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SApagttapenesiy eo Ge Bibonage S145 Or ngs 8 em eeeene teteser bogies 19 eta he me Meeeer ess A1DONP VO ova eetien trae rr reerae rt: meat bbb uke etre LOOfT eps gaan, = ae tten sawing « remiaiaids SUSU errrirrerr ny ir irn ee Sereeeeaeacaes Seana aierariete at avbratee Cire Factagranne * ia erste agate ven en en ee . COPS marten dels gege eras 4tinguteg setdettaenras pet biee tists tl ts placate Hh 4 ae 408 Ot er anaeas - Snore pat atateeseeravacg aiaeaee perenne rine Cire oe she erendes wan esieracgeneavenant Maracas ” tedralcraenee NOG aren giens 404s redegs, ries irr] Cadet ange ees 6 <2 evedeaetey ene tateedeaas oe a tan ene as é orate “a aca Oe Thre rerrry oem 'CGreenara Miata eeene Prarie Ud eetiggante terre * tote Gi aiaceinn teavienite Pt setae ir inn asneae eee etay winertecteres batt rien ry ‘ Cane taneegeiey ssaeas ee ehetiae ie sceaieesesegs Perera ceeatte ‘ * errr rary treats ‘ Ghee renediscacs Gitiacste fay erriirerert) ' tie tievgee rn siete eee Dicer tier ‘ seraieres veteceteatedtestemeds tee Cha gteeee tiles. : cbeitearas seeeeeduay caste irre Heeeranitertid nia Feeaterey 4teras See erage aoent Flame Peri Sirs eree * + aS rrastangigeye gt proprietors tia Ae GPa Sarropes * - oo eeaverietisgan Sot ene? snasaenee, ee Gechide aie a pe Sa ay init? aga i Pe a raph eit ares Lee m/1S TOmy BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB INSTITUTED SEPTEMBER 22, 1831. “MARE ET TELLUS, ET, QUOD TEGIT OMNIA, C@LUM.” 1885—1886. ALNWICK : PRINTED FOR THE CLUB BY HENRY HUNTER BLAIR, MARKET PLACE, 1887, 18. 19. CON TEN Des: PART I.—1886. PAGE Address delivered to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, at Kelso, October 14th, 1885. By the Rev. Tuomas LEIsHMAN, D.D., F.S.A., Scot., Linton, President fe port of Meetings of the Berwickshire eerste Club, for the year 1885. By James Harpy Notices connected with the Parish of Oxnam. By ee eae On a Roman Patella and a Leaden Vessel found in Redesdale. By the Rev. THomas Srepuens, Vicar of Horsley by Otterburn On a Roman Broaze Patella from Palace near Crailing, Roxburgh- shire, and some other examples from Scotland Armorial Bearings and Interesting Inscriptions in Jedburgh a its Vicinity. By Watrer LarpLaw Historic Notices of Haughton Castle, North aS riedolo” By che Rev. G. Rome Hatt, F.S.A., Vicar of Birtley and Chaplain of Chipchase Castle Chapel, Wark-oultyne iia not On some British Remains near Oldcambus. By James Harpy Additions to the History of Oxnam Tower. By the Same Plenderleith and the Selbies. By the Same Wedderlie House, Berwickshire. By Rosrrr Mornay, Dkeotabeot Edinburgh. Plates I., II., III. Hee Ss : The Edgars of Wedderlie. By the Rev. J. H. Epaar, Mik. Temple, Sheen, Middlesex : Donble-handed Sword preserved at Wedderlie Base) A few Notes on the Damage to Trees caused by the fags ie 1879-80, and following years, in the Merse, Berwickshire, after five years’ observation; with four drawings of Frosted Oaks. By Cuarces Stuart, M.D. Woodhouses Pele, Coquetdale, Nionehianaheaden dl By D a, bao Rothbury, Plate IV. On a Cinerary Urn at Operas Mgrs Datale, Merearslshire. By James Harpy : Notes on the opening of a Stone Cist near Eekford Villaze, in tte Parish of Eckford, Roxburghshire. By Jonn G. WINNING Report for Wm. Eliott Lockhart, Esq., Chamberlain to His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, etc., as to Stones, ete., found in a field at Hckford. By the SAME < On an old Grave containing two Bieatotons covered by a Slab ne Ladykirk Church. By the Rey, Winutam Doste, M.A. 20. Contents. PAGE Notice ofa Cist containing an Urn found at Eckford, Roxburgh- shire, and opened on the 3lst October, 1885. By Joun G. WINNING or is ie ee des LSS Shippath Dean, in iemmeemede By Dr Cx#artss Srvart, Chirnside wie 188 On Cists filled with Tonee. Clay fond in Waldiastaga hurd: yard. By JamMrs Woop, Galashiels te : 192 On a British Urn found at Macksmill, near Gordon Renwiee. shire. ._By James Harpy 193 The History of Chareas Graminis, he Cae or Antes Miaiad on the Borders. By James Harpy pe LEED Localities for Plants. By A. H. Evans, M. ike p Ognibuides uae 200 Memoir of the Rey. John Frederic Bees M.A., Vicar of Stamfordham. By the Rev. W. Mes cus M.A., Rector of Edmundbyres, Durham sii es tai BOF Letter from John Hancock, Esq. ... 216 Papers by the Rev. J. F. Bigge in the Hiskour, of the Berwiee. shire Naturalists’ Club at ati wee Memoir of Henry Gregson, Hsq., J. P., Canine = wae | ae Memoir of the late John Hutton Balkoue, MuA., M.D: LEDs F.R.S., F.R.S.E., etc. ; Professor of Medicine hud Rotany:t in the Tntvenst of Hdinbavih, etc., etc. ee WitiiaM Craic, M.D., F.R.S.E., F.R.C.8., Ed., ete Pec 218 Memoir of the late ae Towlerton Lone! Hage FE S-Ay, “a Leventhorpe Hall and Middleton Hall sis 500 im LO Memoir of the late Rev. William Darnell, M.A. ast ... ~ 280 Memoir of the late Rev. William Stobbs, M.A. oo i weg Memoir of the late Henry Richardson, M.D., R.N. ... 233 Memoir of Sir George H. S. Douglas, Bart, of Sprineond Park ‘ 234 The Migration of Birds, wine few Noted on th poathiGr of 1885. By Cuaxces Sroart, M.D., Chirnside Nes “th on 230 Notes on Birds.. By the Site ane ve ie «+ 242 Curious Nesting Place of the Great Tit. By Miss C. H. Greer, Birch Hill, Norham Pac 245 On the Occurrence and ies on of Binds in ie Belford District for 1885. By Joun Atrcuison, Belford 508 . 246 Notes on the Occurrence of Birds in Hast-Lothian during the year 1885. By Grorex Pow, Dunbar 248 On the Habits of the Ox-eye bie denilens) oon feeding ie young. By James Woop : 250 Natural History: Observations in “1885. By JOHN Taeuene Maxton fc Bae oil’ Ornithological Motex By" Greece Bowie Betwick ... 258 Minchmoor and the Cheese Well, in connection with Welsh Legend. By Miss Russet of Ashiesteel wa ... 2638 Alnmouth Marine Algw. By ANDREW Amory, Alnwick 2G 46. 47. 48. Contents. PAGE On Urns and other Antiquities found round the Southern Skirts of the Cheviot Hills. By Jsmus Harpy. Plates V.,VI., and VII. Register of Rainfall and Sunshine at Marchmont, Berwickshire. By Prerer LOONEY Sie “ae bos ae Rainfall at Glanton Pyke, Northumberland, in 1885, com- municated by Frepx. J. W. Cottinewoop, Esq. ; and at Duns, Berwickshire, communicated by Chartres Watson 49,50. Notes of Rainfall and Monthly Range of Pemperstare. as ol. 52. Or West Foulden, and at Rawburn, for the year 1885. By H. H. Craw, West Foulden Donations to the Berwickshire aitaratiate’ Club, ae Scientific Societies, Exchanges, etc., 1885-6 General Statement PART II.--1886. Address delivered to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, at Alnwick, Oct. 14th 1886. By Rozsexrr Mippiemas, Hsq., Alnwick, President Report of Meetings of the Ber wickeline Metamaliate Club, for the year 1886. By James Harpy On some undescribed Seulptured Rocks heb een Woolt snd Chatton. By Wittram Gunn, F.G.S. (H.M. Die a, siete Plates! i-, Tis, LE: ; Notes on the Memon of Akeld aiid Gauplane: By Marriew Cuniry, junr. of Coupland : ie Miscellaneous Observations on Akeld and Conpland. ‘By JAMES Harpy : di 50 #53 Historical Notes salatings is Bineaeboline: By areas Euiorr Lockuart of Borthwickbrae. With Map and Plates IV., UNV 5 Oe Rattling, Roaring Willie. By the tae. SIR Wa. TER Cmod K.C, S. iT etc., etc. of Wolfelee. With additional Notes by W. Bian Locxnart, Esq. : : oe om Notes on Harden and the Takada. Meliea, By J. G. WInnine. With additional Notes. Plate V. On an Urn found at Galashiels. By Mrs fWoab ee On Gautffres or Wafer Irons. By J.G. Winnine. With additional Notes On two British Brows Celts ft Haakon aieauide, Ashiink. By ARCHIBALD Murray DuNtop On a Key preserved in Peebles Museum On a Brass Ewer found at Dreva, Peeblesshire ~ The Pike as a Scottish Weapon. By James Harpy .- Ona Silver Brooch found at Hazelton Rig near Alnham, Nox thumberland. By James Harpy ... a4 Notes on the Rude Stone Antiquities of Bec 4 in Gonneution with those of Scotland. By Miss Kusseun of Ashiesteel 269 315 316 321 333 401 403 414 421 Contents PAGE Notices of Fungi found mostly in the neighbourhood of Roxburgh in 1886, and hitherto unrecorded from the District of the Club. By the Rev. Davi Paun, M.A., Roxburgh : i O20 Eyemouth Harbour Works, Geological Notes, 1884- 86 seae AHL On the Ferrule of the Shaft of a Spear of the Bronze Period, found at Leetside, Whitsome, Berwickshire sis Be ey Localities for Neottia Nidus-avis. By James Harpy «.< Ooo Statistics and Notes as to River Tweed Salmon Fishing. Com- municated by GrorcE L. PAULIN aa Doo An Account of the several days in each Winter on iio Ice was gathered and stored by the Berwick Salmon Fisheries’ Company, from the year 1874 to 1886. By the Same = bol Obituary Notice of Francis Douglas, M.D. By W. B. Boyp of Faldonside sh OSS Obituary Notice of Mr ivan ale: Bes Wintec ‘Taompson Hatz, Dunns Houses ae ave Rae saat sty Ornithological Notices. By Wyner Evans, F.R.S.E., Edinburgh 542 Notes on the Rarer Birds observed in the Dunbar District. By GrorGe Pow _.... 544 Notes on the Birds of euaua Fal neuginguiwactd! “By Joun THomsoN, Stobo Mill, Peeblesshire 546 On the Occurrence of the Cockchaffer (Moletonthe cape Fab. ) in | North] Northumberland. By Grorge Botam, Berwick . 558 Additions to the Lepidopterous Fauna of the District, with nie on the capture of some of the rarer species. By the SAME. ... 559 Notes on the Season of 1886. The Migration of Birds, Meteorology, and Natural History. Dy Cuartes Stuart, M.D. ... 562 A Summer Ramble in the Woods round Chirnside, with ieee of our Summer Migrants, ete. By Caries Stuart, M.D., Edin., Chirnside Pe 576 Register of Rainfall and Samatins oe Manchineil; Borwicn cae in 1886. Kept by Prrer Lonry ... — 580 Rainfall at Glanton Pyke, Northd., in 1886, commnnaieaes hy Frepx. J. W. Cottinewoop, Esq.; and at Duns, Berwickshire, communicated by CHARLES WATSON 580 34, 35. Notes of Rainfall and Monthly Baaee: of Temparatane: at 36. 37. 38. West Foulden for the year 1886; and at Rawburn. By H. Hewar Craw, West Foulden ae ae Re: vie DOL Donations to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, from Scientific Societies, Exchanges, etc., 1886-7 oe oF EOS, General Statement aes D a mee we So Hrrata et Addenda ae a8 aah oe ‘se 00, List of Members of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, December, 1887. Index of Birds. General Index. bib USE hake? PON S: PARI’ I: PLATE I. Wedderlie House from S.W. is .-» Robert Murray. Tis 5 NG: ist ae Ibid. —— Ill. 5 zis nee ae Ibid. —-— IV. Woodhouses Pele, Hepple, Coquetdale, Northumberland at ma J. T. Dizon. — — V. Urns from Roseden Edge, near Ilderton, Northumberland oa ... Gibb and Hay, Aberdeen. —— VI. Stone Celt and Axe Hammer, Northumberland is Robert Murray and J. Brown, —— VII. Bronce © Weapons, Thrunton, Northumberland . Dr. John Evans, and Society of Antiquaries, London. TART sah: Puates I., II., III. Sculptured Rocks, Fowberry Park, Northumberland Me A. HE. Gunn and Robt. Murray. Map of District round Branxholme from Map of Tividale, by T. Pont, after 1608 ut C. A. M. Buck, delt. Prats IV. Plan of Branxholme _... Ae mo | GL AS ME Buck. IvV*. Branxholme, 1814 op ... From Border Antiquities. ———IV**, Branxholme, 1887 ie poo | IM EL, TOfaiaralieney ——— V. The Harden ae Bugle and Bogner Horns ie ae . From a photo, Selway del. Eo as Haughton Castle, View of, Northd. p. 42 oe ... Sheriton Holmes. Celt of Aventurine, Cunzierton, Rox., p. 116 ... Soc. Ant. Scotland. Brass. Ring, Riccalton, Rox., p. 118 ... te J. T. Divon. Bronze Patella, Wanny Crags, Redesdale, p. 129 Robt. Blair, F.S.A. Leaden Vessel found in Redesdale, p. 129 538 Robt. Blair, F.S.A. Bronze Patella, Palace, Crailing, Rox. p. 181 ... Soc. Ant. Scotland. Double-handed Sword at Wedderlie House, Ber. p. 169 : Mrs Muirhead and J. T. Dizon. Four Visws. of rosted ee in Berwickshire, pp.172-3 James H. Haig. Urn from Otterburn, Rox. p.177 __... From a Photo. J.T. Dizon. Plans of Graves and Cists near Eckford, Rox. pp. 180, ‘ S20 Tes", : J. G. Winning. Urn from Wooden, Rozburehshira,ie p. “186 Simonds a Photo. J. T. Dizon. British Urn from Mack’s Mill, Ber. p. 194 From a Photo. J.T. Dizon. Caterpillars of Antler HO p. 201 “Sih From Miss Ormerod. Antler Moth, p. 202 ee ..- Newman’s British Moths. Sculptured Stones, Lilburn Hill, pp. “271, 273 ~—sOR. Blair, F.8.A., from Soc. of Ant. Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Bontiiieed: Stone, ‘thane Stead, p. 274 Fe ... CO. H. Reed, F.S.A. Cranium from Galloway field, Ilderton, p. 274 hie Photogravure. Stone Celt, Ilderton, p. 276 506 an Dr John Evans, F.S.4. Urn found near Roseden, p. 279... : J. T. Diwon. Stone Hammer from Percy’s Leap, p. 281 Cat. of Alnivick Castle Museum. Copper Axe, Percy’s Leap, p. 282 . sé John Brown. Copper Axe, Simple, from Ireland, p. “282 The late Llewellyn Jewett, F.S.A. : from Sir W. R. Wilde’s Catalogue. Bronze Seen fcia ‘Heanaee. p. 284 ish Robert Blair, F.S.A. Urn from near Greenville, p. 286 . ae ane H. P. Taylor. Bronze Caldron, Ewartly Shank, iinet Moor, 289 J.T. Dizon. Bronze Spear-head, Blakehope, p. 290 st Dr John Evans, F.S.A. Sharpening Stone combined with Rusty Iron, Comb Fell, pi2ghy ie. : 6c .. &k. Blair and J. T. Dizon. Bronze Celt, two views, ibid, p. 291 “as Ibid. Ibid. Bronze Horse Mountings, near Henhole, p. 293 Soc. Ant. Scot. Plan of Cist at Low Trewitt, p. 297 ae Geo. Tate. Flint Celt, Burradon, p. #00 wy a Dr Sonn Evans, F.S.A. Stone Celt, Burradon, p. 301 ay Ss) | Ibid. Urn from near Screnwood Park, p. 303 a se J. T. Dizon. Black Bead, Castle Hill, Alnham, p. 304 ... Geo. Tate and J. T. Diaon. Bottom of Bronze Patella, The Guards, Bolton, p. 309 Robt. Blair, F.8.A. Cuts. Bronze Socketed Celt, Broomwood Camp, p. 311 hts H. P. Taylor. Copper Caldron or Pan, near Bolton, p. 312... : Ibid. Neidpath Castle looking up the Tweed, p. 362 Messrs Chambers Edinburgh. Standing Stones, Sheriff Moor, p. 365 ve =, Ibid. Drummelzier Castle, p. 374 i ae os Elle. Ruins of Wrae Castle, p. 375 Se ev ee) bude Junction of Powsail and Tweed, p. 376 Sek a hbad: Ruins of Tinnies Castle, p. 380 ; he . bid: Chapel Hill Forts, p. 391 Be From Ordnance Survey. Part of N.H. front showing old “Agena. Doorway at Branxholme, p. 462 bee Ao ee T. H. Laidlaw. Armorial Panels at Branxholme, p. 463 no Ibid. Nebsie Tower (Branxholme) from the west, p. 464 ... Ibid. Wafer Irons, p. 489. From a Photo. T. Dickson. British Bronze Celts, Haster Essenside, p. 493 a M. Brunton and T. Dickson. Key from Neidpath Castle, p. 493 ... 350 a: R. Murray. Brass Ewer or Flagon, Dreva, Peeblesshire .... Alex. Blackwood. Pike Head from Rule Water, p. 495 st ae T. Dickson. Silver Brooch, Hazelton Rig, Northd., p. 502 in Photogravure. Dolmen at Crucuno, p. 506 From a Photo. W.and A. K. Johnston, Edin. The Key of the Sea at St. Samson, p. 518 Ibid. Coins of Julius Cesar, p. 520 na Ibid. Ferrule of Shaft of Bronze Spear from Heckuitie: p. 932 Miss A. Boyd. PROCEEDINGS OF THE BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB. Addyess delivered to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, at Kelso, October 14th, 1885. By the Rev. THomas LrEIsHMAN, D.D., F.S.A. Scot., Linton, President. GENTLEMEN, THE time has come at which your President, according to usage, has to make formal resignation of his office. The honour in my case had not been earned by any worthy work done fur your Society, or even by constant attend- ance. The chief reason for my selection was, I fancy, that so much time had passed since my admission that I had come to be nearly the oldest member in this part of your territory who had not passed the chair. I knew that in most of the fields of research which have been explored by you under former presidents, my fitter place was that of a humble learner. But it was not for me to decline the office when you thought that my turn had come, and to the best of my ability I have tried to perform its duties. One of these is to give at the October meeting a summary of what the members have done and observed on the different field-days of the season. Accuracy of memory and breadth of acquirement far beyond what I can pretend to, would be required to recall and record all that has come under our notice as connected with the geology and archeology, the flora and fauna, of the places visited by us. But of late B.N.C.—VOL, XI, No. I, A 2 Anniversary Address. years this part of the President’s work has been greatly lightened by the kindness of our friend, Mr Hardy, who at our gatherings not only anticipates our wants and removes all difficulties, but preserves an exact record of everything that is noteworthy among the proceedings of the day. Like others before me, I have to thank him for allowing me to embody his memoranda in this address. [The following Summary of the results of Meetings for the season was read at Kelso; the details are given im the Reports. | JEDBURGH AND OXNAM. The first Meeting for 1885 at Jedburgh in May was favoured with good weather and a large company. A route across the country from the middle part of the Jed to the Oxnam, brought a large tract of the country hitherto unvisited by the Club under observation, and with good local guidance, and Professor Geikie’s geological notes and sketches kindly communicated for the occasion, several new circumstances were ascertained not only of value for working out the Natural History and Archeology of this secluded portion of the Borders, but revealing unexpected intelligence about several of its local celebrities. Perhaps the most interesting incident in this excursion was the discovery that George Stephenson, the father of Railways, was of Oxnam Water descent; and for the first information of this we are indebted to Mr Simson, Oxnam Row,.who so generously pro- vided refreshments to the Club on its mid-day journey. Col- lateral relations, descendants from a brother of Stephenson’s father are still resident near Jedburgh; and with their aid, and an examination of the Parish Registers of Oxnam preserved in the General Register Office, a statement of his lineage has been arranged, which Dr Smiles, the biographer of Stephenson, con- siders to be conclusive. Mr David Jerdan, Dalkeith, undertook to work this out, and it will form the subject of ashort paper by him. The older members of the Stephenson family were shepherds and crofters and country tradesmen. It was previously known that George’s ancestor was a Scotsman, but he could not be located. Oxnam was the burial place of another famous modern Scotsman, James Davidson, one of the original representa- tives of ‘‘ Dandie Dinmont ;”’ and his tomb is in the churchyard. Anniversary Address. 3 The Rev. Thomas Boston, junior, said to be the most eloquent preacher of his age, after Whitefield, was once minister of Oxnam. It grieved several members to see the dilapidated condition of the monument in the churchyard of the Rev. Alexander Colden, the patron and friend of the older Boston, and father of Dr Cadwallader Colden, Governor of New York, a distinguished Botanist and Historian, whose daughter also was a Naturalist. Dr Colden was a correspondent of Linnzeus, who has com- memorated him in the genus CotpEnia. ‘The heritors have the repair of the tomb under consideration. Mr Simson supplied curious information about various stone and other implements and weapons, as well as of British graves having been disclosed during the cultivation of the land; and he and I on the day after the Meeting drove through the centre and made a circuit of the eastern part of Oxnam parish, comprehending in our tour the Roman camp at Street House, the Watling Street, the Standing Stones, and the camps on the peaks of Cunzierton and Oxnam Row hills, picking up a considerable amount of information as we passed along, and enjoying most extensive views from the highest vantage ground. At Jedburgh we were fortunate in having obtained Mr Walter Laidlaw’s aid to copy the old inscriptions in the abbey and town as well as in the neighbourhood for some distance round, in- cluding the hitherto unintelligible inscription on the Roman slab, preserved in Jedburgh Abbey. A cast of this inscription was taken at the instance of the Marquis of Lothian, and sent to Dr Bruce of Newcastle, who was not only able to decipher it, but has also favoured the Club with a paper on it, as well as a cut at his own expense; and this with two other illustrations and engravings belonging to the Antiquarian Society of Newcastle, has been inserted in an Appendix to the Club’s number for 1884. When staying for the evening with Sheriff Russell at Jed-bank, I pointed out to Miss Russell the desirableness of the Club’s having drawings of the several bronze and other antiquities pre- served in the Jedburgh Museum ; these she has since finished in a highly satisfactory manner, and they can be brought forward at any time when the funds admit of it to illustrate the ‘ Pro- ceedings.” I also procured measurements and information about a number of Red Deer’s Antlers, and crania of Bos primigenius that had been disinterred in the circuit round Jedburgh, some of them at present in the Museum, and others in private possession. 4 Annwversary Address. The visitors were deeply impressed with the attentions, the facilities, and the hospitality accorded to them; and the exhibi- tion of valuable objects of antiquity and gold and silver coins placed by the owners for the convenience of members in the Museum, was much appreciated. ROTHBURY. The June Meeting was held at Rothbury, and was very numerously attended. ‘Two alternative routes had been proposed in the circular, one to Simonside where the Club had never been, and the other to Cragside where a previous visit had been made. The wet morning settled the business, it being too damp for the hills; and this was fortunate, as Sir William Armstrong had resolved to be the Club’s leader for the day, not only over the enriched interior of the mansion house, but despite of successive showers, conducting the company throughout the winding labyrinths that permeate for miles the fairy scenes, that he may be said to have created out of a bleak waste and an accumulation of bare rocky precipices. Dr Stuart has written an account of this festal day at Cragside, which will be embodied in the Report, and supplemented from my own notes. The glacier smoothed and scratched rocks on the summit displayed ice action on a more enlarged scale than any member of the Club had before witnessed. On their return to Rothbury some of the members visited the Parish Church. Dinner was at the Queen’s Head Hotel, when, in addition to the Club’s toasts, the health of Sir William and Lady Armstrong was heartily received by the members. One or two short notices were read, and several drawings of ancient relics and curiosities were passed round the table for inspection. It was agreed that the next meeting of the Club should be held on the last Wednesday in July at Chipchase Castle, Simonburn, and Haughton Castle, instead of Cockburnspath. I made the journey to Simonside next day along with Mr D. D. Dixon, who had done so much to forward this meeting, and with the Rev. A. Seott—I could not have had better guidance ;— and others of the Club members had taken excursions across the country on the day preceding the meeting, some of them crossing the hills from Yetholm into Upper Coquetdale. After the meeting I went to Alnwick, whence there were visits taken to Eslington, Glanton Pyke, Shawdon, Titlington Hills, Dunstan- Anniversary Address. 5 burgh, and Felton, in order to obtain accurate information about some of the subjects that had been brought before the Club, and also to plan out some future meetings. In this I was kindly aided by Mr Hindmarsh. HAUGHTON CASTLE, SIMONBURN, AND CHIPCHASE CASTLE, NORTH TYNE. The third Meeting of this Club, in conjunction with the second meeting of the Archeological and Architectural Society of Dur- ham and Northumberland, was held in July, in the beautiful neighbourhood of the North Tyne, and, the weather being of the finest, a most enjoyable day was spent by about sixty mem- bers of the two societies. Gentlemen from Newcastle proceeded to Hexham by the quarter-past ten train, and joined the others at the Hexham railway station. A number of carriages were provided for the conveyance of the party to the various places selected for inspection; but as certain gentlemen had not given sufficient notice there were six or seven who were unable to find accommodation in the vehicles, but these afterwards rejoined the bulk of the party at dinner at Chollerford. Those who were fortunate enough to obtain seats drove to Haughton Castle, the interesting history of which was given by the Rev. G. Rome Hall, vicar of Birtley (North Tyne), while the architectural features were explained by Mr Hodges. A move was then made to the fine church at Simonburn, which was reached shortly before two o’clock. After an examination of the edifice, which has undergone considerable restoration, the Rev. Canon Rogers, rector, related the history of the parish. Mr Hodges then gavea - description of the church, after which the ladies and gentlemen returned to the conveyances and proceeded to Chipchase Castle, the seat of Mr Hugh Taylor. The Rev. G. Rome Hall read an account of the Castle from an historical point of view, and Mr Hodges for the third time entered into an architectural explana- tion. Through the courtesy of Mr and Mrs Taylor, who, by deputy, expressed their regret that as they were at Harrogate they were unable to personally entertain the company, much- needed refreshment was provided. Subsequently the party betook themselves once more to the vehicles and drove by way of Chollerton to Chollerford, where dinner was served at the George Inn. The chair was occupied by the president of the 6 Annwersary Address.. Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club. After the repast the party adjourned to the open air and gave themselves up to the calm enjoyment of the cool evening and the beautiful scenery abound- ing in all directions. Most of the party returned home by the 8.35 p.m. train coming east, but a few, principally members of the Berwickshire Club, remained all night, with the view of visiting the Chesters the following day. After dinner papers were laid before the Club on a Cist found near Eckford, by the President; on Sculptured Rocks, in Fow- berry Park, by W. Gunn, F.G.S.; and on the ravages in the pastures of Upper Ettrick by caterpillars of the Antler Moth. On this trip to Tyneside I sojourned at Capt Oarr-Ellison’s, Dunston Hill, and there and at Whickham obtained some infor- mation which may be serviceable to the Club. WEDDERLIE AND EVELAW. In August, at Wedderlie, in the parish of Westruther, a fine old mansion only tenanted in the shooting season, was seen, its history related, and architectural drawings of it were submitted, presented to the Club by a stranger, while another non-member in memory-of his ancestry has supplied the means for engraving them. At Evelaw, also touched at on this occasion, there is an old peel tower, unmodernised, of which drawings have been placed at the Club’s service, and the line of succession of the owners of the estate has been made out, duly authenticated by documentary evidence. An extended search was made across the hill for plants, but those who went by Wedderlie had the ad- vantage. Dr Stuart says he never saw more white heather than was noticed that day on the two Dirringtons. COCKBURNSPATH. The Cockburnspath Meeting in September, owing to continuous heavy rain, was confined to Dunglass dean, the old church, the gardens, and the grounds. The intention had been to penetrate to a scene of considerable geological interest and no slight beauty and rude grandeur at Aikengall on the hills above Oldhamstocks. As this is the second time the Club has been baffled in attempt- ing to reach it, some accounts of what is to be expected there may serve to fill up the comparative vacancy of this day in the Club’s annals, Anwwersary Address. 