Gaelic tribe ;
the meaning of auch being ‘ field,’ and en ‘of, so that they were
the Crows; or as they long spelled, and if we take the bird’s
own way of pronouncing ‘ Craw,’ the Craws of Crawsfield.
Nesbit, in his ‘ Heraldry,’ states, that they were an ancient
family, and figures three crows on their shield. Their burial-
place seems to have been in the south transept, near to the
nave, and below the arch, which has been noticed as still stand-
ing. My brother, Wiliam Hood, the proprietor of Sunnyside,

256 Mr. J. Hardy on Berwickshire Plants.

has a charter of John de Auchencraw, and they retained pro-
perty there in the male line as late as 1630, when one of my
ancestors married a descendant of the last of them. Being so
connected, has given me an opportunity of recording the above.

By the excavations of the south transept three slabs were
exposed, with a sword cut on each, one of them with two, and
also the figure of a cock, but no date on any of them. It has
been conjectured that this figure relates to the Cockburns, a
notable family once, in the county; and what helps to confirm
it is, that the family of Turnbull, who purchased Houndwood
about the middle of the last century, took the ruins above the
place for their burying-ground. This Dr. Turnbull who pur-
chased Houndwood was the great-grandfather of Mrs. Capt.
Coulson, and a descendant of the Cockburns. The Hound-
wood family have always buried in this place. Near the same
place was also found a very perfect stone sarcophagus, cut to the
figure of the body. A broken vase, cut out of a very hard Silu-
rian rock, similar to what is found in the neighbourhood, has
also been dug out, with many various pieces of sculpture, all of
which are carefully preserved. With regard to the structure of
the ancient north wall, Mr. Billings, in his ‘ Ecclesiastical Anti-
quities,’ has given a very fine view; but he has incorrectly re-
presented the lower pillars to be supported on gorbals, whereas
the pillars of the original structure were entire, as became evi-
dent when the foundation was laid bare.

Notices of Berwickshire Plants. By James Harpy.

1. Orobus sylvaticus.
In Monynut Wood, near the foot-path ievanaes to Abbey St.
Bathans. The station on the Eye is now under Hg oo

2. Peplis portula.
Bog at the west end a Old-cambus Dean; in the pond at
Dulaw and its vicinity.

3. Cnicus heterophyllus.
In the boggy wood on the Whiteadder below Edin’s Hold.

4. Lithospermum maritimum.

An observation that I made this season will account for the
occasional disappearance of this plant from its old sites. On
the 8th of August I found it rismg in a new station, on the
beach at Greenheugh, the little bay west from St. Helen’s
Church; but I am sorry to add that, on the 17th of August,
and for some time afterwards, a north-east wind, accompanied
by a succession of high tides, moved the loose shingle, and

Mr. J. Hardy on Berwickshire Plants. 257

buried the whole of my seedlings. Shortly after, I went to the
locality to the east of Redheugh, where it once abounded, but I
could not perceive a single plant; the beach having undergone
great alterations since my previous visits. A number of plants,
however, have sprung up at the mouth of the Pease Burn; and
I observed it also further to the west at the Ewelairs, where it
formerly grew, but where it had not been seen for many years.

5. Galeopsis Ladanum.
On an uncultivated rocky and gravelly spot in a field near
St. Helen’s Church, apparently indigenous.

6. Stachys arvensis.
Banks of the Monynut, below Trefountain.

7. Clinopodium vulgare.
On an uncultivated bushy spot, called the Oak Brae, at Old-
cambus ; along with Astragalus glycyphyllos.

8. Primula vulgaris.

It is mentioned in the ‘ Flora of the Eastern Borders,’ p.165,
that humble-bees pay no attention to this plant; but this is a
mistake, for they often frequent its flowers; and hence it has
obtained the notice of the poets :—

** He shal ben lyk the lytel bee,
That seketh the blosme on the tre,
And souketh on the prumorole.”
MS. Addit. 11307. f. 67 (Brit. Mus.).

“* And lowly primrose opes unseen
Her virgin bosom to the bee.”
Hoae’s Queen’s Wake.

