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BERWICKSHIRE

NATURALISTS’ CLUB
| & [

f-

INSTITUTED SEPTEMBER 22, 1831

“MARE ET TELLUS, ET, QUOD TEGIT OMNIA, CGELUM”

VOL. XL. PART 1.
1974

Price to Non-Members £1

OFFICE-BEARERS

Joint Field Secretaries
D. MACKENZIE ROBERTSON, Buxley, Duns.
Mrs. D. MACKENZIE ROBERTSON, M.C.S.P., F.S.A.Scot.

Corresponding Secretary

T. D. THOMSON, C.M.G., 0.B.E., M.A., LL.B., F.S.A.Scot., The Hill, Col-
dingham.

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

Treasurer
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Librarian

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

vA

The Editing Secretary will be obliged if contribu-

tions to Part 2 of Volume XL can be received by
31st March 1976.

HISTORY OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB

CONTENTS OF VOL. XL

PART 1.—1974

Fifty Years of Rural Change. The AcniVersas Address by
ApaM R. LITTLE, President of the Club .. ‘

The Club in 1974
The Marjoribanks Hatchment in Ladykirk Church. By

Major C. J. DIxON-JOHNSON.

Coldingham Priory Excavations (X).
By DUNCAN NOBLE M.A. er

Coldingham Priory Excavations (XI).
By T. D. THOMSON, M.A., F.S.A.SCOT.

A Tale of Two Paintings. By Sir TRESHAMLEVER, Bt. ..

The Early Lords of Lauderdale and St. Andrew’s PaO: at
Northampton. By Dr. KEITH STRINGER.

“Scandal” at Auchencraw. By WILLIAM LILLIE, D.D. ..

Royal Arms in the Town of Berwick. By Me (Se je DIxon-
JOHNSON

The Mathematics of the Pew.
By T. D. THOMSON, M.A., F.S.A.SCOT.

The 1974 Botanical Meeting. By Dr. A. G. Lona.

Natural History Observations aS ane 1973-74. Notes compiled
by Dr. A. G. Lona. aa be he

Records of Macro-lepidoptera in a ge ee and Selkirk-
shire. By A. G. BUCKHAM. :

Extracts from the Correspondence of Dr. James Hardy with
Mrs. Jane Barwell-Carter (Letters 61-75).

Treasurer’s Financial Statement.

Balance Sheet.

ILLUSTRATIONS

PART 1.—1974
Plates
Coldingham Priory: cloister walk and wall from north. 24
Walter Scott of Raeburn. 30
Jean, wife of Walter Scott of Raeburn. 31
Plans

Coldingham Priory 1974:

Section through wall in D5.
Main plan. At end

PRINTED FOR THE CLUB
BY MARTIN’S PRINTING WORKS,
MAIN STREET, SPITTAL
1975

PRO-CE EB DINGS

OFTTHE

BERWICKSHIRE
NATURALISTS’ CLUB

FIFTY YEARS OF RURAL CHANGE

being the Anniversary Address delivered by Adam R.
Little, President of the Club, on 10th Owe 1974 at
Berwick-upon- Tweed.

SEVERAL months ago, when reading the introduction to a
technical agricultural report, I chanced to come on the
following:

It is claamed by some authorities that the accumulation of
knowledge in the last 40 years has been greater than that over
the whole of human history. This should be a staggering
thought, but it has become a commonplace. It hardly sur-
prises us now when we see live pictures of human beings
walking on the Moon; nor do we blink an eyelid when we
hear of two men milking 250 cows. Not so long ago both
these events would have been regarded as miracles. Yet the
process of discovery and innovation continues apace, and we
know not what new wonder tomorrow willbring forth. A
notable scientific authority, when delivering a lecture to the
Royal Society of Arts, said: “In the short lives of the protest-
ing students of today we have had the Atomic Age, the
Cybernetic Age, the Space Age, and now, portentiously, the
Bio-engineering Age. Each is as determinant in its own
way as the great epochs of history, the Bronze Age, the Iron
Age, the Renaissance or the Industrial Revolution, but all of
them are happening at once.’