7 During the past year the Club has lost a larger number than usual of its older members. I shall enumerate them as their names stood on our roll :—Henry Gregson, Lowlyn ; Dr Robert Hood, Edinburgh; Rev. William Darnell, late Vicar of Bamburgh; Sir George H. S. Douglas, Bart., of Springwood Park; Rev. John F. Bigge, Vicar of Stamford- ham ; J, Towlerton Leather, of Middleton Hall; Dr Robert Carr Fluker, Berwick ; Rev. W. I. Meggison, South Charlton ; Rev. William Stobbs, Gordon; John Watson Laidlay, of Seacliffe ; Frank Rutherford, Galashiels; and Walter Grieve, Cattleshiels, The Club, according to the present list, contains 379 members. But taking into account recent removals and some other possible vacancies, it is likely that about thirty new members will have to be admitted to make up the number of four hundred to which it was resolved last year to limit the Club. The mode of admission was then under consideration, and the discussion of it is to be continued to-day. No doubt you are all desirous that regulations for this purpose may be settled with some probability of per- manence, guarding on the one hand against everything that may repel candidates who would be desirable acquisitions to our body, on the other against a too ready admission of those who have no intelligent sympathy with the ends for which the Club exists. A great service has this year been done to the Club by the republication of the first volume of its Proceedings, ex- tending over the first ten years of its existence. Since it became larger and its work more widely known, there has been an increasing desire among collectors here and else- where, to have complete sets of the Proceedings. The rarity of the earlier numbers made this very difficult. The want is now supplied by the exact reprint just issued under the careful supervision of our Secretary. The Club lies under much obligation to him and to Mr Muirhead, who has so heartily associated himself with Mr Hardy’s work. 8 Anniversary Address. Let me conclude by expressing a hope that all the mem- bers of the Club, present and future will thoroughly and habitually identify themselves with its work. To make it really useful more is needed than regular attendance by the many, and the preparation of elaborate papers by the few. Work quite as important may be done by us, acting apart, each in his own neighbourhood endeavouring to interest others in scientific and antiquarian research and keeping vigilant watch that no fresh discovery may pass unnoticed, nor any act of Vandalism be perpetrated without protest. Our archeeologists most of all have need to do so. Every year relics of the past are being destroyed, or come into sight fora moment only to disappear. There are many cases in which this might be prevented, if there were some one at hand who could enlighten the ignorant, or cause the heedless to reflect, or shame the selfish. You must have noticed how often people, who have been long familiar with some memorial of bygone ages, think of its disappearance as no loss because it has fixed itself indelibly in their own recollections. It may be that an ancient building which has almost lost its identity in successive reconstructions, still retains one or two architectural features which fix its date or illustrate its history. When structural changes again become necessary, the venerable arch or doorway, window or sculptured stone, is recklessly sacrificed for some passing fancy or trifling gain. At such a moment judicious expostu- lations might save it to be a source of interest and instruc- tion for ages to come. Smaller objects of archeological interest, which have been discovered in past years without attracting public notice, lie neglected in the hands of people who do not appreciate them, till an accident destroys them, or they are thoughtlessly given to some stranger who forgets or never learns their history, or in the breaking up of a household they are lost for ever. If on your suggestion the existence and history of any such treasure are recorded in our Proceedings, or an engraving of it inserted there, its value is enhanced in the eyes of the owner, and his pride in Anniversary Address. 9 it is a guarantee for its preservation. From time to time curiosities are being found of which every trace is presently lost. You ought to be on the outlook for such discoveries, and if not experts yourselves, draw to them the attention of those who are. Every opportunity ought to be taken of making known that the finder of antiquities in precious metal can claim their value from the public authorities, and will be better recompensed than by secret trafficking, in which he is sure to be over-reached since no honourable man will meet him in such a transaction. If these and other obvious suggestions arising from reflection and experience were generally acted on, antiquarians would not be so often chagrined by learning when it is too late that ornaments or implements, or coins, have been destroyed or lost which might have contributed to the solution of unsettled questions. Let us therefore consider ourselves as so many detached sentinels from the army of science, whose duty it is to bring into full light all new discoveries made in our district, and to guard antiquities already known from everything that would anticipate the inevitable wear of time. My last duty is to propose the name of a member to fill the office of President during the coming year. The selec- tion which awaits your sanction has not been made on merely local grounds; Mr Middlemas of Alnwick is a gentle- man known to all the members not only as a zealous co- operator in our work, but as a permanent official and most successful administrator of our affairs. I have no doubt that his nomination will be unanimously confirmed. 10 Report of Meetings of Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, for the year 1885. By James Harpy. JEDBURGH FOR OXNAM. As preliminary, I shall avail myself of an account of the first portion of this excursion written at my request by our associate member, Mr James Watson, author of the valuable monograph of the Abbey, entitled ‘Jedburgh Abbey: Historical and Descriptive”; in order that members not present may benefit by his authentic and minute local information. ‘‘The first meeting for the season was held at Jedburgh, for Oxnam, on Wednesday, May 27. The Club had a meeting at Jedburgh only three years ago, so that the places of interest in the town and immediate neighbourhood were not new to many of the members. The object of Wednesday’s meeting was to examine a tract of country hitherto unvisited by the Club, with Oxnam as a centre. Before ten a.m. between forty and fifty members put in an appearance at the Royal Hotel, that being headquarters; and after breakfasting they set out in four brakes to enjoy a most delightful drive through a district of great natural beauty, and full of objects of historical and antiquarian interest. A slight shower of rain fell in the morning, but this soon passed away, and the weather throughout the remainder of the day was all that could be desired. Leaving the town by Abbey Bridge, the party drove up the valley of the Jed, and soon reached what is known as the Huttonian section, in front of Allars Mill. This section shows the junction of the Grey- wacke, or lower Silurian rocks, with the Old Red Sandstone, the former being seen in an almost perpendicular position, with the latter lying horizontally over it. The Old Red Conglomerate is also seen near to this place. Hutton visited it in 1759, and the section was figured and described in his ‘Theory of the Earth.’ Passing this, the party immediately came to Inchbonny, deserving of notice as the home of James Veitch, the self-taught philoso- pher, astronomer, and mathematician. The only telescope ever possessed by the celebrated Mary Somerville—who, by the way, was born in the old manse at Jedburgh—was made by him; and it was in his workshop that Sir David Brewster—another native of Jedburgh—formed his taste for scientific pursuits. Proceed- ing a little farther on their way, they passed on their left the Lieport of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 11 Sunny brae Scaur, a high precipice formed of the Old Red Sand- stone. ‘These scaurs, which form a fine and characteristic feature in the landscape of this district, have been specially noticed by Ruskin in his ‘Modern Painters ;’ and record his high apprecia- tion of this part of the scenery of the Jed. Thomson, Burns, and Leyden, besides a whole host of minor bards, have also sung of its beauty. The Capon Tree, a noble survivor of ancient Jed Forest, was next pointed out in a meadow opposite Hunda- lee Mill. It isa grand old oak and is alluded to in ‘ Gilpin’s Forest Scenery.’ The tree suffered greatly during a severe snow-storm a few years ago. On reaching the fourth bridge from the town, Lintalee House was seen on the high bank to the right, near to which are the remains of a camp formed by the good Sir James Douglas. It was here that Sir James erected a mansion for his own residence about 1317, on the com- pletion of which he resolved to give a banquet to his military vassals. At the same time, the Earl of Arundel, warden of the English marches, crossed the Border with 10,000 men to surprise the Scots in the midst of their festivities. Sir James Douglas, hearing of the advance of the English, went out to meet them, and engaged them in battle. Sir James slew Sir Thomas de Richemont, and took as a trophy of victory a furred hat which he wore above his helmet. The English army was put to flight, and was pursued for a while by the Scots, who afterwards returned to Lintalee. On retiring to their encampment three hundred Englishmen were found enjoying themselves on the cheer provided for the Scots before the battle. The unbidden guests, as may be imagined, received little courtesy; many were put to death, and only a few escaped. Douglas was rewarded by Robert the Bruce with a gift of land in Jed Forest for these and other services. ‘Shortly beyond Lintalee the drive was along a fine level road. Tothe left were seen the turrets of Fernicherst Castle, the ancient residence of the Kerrs, ancestors of the Marquis of Lothian. This castle, which stands on a finely wooded bank, was the scene of many a bloody fray during the rough days of Border warfare. The castle was first built by Sir Thomas Ker of Kersheugh (a place a little farther up the river) in the fifteenth century, but most of the present buildings belong to a later date. The modern mansion house of Langlee, the seat of Mr Charles Scott, was seen to the right. After passing Glendouglas school- 12 ~=Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. house, Smailcleughfoot. was reached, where lived the famous Ringan Oliver. Ringan was « man of immense strength, and is credited with having performed wonderful feats in his day. He fought with the Covenanters at Bothwell Bridge, at Queensferry, and was present at the battle of Killiecrankie. His sword, a large Andrea Ferrara, with double edge, is now in possession of Mr Veitch of Inchbonny. After a drive of rather more than four miles from the burgh, the party passed Old Jedward, where Bishop Ecgred of Lindisfarne built a village and church in the early part of the ninth century. The foundations of the Church can still be traced in the old burying-ground, where a few ancient stones are yet remaining. After getting as far as Doves- ford the party left the valley of the Jed, and drove by way of Falla to Swinside Hall, on the Oxnam. The character of the scenery was now altogether changed. Instead of finely wooded banks, little was now seen but a series of hills, smooth and green, and gracefully curved in their outline, diminishing in height as they recede from the giant heights of the Cheviot range.” T will now take up the narrative. The oak woods of Fernie- herst were still brown and leafless, and even the light-hued birch was almost irresponsive to the near approach of June; and we looked in vain for a blooming hawthorn spray, the season being late. Professor Geikie is of opinion that the ancient course of the Jed proceeded across by Mossburnford to the Oxnam valley. ‘A glance at the hollow that extends.from Mossburnford on the Jed to Hardenpeel on the Oxnam, is enough to convince one that in pre-glacial and probably in early post-glacial times also a considerable stream has flowed from what is now the vale of the Jed into the valley of the Oxnam.” (Good Words, 1876, p. 552.) Above Mossburnford between it and Scraesburgh Lake stood Fendy Hall, whose tenants are still recollected as ‘the Peat Lairds of Fendy Hail.’ They were the descendants of the kindly tenants of the Abbey of Jedburgh, and occupied nine or ten cottages, ‘‘ obtaining their chief subsistence by cutting peats in the fen or moss, and conveying them to Jedburgh and other places for sale.” (Jeffrey’s Hist. Rox. ii., p. 290.) Crossing the Jed by the old bridge at Dovesford, the carriages. ascended a steep bank, with Richard’s Cleugh and its wood on the left, in which the scattered budding hawthorn bushes and Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. — 13 tufts of smiling primroses were discernible in the distance. Here the view opposite was gained of Mervinslaw, the old Hern-. wingeslaw or Xernwingeslaw of the Jedburgh Abbey charters, and the great brown moor of Belling behind and around it. Overton or Everton Hill on the right as we ascended was pointed out, on whose summit we are told there is an old graveyard. Reaching the table land on the height, we saw where in a field, the old castle of Dolphinston once stood, the site being indicated by a group of trees. Here a magnificent view spread on all sides. Carter Fell, a great landmark hereabouts, stood near at hand disclosed to ifs base; and Peel Fell, a bulky dark mass, enveloped in dusky fogs, afar off formed a fitting termination to the Cheviots. In the circuit to the west and north were Rubers- law, the Dunion, the Eildons, Stichel, Hume Castle, the Lammer- moors, Dirrington and Cockburn Laws; the horizon line being without a gap in it of bounding mountain ridges, more uniform perhaps than picturesque. To gain a nearer view of the adjacent Border hills the party drove up to Falla, and walked to a prominent, but not very elevated peak, called the Kip. It is crowned by a sepulchral cairn, broken into, but not so far as to reveal the chamber of the dead within. The cairn is visible, as perhaps its inmate when alive directed, or as the respect of the tribe whom he ruled prompted it should be, from every little vantage ground in the neighbourhood. Here we looked across to the twin Browndean-laws, Easter and Westor, called respec- tively of old ‘‘Eddelesheid and Elfingshop,” two heavy green eminences, whose peculiar configuration attracts the observer to them from numerous points of outlook along the Border-line. The farm steading is towards the N.E. end of the hills. They are porphyritic, and veins of jasper are said to be frequent among them. Oo-terminous with this farm lie Plenderleith and Ric- ealton surrounded by a green and cultivated flattish space; distinguishably green beside the still withered benty covering of the pastoral hills. The lengthened Cheviot range, the rolling Kidland hills, and the swampy elevations that crown the head waters of the Coquet, the Reed, the Kale, the Oxnam, and the Jed stood before us. The depression in the Coquet valley, at the back of Thirlmoor, was distinct to below Makendon ; Cushat Law and Milkhope hills towering up in the remote east. Especially was the company animated by the proximity to the battle ground of the Raid of the Reid-swire immediately in front, 14 = Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. a rough Border squabble, which the old ballad-maker has con- secrated by his rude lays. We can almost picture the stirring event, by the successive bursts of natural feeling that pervade it. ‘‘ Be this our folk hae ta’en the fell, And planted down palliones there to bide, We looked down the other side, And saw come breasting ower the brace, Wi’ Sir John Foster for their guyde Full fifteen hundred men and mae. ‘* Because we were not men enow, They counted us not worth a louse. x Oke eS “Yett was our meeting meek eneuch, Begun wi’ merriment and mowes, And at the brae, aboon the heugh, The clark sat doun to call the rowes. “We saw come marching ower the knowes, Five hundred Fennicks in a flock, With jack and speir, and bows all bent, And warlike weapons at their will: Although we were na weel content, Yet, by my troth, we feared no ill. “Carmichael bade them speak out plainlie, And cloke no cause for ill nor good ; The other, answering him as vainlie, Began to reckon kin and blood : He raise, and raxed him where he stood, And bade him match him with his marrows ; Then Tindaill heard them reasun rude, And they loot off a flight of arrows. Then there was nought but bow and speir, _ And every man pull’d out a brand. “Then raise the slogan with ane shout— ‘Fy, Tindaill to it! Jedburgh’s here!’ “With gun and genzie, bow and speir, Men might see mony a cracked crown! “With help of God the game gaed right, Fra time the foremost of them fell ; Then ower the knowe, without goodnight, They ran with mony a shout and yell.” Report of Meetings for 1885, By Jas. Hardy. 13 The ballad appears to have been written by one who, if he was not personally in the fight, was well acquainted with the scenery of the locality ; its ‘‘ fells,” and ‘“ braes,” and ‘ heughs,”’ and ‘“‘ knowes,” of which we saw so many tokens round about us. The soil of the portion of Falla that we saw is mossy, and there is a discouraging yellow clay from underneath, interming- ling with the black soil. Fir and pine trees thrive, and it is well planted, to the advantage of its appearance from a distance. Fallaw is the old name; possibly from the A.S. fealawe, yellow, tawny ; or felg, fealh, fealo, fealwe, a pale red, brick, ashy or dun colour; and Jaw, a hill, perhaps from some peculiarity in its aspect to the early Anglo-Saxon settlers. Jealh-law, the dun hill, or hilly ground. The uncultivated portions are still speckled with brown and tawny patches of native heath and grass, like a dappled deer’s hide. The company then resumed their carriages, and held down- wards past Ladfield; Newbigging Bush and Newbigging, farm places, being on the right. While Newbigging was a village, it was the crofter or kindly tenandry holding of the Clan Hall and their allies, bold border reivers, whose headsman here was called ‘‘Chief.”” In the ballad of ‘ Archie of Ca’field,” rescued from the gaol of Dumfries, the chief actor is ‘‘Mettled John Hall,” from the ‘‘ Laigh Teviotdale,” conjectured by Sir Walter Scott to be John Hall of Newbigging, mentioned in the List of Border Clans, -as one of the chief men of name residing in the Middle Marches in 1597 (Minst. Scot. Bord.) The rescuers swam the Annan water in full flood, carrying with them the prisoner only partially relieved from his manacles, and had barely reached the farther side, when the keeper of the prison and his soldiery arrived in pursuit. Then a characteristic parley ensues: “Throw me my irons,’ quo’ lieutenant Gordon; ““T wot they cost me dear eneugh.” ““The shame a ma’,” quo’ mettled John Ha’, ‘“‘They’!l be gude shackles to my pleugh.”’ So much for ‘“ Mettled John Ha’,” who doubtless as the times went, merited the poet’s praise : “The Inve of Teviotdale aye was he.” At Newbigging at the beginning of this century ‘five and forty reeks rose.” The village was built about 1611, but the portioners were dislodged in 1815 by a decision of the Lord Justice Clerk, and were forced, sore against their wills, to find 16 Report of Meetings for 1885, By Jas, Hardy. refuge with their families far from their native clime. A high hill called Jock’s Hill catches the eye to the eastward. It is equally pre-eminent from the Bughtrig Hills, and Wooden Law beyond the Kale. The folks of Newbigging were a simple race. The favourite story kept up against them has always been that of their attempt to catch the moon. ‘‘ The legend goes that they from time to time seeing the moon shining over the hill, took it into their heads to try and lay hold of it. They therefore formed themselves into a band one night, and placing a ladder upon a sled, they climbed to the top of Jock’s Hill, intending to rest the ladder foot there, and thereby capture the luminary. To their surprise they found themselves as far as ever from the moon, and they felt baffled and descended the hill. Onreaching the village, one of the party declared, to his astonishment, he found the moon shining into the hen’s baulk. The moon, they concluded, was too fickle to lay hold of.”” (W. Brockie in Border Treasury, p. 186). Birkenside, along the rising ground on our left, is a long belt of dark fir wood of 300 acres, on .the estate of the Marquis of Lothian, who is the predominant landowner in the parish. None of it is allowed to be cut, and it consists of excellent old red pine. An ancient iron-axe has been found near Birkenside. Reaching the road that traverses the narrow vale of Oxnam water, the carriages turned up by the school-house and Burnmouth, that the company might see the ancient marks of cultivation, still vividly traced on the green sward of the hill slopes. On the depression between the road and the Oxnam, opposite Bloody- laws Hill, the foundation of Blcoodylaws Peel, were discovered while draining about 25 years ago. The well that supplied it with water was tapped. Its ‘‘strand” trickled into the ‘‘ Peel syke,”’ which finds its way to the Oxnam. Mr Thomson, Towtord, states that there are two fields around the old Peel called the ‘‘ Berwickers.”’ ‘‘To the east of these existed some seventy or eighty years ago a house called the ‘Arkers.’”? Arkers is marked in the map of the parish, given in the old Statistical Account, but scarcely so contiguous as this. T have suggested that these names may inform us where some ‘of the old Bercarie or sheepcotes may have been placed. The word is well known in charters, and may have descended in a corrupted form. There isan example from a neighbouring parish. Cecilia, the daughter of Eschina of Molle gave the Kelso monks Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 17 her Bercaria at Aldtuneburne. (Morton’s Teviotdale, page 120). There are sprinklings of scroggy wood, beneath the shelter of some of the river-side crags, but nowhere did we witness “Sweet Osna’s banks by thin-leaved birch o’erhung,”’ as sung by Leyden; although “ Birks” and “ Birkenside,” as place-names, are not far to seek in the vicinity. The stream holds rather an irregular course, and though straight at places, there is no lack of ‘‘the links of Ousenam water,” beside which any ‘‘Rattling, Roaring Willie,” could creep out of view, although it were only behind a rush bush in its upper reaches, and be caught ‘sleeping sound,” as that hapless musician was, by ‘‘Stobbs and young Falnash,”’ ‘* Who follow’d him a’ the way,” for killing, on the Teviot near Hawick, one of his own profession, with whom he had quarrelled and fought a duel.* The hills here were once ploughed to the very top, although the ripening crop was sore exposed toshaking winds. If onlycultivable the ground was wrought with two oxen and two horses attached tothe plough. The ridges are laid down in all directions, where- ever the plough could readiest reach them, and are widest at the ends for the teams turning out, or, as people once believed, that the witches might not shoot the oxen with their flint-tipped arrow bolts, when aimed straightway along the furrows, and by this precaution the evil powers were often deceived. Mr Simson says his father more than forty years ago saw horses and oxen ploughing this land on Bloodylaws, their old farm. There was a shield of leather on the ploughman’s shoulders to protect them when the plough was tilted up to gather the ridges. These high-backed ridges, with their deep ‘‘ ga-furs”’ [a furrow for a run of water] served to drain the land. There are no true culti- vation terraces here, whatever there may be farther up the hills; what might be taken for them are the outcrops of the rock on the barer spots. The slope of Bloodylaws Hill descends steep to the water, without any intervening flat ground; but lower down at the Row there are meadows of some extent. ‘These are ver- dant in spring, but burn in dry weather; the soil being superficial, overlying a water gravel. They have further the * See Appendix to ‘‘ Lay of the Last Minstrel,’’ note 30. 18 Report of Meetings for 1885, By Jas. Hardy. disadvantage that the water descends rapidly during floods, and suddenly submerges them. The party drove on with the high green hills on the right, and cultivated land on the left, as far as Swinside Hall. There is much quicken in the light arable fields, as there is in most grey- wacke and porphyritic soils. It is Holeus mollis, or ‘‘Whin rack,” called here ‘‘ Quggans,”’ and turns up in great sheets. It is easily extracted by the harrow, collected by the labourers, and burnt, and the ashes spread. There is a conspicuous Scotch fir plantation here on the lower part of Jock’s Hill, shewing how well trees would grow here for sheltering purposes. There is an avenue of elms and ashes from the Oxnam up to Swinside. Swinside Townfoot belonged till recently to a family named Douglas. We have only to turn the corner of the road to go upwards to encounter the Townhead. Ina newspaper, while I am writing this—January 1886—I observe the name at Collingwood, Australia, of James Douglas, formerly of Swinside Burnfoot. It had been intended to have proceeded, had time permitted, to the ‘‘ Roman Camp” on Pennymoor, near Street House, not far from Kale Water, but it was thought advisable to turn back and visit Oxnam. Mr Simson had kindly provided refreshments for the company at Oxnam Row before they set out to see the village, the church, and churchyard. He told us that a good Andrea Ferrara sword had been found while draining at Bloodylaws; and that a very fine much polished battle axe (celt) of greenstone, and several flint arrow-heads had been picked up on Oxnam Row. In the drift as exposed behind the hinds’ cottages there are several glaciated stones and pebbles. The sand-martins frequent the crumbling scaurs or brae heads. In a field opposite the under gate of the approach to the house, across the public road—where a cottage once stood—a British slab grave was come on, when removing the cottage. It was covered by a heavy flat greyish yellow “bastard sandstone” derived from rocks in the neighbourhood ; which having been difficult to remove, had been retained for the foundation or floor. The cist was only two feet long by 18 inches across, and contained black matter, bones, and ashes. ‘The cover was four feet square. It is preserved. Mr Simson has a Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 19 little square dial brought from the old farm-house at Bloodylaws, with W. K. ec. 1737 inscribed on it. Professor Geikie points out in the low ground here what he considers a good example of a lake that once extended from the village of Oxnam to the foot of the Row hill, and was afterwards drained away by the stream cutting for itself a gorge in Silurian greywackes and shales.* The party now walked to Oxnam, where once there was a con- siderable village, which is now reduced to a few humble houses. ‘“‘In the village of Oxnam,” says Mr James Tait, ‘there were twenty-two tenants in the beginning of the 18th century ; before its close they had dwindled down to three.” There is an alms- house of the foundation of Lady Yester (1630-38), inhabited by an old woman, a widow, which is thatched and white-washed ; then two cottages equally venerable; and turning the corner another thatched house called ‘the Hottle,” supposed from the name to have been an ale-house to refresh travellers when there was a trade route past the village ; and then there are the joiner and blacksmith’s shops. There is also a one-and-a-half story thatched house on the way up to Cleughside. The ‘‘ Old Manse” is still known; this may or may not be it. The church is quite modern, built in 1738, the old one having become ruinous. It has more recently been refitted in the interior. The jougs are suspended at the church-door. The ministers’ burial place used to be at the back of the church; but the tomb of the Rev. Alexander Colden is near the eastern wall of the churchyard, and is very much dilapidated. One cannot expect much taste at the period when it was erected, but there were two sandstone pillars, which the housewives have carried off to convert into sand; only the carved capitals being spared out of some feeling for art. The inscription placed on a semi- cordate shield is damaged. The heritors propose to repair it, as it is hoped for their credit they will. Colden was one of the most eminent ministers of the Revolution Settlement, + and his advice or recommendation was sought after both by people and candidates in the matter of ‘‘calls.” His name appears to have been pronounced ‘‘Couden”’ or ‘‘Cowdon.” The inscrip- tion has been copied as follows: ‘‘Here lyes the body of the Reverend Mr Alexr. Coldon who as a Divine, « Christian, as a * The Cheviot Hills, in Good Words for 1876, p. 552. + J. H. Burton’s Hist. of Scotland from Revolution, ete., i, p. 251. 