BREAN

oe eee ee eek ee

Leta bet ihy!
Hee eye

anyed
4

aw
Faroese
ates
alpha?

*
*

‘
ae

“+

wel
# pret aha
Fy orks ave

Bava

7
wy (une

he

¥

Ai
ony

ae
aia - = .
i rt at Na i
lor’. LAS! Hus:

oe 5 i ae

PQX4 ati.

HISTORY

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE

NATURALISTS’ CLUB

INSTITUTED SEPTEMBER 22, 1831

“MARE ET TELLUS, ET, QUOD TEGIT OMNIA, C@LUM ”

VOL. XXXIX._ Part I.
1971

Price to Non-Members £1

PRINTED FOR THE CLUB
BY MARTIN’S PRINTING WORKS,
MAIN STREET, SPITTAL

1972

OFFICE-BEARERS

Secretary

W. RYLE ELLIOT, F.S.A.Scot., Birgham House, Coldstream-on-fweed.
(Tel. Birgham 231).

Editing Secretary

Rev. J. 1. C. FINNIE, F.S.A.Scot., Manse of Eccles, Kelso, Roxburghshire.
(Tel. Leitholm 240).

Treasurer

W. O. MORRIS, 2 Lyall Terrace, Upper Burnmouth, Eyemouth,
Berwickshire.

Librarian

Miss BETTY BUGLASS, 29 Castle Drive, Berwick-upon-Tweed.
(Tel. Berwick 7549).

HISTORY OF YHE
BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB

CONTENTS OF VOL. XXXIX

PART I. — 1971

Some Thoughts on Herbs .

Secretary’s Notes

Notes on Manderston

St. Andrew’s Church, Bolam

Netherbyres .

Coldingham Priory Excavations, VI

Coldingham Priory Excavations, V

The Straight Furrow

Cliffs Just North of St. Abbs

Recording of Pre-1855 Tombstone Inscriptions in Berwickshire
Witches and Witchcraft Superstition in Eastern Borders

Some Finds from Doons Law (Cairn), Whitsome, Berwickshire
The Family of Redpath

Dr. George Henderson of Chirnside

The British Association—Swansea, 1971 Report

The Two Roman Walls

Natural History Observations, 1971

Extracts from the Correspondence of Dr. James Hardy with
Mrs. Jane Barwell-Carter se 5 Ky

ILLUSTRATIONS
PART I. — 1971

St. Andtew’s Chutch, Bolam
Coldingham Excavations ..

The Straight Furrow

The Cliffs Just North of St. Abbs

Some Finds from Doons Law

Pages
14

. 22-23

23
31
46

PROCEEDINGS
OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB

SOME THOUGHTS ON HERBS

Address delivered to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club by Lady
Furness, O.B.E.

There is today a renewed interest in Herbs of all kinds and
their various uses. The story of Herbs is as old as history.
In the early pages of Genesis we read “Even as the green
herb have I given you all things” and in the Psalms con-
siderably later “God who maketh the grass to grow upon
the mountains and herb for the use of man.”

Herbs have been used in this country for many hundreds
of years. Monasteries and Priories all had their Herb
Gardens, the Herbs being grown mainly for their medicinal
qualities. When I visited Milton Brodie near Forres, which
used to be a monastery, I saw the garden wall which was
built by the monks and is still in very good condition ;
Herbs still grow in odd corners of the garden, self-sowing
themselves as they must have done for hundreds of years.
At Coldingham Priory one can find Chamomile in the
vicinity of the outer remains of the walls.

Certain Herbs were also believed to give protection
against various illnesses. To this day at the distribution of
the special silver coins on Maundy Thursday by the Queen,
she and her attendants are presented with nosegays of
Herbs and Flowers prepared by the Queen’s Herbalist.
This custom is a reminder of the days when Herbs were
believed to give protection against infection, particularly
against the dreaded plague. In some places nosegays of
Herbs are also presented to Judges at Assizes to ward off
plague and gaol fever.

2 SOME THOUGHTS ON HERBS

In the Middle Ages, Herbs had another use, as well as
medicinal. Most people will have seen the film “The
Six Wives of Henry VHT’, a very authentic production in
evety way except one; magnificent clothes; sumptuous
feasts ; splendid apartments; but the one thing the film
could not reproduce was the smell which pervaded the
inside of castle or palace, and which was quite terrible ; so
Herbs were used for strewing on the floor, their aromatic
scent helping to cover up the disgusting smell of human
and animal filth, which became so bad that every few months
the Court had to move to another palace or castle so that
the vacated residence could be thoroughly cleansed and then
sweetened with fresh dried Herbs strewn on the floors.
This was the custom in all large establishments, this moving
to another castle every so often because the present one
had become too filthy to stay in. Antonia Fraser mentions
it several times in her book about Mary Queen of Scots.

It is interesting to study the strewing Herbs. One could
talk about them by their Latin names but I prefer to call
them by their vernacular names. ‘There are so many books
on the subject that if one wishes to know the Latin name
one can easily look it up.

Marjoram grows wild in many parts of Britain, the whole
plant giving out a warm fragrance. In Tudor and Stuart
times it was popular as a strewing Herb and it was constantly

99 66

used for “‘swete bags’’, ““swete powers”’, and “‘swete washing
waters’.

Meadow sweet is a lovely wild fragrant plant ; the blossom
smells of almonds and the whole plant is so fragrant that it
became one of the favourite strewing Herbs in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries and was greatly liked by Queen
Elizabeth the First, “who did more desire it than any other
herb to strew her chambers withall’’.

Chamomile is called Ground Apple by the Greeks, Maythen
by the Saxons and Manzanilla by the Spaniards, their sherry
of that name being flavoured with this Herb. It is one of
the Nine Sacred Herbs. The common perennial species
makes a good and sweet-smelling lawn. In the Middle
Ages this plant was commonly used as a strewing Herb.

Alecost also known as Costmary and Bible Leaf, as its
broader leaves were often used as book-markers in church.
It is one of the many Herbs used to flavour beer before the

SOME THOUGHTS ON HERBS 3

hop was cultivated in Britain, and was much used in
Elizabethan houses as a strewing Herb to sweeten floors,
shelves and cupboards.

Sweet Basil is well named; the whole plant in earlier
times was gathered for use as a strewing Herb. In the
Kast this plant had sacred associations and the Hindus in
India grow it near temples and dwellings to give protection
from misfortune and to guide the way to heaven.

Lemon Balm is a native of southern Europe but has in
some parts become naturalized as a wild Herb in Britain.
In Elizabethan England it was used for strewing and its
dried leaves were put into sweet bags. Lemon Balm is a
favoutite bee plant and it was an old country custom to
rub leaves of it on the hives to induce the bees to return
and bring others with them.

Mint is the one Herb that nearly everyone knows. It
was a popular strewing Herb in the Middle Ages because
“the savor or smell rejoiceth the heart of man”. Chaucer
mentioned it growing in company with Fennel.

“Then went I forth on my right hond
Downe by a litel path I fond
Of Mintes full and Fennell greene’’.

It is thought the two were used together in sauces in
those days.

Woodruff, 2 sweet woodland plant containing coumarin,
which when dried has a scent resembling new-mown-hay.
It was popular as a strewing Herb and used for the floors
of bedchambers, for stuffing the bed, and for storage among
linen and clothing. In the Middle Ages bunches of
Woodruff were hung in churches together with Lavender,
Box and Roses.

Flyssop is yet another strewing Herb, with a very pungent
flavour. It is much liked by bees and the honey made
from it has a delicious aroma.

Lavender which I am sure is known to all of us, was also
used for strewing. It was not introduced into England
until 1568, but it very quickly became a popular garden
plant with medicinal virtues.

Rosemary for Remembrance. It is probably not generally
known that herbalists do in fact use this Herb medicinally

4 SOME THOUGHTS ON HERBS

to treat forgetfulness. It flourished at Hampton Court in
Tudor and Stuart times and was popular for strewing.

Tansy has a very ancient history. It was propagated in
the Herb Garden of Charlemagne, and at a monastery in
Switzerland a thousand years ago. It has a very pungent
flavour. It was popular in the time of Elizabeth the First,
being mainly used in beds and bedding to discourage
vermin.

Southernwood also called Lads Love, and in Scotland Apple
Ringie. Sprigs placed amongst clothes discouraged moths,
it was also used for strewing.

Wormwood is one of the most bitter Herbs we have, the
other being Rue. Wormwood took a high place in the
list of healing herbs of benefit to mankind at a very early
date, and later was popular as a strewing Herb being a
powerful deterrent to lice, bugs, fleas, moths, and other
unpleasant insects.

The office of King’s Herb-strewer, after being in abeyance
for many yeats, was revived at the Coronation of George IV.
The woman appointed to this office wore the old costume,
consisting of white gown and scarlet mantle with gold
lace. On her head she had a wreath of Laurel and Oak
leaves, and round her neck a badge of office. She was
attended by maidens with baskets who strewed Meadow-
sweet and other Herbs in the path of the king.

Farlier I mentioned Chamomile as being one of the Nine
Sacred Herbs of ancient times ; the other eight are Mugwort,
Plantain, Watercress, Nettle, Crabapple, Chervil, Fennel, and
the unidentified A7zten/othe.

I mentioned Rwe as being as bitter/ as Wormwood ;
it is also called “Herb of Grace’’, and “Herb of Repentance”
because Holy Water was at one time sprinkled from bunches
of Rue at a ceremony preceeding High Mass. It was also
much used in Law Courts to counter the powerful gaol
smells, either strewn on the floor, or in bouquets carried
by the judges, the pungent odour over-coming most other
smells.

Rue is one of the few Herbs employed in Heraldry and
it is interesting to us in Scotland as it may be seen entwined
in the collar of the Order of the Thistle, and there is also
a Saxon Order called Rautenkrone (Crown of Rue). The

SOME THOUGHTS ON HERBS 5

Romans believed it had the power to bestow second-sight
and it was almost certainly brought to the British Isles by
them.

There are many references to it in literature. Shakes-
peate’s lines spoken by the gardener in Richard IT and often
quoted, “‘Here in this place Pll set a bank of Rue sour herb
of grace.” Itis one of our oldest and most revered garden
plants.

I will conclude by suggesting to you that the study of
Herbs is a truly fascinating occupation ; perhaps this brief
account of some of the strewing Herbs may stimulate your
interest in making a study of Herbs and their different uses.
I am sure you will find it very rewarding.

SECRETARY’S NOTES

As befits one of the oldest, and best known Antiquarian
Societies in Britain, the membership of the Berwickshire
Naturalists’ Club keeps very close to its maximum number.
This year there is again a waiting list. It might well be said
that we ought to waive this rule in view of modern conditions
and circumstances. It has, however, always been the aim of
the Council to retain the original rulings and concept of the
Club, as formed in 1831 by Dr. Johnston and his circle. Perhaps
this rather conservative policy is open to criticism, and indeed
is criticised, but the procedure has created an unique position
for the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club in the world of Learned
Societies, and is much praised by other Clubs.

The Meetings of the past season have been well attended, and,
I think, enjoyed by all. Speakers are often difficult to get, and
it is not always possible to adhere to the original programme.
These are things that happen in all Societies, and are not peculiar
to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club.

We were fortunate in May to be addressed at Neidpath Castle,
by its owner, the well known antiquarian, The Earl of Wemyss
and March. The Countess of Dysart allowed us to visit the
Japanese garden at Stobo Castle when a memorable display of
the parasite Lathraea Squamaria (Toothwort) was seen. Later,
at Dawick, Colonel and Mrs. Balfour escorted us round the
world famous woodland gardens.

There had been a misunderstanding over the June Meeting
but Major and Mrs. Baillie graciously welcomed us to Mander-
ston, as did Mrs. Hay at Duns Castle.

July found us out in full force at Bolam Church where the
Rev. T. C. Bray gave us an interesting account of its history.
In the afternoon Wallington Hall and gardens were visited and
there tea was taken.

An alteration had to be made in August when the visit to
Old Linthill was cancelled. In its place a visit to Bunkle
Church was arranged. Afterwards the President, Lady Furness
received us at Netherbyres. There was a turn-out of about 150
members in spite of the coldness of the day and the torrential
rainstorms which did not lessen the beauty of the garden at
Netherbyres.

SECRETARY’S NOTES 7

The weather was more clement in September for our visit to
Dunstanborough Castle, and Dunstan Hall the home of J.
Dudfield Rose, M.R.C.S., and Mrs. Dudfield Rose. Nearly
200 members turned out in glorious sunshine.

It is not often, other than the Annual General Meeting, that
we have an outing in October. It was a risk, but the day turned
out to be clear and mild. We met at Legerwood Church, and

later, after a pic-nic luncheon, were welcomed at Bassendean by
Mrs. Home.

Botanical and Field Meetings were also held and an account
of these and details of the above meetings are to be found in this
current History.

It is a privilege and an honour to be the Secretary of this well
known Club. I am ever conscious and appreciative of the help
and consideration which is so unstintingly given to me by the
Council and members. Without their help I would indeed be
the poorer. I thank you all.

NOTES ON MANDERSTON
By Mrs. BAILIE of Manderston

The South front of the House is the old front about 1740, built
of very beautiful sandstone, on the site of an old Castle belonging
to the Homes who at that time owned most of the lands.

After the Homes it passed through various hands until 100
years ago when it was bought by Sir William Miller (H. Bailie’s
grandfather).

Hits eldest son Sit James Miller (H. Bailie’s uncle), except for
the South front, entirely rebuilt the House 1902-1905. He
employed Mr. John Kinross, R.S.A., who restored Falkland
Palace among other places.

Sir James Miller’s wife was a Curzon of Kedleston and as
everyone knows there is no finer nor more interesting example
of the work of the Adam brothers than Kedleston.

Lady Miller’s father, Lord Scarsdale allowed Mr. Kinross to
make detailed copies of the Adam’s designs notably carried out
in that Hall and Ball Room at Manderston. As Adam employed
foreign craftsmen for various details so did Mr. Kinross at
Manderston, and Frenchmen were employed to make the vesti-
bule in 1902.

The Main Staircase is a copy of that of the Petit Trianon at
Versailles.

The collection of Blue John marble is most interesting. Blue
John is perhaps the most beautiful mineral product the soil of
this country yields, or rather yielded as the deposit is now
extinct.

The Dairy is of special interest being made of marble from
many different countries and the tea room above is after one of
the small oak rooms in Holyrood (J. Kinross).

The Stables are very remarkable, the stalls etc., being all made
of Teak (J. Kinross).

For those interested in Racing there are the pictures of the two
Derby winners. Sir James Miller’s racing career is one of the
Fairy Tales of the English Turf. He won all the Classic Races
in a few years as he died at the age of 45, a few months after the
building was finished.

ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH, BOLAM 9

Sainfoin won the Derby for him in 1890 and Sainfoin’s son,
Rock Sand, was bred by Sir James Miller and won the Two
Thousand Guineas, the Derby (1903) and the St. Leger, the
Triple Crown of the Racing World and only one horse has won
this event since and that was ‘‘Barham” the Aga Khan’s horse
some years ago.

Sir James was a subaltern in the 14th Hussars when he won
the Derby with Sainfoin in 1890, and it was said his Commanding
Officer would not give him leave to see the race run! Not true!

ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH, BOLAM
By. The Rey.-1., G7 BRAY

When the church is approached from the South, through
pleasant parkland it is a surprise to find that it is situated on a
ridge commanding extensive views to the North.

The best place from which to enjoy this view is near the
fencing to the West of the church-yard entrance—from here it
is framed by larch trees and it is easy to pick out a mock forti-
fication at Rothley Crags, and the outline of Simonside Hill,
neat Rothbury.

It is surprising to find such a sizeable church and vicarage
so isolated from a village; its only near neighbour is Bolam
Hall, the Georgain house that lies about three-quarters of a mile
to the west of the vicarage. This house was once the home of
Lord Decies (head of the Horseley-Beresford family), and it was
one of his forbears who commissioned John Dobson to design
the artificial lake.

Bolam Hall was built on the site of a medieval castle, and
between it and the church, was the little town of Bolam which
was at one time sufficiently important to have had a market and
fair granted to it in 1305 by Edward I. The presence and size
of the church is now the only indication that a large village or
small town once existed here.

The lost villages of England make an interesting study, and
recent research suggests that well over 1200 ceased to exist
between the 13th and 15th centuries. No doubt plague, and in
particular the Black Death, would be responsible in some cases,
but more likely reasons are economic and social. We tend to
forget how radical was the change, for instance, from intensive
arable farming to pastoral farming, e.g., “In some towns 200

10 ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH, BOLAM

persons were occupied and lived by their lawful labours but
now only 2 or 3 herdmen are occupied”. This kind of change
could easily have affected Bolam and here there was the added
hazard of openness to attack from ‘over the border’—the nearby
‘Scots Gap’ is a reminder of this.

Almost within living memory a number of crofts and a small
inn remained, but these were swept away last century by the
landowner, and the stones used for the building of the park
walls and ‘ha-has’. Now the main concentration of people in
the parish is at Belsay, some three miles to the S.E., nearer at
Gallowhill there is a residential school.

The Church building is interesting and, I think, of great
beauty. Interesting because it is possible to trace within it
architectural styles from late Saxon to Early English; beautiful
because in spite of changes it is all of a piece with a sense of
unity.

The tower is substantially all that is left of the Saxon Church.
It is tall and slender and unbutressed ; built of irregular stones.
The windows, seen from the outside, are original ; those of the
bell-chamber are of two lights. They have either a single shaped
stone to carry the masonry above or two slabs are used forming
a triangular head. The parapet was a later addition probably
added in 12th century. Note the herring-bone work immedi-
ately below the parapet. The lower windows are also of more
recent date. Inside the tower the remains of the original
ground-floor windows can be seen.

The primitive font is beautiful in its simplicity. The font
cover is modern.

It seems likely that the present nave represents the size of the
Saxon church ; there are remains of this in the lower courses
of walling on either side of the vestry door. The tower arch
was probably made in its present form when the church was
rebuilt in the Norman style and the very small capitals have a
design of Norman foliage. This second church had a square
chancel separated from the nave by the present chancel arch,
and with a similar arch beyond leading into the original Norman
apse.

The Chancel arch has three strong columns, scalloped capitals
and roll-moulding on the arch on the West side, but a plainer
treatment on the Hast side. The treatment of the two capitals
is quite different—those on the North side have quaint beast-
head ornamentation, and until recent times there were similar
‘heads’ on the moulding of the arch. Unfortunately these were
removed by a former incumbent, the Rev. Septimus Meggison,
a remarkable character who became Vicar in 18 17, and continued
in office till he died in 1879—an incumbency of 62 years.

ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH, BOLAM II

The story goes that time and time again during his preaching
he saw boys imitating the little demon stone-faces—putting out
their tongues and pulling their ears. He became so infuriated

that one day he took hammer and chisel and hacked off the
carved faces. In later life, when he was reproached for this
action, he is said to have replied “I was young and zealous—and
the boys would not learn’. And so Bolam church lost an
interesting detail of its architecture.

South Aisle. There are, of course, no records of successive
additions and alterations and so, as regards dating, the building
has to speak for itself.

The next Change, it would appear, was the addition about
1200 of the South Aisle with its arcade of three bays and the
rounded arches—the arches are supported by quatrefoil, keeled
piers, with their simple, but effective, moulded capitals.

The doorway also has a rounded arch ; it has slender columns
and two orders of dog-toothed ornament, also on the arch and
carried down the sides to the ground. The outermost order of
the arch is decorated with the ‘nut-meg’ motif.

Chancel. Later in the 13th century the Norman apse was
replaced by the present spacious sanctuary. The shafts of the
original Norman arch leading into the apse were placed back
into the wall and the shaped decorated stones of the arch of the
apse, can be seen in the wall. They have the saltire motif as
decoration.

The sanctuary has three sedilia with single chamfered arches
and semi-octagonal shafts. ‘The lowness of the seats shows that
the level of the sanctuary floor has been raised. ‘There is also
a piscina with a similar arch.

There are two aumbries, the West one, without a door, was
in the earlier apse-shaped sanctuary. On the South window are
wooden replicas of a helmet and gauntlet. The helmet is
similar to that shown in the Middleton coat of arms on the mural
tablet to the East of the window, but the crest of the wooden
replica is missing.

South Chapel. The latest addition to the church was the
south chapel—probably a chantry chapel in memory of Robert
de Reymes whose mutilated effigy it contains. For the help
he gave to Edward I in his efforts against the Scots he was
rewarded with a gift of land in Bolam and permission to fortify the
manor-house of Shortflatt Tower—the chapel is usually known
as the Shortflatt Chapel. It contains, in addition to the one and
only effigy, two grave covers, one of a priest, the other of a
knight. The large niche has hinges. Originally it may have
housed a statue of the Virgin or of the Patron Saint Andrew.

12 ST. ANDREW’S CHURCH, BOLAM

A small rectangular window has been constructed at a point
where a bomb, one of three which fell here in 1942, entered the
church, but mercifully did not explode. In the East wall there
is an elliptical window. This window portrays an angel holding
a rekindled light which represents rededication after the restora-
tion of bomb damage.

Church Plate. This consists of a large chalice and salver ;
an Elizabethan chalice and a lid (forming a paten). The paten
is dated 1571, but the cup was remade by a Newcastle silver-
smith.

The name Bolam comes from the Scandinavian ‘bol’ (habita-
tion) and the Anglo-Saxon ‘ham’.

Bolam was the barony of Sir Gilbert de Bolham, to whom it
was granted by King John. It was next possessed by Sir
Walter de Bolham, and by his son, and by John and James de
Calcey in the reign of Henry HI. Next it was owned by Alice
de Bolam and then James de Calcey and his wife Alice in the
reign of Edward I.

Afterwards it was possessed by the ancient family of Reymes
in the time of Edward III, as appear by the escheats of the
several reigns of Richard II, Henry IV, Henry VI, Queen
Elizabeth and Charles I. It remained in that family for many
generations.

After the family of Reymes, Bolam was owned by the Horsleys.
In 1809, the heiress of this branch of the Horsleys married the
Rey. J. W. Beresford (who later became Lord Decies), son of
the Archbishop of Armagh.

NETHERBYRES
By LADY FURNESS, O.B.E.

The first record of a branch of the Crow or Craw family
living at Netherbyres is about 1550, and the Crow family con-
tinued to own the estate for the next 264 years.

Netherbyres was evidently an estate of some importance as it
is marked on an old map dated 1645, and also on many other old
maps, including one dated 1771 where it is very prominently
marked.

In 1648 George Crow of Netherbyres was a Commissioner
of Supply, and in 1696 a George Crow of Netherbyres, was one
of those present at a Meeting of Heritors on Fogo Moor. In
1738 William Crow is mentioned as one of the Heritors of
Eyemouth, although strangely enough eighteeen years earlier
in 1720 it is recorded that the question as to whether Gunsgreene,
Netherbyres, and Brownsbank, were in Eyemouth parish or
Ayton, and at last it was settled in favour of the latter. Nether-
byres is still in Ayton Parish to-day. One can only suppose
that William Crow was a Heritor of Eyemouth because of the
vety small amount of land on the Eyemouth side of the River
Eye which has always been part of the Netherbyres Estate.

William Crow, who married Margaret, one of the daughters
of the Rev. James Allan, minister of Eyemouth, was well known
to have great mathematical and mechanical knowledge. He
planned the Old Pier at Eyemouth Harbour and in 1747 he got
it constructed by private subscription ; after this the harbour
became usable by coasting vessels of some size. He also con-
structed “a working model of a thrashing mill. It consisted of
a series of flails or swipes moved by machinery which was
found tolerably efficient but dangerous to approach and very
liable to break.” (Extract from R. Ker’s “General View of
Agriculture of the County of Berwick, 1809). He died in 1750,
and is buried at Coldingham Priory. His tombstone has at
some time been moved to the side of the churchyard and built
into an old doorway. It is now practically impossible to
decipher the Latin inscription owing to its damaged state, but
thanks to Dr. Hardy and Mr. Andrew Wilson, the inscription
is recorded in Appendix 29 of “‘Coldingham Parish and Priory”
by A. Thomson, together with the English translation, which is
as follows :—

Bs

14 NETHERBYRES

‘Here is buried William Crow of Netherbyres, Esquire, who
alike in acquiring and cultivating every science worthy of an
ingenuous man, exalted by a most noble genius which he
assiduously exercised beyond others. By music, mechanics, the
culture of letters and skill in these and other cognate arts,
combined with thorough integrity and elegant manners, he
became known and was deservedly dear to not a few of the chief
men of the state and of literature. Sparingly cultivating the
friendship of the great, he rather showed himself to be the friend
of the human race. He always cheerfully devoted himself to
the benefit of his acquaintances of the whole neighbourhood,
by prudent counsel and by indefatigable exertion. He spent
his life on his paternal estate, wisely administering his moderate
means and at the same time elegantly enjoyed them. He was a
despiser of lucre, and a most ardent friend of liberty. Superior
to ambition, whilst he gave himself to every noble study not
considering his own health or strength, in the mid-time of his
days, seized with palsy, he was suddenly cut off. He died on
the 26th February in the year 1750, aged - years 2 months.

This stone, sacred to his memory, is erected by his deeply
affected wife Margaret Allan.”

Captain Sir Samual Brown, R.N., acquired the estate between
1822, when he married Mary daughter of John Home, W.S., of
Edinburgh, and 1830. He demolished the old house of which
we can find little trace, although some of the out buildings are
obviously about the same age as the Walled Garden.

He built the present house which has been enlarged at some
later date, probably about 1860 by John Ramsay L’Amy who
built on the West Wing. My husband built out a small wing at
the back, or North side of the house in the early nineteen
thirties. We have not been able to discover the name of the
architect employed by Sir Samual Brown.

Captain Sir Samual Brown was a man of science and acquired
considerable celebrity by various useful inventions, in particular,
his iron chain cables, In 1817 he obtained a patent for the
construction of an iron suspension bridge. He built one over
the Tweed (Union Bridge), but he is most famous for con-
structing the chain pier at Brighton, for which he was awarded
a Knighthood by Queen Victoria in 1838. He built and de-
signed many others. Extract from ‘‘Statistical Account of
Berwickshire, Parish of Ayton, 1834, regarding Netherbyres and
a new bridge, ‘‘ “The operations are even now far in advance
and have produced a magical transformation on the place. The
particular form of suspension bridge now erecting is Captain
Brown’s own invention, and which he calls a Tension Bridge,
being supported by, instead of suspended from the chains.’ ”

St. Andrew’s Church, Bolam

See pages 9-12.

NETHERBYRES 15

This bridge crossed the Eye and afforded a new access to the
property. It had to be demolished in 1929 as it was in a danger-
ous condition.

Captain Sir Samual Brown died in 1851 at Blackheath aged 75,
and was survived by his wife. There is no record of any child-
ren, so it would appear that he decided in his latter years to
reside in the South of England, and sold the estate to John
Ramsay L’Amy, Younger of Dunkenney, who in 1845 married
Mary Riche MacLeod, daughter of William Mitchell-Innes, of
Ayton Castle. In 1878 William Ramsay L’Amy of Netherbyres,
married his first cousin Christian, eldest daughter of Alexander
Mitchell-Innes of Ayton Castle.

The next owner was Mr. Gideon Gibson who sold it to a Mr.
Hewat, who was connected to the Crow family. He spent
most of his working life in the United States of America, but
decided to return to his native countryside on retirement. He
completely modernised the interior of the house without altering
its appearance, but he died before he could enjoy his retirement,
and his widow returned to the United States of America, as all
their children lived there. My husband bought the estate in
1928.

The Coats of Arms on the front of the house are as follows :—

Over the large upper window are those of Captain Sir Samual
Brown, R.N.

Over the present front door, those of Ramsay L’ Amy, and
Mitchell-Innes, and on the gable of the new part of the house,
those of my husband, Furness of Tunstall Grange.

The GARDEN OF NETHERBYRES

We think, having studied all the information we have been
able to collect, that it is almost certain that William Crow
designed the Walled Garden. A man with his qualities would
take a delight in planning an ellipitical wall, enclosing a mathe-
matically conceived design inside it, of division and sub-division.
This means it was constructed before 1750 which is the year in
which he died.

The oval wall is built of stone on the outside, and one half is
faced with Dutch bricks, the second half was obviously lower
when first constructed. One imagines that before the trees
grew up one could see into it from the house. Later it was built
up to the same height as the rest of the wall, and the facing
bricks are not exactly the same as the first ones though they may
well be Dutch, but of a later date. "These bricks would come
overt from Holland by sea as there was a thriving trade between

16 NETHERBYRES

Eyemouth and that country, Eyemouth at that time being a very
busy port, its main exports being wool and linen.

The Glasshouse was added at a later date, as it is not shown
on the Ordnance map which was surveyed in 1856, but according
to that map there was a fountain in the centre of the garden.
This map also shows an extensive design laid out in front of
the house of paths, shrubs, and trees.

It was evidently considered a garden of importance in that it is
shown in such detail on this old Ordnance map.

We have found two tombstones mentioning gardeners at
Netherbyres, which are quite interesting. The earliest is in Ayton
Churchyard, and the inscription is as follows :—“‘Mary Clark,
wife of Alexander Forrester, Gardener in Netherbyres. Died
18 Jan. 1856, aged 57. “and in Coldingham Churchyard,
“Agnes Weir, wife of George Crookshank, Gardener at Nether-
byres. Wied 13th June, 1878, aged 49”.

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, V1
By DUNCAN NOBLE, M.A.

Excavations at Coldingham Priory continued for a second
season from 8th to 24th April, 1971. The team included Mr.
D. Price-Williams, B.A., assistant director and surveyor; Mr.
J. Barfoot, photographer; and students from Whitelands
College, Putney, and the University of London Extra-Mural
Department.

I am most grateful to Lady Furness, President of the Berwick-
shire Naturalists’ Club, and to the Committee and members for
much encouraging interest and financial support. To Brigadier
Swinton and Mr. T. D. Thomson I owe a special debt for their
advice on many occasions and practical help.

To the Principal and Governors of Whitelands College thanks
are due for finance which permitted Whitelands students to take
part in the excavation. To Dr. J. Hazeldene Walker, of White-
lands College, the expedition is indebted for much assistance.

When heavy rain made it likely that the work started would
not be completed, the successful completion of the operation
was made possible by the most generous loan of a floodlight by
Mr. Dryburgh, County Roads Surveyor of Berwickshire ; thus
excavation could continue under cover. In this connection we
must record our appreciation of the good offices of the Berwick-
shire Constabulary.

Visitors to the site included Mr. I. Ritchie, Department of the
Environment, Edinburgh, and Mr. C. W. Baker, F.R.G.S., of
Peel Hospital, Galashiels.

The season of 19701 produced in the churchyard the doorway
of a church beyond the west end of the present Parish Church,
and apparently likely to extend under it. In the Abbey Yards
field excavation disclosed two walls of a heavy stone building
joined by the clay packing for a now robbed floor. Underneath
was a mass of disturbed human bones and a burial in a grave
lined and capped with shale slabs.

Further excavation was necessary before one could be certain
of the relationship of the two churches, or, indeed, come to any
evaluation of the Abbey Yards’ remains. ‘This was the state
of affairs that the 1971 season set out to clarify.

INoble: Coldingham Excavations, IV ; HBNC XXXVI], 207.

17

18 COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, VI

Beyond the west end of the present Church a trench (B West
End) was opened between the Priors’ tombs and the Church.
The walls of the porch of the earlier church were picked up on
the same alignment as they had followed in the 1970 trench
(A West End) which found the doorway. (Fig. 1).

Victorian excavation proved to have been along the line of
the walls only, leaving the floor of the porch between unexcava-
ted. This floor was on two levels. On the southern side of
the innermost part of the porch the floor was of rubble and
mortar, with lying on it a layer of very black earth, and over
that a thin wash of mortar. This floor was just one metre wide
and on the north side of the porch the floor was 1o cms. higher,
and divided from the lower part by a vertical plastered step.
This higher floor was also of mortared rubble, and two metres
wide from south to north.

Immediately to the east of the porch, the walls and floor had
been cut out by the foundation trench of the present Church and
of the vestry which appears to the west of the Church in 18th
century prints. These foundations were found.

Lying im situ on the floor underneath the black earth was a
coin,.a denier of Guy de Lusignan, King of the Latin Kingdom
of Jerusalem 1186-1192. (Fig. 2). This is a most welcome
and valuable piece of evidence which enables us to equate this
early church with the one known from history to have been
built after 1098, and which continued in use till 1216.

The two levels of the floor are most certainly contemporary.
A possible explanation would be that the lower one was the
passage out of the church, and the raised portion was a platform,
such as might accommodate a font.

In the Abbey Yards the area of the burials was explored by
trenches as follows :—

A/2 explored the burials and searched for the eastern wall of
the building found in 1970 in A/1.

A/3 explored the outer side of the walls in A/1 and sought
there connection with the standing ancient walls which provide
the Abbey Yards from the church yard.

A/4 provided a section of the wall excavated in A/1.
A/s5 linked A/1 and B/1 stratigraphically.

In A/z2 the eastern wall of the building was found, represented
by one course of ashlar masonry. Extensive investigation dis-
closed that this area illustrated several distinct phases.

I. There was a civil cemetery containing the remains of men,
women, and children. ‘This continued in use long enough for

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, VI 19

there to be instances of bodies being placed on top of previously
interred remains.

II. A man was buried in a stone lined and capped grave cut
through the skeletons of the civil cemetery. His left femur was
found to be fused to his pelvis. Dr. C. Hackett, of the Royal
National Orthopaedic Hospital, London, has examined this
skeleton and diagnoses the condition as septic arthritis with its
onset in late adolescence. The deceased was, however, fairly
active and propelled himself by means of his left foot and his
hands or elbows.

Another cist burial some metres to the north awaits excavation.

III. A heavy stone building was built over the cemetery,
founded on bedrock. Its walls were discerned in the north and
south of trench A/1. To the east the position is less clear.
One course of a wall was found beside a robber trench, but it
did not extend down to bedrock.

Building these heavy walls necessitated the removal of
skeletons which were then thrown in upon the top of the
cemetery.

The dating of this building is a matter for further investi-
gation. At the moment the building is seen to be mortared on
to the standing ancient walls to the east of the Church, but to
be earlier than them. Excavation (trench C/1) underneath the
path between these standing walls and the south-east corner of
the Church has shown a connection between the standing walls
and the foundations of the Church. But two different building
phases were seen in this connection, and the standing walls are
most probably later than the foundations of the Church.
Whether the building complex in the Abbey Yards is, therefore,
of the same period as the foundations of the Church remains to
be seen. The buildings in the Abbey Yards are certainly later
than Edgar’s Walls.

The indications at present are that the civil cemetery is earlier
than the present Church, i.e. earlier than 1216, and sufficiently
earlier for there to have been no feeling about disturbing it.

IV. A second building phase had walls inside the first phase’s
walls. They were built on foundations over the burials, and the
clay packing for a stone floor extended between them. To the
east the cemetery had its limit just underneath the wall of this
building. It does not go beyond it to the south. It is just
possible that the architect of this period was unaware of the
existence of the cemetery.

SMALL FINDS
1. The coin has been mentioned already. I have to thank

20 COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, VI

Miss M. M. Archibald, Assistant Keeper, Department of Coins
and Medals of the British Museum, for identifying it.

2. Iron corner plates. Amid the bones thrown back in
during the building of the Phase III walls were found three
right-angled pieces of iron (trench A/z). They were clearly
corner plates of flat iron, on average 2.5 cms. wide, 0.3 cms.
thick, and bent into an angle of which each arm was on average
6 cms. long. Through the extremity of each arm was a nail.
They are most logically explained as corner plates for coffins.
They are not associated with any particular burial.

3. Nails. That coffins were in use is further suggested by two
iron nails amid the reinterment. No signs appeared of coffins
having been used for the intact burials.

4. Finger ring. A copper finger ring with an external
diameter of 2.3 cms. and a thickness of 0.02 cms. was found in
the mass interment underneath the phase IV wall in trench A/4.
The ring was of circular section, flattened of the inside, and had
an unsoldered butt joint.

5. Decorated glass. Nine pieces of decorated glass were
found in trench C/1 imbedded in a mass of clay in an unstratified
context below the east windows of the Church. They are of a
type found in the churchyard in the 19th century and are stained
and painted brown and black, although this colour could be
due to decomposition in the ground. ‘The patterns are quatre-
foils enclosed by a diagonal lattice background, trefoils similarly
surrounded, square panels filled with lattice work, and sweeping
curves, again with lattice around them.

Mr. M. Archer of the Victoria and Albert Museum has most
kindly examined the g!- s and reports that this is the kind of
glass used as a border round figures or as a background, and
it is unlikely that it is of continental origin. He dates it to
between the latter part of the 14th century and the middle of
the 15th.

The season of 1971 produced a plentiful supply of skeletal
material for osteological study, and showed that Coldingham is
not just a two period site, but is more complicated. So far
there are three rebuildings which can be associated with the
present Church.

It is these rebuildings which now merit attention, and to-
gether with the search for the domestic buildings provide ample
scope for further work.

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, V
T. D. THOMSON, M..A., F.S.A.Scot.

For the first time the weather interfered with our work,
mainly through its habit of breaking down at weekends. Several
Saturdays in 1971 were lost in this way, and consequently
progress was not as great as had been hoped.

However, the season got off to a good start and Mr. Noble’s
party from London were able to make excellent progress, which
he describes on p. 17. In this connection it is heartening to
be able to report that a grant from Berwickshire County Council
enabled much of the Norman remains, immediately west of the
present Church and exposed in 1970 and 1971, to be consolidated
and left open to view ; it was also possible to make a start on
the repair of Edgar’s Walls. (A further grant has been intimated
for 1972). We are much indebted to the Ancient Monuments
Division of the Ministry of the Environment for advice on this
important aspect of our work and to Mr. Virtue and Mr.
Cramond for its execution.

In Edgar’s Walls we continued to work eastwards, reducing
a further area to the Norman level. Almost immediately east
of the second pillar of the north wall (PNz) a finely worked
semi-circular channel stone appeared, set in the base of the north
wall at the Norman level, though we a**sadvised that it is a later
insertion. This leads under the wall and rodding has indicated
a clear path of 9 feet northward in the direction of the Cloister
Well. Jammed between this stone and the wall stone immedi-
ately above it to the east was a crumpled sheet of lead, which is
now under examination; it was pulled out of place by local
youngsters but was retrieved and handed to me by Mr. James
Gillies, a firm friend of the Club.

Southwards, this channel stone pointed towards the covered
drain reported last year! but there does not appear to have been
any connection with the latter nor with a much larger drain
which came to light this year. The latter runs SSE from 5 feet
south of the north wall, right across the interior of Edgar’s Walls
and under the line of the south wall. Its cover slabs are
approximately at the Norman level; they vary from massive
stones to what might be capitals from pillars such as those to be

1HBNC XXXVIII 21o.

21

22 COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, V
“oh

seen in the Norman arcading on the north and east walls of the
present Church. The investigation of this drain and of what
appear to be vents associated with it will be an important task
for 1972. A peculiar hearthlike structure found above the
drain does not seem to be connected with it nor to have any
immediately recognisable function.

Thanks to the presence of a party from George Watson’s
College Archaeological Society over a long weekend in June it
was possible to expose PN3 and PN4 to the mediaeval level and
the north end of Trench 4 was also taken down to this level.

The latter operation exposed the top of the next course
in the central steps, which appears to be in much better condition
than the dilapidated ones above it.

Baulk 2 was also reduced to the mediaeval level. At the
north end fragments of pottery were found which Miss Elliot
reports upon :—

“Seventeen sherds of dark grey fabric, glazed dark green
and patterned with thumb and chevron markings, are import-
tant. Ten of these when reassembled make up a wall, neck
and rim portion of a three-handled pitcher or jug, showing
where two of the handles had fitted. The measurements of
this portion are 62 inches by 44 inches with an internal rim
diameter of 3 inches ; had the jug been complete it would have
stood about 15 inches high. ‘The sherds are of a Northern
type of fabric and are probably mid-15th centaéry. They will
be discussed again when Area 2 pottery is reported on—and
comparisons from other sites have been made.”

Some 6 feet south of PN2 many more pieces of ironmongery
were found in the same area as in 1970 ; when plotted these gave
a definite impression of a door having burned on the spot. At
the south end of Baulk 2 the series of postholes was found to
be continued by a further fifteen, on a line which specifically
indicates a temporary building erected later than King John’s
destructive visit in 1216. Other finds were few and unimportant,
apart from anything which may turn up among the iron objects
now under examination in the Museum. The care and interest
shown by the Watson’s party in their work in this tricky area
deserve specific mention.

Trench A: West End. Entrance to the early church, showing the threshold.
Photo: J. Barfoot.

PAKS

Trench A/1: The Phase IV wall in the Abbey Yard Field, with the heavy
Phase III wall behind it. Photo: J. Barfoot.

Coin of Guy de Lusignan—King of Jerusalem. c. 1190.

CHURCH
END B

COLDINGHAM - |970/1

ee”

ovate
ee

sete Se eee emaeteggin = we rah a hl

‘Gin-gang’ Mill at Marlfield.

we Nag
re waa
By a * age eee ae ton aly
See du sede Adee dima ae eed
a: i ol cadmas ima ee ee ee ee
Hey CS Ree pany venga ee es
oe, ee ee a fe

fo een eS

RT A ong or"?

eee / renee

PE fo n”

Pp ¥ 4 “i ae & pid

* a

ie ig ¥

ey “f % ay

. min cnarnen iien~onpiamicioninine dannii piston
*y

SN GLNO)

The above photograph of a Plan of Marlfield consisted of paper on a material backing

attached by means of small tacks to wooden poles.

THE STRAIGHT FURROW
By K. M. LISHMAN

Introduction

The subject of this study is a collection of farm account books
which cover the years 1887-1914. They were written by my
great grandfather and were lent to me for the purpose of this
study by my father.

I have chosen from the collection two small black, cash books
which contain the farm accounts kept by my great grandfather,
James Wilson, over the ten years 1887-1897.

The first book begins with a list of implements and stock
which he bought when he took over the tenancy of Marlfield
farm near Coldstream ; it continues with entries of every item
of expenditure on the farm for the next ten years. The other
book contains details of his income from May, 1887, until

June, 1904.

The Farm

The plan of Marlfield reproduced on page ooo was lent to me
by the present owner of Marlfield, Mr. William Kerr. ‘The
plan is paper on a material backing and it is attached by means
of small tacks to two wooden poles.

In 1887, when James Wilson became the tenant farmer,
Marlfield was part of the Lees Estate owned by Mrs. Majorie-
banks. The plan is dated 1844 and the farm was then the
ptoperty of Robert Hogarth, Esq.

From the list of contents in the bottom left hand corner of
the plan one can see that Marlfield was measured as being 66
actes, 227.36 poles ; to this had been added part of Boughtrigg
making a total area of 83 acres, 14.13 poles.

Several markings have been made on the original plan including
the farmhouse to which James Wilson and his family moved
from the village of Leitholm in 1887.

The new house was built some forty yards in front of the
original house which I have marked on the plan. The cottages,
too, had been added to the plan and must have been built with
the farmhouse some time between 1844 and 1887.

2

24 THE STRAIGHT FURROW

When I visited the farm earlier this year I noticed that the
walls of the old house still stand to a height of about ten feet
and have been usefully incorporated in the farmbuildings. A
waterpump stands at the end of the old house.

The name ‘Marlfield’ is interesting in that ‘marl’ is a type of
clay soil and ‘marling’ was a recognised way of improving the
quality of the soil much practised in the nineteenth century.
“‘The usual practice was to open pits down to the marl or clay,
dig and spread it at a rate of fifty to one hundred and fifty loads
to the acre on clover ley or turnip fallow. In some cases
trenches were opened all along the field and the clay thrown out
on either side. By the action of the weather, drying and wetting
followed by frost, the clay comes to a condition to be harrowed
down after which it can be ploughed into the ground. The
effects of ‘marling’ can be seen in increased crops, the production
of better leys and pastures, greater resistance to drought and
particularly an increased stiffness in the straw where manures are
used to grow the crop.”

R. H. Hall, The Soz/.

““He that marls sand may ae the land,
He that marls moss may suffer no loss,
But he that marls clay flings all away.”

One field on the farm is called Marlpond, as shown on the
plan, and presumably this is where the greatest concentration
of marl would be.

1892 and 1896

The two small books contain many items of interest, but, in
the limited space available, I have chosen to concentrate on two
years of farming as revealed by these accounts.

The accounts for 1887 and 1888 show deficits of £191 11s. 6d.
and £34 os. 14d respectively which is understandable in view of
the initial outlay required to start farming. There followed
three years of profitable farming then, in 1892, there was a loss
of {80 1s. 2d. I have chosen to compare this yee with 1896
in which there was a substantial profit.

Sheep

Most of the sheep bought for Marlfield were bought locally
at Kelso, Duns and other nearby markets. In nearly every case
the name of the farm from which bought in stock came is
entered and throughout the ten years covered by these books
some names appear again and again notably Elsdonburn.

THE STRAIGHT FURROW 25

For a number of years the tup hog was bought from the
shepherd at the nearby farm of Swinton Mill including the year
1896.

The amount spent on sheep in 1892 was £95 19s. od; in 1896
replacement stock cost £55 2s. 9d.

The amount received for sheep sold in 1892 was £171 19s. 2d.
By 1896 income from this source had reached the sum of
£270 ios. 43d. and it is here that the greatest difference between
the two years can be found.

The price obtained for sheep is much the same for the two
years examined.

In May, 1892, 5 cliped (sic) hogs fetched 41/6 each; in May,
1896, 7 hogs fetched 41 /- each.

Ewes were slightly better in 1896 compared with 1892: in
September, 1896, “‘1 ewe, 3 crop” fetched 34/-; in September,
1892, ““1 ewe, 3 crop” fetched 30/-. This may, however, reflect
the quality of the sheep sold rather than an increase in selling
price.

The amount of money received for wool shows that there must
have been a considerable increase in the number of sheep on the
farm in 1896. In 1892 the wool was sold to Kyle, Kelso, for
£7 12s. od. on July 29th ; odd amounts during the year brought
the total figure to £8 15s. 6d. whereas in 1896 the amount
received for wool sold to Russell and Ramsden in July was
£21 9s. 8d. and odd sums during that year brought the total to
w22 008. 9d.

Lamb food for the sheep in winter and sheep dip and caps in
the summer had to be purchased and in 1892 these items cost
£3 38. od. ; in 1896, due to the increase in the number of sheep,
they cost £13 19s. 4d.

It is natural that sheep should have been the major project on
the farm as before 1887 my great grandfather had been a
shepherd.

Cattle

Most of the stock sold off Marlfield was sent to Newcastle
market and the words “Newcastle with Clark of Greenlaw ”
appear frequently in the ‘income’ book. I learnt from my
father that Mr. Clark supervised the transporting of stock from
several farms to Newcastle market, travelling with them himself
from Greenlaw station. He supervised the selling of them at
Newcastle and for this service he received a fee which seems to
have depended upon the price obtained.

The number of cattle on Marlfield from year to year must have
remained more or less the same for in 1896 there is only one less

26 THE STRAIGHT FURROW

beast sold than in 1892. ‘The figures below show that income
and expenditure for cattle differed only very slightly in the two
years under discussion.

1892 expenditure on cattle £35 2s. od.

1896 expenditure on cattle £33 18s. od.

1892 income from cattle {169 15s. od.

1896 income from cattle {£158 6s 4d.
(one less sold)

The price obtained at Newcastle for stock in 1896 appears to
be slightly higher than that obtained in the same month in 1892.
In March, 1892, the average price for five steers is £16 7s. od.

The amount spent on supplementary foodstuffs for cattle in
1892 was {14 5s. 10d. whereas in 1896 only £8 4s. 9d. was spent.
I have established that the number of cattle on the farm must
have remained fairly constant so the difference in the figures
here would seem to indicate that it was a good year for grass
and that home produced oats were fed to the cattle.

I see from the accounts that no oats or hay were sold in 1896.

One term used in connection with the cattle which puzzled
me was “‘quey” ; again my father was able to provide an answer,
““quey” being the old Scots dialect word for milk heifer.

The “‘luck” shown in the accounts refers to the sum of money
given, as a gesture of goodwill, by the vendor to the farmer
buying his stock; it is sometimes referred to as “‘the luck
penny”’.

Horses

In 1887 James Wilson bought three horses for his first year
of farming they were Kate, Lizzie and Bill which cost £26 os. od.
£14 tos. od. and £20 os. od. respectively.

At this time the size of a farm was judged by the number of
pairs of horses kept to do the carting jobs and work the land.
The term ‘“‘odd laddie” was common on the Borders, until
tractors replaced horses, and referred to the young boy hired to
drive the odd horse. In 1892 the following entry appears in
the accounts :

November 28th. Paid boy’s wage £5 os. od. R. Cockburn.

The cost of hiring a man and a pair of horses for a day’s work
was 8/- as shown below.

1887, May 26th. 4 days work for 1 man and 1 pair horses at
8 /- day, £1 12s. od.

In 1892 the expenditure on horses amounted to £31 12s 6d.
with a further £3 6s. 9d. paid to Haig the saddler. Of this £29
was paid for a horse at Blackhouse sale and the rest was paid
“to McRobbie’s man’, which would probably be for service to
a mare by McRobbie’s horse ‘Briton Heit.’

THE STRAIGHT FURROW 27

In 1896 one filly was exchanged for another with a balance to
pay of £16 10s.od. The saddler’s bill for 1896 was £1 115. od.

There was no income from horses in 1892 but in 1896 a five
year old brown mare was sold at Kelso for £27 10s. od. and 1/-
was returned to the buyer for “‘luck’”’.

As well as the working horse on Marlfield there must have
been a pony for the gig which was bought at ““Howpark sale”
in 1891 for a sum of £7 2s. 6d. The licence for the gig was
bought at Coldstream and cost 15 /- annually.

Very few of the farm buildings at Marlfield have been altered
since my father left it in 1914 at the age of eight ; the stables,
however, have been converted into a shed for wintering calves.

Pigs

Pigs at Marlfield must have been kept almost entirely for
home consumption as there is only one reference, in the ten years
covered by these accounts, to a pig being sold.

Farmers killed and cured their own bacon at this time and it
was hung from the ceiling and used as required. When I
visited the farm in September there were still some ceiling hooks
in the kitchen of the unmodernised cottage. The cost of four
ceiling hooks is stated in the accounts to be 6d.

There is no reference to pigs in either book for 1896 and in
1892 the only references are to fees paid for sows, presumably to
farmers who kept a boar. One wonders from the entry for
October 20th, 1892—Paid sow Earnslaw for May 12—3/- if the
payment for a service on May 12th was withheld until the sow
farrowed in October.

One possible explanation for the lack of references to pigs
in these books is that the farmer’s wife may have looked after
the pigs and any profit would have been kept for house keeping.

This is almost certainly true as regards hens which are no-
where mentioned in the books ; there must have been hens on
the farm as henhouses were bought from time to time at local
farm sales.

Crops
Land for the arable crops would be ploughed by a pair of
horses and a hand guided plough.
The main crops on Marlefield were oats and barley and in 1892
the amount received for oats and barley sold was as follows:
Oats £19 os. od.
Barley £76 os. od.
In 1896 no oats were sold and the amount received for barley
was £82 11s. od.

28 THE STRAIGHT FURROW

Unfortunately no weight is given of the grain sold so one
cannot see whether more grain was sold in 1896 or whether the
price was better. My great-grandfather went to the Corn
Exchange at Kelso regularly and it is there that most of the
buying of seed corn and selling of grain would be done.

Harvesting the corn and later thrashing it involved employing
extra labour and from the accounts it appears the farmer fed the
extra workers too.

One interesting feature on the plan of the farm is the marking
of a circular building to the left of the ‘onstead’, this was the
‘gingane” mill which was used for grinding corn.

The main structure was still standing when I visited the farm
but the slates had been removed in preparation for demolition.
The workings of the mill had been removed but I was told that
it was driven by four horses yoked to bars which turned the
wheel.

Most of the corn was taken to Coldstream to Lees Mill to be
ground. In 1892 the bill for Coldstream mill was £13 9s. 6d.
and in 1896 it was £13 14s. od.

Turnips were grown on Marlfield, and would be fed to sheep
and cattle. ‘The cost of the turnip seed would be included in
the amount paid to Hogg and Wood seedsmen of Coldstream.
In 1892 the amount paid to this firm was £16 15s. 4d. and in
1896 it was {12 3s. 9d. Two turnip shawing hooks were
purchased in 1892 for 10d. each.

That the land was enriched by the addition of fertilisers is
evident from the accounts. In 1892, for example, £18 19s. od.
was spent on lime, the cost of carting the lime from the kiln
at Helwell near Lowick, Northumberland, was high and brought
the overall cost to £29 3s. od.

In 1896 the amount paid for fertilisers was as follows

I ton turnip manure LAGI 246
2 tons Dis bones Ligelo
14 cwt. Super 20 3
Making total of £26 12) 6

‘Dis’ bones’ would be a type of bone meal and ‘super’ is
elsewhere referred to as ‘superphosphate’.

Rents, Rates and Insurance

The rent of Marlfield was £65 a half year due at Whitsuntide
and Martinmas. At these times too he paid a half share of the
insurance of the farm buildings, which was 13/-.

THE STRAIGHT FURROW 29

There must have been an agreement with regard to the
maintenance of the hedges and fences which allowed the farmer
half the cost of the materials used. Tenancy agreements were
not standardized then as they are today and I am told that such
an arrangement would be unusual now as the upkeep of fences
is generally the sole responsibility of the tenant.

As well as the 83 acres at Marlfield James Wilson rented
grass parks every year. In 1892 a park was taken at Oxendean
at a rent of {£16 10s. od. and one at Midbank at a rent of £37
less discount of 18/6 making a total of £52 11s. 6d. In 1896
he again had two parks one at Boughtrige at £24 7s. 6d. and
one at Blackadder at £24 7s. 6d. making a total of {58 15s. od.

Unfortunately no acreage of these fields is recorded so that one
cannot calculate how much land was in hand altogteher.

As well as the rent of the farm there were rates, road rates
and poor rates to be paid.

In 1896 rates were {2 15s. 10d., in 1892 these had been
£2 9s. 5d. The Coldstream road rate went up from {1 9s. 5d.
in 1892 to {2 2s. 4d. in 1896. The Eccles’ road rate went up
from 7/3 in 1892 to 10/9. Marlfield was in the Parish of Eccles,
and the poor rates paid to Eccles Parish went up from 7/9 in
1892 to 9/9 in 1896.

One of the cottages at Marlfield was let in 1892 to Robson
and in 1896 to George Paterson; the rent was £3 Ios. od. a
year paid in two instalments.

Implements and Maintenance

In this section I have included all accounts for repairs and
replacement for implements; there were no new implements
bought in either 1892 or 1896.

The total amount spent on mainteance in 1892 was
£20 12s. 7d., this was mainly for hand tools, plough shares,
reaper blades and accounts for repairs carried out on the farm.
In 1896 the sum total was only {10 15s. od.

The plumber was paid on several occasions and it was nearly
always entered as to Mrs. Ford, plumber.

Household

Household expenses were small: in 1892 {15 1s. 5d. is shown
as for the house and in 1896, £5 7s. 3d. In 1894 James was
married and lived in one of the cottages. In 1896 he received
£10 os. od. and his coals.

As well as this sum the farmer’s wife would have the surplus
butter and eggs to sell also, as I have suggested earlier, one or
two pigs during the year. Most of the food would be home

30 THE STRAIGHT FURROW

produced so comparatively little money would be needed to
run the house. ‘The cost of new boots and repairs to boots are
included in the accounts, but there is no mention of clothes of
any kind.

Two items of expenditure which remained constant over the
years were the 5 /- twice a year paid to the cow club and 3/3
twice a year paid for the Kelso Chronicle, the local weekly paper.

The accounts for 1896 contain the only reference to a doctor
(Dr. Henderson) and his bill of £3 15s. 6d. is followed by the
chemist’s (Elliot) account for 16/10.

The other items of interest in the 1896 records are the entry:
“Infirmary by Forbes—z /6” which, I think would be a collection
for the infirmary ; and a donation of 2/6 to the Indian Famine
Fund.

After studying these books I feel sure that the profits totalling
£320 6s. 43d. achieved in the four years following 1892 were
largely due to money well spent on stock, fertilisers and
maintenance of buildings and implements in that year.

In conclusion I have prepared below a profit and loss
account for the years 1892 and 1896 ; this shows that the expendi-
ture coupled with the increased income from sheep led to the
substantial profit in 1896.

Income
1892 1896

Sheep L180 5408 £203, °2 1¢
Cattle LTOG' 5 20 £158 6 4
Horses — £27 10). oC
Barley/Oats/Hay LLOQ! Ut 4 {82 11 ©
Rents/Rates/Insurance we Weso) ike) £3 10" 0
Implements/Maintenance — —
Other minor items of income

and expenditure Lo50 to 6 ors” ta
Total expenses and income [427 11 4 L335 5 * AS
Loss in 1892 Live May 12
Balances {507202216 £535° 5° 43

Expenses
1892 1896

Sheep fog" '2 "0 £69" 2°51
Cattle LA9* 7 10 Yip io See Ta)
Horses £3419 ~3 £18 t %O
Barley /Oats /Hay LAs E36 {28025 9
Rents /Rates /Insurance LT Biome Tun LA SAaTZ 18
Implements /Maintenance 2CRNE CF LrCRry “TO

crea | mee

\)

Z
‘
-

ty

VIEW OF CLIFFS FROM ST. AB&S

WHITE HEUGH

NicK OF HEUGH

cRuMBLY BRAE

STARWEY BAY

THE STRAIGHT FURROW 31

Other minor items of income

and expenditure £6816. 5 G53 FRO
Total expenses and income £5 OF 12.6 £418 18 1
Profit in 1896 £116 7 34
Balances f§07| 12.46 S35. 'GocuAa

THE CLIFFS JUST NORTH OF ST. ABBS
By RENNIE WEATHERHEAD

A recent guide to Berwickshire has, as its cover picture, under
the county name, a view of the White Heugh taken from near
the modern village of St. Abbs. Undoubtedly the cliff scenery
of Berwickshire is spectacular. The contrast between its
coast-line and that of neighbouring Northumberland and East
Lothian demonstrates Berwickshire’s individuality.

The object of this article is to mention a little of the geology
of the cliffs which form that great back cloth to St. Abbs harbour.
The writer must acknowledge the assistance given by a member
of the staff of the Institute of Geological Sciences, Edinburgh.

The sea birds in looking for nesting sites have shown prefer-
ence for the ledges of the White Heugh, and so have given it
its name. The White Heugh and the cliffs to its north are in
fact solidified lava. Lava together with other volcanic frag-
ments form the promontory of St. Abbs Head proper, the thick-
ness of this being calculated to be 2,000 feet, the original layers
now being tilted. These lavas belong to the Lower Old Red
Sandstone (LORS) epoch. The rocks from Starney to Colding-
ham Sands are typical of the throat of a volcano with boulders
of broken rock cemented in the old lava that welled up. This
then is probably the source of the lavas of St. Abb’s Head.

The guano covered cliffs stop abruptly at what is known as
the Nick of the Heugh, an indentation. This is caused by a
fault, or a slip in the rocks, which runs N.E. through the Mire
Loch to Pettico Wick at the other end of St. Abb’s Head. The
cliff south of the Nick, and known as the Crumbly Brae, is red
and much pitted. There is a small exposure of this rock at the
side of the cliff top path above. It has many rounded pebbles
in it, being known as pudding stone, or conglomerate. This
has been formed by ancient rivers carrying pebbles and sand
down to an ancient sea, and depositing them on the bottom.
This happened in Lower Old Red Sandstone times. At one
point it is apparent to geologists that the lavas of the Head lie
above this type of rock, so dating the lavas.