1

2 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

Reading the foregoing set me thinking of changes
which I had seen in our countryside during my lifetime,
and I propose to examine these in general rather than in
detail. The title of this address is therefore quite simply
Fifty Years of Rural Change, and I shall try to deal with
different facets of country life, and also, perhaps, I may
indulge in a little nostalgia as we go along. In order to
emphasise some points of change, I will need to go back
much further than the last 40 or 50 years, but as far as
possible I will confine my remarks to what I have seen
and known.

The number of people living and working in the coun-
tryside was probably at its greatest during the second half
of the nineteenth century. Two holdings in north
Northumberland, which I have known for most of my
lifetime, had a combined population of over 200 souls in
the period 1850-60. Today, I doubt if these same hold-
ings support much more than one-tenth of their former
numbers. This is not entirely due to the contraction of
the agricultural population as such, but more probably to
the st iapeasne: of a local lime industry, which co-
existed with farming and probably supplied the lime
requirements of the local building industry as well.

In part of north Northumberland there are still to be
seen the remains of old limekilns and of old coal work-
ings, mostly drifts rather than pits, which produced coal
to fire the kilns. There are also old limestone quarries,
some of which have been re-opened and worked since the
last War. All these must have given employment to
quite a number of men, and as lime-burning was a con-
tinuous process, many of the workers lived in the coun-
tryside rather than in the villages. The decline of the
rural lime industry probably commenced when large
chemical combines commenced to operate specialist
plants for their own manufacture and still had enough left
over to supply agriculture and the building trade. I
remember only one kiln which was still producing in
1939. The old man who managed it used to come to
Berwick Corn Exchange most Saturdays and was more
than delighted if he could book an individual order of 100
tons. Thereafter the lime was produced at the kiln, put
into empty slag bags (supplied by the customer), railed to
the nearest station, uplifted in carts by the customer and
then spread on the land by farm labour. The whole

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 3

sequence of events from initial ordering to final applica-
tion, could and often did extend over several weeks.

Today, lime-spreading is done by specialist contrac-
tors, and it is usually calctum or magnesium carbonate
rather than calcium oxide which is applied. There is
very specialised tackle for loading lime into the spreaders,
and very large amounts can be applied perdiem. Iknow
of one contractor who put on 650 tons of limestone in 4 2
working days.

There were many other trades which flourished in the
country and villages or wherever there was a small com-
munity. With very few exceptions the corn-millers,
wheelwrights, saddlers and harness-makers, bootmak-
ers, plough-makers, drainers, and most of the time-
served blacksmiths have all gone.

The depopulation of the countryside probably started
with the first tentative efforts to mechanise. About
1880 the first mowers and self-binders were intro-
duced. The mowers or reapers would cut the standing
crop, which afterwards had to be gathered into sheaves
and bound by hand. The binders did all these jobs at
one pass, but the sheaves which they spewed out still had
to be picked up and stooked by hand.

It is perhaps significant that the first attempts at
mechanisation should have concerned the grain har-
vest. Perhaps the real hope and intention was to beat the
weather rather than to displace labour, or again it may
have been intended todo both. Onlowland farms extra
labour always had to be hired for harvest, and this cer-
tainly continued till towards the end of the Second World
War, or even later. These extra workers were often
Irishmen from Counties Donegal, Mayo, Sligo and Leit-
rim, and after the grain harvest many stayed on to gather
potatoes. Many were good workers and reliable, but
some would leave instantly if they thought they could get
an extra shilling elsewhere.

I was once told by an old man, who worked for us
during the inter-war years, that he remembered a farmer
in the Wooler district who hired a hundred Irishmen as
extra harvest workers. This gives some idea of the
number of itinerant workers involved.

There can be no doubt that the most successful single
piece of mechanised equipment has been the combine
harvester. ‘The first one worked in the south of England

4 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

in 1929, and the first locally was in East Lothian about
1937, followed by one in north Northumberland in
1939. The early machines were all Canadian, but after
the War we started to make our own, and now machines
are available from Sweden, Denmark, East and West
Germany, Belgium and Italy. The early machines were
rather crude and sometimes not too reliable, but now
they are much more sophisticated and their output is very
much greater. The price has also escalated. Speaking
from memory, I think I paid £980 for my first
machine—today the equivalent costs £10,000.