The hive-bee occasionally visits the Polyanthus for pollen, but 1
never observed it on the Primrose.

9. Polygonum amphibium.

On the Monynut I obtained, within a reddish package formed
by the revolute edge of the leaf, the larva of Cecidomyta (Tipula)
Persicarie of Linneus, not before observed as British. Win-
nertz has described the female of the perfect insect in his elabo-
rate “ Monographie der Gallmucken,” in the ‘ Linnea Entomo-
logica,’ vol. vill. p.217. The pretty beetle, Chrysomela Raphani,
both in the larva and perfect state frequents this plant, in that
vicinity.

10. Listera ovata.

Penmanshiel Wood, rare; in the bog between the Blake-
laws; Howpark Wood; Coldingham Moor adjoming the Press
plantations.

258 Mr. J. Hardy on Granivorous Geodephaga.

1]. Listera nidus-avis.
One plant in Red Clues Cleugh, where I have also seen the
persistent withered spikes.

12. Orchis viridis.
One plant on the sea-banks behind Redheugh Coast-Guard

Houses.

13. Glyceria rigida.

In one spot on the braes at Linhead, below the railway em-
bankment, on a red gritty soil, similar to that in which Clino-
podium vulgare and Galeopsis Ladanum grow.

14. Riccia glauca.
In the Tower Dean, scarce; also near the waterfall at the
head of Duiaw Dean.

15. Lemania fluviatilis.
In Whare-burn, to the east of Shannabank.

16. Chroolepus lichenicolus.
On lichens on shady rocks near the linn at Reedy-burn ; and
near The Retreat.

MISCELLANEA. By James Harpy.

Occurrence of the Twite (Fringilla montium) in Berwickshire.

A flock of stranger birds, durmg the spring of 1856, fre-
quented the higher part of Penmanshiel Wood, called Aikieside,
attaching themselves to the Scotch pine, on account of the cones,
from which they extracted the seeds. I expected to have pro-
cured a specimen, but a Hawk made off with the individual
that was shot for the purpose; and I only obtained the bill, legs,
and feathers; but these enabled me to determine that this rare
visitant was the Twite, or Mountain Linnet. They left about
the 8rd of June. For some time they were associated with the
lesser Redpole. This bird also is seldom seen here; but this
season it appeared in a large flock, during some very severe
weather about December 8, 1855, along the banks of the North
British Railway, among clumps of withered nettles. They soon
disappeared, however, and it was not till the spring was pretty
well advanced that they were observed in the company of their
congener.

On Granivorous Geodephaga.

In the Proceedings of the Club, vol. ui. p. 123, I have re-
corded the habits of some Beetles, usually considered as wholly
carnivorous, but which were observed to feed on the seeds of plants.
I have repeatedly verified the observations then madeon the Amare;

Mr. J. Hardy on Silver Coins found at Blackburn. 259

indeed, they may be seen feeding on the grasses or chickweed, near
wall-sides, on any fine dayin summer. I re-introduce the subject
to state, that on the 22nd September, 1856, I met with Omaseus
melanarius and Calathus cisteloides, two of the insects previously
mentioned, the former as an ascertained, the latter as a probable
seed-feeder, devouring the grains of oats. Happening to pass
through an oat-field where some of the heads had fallen across
the foot-path and been trodden down, I saw first an Omaseus
and then a Calathus eagerly at work gnawing the seeds still
attached to the panicles; the first at a ripe grain, the other at
one which was greenish and soft. Both had torn the chaff to
get at the grain.

Additions to Berwickshire Mollusca.

CoNnoVULUS BIDENTATUS and RissoA CINGILLUS occur toge-
ther, in a living state, under stones, mostly of red sandstone,
behind St. Helen’s Church, near the high-water mark of ordi-

_nary tides, and in about the same situations as those which
Aépys marinus and Micralymma marinum prefer. I find Helix
pulchella, which is accounted rare in this district, pretty frequent
among short herbage close on the seaside at Greenheugh, and
on the Bents near the mouth of the Pease Burn,

On some Silver Coins found at Blackburn, in the Parish of Cock-
, burnspath. By James Harpy.