32 THE CLIFFS JUST NORTH OF ST. ABBS

Underlying the Lower Old Red Sandstone conglomerate, so
older, is Silurian greywacke, and this is exposed on the cliffs
near Starney. Greywacke is a type of hard sandstone. A
glance at this part of the cliff from close quarters suggests that
these are also sedimentary rocks. The rocks here are also
tilted. Silurian gives the geological time of formation. The
name is derived from a tribe of Britains who lived in a part of
Wales at the time when the Votadini were here. These rocks
ate perhaps best seen looking westwards from Pettico Wick.

One last feature to be noted before reaching the remains of
the old volcano starting at Starney is the yellowing of the grey-
wacke at its junction with the volcanic rocks. There is a fault
line running from S.W. to N.E. along this edge.

The outer harbour at St. Abbs is a good vantage point for
the reader wishing to observe these features on a clear day.

RECORDING OF PRE-18;; TOMBSTONE
INSCRIPTIONS IN BERWICKSHIRE

During the four years 1967-1970, a Survey of all the existing
pre-1855 tombstone inscriptions of Berwickshire was under-
taken by Mr. David C. Cargill, Honorary Treasurer of the
Scottish Genealogy Society in collaboration with a number of
Members of our Club and other helpers.

The Survey covered 48 old burial grounds in the 32 Parishes
of the County and formed part of a much wider operation
undertaken by other Members of the Scottish Genealogy Society
in the following Counties :—Clackmannan, Dunbarton, Fife,
Kinross, Peebles, Renfrew, Stirling and West Lothian. Lists
for all these Counties and for Berwickshire have been published
by the Scottish Genealogy Society, but some of the lists are now
out of print.

Inscriptions on over 5,400 tombstones in Berwickshire were
recorded and these include quite a number of inscriptions on
stones which can no longer be traced but which were noted in
the following Volumes :—

(1) ‘* The Churches and Churchyards of Berwickshire” by
James Robson, published in Kelso by J. & J. H. Rutherford in
1896.

(2) “The Post Reformation Symbolic Gravestones of
Berwickshire’? by James Hewat Craw, F.S.A., Scot., which
appeared in Volume XXV of the history of this Club.

RECORDING OF PRE-1855 TOMBSTONE INSCRIPTIONS 33
IN BERWICKSHIRE

(3) ‘‘ The Session Book of Bunkle and Preston” by J.
Hardy, Alnwick, published in 1900, and also printed in our
Club history.

The earliest date quoted is from a stone at Dryburgh Abbey,
no longer to be seen, which recorded the death of Sir Adam
Robson de Gleddiswood on 7th October, 1555. Two existing
stones bear dates prior to 1600, and both are in very good
condition, one at Foulden records the death in Foulden of
George Ramsay “‘the last of the male line of the Ramsays of
Foulden a branch of the family of Dalhousie” (Robson) who
died in January, 1592. The other at Hutton commences with
the death of Robert Home of Hutton Bell who died in 1564,
and continues with a family history to 1678. Another early
stone in good condition is in the old graveyard at Nenthorn
House recording “‘ane verie honest man calit Alexander
Stevisone quho departed ye 8 day of Januarue ye Zeir of God
1606.”

The oldest symbolic stone in Berwickshire recorded by Mr.
Craw is No. 47 in the Langton Old Burial Ground list and bears
the inscription “‘ Heir lys Alexander Wer 1620” and this stone,
although broken in two, is still lying in the old Graveyard. At
the other extreme, the latest symbolic stone in the County, as
shown by Mr. Craw, is No. 22 in the Duns list, erected in memory
of Jane, daughter of Thomas Stoddart, Joiner in Duns, who
died in 1847 and of his son John who died in Edinburgh in 1860.

The graveyard of the old Lennel Churchyard in the Parish
of Coldstream contained the largest number of stones, namely
380, and included in the lists are three stones in the burial vault
at Nisbet Castle in the Parish of Duns recording members of the
family of Carre, one time of West Nisbet and later of Cavers.

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE
STUDY OF WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT
SUPERSTITION IN THE EASTERN BORDERS

By RAYMOND LAMONT BROWN

Soothsaying, divination of all kinds, sorcery, witchcraft and
the use of charms and spells, all rank with espionage and prosti-
tution as the most ancient institutions in the world. And
from Lamberton to Traquair, from Peebles to Edrom, from
Jedburgh to Hutton, from Ettrick to Norham, there is hardly
a parish which does not have a mention, in folk memory, of the
supernatural, and of witches and their horrifying craft in general.

Once, when many of the good folk of the eastern Borders
were pained with bodily ailments, or were pestered by trouble-
some neighbours, they made their way not to the physician, or
the local magistrate, but to a “‘spae-wifte” or ““wise wumman” :
who, for a few coppers, might cast a spell to get rid of the evil ;
or bring down a suitable punishment on those who had trans-
gressed. Maybe an incantation of lockjaw for a nagging wife,
ot a plague of boils for a grocer who had given short measure.

In order to make an initial study of witchcraft in the eastern
Borders a number of fundamental facts must be taken into
consideration. There had existed in Europe from time im-
memorial, a number of inter-related but unorganised cults of an
animistic or naturalistic essence: ‘That is, from his earliest
existence on earth, man had worshipped the animals with which
he cohabited, and likewise the trees, plants and herbs of his
habitat. He took, therefore, every form of life, flora and fauna,
and gave it some kind of spirit or supernatural power. And in
his primitive state man communicated directly with these
spirits, adapting each for his own ends, be he hunter, arable
farmer, or cattleman: Until sometime in his civilizing process
there would grow up individual men and women (usually in
family groups) who would devote themselves entirely to the
petitioning of the spirits of earth and air, and later the various
gods and goddesses.

‘The ordinary people of Britain did not take much notice of
these soothsayers and herbalists during the Dark Ages (that long
span of time from the departure of the Romans to the coming of
the Normans), but these adherents of the old folk cults were to

34

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF 35
WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT SUPERSTITION IN THE
EASTERN BORDERS

be found in all parts. Their appearance did not incite horror
among their neighbours, and should they happen to be punished
at all, it was for turning the recognised “‘magic arts” (from
herbalism to driving out of evil influences) to mischievous ends.
For many centuries in England, Christianity was largely a matter
of expediency, in short, pagan and Christian practice dwelt
alongside each other amicably for a long time. A blind eye
was cast towards superstitious practices and while the early
priests and princes of the church openly condemned superstition
and magic, by and large the clerics had more important work to
do at grass-roots level in sponsoring the Gospel rather than in
chasing after witches. When Christianity had a closer hold on
all classes of society, with the coming of the Middle Ages, then
witchcraft began to be viewed in a more precise light.

The systematic persecution of witches in Europe begun in
1450 and lasted for some 300 years until 1750. The surprising,
and generally unknown, feature of the witchcraft which attracted
the attention of ecclesiastical and civil authorities during this
period (which I call the period of Classical Witchcraft) is that
it was largely invented by the Papal Inquisition and developed
by it and the Medieval Roman Catholic Church. It was the
Papal Bull Summis desiderentes affectibus (5; December 1484) of
Pope Innocent VIII which opened the religious war against so
called witchcraft: And it was the infamous book Ma//eus
Maleficarum (“The Hammer of the Witches’, written by two
Dominican friars, Jakob Sprenger and Heinrich Kramer) which
became the indispensable authority for the belief in witchcraft.
The latter work, of course, was a complete fabrication. 'There-
fore, the belief in witches flying through the air, stealing children,
undertaking orgiastic sabbats, concocting evil of all kinds were
all thought up by the inquisitors. Thus by a gradual process
of indoctrination it became in time believed and actually put
into practice by self-styled witches, until a whole edifice of
conventional witchcraft behaviour was firmly constructed and
remained in that manufactured pattern almost everywhere it
manifested itself. In this sense witchcraft was nothing more
than a mass delusion, or a mammoth confidence trick.

The whole basis of Classical Witchcraft then, was substanti-
ated primarily to give the Church in general a greater hold on
its communities, and was later used by sundry politicians to
discredit their enemies: For an accusation of witchcraft was
a very convenient way of getting rid of those you didn’t like.
Because of the unique position of the eastern Borders the folk
hereabouts came under the influence of two lines of thought
on witchcraft. As far as the law was concerned the English

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT SUPERSTITION IN THE
EASTERN BORDERS

definition of witchcraft prevailed. And as like as not, those in
the eastern Borders accused of witchcraft would be hauled away
to Newcastle for trial and prosecution. But in the minds of
the people of this area the Scottish interpretation of witchcraft
was most favoured.

In no other country did the witch cult flourish more rankly.
In no other country did the belief in witchcraft persist more
lately. In no other country did the prosecution of witches rage
fiercer than in Scotland. And in the Borders the setting for
witchcraft was no more custom laid. The lonely hills of
Cheviot, the wild untrodden moors of Hermitage, the echoing
glens of Yarrow, the remote glades of Yetholm, seemed to all
who visited them the very birthplace of hauntings and mysterious
powers. Every rustle of an animal in the undergrowth, every
breeze sighing through the forests was taken as proof of the
presence of an inhabiting spirit. To the Borderers that realm
of the supernatural known to the English as “‘faerieland’’, took
on a more sinister aspect and became the “‘court of Elfame’’, a
fearful country ruled over by the Devil himself, to whom witches
and dabblers in magic were minions. Furthermore the motiva-
tion of the Calvinist obedience to the Divine Command was a
real fear of the Devil. The extreme Scottish Protestants
believed in the personification of evil in the shape of Satan as
strenuously as did the Roman Catholics, if not more so, and the
Scotsman’s hypersensitive fear of the supernatural was to wreak
terrible consequences.

Scotland is second only to Germany in the barbarity of its
witch trials. The Presbyterian clergy acted like inquisitors and
the church sessions often shared the prosecution with the secular
law courts. The Scottish laws were, if anything, more heavily
loaded against the accused. A protracted study of the differ-
ences between Scottish and English witchcraft law, persecution
and delusion could be made at this point with the obvious
overtones of political and religious intrigues. But these would
only have a fringe relevance to the eastern Borders. What
need only be established at this point is : 1, that men and women
in Scotland, and thus the eastern Borders, were far more super-
stitious than those of the far south, and were consequently far
more terrified of the dire consequences of the supernatural ;
2, when anything went wrong in daily life, people believed that
the bad-luck had been ‘“‘wished on them” by the magic of their
enemies ; 3, that the average man and woman had a very un-
sophisticated mind and believed in Heaven and Hell as physical
entities.

We know from the records and journals of the past that there

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT SUPERSTITION IN THE
EASTERN BORDERS

have been several folk suspected of witchcraft in the eastern
Borders, and the local sources of reference carry notes concerning
the major cases. Should one endeavour to make a personal
examination of the references extant, however, read one after
another they make little sense unless one has studied a great
deal of witchcraft history. Nevertheless these are the main
references for instance to witchcraft in the town of Berwick-
upon-T weed.

1. Ina letter from Henry, Lord Hunsdon, who was cousin to
Queen Elizabeth I, and who was Governor of Berwick and
Warden of the East Marches, to Sir Henry Widdrington, deputy
Governor of Berwick, dated 6 March, 1590, there is this note:
That King James I & VI of Scotland was requesting that a
“witch” dwelling in Berwick be surrendered to him. Apparent-
ly she had taken refuge in Berwick from the Scottish witch-
hunters.

2. During the governorship of Peregrine, Lord Willoughby,
another witch is recorded in the Berwick Council Book of 1598:
“We find and present that, by the information and oath of
credible witnesses Richard Swynbourne’s wife hath of long time
dealt with three several women witches for the bewitching of
one William, garrison man, who did answer that they would not
hurt him, but that a man witch must do it; which the said
Swynbourne’s wife hath confessed to this presently... .”

3. This case is quoted by John Sykes in his Historical Register
of Remarkable Events: (30 July 1649) “At a private guild holden
at Berwick, before the Rt. Worshipful Andrew Crispe, Esq.,
Mayor, Mr. Stephen Jackson, alderman, and the rest of the
guild brethren, it was ordered according to the guild’s desire,
that the man which tryeth the witches in Scotland shall be sent
for, and satisfaction to be given him by the towne in defraying
his charges, and in coming hither, and that the towne shall
engage that no violence be offered him by any persons within
the towne.”

4. In 1673 a certain Ann Armstrong of Birchen Nooke
deposed that “‘on the second day of May laste, at nighte, the
witches carried her to Berwick bridge end, where she saw a
greate number of them”. (See Surtees Society, Vol XL.
Depositions from the Castle of York 1861).

From these four cases alone the researcher has to draw his
own conclusions. In truth the country and county histories of
the eastern Borders have little to tell of the prevalence of witch-
mania recorded in folk-memory: And the same goes for the
records of the main Assizes covering this area. For instance

38 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT SUPERSTITION IN THE
EASTERN BORDERS

in the Palatinate of Durham, nothing relating to witchcraft has
been found in the indictments for the years 1582-1719. Like-
wise the records of the Assize Courts of the Northern Circuit
up to 1876 yield little. Therefore, this alone can be said: The
eastern Borders certainly did not have any large witch trials.
The nearest of any consequence being the John Fian case and
the North Berwick Witches (which was to have such a direct
influence on the witchcraft beliefs of King James I & VI).

Although there is this dearth of official material on witchcraft,
one of the richest folk-lore legacies we have here in the Borders
is undoubtedly the miriad of superstitions, a portion of which
race-memory concerns witchcraft. Over the years I have been
able to collect in the Borders, through personal interview with
old folk, and assessment of ancient chronicles and journals, a
representative sample of witch superstition of which the follow-
ing are the most persistent.

Anything made of iron or steel (especially horseshoes) was
highly regarded as a witch repellant, but perhaps above all
others, salt was chosen as the most powerful anti-witch agent.
Incorruptible in itself, with power to preserve other things from
decay, salt soon became the emblem of immortal life and eternity,
and was widely used to keep witches away. Dairymaids dropped
a pinch into their pails before milking, and buttermakers did
the same with their churns to avert the witch influences of evil.
Sometimes cattle were smeared with salt before moving them to
new pastures and many of the Tweed, Teviot, Blackadder,
Whitadder and Till river fishermen sprinkled their rods, nets
and boats for the same reason, to encourage the ‘“‘good” influ-
ences around and to deflect witches.

A very ancient Border superstition was that a newborn baby
was most prone to “‘witching”. To keep the evil witch influ-
ences away from her child, therefore, a mother was earnestly
counselled by the wise to wear a garment with three parallel
slits, cut somewhere in the fabric, to act as a “‘drain” for the evil.
Before maternity hospitals were established, home confinements
were the general rule, and it was commonly believed that witches
frequently attempted to prevent delivery. One of their methods
of doing so was to make and tighten knots during a woman’s
labour. ‘Therefore, the competent Border midwife saw, as soon
as she arrived on the scene, that all knots in the neighbourhood
of the delivery bed were loosened.

As time went by the methods for discovering witches became
abundant; two basic methods, however, remained the most
popular hereabouts. First, it was believed that if anyone was
suspected of witchcraft, their innocence or guilt could be

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT SUPERSTITION IN THE
EASTERN BORDERS

determined by secretly driving a long nail into their footprints.
If the suspect was indeed a witch, she would be compelled by
the power of the metal to return to the footprint to draw the
nail out. Secondly, was the age old “‘touching the victim’. It
was believed that if a witchcraft-murdered corpse be touched by
the witch perpetrator, it would bleed afresh. (Incidentally, a
witch called Janet Preston was forced to do this at York).

The trees most associated with witches in the Borders are
hazel, elder and rowan. A holy tree from Celtic days, the hazel
was much used in making rods to detect hidden veins of metal
in the earth, and where a witch was concerned, all she had to
do was to point a hazel rod at a victim to increase the power of
her spell over him. But as most superstitions have an equal
and opposite reaction, Border children (mostly those born
in the Autumn) were often given the “milk” of hazel fruit
mixed with honey as their first food, for that was deemed an
antidote for witchcraft.

The elder with its very mixed reputation in superstition, was
formerly considered the most unlucky wood to bring into a
house. Even today folk around the western areas of Berwick-
shire will not bring elder into the house for they say it will cause
a death to the occupying family within the year. It was further
deemed important to make sure that a baby’s cradle was not
made of elder wood. For if this was so, witches could rock the
cradle violently from side to side and do it some injury (witches
were thought to sometimes transform themselves into elder
trees). When an elder tree was felled should a profuse amount
of sap issue from the severed end, the tree was not used for
building or carpentry, for this was a sure sign of witch possession.

The rowan, or mountain ash, was considered a fortunate tree,
with a power to avert witchcraft, disease and the ubiquitous
“Evil Eye”. A popular wood, for superstitious reasons, for
building in the Borders, rowan gave it was thought extra pro-
tection toa house. ‘This was achieved by tying with red thread
crosses of rowan twigs above the lintel of a door: ‘“‘Rowan
tree and red thread gar the witches tyne their speed”, was a well
known saying in past days in the Borders.

Rowan therefore is a common tree in Border graveyards, to
keep witches and evil spirits away; and one famous rowan
protects the grave of David Ritchie of Woodhouse. Familiarly
known locally as ““Bowed Davie 0’ Wuddus”’, this 34 feet high
dwarf was made into a celebrity by the fact that Sir Walter Scott,
who had met him in 1797, chose him as a prototype for his novel
The Black Dwarf. Davie’s last wish was that his grave be pro-
tected from witches by a rowan tree and his grave is to be seen

40 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT SUPERSTITION IN THE
EASTERN BORDERS

today at Manor Churchyard, Peeblesshire, surmounted by a
flourishing rowan.

One very persistent superstition was that a witch’s power
could be destroyed by the letting of his or her blood: ‘‘Scoring
above the breath” as it was called. This was achieved by
scratching the witch above the nose or mouth; as the blood
flowed so was the witch’s power deemed to flow away. Raising
storms was once considered within the province of witch-
craft too ; winds, hails, snows and thunder, folk said, could all
be summoned by a witch just whistling. Dew collected on
the morn of May day was considered potent for keeping witches
away, and domestic pets were often smeared with dew for this
reason. Owls neither escaped from the taint of witchcraft,
their feathers and bones being used in the Borders for spells.
Owl broth by the way, was once given to Border children who
suffered from whooping cough.

Superstition in the Borders laid milk stealing at the door of
witches, who were deemed able to milk cows from a distance by
means of a magic milking-tube: Various charms were used to
counteract these thefts, rowan twigs braided into the cow’s
tail, or a halter made from horsehair. At one time no one left
empty sieves around or broken egg shells ; as these were thought
to be used by witches for transportation. During the trial of
Anne Baites of Morpeth, in 1673, testimony was actually given
that she had been often seen in an eggshell riding over field and
hillock.

Clothes of all kinds were also kept out of a witch’s way, in case
she cursed them and thereby harmed their owners when they
put them on. Likewise personal names were kept secret, in
case a witch might use the constituent letters as a naming spell.
For the same reason people took care when cutting finger-nails,
toe-nails or hair, to make sure that they destroyed the parings
or cuttings. Another presistent superstition in these parts of
the Borders was that a witch could turn herself into an animal
(usually a hare) at will. Further another persistent superstition
was that witches made special ointments (out of the bones of
dead children) for transvection. For those who are interested
in taking the study of witch superstition in general, I have
explored the subject in detail in my two books A Book of Witch-
craft and A Book of Superstition, both published by Messrs. David
& Charles Ltd. of Newton Abbot, Devon, in 1971 and 1970
respectively.

On the Scottish side of the eastern Borders three main cases
of witchcraft practice are herein mentioned: But these are by

AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF 41
WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT SUPERSTITION IN THE
EASTERN BORDERS

no means all, for witchcraft cases have been mentioned in the
annals of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club at such places as
Fast Castle, Hutton, Kelso, Westruther and so on. ‘The first
of the three above-mentioned cases may be called ‘“The Lamber-
ton Burning”. In the parish of Mordington, near the old
church of Lamberton, on a small hill called ‘‘ The Witches’
Knowe”’, two witches were burnt around the beginning of the
eighteenth century. Unfortunately no documents, or con-
temporary accounts are extant in the public demesne, but it is
almost certain that this witch burning would be one of local
instigation. The Scottish Privy Council made a practice of
granting commissions to “ resident gentlemen and ministers to
examine and try and execute witches” within their own
parishes. Thus these pious men had a free hand to hunt
witches and were often quick to do so. Herein, of course, was
the danger ; local bigwigs could use an accusation of witchcraft
to get rid of troublesome neighbours and tenants. <A piece of
local doggerel immortalises the Lamberton case:

Owre the moor, near yonder kirk

We'll set the faggots in a lowe,

And wrap the hags in tar and towe ;

And there we winna let them shirk,

But scowther them wi, broom and birk,
Bleezin on the Witches Knowe
Bleezin round ilk hoary pow,

How the hags will girn and gape:

SATAN in a corbie’s shape,

Will come and take his pets away—

Sic a bleeze we'll hae the day :

Case two concerns Elizabeth Bathgate who practised witch-
craft at Eyemouth around 1634. Her case, described with
indictment in Pitcairns Preliminary Trials, is particularly interest-
ing for the number of spells and incantations she is supposed to
have used, to say nothing of the diversity of witchcraft practiced
by her. Another piece of folk doggerel describes her antics :

Sandy Pae, the mautman
Is drinkin’ wi’ the sautman
And his wife Betty Bathgate
Is in the mill without a mate
And round she runs widdershins, widdershins,
She’s sunken Geordie Houldie’s ship
And drowned all his men and their equip
And with her devilish squad
Has made Tom Burgon’s nag rin mad.

42 AN INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY OF
WITCHES AND WITCHCRAFT SUPERSTITION IN THE
EASTERN BORDERS

She’s shaken Peter Trumbul’s beer
And killed the cow o’ Robin Weir.
And round she runs widdershins, widdershins.
And Sandy Pae the mautman
Drinks late on wi’ the sautman
While Betty in her cantrups
Runs widdershins away.

We have instances here of destroying ships, killing cows and
sending animals mad. Tach category is mentioned in Malleus
Malleficarum, thus it is interesting to note that this Papal dis-
tortion was still remembered in the eastern Borders in the early
seventeenth century.

Case three concerns the witches of Auchencrow. Still pro-
nounced “‘ Edencraw ” by the locals as it has for three hundred
years, Auchencrow lies to the northeast of Chirnside. Some-
time in the late seventeenth century the Sherriff of Berwickshire,
one Home of Renton, caused a poor Auchencrow woman to be
burnt at Coldingham for witchcraft. We do not know what
the indictment was against her, but Auchencrow has been
associated with witches for a long time. According to kirk
Sessions of Chirnside for May 1700, “‘ Thomas Cook, servant
at Blackburn, was indicted for scoring a woman in Auchencrow
above the breath ” (See above “‘ scoring above the breath ’’).

Another Auchencrow case of witchcraft in the early 1800s
was that of Margaret Girvan, who was accused of causing a wind
to flatten a local farmer’s corn. This was quite a late accusation,
for the 1604 Act Anentis Witchcraft had been repealed in 1736.
In Auchencrow there were a great many ““ scapegoat cases” of
witchcraft, with witches being accused of having sabbats at
Bunkle Kirk, destroying boats at St. Abbs and so on.

Strangely enough many of the old superstitions concerning
witches are still to be found in folk memory in the Borders and
are as alive today as they were centuries ago.

Other books on Witchcraft by RAYMOND LAMONT BROWN:
SIR WALTER SCOTT’S LETTERS ON DEMONOLGY & WITCH-
CRAFT (SR Publishers 1968).
CHARLES KIRKPATRICK SHARPE’S WITCHCRAFT IN SCOT-
LAND (SRP 1972).

SOME FINDS FROM DOONS LAW (CAIRN),
WHITSOME, BERWICKSHIRE
MAP REF. 868517, SHEET 63.
LENA R. ROBERTSON

Doons Law is a hillock lying about a quarter-mile N.E. of
the farmhouse of Leetside, Whitsome. Crowning this hillock
is an oval, stony mound raised about 4 feet above the level of
the surrounding field. It is planted with trees and enclosed by
a stone wall. When viewed from the South against the skyline
the whole raised area has the appearance of a long barrow.
This mound is mentioned in the 6th Report and Inventory of
the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments for Berwickshire,
published in 1915, as a supposed cairn and adds that “‘ Roman ”
remains were found there in 1831.

Surface examination of the ploughed slopes surrounding this
site produces artefacts of all ages. During visits over the past
two years I have picked up numerous flakes of flint and chert,
and several pieces showing secondary working including a
finely worked “‘ thumb ”’ scraper of dark flint. Recently, quite
close together, I found a silver coin and what is possibly a
gaming piece. ‘The silver coin has been identified as an English
silver penny of Edward I or II and, though in poor condition,
the crowned head of the King can be made out on the obverse
and a crossed or quartered design can be seen on the reverse.
It was minted in London and was probably one of the many
English coins poured into Scotland at that time. An interesting
point about this type of silver coin was brought out by Dr. Ian
Grimble in the television programme ‘‘ Who Are The Scots ? ”
He suggested that the quartered design on the reverse of these
coins was used in commerce, i.e., the coin could be cut into its
quarters to make lesser values for trading.

The possible gaming piece is bun-shaped, of grey, porous
stone and is about 20 mm. in diameter and 10 mm. high. It is
silk-smooth to the touch.

This hillock of Doons Law and its slopes must, in prehistory
times, have been a refuge and perhaps a dwelling place above
the wide areas of bog and marsh. The name seems to be from
fie Celtic “ Dun.”’.

43

44 SOME FINDS FROM DOONS LAW (CAIRN),
WHITSOME, BERWICKSHIRE

Leetside has many areas of interest. The small fort of the
Battleknowes is mentioned in the above 6th Report and Inven-
tory. It is said to be 280 yards West of the farmhouse. The
name of the field where this (?) raised area is found is the Spital
ot Spittal Field. As Gauld, in his book “‘ Brave Borderland ”’,
notes traditions of the Knights Templar lingering on in Whit-
some district, this name may be of interest. A Temple Well
was known and again ““ Roman” remains are mentioned. The
low ridges or walls can be faintly made out beneath the grass
of the field just above the curvings of the streamlet of the Leet.
Quite considerable reactions with divining rods can be had in
this area—the sensitive holder can find them moving with great
activity over certain of these ridges.

To the East of the Spital Field a cauldron was found in 1827
and various cists have been unearthed on Leetside over the
years. On my most recent visit to the Spital Field area, in the
ploughed land just to the West of the farm steading, I picked
up the handle of a large pottery jug or vessel. It has longitu-
dinal ridges and a little of its original green glaze remains.

A. R. Barclay, Esq., farms at Leetside and I am very grateful
to him for allowing me to walk his fields.

THE PAMILY OF REDPA WEL

Some ten years ago my sister and I began to compile a family
record, for the benefit of those descendants who might wish to
know something of their ancestry. Our task proved both
urgent and rewarding, for almost all the facts had been passed
down to us orally ; and those few persons from whom we could
seek confirmation were themselves aged. By the end of 1965
the main facts had been checked and set down at considerable
length—thanks largely to my sister’s retentive memory—but
we had made little progress in extending our knowledge of the
Redpath side of our family. Our mother’s father, William
Redpath, was the second son of George Ridpath (born 1782)
who, in 1808, obtained the tenancy of a smallholding in North
Northumberland that was to remain in the family’s occupation
for 119 years. We had gathered much information from 1808
onwards, but nothing of our great-grandfather’s origins.

Then, in November 1966, our attention was drawn to an
entry in ““ The Grammar of Heraldry”? by Samuel Kent, and
published in London in 1716. Among subscribers to this book

THE FAMILY OF REDPATH 45

was “‘ George Ridpath, vulgo Rippet or Rippeth, Gent., who
takes his name from a Barony in the shire of Berwick ; takes for
his Paternal Coat, argent, a chevron ingrailed between three
Boars Heads erazd, Gules. The Crest a demy Bear, Bristled
and armed, Or.” (In Scotland a barony is, of course, a large
Manor). Helped by this scrap of information, we pursued our
search and have gradually pieced together the following account
of the early history of the notable Border family of Redpath:
facts which may be of interest to those bearing the ancient name,
who have not yet pursued their own inquiries. We gratefully
acknowledge the unsparing assistance given us by librarians
and other well-wishers.

The hamlet of Redpath, in Berwickshire, stands on the left
bank of the Leader, about two miles south of Earlston. Three
miles to the south-west is the famed Melrose Abbey, founded
by David the First of Scotland and liberally endowed by him.
Redpath is said to have contained some 600 inhabitants before
its close connection with the Abbey was severed by the Reforma-
tion; following which the village gradually sank into decay
and insignificance. The immediate neighbourhood was almost
certainly the location of the original estate of the de Redpaths
“of that ilk”, from the close of the 13th century until 1619,
when its lands were sold. The heraldic usage “‘ of that ilk”
carries the meaning ‘‘ of the estate of the same name as the
family’: so that the Redpath family’s early connection with
that village appears to be conclusive.

The earliest sparse records of the family are restricted to the
names of the eldest sons to whom the estate descended in due
succession: but it is not without interest that their Christian
names—William, Alexander and Robert—follow fairly close in
time to those of the Scottish monarchs of the period. These
names, with that of George from 1433, have continued in con-
stant family use down the centuries, with father to eldest son
for three hundred years ; until, in 1619 it is recorded that Thomas
Redpath and his son Thomas sold their lands to a certain Ralph
Ker. Writing in 1722 Nisbett, the Scottish authority on
heraldry, stated that the Redpath family “‘ of that ilk ” were then
extinct.

Though the main stem had died, it had put forth vigorous
shoots from the beginnings of the family’s recorded history, as
the younger sons in successive generations acquired land of their
own ; at first near the main Redpath estate, but gradually farther
afield, in a general north-easterly direction, but keeping close
to the Scottish side of the Border. From 1333 onward there
are documents cited which indicate the range of that dispersal.
Between 1333 and 1374 references are made to Alexander

46 THE FAMILY OF REDPATH

Redpath of Dirington (some fifteen miles from the parent
estate) ; while in 1378 a Thomas Redpath and his wife Marion
are shown as resident in Preston. In 1474 William de Redpath,
who then entered into a deed of agreement with his elder
brother Thomas, is described as “‘ of Greenlaw ”’. About 1550
the third Thomas de Redpath in the main line received a grant
of land in Preston from Mary, Queen of Scots, for himself and
his second son Andrew. (There is a village or hamlet of
Preston some twenty miles from Redpath, and beyond Diring-
ton). There are also records of families named Redpath
resident in Edinburgh by the end of the 16th century.

From the foregoing it may be inferred with some degree of
confidence that those who have inherited the surname of Redpath
ot Ridpath are descended in continuous male line from the
ancient family ‘‘ of that ilk” through some younger son who
“ hived-off ” before the direct line of succession became extinct
in the seventeenth century. (An exception would occur in the
unlikely event of the surname having been adopted in time
past—legally or otherwise—for some particular purpose, such
as inheritance). This clear and comforting link with the past
is seen as less remote when it is realised that the whole of the
period from 1300 to the close of the present century may have
been spanned in fewer than twenty-eight generations.

The variant spelling of ‘‘ Ridpath ” was certainly in use by
the end of the seventeenth century. It may have come about
through the softening of the name in speech to “‘ Rippeth”’,
which itself follows a recognised pattern.

In our own case the reversion to “‘ Redpath ” took place about
1845.

Perhaps the most detailed account of one generation of
Ridpaths is contained in the well-known “‘ Diary of George
Ridpath, Minister of Stichel”. The 1922 edition of this work
was published by T. and A. Constable ; and edited, with notes
and an introduction, by Sir James Balfour Paul, C.V.O., LL.D.
The editor states that the diarist’s father, George Ridpath, was
minister at Ladykirk from 1712 to1740. ‘There were three sons,
George, Philip and William; all three destined to become
Presbyterian ministers. The eldest, George, was born at
Ladykirk Manse in 1717, and was educated at the University of
Edinburgh. He became a scholar of some distinction, with a
deep knowledge of the classics ; but is described by Sir James
as calm, level-headed and unemotional. In 1742 he was pre-
sented to the parish of Stichel (now Stitchill), where he remained
as minister till his death in 1772. He married late in life and
had one son, George, of whom nothing is known, and who
may have died in infancy. The diary consists largely of an

"y¥ItddDD “W *[ 10104

‘TI 40 | prempy jo Auuod soaaqis ysysuq

‘JUIY JO Jodezos ..quinuy,,

‘ao0rd Sure *sn{ At9330d jo o[puepzy

THE FAMILY OF REDPATH 47

account of the daily life of a minister, but is relieved by occasional
entries such as that of June 29th, 1757. “‘ Went to Melrose...
My namesake of Gladswood, from sacred love of gain, is
destroying a considerable part of these beauties that is his
property. The rest belongs to Haig of Bemersyde”. (By
“* namesake ” the diarist evidently means one bearing the same
name; but he does not claim relationship). As Gladswood is
not much more than a mile downstream from Redpath, one is
tempted to identify this owner who aroused the minister’s ire
with that George Ridpath, Gent., included in “‘ The Grammar
of Heraldry” in 1716. In that case, the proximity of his
barony to the ancestral estate, coupled with his entitlement to
the Paternal Coat and Crest, suggests a close relationship with
the Redpaths “‘ of that ilk ”’.

Amid all his parish duties and family affairs George found
time to write his monumental “‘ History of the Borders ”’, which
must have entailed much concentrated study, and which is still
regarded as a standard work on this subject. Before his death
at the age of 55 he had seen his two brothers presented as
ministers—Philip to Hutton, near Berwick, and William to
Edrom. Quite recently a friend’s keen and clever research has
disclosed that William of Edrom had three sons, also named
George, William and Philip ; and I am hopeful that a connecting
link with our great grandfather, George Ridpath, may yet be
found.

What is it that urges on some of us (notably the elderly) to
inquire into our ancestry? Probably a growing awareness of
the continuity of the generations, and a realisation that family
characteristics and quirks continue to be passed on: above all,
the belief that a clear link with the past can provide firm anchor-
age in the restless and ever-changing world of today.

William Redpath Johnson.

Dr. GEORGE HENDERSON OF CHIRNSIDE
(1800-1864)*
By WM. S. MITCHELL

The interest of the medical historian is apt to be concentrated
on great names or spectacular discoveries, but a study of the
humbler members of the profession should not be disdained,
since much may be learned of their day to day lives, of their
thoughts and aspirations. The byways of history may be no
less interesting and instructive than the highroads.

I have recently had the opportunity of perusing two volumes
of manuscript journals, or commonplace books written by Dr.
George Henderson of Chirnside in Berwickshire, which afford
glimpses of the life and opinions of a country practitioner of a
century ago. ‘The author was the eldest son of John Henderson
and his wife Frances Purves, and was born on 5 May, 1800, in
his father’s farmhouse of Little Billy in the parish of Bunkle,
two miles from Chirnside, and six miles east of Duns, the
county town of Berwickshire in Scotland. Little Billy was one
of several small farms, the buildings of which were taken down
in 1813 when the farms were incorporated in that of Billie Mains,
from which it was distant about half a mile, in prosperous
agricultural lands in the heart of the Merse and commanding a
magnificent view of the valley of the Tweed looking towards
the Cheviot Hills. The name Billy, which is the Celtic baile, a
dwelling place or village, occurs in Billy Castle, the ruins of
which stand overlooking a stream not far from the modern
farmhouse. The castle belonged successively to the Dunbar
family, to the Earls of Angus and to King James V of Scotland.
It was destroyed by the Earl of Hertford in 1544 during the
‘War of the Rough Wooing’.

After being educated in the local schools of Bunkle and
Lintlaw, George Henderson matriculated at the University of
Edinburgh in session 1825-6, but he attended only one class,
that of chemistry, before he transferred to the Royal College of
Surgeons, whose Licence he obtained in 1829.

He returned to practice in Chirnside, where he remained for
35 years until his death in 1864. He married in 1836 Margaret
Hood, who was twenty years his junior and who died in 1894.
They had six children, of whom only one survived infancy ;
this was Robert Hood, who became Chemist and Registrar in
Chirnside, and who died in 1915.

*Based on a paper read to the Scottish Society of the History of Medicine on
12th June, 1957.

48

DR. GEORGE HENDERSON OF CHIRNSIDE 49

Dr. Henderson had literary inclinations and published two
volumes, Scenes of Boyhood and Other Poems, Berwick upon Tweed,
1840, and Ihe Popular Rhymes, Sayings and Proverbs of the County
of Berwick, Newcastle upon Tyne, 1856, which is still worthy of
perusal by anyone interested in local customs and folklore. His
poetry may not be first class, but it does show a keen apprecia-
tion of the beauties of nature, particularly as exemplified in his
native locality. Dr. Henderson was a founder member of the
Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, and contributed several articles
to the early volumes of its history ; his Rhymes of the County of
Berwick first appeared in this form.

The manuscript journals mentioned are in two volumes,
totalling 653 pages bound in half calf, lettered Nugae medici, and
with the ticket of George Johnston, Murray Street, Dunse (the
old spelling of Duns, and one which more faithfully indicates
the pronunciation). The author says in his preface, which is
dated 13 July 1853, that he was inspired by reading Luther’s
Table Talk to write down ‘some reflection or observation for
every day during one annual revolution of the globe’. These
were based on his ‘ Notes and Journals of Former Years’,
though these seem to have disappeared. He goes on to say
that had a country surgeon of a hundred and fifty years previously
compiled such a book it would have been eagerly read in his
day, and he makes the true prophecy that ‘a hundred years
hence some one may turn over these pages with very great
interest’. ‘Throughout the journals there are many references
to nature. He was a keen botanist, and he gives many lists of
flowers he found in his wanderings.

There are some plants (he writes), which, though not noted for their beauty,
ate yet great favourites with me: among these are Typha Jatifolia or Reed-mace,
the Bur-reed, the Water-bennet, and some others. These were plants familiar
to my infant years.... The localities in which the above plants are always
found may conduce to render them, in some measure, more dear to us... .
In such localities too, there frequently grows up and blossoms in luxuriance
the tall Willow-herb, the Bull-rush, the Common-rushes, the splendid yellow
Iris—and not far distant the fragrant Meadow-sweet with its floating snowy
plumes—the wild Angelica—the Hemlock Dropwort, the spiky Mint—and the
light waving hairgrasses, etc. In scenes like these we delight to revel !
Our fancy haunts them day by day—and even in our dreams, they are
frequently reproduced, in new and mote varied combinations, and in more
gorgeous, though oft fantastic bloom. (I, 80-1).

It need not surprise us that he mentions his idea of Heaven as
a place where trees, shrubs and flowers abound.

He was widely read, and quotes Latin and Greek, French,
German, English and Scottish authors, as well as the classical
medical authors such as Hippocrates and Galen. He was
interested in the history of medicine; he mentions Freind’s

50 DR. GEORGE HENDERSON OF CHIRNSIDE

History of Physic and wishes that there were a better and more
up to date one. To judge by his wife’s complaints (which he
records) he devoted too much money to buying books, and too
much time to reading them. He not only read—he learned
by heart poems to repeat on his journeys. He writes :

When tiding by night, either to or from my patients, I find it a good plan
to prevent me from wearying on the journey, to keep repeating some piece
of poetry. On coming home this morning I repeated aloud for many times,
Addison’s beautiful hymn ‘The spacious firmament on high’, etc. “Tam
o’ Shanter’ is an excellent poem to tecite on a night journey also Gray’s
‘Elegy’. Thomson’s ‘Hymn on the Seasons’, etc. Such an exercise keeps
you warm and comfortable. In a rough tempestuous night it is particularly
pleasant to recite aloud some sublime strain of the olden time. I would
recommend every country surgeon to commit to memory one at least of
the books of Milton’s ‘Paradise Lost’—and use it as a stimulus in a cold
night journey. (I, 28-9).

His library, amounting to about 2,500 volumes, was sold by
auction in Duns on 15 and 16 December, 1864, and there is a
copy of the sale catalogue in the library of King’s College,
Newcastle upon Tyne. It appears to have been a good colloc-
tion, larger than one might expect to have been collected by a
country practitioner of the time. His medical books show no
great rarities, but they include Freind’s History of Physic, Hunter
On the Lues Venerea, Whytt On the Nerves, and several Latin
works, together with a number of runs of periodicals, including
the Edinburgh Medical and Surgical Journal. His general collection
is fairly wide, with the works of many poets, much biography
and many works on botany and natural history.

His journals are reflections on life in general rather than a
picture of his working life, but nevertheless certain glimpses of
his lot are given. He worked long hours, riding in all weathers
to visit his patients over a wide area. One of his recurrent
worries was how to obtain payment from his patients without
bullying them. His fads and fancies were numerous: he
abhorred not only alcohol, but also tea and tobacco ; he hated
draughts, and once came out of church during a service to avoid
one. He would have preferred to live as a vegetarian, but in this
he was thwarted by his wife.

I have no doubt that vegetarians have the true side of the question—the
fact is, without flesh as a food, we would be much stronger, healthier and
livelier than we ate. I am convinced that all flesh-eating, even in small
quantities, is injurious to us. But custom is strong and inveterate, and the
very prevalent, but utterly fallacious idea that animal food is mote nutritious
than vegetable, has so fastened itself in our minds that we cannot get rid of
it. I am very much inclined to be a Vegetarian, though I cannot yet go
the whole hog: and the women-folks are so most atrociously opposed to it,
that I shrink from their reproaches. (II, 3).

DR. GEORGE HENDERSON OF CHIRNSIDE 51

He disliked the use of such ‘popular’ medical works as
Buchan’s Domestic medicine and the Receipts of Moncrieff of
Tippermalloch.

From the Memoits of Mr. Wm. Smellie, the printer, I learn that though
Dr. Buchan was the originator of the Domestic Medicine, it was entirely
written by Mr. Smellie—a work which has done an immense amount of evil
in the world. But no matter!—it was the source of much wealth and fame
to the reputed author, and to the publishers ;—and to this day it, and similar
works, bring much profit to publishers and booksellers—and go on pro-
pagating rnischief among the multitude. In so far as the teal good of
mankind is concerned, popular medical works are complete humbugs.

(II, 28).

He is no less outspoken on the use of patent medicines :

Mrs. B., who is in a condition of chronic weakness, languishing and
nervous irritability, has used Ho//oway’s pills for six months past. She often
took ten pills fora dose ! No wonder she is weak : such treatment would kill
a horse. The doctor is of little avail to such a person—she has run down
the vigour and power of her system by these cursed Pills, and medicine will
not build her up again. It is shocking that so many fools and idots make
their bowels a thoroughfare for Morrison’s, Holloways, Paris and American
sugar-coated Pills! —or even for doctor's Pills. I maintain that nothing
deranges, undermines and destroys the health so effectually as a long con-
tinued coutse of drugs, take them in what form you please. Such means do
frequently adjust the machinery of life, and set free the else clogged wheels—
but a long use of those Pills destroy the wheels altogether, so that no after
patching, cleaning and oiling can renew or set them to rights again. (I. 210).

Among the folk cures recorded by Dr. Henderson are two
for whooping cough.

There is a popular remedy for Hooping (sic) cough, sometimes practised
in the country, of which I cannot find the origin. It consists in putting the
patient ine times through below the belly, and over the back of an ass—and
this process to be repeated for nine successive days! Whether the ass must
be a male or female I have not learned. (1, 38).

Nine, or three times three, is, of course, a favourite number in
spells or incantations, and Dr. John Ritchie, of Edinburgh, has
mentioned to me that this particular ‘ cure’ had a religious basis
in that there is a cross on the back of an ass, an animal associated
with the Saviour; he also states that the ass had to be of the
Opposite sex to the patient to be treated. The second ‘ cure’
is perhaps even more curious :

An individual told me today, that when a boy, ill of Hopping-Cough, at
the recommendation of an old wise woman, his mother, for the cure of that
disease, tied round his neck a number of ‘haity ouberts’—(the larva of the
common ted butterfly (or rather of the red tiger moth, W.S.M.) sewed up in a
piece of cloth—and with evident success! (II, 170).

2 DR. GEORGE HENDERSON OF CHIRNSIDE

He mentions the custom of cutting the cheese on the birth
of a boy, a duty which devolved on the physician present at the
delivery.

The first cut of the cheese is divided into small square or oblong pieces—
which are called the ‘cuckolds cuts’: I cannot tell for what reason. These
pieces are used by the young unmarried females, friends or acquaintances of
the patient as a sort of charm ; they lay them below their pillows, that they
may dream of their future husbands! (I, 318-19).

The memory of this custom remains in Berwickshire, but the
custom itself seems to have died out some eighty or ninety
yeats ago.

Dr. Henderson’s dislike of tobacco has been mentioned ; he
several times refers to this, but one eloquent passage will be
sufhicient quotation :

What an awful, pestilent, monstrous and detestible system this puffing and
smoking of Tobacco is! The solemn puff! puff! whiff! whiff, whiffing of a
regular smoker is truly maddening to a person of unsophisticated mind.
It is a real mystery of iniquity. But what would our government do were
this smoking abolished? It profits largely by the delectable custom—it
would be ruinous to put it down. It also makes work for the doctors.
Tippling, feasting and tobacco-smoking and snuff-taking sow the seeds of
disease on evety side. The fruits are poverty, disease and death. It is a
melancholy sight to see so many young persons engaged in the foul and
petnicious practice of smoking: it is the first downward step to vice and
misery. (I, 15).

In one entry in his journal he breaks into verse on the subject
of alcohol, giving ten reasons why it should not be taken:

There are I think

Ten reasons why men should not drink—
It hurts the health, depraves the taste,
and sinks a man below a beast.

It melts the purse ; dissolves the tie
Betwix my dearest friend and I,

It shuts out reason, lets in folly,

and paves the way to melancholy.

Excess in drink inclines to rambling
Excites to whotedom, vice and riot,

And banishes all peace and quiet ;

Excess of drink destroys our souls,

Our death-bed’s curse our flowing bowls. (II, 122).

He had original views on piles :

_ Piles ate certainly a cause of longevity. I believe my father was an instance
of this. In youth he was of a tender constitution, and was frequently ill,
and all his brothers died in the flower of their age of consumption. About
middle life he was attacked with Haemorrhoids, and till his death in the

DR. GEORGE HENDERSON OF CHIRNSIDE 53

83rd year of his age, was periodically affected by them. They seemed to be
an outlet to some morbidity of constitution, and tended to keep him alive
to old age. (I, 24).

His dislike of draughts was such that he once left the church
during the service rather than endure one:

I can stand anything but a draught of air from a doot or window. At the
Meeting yesterday (Sep. 21) but stayed little more than an hour : the window
opposite our seat being up half a foot at least, felt a cold stream of ait blowing
upon my right cheek, neck and shoulder, which became quite chilled in a
few minutes—and I sat in pain—so at last I rose up and came out, considering
that the good I might get from the sermon would never counterbalance a
sote throat, a month’s toothache, or a six weeks rheumatism. It is a deadly
thing when a chutch or house is so absurdly ventilated that there are constant
thorough draughts of air through it. I would rather sit on a mountain side,
like the covenanters of old, than in a thorough draught ina church. (II. 25).

He records a link with the medicine of medieval times in the
person of ‘ the water-doctor’ :

The Merse in the days or our gteat-grandfathers seems to have been
deplorably desititute of doctors. O/d women had all the practice then going.
A Dr. Blackie, about 80 ot 90 years ago, lived in Coldstream, who was called
‘the Water doctor’, because he depended mainly on the inspection of the urine
of his patients, as an indication of their diseases. How far he was successful
in this mode we cannot tell, but he was popular in his day—and patients sent
theit water to him in bottles etc. from a considetable distance, and he fre-
quently prescribed for them without seeing them in person. We believe
that an epitaph in Rhyme is to be seen on his tombstone in Lennel Chutch-
yard—from which he seems to have been a very worthy individual. (II, 31).

Dr. Henderson devoted thirty-five years of his life to serving
his patients in Chirnside and the surrounding district, and he
died, according to the inscription on his tombstone, ‘ much
regretted for his universal kindness and benevolence’. In a
moment of discontent he wrote on one occasion :

Perhaps the three worst situations that a man can be in ate to be at the
head of a government, to be in jail, or to be a poor country surgeon. It
tequites many peculiar qualities to enable a man to be any way comfortable
in the latter situation. (II, 198).

But it is pleasanter to take as his summing up of his lot these
words:

True, I have had my cares, anxieties, perplexities and griefs—as who has
not-—yet I do not think I could change my condition with anybody.

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION—SWANSEA, 1971
REPORT

This is the third time the British Association for the Advance-
ment of Science has met in Swansea. The first meeting took
place in 1848, one hundred and twenty-three years ago. The
members, we were told, at that long ago meeting, travelled to
Swansea either by stage-coach or boat. The second visit was
in 1880.

We learned that the medieval quaintness of the old town

centre was almost completely destroyed by air-raids early in
World War II.

The University College of Swansea commands a wide prospect
of the surrounding countryside. It stands in the grounds of
Singleton Abbey, beautifully situated on rising ground; com-
manding a prospect which is truly marvellous on all sides, sea,
hill and dale, clad with a most extraordinary mixture of industry
of various kinds, both modern and ancient buildings giving to
the onlooker a most curious medley which is quite unforgettable.

The usual Inaugural Meeting was held in the principal hall
of the city—taking the place of an ancient building completely
destroyed by enemy action. During the usual procession,
always most impressive, beautiful music was played by J. M.
Fussel, M.A. Fanfares were sounded by trumpeters of the Welsh
Guards, by kind permission of Colonel Wallace, commanding
the regiment. The conferment of Honorary Degrees then took
place. The Pro-Chancellor, The Right Hon. Lord Morris,
commenced by saying that Sir Alexander Cairncross, Knight
Commander of the most distinguished order of St. Michael
and St. George, Fellow of the British Academy, Master of St.
Peter’s College, Oxford, and for this year, President of the
British Association for the Advancement of Science. Lord
Morris continued—after four years teaching in Cambridge in
1939, Sir Alexander embarked on the first half of what was to
become probably the most distinguished career in the public
service of this country. ‘The Chancellor continued ; he has an
international academic reputation in economics. Lord Morris
added—Sir Alex commands the profound respect, and if I may
say, the affection of our entire profession.

The President Elect for 1972 is Sir Vivian Fuchs. He will

34

THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION—SWANSEA 1971 REPORT 55

preside over the meeting at Leicester in September. Sir Vivian’s
unique contribution to exploration and scientific research over
a period of 4o years, will we are sure, be an example and an
inspiration for generations yet to come.

After this most impressive ceremony, The Right Worshipful
Mayor of Swansea, Councillor A. J. K. Hare, j.p., welcomed
the Association to the city, and invited the President to deliver
his address—entitled Government and Innovation. ‘Thereafter Sir
Alex commenced his address by saying “that for many years
it had been the practice of the British Association to call on a
natural scientist and almost invariably a Fellow of the Royal
Society to deliver this Address ; no professional economist has
ever done so before. An economist elevated to this position
must find it hard what to say to his colleagues, but the President
said—with the caution natural to one who has spent upwards
of twenty years in the Civil Service—I have hedged a little by
choosing a subject, half of which, is at least home-ground.
In the course of his address Sir Alex remarked ; at the beginning
of the 19th Century it was France, not Britain, that led Europe in
the sciences, but on the other hand it was Britain who was
acknowledged leader in technological innovation. The Presi-
dent then ended his most learned address by saying “‘ any modern
government concerned to achieve a faster rate of economic
growth, will look with favour on technological innovation,
but, he continued, it would not be wise to form long expectation
of what it might do by direct action, to promote this.

As usual I tried to attend as many lectures as possible ; princi-
pally Sec. (H) Archaeology, as these I find most interesting.
One address was entitled “‘The Archaeology of Gower.”
““The tradition of Wales ” was another—this was given by E. G.
Bower, Emer. Professor of Geography and Anthropology,
University of Wales. In the course of his paper, he remarked,
that even during the occupation by the Romans, there was some
Christianity present. This address was most interesting.

Another lecture attended was “‘ The history of St. David, in
Wales.” ‘There were also lectures on British Gipsies.

South Wales has a most magnificent coast-line and there are
so many beautiful cathedrals, also countless ancient and historic
castles, that one is thrilled by the beauty all around.

Snowden, 3,560 ft. is the highest mountain in Wales and
indeed in England ; it dominates the countryside. Caerphilly,
is one of the largest Welsh castles—it dates from the 13th
century.

Kidwilly Castle lies close to the industrial heart of South
Wales, yet the town nearby has its own sleepy charm.

56 THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION—SWANSEA 1971 REPORT

I must mention the Earl of Plymouth’s most generous gift
of St. Fagan’s Castle and grounds, to Cardiff. This gift made
this extraordinary and interesting Welsh Folk Museum possible.
The Museum represents the life and culture of a nation, and
illustrates the arts and crafts of a bygone community. Wander-
ing through the spacious and lovely grounds, with all its wealth
of antique articles too numerous to mention, time was all too
short, as Swansea lies some 26 miles from Cardiff.

This memorable week, as usual, seemed to be “‘ winged ” and
the final day arrived all too soon.

At the Meeting of the General Council which I attended, a
report was brought forward as to the future role of finances and
management of the Association. The report first of all reflects
on the seriousness of the financial situation. Evidently the
Council of late years, has not found it easy to raise enough
revenue to keep the income balanced. They intend to recon-
sider the role of the Association and to decide what activities to
give priority to. ‘They decided that too much is concentrated
on the Annual Meeting and not enough between Meetings on
popularizing Science amongst the youth of our country.

One resolution was unanimously agreed upon, that the 1972
Meeting to take place in Leicester, should commence on 4th
September and end on the gth.

Sir Alexander Cairncross, the President, explained that no
firm resolution has as yet been made by the Council. There
were two possibilities depending on finances available by 1973:—

(1) A Meeting in London.
(2) ota Meeting somewhere in Europe.

Thereafter the Meeting closed with warm appreciation to The
Lord Mayor and citizens of Swansea for their most kind hos-
pitality during this most memorable week in the Principality
of Wales.

I now take this opportunity of thanking the Council and
Members of The Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club for the great
pleasure I have had representing them as their delegate to so
many beautiful and historical places all over the British Isles,
for twenty years.

(Sed.) Margaret Hewat McWhir.

REPORT

Z. CARRICK, F.S.A. (Scots.)
One day Meeting by the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.
THE TWO ROMAN WALLS

On Saturday, May ist, 1971, the above Society held a one-day
meeting in the Library of the National Museum of Antiquaries,
Queen Street, Edinburgh.

The theme of the meeting was: The Two Roman Walls, i.e.

(1) Hadrian’s Wall.
(2) The Antonine Wall.
The assembly was limited to one hundred members, owing
to the restricted space of the Library.

A full attendance was recorded, and welcomed by Dr. Anne S.
Robertson, of the University of Glasgow, who acted as Chairman
and introduced the Lecturers, these were :—

Prof. Eric Birley, University of Durham.

Mr. R. E. Birley, Director of Excavations at Vindolanda.

Mr. Ian Maclvor, Inspector of Ancient Monuments (Scotland).
Dr. David Breeze, Inspector of Ancient Monuments (Scotland)

The Lectures—illustrated by means of sketches and colour
transparencies, covered past and present work at the Walls, and
in the Forts and Camps appertaining thereto. Also an interesting
“Pilgrimage along the Antonine Wall” (from the Firth to the
Clyde) was undertaken with Dr. Anne Robertson, by means of
colour slides and film.

Dr. David Breeze, made a “‘ Comparison between the Two
Roman Walls,” illustrating the ages and difference in construction
and style etc. :—

A general discussion and questions followed, then Prof.
E. I. C. Stones, University of Glasgow, Chairman of the Ancient
Monuments Board for Scotland brought the proceedings to a
close with a vote of thanks to all.

This was a most interesting and instructive meeting thoroughly
enjoyed by all present. In view of the popular demand for this
meeting it is hoped to arrange further “‘ one-day’ courses on
other subjects, in the near future.

57

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS
DURING 1971

Notes compiled by A. G. LONG, Hancock Museum, Newcastle
upon Tyne ; with records by D. G. LONG, Col. W. M. LOGAN
HOME and GRACE A. ELLIOT.

LIVERWORTS. Numbered as in Census Catalogue (4th
Edition). All records by D. G. L.

10/5 Riccia glauca. Hallington Reservoir. VC. 67, NY
962763, Sept. 13.

10/8 R. sorocarpa. As above.

R. cavernosa. Asabove. ‘This species has been confused
with Riccia crystallina until recent years in Britain.

10/14. R. hbuebenerana. Colt Crag, VC. 67, NY 926780,
Sept. 13.

20/9 Fossombronia wondraczekii. As for last species. Also at
Catcleugh Reservoir VC. 67, NT 731038, Sept. 14;
Watch Reservoir VC. 81, NT 664561, Oct. 7.

66/2 Odontoschisma denudatum. Moor above Killmade Burn.
ViG@i81, NIT 65 56057 Oct. 7:

70/13 Scapania nemorea. R. Dye near Rathburn, VC. 81,
NT 687571, Oct. 7.

70/19 S. subalpina. As above.

MOSSES. Numbered as in Census Catalogue (3rd Edition). All
records by D. G. L.

12/1 Ditrichum cylindrichum. Colt Crag, VC. 67, NY 926780,
Sept. 13 ; Watch Reservior VC. 81, NT 664561 ,Oct. 7.

21/1 Pseudephemerum nitidum. Watch Reservoir, VC. 81,
NT 664561, Oct. 7.

22/5 Dicranella rufescens. As for last species.

49/6 Tortella flavovirens. Fast Castle, VC. 81, NT 860711,
May 18.

52/8 Wetssia rostellata. Wallington Reservoir, VC. 67, NY
962763, Sept. 13.

53/1 Leptodontium flexifolium. Moor above Killmade Burn,
VC. 81, NT 655605, Oct. 7.

62/6 Ephemerum serratum vat. serratum. Watch Reservoir,
VC. 81, NT 664561, Oct. 7.

73/10 Poblia bulbifera. Colt Crag, VC. 67, NY 926780, Sept.
13; Watch Reservior, VC. 81 NT 664561, Oct. 7.

58

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS DURING 10971 59

73/11 P. annotina. Watch Reservoir as above.

77/28 Bryum micro-erythrocarpum. As fot last species.

77/30 B. klinggraefii. Catcleugh Reservoir, VC. 67, NT
731038, Sept. 14.

138/12 Brachythecium populeum. Fast Castle. VC. 81, NT
860711, May 18.

VASCULAR PLANTS numbered as in Dandy’s List (1958).
Records by A. G. L.

28/1 Botrychium lunaria. Moonwort. Gordon Moss, VC.
81, NT 64. Three plants found by Mr. Waldie in
grass verge near north side of old railway track ap-
proaching east end of Moss, on Club’s Botanical
Meeting, June 19.

Last century a specimen 14 inches high was found in
right-hand bog from Gordon (H.B.N.C. 9, 229, 293).

123/12 Szlene mnoctiflora. Night Flowering Catch-fly. West
Blanerne farmyard, VC. 81, NT 85, July 3; also in
stubble field at Edrom Mains, VC. 81, NT 85, Sept. 26.

206/15 Vicia angustifolia. Narrow-leaved Vetch. Gordon
Moss, VC. 81, NT 64, abundant on railway side, June
19.

544/3 Centaurea cyanus. Cornflower. Two plants in West
Blanerne farmyard, VC. 81, NT 85; also many on
seeded verges of Morpeth new bypass doubtless intro-
duced, VC. 67, NZ 18, July 3.

558/2/7 Huieracium aurantiacum. Orange Hawkweed. Gordon
Moss, VC. 81, NT 64, on old railway side, June 19.

The following Hawkweeds were identified by P. D. Sell
(Cambridge) through Dr. F. H. Perring.
§5§8/1/47 H. schmidtii. Dowlaw Dean near foot. VC. 81,
NT 87, 15/6/1963.
§5§8/1/73 H. brittaniciforme. Burnmouth sea braes, VC. 81,
NT 96, 7/5/1961.
558/1/99 H. grandidens. Newton Don, VC. 81, NT 73, growing
in grass sward near trees north-east of house,

11/7/1970.

ENTOMOLOGY.

Lepidoptera records.

Euclidia mi. Mother Shipton. Gordon Moss, VC. 81, NT 64,
flying by day, May, 18.

Hadena bombycina. Glaucous Shears. St. Baldred’s Cradle,
E. Lothian, VC. 82, NT 68. At rest on red sandstone seat,
May 19.