The - combine’ “harvester! ‘has’ quite —)literally
revolutionised the grain harvest. One man, driving a
modern machine, can thresh 500 sacks in the course of an
afternoon. The remainder of the harvest team consists
of two men to lead the grain from the combine to the
drying and dressing or grading plant, and one man look-
ing after that plant—a total of four persons, none of
whom need to be overworked. It is interesting to com-
pare present-day performance with methods of 30-40
years ago. Then corn was thrashed out of stack through a
mill permanently installed in the farm buildings, or, if a
larger amount of grain was required, the travelling mill
was hiredin. This was owned and operated by a thresh-
ing contractor. The mill was hauled and driven by a
steam engine which weighed several tons. These
engines were a wonderful source of power, very quiet,
very smooth, with a wonderful torque at slow
speeds. They had disadvantages, however, as they con-
sumed a lot of coal, and belched forth volumes of black
smoke, which, if the wind was in the wrong direction,
enveloped the threshing gang.

The squad required to operate the travelling mill was
as follows:

Two men supplied and paid by the contractor, one in
overall charge and one to feed the sheaves into the mill;

Two men bagging and weighing off grain;

Two or three men pitching sheaves from the stack on to
the mill;

Two women on top of the mill cutting the bands round
the sheaves;.

Two women clearing chaff from under the mill;

‘Three people clearing and stacking bunched straw; and

“One person leading barrels of water to supply the
engine.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 5

Total employed—fifteen persons: output on a good
day—160 sacks.

It should be noted that the women who cut the bands
had a most monotonous job, as not only did they get no
respite from the job and the steady hum of the drum, but
also they got the full benefit of any smoke from the
engine. The women who raked the chaff from under
the machine and carried it away had the dirtiest and most
dusty job of all. This was more especially so if barley
was being threshed, because then the chaff contained
barley awns, andI know of no more exasperating irritant,
as one is liable to get them in eyes, nose, ears and hair as
well as on the face and down the neck. Ishould explain,
in passing, that in those days there was no “Women’s
Lib”!

Of course the advent of the combine posed nearly as
many problems as it solved, such as what to do with the
straw and how to handle it; what to do with an avalanche
of grain varying in moisture content from decidedly
damp to almost bone-dry; where to store this grain and
how—in bulk or in bags. Such has been the inventive-
ness and ingenuity of the agricultural engineering indus-
try that we now have solutions to all these problems and
many more. No machine has displaced so many per-
manent worke indeed I
know of a large farm which halved its permanent staff
after its first successful experience of a combine harvest.

Another most notable development has been the
elimination of the horse as the major source of tractive
power on the land. Horses were used not only for
pulling every kind of trailed implement, but for haulage,
and even to provide power for some of the small inside
threshing drums. To do this they were driven round
and round in a circular building known as a “Gin
Gang”’. At the centre of this was a stout upright pole,
able to rotate freely on its axis. Attached to the top of
the pole was a large cog-wheel which, through a system
of pulleys, shafts and gears, drove the mill. The horses
were yoked to the centre pole and, as they pulled it round
and round, so the large cog rotated and provided the
drive. I know a man, still very much alive today, who
in his youth thrashed oats by horse-motivated power.

It was during and just after the First World War that
tractors began to appear on the land, and then only in

6 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

small numbers. The early machines were heavy,
clumsy, and decidely temperamental. To make matters
worse, there was a sudden and vicious agricultural slump
in 1921 and progress was halted. However, by about
1930 one began to see the odd tractor working in the
fields, especially where soil conditions were suitable and
there were few stones to wreck the implements.

The breakthrough which finally make it practicable to
do away with the horse, came with the inventions of
Harry Ferguson, an Ulsterman of genius. He produced
quite a small tractor, which was light in weight, had a
tight turning-circle, and had built into it, as an integral
part, a sophisticated hydraulic lift and three-point linkage
whereby the implement, instead of being trailed, was
mounted on the tractor.

This application of hydraulic power opened up vast
new horizons for inventive effort and innovation, and at
one stroke was to do away with much of the heavy,
back-breaking toil on farms.

Once it had been demonstrated that it was feasible to
move heavy and bulky packages of produce, stores and
equipment, a host of new and improved devices were
produced over a period of years. Grain, which had
always been handled in 4-bushel sacks weighing 18
stones of wheat, 16 stones of barley and 12 stones of oats,
was now moved in bulk. The producers of the grain
were often in advance of the buyers, as some farms used
bulk loading before some of the millers, maltsters and
merchants were equipped for bulk reception. The
phasing-out of the heavy, bulky sack was a great
relief. JI am sure that nobody ever knew how many
hernias, strained muscles, sore backs and other debilities
were brought on by moving the 4-bushel sack.