As the local antiquities of the Border district form a promi-
nent department of the Club’s scheme, I beg to transmit a notice
of the discovery of a number of Coins in this vicinity, of some
historical interest. These coms were found on the farm of
Blackburn, in the parish of Cockburnspath, in the end of April
and the beginning of May 1856, by some labourers engaged in
field-work. They were obtained in a portion of a field that had
~ not been cultivated till recently, owing to the quantity of stones
with which it was encumbered. They were scattered about, but
had been originally enclosed in an earthenware vessel, of which
several fragments were observed. Altogether, about 200 coins
were picked up. Of these I had the opportunity of imspecting
two sets, said to be types of the series, the one of 17 selected
from 100; the other of 12. They are all silver pieces—shillings
I imagine, although some of them are exceedingly light and
thin—of the period of the struggle for Scottish dependence in
the days of Wallace or Bruce. The coins have no dates, but
their age may in some measure be inferred, from two coins of

260 Mr. J. Hardy on Silver Coins found at Blackburn.

Alexander III., not much impaired, being of the number. As
being the oldest, these claim first to be noticed. The obverse
presents a crowned profile of the king—a grave and dignified
personage—with the sceptre, which is tipped with a fleur-de-lis
in front. The legend is +ALEXANDER DEI GRA.
On the reverse is a rectangular cross with a star in each of the
four angles: Leg. REX SCOTORVM+4+. The cross is
so deeply impressed, that the piece, if bent, would snap in two;
whence the usage of such coins as troth-pledges. The workman-
ship of these coins surpasses most of the English pieces m the
collection. These, for we have no guide in the inscriptions, from
their association with the Scottish coms, appear to have belonged
to Edward I. They are pretty uniform in type; none of them,
however, are from the same dye, and hence the features show con-
siderable diversity. The obverse presents a full face of the king ;
the crown is open like that of the Scottish king. There is no
sceptre. The general inscriptionis +EDWARD R ANGL
DNS HYB. [Edward King of England, lord of Ireland] ;
sometimes only ED W or ED WA: in one instance EDVA;
and H B occurs for HY B. On the reverse, a cross divides the
disc into four compartments, in each of which are three pellets
in a triangle. As most of them have issued from the Mint in
the Tower of London, they are inscribed CIVITAS LON-
DON. At this period many of the principal towns and boroughs
in England had the privilege of coinage, subordinate to the
Mint in the Tower. Of the provincial pieces, there are several
examples in the collection, as denoted by the inscriptions; the
coins being in other respects similar to those of the metropolis.
Thus we have CIVITAS CANTOR, ze. Canterbury, (two
of the Canterbury coins look like the essays of an apprentice) :
CIVITAS EBORACI,ze. York: CIVITAS DVN-
ELM, z.e. Durham (very rudely lettered): VILLA BRIS-
TOLLIE, ze. Bristol: VILLA SCI EDMVNDL, ze.
Bury St. Edmunds. One may be a baronial coin, or that of a
bishop, but like some of the others it has been clipped, which
renders part of the inscription doubtful. Like the others it has
the king’s effigy, and the cross and pellets. The obverse inscrip-
tionis G. DOMINVS DE: LINI. Perhaps the last I
may be a rubbed D; and if so, it may be intended for Lincoln
(Lindum). Reverse: MONETA SCR EN...; the last
letter is effaced. ‘‘ Moneta sacra” is the classical phrase for
coined money. ‘Two of the coins are Irish, and are superior both
in lettering and graving to the English. On the obverse is a
triangle, enclosing the face of the king, which is similar in ap-
pearance to that on the English coms. The triangle divides the
margin into three compartments. The first contains +E DWR.;

Mr. J. Hardy on Silver Coins found at Blackburn. 261

the second ANGL’D; and the third NS HYB’. On the
reverse, encircling the cross and balls, is the Jegend: CIVITAS
DVBULINIE. The only remaining coin is of Edward as
Duke of Guienne. On the obverse is a half front face, of a more
chivalrous bearing than the heavy German countenances on
several of the English pieces: Ins. + EDWARD REX
ANGL. On the reverse is a cross, with a minute trefoil at
the termination of each arm ; a coronet in each of the four com-
partments: Ins. DVX AQVITANIE.