60 NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS DURING 1971

Chiasmia clathrata. Latticed Heath. Gordon Moss, VC. 81,
NT 64, June 19.

Ourapteryx sambucaria. Swallow-tailed Moth. Wooler, VC. 68,
early July, G. A. Elliot.

Allophyes oxyacanthae. Green-brindled Crescent. At rest on
wall near Legerwood Church, VC. 81, NT 54, Oct. 7.

ORNITHOLOGY

Chiffchaf. Singing in an Oak tree near Duns Castle, Club
meeting, June 4.

Wryneck. A single bird on passage in early autumn was seen at
Swinton House by Mrs. E. K. Swinton and Col. W. M. Logan
Home who reports: “‘ We had very close views of the Wryneck
here, from 5 to 20 yards. It was present all day. However,
it has been a sort of Wryneck “‘year.”” No fewer than 15
were on the Isle of May and stayed several days eating ants.
There were also several on Fair Isle, and 2 pairs actually
nested in the Spey Valley and brought off several young. I
have noticed a marked decrease in certain summer migrants :
vety few swifts, no whitethroats, and no sedge warblers
anywhere near here. There were no reed buntings on
Greenlaw Moor and tree sparrows have become scarce.” It
is of interest that Muirhead knew of only one record of the
Wryneck in Berwickshire when he wrote his book Birds of
Berwickshire.

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE
OF DR. JAMES HARDY WITH
MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Letter 26. Oldcambus, Jan. 21, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

The loss of the letters to Mrs. Thompson will be a great one.
It is just possible they may have been destroyed, as bundles of
old letters only accumulate dust, and your mother may have
had the same feeling about them that I have, that they are
sometimes so much below what they might have been in the
quality of their contents, that they were better out of the way.
However, this may be, I have been enquiring at two of my
friends, if they possess anything of the kind. One of them,
Mr. Robert Gray, says he never corresponded with your Father,
but he has one letter—apparently directed to Dr. Scouler once
of Glasgow—which he has among his collection of autographs.
If it is worth anything he will likely give me a copy, if I request
it. The other, Mr. Robert Hislop, Blair Bank, Falkirk, has
3 letters, but they are locked up in a drawer, of which the key
is lost. He intends to get the lock picked, and send the letters
EOlmy Cafe.:.,...

I have been quite occupied with writing articles for the Club.
Nobody yet has aided me to any appreciable extent, but I have
written almost enough for one number.... I could easily fill
the book, but I don’t wish to do more than my just share... .
There should be some provision for paper writing. If I was to
become occupied with something else, I don’t know what they
would do. I do not say this out of presumption, for actually
the whole burden of providing the ‘“‘ Proceedings” with
matter, is thrown upon me. The printer is getting on pretty
rapidly this year.

We have had a fortunate break up of the storm, but I have
been scarcely away from my own circuit as yet. The poor
thrush kind have almost disappeared since the hard treatment
they had on the coast, when they would probably consume all
the aliment they could find. I have found several dead birds
scattered here and there.

61

62 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

I am working to get through, and almost see day-light, but
some days feel very much inclined not to do anything, but to
be extremely lazy and read one of the many books, I have not
looked into ; and then the thought that the printer may overtake
me, urges me on afresh. How comfortable it is, to have nothing
to do with printers at all.

I hope you are keeping well. It is rather warm out of doors
after one walks a while, and apt to give one a cold.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours most truly,
James Hardy.

P.S.—Thursday. We have snow again. We will be better
prepared this time. I hope it will be only transient.

Note.-—Robert Gray, F.R.S.E., F.S.A. Scot., lived in Edin-
burgh and became a member of the Club in 1874. Notice of
his death is given in H.B.N.C. 12, 79 (July 1888). He con-
tributed several articles on the birds of East Lothian in Vols. 7-9.

The Mr. Thompson mentioned in the opening sentence was
probably William Thompson of Belfast. See Correspondence of
Dr. George Johnston, p. 458.

John Scouler, M.D., LL.D., F.L.S. (1804-1871) contributed
examples of sponges to Dr. Johnston’s History of British Sponges.
See Correspondence of Dr. George Joknston, p. 211.

Robert Hislop (1815-1880) educationist, compiled a “ List of
the rarer Coleoptera occurring chiefly in the Parish of Nenthorn ”
in H.B.N.C. 6, 335-343. He collected at Lurgie Loch before
it had dried up and mentioned that Bladderwort grew in the
pools of water. See Correspondence of Dr. George Johnston, p. 190.

Letter 27. Oldcambus, Feb. 16, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I beg to return the two interesting letters, you have favoured
me with a sight of, along with a small packet of your Father’s
and Mother’s letters, which I have borrowed from Mrs. Spoor
(Mr. Tate’s youngest daughter) on your behalf. ... I am
writing an obituary notice of her brother for the Club, and hence
this correspondence.... Ihave been very tired now and again,
but had to begin again to do what I could to supply matter.
A long article has come at length, all the way from Dorsetshire,
which will fill up the number to overflowing. It concerns the

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES 63
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Spiders which I have been collecting in the Borders from 1871-4.
How your Father would have hailed this contribution to his
favourite “‘ Eastern Borders”... .

Please excuse this line, as I have been busy all day.

Believe me.
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours very truly,
James Hardy.

Note.—George Ralph Tate, M.D., F.L.S. (1835-1874) was the
brother whose obituary notice Hardy wrote in H.B.N.C. 7,
334 7-

Letter 28. Oldcambus, March 15, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I now return Mr. Cunningham’s letter to you, having now
received the result of his enquiries, which thanks to your kind
intervention, were perfectly successful. I wrote to him, and
also Sir Walter Elliot, on Saturday night ; and having secured
this information about a scientific borderer, I must congratulate
you as being a most useful member of the Club ; and not only
on this, but on other occasions, a small hint from you, has led
to the more perfect knowledge wanted. This is the great
advantage of being acquainted with a large number of the best

of people.

Since I wrote you I have received for you the few letters of
your father sent to Mr. Robert Hislop. They relate to the
Corporation Academy... .

I have not seen much, since I wrote you. It has been pierc-
ingly cold and I have not been able to go much out, and have to
fight with headaches, etc, ; but I got a walk today, and saw the
Cormorants, and Herons, and ducks on the rocks, or afloat in
the cold sea. The linnets that used to be so numerous and
cheerful appear to have migrated this year, as I never hear them.
But the Thrush and Blackbird have revived their notes, as well
as the Lark. These impart a spring feeling to one’s walk,
although the sameness of winter is now becoming tiresome, and
we begin to long for fresh colouring, and balmy breezes... .

I see Dr. Gray has been taken away, following Sir Wm.
Jardine. In a short time, there will be few of your Father’s
contemporaries left. Mr. John Hancock has written an inter-
esting account of the Birds of Northumberland and Durham
for the Tyneside Club, with plates. They have more funds than
we, and are helped by a grant from the Natural History Society.

64 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Still what we produce is more readable than their almost strictly
scientific work... .

I hope you have been able to cope with this ungenial winter
successfully. It makes one thankful to have a fireside to sit at.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

Note.—Dr. John Edward Gray, F.R.S. (1800-1875) was keeper
of the zoological collection, British Museum and one of the
editors of the Aznals and Magazine of Natural History. See
Correspondence of Dr. George Johnston, p. 190.

Sir William Jardine, Bart., LL.D., F.R.S. (1800-1874) became
a member of the Club in 1832 and was President in 1836, An
obituary notice was written by his daughter Mrs. Strickland, in
TEBrN Cae 4o2=5.

John Hancock (1808-1890) was instrumental in raising funds
for building the natural history museum in Newcastle. After
his death it was named the Hancock Museum in honour of John
and Albany Hancock both naturalists well known to James
Hardy.

Letter 29. Oldcambus, April 5, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I beg to return you the letters you kindly sent, along with
Mr. Hislop’s enclosures, lest they get mixed with my own, or
the Club’s, correspondence. ...

I am sorry to hear your servant has been unwell—she appeared
to be a quiet careful woman. It is not easy to find people to
suit one, in these times, having the old fashioned ties of attach-
ment that prevent them, from shifting about; therefore a good
servant adds greatly to domestic comfort, and deserves a return
for the attention which she gives.

I hope you are getting quit of your cold. Everyone seems to
complain of the penetrating rigour of the past winter. I have
been trying an Insect hunt last week, but one requires to be
well wrapped up. One requires to do something to get the
mind off its winter ruts... .

Having obtained the history of James Richardson Logan, we
are now in search of that of Capt. Forsyth, an East Lothian man,
who wrote a work on Central India. His mother was a Brown of
Whitsom Newton, and I see the present proprietor is named
Forsyth Brown, for some reason or other. I am not sure that

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES 65
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

the life of Mr. Thompson who wrote a Flora of Berwick, was
ever fairly told. I have heard of several others worthy of
commemoration, since I began to enquire.

With best wishes,
Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

P.S.—Please return Mr. Hislop’s series to his address, lest I
neglect them if sent to me.

Note—John Vaughan Thompson, army surgeon, wrote A
Catalogue of Plants growing in the Vicinity of Berwick-on-Tweed
(1807) and numerous papers on Crustacea. See Correspondence
of Dr. George Johnston, p. 85.

Letter 30. Oldcambus, April 14, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

The proposal of advertising for any of your Father’s letters is
not likely to be attended with much result. Your Father’s
contemporaries have now either left the stage, or there is a mere
lingering remnant ; and it may be doubted if your request would
ever reach them. No one of his correspondents, if they could
be sought out, could come up to Dr. Gray, Mr. W. Thompson,
of Mr. Bowerbank, who were representative men, and the loss
of these is a great one. I do not think your Father would have
time to have a very extensive correspondence with any but those
interested in his own particular branches of study, or who took
a part in the promotion of those literary schemes he took in
hand. ‘These are known men, and if any of them survive would
be better reached by private application. The most likely party
to whom you could write is the printer of the Annals of Natural
History. I suppose it is still J. E. Taylor, Red Lion Court,
London. It used to be chiefly under his management. You
might ask him to make a statement at the end of one of the
monthly numbers, of your wishes. This was the only Magazine
to which your Father contributed. The “‘Athenaeum”’ is
extensively read, but its contributors and readers belong to a
different generation. ‘‘ Notes and Queries” is of no use in
this case ; and I have been impressed with its triviality in most
instances. The advertising sheet of the 77mes is so ample that
few have time to read it.

You have not yet tried if any of the Baird family have letters
in their possession.... The worst of it is that relatives remove

66 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

to other and more commodious houses, and destroy letters as
waste paper. Your father also thought very favourably of Dr.
Macgillivray and reviewed one of his books, and it was through
him that the LL.D. from Aberdeen was conferred. There will
be some letters there, if that is correct. Your Father used to
send his Fungi to the Rev. M. J. Berkeley, but I do not know
his address. There is also Professor Babington of Cambridge,
and the Rev. W. A. Leighton who writes on Lichens. Miss
Bell and Miss Hunter our honorary members used to contribute
Fungi, and may have kept some of the letters that passed. What
has come of Dr. Greville’s family of Edinburgh I never heard.
His books were sold in London. All these Edinburgh men are
gone, and there is nobody in their place. Prof. Balfour is the
only representative of the old Naturalists in that now almost
stagnant place. ‘There should be something at Twizell House
if it could be reached. Your father expected Mr. Selby to have
done something for the ornithology of the Eastern Borders. I
should not wonder that the missing. MSS. that Mr. Hepburn
laments, of the notes he had made for Macgillivray’s Birds, may
have been sent there for Mr. Selby’s opinion. I am not sure
that there is anything about Birds among the preparations for
the Fauna. It would be worth asking after, should you write
to Mr. Selby’s Representatives. I see Capt. Thomas is still
extant. Mr. Peach will be able to tell about him, and other
Edinburgh Naturalists, when you have his company. ‘There
were several poems in the MSS. of the Flora, before it took its
present form, by the Rev. James Macaulay. I didn’t know how
your father got them. ‘This gentleman was or is the Editor of
the Lessure Hour. Probably Dr. Maclagan may have that MS.,
and you would there find who contributed. It had black
figures of Border Naturalists. It used to be brought out for
me tolook over ; and was not identical with what subsequently
appeared in print. You have not yet tried J. O. Westwood,
who used to visit at Berwick, now Professor at Oxford (I forget
the Title of the Chair—Hope Lecturer or something) but it does
not matter. Your Father also corresponded with W. Spence,
Rsq., of the firm of “Kirby and Spence.” I do not know his
representatives, Mr. Spence used to say that your Father’s
letters on Conchology were the best reproduction of the manner,
of their famous book. His early Botanical correspondence
would be with Mr. Winch of Newcastle. Mr. Winch left all
his correspondence to the Linnaean Society, of which I recollect
your father expressing his disapproval, owing to the confidential
nature of some of the letters. I do not recollect anyone else
at present, of whom I have heard him speak.

I will try to avail myself of your kind invitation to Berwick

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES 67
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

at the Holy Island meeting, and hope to have much pleasure in
Mr. Peach’s company. He and I are very friendly when we
meet—and our correspondence is not of yesterday. The day
of meeting will have to be June 23 to suit the tide. If Miss
Dickenson is still with you, please to remember me kindly to
her. I must try and bring her from Holy Island, the plants she
did not get finished.... Iam at present making inquiries for
the Melrose meeting on May 12.... Igo from here to Melrose
and return by Kelso and Cornhill for Wooler, where Mr. Milne
Home may come to meet me. I have an errand at Kelso to
inspect Sir Geo. Douglas’s library, and bring away what suits
me, but I do not see, how I can accomplish that at present... .

I have got some notes from Oxford about the Dunse Pro-
fessor—Robertson, of whom I got a memoir for the Club, to
read at Melrose. You are welcome to Mr. Hislop’s letter. I
think he intended that I should send it to you, as explanatory.
I was disappointed in the letter.

Believe me,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

Note.—William Macgillivray, LL.D. (1805-1852) was Professor
of Natural History in Aberdeen University. See Corres-
pondence of Dr. George Johnston, p. 189.

Rev. William Allport Leighton, B.A., F.L.S. (1805-89), wrote
books on Lichens and a Flora of Shropshire.

Miss Elizabeth Bell of Coldstream and Miss Hunter of Anton’s
Hill were extraordinary members of the Club at its founding
inet $3i1.

Robert Kaye Greville, LL.D., F.R.S.E., F.S.A. Scot. (1794-
1866), was an accomplished botanist born in Bishop Auckland.
He wrote Flora Edinensis in 1824 and other works. On Aug.
28, 1848, Dr. Hardy accompanied Dr. Greville and other
Edinburgh naturalists on an excursion along the Berwickshire
coast described in Hardy’s Notebook No. 4, 337-344.
Prideaux John Selby, M.A.,- F:R.S.E., F.L.S. (1788-1867)
became a member of the Club in 1832 and was President in
1834 and 1844. For obituary notice see H.B.N.C. 5, 336-8.
Archibold Hepburn, Esq., Whittingham joined the Club in
1847 (H.B.N.C. 2, 200) and contributed many articles chiefly
on birds.

Capt. F. W. L. Thomas (died 1885) served in the Admiralty
Survey and was interested in antiquities and marine dredging.
See Correspondence of Dr. George Johnston, p. 361.

68 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Charles William Peach, A.L.S. (1800-1886) was a self taught
naturalist and keen fossil collector. See Correspondence of Dr.
George Johnston, p. 222.

John Obadiah Westwood, F.L.S. (1805-1893) became Pro-
fessor of Zoology at Oxford in 1861. See Correspondence of
Dr. George Johnston, p. 63.

William Spence, F.R.S., F.L.S. (1783-1859) was joint author
of the famous Introduction to Entomology by Kirby and Spence.
See Correspondence of Dr. George Johnston, p. 441.

Nathaniel John Winch (1768-1838), Sheriff of Newcastle in
1805, wrote Flora of Northumberland and Durham (1831). See
Correspondence of Dr. George Johnston, p. 80.

Rev. Professor Abraham Robertson, D.D., F.R.S. (1751-1826)
son of a Taylor in Duns was a pedlar in youth but later moved
to London and eventually became Savilian Professor of
astronomy at Oxford. See article by J. Hardy in H.B.N.C.

7, 396-401.

Letter 31. Oldcambus, April 27, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

During the few past days.... I came upon further particu-
lars about St. Margaret, which, although Miss Crossman may
already possess them, it is sometimes helpful to have noted
down for an investigator. I shall therefore place them on a
slip of paper—the references merely—so that it may be judged
whether they ate of any special use or not. When you send
them, would you kindly mention, that if Mr. Crossman is to
entertain us as he proposed, when we are to have the Holy
Island meeting, that I shall have to be in communication with
the family about arrangements preparatory for it, sometime in
course of June. I will not be home here, after going to Wooler,
till June. When there I will be in close communication with
Mr Bolam of Weetwood, Mr. Crossman’s land agent, and may
perhaps get his help.... Mr Bolam offered to drive me to the
Island, and may do so again. Mr. Milne Home is to join me at
Wooler, and Mr. Bolam is to aid us.... We are going to take
levels of heights of gravel banks and other indications of ancient
shores.... I wish to avoid writing much during the summer ;
as close work all winter has quite disarranged my process of
digestion. I have not got those Ford papers nearly copied, and
they are too interesting to be allowed to be lost.

I have to go to Greenlaw on Thursday, on a Jury, and will
call on the Rev. J. Walker, the parish Minister, a fine old man,

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES 69
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

although rather prosy. If I escape being called, I may have a
walk up the Blackadder, with Mr. Walker. He is the adviser
of Lady John Scott, in her antiquarian pursuits.

The weather has now a fresh spring feeling, and we have
several arrivals of summer birds. Today I have seen several
swallows, both the settlers, and also small migratory parties.
The Primroses which are so abundant on the sea banks here, are
not yet fully expanded; but large beds of pileworts glitter here
and there among the rising grass. I see the sheep today nibbling
the primrose flowers. In Spring they appear to eat almost every
green thing ; but I never saw them touch primroses, as there is
something about them, not acceptable to the taste of beasts.
Remembering the taste of children for them, I thought them a
very appropriate mouthful for young sheep, which are always so
much milder looking, than when older.

I have now got my papers ready in some measure for the
Melrose meeting. I have sent an invitation to Mr. Peach’s son,
who resides at Gattonside, and is one of the Geological Survey,
to be the Club’s guest at Melrose.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Very truly yours,
James Hardy.

INote.—Benjamin Neeve Peach, A.R.S.M., LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S.,
F.R.S.E., (1842-1926) was a District Geologist with H.M.
Geological Survey and wrote The Geological Structure of the
North West Highlands of Scotland (1907).

Letter 32. Wooler, June 1, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

Your letter has found me at home on this bright day, and |
welcome it as a first-footing for another year, and viewed and
read with interest the various enclosures. I enjoy these better
when I am at home, which is always a comfortable word in
many respects. I have seen Mr. Bolam and commissioned him
about Raine. He knows the price it should go at to be secured.
It sells as low as 18/- and as high as £3/10/-, and the book-
seller’s price is {2/2/-, beyond which he is not to go. I got
better of my cold, the first week I was here, and then applied to
collecting, but the weather was too windy, and I have only had
two productive days, although many delightful walks. There
ate few places where there are finer hawthorn bushes spangling
the braes, and woods, and river banks, and the evening air is

7o EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

redolent of the scented blossoms. When insects are not to be
had I betake myself to note the habits of birds, as each pair can be
viewed within its small circle, retained therein by the domestic
ties. I startle several sedge warblers in my walk daily about the
same place, who keep up a great racket of song till I am past,
and then subside. I have thrice come accidentally upon nests,
and seen the vain shifts to decoy the intruder, which, however,
I respect, by leaving the vicinity forthwith. The district is well
peopled with small birds. I was expecting Mr. Middlemas
today, but he has not called. I was going to give him a sight
of your Father’s letters, but if he does not mention them, will
not offer a second time. Most of our members belong to a
race who “‘ knew not Joseph,” and I am not familiar with them,
so that I hesitate about letting them see what they cannot
apprteciate....

Mr. Milne Home will now be expected daily, to give a new
turn to observation. But I keep my eyes open, for any fact
that may aid, when he commences.

I would like to have visited Mr. Cunningham, but the day
appeared favourable for walking, and I could do the journey
better now. I would like to see Mr. Logan’s Journal to note
his writings. I find Sir Walter is very slow, and rather careless
in his citations. I don’t think I shall trouble Sir George Douglas
for any of his rare books till winter, and so will not take the
Kelso trip, at present. Each day now should be producing
something new, but I find each alternate day sufficient ; setting
up on card what I have secured the day previous. My reading
is rather inane ; some old fashioned novels have come in my way,
which I read more to see how the story is told, than for the
story. There is a library in the town ; but I wanted rest and not
reading, or writing; for I cannot read without note-taking.

My stay now will depend on the “ Proceedings” coming, as I
have exhausted some of the nooks where insects might be
obtained. To succeed in obtaining variety, many localities
require to be visited. I have been at the foot, but have not
offered to ascend Cheviot.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

Note.—This letter was written on his birthday, hence the refer-
ence to “‘ first footing.”

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES 71
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Letter. 33. Oldcambus, June 16, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I reached home last night, having tired of waiting any longer
at Wooler. At almost the last moment, I was told that one of
the plates was not ready, and it may take a fortnight yet to
complete. This is very annoying, after my having to write
Sir Walter Elliot rather sharply for delaying the proofs. Mr.
Milne Home did come at last, and I had three delightful days
in his company, and he was very successful in his visit. We
explored the valley of the Till from Wooler and Doddington
down to Tindal House, and crossed and re-crossed it there
several times. On Saturday I went with him to Cornhill, and
we called at Millfield Hill, and Flodden farm,— went down to
Heatherslaw, passed through Crookham, and examined part of
Pallinsburn policy. He will give an account of what he saw
at the Cheswick Meeting.

Owing to Mr. Wright refusing us long carts to take over the
Members, the visitors to the island will be lessened greatly, and
if Mr. Peach comes, he and I may be left on the strand altho’
Mr. Bolam promises to take me over. I have written him to
say Mr. Peach may be there also, and to ask him to wait till the
morning train arrives. I will scarcely be able to come to
Berwick till Tuesday for tea, and probably my stay will be short
if Mr. Peach is not present. I have been away too long for one
trip, already. Everything, however, has gone right in my
absence, and the place is looking well.

I met Dr. Maclagan yesterday when I was approaching the
Station. I am afraid he encountered a heavy thunderstorm in
his passage to Wooler. I went out to explore Easington Crag,
and was overtaken by the rain before I got back. We have
thunder and rain here this evening, and it will do much good.
The country looks worst in the vicinity of Berwick.

I am expecting to get some letters for you, at least I am
inquiring.

I have got the Scots Acts of Parliament 10 vols. folio, wanting
vol. 1. There will be much historical information in this set.
Lady John Scott got nothing in the tomb, she opened at Green-
Co

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours truly,
James Hardy.

72 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Letter 34. Oldcambus, July 12, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

You will be wearying for your “‘ Proceedings,” which every-
body else, except yourself has got last week. I have not found
time yet to go to the station to deliver them in a parcel, with
your Father’s letters as you requested ; but I am going to Dunbar
on Wednesday, and will take them with me. You see, I have
not a servant to go errands, and I do not interfere with the farm-
workers at such busy periods as the present. We have got
permission from the Duke of Roxburghe’s agent to see Brox-
mouth Park and grounds at the Dunbar meeting. There are
no beds to be got at Dunbar at present owing to the officers of
a militia regiment occupying the inns and private lodgings, so
that I will have to give warning in the circular. It can easily
be accomplished from Berwick, or Dunse, or Edinburgh. I
have not heard, except from Mr Carr-Ellison, how the Proceed-
ings are liked. He says, he sat up till midnight reading the
book, and had still more to read. I sent a copy of “‘ Proc” to
Miss Rooke, I didn’t say who sent it. Miss Langlands is
pleased with her father’s memoir. The other sisters are at
present lodging in Newcastle. She is a very nice worthy person.
Our Norham visit was not so fruitless as it seemed; and the
meeting with Mr. Smith was fortunate. A box of curious
stones, from Mr. Johnson of Ramrig, is on its way here; one
being the stone hammer Mr. Smith spoke about. I did not
miss Miss Dickinson’s plants. I can examine with interest all
kinds of ladies’ work, as well as drawings of plants. Since our
visit repairs have commenced on Norham Castle, and a cannon
bullet has been found in the top of the wall. The cementing
will preserve the venerable structure for a long time to come
I have got a pamphlet from the Town Clerk on the Grammar
School, containing some curious antiquarian citations from the
Rolls office of the town records. There is mention of your
father init. I feel a great interest in the history of the good old
town. I have heard of a copy of “‘ Raine’s N. Durham,”
through Mr. Bolam, and have written for it. It will scarcely
be sold during the interval.... I have heard from Dr. Hender-
son of Chirnside’s son. He is not sure whether your Father’s
letters are preserved or not... when he has time he will examine,
and send if any remain.

I have got a number of new Flint Implements from Penman-
shiel, and neighbouring farms, of new types from those figured,
and some more have come to light, in private hands. Possibly
we may bring a whole chapter to light about the ancient inhabi-
tants of the district. About 50 pieces of flint were brought to

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES 73
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

me, from a locality where there is no flint, except brought
there by human agency....

We have had a most beneficent rain. All Nature looks
thriving in this quarter. I will be busy now, till after the Club’s
Meeting. I may perhaps write a paper in the interval on the
first Battle of Dunbar, temp. Edw. I.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

Letter 35. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
July 29, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I have your favour, and am glad to hear you continue well.
I have not troubled you with the Report of Meeting this time,
as the Newspapers can do their own work, in their special way
of s/ips. I first full made out the report for Kelso Chronicle, as
it relies on me; and I know the Editor, who is one of our
members, and have experienced his hospitality in Club business,
when I would have had to go to an Inn, which I detest.... Our
meeting as regards numbers was disappointing, and has run the
Club in debt, more dinners being ordered than eaten. However,
they missed something, for this meeting was the most enjoyable
of the season, and we had a fair tramp out in the old Club style.
That day I sent the parcel to you, I visited Dunbar, but found
the place full of military and visitors, and the servants at the Inn
I expected to take the dinner were unwell, and the Yeomanry
races being the day before, they couldn’t get up anything decent.
I went to the minister and asked him about East Linton, and he
told who I should call on. So I took the mid-day train, and
soon found myself in that unknown locality, where I found a
landlady willing, and a room to suit. I then set off towards
Tynninghame, and found that one could walk through the
grounds direct to the sea, and even past the house, as the Earl
of Haddington had left that morning. I knew the manager,
but I did not chance to meet him, but inquired my way onwards,
passing round the mansion, till I found an avenue that terminated
at the sea-side. ‘The place is full of avenues and cross roads,
and the wood of vast extent, so that a stranger might easily go
astray. ‘This track landed me on the salt marshes at the mouth
of the Tyne, which contain numerous maritime plants. The
woods come down to the shore, and a spit of sand covered with
buckthorn enclosed the stretch of “‘ salt green’ or marsh, and

74 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

there being no outlook, when one came there it looked like a
place where no man dwelt or passed through. But the East
end of the bay came out, as I moved on, disclosing Hedderwick
woods and the town and point of Dunbar. Further on a point
of sandy bent runs out and terminates in a blunt rocky promon-
tary, called Whitberry point, infamous for shipwrecks, and as I
went over the ridge, suddenly the Bass jumped up in sight, with
its white cliffs, and red-tiled garrison house above the landing
place. Soon after I encountered the head gamekeeper, who
entered into my scheme, told me how to proceed by not address-
ing the agent, but the Earl himself, whose address he furnished.
He then constituted himself as guide, and showed all that was
interesting within view, asked me to take a cup of tea, and he
would set me by a near track to Dunbar, instead of returning to
Linton. I found both his wife and he were respectable people,
and that their children were getting on well in business.... In
fact, I might have had the whole family history, had time
permitted. Again on march, we went. round the house, to the
family cemetery, which is a ruined parish church close beside
the mansion ; and then crossed the Tyne by a private bridge, and
walked the five miles to Dunbar, and did not miss the train
this time, as I did on the same ground when at the Bass... .
After we had breakfasted yesterday, the minister of Whitekirk,
who is an antiquarian, came to meet us, and took our two most
infirm members, Sir Walter Elliot, and Dr. Hood, who is now
88, down to Tynninghame House, while the rest walked. The
President was there, and I find him most intelligent on a great
variety of subjects.... We broke up into parties, and I read
my paper on the Battle of Dunbar to 8 including myself. We
were the most advanced of the company along the coast, and
had the gamekeeper as guide. So we took a new route back-
wards up the Binning woods along one of those endless looking
avenues, which we were all wearied of, till we gained a public
road, and wheeled round towards East Linton. We gained the
Inn just in time for dinner, but the Salmon was long in coming

. and I had to telegraph for it. We were rather thinly
scattered in the room. I read Dr. Stuart’s paper sitting ; I was
to fited to stand... ...

I am glad to hear you have a likelihood of getting your
father’s letters to Mr. Selby, as it will likely be an interesting
series.

I shall probably go to Wooler next week for a week or ten
days before harvest commences... .

There is no end of trouble out of doors at present with Birds
stealing the ripening corn. There appear to be heavy crops,
and I wish it was ripe, and safely stored.

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES 75
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

I intended to write only a line to explain why T had not sent
you a report, but I have run on to a great length. I have more
letters to write.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

Note.—Sit Walter Elliot (1803-1887) of Wolfelee was President
of the Club in 1869. See Memoir in H.B.N.C. 14, 358-365.
Dr. Robert Hood of Edinburgh became a member in 1848
anaerdied in 1885, see 4.B.IV.C. 11, 7.

Letter 36. Oldcambus, Aug. 17, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I got yours on Saturday evening on my return from Wooler,
to which I went on the third. I had gloomy moist weather,
and did not effect much by way of exploration ; but I enjoyed
the quiet and retirement, which I always find there. My gentle
friend there is now left alone after five year’s attendance on her
bed-rid mother, and has nobody to advise her. It was thus my
duty to go there, and stay while I could. When Mr. Dunlop
called we were taking our mid-day meal, and I could not go out
with him. I did not see him in Berwick, at which I arrived late,
having made a long journey to see the country by Chatton, and
actoss themoors. It was hot and very fatiguing. My brother
was in Berwick, but had left early. and I found him here on my
return. He had seen Mr. Dunlop in the street. We are pre-
paring for harvest on Thursday. I will not be at the Yetholm
Meeting. The Circulars will be too late this time; but those
who are going will have made up their minds beforehand. I
will rebel sometime, for being so strictly confined, and tied to
one spot. I return the letter enclosed. I do not know Mr.
Grieg, but will be happy to correspond with him.... I am
not writing a history of Berwickshire; merely collecting for
memoirs on different localities, to meet the Club’s exigencies. I
have got a copy of Raine ; so that Mr. Gray’s is free... .

I will now have a busy time at home, but I wish to have a
day in East Lothian before the harvest commences.

Tam,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours very truly,

James Hardy.

Note.—George Dunlop wrote a List of Berwickshire Coleoptera
in H.B.N.C. 2, 20-27.

76 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

The “‘ gentle friend”? mentioned in this letter was Hardy’s
future wife, Ann Halliday, they were married in 1877.

Letter 37. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
AMG 25,0875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

You are indebted for this to a wet morning, as I am very busy
at present, and very tired at night. It is clearing off, of which
I am glad, for the Club’s sake. Dr. Douglas is officiating today.
He thinks there will be a larger meeting, than we anticipated, as
Sit George Douglas was likely to bring a party of Cambridge
students with him, who are staying at Springwood Park; and
Professor Balfour is to be there also. I had read of Dr. Archibold
in the Newspaper. He is to be proposed at Yetholm in my
name, and seconded by Dr. Douglas. We are going to have a
new Lady member in Miss Langlands, who wishes to continue
the ‘‘ Proceedings”. Her father was a great favourite of the
Club, and did everything in his power. to promote its objects.
The subject of publishing Mr. Tate’s papers will be brought
before the meeting, and they will be welcomed. I am going to
examine them further today. . .

We have had favourable weather till today, and the crop is a
good one, except where eaten by the immense numbers of
ravenous birds. If we had only good weather, a week would
finish whatI have to cut. The harvest mite is very annoying
here, one dare not sit on the grass. and even the stone walls
appear to be over-run with them. A few showers will probably
allay the pest. .

With kind regards,
Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

Letter 38. Oldcambus, Sept. 6, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I have not had any adventures to relate since my last. I had
not much to do in the beginning of harvest, while the Reaping
Machines were going, as my youngest brother came over to
superintend. This is a curiously lying place, with flat fields,
and rocks, and steep banks, and deep craggy ravines, and the
crop cannot be cut, always by the “ Reapers”; however, we
got the men tied on, and razed down most of the standing corn,
in that way ; the rest had to be cut by sickle. I have only had
4 or 5 days standing behind those cutting beans, and it is very
wearisome on the limbs. Great numbers of thrushes and black-

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES 77
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

birds, and hedgesparrows and whitethroats were disturbed,
during the process, and seemed perplexed, when they were
dislodged from cover. The Bean and Pease crop is very heavy.
Our cutting will be finished tomorrow. Stacking is going on
at the same time ; some nine stacks have been erected ; and about
1% stacks was thrashed furnishing beautiful white oats. A good
deal of barley, and all the wheat is out yet, and it takes a good
while to lift it, from the steep ground ; and it is a far way off
also; but nothing is to be feared, if the weather is good.
There are lots of rabbits among the corn, about a dozen being
killed per day. ‘There was a wee young one today, the workers
kept from destruction, and let away ; also a young mouse which
they caught nibbling corn. Both got liberty; for country
folks are not destitute of compassion.

If you suspect any bugs are about the woodwork, after all
your efforts, the best thing is a coat of paint. At Penmanshiel
once, they got introduced by a servant’s chest, it was supposed,
and everything had to be carried out, and left exposed to the
open air for a long time ; and some of the older wooden articles
were burnt. I was not at home, but recollect seeing them out
of doors, when on a visit. Old sofas, and seats near beds are
to be avoided in poor houses. Bugs occasionally occur in
farm servants’ houses, and I once met with one, after taking
tea in one of the Cheviot shepherd’s houses ; so that the horrible
nuisances ate widely diffused. A bench or seat of wood is
safer than those stuffed masses of corruption used as chairs... .

I enclose my copy of the Battle of Dunbar. I unfortunately
dirtied it, with the rusty door key, which sometimes I have to
carry with me. The verses quoted are so antique you will
scarcely understand them.....

Dr. Douglas received a note from Miss Bell of Springhill,
Coldstream, complaining that notices of Club Meetings were
still sent addressed to Miss Hunter, who had died in November
last, of which fact she had given notice. Whom she gave
notice to I know not, but this is the first time I have been in-
formed of it. She should have sent back the Club’s Proceedings,
as well. Perhaps Mr. Cunningham will ascertain for me the
date of Miss Hunter’s decease, without troubling this peevish
lady. The only communication I have had from her, was that
she was annoyed with being called Mrs. Bell, in the previous
list of the Club’s Members, so I have addressed her as Miss Bell,
ever since. I believe I have a letter or two of Miss Hunter’s ;
perhaps a word should be said about her being a correspondent
of your father’s, and also a notice of the plants she discovered.
Dr. Douglas’s remark is “to draw a pen across Miss Hunter’s
name,” but it will not do to extinguish our lady members, in

78 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

that clerk-like fashion, after such repeated toasting of their good
healths, and holding them up as paragons. But I have another
wearying day before me tomorrow, and then I hope my heavy
work is over.
With kind regards,
Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

Letter 39. Mill Vale, Wooler, Oct. 1, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I beg to enclose the Notice of the Alnwick Club Meeting
which I intended for the Advertiser, for you to read, and you are
at liberty to give it to other papers, but do not copy it....

The Alnwick Meeting was quite a success, and the day was
filled up with varied entertainment. I had been promised a
bed by one of the members, and wrote to him I was coming, but
when I landed along with Mr. McDouall, we met him, and he
told me, he had been from home, and he had no bed to offer.
We found both Inns full; but got beds in a private house ; a
nice quiet place and cleanly ; and if ever I have to return I will
go there, instead of trusting to private benevolence. I came up
here yesterday, but could not write anything in time for the
Newspapers ; so none of them will have a full report till next
week.... I will stay about three weeks here. I have a good
deal of work to do, with collecting facts for future papers ; and
I expect Mr. Milne Home also to be in the neighbourhood. It
has come on to rain again, but if the weather opens up, I hope to
breathe the hill air soon. There was a fine view of Cheviotland
yesterday morning on the way up from Alnwick. The hawthorn
bushes are becoming quite scarlet with the load of haws. At
Old Bewick I had the pleasure of seeing the pretty wayside cross
erected by the Miss Langlands at the side of the road to Bewick
restored Chapel. I am afraid it will meet the fate of milestones,
and is far too good for our wayside travellers to have within
reach. Rosedean well known to your Father lay opposite
Bewick, remarkable at present only by its bare fields stretching
up to the back moors. I have seen nobody here as yet, but I
am going to call on Rev. Wm. Proctor, before I leave. You
will be glad to see the prosperity of the Club. These notices
serve to keep up its life, like the circulars, although there is not
much im them, to render them lively.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES 79
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Letter 40. Mill Vale, Wooler, Oct. 12, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I thank you much for your trouble about the Reports, and
for sending me the Newspapers containing them. . .

I have been reading a good deal since I came here. I find Mr.
Somerville’s life interesting, but there is not a great deal to be
learned from it.... I have also been studying Lyell’s “‘ Anti-
quity of Man”... My longest walk was to Ross Castle in
Chillingham Park, last Monday. It was a beautiful day, and
the Chillingham trees were seen in perfection. I have met with
no view so extensive as from the top of the hill. The North-
umbrian coast was visible from Holy Island to beyond Wark-
worth, the whole lighted up by the autumnal sun, which is
always accompanied with shadows that add to the distinctness
of lineament. There was a vast barren moor all round in the
south, but beyond it lay Alnwick woods, and the rising grounds
further over ; still continuing round lay Thrunton Crags dark
and gloomy, and Whittingham Vale at their feet ; then further
on Simonside with its mural crown, and a long streak of dark
cloud almost resting on its summit. Its sides were dark and
gloomy, but the sun smiled along the Coquet round its base,
and there is wide flat space there netted with hedges, and orna-
mented with spreading trees. A dark ridge continued all round,
and a notch in it, indicates the whereabouts of Harbottle, and
somewhere in the remoteness of the bleak moors lie Elsdon
and Otterburn field. Nearer lay the height of Biddleston, and
Netherton, on to Prendwick and Fawdon, all green grassy hills,
not far off. The Park below was seen very distinctly; you
could look into every corner, and trace the winding of all its
woods, and the shaping of its clumps and single trees. The
great stretch of Hetton valley, and still more extensive, Milfield
plain, lay unfolded free of mistiness, and beyond them Scotland
like a frame to the bright picture. Halidon Hill, Mordington
House, etc., were most distinct. There was a charm all around.
Clouds gathered on the Cheviots at night, and there seemed to
be an elemental war in that region, and raking clouds were
disposed along the hill ranges in two different directions. The
sunset sky was filled with bright hues, seldom seen together,
pale blue background, with light brown masses and silvery
maculae, which finally became scarlet. Dark shadows stole
over the landscape on one side, while the other retained its
green hues, but sobered by the deepening gloom. A pale
moon lay like a wan crescent, on a little patch of pale green,
among a mass of dark clouds. Another day I went to Heathpool, a
farm place in antique style, far remote among surrounding hills,

80 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

and nature’s wildness. There is a linn or rather rapid here,
owing to College having to cross a mass of tock, through a
ravine. The water rages and tosses—sleeps in dark pools like
that of oblivion—then breaks away in foam, again reposes in a
black cauldron, overhung by trees—and then pursues its river
function as before. The winding of the streams here is some-
thing wonderful. They look like long glossy ribbons just unfolded
to the breeze. The banks of College are curiously speckled
with whin bushes. There are some pretty trees on its borders,
especially in the hollows. At the base of the hills among the
ferns there is such a collection of hawthorns over the flat, and
so various in form, that it rivals a park, that owes its charms to
cultivated taste. The return was across the Cheviot Moors.
Near at hand there were continual undulations of hills. Far
off lay Scotland painted by the sunbeams, but you could not
point out localities, in such multiplicity. Nearer, Norham
Castle gleamed bulky amid the dark woods around it; and
nearer Etal and Ford and their well wooded domains kept one
gazing and gazing on, loath to lose the charm of the picture.
Entering now on a wild moor, a different scene arose, the range
of Cheviot and Hedgehope were inky black—there were both
darkness and shadow in that gloom. <A cold wind swept the
grassy bent, and kept it twinkling with motion; and brown
patches of moorland dappled all the scene. The greener
portions were specked with numerous sheep and cattle, all very
distinct in the strange light, from a partially cloudy sky. There
was a strange optical illusion on Newton Torr, where the clouds
were rapidly skimming along the peak. One of the rocks began
to move in the contrary direction, like a person walking along
the side. Further on there were fine orange glows from ferny
hollows as the day closed, and glooms came down on the ridges
and deepened all their lines.

Yesterday I went to Doddington.... Mrs. Procter shewed
me the church, fresh decorated for the Harvest Thanksgiving.
We also talked of her son and brother.... A fresh wreath of

geraniums rests on his tomb. I had his company there on the
same anniversary two years ago. His mother appeared to
dwell on his memory. I did not stay long, but went further
on to examine some fossils recently found in a quarry, to ascer-
tain if they could be sent to the Berwick Museum. The man
who found them appeared to be willing, so that the Museum
managers should try to secure them. There are two cart loads
at least. I returned over the “‘ Dodd hill,’ and examined
an inscribed stone recently discovered. There is again a fine
prospect from this elevated peak, of the long broad valley, and
jts far reaching arms, and the silvery streams with their myriad

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES 81
HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

windings, glittering in the light. There were fine dark shadows
on the hill region, while a shower was passing, and golden
beams streaming in pencils away behind the parts beclouded.

This is a rough sketch of my proceedings, which are put a
stop to by a frost last night. I will resume my operations this
afternoon. I shall probably stay to the end of next week, and
then bid farewell to this place foratime. I expect to have a few
more outlooks from the high places, including Cheviot before
I leave.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

Note.—Mrs. Procter was wife of the Vicar of Doddington, Rev.
William Procter, M.A., who died in 1876 and of whom Hardy
wrote a memoir in H.B.N.C. 8, 230-232. He was prede-
ceased by his son, Rev. William Procter, B.A., who died in
1874 in Devon but was buried in Doddington Churchyard
(see Hardy’s memoir in H.B.N.C. 7, 181-182).

TREASURER’S FINANCIAL STATEMENT FOR THE YEAR ENDING 22nd SEPTEMBER, 1971.

INCOME EXPENDITURE
Credit Balance at 22nd September, 1970 .. a £240.73 Printing of History 1970 (Provisional estimate) .. £394.56
4 Printing and Stationery
Subscriptions Printing of Club notices, postage, and stencils .. 137.81
: g u f 5) :
Annual, Junior and Library .. | £661.70 ean el gcmonred Book and Minute Book ie
Entrance Fees . + . 40.00 Purchase of Club Badges .. a IEE)
Sale of Badges . a > 25-55 Insurance, Books and Public
Liability ef =< a 8.00
Arrears a re i‘ oe 54-22 Duplicating of Statements iS 2.00
761.25 Refund of Subs. overpaid . 3 1.25
Postage of Cards for Subscriptions 6.45
Slide Show .. z its ue 25515
Coldingham Excavation 3 5% 76.50
Bank charges se as sis 2.20
——- 120.15
Subscriptions
Sundries Chillingham Wild Cattle .. Es £1.05
British Association .. .00
Deeds of Covenant aa 2 £38.86 Assoc. fot Preservation of Rural é
Donations .. # es, * 0.50 fe Ser. ee oe = 1.00
: Tae ouncil of British Archaeolo as .00
verpald Sue ae y 1 Scot. Reg. Cl. British ee 6
40.61 —_—___-—__—__—_ 14.44
Officials’ Expenses
Mr. W. Ryle Elliot (Secretary) .. £29.25
Mts. McWhir (Delegate to Brit.
Association) 10.00
Revie) ds. G; Finnie ‘(Editing Sec. ) 2.00
Mr. W. O. Morris (Treasurer) .. 13.82
Sa Se 55-07
Credit Balance at Bank, 22nd Septem-
bet, 197 ty a0. ee ae am £306.76
Cash on hand .. js sh Bu 6.18
i eas a cae 312.94

£1,042.59 _ £1,042.59

*1L61 ‘saquiajdag yok “JOINSIT[, “UOFT

‘AIDDAD ‘9D ‘d ‘SIUYOW 'O ‘A
‘y97IOD PUNO; puv poypny

zLgloF
zLgloF
gb-zLl —
oh sie rs zs Poppe 3so70}UT
96:LoF aS ** -ydaq younsoauT yetseds
go'zez ——_————
B19 ee ee we ee ee ee purg ul Zp) 9$'F1 our an Or poppe soTOIUT
bS-zLoF Of Liz 7 a9 "+ 4daq qJuounsaauy qersads
ghzL car (‘3d9q yUoWseaAuT [eIDedS) 9z"19
gozz or (adaq jueuNssauT Tered¢) LBP oi 2c of, Poppe 3se70}UT
9z"19 a oe yuvg sSuravg oo3snz 7, 6L°6S F oy oL61 ‘zaquiaidag 3 souLTEg
gL906F a ‘+ puepjoog Jo yueg tehoy JUnOIIEy Jualugs sau
yung ut ysvD bG-zis F sli af rs JUNOIY [eIsueyH WIZ parssiey
SLA SS . SH LETHAL.

LHHHS HONV IVE

7)

ss

-
’
¢
S
-
‘ ss

HISTORY |

OF si

s
¢
oI
a:
%
7
:
ct J
‘a
‘
z a
;
ij
'
i
) i
‘
a
Sah
"
A {
P)
: J
f

; NC dd] LW
Resi BERWICKSHIRE

_ NATURALISTS’ CLUB

INSTITUTED SEPTEMBER 22, 1831

“MARE ET TELLUS, ET, QUOD TEGIT OMNIA, C@&LUM”

VOL. XXXIX. Part 2.
1972

Price to Non-Members £1

PRINTED FOR THE CLUB
BY MARTIN’S PRINTING WORKS,
MAIN STREET, SPITTAL

1973

torr aS USE

OFFICE-BEARERS

Secretary

W., RYLE ELLIOT. F.S.A.Scot., Birgham House, Coldstream-on-Tweed.
(Tel. Birgham 231).

Editing Secretary
P. G. HENDRY, 44 Craigleith View, Edinburgh EH4 3}Y (031-337 3025).

Treasurer
J. STAWART, The Manse, Alnwick.

Librarian
Miss BETTY BUGLASS, 29 Castle Drive, Berwick-upon-Tweed
(Tel. Berwick 7549)

The Editing Secretary would be grateful if

contributions to the final part of this volume
could be received by 30th April, 1974.

MIS TORY OP “LEE,
BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB

CONTENTS OF VOL. XXXIX
PART 2. — 1972

Presidential Address

Brigadier Swinton of Kimmerghame
Botanical Observations During 1972
Coldingham Priory Excavations, VII
Bonkyl, A Barony of Regality

The History of the Craster Family
Dunglass Church

Coldingham Priory Excavations, VII
Oldhamstocks Church

The Union Canal

On the Re-discovery of Linnaea Borealis at Mellerstain ..
The Meuchel Stone

Extracts from the Correspondence of Dr. James Hardy with
Mrs. Jane Barwell-Carter a, Be ae at

Records of Macro-Lepidoptera in Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire

The Treasuret’s Financial Statement for the year ending 22nd
September, 1971 =! bs

Balance Sheet

ILLUSTRATIONS

PART 2. — 1972

Coidingham Excavations
Coldingham Excavations—Maps
The Meuche! Stone

Seals

between pages 106 & 107
between pages 106 & 107
between pages 106 & 107

between pages 106 & 107

PROCEEDINGS
OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

Delivered to the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, at
Berwick, 4th October, 1972, by Albert George Long,
TOT SY Gy) OY BY NY SY ihe Ce Wa Sp

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

At the first anniversary meeting of this Club held in
Coldstream on 19th September, 1832, Dr. Johnston, in his
Presidential Address, said that his aim was to ‘set an example
to my successors in this chair to give a summary of the
communications and researches of the members during the
year’. In later years this eclectic task seems to have fallen
to the lot of the Secretary under the heading of his Report
of the Meetings which thus left the President free to speak
on some subject on which he had special knowledge.

For my own part before I vacate this chair I would like to
thank the Club for the honour conferred on me in electing
me to this position and for the support given to me in this
year of office. I wish my successor Lady McEwen and the
newly nominated Vice-President Mr. Adam R. Little every
success in their coming year of office. I would also like to
register my thanks on behalf of all to our indefatigable
Secretary who has put in so much preparatory work in the
otganization of the Club Meetings. Without going into
detail I will mention these meetings briefly and add the few
natural history observations I was able to make.

85

86

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

On 11th May we visited Oldhamstocks, Dunglass, and
Abbey St. Bathans. The Cowslip Primula veris and
Meadow Saxifrage Saxifraga granulata were in flower at
Dunglass and a Chiffchaff was heard at Abbey St.
Bathans.

On 8th June we visited Callaly. On the Castle Hill
the Chickweed Wintergreen Trientalis europaea and
Cowberry Vaccinium vitis-idaea were seen while from
the leafy branches of the majestic woodland trees we
heard the Wood Warbler, Chiffchaff, Redstart, Tree
Pipit, Jay and Green Woodpecker.

On 17th June Howick, Craster and Dunstanburgh
were visited. On the sea-braes and shore we saw the
Purple Milk Vetch Astragalus danicus, Hare’s Foot
Trefoil Trifolium arvense, Sea Milkwort Glaux maritima,
and Sea Purslane Hlonkenya peploides. Caterpillars of the
Six-spot Burnet Moth Zygaena filipendulae were feeding
in hundreds on Bird’s Foot Trefoil and Ribwort
Plantain within the enclosed ground of Dunstanburgh
Castle, many of the caterpillars had already spun their
golden yellow cocoons.

On 1st July Bonaparte’s Plantation in Mellerstain was
visited and the lost patch of Linnaea borealis was te-
discovered in the birch wood due south of Lightfield
Farm. Nearby a Woodcock was flushed from her nest
with four eggs.

On 12th July Linlithgow and Hopetoun were visited.
The Union Canal was found to be quite rich botanically
with lots of Spotted Orchid Dactylorchis fuchsii, Yellow
Rattle Rhinanthus minor and a white variety of the
Ragged Robin Lychnis flos-cucult.

On 2nd August we were conducted round the Roman
Camp at Housesteads by the chief Custodian. One of
out members noted the Chimney Sweeper moth
Odezia atrata in flight. .

On 23rd August the eastern and middle peaks of the
Kildon Hills were climbed. While assembling at the
Golf House a flock of about twenty Crossbills flew

overhead. When climbing the eastern hill a female

Common Blue Polyommatus icarus was seen and one
specimen of the July Highflyer Aydriomena furcata.
Several larvae of the Northern Egegar Lastocampa
quercus subsp. callunae were found crawling on the paths

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 87

and a single Emperor caterpillar Saturnia pavonia was
seen on the heather. Parsley Fern Cryptogramma

crispa was seen growing on a south-facing scree of the

eastern hill and the Common Club-moss Lycopodium

clavatum was present near the indicator on the middle
eak.

8. On 21st September Bamburgh was visited. Growing
on a wall round the plantation in the village we saw
Black Spleenwort Asplenium adiantum-nigrum and Pelli-
tory of the Wall Parietaria diffusa. A fully grown larva
of the Buff Ermine moth Spilosoma lutea was caught
near the Castle.

One of my special interests in the natural history of
Berwickshire and the adjacent counties has been its fossil
flora. This study was commenced in 1957 and I purpose
to try and interpret some of this work to you under the
title of

The Early History of Seeds
I. Introduction. What is a seed?

It is customary in all scientific subjects to define the
terms and units used, so by way of introduction I think we
should first consider what a seed is.

The literal meaning of the term ‘seed’ is ‘that which 1s
sown’. In botany, however, the term is used only for the
unit of reproduction in higher plants. In lower plants the
unit of reproduction is typically a spore. We therefore
distinguish between spore-plants and seed-plants.

A spore is usually a single specially-resistant cell which
is set free and dispersed and from which a new plant can
gtow if given the necessary conditions. In contrast, a seed
is a multicellular body.

A spore is usually formed asexually, i.e. without the union
of two special sex cells. In contrast a seed is the product
of both an asexual and sexual process involving the forma-
tion of a fertilized egg and food store.

Examples of spore-plants are the ferns, horsetails, club-
mosses, true mosses, liverworts, fungi, and some algae and
bacteria. Examples of seed-plants are the gymnosperms
and angiosperms. Gymnosperms have naked seeds, i.e.
the seeds are not enclosed in an ovary or fruit. Our three
native species of gymnosperms are the Scots Pine, Yew, and
Juniper.

88 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

Angiosperms have enclosed seeds, i.e. they develop
inside a gymoecium built up of one or more carpels.

Let us consider what happens in the life cycle of a fern as
an example of a spore plant. The spores are usually pro-
duced in sporangia borne somewhere on the fronds, e.g.
on the lower surface. Such a plant, producing spores, is
called a sporophyte. When a spore germinates it does not
grow directly into another fern sporophyte but forms a
small green plant called a prothallus or gametophyte. It is
called a gametophyte because it produces gametes or sex
cells. After the fertilization of an egg by a sperm an embryo
forms and this commences growth, at first drawing food
from the prothallus. Eventually it becomes independent
and has roots, stem and leaves. Thus in the life cycle of a
fern there are two generations and typically these alternate,
the sporophyte reproduces asexually by spores, and the
gametophyte reproduces sexually by gametes. In this way
the fern gets the best of both worlds: it has the advantages
of reproduction by spores, e.g. wide dispersal, and the
advantages of sexual reproduction enabling variation and
adaptation to occur.

In plants which live on land there is always one great
disadvantage involved in sexual reproduction: this is the
need for liquid water to make fertilization possible. The
male gamete needs water in which to swim in order to
reach the female gamete. It is this disadvantage the seed
habit overcomes. ‘The primitive seeds possessed a pollen
chamber containing a watery liquid which acted as a private
pond ensuring that the male gametes had the necessary
liquid in which to swim and bring about fertilization.

In most ferns the spores of any one species are all alike in
average sizeandform. Such ferns are said to be homosporous.
In some other spore-plants, as for example the Lesser
Clubmoss Se/aginella spinulosa (which grows on Greenlaw
Moor and elsewhere), the spores are of two kinds—larger
megaspores and smaller microspores. From these develop
separate male and female gametophytes. Megaspores
produce female gametophytes and microspores produce
male gametophytes. In this way more food is provided in
the prothallus which may bear a future embryo sporophyte.
Spore-plants which produce the two sorts of spores—
megaspores and microspores—are said to be heterosporous.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 89

We are now in a better position to understand what a
seed is. A seed is a megasporangium producing only one
functional megaspore. This megaspore, however, is never
released but germinates to produce an internal, reduced,
female gametophyte on which female organs known as
archegonia form egg cells from which, after fertilization,
embryo sporophytes can be formed. In addition to the
megasporangium, a seed has an tegument, a kind of pro-
tective coat which is called the testa. This integument is
two-layered in most angiosperm seeds, but single-layered in
gymmnosperm seeds.

In modern seeds it is customary to call the megaporangium
the nucellus, and the megaspore is called the embryo-sac. In
the seeds of gymnosperms such as the Scots Pine the female
prothallus acts as a food reserve called endosperm but in
angiosperm seeds the prothallus is reduced beyond recog-
nition and the food reserve or endosperm only develops
after fertilization.

By the time a modern angiosperm seed is set free from its
parent plant it consists of parts of three generations tele-
scoped into one reproductive structure. These are:

(i) the megasporangium and its integument represent-
ing the first sporophyte generation;

(ii) the prothallus or female gametophyte with the egg
cells representing the next gametophyte generation;

(iii) the embryo or baby plant developed from a ferti-

lized egg which represents the next sporophyte
generation.

This analysis enables us to define the terms ‘ovule’ and
‘seed’ as follows:

An ovule is an integumented megasporangium retaining a
single functional megaspore.

A seed is a matured ovule which may or may not contain an
embryo plant at the time of shedding.

From this we see that seed-plants appear to have evolved
from spore-plants and the chief interest of fossil seeds is the
light they shed on how this evolution took place.

Primitive seeds are more like simple megasporangia than
modern seeds. Those of the Pteridosperms or seed-ferns
very often show no sign of a female prothallus inside.
When the prothallus is present within the megaspore the
seed coat shows signs of wear and tear as if the seed had

90 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

been dropped some time before the female gametophyte
had developed. So far no embryo has been found within a
Pteridosperm seed though pollen is often present inside the
pollen chamber. That which is sown is therefore a mature
ovule which has usually been pollinated. Development of
the female gametophyte and fertilization probably occurred
while the seed was lying on the ground after abscission.
Once the embryo started forming from the fertilized ege
there was probably no further dormant period, it had to go
on developing.

The method of pollination in primitive seeds was pro-
bably by wind, the pollen being caught in a droplet of fluid
exuded at the apex of the ovule followed by resorption
into the pollen chamber. Afterwards the pollen grains
must have set free the male gametes capable of swimming in
the fluid of the pollen chamber to fertilize the eggs on the
female prothallus as happens in the modern Ginko biloba ot
Maidenhair Tree which on this account can be called a
living fossil.

Il. What plants could have given rise to the seed habit ?

The oldest known fossil seed is called Archaeosperma
arnold. It was discovered relatively recently in the Upper
Old Red Sandstone of Scaumenac Bay in the Province of
Quebec, Canada (Pettitt and Beck 1968). It is preserved
as a compression so that its internal structure is not known.
The seeds occur in groups of four within a cupule and are
associated with compressed fronds of Archaeopteris. The
oldest known petrified seeds with internal structure pre-
served come from the Lower Carboniferous rocks of the
Cementstone Group of Berwickshire and East Lothian.
Most of these seeds were probably borne on Pteridosperms,
though for most the parent plant is not known. Plants
thought to be Pteridosperms occur in the Upper Devonian
rocks so that most palaeobotanists think that the seed habit
must have evolved ‘in the Devonian period.

Pteridosperms have fern-like foliage so that they are
sometimes referred to as the seed-ferns. It is very unlikely,
however, that they evolved from ferns. Ferns do not
typically have secondary wood as do the Pteridosperms.

Fossil plants with fern-like foliage, secondary wood, and
reproduction by spores are now classified as Progymno-

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS gI

sperms or Progymnospermopsida. Archaeopteris with its
large fern-like fronds was once thought to be a fern but is
now classified as a progymnosperm and was a huge tree.
The petrified trunks were known for a long time under the
name Callixylon before the discovery that they bore the
large fronds of Archaeopteris (Beck 1960). It now seems
most probable that the seed habit evolved in the Devonian
petiod among Progymnosperms such as Archaeopteris or its
relatives and not in the ferns.

In the British Isles the best locality for Archaeopteris is at
Kiltorkan in Southern Ireland. Inthe Upper Old Red Sand-
stone of Scotland Archaeopteris is very rare but specimens
now in the Royal Scottish Museum were obtained last
century by a Mr. John Stewart and given to Hugh Miller.
They were said to come from a quarry at Preston Haugh
neat Duns in Berwickshire. The site of this quarry I have
never discovered and I have sometimes wondered whether
or not the specimens were actually obtained from the Old
Red Sandstone scaur on the right bank of the Whitadder
between Preston Haugh and Barramill Plantation now
largely felled. This scaur is on the right bank of the river
on the first big bend below Cockburn Bridge, and here I have
found compressions of large stems which although without
leaves could well be Archacopteris. One of Mr. Stewart’s
specimens was figured by Miller in his book The Testimony
of the Rocks (Miller 1869, p. 411).