Today such commodities as seeds, fertilisers, feeding-
stuffs and twine are handled in sacks, which may be of
plastic, paper, or nylon-weave, but no longer of
jute. Normally the heaviest package is ten stones, but a
lot of feeding-stuffs are put up in four stones. Paper
bags have four thicknesses of brown paper, and all bags
are secured by machine stitching.

Fertilisers are now formulated precisely, and are granu-

lar in texture. At one time the ingredients used to be
purchased separately, and then laboriously mixed by
shovelling on any convenient floor. Care had to be

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS u

taken to mix things which were compatible, otherwise
you might have an unwanted, unplanned and costly
chemical reaction with which to contend.

As handling equipment became available, so did
many machines which were driven by the power take-off
shaft of the tractors. Among these were pick-up
balers, potato-harvesters, other root-harvesters, forage-
harvesters, mowers of all types, hedge-cutting machin-
ery of various types (flail, circular-saw, reciprocating-
knife), also rotovators and power-harrows for pulveris-
ing the soil.

As women used to pull by hand most of the turnip crop
and the new machines not only did this but also dropped
the roots into trailers travelling alongside, so one of the
traditional jobs disappeared. This was repeated with
the advent of reliable loaders and spreaders for farmyard
manure. Thus the woman worker disappeared from
the permanent staff of most farms, and today female
labour is used on a casual basis where manual dexterity is
at a premium, on such jobs as fruit picking, packing and
grading, and also on potato-harvesting machines and
potato picking where a digger as distinct from a harvester
is used.

As the invention of new tractor-driven implements
proceeded apace, so did the development and refinement
of the tractors themselves. In 1940 the first crawler or
caterpillar tractors began to appear locally. These had
advantages of very low ground-pressure and immense
pulling-power, as when ploughing they travelled on top
of the land and not in the furrow. The disadvantages
were that, being tracked vehicles, you could not use them
on the hard road, and the upkeep of the tracks, especially
on sandy soil, tended to be expensive. Not long before
the Second World War, special pneumatic tyres were
developed for tractors, ‘and the machine thus became
much more versatile.

Today we have tractors with four-wheel drive,
power-steering, safety-cabs—which have to be fitted by
law—car-type controls, and specially designed sprung
seats. All these make for easier operation and less
fatigue.

In former days very little effort was made to cut down
on handling. There was was no incentive to do s0, as
there was always an adequate permanent staff on hand for

8 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

whom jobs had to be available. Nobody seemed to
realise that when you handled anything you added
nothing to its value, but merely to its cost.

To illustrate the amount of handling which went on,
let us consider the number of operations involved in
handling and dispatching a sack of grain. The sheaf was
dropped from the binder on to the ground. It was
picked up and stooked by hand. If the wind blew the
stook down it had to be set up again. The sheaf was
pitched from the gound on to a cart, from the cart on toa
stack where cach sheaf was carefully built in and pressed
down. In due course the stack was taken down and the
sheaf was pitched on toa threshing mill. From the deck
of the mill the sheaf was lifted and the band was cut. It
was then handed to the thrasherman who dropped it
carefully into the machine. After a few seconds the
grain, now separated from the straw and chaff, fellinto a
sack at ground level. When full, the sack was lifted on
toa weigh and weighed off. The mouth of the sack was
then nae and the sack was lifted into a cart or carried ona
man’s back to the barn, where it was dumped on the
floor, to be lifted again when it was loaded for dispatch.

Today’s grain is cut by combine, mechanically con-
veyed into a trailer, tipped into a drier and/or dresser,
conveyed into a holding bin, and outloaded into a bulk
lorry, never having been touched by hand.

More recent developments have included the increas-
ing use of pallets and fork-lift trucks or attachments,
especially when moving fertiliser. Farmyard manure is
dug out and loaded by hydraulic grabs, drains are cut and
ditches are cleaned by hydraulic diggers and scoops, and
hedges are maintained by hydraulic cutters and trim-
mers. The great advantage of hydraulic power is that it
can be applied in any direction and there are no power-
drives or high-speed shafts to cause hazards to life or
limb.