It is nowise remarkable to discover English coins in this part
of Scotland, for in the time of Edward I. it was entirely subject
to England. From the diversity and nature of the coins, however,
in this collection, it is obvious that the party to whom they be-
longed must have had dealings with some of the armies, assembled
from all parts of his extensive dominions, which Edward or some
of his captains conducted into the North, to crush the remains
of Scottish patriotism. In the army that fought the battle of
Falkirk in 1298, there were both Irish and Gascons present ;

‘and at that period a party of Gascons garrisoned Berwick. Per-
haps this was the period of acquisition ; but we cannot so satis-
factorily conjecture, at what particular exigency in that distracted
age, such a large amount of wealth was abandoned. Another
instance of a considerable number of coins of the same era being
found in the district, occurred a few years ago near Cairncross.
Three of these that I examined, correspond with the London
type in the present collection. The concealment of such large
sums of money, of the same character, at the two places, points
out some crisis in the course of national events, which the
owners had particular cause to dread; and this may have been
the successes of the Scots in the time of Bruce, and the return

_ of the rightful owners to the lands whence they or their fathers

had been disinherited. In the Coldingham records, as published
by the Surtees Society, there is preserved a roll, which supplies
the information, that several forfeitures took place in the east of

Berwickshire in 1298, in consequence of the proprietors taking

the Scottish side at Falkirk. The vacancies thus made would
most likely be occupied by Englishmen, or ‘ Scoti Anglicati,”
as Fordun calls the renegades; whose only safety, when the

English interests received a fatal blow, would be a precipitate

retreat across the Borders.

262 Mr.G. Tate on Roman Remains found at Adderstone.

On Roman Remains found at Adderstone, Northumberland.
By Georce Tarts, F.G.S. |

In the month of July last, some workmen, while draining Adder-
stone estate, belonging to Dr. G. Wilson of Alnwick, discovered
a small oak box in a peat bog, at the depth of 6 feet from the
surface. Buried in this bog were also several large oak-trees,
black in the wood, but sound and fit for use. The box was
fastened by copper nails, but on exposure to the air the wood
decayed, and there appeared twenty-two Roman copper and brass
coins, a portion of horse furniture, and a scale and beam.

The coins are chiefly of the middle size, with a few of the
smallest ; and through the kindness of Roach Smith, Esq., the
distinguished Roman archeologist, who determined those that
were obscure, I am able in the following list to refer them to
their respective reigns.

One brass of Hadrian, who reigned from a.p. 117 to 188:
_ the obverse with a laureated bust; the reverse with a female
figure standing.

One brass of Lucius Atlius (a.p. 185 to 138): obverse, a
bust; erent, ~. .-: LIVS CAES...AVG; reverse, a

female holding a branch and cornucopia.

One brass of Antoninus Pius (a.p. 188 to 161): obverse,
a laureated bust; reverse, a female seated, with a spear in
her left hand; legend,....[LNDVLGENTIA AVG
COTIIII; in the exergum, 8 .C.

Two coppers of Marcus Aurelius (4.p. 161 to 180).
One brass of Verus (4.D. 161 to 169): obverse, a laureated
bust.

Three coppers of Faustina the Younger, wife of M. Aurelius:
obverse, a bust; reverse, a female seated.

Two coppers of Commodus (a.p. 180 to 192): the more
distinct of the two has on the obverse a laureated bust ; legend,
M COMMODVS FELIX AVG BRIT; reverse, a
figure helmeted, with a spear in the right hand; legend, A V G
PMTRP ....PVIIICO; the other has on the reverse a

female seated.

One copper of Severus (a.p. 193 to 211): reverse, two
small figures ; legend, VIR.

One copper of Caracalla (a.p. 211 to 217); much oblite-
rated: obverse, a laureated bust.

One small brass of Solinina, wife of Gallienus (a.p. 253 to

Mr. G. Tate on Roman Remains found at Adderstone. 263

268): reverse, a female seated, holding out her hand to two
naked children; legend, PIETAS AVG.