Before Pettitt and Beck described the compressed seeds of
Archaeosperma arnoldi from Canada some isolated mega-
spores were described under the name Cystosporites devonicus
from the same locality (Chaloner and Pettitt 1964). These
were identical with the megaspores in the seeds of Archaeo-
sperma and like them were associated with fronds of Archaeo-
pteris. It is of interest that one megaspore agreeing with
Cystosporites devonicus has been found in Berwickshire
(Long 1968). It was found in stratified volcanic ash in the
bed of the Whitadder above Preston bridge near Cumledge
and not very far from the site where Mr. Stewart’s specimens
described by Hugh Miller were probably found.

So far no one has proved that any species of Archaeopteris
bore seeds but it is known that some species were hetero-
sporous having some sporangia producing megaspores and
others producing microspores.

92 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

Ill. How could a seed have evolved from a sporangium ?
The changes involved must have been fourfold:

1. The establishment of heterospory and reduction in the
number of functional megaspores to one in each mega-
sporangium.

2. The incomplete dehiscence of the megasporangia so
that the megaspores were never released.

3. The development of a pollen chamber inside the top part
of each megasporangium and capture of pollen in a
droplet of exuded liquid.

4. The development of an integument from sterile branch-
lets borne near the megasporangium.

The simplest hypothetical starting point for the evolution
of a seed is the terminal sporangium in the Psilophytales
such as Rhynia. ‘These primitive vascular plants were
homosporous.

The evolution of heterospory is exemplified by Archaeop-
teris, e.g. in A. latifolia (Arnold 1939).

Reduction in numbers of the megaspores in a single
megasporangium is exemplified by Stawropteris. This is a
primitive fern-like plant of which three species are known.
In the Lower Carboniferous species each megasporangium
was probably shed intact with two megaspores and two
smaller spores inside. The sporangium had a terminal
beak which may or may not have opened (Surange 1952).

The evolution of an integument is best seen in Genomo-
sperma (Long 1960) where eight sterile cylindrical branchlets
had commenced to fuse around the base of the mega-
sporangium. Later a micropyle evolved by the integu-
mental lobes fusing completely around the top of the
megasporangium.

IV. How could the second integument of Angiosperm ovules have
evolved ?

Most Angiosperm ovules and seeds have a double
integument whereas in Gymnosperms the ovules have a
single integument.

One theory put forward to account for the second
integument is to regard it as derived froma cupule. Certain
Pteridosperms did possess single-seeded cupules and for
these the cupular origin of the second integument seems

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 93

feasible, at least for ovules that are orthotropous. Most
Angiosperm ovules, however, are curved. When the ovule
body is curved roughly at right angles to the stalk or funicle
the ovule is said to be campylotropous as for example in a
Wallflower. If the ovule body is reflexed so that it is
inverted and fused on one side to the stalk it is said to be
anatropous, as in a Buttercup. If such anatropous ovules are
sectioned longitudinally it is seen that the second integu-
ment is present only on the surface away from the stalk.
This seems to suggest that the second integument was not
present before the curvature took place or it would be
represented all round the megasporangium like the first
integument. It is therefore more likely that the second
integument formed either during or after the time when the
cutvatute took place. My own view is that the second
integument was not derived from a cupule but more
probably resulted from a differentiation within the first
integument. I think that curvature of primitive seeds
occutred mainly in those having only two integumental
lobes. During curvature the two free lobes could have
become differentiated as an inner integument which was
ovet-hung by a dorsal lip. In this way the pollination
droplet would be better protected from rain by the hood-
like dorsal lip or so-called second integument.

V. How did seeds become enclosed in carpels as in modern
flowers ?

In modern Angiosperms the female part of the flower is
known as the gynoecium and it consists of one or more
carpels. As an example let us consider the flower of a
Sweet Pea Lathyrus odorata L. Here the gynoecium is
monocarpellary, i.e. it consists of a single carpel. The
carpel has three parts known as the ovary, style and stigma.
Inside the ovary are the ovules. After pollination the
Ovary ripens to form a fruit and the ovules become seeds.
The style and stigma wither away. The fruit of the Sweet
Pea is a pod and this has dorsal and ventral sutures which
split open eventually to release the seeds.

In a flower such as the Marsh Marigold Ca/tha palustris L.
the gynoecium consists of several free carpels. These ripen
to form a fruit known as an aggregate of follicles. Each
follicle is very like a pod having dorsal and ventral sutures

94 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

but eventually only one of these opens to release the seeds,
this is the ventral suture.

A follicle like that of the Marsh Marigold is thought to
be one of the more primitive forms of carpel. Such a
carpel has a very short style and stigma on top of the ovary
but in some Angiosperms thought to be even more primitive
the stigma occupies the entire length of the ventral suture
and really consists of the two adpressed margins of the
carpel.

The term ‘suture’ really means a ‘seam’ and the ventral
suture really consists of the two margins of the carpel
pressed together and fused. There is good evidence that
at one time there was a ventral opening down this side of
the carpel and in some living Angiosperms this can still be
seen. Thus in the Dyer’s Rocket Reseda /uteola L. which
gtows fairly commonly on shingle by the Whitadder and
elsewhere, the ventral suture is open near the top so that
one can see the ovules inside the carpels of the flower.
This gymnospermous character supports the idea that
Angiosperms have evolved from Gymnosperms. Origin-
ally each carpel must have been like a purse with a slit down
one side through which pollen could be blown by the wind
so gaining direct access to the ovules for fertilization. The
closure of the ventral suture probably began basally like
a zip-fastener formed of interlocking hairs. The prime
function of these hairs was to reduce loss of water by
evaporation from the delicate ovules. Such hairs, however,
would impede the entry of wind-borne pollen grains which
would become entangled among the hairs. At some time
such pollen grains acquired the power to germinate and
form a pollen tube through which moisture was absorbed.
Eventually the pollen tube became the structure through
which the male gametes were passed to the egg-cell without
being released. This mode of fertilization is known as
siphonogamy.

VI. From what organ was the carpel derived ?

Among Pteridosperms the seeds, although naked, were
often protected by an enveloping structure known as a
cupule. In some, each seed had its own individual cupule
and several cupules were borne on a single frond or leaf.
In others, two or more seeds occurred within one cupule
and again several of these were borne on a single frond.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 95

In a third type an entire frond was converted into a single
relatively large cupule about the size of a Tulip flower-bud.
One such example is called Calathospermum and the species
named Calathospermum fimbriatum (Barnard 1960) was first
described from rocks at Oxroad Bay near Tantallon Castle
on the East Lothian coast. It has also been found in
limestone nodules occurring in the bed of the Whitadder
between Edrom and West Blanerne. In most Pterido-
sperms the leaf was a large frond which forked like a
letter Y. This forking of the leaf-stalk or petiole is repre-
sented in the base of a Calathospermum cupule so that it
consists of two lateral halves borne on a common stalk.
Now such a bivalved structure may be compared to the two
halves of a single carpel such as a pea-pod. It is therefore
possible that the carpel in modern flowers really represents
a highly modified cupule in which the two halves have
joined so as to enclose and protect the seeds up to the time
of their release.

For this and other reasons some palaeobotanists think
that Pteridosperms were the most likely ancestors of the
Angiosperms.

A modern flower is really a telescoped shoot in which
there are basically three sorts of lateral organs borne on a
stem-like axis called the receptacle. The three sorts of
lateral organs are the carpels, stamens and perianth leaves
sometimes differentiated into sepals and petals. Goethe
put forward the idea that all these organs are really modified
leaves. Itis possible, however, that the carpels and stamens
evolved from branched cylindrical organs bearing sporangia
which had never become typical flattened leaves. Goethe’s
idea was that a carpel is really a leaf folded down its midrib
so as to enclose the ovules borne along its margins. If,
on the other view, the ovules represent megasporangia
borne on cylindrical stalks it seems more likely that these
fused basally whereas in the evolution of the true leaves
the fusion of simpler units seems to have been by webbing
between terminal parts so giving flattened portions which
were better adapted to absorbing light for photosynthesis.

By the study of fossil seeds and the plants which bore
them the mystery of how flowering plants evolved may yet
be solved. Fossil Angiosperms go back in the rocks only
to the early Cretaceous period about 135 million years ago.
The Lower Carboniferous seeds found in Berwickshire and

96 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

East Lothian are almost 350 million years old. Between
the end of the Carboniferous Period and the commencement
of the Cretaceous Period was a span of 135 million years
covering the Permian, Triassic and Jurassic geological
periods. The answer to the riddle of the Angiosperms
must lie somewhere locked up in these rocks unless their
ancestors completely evaded any natural burial and like
Enoch of old passed from this life without leaving any
physical remains behind (Genesis 6, 24).

REFERENCES TO LITERATURE

Arnold, C. A., 1939. Observations on fossil plants from the
Devonian of eastern North America. IV. Plant remains
from the Catskill delta deposits of northern Pennsylvania and
southern New York. Unw. Michigan, Contrib. Mus. Paleont.,
5, 271-314.

Barnard, P. D. W., 1960. Calathospermum fimbriatum p. nov.,
a Lower Carboniferous Pteridosperm Cupule from Scotland,
Palaeontology, 3, 265-275.

Beck, C. B., 1960. The identity of Archaeopteris and Callixylon,
Brittonia, 12, 351-368.

Chaloner, W. G., and Pettitt, J. M., 1964. A seed megaspore
from the Devonian of Canada. Palaeontology, 7, 29-36.

Long, A. G., 1960. On the Structure of Calymmatotheca kidstoni
Calder (emended) and Genomosperma latens gen. et sp. nov.
from the Calciferous Sandstone Series of Berwickshire.
Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., 64, 29-44.

Long, A. G., 1968. Some specimens of Mazocarpon, Achlamy-
docarpon, and Cystosporites from the Lower Carboniferous
Rocks of Berwickshire. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., 67, 359-372.

Miller, Hugh, 1869. The Testimony of the Rocks. Edinburgh.
p. 411.

Pettitt, J. M., and Beck, C. B., 1968. -Archaeosperma arnoldii a
cupulate seed from the Upper Devonian of North America.
Contrib. Mus. Paleontology Univ. Mich., 22, 139-154.

Surange, K. R., 1952. The morphology of Stauropteris burntis-
landica P. Bertrand and its megasporangium Bensonites
fusiformis R. Scott. Phil. Trans. Roy. Soc. London, 237B,
‘73-93:

APPENDICES

I. GEOLOGICAL TIME SCALE (modified from Holmes, A., 1959.
A revised geological time-scale. Trans. Edinburgh Geol. Soc.,
17; 183).

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 97

Periods measured approximately in millions of years (m.y.).

PERIOD m.y. Beginning m.y. ago
Tertiary JO. JO
Cretaceous 65 135
Jurassic 45 180
Triassic 45 225
Permian 45 270
Carboniferous 80 350
Devonian 50 400
Silurian 40 440
Ordovician 6o 500
Cambrian 100 600

II. List OF LANTERN SLIDES USED AS ILLUSTRATIONS.

1. Linnaea borealis at Mellerstain, taken by J. and G. Waldie,
Gordon.

2. <Archaeosperma arnoldii from Pettitt and Beck, 1968, text-
fig. 1 and 2.

3. Whitadder above bridge near Cumledge showing ash-beds
in river bed.

4. Cystosporites devonicus a megaspore from Whitadder ash
beds; taken from Long 1968, Plate IV, fig. 29.

5. Ditto, apical end enlarged to show 3 aborted spores; ibid.
fig. 30.

6. Compressed seed (un-named) from ash beds above bridge
near Cumledge; from Long 1966, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.,
Plate I, fig, 6.

7. General view of the fossil site at Rhynie, Aberdeenshire,
taken on a visit organised by the Tenth International
Botanical Conference held in Edinburgh during 1964.

8. Diagram of a primitive vascular plant such as Rhymia.

9. Stauropteris berwickensis, associated megasporangium with
two of the megaspores, as in Long 1966, Trans. Roy. Soc.
Edin., Plate IV, figs. 41-43.

10. Genomosperma, diagrams of G. kidstoni and G. Jatens from
Long, 1960, text-fig. 1.

11. Strata in Langton Burn near Hanna’s Bridge, Gavinton,
where Genomosperma occuts in situ.

12. Genomosperma latens L.S. of seed from Langton Burn site.

13. Shingle bed on Whitadder near Hutton Mill, another
Genomosperma site.

14. Junction of Upper O.R.S. and Lower Carboniferous strata
on shore near Horse Roads between Pease Bay and Cove.

98 BRIGADIER SWINTON OF KIMMERGHAME

15. Tantallon Castle and Bass Rock near Oxroad Bay.

16. Oxroad Bay viewed from Tantallon Castle.

17. Pollen grains of Genomosperma showing apparent aperture.

18. Deltasperma, a seed with only two integumental lobes and
showing slight flattening and curvature. (From Long
1961, Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., 64, 283, text-fig. 1).

19. Camptosperma, a seed showing pronounced curvature
(campylotropy), ibid. Plate III, fig. 27.

20. Camptosperma, diagrams showing U-shaped curvature of
seed, and possible derivation of a second integument from
hood-like dorsal lip.

21. Longitudinal section of a possible Pteridosperm embryo
having two cotyledons with well-developed vascular
bundles. If truly interpreted the embryo has lost its
integument possibly by abrasion.

BRIGADIER SWINTON OF KIMMERGHAME
By Major J. M. ASKEW

With the death of Alan Swinton, I felt the personal loss of a
great friend whom I had known for over forty years. But my
loss was also felt by hundreds of people in all walks of life,
whom Alan came in contact with in the various facets of his
long life.

Born in 1896, he joined the Scots Guards, and soon found
himself thrown into the 1914-18 War. On almost the last day
of that conflict, he was wounded and lost a foot, but, such was
his determination, he did not allow this to impair his mobility.
He was a good and intrepid horseman, keen on sailing, and I
well remember seeing him dance a most spirited foursome reel.

He continued his regimental soldiering, commanding the 2nd
Bn., Scots Guards, in Egypt in 1935 and 1936, and then came
service in the 1939-45 War.

After the War and his retirement from the army, he returned
to live at his much loved Kimmerghame, rebuilding it after its
disastrous fire.

His life then turned to Local Government, where he soon
became Chairman of the Planning Committee, and was able, by
his enthusiasm, to help the development of Berwickshire and
the fight against the depopulation of the County.

BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS DURING 1972 99

During his 34 years of membership of the Berwickshire
Naturalists, his interest and knowledge of history and antiquity
drove him on to do so much for the Club and especially for the
excavations of Coldingham Priory. His unremitting efforts to
secure finance for this project were a lesson in perseverance.

Once his rather bluff exterior had been penetrated, he was the
kindest of men, the truest of friends, and it was a joy to sit and
talk with him by his fireside.

He welcomed those who cared to use his interesting library,
and he had no hard feelings for those who took another view
and who held opposite opinions to his.

Big-minded and big in stature, he is very much missed by so
many, including young people, whom he took so much interest
in.

J.M.A.

BOTANICAL OBSERVATIONS DURING 1972
Notes compiled by A. G. LONG, Hancock Museum

VASCULAR PLANTS numbered as in Dandy’s List (1958)

24/4 Thelypteris dryopteris Oak Fern, in birch wood near
Bonaparte’s Plantation, Mellerstain. NT 64, VC 81. 13th
May, Mrs. E. O. Pate.

254/13 LEpilobium nerterioides New Zealand Willow-herb,
Craster, NU21, VC 68. Mrs. D. Blair.

413/3 Solanum nigrum Black Nightshade. A single specimen
turned up as a garden weed at Chirnside. NT 85, VC 81.
Mrs. C. I. Robson.

§33/1 Chrysanthemum segetum Corn Marigold. Abundant in a
field of barley on a smallholding near Lamberton. NT 95,
VC 81. Mrs. D. Blair.

§51/1 Piris echioides Bristly Ox Tongue. Several plants
amongst a row of carrots in a garden at Chirnside, NT 85,
VC 81. Mrs. C. I. Robson.

551/2 Pieris hieracioides Hawkweed Oxtongue. Glendale, be-
tween Lanton and Coupland Castle. NT 93, VC 68, Sept.
24th. Mrs. D. Blair.

607/11 Allium paradoxum Few-flowered Garlic. Roadside
near Stichill, NT 73, VC 81, May 13th, A.G.L.

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, VII
By DUNCAN NOBLE, m.a.

The third season of excavation took place from 27th March to
8th April, 1972. The team included Mr. D. Price Williams,
B.A., assistant director and surveyor; Mr. J. Barfoot, photo-
grapher; Mr. W. Webb, site supervisor; and Miss Susan Bennett,
B.A., research student of the University of Leicester and Miss
Helen Cayton, B.a., research student of the University of Durham,
as archaeologists. Taking part were students from Whitelands
College, Putney, and the University of London Department of
Extra-Mural Studies.

I wish to express my gratitude to the President, Committee,
and members of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club for their
sustaining encouragement and financial support. Mr. T. D.
Thomson in many ways provided advice and assistance, both
academic and practical, which leaves the expedition greatly in
his debt.

To Mr. R. D. Birch, M.a., Director of Education for Berwick-
shire and the Berwickshire County Council Education Com-
mittee are due thanks for their interest and a grant towards the
expenses of excavation. ‘This is accepted most gratefully, with
the hope that our efforts will prove of value to Berwickshire.

To Mr. R. F. Knight, m.a., Principal of Whitelands College
and to the College Governors go our thanks for provision which
made it possible for Whitelands’ students to take part in the
excavation. To Dr. J. Hazeldene Walker of Whitelands College
we must express our gratitude for her energy and advice over so
many aspects of the excavation.

Dr. D. Breeze visited the site on behalf of the Department of
the Environment and gave much useful help.

During the operations connected with the examination of the
tomb of Prior Radulfus we were pleased to have the benefit of
the expertise of Mr. R. B. K. Stevenson, Director of the National
Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh, and of Dr. H. McKerrell,
Dr. J. Close-Brooks and Mr. Bryce.

Operations this year ranged over a large area, with the object
of discovering the relationship between the various known
buildings, and of establishing the correctness of the siting of
walls shown in plans originating from past excavations.

100

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, VI 101

To deal first with work beyond the bounds of the site, one
must record three trenches (area E) made in the garden of
Brookfield, Manse Road, Coldingham. This garden is south
of the church, directly beyond the waste ground which lies to
the south of Edgar’s Walls. Crop marks in the lawn suggested
a rectangular shape at the eastern end of the garden, so with
Mr. Walker’s kind permission three trenches were sunk,
designed to intercept the crop marks. On investigation it
became apparent that the marks were caused by long past
gardening and that there were no historical remains in the
garden.

At the West End of the Church the tomb of Prior Radulfus
(d. 1209) became exposed in the course of work and was exca-
vated by Dr. H. McKerrell. The skeleton was substantially
intact in a stone slab coffin and sewn into ashroud or habit. The
floor of the coffin was bedrock, covered with a thin layer of
mortar, with the sides being composed of red sandstone slabs
joined with a pale pink mortar and covered by sandstone cap-
stones 7 cms. thick, again mortared together. Failure in the
mortar at one joint had, over the centuries, admitted water
which had caused deterioration of the central part of the skeleton.

Complete excavation of the area around the coffin not having
been carried out, present calculations from levels taken and
measurements made indicate that the upper surface of the
capstones of the coffin was just a few centimetres below the
level of the higher floor found on the north side of the inner
portion of the porch in 1971.1 So Radulfus was buried in the
earlier of the two churches. The shallow depth of soil between
the floor and bedrock could account for the raising of the
northern side of the porch floor which was so puzzling during
its excavation.

The coffin was kite-shaped with a rectangular recess for the
head. The interior length, including recess, was 2 m. 6 cms.,
breadth at the widest part 57 cms., and the interior depth 40 cms.

The Prior lay on his back with his arms by his sides and was
sewn, anteriorly, into a shroud or habit of blackened cloth
which fitted close to the head, leaving the face exposed. The
cloth is currently under examination.

Dr. Dorothy Lunt, of the Glasgow Dental Hospital, has
examined the dentition and reports that the extent of attrition
on two teeth corresponds to an age of 30-32 on the attrition
scale for Anglo-Saxon teeth. If mediaeval diet were somewhat
less coarse, then the estimate should be raised, perhaps to 36-38.
Tt is unlikely that he could have been over 40 at death. He
probably had a prominent chin.

UNoble : Coldingham Excavations, VI; HBNC XXXIX, 18.

102 COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, VI

Dr. A. Young, of Edinburgh, has reported at length on the
bones. By various formulae Radulfus’ height is estimated at
between 176 cms. (5 ft. 9 in.) and 186 cms. (6 ft. 1 in.). He was,
or had been, a heavily-built muscular individual, and may have
been somewhat bowlegged, walking with a limp and keeping
his head bowed.

Prior Radulfus has since been re-interred.

In the Abbey Yard Field (Areas A and B) there was no doubt
that up to just over a metre of the top burden was the dump
belonging to the excavations in the 1930s when the cloister garth
was cleared. Therefore when the use of an earth-moving
machine was offered, the opportunity was taken to remove this
spoil eastwards off the site.

Our heartfelt thanks are owed to Mr. J. N. Davidson, of Press
Castle, Coldingham, for this most generous assistance which has
permitted a change to be made from narrow trench to open area
excavation. The whole character of the Abbey Yard Field
operation has thus changed, and already the amount of informa-
tion retrieved has increased several-fold. Credit must be given
to the operator, who could work to a tolerance of within an
inch, for the completion of this without entering a stratified
deposit.

The mortar floor of the reputed chapter house, already found
in the excavation of the cemetery in 1970-71, was uncovered
over its whole extent and along its eastern edge was a line of
red sandstone ashlar blocks, the remains of a wall at the east
end of this room. From the already excavated southern wall
of the chapter house (between Ar and A5 on the site plan) a
wall runs south. The meaning of the oft-used phrase “‘the
accidents of excavation” is brought home when one realises
that the narrow trench Aj5 passed along its eastern face, just
missing it, and Br of the 1970 season cut into its alignment just
where it had been robbed out in post-Reformation times. This
wall runs into, and is apparently later than, the earlier phase of
the southern wall of the so-called chapter house. But this
requires confirmation from wider excavation.

In B2 a section was cut between this north-south wall and the
north-east corner of Edgar’s Walls which shows that the north-
south wall is later than Edgar’s Walls. Going with the bottom
of the one remaining ashlar course of the north-south wall is a
layer of puddled clay, suggesting a flagged floor later robbed out.
The corner of Edgar’s Walls displays two very fine chamfered
courses surmounted with ashlar masonry, all associated with a
rough stone and mortar floor. It has been a building of higher
quality than hitherto imagined.

Running eastwards from the southern end of the north-south

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, VII 103

wall in Bz is a short piece of wall which awaits fuller excavation.
It was cut out when the north-south wall was put in and appears
to be on the same surface as Edgar’s Walls. Associated with it
is a fireplace. In 1970 its continuation was found in the south-
western section of Bi, surviving as just one stone on puddled
clay. No trace was found of it running across B1.

In C2 excavation was done in a 1.5-metre square round the
base of the large buttress on the wall that remains standing
above ground level.

This is a most important area, containing as it does the deep
stratified evidence to link the Abbey Yard Field with the Church,
sO an account is given in some detail.

The upper levels contained modern and _ post-medieval
rubbish down to 90 cms. below present ground level, and
underneath this were different features in the soil which require
atea excavation for interpretation.

Excavation of the base of the east-west standing wall on the
south of the trench produced much information. Four phases
of the wall could be distinguished without bedrock’s being
reached. Firstly at the lowest level underneath the standing
wall was an ashlar wall surviving three courses. Above this
wete two rougher courses of later addition. Thirdly there is
what is most probably a buttress 107 cms. wide, of which six
courses sutvive. The lowest course is butted up against the
earliest wall and the second runs into it. Then the third con-
struction cuts through the second wall. The fourth wall, the
present standing one, is cruder and built on top of the second
wall.

This is an area that will amply repay painstaking area excava-
tion, which will lead to a greatly increased understanding of the
problems of Coldingham’s relative chronology.

One can report more briefly on the remaining trenches.

Di produced the shallow foundation trench containing
mortar of a wall which ran north and south on the alignment
of the existing standing medieval wall to the north. No traces
remained of any floor.

Dz set out to find evidence for the cloister wall under the
present recent replica. Shallow linear depressions ran along
the eastern and southern sides of the trench, but there was no
direct evidence for the cloister wall. It might well be just a
short distance to the west.

D4 was sited to search for a wall which early excavation plans
suggested might be the wall between the reputed chapter house
and the cloister walk. Immediately underneath the wall of the
flower bed which abutted on to the west side of the trench was

104 COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, VII

found a row of stones roughly mortared together which con-
stituted what remained of the medieval wall. All signs of a
floor had disappeared in the process of landscaping, but there
were definite indications that the cemetery in the Abbey Yard
Field originally extended as far west as this wall.

D3 was designed to test the extent of the wall in D4. The
robbed out foundation trench of this wall was excavated,
running north and south. Finds date it to the medieval period.

Area E was the garden already mentioned.

Trench F1 produced an earlier ground level 50 cms. below
present ground level, which is at the sills on the doorways into
Edgar’s Walls. At this depth, the outside of the north wall of ©
Edgar’s Walls projects outwards in a step 5o cms. wide. The
trench was abandoned at a depth of 90 cms. because of the
dangerous state of Edgar’s Walls.

Conclusions

This season achieved its aims, which were to expand our
knowledge of the building plan and to provide information on
the different building phases.

An advance has been made towards the dating of the earlier
church, which had previously been rather hypothetical.

Area C, east of the church, provides deep stratification absent
in much of the rest of the site, and current indications are that
this area contains buildings closely associated with the church,
perhaps an eastwards extension of the sanctuary.

The layout of the buildings in the Abbey Yard Field is now
obvious and hypotheses can be made which will be tested in
future excavation. Most excitingly, it is clear that a conspectus
of the many rebuilding phases of this complicated and fascina-
ting site may shortly be within our reach.

BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY
By GRACE A. ELLIOT

The Barony of Regality of Bonkyl has much to offer in the
way of historical association, since it has never been fully
appreciated how close its early lords were to their kings, nor
how much they took part in Border affairs; therefore, items of
special interest have been taken from several sources and brought
together in an attempt to show the periods when their advance-.
ment may have taken place. The family are not mentioned
until the middle of the twelfth century when they suddenly
appear as illustrious men taking part in occasions of such
national importance that further investigation into their lives
seemed warranted.

There can be traced in the present parish of Bonkyl and
Preston an almost continuous civilisation from a very early
time; hut circles, defensive camps and fort sites extend over
the length of Bonkyl Edge from Warlaw to Preston Cleugh and
Drakemyre, but the old roads which connected them are now
lost.1 Numerous bronze-age burials discovered in neighbouring
parishes, and the bronze-age rapier found near Abbey St.
Bathans some years ago, suggest that the old copper mine at
Ordweil may have been worked by these early people.

Bonkyl was a Celtic village, the place-name being derived
from the Gaelic language, Bon, signifying ‘‘a base” and Coille,
“a4 wood”,? and like many Berwickshire villages it gave the
name to those who lived within its territory, thus, ‘““Bonkil’’ or
““Bonkyl” became the name of the people who lived “‘at the foot
of the wood.”

This exact definition is important for two reasons; first
because it implies two distinct habitations existing at the same
time, and also that those who lived on the ridge, would refer to
the people below as the “‘Boncoille”, hinting at their greater
superiority.

It is not known when the Bonkils became men of honour and
importance, although it is certain that they had reached their
zenith by the beginning of the thirteenth century. Their early
history, like that of their church, is obscure, yet both might be
associated with the victories and defeats of the Alpin kings
in Strathclyde and northern Cumberland, when their vassals
were called upon to give military aid against the Anglo-Saxon
kings of England.

1See B.N.C. Hist. Vol. 15.
2Johnston’s ‘‘Place-Names of Berwickshire.”

105

106 BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY

At the beginning of the tenth century several battles took
place in that area, when the Scots were forced to submit, and
in A.D. 945 after the Saxon king Edmund had ravaged all
Strathclyde and northern Cumberland, he ceded it again to
Malcolm I of Scotland, on condition ‘‘that he would be his
fellow-worker both by sea and land.”! This agreement,
together with the previous submissions, had far-reaching con-
sequences, and the long-sighted policy of Edmund in making
north Cumberland a dependency of the Scottish crown, kept
the Scots busy looking after it ‘“‘until the reign of William
Rufus,”? during which time the Scottish kings paid periodic
homage to the English kings, for those territories which they
held in Cumberland. Certain of the Scottish princes took the
title of ‘“Prince of Cumberland,’’? and men of the Scottish court,
specially chosen for their ability in military, civil and judicial
matters, undertook the administration.

During the next two centuries, probably one or more of the
Bonkil family took part in that work, and like other Border
men, they too, would rally to the side of Malcolm II at the battle
of Carham in 1018, when the natural boundary of the Tweed
between England and Scotland was finally settled. These
events would bring the Bonkils into closer contact with their
kings, lead to their gradual promotion and ultimately to their
baronial status, as well as give some reason for their association
with the great landowners in Cumberland; their early con-
nection with the church of Dunkeld and acceptance of the
Columban form of religion.

St. Columba is not known to have visited our county, but his
church on Iona had much to do with the Christian history of
Northumbria, of which Berwickshire was a part. He is supposed
to have lived at Dunkeld for a short time and to have had a
cell there; the church which followed later is said to have been
built by a Pictish king about A.D. 729, in his honour, at the
suggestion of Adomnan, Abbot of Iona, who had written the
‘Life of St. Columba.’

St. Columba died in 597, Adomnan in 704, and between these
dates several Celtic churches were known to have sprung up in
Berwickshire.® :

A century or so later, when the Norsemen ravaged Iona,
Kenneth, the first of the Alpin kings, took some of the relics
of St. Columba from the island to Dunkeld for safety, after

1Anglo-Saxon Chronicles.

2Lang’s ‘Highways and Byways of the Lake District.”
3Terry’s ‘“History of Scotland.”

£ and *Keith’s “Scottish Bishops.”

5B.N.C. Hist, Vol. 16,

*£J9}9UWIID _P2}JVAVIKS IY} JO vOIe OY} ST IYSIT oy UO pu pUNOIZA9I0; 9Y} UI puNOIS poqsn3sIp
IY, ‘PIOWILI JY} JOTLOU DUO J9}¥] OY) YITM ]]eM UIOYINOS 94} JO sadaId OM} dU} a7¥ IvOI IYSII PUL [eM 4Svd 9U} ST IJ]
au} UD ‘YOU ayI Wosz asnoy sa3dey> payndes oy} Jo JoOy seyow sy, “z ~puriy sary “platy prez Aoqqy

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, VII
see article on pages 100 to 104

Abbey Yard Field. Area Bz. On the left are the lower chamfered courses of Edgars walls, and on the right
is the southernmost end of the north south wall whose ground level appears in the section above the lowest label.

‘POX a[vOS JY} JO PUD IZ9] DY} JO Ia] DY} 0} 3Snl si sov[dazy syT, ‘zg SpIvA.O} spIvA}S¥O SUNT YOTYM [][eM 3OYS 9U} ST
punossaI0F 9Y} UT “}S¥9 DY} WOOF; [[VA\ _YINOS YIIOU 9Y} pUL s[[eM sIeBPyY JO MIA ‘7 vay ‘Play pez foqqy

Phase IV
Present
standing
wall

Phase II
Two rough
courses

Phase I
Ashlar wall

| Trench C/z.

Phase III. Buttress (?)

Showing the three phases

of wall and the possible buttress.

i ee

=

ns er,

tau Leow

1972

COLDINGHAM PRIORY
WEST END

dow

ary Nee, ‘¢
y :
Pa \
4 .
2 yy
aN,
{ A
,
,
=
—
%
s
.
i ve
- n '
7 \ A
; if
y y
5 i a
tJ ’
/
-
" ”
i t
i
St, alist
ame et v i f
i
7 ® ' t
re ‘1
ii
,
2
ut
ot b ;
a.
RAG pa ik tens rms ye her ow de ‘
f a ;
‘ a

The Meuchel Stone—see article on page 144

Ly
~

2
|
.
t

—
i
+
~
———__

hd

in

BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY

see article on pages 105 to 118

Seal of Walter, son
of William de Bon-
kyl.

Seal of Sir Ranulf de Bonekil,
A.D. 1231

Se

ohn de
ee ea 1430. Arms of Sir Edward
: Boncle, a.p. 1462.
(Azute, a chevron
argent between three
buckles, or.)

BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY 107

which the church there, became the principal religious estab-
lishment of the Culdees.*

Belonging to the kings of Scotland, the church of Dunkeld
grew mote important during the reign of Malcolm II (1005-34)
when Malcolm’s daughter Bethoc married Crinan, the Abbot of
Dunkeld."

Although barons were unknown at this time, the marriage
would call for the attendance at the ceremony of those men in
the king’s service considered most worthy; it was also a natural
opportunity for the king to make new gifts of land to the church
and its community, and to confer some recognition for service
upon his vassals.

When the church of Bonkyl was founded is not known, but
its connection with that of Dunkeld hints at some influence of
either the king or his abbot, since only the king could give
permission to build a church. Perhaps at Bonkyl such permis-
sion was part of the gift of Malcolm II to the church of Dunkeld
and to the family of Bonkil. This first church would be built of
wood, and since it was simply a family or manorial church it
need not be noticed in the early church valuations. ‘“Bunkle is
not mentioned in the earliest valuations of church livings in
Scotland, nor in the Papal Taxation Roll; but appears under the
Bishopric of Dunkeld in Bayamund’s Roll in 1275.’

Malcolm Canmore, who was brought up at the English court
of Edward the Confessor, succeeded to the crown of Scotland in
1057. He took into his court in 1067, Edgar Atheling and
Margaret his sister, when they fled from the pursuit of William
the Conqueror. “‘When Malcolm married Margaret he was
immediately embroiled with Norman England.” He advanced
to York in 1070, and later William retaliated by “‘advancing into
Scotland as far as Abernethy where he made Canmote his vassal
(1072), but whether for his kingdom, for his Celtic divisions of
it, or merely for a gift of manors in England is debated.”4

William the Conqueror who brought his barons to England
created baronies there for the first time. Malcolm Canmore
knew this, and when he gave Dunbar and Lothian to his cousin
Gospatrick, Earl of Northumberland, he probably created the
first barony in Scotland. Towards the end of his reign he
“bestowed the Abbacy of Dunkeld upon his third son, Ethelred
Earl of Fife,”5 a fitting occasion to confirm previous gifts and
make new ones to that Church, gifts, which may have taken
the new and unusual form of creating in Scotland, barons and

1K eith’s ‘‘Scottish Bishops.”

2B.N.C. Hist. Vol. 16.

3 and 4Terrty’s ‘‘History of Scotland.”
5Chalmers’ ‘‘Caledonia,”’

108 BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY

baronies among the more esteemed of his vassals, who in turn
would also make gifts to the church.

The date is early, and there is no written proof yet found,
but it is more than likely that the family of Bonkyl were en-
nobled at this time, when they probably started to build a stone
castle at Bonkyl and replace their older wooden church with one
of stone.

The Coldingham Charters of king Edgar (1097-1106) and his
brother Alexander I are silent regarding Bonkyl, but it is signi-
ficant that Edgar granted to the monks of St. Cuthbert at
Coldingham, the lands of Kimmerghame, Edrom, Swinewood,
etc., which were later confirmed by Alexander I, perhaps not
realising that part of them already belonged to Bonkyl.? When
their youngest brother David, the Earl of Huntingdon and
Prince of Cumberland, succeeded to the Scottish crown in
1124, he at once began to modernise his kingdom by intro-
ducing new laws. ‘He suppressed all Culdean monasteries,
raised the church of Dunkeld to Cathedral status, and made it
a free Regality, about 1127.’

If David’s father had already made Bonkyl a barony, and
its church was already connected with Dunkeld, then it would
quite naturally become a “‘Barony of the Regality of Dunkeld,”
at this time.

“Baronies and regalities were freehold estates of which the
King was the acknowledged proprietor. Regalities were
granted by the King to the Prelates, a Lord of Regality having
jurisdiction over it equal to that of the King.”4 Several baronies
were often included within a Regality and paid their customary
dues to the Regality Lord.

A baron was allowed by licence from the king to have power
and liberty to hold courts within his own lands, with the privi-
lege to prosecute, try, and judge his vassals within his own
court; he also had the right of receiving toll, and compelling
a person in whose hands stolen property was found, to name the
person from whom he received it (toll and teem); he had the
power of infangthief, which was to imprison and execute felons
belonging within the extent of jurisdiction of his court, and
of outfangthief, which was the same power over those caught
within the legal bounds of the court but who lived outwith its
boundary.® Regality powers were similar but extended over
all the baronies within it.

1Raine’s “North Durham.”

2B.N.C. Hist. Vol. 13.

3Berwickshire ‘‘Old Documents.” Folio 9, Folder 61.

4, 5and*. Can be found in Mackay McKenzie’s ‘‘Source Book of Admini-
strative Law,”’ or Chalmet’s ‘‘Caledonia.”

BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY 109

The Baron court was appointed by the Baron, and consisted
of his baillie, who could be a member of his own family, or
his lawyer, together with some of his most worthy feuars and
tenants, and the Barony was allowed to hold a weekly market
and an annual fair; the revenues so accruing from them went to
the baronial lords. “‘When a baron obtained his territorial
grant from the king, he built a castle, a church, a milne, a kiln
and a brewhouse for the accommodation of his followers.’’*

If it could be reliably stated that Thomas the Rhymer composed
the following lines,

*Bunkle, Billie and Blanern,
Three castles strong as airn,
Built when Davey was a bairn,””?

then the suggested date of the barony of Bonkyl belongs to
the last years of Malcolm Canmore’s reign, especially when it
is known that prince ‘““Davey”’ was only about twelve years old
when his father died in 1093. The building of the Norman
church of Bonkyl in stone was probably later and may have been
contemporary with either the building of Coldingham Priory or
the mid-twelfth century “‘re-building in stone of Norham castle,
c. 1157, by Richard of Wolviston the master mason of Durham.”

Coldingham charters first refer to Bonkyl in 1130 when
David I walked and defined the boundaries between the parishes
of Bonkyl and Coldingham after a dispute, which may have been
brought about by the fact that the woods and moors belonging
to Bonkyl lay within the bounds of Edrom and Kimmerghame,
places granted to the monks and Priory of Coldingham by
Edgar; the boundaries were also confirmed by William the
Lyon, who, “commanded the following woods should be in the
keeping of the Prior and his monks.” The woods were
Harewood, Denewood, Brockholes wood and Swinewood,
belonging to Bonkyl, but lying in the bounds of Edrom. This
command must have followed close upon the appointment of
Richard of Raynton as “Hereditary Keeper of the forests of
Coldinghamshire,” by Prior Ernald between 1202 and 1208.4

From the charters of king Edgar and his brothers and William
the Lyon, concerning these lands, and the disputes over the
boundaries, came the mistaken belief that Bonkyl for some time
belonged to Durham rather than Dunkeld. This was never so.

The Family of Bonkil
The first mention of any Border family is often to be found
1Henderson’s ‘‘Popular Rhymes of Berwickshire.”
2Raine’s ‘‘North Durham.”

3Gordon’s ‘‘Monasticon.”
4Cart’s “‘History of Coldingham.”

18 fe) BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY

in the charters of Coldingham Priory,’ but in this case the first
written evidence of the Bonkils so far found is in the Chartulary
of Kelso, the rest are taken from Coldingham and Coldstream
charters.

1. Ade de Bonekill, witnessed a charter by Richard Cumyn
granting to the monks of Kelso, the church of Lintonroderic,
c. 1160. He also witnessed another at the same time, by
Hi of Simprim 2

2. Adam de Bonekil (perhaps son of the above) and Bertram,
Prior of Coldingham (1188-99) witnessed a charter con-
cerning the lands of Bondington.

3. Alexander de Bonekil and Prior A:rnald (1202-08) witnessed
a charter about land in the town of Coldingham.

4. Ada de Bonekil witnessed another in 1209 concerning
Beinrig, during the short priorship of Radulphus. This
Ada de Bonekil was Sheriff of Berwickshire, and possibly
the son of Adam and grandson of Ade (No. I above) and
brother to Alexander and Ranulph.

5. Sir Ranulf de Bonekil is the first knight of the family to
be- mentioned; “‘he lived in the time of King John and
Henry III.’8 His round seal portrays him “‘as an equestrian
knight in mail hauberk and surcoat, helmet with nasal and
mail coif; bearing a sword and kite-shaped shield,” with the
legend “‘Sigill: Ranulfi de Bonekil.”* The seal is illustrated
and described by the late Dr. C. H. Hunter Blair, a Past-
president of our Club, in his “‘Catalogue of Durham Seals,”
a fortunate record, since it is proof that Sir Ranulf de Bonekil
was a renowned member of his family, a man of no mean
ability, a valiant soldier, perhaps even a crusader, and
certainly at the height of power and influence. His seal
partly determined this research, as few appear to have been
used in Scotland before 1182 and the date of Sir Ranulf’s,
A.D. 1231, is comparatively early; it is quite possible that
he used it even before this date; also, since it depicts him
as a “‘mailed horseman” it declares to us, that he would give
to his king, a Knight’s service in warfare—a service intro-
duced by the Normans after the conquest—the knight’s
fee in England was represented by the hauberk or coat of
mail, his first service was to give forty days a year with
specified armour to the king and secondly to give the
setvice of “‘castle ward” at the king’s pleasure. Knights
paid their fees to the king for the lands they held of him.®

1Raine’s ‘“North Durham.”

2Dated by the Lord Lyon Geo. Cambell Swinton (1923-26) father of the late
Brigadier Alan H. C. Swinton of Kimmerghame.

3 and 4Dr. C. H. Hunter Blait’s ‘‘Catalogue of Durham Seals,”

5Encycl. Brit. 11th edit.

BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY III

To prove this latter service and a possible earlier date for the
seal we find that “‘in 1212 Sir Ranulf was excused from an
Assize in Cumberland because he was with the King of Scotland,”>
(also a proof of his Cumberland connections), and again “‘In
1216 his Manor of Uvedale was seized by the English king John,
and restored again in 1217-182 (by Henry III). These dates
ate important, for William the Lyon in 1199 had demanded of
John restitution of northern earldoms in England, and after a
period of armed inaction made a peaceable treaty in 1212 without
recovering the earldoms,? a fact which seems to explain Sir
Ranulf’s absence from the Assize, and also his presence at
Bonkyl in 1216, when Alexander II confirmed the boundaries
there.

Of the four charters concerning Swinewood, Sir Ranulf
witnessed three and was mentioned in the fourth. Swinewood
belonged to the Earls of Dunbar who quit-claimed the lands.
Alexander IT gave a charter of Confirmation of this quit-claim,
which was “done at Roxburgh on the 9th March in the seven-
teenth year of his reign,” 1231. Among the witness are ““Dns
Ranulf de Bonekil and Willo de Bonekil.”* There is no charter
to say that the lands of Swinewood were quit-claimed in Sir
Ranulf’s favour, yet it must have been so, because later in 1231,
when “Dns Ranulphus de Bonekil” renounced his claim in
favour of the monks of St. Cuthbert at Coldingham of his
moors and woods which lay in Coldinghamshire, Swinewood
was added to Harewood, Denewood and Brockholes wood,? all
of which he possibly resigned, together with Todheugh in
Edrom, purposely to rid himself and his heirs from further
dispute. This charter of Renunciation has the seal of Sir Ranulf
attached to it.6

About the same time he witnessed a charter of the gift of
lands by Henry of Hasskirk (Ashkirk) to the Nuns of the
Convent of St. Mary of Coldstream,’ and before 1242 “‘Ranulfo
de bonekil” with ““Walter Olifard,” justicaire of Lothian (d. 1242)
witnessed a charter by “‘Mariota de Chirnside sometime wife of
Richard of Renington’’’ (i.e. Richard the forester of Raynton).
The last charter in which his name appears as witness is a ““Com-
position between A... . Prior of Coldingham and the mayor
and burgesses of Berwick,” c. 1250, signed ““Dno Ranulfo de
Bonekil.’’9

Sir Ranulf’s close attendance on William the Lyon and his
participation in Border affairs led eventually to his marriage
with an “‘heiress of the Greystoke family in Cumberland, when

1 and 2C.D.S.

3Chamber’s ‘‘Biogtraphical Dictionary.”
4,5, 6 8, 9Raine’s ‘‘Notth Durham.”
7Coldstream ‘ ‘Chartulary.”

112 BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY

he became Lord of Uvedale and Gilcrux. The Bonkils gave
Gilcrux to a younger brother, Robert, whose sons Thomas and
Walter, gave Gilcrux to Calder Abbey, which grant Sir Ranulph
de Bonekil, Lord of Quildale and Gilcrux confirmed.”?

“He had a son Alexander, whose son Adam, gave land in
Uldale to Carlisle Priory. Adam’s son Alexander had a daughter
and heiress who married (1) Sir John Stewart, kinsman to the
king of Scotland, and (z) Sir David Brigham,? who forfeited
Uldale to the Lucy family.”? For these lands in Cumberland
Sir Ranulf and his heirs paid periodic homage to the English
kings.

He was a member of the Scottish committee of twelve knights,
who with a similar English committee “‘ascertained the Laws of
the Border Marches in 1249 and enforced their observation,’”4
and where his name appears as Sir Radulphus de Boukle,’’®
probably a mis-reading of ““Bonkle’’, or else the author took the
name from the buckles on Sir Ranulf’s shield of Arms, which he
seems to have adopted “‘for the purpose of their having some
allusive association through similarity of sound in their names,’® with
that of his family and barony, “‘thzs allusive quality began in the
thirteenth century and is called Canting.’’”

6. Sir Alexander de Bonekyl, great grandson of Sir Ranulf,
was equally involved in Border affairs. In 1299 his seal of
“three buckles” with the legend of “‘S ... Andri. de Bonk,”
and his shield of Arms: ‘“‘Sable, three buckles Or,’ were
used. “‘His wife was called Christina.’

He is first mentioned after the death of Alexander III, in 1286,
as a member of the “‘Committee of Estates” at Birgham in 1289,
where he was a signatory to the letter addressed to Edward I of
England from the Community of Scotland, concerning the
“‘Dispensation for the marriage of Margaret, their dear lady and
Queen, with Prince Edward,’’® a proposed marriage which led
to the signing of the ““Treaty of Birgham” in July 1290, to
uphold the “Independence of Scotland,” and its freedom from
English interference in its internal affairs. One of the clauses
of this important treaty was a “‘Proposal by the Scots, that the
castles and fortresses should not be fortified anew upon the
Matrches,’”20

When the young queen died in Orkney on her way to Scotland,

1Burns & Nicholson’s ‘‘Cumberland and Westmorland.”
2Brigham or Breghin for ‘“Brechin.”

3Burns & Nicholson’s ‘“Cumberland and Westmorland.”

4 and 5Nicholson’s ‘‘Leges Marchiarum.” (Border Laws).
6 and 7Boutelle’s ‘‘Heraldry.”

8C.D.S.

®Tytler’s ‘“History of Scotland.” Vol. L.

10T'ytler’s ‘“History of Scotland.” Vol. I.

BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY 113

the kingdom was plunged into conflict and a contested succession
to the crown, much aggravated by “‘Edward’s assertion at
Norham in May, 1291, that he was Lord Paramount of Scot-
land.” The Scottish nobles, who had sought Edward’s help
in the choice of a king, were unprepared for his ruthless ambition
to subjugate their country and force from it a homage which he
insisted had been made by former Scottish kings to England on
behalf of their kingdom, whereas—except for a short period
during the reign of William the Lyon—the kings of Scotland
had only given homage to England for the lands they held in
that country. But, when John Baliol became king of Scotland,
Edward forced homage from him and made him his vassal and
the Scottish nobles had no other option than to submit and
swear fealty to Edward also; thus commenced what became
known as the “Regeman” or “Ragman Rolls”, the signed
“Oaths of Fealty” by the people of Scotland to Edward I.
From 1291 to 1296 these were signed at many different places,
the last and most important where oaths of allegiance were
given was at Berwick in 1296, after the final humiliation of
Baliol at Stracathro that year.?

Sir Alexander de Bonkhill signed at Berwick in 1291, where
he touched and kissed the Sacred Cross, swearing fidelity to
Edward I as direct superior of the kingdom of Scotland. He
swore again at Newcastle upon Tyne in 1292 (perhaps for his
lands in Cumberland), and again at Berwick in 1296, as from
Edinburgh.? He was “‘dead before April 1300, when an inquest
was held on his lands in Cumberland at Carlisle.”4 Other
members of the family whose names appear in the Ragman
Roll are: John de Bonekil, Thomas Bonequil and Agnes de
Bonkhille, whose Oath of fealty is the last to be fully recorded
there. It is written in Norman-French.®

As both Bonkyl and Preston churches were already within
the Regality of Dunkeld and paying revenues to the Prelates
there, (who supplied them with vicars), it is not so very strange
to find that they also swore fealty to Edward at Berwick in
1296. ‘Their names were: ‘““Master Hervy, Deen of Dunkeldyin;
Thomas de Preston, chanoigne of the church of Dunkeldyin,
and Dovenal, vicaire of Dunkeld. Nichol Perre de Bonekil’”
also signed.®

7. Margaret de Bonekil, daughter and heiress of Sir Alexander,
had married c. 1280, Sir John Stewart, second son of Sir
Alexander Stewart, the High Steward of Scotland, and who

1Terry’s ‘“‘History of Scotland.”

2Terry’s ‘““History of Scotland” and Ridpath’s ‘““Border History.”
3 and 5The Ragman Rolls.

4C.D.S.

8Ragman Rolls.

114 BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY

“added the Arms of Bonkil to his own,’”? but Sir John
never truly became “‘of Bonkyl’” because he was killed at
the battle of Falkirk in 1298 before the death of his father-
in-law. Hewasa strong supporter of William Wallace when
many nobles had deserted his cause; records of the battle tell
of Sir John’s bravery and how “‘columns of infantry, with
intermediate companies of archers kept their ground and a
few armed knights remained beside them, amongst these
Sit John Stewart of Bonkyl in marshalling the ranks of the
archers from the forest of Selkirk was thrown from his
horse. ‘The faithful bowmen tried to rescue him, but in
vain, he was slain and the tall athletic figures of those who
fell around him, drew forth the praise of the enemy, but
on the death of this leader the archers gave way” (Heming-
ford). Sir John lies buried at Falkirk.?

“Sit John had inherited with his wife the lands of Uvedale in
Cumberland,” and in his ‘‘Historical Account of Bonkyl’ the
late Dr. Hardy of Oldcambus wrote that “‘it has been doubted
whether Sir John Stewart had married Margaret de Bonekil;
but there was an inquest of the clergy of the deanery of Allerdale,
which was held at Wigton on 2oth July, 1305, and which
expressly ‘found that Sir Alexander de Bonekil had a daughter
Margaret, who was now lately dead, and that in her father’s
lifetime she had married Sir John Stewart, brother of the High
Steward of Scotland.’ There are records in the Tower to
confirm this fact.”

The necessity to prove this marriage after Margaret’s death
may have been due to the fact that her eldest son claimed his
right to the estate in Cumberland, perhaps against the counter-
claim of his step-father Sir David Brechin, whom his mother
had married about 1299; Sir David got the estate however,
although the Stewarts retained their title as Lords of Uvedale.5

It is not known whether Bonkyl ever became a castle ward of
Berwick, but three possible periods suggest that this could
have taken place; as early as the reign of William the Lyon,
when Sir Ranulf may have done knight’s service there during
the king’s pleasure; after Edward I took Berwick and forced
oaths of fealty from the Scots in 1296, which both Sir Alexander
de Bonkyl and Sir David Brechin swore; or when Sir David
had married Margaret de Bonkil, and was Governor of Berwick
castle during pleasure in 1304, when a tax may have been levied
on the barony of Bonkyl, after its castle had fallen to Edward,
without resistance. This was no military triumph as some

1 and 3C.D.S.

2Tytler’s ‘“History of Scotland.”
4Session Book of Bunkle and Preston.
5Uvedale is Ulldale.

BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY 115

references suggest, the castle was easily overcome because it was
purely domestic and quite unfortified—apart from the clause
against re-fortification in the treaty of Birgham—also, it may
have been uninhabited at the time, since Sir Alexander Stewart,
like his father, was a follower of Sir William Wallace, and his
mother was by then probably living in Berwick castle; from this
it is easy to guess why there was a ““Bownkell Towre’’! in the
castle of Berwick.

The relationship between the following ‘‘de Bonkils” and the
main branch of the family is uncertain, but they are too impor-
tant to omit here.

1. Walter de Bonkyl, styled “‘son of William de Bonkyl’” used
as his arms and seal, “two keys back to back and in base a
mollet.”” This seal was also used in 1331 by “‘John Pysre,
son of Walter de Bonekyll and burgess of Berwick upon
Tweed.’

The seal is of interest because of the keys, which do not
appear to represent those of St. Peter, but rather the old Celtic
religious symbols of power and possessions. ‘““The key facing
towards a person meant power of family or the person himself;
the key facing outwards from a person meant power or position
in church or country.” From this it can be supposed that
neither William nor Walter were of the Bonkil family, since no
“buckle” appears on the seal, but that both had been vicars of
Bonkyl, sent by the prelates of Dunkeld from another parish,
and in which case their name was likely to have been ‘‘Pysre’’.

2. A Coldingham charter of 1429-31 bears the seal of ““Thomas
Atkinson de Bonekyll fil de Ade.” “‘On a chevron, three
buckles.”

3. John of Renton used for his Arms: ‘‘a chevron between
three buckles.” 1429.° He also, or another

4. “John of Renton, used the Lion Rampant with a buckle on
its shoulder,” 1430.6 In both cases close connection with
the family of Bonkil is indicated.

5. Sit Edward Boncle, 1462, is the last illustrious member of
the family to be recorded. He was the first provost of the
church of the Holy Trinity in Edinburgh, founded by
Marie de Gueldres in 1462, and to which he presented an
organ.

In Linklater’s “‘Royal House of Scotland” is an excellent
description of Sir Edward, and also in J. B. Barclay’s ““Edin-
burgh” there is an illustration taken from the set of triptych
pictures in the National Gallery of Scotland, portraying Sir
1See Scott’s ‘‘Berwick upon Tweed.”

2, 4, 5, 6C_D.S.
3Birch’s ‘‘Scottish Seals.”

116 BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY

Edward kneeling in prayer beside his organ while an angel
plays it. The angel is a portrait of queen Marie of Gueldres,
no doubt representing St. Cecilia the patroness of music.
Neither author mentions the Arms of Sir Edward displayed on
the side of the music stool, which are ‘Azure, a chevron argent
between three buckles, or.’”!

Another reference is made to Sir Edward in 1479, ‘“‘in October
of that year on hearing a cause in Parliament the Lord directed
Rolly Lermonth and others to prove that Schir John Herriot,
the vicar of Soutra, had power from Schir Edward Bonkle,
the Provost of the Trinity College beside Edinburgh to lease
the tithes of Fawnys.”2 ‘This suggests that the church of Holy
Trinity, although younger by two centuries, had become the
ecclesiastical head of the Trinity House of Soutra. Sir Edward
is again mentioned in connection with this church in 1502,
when “owing to the unsettled state of the country, it would
appear that Sir Edward Bonkil, the first provost, had to apply
to Parliament for assistance, to enforce the payments of his
rents in Teviotdale.?

With the passing of Sir Edward, the old Celtic race of Bonkil
disappears from history, and the last written evidence of those
living in Berwickshire is likely to be that of “‘Edward, sone to
Ralf Bonkle, maltman and inkeeper” who in 1630 witnessed
a ““Tak” of land between John Bowmaker in Printonan and
George Paco in Deadrigs.4 These two Bonkles kept the old
family names and may have been innkeepers at either Leitholm
or Birgham, as there did not seem to be an inn at Eccles at this
time. There are still Buncles living in Edinburgh today.

The Barony of Regality had passed from the family with the
marriage of Margaret to Sir John Stewart, whose seven® sons
became the ancestors of many famous families. The eldest,
Sir Alexander Stewart, Baron of Bonkyl was the progenitor of
the Stewart earls of Angus; Sir Alan, the second son, became of
““Dreghorn” and he also bought the estate of Darnley in 1330
and became the progenitor of the Earls and Dukes of Lennox,
from whom Henry, Lord Darnley, husband of Mary Queen of
Scots was descended. The earls of Lennox were also ancestors
of the Seigneurs d’Aubigny, powerful and illustrious men of
the court of France; one, Esmé Stewart spent much time at the
court of king James VI, who created him Duke of Lennox. Sir
Alan Stewart was killed at the battle of Halidon Hill. His
immediate younger brother, Sir Walter, was the ancestor of

iLetter from the National Gallery of Scotland official.

2 and 3Chalmets ‘‘Caledonia.”

4Berwickshite ‘“Old Documents.”” Large Folio. Folder 61.

5Chalmets and Terry note only four sons; Burke’s “‘Extinct Peerage” gives
five, and B.N.C. unpublished Mss, seven.

BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY 117

the earls of Galloway, and Sir James the fourth son, who was
also killed at Halidon in 1333, was ancestor of the earls of
Buchan, Athol and Traquair. Sir John the fifth son was killed
at Halidon; Sir Hugh, the sixth, fought in Ireland under Edward
Bruce, and died 1318; the youngest became Sir Robert Stewart
of Dol or Dul,! ancestor of the Coltness, Goodtrees, Allanton
and Allanbank families.2 These last two places likely refer to
those of the same name in Ayrshire, known to have existed
before Berwickshire ones.? The only daughter of Margaret de
Bonkil and Sir John Stewart was Isobel, who married Thomas
Randolph, earl of Moray; their daughter, Agnes became the
wife of Patrick, earl of Dunbar, memorable as ‘“‘Black Agnes”
during her splendid defence of the castle of Dunbar. For the
rest of the baronial records see those of the Earls of Angus and
Douglas.

Of the more modern barony of Bonkyl and Preston within the
Regality of Dunkeld, we find that James Lorain, sheriff clerk
of Berwickshire, was baillie of the Baron court in 1747,4 when
Regality courts were abolished by Act of Parliament, like other
heritable jurisdictions. The barony at this time included Stow
in Wedale. In the Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh, there is
one Court book for the “‘Regality of Boncle and Preston,”
covering the dates 1686-90. (Ref. RHII/8).5

The late Dr. George Henderson of Chirnside has left this
record of Bonkyl castle: ‘‘A small portion of the north wall in
which a postern doorway still remains, and a few scattered
fragments skirting the green mound is all that remains of this
once massive stronghold. ‘The site of the ruin is close upon the
road leading from Auchencrow to Dunse—a little to the north
of Bonkyl church. The walls of the castle have been of great
thickness, very compact and have been built of large whinstones;
the moat surrounding the walls can be traced easily. About
seventy years ago a small village surrounded the ruins of Buncle
castle of which not a vestige now remains.”6

The Norman Apse is all that is left of the ancient church of
Bonkyl and this is well described in the ‘Inventory of Berwick-
shire Monuments” a report by the Royal Commission for such
in 1915; and Club members are reminded that the late Dr.
Hardy’s transcription of the “‘Session Book of Bonckle,” with
his ‘Historical Description of the Parish,” published by the Club
in 1899, is still the most important work regarding this ancient
barony; every effort has been made here, to overlap as little as

ISkene’s ‘“Celtic Scotland.” Vol. II.

2B.N.S. Mss.

3Johnston’s ‘‘Place-names of Berwickshire.”
4Berwickshire “Old Documents.”

5Record Office note, 1972.

6Copy of Dr. Henderson’s Mss. Vol. I. in Duns Library.

118 BONKYL, A BARONY OF REGALITY

possible with Dr. Hardy’s work, or that of the other authors
included in it.

My thanks are due to Roy Huddleston, Esq., Editing Secretary
of the Cumbecland and Westmorland Antiquarian Society, for
help regarding the marriage of Sir Ranulf de Bonkil with an
heiress of Uvedale; to Hugh Brigstock, Esq., Assistant Keeper of
the National Galleries of Scotland, for the description of Sir
Edward Boncle’s shield of Arms on the organ stool, and to
J. K. Bates, Esq., for verifying the existence of the Regality
Court Book of Bonkyl in the Record Office in Edinburgh.