From what I have said so far it can be seen that, at least
on lowland farms, a small, skilled and intensively
mechanised work-force produces more than ever before,
and that rural depopulation is the inevitable result of
high-cost mechanisation.

Having discussed the actual work in the countryside, it
is probably pertinent to discuss very briefly the crops

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 9

produced by that work and the methods of husbandry in
common use. I think that all the crops which I
remember as a small boy are still grown.

The sugar beet crop has been and gone, and who dare
say that it may not soon be grown again! To compen-
sate for this lost crop we now have a new series of crops
for processing, such as raspberries, strawberries, peas,
beans, and brussels sprouts.

One day during this last summer, I chanced when
passing to sec a very heavy concentration of machinery in
one field. Being curious, I went along to see, and found
that a special gang were harvesting peas. | made some
enquiries, and discovered that the pea vining machines,
which are the largest implements I have ever seen on
farming land, cost a mere £17,000 each. There was also
amass of ancillary equipment, and after doing some agile
mental arithmetic, I discovered that the cost price of all
the tackle on hand was at least £100,000!

Crops are no longer grown in strict rotation. There is
a tendency to grow more grain crops and fewer root or
break crops.. This has partly come about by sheer
economic pressure, and partly because the grain crop has
alow labour requirement. There are still large numbers
of sheep folded over arable crops and fattened off, and as
the sheep is still ‘‘the animal with the golden hoof ”’, the
fertility they leave behind is plain for all to see. To
maintain continuous cropping, without recourse to a
grass ley to build up fertility, more and more artificial
inorganic fertilisers are being used. This practice has led
to the emergence of a body known as the Soil Associa-
tion. Broadly speaking, these people believe that soil is
in effect a living entity, made up of minute particles and
organisms, all of which are interdependent.

Some cynics refer to the Soil Association as the ““Muck
and Magic Brigade’. This refers to the expressed belief
that only organic materials or residues may be added to
the soil, and that anything else, especially minerals from
an inorganic base, is worse than useless in the long term
and may indeed betoxic. Far be it from me to take sides
in this controversy. One has only to see what a good,
experienced gardener can produce from a compost heap
to know that the protagonists of organic husbandry have.
a good case. It is, however, fair to point out that a
garden patch probably receives more care and cultivation

10 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

than is possible on the more extended acreage of a farm.

I think it was Louis Bromfield who pointed out that
there were soils in America which were so full of organic
matter that they were unable to grow crops until miner-
als were added. When this was done the results were
spectacular. Probably the best we will be able to
achieve will bea compromise. We will try to assure the
long-term health of the soil by grass leys, folded sheep,
and the application of as much farmyard manure as we
can produce, and in the short term we will use limited
amounts of artificial fertilisers for more immediate
response.

Housing is something which affects the quality of life
of all of us. In my youth the standard of much of the
rural housing was, quite frankly, deplorable. Many
people lived in two-roomed, single-storey cottages,
which had pantile roofs, no piped water, no damp-
course, and no amenities of any kind. It is said that this
type of cottage was built, ready for occupation, for fifty
pounds.

I remember some alterations being carried out in a
cottage on a farm which we rented, and a floor had to be
broken up. This floor was dark in colour, very smooth
and very hard, and nobody seemed to be quite certain as
to how it had been laid. An old mason, however, who
was working on the job, recognised that the constituents
were cow-dung and lime mixed together, smoothed over
and left to harden. Iam glad to say we have advanced a
lot since those days.

Improvements started in the early to mid-1930s, when
a grant was introduced whereby an owner could get £400
or half of the cost, whichever was less, for the improve-
ment of a cottage. Nota great deal was done until after
the War, when grants also became available for connec-
tion of all premises to the new water mains and to the
electricity grid. Much was done in the period 1950-60,
and now a lot of rural housing is probably better, and
certainly much cheaper, than that in the towns.

There are various things in this life which we tend to
take for granted, and which we never miss until we are
suddenly deprived of them. Two of such things are
good health and an ample and reliable supply of good
drinking water. I was made uncomfortably aware of
the latter shortly after coming to live in Berwickshire,

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 11

where every gallon of water which we consumed had to
be pumped by wind or mechanical power. The prim-
ary sources of this water were two wells, which tended to
failin a dry summer. When this happened, either the
household was short of water for all domestic purposes,
or our cattle and sheep were short of drinking water.
This position was clearly untenable, so I decided to search
for an additional supply.