Eight small brasses of Postumus (a.p. 260 to 267) : obverse,
bust with a radiated crown ; on the reverse of the most distinct
is a figure standing, with a mantle passing from the left
shoulder around the body, the right arm being extended ;
legend, PAX AVG.

The other relics are—a brass beam in good condition, 72 inches
long; it is round, but flattened in the centre, which is perforated,
and at the two extremities, which are also perforated ;—a small
brass scale, such as is now used by apothecaries ;—two circular
lumps of lead, convex on one surface and flat on the other, pro-
bably weights, the larger weighing 27 oz. and the smaller 14 oz. ;
—a portion of horse furniture made of lead, having two rings
connected by a twisted rope-like bar.

The coins represent a period of about 150 years; the earliest
being about a.p. 117, and the latest about a.p. 267. They had
_ been concealed in the reign of Postumus or shortly after, for
there are no coins later than his reign, and several of his are in
good condition, evidencing that they had not been long in cir-
culation ; and this view is rendered more probable from the fact
that the period when Postumus and the other thirty tyrants
usurped power, was one of great disorder and insecurity. Some
timid inhabitant of the district fearing plunderers hid his little
property in a wood, which in course of time was converted into
a bog, and there it lay concealed for 1600 years, till modern im-
provements brought it to light.

The neighbourhood of Adderstone had undoubtedly, during
the Roman occupation of Britain, been frequently the scene
of conflict, for there are military remains in the district. About
half a mile northward is a round camp, such as is generally
referred to the ancient Britons. On Spindleston Crags is
another of a similar description, but larger and more elaborately
fortified; westward from that is another, of a crescent-shape,
overlooking the Warn; and on the north side of the Warn is a
Roman camp of a square form, which is represented to be the
Castrum ulterius, or out-fort to defend the pass of the river and
harbour. The hamlet near to it, formerly called Ulchester, still
retains the name of Outchester.

- H whe ay
i rreie tre

INDEX.

Acarides of Berwickshire, 113, 158.

Aitken, Alexander, meteorological table,
44,

Alge of Eastern Borders, 200.

Ancient monuments, 103, 111.

Ancient tombs, 123.

Aphides, 174.

Asplenium Germanicum, 102.

Atelecyclus heterodon, 130.

Baird, Dr. W., notice of Sericomyia
borealis, 68 ; remarks on Entozoa, 142.

Bell, Miss E., letter of, 155.

Berwickshire plants, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 54, 57,
86, 88, 93, 95, 126, 128, 130, 131, 132,
136, 166, 169, 218.

Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, Members
of, 2, 4, 7, 54, 56, 87, 93, 127, 164, 165,
168, 169, 211, 218, 221.

Birds, 4.

Bos primigenius, 45.

Brama Raii, notice of, 88.

Broderick, William, Esq., Anniversary
Address, 1, 258.

Celtic remains, 154.

Cist-vaens, 63.

Cist, near Dunse, 156.

Chantry, at Alnwick, 77.

Chirnside, its church and churchyard,
184.

Coldingham Priory, 225.

— , font of, 251.

Dickson, William, Esq., notice of Chan-
try in Chapelry of Alnwick, 77.

Edin’s Hall, 9.

Embleton, Robert, Surgeon, Anniversary
Address, 201, 217; Miscellanea Zoolo-
gica, 250.

Entozoa, remarks on, 142.

Eschara cervicornis, 168, 175.

—— foliacea, 168.

Eudendrium capillare, 250.
Excrescences on plants, 111.

Farne Islands, account of, 222.
Font of Coldingham Priory, 251.
Fringilla montium, 258.

Geodephaga, habits of the, 123.

Geology of the coast of Howick, 99.

Gilly, Rev. Dr., Annual Address, 53;
notice of his death and character, 208.

Grifithides Farnensis, 234.

Hardy, Mr. James, account of ancient
sepulchral monuments in Berwick-
shire, 103; excrescences on plants,
111; plants of Berwickshire, 196,214,
256 ; on the habits of the Geodephaga,
123, 258; Fringilla montium, 258;
Berwickshire Mollusca, 259; on some
silver coins found at Blackburn, 259.