Agnes de Bonkhille’s Oath of Fealty
at Berwick, A.D. 1296

““Atouz ceaus qui Cestes lettres verront ou orront.

Agnes de Bonkhille/del counte de Berewyk—Saluz.

Pur ceo que jeo fuy venuz 4 la foi é 4 la volunte du tresnoble
Prince € mon chier Seigneur Sire Edward par la grace Dieu/
Roi Dengleterre/Seignor Dirland/é Ducs Daquitaigne/jeo
promet pur moi é pur mes heirs sur peine de cors € davoir/é sur
quant ge jeo puisse encore/que jeo ly servirai bien é leaument
contres totes les foiz que jeo serrai reqis ou garniz de par nostre
Seigneur le Roi Dengleterre avantdit/ou par ses heirs. E que
jeo leur damage ne sauroie que jeo nil desturberay 4 tot mon
poer /é le leur fray 4 savoire. E 4 cestes choses tenir é garder/
jeo oblige moy émes heirs/é touz nos biens/é outre ceo ai
jeo jurez sur Seintes Evangeiles. Estre ceo jeo ai fait feauté a
nostre Seignor le Roi Dengleterre avantdit en cestes paroles.

Jeo serrai feal é leal/é foi é leaute porterai au Roi Edward
Roi Dengleterre /é 4 ses heirs / de vie € de membres /é de terrien
honur contre totes gentz qui purront vivre € morir/é jammes
pur nuly armes ne porterai/ nen conseil/ nen eide ne serrai
contre ly ne contra ses heirs en nul cas que poet avenir/é leau-
ment reconnstrey/é leaument frai les services que apartenant
as tenementz que jeo cleim tenir de ly/ si meide Dieu é les
Seintz. En tesmoignance des queus choses/joe ai fat faire
cestes lettres overtes sealéés de mon Seal.”

Donéé 4 Berewyk, etc.

rte BUS TORY, OF. THE GRAS TER FAMILY
By SIR EDMUND CRASTER
(Continued from Vol. XX XVII)

John’s younger brother, Edmund, who lived on at Craster
and saw to the winding-up of his father’s personal affairs, also
married. His wife, Margaret Steward, came from Stamford
neat Embleton. His sister Ann was already the wife of a
Stamford gentleman-farmer named William Grey. Other sisters
also found husbands—Barbara in Nicholas Whitehead of Lesbury
Field House, son to her father’s business partner, and Mary in
John Atkinson of Gateshead, whose family again became united
with the Crasters a hundred years later.

In 1692, his father being dead, John Craster set to work in
earnest to redeem the family property. After increasing the
Stote mortgage from {500 to £800, presumably to allow the
clearance of smaller debts, he released—probably for a sum of
money down—all claim to Craster South Side, now called Craster
South Farm. ‘This had been sold by his great-grandfather, an
eatlier John Craster, in 1638, to a kinsman, Thomas Forster of
Adderstone, and since then, after being owned for a time by
our John’s uncle, Martin Fenwick of Kenton, had passed to one
George Burrell, to whom John now gave release. Then, final
stage in these transactions, Alexander Browne once more
appeared upon the scene, and bought, for the sum of £1,500,
the farm lands that the Crasters had owned for some centuries
past in Dunstan and Embleton. Most of the purchase money
went to paying off the Stote and Milbanke mortgages; but out of
the balance and £200 advanced to him by the accommodating
Mr. Browne, John Craster was able at long last to meet his
father’s obligations as sheriff.

Alexander Browne did not retain his purchase for long.
Perhaps he had never intended to do so. The Embleton
holding was tenanted by a Quaker family named Christon, who
eventually bought their farm lands, and these, when finally
enclosed, went to make up the property since known as Christon
Bank. Mr. Browne added to his Dunstan purchase by buying
up for £1,800 the estate of the ancient but impoverished Wetwang
family, and subsequently, in 1705, exchanged Dunstan and other
lands with Mr. John Proctor for the properties of Shawdon
and Crawley. So it came about that the old tower-house of

119

120 THE HISTORY OF THE CRASTER FAMILY

Dunstan, which had formed the ancestral home of the Wetwangs,
and before them of the Wendouts, acquired the name of Proctor
Steads. We shall see presently how the Dunstan lands came to
be bought back for Craster in the next generation.

For the time being the family property was reduced to 425
acres, known as Craster North Side. Near its southern border
stood the square four-storey tower which an earlier Edmund
Craster had built in the fourteenth century, enlarged by the
addition, on its eastern side, of a seventeenth century manor
house.

John Craster never himself resided in the family home, but
spent the earlier years of his married life in his father-in-law’s
house at Fawside; and, when John Ayton died in 1702, leaving
his daughter Mary Craster, a marriage portion of £800, the
young couple with their children moved to Chester-le-Street.
Craster may have been occupied at the time by a cousin, William
Craster, who voted at the Northumbrian parliamentary elections
of 1710 and 1715 in virtue of property at Craster. William’s
father, Daniel, younger brother to old Edmund Craster, had
been a Jacobite, and had held a commission in a regiment which
the Duke of Newcastle raised to support James IT on his tottering
throne; and William was of the same party. When Thomas
Foster of Bamburgh, M.P. for the county, declared for the Old
Pretender in 1715, he only succeeded in enlisting three North-
umbrian gentry for the Stuart cause, but William was one of
them. He is said to have been taken prisoner and ordered to be
executed. However, with the failure of the rising and the
execution of its more prominent supporters, the Government
and local magistracy did not greatly concern themselves with
minor adherents. Though orders were made in Quarter
Sessions for the arrest of disaffected persons, a return made three
years later reported that William Craster, though suspected to
be concerned in the late rebellion and known to reside at Rock,
could not be found upon search made for him. There the
matter was allowed to rest, and William died in peace in 1725,
at Rock Moor House, the farm that Thomas Proctor of Rock
had leased to him.

Meanwhile John Craster was bringing up his young family
at Chester-le-Street. He had paid off his father’s debts and was
evidently prospering, for he was able, in 1710, to purchase from
Lady Crew and her Jacobite nephew, Thomas Forster, the lease
of Shoreswood, a property of about 1,200 acres some three
miles east of Norham. Shoreswood was held of the Dean and
Chapter of Durham at a low rental but subject to the payment
of a heavy fine upon every renewal of the lease. The purchase
price was £1,250, of which John was in a position to pay down
£700, the vendors taking a mortgage for the residue.

THE HISTORY OF THE CRASTER FAMILY 121

His three sons were clever boys. John, the eldest, was sent
up in 1712 to his father’s college of Merton, from which he
migrated two years later to Corpus, and, having taken his degree
and being intended for the legal profession, went on to London
in 1716 to study law at Gray’s Inn. There were five girls but
one had died in infancy, and Barbara, the eldest of the family,
died in 1715 when she was twenty-four. Their maiden aunt
Sarah Ayton, to whom her father had devised Fawside and
various small holdings in the county of Durham, was evidently
attached to John Craster and his family. Dying in 1719, she
left him all her properties, and he returned to live at Fawside.

Next year the two younger boys left their school at Sedbergh
for Oxford. William went to Oriel; Bertram or Bartie (he had
been christened Bartholomew at his mother’s request, having
been born on St. Bartholomew’s Day) matriculated at Brasenose,
but subsequently left it for Lincoln College. In the autumn of
1720 their sister Isabel found a husband in a neighbouring
squire, John Myllot of Whitehill near Chester-le-Street. Family
tradition says that their’s was a Gretna Green marriage. How-
ever that may have been, the ceremony was duly performed at
Ebchester.

So John Craster was left at home with his wife and his two
youngest daughters. He was failing in health and wrote to
his son John outlining his wishes for the disposal of his property.
By his will he left Craster and Shoreswood, with the bulk of
the Durham properties, to his son John, and to each of his two
younger sons an anuity of £80 out of Shoreswood, whither his
widow retired with their two unmarried daughters. He died
in July 1722 and was buried in ‘“‘Craster’s Porch” in Embleton
church.

The two younger sons took their degrees in the following
year. William succeeded in obtaining a fellowship at his
College and prepared to settle down to the life of an Oxford don.
He died in October 1729 at the early age of twenty-eight, and
was buried in the University church of St. Mary’s.

Less is known of the young Bartie. After taking his degree,
he secured readmission to his old college of Brasenose. He had
already followed his elder brother John to Gray’s Inn, and was
called to the Bar in February 1728/9. He was still living and
drawing his annuity in 1740. That is the last that is heard of
him. Some of his books are in the library at Craster Tower.

John Craster, the eldest son, was away in London, devoting
himself to the Bar, to which he had been called six months
before his father died. The family mansion at Craster and its
home farm were probably let to a kinsman, Daniel Craster,
second of that name and elder brother of that William who

122 THE HISTORY OF THE CRASTER FAMILY

went out with Tom Forster in “‘the Fifteen”. Daniel is recorded
in 1737 as paying £200 yearly rent for Craster mansion house
and demesne. This he farmed in conjunction with Dunstan
Hill Farm which he had on lease from his brother-in-law, John
Proctor.

In 1728 old Mrs. Craster died and was buried at Norham.
The elder unmarried daughter, Elizabeth, became the wife, in
the following summer of Christopher Blackett of Haughton, a
kinsman of her brother-in-law Myllot, and settled at Newham.
Her younger sister Ann remained to be provided for, but the
Myllots found a husband for her also. John Myllot’s step-
mother had re-married Mr. John Wood of Beadnell. A marriage
was eventually arranged between her other stepson, Thomas
Wood and Ann Craster, and took place in December 1737. In
this way the families of Craster and of Wood of Beadnell became
for the first time united.

So long as he was a bachelor, John Craster kept his rooms in
Gray’s Inn, but early in 1727 he too married. His bride,
Catherine Villiers, had been living with her brother Henry in
the parish of Christ Church, Newgate. Her father, Henry
Villiers, who had died twenty years previously, was a former
governor of Tynemouth Castle; and the governor’s house, which
her grandfather, Sir Edward Villiers, built on the castle promon-
tory on the north side of the ruined priory church, had been the
Villiers’ home during the latter part of the previous century.
As nephew to the great Duke of Buckingham and uncle to the
notorious Duchess of Cleveland, Sir Edward had been closely
connected with the Stuart court in which he had held the post of
Knight Marshal. Nor had the Revolution of 1688 reduced the
Villiers’ fortunes, for two of Sir Edward’s daughters, Elizabeth
and Ann, had been maids of honour to the Princess Mary in
Holland. There William of Orange had fallen in love with
Elizabeth and taken her to be his mistress, and had married Ann
to his closest friend, William Bentinck, afterwards Earl of
Portland. So when the Prince of Orange succeeded to the
English Crown as William III, Elizabeth Villiers rose to power
with her royal lover. It was perhaps as a result of her influence
that her elder brother Edward was created Earl of Jersey.
Although, yielding to Queen Mary’s dying request, the King
eventually sent Elizabeth away from his Court, he found for
her at the same time a husband in Lord George Hamilton, one
of Marlborough’s most distinguished generals; created him
Earl of Orkney, and bestowed upon them vast estates, including
all King James’s lands in Ireland. Out of their riches the
Orkneys built themselves a notable residence at Cliveden on the
Thames.

Catherine Villiers must have found her aunt Elizabeth a

THE HISTORY OF THE CRASTER FAMILY 123

remarkable personage, for, though she is said to have “‘squinted
like a dragon’, the great Dean Swift, no mean judge of intelli-
gence, described her as the wisest woman he ever knew. Aunt
Mary was also still living and was Dowager Lady Inchiquin.
Aunt Barbara who was Lady Fitzharding, and Aunt Henrietta,
Countess of Breadalbane, had both died some years before
Catherine married, but their children, her cousins, were her
friends. Evidently she had the entry into good society. Yet
she was not possessed of any fortune, her resources being
apparently limited to a life annuity of {40 out of Tynemouth
lighthouse dues and to a pension of £200 from Queen Anne
which she shared with her sisters Barbara and Frances, and
which had been vested in their aunt Orkney for their joint use.

The John Crasters set up house in Tooke’s Court, opening
out of Furnival Street off Holborn, and Lord Orkney provided
them with a country home, then named Park Gate House but
now Taplow Lodge, on Taplow Common, opposite the gates
of Cliveden.

It was in Tooke’s Court that John and Catherine had their
first child born to them; a little girl named Mary after her
Craster grandmother, who stood godmother to her and sub-
sequently left her a legacy of £50. Two boys followed—John
and then Edmund; but little Edmund was a sickly child and died
when he was ten months old. Then came George, born in
December 1734, and named after his two godfathers, Lord
Orkney and George Granville, Lord Landsdowne, who had
both married into the Villiers family. Nine months before
George was born, his sister Mary had died at Taplow at the age
of seven. His elder brother John died when he too was seven
years old, and was buried at Taplow alongside his sister. An-
other little girl had been born a month earlier and named Frances
after her godmother, Lord Orkney’s younger daughter, Lady
Frances Saunderson, who subsequently became Lady Scar-
borough. Of the five children, George and Frances alone were
left.

After his mother’s death in 1728, John Craster improved the
family residence at Shoreswood, then called Moor Hall but
now known as Shoreswood Hall, keeping it and some 300 acres
in hand as a demesne farm and staying here on his visits to the
North. A small colliery near to it was working at least as early
as 1736. The remainder of the Shoreswood estate was let as a
farm of a thousand acres. The Craster estates in Northumber-
land and Durham were in 1737 reckoned by their owner as
totalling 2,090 acres and as yielding a net rent of £680 13s. 9d.

By this time John Craster had moved out of Tooke’s Court
into better quarters in Carey Street at the back of the present
Law Courts. In 1742 he was made a Bencher of his Inn, and he

124 THE HISTORY OF THE CRASTER FAMILY

continued to practise at the Bar at least up to 1747. But he
spent much time at Taplow, where he had his brother-in-law,
Henry Villiers, as a neighbour. As Lord Orkney’s executor
he had access to the old general’s papers at Cliveden, and there
still remain at Craster copies which he made of a letter written
to Orkney by Alexander Pope, and of Orkney’s own letters
describing the principal engagements in Marlborough’s wars—
Blenheim, Ramillies, Oudenarde and Malplaquet. Here at
Taplow his ten-year-old girl, Frances, died in 1748. His one
remaining child, George, was by now an oppidan at Eton.

A little later he left Carey Street for No. 40, Lincoln’s Inn
Fields. It would be interesting to know more of the acquaint-
ance—though it may have been only slight—which John
Craster struck up at this time with Samuel Johnson, then still
working away upon his Dictionary, or of the reasons that led
Johnson’s friend, the novelist Samuel Richardson, to send to
Craster a presentation copy of S7r Charles Grandison. John
Craster certainly had literary tastes and these are evinced by the
books which he began collecting when still an undergraduate.
After he married he started to buy all the current literature
which he wished to read, and so he amassed a respectable
gentleman’s library which remains, reasonably intact, at Craster.
His taste was sound and representative of his time and class.
For Pope he had a particular enthusiasm. Already in his Oxford
days he had acquired a taste of genealogy, and this led him to
pursue researches, from the time he entered into his property,
into the history of his own family. So he left behind him a use-
ful and fairly accurate account of his descent, based on public
records, wills in the Durham probate registry, and deeds in his
possession.

That he was a successful lawyer, with good capacity for
business, is plain from his career. John Craster reveals him-
self, in an account which he has left of a three-day ride through
Lincolnshire to Scarborough, as a man of wit and cultivation,
with tags of Horace at his command, and as of an enquiring
disposition with a special interest in heraldry and architecture.

Through the help of his wife’s kinsman, Thomas Villiers,
afterwards Earl of Clarendon, and with the approval of Carteret,
Earl Granville, John Craster was elected member, in 1754, for
Lord Weymouth’s pocket-borough of Weobley in Herefordshire,
and so obtained a seat in Parliament. He had stipulated that
his election expenses should not exceed £800. He sat in the
House of Commons through the remainder of Newcastle’s sole
ministry and throughout the coalition ministry of Newcastle and
Pitt.

Son George was now a young man of twenty and, his Eton
days being over, was entered in the same year at Gray’s Inn,

THE HISTORY OF THE CRASTER FAMILY 125

where his father was a Bencher; not with any intention, it may
be presumed, of practising at the Bar, but in order to acquire
such knowledge of the law as befitted a future landowner. By
way of further completing his education John Craster gave him
£100 to go to France. Two years later the indulgent father
bought his son a commission in the Royal Troop of Horse
Guards. It cost him £2,000 which was in part met by increas-
ing the mortgage on Shoreswood from {£2,000 to £3,200.

The house numbered 46 Lincoln’s Inn Fields, was occupied
by a widowed lady, Mrs. Sharpe, a Cartwright by birth (though
not of the Aynho line), and relict of Mr. John Sharpe, Solicitor
of the Treasury and M.P. for the notorious rotten borough of
Callington. She had a daughter named Olive. The young
people at numbers 40 and 46 became acquainted. Both were
good-looking though of sallow complexion and indifferent
constitution. He had his Guards’ uniform and she was said
to have a fortune of £30,000. On 3rd February, 1757, George
and Olive were married in the neighbouring church of St.
Clement Dane’s

It was no runaway match. John Craster, as has been observed
was a lawyer, and the ample marriage settlement concluded on
the day before the wedding had for its trustees Lord Jersey and
no less a person than the Lord Chancellor, the eminent Lord
Macclesfield. ‘The bride appears to have received a jointure of
£10,000, with a further {10,000 on her mother’s death. She
also brought into settlement £8,000, a sum lent out on mortgage,
and which it was intended should be invested in the purchase
of lands as near as convenient to the manor of Craster. John
Craster cherished, it seems, the idea of rounding off the family
estate by buying back Craster South Farm. On his part he
gave his son an annuity of {400 during his own lifetime and the
reversion, on his death, of his estates in Northumberland and
Durham.

A memorandum which he drew up preparatory to the settle-
ment gives particulars as to the state of his properties. The
family house at Craster is there stated to be ruinous and sadly
in need of repair. Old Daniel Craster had given up his lease,
and the house was now let, with the demesne farm and Craster
West Farm, for {250 to Mr. Marmaduke Grey, ancestor of the
Bacon Greys of Styford. Dunstan Hill Farm was let for £120.
The main part of the Shoreswood estate was let at £260; the
colliery there was stated to bring in on the average {250 a year;
and Shoreswood Hall, where John Craster resided when in the
north, was estimated as having a yearly value of £100. Three
Durham copyhold farms with a colliery wayleave brought in
£232. Rents in all totalled £1,324 16s. They had nearly

126 THE HISTORY OF THE CRASTER FAMILY

doubled in the space of twenty years; such was the effect of
agricultural improvements.

Mrs. Sharpe had the young couple to live with her until she
died in 1760. Olive and her brother then divided the Sharpe
family silver between them. She and George bought themselves
a glass coach for £140, which John Craster promised to pay for
but did not. George’s mother ordered £390 worth of jewellery
for her daughter-in-law, for which John Craster also undertook
to pay; but the jeweller, for all his insistent demands, never
received payment until George produced the money himself.
There seems to have been some bickering between father and
son.

The fact is that other matters were beginning to engage the
old lawyer’s attention. Some six weeks before his son married,
an aged widow died in Upper Brook Street, childless and in-
testate. Her name was Dame Dorothy Windsor. She was the
last surviving child of that Sir Richard Stote who had helped to
make John Craster’s grandfather sheriff of Northumberland in
Charles II’s reign, and whose mother Jane Bewick, had for her
grandfather an Edmund Craster who. had owned Craster in the
days of Elizabeth. So she was third cousin once removed to
John. What was also much to the point, she owned large and
profitable estates in the south of Northumberland. These
comprised 1,759 acres in Kirkheaton (including Kirkheaton
Hall and a landsale colliery), 1,056 in Long Benton, 296 in
Willington, and 89 acres in Jesmond. John’s genealogical
researches gave prospect of yielding a substantial dividend. He
asserted his claim to be Dame Dorothy’s next-of-kin and heir.

As was to be expected, there were rival claimants. Sir Robert
Bewicke of Close House also set up to be next-of-kin and heir-
at-law; while the Earl of Northumberland, the Earl of Carlisle
and Sir William Blackett all asserted that there were no heirs at
all and claimed various portions of the estates as escheats. More
than one suit was started in the Court of Exchequer, and legal
proceedings dragged on for three years, threatening to involve
the litigants in considerable expense. John Craster thought it
wise to come to terms with Sir Robert Bewicke and make
common cause with him against the other parties. "They agreed
to act in conert and to share expenses and benefits. Events
justified the Craster-Bewicke partnership. Judgment was given
in their favour, and they entered into the coveted estates as
tenants in common.

_ George and Olive set out in the autumn of 1760 and returned
to England in the summer of 1763, after their grand tour of
Europe. Old John Craster was failing in health. Two years
earlier he had written to inform Lord Weymouth of his intention
to give up his seat in Parliament at the forthcoming election.

THE HISTORY OF THE CRASTER FAMILY 127

“*The bustle of life”, he wrote, “‘is over for me, for daily admoni-
tions tell me it is time to retire.” In June 1763 he drafted his
will. In December he was lying ill at Taplow. His will was
at last engrossed and signed on Christmas Eve, and on the last
night of the old year he died.

Under the settlement made upon George and Olive’s marriage,
Craster and Dunstan Hill, Shoreswood and the principal Durham
farms had been settled, along with Olive’s £8,000, upon George
and his male issue, subject to John’s life interest. But John had
reserved to himself the revision, that is the right to dispose of
these properties in the event of his son having no male issue;
and as yet there were no children. He had also acquired, since
the settlement was made, an undivided moiety of Dame Dorothy
Windsor’s estates, and of this he had free disposal. By his will
he settled the Windsor estates upon his son in tailmale, and
created an entail under which all the settled properties should
pass, in the event of his son leaving no male issue, to the testator’s
second cousin, Daniel Craster of Preston, only son of that other
Daniel, who had tenanted Craster twenty-five years before. He
made his wife sole executor and left her an annuity of £100,
together with his plate and pictures, the furniture of his house
in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, the chariot and horses in his London
stables, and all his other personal effects. There were also
annuities of {50 each to his two sisters, Isabell Myllot and Ann
Wood; and he empowered his son to raise {1,000 for distri-
bution among his nephews and nieces. A life interest in two
small Durham farms was given to George Empson, an illegiti-
mate son of the testator’s father.

George Craster had no wish to live on at Taplow, and his wife
succeeded in letting Park Gate House to Stephen Fox, Lord
Holland’s son and elder brother to Charles James Fox.

The family mansion at Craster had fallen vacant, for Marma-
duke Grey had died there in October 1764, and his widow had
given up the house and farm. In the following September
George’s cousin, lame, skittish Betty Wood, wrote to her
brother from her aunt Mylott’s at Chester-le-Street: ‘“We have
had Mr. and Mrs. Craster here twice. They have left Shores-
wood entirely and gone to live at Craster, but he talks of building
a house at Fawside which is in this neighbourhood, for, upon
consulting lawyers, he finds he has the right to dispose of all
the estates in this country, owing to his father neglecting to
take surrenders out of the court at Durham to his will, which
makes it of no effect as to these estates.’’ Nevertheless, second
thoughts prevailed. In February 1767 Betty Wood reported
that George and Olive had made a very long stay at Craster that
summer and had only just set off for London. They had
decided by this time to rebuild, or rather to add on a square

128 THE HISTORY OF THE CRASTER FAMILY

Georgian block of rooms to the south side of the tower, con-
vetting the earlier house to use as offices and servants’ quarters.
From George’s note made in April 1770, of “‘things to order for
the finishing of Craster”, it appears that the new work was by
that time practically complete.

George did little to increase his fathers’ library, though he
appreciated it sufficiently to leave it by will as an heirloom to
accompany the Craster estate. His improvements at Craster
included the construction of a conservatory near the house and
the making of the present brick-walled garden at some little
distance from it.

Sailing furnished him with another pastime. He shot and
he fished; yet, despite of this, George, with all his waistcoats,
his town-bred manners, and that air of arrogant superiority that
lives on in Battoni’s portrait, was not wholly popular with his
county neighbours. Betty Wood writes of how Mr. Bacon of
Adderstone ‘“‘fell upon my cousin C. and took him to pieces very
genteely. Dixon seemed very uneasy for fear he should go to
great lengths, as I was present, and gave him the broadest hints
that I was a relation; but the other would not hold his tongue.”

We are not told what the neighbours thought of Olive. For
all her vivacity her health was causing alarm. She and her
husband went in March 1769 to Bristol to take the waters, after
spending the later summer months at Craster they decided to
winter abroad, and went in October to Paris. They had been
there for little more than six weeks when Olive died.

George determined that his wife should be buried, with due
pomp, in the new family vault which he had made in Embleton
church. So her body was brought to England and taken north
from London in a coach drawn by six horses. A black velvet
pall covered the coffin. Decked with black ostrich feathers and
accompanied by horsemen and postillions in funeral cloaks and
wearing crépe hatbands, the hearse was driven at walking pace
along the Great North Road and arrived, after twenty-four days,
at Craster, whence the coffin was taken to Embleton for inter-
ment. The total expenses of the journey came to £288 18s.
Nor was this the whole outlay of the funeral. There were
mourning rings, twenty-two in number and costing a guinea each,
to be distributed among friends and relations. Superior tokens
were reserved for Sir Richard Lyttelton and his wife the Duchess.
Their rings, costing eleven guineas each, were set with brilliants.

- There had been no children of the marriage. Still, George
was only thirty-five when his wife died, and there was time for
him to marry again. He had certainly wanted to found a family,
and he had drafted a petition to His Majesty asking for the con-
ferment of a title. But for the moment his thoughts turned again

THE HISTORY OF THE CRASTER FAMILY 129

to Paris. It was going to be gay there the following summer,
for the marriage of the young Dauphin, afterwards Louis XVI,
to Marie Antoinette had been fixed for 17th May 1770. George
resolved to see what he could; and so to Paris he went, accom-
panied by his friend Mr. Aynsley; and, after the festivities at
Versailles were over sat down to send a rather dull account
of them home.

After the usual autumn visit to Craster, he was back again in
Paris in October. He may even have thought of settling there,
for in the following January (1771) he took himself a house on
the Boulevards. But his health, never good, was beginning to
fail. In May he fell ill, and, when he passed through London
in July on his way to Craster, he made his will. Though able
to attend Kelso races in September, he was a sick man, never to
leave his north-country home again.

He had no particular affection for the Daniel Crasters. On
the other hand he liked his Wood cousins at Beadnell. George
determined to leave them what he could. But his father had
so tied up the estates by the settlement he made on George’s
marriage and by his subsequent will that Daniel Craster was
bound to inherit. It was only through the flaw of which we
have already spoken that George was able to dispose of the
house at Taplow and the copyhold lands in the county of
Durham. ‘These he devised to his mother for life; then to his
aunt Wood, and finally to her elder son John. He could not
touch the rest of the Craster properties unless Daniel should
leave no male heirs, and, as there were already four sons, that
contingency must have seemed a remote one. Nevertheless he
provided by his will that, in such an event, his cousin John Wood
ot his male issue should inherit. And this actually came to
pass.

At the beginning of March George wrote out his final in-
structions to his executor. On 9th May 1772, he died; and three
days later he was interred, “‘in a grand manner’ according to
the local press, by Olive’s side in the family vault at Embleton.

He was succeeded at Craster by his cousin. Daniel Craster
moved in from Preston which had been his home for near
twenty years past, and brought with him his wife, his four sons,
his four daughters, and his old father, now turned ninety, a hale
old man with rugged features, who had outlived three wives
and of whom the tale goes that he would say, as he mounted his
ancient nag, ““Here we go a hundred and twenty years together.”
Of the rest of the family the story is soon told. George’s
mother returned from Tonbridge to London. She had a house
there in Nassau Street, off Soho Square, as well as apartments in
Windsor Castle, for George III had not as yet made Windsor

130 DUNGLASS CHURCH

his residence, and rooms there were granted by royal favour.
She survived her son by a bare five months and was buried in
Taplow church, near to the spot where her husband and their
young children were lying. Aunt Myllot finally left Chester-le-
Street and came to live with the Woods at Beadnell, where she
died in 1781, leaving a chalice to the village church and a ghost
to haunt the Hall. John Craster’s last surviving sister, Anne
Wood, lived on until 1796, dying at the ripe age of eighty-seven
at Netherby, the home of her married daughter, Katherine
Senhouse. Her son John married another Anne Craster,
Daniel’s pretty daughter, and in 1838 their elder son, Thomas
Wood, succeeded under George Craster’s will to the estates and
name of Craster.

(To be concluded)

DUNGLASS CHURCH
By. A. D. S. MacDONALD

Dunglass church belongs to the Late Pointed period of Gothic
architecture. ‘The masonry is almost intact, except for damages
done in the 18th century, when the church was turned into
stabling and other farm building. The south transept is the
burial vault of the Halls of Dunglass.

The building is cruciform and consists of a nave 4o ft. long
and 20 ft. wide internally; a choir about 33 ft. long and 18 ft.
wide; and north and south transepts, each about 213 ft. long and
14 ft. wide. The total internal length of the church is 90 ft.
8 in., and the total length of transept from north to south is 63 ft.
There is a sacristy on the north side of the choir, from which it
enters by a low centred arch, pointed and splayed.

The building is roofed throughout, except for the tower over
the crossing, with a continuous pointed barrel vault over each
arm of the cross (this was the form commonly practised in
Scotland in the 15th century, both in churches and castles),
with a roof of heavy overlapping stone slabs resting on the
outside of the arch. Thus no timber was ae in the con-
struction of the walls and roof.

The tower was. divided internally into three stages and the
cotbels for supporting the floor beams still remain. In the
north side of the west wall of the tower, a door opens into the
nave at a high level: it was probably reached by wooden steps.

The plan of the tower piers is peculiar; the two west piers
stand out from the angle of the walls of the nave and transept,
to which they are attached by a strip of masonry only 9-10 in.
thick. The tower is thus considerably off the centre of the

DUNGLASS CHURCH 131

transept, and is much less in breadth than the limbs of the cross.
The two east piers project from the angle into the choir, but
not so as to diminish the width of the transept. It is difficult
to account for the very unusual and eccentric position of the
tower supports. Possibly the choir and tower were built first,
and when the nave and transepts were erected, it was thought
desirable to make them wider than first intended. The piers of
the crossing are simply splayed and notched on the inner diagonal
faces, and are all alike; but the arch faces or mouldings vary,
those of the nave and transepts corresponding with the piers,
while the choir arch is moulded on both faces with shallow
mouldings. The former arches spring from moulded caps, the
latter from caps carved and moulded. The splayed base of the
piers is omitted on the chancel side.

The windows in the end walls of the nave, choir and transepts
are all pointed and originally were filled with tracery. The east
wall under the window sill was cut out to allow of passage to
farm vehicles. Below the end windows of the transept and
sacristy are tomb recesses, probably ornamented with cusping
now cut away. The ornamental brackets for supporting these
enrichments have label terminations of angels. One (in the
sacristy) plays on a stringed instrument. The side windows of
the church have segmented sconsion arches and double lights,
with massive tracery. The north and south doorways of the
nave are round arched, with moulded jambs. The other door-
ways ate plain, with lintels.

The sedilia in the south wall near the east end is very beautiful
and fairly well preserved. It contains the usual three seats,
indicated by three ogee crocketed arch-heads. These arches
rest on carved capitals at each end, and the intermediate ones
on corbels supported by angels, one holding a shield and the
other playing on a viol. Between the sedilia and the east wall
and below the sill of the window there has been a piscina, now
cut away. It was apparently supported by a shaft from the
floor. Adjoining this, in the east wall, is a projecting corbel
with a shield on the face. This was probably meant either to
support a light or a figure in connection with the altar.

There are consecration crosses on the side walls in the sacristy
and in the choir.

There is doubt as to the founder and date of the church,
Possibly it was Sir Thomas Home, in the reign of Robert III
(1390-1406). He married Nicola Pepdie, who brought him the
lordship of Dunglass, and their arms adjoin the north transept
window.

This note is based on MacGibbon and Ross, Keclesiastical
Architecture of Scotland, 1896: article on Dunglass church in
Vol. II.

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS VIII
T. D. THOMSON, M.a., F.s.A.SCOT.

The Club’s own operations were almost entirely confined to the
large drain noted in the previous report. The cover slabs were
all lifted; these included three running under the line of the south
wall of Edgar’s Walls, massive stones which when turned over
proved to have been channelled on their under sides. At this
point the drain was found to be lined with a nine-foot-long
sheet of lead shaped to the drain.

Disappointingly, nothing was found in this drain save mud
and a few fragments of the usual pottery; the lifting of a few
of the lining stones was also unproductive. The examination
of the remainder awaits the 1973 season, but it would seem at
present that they had come from building debris considerably
later than 1216 and that the drain may have been cut down into
the Norman level long after that was out of use; there was no
sign of specific disturbance of the mediaeval level immediately
above the drain.

Following upon Mr. Noble’s report on the work at the Priors’
tombs west of the present Church, the Department of the
Environment’s Conservation Section undertook the reinterment
of Prior Radulphus’ remains. This involved examination of the
other tomb, that of Prior Aernaldus, which turned out to be 18
in. nearer the post-1850 surface than his neighbour’s, although he
died a year before the latter. This, and the fact that both tombs
would have effectually obstructed the western entrance to the
Old Church, suggests that the Priors may have been reinterred
in their present position in what would have been the crossing
of the thirteenth-century Church. It was found that Aernaldus’
remains—which were inconsiderable—were lying facing west,
which may have been done after examination in the 1850s; they
were revereftly reorientated.

The completion of this work enabled the consolidation of the
Norman walls in this area to be finished, once again by Mr.
Cramond, who was also able to carry out further repairs to
Edgar’s Walls; these operations were again financed by the
County Council.

132

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, VUI 133

A further improvement was the opening up of the doorway
leading from the churchyard into the South Transept at its
south-west corner, which had been blocked by a very dilapidated
tombstone in memory of William Crow of Netherbyres, who was
responsible for the building of the first harbour works at
Eyemouth in the eighteenth century.

Towards the end of the year proposals were submitted, by
request, to the County Council for the comprehensive conserva-
tion and laying-out of the Priory precincts so far as these are
in the Council’s ownership. These have not yet been decided
upon, but, to trespass a little into 1973, the Council financed
a week’s hard work at Easter by a party from the Conservation
Corps, who did an excellent job in removing rubbish and over-
burden from the unexcavated part of Edgar’s Walls and the
passage between the Walls and the modern boundary wall south
of the Cloisters, leaving these areas free for more skilled examina-
tion. ‘They worked under the eye of Mr. Noble and were able
to absorb a good deal of knowledge through a happy associ-
ation with the party from London.

* % x

Last year it was reported (HBNC XXXIX, 18 and plate) that
a coin found in the area of the Priors’ tombs at Coldingham
Priory had been identified at the British Museum as a denier of
Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem (1186-1192). Since then —
a number of scientific tests have been carried out, and doubt has
atisen as to the length of time that this coin had been in the
position in which it was found. It is hoped that a full report
on the findings may be published in the next Part of this History.

yd i as

OLDHAMSTOCKS CHURCH
By ithe Rey. DoF. S) DICK S10 t. Ds E Db:
An Address given in Oldhamstocks Church, on 11th May, 1972.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN :

It gives me great pleasure to extend to you a very cordial
welcome to the parish, village and church of Oldhamstocks. I
have been asked to speak about the church, which has recently
been included in the Secretary of State’s list of buildings of
special architectural or historic interest. At the outset I should
make it clear—and so save you from discovering for yourselves—
that I am not an authority either on Scottish history or archi-
tecture, as some of you may be. I can say with Socrates that
“what I don’t know, I don’t even think I know’, but I am
glad to share with you such information as I possess. In due
course it is hoped to produce a short history of the kirk in
Oldhamstocks and a list of its ministers. Last year Miss Sheila
M. Petrie submitted a project to Edinburgh University on the
social history of the parish, which yielded some information
about the church.

There was a church here sometime before 1127. In that year
Adulph, priest of Oldhamstocks, witnessed a charter (which has
been preserved) by Robert, Bishop of St. Andrew’s, in favour
of the monks of St. Cuthbert at Coldingham. In October 1242
the church was consecrated by David, Bishop of St. Andrew’s,
with St. Michael as its patron saint. The name of the first
known priest appears to me to be Anglo-Saxon and I am inclined
to believe that the derivation of the name Oldhamstocks should
be sought there and not in Gaelic. If this is so, ““Ald ham stoc”
would mean “‘old home or dwelling-place.”

The list of ministers is still incomplete but it is known that in
1450 Patrick Sinclair was rector of Oldhamstocks. At this
time and for another century or two, Oldhamstocks, which was a
considerably larger parish than it is now, was quite a wealthy
incumbency. It was not attached to, or dependent upon, any
monastic establishment, and indeed support for other founda-
tions was diverted from it. Among others to benefit was the
interesting but unfortunate and unsuccessful experiment of the
collegiate church of Dunglass, which obtained from Oldham-
stocks a prebend, a portion of land or tithe, from which the staff
or one of the staff was supported. ‘This was part of a process
which in the 15th century denuded the parishes of their re-
sources, leading to their neglect and eventually making the
Reformation inevitable.

134

OLDHAMSTOCKS CHURCH 135

However, even after the Reformation, Oldhamstocks was not
by any standard a poor parish. In the Register of Ministers and
Readers in the year 1574, under the heading “‘Aldhamstockis,
Colbranspeth, Aldcammos”’, we find that David Home, minister
(“‘payand his own reidare’”’) had a stipend of £186 13s.-4d. His
reader Alexander Lawder had a miserable pittance of £20 os. od.,
while Thomas Harlaw, “reidare at Colbranispeth,” and John
Wood, “‘reidare at Aldcammos,” each had £16 plus kirk lands.
At that time there were 289 ministers and 988 parishes, of which
715 had “‘reidares.” Of the ministers only nine had a higher
stipend than Oldhamstocks and of all the dioceses in Scotland
the Diocese of Merse and Lothian had the highest valuation.
(Miscellany of the Wodrow Society, Vol. I).

Today, as a result of the diversion of the patrimony of the Kirk
to other beneficiaries, outside and inside the church, and of the
movement of population, Oldhamstocks is dependent on its
linking with Cockburnspath, which had been part of the Parish
of Oldhamstocks till it became an independent quoad omnia
parish in 1609.

I now turn to the architectural and historic interest of this
building. Of the earliest building or buildings on the site
only some traces of the ground course can be seen. Originally
the church was built east and west, with the altar in front of the
present chancel which was originally a separate burial vault or
burial aisle, but never used as such. It was a later addition,
separate from the church, with the entrance on the south side.
It was built probably in the 16th or early 17th century.

On the apex of the south-west corner, there is a remarkable
16th century sundial, such as is found also on the south-west
buttress at Cockburnspath. The latter is illustrated in The
Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, and it appears
that these two are the only known examples of this type of
sundial. They had a gnomon used for the morning hours while
the piece of stone which jutted out on the west side was used
as the gnomon of a secondary dial for the afternoon hours.

The first major extension and renovation took place in 1701.
While the work was in progress the congregation worshipped
in a barn belonging to the Lady of Blackcastle, which then stood
in the field on the other side of the road, due north of the church.
In 1684 Sir Patrick Hepburn of Blackcastle was fined £200
sterling by the Council, which found him guilty of the high
crime of “resetting, conversing with and harbouring a declared
rebel” in the person of Mr. Gabriel Sempill, who was captured
by a party of guards in his house at Oldhamstocks. Mr.
Sempill, a nephew of Sir Patrick, was an ‘‘outed” covenanting
Presbyterian minister, who had carried on part of his ministry

136 OLDHAMSTOCKS CHURCH

at Ford as well as at various places in Scotland.

The renovation of 1701 transformed the church into the
other kind of interior order, with the congregation round a
central pulpit in the centre of the west wall, flanked by doors
on either side. The congregation sat round the pulpit, the
communion table and the font. It is interesting that in some
of the larger C. of E. and R.C. churches an interior re-ordering
to make this possible is being carried out to-day. It was at
this time that the aisle to the north (known locally as the wing)
was added, including a gallery of which the supporting pillars
can still be seen. The belfry and bell were a later gift of the
Broadwood family, for which the heritors recorded their appreci-
ation in the Heritor’s Minute Book, in 1854. Originally the
family had been wrights in Oldhamstocks, and the grave of the
last wright is marked by a stone in the kirkyard. John Broad-
wood (1732-1812) left for London, where he entered the employ-
ment of Burkhardt Tschudi, the harpsichord maker, becoming
in 1782 sole proprietor of the firm which was to be so famous
in the history of the pianoforte. It is said that the beautiful
tone of the bell is due to the amount of silver which it was
stipulated should be included in the metal from which it was
cast.

The other scheduled building is the Watch House, which was
donated by Mrs. Moore in 1826, three years before Burke was
hanged. Agnes Moore was the third wife of the Reverend
Robert Moore, minister of Oldhamstocks from 1797 to 1843.
The inscription above the door is taken from Jeremiah xxxi.4o:
“And the whole valley of dead bodies and of ashes shall be
holy unto the Lord; it shall not be plucked up or thrown down
for ever.”” Fear of the body-snatchers is also indicated by heavy
flat-topped stones in the kirkyard.

The last major reconstruction was undertaken in 1920 by the
Rev. Bryce Gordon, who did much of the work with his own
hands. ‘The original interior order was resumed and the burial
vault opened up to form a chancel. It is appropriate that his
imaginative reconstruction should be commemorated by a brass
plate on the wall. About ten years ago, during the ministry
of the Rev. J. W. M. Cameron, the plaster was removed from
the walls, where it was discoloured by damp, to reveal the warm-
coloured stone, and the floor, roof and interior furnishings were
renewed. ‘Two ladies who then lived in Oldhamstocks House,
which had been the manse (built in 1677), took a great interest
in this renovation and did much to make it possible—Mrs.
Fleming, a minister’s widow, and Mrs. Marshall. The latter
had a family connection with the well-known firm of church
furnishers, Whytock & Reid, and the pulpit, a beautiful example
of modern carving, was executed by Miss Goodwin, a member
of their staff,

OLDHAMSTOCKS CHURCH 137

I should also draw your attention to the heraldic crests
which you would notice on the outside wall of the chancel as
you apptoached the church. These were found among the ruins
of Blackcastle by Thomas Mitchell, minister of Oldhamstocks
1843-76, and placed on the gable-end of the chancel for preserva-
tion. The initials are those of Thomas Hepburn, minister of
Oldhamstocks 1578-85, and of his wife Margaret Sinclair, and
ate dated 1581. On the right is the heraldic crest of the
Hepburns, and on the left that of the Patersons of Bannockburn
to whom Margaret Sinclair was related. The Hepburn motto
inscribed above is “‘J keep traist’’.

This brings us to the most glorious—or notorious—historical
interest of the church. The patronage of the church was vested
in the Lords of Blackcastle, the Hepburn family, related to the
Bothwell Hepburns of Hailes Castle. This explains why so
many of the ministers of the parish before and after the Reforma-
tion were Hepburns or relatives of Hepburns. From 1562
until 1672, five out of the nine ministers were Hepburns. It is
recorded that, at the first General Assembly of the reformed
Church of Scotland, ‘‘among others whilk are thought apt and
able, by the ministers and commissioners aforesaid, to minister,”
there were three Hepburns, one of whom Thomas Hepburn,
was of Oldhamstocks. It may be that he was the priest at
Oldhamstocks. His relatives had certainly served in that
capacity. Most of the priests who entered the ministry of the
reformed church were readers for a time and were then accepted
as ministers. But some of them, like John Knox, became
ministers without any such probationary period, and this may
have been the case with Thomas Hepburn, though this is not
yet established.

In 1567 this Thomas Hepburn, the parson of Oldhamstocks,
is said to have been in Edinburgh, in the entourage of Bothwell
Hepburn, the Lord of Hailes, at the time of the explosion at
Kirk o’ Fields and the murder of Darnley. (Antonia Fraser:
Mary Queen of Scots). In the same year, at the 16th General
Assembley, Mr. John Craig, minister in Edinburgh, “‘at the
ordinances of the Assemblie presented in writ his proceedings,
touching the proclaiming of bannes betwixt the queen and the
Erle Bothwell”. ‘‘First” he said in explanation, “‘being required
of Mr. Thomas Hepburne, in the queen’s name to proclaim her
with the Lord Bothwell, I plainly refused because I had not her
hand-writt and also because of the constant bruit that the Lord
hath both ravished her and keeped her in captivitie [i.e. at
Dunbar]. Upon Wednesday next, the Justice clerk brought mea
writing subscrived with her hand, bearing effect that she was
neither ravished not yet detained in captivity and therefore

138 OLDHAMSTOCKS CHURCH

charged me to proclaim.” He further explains that if it was a
bad marriage, as he believed, the more publicity it got before-
hand the better (Calderwood’s History, Vol. Il). Referring to
the mysterious messenger sent by Bothwell to the Castle of
Edinburgh to obtain the silver casket which had been in the
possession of the King of France and was then in the custody
of Sir James Balfour, Governor of the Castle, Calderwood
writes: “I find in a certain manuscript that the messenger was
Mr. Thomas Hepburn, Parson of Aldhamstocks.” Sir James
Balfour handed over the casket with the letters of the queen,
which Bothwell wanted in his own defence, but at the same
time he told some of the nobles what he had done, and the
messenger was intercepted and relieved of his dangerous and
precious burden. It is also said that the parson was present
among the party who rescued Mary Queen of Scots from
Lochleven, and that this explains why he found himself in a
difficult position later, but this is not yet certain, as far as my
information goes. It is certain, however, and not entirely
surprising, that he was at one time in trouble with the General
Assembly on a charge of heresy, although the Assembly had
previously commissioned him, along with several other ministers,
“‘to preach in the unplanted kirks of the Merce, their moneth
by course”. When he appeared before the Assembly in 1576,
he professed himself willing to be shown the error of his
opinions, and was suspended from preaching only for a short
time (Row’s Historie of the Kirk of Scotland).

It is not part of my brief, nor is there time, to speak about the
parish, which is described as it was in the eighteenth century by
John Cochran, minister of Oldhamstocks, 1787-97, in Sinclair’s
Statistical Account. Let me just refer to the fact that this year is
the tercentenary of the Act of the Parliament of Scotland, in
the reign of Charles II, permitting, in response to a supplication
““putit to the King’s Majestie and Estates of Parliament be John
Earle of Tweddale,” “‘two frie fairs yearly to be keiped and holden
at the said Toune of Auldhamstocks, ane upon the third Tuesday
of Junij and ane other upon the third Tuesday of October,
yearly, in all time coming; together with ane weekly mercat, to
be kept thereat upon Tuesday, for buying and selling horse,
nolt, sheep, meill, malt and all sort of grane, cloath, linning, and
woolen, and all sort of merchandise and other commodities,
useful for the country, with power to the said Earle of Tweddale,
and his foresaids and such as they shall appoint to collect and
uptake the tolls, customs, duties and casualities belonging to the
said two yearly fairs and weekly mercats. And to enjoy all
other freedoms, liberties and privileges and immunities sicklike
and as frielie as any other has done in like cases.” (Acts of the
Parliament of Scotland 1670-80. Acta Parliamentorum Caroli
II, A.D, 1672, Number 9: roth July 1672).

THE UNION CANAL
By B. C. SKINNER

In The Scotsman of 7th March, 1818, there appeared the
following notice:

We have great pleasure in announcing that on Tuesday, after the
adjournment of the General Meeting of the Union Canal Company,. the
Committee of Management with many of the proprietors proceeded to the
West end of Fountainbridge, the spot fixed on for the basin, where they
wete met by the engineer and contractors, and after an appropriate and
impressive ptayer by the Rev. David Dickson, junior, Mr. Downie of
ees president of the Company, dug the first spadeful in this extensive
work.

The Union Canal, which came into use in May, 1822, ran
from Port Hopetoun to Port Downie at Lock 16 on the Forth-
Clyde Canal, a distance of 314 miles. It was five feet deep,
thirty-seven feet wide, and was entirely level except for the
final half-mile at the west end, which contained eleven locks.
Its route touched at Slateford, Ratho, Broxburn, Winchburgh,
Philpstoun, Linlithgow, and Falkirk. Of this original length,
approximately a quarter-mile has dispappeared at the east end,
and a half-mile at the west end.

The construction of the canal followed an Act of Parliament
of 1817, itself the outcome of a twenty-five year debate on the
choice of route. In this debate, largely carried on by pamphlet
war, the main points at issue were:

(1) The relative costs of each line, influenced by the amounts of
lockage required, the compensation value of land to be
purchased, and the mineral advantages of land passed
through. (The third aspect led to the making of valuable
mineral surveys).

(2) The ultimate purpose of the canal—whether it should be
primarily a coal-canal, or a feeder to the Forth-Clyde
Canal, or a rival to the Forth-Clyde Canal.

When finally constructed, it was essentially as a feeder to the
Forth-Clyde Canal, in its brief independent life before take-over
by the Edinburgh-Glasgow Railway Company in 1849. It
carried:

(1) Coal from the Falkirk area to Edinburgh;

(2) Building ware, slate, timber and lime to Edinburgh;
(3) Manure from Edinburgh to the country districts; and
(4) General merchandise and passengers in both directions.

159

140 THE UNION CANAL

For the carriage of goods, charges per ton/mile were:
Stone, coal, building material, manure—Twopence;
Timber—Threepence;

General merchandise—Fourpence.

Wharf or basin dues were payable in addition.

For passengers, the fares to Glasgow were initially seven
shillings (cabin), and five shillings (steerage), each of these
amounts being later reduced by one shilling. (A threepenny
omnibus was available from Princes Street to Port Hopetoun).
In 1832, 33,692 passengers were carried, and by 1835 the number
had risen to 127,292.

From a study of the surviving documents, especially those in
the Institute of Civil Engineers in London, one can form an
unusually detailed picture of the physical process of canal
construction. The supervising engineer was Hugh Baird of
Kelvinhead, and periodic inspections were made by Thomas
Telford. Between the passing of the Act in June, 1817, and
the cutting of the first turf in March, 1818, contractors were
engaged and briefed, and a labour force recruited.

The proposed line was divided into 33 lots, each comprising
one or two miles of canal, or one of the aqueducts. The lots
were tendered, and in the event were divided almost equally
among six major contractors. With each lot, a detailed des-
cription of the work to be done was issued, covering not only
the cutting or embanking to be carried out, but also the methods
of disposal of surplus rock and soil, the provision of service
roadways, bridges, culverts and other structures.

In these, reference is made to Standard Specifications drawn
up for the general governance of all works on the canal, e.g.
Specification No. 1—for Cutting, Embanking, Lining, Puddling
and Fencing—shows the Cut to be 22 feet wide at the bottom,
37 feet at the water surface (i.e. depth of five feet), and 4o feet
at the top of the bank, and the towpath to be nine feet wide.

The contractors tended to be men with earlier experience in
canal construction. Hugh McIntosh of Bloomsbury, responsible
for the Edinburgh-Almond section, had previously worked on
the Lancaster, Kennet-Avon and Croydon canals, while the
firm of Hughes & Williams had been associated with Thomas
Telford in the construction of the Caledonian Canal. The
estimates given by McIntosh included £7,390 for the Edinburgh
basins, £38,159 for ten miles of canal and twelve bridges, and
£12,800 for the Slateford Aqueduct. Average costs included
£2,500 for excavating and finishing one mile of canal, and £325
for constructing a bridge 67 feet long with a twelve-foot roadway.
The overall final cost was approximately £600,000.

THE UNION CANAL 141

The labour force required for canal construction was very
large—a fact illustrated by the engagement (luckily abortive) at
Winchburgh on 21st November, 1818, between 750 Irish navvies
and a similar number of Highlanders. This is a reminder of
the principal sources of labour supply—the poorest classes of
Irish labourers (advertisements for workers on the Union Canal
were appearing in Londonderry papers from 1817 onwards),
and evicted crofters from the north of Scotland. It is possibly
significant that Mr. John Downie, president of the canal com-
pany, himself owned a sheepwalk in Appin.

This meant a considerable disturbance to the country districts
of Midlothian and West Lothian, and many Irish settled perm-
anently in the area: in 1842 the minister of Ratho wrote, ““Those
that remain have come under the humanifying influence of good
neighbourhood and Protestant institutions.”

Possibly the most striking features of the Union Canal are its
three major aqueducts—spanning the Avon, Almond, and Water
of Leith. These range in height from 86 feet (the first) to 65
feet (the last). The water on all three was carried in cast-iron
troughs thirteen feet wide by six feet deep, and giving a weight
of 73 tons of cast iron per arch. The design, manufacture
and provision of these was left to Thomas Telford and his
assistant James Thompson, and the plates were ordered by
Thompson, after a visit to the Pontcysylte aqueduct in Denbigh-
shire, from William Hazledene of Shrewsbury who had supplied
them for that structure. They were brought by sea from Shrop-
shire to Leith via the English Channel.

To-day, the chief threats to the Union Canal come from
uncorrected accidents (such as slipping bings), from demolition
carried out in the name of improvement, and from casual
vandalism. As an outstanding monument of our industrial
past, it urgently requires a planned policy for preservative
treatment: and, thanks to the recent founding of the Scottish
Inland Waterways Association, one can now feel more hopeful
for its future and that of Scotland’s other canals.

ON THE RE-DISCOVERY OF LIVNA EA
BOREALTS at MELLERSTAIN

Notes by A. G. LONG, Hancock Museum

Linnaea borealis was first discovered at Mellerstain by Mr.
Dunn the gardener in 1834 (H.B.N.C. 1, 248). It was first seen
there by members of the Club in 1843, and Dr. Johnston wrote
that it occupied two or three considerable patches located in a
fir wood on Lightfield Farm (JVatural History of the Eastern
Borders, 1853, p.99)-

In 1866 the plant was seen again at the same site on 28th June,
and said to be in full flower (H.B.N.C. 5, 244).

In 1869 Dr. Charles Stuart described the plant as growing
over an area which was about eighty paces in circumference on
and July (H.B.N.C. 6, 71).

In 1880 James Hardy noted that the plant was still present at
Mellerstain (H.B.N.C. 9, 229 and 293).

In 1894 Rev. G. Gunn recorded its presence at this locality
(EL. BoINIG,, 155/82).

In 1915 Rev. J. J. M. L. Aiken could not find it at Mellerstain
(H.B.N.C. 22, 354), but in the following year it was found by
J. Ferguson (4.B.N.C. 23, 47). This is the last record I have
found for the plant at the Mellerstain site.

On ist July, 1972, the Club held a special botanical meeting
at Mellerstain with the object of trying to re-locate the plant.
Mrs. E. O. Pate made the arrangements, first obtaining per-
mission for the visit from the Estate Factor, Mr. John E. Hume.
Mr. Sturrock, the Forester at Mellerstain, kindly met the party
of about 25 members who assembled at the “‘Cocked Hat’
plantation at the eastern entry to the estate on the road south
from Gordon. As Bonaparte’s Plantation had been felled and
re-planted in relatively recent years, fears were entertained that
the Linnaea might have died out, since it is a shade-loving plant.
Much time was spent without success searching among the
herbage between the young trees of the new plantation, but a
few members ventured over the wire-netting fence at the west
side and near to a ditch bounding the older birch wood which
hhad not been re-planted. It was in the shade of this wood, a
short distance from the N-E corner and due south of Lightfield
Farm, that Messrs J. and G. Waldie of Gordon found the plant
growing over an area of a few square yards and bearing its twin

142

ON THE RE-DISCOVERY OF LINNAEA BOREALIS 143
AT MELLERSTAIN

bell flowers of delicate pink colour. The plant was photo-
graphed and the whole party summoned to see the plant which
had survived over the span of 138 years from its initial discovery.
Nearby a Woodcock was flushed from its nest with four eggs.
Everyone went away gratified to know that this interesting plant
named in honour of the great Swedish botanist was still surviving
at the place of its first discovery in Berwickshire.

Other sites at which Linnaea has been found in the County are:
Huntly Wood near Gordon (1880, H.B.N.C. 9, 294); Longfor-
macus strip (1884, H.B.N.C. 10, 608); wood between Drake-
mire and Brockholes (1891, H.B.N.C. 13, 386) and Fans (1922,
HI.B.N.C. 24, 358). It would be of interest to investigate these
localities and determine whether or not the plant still survives at
these stations also.

THE MEUCHEL STONE
By G. A. C. BINNIE

This headstone is to be found on New Horndean Farm,
virtually due east of the farmhouse (O.S. reference NT 900 501).
Some fifteen yards of a five-feet-high wall remain, which marks
the boundary between the parishes of Fishwick and Ladykirk,
and the stone backs on to the wall and stands about three feet
to the west of it.

The stone itself is 31 inches high, 28 inches across, and 94
inches deep. On the east side, towards the wall, is a roughly-
embossed cross, with a 19-inch vertical arm and 17-inch hori-
zontal arm, both about 4 inches wide.

The inscription on the west face reads:

THE
MEUCHEL STONE
INSCRIBED
ANNO 1805.
MOST
ATROCIOUS
ASSASINATION.

The Meuchel Stone is also known locally as the ‘‘Packman’s
Grave’, and the story is told that a packman was caught stealing
horsehair (one of the hind’s perquisites) in the stables at New
Horndean. He fled, pursued by some farm workers who caught
and killed him as he clambered over the wall; the alternative
story is that, in his haste to climb the wall, he slipped and was
strangled by the straps of his packman’s bag.

The cross on the stone might suggest that the Meuchel Stone
is a gravestone, but Horndean graveyard is only a couple of
hundred yards away, and was still in use in 1805. The pack-
man’s identity and the fate of his assailants remain a mystery;
there is certainly no mention of such a crime in any edition of
the Kelso Maz/l of 1805, and no mention either in the parish
records of Ladykirk. However, on 6th September 1736 the
parish records state that ““Thomas Meichall in Norham had a
child baptised called Agnes”; could it be that the name of the
unfortunate packman was Muckle?—a surname still extant in
Norham.

See photo between pages 106 and 107

144

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE
OF DR. JAMES HARDY WITH
MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Letter 41. Mill Vale, Wooler, Oct. 14, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I have your obliging favour, and though I wrote two days
ago, and have nothing to tell you, I may as well mention that
a journey to Norham this season is not very likely to happen.
As soon as I go home, and find all right, I think of going to
Edinburgh for a week, to consult libraries, and will then settle
down to work at the “‘Proceedings”.. .

I return Mr. Cunningham’s letter—Miss Hunter would prob-
ably have some of your Father’s letters, as well as Miss Bell... .

This is the second wet day we have had here. I made some
observations on Monday on glacial scratches on some of the
sandstone rocks. A shower came across the hills opposite, and
involved them in that deep gloom which is so impressive; which
we never see in the low country. When the blast moved on, the
Cheviot tops were whitened with hail. Next morning there
was thunder. The frost of Monday has loosened the tree
leaves, and before my window to-day showers of leaves are
passing like meteors. My look-out is opposite a bank covered
with tall beeches and ashes, with a willow in the foreground,
and two tall pear trees, and as night falls, and the branches
interlace in the shadow, I seem to be in the depths of a forest.
There is a pleasant view in another direction of Wooler Haugh,
with interlacing hedgerows, single trees, cots, and whitewashed
farm houses, nearly as far as the scene of Surrey’s encampment
before Flodden, and the old house of entertainment when
Wooler was resorted to, for drinking goat’s milk.