20 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. minister of Christ, for his piety, learning, wisedom, Diligence and success in gaining souls he had few equals. ‘‘He after being here and elsewhere 55 years in the Ministry died 2917388 aged 84 years. ‘‘ And Jean Hughes his spouse who after she had with tender- est sympathy been partner of his joys and griefs for 45 years and died 1731 her age 69. ‘‘And Ebenezer Coldon their son, and Mr James Home of Billie.” ‘“‘Colden’s Well” is still pointed out near the farm place of Cleughside. There is also a tradition of his still more dis- tinguished son, Cadwallader, having attended the old school of the place which stood near Pierslaw where now there is only a quarry. Pierslaw was also one of the Oxnam farms under the old system of small holdings. The Rutherfords of Hunthill— among others no doubt the famous ‘Cock of Hunthill”’—and their family ; as well as some of the Ainslies of Dolphinston lie here in their silent mansions. There is a great neglect here of tombstones by relatives after they have been put up. Some were interested in finding the tomb of James Davidson, one of the representatives of ‘‘ Dandie Dinmont.” It is a flat slab inscribed ‘‘ James davidson late tenant in Hindlee who died at Bongate (Jedburgh) 2nd Jany. 1820. aged 55 years.” The graveyard is very wet; a trench being cut, water rushed from a line of graves next to it. It lies on a flat at the base of a rise of the ground, and the water finds its way to it, and lodges there. The moss, Orthotrichum cupulatum, was fruiting freely on some of the damp mouldering tombstones. One is surprised to find so much ‘“‘ Peaseweep grass ”’ (Zuzula pilosa) on the surface of graves; this arises from the turf that covers graves having ‘been cut from Oxnam Row hill, the Luzula having been intro- duced with the sods. On a subsequent evening I examined a series of the Oxnam tokens along with the Rev. Mr Gunn and Mr Simson; and like- . wise the four Communion silver cups. The first two of the cups are, “The gift of Simon Eliott of Swinside to the parish of Oxenham 22 Novr. 1723 ;”’ the second two, ‘‘ The gift of Walter ‘Thomson, portioner in Newbiggon to the parish of Oxnam, 1776.” No baptismal font remains. ‘‘ There is a tradition, that, during the animosities between the kingdoms, one of the principal bells, now upon the Cathedral of Durham, was carried from this Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 21 parish. Certain it is, that Oxnam is inscribed upon it; but whether it be the name of this parish, or of the founder, is not determined.” So writes the Rev. John Hunter in 1791; and he adds that some said the bell was hung up in Crag Tower, not realising that the fortress belonged to the lay proprietor. (Sin- clair’s Stat. Acct. of Scotland, xi. p. 330, note). There is a “‘leaping on stone” of sandstone steps at the churchyard gate; to facilitate female riders getting on horse- back. In the manse-garden a slab is erected, which has the figure of a Calvary cross incised on it. It has no inscription. It stood long at the vestry door. Descending from the church by a wet hollow, the company reach Crag Tower, the old fortified residence of the proprietor of the Manor; one of whom as warden of the Middle Marches dates a letter from it. It is situated on a peninsula. There has been a moat encircling it. The approach to it from the west has been from across the Oxnam and up the hollow, which. looks like an old water course artificially trimmed. The dungeon of the Tower was dangerous about 80 or 90 years ago, writes Mr Thomson. ‘‘ Boys were in the habit of dropping stones through the crevices of the covering. An old man of 70 or more told me that when a boy his father had told him that he had often done this.” The best account of this fortalice is contained in the old Statistical Account, p. 330, note. ‘‘The Crag Tower was built on a rock of some eminence on the E. side of Oxnam water, about 500 yards W.of thechurch. Within these 20 years (written in 1791) it was a place of the same construction as Dolphinston Tower and Mossburnford, being divided into small apartments by stone partitions, with several vaulted apertures in the middle of the walls, large enough for a small bed, but much stronger from its natural situation, being surrounded with water on three sides. In the memory of many now living, there was a pit in the middle of it, which is said to have been a road cut through the rock to the water, by which it was supplied when besieged. It is said to have been surrounded on the accessible side with a strong wall, within which the inhabitants of the neighbourhood used to shut up their cattle, to prevent the plunderers from carrying them off in the night.” Below this again is a mound, reckoned to be artificial, where local tradition says a knight in a silver chair is buried; another 22 = Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. tradition makes the chair a golden one, and the occupant in state an old chief or prince. It appeared to me that this separate elevation had a rock core. Ground Ivy and Saxifraga granulata were picked behind it, both characteristic of a light soil. Stone and lead bullets have been found in the field opposite the tower to the west; and a posé of coins, some 40 in the lot, was come upon in one of the neighbouring enclosures. Above this en- closure, a quarter of a mile to the west, on the farm of Miln- heugh, is a green hillock, called ‘‘ Gallalaw-Know,” now in the end of a plantation, where the Border thieves were hanged. Henwood is now restricted to the scantily wooded banks of the Oxnam below and opposite the tower. Report speaks of its being once greatly more extensive. This, however, is a modern ampli- fication. All that can be relied on is the simple statement of the Rev. John Hunter, in 1791. ‘Anciently, the opposite bank of Oxman water on the W. was covered with wood, denominated henwood, and is said to have been the rendezvous of the inhabit- ants, to oppose the English freebooters, where the watch-word was a henwoody.” (Stat. Acct. ubi sup.) The origin of the name has been forgotten; but it may merely relate to its being fre- quented by the poultry of the village. Most of the place-names in Hen lie in the Lowlands, and refer to a time when domestic poultry was more an object with all classes than it is at present. In Roxburghshire there is Henlawshiel near Denholm; Henfield near Plenderleith in Oxnam parish. In Berwickshire we have Henhousewalls, and Henlaws; in Dumfries, Hennielaws; in Mid Lothian, Hencroft; in Haddington, Hen meadow; in North- umberland, Henlaw, and Henshaw, which is Henwood in another form; and Henhole in Cheviot, which is fabled to have a snow egg at Midsummer. Henwoodie also occurs in Selkirkshire. The carriages were waiting at the Miln-heugh. We then drove past Cappuch or Capehope in the direction of Crailing Hall, and then took the direction up one of the many steep roads in this vicinity for Jedburgh, Watling Street was crossed near Overwells. The beeches in the hedges were in all different stages of leafage, showing a marked diversity in forwardness, although growing in the same soil. Arriving at Hartrigge estate, (Lord Campbell’s), there are on either side some of the tallest and largest Scotch firs in the south of Scotland, in what is called the Delvedeary (Belvidere) or old wood. The under- growth in the woods on both sides, is as it is at Birkenside, a Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas.Hardy. 23 continuous mass of bilberry. The Scotch fir plantations on Stewartfield, now Hartrigge, were made about the 18th, century, being nearly but not quite as old as those of Marlefield, Stobs, Cavers, Wells (Rule Water) and Chesters (Ancrum). In 1798 the timber was selling here at from 7d to 1s per foot.* Mr Jeffrey states that in 1839, a storm of wind from the south-west destroyed a great number of the trees.| The grass grounds where we passed are in a half wild condition, full of ‘ Bull’s faces,” (Avra cespitosa), while swamps were glowing with flower- ing beds of Caltha palustris. Mungeon is the name of one of the Knolls. The great park is let to towns-people in Jedburgh, who stock it with 120 cows at £5 per annum. The Wild-cat gate, where the last wild cat was killed, is situ- ated in the ‘‘Old Wood.” The garden at the entrance attracted the florists, and some tempting Agarics were captured on the cottage roof by the aid of a fishing rod. What is said to be an interesting sculptured stone with deer on it, at the north side of the house, was not seen. An admirable view of Jedburgh was caught in the descent to the town, the gardens and orchards being radiant with the blossom of the fruit trees, which was more than usually rich this season. Mr Watson will now relate the winding up of the day’s pro- ceedings: ‘‘Jedburgh was reached about half-past three, and several of the members then went to inspect the Abbey and the Museum. In the latter place several gentlemen in the town and neighbourhood had placed a number of very interesting articles for the inspection of the members. Mr Pott of Knowe- south had kindly placed there a case containing fifty gold and silver coins, and an antique watch found in 1823 on a molehill on the hill line of road between Jedburgh and Hermitage. This watch is now supposed to have probably been lost by one of Queen Mary’s retinue on the occasion of the unfortunate Queen’s visit to Bothwell at Hermitage on 16th October 1566. Among the gold coins belonging to Mr Pott were a £5 piece and a £2 piece of George IV., and another of James II., guineas of George III., a sovereign of Queen Mary of Scotland, and a very fine Rose noble of one of the Henrys. The chief of the silver coins were some beautiful crown pieces of James II., Charles IT., * Douglas’s Agricultural Survey, 1798, p. 121. t Jeffrey’s Hist. of Roxburghshire, ii., p. 374. 24 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. &e., a coin of Alexander III., coined at Roxburgh; and an Irish penny of John. Mr Strang, Jedburgh, exhibited 75 silver and upwards of 100 copper coins, chiefly found in the neighbourhood. These comprised a penny of Alexander III., coined at Lanark (rare), a milled sixpence of Elizabeth, a sixpence of Mary of England, a penny of David II., found at old Jedward; and money of the Commonwealth ; also a very fine copper coin of Ptolemy, found at Glenburnhall. Mr Strang also exhibited a beautiful silver punch ladle. There were also shown by Mr William Elliot, Sheriff Clerk, an ancient silver seal found at Glenfriars. Mr Guthrie, The Friars, showed a nice copy of the Psalms of David, &c., of date 1635. Among the articles which belonged to the Museum which attracted attention were stone and bronze implements, all excellent specimens ; the Bannockburn and Killiecrankie flags, the Jethart jug and other measures belonging to the Town Council, and the hangman’s ladle. The dinner took place inthe Royal Hotel at four o’clock, when there were present—Mr J. L. Newbigin, Alnwick; Mr William Currie of Linthill ; Mr Michael Muir, Selkirk ; Mr Geo. Muirhead, Paxton ; Mr Boyd of Faldonside ; Mr Turnbull, W.S., Edinburgh; Very Rev. Dean Moir, Jedburgh; Rev. Dr Leishman, Linton ; Dr Charles Douglas, Woodside, Kelso; Rev. R. H. Williamson, Whickham; Rev. Canon Edmunds, Kyloe; Mr C. H. Cadogan, Brenckburne Priory ; Rev. Ambrose Jones, Stannington, North- umberland; Mr Charles Anderson, Jedburgh; Dr Edward Johnson, Tweedbank, Kelso; Mr R. Amos, Oaklands, Alnwick ; Mr W. T. Hindmarsh, solicitor, Alnwick; Dr Main, Alnwick ; Mr M. H. Dand, Hauxley; Mr James Hardy, Oldcambus ; Captain Forbes, West Coates House, Berwick; Mr Sanderson, The Elms, Berwick; Mr J. B. Kerr, Kelso; Mr Thomas Greig, Wooden; Mr Peter Loney, Marchmont, Duns; Mr W. H. John- son, Edinburgh; Mr John Broad, Melrose; Mr M. M. Basil, Asylum, Melrose; Mr Hughes, Middleton Hall; Rev. David Paul, Roxburgh; Captain Macpherson, Melrose; Mr Andrew Ker, Newtown; Sheriff Russell, Jedburgh; Colonel Paton, Fernieherst; Provost Hilson, Jedburgh; Rev. James King, Berwick; Dr Hume, Jedburgh; Dr Blair, Jedburgh; Mr Amos, Edinburgh; Mr William Elliot, Sheriff-Clerk, Jedburgh; Mr James Watson, Jedburgh: Mr Walter Laidlaw, Jedburgh ; Mr Thomas Forrest, &c. After an excellent dinner, the Chairman, Dr Leishman, President of the Club, proposed ‘‘ Prosperity Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 25 to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club” and ‘‘The Lady Mem- bers,’”’ both of which were duly honoured. The Chairman said that these were the only toasts allowed by the Club, but on this occasion he thought they might make an exception. He proposed ‘The health of the Provost of the Burgh.” The members had been greatly delighted with their visit to the ancient town, and had admired the beautiful scenery of the neighbourhood, and he was sure they would join him in drinking to the health of the Chief Magistrate. (Cheers. ) Provost Hilson, in acknowledging the compliment, said it had given him the highest pleasure to see so many gentlemen visiting the town on an occasion like that, and he was glad to know that they had enjoyed their visit; and he concluded by inviting them to make an early return to Jedburgh. The following new members were proposed: Col. Charles Elliot, C.B., R.A., Hazelbank, Murrayfield, Midlothian; Mr Jas. Dand, Field House, Lesbury ; Rev. James Stark, St Cuthbert’s Church, North Shields; and Mr Thomas Elliot Boog, Spylaw, Kelso. Mr Walter Laidlaw, the Abbey, Jedburgh, was pro- posed as an associate. Mr Hardy then read a paper by Professor Geikie, LL.D., F.R.S.E., &c., Edinburgh, on “‘The Geology of the Oxnam Valley ;” one by Mr Walter Laidlaw, the Abbey, Jedburgh, on ‘Armorial Bearings and Interesting Inscriptions in Jedburgh and its Vicinity ;” and a third by himself, on ‘‘An Urn found near Lilburn, Northumberland.” A letter from Mr Thomas Simson was read, on some stag and wild (?) boar remains, (antlers and tusks), from rubbish of Jedburgh Castle. One of the Alnwick members mentioned the prevalence of the Pied Flycatcher in the Duke’s Park during the month. Dr Hume exhibited a triangular stone a foot long, closely marked longitudinally with glacial scratches, and there were also on it some irregular cross marks. It was a fine clean blue-grey piece of zreywacke as if from a sea-coast. He had pulled it out of the boulder-clay by the side of the public road. Mr Hardy showed a number of photographs and plates of urns, crosses, &c., found on the Borders. A drawing of the old Lilliard stone, which had been broken up to be used as road metal, attracted great interest. A number of the members then adjourned to an adjoining room to inspect several casts of interesting objects, including the Roman Altar and Saxon Cross in the Abbey ; the inscription on the Bell D 26 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. of the Blessed Margaret the Virgin, in the town steeple, &c. These were very much admired. The Club were much indebted to the local members for their trouble in making the arrange- ments which proved so successful on this occasion.” SUPPLEMENT. Mr Simson invited me out to Oxnam Row that I might familiarise myself with the appearance of the district, and see a little more of it than could be accomplished in a single journey. While with him I followed out the design of visiting the Roman Camp, and encircling the high ground traversed by a section of Watling Street, and examining what objects of interest there were within reach. I had the pleasure of Mr Simson as guide. On the 28th we drove as far as the Club had gone to Swineside Hall, and then took up new ground. It was remarked that when the right of cutting turf had been exercised on some of the high ground now under cultivation, the soil had been quite spoiled for bearing crops. The subsoil, which is a barren glacial till derived from the frittering away of the porphyrites, had by this operation been exposed, and no subsequent weathering will ameliorate it. The minister of Oxnam exercised this right on three farms here belonging to the Marquis of Lothian. The hill-sides above Swineside Hall are distinctly terraced, partly with baulks of old cultivation, partly it may be with water margius of a gradually subsiding lake. We passed on to where the Oxnam runs along a low marshy flat, said to be sheep- rotting ground; producing a rough pasture of which black bent and Bull’s faces formed the main constituents. The sheep are a small breed. There are here deep sections of gravel and sand on the unstable banks of the Oxnam. As we turned round we came within sight of Middle-knowes, an unthriven looking, weather-beaten place. Middle-knowes was once a chapelry. Mr Thomson tells me that to the east of this place there are ‘‘ fine specimens of the old lazybed,”’ system of culture. We had seen no birds hitherto, but here the Pied Wagtail and a pair of Black-headed Buntings frequented the marshy ground. Up the opening we could discern the brightening green of Plenderleith, Riccalton, and Browndeanlaws, and the little fir clumps on the flattish moors behind, which materially enliven the prospect to one crossing the many wearisome hills from Northumberland. Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 27 Sending on the conveyance, we cross a peat-moss, much cut up for turfs, to the Roman Camp. The camp isa great quadrangle, comprising 32 acres on a swampy soil where next the moss, and is environed with single strong ramparts, and deep ditches; with wide gates, eight in number, two on each of the four sides, and defended on the outside by as many traverses. On the east side where it is drier, there is an interior inner square camp of con- siderable extent, with traverses, ditches, and gates, copies of the outer one; the gates are 6 in number; the 2 of the eastern ram- part forming the entrance. It requires to be laid down on a plan to understand it; and there are subsidiary structures that we did not observe. At the west end on the outside, is a circular sheep stell with a strong external earthen wall. Here we beheld across the Kale, the steep slopes of the Wooden and Bughtrig hills, with their many memorials in dwellings, defences, land divisions, tombs, and road-tracks of the pre- historic races. We have here also within narrow compass, and representative of the successive stages of history, the line of march of the imperious Romans, the ready passage for the in- sidious moss-trooper, the convenient entry for the English invader; and coming down to a later and more peaceful age, the route of transit of the grazier’s stock, and of a traffic not alto- gether free of those evasions of the custom laws, that so slowly die out between conterminous realms. The birds prevalent here are Red and Black Grouse, Curlews, and Moor-pipits; and a few Starlings at Street-house. The Roman road here is very rough and unequal ; in places the pave- ment having become almost obliterated in the lapse of ages. In the fir plantation behind the inn, the lichens on the trees showed, by their enlarged proportions, the nourishing influence of the damp hill atmosphere. They were chiefly Parmelia physodes. Cetraria sepincola which grows at Bughtrig appears here also. One of the chief purposes of our visit was to examine the funereal circles of standing stones on the ridge near the Watling Street. The first circle (the stones are all porphyritic) has a green sepulchral mound in the centre. There has been an outer and inner circle, but the majority of the upright stones on the outer ring have disappeared ; there being only 4 widely placed left to represent them; 1 at the E., 2 at the W., and 1 at the N.W. In the inner ring which has closely followed the outline of 28 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. the tomb, 4 of the stones are compacted together like the guard- ing stones of the Bughtrig Mote; and there is only another stone left which is on the N.W. side. This is on Middle-knowes farm. Then we went to the second and larger circle called the ‘‘ Druid Circle’, which is on Townhead hill. It encircles a cairn on the summit of a natural rise or ridge whence there is an extensive prospect. Itis a large double circle with the stones not quite regularly placed; of which 12 remain in the outer, and 5 in the inner rings. The green hillock that contains the cairn or tumulus is nearest the west and south ends. We did not follow out the search, although we noticed still larger stones on Chatto-hill, but we were satisfied that the supposed Druids who erected them, were merely the old native people, putting in practice their customary methods of commemorating their deceased chieftains. Before leaving Chatto-hill, I will venture an explanation of the word Chatto, with which I have been frequently puzzled. Lately I noticed in one of the spellings the form of Schatto. This gives us shaw, a native wood of low growth; the two ¢i’s may be the remains of the od of heafod, the head; and the o is undoubtedly ho, a height; Danish hoe a hill, etc; well-known in Northumbrian place-names. This yields the height or hill of the head of the shaw. The shaw exists at the base of Chatto Craig to this day. About the summit of this Craig I have also the information that it had been occupied by a British town fortified like Bughtrig Mote. Leaving the stone-circles we crossed the heathy and grassy ground in the direction of Cunzierton hill. In the drier or better soil brackens grew, and here a pair of Whin-chats had taken possession. Curlews, Black game, and Partridges flew up at our approach. This is favourite hunting ground. Talking of the wild grasses, Mr Simson says that the geese at Pennymoor grow fat on the seeds of Mosscrops (Juncus squarrosus) in autumn. In Kidland I learned that the Snow Buntings feed during the winter snows upon the seeds of this rush. My Simson says, which I was not aware of, that his sheep will not eat Sheep’s fescue, (Festuca ovina), ‘‘Black Fescue or Bent”, perhaps duriuscula is meaut, unless he puts on cattle to crop it down. It is also called ‘‘ae-pointed grass.” This is one of the old pet grasses; but like Crested dogs’-tail is probably little worth, except for Cheviot or black-faced sheep. Almost every seed ‘mixture has Anthoxanthum odoratum in it, because it ‘comes Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 29 early,” but not a sheep will touch it so far as I can observe, and in all the high pastures it remains to seed. As we look back we see in the middle of the boggy ground a rock in the shape of a natural bridge, across a little burn that collects the drainage of the swampy ground. Cunzierton is a steep bare green dry porphyritic hill, slightly craggy in the upper part, and having a rocky and grassy top spread out into a considerable level area, which is encircled by a moderately elevated single camp ring, with its accompanying outer and inner trenches and entered by a road on the N.W. side. There is on the south border, an oblong walled compartment such as is usually reckoned to be a cattle fold, that may be more modern than the camp, and one or two shallow depressions like the floors of hut-circles. Nettles grow within the camp, nurtured by the sheep manure, and a few rush bushes shew the presence of stagnant water. It is extremely cold up here and fully exposed to the wind. ‘‘ About 50 yards lower, where the ascent is easiest, an additional mound of defence is apparent.” Many other of the truncated hill tops around have their crowns ringed with entrenchments. The fort “‘ occupying the height southward of Bloodylaws is the most conspicuous and important.” This was not visited. We looked down on Cunzierton steading, which consists only of a few houses: there were some trees marking an older place in a still lower position. The name Ounzierton may signify either the King’s garth, Cunninga-garth: or the Coney- garth or warren. ‘The upper pasture-land is being new drained, and numerous large boulders were being extracted from the foot- drains. The sub-soil being derived from the porphyrites, is of a pale brick colour. On some freshly improved ground there was a good take of clover after being limed. We now had the benefit of the conveyance to hasten us for- ward, but the concussions from the old paved causeway were anything but agreeable. When taking one of the rises we noted Upper or Over-Whitton shepherd’s house, and near it Bear- hope as it descends to the Kale. There is much furze scattered over the unequal surface of the great extent of rough grassy ground on Upper Whitton and Upper Chatto. The other Whitton was perceptible at a distance along a depression, and in that direction we were favoured with a glimpse of Linton. The Roman road holds straight forward regardless of hill or dale. It crosses the natural ridges and hollows that here regularly 30 Report of Meetengs for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. alternate like a succession of ridge and furrow. It is at length taken possession of by the highway to Kale water, much to its improvement. We had now the Oxnam farms on one side, and Samieston on the other. Samieston, which the Club’s correspondent, Mr Thomas Elliot, has rendered famous to ento- mologists, was of old possessed by the chief of the clan Davidson. The place itself lies in a depression well sheltered by plantations. In one planting on our right the wind had wrought great havoc among the conifers. Down through the gap we saw the country near Cessford and Marlefield, and across for Caverton and Beau- mont forest, and onwards to Kelso. Bats is now the farm on our left, and we have Shipden or Shibden in front. We turn in the direction of Oxnam at a cottage called Shot-head. The Roman road now disused, the drovers’ occupation being gone and the gypsies excluded from grazing by high double walls, passes on margined by whins and other rough overgrowths in the direction of Crailing. The cottage at Shot-head is occupied by an old quarryman, John Buckham and his wife. He grows white horehound in the little flower border in front of his house, for his cough. The decoction is intensely bitter. This is not a solitary instance where this old medical herb is greatly prized. I havea plant which represents a humble residence now tenantless, whose inmate grew it to supply the neighbourhood. John has decorated his borders and window-sills with numerous jaspers, and yolks of stones containing agates, collected in course of his avocation. Here I obtained a stone-socket once used for the spindle of a wind-mill, which he had got in redding Pierslaw quarry. Itis bored out of a fragment of a water worn bluish greywacke boulder. The old woman was from Souden (Southdean) parish, and told how she had seen at Doorpool, an urn taken out of a cairn, as well as.some black buttons, which she described as having required to be fastened by a thread passed through a perforation on the underside :—no doubt jet or shale buttons. Deer antlers had likewise been dug up at Doorpool. There was a profusion of Lastrea dilatata in the fir plantation behind the house, which forms with its spreading tufts excellent game cover. This furnished an idea of the natural produce of the soil where uncleared. We crossed a damp field belonging to Harden farm, to the public road; passing Pierslaw quarry Report of Meetvngs for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 31 which is in the