Henderson, George, Esq., Surgeon, Chirn-
side, its church and churchyard, 184.

Hepburn, Archibald, Esq., notes ‘on the
habits of the Rook, 48; birds and in-
sects, 4; on the mammalia and birds of
St. Abb’s Head, 70.

Hipparchus papilionarius, 139.

Home, Robert, Esq., Annual Address, 85.

Hood, Robert, M.D., remarks on Cold-
ingham Priory, 252; notice of insects,
3.

Johnston, George, M.D., on the Acarides
of Berwickshire, 113, 158 ; description
of Eschara cervicornis, 175; notice of
the Sturgeon, 164; Miscellany, 173;
death and character, 201; list of his
works, 215.

Linton and its legends, 21.

Mammalia and Birds of St. Abb’s Head,
70.

266

Meteorological table, 44.
Miscellanea, 173, 251, 258.

Pagellus Centrodontus, 251.
Pecten septemradiatus, 251.
Plecotus auritus, account of, 157.
Porpoises, account of, 176.

Riddell, Rev. Thomas, his death and
character, 209.

Roman remains, 262.

Rooke, Rev. George, Annual Address, 16].

Rooks, notes on the habits of, 48.

Selby, P. J., Esq., notice of ancient tombs
at Adderstone Low Mill Farm, 123;
on the habits, &c., of Plecotus auritus,
157 ; on Aphides, 174 ; on Wasps, 180;
on the fossil remains of Bos primi-
genius, 45 ; capture of Sesia fusiformis
and Sirex gigas, 96.

INDEX.

Sericomyia borealis, 68.

Silver coins, found at Blackburn, 259.

Stevenson, Mr., account of a Cist found
at Broomhill, near IDunse, 156.

Stuart, Dr. Charles, account of the Font
at Coldingham Priory, 251.

Tate, George, F.G.S., on Cist-vaens, 63;
geology of the coast at Howick, &c.,
99; Annual Address, 125 ; on Celtic
remains near Wooler, 154; ona herd
of Porpoises, 176; description of the
Farne Islands, 222; on Roman re-
mains found at Adderstone, 262.

Tate, Dr. George, notice of Asplenium
Germanicum, 102.

Torpedo vulgaris, notice of, 251.

Wasps, observations on, 180.
Wiison, Charles, M.D., Linton and its
legends, 21.