I shall probably go home about Saturday next week, and will
resume my walks as soon as the weather permits.
Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

145

146 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Letter 42. Oldcambus, by Cockburnspath,

Nov. 17th, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

It is a long while since I came home, but somehow I never
have found leisure to write, although wishing to do so. I had
letters both to write and to reply to, and a large number of books
to read, and some places to go to, and I have not got all con-
cluded as yet. It was very dreary when I passed Berwick on
my return... the only spot of beauty was Mrs. Forster’s house,
Castle Hills, in the centre of its rich framework of variegated
foliage. Before I left Wooler I took a journey to Langleyford
and the base of Cheviot, very much that I might write and tell
you, how it looked in its autumn bravery; and moreover it was
a sort of commission to point out what parts of the valley, and
hills might be photographed to advantage. But it is a month
ago now, and I would have to resort to my Journal, and have
not time to copy anything, but the scene was very lovely and
one never wearies in these mountain solitudes. I have only to
shut my eyes, and the brown and orange birchen woods, the
green and golden hazel shaws, and the stiff dusky alders, which
chiefly compose the woodlands, return vividly, with all the
barren hillsides, the grey castellated rocks, the gloom along the
hill-tops, and the twilight yellow-brown of the plots of bracken.
We have all these here, but they are “‘tame and domestic”, as
the poet says, to one ““‘who has roamed on the mountains afar’’.
We have no grand shadows to heighten them. The weather
has been so bad, that had our proposed visit to Norham been
taken, it would not have been very comfortable. I have been
in East Lothian examining some British Graves, but there was
neither skeleton nor work of art revealed, and I saw seven of
them; nothing except the side and bottom slabs remained. I
got cold and have not been well since. I got some information
about Birds; and it seems there is something more, that I have
to go back and inspect.... Jam trying to get a little notice of
Jeffrey the Roxburgh historian, i.e. to get somebody to write
an obituary; for I cannot do everything, especially about people
I know nothing about.

I wish to have the printing set going, and some papers ready
before going to Edinburgh to consult some libraries... .

I am busy reading some books which I wish to finish. I hope
you are well, and that I shall hear from you when convenient,
and with best wishes.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF 147
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

INote.—Alexander Jeffrey (1806-1874) became a member of the
Club in 1862, for a Memoir see H.B.IN.C. 7, 471-480; there is
also a notice and portrait in H.B.IN.C. 25, 485-486.

Letter 43. Oldcambus, Dec. 17, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I have been variously employed since I heard from you, and
not much further forward than I was. As regards coming
home, I passed through in the middle of the week. I had
flowers and bushes and a heavy lot of luggage, and did not
come by the coach; had one of my bad days, which kept me
other two, and at last sallied out, regardless of rain. It is a
pity you had expected me. My saying I would come, was in
respect to the visit to Norham, which I said I could not take.
I have not moved out since from the neighbourhood. Our
printing is not getting on, I don’t know for what reason. These
Alnwick people don’t use me well, by not answering my letters.
I have today put in order the Memoir of the Rev. Abraham
Robertson, D.D., Savilian Professor of Astronomy, Oxford: a
native of Dunse.... I would like if we could find out more
local worthies, and members to write their lives.... I cannot
expect to have Mr. Logan of Penang ready this year. I may
even give up the Battle of Dunbar, and save my visit to Edin-
burgh.... [have not been able to find a writer for Sir William
Jardine yet. I am advised to try his father-in-law, who is a
respectable writer on Geology. No one in Dumfriesshire
knows him scientifically, I am told. Some of his collections
of books were sold last week, in Edinburgh. Perhaps the house
was overloaded. ‘The Birds are not sold....

I am being importuned to write some papers on hurtful farm
insects, for the Highland Society, and have given a sort of
consent, provided I have time. However, it is to be kept a
secret for the present.

We have had very unpropitious weather. I have been twice
laid up, but recovered as rapidly, and one can now have pleasant
walks. Along all the coast there are tokens of wreck; a Baltic
ship apparently with timber, has perished in some of the late
storms. Our most numerous birds inland at present are field-
fares; at sea, wild ducks. A small party of St. Cuthbert’s ducks .
are visible today. We cannot get our wheat sown yet. I fear
it is going to rain again before we are ready. It has been called
an awkward season in this respect, but we may overcome it yet.

I have no news as I very seldom see anyone, I am getting
some new old books to follow out researches in history; and

148 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

have read a number of modern productions within the last few
weeks.

I inserted a notice of Miss Elizabeth Hunter in the President’s
Address, as being your father’s correspondent, etc. I have not
got the date of her decease yet.

With kind regards,
Believe me,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

Letter 44. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
Dec. 26, 1875.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I had your favour today, and as I will be putting odds and
ends together perhaps tomorrow, I will write you at once. I
have been rather unwell today, but have got over it. Perhaps
I am rather sitting too close; but I get out on all the good days.

First of all, I have succeeded in getting the Rev. W. S. Symonds
to consent to write an Obituary Memoir of Sir William Jardine,
and he proposes to take Mrs. Strickland’s assistance. I hope
they will combine their information. ... It would not be an
unadvisable plan, to add your Father’s notes on Jardine Hall,
at the end of the notice, if you could manage to copy them, with
ease to yourself. The names of Jardine, Selby and Johnston
are indissolubly connected. ...

If any of your lady correspondents have seen a life of Miss
Jane Porter, with letters dated from Lesbury, perhaps you might
find out for me, what she says about the place, and also about
Stockdale the eccentric Vicar . . . born at Cornhill . . . a most
prolific writer, who always imagined he would rise to fame as
a poet, and I suppose, died believing that he had not got justice,
and that one day his name would fill the world. One time
Sheridan was on a visit to Lord Grey at Howick, and Stockdale
took the occasion to ask the wit to write a preface to a proposed
Edition of his collected works. Sheridan wrote by return:

‘Rag, tag and bobtail
The mad works of Stockdale’;

and so the negotiation ended. I have been reading his life by
himself. It is full of vanity about himself, but there were some
good things about him. He wrote against Bull-baiting and
similar cruelties to animals; and was an early advocate for the
abolition of human slavery... .

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF 149
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

I am expecting a visit from your M.P. Captn. Milne Home,
along with his brother-in-law to see my collection of insects.
This of course is an event in my retired position. I will try to
enlist the brother-in-law into the Club’s active service, if he
wishes to work as it seems.

With kind regards,
Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

Letter 45. Oldcambus, Jan. 1st, 1876.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I would have acknowledged the arrival of your father’s
admirable Journal earlier, but I have been over at Penmanshiel,
seeing my Father. It will answer very well to follow the
Memoir, but it occurs to me that instead of giving the title,
visit to Sir William and Lady Jardine, it would be better to
make it Jardine Hall.... I have said a few words to introduce
the paper, and I have given it this title.... Accept the Club’s
thanks ex officio. . .

The country across the moors is very unlovely and bleak on
a day like this; one sighs for the summer leafage and verdure.
I hope to get this posted tomorrow morning in time.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

Letter 46. Oldcambus, Jan. 17, 1876.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I have not much time tonight to write a long letter. I have
to apprise you, that the Memoir, or Obituary Notice of Sir
William Jardine, has come to hand; and if you are ready to start
with your contribution, I shall be fortified against printer’s
demands, for a little way onward... .

As regards Stockdale, I will adhere to what Mr. Tate says of
him, as it is too long a subject to enter upon. You will, how-
ever, oblige me by giving me the volume and page and date of
the Quarterly Review, where the work is noticed; as I intend to
point out where more information can be obtained. Miss Jane

150 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Porter wrote a notice of his life for Nichols, the printer of the
Gentleman’s Magazine. ...

I am very busy at present transcribing some Border poetry,
and local facts, and out of door, I am surrounded by three flocks
of sheep, which I require to look at, at least twice in the day;
besides being tormented with rooks stealing the new sown wheat.
There is no getting away anywhere at present; and I am so busy
that I have neither time to repine, nor weary. The voluntary
pen work will be finished in a day or two.

Believe me,
Dear Mts. Carter,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

Letter 47. Oldcambus, Jan. 26, 1876.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

As long as I mind, I have now cleared off the notices of
Queen Margaret, which occurred while in search of other facts,
and I am not likely to meet with her soon again. You will
find them enclosed... .

I must not forget to enclose some verses on your father by
Dr. Henderson—one of his best effusions. They appeared in
the ‘““Berwick Advertiser” at the peziod when you would be all
in mourning, and you may not have noticed them. I found
them when transcribing some of Dr. Henderson’s MSS....

I have got an article from, the “‘Annals of Nat. Hist.”, des-
cribing a new mite with the funny name of Calyptostoma Hardii.
It is one of the biggest of its kind. Your father used to be fond
of this class of minims. ‘This is altogether new. Perhaps it
may be reprinted, as the Newcastle people do, with their scientific
papers. We have very little science in this number.

It continues good open weather. I get a stroll every day....
I have everything ready for attacking Mr. Tate’s paper, and
filling up omissions, and then I look for ease to my arm.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF 151
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Letter 48. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
Match 27, 1876.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I have been from home, and could not earlier acknowledge
receipt of the Newspaper (which will be returned when I have
leisure to read the article), and the packet of letters. I am glad
you ate so well pleased with the correspondence. There are
more in a large miscellaneous collection of letters in quarto,
which I shall seek out some day, and send to you. I have some
of later date than those in the octavo vol. ... Perhaps the
blank at the end may have been owing to my own remissness in
writing, at a time when I might be engaged on some researches;
or it may have been when the house was repairing at Penman-
shiel, and we got divided into two families, some in our old
house, and others in the cottages; and then there was no oppor-
tunity for letter writing. ...

The contributions for the ‘““Proceedings” are mostly forward,
but a number of new observations have been sent, and I must
immediately recast some notes to admit them... .

I am keeping pretty strong. Out of doors I am getting on
with the seed-sowing. Beans are finished with me, and oats
will be nearly concluded tonight. My forwardness is not the
rule, but the exception. On the sea-coast we are favoured with
a dry climate.

I will write you again, when I have my arrears of letter writing
cleared off. I find I am again nominated on the School Board
of the parish.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

Letter 49. Oldcambus, April 28, 1876.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

One ought not to promise to write a better or fuller letter
next time, as it only prevents that next letter being written.
I have several times been thinking about this in my walks, and
then forgot all about it when I came in, and set to my work
with the pen. I have never yet got to my paper room, to look
up the Book of Letters containing your Father’s; but I am
getting more shelving for my books, and when I bring some of
them from their present retreats, I will be sure to find the
missing budget. There was a break in the present deplorable
weather on Tuesday, and I got a pleasant day to visit Dunbar,
and arrange for the Club Meeting, which is not to be a failure

152 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

this time. It is a mean place, Dunbar. The present provost
is a drill-serjeant to the Yeomanry. We won’t pick up any
members in that vicinity; but there is good scope for a walk,
and everything will be fresh to the most of us... .

Our summer birds are late this year, or rather have dropt
in on us, and then left, for the Cuckoo was early, having been
heard and seen on April 7th. One swallow was visible this
week. I have the corn all sown, and it is mostly above ground;
but I suppose some will have scarcely commenced on high, or
undrained soils. This is a bad bitter blast today, retarding
everything.

I see only one error in printing your Father’s Journal: the
word Polygonums is printed with a small p. I remember correct-
ing it, but sometimes the corrections are not entered carefully
at Alnwick. It is of no consequence. It reads better in print,
than in the written state. Your Father’s new list of Fishes for
his proposed Fauna appeared to be carefully wrought out, and
might be worth giving. Very few have been added since.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

Letter 50. Oldcambus, May 19, 1876.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I enclose you a Report of the Dunbar Meeting, which you
may give to the Warder, or any other of the Newspapers of the
town, for none of them have had one from me.... I was busy
all yesterday with proofs, and other necessary matters. I have
to go to Penmanshiel this afternoon. My father has been very
bad for some days. He is very old, almost 95. The Dr. gives
us hopes that he may rally.

We had a fine day at Dunbar. ... We were constantly
occupied, and could not do justice to the papers. Only one was
read—Mr. Gray’s on Dunbar—and it was received with applause.
Sir W. Elliot is getting frail, and did not speak distinctly.

The Proceedings are printed, except the List of Members,
and the Index. The last is not copied out yet. It is the Pro-
ceedings that forms the inducement, it seems, for a proportion
of the new membership. We have been revising the list, and
calling in arrears, and do not lose many.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours very truly,
James Hardy.

053

RECORDS OF MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA IN
ROXBURGHSHIRE AND SELKIRKSHIRE

mocolesiee corp)

"TRIOAIS

‘A[UO 3UO

“uOWTUIOD AIO A

‘uowWIOS AIa A.

*SuUOT}s 00} JOU ‘AUOTOD [Teg
*‘pays[Oo} UT sazvUJeqrTYy “UOUTUIOZ
‘poyrodar ‘uonvzsrur Surmoout o$1-o$
*$907} ..por"Sns, , 3 UOUTUIOD
‘zL61 UT JaMaz SUOWUTUOD ATITe,y
‘udye} JOU Jnq potodar ‘UsIs 9UG,
*zL61 UT JOMz INQ “TeIDAIG

*zL61 UT JoMaT

*spoorq OM} ‘UOUTUIOD

‘zL61 Ut Osye “UouTWIOZ

‘zL61 ut UeY IL61 UT Uses DIO|W!

1S IN
1S IN

oF IN
1S IN
1$ IN
1S IN
z$ IN
1S TN
£9 LN

1$ IN
1$ IN
1$ TN
z$ TN
1S TN
1S IN
1S IN

IS TN

‘ysneyy TPMT
"STAN
‘JOyVM ULV
ISIN

"woyue “STTP/A\
“mpoyua “S|[9K\
‘OVUTPT

‘TTpeaes “STON,

‘OS[O3y
‘suey, projszoy ny “AvMIEY

‘[[TuIMes pue apres ‘STII A
“Treas “STEM
“BIN? [Pet

“OFS FEES
‘HOAJOSIT ULApUrTT

TTA “STON
TTPUAnes “STO
“Uopses “STO
“TTUI Aes “STTO/N\
‘uapses “STII
TUS “STII
‘uopses ‘STII

wypoyued “SPA ‘WVHSONE ‘5 ‘Vv 4d
(6L pue og soryun0;-29T A ULTUOS}v/\)

AUIHSNULITAS UNV AYIHSHDUNAXOYW NI VUALIOCIdeY TOUOVW AO SAYOOAA

zL'9°gz
1L'9°¢z
ZLib $1
1L:L°Lz
zLg°zz
1L‘9'v1
zLL°¢
Gy L/L)
zL°8
1L°g

zL:g°S

69°8'9

zL61 2uoU

1L'g°bz

1L°6°6z-oz

1L°6°6
ZL°S1z

1L°$*9z-61

1L'9'01
1L°$¢1
1L'g°1z
tL°S°L1
1L°6'h

1L°$-L1

SHADIL" J
onjgq vouruIo7)

SIXAIXDIAD “Pr

sndry UMOIg 49109

snjiqdund °F
Speer ees
purganl “JN

UMOIG MOPLoTAT
sdoigjav “7

snsIVy yo109g
aDINAN “EF
]JPYysestowoy, [[euUs
Inplvd *C]

Apey poyureg
DjUDIvID * A
ep a

vey

yoooveg

pdouuv * NT

Aynvog [joMsoquivy
SOULUDPADI “Tr
djj-o8uriQ

sou “<q

MY POUTAA-UD0T5Hy
aoqva "of

SAN eS
ADIISSDAQ *

ONY Ide]

RECORDS OF MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA IN
ROBXURGHSHIRE AND SELKIRKSHIRE

154

“JoyIeoY UO OvAIVT

*1L-L'9 passows OSeur ‘tayjvay UO edng

‘odpay Wye UO ovate] INO7

*yosIq UO 9UG
‘IYST] 3v DUO

“‘IYST] Iv OMT,

‘J4ST] 3¥ Ino,F

‘IYST] 3 SOIL,

"JST ye [TeIOAIG

‘IYST] Ye DUO

‘IYST] Iv OMT,

‘IYST] 3 sory,

‘ste[dod uo ovary usAag
*‘sJamMopH uo SutAy-Aeq
*JULIBITA

‘stejdod uo ovasey
4ST] 3% UOUTWIOT)
*qI9Y-MOTIM UO svATeT

‘JULISIPT

*soovjd dwiep ut uowrwio7

*smo33 jUL[Dpoo; oJoyM vUOWUIOD ApIIe,y

1S IN
zh LN

£9 LN
1S TN
zL IN
1S IN
1S TN
1S IN
1S IN
1S TN
1S IN
1S IN

1S TN
zh IN

1S IN

£9 LN
£9 LN

1S IN

1S IN

wyoyusq “Mvistoqny
THE BP IrS

‘Os[ayy ‘projrOyINY
‘JaysoyIuO ‘ony .O UMOT,
‘}s010,J JUOWMOG

TTUIAes “STON

"TTUAes “STANK

“TUzANes “STTOM

“TTHUIAes “STON

"Trorawes “sy]2
"TTrurmes “S][2X\

TRUM ‘STA

“wOyuaC] ‘sax “wyoyToquyt y,

SBPIPS “Yeg wry
“wpTOyUeC,

Tames “syOK\

‘OS[OMT

‘projyszoyiny ‘poo, sdurvy
“SUIT

proyoyiny ‘usex3-suTAIp UC

‘wyoqueqd
“STIPAA
“STTPAA

“AtasInU 4SIIOF

Lib St
TAG zz

gg°h

EL:S1z
1L'¢'6z
zLL:z1
zL'g°1z

zL'9°Sz
PLOT

zL'9'9z
zL‘L°61
T/LOJLD eA
CLGez

CLL

EL-g'1z
zL'9°9z
TLS:92

oL'9'b

19'6'o1
zL:L°6
1L°9'9z
zL:$-gz
1L°6°$
1L°$-61

puyassof °C

yoossny, yseq
vnbyuv “CO

jomnodeA uourwio7y
siusosunl “yr
pousoyy MOTOR
Wes

wOsso[g Yvog
vurdjod *
JUOUTWIOT gg Ieq

. pumdDs * I
WUIUTWIOIg quiIodxKO’7D
IOZNS "TT

yuoUTWIOTg 2qG9q
DULOUS *

JUIUTWIOIG MOT[VA\S JossoT
pynuia*D

ssng

UNADIDIIOS “J

YMLP] p3iq-sururwnyzy
yndog “7

yep tepdog

souadya "CT

yep yueydoq
ynajoauo? “Er

YMRET snpnayoauo7
snquosadag *E7
JSUT

svanjgd "TJ
goddo5 [ews

16°96¢ ‘1 F

ZE'HRzZ

RSLS

o$'91

zS-got

Oz'7Z1

oo LbhrF

PEL
gG'z7gzF

bg'rr
o$'1
bop

oo’!
of'z
§o'z

loloyio} i

Sort

O7'z
00'S
09'zgf
O1‘or
z6°9
o$'o
Oz'z
oo'hz

00'S ¢'F

oe ee ee ee puey vo yse
. ee ee ee zL61 *79q

eydse puzz ‘yueg 3 s0ULTeg "poy

(soINSvOT]) SITIOW ‘OC “KM “FIN

(99g SuTpA) euuLy ‘DT *[ “Ay

"+ — (Axe30I99g) IOTTTA AAW “A “FIA
sasuadxy $1010

QDIAIIG [VIDOG JO "[D SYTMIOg

Agojoseyory ysABE “1D ‘BdyY "309
** puvpoosg

[eny JO vopearsarg FOF ‘oossy

** uOReDOssy YsHiIg

id "* 9paeD PIA WegsuTTTYD
SUOMGIAISQNS

so8zeyp yueg

cS a ae - ear y\
ne "7 UONevALOX WeYsUIpjOD
oe 239 ‘suUIOOF “MOUS OPS
suondiosqns JO} spre Jo o8v3s0g
: predisao ‘sqng jo punjoy
* SiUSUHEIIS JO Ssuneorjdnq

° ee Auyrqery
Ss o[qng pure syoog ‘sauvinsuy

** sasprg qnjp jo oseysing
sasuadxry Mapuns

a8visod puv soao0u qny jo Sunurg
AdaUOlD{S pur SUulULsT

(aivuinsa feuotstAorg) 1461 Azo3stzy Jo SuNUITg

AUN LIGNA dXT

1696617

OS brs
o$'o ze ‘+ suondrasqng prediaaG
00°00 = = is ** suoneuog
gob F = ce " WULUIAOD JO sp2ac]
Sat4puns
1P'6EL
Sg°of 8 3 = ot SIvaIIy
oF-oz ee “33 2 sospeg jo [es
oo'vz e ei a $99,J 99UvIIUq
91997 oe Areiqry pue sorunf{ ‘fenuuy
SUOL{14IS GH
Oz 7 nS "1461 ‘zaquiaidag puzz 3 d0uK[eg psy
HWODNI

‘7161 YAAWALdHS PUz? ONIGNA UVAA AHL YOd LNAWALV.LS TVIONVNIA S.YAUNSVAUL

‘JOUpNY “UOL{
‘ATVNOG@PW VV N¥I

zor1Lo Ff

Aaa |
89°699F

puoy ui qsoz

of LL ad (adaq iueUsaauT [eIseds)
of ghz de (1daq_ yauNsaauy TeDeds)
6£°¢9 ae oP yueg SSUIAGS 90}SNI 7
6Fogz 7 - “+ pueposg jo yueg [ehoy

yuog us qsor

SIA SSE

OL’ gtz

6£°¢g

CQ°IRe?

LHAHS 4ONVTVd

“IOINSvaAT, "UOH
‘SIUUOW 'O “A

vo'S Pepper 3Sazo}U]
ob zl F ‘ydaq] uaursoAuT [esedg
vz°O1 we a Pepper Isor3IU]
go'zez Fe es ‘+ adaq iwoursaauy feeds
t1'z — 3 as P2ppr 3S9793UT
gz'19 F zL61 ‘taquiaydag 3 sduK[eg

JUNOIIEY JUauld{s cau]

1UNOIIY [eIsUID WoIy parse)

SH LLVTAY TT

HISTORY

wo eae

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE Es
NATURALISTS’? CLUBe].

The Centenary Volume and Index, issued 1933, price 50p.
is invaluable as a guide to the contents of the History. —

HISTORY — \¢t

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE

NATURALISTS’ CLUB

INSTITUTED SEPTEMBER 22, 1831

“MARE ET TELLUS, ET, QUOD TEGIT OMNIA, C@LUM ”

VOL. XXXIX. Part 3.
1973

Price to Non-Members £1

PRINTED FOR THE CLUB
BY MARTIN’S PRINTING WORKS,
MAIN STREET, SPITTAL

1974

CFFICE-BEARERS

Corresponding Secretary
T. D. THOMSON, C.M.G., O:B.E., F.S.A.Scot., The Hill, Coldingham F
ARR a

join Field Secretaries

D. MACKENZIE ROBERTSON, Buxley, Duns.
Mrs. D. MACKENZIE-ROBERTSON, M.C.S.P., F.S.A.Scot., Buxley, Duns.

Editing Secretary
P. G. HENDRY, 44 Craigleith View, Edinburgh 4.

Treasurer
J. STAWART, 4 Douglas Close, Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Librarian
Miss E. BUGLASS, 29 Castle Drive, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

The Editing Secretary will be obliged if

contributions to Part | of Volume XL can be
received by 3lst March 1975.

Ey.
ity

HIStORY OF THE
BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB

GONTENTS OF VOL. XXXIX
PART 3.—1973

Lady Bell and Lord P

Botanical Meeting at the Black Hill of Earlston
Ladykirk Church

Coldingham Priory Excavations, [X

Luffness House

Norham Castle

John MacKay Wilson and the Border Tales
Dryburgh Abbey

Dr. Gilly’s Plea for the Cottager

The Claviorgan at Gosford House
Tynemouth: Priory and Castle

Flodden Field Oration

Natural History Observations 1973

Records of Macro-Lepidoptera in Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire
Seaton Delaval Hall

Extracts from the Correspondence of Dr. James Hardy with
Mts. Jane Barwell-Carter Ne

Treasurer’s Financial Statement

Balance Sheet

216
229

230

GENERAL

A

NC fi 5 aX
NOPAL WSS

irene

J
ni

._¢, LIBRARY a

AW,

a

ILLUSTRATIONS

o~wn GO MS

PART 3. — 1973

Plates
The 3rd Earl of Marchmont.

Lord Polwarth.

Lady Polwarth.
Marchmont House.

The Abbatissa Stone.
Norham Castle ¢. 1200.
John MacKay Wilson.
The Gosford Claviorgan.

Plan
Coldingham Priory 1973.

PROCEEDINGS
OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB

BA DY BELLE AND LORD: P.

being the Anniversary Address delivered by Lady Mc Ewen
of Marchmont, President of the Club, on 11th October 1973
at Berwick-on-I weed.

This slight and perhaps mysterious title replaces the more
grandiose one originally intended, of Domestic Economy
in the eighteenth century with particular reference to houses
in Berwickshire. This is partly because of the scale of the
subject, but chiefly because, in the course of researches,
I was fortunate enough to find that the County Record
Office of Bedfordshire had a number of letters written from
Marchmont in the 1770s by the then Lady Polwarth to her
mother Lady Grey, and also to discover in the library at
Marchmont the Inventory for the house compiled in 1794.
This last is of interest as it comes between those of 1760
and 1815, which are in a volume in the Duns Public Library,
and also because it is in greater detail. It was written in a
fine copperplate hand at the death of the last Earl of March-
mont by William Lamb, Upholsterer, of Edinburgh, and
John Ledgerwood, Cabinet Maker, of Greenlaw, who gave
the value of each item and meticulously signed the foot of
evety page. These two sources, together with the other
inventories mentioned, and the Account Books and Letters
in the Register House in Edinburgh have provided the main
basis for this paper.

Ly

158 LADY BELL AND LORD P

Lady Bell (Lady Amabel Grey or Yorke), was the wife of
Alexander Hume-Campbell, Lord Polwarth, to whom she
often referred in her letters as Lord P. He was the only
son of Hugh, third and last Earl of Marchmont by his
second wife Elizabeth Crampton; and she herself was the
elder daughter of Philip, Earl of Hardwicke by his wife
Jemima, Marchioness Grey. She was generally referred to
as Lady Bell even in the Inventory of 1794, where it lists
the contents of Lord Polwarth and Lady Bell’s Bedroom,
twenty years after her marriage, and ten after her husband’s
death.

That room is now my own. It had been furnished by
Lady Marchmont soon after the house was built in the
1750s. The window curtains and the hangings for the
mahogany bed were of straw-coloured “‘painted tafity lined
with persian”. There were two oblong looking-glasses
with gilt frames surmounting two gilt and marble tables, a
Wilton carpet, old family portraits on the wall, a line and
a tassel for the bell (matching the curtains), a fireplace well
fitted with a steel grate, poker, shovel, tongs and fender,
not to mention more mundane objects such as bolsters,
pillows, a feather bed, blankets and mattresses and two
mahogany night tables (with two china chamber pots).

It is more likely, though, that Lady Bell wrote her
letters to her mother in the Painted Room (or Best Dressing
Room) next door because, unlike the Bedroom, that did
have a mahogany folding table. The fact that it also
contained a dressing table and wardrobe (both mahogany)
and eight chairs indicates that far from being a sort of spare
bedroom, a dressing-room was mote like a reception-room,
and dressing a more public operation then than now. In
her very first letter from Marchmont to her “Dear Mama’,
dated 8th August 1772, three weeks after her London
wedding to Lord Polwarth, Lady Bell gives a description
of the house where she was now staying with her parents-
in-law. Her own parents had visited Scotland in 1755 to
see Lady Bell’s grandfather, Lord Breadalbane, but they had
not been at Marchmont which was only just completed at
that date. “Lord Marchmont’s House is, without being
fine, a very comfortable good House to live in; the Hall
which is floor’d and the Drawing Room are very handsome.
All that I have yet seen of Berwickshire is a very open
Country seemingly fruitful, especially in Corn of which the

LADY BELL AND LORD P 159

Crops promise extremely well. There is a good deal of
plantation about the House, young as yet and not full-

grown; the Ascent through them is very pretty”.”

But Lady Grey naturally wishes to know more and a
month later Lady Bell dutifully—and affectionately—obliges
with a very long letter in which she finally satisfies her
mother: “‘What a long letter I have scribbled, and yet not
a wotd of the general Employment of the Day, which you
inquired about. I must make haste to tell you in short,
that we rise between seven and eight, breakfast at nine,
then, either have an hour to ourselves, or if there is company
we ladies sit in Lady Marchmont’s Dressing Room where I
sometimes bring my Drawing.’* ‘That must have been a
welcoming place, hung with crimson and yellow, full of pots
of flowers and cups of tea. And it is of interest to note that
Lady Bell must have had a certain gift as an artist, as some
of her drawings, of her homes in England, were used for a
setvice of china made by Wedgwood for Catherine the
Gteat in 1774. As a child, though, she had doubted her
talent for drawing animals: “Pray, did you ever attempt a
Gew- they scem to me to set ill for their picture”. “At
eleven we generally go out, airing chiefly, walking if we
can, return at past one, dine at three, drink tea at six, then
walk if it is dry, about eight if we have company we play
at Pope Joan, if not Lord Polwarth and Mr. Fraser sit
down to Chess, which yr. humble servant has just begun
to learn and I am afraid will be no more a proficient in it,
than she could study the Journals of the House of Lords
and correct the printed sheet which is Lord Marchmont’s
constant Employment—I had forgot the Billiard Table
among our Amusements.”

Messrs. Lamb and Ledgerwood do not forget the Billiard
Table in their Inventory, where it figures somewhat sadly
with “5 whole & 2 broke sticks for playing with’. ‘That
was twenty years after Lady Bell’s letters—a span of forty
yeats since the house was built. The three previous
dwellings which had been in the vicinity had all been known
as Redbraes. Sir Patrick Hume, the first Earl of March-
mont, had lived in the last of these, and it is said to have
been he who first contemplated building a new house: a
sensible idea if one recalls that when he was being hunted
by James II’s soldiers after the Ryehouse Plot and his
hiding hole under the floor boards was one day inspected,

160 LADY BELL AND LORD P

“the bed bounced to the top, the box being full of water’’.
The second Earl, his son Alexander, was abroad as Ambassa-
dor for a large part of his life and, when he did return home,
was ailing, and therefore did nothing further towards the
new house than planting the Long Avenue just before his
death in 1740. It was his son Earl Hugh who actually
built Marchmont, starting in the summer of 1750 when his
wife was confined in London, having just given birth to an
heir, Lord Polwarth. Lord Marchmont wrote frequently
from Scotland when he was supervising the building, to
his “Beloved Betty” in Upper Brook Street. His first—
now unfashionable—wish, is that she should be “growing
plump and strong”, and then he reports on the progress of
the building: “The foundation of the House goes on very
well, the ground extremely good, the walls are well laid
and very broadly founded and the mortar as good as can
be; the timber is come home to Eyemouth and is the finest
catgo that ever was seen in this Country. So that I hope,
beside the lodging my Betty has in my heart, to place her
in the best house in Britain in return for the palace she has
given me in her arms.”®

Four years later, in October 1754, the house was being
lived in. It was referred to by Robert Chambers in his
Picture of Scotland (1827) as “a modern edifice, surrounded
by an extensive park, most of which is planted, and is
approached by an avenue about a mile and a quarter long,
and an hundred yards wide, the most imposing thing of
the kind I ever saw. The house is plain externally, but it
is well furnished and possesses many paintings. On some
person taking the liberty to represent to the last Earl of
Marchmont, who built it, that rublework was unworthy of
so fine a mansion, the eccentric and witty old peer said he
intended to live in the inside, not the outside of his house;
a consideration but too little attended to in Scotland.”

It may have been, may indeed be, plain externally but it
was solidly built, not to say swiftly. That “handsome
catgo of wood” had been laboriously fetched. Over and
over again the Account Books have entries under “New
House: Dr. to Cash, Customs and Expenses of wood from
Eyemouth (zsh. 18d)”, and the “Oats and Pease for the -
Horses,” and “‘to the men’s expenses, going to Eyemouth.”
Cartloads of slates were also brought from there (three
cattloads on one occasion for 1s. 8d. with 5d. paid for a

LADY BELL AND LORD P 161

horse-shoe by the way), and yet more wood came from
Berwick. At least 906 cartloads of stone were brought
from Catmoss Quarry at Greenlaw and 2752 loads from
another, the East Quarry (the labourers getting 6d. a day).
One Ephraim Ross made a minimum of 140,000 bricks;
Robert Pringle supplied innumerable nails, nearly 5000 for
£1.6.38d on one occasion. Windows were sent up from
London.’

The new gardens were being made at the same time;
trees and roots were dug up, brooms and whins culled for
a dyke; earth and divots were moved, the ground was
trenched and dug, quantities of seed for the Avenue Area
and garden were bought and planted.

No doubt the speed of the whole operation must have
been maintained by the presence of Lord Marchmont who
was still living in Redbraes, a few hundred yards from the
new house of Marchmont. He did have to go to London
frequently, having been made First Lord of Police in 1747,
and in 1750 one of the sixteen Scottish Representative Peers;
and often had occasion to be in Edinburgh, apart from his
attendance at the General Assembly of the Church of
Scotland; though it was not until 1764 that he became Lord
Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. But he had many
home and local interests also. Sir George Rose (to whose
father Lord Marchmont left all his books and papers) speaks
of him as an “accomplished and scientific horseman and
theoretical and practical husbandman and gardener.”® He
was a keen and successful farmer, and kept many animals—
hotses, cattle, sheep, pigs, turkeys, geese, hens, guinea fowl,
pigeons, dogs and bees. He was a great reader (though
“not of modern French books” as Lady Bell says) and a
musician, playing the violin, violoncello and various flutes.
He looked after the welfare of his people, as the Rev. Robert
Hume says in his entry on Polwarth in the first Statistical
Account (1796): “Besides the inrolled poor, there are
several who receive from the Kirk Session interim supplies;
and others particularly the widows of such as have been
servants or day-labourers to the Earl of Marchmont, are
allowed by his Lordship, some a stone, others half a stone
of oatmeal per week which, with the produce of their own
labour enables them to live comfortably. It may also be
observed that there are many old and infirm men to whom
his Lordship (who has always been remarkable for his

162 LADY BELL AND LORD P

humanity and attention to the poor people in this parish,
as well as upon other parts of his estates) gives work or
rather wages for what they are wvable to perform.” ‘This
same minister remarks on other points: “‘Great attention
has been paid by the Earl of Marchmont (sole proprietor
of the parish) to the dressing of the hedges; many . . . are
allowed to be the finest in the country.”” He did much for
the neighbourhood besides. It was he who kept battling
for the restoration of Greenlaw as the County Town, and
it was no doubt to counter the claims set out in the Petition
by the Freeholders of the County of Berwick to the House
of Commons in 1741 where it is said ““Greenlaw cannot
afford accommodation for one twentieth part of them (the
freeholders coming to the Sheriff’s head courts) and their
servants and horses, which renders these meetings exceed-
ingly grievous and burdensome, whereas in Dunce there
is abundant accommodation for all,” that, as Lady Bell says,
hoping “Greenlaw will become a more considerable town
than it is he takes so much pains with the Inn.” It was
very fine, if her account is anything to go by: “We drove
to Greenlaw for, Lady Marchmont carries everybody to
see the Inn and with reason; nor was the Dss. of North-
umberland so much in the wrong when she told Lord
Marchmont it was the Pantheon of Scotland, at least it
may be of Berwickshire. The principal room has papier
maché ornaments upon a yellow ground, and is hung with
Ridinger’s Prints. A grand room ts building ornamented
so prettily in Stucco with wreaths of Vine leaves and Palm
branches and flowers, that it deserves to be tow’d away,
upon wheels and joined to Lord Marchmont’s own House.”

Lord Marchmont may have complained to Duns about
their attitude to Greenlaw but he did much for Dunse-
Spaw, as Dr. Francis Home calls it, in his book on the
subject written in 1751 and dedicated to “Lord —.” This
mineral spring had been discovered near Nisbet Rhodes in
1747 and was thought at one time to be as health-giving as
Moffat. The Reverend George Ridpath speaks of it in
his diary (Friday, 1oth September 1756). “Rode with
William Home, his wife and John to Dunse Well, where
they have been at great pains within this week or two to
discover the mineral spring purer and at a safe distance from
the brook which sometimes overflows the old well, in
which they seem to have succeeded. They will have a less

LADY BELL AND LORD P 163

quantity indeed than before, but by experiments they have
made, two or three times as strong. Lord Marchmont’s
people have been attending this well for a good while past,
and this new discovery was a project of my Lord’s, of which
he seems to be very fond.” Lord Marchmont mentions
it himself in a letter to his wife in 1759 when he says he
visited ““Dunse Well and brought Wedderburn home to
breakfast.”"° This spring brought a certain prosperity to
Duns and it was a sad day when “in 1840, the proprietor,
seeking to improve the immediate amenities . . . embarked
on improvement operations,” and “in the course of the
draining work the medicinal spring disappeared and all
efforts to recover it failed. This very unfortunate occur-
rence was undoubtedly a great disadvantage to Duns and
district.”’™

Lady Marchmont must have been busy also. Besides
accompanying her husband on his frequent visits to London
she had the house well furnished within a few years. Her
own rooms were hung, as I have mentioned, with yellow
and crimson balsamine. ‘There was yellow in the Saloon,
green in Lord Marchmont’s rooms and in the Library,
green and yellow in the Drawing-room. Upstairs the
bedrooms and matching dressing rooms had blue and white
sprigged cotton or red and white cotton, orange chintz
with a pattern of urns, blue check, red check, crimson
velvet, crimson brocade, or tapestry hangings. Hach room
was well fitted out: elegant beds and chairs and tables,
looking-glasses, pictures, presses, fire-irons, bedclothes and
the inevitable line and tassel for the bell and the inevitable
chamber pot (generally concealed in a closet, cupboard or
stool).

There were a couple of maids’ rooms and the butler’s
rooms on the bedroom floor—to answer all those jangling
summonses—but most of the servants were in the bottom
of the house or in the wing over the stable. There slept
the postilions, grooms, coachmen and possibly the footmen
as there was no accommodation mentioned for them else-
where. Seven slept in fixed wooden beds divided between
two tooms; three, more fortunate men had tent beds with
green or ted check, and some even had a curtain bed hung
with green stuff, but that must have been the coachman as
his room also contained a “screen for drying the coach
harness on.”””

164 LADY BELL AND LORD P

The housekeeper, the cook, the gardener, the laundry
maids and other servant maids all had their rooms on the
ground floor. I was anxious about the proximity of the
cook to the gardener until I discovered, from the accounts,
that the cook was a man (with a boy to help him) when my
anxiety was transferred to the laundry-maids and _ their
colleagues. However, I feel sure that the housekeeper,
even from the depths of her cosy tartan-curtained bed,
lined with green, would have kept her eagle eye open, as
she sat there surrounded by portraits of the family. Or
perhaps the picture of John the Baptist which dominated
the Servants’ Hall had a salutary effect, not to mention the
large storeroom, known as the Haunted House, past whose
dark door any night walker might have had to creep.

Lady Marchmont’s arrangements were thorough and
made to last: all the furnishings are the same in the 1794
Inventory as in that of 1760, though one purple and white
bed cover does seem to have sunk from the main bedroom
floor to the servant maids’ room. ‘The comparison of these
two inventories is illuminating. The earlier one may have
been done by a member of the household whose spelling
was mote original than that of the professional men 30
years later, but it does have some inside knowledge. For
instance where the later list gives three pictures: ‘Thomas
Earl of Haddington, Lindsay, Dutchess of Rothes,” and
one “‘name unknown,” the earlier one says confidently
“Barl of Haddington, Duchess of Rothes and—Mr.
Pringle.” In another instance the unknown turns out to
be more exalted—Czar Peter.

On the bottom floor besides the servants’ rooms and the
billiard room there wete of course the kitchen, larders,
scullery, storerooms, dairy, washing house, laundry, table-
room, butler’s pantry, plate room, servants’ hall, porter’s
lodge and powder room (this last containing two small and
two large wig blocks and a pole for “dusting cloaths”’).
Some cutlery and the good linen were kept in the house-
keeper’s room, the glasses in the butler’s pantry and all the
silver in the cupboard in the library. (There is no mention
of a wine cellar, though large quantities of wine were
fetched from Leith and bottles bought to accommodate it).
All the eighteen silver candlesticks were also in the library;
otherwise the four passage lamps, the staircase lamp and
25 brass candlesticks were in the plate room, which with

LADY BELL AND LORD P 165

other two staircase lamps kept upstairs in the maids’ room,
the chandeliers in the library and the saloon, the glass lamp
with twelve candles in the drawing room, the hours on it
for the dining room table, made a good showing of light.
The establishment was a busy one in itself; it is not sur-
prising when, as Lady Bell says, “the bustle has begun,”
that the laundry maids needed seventeen smoothing irons,
and the cook 35 saucepans (with lids). “You will have
seen .. .”—she writes to her mother—‘‘how much we are
taken up with Company. I fancy Lady Marchmont in her
own heart would like a public Day and fewer Dining
visits as well, but it would not do here and she is a fine
pattern of Accomodableness. Indeed I think as I did from
the first that there cannot be a better natur’d, better-
tempered woman, cheerful, easy and complaisant and not
minding her own trouble so she can make other people
happy.””® She was “Just the fairest creature that ever trod
this earth’’* according to the family legend. No wonder
she melted Lord Marchmont’s heart. The Rev. George
Ridpath was not much struck when he first saw her in
1756: “The lady a very sweet looking woman and has a
good face, but by no means deserves the praise given her
as a beauty,” but he did come round a couple of years later:
“Had also the pleasure of seeing Lady Marchmont, a very
amiable woman and at present looking very well.”

Lord Marchmont was a widower of forty when he saw
Elizabeth Crampton at the theatre. She was about seven-
teen, the daughter of a bankrupt linen-draper. As David
Hume wrote with glee to a friend, “her looks, airs and
manners had such a powerful and undiseguised effect upon
him, as was visible by every bystander. His raptures were
so undisguised, his looks so expressive of passion, his
inquiries so earnest that every person took notice of it...
He wrote next morning to her father, desiring to visit his
daughter on honourable terms; and in a few days she will
be Countess of Marchmont. All this is certainly true...
could you ever expect the ambitious, the severe, the bust-
ling, the impetuous, the violent Marchmont, of becoming
so tender and gentle a swain.”* He wrote constantly,
he sent her jewellery, he waited on her at her father’s
house in Hatton Gardens and they were married within
three weeks.

166 LADY BELL AND LORD P

These were, I feel, his happiest years. His childhood
must have been a bit bleak. His elder two brothers and
two sisters had died young. His father was away as
Ambassador in Scandinavia or Cambrai. His mother, of
whom no one speaks well—not even her portrait—died in
Edinburgh when he and his twin were fourteen and were
already abroad pursuing their education under the direction
of their aunt, Lady Grizel Baillie of Mellerstain. She did
her loving and conscientious best and, as Sir George Rose
says, Lord Marchmont’s “Dutch education had given him
method which was the best auxiliary in exertion to an
ardent and powerful mind such as his was.”"* But perhaps
he and his twin harboured some adolescent resentment
against their aunt. Lord Marchmont had at eighteen
written to his sister Anne from the town of Franeker: “If
I had any news you should have them, but there are none
in such a dull hole as this.”*” At all events there was a
breach which Lady Grizel Baillie felt keenly, and to which
she referred “not many hours before her death” in 1746:
“Lord forgive the two brothers their injustice to me and
give them a sight of their sin and folly.”

At that time Lord Marchmont was in the political wilder-
ness. There is not enough time here to deal with his
frustrations, let it be enough to quote Margaret Warrender
his descendant: ‘The bright promise of his early days
was never fulfilled . . . and in political life he must be
reckoned a disappointed man. In his youth he had been
the chosen companion of men older than himself who
appreciated to the full the keenness of his intellect and a
calmness of judgment beyond his years. One by one,
death had removed these early friends and when Lord
Marchmont again entered Parliament he found himself the
last survivor of the brilliant set with which he had become
identified.”

However he did enter Parliament again in 1750, when
having been a member of Parliament from 1734-40 (when
his father died) he was at last elected one of the sixteen
Scottish Representative Peers. These, I think, were his
happiest years. His twin Alexander had ten more years
to live and they were in constant touch, corresponding
frequently when not together. Alike in interests and
qualities as Lord Bolingbroke wrote to Sir William Wynd-
ham: ‘The two young men, you name, have not only the

LADY BELL AND LORD P 167

principle, but the flame of public virtue; and it is for that
I admire and love them,’”® they were practically identical.
“TI told you,” says Lord Marchmont to his betrothed, “T
told you my brother was like me. He has proved it in the
best part of me, my love of you.”

Lord Marchmont also wrote often and lovingly to his
wife whenever they were apart. In one letter after the
birth of the baby he tells her that “There is a pett lamb in
the house under Nelly’s Care which I have named Miss
Tibbie Pringle in return for her Miss Crampton. This is
just to let you my love and mistress into the joke in Lady
Di’s letter.”*? In another, when she had gone to Holy
Island for the sea bathing, where he sends her the Chronicle
and the News together with some garden stuff and a moor-
fowl pie, he says, “I hope your landlady continues to please
you. By my notion of Fat Folk’—he refers to himself
elsewhere as being thin as I naturally am—‘‘she should be
good humor’d. If she go naked as the other you write
of I think she cannot well fail to make you laugh till you
are more accustom’d to her appearance.””?

But some of his letters give one pause, in particular:
“Our Boy is the fruit of that love which gets from me the
fullness of parental affection. But my beloved wife is
still supreme. I must have your whole heart and every
passion in it. You must love our children for me, you
must delight in our Boy for me. I must be first and superior
in your heart and thoughts, your affection as a parent must
be derived from yr. love as my wife.”

Lord Marchmont was jealous about her and jealous of
his son, whom he wished to make into a paragon. Lord
Polwarth, the “little prattler”? to whom he sends his love
in some later letters must become everything that he, Lord
Marchmont, through circumstance, frustration and enmity,
but not through lack of capability, did not become. But
that was not to be. ‘The little prattler was to grow up like
his mother, beautiful-looking, easy-going, probably with
her “delicacy of judgment and strain of solid sense,’ but,
despite his father’s careful plans for his studies, with no
greater delight—apart from the company of his dear Lady
Bell—than outdoor pursuits, especially fox-huntine.

Lady Bell herself says in a letter to Lady Grey: “As to
hunting Ld. P. may answer if he please. I can only say
that he puts me in mind of the Cat turn’d into a Lady, for

168 LADY BELL AND LORD P

his old inclinations will recur, and he cannot help hunting
a fox sometimes with his Hounds and he thinks it will do
no Harm.” She tells how at Marchmont “‘the Hounds are
gather’d in from different places and lodge at present just
by the House, and yet—I assure you—they give no manner
of disturbance.”** She recounts how he has hunted with
“the Duke of Roxburghe at Broxsmith, will hunt at Auck-
land with Mr. Egerton,” and plans to hunt at Wimpole
with his in-laws where, as she explains to her mother,
“You are likely to see a third horse arrive: Ld. Polwarth
was afraid so many might not be convenient to you, but I
thought you would easily understand how many Accidents
Horses are liable to and how necessary it is to have a spare
Horse that one’s Groom may be always able to keep up
with one in Hunting.”?’

Lady Grey amazed her family by taking great interest in
her son-in-law’s activities but, as Miss Godber quotes in
her delightful book on Lady Grey, Lord Marchmont was
disgusted: “If it ever got to the King that you are turned
fox-hunter. There cannot be a more contemptible charac-
ter in this country. Take as much of it as amuses you &
tends to yr. health but talk of it lightly as ove of yr. amuse-
ments; and in reality take great care to keep yourself superior
to that and every class subordinate to true manly objects
fit for one of yr. station.”

As Lady Bell said on her first visit to Marchmont: “Our
old Lion is a little sulky now and then but truly I think
nobody seems much disturb’d when he is. Ld. P. is too
lively and Ldy. Marchmont is too easy to mind anything
of that sort, and we all do our own way.” But it did not
last. Lord Polwarth drifted further and further away
under the breath of his father’s disapproval, and increas-
ingly Lord Marchmont made his home in England.

Boswell with some trepidation called on him there on
12th May 1778 at his house in Curzon Street. (Boswell’s
purpose was to get Lord Marchmont to see Dr. Johnson,
who was writing a life of Alexander Pope, whose executor
Lord Marchmont had been. Lord Marchmont graciously
consented. It was Dr. Johnson who proved less amenable).
Boswell gives us one curious glimpse: Lord Marchmont
“was born in the Canongate and he and his brother went
from Glasgow to Utrecht, and he came quite a stranger to
England. ‘T’other day in a shop a man asked him if he

LADY BELL AND LORD P 169

was an American. “Why sor’ ‘Because you speak a
language neither Scotch nor English, but between ’em.’ ”*°

By this date Lord Polwarth besides being estranged from
his father was also seriously ill, and he and Lady Bell had
gone to the south of France (a disastrous choice, the winter
having been cruel), but his health was not at all improved.
As Boswell says, “Ld. Marchmont told me his son was
perhaps no more. Hardly any hope by the last letter. I
wondered how easily he talked of it, and of supporting a
poor woman his mother. I said one did not know how to
bear such an affliction. My Lord said, “Time.’ ”*

But time did not mend matters. Instead two years later
there was the fatal election of 1780. When Lord March-
mont was elected M.P. for Berwick in 1734, his twin was
elected for Berwickshire, which he held until his death in
1760. Thereafter Lord Marchmont had always nominated
his own man. ‘This was his son-in-law Sir John Patterson,
to whom the Rev. George Ridpath refers: “Had a good
deal of talk about the odd match of Lady Ann Hume with
John Patterson which sets our noble Peer in no very
advantageous light.” Sir John was a racing man and a
great gambler. Lady Bell at first thought him “a jolly
laughing, good humour’d Country Squire with some
Mother-wit and not a great deal of clergy,” but apparently
he became more and more unscrupulous and finally matters
became so bad that Lord Marchmont’s grandson, Hugh
Scott, tried to speak to his grandfather on the subject.
When that proved useless the young man decided to offer
himself as candidate. He won the seat, but he lost his
Marchmont inheritance. As, in Lady Bell’s words, “that
cettain event which shall be nameless and which I never
expect,”’** did not take place and Lord Polwarth and she
remained childless, he was his grandfather’s only male heir;
and Lord Marchmont cut him out of his will. He also cut
the last links with his son and daughter-in-law. Lord
Polwarth had supported, if not positively encouraged, his
young nephew in the election, and Lord Marchmont’s
anger included him. Poor Lady Bell tried vainly to bring
about a reconciliation for Lady Marchmont’s sake, especially
when she realized how grievously ill her young husband
was. But her attempts were unsuccessful. Finally, sudden-
ly in March 1781 Lord Polwarth died, aged thirty. Lord
Marchmont was bitter, claiming that he had not been told

170 LADY BELL AND LORD P

of his son’s imminent death, and less than a fortnight later
was complaining that he presumed Lord Polwarth died in
debt as he was having to pay for the funeral.** He did not
seem to care that Lady Bell might have to pay some of the
debts, and he cut off Lord Polwarth’s allowance.

Lord Marchmont continued to sit in the House of Lords
for another three years until 1784, when he was not re-elected
one of the Scottish Representative Peers. He was hardly
in Scotland now. The following year a large number of
his books were sent to his house in Hemel Hempstead, and
the rest were sent in 1792. Two years later, having left
directions with Sir George Rose about his death and
funeral arrangements and the disposal of the first Earl of
Marchmont’s sword, he died in January 1794 aged eighty-six.

Perhaps it is as well to forget the bitterness of his later
yeats and to return to the house where the robes of his
grandfather, Earl Patrick, when Chancellor of Scotland,
still hung in the mahogany wardrobe of the Velvet Room’s
dressing-room. Although he had taken his books and
musical instruments to Hemel Hempstead, Lord March-
mont had left in his study cupboard the symbols of his
happier days, just as Lady Marchmont had left the flower-
pots and tea-cups—perhaps the symbols of hers. “The
Press in my Lord’s Study” contained:

“Two hunting whips.

A small riding Bridle fully mounted.

A Brass Mould for Casting Gun and Pistol Bullets.

A small iron Balance.

Some small ropes.

Two Rifle Guns.

A large Sword.

A small Sword and a Hanger.

A scythe for cutting weeds.

A Fishing Rod.

Two pairs of Boots one of which has spurs.

A thistle weed hook.

An Adze and a Hammer.

A leather belt & pockets for carrying the above irons in.

A walking Cane.

Five walking staffs.

A set of measuring Pins.

A Plan of the Estate.

Total value £3.8s.”%

LADY BELL AND LORD P 7

His bust is still in the Saloon at Marchmont, although

the position has been changed and his eyes are now averted
from the east, from the Long Avenue his father planted,
from his own front door by which he daily passed on his
way to and from his beloved Betty’s rooms. She survived
him by three years. His daughter-in-law Lady Bell, later
called Baroness Lucas and Countess de Grey, never tre-

married and lived on until 1832, fifty-one years after the
death of her loved Lord P.

23%
24.
25%
26.
27),
28.
29.
30.
Bile
32.

SU AL AY po

REFERENCES

Inventory.

B.C.R.O. 8th August 1772.

Ibid. 3rd September 1772.

Godber.

B.C.R.O. 3rd September 1772.

Marchmont Papers. Letter to Lady Marchmont, 18th August 1750.
Marchmont Estate Volumes. Journal 1751-57.

Rose.

B.C.R.O. 3rd September 1772.

Marchmont Papers. Letter to Lady Marchmont, 1759.

Johnston.

Inventory.

B.C.R.O. 3td September 1772.

Warrender.

David Hume to Oswald of Dunnikier, 29th January 1748.

Rose.

Marchmont Papers. Letter to Anne Hume-Campbell, 1726.

Murray.

Wearrender.

Rose. Letter from Lord Bolingbroke to Sir William Wyndham,
New Yeat’s Day, 1740.

Marchmont Papers. Letter to Elizabeth Crampton, 1748.

Ibid. Letter to Lady Marchmont, 23rd August 1750. ‘‘Lady Di’—
Lady Diana Scott, Lord Marchmont’s third daughter, by his first wife,
of whom Sir Walter Scott wrote in his Journal: ‘“‘She was the daughter
(alone remaining) of Pope’s Earl of Marchmont, & like her father had
an acute, & an eager temper. She was always kind to me, remarkably
so when I was a boy.”

Ibid. 1759.
Ibid. 1750.
Ibid. 1750.

Pe. KO, 24th June 1773;
Ibid. 3rd October 1772.
Godber.

B.C.R.O. 3rd September 1772.
Boswell.

Boswell.

B.C.R.O. 3rd September 1772.

172, BOTANICAL MEETING AT THE BLACK HILL OF EARLSTON

335 BG. 1.0. 23%d September 1773.
34. Marchmont Papers. Marchmont, 1781.
35. Lnventory.

ABBREVIATIONS

B.C.R.O. Bedfordshire County Record Office. (Letters from Lady
Polwarth to her mother, Lady Grey).

Boswell. Boswell in Extremes 1776-1778. Edited by Charles McC. Weiss
and Frederick Pottle. Yale University, 1970.

Godber. Marchioness Grey of Wrest Park. Joyce Godber. Bedfordshire
Historical Record Society.

Inventory. — Inventory of Household Furniture, Pictures, Prints, Drawings, Plate
and other effects in Marchmont House 17th January 1794. March-
mont Library.

Johnston. Duns Dings A’: The Town and its Environs. R. G. Johnston,

1953.

Marchmont Estate Volumes. Register House, Edinburgh.

Marchmont Papers. Register House, Edinburgh.

Murray. Memoirs of the Lives and Characters of the Right Honourable George
Baillie of Jerviswood and of Lady Grisell Baillie by their daughter
Lady Murray of Stanhope. Edinburgh, 1824.

Rose. Selection from Marchmont Papers. Sir George Rose. London,
1831.

Warrender. Marchmont and the Humes of Polwarth. Margaret Warrendet.

Edinburgh and London, 1894.

BOTANICAL MEETING AT THE
BLACK HILE OF EARLSTON

On Saturday, 30th June 1973, about seventeen members of
the Club assembled at Whitefield Farm for a botanical meeting
at the Black Hill. A circuit of the hill was made approaching
from the east. The main object of the meeting was to look for
Lycopodium selago, the Fir Club-moss, but this was not found.
Large quantities of the Parsley Fern C7yptogramma crispa grow
on the north and west slopes and a single Juniper Juniperus
communis was seen on the steep north side. Self-sown Larch
Larix decidua and Scots Pine Pinus sylvestris were noted, and
Thyme Thymus drucei was in flower growing near the exposure
of Old Red Sandstone at the western end of the hill. The
Crested Hair Grass Koeleria cristata was found and many plants
of the lovely Yellow Mountain Pansy V7ol/a lutea were seen
blooming in the grassy sward on the south-eastern flank.
During the course of the afternoon a single Common Blue
butterfly Polyommatus icarus was seen, and a specimen of the
Ruby Tiger moth Phragmatobia fuliginosa was found at rest on
the grass. The day was fine with a strong west wind.

A. G. LonG

LADYKIRK CHURCH

By the Rev. W. G. BAILEY
An Address given in Ladykirk Church on 9th May 1973.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

Before saying anything to you about this church, I should
like in the name of the kirk session to offer to you—the Berwick-
shire Naturalists—a very warm welcome. I have two links
with the Club which both give me great pleasure, and for which
I am very grateful. One of your senior members is our senior
elder, Mr. John Fairbairn, who used to farm Ramrig in this
parish: and my wife is related to your Secretary and his sister,
Ryle and Grace Elliot, and I have known them for over thirty-
five years.

Ladykirk church is interesting both for its historical associa-
tions, and for the character of the building. I know more about
the building, so let me begin with that.

It is a stone building, and originally the only woodwork in it
was the doors: the present pews and pulpit were installed in
1861 when the church was restored. It is an attractive building:
it is an unusual, in some respects indeed a unique building: and
it is interesting because it is typical of the Scottish church
architecture of the period, and because apart from the addition
of the tower it has not been enlarged or altered in any material
way: and so, after nearly 500 years, it is still essentially the same
as when it was built in 1500.

Because the roof is built entirely of stone and covered with
ashlar slabs, it is very heavy: and so the walls have been
strengthened with twenty buttresses with carved finials, which
give the building the appearance of a miniature cathedral.

The most interesting feature of the architecture, which is
perhaps unique, is that the roof is in three parts, the roof of the
two transepts being separate from the main roof of the nave
and the chancel. This was presumably to save weight and
avoid the necessity of crossing arches in the centre.

The tower which was added in 1743 was the work of William
Adam, the Edinburgh architect: it is technically a campanile, or

LS

174 LADYKIRK CHURCH

bell tower. I do not know if it is unique, but it is certainly
distinctive, even though it does not match the style of the rest
of the building. It is visible as you come over the crest of the
hill from Swinton or Whitsome: coming north you see it as you
come down into Norham: and approaching from Berwick you
see its unmistakable silhouette as you pass New Ladykirk. Its
addition was commissioned by the heritor, Mr. William Robert-
son of Ladykirk House.

I do not know when the vestry and boiler house were added,
but I suspect that this was at the end of the nineteenth century.

From the tower, as you can imagine, you get a view of most
of the Merse. To the north-west there are the Lammermuirs:
to the north-east the valley of the Tweed, towards Berwick:
unfortunately Norham Castle is hidden by trees, but to the
south we see as far as the summit of the Cheviot Hills: and to
the west the Eildon Hills and Hume Tower beyond Greenlaw,
and (I believe) Ruberslaw above Hawick.

Now coming inside the building: if you begin at the west end
there is the tower itself. It has five storeys. The room on the
ground floor is now a store and is entered from the outside,
though there used to be a door into the church: you can see the
lintel above the brass plate in the west wall of the church. That
wall is about three feet thick.

The next three storeys are reached by a newell stair in the
north-west corner of the building. The first and second are
now empty, but they used to be the living-quarters of the priest:
and at a later stage those three rooms were used as a prison.
In the room on the first floor there was an aperture into the
church, through which the priest could see the altar: you can
see the stone which now blocks it. In the second floor there
was a fireplace: but as he probably had no glass in his windows,
I cannot help feeling that he must have been pretty cold some-
times.

In the third storey there are simply the two faces of the clock,
installed in 1882, and a wooden framework which supports the
works of the clock in the top floor.

In the top floor there is the clock mechanism and two bells:
one is for the chime of the clock which is not working at the
moment, and one to call people to worship. It does not really
work either!