I had heard of a water-diviner, and wrote to him ex-
plaining my predicament. There was no reply for sev-
eral days, until one evening the phone rang, and it was the
diviner asking if I could let him have a plan of the
farm. I explained that I had a plan, which delineated the
outlines and boundaries but gave very little detail. He
replied that my plan would be eminently suitable for his
requirements, so, in a distinctly sceptical frame of mind, I
forwarded it to him. I pendares ing more for at least
three weeks, and finally there was a phone call to say that
he proposed to come on the following Sunday, and that
there was only water on one part of the farm!

On the appointed day the diviner duly arrived. He
was a small elderly man, and very soberly dressed, and
wearing a black overcoat anda black homburg. He was
in no way remarkable until you saw his eyes, which
seemed to look straight through you rather than at you.

I took him to all the places on the farm where I thought
there should be water, but he could get no worthwhile
response. Finally he produced my plan from his pocket
and pointed to a spot which he had marked and suggested
he should try there. Greatly disbelieving I took him to
the place, where he had an immediate response and the
rod nearly jerked out of his hands. After further inves-
tigation he told me that I would find water between 35
and 45 feet, and that I could expect 300 gallons per
hour. I drove a stake into the ground to be sure of the
exact location, and we en Na es my house for tea.

Indoors he continued to manipulate his rod while
standing talking to me, and I was amazed when he sud-
denly told me that my right ankle had been dam-
aged. ‘This was quite true, and was the result of damage
sustained playing rugby years before. The diviner
could not see my ankles, and he had never seen me till that
afternoon. I walked perfectly normally with no trace of
a limp, so how did he know this?

12 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

It was months before we could get anyone to sink a
bore. Finally an old man and his son came from Dirle-
ton. Their apparatus was primitive in the extreme and
of the same principle as an apple-corer. A hollow tube,
attached to lifting-handles, was lifted up and allowed to
fall into a small hole in the ground. ‘The core brought
up in the tube gave a profile of the strata.

After several days’ work the bore had gone down 35
feet and there was nothing to report. I was becomin
very anxious, as the work was costing £1 per foot, whic
was a lot of money in those days! Finally water was
found at 40 feet, and we went down a foot further to
make sure. The water rose to the top of the bore and
there was a flow of 350 gallons per hour. However, we
could not use it as it contained too many dissolved salts,
and it is running over to this day.

I have never encountered another human being like the
water-diviner. How did he divine water from the plan
before. he had ever” seen’ sor owalkedsover>4he
ground? How did he know the depth at which water
would be found, and the size of the resulting flow? Had
he some gift of extrasensory perception? These ques-
tions and others remain unanswered.

Two changes which! deplore are the closing of most of
the smaller village schools, and also of the village police
stations. In my time at the village school, we were
subjected to what I can only describe as the most feroci-
ous discipline, but we were very well taught, in small
classes. There were no cars or buses to provide free
transport—we walked about two miles each way, and
some children I knew walked even further.

The village ‘“‘bobby”’ of those days was held in awe and
regarded with respect. Huis ground intelligence was
excellent and certainly, as I remember it, there was no
vandalism.

Other factors which affect the quality of rural life may
be grouped under the headings of Communications and
Transport. I use the word communication in a broad
sense, to include the spoken and written word and also
live pictures of films and newsreels—in fact the mass
media. I well remember when it was quite an occasion
to be taken to see a film of any kind, and the day-to-day
_ news was provided almost exclusively by the newspap-
ers. There were very few telephones, but a much better

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 13

and cheaper postal service. The early radio receivers
were crystal sets with earphones, and from these tenuous
beginnings has come the whole system of radio and
telecommunications which we know today.

In the field of transport the vast majority of passengers
and freight travelled by rail, or by sea. There were
scarcely any civilian aircraft, and certainly no rural
buses. There were, however, trains which provided an
admirable service once you had arrived at the station. It
is true that there were cars, but often people travelled to
the station, left the car, and travelled by rail. Today no
passenger train serves any station in Berwick-
shire. North Northumberland is little better served,
and all the branch lines have gone—including the “‘Flying
Kipper” from Chathill to North Sunderland.