greywacke, with porphyrite in proximity; and we finished with a second survey of Oxnam churchyard. Ranunculus bulbosus grows between the manse and the banks of the Oxnam. During our journeyings, we observed no brambles and no dog-roses. Hither the soil is unsuitable or there is a want of shelter. Mr Simson told me the story of George Stephenson, the engineer, and the connection of his ancestors with Oxnam water, which will be reserved with several other particulars about the parish for subsequent record. Next morning, May 29th, we examined the Old Red Sandstone strata in the plantation opposite the Row, where native prim- roses find a congenial soil. We then ascended a field where trap-tufa crops out among the sandstone; below the junction a petrifying spring of ‘‘ hard water’ issues and indurates the soil with a calcareous cement. After a stiffish climb the breezy summit of Oxnam Row hill was attained where there is a widish area more or less flat, partly environed by a mound of British age, and subdivided by sundry outstanding earthen lines of a later era. There are some water-pools also. There has been recent cultivation both within and without the old camp area. An iron battle-axe, and several spear heads were turned up when the ground was drained near the top of the hill. ROTHBURY. In giving a retrospect of this meeting, I shall avail myself in the first place of a lively description (with some slight alterations) of what the Club saw at Cragside, written by Dr Stuart, Chirn- ‘side, who made his notes on the spot; and I will subjoin a few particulars that did not come under his notice. ‘The second meeting of the season was held at Rothbury, on Wednesday the 24th June. By the kind permission of Sir William Armstrong, the mansion-house and grounds of Cragside, were thrown open, and their inspection afforded unmixed pleasure to the members, who mustered at Rothbury to the number of fifty. Cragside, at the present season, is unique in every respect. Natural beauty has been made the most of by judicious and tasteful treatment. For the space of twenty-one years, Sir Willlam Armstrong has done everything for the embellishment of the place, that a fine taste and a liberal expen- diture could accomplish. The bare hill-side, with rocks 32 ° Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. projecting in all picturesque shapes; here forming a pavement ; there a steep staircase, like what one sees on an Alpine pass in Switzerland; is fringed and covered with Alpine plants in a state of luxuriance, as if they had always been there. The more open spaces are dotted with stately specimens of the rarer conifers, while rhododendrons of every colour fill up the vacant spaces, of a size and luxuriance which cannot fail to astonish the beholder. This splendid disposition of the ground over the rugged face of the hill, extends for a distance of five and a-half miles. The glowing colours of the rhododendrons can be seen from the railway, for some distance, before reaching Rothbury, impressing the visitor with a faint idea of what is in store for him on a closer inspection. No description can adequately pourtray the magnificence of the prospect from the S.E. front of Cragside. Upon the terrace, looking to the right, a picturesque lake is to be seen with a stream running from its extremity, and flowing through a beautifully wooded valley and ravine glowing at present with the flowers of the rhododendron, and many other beautiful flowering shrubs. This stream, after flowing through a ferny and rocky dean, joins the river Coquet, which forms the south-eastern boundary of Cragside. Immediately above, on the opposite side of the valley, Simonside Hill, in its green and heathy wildness, and crowned and speckled with rocks, adds a pastoral charm to the scene; while the town of Rothbury, situated in a sheltered situation, a little higher on the Coquet, with its fine hotels and residences, adds to the beauty of the picture. The mansion house of Cragside is built in a style to correspond with the surrounding scenery. Houses of a some- what similar style of architecture, are to be seen in North Italy and in similar regions. It may be termed a mixed style of architecture. The apartments are very fine and the whole house is illuminated. by the electric light.. The views from the south windows, up and down the valley, are unsurpassed. Immediately below the terrace there is a very steep descent, to the ravine below. A smail stream with numerous waterfalls, comes down and joins the burn in the valley. A zig-zag stair winds away down here to the bottom of the tiny waterfalls, and we follow its course. The graceful Lady fern, the Royal fern, and many other species of moisture-loving plants, fringe and droop into the stream. On moist banks, the Linnea borealis was flowering in profusion, with its pale flesh coloured spotted bells; growing as Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 33 freely as in its northern home. Under the terrace, Cistus for- mosus, with its pale yellow corollas and spotted petals, was a novelty to many members. Lvthospermum officinale, Common Gromwell, an alpine, at all times shy to grow, covered a space of several yards in breadth, in descending from the terrace, and was a sheet of blue, of exquisite loveliness. The Spanish broom is here utilised to afford masses of yellow as a contrast. Itis a sub-shrubby plant, but the profusion and richness in colour of its blossoms, was a feature everywhere in the grounds. Along the edges of the rocky walks Gaultheria Shallon and G. procumbens, flourish in the sandy peat as if they never had had another home. Their fine glossy evergreen foliage, and their balloon shaped pink blossoms, were refreshing to the eye at every point. The Erica coccinea, Var. rosea, a variety of the purple heather, from Derbyshire, was planted very generally over the grounds. Menziesia cerulea and the White Connemara or Irish heaths were beautifully in flower, and seemed quite at home. Pernettyas, grew in every direction behind as a rule, the Gaultheria Shallon, as their height was slightly greater. They were covered with their beautiful white-flowers, and the great difficulty to decide was which was the prettier. Whenever a plant is found to do well on this rocky hill side, a profusion of it is planted every- where, the space at command being unlimited. Among smaller things which were observed to be flourishing was the Edelweiss of the Alps, the Swiss bridal flower, which from growing in very precipitous places in its native land, has caused the death of many an adventurous spirit, in attempting rashly to gather it. The Primula farinosa and other alpine forms, such as P. marginata and P. Wulfeniana were growing in moist crannies, quite as strong as in their native homes in Switzerland and the Tyrol. Wul- fenia Carinthiaca which only grows on one mountain in the Tyrol, was vigorously flourishing; and in black and peaty situations, the golden leaved heaths furnished a contrast to other green leaved plants. The stately foxglove is also extensively planted ; and associated with the bracken fern which grows here naturally, will be very striking next month when in flower. Cotoneaster rupestris and other forms spread themselves over the rough slabs of freestone in every direction. Whenever a rock is in the way, it is blasted with dynamite ; and a driving road has been con- structed, by clearing the way of rocks, all round the hillside, so that through groves of conifers and rhododendrons, a charming E 34 lieport of Meetings for 1885. By Jas, Hardy, passage is made, where the banks below and above can be con- veniently admired. Sir William Armstrong kindly headed the party, and walked round the hill, and explained everything. Returning over the summit which must be 700 feet high, we descended by a path or staircase in the rock, nearly behind the mansion. The greenéry of the plants already mentioned, with many others omitted, rendered this descent, if anything, more wonderful, than what we already had seen. The beds of rhodo- dendron in their brightest flower, to the right in descending, were admirable in every way. Kalmia latifoha an American bog plant was here also very fine. The principal Rhododendrons were white;—Mrs J. Crutton; dark, Stella, &c., &e. The Coni- -feree were principally P. Nordmanniana—which is a very hardy one; P. Douglassi in all graceful varieties; P. amabilis; Abie; Pinus Pinsapo; Abies Alberti; and A. Braziliensis, &e., &c. It is quite impossible, in a short notice, to name all the plants, but we have endeavoured to indicate the general features to be observed on this wonderful hillside. In returning we inspected the dean leading to the Coquet, the gardens, vineries, and fern houses. All these were equally worthy of notice; but our time being limited, we could only give them an admiring look in returning to Rothbury. Our walk was a long one, but in admiring the beauties of nature, fatigue was for the time for- gotten. Although the skies were by no means cloudless, our excursion was made out in comparative comfort; and we all owe Sir William Armstrong our most grateful thanks for his courteous conduct to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club.” A shrub used at Oragside and Jesmond dean in quantities is a very spreading species of Aristolochia. There were numerous yellow Azaleas but the flowers were fading; the Ceanothus or white Syringa grew in masses; Berberts Darwinii thrives; and there were fine red and pink thorns. Of the lower herbaceous plants Polygonum Brunonis occupied great spaces like a turf; and Antennaria dioica was equally thriving. Of the native plants of the hill still surviving, the foxglove, the Corydalis claviculata, and Genista anglica, were noticeable. The soil, except where it has a peaty mixture, has very little vegetable ingredients, being of a yellow colour, and derived from decaying sandstones. Sections of this yellow soil were obvious in all the railway cuttings; and it is said to be “‘growthy.” Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 35 It is not adverse to trees rooting in it. Two oblong sods are cut out of the turf, and a hole dug into which the young firs are inserted, and the two sods are replaced to protect them. Plant- ations formed in this way, are rapidly springing up to shelter the high bleak moors. Two or three years ago Sir William’s pines were attacked by numerous caterpillars, supposed to be those of the pine saw-fly (Lophyrus pint,) which bared them considerably. The woods _ previous to that were full of Chaffinches, but these were thinned out by the severe winters, so that the ravages of the caterpillars . remained unchecked; but they have ceased now. The Chaf- finches have never been so numerous since. hs During the operations for covering the hillface with soil, some extent of the rock on the high surface has been bared besides what was previously exposed to atmospheric influences. Where the flat rock has been unweathered the glaciation is very appar- ent in the beautiful smoothening and parallel linear scratches,, left by the ice-sheet. The wonder here is the number of them, as well as their perfection. ‘They are most evident where two divisions of rock meet along the line of the crack. The scratches lie in the direction of the vale of the Coquet, which is here east: and west. With the rain that had fallen on and moistened, and the random gleams of sunshine that brightened the numerous patches of grey pavement, they might still be imagined as repre- senting the scant remainders in their wane of the vast fields of “thick-ribbed ice” that once enwrapt them, and before they finally dissipated indelibly wrote upon the rock the story of their mighty march during the era of intense cold. The only birds visible were grouse and moor-pipits; but there is no lack of bird choirs in the mornings and evenings in the sheltered hollows by the stream sides.. As we descended from. the summit we heard the voice of the ‘“Thrum” afar off, and saw it dashing down to keep up the ceaseless turmoil. The noise varies according to the state of the weather, from a gentle liquid hush to the murmur of a vexed sea-shore; making music that ; “‘Lulls the spirit, while it fills the mind.’’ ' The surrounding cincture of dusky hills much enhances the impressiveness of the scene. To quote the favourite naturalist of our youth (Gilbert White) : 36 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. ‘Me far above the rest Selbornian scenes, The pendent forest, and the mountain greens, Strike with delight; there spreads the distant view, That gradual fades till sunk in misty blue: Here nature hangs her slopy wood to sight, Rills purl between and cast a quivering light.” From the eastern end we look across on the old forest of Roth- bury with its sprinkling of thorns and furze and birches, and its cultivated margins. Nearer us is a grey farm-steading with its clump of ash-trees, the most naked-looking trees that could be selected for a shelter; and behind it a bushy ravine in which ash-trees also preponderated. After a vacuous interval the eye catches opposite Pauperhaugh, the native thickets of Brinkburn old woods skirting the banks, the proper ground for the botanist or entomologist had we been able to reach it, but it lies far away across the Coquet. We are told that on the side where we were, on Whitfield Farm, opposite Brinkburn, runs a wild dell or ravine called Woltf’s Fauld or Wolt’s Holes, where the last wolf of the district was slain. On our return we looked down to the water-fall of Debdon- burn with the native growth of Geranium sylvaticum beside the stream, aud birch and mountain ashes dependent from the rocks. Polypodium Dryopteris and P. Phegopteris are native here. There was sufficient time before dinner to visit the church, and inspect its internal improvements of recent years. The stone near the entrance sculptured with a Maltese cross, and the frag- ment of the shaft of the old Saxon cross supporting the font, were minutely examined. I am inclined to think that the name of the town, whether old or new Rothbury, has nothing to do with the Irish Rath; which would merely reduplicate the word bury; but that according to the old form of orthography, Rodeberia, it is pure Anglo-Saxon, signifying the fort at the Rood or Oross. Rodbury is still the popular name of the town. After dinner the Rev. J. L. Blake, Langton, was proposed as a member. During the conversation that ensued, Corn-crakes were said to be very numerous this year about Duns; and Pied Fly-catchers at Alnwick; and it was mentioned that a pair of Woodcocks were nesting in Penmanshiel Wood. A shower of a sulphur-looking substance after a thunderstorm that had fallen in the low parts of the Merse, was spoken of by Mr Muirhead, who exhibited a specimen of it. On being examined microsco- Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 37 pically it was suggested that it was the pollen of the Scotch pine, that had got wafted abroad by the gusts of wind, that usually attend thunder blasts, and became intermingled with the suc- ceeding rain. Dr Leishman gave an account of a cist found near Moss-Tower, Eckford; and Mr G. H. Thompson made some . remarks on a causewayed road on Alnwick Moor among the Allotments ; and handed in a drawing of a brass pot, patched on the side, which he had got. It was a short three-legged pot, of the Kail-pot type, one of the legs, or rather feet, being frac- tured. In a recent thunderstorm the lightning had struck the Lilburn Tower at Dunstanborough, and killed several sheep, while one of the Club members was sheltering himself under the archway. Mr Muirhead exhibited some fine flowers, especially Trises, Lychnis viscaria double, and Aquilegias. Drawings and photos of antiquities by Mr J. T. Dixon and others were handed round; and Mr D. D. Dixon, laid on the table a notice of Wood- house Pelé, Coquetdale, with a beautiful pen and ink drawing ay his brother. SUPPLEMENT. Taking advantage of being on the ground, I made a slight survey of the outskirts of Rothbury on the evening preceding the meeting, and on the day after, during a walk across the Simonside range to examine the camps and other remains so abundant on the adjoining moors, which may serve in some measure to enlarge the Club’s stock of observations. - In the first walk I was accompanied by my friend Mr D. D. Dixon, and Mr Loney subsequently joined us to our material benefit. A sharp look out was kept on birds and plants. We went by the Pennystane Quarry past Old Rothbury Camp. Pennystanes were trimmed flat stones used as quoits, before iron quoits were frequent. The old Scots poet Barbour, writes of a ‘“‘pennystane cast.”” From small circular sandstone discs picked up in Scotland, it appears thatthe original pennystones were less in size and much thinner than those employed latterly. We did not look at ‘“‘Old Rothbury,” nor at the supposed remains of hut-circles in the “‘ Beggars’ Rig.” Many Whin-chats; several Wheat-ears, and Grey-linnets were flitting about; the young birds becoming fledged. Corn Buntings were perched on the walls and rose at our approach. There were Bramble-bushes in the ditch at the road side below Addycombe. How much 38 Report of Meetings for 1885, By Jas. Hardy. farther the Rubi extend up the Coquet is worth inquiry. They are not everywhere. The foliage of Scrophularia nodosa was over-run with the slimy slug-like larvee of Cronus Scrophularia, but there were no perfect beetles. The moor-edges at Addy- combe are frequented by adders. We crossed the hill-road which has fir-plantings on both sides, and looked down and across on Cragside woods and stables. TZrientalis Huropea, Anemone nemorosa and Carex binervis grew among the heather in the plantations; and Senecio sylvaticus lower down. There was a blaze of flowering Rhododendrons on a crag to the west, which comes into view from the heights above Cragside, like a far-off mountain rosary. Debdon burn and moor are here surrounded by heathy hills; the middle and highest one is Cartington pike. Proceeding forward by the Alnwick road we entered at the lodge and were conducted through the house containing the machinery, and had it explained, by which the electric stream is generated to illuminate the mansion, and that Sir William shewed the Club- in action on the subsequent day, and we also tested the tele- phone. This building is situated at the edge of the upper ponds on Debdon burn. The Grey Flycatcher rose repeatedly after flies, and numerous common Willow Wrens were striving with. each other which should be most active in capturing insects. This is also a haunt of the Sedge Warbler. Both Thrush and Blackbird were piping loudly; the Cuckoo’s voice was heard intermittently ; and every now and then single Wood-pigeons flew out spontaneously, rising and falling above their nesting- places, symptoms of undisturbed tranquillity. The Typha is planted beside the pond. There was much broom in blossom. The twinkling foliage of the poplars and birches is cool and enlivening. In passing we looked into the gardens and green houses, and the fernery, and inspected critically the constituents of the flower borders, and the many forms of Coniferss with which the grounds are enriched. As we approached the town Chelidonium majus, single-flowered, was noted by a walk-side. Pink and purple single rockets are favourites in cottage gardens. We had expected to have had a look at a five pronged leister at a cottage, but it had been converted into a ‘“‘ potato-grape.” There was one period when prodigious slaughter of the Salmonidee was carried on here in close time with leisters, while ‘‘ Burning the water.” The ‘unt,’ or light was carried on a three-pronged fork called a “crotch,” or “crutch.” The mug- Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas, Hardy. 39 gers carted the captured fish across the country, and sometimes sold them as cheap as twopence each. Lel-spearing still forms an exciting sport at the Thrum. It was a pretty sight to witness the Eeautians of a flock of Starlings previous to their roosting ona tree ina field above Rothbury. Pied Wagtails are very numerous by the Coquet-side. Conferva rivularis in the limpid water was as common here, as it was in the deep rocky pools about Blindburn in the upper reaches of the river. It is called ‘‘ Ladies’ Soap,” and the girls wash their hands with it as such. Asplenium Ruta-muraria is as abundant as ever on Rothbury Bridge. June 25th. Favoured with a bright day after the rain and escorted by the Rev. A. Scott, author of the new useful ‘‘ Guide ”’ to the Antiquities in the Rothbury district, and Mr Dixon, a tour was made round the Simonside Hills. We went by Whitton farm and Quarrel gate: at the former there is a very thick- walled farm-house of the olden style: Quarrel gate represents the ‘‘ Quarle-yate,’’ where Whitton provided two men to watch, when the country in 1549 was patrolled night and day as a pre- caution against the inroads of reiving Scots or their thievish allies from neighbouring dales. The quarry that gives name to the gate is there still. A male Redstart that we disturbed dis- played its gay plumage as it stole out trom the wall-sides in its restless feverish manner: and the Corn-crake’s rasping voice arose from the meadows. We were crossing the Glebe, and looked up into Whitton dean with its sheets of blooming haw- thorn, which has been unusually rich this year and productive of great crops of haws. The Fairies dwelt here in the days of yore, and doubtless they do still if people believed in them. Above and across the dean was the High Head farm, which gave the name of Hi Hevett (heafod the head) to the rivulet, as far back as 1275. The moor and boggy ground rising in front spotted with birches is called Birky Hill. An entomologist could not select better ground for his search; but this and very much other promising ground in this quarter of Northumberland has never been subjected to close scrutiny. An entomologist at least requires to be much more than a casual visitant. Reaching the moors we first inspected a double monumental mound near a wall-side, and then crossed to some grassy slopes where some pits for the extraction of lead ore had once been excavated. Frag- ments of sulphate of barytes or heavy spar which accompanied 40 Report of Meetungs for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. the lead vein were mixed with the debris. Mr Topley alludes to this circumstance in Luckley’s Guide to Rothbury, p. 52. “A lead vein was worked many years back, on the hill-side above Whitton-dene, where it never yielded much ore. Another vein has been worked at Redpath—this passes through limestone and. has yielded a good deal of ore.”” The Whitton vein runs 8.W. over 2 of a mile. The chief lichens noted on the flat sandstones on the moor were Spherophoron coralloides and Borrera ciliata. Lancashire Asphodel and sundew grew in the sphagnous bogs, and Leucobryum glaucum on the dry bare moor. We looked at a strongly walled quadrangular sheep and cattle fold, divided by a central wall into two oblongs; what would be called in olden time a Bercaria. Other still more pristine folds had previously occupied the site, as was indicated by old foundations; and it was probably in connection with them that a line of upright stones of moderate size, commenced to run southwards over the moor till they were abruptly interrupted by a decayed stone fence that crossed them, beyond which had been a breadth of cultivated ground, as was evident by the ridges, but now aban- doned and become rough pasture. The stones had been removed from here, but recommenced and ran up the hill in line across the heather to Lordenshaws camp. They appear to be of the same age as the camp, which they almost enter at the east gate. The camp has similar standing stones at its gateways, and incor- porated in the structure of its ramparts. In ascending the hill towards the camp, some of the flat rocks carried sculpturing of rude cups and circles with central cups destitute of tail grooves. There was an opened cist adjacent, with the lid placed at one side. A place was pointed out lower down the face of the hill, where smugglers once had had conceal- ments; and smuggling tales are still told by the shepherds of the back and wilder wastes. The camp is very strong and triple- ringed and contains several hut-circles, of which we saw three ; but there are seven very large ones, according to Mr Scott. One of these, of six yards diameter, has been excavated, and had been provided with a paved floor of flat sandstone. The walls of the huts are stronger, and stand higher above the soil than some of the half-effaced hut-circles among the Cheviots, and altogether have a more recent aspect. They have a strong mutual resem- blance ‘to those on the Titlington Hills and the hill above Hast Bolton, both in their size and the height and strength of the Report of Meetings jor 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 41 camp walls, and in the deep and fenced road-ways. There were here internal enclosures for cattle,also, and several external walled-in compartments, but not all of one age. The entrance on the N.W. side was approached through an avenue with its deeply sunk old road; and a lengthened and continuous line of stones on end left this at its outer termination and went over the moor southwards, and as we could see afar off crossed the end of Garleigh or Garley Pike moor at its 8.W. end. There was also another line of standing stones on the lower part of the N.E. end of Garleigh Pike. The object of these stones ranked in line stretching for such a distance is not obvious. They would be useful for one purpose at least—as guide posts through the trackless moors during mists or snow-storms. Mr J.T. Dixon has favoured the Club with a plan of this camp. From lying on the farm of Lordenshaws it takes the name of the grounds; Lower-dean-shaws I suspect is the analysis of the name. When resting we had unawares sat down among a colony of yellow ants (Formica flava), which maliciously resented our in- trusion. The only other ground vermin to be on one’s precaution against are adders, which are plentiful on the lower spurs of Simonside, such as the south side of the bank where the old Bercaria stands. There are no adders on the higher peaty ground near the summit of the ridge. The Golden Plovers were plaining round us, and the Curlews in the distance. Missel- thrushes and Pipits also crossed our path ; and two Black-headed Gulls swept across the high moors. These fly from their breed- ing places at Newbiggen, Fallowlees, and Chartner lakes, on the dark peaty moors behind Simonside, which were afterwards visible from the hill tops. To Lordenshaws farm the pitmen bring up their bee-hives in July and August for the heather blossoms ; sometimes one thousand will be placed here. Another great station is at Brinkburn gamekeeper’s opposite Brinkburn. There was a view of great compass in front of Lordenshaws camp; and we marked Ritton White House, Coldrife, Colt Park, Forrest-burn Gate, Hollinghall, the Crook, Wards’ Hill, Chirm Well, Wingates, the Lee; the smoke of Mickley Iron-works beyond the Tyne; and far off in the east Druridge Bay. On the north-west side of the camp there is a cultivated area, with ridges of modern date. On a flat stone amidst this ground and near the camp is a rather peculiar sculptured stone. The figure ¥ 42 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. on it is of a long horse-shoe shape, almost a complete oval, but the ring is incomplete. There are four cups in the interior, and one at the gap or opening on the outside; and two other exter- nal opposite the closed end or bend of the arch. Mr Scott in his Guide Book mentions other sculptured stones, but there was not time to search for them. . We resumed our journey and crossed the old passage for traffic between the lowlands on either side of the hills. On the mar- gins of the subsidiary trackways, which are numerous in the soft places, there were many green ‘‘ Sparkler” beetles, ( Cicindela campestris) running to and fro, or flying off to avoid capture. Agraphis nutans, Genista anglica, and common milkwort grew among the heather. _ We passed the old deer-park wall of the Fitz Rogers, the old lords of Rothbury, which much resembled in its massiveness the ruinous rampart that environs part of Kidland, and also strong earth-walls on the Scotch side of the Cheviots, still traditionally considered to be deer-park walls. We now ascended among burnt heath and bent the steep slope to Spylaw, which is capped by. a sandstone cairn, being like the other cairns the remains of a dilapidated crag, piled together by human labour. In the ascent we had a very daa view of Thirlmoor with its triple cairns, and Bell’s Hill near Blindburn, Cheviot, Hedgehope, Dunmore, Cunion Crags, ete. Sericomyia borealis, a wasp-like black and yellow banded large fly rested on Spylaw. The cairn stands at the height of 1026 foot, The next height and cairn. is the Beacon, 1182 feet.. Here a caterpillar of the large Fox moth was seen. The Emperor moth frequents these. hills also, On. the ridge there. is a ruinous circle of stones of some size, like. a Teer ree, its purpose not apparent. Round the necks of the peaks or cairns above the heather, there is a gorget of tender green bilberry, and this was more apparent on reaching Dove’s Crag which is the next on the range. It is more romantic than the others, having more of the native rock left. The rocks have been split in twain and are penetrated by a fissure, in the sides of which there are several cavernous recesses. Lastrea dilatata grew in the chinks, and there’ was much Jungermannia. In one of the rocks exposed to the open air I gathered Gymnomitrium concinnatum, a Cheviot hill species. Diecranum fuscescens was also gathered; but Andreea rupestris was not looked for. Gyrophora proboscidea was the rarest lichen, Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 43 Everything was very dry. A domestic pigeon flew out from a fissure ; hence the name of the peak from pigeons nestling in wt. A eee ear was also taking short low flights from rock to rock. The rock surfaces were very Sawa weathered, and shewed worm- like convolutions, the results of irregular deposition. The Simonside grit was marked by the rolled quartz pebbles enclosed init. The strata are the outcrops of successive bands of rock rising in tiers above each other as the country is crossed from west to east. The prospect behind the hills is extensive but not very pre- possessing. We look across the depressed and monotonous moors and swampy grounds that spread far and wide to the south and south-east bases of the hills, where Newbiggen, Red- path, Fallowlees, and Black-cock Hall are situated; margined on this aspect by the backs of the drier mound-like heights of Greenleighton, where in their famous inroad under Earl Douglas, the Scots ‘‘ lighted down,” “Styrande many a stagge.”’ . There were other elevated back grounds of still farther distant piled-up crags along the moorland verge, supposed to be those of Harwood. Lifting the eyes from the waste, and, gazing far away into cloud-land the blue Cumberland hills from Crossfell to Tindal-fell come dimly forward; and even the Skiddaw group, behind its angular rampier of Brocklebank Fells, is distinguish- able. We picked out Chartner Loch where the Font originates ; and where the Wuphar intermedium grows secluded ; and in whose marshes, (‘‘in desertis subhumidis muscosis et paludosis,’’) Andromeda polifolia, on which Linneus in his poetic enthusiasm pronounces a lively encomium, (Flora Lapponica, ed. Smith, p. 133) thrives. Mr Scott told us that a very large trunk of oak had been ex- tracted from the moss on Fallowlees, and that trees had been dug out of drains; hence it may be inferred that the country hereabouts has not always been so shelterless as it isnow. An old oak had also been procured from a bog west of Spylaw. Mr Topley (Guide to Rothbury, pp. 52-3) observes that ‘‘there are numerous traces of old iron-works on the moors. Slag is found up the Black Burn, and also in the stream beds on the south side of Simonside. There are large heaps along the Fallowlees Zurn, and also on Wards Hill. These slag heaps are commonly considered to be Roman, but as yet no sufficient proof of this 44 Report of Meetungs for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. has been given. In one of the heaps on Wards Hill I found some very rough pieces of pottery, badly baked and certainly very ancient. Charcoal was the fuel used in smelting; frag- ments of this are found in the slag. Mr G. Storey, of Caistron, tells me that there are large heaps of slag at the eastern end of the parish, near Hepple Woodside.” In the vast amount of wood that would be requisite to carry on the smelting works and blomeries for the reduction of the ore, there is a sufficient explanation for the wide denudation of well timbered tracts in times when replanting was not practised. The subject has never been properly investigated. ‘In every part of the forest,” says Mackenzie, ‘‘ and over the whole extent of Rimside Moor and Longframlington chapelry, large quantities of scoria have been found, which clearly demonstrate that iron at least had been procured in considerable abundance,” (Hist. Northd. ii. p. 51). I have met with only three instances of forges or smelting stations, among the published documents relating to Northumberland, and they are medizval. In 1253, 37, Henry III. there is a payment of 10 shillings from Roger fitz Ralph, the Royal Forester for Northumberland, for having his forge in the wood of Charleton, (North Charleton), as is con- tained in the roll of lands set to rent in the shire by Galfrid de Langel and his companions, the king’s justices. (Hodgson’s Hist. Northd. Part III. vol. iii. Pipe Rolls, col. 231). Here the forge was actually placed ina wood. In 1296, 25 Edward I., Laurence de St Maur the proprietor of Newton-by-the-Sea, and Yardhill, had a forge at Alnewyk, (Inquis. p. Mortem, i. p. 1383). The Ward-hill mine has associated with it conjectural modern attributes. ‘‘ About 50 years ago (say 1775), a stone was found in the Forest-burn, at a place called Meadowfield, and near to this iron-mine, with this inscription, ‘‘I John Espe, I remane,’’ which was conjectured to have been the foundation stone of some erection, which formerly stood here for smelting this metal,’’ (Mackenzie, ii. p. 51). - There is another reference to a forge that had been in action within memory of the donor, Walter, son of Walter de Bolam,— of a grant of pasturage near Newton, (Mitford parish), to the monks of Newminster, situated in woodland and moory ground. ‘‘Common pasture to their cattle in my wood and in my moor, by certain marches perambulated to them by my men, to-wit from the forking of the way of Lithtedune (Leighton), across by Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 45 Ruth and even to Funt, where Buedeslei Burne falls into Funt, and thence by Vulueleiburne (Woollyleaburn), even to where the forge was, and thence by the march between me and Robert de Withum (Witton), even to Oselei,” (Useley or Ewesley) etc., (Chart. Nov. Min. p. 183). There is still another instance preserved of iron smelting with wood from the parish of Ryton on the south side of the Tyne. It is quoted by Mr T. John Taylor in an article on the ‘‘ Arche- ology of the Coal trade,” communicated to the Newcastle Meet- ing of the Archzological Institute, August, 1852. Mr Taylor remarks, ‘‘The Collier originally implied a charcoal burner ; for in a grant from Bishop Langley to Robert Kirkhouse, Yron- brenner, in 1480, of woods between Stanlawe Burn and Crawcrook, for the purpose of making charcoal, we find the vak, ash, hollin- wood, apple tree, and crab tree excepted, and also all wood fit for fellyes or beams, which shall always be felled ‘ before the colyers make cole.’ How strange, we may add, it now appears, to find wood growing upon a coal field, thus appropriated to the making of iron!”? (Proc. Arch. Inst. Newcastle, i, pp. 190-1). Besides being connected with old smelting works, Fallowlees has an interest attached to it as affording a temporary respite to Mr William Veitch, one of the outlawed Covenanters in the time of Charles II. He was an active preacher among the Non- conformist Presbyterians both in England and Scotland. His brother John was minister at Weststruther, and he himself before the Revolution had the oversight of several of the Border parishes, Oxnam being one of the number. His most celebrated exploit was conveying the Karl of Argyle, who had escaped from the Castle of Edinburgh, safely through England to London, whence he reached Holland. The picture that Veitch presents of the manners and the state of feeling in the wild outlandish centre of Northumberland, about 1671, is an interesting contemporary record, but is too long to quote. Prevailed on by the Redesdale people, he removed his wife and two sons in creels from Edinburgh ‘into a village called Falalies, farming a piece of ground from Charles Hall, who was owner of that place and village, within the parish of Rodberry in Northumberland.” ‘But they were not well settled there, though in a moorish retired place, ”’ when their Roman Catholic neighbours, who abounded there “‘ did stir up the Lord Whiterington to mar some small meetings he had.” The attempt to interfere with him failed as he had procured a 46 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. license to preach, and his enemies ‘‘ went away with a great dis- appointment.” ‘This liberty occasioned him to be called five miles farther into the country, and to farm a house suitable to the work, called Harnam-hall, belonging to Major Babington, when the auditory increased daily. The very report made several persons come to see the novelty, and satisfy their curiosity ; of some of whom it can be said, they went not as they came; for the profanation of the Sabbath by baking their bread, starching their clothes, mucking their byres, etc., was wonderfully re- formed.” (Memoirs of William Veitch, pp. 58-61.) In 1368-9, 43 Edward III. ‘‘Falulyez placea” belonged to Henry Taleboys and Alianora his wife, who held half of Hephale barony. (Inq. p. M.ii., p. 300.) In 1380, Walter Taylboys held 50 acres of land at Falelee. (Ib. iii., p. 106.) In 1486, Sir Robert Ogle, sen., held Fallowlees villa and eight score acres of land there. (Ib. iv., p. 179.) In 1663 Fallowlees belonged to Mr Charles Hall, its annual rental being £20; in 1815 its value was £210 by the year. (Rate Book.) Simonside, 1409 feet high, terminates this block of hills. The cairn on it has been reared with smaller stones than those first reached. It had been greatly damaged by the bonfire lighted to welcome the Prince of Wales to Cragside in August, 1884; the weathered gritty sandstone not being adapted to stand excessive heat. The hollowed-out area near the summit contains a small moss overgrown with Eriophorum vaginatum; but the margins were dry, producing crow-berry, Lmpetrum nigrum. There was much bilberry on the west end where we descended among broken crags. This west end is very precipitous, and displays more grandeur than the other rock contours. The face is split into almost columnar masses, and where these are broken down the base is curiously buttressed. Detached portions have odd shapes. One has a sort of capital to a rude pillar of two combined faces looking separate ways, and wearing an old flat hat; and a variety of other figures could be pictured out by a fruitful fancy. In the Rotuli Hundredorum, where an execution is recorded as having taken place on one of the hills, Simonside is called Simon Sethi.* In this instance the word s¢de represents sete a settlement, * It does not follow that although words have the same external ap- pearance they may have the same signification and derivation. There is a Simonside road to the east of Fowberry Park facing Chillingham. There js another Simonsides near Garmondsway,co.Durham. Mr Longstaffe says Report of Meetings for 1885, By Jas. Hardy. 47 as it not unfrequently does. In A.S., seéa is an inhabitant, setena inhabitants. It had been Simon’s seater or hill pasture perhaps. If we could be assured that this was a regular place of execution, we can understand how the ‘‘Jabel Trew,” a de- pression or hollow on the great Tosson portion of the Simonside Hills, would signify the jaz-trough, the burial place for criminals. Javel, Northumbrian, from French geole a gaol; and trowe, a hole or pit. There is a broad mountain pass traversed by one of the old trade roads of the district between Simonside and the still higher | heathy backed Tosson Hill, which rises to 1447 feet of elevation. The ‘‘ Main Stone” —said to be a sandstone boulder—an oblong block of great size rests on the ridge above Ravensheugh, At the far end where the hill turns, is a detached stone on a slope, like a barrel resting ona prop. The rocks continue to crown the hill beyond our view, and look down towards Hepple. There are two prominent crags on the face of Ravensheugh called “Geordie” and ‘‘Kate.”” Ravyensheugh, 1365 feet, tells the story of its banished occupants, the King and Queen of the Crows. The entrance to the pass which fronts us is much shattered by old track-ways, there having been no central metalled rodd. It is unsafe to cross the moors in that direction after dusk from the absence of landmarks, and the number of open peat pits in the great mosses. The waste too has its mysterious tenants—the dwarfs—born of the night terrors and the lingering vestiges of vanished religions. See ‘‘ Wild Adventures”? in Richardson’s Table Book, Leg. Div. i., pp. 96-7; as good an example of impish lore as needs be anywhere. The fertile vale of the Coquet lies beneath us expanded almost to its utmost stretch, and sloping up to the green sides of the Cheviots. Chillingham Park and Rass Castle were the extreme this is also the name of an extinct township on the Wreckendike, and he adds, ‘‘ The Simon of mythology was, it seems, a domestic brewer to King Arthur, identical with the German Sigmund, and very fond of killing dra- gons.” (Proc. Arch. Institute, Newcastle, i, p. 66, with reference to Atheneum, June, 1850, p. 637.) In another page, 63, speaking of Gates- head, he notifies: ‘‘ Heved, head, ide, and ett after s, are convertible, but are apparently of varied meaning. Gatesheved or Gateside is the capre caput of Bede, but the Side (now Bridge Street) in the same town wound up the side of a hill like the Side in Newcastle. Simonside was Symondsett, Conside was Conkeshevede, etc.” AS Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. limits on one side, and the heights near Yardhope and Holystone, coming more fully into sight as we descend, on the other. In the great slack below us is Chesterhope with its dean whitened with flowering hawthorns; and lower down approaching the Coquet are the green fields and meadows of Bickerton. We pass a nameless large boulder on a heathery moor, where Tormentil sheds a transient gleam of twinkling yellow stars in summer-time, and examine ‘“ Little Church” Crag, in which there is a shallow cavern roofed like a church. On this moor there was an open British grave. Several tumuli were now within reach, some of them excavated by Canon Greenwell with results recorded in ‘“‘ British Barrows;”’ but we would have to make a considerable detour to have in- cluded them. Of two cists discovered by Canon Greenwell, one was empty; the other was completely filled with fine sand, among which was a little charcoal and two small pieces of pottery. It would have required half a day to master even the topography of the rugged moors above, and their spots of interest; for we were coming within the precincts of where chance excavations and fortuitous accident have revealed something of the history, the dress, the weapons, and the funeral customs of the brachy- cephalic people, who so labouriously constructed the neighbouring strongholds, and deposited their dead on the breezy uplands, or alongside their deep cut roadways.* Where the ancient road that crosses along the north of Simon- side descends to join that which traverses by the pass already mentioned, the back moors, the sides are strongly defended on the slope with trenches and ramparts, twelve innumber. There are similar warlike defences to be seen at the foot of Rass-castle, to fortify the pass where the public road from Hebburn issues out on the moor; and the road from Eglingham where it enters Beanley moor has been protected in like manner by great earth- works. These instances shew some common concert of tribes of * For the discoveries of British graves, ornaments, implements, and weapons in the neighbourhood, see, Geo. Tate, Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. iv., p. 60, etc; Dr. Davis, Crania Britannica, ii., p. 2, ete; Canon Greenwell, British Barrows, pp. 431-2; Tate, Ber. Nat. Club. Proc. v., pp. 160, 170; Hist. of Alnwick, i., pp. 21-2; (fig.;) T. Arkle, Ber. Nat. Club Proc. viii., pp- 176-177. (Bronze Swords ;) Dr. Evans, Stone Implements, p. 409 ; Bronze Implements, pp. 285, 389. A bronze sword and 2 bronze rings were dis- covered in some works undertaken by Sir. W. G. Armstrong, F.R.S. at Cragside.—British Barrows, p. 433. La Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas, Hardy. 49 the old inhabitants, pretty widely separated, for holding sturdily the upper hill country. We next visited two earthen-walled circles near the under road, of considerable size. They have the character of sheep- stells, and I take them to have given name to the ‘‘Stell-ende,”’ which in 1549 had to be watched ‘‘with two men nightly of the inhabitors of Mykle Tosson.”” Burgh, or Brough British Camp is now all ploughed over and laid down in old grass, but the outlines of its ramparts are still traceable. The well that sup- plied the camp is outside, at the point of the eastern descent, but convenient for watering cattle ; and there is a long hollow entry from the well in the direction of the rising mound that the old indwellers had selected for fortification. From the summit we look down on Wolfershield and Little Tosson, and witness the various preparations for turnip-making. Ryehill-Spittal was pointed out, now called Allerdene, which is a survival of the original name. In 5 Edw. III., 1330-31, Robert de Heppale had half of the advowson of the hospital of St Leonard of Alri- bourn. (Abbrev. Rot. Orig. ii., p. 61.). We passed through Great Tosson, and examined the great square grey peel tower in the centre. The ashlers of the lower part of the walls have been quarried for buildings, and the sand- stone slates of the under row have been partly removed. The slates had been pinned with sheep-shank bones, as some of those on the village houses are still. Where we measured the wall it was 6 feet thick. There had been a turret-stair in one angle. There are three farm-houses; one of them was that in the 18th century, which was occupied by the Donkins, where the famous marriage feast at which so many victuals.and so much drink were consumed, and so many guests and musicians attended, was cele- brated. There was also a bailiff’s house. The old trees about the place, that add to its attractions from the distance, are of ash and sycamore. We pass Tosson Mill, and then the Ancroft farm on our left—a triangular field bought by Queen Anne’s bounty fund for the benefit of that parish. In the lane young Whinchats fly before us, resting on the grey willows. Larks were visible, and Swallows, Sand-Martins, and Martins were skimming the road-sides and the surface of the river. Flowering primroses still lingered here, and brooklime in the plashes, with tansy on the hedge-bank. As we approached the town, young Wheat-ears that had recently left the nest, were G ae 50 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. flying rather heedlessly. Their parents had early dismissed their progeny; probably like those of the Whinchats they had been the earliest spring migrants of their kind and might be preparing for a second brood. HAUGHTON CASTLE, SIMONBURN CHURCH, AND CHIPCHASE CASTLE, NORTH TYNE. It having been arranged that the Architectural and Archzeo- logical Society of Durham and Northumberland, and the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, should hold a joint meeting to visit two of the castles for which the North Tyne is famous— Haughton and Chipchase ; Simonburn Church being included, as lying on the route and having a special interest of itself. - This was successfully accomplished on Thursday, 30th July, the appointed places for muster being Hexham and Chollerford. The company was a large one, the members of the local society having come out in great force, both ladies and gentlemen ; but fortunately there were a sufficiency of known faces to encourage the feeling that the visitors from the north were not entire strangers. The occurrences of the day passed most harmoniously amidst most instructive and friendly intercourse. It could not be called a working day—all these crowded assemblages and distant excursions are adverse to minute and personal investiga- tions. The design of such meetings is to obtain the results of previous work, which are rendered more impressive and memor- able by being detailed in presence of the objects that are wished to be studied, and where the statements can be tested by inspec- tion on the spot. On this occasion our guides and lecturers—Mr C. C. Hodges, Hexham; Rev. G. Rome Hall, Birtley Vicarage ; and the Rev. Canon Rogers, Simonburn, proficients in their several departments —had appreciative audiences ; moreover their preparations and forethought had so smoothed the way that although there might be some little disappointments and discom- forts, these were passed over with good humour and forbearance. Some were crowded out from obtaining seats in the conveyances, but they made provisions of their own, and participated in the day’s events; and Mr Clayton had kindly opened his grounds at Chesters for those who preferred a quiet visit to that classic retreat, to the excitement of a drive. They all assembled to- gether in the evening to enjoy the social meal, and talk over the day’s agreeable entertainment. Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 51 For those of the Club’s members who had passed the evening at Hexham, admission had been kindly granted by Messrs. Fell and Co., Wentworth Nurseries, who are not strangers to the Club, to visit their extensive grounds. A large caterpillar of Dicranura vinula, or Puss Moth, had been kept in waiting to be shewn, which has been plentiful this year on willows near Car- lisle, although this was the only one detected here. By their courtesy also, roses for button-holes were handed round and accepted by the party. It would have added to the binding together of the topograph- ical lessons we are receiving by these visits to Tyneside had we visited on the previous day the high slopes above Hexham, and traced on the opposite side the track we had to pursue, which being on low ground preciuded any extensive outlook. The early portion of the route is parallel to and in close proximity to the richly variegated country west of Corbridge; and the rest comes in contact with the rising ground N.W. from Chollerford which we saw from the Roman Wall above Chesters. We have actu- ally in three separate visits run as many lines of section, with the Tyne as a basis, across a closely connected portion of that rich district, and acquainted ourselves with most of its character- istic scenes and historical associations; only dipping in, I am sorry to say, to its Natural History, which it is in vain to think can be wrought out by excursions unless there have been work- ers beforehand to make pre-investigations. Conspicuous on our left, in the angle between the conjunction of the North and South Tynes to form one majestic river, is Warden Hill crowned with firs. The sides of the North Tyne are prettily spotted with trees, and the slopes, excepting barer scalps and ridges at intervals, are well cultivated. For such a dry season the turnip crop looked promising. There is an ab- sence of that great blaze of wild mustard blossoms so common in several of the north Northumbrian and Scottish corn-fields. Here however, in some localities, corn poppy has gained ground on the cultivator to such a degree, that spots are absolutely scar- let with it. This profusion I also noticed on a former year near Corbridge and Dilston. On the other hand there are few field ‘thistles ( Carduus arvensis), so difficult to eradicate in stiff clay soils. The sides of the public roads remain in rough grass and herbage, and are not trimmed up and cut asin Scotland. They are overrun with KXnautia arvensis, wild briar roses and brambles ; 52 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. and the hedges are weighted down with blooming white sheets of Galium Moilugo. These are rather agreeable than otherwise to the spectator or the botanist; although contrary to the rules of good management, whether of well-kept roadways or of high class farms. We passed the village of Wall which has some sandstone slated houses and several others picturesquely thatched. After an accession of numbers at Chollerford, and passing through one end of Humshaugh, the company drew up at Haveuron CastLE, and walking along a drive bordered with flowers back- ed by shrubs, arrived in front of the mansion, where the Rev. G. Rome Hall was waiting to receive us. After conducting the party round the exterior Mr Hall read his valuable paper, which will be found in the Club’s Proceedings. Mr Hodges then explained the external and internal characteristics with reference to their age and relations to structures of a similar character. Most of the company followed the example of each other in climbing the interminable turret stair, and in undergoing. the ordeal of the dark vaulted passages and cellars. After enjoying the prospect, and becoming familiarised with the essentials of the modernised old fortress, there was only time to look across the intervening circuit of trees and the dashing river to Barrasford village, which is reached by a primitive ferry-boat, worked by an overhead rope and pulley. Sree | " HAUCHTON CASTLE Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 53 For the accompanying cut of Haughton Castle I am indebted to my friend Mr Robert Blair, F.S.A., Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle. As I have to notice in a summary manner the other buildings visited during the day, I will intro- duce here what Mr Hartshorne has said about Haughton Castle: — “In point of situation this castle is pre-eminently fortunate. At the first view it appears to have arisen by enchantment in the sweetest spot amongst the many lovely ones of this lovely district. A nearer examina- tion discloses its architectural importance. The figure is a double square, with two parallel vaults of a simple construction running on the basement from end toend. The south front has been the most ornamental; though at present the north side, with its projecting garderobes and corbelling, is the most picturesque. It is simple in its internal arrangements, and offers but little detail for examination. Judging from the configuration and general characteristics, it is possible that it was erected very early in the reign of Edward I. An ornamental doorway on the south side, partially concealed, gives countenance to this supposition. There is much about this castle that resembles the features of Acton Burnell, though it is a little less florid in style. “According to charters which have been printed by Hodgson, in his History of Northumberland—from the originals in the possession of Sir J. E. Swinburne—William, king of Scotland, in 1177, granted to Reginald Prath of Tyndale, a third part of the vill of Haluton [Haughton], which Ranulph, the son of Huctred, had granted to the said Reginald in free marriage with his daughter, to be holden by the payment of a sparrow- hawk or sixpence annually at Were in Tyndale. This Reginald re-granted all these lands and their appurtenances to William de Swyneburn, betwixt the years 1236 and 1245, by the payment of two gilt spurs or twelve-pence annually to the said Reginald, and one sparrow-hawk to the king, on the feast of St. Michael of Werc. Reginald, in 1256, covenanted to put William de Swyneburn in full possession. The business was confirmed by Alexander III. in 1267, and at the instance of Queen Margaret, his consort, a grant was made to him of Haluton, Strother in Tyndale, and the other adjoining lordships, for the annual payment of one pair of white gloves or twopence at Werk in Tyndale, in 1273, Having now got full possession, there is no doubt he immediately commenced building his castle.’’ * Swinburne Castle, and the Gunnerton Hills with yellow sand- stone quarry and basaltic crag, were within sight of Haughton Castle, or the subsequent part of the drive. For Gunnerton and its pre-historic graves, and groups of hut-circles, reference must be made to the Rev, G. R. Hall’s contributions to the Archeologia Ailiana. Much of the hilly waste ground hereabout has had distributed over it the settlements of the aboriginal race of people who then oceupied the Tyndale district. * Feudal and Military Antiquities of Northd. ii., pp. 74, 75. 54 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. ' The only wayside plant on the journey to Simonburn differing from what we had seen was Stachys. Betonica, Betony.. More of the ground than hitherto had been the case, was in old pasture, some of it very bare. We had now Nunwick on our right, well protected with woodlands of considerable age. The way-side trees were elms and ashes. Before entering Simonburn we crossed the Crookburn, on whose banks grew many old alders. Following it up we would have reached Tecket and its linn, which with his favourite ‘‘ Rectory dean,” the Rev. John Wallis has rendered classic ground to the. botanist ; and it would have been a duty as well as an infinite pleasure, could time have per- mitted, to have lingered there for half an hour, were it for _ nothing else than in respect to the memory of this devotee to the studies of Natural History and Antiquities. Myr Wallis was the curate of Simonburn. ‘‘ Here he began to cultivate his botanic genius and filled his little garden with curious plants. The study of botany brought with it a fondness for natural history in general. All his leisure time (and he had but little, for he was unremitting in the duties of his cure), was occupied in traversing the bold and picturesque region in which he dwelt, collecting every curious plant or animal which occurred, with indefatigable care and diligence. The result of these labours was his history of Northumberland, which appeared in 1769.” The first volume is chiefly devoted to the natural history of the district. In his botanic researches, he says he met with some eurious plants, which the indefatigable and accurate Dillenius acknowledged he had never seen in England. The second volume is on the antiquities of the county; and occupied the labour of twenty years. His merits have never been fully acknowledged ; and some of his plants have not yet been refound; as will often happen where an author has wrought in a secluded position that naturalists in towns know very ae about, or are not in a ready capacity to reach. . Simonburn is a pleasant open village, with a large free space, or village green in the centre. Some of the rows of older cot- tages are thatched; the newer slated or tiled; and there are some better dwellings at wider intervals. The church both ex- ternally and in the freshened interior has a renovated aspect. After being conducted into the church, the Rev. Canon Rogers, the vicar, favoured the company with a very interesting paper Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 55 on the parish, from which I am enabled to present in detail the history of StvonspurNn CHURCH. ““The name of the parish until 150 years since, when etymology became a lost art, was always written Seimund, or Symonde-burn ; whether the name is derived from the famous Sigmund, son of Volsung, and father of Seigfred of the Nibelungen Lied—he who alone could draw the gleaming sword from the trunk of the great tree Branstock, where it had been driven deep by the hand of Odin himself—or from a less famous Seimund, certain it is that the cultus of Seimund was widely spread among the Teutonic conquerors of England; for while we have here Simondburn and Simon- side, far away in the south are Symondsburg and Simondhall, and I have collected some thirty English names with the same prefixes. It is a curious instance of the irony of history, one county history copying its pre- decessor, to having converted the fierce red-handed Pagan Seimund into the Apostle St Simon Stilites.’ ‘‘ An antiquarian friend writes from Durham :—‘I am more and more convinced that your parish church is the most ancient sacred spot in Northumberland, at least of which any tradi- tion exists.’ Such being the case we naturally look for its holy well, and just across the Dene, hard by where we stand, is the well that for more than twelve centuries has borne the hallowed name of St Mungo. Proba- bly during his sojourn at Carlisle, on his journey to Wales, he penetrated into the wild hilly country of North Tyne along the wall as far as Simon- burn. We may picture him clad in his long garment of goat-skin, with simple stole as sign of priesthood, with bishop’s staff of maple wood and a shepherd’s crook, baptising his converts in the venerable well which has ever since borne his name. One would remark that, adopting the Druidic notion of the sacredness of the fountain, wells were frequently consecrated to him, or as in this case the well in which he baptised was dedicated to his memory.” “T pass by the notion of its dedication to St Simon Stilites; for as Mr Gregory, in his able little treatise on Church Dedication names in North- umberland, says,‘ In this case the church name is obviously suggested by the name of the village, and at a later date than the first foundation of the church, because the name of Simonburn is a corruption, not from anyone called Simon, but from Sigmund, an Anglo-Saxon warrior.’ He goes on to say, ‘This church is one of the most ancient foundations in the country, having, according to tradition, being founded by the disciples of St Kenti- gern. Mr Banks Gould writes to the same effect that such dedication is probably unknown in England. Of the aliquot sacelle dependent on Simonburn, which Hodgson rightly believes to have been that of Haughton Castle (now a ruin), Kirkfield, Bellingham, Falstone, and Burnskirk at the Deadwater, we know that Kirkfield was dedicated to St Michael and Belling- ham to St Cuthbert ; but I have been able to find no certain account of the patron saint of Simonburn, even in documents where one would have ex- pected to find it, such as one curious allusion in the MS. register of Bishop Fox in the Diocesan Registry of Durham, under the date of February 19, 1499, where the bishop gives authority to William, Bishop of Dromore, to 56 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. reconsecrate, or reconcile ‘ad reconciliandum the church and churchyard of Simondeborne, which had been defiled by the burial of an excommuni- cated person named George Marshall.’ From the Saxon remains found at the last restoration, one may conjecture that one building at least before the present has occupied the site of the wattled chapel of Kentigern. The present church, I conceive, was built during the early part of the thirteenth century, when there was a spirit of great activity in church building in Northumberland, before Edward the First’s desolating wars. ‘Long chancels were in several cases added to Early English fabrics so as to make them available for processions. Among the Northumbrian churches of which the form of the nave and chancel is similar to that of Simonburn may be mentioned Haltwhistle, Holy Island, Bamburgh, Mit- ford, Rothbury, Hartburn, and Bothal. A peculiarity of this church is the gradual descent from west to east. Tradition says that at one time there were steps from the nave down into the church, and the aperture for the hinge of the chancel gate is still there. I may say that the chancel arch was heightened at the last restoration ; in carrying out this the stone work above it fell in, and among the stones thus released were found the remarkable fragments of a Saxon cross and the other ancient carved stones which are preserved in the porch. This shows that the masonry must have been of a late date. It has been suggested that the chancel was the property of nuns of Nunwick, which accounted for its being separated by gates from the nave ; but although a site is boldly marked out on the Ord- nance Survey for the nunnery, I have met with no record of any monastic establishment. The etymology which made a saint of Seimund of the Red Hand is probably again at fault. I would also call attention to the traces of a chantry in the S.E. aisle, the corbels, the curious aumbreys in the vestry, the two piscinas disclosed by the restoration of 1864, the priest’s door and the low side window, one of the finest in the county. Since placing the brasses with the list of rectors in the west end of the church, beginning 1307, I have met with an account of the presentation, in 1225, of Mr Matthew, Archdeacon of Cleveland, on the presentation of Alexander, King of Scotland, who in a charter dated 1230, reserved for himself the patronage of Simondeburn, when he gave Tynedale as her dowry to his youngest sister Margaret. The advowson was afterwards claimed by Edward III., King of England, and by Richard, Bishop of Durham; the King, however, released his claim in 1338 to the Bishop, who issues a letter of attorney to Wm. de Assheton to receive seizen thereof, as part of an endowment to found a house of thirteen regular monks of the Black Order of St Benedict at Oxford, in token of thankfulness for victory over the Scots at Halidon Hill. This scheme seems to have fallen through, for in 1360, Bishop Hatfield gives it to St George’s College, Windsor, saying a pension for a vicar to perform sacred services, ‘ dictze ecclesize et capellis annexis.’ It was surrendered in 1481, by order of Edward, to Richard Duke of Gloucester, and his wife, Ann Nevill, probably to form part of the endowment of a religious foundation; but in the confusion following his death at Bosworth, seems to have again become a rectory in the King’s Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas, Hardy. 57 patronage. James I. conveyed the advowson with the seignory of Wark to George Home, Earl of Dunbar, and at his death to his daughter Elizabeth, Countess of Suffolk, whence it passed by purchase to the Rad- cliffe family, and again to the Crown on the attainder of James, Karl of Derwentwater, passing ultimately to Greenwich Hospital, which, however, did not exercise the right of patronage until 1814, when, with the other six benefices dismembered from it, and Alston in Cumberland, the presenta- tion was restricted to chaplains in the R.N., who must have served eight years at sea, unless—please observe the amount of activity looked for from Greenwich Hospital rectors—they have lost a limb. Some men of mark in various ways have been reckoned in the roll of rectors of Simonburn ; some of them seem to have been of the well-known opinion of the Vicar of Bray, for Nicholas Harburn, 1535 to 1567, must have had religious views of an elastic character, as the various changes of faith from the days of Henry VIII. to Elizabeth did not remove him. Of che same kind must have been William Kimber, 1636 to 1666, who the Kcclesiastical Inquest of 1650 describes as a ‘ preaching minister who receives the profits of the parish to his own use,’ for there is no trace of an ‘ intruder’ here during the Commonwealth. The rectors were not without their troubles. John of Sandale, 1312, had his living sequestered for £68 2s 6d, but all the assets found were five marks. Robert Cuthbert, 1578, when the Northum- brian clergy were required at the general Chapter held in Newcastle to inquire into their knowledge of the gospel of S. Matthew in English, if not in Latin, is reported as one who had not completed his task. Major Allgood, 1681, presents Thomas Ridley of Parkend and others for running horse races publicly on the Lord’s Day, and Margaret Heron of Nunwick for entertaining them, and having music in her house whereby several were kept from church. Two or three were men of mark in a wider world than this. Robert Rydley, nominated 1510, brother to Sir N. Ridley of Willimoteswick, and uncle of Bishop Ridley, was high in the favour of Henry VIII., and, besides his northern benefice, had three London livings and two prebends at St Paul’s. Dr Turner says he was famous throughout Europe, and that Nicholas, the bishop, who passed some of his early years here, was maintained at his charges at Cam- bridge, Paris, and Louvain. Stainforth, 1596-1623, was the Proctor for the Northumberland clergy, and Preb. of Southweil. His daughter was the wife of a Bishop of London. The last names I will mention are those of one who is called ‘the last real rector,’ the last who held the undivided parish, Dr. James Scott, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge, and twice Seatonian prizeman. He received this preferment from Lord North as a reward for his clever replies to Junius, under the soubriquet of Dr Slyboots; and of John Wallis, the historian of Northumberland, who was curate for many years. ‘Time does not admit of my even referring to any of the tales of the two latter, which still linger round the countryside. I have now only to thank you for your presence here to-day, and to con- clude with the words of the writer of the book of the Maccabees, ‘if I have done as is fitting the story, it is that which I have desired ; but if slender- ly and meanly, it is that which I could attain unto.’ ” I 58 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. The rectory-house was originally erected by the Rev. Major Allgood. The following inscription still remains over the en- trance of it, though much injured by the weather :— ‘‘Non tam sibi, quam successoribus suis, Hoe eedificium extruxit Major Allgood, anno mirabili, 1666. Nune mea, mox hujus, sed postea nescio cujus.” This concluding sentiment is almost identical in terms and age with that brought from the old house at Fulfordlees, and now preserved at Houndwood House, Berwickshire : ‘‘Nunec mea, tune hujus, post illius nescio cujus, 1656.” See Club’s ‘‘ Proceedings,”’ 1x., p. 13. . The old rectory-house was a small border tower in 1522; and at that date there was also a bastle house at the Hall barns in Simonburn. Canon Rogers in his paper gave a brief outline of the history of Simonburn Castle, which lay to the left after leaving the village. “Few of this gentle and learned company who have already visited Haughton Castle and are on their road to Chipchase Castle, are aware that within half a mile of this church stand the ruins of a castle more famous perhaps in late times than either. Simonburn Castle is now but a pictur- esque ruin, but Sir Robert Bowes in 1622 describes it as ‘a strong toure of foure house height of the inherytance of Sr Wyll’m Herons heyrs and yt standeth of a very stronge ground a myle from Chypchase upon the west syde of the ryver of North Tyne and ys in measurable good repacons.’ He goes on to say that as the best means of the keeper of Tynedale being able ‘to correcte, chastyse, and keep in due obeysaunce, the prowde, ob- stynate, and rebellyous hartes of the said Tyndale,’ that not less than fifty horsemen be kept in continual garrison. He continues thus, ‘The most convenyent house for the said keeper of Tynedale and the said: garri- son with hym, were Chipchase and Symondburne. And Symondburne ys a great and strongely buylded toure, standinge very defensyble upon the corner of an hyll envyroned upon thre quarters thereof with a deep, staye hyll almost inaccessyble.’ He estimates the cost of the * barmekyn with all necessary houses for the said keeper of Tynedale and the said fyftie horsemen and stables for their horses at 200 pounds ora lytle more.’ Bowes then counsels what would have saved the societies a five miles drive, a ‘bridge over the said river of North Tyne, even unto the toure of Chip- chase, that the inhabitants upon both sides of that ryver might assemble by that way to relieve the said keeper of Tyndale as his neede shall require.’ There follows a list of the places at which two watchers are to sit, all alone. Names remain unvaried. Among the list of watchers I find Sir John Hall, priest, ‘shewing that in this matter there was no benefit of clergy.‘ Tradition says that carly in the last century a ‘warlock of Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 59 Simonburn’ received a revelation that enough treasure to buy all Nor- thumberland lay buried in Simonburn Castle, and its present ruined state was a proof of the faith which was felt in his assertion.” Nunwick and the Parkend were passed on our left as we pro- ceeded to Wark, which is an open village. The road makes a sudden bend at right angles in the direction we intend to take. Wark is famous for its Mote Hill, on which once were held the Assize Courts of Tindale, from the time of William the Lion to the close of the reign of Alexander ITI. of Scotland. The Iters of Alexander III., years 31 and 32 (1280-1) have been preserved. These documents which contain curious information about the condition, employment, crimes, and quarrels of the inhabitants of Tindale in that early age, have been printed in the Appendix, pp. ix.-lxvii. of Hartshorne’s ‘‘ Feudal and Military Anti- quities ;”” and have been partly translated in Dr Charlton’s “Four Grains of Tynedale.” Wark is still the capital of the barony of Wark, and here till within recent years the Court Leet and Court Baron were wont to be held. Swifts were seen at Wark, the only birds that caught attention during the day. After crossing the Tyne, it was observed that the foliage of the beeches were much riddled with small perforations, like those produced by Orchestes Fug’, a springing beetle very frequent on Tyneside. There were here some stately ashes as well as other timber trees. On the left were several earthen and gravel mounds, the effects of natural causes, and of a similar formation to the Mote Hill. The sudden revelation of CurpcHAse Caste still as of old well meriting the title of ‘‘a fayre-house,”’ standing up in stately pride amidst its beautiful lawn was welcomed by the company as a fit- ting conclusion to their journey. The public rooms, and the paintings and curiosities were examined with much interest. In the entrance hall there were fixed some red-deer antlers, but all of a modern type, with not more than six tines on each; there was also a very fine elk’s antler, and several heads of Indian deers. On one of the tables was a small pretty earthen urn, pot-shaped, of the food-vessel class; ornamented all over with simple short oblique lines and chevrons ; probably from the district, which has been very productive of remains of British antiquities. The Rev. . G. R. Hall came again to our aid by reading a paper on the his- tory of Chipchase. This will be found in the ‘‘ Natural History Transactions of Northumberland and Durham,” vol.y. pp. 295-306. 60 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. Tea and other refreshments had been thoughtfully provided for the visitors by Mr and Mrs Taylor, who were absent from home; after partaking of which the olden portion of the castle was ransacked— “ Within each secret nook is shown— Each vaulted chamber open thrown ;”’ and the battlements being gained by the turret-stair, Mr Hodges pointed out whatever was worthy of observation in the higher part of the structure, his audience being seated on the root. Sir George Heron of Chipchase, then keeper of Tynedale and High Sheriff of Northumberland, 18 Queen Elizabeth, was slain in-the Border fight of the “ Raid of Reidswire,” in July, 1575, already alluded to in the Reports. The ballad calls him “ Sir George Hearoune of Schipsydehouse ;” and contrasts him with the fiery Sir John Forster, as ‘‘gentle, meek and douse.” When the prisoners were conducted to Dalkeith, to Regent Mor- ton, he tried to appease their wrath by presenting them with falcons, for which Scotland was famous, on which one of his train observed that ‘‘the English were nobly treated, since they got live Zlawks for their dead Herons. The possessors of the manor and castle in its successive trans- formations were the Umframvilles, the de Insulas or Lisles, and the Herons from intermarriage of Walter Heron with the heiress of Sir John Lisle. It subsequently went by purchase to Mr Robert Allgood in 17th century, Mr John Reed (1732), to the guardians of Mr R. W. Gray of Backworth in 1825, and then in 1861 to Mr Hugh Taylor of Backworth, the present owner. The Rey. C. H. Hartshorne (Feudal and Military Antiquities, pp. 77-79) presents us within a short compass, the main facts about Chipchase Castle. “The chief structures of this nature (castle and peels) lie in Tyndale; - and as this district appertained to the kings of Scotland until the end of the thirteenth century, it would be vain to look for any notice of their earliest erections. Yet we need not lie. under any doubtful conjectures concerning the age of most of those remaining. Their architectural features disclose the age with sufficient approximation tocertainty. None of them were built before the very close of the reign of Edward I. ‘Tyndale was granted to the brother of Malcolm, King of Scotland, in the time of Henry II. Previous to this it was undoubtedly included amongst the crown manors, and farmed by the sheriff as part of the Corpus Comitatus, as an allowance is made to him of ten pounds annually out of his farm after its alienation. On the death of Malcolm it became united to the Report of Meetings for 1885. ® By Jas. Hardy. 61 crown of Scotland, and so continued till the death of Alexander ITI. in 1286. “The earliest and most imposing of all of them is Chipchase; un- rivalled for the beauty of its position, and rendered additionally interest- ing from its union with a building of a later age (built by Cuthbert Heron in 1621) which in itself would be attractive amid the best specimens of the Jacobean style. The peel, properly so called, is a massive and lofty build- ing, as large as some Norman Keeps. It hasan enriched appearance given to it by its double-notched corbelling round the summit, which further serves the purpose of machicolation. The round bartizans at the angles add to its beauty, and are set on with considerable skill. The stone roof and the provisions for carrying off the water deserve careful examination. Over the low winding entrance-door on the basement are the remains of the original portcullis, the like of which the most experienced archeologist will jn vain seek forelsewhere. The grooves are often visible, and the chamber where the machinery was fixed for raising it are also to be met with, even, as at Goodrich, where the holes in which the axle worked, and the oil-way that served to ease its revolutions, may be seen; but at Chipchase there is the little cross-grated portcullis itself, which was simply lifted by the lever- age of a wooden bar above the entrance, and let down in the same manner. ‘““The history of this charmingly-placed structure appears to have been pretty well made out. Originally it belonged to Odonel de Umframville. Gilbert, the Flower of the North, held it in capite amongst other posses- sions from the crown, and Peter de Insula held it under him, with Withill, for the third part of a knight’s fee. It must have been either this person, or his son Robert, who built the castle, as Robert was in possession, 2 Edw. I. (1274).”’ “The scene of the popular story of the ‘Long Pack’ formerly so well known and often reprinted, as a ‘ chap-book’ indispensable to the wander- ing pedlar of the North of England, is, by tradition, laid at Chipchase, although Lee Hall, near Bellingham, is also supposed to have been the "place where the tragical incident happened, which James Hogg, the famous Ettrick Shepherd, took for the foundation of his tale.’”’ (Rev. G. R. Hall). The return journey was on the east side of the Tyne, travers- ing the villages of Chollerton and Barrasford. Wild roses again predominated in the wayside flora. What is unusual, Knautia arvensis was a gay corn-field weed; and Timothy grass was prevalent in the corn crops. Cockley or Cocklaw Tower, an old peel, attracted attention a little before reaching Chollerford. Views of this are given in, Palmer’s pleasant book, ‘‘The Tyne and its Tributaries,’’ whose remarks on it are: (p. 68) “ Cocklaw Tower, near Chollerton, is considered to be a good example in ruins of a class of border keep, less imposing than Haughton or Chipchase, but larger than many of its kind. It is so much fallen into decay as not to admit of exploration above the byre. The farmer on whose land the tower stands, puts the byre to its old use, only the cattle go in and ont without haste.” 62 Report of Mectithgs for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. The dinner was served at the George Inn, Chollerford. The chair was occupied by the Rev. Thomas Leishman, D.D., F.8.A., Scot. President of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club. There were upwards of 60 present. The following list was supplied by the officials of the Durham Society to the newspaper reporter, to which I have added a few names so far as the company could be seen:—Mr James Hardy, Oldcambus; Mr J. G. Gradon, Dur- ham; Rev. G. B. and Miss Bulman, Mr R. O. Heslop, Mr and Mrs Blair, South Shields; Rev. W. Featherstonhaugh, Mr and Mrs Thompson, Hurworth; Mr David Herriot, Berwick; Mr R. Y. Green, Dr Embleton, Mr John Burdon and Miss Burdon, Mr T. Lawson, Rev. Dr. Bruce, Mr Thomas Turnbull, Lilliesleat ; Mr James Hood, Mr R. B. Ellis, Sunderland; Mr R. Weatherall, Rev. J. Fleming, Ald. Richard Cail, Mr Arkle, Highlaws, Morpeth; Rev. E. H. Adamson, Mr E. Willoby, jun., Berwick ; Mr Richardson Peele, Durham; Mr R. Swarley Thorpe, New- castle; Professor Tylor and Mrs Tylor, Oxford; Rev. A. Johnson, Healey; Rey. J. L. Low; Mr Vernon, Hawick; Rev. Ambrose Jones, Stannington; Rev. John Walker, Whalton ; Mr Bentham, Mrs Bentham; Mr W.'T. Hindmarsh, Mr J. L. Newbigin, Alnwick; Mr J. C. Hodgson, Lesbury; Mr and Mrs Boyd, Mr C. B. P. Bosanquet, Rock; Miss Boyd, Mr and Mrs Read, Mr Adam Robertson, Alnwick; Mr C. E. Macarthy, Mr R. Routledge, Rev. R. H. Williamson, Whickham; Rev. Canon Edmunds, Kyloe; Mr Turnbull, Abbey St Bathans; Mr J. B. Boyd, Cherrytrees; Mr James Heatley, Alnwick; Mr Mason, Alnwick; Mr Watson, Hawick; Mr C. C. Hodges, Hexham ; ete. After the repast the Rev. W. Featherstonhaugh proposed a vote of thanks to the gentlemen who had contributed so much to the success of the meeting, viz., to Mr Crawshay for having allowed them to visit Haughton Castle; to Canon Rogers, for showing them over his church; and to Mr Taylor, for his great and con- tinual kindness to those who wished to look over his house. The re- solution was carried by acclamation. The Rev. Mr Featherston- haugh then proposed thanks to the Rev. Mr Hall for his assistance that day, and to Mr Hodges for his contributions to the success of the meeting. This resolution was also carried by acclamation, after which the party adjourned to the open air. Nothing could have been more successful than this combined meeting of the two societies, which will doubtless be remembered for some time to come as one of the most satisfactory ever held. Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas, Hardy. 