On the west wall you see the bust of James IV, which is the
work of a Mr. Handyside Ritchie. There is also the Latin
inscription which tells us that the church was built by James
IV, and dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary in 1500: later,
through the carelessness or indifference (énucuria) of the people,
it was allowed to fall into disrepair, but was restored by the

LADYKIRK CHURCH 175

heritors and the tower added in 1743. It was further restored
in 1861, and the pews were presumably added then.

The brass plate commemorates the deliverance of the parish
in a vety severe storm in 1881, and tells us that the clock was
given as a token of gratitude to “‘a merciful Providence’.

The tablets in the nave and north transept commemorate
previous ministers, and the more elaborate memorials in the
chancel are in memory of the Robertsons, and later the Askews,
who lived in Ladykirk House. There is also a hatchment on
the south wall, distinguished by an escutcheon of pretence with
Robertson arms superimposed on the arms of Robertson.

There are also one or two other objects of some interest.
Hanging framed on the wall is a document issued by the Scottish
Office in 1858, in the name of Queen Victoria, and sealed with
a royal seal, which instructs the session of Ladykirk to appoint
as their minister the Reverend William Dobie. He was to
enjoy all the’ benefits of the church and parish until his death,
and he did quite well out of it, because he held the appointment
for 45 years, till 1904.

At the east end of the church there is an old dole chest of
uncertain age and origin. It claims to belong to the church of
Saint Nicholas in Liverpool, and is dated 1651. It was given
to the church in Ladykirk in 1879, by the lady who gave the
clock three years later, one of the Robertsons, Lady Marjori-
banks.

The windows are undistinguished: most of them are memorial
windows erected in the nineteenth century.

The church has many historical associations, but most of them
were of a passing nature. As already mentioned the church
was built at the instigation of the king, James IV, and is said to
have been a thank-offering after his rescue from drowning in
the Tweed. ‘Thirteen years later he may have paused to worship
here on his way to the battle of Flodden.

Tunstall, Bishop of Durham, the last to acknowledge Rome,
signed the last Treaty of Peace between the two countries in
Ladykirk Church. The Earl of Bothwell, Queen Mary’s evil
genius, sat in the church as one of the Scottish Commissioners
to decide on over a thousand English complaints made to him
and his English colleague as Warden of the Marches.

When Queen Mary of Lorraine returned from a visit to
France, all the barons of the Border counties were ordered to
meet her at the church with their retainers and horses.

There is really no local evidence of these historical associations,
but the building itself remains as a place of worship, having been
in more or less continuous and regular use for nearly 500 years.

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, IX
By DUNCAN NOBLE, s.a.

The fourth season of excavation took place from gth to 21st
April 1973. The team included Mr. J. Barfoot, assistant
director and photographer; Mr. D. Price Williams, B.a., sur-
veyor; Mr. W. J. Webb, site supervisor; Mrs. M. Barfoot, small
finds and pottery supervisor; and Mrs. B. Coulton, B.a., archaeo-
logical assistant. ‘Taking part were students from Whitelands
College, Putney, and the University of London Department of
Extra-Mural Studies.

Our gratitude is due to the President, Committee, and mem-
bers of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club for their sponsorship
and financial support. To Mr. T. D. Thomson, we are much
in debt for practical advice and wise counsel on many matters
concerning the excavation.

To Mr. R. D. Birch, M.a., Director of Education for Berwick-
shire and the Berwickshire County Council Education Com-
mittee go our thanks for their generosity in again giving a grant
to assist the excavation.

We wish to express our thanks to Mr. R. F. Knight, m.a.,
Principal of Whitelands College and the College governors for
making it possible for Whitelands students to take part in the
excavation. Their assistance throughout the years has been
most valuable. To Dr. J. Hazeldene Walker, of Whitelands
College, we are indebted for her active assistance on many
aspects of the dig.

1973 was the year when the benefits of the mechanical removal
in 1972 of unstratified top burden in the Abbey Yard Field
became clear. Area excavation could now confidently be
undertaken and, as can be seen on the plan, an area 12 m. by
9 m. was opened, with the previously excavated floor of the
Chapter House in the middle of its western side.

A baulk running eastwards on the alignment of the Az trench
of the 1971 season divided the area into two.

North of the baulk the later, Phase IV, north wall of the
Chapter House was traced to its north-east corner. Along the
outside of this wall is a band of yellow mortar some 30 cm. wide
which stops on the alignment of the eastern wall of the Chapter
House. Investigation is not complete here as the baulk has
to be removed, but one can note that the Phase IV north and
south walls of the Chapter House resemble each other in having

176

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, IX LaF

a strip of mortar along their outsides. No trace was found in
this year’s operations of the earlier Phase II north wall of the
Chapter House, but it could be that east of trench A4 of 1971 it
survives to such a low height that excavation has not yet reached
it.

Beyond the mortar outside the northern wall of the Chapter
House is a darker mortar floor which is found to the north and
east in areas AG and A7 on the plan. Its full extent is not yet
known, nor can it yet be assigned to any specific structures.

Trench Aro was sunk to bedrock to establish whether the
Phase III or Phase IV walls ran eastwards to this point. The
walls clearly did not come this far. However there were found
lying in shallow trenches in the bedrock three inhumations of
the type found in the earlier (Phase I) period of the cemetery
discovered beneath the Chapter House in 1970 and 1971. ‘These
burials, 7 m. east of the hitherto known edge of the cemetery,
show that it is larger than previously thought. Further work
waits to be done on the cemetery, but one can now assign it to
the post-Roman period, after A.D. 600 and before the Middle
Ages.

South of the baulk and east of the Chapter House excavation
went down to the limits of Romanes’ operations. In this place
Romanes’ excavation had descended to a depth below that of
the Chapter House floor. Immediately under the rubble which
formed the lowest layer of his backfill were found three layers
side by side running eastwards. ‘Their composition, dark
loams in which small stones are inbedded, suggests that this part,
east of the Chapter House, was, as one would expect, out of
doors. The southernmost layer, which is bounded on its
southern limit by the eastern extension of the southern walls of
the Chapter House, contains some large flat stones which form
no particular pattern. Romanes appears to have ceased digging
above them.

One of these stones was a dressed block of red sandstone
30 cm. by 28 cm. by 5 cm. Along one of the 28 cm. edges was
a fragmentary inscription 13 by 3 cm. (see plate). Professor J.
Brown, of King’s College, London, is of the opinion that the
inscription ought to read Abbatissa, but seems to have been
tampered with. Professor R. Cramp, of Durham University,
says of the stone that the style of the script seems to be that of a
display script of about the eighth century and that to her it
looks as though it is copying rather untidily a manuscript, and
was not carved by someone who was very familiar with lapidary
work.

While the side of the stone below the inscription was dressed
flat, the side above was left rather rough, as if it were not

178 COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS, IX

originally intended to be seen. This could suggest that the
inscription is a secondary use of the slab. The full archaeo-
logical context of the stone remains to be investigated.

Both the Phase III and Phase IV southern walls of the Chapter
House appeared to continue eastwards beyond the eastern wall
of the Chapter House, the Phase IV wall lying on the northern
side of the Phase III one. All that survived were two parallel
layers of crushed sandstone underpack respectively 1 m. and
o.5 m. wide and 2 cm. thick. The Phase IV underpack was a
few centimetres higher than the broader Phase III one. ‘These
sandstone strips were covered with rubble which on Romanes’
plans appears as a wall. Just south of the Phase III pack there
was a mass of rubble still mortared together which presented a
face, lying at a slight angle to the alignment of the wall. On
investigation what had at first resembled a wall face was con-
sidered to be the top of a rubble course which had fallen forward
on to a floor of the red puddled clay which has been found
elsewhere at Coldingham.

The question whether the Phase III wall survived to any
extent into the time of the Phase IV wall must be borne in mind
and further investigation will be carried out in the area. Thus
far it looks as if at this point the Phase III wall does not go
down to bedrock, as it does on the south side of the Chapter
House. Unfortunately at the south-east corner of the Chapter
House, between the deep and the shallow parts of the Phase III
wall, it was robbed out in antiquity.

The area, as so far excavated, suggests that Phase III wall
was standing at the time of the final destruction, which should
logically have taken place during the time of Phase IV. Per-
haps the much lighter Phase IV wall was just a refacing of the
earlier wall. What is not in doubt is that in the Abbey Yard
Field one has basically two building phases.

What is now needed is excavation to find a corner of these
walls further east, and their return south.

Excavation was also conducted in the old walled garden
known as the Manse Garden to the south of the Abbey Yard
Field. In the course of tests in the 1960s to discover whether
the garden might be suitable for use as a burial ground ashlar
masonry was found at no great depth. Operations were
therefore started to search for evidence of human occupation
in the area up against the western wall of the Manse Garden.

Excavation by a section of the team produced a pit which
contained mediaeval pottery dated stylistically to the 13th
century and an adjacent mortar floor.

1 Work done in 1974 may modify this view.

LUFFNESS HOUSE 179

Area excavation some metres south of the pit disclosed a clay
floor which had inbedded in the clay beneath its upper surface
rubble which included a piece of an engaged rib.

It was considered that the immediate object, production of
evidence for development of the area in antiquity had been
attained and the area was recorded and backfilled.

Conclusions

In the Abbey Yard Field a mortar floor of unknown extent
lies north of the Chapter House. This will be investigated
in 1974.

The Phase I cemetery stretches further east than was previously
known. The cemetery will be the subject of detailed publication
when examination of the evidence is complete. At present one
can date Phases I and II to the post-Roman period.

The southern wall of the Chapter House continues east beyond
the eastern wall of the Chapter House and has a large building
on its southern side.

There was development of the Manse Garden area in the
Middle Ages.

LUFFNESS HOUSE
By NIGEL TRANTER

It can be given to few houses—occupied, family houses, not
museum pieces—to display the evidence of a millenium’s
occupancy, the firm footprints of men and women for a thousand
years. Luffness can do just that. In the floor of the great
basement vault, now the vestibule chamber, are small incised
crosses marking the burial-place of three Vikings, Norse raiders
who settled here before the Christian era reached its teens—their
chief called Lofda, from whom the name Luffness (Lofda’s
Point) is derived. Even then this place had been a strongpoint,
where the Peffer Burn reaches Aberlady Bay amongst the
marshes and tidelands—Pictish no doubt, for there is an Aberlady
Pictish stone preserved in the parish kirk.

By a couple of centuries later a great stone castle had enclosed
the site: large, powerful, as the extensive green foundations still
show: important as nearby Dirleton, one of the Keys of the
Kingdom. It was in the hands of that princely and semi-royal
family, the Cospatrick earls of Dunbar and March, springing
from the ancient Celtic royal line~-of which comes to-day Sir
Alec Cospatrick Douglas-Home. ‘The sixth earl, dying on a
crusade in faraway Palestine in 1286, was nursed by one of the
dispossessed monks of Mount Carmel, a fellow-Scot called

180 LUFFNESS HOUSE

Lauder. On his deathbed he sent a message to his son and heir,
by Lauder—to give the monks, who would bring his body
back to Luffness, part of his lands there, for their services.
And so arose the Carmelite monastery at Luffness, to the west
of the castle, where still may be seen the ruins of their chapel
and the recumbent effigy of Earl Cospatrick.

The Dunbar earls fell, in a murky conspiracy, and the Doug-
lases reigned in their stead. A strange figure, one Bickerton,
comes on the scene, armour-bearer to the Earl of Douglas.
Presumably he was keeper of Luffness Castle for the Black
Douglases, for he was not of the stature to be lord of this great
stronghold. At the Battle of Otterburn, in 1388, when “a
dead man won the day”’’, he took the opportunity to repay some
old grudge against his chief, and stabbed the Earl in the back—
literally—through a gap left in his armour. So Douglas fell,
to live in ballad, and Bickerton came back to Luffness. But the
Douglases discovered how their chief had died, and sought
vengeance. Long they waited for Bickerton, who hid secure
in the great castle—‘“‘Bickerton’s Bed” is still pointed out in a
chamber in the thick walling. But one day, thinking that he
was safe, he ventured out—and was promptly slain at his own
door. .

With the fall of the Black Douglas house, Luffness Castle
passed through various hands—but the Church retained its
western portion of the property. Then in 1548, the year after
Pinkie, an English garrison was besieged in Haddington, and
Henry VIII sent up a fleet-borne army to try to relieve it. Off
Aberlady Bay it stood—but Luffness Castle prevented any
landing, Mary of Guise’s French allies digging the great green
ramparts which still flank the road here, behind which to mount
their cannon. So furious was Henry over this that, at the
peace-treaty which followed, he demanded the demolishment of
Luffness Castle. This was done—but not very thoroughly, the
immensely thick walls of the central keep defying easy dis-
mantling, so that the lower three stories remained, spoiled but
intact.

Then came the Reformation. The Carmelites at last had to
leave, and Sir Patrick Hepburn, of the Bothwell family, obtained
the whole property in the land-grab of those days. He it was
who built the present T-planned fortalice, on the foundations of
the old keep, his initials and the date 1584 appearing on one of
the angle-turrets. The Hepburns were powerful indeed in
post-Reformation Scotland, and here came Mary Queen of
Scots, to visit the house of her third husband’s kinsman. They
stayed for 160 years: then in 1739 Charles Hope, first Earl of
Hopetoun, bought the property, and the even longer reign of
the Hopes began—and happily still continues.

NORHAM CASTLE
By G. A. C. BINNIE

This description does not claim to have any profound his-
torical merit, but it is rather one person’s impression of Norham
Castle.

The Castle at Norham has now been in existence for some
850 years, although one must remember that it was only occupied
for perhaps 450 of those years: besieged eleven times, captured
five times; once besieged every 40 years and once captured every
go years. As with all Norman castles it is based on the motte-
and-bailey principle; that is to say, a tower with a small en-
closure surrounded by its fortifications and moat, and outside
that an outer bailey again surrounded by its fortifications and
moat. Originally in 1121 it was built of wood, and this fortif-
cation was besieged and captured by the Scottish king David
on two occasions, before being built in stone between 1158
and 1174. ‘The first stone-built Norman fortification consisted
of the keep we can see to-day, together with the walls surround-
ing the inner bailey, the inner dry moat, the outer bailey with
stone walls on the north and west, and a curved south-western
perimeter consisting of a mound with wooden palisades on top
and a dry moat beyond. The main gate, now known as the
Marmion Gate, was toward the village, and comprised a tower,
drawbridge and inward-opening gate. The flanking wall on
the east reached the approximate height of the highest piece of
masonry remaining. Inside this wall there must have been a
wooden wall-walk which continued along the face of the keep
and so into the keep itself, near to the entrance. The original
entrance to the keep was in the centre of the west face at a point
about 20 feet above level ground, the entrance presumably
being by means of a staircase or ladder. At that time there was
a garderobe tower on the south face with access from the three
floors of the keep; the remains of these entrances can still be
seen. There was no Clapham’s Tower then.

The wooden palisades around the outer bailey were replaced
about 1208, and what can now be seen was in fact the base of
an atched wall which was buried in a mound with a wall on
top, which has now disappeared except for traces around the
custodian’s cottage: here the upper part of the arches can still
be seen: here too was the Sheep Gate, the remains of which are
now closed by wooden doors. In the tower above it, built
about 1350, was the Constable’s lodging in the latter part of
the Castle’s history. Four gun-turrets were inserted into this
outer wall in the early 1500s and Sandur’s Tower, built about

181

182 NORHAM CASTLE

1208, was also converted at this time owing to the development
of gunpowder. The custodian’s cottage was built on one of
these turrets about 100 years ago, but is itself of no interest.
Clapham’s Tower, which projects from the inner bailey towards
the custodian’s cottage, is of this time also, again having been
erected with gunpowder and guns in view, and this is when
the garderobe tower is thought to have been removed, to allow
a clear field of fire from Clapham’s Tower.

Marmion’s Gate is the most characteristic feature of the
Castle, deriving its name from Sir Walter Scott and not vice
versa; the central rough stone core of this is Norman, although
the gateway itself was blocked and reopened two or three times
in its existence. Originally it was a gate with a drawbridge,
then it was remade with a portcullis and gate, and also at one
time there was a small postern which can be seen on the left
side going out, as can traces of the portcullis and the hole for
the bar which held shut the gate. The pit for the counter-
balance of the drawbridge can be seen underneath the new
bridge, and a similar pit can be seen under the bridge over the
inner moat. The wall continued entire on the north from
Marmion’s Gate to the inner bailey, although it has been replaced
and built up again once or twice in its career. Straddling the
moat was the “Chapel, which is now no longer in existence
though its undercroft is present, and under this are works
associated with flooding the moat, which was made possible
about 1500, when the stream down the east of the Castle was
diverted. At this time also was constructed the horses’ water-
ing-place which is underneath the wooden bridge leading into
the inner bailey; and there are places for washing, and also a
brew-house, although neither facility seems too inviting when
one considers that the drains from the Castle must have run
directly into this moat.

Norham, as befitted a castle which had an episcopal owner
and resident captain, had both the captain’s apartments in the
keep itself, as well as episcopal accommodation in the inner
bailey. Immediately beside the well is the Bishop’s Hall, and
at its west end ate the entrances to the kitchen, buttery and
pantry. In the kitchen are the remains of the great oven, and
drainage places in the floor. The banqueting hall adjoins the
great chamber, and behind this is a range of connected buildings
immediately within the east wall of the inner bailey.

The keep started life as a foursquare erection of three stories,
with an entrance, as already mentioned, some 20 feet above
ground level. In about 1422 the entrance was brought down
to floor level and the stairway with its prominent top inserted,
and the wall level raised to allow the insertion of another floor,
as can be seen from the remains of the fireplace almost at the
top of the south wall. On the inside of the east wall can be

NORHAM CASTLE 183

seen the outline of the gables of the Norman roof, and the
present top of the keep is about the level of the original roof
walk. At first the stairways were within the hollow walls of
the keep, that is those walls which face the inner bailey; and
when the new stair-tower was built these stairways and passages
were filled in with rubble. Sadly, however, the filling in of the
hollow walls weakened rather than strengthened them, and a
large part of the north wall collapsed about the time of Flodden.
This may have been due to the guns of James IV rather than to
natural causes, especially as Mons Meg could hurl a two-foot
cannonball one-and-a-quarter miles from Ladykirk, with un-
doubted devastating effect. Some of these missiles are in the
cellar of the keep and others are said to await recovery from the
Tweed. The north wall was not replaced and the rubble-filled
passages are to be seen on the exposed faces. The keep was
rebuilt into a smaller rectangular portion in about 1521, and the
stair tower shows that the three entrances into the staircase
which once came from the north were blocked up; new
entrances were made into the remaining southern half of the
keep. Features to note are the fine Norman fireplace in the
south wall, and the window to the east of the banqueting
hall. The old entrance at the other end of the dining hall of
the keep presumably led to the wall walk already mentioned.
The ground floor or basement of the Castle does not contain
the dungeons about which Sir Walter Scott wrote, but rather
the cellars where bits and pieces of any household are kept
including the cannonballs which are still there.

The well is 90 feet deep, although the bottom is filled with
30 feet of rubble, and it is now dry. The Ministry of Works
hopes some time to remove the rubble at the bottom of the well
and restore it to its former depth; no doubt there will be some
interesting finds.

Norham Castle is well known for its masons’ marks, the
marks being made by the stonemasons when they carved out
their stones. These no doubt showed the paymaster who had
done what. There are nice examples at the base of the north
wall of the keep.

Various interesting personalities visited Norham in its histori-
cal period, besides the Scottish kings who besieged it. King
John and Edward I held court at Norham, and John Knox must
have come courting there as he married the Governor’s daughter,
Marjorie Bowes, in 1551. The present inhabitants are various
birds which find shelter in the ruins; the Club members noticed
a nest of young mistle-thrushes at the site of the inner draw-
bridge, and there was a blackbird’s nest at the wellhead. In
addition, a green woodpecker has been seen and heard frequently
in the last few years.

JOHN MACKAY WILSON AND THE BORDER
TALES

By BASIL SKINNER
University of Edinburgh

Wilson’ s Tales of the Borders first appeared as a weekly magazine,
at a price of three half-pence, on 8th November 1834. It
comprised eight quarto pages in double column (as did all its
successors), and contained one long and two short stories—T he
Vacant Chair (a tale of the Cheviot Hills), 7zbbie Fowler (a tale
of the Whitadder in Berwickshire), and My Black Coat (a tale of
Spott in East Lothian).

From that moment the series continued for six years—until
24th October 1840—and comprised in all 312 weekly parts. It
was one of the most remarkable successes in Scottish journalism,
and also one of the chief means through which the literary
influence of Sir Walter Scott reached the ordinary population of
the Borders and elsewhere, both in Scotland and England.

John MacKay Wilson was born at Tweedmouth in 1804, the
son of a saw-miller, and apprenticed to a printer in Berwick.
He went to London in search of work, but returned north and
settled down to lecturing and to writing various verse-plays and
long poems. In 1832 he became editor of the Berwick Advertiser,
and used his position to give strong support to Earl Grey and
the cause of Reform. He wrote a political leader each week,
but also developed the practice of filling spare space with
stories in verse and prose.

Wilsons Tales, which followed two years later, formed part
of what Robert Chambers in his Memoirs called the “‘Cheap
Literature Movement”. This helped not only to meet the
demand for popular reading, but also to fulfil the philanthro-
pist’s desire to educate. Contemporary periodicals with
similar aims included The Cornucopia (Edinburgh, 1831), Cham-
bers’s Journal (Edinburgh, 1832), The Penny Magazine (London,
1832), and Zhe London Journal (1834). Wilson himself saw the
Tales in use “‘as a lesson-book in several schools” (see No. 17).

Circulation increased rapidly. Of the first issue 2000 copies
were printed, and these were sold out within a few days. By
January 1835 the weekly printing had increased to 5000, and
by April of that year it was running at gooo, together with
reprints of earlier issues. In the 26th issue (2nd May 1835)
Wilson wrote:

184

JOHN MACKAY WILSON AND THE BORDER TALES 185

It is now half-a-year since the Ta/es of the Borders commenced, and their
success may excuse the author in saying a few words concerning them.
There never was an instance of what is called a provincial publication
meeting such a reception from the public, and it is only one or two metro-
politan publications that can boast of the same citculation, and that only
within the last two or perhaps three years... Of many of the earlier
numbers more than 17,000 have been sold, and from proposals that have
been made to the author by London booksellers, to circulate the work
throughout England, Scotland and Ireland, within a month the weekly
circulation will not be below 30,000.

However, the pressures on Wilson were much increased by
the General Election which took place in the summer of that
year. Under the dual strain of producing a weekly newspaper
and a weekly journal of stories his weak constitution gave way.
He died on 20th October 1835, at the age of thirty-one, and
was buried at Tweedmouth.

Issue No. 49 carried a lengthy obituary, which concludes
with these words:

He has left a widow . . . to depend on the profits of his works for the
comforts necessary for her till she sink to rest with him in the grave.
Nor are her prospects dark if those who cheered him on in his literary
labours still stand by her. His materials are not yet exhausted, and
“‘tales yet untold” are in reserve to keep alive his memory and soothe as
far as earthly comforts can het widowed heart... Under the management
of Mr. James Wilson, her brother-in-law, and Mr. Sutherland of 12
Calton Street, Edinburgh, who is now publisher, we trust to see her reap
the full reward of Ais genius and toils whose last hours she sweetened.

In the crisis that occurred immediate measures were necessary.
Mr. Sinclair, a Berwick lawyer who was Wilson’s executor,
persuaded Dr. Carr of Coldingham, author of The History of
Coldingham Abbey, to write an issue at once. This was No.
50, comprising Coldingham Abbey—or, The Double Revenge.
James Wilson, the brother, played only a small part, and the
main influence on the series during five more years was that of
John Sutherland, the Edinburgh bookseller and publisher to
whom Robert Chambers had once been apprenticed. He
formed a group of contributors, very much on Blackwood lines,
to carry on the work; and this arrangement lasted until 1840,
when financial difficulties forced the sale of the copyrights to
Messrs. James Ainsworth of Manchester, who continued to
issue reprints throughout the nineteenth century.

Under Sutherland, the editor in general charge of the Tales
was Alexander Leighton (1800-74), author of Storied Traditions
of Scottish Life, Men and Women of History, and The Romance of
the Old Town of Edinburgh. The contributors whom he gathered
together included:

HUGH MILLER (1802-56). He contributed seven stories (at
three guineas each). In the same year (1835) he published
Scenes and Legends of the North of Scotland.

186 JOHN MACKAY WILSON AND THE BORDER TALES

ALEXANDER BETHUNE (1804-43). He and his brother John
wete originally Fifeshire labourers, and committed all sorts of
acquired stories to paper. Eminently “men of the people’,
they published Tales and Sketches of the Scottish Peasantry (1836),
and The Scottish Peasants Fireside (1842).

DAVID MACBETH MOIR (1798-1851). He was already a con-
tributor to Blackwood’s Magazine (for which he wrote 370 articles
in all), Zhe Scots Magazine, and The Edinburgh Literary Gazette.
He is best known for his Awsobiography of Mansie Waugh.

JAMES MAIDMENT (d. 1879). A Londoner and an expert on
genealogy, he had settled in Edinburgh and been friendly with
Sit Walter Scott. He edited two volumes of Scottish Ballads
and wrote an account of the Bannatyne Club.

Professor THOMAS GILLESPIE (1777-1844), of the chair of
Humanity at St. Andrews. He contributed to Wa/son’s Tales
two series—T he Professor's Tales and Gleanings of the Covenant.

Under Sutherland and his team, the character of the magazine
changed. ‘The subject-matter was no longer confined to the
Borders, and instead was drawn from all Scotland. Thus No.
99 included Tales of Grace Cameron (the West Highlands), and
No. 104 The Widow of Dunskaith (Cromarty). Also, in order to
encourage sales, the device of spreading one story over two
issues was introduced.

However, one feature remained constant—the high moral
tone of the stories, in which as a rule virtue triumphed, and
adversity frequently had a happy outcome. To quote James
Tait in 1881:

It [the magazine; found its way to the hearts and homes of Scotsmen
in all parts of the world. For years it formed the staple source of amuse-
ment around many a cottar’s fireside; its weekly issues were waited on
with impatience and read with avidity; and, even yet after a lapse of nearly
fifty years, there is probably no work to which a Scotsman will turn more
readily to while away a leisure hout.

The 7a/es had an original publishing lifetime of six years, but
a reprint lifetime that lasted until the 1930s. They continued a
tradition, established by Scott, of historical story-telling for the
masses. Some of them are prose renderings of stories already
familiar as ballads, e.g. The Worm of Spindlestonheugh, Midside
Maggie, The Doom of Soulis. Others are dramatisations of
historical incidents, e.g. The Siege of Linlithgow, The Escape of
Sir Patrick Flume of Marchmont. In these two respects the Scott
antecedents are The Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border and Tales of a
Grandfather. Wilson’s Tales of the Borders brought this type of
literature more easily to the cottage fireside.

In the detail of his plots, Wilson every now and then reveals
his debt to Scott. The prison interview between Grizel Coch-
rane and her father recalls that between Effie and Jeannie

JOHN MACKAY WILSON AND THE BORDER TALES 187

Deans, and there is an even closer parallel between the cursing
of the Laird o’Clennel by Elspeth Faa, Queen of the Gypsies,
and the similar cursing of the Laird of Ellangowan by Meg
Merrilees.

Also, Wilson regularly employs the same over-romantic
imagery as Scott. Take his description of the Cheviots in
winter:

Like a mastiff that has lost its owner, the wind howled dolefully down
the glens, and was re-echoed from the caves of the mountains. The
frowning, snow-clad precipices were instinct with motion, as avalanche
upon avalanche, the larger burying the less, crowded downwards in their
tremendous journey to the plain.

The Vacant Chair

The greatest significance of W2/son’s Tales, however, lies in
their continuance of the nostalgic tradition that Scott had
developed in his early novels. This had two aspects: firstly, a
recourse to domestic life as a source of narrative interest; and
secondly, a compulsion to record a vanishing society in a
moment of change. The 7a/es thus formed part of a movement
that embraced John Galt and Dean Ramsay; and after Wilson’s
early death the magazine provided a focal point and publishing
medium for the group of writers whom Leighton assembled.
If their stories are increasingly tinged with sentiment, this is,
after all, part of the general progress of the Kailyard from the
Blawearie of Galt to the Thrums of Barrie.

This article is based on a paper delivered at a study-

conference in Melrose on 14th November 1971. It

appears here by kind permission of the Author and
Roxburgh County Council Education Committee.

DRYBURGH ABBEY

By H. R. TREVOR-ROPER

Regius Professor of Modern History,
University of Oxford

An Address to Members, given at the Abbey on th August 1973.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

Dryburgh Abbey was founded in 1150 by Hugo de Morville,
Constable of Scotland, and settled with monks from Alnwick
Abbey in Northumberland. So much all the guide-books will
tell us; but how little those bare details show of the great inter-
national movement of which this Abbey is a local deposit!
All the great abbeys of the Tweed valley—almost all the abbeys
of Scotland—were founded in one reign, in one generation, as
part of a general expansion which reached not only northwards
to the Tweed and beyond to the Moray Firth, but also eastwards
to the Danube and the Vistula. It happened that this European
movement coincided with the reign of a Scottish king who
welcomed not only these new monastic orders but also the
essential agents of their immigration, the Normans. This
Scottish king was David I whose reign, first over part of Scot-
land, then over all of it, lasted altogether sixty years, from 1093
tovrTs 3.

There had been monasticism in the Tweed valley before king
David, of course. Celtic monasticism had been brought here
in the seventh century, immediately from Lindisfarne in North-
umberland—the Lindisfarne of Aidan and Cuthbert—ultimately
from Iona—the Iona of Columba. But that impulse had long
died down when the new, reformed orders of the twelfth
century began their methodical and astonishingly rapid colonisa-
tion of the waste lands of Europe. The most spectacular new
order was that of the Cistercians, but there were also others,
which borrowed features from the Cistercian rule: Premon-
stratensians, Augustinians, Tironensians. All these came from
the Continent to Norman England early in the twelfth century;
and from England they quickly passed into Scotland, whose
king, having been brought up at the English court, had (in the
words of the English chronicler) “‘polished his manners from
the rust of Scottish barbarity”, and had established Norman
barons and vassals—like the Morvilles, Bruces, Haigs—through-
out his own kingdom. All four Tweeddale abbeys owed their
origin to him or his Norman barons, and they represented all

188

DRYBURGH ABBEY 189

the four new orders. Kelso was founded by the Tironensians
in 1128, Melrose by the Cistercians in 1136, Jedburgh by the
Augustinians in 1138, and Dryburgh by the Premonstratensians
in I150.

These new twelfth-century monastic orders were reforming
bodies. ‘They regarded the older orders as corrupted by wealth
and urban life. Therefore they advocated poverty. They
planted their abbeys in the waste lands. But they were also
new economic organisations, disciplined agricultural combines,
and as their products conquered first local, then distant markets,
they became rich like their predecessors. When the heroic age
of their foundation was over, their buildings became ever
greater and more splendid and they settled into the social system
of the time as secular landholding corporations. Their history
became a history less of religion than of feudal economy and
patronage. Through patronage they battened on the tithes of
the parish churches, which starved in consequence, and their
abbacies became a system of outdoor relief for a rapacious
aristocracy. In the reign of James IV the abbots of all the
great Tweeddale monasteries were illegitimate members of the
royal family, who did not reside or rule there but drew their
income thence. It was through internal dissolution rather than
English raids or Protestant pressure that they fell into ruin.
When the Reformation came, they had no defenders: all the
Catholic bishops of Scotland voted for the establishment of the
Protestant Church. After the Reformation, titular abbacies
continued as before. ‘They were given to Protestant noblemen.
The abbeys themselves became stone-quarries for the houses of
the new patrons, who, having acquired their lands, preserved
the buildings only as their private burial-grounds.

Dryburgh Abbey was the hereditary burial-ground of two
families, the Haigs of Bemersyde and the Haliburtons of New-
mains and Mertoun. After the Reformation these were joined
by a third family, the Erskines. An Erskine had been the last
spiritual abbot, and another became the first secular lord.
Afterwards the property passed to the Haliburtons. The
famous graves to-day are those of Field-Marshal Earl Haig,
buried there in his own right, and of Sir Walter Scott, who is
there in the right of his grandmother, a Haliburton. But the
man who left the most visible imprint on the abbey, and enjoys
the most spacious tomb in it, was an Erskine. He was David
Steuart Erskine, 11th Earl of Buchan; and because he is less
well-known than Scott or Haig, and obtrudes himself so in-
sistently on the visitor, I shall end by saying something of him.

Lord Buchan was a learned, vain and eccentric man who, in
the late eighteenth century, presented himself as the patron of

190 DRYBURGH ABBEY

Scotland. He was a Scotch Nationalist of a kind, and in oppo-
sition to the ideas of men like Hume, Robertson and Adam
Smith, who put Scotland in the vanguard of Europe, he founded
the Society of Antiquaries whose avowed purpose was to keep
it firmly in the rear. Jn 1784, in order to provide himself with
an ancestral base for his operations, he bought back, from the
heirs of the Haliburtons, the lordship of Dryburgh. There he
built an Ionic Temple of Caledonian Fame, adorned with the
busts, or urns, of the Scottish poets; he designed festivals in their
honour, and projected lavish publications of their works and
efigies. He also built a wire suspension-bridge over the Tweed
(which was afterwards blown down), and he sprinkled the abbey
with historical inscriptions, archaic sculpture, ponderous sun-
dials and bizarre statues commemorating ancient Scottish
heroes, most of whom he claimed as his relations. There were
also some non-Scottish statues which have since been removed,
such as Inigo Jones, in the flower-garden, smiting his bosom and
deploring the sacrilegous decay of the Abbey, and Seneca and
Marcus Aurelius outside it. The most grotesque of all his
statues is now mercifully concealed by a belt of trees. It is a
hideous colossus of red sandstone, standing high on the north
bank of the Tweed and glowering ferociously towards England.
It is said to represent William Wallace. I understand that
Miss Wendy Wood, the Amazonian prophetess of the more
modern form of Scotch nationalism, recently led a party of
faithful devotees to listen to her oratory under its protective
shade and to glower harmoniously in the same direction.

It was Lord Buchan who persuaded Sir Walter Scott to
claim his burial rights in Dryburgh Abbey. Indeed, though
thirty years older than Scott, he hoped himself to place him
there. In 1819, when Scott was very ill, Lord Buchan came to
visit him and was with difficulty repelled from the sick-room.
He had come, he said, to comfort the dying man by describing
the solemn arrangements which he had made for his burial,
including a funeral oration by himself. Scott fortunately
recovered. Some years later, after meeting Lord Buchan at
dinner, he recorded: “‘He is a Prince of Bores, but age has
tamed him a little, and like the giant Pope in the Pé/grim’s
Progress he can only sit and grin at pilgrims as they go past, and
is not able to cast a fank over them as formerly”. In the end
it was Scott who attended Lord Buchan’s funeral. After seeing
him deposited in his elaborate mausoleum, with its death-mask
and esoteric symbolism, Scott expressed his relief at having
escaped “‘the patronage and fuss which Lord Buchan would
have bestowed on his funeral, had he happened to survive
him”. Buchan, he observed, ““was a person whose immense
vanity, bordering upon insanity, obscured, or rather eclipsed,

DR. GILLY’S PLEA FOR THE COTTAGER 191

considerable talents. His imagination was so fertile that he
seemed really to believe the extraordinary fictions which he
delighted in telling”.

Lord Buchan is by no means the greatest man to have left his
mark on Dryburgh, but his mark is the most personal. His
vanity, his absurdity, his fertile imagination are all here. He
did not hide his identity, and the craftsmen of St. Boswells who
carved his sundials and statues are all immortalised by name
too. However, we may feel that the Abbey owes more to
those more shadowy figures, Hugo de Morville, who founded
it, and abbot Roger, who brought the first monks from Alnwick,
and to the nameless architects who, over a period of four
centuries, created the form that is now, in ruin, so romantic.

ie Sey Ss PLEA POR THE COTIAGER

By ROSALIND MITCHISON
Department of Economic History, University of Edinburgh

This booklet,’ originally a paper for the Highland Society
meeting at Berwick in 1841, has a misleading title. The word
“peasantry” conjures up images of smallholders, but the book
is, in fact, about agricultural labourers. Its information and
statistics were gathered in Norham, where Dr. Gilly? was vicar
from 1831-55, but its relevance is much wider. Culture, ways
of life and pattern of work extended across the old frontier
between Scotland and England, so Dr. Gilly’s findings are
illustrative of the problems of the whole Border region. He
set out to explain two basic paradoxes, the constant movement,
““flittings”, from farm to farm of a population admirable in their
physical and mental qualities and lovers of order, and also the
irregular attendance at school of the children. The explanation
takes the form of an attack on the quality of housing, the system
of annual hire and the pay.

The importance of this booklet lies in its examination of the
housing predicament of the hind. Professor R. H. Campbell
in the Introduction places the work in the sanitary movement of
the 1830s and 1840s. But Gilly’s emphasis was not on public
health. He was, of course, aware that the earth floor contri-
buted to epidemic disease, but his main objection to bad housing
was a moral one, the impossibility of preserving decency or

1W.S. Gilly: The Peasantry of the Border: An Appeal in their Behalf (Berwick-
upon-Tweed, 1842). Reprinted by Bratton Publishing Limited, Edin-
burgh, 1973.

2 William Stephen Gilly, p.p. (1789-1855), Vicat of Norham and Canon of
Durham, was President of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club in 1851.
For his obituary notice see HBINC III, 208-9.—?.G.H.

192 DR. GILLY’S PLEA FOR THE COTTAGER

comfort. ‘“‘So long as the agricultural system, in this district,
requires the hind to find room for a fellow-servant of the other
sex in his cabin, the least that morality and decency can demand,
is, that he should have a second apartment”’: this was one of his
claims. The other was that the total lack of comfort in houses
which were basically not weatherproof was connected with
constant movement of population. Families took no lasting
interest in their houses because they had no likelihood of staying
in them long enough to make them into homes.

Gilly’s attack on the housing of the agricultural labourer was
taken further two years later in a series of essays for the High-
land Society, published in summary form in Volume XIV of the
Society’s Transactions. ‘This time the attack was on the bothy
system of eastern Scotland, and again the attack was based on
moral grounds. The theme was to be repeated on several
occasions in the nineteenth century. On all occasions the
attacks on bad housing would have been mote effective with
clearer language. Dr. Gilly, not surprisingly in one of his
profession, but still unfortunately, was particularly mealy-
mouthed. Here is his description of some improved housing:
“‘each cottage has two rooms, and belonging to it a cow-byre,
pig-sty and that other convenience, the want of which is too
general in every village in the North”. A clarion call for better
sanitation needs to be prepared to use the five-letter word
“privy”.

Gilly’s really original contribution comes in moving from
moral evils to their base in the economics of housing. An
adequate cottage “‘with two rooms and sundry conveniences”
cost £64 or more. A labourer’s earnings came to £32.10s. in
the year, and that sum included putting a money value on
pasture for his cow and permission to plant three bushels of
potatoes, rights useless without further outlay of money and
time. If his family were of an age to work too he would do
better, but would, of course, need a bigger income. A recent
M.Sc. thesis in Edinburgh University Library, by M. Goldie,
entitled ““The standard of living of rural labourers in selected
counties of Scotland as shown in the Old and New Statistical
Accounts’’, establishes that a Berwickshire family of two adults
and three children would not be able to use their money and
material resources to obtain an adequate diet for the whole
household. Since the second World War the “expectation” of
housing in Britain has been a house costing 2.7 times the annual
income of a labourer.1 To put this expectation within the
reach of the labourer we have had to create an elaborate structure
of subsidy. Yet the post-war labourer has usually enjoyed a
diet more than adequate, and could, perhaps, afford to transfer

1D. V. Donnison: The Government of Housing. Penguin, 1967. P. 63.

DR. GILLY’S PLEA FOR THE COTTAGER 193

income from food to housing. What Gilly here established is
the impossibility of housing the agricultural labourer ade-
quately, in terms of decency and health, at a rent that he could
pay. He went on to show that the labourer could not afford to
keep his children regularly at school. Here again the appeal
was for those with wealth to offer some sort of subsidy.

It is Gilly’s hard head for money that makes this a pioneer
study. The reader should place it among other literature on
the Border area, notably the New Statistical Account and the
evidence given to the Royal Commission on the Scottish Poor
Law of 1844. The latter document contains evidence from the
minister of Coldingham, which confirms Dr. Gilly’s picture of
the hardness of the times. ‘Partly owing from long exposure
to the vicissitudes of weather, and partly from their diet not
being of a generous nature, farm servants usually break down
at a comparatively early age. Their full working years may be
said to be between 18 and 45.”2 While admiring the moral
qualities of the peasantry, early Victorian society had very little
to offer it.

2ePobs U844, xxii, Dp, 727.

THE CLAVIORGAN AT GOSFORD HOUSE

By Dr. PETER WILLIAMS

Director of the Russell Collection of Harpsichords
and Clavichords, St. Cecilia’ s Hall, Edinburgh.

The Earl of Wemyss’ claviorgan! is one of the most sumptuous
of all extant English instruments of the eighteenth century.
About the middle of that century a large number of émigré
instrument-builders were at work in London, settling there after
political and religious disturbances in their native Alsace,
Saxony, Brandenburg, etc., and bringing to the art a sense of
“foreign perfection” that so often seems to have earned British
respect in the sphere of music. Two of the most famous were
the harpsichord-maker Jacob Kirckman (Kirchmann) and
organ-builder John Snetzler (Johannes Schnetzler) who, accord-
ing to written reports rather than extant examples, were known
to have worked together on certain composite instruments.
The combination of harpsichord plus organ never became
hugely popular, owing to the expense and the difficulty of
upkeep (strings and pipes find it difficult to stay at the same
pitch); but to clients looking for special instruments, one able
to serve both drawing-room music-making and Sunday psalm-
singing, such creations as the Gosford claviorgan had many
purposes—not least, of course, its rarity value.

As Plate 8 shows, the instrument contains (2) a two-manual
harpsichord of standard Kirckman type, dated 1745, and pro-
vided with the “‘stops” or sets of strings then normal (8’, 8’, 4’,
lute), and (b) five sets of organ pipes played from the lower
keyboard, placed within the body filled in below the harpsichord,
and blown by a cuneiform bellows operated either by the foot
of the player or by a helper to the side. Two further pedals
give the organ division some degree of expressiveness by allow-
ing (a) stops to be taken off and put on without removing the
hands from the keys, (b) the stops to crescendo and diminuendo.
The last is achieved by the opening and closing of a panel at
the side—a simple mechanical device then popular in much
larger organs and indeed the origin of the Victorian ‘Swell
Organ” known to every organist.

1 Members who visited Gosford House on 14th June 1973, by kind per-

mission of the Earl of Wemyss and March, will recall this rare instrument.
—?.G.H.

194

THE CLAVIORGAN AT GOSFORD HOUSE 195

What precisely such instruments were used for can only be
conjectured; there was never a “‘claviorgan repertory” in musical
literature, and the cost (some £200) put it outside the grasp of
most musicians. Nor is it known whether the Gosford clavi-
organ was as unique as it now seems. Snetzler is known to
have made claviorgans with another émigré builder (Burkat
Shudi, a Swiss German) and various diaries and MS. sources of
the period suggest well-to-do musical gentlemen commissioning
special instruments of the composite or hybrid kind if their
whim took that form. It is probable that one or other of these
builders knew instruments of the kind in the country of his
origin; certainly there is a German tradition for composites, and
one of the few instruments to match the Gosford claviorgan can
now be seen in Salzburg, where Snetzler was apprenticed as a
boy. Moreover, the kind of building technique Snetzler
applied here (one of his earliest organs in Britain) was South
German or Austrian rather than English, particularly the type
of pipework and the soft, discreet sound it produces. On the
other hand, the harpsichord is basically Flemish-derived, and
Kirckman followed (and consolidated) this tradition in English
harpsichord-making. ‘The most obvious English influence on
the instrument as a whole concerns the visual appearance,
notably the marquetry and inlay work; a similar example by the
same maker can be seen in the Russell Collection of Harpsichords
in the University of Edinburgh.

The Gosford claviorgan is therefore of very special interest
to musical history, strangely both in the once-flourishing world
of composite instruments it gives a glimpse of, and in its unique-
ness amongst extant historical instruments. Its type was fairly
well known, but it must always have been something excep-
tional.?

1 For a detailed account of the Gosford claviorgan, the reader is referred to
Dr. Williams’ essay in Keyboard Instruments: Studies in Keyboard Organology,
edited by Edwin M. Ripin. Edinburgh University Press, 1971.—?.G.H.

TYNEMOUTH: PRIORY AND CASTLE
By GRACE A. ELLIOT, .s.e.

The fifth meeting of the year was held on Wednesday, 12th
September, at Tynemouth and Seaton Delaval. Fog, which
had marred the journey, lifted in time for Club members, who
assembled at Tynemouth Castle, to get a clear view of its pre-
cincts and the Priory ruins within. The custodian’s deputy,
Mr. Dawson, pointed out the main features, and those who
followed closely were fortunate to hear him tell, in a soft Nor-
thumbrian voice, of the ancient origins of both; how the first
religious house had been built there about the year 651, and soon
after became the burial place of St. Oswin, king of Deira; and
how the monks had first fortified the place against the Danish
invasions of the ninth century. Having been destroyed several
times, the monastery was re-founded and restored by Robert de
Moubray, Earl of Northumberland, in 1083, when he placed it
under the jurisdiction of the Benedictine Abbey of St. Albans.
In this Norman church of Tynemouth, the body of Malcolm
Canmore was buried after he was killed at Alnwick. Later it
was transferred to Dunfermline Abbey.

Members were shown the Percy chantry, built in 1450 and
still in excellent preservation, the only modern part of it being
the tracery in the rose window, which may have been restored
during the Victorian era.

The first castle was built here by Tostig in the time of Edward
the Confessor, who died in 1066, and from that period, with
alterations, restoring and rebuilding during the intervening
centuries, the castle remained an important military stronghold
until it was vacated in March 1936, after being partly destroyed
by fire. Now that the eighteenth- and nineteenth-century
military buildings have been removed from the site, vestiges of
older foundations can be traced. ‘The sixteenth-century earth-
works which replaced the ancient curtain wall are said to com-
pare with the Elizabethan walls of Berwick; it is also interesting
to note that Tynemouth Priory has much in common with our
Priory of Coldingham. Also, in the shadow of the Priory, is
the grave of Corporal Alexander Rollo, who died, aged 82, on
26th May, 1856—49 years after he had held the lantern at the
burial of Sir John Moore at Corunna. Mr. Dawson was duly
thanked for his interesting remarks before the Club members
left for Delaval Hall, where they partook of their picnic lunch
in the park facing the sea.

196

FLODDEN FIELD ORATION
9th August 1973

By GRACE A. ELLIOT, m.s.e.

An address given on the Battlefield during Coldstream Civic Week,
before Provost Lloyd, Coldstreamer Raymond Dickson, his Right-
and Left-hand men James Leifer and Andrew Letham, the Committee
of Presenting Coldstream, and others.

Kipling once wrote:

“What should they know of England, who only England
know?”

To-day we might ask ourselves: What should we know of
Flodden, who only Flodden know? By considering again the
life of King James and some of the old familiar stories con-
nected with the battle, we may discover in them, something
about both which has been long forgotten.

James IV of Scotland has been often labelled as a fanatic of
Chivalry. But washe? Weare told in the history of Linlithgow
that “‘Legates from the Pope arrived there, to absolve king
James from the sin of rebellion against his father, and to ordain
him to wear an iron belt all the days of his life.” This act of
penance is the first suggestion of chivalry and homage personally
affecting the life of the young king, and these, together with
heraldry, which they created, cannot be dissociated from his
life, nor from the battle of Flodden. Such had been the way
of life of all the nobility since the beginning of the twelfth
century, and they were as much part of the happier, peaceful
side of king James’ life as they were of the tragic events which
ended it; just as they are the most important, though simpler,
factor of our pilgrimage here to-day.

James IV was brought up, therefore, to expect and to receive
the feudal homage of loyalty and servitude from his subjects, as
well as to give the same of thanksgiving and remembrance.
His code of Honour was derived from the ancient Order of
Chivalry, instituted by those mailed horsemen, the Knights
Hospitallers of St. John of Jerusalem, before the second Crusade,
and since their Preceptory at Torphichen, near Linlithgow where
the king lived, was one of their principal seats in Scotland, it
was only natural that the king should be involved in their affairs.

Heraldry was introduced by them about the year 1098,
because they could not recognize each other when dressed in

ey

198 FLODDEN FIELD ORATION

heavy mail, so to avoid fighting friends instead of enemies, they
wote over it a linen surcoat embroidered with an emblem
depicting who they were. Later these emblems were sewn to
their horse-trappings and painted on their shields, hence the
name ‘‘Coats of Arms”’.

They practised horsemanship and dressage in all equine
pursuits, and at tournaments they acquired great skill in using
both sword and lance while jousting, an extremely dangerous
game; but all this taught them courage and bravery, and went
to the making of good soldiers. Hach knight was usually
accompanied by two squires, to protect him from danger, or,
in times of peace, one to hold his sword and the other his horse.
James IV knew all the courteous manners and customs of his
time, as well as the importance of marshalling his armies ready
for battle according to the strict and ancient rules of Chivalry,
where knight fought against knight and none was supposed to
take advantage of his enemy, even if the enemy had the advan-
tage.

The king’s standard and the banners of his knights were
always carried into battle, and the archers, who usually started
it, hid well behind the protection of the swordsmen’s shields.

The common soldiers wore no protective clothing of any
sort, nor had they proper weapons of war—an occasional sword
perhaps, but mostly their own axes and knives—yet they made
up the bulk of the armies, and if certain of the contemporary
statistics can be relied upon, then Scotland and England had
on the field of Flodden, each about 26,o00 men, including the
nobility. The armies of both nations, in full array, placed
ready for battle on the slopes of Branxton moor, must therefore
have been a magnificent sight.

In many ways James IV was one of Scotland’s best kings; he
was immensely popular, both for his sportsmanship and rigid
attention to church and state affairs; he cared for his people
and tried always to better their conditions; he was lavish in his
generosity, and no one was sent empty-handed from his palace
door; yet he tolerated no interference from either his wife or
his nobles; he was king, he liked his own way, and his word
was so much law that few men dared oppose him. He was
stubborn, headstrong and adventurous. Before the siege of
Norham castle in 1497-8, James, who was spying in the vicinity,
ignored the warnings of his nobles about the rising Tweed: he
delayed too long on Northumbrian soil, and having to cross
the river when it was in full spate he was almost drowned in a
whirling stell. Inthe midst of the torrent he swore that “‘should
he reach the Scottish shore in safety he would build a church to
out Lady, which neither fire nor water could destroy.” James
kept his word, and Berwickshire is grateful for his homage of

FLODDEN FIELD ORATION 199

thanksgiving, for the church of our Lady of the Stell which he
then ordered to be built, was the birth of Ladykirk (in 1500-4.)

Sit John Lilburn, a man called Starhead, and John Heron the
illegitimate brother of Sir William Heron of Ford (commonly
called ““Bastard Heron’) were the murderers of Sir Robert Ker
of Cessford ¢. 1497, the king’s favourite, his Cup-bearer, and
the Master of his Ordnance. Lilburn was caught and im-
prisoned in Fast castle; Starhead was caught and killed a few
days later, but Bastard Heron escaped altogether and went into
hiding. King James appealed to Henry VII, his father-in-law,
to find Heron and hand him over for punishment. Henry,
who always wanted peace on the Borders, was also angry about
the murder, and handed Sir William Heron of Ford over to
James until such time as the Bastard could be found. Sir
William, as hostage, was also imprisoned in Fast castle; it
therefore stands to reason that when king James went to Ford
some fifteen years later, during the Flodden campaign, all he
had to do was to “‘lift the latch and walk in” since the castle
was virtually his during Sir William’s imprisonment. He made
Ford his headquarters for a few days only, and his natural
couttly deference to the fair sex should not in any way be
blamed for his supposed negligence at Flodden. There was
much to do and the task not at all easy. Lady Heron would
get deference only and scant consideration otherwise.

It was here that James received Surrey’s herald Rouge Croix
with formal arrangements about the coming battle; and from
Ford he sent back his own Islay Herald with his replies to
Surrey at Haugh-head and Barmoor. He probably also ordered
the besieging of Wark and Etal from Ford after he had taken
Norham castle; these were all fortified strongholds, while Ford
was purely a domestic one.

The immediate reason for the battle of Flodden was of course
England’s war with France, the ally of Scotland, and to whose
aid James had sent an army from Leith. It is doubtful if the
letter written by the queen of France imploring him to help her
husband by setting foot with his army on English soil, and
enclosing the gift of a ring, had any real influence upon the
king, for James was determined to war with England anyway
at this time, not did he heed the arguments of Margaret, his
queen, who was against such a move. Grievances and com-
plaints against England were mounting up, especially the non-
payment by Henry VIII of his sister’s dowry and his confiscation
of Scottish ships under the command of Sir Andrew Barton,
who was murdered after his capture. James IV found his
brother-in-law, who obviously disliked him, a harder man to
bargain with than Henry VII had been.

200 FLODDEN FIELD ORATION

Before going over to France Henry VIII had made his queen,
Katherine of Aragon, Regent and overseer of all his offices,
and in this capacity Katherine was splendid. She it was who
organised the collection of troops by Surrey from York north-
wards, and suggested that those from the south should be sent
in his son’s ships to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, to meet with Surrey
there; it was Katherine who, after the battle was over, directed
that the body of James IV should be taken to Berwick to be
embalmed and kept there, until such time as she had heard from
Henry what his wishes were about the burial. In which case
the body of the king could have lain in Branxton church until
it was taken to Berwick.

The whole campaign lasted eighteen days. James crossed
the Tweed at Coldstream on 22nd August 1513, staying the
first few nights at Twizel and moving on next to Ford castle
where he seems to have stayed until 3rd or 4th September,
when he tried to destroy the castle before going to his camp on
Flodden hill.

I know nothing of military strategy, but suggest that the
sudden, unusually risky, three-pronged move of Surrey’s to
place his army between that of king James and his escape-route
over Tweed, was probably organised by the bastard Heron,
who had come out of hiding with other outlaws especially to
help Surrey; this crafty outlaw, who lived at Crawley tower,
the ruins of which stand high above Powburn and Hedgely,
knew every inch of the country round about. The help he
gave, however, cost him his life, for he was killed at Flodden
or soon after, and the murder of Sir Robert Ker of Cessford
would seem to have been avenged.

The battle was drawn up to the south of Piper’s hill, the
church and the village, and stretched from the west of Piper’s
to about the position of the present vicarage, and there the
English army gathered with their mailed horsemen, archers,
ordnances, swords, spears and bill-hooks, on 9th September 1513.

Instead of staying on Flodden hill, from where he could have
defended the river Till, which was by this time his only escape-
route, James brought his army down to Branxton moor (records
say, for some inexplicable reason), and marshalled them there
with standard and banners flying, his nobles in a new sort of
armour, skirted instead of full armour, astride their horses,
carrying their shields and swords or spears, the ordnance-men
in charge of twenty-two brass cannon and seven culverines on
the hillside—a brave show which would have shone in Sep-
tember sunshine, had the day not been extremely wet. Alas,
the guns were of no use to James, being badly placed, the
cannon balls went over the heads of the English; the culverines
which James called ‘‘the seven sisters’, and of which he was

FLODDEN FIELD ORATION 201

inordinately proud, were of little use either; and where were the
Scottish archers? They do not seem to have found a place in
Flodden records.

The battle started with a persistent flight of arrows from the
English archers about four o’clock in the afternoon, and lasted
about three hours only, during which time horses charged,
lances split, swords were broken, and the new and modern
guns and armour which the Scots had adopted were incapable of
withstanding the ferocity of the English charge, although the
Highland regiments charged down the hill against them without
much control; partly because some French officers whom
James had put in command could not be understood by the
Scots. Lord Home won his battle, but Stanley swooped round
by James’ right flank and caught him in the rear. Swords and
bill-hooks hacked our unprotected men to pieces, and knight
after knight fell dead in fierce battle. No wonder that King
James IV of Scotland got down from his horse to fight side-by-
side with his men. His want of forethought made him a bad
leader, but he died with them gallantly.

In a MS. in the Public Library of Newcastle-upon-Tyne,
which is Part 2 of the Roll of Mayors and Sheriffs of that city,
we can read against the year 1513 the following notice: ‘‘This
yeare the Kinge [i.e. Henry VIII] enterd into France and con-
quered Torwin and Torney. The queene at the same tyme
with ye earell of Surrey overthrowe the Scotesh Armye at
Blamston caled Floddenfield where the Scotesh Kinge was
slaine with divers of his Nobelity and 18,000 men and tooke
all his furnitur for the warres.”’

Twenty-two brass cannon and seven culverines went to
Berwick. In three hours eighteen thousand men were killed,
almost two every second, in an area of less than a square mile;
your imagination will tell you of the state of this small field of
battle. Alexander Stewart, the young Archbishop of St.
Andrews, natural son of James IV and Margaret Boyd of
Bonshaw, lay dead beside his father. He was Lord Chancellor
in 1511, and the Pope gave him the rich abbey of Dunfermline
and the priory of Coldingham 7” commendam.

Sit David Home of Wedderburn with his seven sons—the
“Seven Spears”—fought well that day, but six sons carried the
bodies of their father and eldest brother, covered with their
banner, back to Wedderburn castle. To-day that banner still
hangs in Wedderburn, a silent reminder of Scotland’s tragedy,
its shreds and tatters now skilfully repaired.

Among those who left the field that sad and tragic evening
was a man called Fletcher; half-stumbling his way to cross the
river into Scotland, in his ears the screaming of wounded men
and horses; in his mind’s eye a picture of horror and agony; in

202 FLODDEN FIELD ORATION

his arms an English banner. He looked neither right nor left
until his object had been achieved, when he dragged his weary
feet into his home town of Selkirk some fifty miles away. He
was the only man to return to Selkirk from Flodden, and he
took the news of defeat and death, but the English flag which
he carried showed that the Selkirk men had died with honour.
Fletcher himself then died from exhaustion. Later the Town
Clerk of Selkirk was knighted in memory of the heroism of
these men, and each year since, the Standard-bearer of Selkirk
when he leads the Common Riding, represents that gallant
little man Fletcher, and Sir William Brydon who had recruited
the Selkirk men who went to Flodden.

Although, from contemporary times to the present day,
poets and historians have written of this famous battle, it was
397 years before it was commemorated on the field. The
Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club erected the memorial in 1910 by
subscription; members also sent in, anonymously, suggestions
for an inscription to be placed upon it. The one chosen, To
THE BRAVE OF BOTH NATIONS, discloses a sense of old-world
courtesy. ‘The cross is placed on Piper’s or Pipard’s hill as it
was once called, a name which seems to tell us that the town
herd of Branxton, in days long past, must have climbed there
to pipe in the herds from the moor, with their cattle, sheep,
goats and geese, to a stockade lying somewhere on this hillside.

It was usual, before a battle, for a king and his knights to
celebrate Holy Communion, either in the nearest church or in
a tent erected and consecrated for the purpose, and in which,
should they perish on the field, their bodies could lie before the
high altar until such time as they could be removed. We
wonder if this took place at Branxton. If the old Norman
foundations and the chancel arch of Branxton church could
speak they might answer all our queries, but their tale would
be the saddest ever.

Twenty-one years ago a young Englishman, Alan Leishman,
living in the town, thought out a scheme for “‘Presenting”
the Burgh of the old barony of Coldstream to its neighbours,
friends and returning exiles, and also for commemorating the
old ties of Coldstream with Flodden, where her townsmen,
whose names are unknown, gave their lives out of loyalty to
their king; and whose Cistercian nuns at its abbey of St. Mary
cated for the sick and wounded who managed to return.