Date of
Admission.
Ippixev dohmeBarrd. of YeEthOlm “<..c6scssesccectes ner cceens Sept. 22, 1831.
2. William Baird, M.D., British Museum, London ...... Sept. 22, 1831.
3. Robert Dundas Thomson, M.D., Lecturer on Che-
mistry in the University of Glasgow.............06.5. Sept. 22, 1831.
4, Mr. Robert C. Embleton, Surgeon, Embleton......... Sept. 22, 1831.
5. Prideaux J. Selby, Esq., of Twizell House, by Belford April 20, 1832.
6. Rev. Joseph W. Barnes, Vicar of Kendal............... June 18, 1832.
7. Sir William Jardine, Bart., of Jardine Hall, Dum-
PAG a NUE Caer eaeteelatela ae eietetinsnelelte acieaiisiea seia<s'e «cininc Sept. 19, 1832.
8. George C. Carpenter, Esq., The Cottage, Ford ...... April 16, 1833.
9. Rev. Thomas Knight, The Rectory, Ford............... April 16, 1833.
10. Henry Geo. C. Clarke, M.D., Berwick-upon-Tweed. April 16, 1833.
11. Francis Douglas, M.D., East Indies ...............000005 July 30, 1834.
12. Admiral Mitford, of Hunmanby, Scarborough......... Sept. 17, 1834.
13. Rev. J. Parker, of Ilderton, by Wooler ............... Sept. 17, 1834,
14. J. S. Donaldson Selby, Esq., of Cheswick ............ May 6, 1835.
15. Frederick J. W. Collmgwood, Esq., of Glanton Pyke,
ay Ve Itt NAN nccnnectcsmecmast seadeaseantnept cs seen tee May 6, 1840. .
16. Mr. Jonathan Melrose, Coldstream .............ssssce0s May 6, 1840.
17. Rev. J. Dixon Clark, The Hall, Belford ............... Dec. 16, 1840.
18. Mr. David Macbeath, Berwick-upon-Tweed............ Dec. 16, 1840.
19. John Boyd, Esq., Cherry-Trees, Yetholm ............ Sept. 18, 1841.
20. Robert Home, Esq., Berwick-upon-Tweed ............ June 15, 1842.
Mice oid hoMmas Vanered, Art: cc1s..ccssqccusosenccescodaerce- Sept. 28, 1842.
22> Charles Wilson, M-D!; Kels0..c.:.0:c0c- ce see ens Rech July 26, 1843.
23. James Tait, Esq., Edenside, Kelso ...........s.....0008 July 26, 1843.
24. Mr. James Douglas, Commercial Bank, Kelso......... July 26, 1843.
25. William Dickson, Esq., of Amisfield, Alnwick ...... Sept. 20, 1843.
26. William Broderick, Esq., Belford ............s0ccscceeees Sept. 20, 1843.
27. John Turnbull, Esq., 16 Thistle Street, Edinburgh... Sept. 20, 1843.
Zaamney, Georce Walker, BelfOrd, (.32....0.+-scncercosnestcne Sept. 20, 1843.
29. Ralph Carr, Esq., Dunstan Hill, Gateshead............ Oct. 18, 1843.
30. Rev. J. C. Atkinson, Danby, Gisborough, Yorkshire. May 1, 1844.
31. Rev. Thomas Witham, of Lartington, Barnard Castle May 7, 1845.
32. Rev. William Ritchie, Berwick-upon-Tweed ......... May 7, 1845.
33. Rev. Matthew Burrell, of Chatton, by Belford......... . Sept. 3, 1845.
34. Rev. George Rooke, of Embleton, by Alnwick ...... Sept. 3, 1845.
35. Charles Selby, Esq., of Earle, by Wooler............... Sept. 3, 1845.
36. Henry Gregson, Esq., of Lowlinn............s..ccseeceee May 3, 1846.
o/s key. ugh Rvans, Seremmerstom 42... 06.00. 000...000e00 May 3, 1846,
38. Rev. William Lamb, of Ednam, by Kelso ............ June 3, 1846.
39. William Stevenson, Esq., Berwick-upon-Tweed ...... June 3, 1846.
40. Major Elliott, Berwick-upon-Tweed...............00668. May 5, 1847.
41. Patrick Clay, Esq., New-water Haugh................5. May 5, 1847.
a7. wir.) George, Vatey AMIWICK doqsarces cance scree feecens sense June 16, 1847.

MEMBERS.

43. The Rt. Hon. the Earl of Home, Hirsel, Coldstream Oct. 20, 1847.
44. David Milne, Esq., of Milne Graden, Coldstream ... Oct. 20, 1847.
45. Rev. L. Shafto Orde, of Shoreston, Bamburgh ...... Oct. 20, 1847.
AG: Trey. Nas Carry; Norhantiaye: reoiarere «nemesis secon tomene ee Oct. 20, 1847.
47. George Turnbull, Esq., of Abbey St. Bathans......... Oct. 20, 1847.
48. James Renton, Esq., of Highlaws, Eyemouth ......... Oct. 20, 1847.
49. R. Hood, M.D., Amisfield, Coldingham ............... May 3, 1848.
50. Rev. Hamlet Clarke, Sheep Street, Northampton ... July 26, 1848.
51. Mr. George Carpenter, The Cottage, Ford ............ July 26, 1848.
ov. awev. Namuel Byler, Comal: ovsecssascchesstedeane sae June 25, 1849.
Dos eyW . Darnell) Gamburel <...rc-rccssqanenseeeins accede July 25, 1849.
54. Henry Stephens, Esq., Redbraes Cottage, Bonning-