63 SUPPLEMENT. On my way to and from the meeting I spent two evenings and part of two days at Dunston Hill. The woods here, as I well remember some of those at Ravensworth and Gibside used to be, are liable to be overrun with a persistent crop of brambles, which require constant efforts to clear them out. These are frequented in this district by a small local leaping beetle, Bato- phila Rubi, Fab. The fine Agelastica halensis used to frequent the Galium Mollugo and G. verum on the road-sides near Dunston; and Psylliodes afinis was found on the bitter-sweet night-shade (Solanum Dulcamara). The bitter-sweet grows within the policy here. Mr Edmund Carr shewed me the trees photographed for the Tyneside Naturalists’ Club; two noble beeches with fine boles, and widely expanded branches crowded with foliage; a spacious wych elm, and a sycamore. A very fine old cherry tree, figured in Selby’s ‘‘ Forest Trees” once formed part of an old orchard ; its companion is gone, having been blown down. There were some good yews at some distance from the front of the house, which screen it from the public road. Some of these had the foliage browned, said to be occasioned by the snow having been blown off them during frosty weather in winter. A patch of spruce firs withered in a similar manner was noticed on Tyne-side near Wylam; possibly the effects of a frost rind. Mr Carr had a pair of young Stock-doves to shew, which had been taken from a nest within the grounds. He had heard a peculiar call of doves among the trees, and described it to Lord Ravensworth, who said it would be from Stock-doves, as he had several pairs at Ravensworth, and while they were conversing, a pair flew past. This year two birds were observed about the stump of a blown-down tree, and a ladder having been fetched, two young birds were secured, which the gardener had under his charge to nurture. The young birds were very black, and were still dusky coloured when I saw them. The old birds bred a second time. In previous years, pigeons addicted to breeding in rabbit holes had been heard of there; without attracting further inquiry. Mr Carr likewise shewed me a very perfect Red deer head with antlers, which had been dredged from the Tyne, off the village of Dunston in 1875. It was a stag-royal, but had not the cup of the still larger examples found in excavating the new harbour at Eyemouth, of which I hope afterwards to give the 64 Report of Meetungs for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. particulars. We measured one of the antlers. It has six tines, and is three feet long; the circumference above the burr is 8 inches; above the brow antler, 6 inches; above the third, 52 inches; and 53 above the next. The brow antler is 114 inches long; then at the top where the cup should be, the fourth is 1 foot 4 inches; the 5th is 1 foot 1} inch; and the sixth, 8 inches in length. Where the dredge brought up the head there was a complete mass of bones, which were supposed to have been the remains of a herd, that had at one period been chased into the Tyne by wolves and drowned. The garden-beans here were very much infested by Aphis Fabe vel Rumicis ; and at Whickham, in Mr Williamson’s garden, the foliage of a wall plum tree, that bore no fruit, was loaded with Aphis Pruni—a species which I once in former years detected on its native plant, Arundo Phragmitis, growing on the Tyneside above Dunston. When feeding on the reed it has been called Aphis Arundinis. The low-lying tract round Dunston used to produce rather a large number of species of Aphides; some of them being distinct varieties. Several of these were described or recorded by the late Francis Walker, F.L.8., from specimens that I collected and forwarded to him, in the ‘‘ Annals of Natural History ;”’ but there were several others which his papers failed to reach. I see that he has noticed from this locality, Aphis Galeopsidis, Kalt; Aphis Rosarum, foliage of /osa spinosissima ; the locality for this, however, was the bents at South Shields ; Aphis Rumicis, var. 29, from Galium MMollugo (described) ; Aphis Lythri, 1st var. (described); Aphis Dianthi 11th var. on Urtica urens (described). ‘There are more recorded among my notes. The Aphides are not a popular branch of study, distinctions between some of the species not being very definite. WESTRUTHER AND WEDDERLIE. The fourth meeting of the Club for 1885 was held on Wednesday, July 26th, at Westruther and Wedderlie. There was a larger attendance than had been anticipated for places so remote and comparatively inaccessible. Fortunately the new Road Acts are operating beneficially for opening up the country, some of the ancient parish roads being now as suitable for carriages as the royal highways of coaching times. ‘The weather was everything that was desirable. After breakfasting at the White Swan Hotel, Duns, the party left in three vehicles for their — a Report of Meetings for 1885,. By Jas, Hardy, 65 destination. At Choicelea a fine view of the Merse and Northum- berland was obtained—the woods and detached trees wearing the dark mantle of the closing summer—the fields the intermingling hues of green and yellow that betoken the approach of harvest— the dark wall of distant hills framing the rich and varied land- scape, so full of the memories of stirring events in the bygone periods of history. The well-sheltered classic hamlet of Polwarth-on-the-Green, on the margin of the Marchmont woods, was passed within view on the left, as the route by the renovated road to Westruther, 7% miles distant, was taken between two sheltering more or less continuous fir plantations. The shooting moors of Sir H. H. Campbell, only sparingly in bloom this year, lay to the left on a ridge from the Kyle Hill to the Dogden Moss. This is rather destitute of interesting plants ; Genista anglica grows on the skirts of the Kyle Hill; Lvstera cordata among the long heath ; and the club-mosses, Lycopodium clavatum and L. alpinum creep over the nearly grown up old track-ways. Listerais also preserved in the plantations beside the public road. Some of the firs planted here have been choked by the long heath, and are covered with grey lichen, which even attaches itself to the heather. Lichens also fringe the palings in great luxuriance, and bespeck the boulder stones and walls in great patches, shewing how conducive the damp moorland atmosphere is to their rapid growth. Some chance tufts of Alectoria jubata, suspended like old men’s grey beards, plucked from beech trees on Kyle hill, measure nine inches in length. The Dirringtons now appear in front, the Greater hill bold, steep, and bare, and streaked with barren “‘ glitters;’’ the Lesser empurpled with blooming heather, and speckled with clumps of brackens ; a lower spur in front shewing the twisted ridges of bygone cultivation, still partly green, and radiating from a bare summit as from the apex of adome. There isa great heathy and partly boggy space rising into a low rounded heathy ridge connecting the two Dirringtons, and bounding a flattish heathy moor that extends towards Langton Edge. ‘This heathy flat is a continuation of the green swamps of the Dogden Moss, which is here traversed, in the form of a miniature mountain ridge, by the curiously zig-zag mounds of sand and gravel that constitute the Bedshiel Kaims. These are chiefly composed of fine red sand at the east end nearest to the Dirringtons, as if they had I 66 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. resulted from the waste of Old Red-Sandstone rocks that once existed somewhere in the vicinity. The gravel in some of the others is very much rolled and rounded into bullet-shapes as if it had been subjected for long periods to the triturating action of sea-waves or currents. The contents are principally of grey- wacke, the staple rock of the Lammermoors, mixed with porphyry, vein-quartz, red and white sandstones. The larger blocks are of greywacke. The contents are much more rounded than similar water worn stones in the Boulder clay of the adjacent moors, although at intervals the polished gravel of the Kaim type is scattered over them. The late Mr William Steven- son has discussed the subject of the formation of the Bedshiel Kaims in its relation to the general geological features of the district, in the Club’s ‘‘ Proceedings,” vol. v., 124-128; 107-8; and there are two interesting letters on them in the Kelso Chronicle for September and October, 1841. Cattleshiels was the first moorland farm passed. It represents a very early shieling of the possessor of the lands of Leitholm (formerly written Letham), and bears the name in a corrupted form of one of its early proprietors, Ketel, who settled in Scot- land under the Earls of Dunbar,and held of them as the superiors. Several of the De Lethams are signitaries of the Charters of Coldstream Priory, and amongst the earliest Ketel de Letham occurs. Edward de Letham was one of the Scotch hostages when it was agreed that the town and castle of Berwick should be sur- rendered to Edward III., July 21, 1333. He entered the service of the English king, and his Scotch possessions were forfeited. Edward conferred on him a number of Tweed fisheries, and the guardianship of young De Manners (ancestor of the Duke of Rutland), heir of Etal. Letham Hill still carries hisname. He died 41 Edward III. (1366-7) holding as a subject of Edward, ‘“‘Letham manor, (etilshele hamlet, etc.” (Inq. p. M. i1., p. 87). He appears to have had a son of the same name. (See Jerning- ham’s Siege of Berwick, p. xii.) The family lands in Scotland were subsequently transferred to some more faithful adherent to its king of the name. In the reign of Robert III., John Letham obtained the lands of Letham by the ‘‘forfaultrie of Patrick Earl of March.” (Robertson’s Index, p. 149). On the 10th April, 1617, David Home of Wed- derburn was served heir to Sir George Home of Wedderburn, in the lands of ‘‘ Ketlesheill and Dron scheall,’’ which adjoins. In’ Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 67 the same century it is possessed by the Trotters. Alexander Trotter of Cattleshiels succeeded his father in 1693. He was ancestor of the Trotters of Cattleshiels and of Horton, co. Surrey, and of the Trotters of Dryden and Bush, Midlothian. The place still retains the corrupted form of the name. Dr John Trotter at Dunse, a particular friend of the Rev. Thomas Boston, and by whose persuasion he prepared for publication ‘‘'The Fourfold State,” was of the Cattleshiels family. He died about the year 1717. He was second son to Alexander Trotter of ‘‘Cattlesheill,” and married Mrs Julian Home, sister to the laird of Kimmerghame. All his children died, and his substance went to his elder brother. ‘‘ He not only laid himself out,’ says Boston in his Memoirs, p. 148, ‘‘ for my health and that of my family, both at Simprin and in Etterick; but upon my removal from the former to the latter, proposed my looking out a piece of land in Etterick for him to buy, that we might still live together: the which, though it did not take effect, was a sign of singular friendship. To him it was owing that [I ever thought of writing The Fourfold State. [I havea piece of gold of his wrapt up ina letter of his tome. Besides, there were about 50 merks received for a token to my two eldest children, and about £3 sterling for the two youngest.” Neither does Bedshiel, the next place passed, retain the old form of its name, which was Baitshiell, Betschule, etc. The lands belonged to James Earl of Home, in 1621—Jan. 8, 1635, Robert Schorswood of Baitscheill was retoured heir of his father, Master James Schoirswood, in the laws of Baitscheill with the mills— May 6, 1681, George Home of Kimmergham held the lands of Beedsheill in the lordship of Home. One of the Shoarwoods was still there in 16938, as portioner through his wife, who was a Home. (Retours). Bedshiel, according to tradition, was at one time occupied by a-number of small tenants, who gained their livelihood by retailing the peats they had cast in the moss, at Kelso and Dunse and other towns within reach. They were called the ‘Peat Lairds of Bedshiel.” Some time ago a jet or cannel-coal fibula was dug out by one of the peat-casters in Bedshiel Moss. Dirrington consisted of Easter and Wester Dirrington. In early ages these were the shielings of the proprietor of Horn- dean, whose heiress, Matilda, William de Vipont or Veteriponte married. With her consent he bestowed them as an alms-gift on the monks of Kelso Abbey. This grant his son of the same name confirmed, when Ingelram was Bishop of Glasgow, 1164-74. 68 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. The name of the shielings is not entered in the charters, as one might expect from Morton’s Annals, p. 127; but the name is given in the Rent Roll written before 1316, as Diuringdon (not Dunrigdon as Morton gives it, p. 168), and it was then held of them by William de Diuringdon for an annual payment of five shillings with ward and relief. From about 1329-1334, a moiety of the lands of Derington, held by Joneta Schaw, heiress of William de Deryngton, which she resigned, was granted by William, Abbot of Kelso, to Alexander de Redpeth at the annual vent of 30 pennies. In July 1, 1624, George Lawder, heir of William Lawder, is retoured in the lands of Derington, estimated in feu-duty at 5s. and 20 coins in augmentation. In Jan. 22, 1673, Joneta Home, heiress of Major John Home of Carollside, held the lands estimated at 30s. per annum of feu-duty. In Aug. 30, 1692, they occur among the accumulated lands of Andrew Ker of Morestoun. At Cattleshiels there is a complete gap in the wood made by the rush of the memorable gale of Oct. 14, 1882. Raspberry pre- vails as an undergrowth. After passing the trees, the beautiful weed, Galeopsis versicolor, was seen in bloom in a turnip field. Mr Robert Renton, since the meeting, has picked up on the Cattleshiels moor the rare Savifraga Hirculus. There would be over a hundred plants at the place. This is an encouragement for further researches. A botanical party here left for the Greater Dirrington Law, to endeavour to gather the Bear-berry, Arctostaphylos Uva-ursi, but were unsuccessful in their search. The Cow-berry, Vaccinium Vitis-idea, grows near the summit; and very curiously the lesser Winter-green, Pyrola minor, so plentiful in the fir strips at Long- formacus, occurs in a barren state on the height of the hill. A dismantled cairn occupies part of the top, probably like those on the Twinlaws, which have been proved by excavation to be such, funereal. The real form of these cairns was that of a mound, more or less extensive, either conical and circular, or oblong- oval, like the vast monument ‘‘The Mitten full of stones” on Byrecleugh Rig, and not pyramidal like the recent erections on the Twinlaws constructed out of the ancient British tumuli. Much grassy ground lying in the high gathered ridges of the old agriculture was passed between this and Hurdlaw. On the grounds of this place near the Dogden Moss, an old British camp is marked in Armstrong’s map of Berwickshire, 1771. Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 69 There is also a square mound of earth three feet high in a syke on Hurdlaw moor, and traces of an ancient road on the hill east of Evelaw, both of which as well as the camp, require investiga- tion. Here a fresh conveyance with members from the Lauder district met the company. At Cammerlaws cultivation was again reached, with healthful although late crops of oats, and promis- ing turnips. The many hillocks on this place have the appear- ance of Kaims, and may have led to its peculiar name. Fine prospects of the Roxburghshire and Border Hills, Dunion, Ruberslaw, Penielhaugh, the Hildons, the Cowdenknowes, and the more remote ranges of the Cheviots, the Selkirkshire heights, and the hills above Innerleithen, were obtained; and the low country all round was well dotted with trees and plantations, and the enclosures of modern culture, which gave a warmer effect to the scene, but still it wore an air of wildness from its proximity to the moors, and the weather-beaten aspect of some of the trees. There was little to be seen at Westruther, only the place is well sheltered, and trees appear to thrive. The old oblong church within the churchyard was built in 1649—‘‘a very plain building even then, covered with heather without and unceiled within.” It was repaired and contracted in dimensions in 1752. There is a Norman door probably brought from some older chapel now included in the parish. When it was abandoned for a new church, an attempt had been made to bury it up in an ivy shroud. The churchyard had very recently yielded a heavy crop of grass, then cut and removed. But the main object of the visit was Wedderlie House, which belongs to Lord Blantyre, a quaint old residence, still retaining the style of the age, or rather ages in which it was built. It is well surrounded with trees, and has a fine outlook towards Rox- burghshire in the direction of Penielheugh. It is a building formed out of an old peel tower of the 14th century, united to a newer and more capacious mansion of the date 1680. It looks as if a branch of the Edgars after a period of straitened means, had become enriched by commerce, through one of its representatives, who supplied better accommodation to his family accustomed to such comforts as Edinburgh then afforded. From the number of bed-rooms there had evidently been a large estab- lishment. After viewing the exterior, a paper descriptive of its architectural features, by Mr Robert Murray, Architect, Edin- burgh, was read, and his plans and drawings of the house were 70 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. exhibited. The housekeeper then shewed the company over the interior. It is still used as shooting quarters in the autumn, and Sir David Baird was then residing there. At Wedderlie House, a gigantic two-handed sword, 53 feet long, is preserved, found two feet under moss when casting drains on the farm of Cammerlaws. A drawing of this has been made for the Club. Mr George Fortune writes me: ‘‘The old sword was found in a moss to the east of Wedderlie. There were some pieces of wood about it, probably the fragments of a scabbard or sheath. A little to the south-east of the moss, a good number of flint arrow-heads were found by a workman in trenching the land, some of which I have seen in his possesion. [They were double barbed arrow-heads of small size, with longish oblong tangs projecting beyond the barbs.| There is a camp on the Harlaw farm opposite, from which a very fine arrow head was got. On going across the Harlaw Moor, I found a blue vitrified whorl [a large bead rather judging from the sketch]; it was ribbed transversely. I gave it to Mr Mill.” Several wrought flints have been picked up on Cammerlaws. On the invitation of Mr Clay of Kerchesters, who occupies Wedderlie farm, the company adjourned to the farm-house and partook of his hospitality. In the farm-house there is a small bed-room cast-metal grate, which belonged to Robert Burns when he farmed Ellisland. It was presented by Gilbert Burns, the poet’s brother, Lord Blantyre’s factor, to Mrs Robertson, the occupant then, as ‘‘one of Robbie’s grates,”’ he having got it at the dispersion of his brother’s effects at Ellisland. The party now became sub-divided, several going to look at the native plants of Osmunda regalis in Flass old wood, now re- duced to three, and ruiled in to prevent them being extirpated. This was done ata cost of £60. Galeopsis tricolor grew in the fields, and Listera ovata growing in the moist wood, was seen in this short walk. The dwarf and bent straggling trees of native wood, of birch and grey saugh and mountain ash, formed a peculiar and striking sight, standing as they did like battered veterans, sore thinned out, and waging their last battle on a fatal field. The period is coming when they will be replaced, as other native woods have been here, by a young and more flourishing race of trees. Here also, “The old order changeth, yielding place to new.” Not only is Flass wood venerable for age, but it is we are told Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 71 frequented by a ghost called ‘‘ Roongie.” We crossed ‘‘ Roongie’s burn,” which is a tributary of the Blackadder, and there is on it ‘““Roongie’s Ford ;” not quite so famous as the ‘* ford Whare in the snaw the chapman smoor’d ;” but having midnight terrors of its own. Others went under the guidance of Mr Clay to see a large stone near Haliburton, which is pitted all over with cup-shaped hollows, 25 of which were counted. The pits are natural, like those on many other blocks on the moors. There is another good example called the ‘“‘Grey Mare,” on Manslaughter Law. A drawing of this Haliburton stone has been taken. They next proceeded to Evelaw Tower, an old peel tower, of which a portion is still in fair preservation. This had already been touched at by the botanical section, and both parties of visitors were entertained at luncheon by the proprietor, James Curle, Esq., Melrose. Old forms of spelling Evelaw are Yfle, Yiffle, Iflie, Ivelie, etc. Of old it belonged to Dryburgh Abbey, but the charter of endow- ment is not preserved. Neither have we a full list of those sub- proprietors to whom they deputed for a fixed rental a feudal lease of the lands. The oldest name in the titles is ‘“‘Jonet Frainche, wife of Robert Crenstoun, in Broxmouth.” In a deed dated Dunbar, 25th September, 1550, she renounces her right of conjunct fee and life-rent of the third part of the lands of Ivelie, in favour of Robert Watsoun her son by the deceased Robert Watsoun, her spouse. At the date of 1st Jan., 1577, another owner Henry Wood in Flas, with the consent of his son David, had alienated the property. David, Commendator of - Dryburgh, then confirmed a charter of date at Edinburgh, 24th Aug. 1576, of the lands as disposed of by Henry Wood, by free sale, for sums of money advanced to him in his great, known, and urgent necessity, to William Douglas and Mariote Douglas his spouse. Douglas is called ‘‘an honourable man William Dowglas in Coldbranspeth.”” (Dryburgh Chartulary, Appendix). The feu farm rent was £6 Scots, and doubling the same at the entry of heirs. In the taxt roll of the Abbey of Dryburgh, made at Dryburgh, 13th Oct. 1630, for John Karl of Mar, one entry is: ‘‘ Douglas of Evelie his landis of Evelie estimat in his absence to be worth of free rent yearlie three hundred pundis taxt to £7 19 43.” On 30th Jan. 1634, it pertained to Robert Dowglas, or perhaps his heirs. Feb, 2, 1632, Grissel Douglas 72 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. had tierce of the lands of Yvelie in right of Elizabeth Dougle her mother, wife of Robert Douglas of Blaikerston. In instru- ments dated 15th, 17th, 18th May, and implemented 6th June, 1632, sasine was. granted in favour of Elizabeth Douglas, daughter of Robert Douglas of Blackerstoun, as heir of her sister, Grissell Douglass, for infefting her in, enter alia, the equal half of the lands of Ivellie, and pertinents, as heir of her said sister. Sir Robert Douglas of Blackerston is more than once named among the Commissioners of the period for the shire of Berwick. Sir Robert Sinclair of Longformacus married for his first wife, Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of Douglas of Black- erston, by whom he had 3 sons and 4 daughters, and died in’ 1678. His son, Sir John, was served heir to his father in 1680 ; and had a son Sir Robert, who was retoured his heir, Oct. 31st, 1698, and among other inheritances, to the lands of Ivelie within the parish of Westruther. On the 17th and 18th May, 1731, Sir John Sinclair of Longformacus, Bart., sold the lands of Ive- lie, teinds and pertinents to Archibald Smith, tenant in Collilaw, who received sasine 12th May, 1732. On August 26th, 1748, Archibald Smith disposed Ivelie to his brother german, Alex- ander Smith, Minister of the Gospel at the Island of Cumbray. Jan. 25th, 1771, the Rev. Alex. Smith disposed the lands of Ivelie to John Sommerville, tenant in Hillhouse: this is regis- tered in 1774. 11th Feb. 1808, James Sommerville succeeded his father John in the said lands, pertinents and tiends thereof. On the 19th July, 1819, Andrew Somerville was infefted as heir of his brother James. In August, 1836, Andrew Somerville sold Evelaw to James Curle, Esq., the father of the present owner. (Information from the Inventory of Writs and Title deeds, kindly communicated by James Curle, Esq., Harley-burn, Melrose.) The property is 400 acres in extent. I hope the Club will be able to have the drawings of the Peel tower com- municated by Mr Robert Murray, Edinburgh, engraved next year. In 1544, when the Scottish Borders were so much infested by the English garrisons, even the remote Lammermoors did not escape forays. JI may quote a few instances that relate to the district we visited, or its vicinity. ‘“The Lord Hvere’s Lettres of the 25th August. ‘John Carres garrison of Warke and Cornhill, tooke up a stede called Ketle Shells, wherein they gate 40 kyen and oxen and 6 nages. Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 73 *‘The same toke up another town or stede, called Haryell in Lammer- moor, and gate 38 kyne and oxen, 8 horses and moche insight.”’ ‘The Lord Evre’s letters of 20th Sept. “William Buckton and John Orde, accompanied by Sir George Bowes folkes, seased in Lammermore and brought away 100 nolt, 600 shepe, 12 horse and insight geare.”’ “The Lord Hvre’s letters of 22nd Sept. 1544. “The same night, divers of the garrison of Norham toke a toune in Scotland called Dermdon (Dirrington) ; and there gott 30 nolt, 6 naggs, certane prisoners, insight gere to the valor of 20 markes sterling, nolt 30, nages 6.”’ [Raine’s North Durham, Introd. p. xxi.]} “The Lord Evre’s Lettres, 8 Octobris. “The garrison of Cornell etc., ran a foray to Rawburne and there gat 70 nolt and 12 naggs.”’ “Certen of the garrison of Norham, [the governor was Sir Bryan Latoun], etc., rode to Otterburn, and toke up the same, and gate ther 50 keyn and oxen, 5 naggs, 10 nolt and 2 naggs.”’ “The Lord Evre’s letters of 23d Octobris. “A rode made to a stede called the Hayrehed, and there they gate 30 nolt, 3 or 4 nagegs. “William Buckton and John Orde, etc., rode toa place called Crayn- shawes, and other stedes thereabouts, and brought away 400 nolt, 2400 shepe ; 50 horses, insight geare, 20 prisoners; slew 5 Scotts.” ““The Lord Evre’s lettres of 4th Novembris. “A stede in Lammermore called Ieffyle was taken up, and brought away 18 kyen and oxen, 2 horses, and insight geare. “A stede, with a bastell, called Prestley, was burnt, and 4 or 5 other villages taken up the same tyme, and brought away 80 nolt, 389 shepe, 10 nags, 8 prisoners.’’