Surely Flodden has taught us much; it is almost 900 years
since Chivalry was born and it has seen many changes. To-day
out cavalcade was led by three young men, but unlike those
mailed horsemen of old, they came peacefully, wearing their
badges and sashes of office and carrying the Burgh flag. The

FLODDEN FIELD ORATION 203

Coldstreamer, together with representatives from the Royal
Burgh of Selkirk, and the Coldstream Guards Association, have
paid their homage, and laid their wreaths at the memorial on
behalf of us all, and of those who could not come, so that we
might remember all that took place, and particularly those who
suffered, on that tragic September evening so long ago, when—
and I quote—

““A sword swept over the pass.
One by one the voices faded,
And the hills slept.”

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Archaeologia Aeliana, Series 4, Vol. XVIII.

The Battle of Flodden, from Halle’s Chronicle of England (1548).
The Battle of Flodden (Poem, 1587). Both the above edited by Henry Weber,
Edinburgh, 1808.

The Battle of Flodden, by the Hon. Fitzwilliam Eliot.
Linlithgow Palace, by Ferguson.

The Medieval Soldier, by Vasey Norman.

Percy’s Reliques.

Queens of England, by Agnes Strickland.

North Durham, by Rev. James Raine.

The Science of Heraldry, by Sit Thomas Innes of Learney.

Also Chalmers’ Caledonia; Ridpath’s Border History; and records from the
Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club volumes by the late gentlemen Dr. C. H.
Hunter Blair; Colonel Leather of Middleton Hall; and Captain Norman of
Berwick.

The final quotation is taken from Sir Henry Newbolt’s poem He fel/
among thieves.

My thanks are due to Mrs. Home Robertson of Paxton House for infor-
mation about the Wedderburn flag; and to the Provost of Selkirk for the
names of Fletcher and Sir William Brydon.

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS
DURING 1973

Notes compiled by A. G. LONG, Hancock Museum,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne

BRYOPHYTA. All records by D. G. Long for VC 81 (Ber-
wickshire) unless otherwise stated.

Mosses numbered as in Census Catalogue (3rd Edition) and
Hepatics as in Census Catalogue (4th Edition).

Whalplaw Burn NT 55, 18/3/1973.
11/2 Pleuridium subulatum.
22/5 Dicranella rufescens.
31/11 Campylopus introflexus.
35/10 TLortula subulata.

44/14 Barbula trifaria.

49/2 Tortella tortuosa.

73/4 Poblia cruda.

73/11 Pohlia annotina.

96/2 <Amphidium mougeotii.
12/3 Riccardia sinuata.

18/1 Blasia pusilla.

70/13 Scapania nemorea.
7o/20 Scapania compacta.

Earnscleugh Water by Edgarhope Wood NT 55, 8/5/1973.

35/8 TLortula papillosa.

40/5 Pottia truncata.

94/1 Ptychomitrium polyphyllum.

98/3 Orthotrichum cupulatum var. nudum.
102/1 Hedwigia ciliata.

Earnscleugh Water by Edgarhope Wood NT 54, 8/5/1973.
73/4 Porella cordaeana.

River Leader near Lauder NT 54, 8/5/1973.

22/5 Dicranella rufescens.
73/15 Poblia delicatula.

Wood near Harryburn House, Lauder NT 54, 8/5/1973.
15/2 Metzgeria fruticulosa.

204

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS DURING 1973 205

Black Hill of Earlston NT 53, 18/5/1973.

24/1 Cynodontinm bruntonii with fruit, in cushions on rocks,
north side of hill.

55/24 Grimmia trichophylla.

27/1 Ptilidium ciliare.

34/11 Lophoxia bicrenata.

36/6 Barbilophozia hatcheri.

39/2 Sphenolobus minutus. New Vice-County record.

Redpath Moss NT 53, 18/5/1973.
1/19 Sphagnum fimbriatum.

1/20 Sphagnum girgensohnit.
134/3 Acrocladium cordifolium.

Redpath Quarry NT 53, 18/5 /1973.
56/7 Rhacomitrium canescens.

Burn near Redpath NT 53, 18/5 /1973.
8/3 Fissidens minutulus.

79/6 Munium stellare.

110/1 Homalia trichomanoides.

128/1 FLygroamblystegium tenax.
141/10 Eurhynchium murale.

15/3 Metz geria conjugata.

75/1 Lejeunia cavifolia.

Leader opposite Drygrange NT 53, 18/5 /1973.
55/7 Grimmia alpicola vat. rivularis.

79/9 Mnium longirostrum, with fruit.

97/1 Zygodon viridissimus vat. stirtonii.

122/3 Anomodon viticulosus.

73/3 Porella platyphylla.

Near Redpath NT 53, 18/5/1973.
35/1 Lortula ruralis.

Leaderfoot Bridge NT 53, 24/5/1973.
35/9 TLortula latifolia.

98/2 Orthotrichum anomalum.

118/1 Leskea polycarpa, with fruit.

Near Gledswood NT 53, 24/5 /1973.
35/9 Tortula latifolia.

71/2 Orthodontium lineare, with fruit.
98/8 Orthotrichum lyellii.

122/3 Anomodon viticulosa.

128/2 Hygroamblysteginm fluviatile.
140/3 Cirriphyllum crassinervium.

206 NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS DURING 1973

Tweed bank south of Gledswood, NT 53, 24/5/1973.
12/7 Ditrichum flexicaule.

34/2 Lncalypta vulgaris, with fruit.
35/5 Lortula princeps.

51/4 Trichostomum crispulum.

51/5 Trichostomum brachydontium.

87/2 Bartramia pomiformis vat. crispa.
96/2 <Amphidium mougeottit.

98/9 Orthotrichum rivulare, with fruit.
106/1 Pterogonium gracile.

122/3 Anomodon viticulosa.

4/1 Reboulia hemispherica.

15/2 Metygeria fruticulosa.

15/5 Metz geria pubescens.

65/1 Nowellia curvifolia.

70/20 Scapania compacta.

73/4 Porella cordaeana.

Near Mountmill, Oxton, NT 45, 1/6/1973.

35/4 Tortula intermedia.

44/4 Barbula hornschuchiana.

77/30 Bryum violaceum. New Vice-County Record.

Airhouse Wood near Oxton, NT 45, 1/6/1973.
12/1 Dzutrichum cylindricum.

79/12 Mnium seligeri. New Vice-County record.
10/8 Riccia sorocarpa. New Vice-County record.
15/2 Metygeria fruticulosa.

36/3 Barbilophozia attenuata.

37/1 Lritomaria quinquedentata.

52/11 Marsupella emarginata.

Airhouse Quarries NT 45, 1/6/1973.
5/4 Polytrichum alpinum.

35/10 TLortula subulata.

48/1 Anoectangium aestivum.

98/15 Orthotrichum pulchellum.

127/1 Leptodictyum riparium.

Burn east of Hartside NT 45, 1/6/1973.
97/1 Zygodon viridissimus vat. stirtonii.

Turf Law NT 45, 1/6/1973.
1/1 Sphagnum palustre.
1/2 S. magellanicum.
1/5 S. compactum.

1/12 S. recurvum.

1/20 S. girgensobnii.

22/2 Dicranella schreberana.

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS DURING 1973 207

31/6 Campylopus flexuosus.
53/1 Leptodontium flexifolium.
125/2 Cratoneuron commutatum vat. commutatum and vat. falcatum.

Tweed bank (Gateheugh) near Gledswood NT 53, 2/6/1973.

24/1 Cynodontium bruntoniz.

44/9 Barbula spadicea.

77/28 Bryum micro-erythrocarpum.

77/37 Bryum flaccidum (in Milldean Burn); new Vice-County
record.

79/10 Mnium affine.

121/1 Heterocladium heteropterum vat. flaccidum.

Top of Linn Dean Water in VC. 81, NT 45, 7/6/1973.
132/1 HHygrohypnum ochraceum.

Carfrae Common NT 45, 7/6/1973.
1/25 Sphagnum capillaceum.

29/12 Dicranum bonjeanit.

67/1 Splachnum sphaericum.

Upper Headshaw Burn NT 45, 7/6/1973.
29/1 Blepharostoma trichophyllum.

Lower Headshaw Burn NT 45, 7/6/1973.
47/4 Plectocolea paroica.

Black Hill of Earlston NT 53, 15/7/1973.
137/2 Camptothecium lutescens.
33/2 Calypogeta muellerana.

gaa C. fissa.
Wood below White Hill NT 53, 15/7/1973.
8/1 Fissidens viridulus.

22/- Daicranella staphylina.

Cowdenknowes NT 53, 15/7/1973.
132/2 Hlygrohypnum luridum.

Abbey St. Bathans NT 76, 15/7/1973.
22/4 Dicranella varia.
77/26 Bryum bicolor.

Polwarth Church NT 74, 15/7/1973.
104/1 Leucodon sciuroides.

Burnmouth NT 96, 21/7/1973.
22/4 Daicranella varia.

44/14 Barbula trifaria.

77/26 Bryum bicolor.

137/2 Camptothecium lutescens.

208

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS DURING 1973

Tweed bank at Lennel NT 84, 21/7/1973.

41/2
45/5
97/1
98 /12
118/1
142/4
10/8

Phascum cuspidatum.

Pottia truncata.

Zygodon viridissimus.

Orthotrichum stramineum.

Leskea polycarpa.

Rhynchostegiella tenella.

Riccia sorocarpa, on mud near new sewage plant.

Cockburn Mill NT 75, 21/7/73.

22 /-
27/1
44/1

Dicranella staphylina.
Dicranoweisia cirrata.
Barbula convoluta.

141/11 Eurhynchium confertum.

M52

Metz geria fruticulosa.

Bolam Lake, VC. 67, NZ 08, 17/11/1973.

65/1

Nowellia curvifolia.

Records from previous years.

41/1

77/31

Phascum curvicollum, sea banks neat Cove, Nov. 1972,
INGE 7.

Bryum sauteri, foot of Edmond’s Dean, 17/6/1970, NT 76.
Both new Vice-County records.

VASCULAR PLANTS, numbered as in Dandy’s List (1958).
All records in VC. 81 by D. G. Long unless otherwise stated.

15/1

24/4

34/1

38 /2
50/3

95 |
109 /1

103)/2
1118/1

149 /3

Asplenium adiantum-nigrum Black Spleenwort. Gate-
heugh (Tweed bank opposite Old Melrose and below
Gledswood), NT 53, 24/5/1973.

Thelypteris dryopteris Oak Fern. Very abundant on
Chester Hill screes, NT 54, 14/6/1973.

Juniperus communis Juniper, Gateheugh NT 53, 24/5/1973;
Chester Hill screes NT 54, 14/6/1973; Headshaw Burn
NT 45, 7/6/1973; Black Hill Earlston NT 53, one bush
30/6/1973.

Helleborus viridis Green Hellebore, Gateheugh, 24/5 /1973.
Thalictrum minus ssp. majus Lesser Meadow Rue, Gate-
heugh, 2/6/1973.

Erophila verna, Whitlow Grass, woods south of Leader-
foot Bridge NT §3, 24/5/1973.

Arabidopsis thaliana 'Thale Cress, Gateheugh, NT 53,
ayGyro ase a

Viola hirta Hairy Violet, Gateheugh, NT 53, 2/6/1973.
Helianthemum chamaecistus Rock Rose, Gateheugh, NT 53,
24/5/1973; Chester Hill, NT 54, 14/6/1973.

Montia sibirica Pink Purslane, R. Leader opposite Dry-
grange, NT 53, 18/5/1973.

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS DURING 1973 209

168/15 Geranium lucidum Shining Cranesbill, Gateheugh—at
edge of I'weed, NT 53, 2/6/1973.

211/11/54 Rubus laciniatus Cut-leaved Bramble. A garden
escape in hedge between Chirnside and Allanton, NT 85,
13/8/1973, Mrs. C. I. Robson.

224/1 Acaena anserinifolia Pirri-pirri Bur. Gateheugh, NT 53,
2/6/1973.

432/1 Pedicularis palustre Red Rattle, Linn Dean Burn, NT 45,
7/6/1973.

439/1 Lathraea squamaria Toothwort. Woods south of Leader-
foot Bridge. “NI 53, 24/5 /1973.

447/1 Origanum vulgare Marjoram. Gateheugh, NT 53,
2/6/1973. ioe |

453/1 Clinopodium vulgare Wild Basil, Cockburn Mill, NT 75,
2x/7/1973-

495/2 Valeriana pyrenaicum Giant Valerian, at edge of Tweed,
Gateheugh, NT 53, 2/6/1973.

663/12 Carex sylvatica Wood Sedge, woods south of Leaderfoot
Bridge, NT 53, 24/5/1973. _

681/1 Melica uniflora Wood Melick, Gateheugh, NT 53,
2/6/1973.

ENTOMOLOGY

P. icarus Common Blue and

P. fuliginosa Ruby Tiger, both at Black Hill Earlston, NT 53,

30/6/1973.

O. plecta Flame Shoulder, Cowdenknowes, NT 53, 30/6/1973.

C. chamomillae Chamomile Shark, one larva on Scentless May-

weed, Burnmouth, NT 96, 21/7/1973.

I. biselata Small Fan-footed Wave, Tweed bank at Lennel, NT 84,

21/7/1973. ;
O. sambucaria Swallowtail moth, Crookham, VC 68, NT 93,

22/7/1973.
I. io Peacock butterfly, two at Kelso outside Border Union
showground, VC 80, NT 73, 3/8/1973, G. Hardy.

V. atalanta Red Admiral, several at Cove on sea-braes, NT 77,

8/9/1973.
E. testata Chevron, Cockburnspath village, NT 77, 8/9/1973.

“‘IYST] 3 OAT,
*[PFOA9IS

‘JY SI] ye UOUTUIOD,

"yy BI] ye ATUO UO

‘yy 81] 3 suouTIeds XIS

‘JYBI] 02 OMIOD sayeU “UOUTUIODUN ON

*Joy}eoy UO dvAIVT
‘uowmUoD ATITey

*‘PULTIOOUI UO svAILT
“Burky soyey

‘yoyjeoy UO ovary] ‘Aep Aq SuTAG soley]

‘uouruIOD AJOA JON,

*sroquinu
g[qesopisuod UT «34ST 3 vOWWOD

‘WW 3I] ye ATUO UO

‘yeSns pur IqSI] Ie Joh YOva Moy V

1S IN
£9 LN

18 IN
1S IN
1S IN
1S IN
1$ IN

1S IN
£8 LN

1S IN
1S TN

1S IN

1$ TN
zL IN

1S LN

1S IN

wyoyueq ‘STP ‘WVHSONE *D “Vv Ag

“wpa “TUMNS sT[OK
OS[aJ

“mpOyUa, “TTFUMeS SPX
“Oya, “T[PUAMLS S]]O/X\
“MPOyaC] “TTPUAS S]]P/K\

“wTOYWEC] “T[FUIMES STON
*poutvigo vAO ‘oTeuUa,y
‘wyoqued “MvT sroqny

‘wyoyued “MvT sraqny
‘OS[O] ‘JOOP ALTSSOP{

‘wyoyued ‘TH sex4q
‘wyoyued “MvyT sioqny

“wjoyue “sTTa/K\ “Boyt
“yortq qnios puv
JOY IY UO IAILT 9

“wpOYUeC “TTPUALS STP
‘OS[ay ‘Se70,, JUOWMOG

“Moya, TFWM s]II/X\

“OYA “TFUMNS s|]O

(6L pue 0g sonuno7)-25T A URTUOS}¥\)

AUIHSSULITHS CNV AYIHSHOUNAXOY NI VUHLAOCIdHY TOUWVW AO SAYOORA

EL-g*z
oL'g'o1
ELg°s
tL Li

€L*6"9
EL:g°zz
Hl pori
EL:L:bz
zLL:zz
Elbo
VLOG IE
€L-:o1°6
oL*$-9z
CiaieN
1L'9°z
1L°g"gt
pessoa
1L°9°6
€Lor'zz
IL*11I'11
oL:z1°Sz

EL:LSz

1L'9°g1

olor *y

JoBII, uopreg
DUDPUNUL * NT
UPWIOO,J UT[SNyAy
DUDADAAL * NT
XIWOT, paqreyl eSIeT
pyvmvs *)
JoyvIVYD ssouTYD
p1svyoyof °C
dpyooH 21999d
piuoavd *¢
yoyodurg

eda

xO]

avunyjvs sn24sanb “7
Jessq UIOyWON

UWODIDAI *
Jessq ALO %AIeq

yudod *q

WOW Foquisseq,
siapjdnp °C
Uljesg JossoT

SHOE
WIOssoTg Yoveg

210

‘qUST] yw USAT
‘uOWWIOTZ)

"UOUTWIOD JOU “IYST] 1¥ ‘[euUOTseDD
ose [Vuolse2a@)

‘qYUSI] 3e UOWUIOD

‘yeSns pur 14S] WV
‘rejdod uo vase] “YS +V
"IY SI] Ye 2UO

‘JYST] V UO

*yUBI] 0} souI0D

‘qYSI] ye UO
“WYST] Ww OMT,

“uOUTWIOZ)

*JYSIT OF SoUIOD

WUBI] ye ATUO OMT,

“UOWUIOD OU “4 SI] 0} sauTO7)
‘UOUIUWIOD 30U ‘IYSI] 0} sOUIOD
‘USBI ye UOWUWIOD

*SUOOD0D PUL dVAIV'T
‘uoUTWIOD AlsTeF OvAIET

‘IYySI] Iv snoowNU AIDA

1S ITN
1S IN
1S IN
1$ TN
£9 LN
1S IN
zL IN
1S IN

18 LN

1S IN
zL LN

1S IN
1S IN

18 IN
1S IN
1S TN
1S IN

zh IN

1S TN
£9 IN

“wpOyued “T[FUAeS sen
"pou, “TUM S|] x

“wyOyUeC “TTUAMKS s|[on\
"woyua “TPUMeS s]P/X\

‘Ospeyy “proFFOyINY,
“wTOYUSC] “TTPUIALS ST[P/X\
‘Osjayy “Jsor0,J JUOWMOG
“wTOYUEC] “TPIS s|[P/\

“wTOUAC] “TTPUIMLS S|TP/X\
“mTOYUeC “TTPUIAs sy

‘Os[ay “JsoFO,J JUOUTMOG
“wTOYUEC] “TTPUIMLS S|[P/n\
“wWTOYUC] “TTFUIMNE s][a/n\
“wTOTUSC] “TTFUIMLS STI
"wpOyUa] “TPUIMLS ST]P/X\

“wpOyuI, TTFUMeS STP
"“MeVT saqny UO pue
‘sTTaM ‘Sog AsjInoy
ITPIPS “TH AFPIPS

“wpOyua] TTFUIMeS S|[P KN

‘Osjoyy “proyTOyINY

{

€L-gL1
1L:Loz
CL°9°Sz
zLLgz
CL°6°S
zLg°Lz
CL°L°Lr
69°L'zz
CLer1°¢
oL:6:Lz
zL:Lvz
zL:L:oz
zL-or'Lz
zL:o1'9
EL-g°¢
nf LON Loflere
oL'L’$
CL°L°S
IL°L°¢
CL°L°6z
¢L:o:Lz
¢L°L°6z
ZL°S-L1
of ea Eh)
iL:L’vz
£L:9°g
CAEN Sr Ar 4

CL°S-zz
oL'$*9z
CL:L'v1
oL LL

vloq "xX

eID pond
DOUDISDI “YZ

osny Aer
DSOALDIS "Ty

osny uWNINy
ANIND "5

wed eIqGn0q
DIINDS * I
Surasopuy Ajreog
vaskyd4sog *T

JOUS S,JOAO'T ONT],
uojisdt "7
SSVISPIOMS IVC

SUMOUMDUDIIXA "Tr
eq pur ies]
wmnjacas “Er

Woy, drum,
sgsudy *D
youo0;07)

SIDUNA “YF
SS¥IS}IOUY]

adv

yosseq AoIyH
toa “2D

yossny, 9933-INN

psoursynf “i
yosty, Aqny

vpadis1sqny *§
ed aces MUAY

211

purquol * NJ

€L:6°¢ SUIMIJOpU_)

‘resNs pur ISI] Ww UOUTUIOD AIDA 1S IN “WOYUIGC] “[[FUIMeS sTIO/A\ 1L:L'y MOT[P A PerIpIOg-perorg JossaT
rypuaguesf “Ny

EL:6h SuIATOpuG

*staquInU [[ewWSs UT ‘UOUTUTODUN JON 1S IN “wyOYUsC “[[TUIMeS sTIOA\ zL:6"9 MOT]PA Porepsog-prosg
‘JUST] We UDAIS EL°g°gz DUOGLO “NT

“UOUTWIOD JON, 1S IN “mTOYUGC “T[MIAKS s]ja/\ EL°g°9z SUIMIJOPUA) MOTE Jeun'T

‘JYSIU DUO UO ISI] 3v OOF EL6°¢ pquuosd * NT

‘Jesns 1 UOUTUIOD AI9 A, IS IN “WOYUEGC “[[MUIMS sTjah\ zLL:oz BUIMIOpU_) MOTI 993v'T

€L:g°gz SAULOI * NT

‘uouTWIOD AI3 A IS IN “WOYUIC] “[ITUIAeS STII éL-g-L1 SUIMIOPUA MOT]PA JossyT

saagnd "7

‘UOWWOD OU “3YS1] 3% ATUO UD CLeTN ‘Osjay “se70,7 JUOWIMOG oL'6°zz owe
‘uouIUIOD ATITe,] 1S GUN “wmOyUNGC “TUM sTIa/\ EL°g°gz 94d "CO

‘Y4ST] 3% DUD zL IN ‘OSs[ay “}S970,J JUOWIMOG oL'9°€z jopjnoys swe y

€Lg°o1 DIDEIAIS XS

“TYSI] 3e [eUOTS¥IDG, 1$ IN “mjOyueC “[T]TWIMeS STA 1L'6°91 orsny podrs3s-x1S¢

CLL y 1qnd °C

"JYSI] 0} sauI0D IS IN “WwyOyUeC “TTUIMeES sTpOA\ carat yods-orenbg [Tews

€L+g°gz 1292p °C

‘UOWIWIOD 10U “{YSI] 0} sowI07) IS IN “wOyUeGC “TTA s]]2\ IL*g*¢z ynujsoy) pore
‘YST] OMT, NI ‘wmOyUaGC “TTA STS /\ FOG he a4 pipual °C

‘SUT “AO I4ST we th LN “yas L's Av[D poyyessuy
CLG UNINTUDIAY “Xe

‘yesns puv IST] yw UOWUWOD ATIIey 1S IN “wmyOoyUueGC ‘TWAS s]j2/\ Tee yods-azenbs sTqnoq
‘TYSI] 3’ USAT 1S IN “wWyOYyUsG “[[PUAS sO ELg°€ UMABIU-I

‘JYSI] v DUC zL IN ‘Oso ‘ISe70,F JUOWUMOG oL'g"9z JOIWVIVYD MIIQSE] SNOId"IBG

€L'9°9z vyoundap *=

*74S3IU su UO 34ST] 38 Ud93INOF SUOWTUIOT IS IN “WwpOyUeC [TUM s]jA\ zL°gr1 AeyD ureyg

212

SEATON DELAVAL HALL

By FREDERICK HETHERINGTON
A Talk given at Seaton Delaval on 12th September 1973.

This house was built between 1718 and 1730, at a cost of
about {12,000. It was designed by Sir John Vanbrugh for
Admiral Delaval, who had retired from the Navy a rich man,
and who bought the estates from his uncle Sir John Delaval.
Sir John had become impoverished owing to an unfortunate
marriage settlement by an ancestor.

The house is built in the Palladian tradition, and is left with a
much-reduced centre block and two domestic wings, stable
wing on the east and kitchen wing on the west. Originally it
was meant to have a long facade balanced to the right and left
of the remaining centre block, but only the eastern half was
constructed, and this was finally demolished in the last quarter
of the nineteenth century after being extensively damaged by
the fire of 1822, which left the whole of the centre block roofless
for 40 years.

Although Vanbrugh paid a number of visits during con-
struction, most of the supervision was left to his assistant—a
Mr. Etty—who had been in charge of the building operations
at Castle Howard. ‘Thirty-five masons were employed during
the building season at a wage of 3s. per day, with 30 assistants at
1s.6d. per day. ‘The stone came in the rough by cartload, from
a quarry on the estate, and was paid for at 1s.6d. per load
delivered. At the same time the trees forming the woods were
planted by women at a wage of 9d. per day. It was said that
Vanbrugh built his houses for outward show or as a massive
piece of sculpture without any thought for inside convenience,
and the heaviness of his style is remembered in an epitaph by a
Dr. Evans which says:

Under this stone, Reader, survey

Dead Sir John Vanbrugh’s house of clay.
Lie heavy on him, Earth! for he

Laid many heavy loads on thee!

Admiral Delaval, who had taken up residence in a completed
part of the house, died in 1723 of a fall from his horse in the
gardens. He was succeeded by his nephew, Captain Francis
Delaval, who had already inherited Ford Castle from his mother

213

214 SEATON DELAVAL HALL

and henceforth called himself Blake Delaval. Captain Francis
Blake Delaval had a family of eight sons and five daughters, and
it is around them that the tradition of the “‘gay Delavals” has
grown.

The best-known of them was the eldest son—later Sir Francis
Delaval—a spendthrift, pleasure-loving man with a genius for
theatrical entertainment and a great practical joker. He died
in 1775. ‘The second son, who later became the first and last
Lord Delaval, was able to salvage what was left of the house
and estates and discharge his late brother’s enormous debts.
John, Lord Delaval, in addition to his more serious pursuits,
participated in the revelries at Seaton Delaval and in London.
He had a son, also named John, who was the hope of the family
but who died at nineteen as the result of being kicked by a maid
whilst at Bristol Springs for his health. Lord Delaval died at
Seaton Delaval in 1808, since when the house has not been really
lived in. His brother Edward, who lived at Doddington Hall
in Lincolnshire, succeeded him but never visited his property
here and died in 1814. Rhoda, the eldest child of Captain
Francis Blake Delaval, having married Sir Edward Astley of
Melton Constable in Norfolk, their grandson Sir Jacob Astley,
ancestor of the present owner, became the new owner.

As previously mentioned, the centre part of the Hall was
burned in 1822 and remained roofless for 40 years. In 1862
John Dobson, the Newcastle architect, came here and arranged
for new roofs and arches to be constructed. By the 1930s it
had again become dilapidated and dangerous, but with the aid
of grants from the Historic Buildings Council in 1959-62 a new
scheme of repairs was carried out and the centre block again
made safe and weatherproof.

The Delaval family originally came to the area early in the
twelfth century, and built a castle and a chapel, the latter being
the only remaining part of the original building. The family
lived in the castle, or manor house, until about 1638 when they
had to leave owing to money troubles. The old castle was
pulled down by Vanbrugh when the present house was built.
They were notable people in the county and had varying for-
tunes. Two whom I would mention are Sir John Delaval and
Sir Ralph Delaval.

Sir John Delaval, who lived here in the mid-sixteenth century,
was described as a “‘genial knight”, and the following was
written about him by a contemporary historian:

Sir John Delaval hath bin a patron of worship and hospitalitie, most
like a famous genteleman during many years and powdreth no man by
the salt of extorcion or opptessing his neyghbour, but liberally spendeth
his salt, wheat and mault like a genteleman. I neede not put his name
in remembrance in my booke for it shall live by immortal good fame
when my poor booke shall be rotten.

SEATON DELAVAL HALL 215

The other, Sir Ralph Delaval, lived here between the years
1567 and 1628. He was described as a leading figure in the
county in the reign of James I, mainly occupying himself with
county matters and the affairs of his own estate, where

... he kept an open, great and plentifull house for entertainment his
own family consisting dayly in his house threescore persons and above.
He used to preach every Sunday in his chapel and was very zelous in his
religion, which he openly professed to the last, and, having settled his
estate by will of his own writing, taken the communion, blessed his wife
and children and desiring absolution of his sins from the minister, which
done, within 24 hours he made a calm and quiet period of his life.

THE CHURCH OF OUR LADY

This is said to have been built by Hubert de la Val in the early
part of the twelfth century. Slabs of Scotch slate fastened with
sheepshank bones used to cover the roof and a small Norman
window, blocked from inside, can be seen in the north wall.
Inside, the nave retains its original west door and is divided
from the choir by a broad Norman arch, moulded and enriched
with zigzag ornament. A similar arch divides choir from
sanctuary. ‘The choir and sanctuary have a semi-barrelvaulted
ceiling. The eastern end of the church was rebuilt in the
fourteenth century, but the east window is thought to be a copy
of the original tracery, which is inserted over the door of the
porch erected at the west end in 1895. There are two effigies
in the sanctuary, representing a knight and a lady. The equip-
ment of the knight serves to date this efigy between the years
1250 and 1275, so it is probable that the figures represent either
Sit Eustace Delaval (d. 1258) and his wife Constance de Baliol,
or Sir Henry Delaval (d. 1272) and his wife Mary de Biddleston.

Another interesting feature within the altar rails is a rare
fenestella or piscina with a shelf or credence table above.

The hatchments hanging on the walls are for the later Delavals
and the first of the Astleys to own the estate.

The chapel, as it then was, was consecrated in 1102 by Ralph
Flambard, Bishop of Durham, and a charter of 1174 shows it as
dependent upon Tynemouth Priory, to whose original patron
saint, Our Lady, it was subsequently dedicated. Robert Delaval
was baptised in this chapel on 22nd June 1263, and Henry
Delaval on 12th January 1343. By agreement with Tynemouth
Priory the patronage of the Chantry of Our Lady was vested in
the Delaval family, who continued to keep it in good repair.
In 1891 Delaval parish was formed out of the larger parish of
Farsdon, and the chapel of Our Lady became the first parish
church, which it remains.

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE
OF DR. JAMES HARDY WITH
MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Letter 51. Oldcambus, July 7, 1876.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I have now got the burden of the season off my shoulders,
by the distribution of the ‘‘Proceedings”, and the happy ter-
mination of the Selkirk meeting. I was in Berwick a few hours
on Monday, but met with Mr. Muirhead of Paxton, with whom
I spent most of the time, in the Museum. He and I called at
the Warder office, I left a notice of the Meeting, and I have had
a paper since. I see I have made a mistake about the house
called Hangingshaw. It is really named Broadmeadows, while
the hill behind it is Hangingshaw; but the scenery was all new
to me, and I received that information from one of our guides,
who perhaps misunderstood my question. A very full account
of the meeting is contained in the Kelso Chronicle. I stayed
at Galashiels in a nice house, on the borders of Gala park. I
was surprised to see it such a long place, 3 miles it is said, and
so many fine buildings, surrounded by steep grassy hills, and
dark woodlands. Poor Gala was a mere puddle, in some places
as dark as ink. Selkirk is a pretty place, mostly new, with
handsome buildings, and churches, and clean, with a grand
look out to Philiphaugh and Bowhill. The Duke’s servants at
Bowhill had on their best suits to receive us, and we could have
seen anything, but the pictures were so numerous, that we were
satiated. At Selkirk, after dinner, most of us were invited to
tea, to one house or another. ‘The President has a fine frank
manner.

I had selected Horncliffe as being a favourite place of your
father’s, and it was intended to have a “‘fish-kettle” there. Mr.
Thomas Allan, however, is going to imitate Mr. Crossman, and
the Club is invited to dine with him at Horncliffe House. We
are thus again to be petted, and favoured as no other Club has
been. At the Dunse meeting, the President proposes to enter-
tain us to breakfast; so that altogether this will be a remarkable
year in its history. At this month’s meeting we will breakfast
at Norham. I hope Miss Dickinson will send her drawings to
be inspected. What hostelry will hold us, I know not as yet,
but have written to Mr. Smith today about it. We will then
walk down the Tweed to Horncliffe.

216

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF 217
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Our Proceedings have been favourably reviewed in the
“Scottish Naturalist”, and nearly the whole of my Miscellanea,
extracted, and a reference made to the long life of Sir William
Jardine. Today I have received the author’s copies from the
Railway, and among others the “Journal”. These I had
perhaps better send you by Railway. I will retain one copy, in
memoriam. ... I still send a copy to Prof. Babington, and he
replies that he has been interested in the Club ever since the days
of your Father. Prof. Balfour has been praising us in private,
as all things considered publishing the best Proceedings, and
always being punctual, in or about a time that can be calculated
upon. We have obtained 15 new members this year. I had a
few words with Dr. C. Douglas. His brother and Mr. Boyd
ate enjoying their trip. I may go to St. Mary’s Loch this
month, but am not sure.

I will enclose one of the President’s addresses in your packet,
for Mr. Gray, an account of Holy Island, which I promised
him. It will keep it clean. I sent him the volume on North
Durham. I have been putting my books in shelves, but the
painter is needed to make them decent. They are very crowded.

The country looks well, but I have not wrought much at
Natural History. I have not yet come across the Book of
Letters containing some more of your father’s.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

P.S. I cannot tell when I will send the papers, all hands are so
engaged at present.

Letter 52. Oldcambus, July 18, 1876.

Dear Mrs. Carter,

I thank you for your kind letter, and proposed invitation. I
was not very sure about the terminus of my journey on the day
of the Club’s Meeting, but the President has determined it for
me, that is if I am to be present, by asking me to return with
him to Kimmerghame; so that I will not be cumbered with
luggage. Mr. Allan appears to be ready to entertain 40 or any
number. I have got a letter from Mr. Jerningham, the owner,
to welcome us to Norham, and offer to send his steward to
guide us, and also to conduct us to ““Longridge Towers”, and
see the plans of the proposed new mansion there, and perhaps
some of us may go. I have been preparing a few notes on
Fishwick, and tonight put together, from Raine, all that is
known about Horncliffe and Longridge. The Club’s last and
only visit was in 1843, when 11 were present, and it was reckoned

218 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

“a good meeting”. The picture of the place is well drawn in
the “‘Eastern Border”. It is to be hoped there are no pig-styes
there now, and that this portion of the scene is obsolete. I am
assured by a second letter that we are to have the boats to take
us to the lone churchyard at Fishwick.... This visit to Norham
and Horncliffe has sprung out of my visit to you at Berwick,
otherwise I should not have known so much of Tweedside. I
got the packet of papers for you, dispatched today by Rail... .
The contributors ought all to get copies of their papers, but this
year many have been neglected.... ‘There is nobody to look
after the printer; and he is the only one except at Kelso, that has
the proper type. But the printer was always a bugbear, all
through the Club’s History. What we do at the Anniversary I
know not. ‘‘Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof”. That I
fight through year after year, suffices, without any highflown
expectations.

I am glad to see your nephews distinguishing themselves at
late examinations. May they fulfil anticipations.

It has been awfully hot for a few days past. ‘The sea-water
to which one rushes for relief, is, however, very cold, and even
biting. We require rain much; pastures are failing; cattle and
sheep panting, and drink no end of water; turnips are mildewing,
and the ground is firm as a rock. It is cool, however, today,
and it may bring on wished-for showers.

Our next meeting will be Rothbury. How I get there I
know not yet. It is the only difficulty now of the season. I
have never been there. It will probably gather our Northum-
brian members to acentre. It will be in harvest, but I will have
to attend, as the President knows as little about it, as I do.
We will find something to say about it, and are I daresay disposed
to take rose-coloured views of everything animate or inanimate
that we encounter on a Club meeting day. With kind regards,

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

Note.—The President in 1876 was Archibald Campbell Swinton,
LL.D., F.R.S.E., F.S.A. SCOT., (1812-90) of Kimmerghame. Sir
Hubert F. H. Jerningham, x.c.M.c., of Longridge Towers,
became a member of the Club in 1876. His death is recorded
in H.B.N.C. 22, 189 (1914).

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF 219
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Letter 53. Oldcambus, July 29, 1876.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

We had a very successful meeting at Norham and Horncliffe.
. .. | have made out a report for the President, and have had
too much writing for any more.... I write you chiefly to say
that Mr. Campbell Swinton when the Border Counties Associa-
tion meets, proposes to call, and make your acquaintance, at
some early part of the day. He has heard of you from Mr.
Fletcher, and when I told him that I knew you so well, he asked
me to write and apprise you. He is very agreeable. He was
surprised at Miss Dickinson’s drawings, and is going back,
when he visits Mr. Paton, to see them. He is astonished to
see the attendance of the Meetings, and the intelligence that is
represented in it. I had scarcely time to look up, and had to
make up lists for these newspapers, while the rest were enjoying
the walk, and so I missed Horncliffe Dean and Mill. I will
maybe take a run up some day and see them alone, and all the
walk down from the Castle.... There were 11 at the Meeting
of 1843, and now we get 10 new members at a meeting, but the
whole to perhaps will not make up for one of the originals.

The time was very pleasantly spent at Kimmerghame. It is
a pretty place, and has many fine trees, and several impressive
outlooks. The rooms are not large, but the drawing room is
imposing enough. The library is very extensive, and rich in
rate and costly club and privately printed works, and they are
all well bound. There are books almost everywhere in Mr.
Swinton’s rooms, and Mrs. Swinton can draw, and has a fine
book on the Highlands illustrated by herself. Mr. Swinton’s
brother is a painter (portrait apparently) so there are many
family portraits, many of them legal personages of note. We
visited Swinton on the way to Norham, and got the key of the
church, and saw the effigy in a niche, of Sir Alan Swinton. It
is extremely rude, and no credit to the artist, who may have
been the stonemason of the period. We returned by chain
bridge, and through Blackadder woods, which I never had
previously traversed, and entered by a beautiful approach from
the east. ‘The ladies were excited about the visit of the Duke
of Connaught next day, and I saw at least all the arrangements
for his reception. I did not stay to see his arrival in Dunse,
but took the mid-day train.... We are likely to have a great
meeting at Rothbury. I shall likely go to Alnwick, and go
with the company from that place, and return to it. It will be
during our harvest, but I will not be missed. ...

Our next president will probably be Dr. Charles Douglas,
the name next in succession. I hope he will be sufficiently
strong to attend our meetings, which are likely to be widely

220 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

scattered. By the bye there is a fine monument to Dr. Baird
in Swinton Church, erected by his widow. I hadn’t time to
copy the inscription, but if we have a meeting at Swinton, this
can be done.
Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.
P.S. Please to show Mr. Swinton your mother’s drawings,
and the sketches on the Jed, etc.; and your father’s museum,
and other memorials; and your pets. You will be pleased with
him. J.H.
Note.—William Baird, M.D., F.R.S., (1803-72) was a founder
member of the Club. For an obituary notice see H.B.N.C. 6,
401-4.

Letter 54. Oldcambus, August 9, 1876.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I thank you for kind letter and the enclosures, which I return.
My letter would cross yours. I have not heard whether Mr.
Swinton called or not, but I see the meeting reported. It was
a disagreeable day here. As regards Dr. M.’s application,
none of your father’s letters are Selbornian; although they might
have been had he lived in the country, which he relished so
much; and I agree with you that if there is to be a publication
of the correspondence, it should be simultaneous.

I have been very busy pulling down my books, and replacing
them; finishing my work on Melrose within the time allotted
to it. It is now gone, and 1 walked yesterday to the station,
and saw the books safely off; so that I have had practical ex-
perience of the weight of the knowledge I have obtained. Free
of obligation, one lives so much easier, that I feel a slight
elevation of spirit, at having no more long writing for the
present.

I will not be able to make Berwick my centre for Rothbury.
I shall have to go to Alnwick the day before, and go with the
conveyance engaged there. At least this is my present inten-
tion. Mr. Hughes, indeed offered to drive me, but he is not
reliable. I have got liberty for the Club from Sir W. G. Arm-
strong, to visit Cragside, which is the best thing there... .

Mr. Jerningham is going to undertake excavations at Norham,
after his house is finished, and he will probably give us an
account of them, which he is fully capable of doing, as he is
versant in art, and its history. I have been looking into one of
his books on Greece. His scholarship is undoubted.

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF 221
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

The weather is as hot and droughty as ever. Yesterday was
quite melting. I came along the coast from Cockburnspath
for the coolness the sea-banks afforded. The harvest-bug is
exceedingly prevalent, and I laid in a stock; and the little creature
called thrips was most annoying getting amongst the hair.
We need more rain to cool the atmosphere, and keep turnips
growing, and prevent premature ripening. I had a fine show
of roses last week, and the wind blighted them all in one night.

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
faithfully yours,

James Hardy.
Note.—‘‘Selbornian” refers to Gilbert White’s Natural History
of Selborne, originally a series of letters to Thomas Pennant
(1726-98), of Downing, Flintshire, and the Hon. Daines Barring-
ton (1727-1800), Recorder of Bristol, both authors and naturalists.

Letter 55 Oldcambus, September 18, 1876.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I have been too much occupied to reply to your first kind
Petter 4.

Rothbury is a place of little consequence apart from the moory
district in which it stands, the interest lies principally on the
moors and hills, especially in Rimside Moor. Ellingham is a
far nicer place for a meeting, and no one has ever noticed it,
and it is part of the Moor. ‘The moor is archaeologically noted
for two proverbs, and they are illustrated for the first time.
Rothbury is nothing but two rows of houses, on the side of a
public road, where nearly half the young people are out fishing
at mid-day, and to a stranger the flocks of white noisy geese are
a marked characteristic, and a Darwinian might agree that their
noise is a hereditary acquisition. ‘Then the Thrums is merely a
fissure in a sandstone rock, but it has its folklore interest, in
two proverbs and these the Club wish to preserve, so that they
are quite in keeping. There was literally nothing done that
day, but looking at Sir W. Armstrong’s citizen’s box, and its
adjuncts, and I think all its features are fairly given. It is
placed in a desert, with no fair domain attached to it, and has
thus the character of an excrescence, however pretty. The
other features I alluded to, are such as occur on moor edges,
and must be taken into account, to give the character of the
place. The wet having hindered our walk, we were cooped
up between the hills, and had no fair scope for viewing the
country.

T had my corn all cut, when I went to Rothbury, and now I
have it safely secured, except the Beans. My brothers are not

222 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

so fortunate, and sprout I hear has commenced. ‘There is a
great deal of corn exposed yet.

I could have told you that Jackdaws will destroy weaklings.
At Cherrytrees the wild ones kill young chickens, when pinched
for food. A squirrel I should suppose would be harmless.
Squirrels occur in Aikieside and at Penmanshiel, but out of my
influence at present. Mr. Dunlop by applying to some of Earl
Home’s employees in the Preston and Bunkle woods would
most likely succeed. I once could have laid hands on one,
which took an epileptic fit, and lay struggling at the foot of
a tree; being startled at my approach....

With kind regards,
Believe me,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

Letter 56. Oldcambus, November 15, 1876.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I have not forgotten you, although I have been so long
silent, at least it seems a long time, but I have not your last at
hand to ascertain. ‘Two days ago I came again on the book of
old letters containing the remainder of your Father’s to me. It
is not a book got up in a style for a Lady to look at, and as I
said I would do, I have for the last three hours, transcribed you
the whole of them, and now send them enclosed. This copy
is for yourself. I could not find suitable paper, but used what
I draw out my notes on. This series fills up in some measure
the History of the Club contained in the former. I also enclose
as I once promised the notices of Sir William Jardine to bind
with your father’s Journal.

I hope you keep well. I cannot get out at all, in this wet
stormy weather. I was a short time at Wooler, but wet weather
soon set me home again. I may whisper to you, as I told you
before, first of all living beings, that some time or other soon,
I may be expected to get married. It is so foolish with old
people, or people that are reckoned old; but if you knew how
much I am bothered to keep things in order, with only a pair
of hands, you would say I had done wisely to obtain help. I
will at least get quit of household cares, and have my papers
kept in their places, and some aid in the Club’s business. I
cannot get the old house so nice as I would like it, but will
maybe get another farm with a better dwelling. The house is
the length of half-a-street, but has no proper accommodation,
and is very cold, but there are few houses in the country that
are not much exposed. I will probably be back at Wooler in
December. Meantime I am getting up next year’s number of

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF 223
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

the Proceedings.... There is no difficulty this year in finding
materials. ... We are speaking about an additional meeting
to be held at Berwick in October of each year, for business, and
reading papers; at least it will be tried. This will lead to
Berwick being our headquarters. If the Museum people had a
decent place to keep the few books and pamphlets that come to
the Club, and the extra numbers, they would be gladly placed
there. ‘They occupy too much space with me, I have so many
books and papers of my own.

I am busy at present with the Record Commission’s books,
so far as they relate to the Borders.... Iam going to give a
notice—but not this year of Kimmerghame. . . . there was an
ancient chapel at it, of which I found the Charter in Raine’s
North Durham....

I hope this dull weather will now take its departure, and let
us see the sun.

With kind regards,
Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

Letter 57. Oldcambus, November 27, 1876.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I have to thank you for your kind letter and congratulations,
and for the pleasure of having Mr. Cunningham’s also, whom
I always forget as participating with you, in any communication
I make, which indeed renders it all the freer. I do not expect
any mote, as my friendly correspondence is of the most re-
stricted nature, as I have no time for it; and my old familiar
cottespondents ate now almost entirely ‘““weded away”, except
yourself in the place of your father, and Mr. Hislop, who
perhaps receives a letter once in the year. Perhaps you would
notice in the Berwick papers notice of the death of Mr. A.
Wilson of Coldingham. It was quite unexpected, as he was
asking me down to help him with a paper for the Club; just a
week before he took ill. He caught a cold, took to bed, and
died after a week’s illness; not able to speak all the time, but
knowing those attending him. I laid his feet in the grave.
There were no blood relations of his own present. The chief
mourner was the husband of one of his nieces. It was most
fortunate that I attended. Mrs. Wilson and her sister were
much distressed. He has not left directions as to the disposal
of his Museum; and I am asked to go down and see what is to
be done with the outer portion of it, as it brings him too vividly
to her memory. He told me he wished to leave it to some

224 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

Border Museum, and if she consents, Berwick may benefit, so
far as the collection of Birds is concerned, if she is guided by
his wishes. He named Kelso or Hawick, but Berwick had not
started into existence, when we talked over the matter. If she
would rather sell them, I shall say nothing. A collection of
birds requires constant attention, otherwise it will fall a prey to
the moths... ;

I assisted on Wednesday in opening a cist at Bowshiel in this
parish. It was neatly built at the sides, and was covered cross-
overt by five heavy slabs, which it took the strength of four to
remove. A skeleton was found in the interior, in a reclining
position, the head placed in the S.E. corner. An iron sword,
which had had a wooden scabbard lay at the right hand, and
some woolly matter near it, which may have been the remains
of a sword belt formed of a portion of sheep’s skin. The sword
came out in fragments amidst masses of rusted clay and gravel.
It is an Anglo-Saxon sword, and is very interesting, as most of
the graves hereabouts belong to an earlier race. The skull was
too imperfect to make anything of, except that it was of the
Teutonic size. The old warrior had had a broken leg, which
had not been set; but the two pieces were welded together
overlapping each other. He must have had a considerable
halt. There were two old camps at no great distance. At the
same time one of the assistants gave me quite a handful of flint
implements—arrow-heads, knives, and scrapers, which he had
picked up, by my direction, during his operations in the fields
on that farm. ‘This is now the fourth grave opening that I
have inspected, and have not given an account of them.

I have “‘Cockburn’s Journal” in the house. I must read it,
before sending it to the local library. ...

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

Letter 58. Oldcambus, February 27, 1877.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I thank you much for your kind remembrance. My wife
catcied it off, and has it stored up among other tokens of good
will and kindliness from known and unknown correspondents
of my own. We are getting on very comfortably as you
prophesied it would happen, when the humanising influence
of female oversight would prevail. I must tell you all about
the ceremony, as some old customs and superstitions manifested
themselves, not as regards ourselves, but the onlookers. When

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF 225
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

I went to Wooler, I found everything pre-arranged. The
marttiage was from the house of Miss Short of Wooler Mill, a
benevolent genius and social centre in the place. Her father
first brought me from Berwick a little boy, under his wing, and
introduced me to my uncle’s family, and it is from his house, as
represented by his daughter, that I took away the representative
of the good folk who lived in that other house, to which I ever
after came as to a home, for it was a hospitable place. I arrived
the previous evening, and warned Mr. Green and got his and
Mrs. Green’s directions. Among other points I was to warn
the police to be there, as the people were often rude, and ready
to exact money, by placing a rope across the street, after the
ceremony. Before leaving my house, I avoided an infliction of
old shoes, by escaping at an unexpected door. J stayed at Miss
Short’s for the evening, and went over in the morning, and
helped my intended wife to flit the few remains of articles she
wished to take with her; and we all breakfasted at the house of
out patroness for the occasion. Miss Short’s niece was the
bride-maid and Miss Halliday’s nephew, who was cousin to
the bride’s maid was my representative. He and I had a neat
posy of snowdrops and green leaves, which were the only floral
decorations. A carriage took us to the church. The police
was there, and all was most orderly. The church was pretty
well filled with spectators, although it happened at half past
nine. I never saw a church marriage before, but Mr. Green
was a good director. When we retired an attempt was made
at the church door to place a board for us to step over, by some
masons working at the church repairs, but it was checked
directly. ‘There came also a written petition for drink money
from the same parties, but we were not so foolish as listen to it.
The children of course had to get their handful of small coins
scattered about for them. In going up the street, a basin of
rice was thrown across the vehicle. It seemed to have pleased
the Wooler people to have us there. It was termed “‘a neat
nice wedding’’, and was a good termination to what they were
pleased to call “‘a twenty years engagement’’, although that is a
gross exaggeration. The carriage returned to Miss Short’s,
and a plate of cake was cast over the bride’s head, and some
mote copper tribute was forthcoming to the bairns, who
appeared to have deserted school for the day. After refresh-
ment, and a meeting of the bride’s relatives, and a change of
clothes, we drove to Belford, receiving on parting the usual old
shoe tokens which are more hearty than commendable. We
went from Belford by the express to Dunbar; dined there alone;
and got a conveyance, and were here at 6 o’clock. The only
demonstrations were flags, and an evergreen arch, and we
arrived unexpectedly, and passed in quietly without any uproar,

226 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

in the quiet way that both of us like. ‘‘Creeling” was whispered,
but the people knew better; and they have had their own enter-
tainment suitable to the occasion. The Club work goes on as
usual, and my leisure is not the least broken upon, and the
house is more comfortable, and is and will look much better.
My wife is delighted with the place, small as the house is, and
never wearies gazing at the everchanging sea, stealing away at
times to watch its motions from the upper windows in a sort
of rapt wonder.

Our printing is advancing, and we have a very varied collec-
tion of papers this season. I have had a short correspondence
with an old friend of your father’s, Mr. J. Bailey Langhorne,
who has rejoined the Club. He had bought Sir W. Jardine’s
copy of the Proceedings. . . . Hoping our correspondence will
proceed as usual.

With kind regards,
Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.

Letter 59. Oldcambus, March 28, 1877.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I thank you much for your two kind communications. I am
always engaged, and time revolves rapidly, not, I hope, without
some footprints being made upon its sands. I drop this note
to apprise you that Mr. Embleton’s books are to be sold at
Alnwick. Mr. Middlemas is my informant, and he is solicitor
for the trustees, as well as agent of Mrs. Taylor. I have in-
structed him to send you a catalogue, lest you should want
anything. Mrs. Taylor has provided for Mr. Embleton, 10
years, and he will have nothing of his own, except the books
and collections. It will not be easy for us to write a memoir
of him, as we knew so little about him. I have said to Mr.
Middlemas to try and do it; but then, he is not a Naturalist.
I do not even know his origin. The Club has never forgotten
his good services.

I intended to have gone this week to Coldingham to see Mrs.
Wilson, and try to help her with Mr. Wilson’s Museum, but the
wet weather prevents. I hope to do so next week. I expect
Mr. Scott of the Berwick Academy on Friday. I believe Mrs.
Wilson is willing that most of the Collection should go to
Berwick, and I will then hear what he says. Of course it will
have to be paid for, as she is not in the best of circumstances... .

Mr. W. B. Boyd proposes leaving Ormiston House during the
season, to remove to his wife’s property, at Faldonside. 1

EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF 227
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

expect to go and see Ormiston before the removal. It will, I
am afraid, be a farewell visit to the valleys of the Teviot and
Jedwater, which have to me, beautiful reminiscences.

Mrs. Hardy and I have our daily walks and scrambles on the
sea coast, when weather permits. Great flocks of wild ducks
float all day on the open sea, or straggle in to the little rough
inlets among the rocks; we have always a grey hermit heron on
the outlook (sometimes 6); four or five black cormorants, now
with white patches on their outer thighs, man, like sea-men,
their twice-frequented rock, mounting a watchful lookout;
whimpering redshanks with their scarlet stockings on search
the bare rocky platform, for sea insects among the dark sea-
weeds, or pass by on the wing in little parties, with a plaintive
wail. Occasionally we have the Hider Duck, a most sportive
bird in its divings, and it always comes up purer-like than the
lymph among which it floats. I count all my sea flocks. There
are from 5 to 7 Cormorants; 13 Eider Ducks; and the wild ducks
reach 100; the Curlews from 5 to 15, etc. Except rabbits,
which swarm, I seldom see a four-footed wild animal. Squirrel
skins could be got from gamekeepers, as they are told to shoot
them, occasionally, from the injury done by them to the fir-
trees; but I am outside the gamekeeper world here. Mr.
Brotherston could probably get you a skin, if you asked him.

One of our members is trying to make a census of the Border
Rookeries, and he will probably succeed.

If I have forgotten to say anything, I will tell you next time.

With kind regards,

Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
Yours faithfully,
James Hardy.
Note.—Robert Castles Embleton (1806-77), surgeon, was a
founder-member of the Club; for Memoir see H.B.N.C. 8,
373-5. His herbarium is in the Hancock Museum, Newcastle-
upon-Tyne.

Letter 60. Oldcambus, July 17, 1877.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I have to thank you for several favours, and among others
for the report in the ““Warder”.... By Sir John Marjoribanks’
directions, his agent in Edinburgh is going to give me a history
of the Lees Estate, so far as he can, and its former owners. I
found more about it, and Simprin, after I wrote you. I will
gladly second Mr. Stuart Macaskie. I have addressed a circular
to him, which will be available as if he were a member. It will

228 EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRESPONDENCE OF
DR. JAMES HARDY WITH MRS. JANE BARWELL-CARTER

probably be a large meeting. ... If I keep well I will go to
Newcastle on the previous day, and will stay there with a
relative. The train for Chollerford starts from Newcastle at
half past six in the morning; and in the evening starts at Choller-
ford to return at 8.35....

The circulars were all sent off tonight, so that I will have a
week to myself, to see friends. I am sorry to hear of Mr. Wm.
Dunlop looking so poorly. It is such wretched weather, one
can scarcely go out, without being damped. I will hear about
him at Horsley next week, I expect.

Captn. Norman writes that he has come to Allerley House to
stay, and be near Capt. Forbes. He will be a useful man, as he
knows plants somewhat accurately. ...

With kind regards,
Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

Noz¢e.—Horsley is the farm adjacent to Brockholes and about
two miles S.E. of Grantshouse. It was farmed by one of
James Hardy’s brothers who later moved to Harpertoun near
Kelso.

66-Loe 1 7

6$*9L9

89°8v

os bz

o$61F

QI'gt
ze°Lor

beet

66°Loe‘*1'F
oe ee ee oe €L61 ‘3aq
-wajdog puzz ‘yuRg 1 s0URTYg NperD
go'St (Jarnsvar]) SIIOW ‘O ‘A “FIN
ziv °°: (Azeqaroag BunIpA) Atpucszy *D “d “JIN
oor °C "+ Quaptsasg 991A) IIT “WV FN
oS oz F "+ (Aze307099) JONTA AFA “AY FI
sasuadxy sj0InfO
oo"l es QOTAIIS [eIDOG JO “TD Ys
ob'z A8ojOsvypIY YSN ‘[D ‘say "309 Czbs
O06) ace oa MSIE ysiirg jo yiouno7y) ee EG
Sorr os “+ pueTIOIS ¢
: TemngOs VON EA SSo7] #0) 2 os8y 0g'96z
00'OI "+ uoneDoossy Ysitg ob-zbF
Sor "st aveD PTEAL waeysUTTTTYD
SUOLIGIAIS GUE
Oz'z + a: Bh sasivyo yueg
08°96 ge ‘* UOTvAvOXA WeYSUIpPOD
Oo; Cmaat MUUT] “IP “ADY FOF uoYOT, Yoog
SL9 “GS 32) Spee) JapuIWIDY Jo W3vIsOg -
Gz°€ predzoao ‘sqng jo punjoy oS-zrh
o$'z Zs PUTER ARS 0) Surjeordnq o$*9$
00" F ee oe oe Amnqery 6g*0
ey oqng pur syoog ‘ssuvinsuy
sasuagdxry Mapuns 06°11
00'S
oe oe oe oe oe syoog jo Sulpurg 6z'g6F
s[louaig pur sosvisog ‘SsooFION qnTD jo Sunuitg
MdOUOLIDIS pu BULZUIAT
(ayeuITIs9 JOAO 3809 ssooxq) 1161 ATO STF] JO SurzUITg gb'zgzF

FIN LIGNH dXT

HWODNI
*€L61 “YHA WELddS PUz? ONIGNA UVAA AHL YOA LNAWELV.LS TVIONVNIS S.WeunNsVaaL

pu ie predz2aQ
"* suoneu0g
qUvUIAOT) JO sps90q,

SAL4pUuns

SIvIITY
“hE Gog 21S
soSpeg JO 3&5

2 $90,J s0uvIqU

Ayerqry puv sorun{ ‘enuuy

SuolsG14Is us

zL6x ‘zaquiajdag puzz yw d0ULeg IPIID

g1°660'1F

‘IOUPNY ‘UOT
‘CIVNOG@W ‘V NVI

6S:zzPr
6S-9LoF

ee

ee

SLA SSH

‘JoINSvaT], ‘UOP]
‘SIMUOW ‘O ‘A

oF €& e ; fs poppe 3so703UT

61'6gcF Res Nee ‘yaquiaidag 3 sourleg
JUNOIIE” Juatt{saau]

81°660'1 F
6S:zzb
yuLg sSUTAvS 90ISNT,],
puvpjoog jo yurg [vAoy
yung ut ysvD 6S-oLoF

LAdHs HONV IVE

JUNODIY [eJoUey Woy posse

SHIITHAV TI

Leah By a tec

mee LEARN AES
eva cawedve

Sve

SPR ayes ee,
WR oe Pasa ny 5

Age ett:

Fe]
AS
o
Fr
5
ee,
')
or
B
©
oa

Shed BOS CG,

%

at tne

. SRR TID:

Xgs BE

PLatE 1. Hugh, 3rd Earl of Marchmont.

1772)

Lord Polwarth (c.

>

3
-Q
Qu
a
o
f)
E
23
co
HY
Oo
me)
is
3
n
SS
<

PLATE 2.

Amabel, Lady Polwarth (¢. 1772

Martchmont House.

PLATE 4.
Seat of the 3rd Earl of Marchmont.

YHMOD “Wf

“CLOld]T UvgsUurpjoD

"QUOIS YSSIIEqqy I],

$ TLVIg

#£

il
iy

itil
Fi

1
MU

Ul,

Mac Uy

EEcrorp.

\
in

2N\\\ NAH HN \\y :

ad hs

ay
NU

Mp.
2

4,
SG y's

Puate 6. Norham Castle.
As it may have appeared c. 1200.

PLATE 7. John MacKay Wilson (1804-35).
(By courtesy of Berwick-upon-I'weed Borough Council).

‘(qoanyy puo sskuayy fo 4vey eqs fo Asapanos (q)
‘ULBIOIALT PIOJSOH YT, *8 ILVId

\)

COLDINGHAM PRIORY -

1973

cloister garth

}=-

a Be

faeries Mee as re are eS Bes OSS on SES CO GRE
Seas Sa a ce sae

SE

ers

es

a) Sr

60

© "Oo D
% ane

es

Nee a

HISTORY
BERWICKSHIRE
NATURALISTS’ CLUB

The Centenary Volume and Index, issued 1933, price 50p.

is invaluable as a guide to the contents of the History.

in a!

ee

fas Wis

yon

ht a

i

Pin
——

Hy
ae
5
|

ee

a Se
ie ew ee we

se

+43
rate
es

a

ake

t.
Oe

rie

ew ~ s " Sen "
os S . . py

if

i

TE
ecile ra, 53

ae

4