ton) MGM USN yes oeshce cee sce soh dei eencee ener tase Sept. 12, 1849.
55. Francis 8. Cahill, M.D., Berwick-upon-Tweed......... Oct. 18, 1849.
56. Mr. W. H. Logan, Berwick-upon-T weed .............. May 1, 1850.
57. John Church, Esq., of Bell’s Hill, Belford ............ July 24, 1850.
58. William Gray, Esq., of East Bolton, Alnwick ......... July 24, 1850.
59. W. Smellie Watson, Esq., Forth Street, Edinburgh. Sept. 18, 1850.
60. John Craster, Esq., of Craster Tower ..........:.+0000+ Sept. 18, 1850.
GE Rey, Win.Rigee, Auick, Hexhamiwc.scames-ar+ascccnes May 7, 1851.
62) Hugh Taylor, Hsq.,,Alawitk ...comsasss:cesveenesosoneueas Oct. 15, 1851.
63. Wm. Dickson, Jun., Esq., Alnwick .........-2+,cseseces Oct. 15. 1851.
64. Sir John Marjoribanks, Bart., Lees ............seeceeeee June 30, 1852.
65. Matthew Turnbull, Esq., M.D., Coldstream ......... June 30, 1852.
66. Rev. Geo. Selby Thompson, Alnham ..............0685 June 30, 1852.
67. Hon. Admiral Grey, Howick Grange ........+.....0008 June 30, 1852.
68. George Tate, Esq., M.D., Almwick | ..........0.0sss000s- Sept. 8, 1852.
Gos Mr. Stevenson, (umse; i eaedrteatpe maou se ncosses steer ns Sept. 7, 1853.
70. James Wilson, Esq., M.D., Berwick........ Wer tasnsieas Oct. 12, 1853.
Al. William Boyd, Esq., Cherry Trees .....0s.00 seen Oct. 12, 1853.
72. Wm. Marjoribanks, Esq., Coldstream ............00000. June 21, 1854.
73. George Douglas, Esq., M.D., Kelso......0.c+sssaemsuws June 21, 1854.
74. Charles Stuart, Esq., M.D., Chirnside ....... Cities Aug. 16, 1854.
70. Rev. F. R. Simpson, North Sunderland ............... Aug. 16, 1854.
LORE Ve NEGO NVEStccoecaicensb aces doceuince cavities eceaaeastetn incites Oct. 25, 1854.
77. Rev. Hans Hamilton, Vicar of Berwick ............066 Oct. 25, 1854.
Ree WEG AW Bie DIOOEs... cde sce Sasenculdee sense «ce seommamameee sce =a \Oet. 25, 1864.
79. Thomas Sopwith, Esq., Allenheads ..............s000e0 May 9, 1855.
80. Charles Rea, Esq., Doddington Wooler ............... June 20, 1855.
81. George Culley, Esq., Fowbery Tower ........0......065 June 20, 1855.
82. Rev. Edward Sandys Lumsden ............sssecesseceeees July 18, 1855.
83. Mr. Hugeup Shoreston, Bamburgh ...............00000 July 18, 1855.
84. Rev. Charles Thorpe, Vicar of Eliingham............ -. dan. 31, 1856.
$5. Reve B.S: Goldie; Coldstream. 2. ..ccdecesssssec0s 5.0. eccnce Jan. 25, 1856.
86. John Church, Jun., Esq., Bell’s Hill ........2..0...206 Oct. 29, 1856.
87. Mr. Charles Watson, Dunse ............+. sh wate eleceweeee Oct. 29, 1856.
88., Capt. Selby, R.N., Alnwick .....-.:.0+0-sccccsaenensuess Oct. 29, 1856.
89. Lieut. Patrick Johnston, R.N., Berwick ........0...+0. Oct. 29, 1856.
90. Rev. Thomas Leishman, Linton .............seeeeeerees Oct. 29, 1856.
91. George Hughes, Jun., Esq., Middleton Wooler ...... Oct. 29; 1856.

Date of

Admission.

EXTRAORDINARY MEMBERS.

Mrs. Dr. Johnston, Berwick.
Miss Bell, Coldstream.
Miss Hunter, Anton’s Hill.

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