* These merciless ravages were wiped out by the battle of Ancrum Moor, (in 1545), where on Lilyard’s Edge fell Lord Evers and his son, Sir Bryan Latoun, and 800 Englishmen, many of whom were persons of rank. A thousand prisoners were taken. By some misunderstanding a part of the members were nearly left behind by the conveyances, but all were picked up at last ; but the extent of ground gone over was too extensive for the time allotted, and it was five o’clock before the last carriage reached Duns. Only a hasty meal could be snatched by those who left at 5.30. The proceedings were necessarily hurried. There were some rare garden flowers on the table from Mr Ferguson, Duns, and others ; specimens of Zrventalis Kuropea from Mr H. Hewat Craw, * Armstrong’s Hist of Liddesdale, etc., Appendix, pp. LXVI, LXVII, LXVIII, LXIX, LXXx. q 74 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. West Foulden, gathered by him in a wood on the outer extremity of Rawburn farm, where it marches with Evelaw. There was also a series of drawings by Miss Russell, Jedbank, of bronze celts and other valuable objects of antiquity preserved in the Jedburgh Museum ; and Mr Walter Laidlaw sent two fine photo- graphs of sculptured stones from Jedburgh Abbey, including the Roman inscription ; also a photograph of Arum erinitum, which had flowered in the Abbey garden. In addition to the papers on the programme, there was a com- munication, through Mr Wm. T. Hall, Dunns Houses, Woodburn, from the Rev. Mr Stephens, vicar of Horsley, on a bronze ladle lately found by him on the Wanny Crags in the neighbourhood of Risingham, which much resembles the Roman Patella dug up in 1849, at the farm of Palace, Crailing; also an account of a small leaden vessel in the form of an Acetabulum, which had been got by a drainer near High Rochester in Redesdale. The following gentlemen were proposed for membership at this meeting: Mr John Simson, Oxnam Row, Jedburgh; Mr James Gibson of Gunsgreen, Eyemouth; Mr Frederick John Leather of Middleton Hall, Belford ; Mr David Leitch, Greenlaw; and as an Associate, Mr James Watson, Jedburgh. In the morning, as well as after dinner, several members availed themselves of the kindness of Mr Hay of Duns Castle, to visit his beautiful grounds. The specimens of Araucaria imbricata here are well-known to be the finest in the county, if not in Scotland. The largest, beautifully grown and ‘‘furnished”’ as gardeners say, was planted in the early part of this century, and is 44 feet high. There is also an old Larch, which is probably co-eval with the famous ‘‘ Parent Larches”’ of Dunkeld. The stem is 21 feet in circumference, two feet from the ground, and is perfectly healthy ; but it was dismantled during one of our recent cyclonic visita- tions. Another interesting object is a splendid old Myrtle about 36 feet high under glass, specially constructed to accommodate it, which bears the following inscription : ‘‘ MyRTUS COMMUNIS. ‘‘This MyrrLe was a sprig in the Bouquet of the beautiful Miss Lucy JoHnsTonE of Hurron Hatz, worn at a Ball given in her honour at Buanerne about the year 1777-8. Mr. Lumspaine of BLANERNE presented the plant to Mrs Hay, but there ~F Or Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. being no Greenhouse here at the time it was reared at Kimmerghame till the year 1803, when it was transplanted here.” Miss Lucy Johnston was a sister of the eccentric ‘‘ Suff” Johnston, one of the notorieties of the old Edinburgh fashionable circles. About 1783 we hear of Miss Lucy Johnston as about to be married to Macdowel of Logan. (‘Songstresses of Scotland,’ 1., p. 158, compared with p. 152.) There is a colony of Stockdoves at Duns Castle, but since the burrs have been removed from the stems of the lime-trees their numbers have been diminished. COCKBURNSPATH FOR AIKENGALL. The fifth meeting for 1885 was held at Cockburnspath on Wednesday, September 30th. Preparations had been made with long carts and other conveyance to take a large party to Aiken- gall in the parish of Innerwick, East Lothian, to explore the ravines there ; but the repeated heavy rainfalls were too repellant for a journey among the Lammermoors, which is only worth taking when the weather is pleasant and dry. There were sixteen present: Rev. Dr Leishman, President ; J. Hardy, Secretary; Mr Leishman, junr.; Dr Stuart, Chirn- side; Mr W. B. Boyd, Faldonside; Mr A. H. Evans, Cambridge ; Rey. R. H. Williamson, Whickham; Mr William Allan, Bow- shiel; Mr J.T. S. Doughty, Ayton; Mr R. Y. Green, Newcastle; Mr John Hood, Oldcambus Townhead ; Mr Ferguson, Chirnside; and Mr William T. Hindmarsh, Mr G. H. Thompson, Mr Tom- linson, and Mr J. P. Turnbull, from Alnwick. There being no hope of reaching the hills that te as an alternative Dunglass Dean old collegiate church and gardens were resorted to; and a return route by the coast, where there is so much to see, would have been followed out, but prudence prevailed, and the party retreated to more comfortable quarters at the inn, where, after a change of clothes, the spare hour before dinner was occupied in the examination of botanical specimens and of several archeological drawings and photographs; and a paper ‘‘On the Geology of the Basin of Eyemouth New Harbour,” by the resident engineer, and communicated by Mr James Gibson of Gunsgreen, was read. When the gravel and silt had been cleared from the rock (Greywacke and Greywacke-slate at a high angle), the surface was found to be planed, smoothed, and 76 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. scratched by glacial action; a fine large cupped Red Deer’s antler entire, with the epidermis attached, was obtained from the middle of the excavations; another of equal size and form, but broken, and the epidermis removed, was dug out elsewhere; and, what was more valuable than either, a pretty complete cranium, with the horn-cores still attached, of the extinct gigan- tic ox, Bos primigenius, was come upon: the two last have been secured for the Club. A large decaying trunk of black oak and several well-preserved layers of tree leaves were exposed in the cuttings. The silt enveloping these interesting relics of a by- gone era was composed of glacial drift and mud, mostly derived from Silurian slate. Springs were frequently met with in the bottom of the excavation. After dinner—the President, the Rev Dr Leishman, being in the chair—a paper by Mr James Wood, Galashiels, on the © habits of the Ox-eye (Parus ceruleus) when feeding its young, was read. The Club having taken much interest in the preservation of Dunstanborough Castle, it was examined during the summer by Mr Hindmarsh and Mr Hardy, by whom a statement was for- warded to the Eyre trustees, suggesting what repairs were needed. These the trustees have now undertaken under the superintendence of Mr ©. Hodgson Fowler, Durham. Some correspondence on the subject having been read to the meeting, Mr Hindmarsh moved the following resolution, which was seconded by Mr G. H. Thompson, Alnwick, and adopted :—“That the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club learns with pleasure of the steps at present being taken on behalf of the Reverend Samuel Kettlewell and Mr James Stables, as the Eyre trustees, to pre- serve the remaining building of Dunstanborough Castle, which are being efficiently carried out by Mr A. R. Gordon, under the direction of Mr C. H. Fowler, and it assures them of its high appreciation of their efforts to maintain a structure of so great antiquity and of so much interest to antiquarians, especially to those resident in the north,” The following gentlemen were proposed for membership :— Messrs George Henderson, M.B., C.M., Coldstream; L. G. Broadbent, M.D., Bamburgh, Belford; Rev. Edward Hussey Adamson, M.A., Vicarage, Felling, Gateshead. At the Club’s meeting of July 31st, 1878, it was intended to have gone to Aikengall; but those who attended only got half- Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 70 way, and turned at Oldhamstocks. At that time I drew up a summary of what there was to see. I have been there several times since, and the following notices contain the principal observations made. On one or other of three separate visits, Dr. Stuart, Mr A. H. Evans, and Capt. Norman, R.N., accompanied me. Dr Stuart has furnished an outline of what he remarked on two of these occasions, which will appear among the papers of the year. THE AIKENGALL RAVINES. After getting above Stottancleugh, the gravel brought from the wasted conglomerate of the upper ravines by the winter floods and forming the bed of the stream, draws the attention ; the whole breadth of the flattened space between the banks being frequently littered with spoils. Pieces of white sandstone strewed here and there, as well as peculiar porphyries and greenstones, evince that the waste has been partly derived from a district at a distance from the surrounding hills; but the vast proportion of the debris is from the Silurian Greywacke embedded in the conglomerates that once filled up the ravines. As we turn up to the left the water disappears in summer; and the main stream is well named Stonecleugh Water. The gravelly haughs are empurpled in the summer-time with beds of wild thyme, which runs on wherever there is space for it in among the narrow bottom margins of the upper ravines, whence it climbs up and over their scaurs wherever it can obtain ascanty soil. The prevalence of stork’s bill (Lrodium cieutarium) and Parsley Piert (Aphanes arvensis) are symptoms of the barren- ness of the substratum. The entangled grey willow thickets on the left have their stems and branches densely studded with a white Coccus; and in the autumn they are blackened by the honey dew of a small oval pale green Aphis (4. Salicivora? or A. Capree?) clustered on the underside of the foliage. There are five ravines subsidiary to the main Stonecleugh running between it and the Lammermoor ridge, and sub-dividing into spaces more or less extensive the intervening high slopes ; some of the intervals being elevated spurs called Steels. These ravines or yaws (open fissures), do not cross the spine of the main ridge, but usually either shallow out into peaty swamps, or they are blocked up at the upper end by concave earthen scaurs called Cribs. 78 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. These are the results of the winter snows which they embosom and protect. When these become melted, they gradually ex- cavate and carry away the substance of the main hill, which runs more or less at right angles to the ravines. ‘The ravines are mostly rugged open fissures in the Old Red Sandstone Con- glomerate, or in the overlying boulder clay and re-assorted waste of the Conglomerate ; where, displaying a broader area assuming strange fantastic forms like the wasted battlements of a mighty citadel upreared by elfin might; but mostly narrow, with only room for the streamlet that intersects them to struggle through between their steep rocky walls. Sometimes there are lengthened barren spaces of conglomerate with only here and there a starving shrub, ' ““Sown by winds, by vapours nurs’d,”’ dependent from their crevices by cable-like roots out of all pro- portion in length to the miniature bush they anchor; and where in the horizontal bands of the strata, the rock bramble (Rubus saxatilis) has fixed itself, and pushes out its waving tendrils over the perpendicular faces, and but rarely perfecting its harsh and acid but pretty scarlet fruit. The wild strawberry (Pragaria vesca) in pretty small forms with dwarf fruit in like manner ex- hibits a preference for the crannies of such precipices, or plants itself within some sheltering angle wherever a scant covering of soil has mouldered from their sides to overlap their bases. Next we will meet with small groves of native trees, birch and hazel and sallow, some of them of elegant form and well feathered with foliage, with an undergrowth of woodland flowers and grasses underneath. The mountain-ash asserts itself as a predominant ornament here, especially above the fern-clad hollows, or situated ou the brinks of craggy banks, which if moisture trickles down are verdant with sheets of mosses of various hues and varieties. The number of dripping mossy banks is excessive; the drops of water gleam among the Mniums and Hypnums and Jungermannia epiphyila all the day, as if they had been | “By mists and silent rain-drops silver’d o’er.”’ These moss-cover’d rocks and banks are often fringed on their brows with strong edgings of bilberry, or the purple bell-heather, or Calluna; and occasionally sheets of white Sphagnum (invari- ably S. acutifoliwm); and their faces are sprinkled if not over- moist with the foliage or flowers of Crepis paludosa, Hieracium sylvaticum, Golden-rod (Solidago virgaurew), whose luxuriant leaves Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 79 mimic young Harts-tongue ferns; and where near the stream with Butterwort (Pinguicula vulgaris or Parnassia palustris). The flora of the peaty moors encroaches on and becomes intermingled with the xerophilous plants of the conglomerate scaurs, and pro- duces singular intermixtures. At spots we will meet with Wood Anemone, Grass of Parnassus, Lastrea Oreopteris, the common daisy, and white clover in close proximity. Then at a not over high angle there are moist slopes, whose chief covering consists of mosses, especially of Lypnum commutatum, H. striatum, Bar- tramia fontana, B. calcearea, and Bryum pseudo-triquetrum ; of great sheets of Varchantia polymorpha crowded with fruit; and over- lappings among herbage and grass of the grey papyraceous Peltidea canina. The clayey spots produce dense leafy beds of Tussilago Farfara; and then there are equally spacious plots of Ajuga reptans with its blue-flowered pyramidal spikes; or fairy forests of Hquisetum sylvaticum. But finer than all, and inter- twining and borne up by the pendulous tree branches, or investing an immense perpendicular rock-face from top to bottom, or arrayed in vast flowery curtains from projecting cliffs, is the Wood-vetch (Vicia sylvatica) which flourishes in the utmost pro- fusion and with the greatest luxuriance and beauty in the shady recesses of these wild and shaggy dells. The flowers are much more delicate in tint and finer pencilled than whenit grows exposed to the full sun-light and smothered in its own entangling trails. And then there are concavities and secondary deans crowded with ferns of the genera Zastrea and Athyrium, which there attain their fullest expansion and that spiral development of fronds and circular outline which no culture can reach. Nowhere are there better grown Polystichum aculeatums than beneath the shady rocks by the little burn-sides. The names of the glens are 1. Yearnup, (wp represents hope), 2. Wideup, 3. Lingup, 4. Bladdering Cleugh, 5. Burnup. The 6th, Shippith vr Shippath, rises in Bransly Hill, and sends off its superfluous water by a different outlet from the other five. The first, Yearnup is a bare open ravine, that terminates in the erzbs of Wightman Hill. Powelshiel, an obsolete shepherd’s house, stood in Yearnup. Then comes in the Steel, a large hill _ ridge, between it and No. 2, called Wideup, which is also open and unclothed ; neither of these is of any interest. Lingup is pleasantly wide, and it is dry, and can be traversed all the way up to the top, and is of great length. Its vegetation 80 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. is much modified by the adjacent heath. There are no ferns in it worth noticing, and much Calluna and Crowberry (Zmpetrum). A growthy natural birch wood enlivens the lower portion; and there are small birches, and sprinklings of hazel or mountain- ash almost to the upper terminus, near which the great Sallow (Saliz caprea) becomes prevalent. The lower part is full of primroses on the southern bank. On the oozy spots are great plots of Marchantia polymorpha, which is plentiful also in all the other glens. J. conica grows only on the shady rock faces where it is nourished by the spray of the waterfall or by trick- ling moisture, and is scarce hereabouts. Drecranum squarrosum of a delicate pale green, abounds in all the moist spots among the upper parts of these glens.. In the spaces occupied by sheets of moss; Hypnum commutatum, Bartramia fontana, B. calcarea, and Bryum pseudo-triquetrum preferred the moister portions; while on the drier the sorts were chiefly, Hypnum striatum, H. lutescens, H. squarrosum, and H. loreum. Weissia controversa and a patch of Dicranum pellucidum were in fruit. Polytrichum juni- perinum was fruiting also. Dicranum majus grew on the dry rocks among trees. Peltidea canina spread extensively. Asper- ula odorata was noticeable. Ranunculus acris was still in flower. Half-way up there grew a large form of Carex muricata, and near the head, Carex binervis shewed itself. Here Vicia Sepium takes the place of V. sylvatica, which is not absent in any of the remaining glens. JI have noticed a similar circumstance in the dry Kidland glens in proximity to heather. The mountain ashes are numerous near the top, sheltered between two high banks. Here the blackbirds had associated, Oct. 6th, to feast upon the rowan berries. They had been rifling the bushes all the way up, as appeared by the berries they had dropped. The crow- berry had still well-tasted fruit. The glen here had a deeply gashed offset, with birch bushes on the high eastern bank’s summit. After skirting a little birchen grove and a few scattered sallows, the main ravine rose upwards between deep heathery or scaury sides to a deep crib. It is not easy scrambling out of it, the footing of sliding gravel being very insecure. This ravine almost cuts the hill ridge not far from the ‘‘ Chapman’s Grave.” It is a pretty glen to look down into from the top, from the long line of green birches that mark its windings in the summer-time. Hypnum fluiians is abundant in the hollows of the heath on the summit of the main hill ridge above. Report of Meetings for 1885, By Jas. Hardy. $1 The space between this glen and the next is a “‘ Steel.” The fourth glen is called Bladdering Cleugh. The north side is fringed with birches and dwarf-sallows, but the south aspect is bare and steep like a wall. The stunted trees are patched with grey Usnea, Ramalina and Evernia and Parmelia physodes and P. saxatilis, and tangled tufts of dirty Alectorza. There were still green grasshoppers alive here in October. Veils of Viewa sy'vatica on the trees were either withered away or else mildewed. Coming to a gap in the glen where a sheep track crosses, there was a dry bank with much natural Zrifoliwm pratense and Tri- folium repens; and the dry rock near it produced Lncalypta streptocarpa. In a shady fissure beneath this that only allowed the burn to dash down tumultuously, among much dripping moss, some very long, beautiful, and much darker-green coloured than is usual, being here constantly in the shade, Jungermannia Tomentella grew, mixed with luxuriant J. asplenioides. There were now trees on both sides. ‘Polystichum acu catum took posses- sion of the undersides of the rocks, and continued as progress was made upwards. Mountain ashes still full green, and others in their autumnal livery grew together. The plants noticed were Mieracium sylvaticum, Stachys sylvatica, Teucrium scorodonia, Geum rivale, Lychnis Flos-Cuculi, Spiraea Ulmaria, Scabiosa succisa, Geranium sylvaticum, Valeriana officinalis, etc. The foliage of this _intermixture of herbage was almost as varied in its tints in October as the autumnal hues of the forest trees. A slab of mica-schist nearly approaching to gneiss, 14 feet long by 1 wide, lies here in an opening, above small fallen trees. I took it from the burn many years ago, and it still lies undisturbed. In the bank above, foxglove was still in blossom. There were some dog-roses (canina) among the woodland, and very fine Poly- podium Dryopteris or Oak-fern. The rock-bramble had got rooted in a damp shady soil here, and was still flourishing and verdant, a curious contrast with the examples on the exposed rocks, reddened and browned by drought and incipient frosts. This dean is fairly passable all through, except below the sheep track, where the burn is almost strangled. The stones in the burns of these two deans were beaded with rounded soft black objects, apparently fresh-water Algze. I had not time afterwards to examine what I collected. To revert once more to the main ravine before it forks into (4) Bladdering OCleugh, and (5) Burnup. Hypnum dendroides grows K 82 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. on the burn flat outside; Cardamine hirsutd in the burn channel; and Lastrea Oreopteris along with Polypodium Dryopteris, Wood Anemone, and Grass of Parnassus on the left bank adjoining the moor. The burn takes a sudden turn, and the elevated and unequal ground above the banks is capped with tufted birches ‘swelling into trees with arching outlines, draped in this October month with yellowish green foliage, intermingled with the fiery scarlet and green of the upright mountain ashes, and the grey green of the great Sallow. A general yellowness was passing over the decaying ferns; which were principally Lastrea filix- mas, Athyrium filix-femina; and Lastrea dilatata, occasionally ; and Blechnum boreale. The hazels yielded some pretty rosy cheeked nuts, not fully ripened. Among hazels almost every bush has its own peculiar quality or shape, or colour of nut. Nuts the produce of bushes standing in boggy soil, or in sunless hollow glens are mostly deaf. There are also a few old haw- thorns, the only examples here. The native flora is concentrated at the entrance. Asperula odorata, Hypericum quadrangulum and pulchrum, Valeriana officinalis, Honeysuckle, Meadow-sweet, Angelica sylvestris, Geranium sylvaticum, HMieracium sylvaticum, Solidago virgaurea, Foxglove, Crepis paludosa, Geranium Robertia- num, Pingucula vulgaris, all grow here. There used to be two patches of Polypodium Phegopteris, but it has been much carried away by local fern cultivators. Cistopteris fragilis which grew in a mossy recess round which the burn wheels is now extirpated here. Polypodium Dryopteris is still plentiful at the top of some of the banks overshadowed by trees. Campanula rotundifolia is not a common plant up here. uphrasia officinalis is dwarf, with enlarged flowers. OCrowberry is common, and Rock Cistus is scattered, but is more plentiful on the elevated banks on the right hand. As the drier banks open up they are spotted here and there with juniper bushes. The first Fairy Castle, a name applicable both to dikes of por- phyritic trap, and the shapes assumed by the weathered con- glomerate, erects itself at the junction of Bladdering Cleugh and what we may now call Burnup; being a remnant of the con- glomerate that has been indurated and partially strengthened by one of the porphyritic dikes that here obliquely crosses the ravine. The porphyry is of a brown colour, and is sometimes amygdaloidal; and probably owes some of its qualities as well as colour to the conglomerate which it has partially fused, Report of Mectings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 83 There was much wild thyme, and two bushes of Rosa mollissima (villosa) with ripe fruit; also Polypodium vulgare, Asplenium - Trichomanes, Leskea sericea, and Grimmia pulvinata springing from this interesting rock. There is no reason for believing that the porphyry has carried up the encasing conglomerate that adheres to it; they are preserved in their position from their combined strength having enabled them to withstand the degrading agencies that have borne the softer materials that once surrounded them away; the incorporation of the two rocks having been effected before the present glens were hollowed out. Farther up the glen a dyke has partly resisted the wearing power of the burn and gives origin to a waterfall. These dikes are numerous but require to be sought after, as several are hidden out of sight. Other castellated forms, broken buttresses and wasted turrets, and immense red walls of conglomerate dis- tinguish this dean. It has a most naked desolate appearance when first entered upon. The rock-brambles ornament the fissures, and beds of wild strawberry on the dry banks refresh the visitor with their agreeable flavour. This is the only one of the glens here that Hpilobium angustifolium grows in; and it only occupies the peak of a detached rock. It is plentiful in Boonsly ravine above Woodhall woods in two localities. The wide spreading aged mountain ashes within some of the open spaces in this ravine add greatly to their embellishment, espe- cially. when in autumn they are loaded with red berries. One or two younger mountain-ashes and perhaps an attendant birch tree are placed at the edges of the little waterfalls. One of these planted on the margin of a rock at the side of a cascade, had sent down two long roots swollen to the size of water-pipes, 24 feet long, to reach a better soil below. Dr Johnston has already with his keen eye for natural beauty, recorded the preference of this tree for the rocky sides of the linns of our burns, where it ‘“‘hangs in calmness o’er the flood below,” ‘‘ with an airy gracefulness peculiar to itself.” Words- worth appears to have made the same observation :— “The mountain ash No eye can overlook, when mid a grove Of yet unfaded trees she lifts her head Decked with autumnal berries, that out shine Sprineg’s richest blossoms; and ye may have marked By a brookside or solitary tarn, How she her station doth adorn ;—the pool 84 Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. Glows at her feet, and all the gloomy rocks Are brightened round her.” There were missel-thrushes at the berries October 6th. The amount of fruiting Marchantia polymorpha here in the swampy spots is astonishing. Lysimachia nemorum, Epilobium palustre, Hypericum quadrangulum and Carex levigata grow on the bog edges. Crossing the moor from this to Shippath, marks of old culti- vation still remain. ‘The crowberry manifests a preference for such spots after returning to their natural wildness. Berryhill at no great distance to the north appears to have derived its name from this wild fruit. A solitary basaltic green-stone boulder lies on the moor mid-way, 4 feet long by 2 broad, and 2 thick, well rounded on the exterior. Shippath is on a more enlarged scale than the other deans, and its scenery is grander, more varied, and more impressive. It is difficult of access, and can only be partially explored, as it is for the greater part composed of high cliffs with perpendicular faces, and there is no passage up the centre of the two ends of the wooded portion which are environed at the sides by stone barriers, unless by wading up the burn, which the frequent pools of water almost forbid. I am not sure that the upper end has been attempted, but Mr Evans found his way with wet feet up the under section. This is a dell which if people who have been lost in a mist become entangled with, they find it completely im- pervious. There is now a bridle road for foxhunters made across the middle. It is the metropolis of the foxes of the district, which can be seen basking in security on the sunny banks during the day-time. Like all the adjacent ravines and grounds it swarms with rabbits, so that the foxes do not require to resort to dubious courses, or to travel far from home to obtain sustenance. The northern side is the highest, with a cover of dwarf furze and juniper, the soil being dry and unproductive. The dean edges are thickets of woody scrub. Most of the wood is on the south side. Birch, sallow, mountain-ash, and hazel are the main com- ponents; but there is a sprinkling of ashes, a few oaks, one or two old hawthorns, a tall black-cherry very conspicuous in its fiery autumnal dress, anda noble wide-branched elm in the centre of the lower division. The mountain-ashes in their changeful autumnal colourings help much to diversify the scene, especially when they stretch their lower bent-down branches across the face Report of Meetings for 1885. By Jas. Hardy. 85 of rocks upon which they appear to be painted or inlaid. - This display of scarlet or crimson sprays will be set off by a mass of verdure from a healthy tree of the same species growing from a deeper soil alongside, while a vigorous upright attendant birch with foliage of golden green springs up from behind. The con- cavities of the rocks brightened with the tender green mosses, mixed with Chrysosplenium oppositifolium, when visited, through the entanglement of multitudinous branches and twigs, by gleams of sunlight, afford charming glimpses of interior verdure, the more tempting that they are out of reach. The rich masses of ferns grow chiefly in the subsidiary ravines. There is a gay intermixture of red and white dog and burnet roses about the middle, as well as trails of honeysuckle; and especially here and in the lower section the curtains of delicate-hued wood-vetch blossoms, suspended from rock or tree, are most attractive. Owing to the inequalities of the surface of the south side, its repeated rises and depressions, and the deep gashes in its sides by slips or entering water-runs, there is no regular sloping rise of the birchen wood, such as is seen on a hill-face, but each tree or bush has maintained an independent struggle for existence on its own station whether high or low; the result being that arch rises above arch of embowering sylvan adornment with a want of uniformity that greatly enhances the picture. What adds to the picturesque confusion is the bending of the trees in all sorts ot directions occasioned by the pressure of the heavy winter snow-wreaths, which sometimes also uproot those that are heavy- headed, and these continue to grow long after they have been prostrated, or send forth young upright stems from the still lively roots. Tangled thickets of this kind are almost impenetrable ; but they are admirable to look at. My first visit was made, August 6th, 1878. I entered on the south side about the middle, letting myself down by long branches of the trees. Among the red-rock walls of the stream at the bottom, the rock-bramble was abundant running in hori- zontal lines across the fissures. Among the gravel beside the stream, D/yosotis sylvatica, of which there was a white variety, held a chief place. One detached lumpy rock was finely starred with tufts of