The bus services started up on sections of the Great
North Road about 1925, and very soon there was a good
service between Edinburgh and Newcastle. The bus
was efficient and cheap and usually reliable, more
especially so when there were two or more firms in
competition. Gradually, however, more and more
people came to own cars, and the buses attracted less and
less custom. The remaining routes which still serve the
countryside are mostly subsidised, and, even so, proba-
bly lose money.

After the first War, nearly all the freight travelled by
rail. Livestock, grain, coal, heavy machinery, ferti-
lisers, building materials, feeding-stuffs and much else
travelled in the ubiquitous railway wagon. OftenI have
sat in the signal box or porter’s cabin, waiting for a
consignment of cattle toarrive. This sometimes did not
happen till between midnight and 2 a.m. As the cattle
were usually black or dark-coloured, it was no easy job to
unload them and drive them home when the only light
was that afforded by a hurricane lamp.

Cattle were often driven by road right up to
1940. This could bea pleasant job on a good day if you
were ona quietroad. The reason for droving was that it
saved the cost of haulage—presumably what you did not
spend, you stillhad. It seen cattle no good, however,
as it tended to walk the flesh off them and induced
lameness from sore feet.

Gradually more and more livestock came to be moved
byroad. The great benefits were that it was quicker, the

14 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

animals were delivered home, the cost was about the
same or even cheaper, and the distress and injury caused
by shunting were eliminated. Now all livestock travels
by road, and British Rail no longer have any livestock
wagons. Local hauliers can deliver sheep from Lairg or
Thurso in about fifteea hours, and can carry up to 700
lambs in oneload. When these same sheep came by rail
you did not know to within twenty-four hours when
they would arrive at your local station, and then you had
to send a lorry for them, or else walk them home.

Road haulage now moves everything in the country-
side, and gives a splendid service to its rural clients.

Changes in animal husbandry and veterinary care have
been very significant, although to the outsider perhaps
not so obvious or spectacular. For the most part, pigs
and poultry have disappeared indoors where, in specially
designed buildings, they live out their days in most
unnatural and overcrowded conditions, until the time
arrives for them to go to the bacon factory or the poultry
packing station. It is a sobering thought that there are
many children of today who have never seen a clocker
with a brood of chicks—surely a most delightful
sight! Poultry are being kept in bigger and bigger
numbers by fewer and fewer people. The biggest man
in the poultry world now counts his laying hens and
broiler chickens in millions! The business is entirely
integrated. He produces the hatching eggs and puts
them in his own incubators. He rears the resulting
chickens, be they layers or broilers. He has his own egg
packing and poultry processing stations, and his own
outlets which sell or retail the entire production. He
grows a lot of the grain on his own land, this grain is used
in rations formulated in his own provender mills; he has
his own haulage, and his own construction concern
builds all the premises.

Some cattle are reared intensively during their whole
lives, and the same has been tried with sheep but with
limited success. Some dairy cows never tread a grass
field. During the growing season the grass is cut and
carted to them, and when there is no growth they still eat
grass but in the form of silage. This system of feeding
cows is known as “‘zero-grazing”’.

_ Many of the old Bae of pigs and poultry are no
longer to be seem. Poultry are purpose-bred either for

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS i5

eggs or flesh, and most of the coloured breeds of pigs are
nolongerused. The Landrace pig, which was imported
from Sweden not long after the War, has found favour
because it produces a very long, lean carcase.

Of the cattle breeds we still have all the ones from
former years. The emphasis, however, is different, as
about 70 per cent of our beef is a by-product from the
dairy industry, and comes from Friesian cattle which also
produce about 80 per cent of our liquid milk. As well as
other traditional cattle we now also have the Luing cattle,
developed on the island of that name, and also a host of
exotics which have been imported mainly from France,
Germany, Switzerland and Italy. Some of these im-
portations would seem to have a place in our current
scheme of things, but most of the others have not been
here long enough for a proper evaluation to be made.

I suppose that the discovery of a serum to protect
young lambs against the scourge of lamb dysentery,
which occurred 1n the late 1920s, was a milestone in sheep
husbandry. Later, just before the Second War, we had
the discovery of the sulfonamide drugs. These were
used to treat most domestic animals, including poultry,
and could be administered by a variety ae proce-
dures—orally, powder, injection, ointment, etcet-
era. They were effective against a wide range of ail-
ments, including pneumonia, septicaemia, and many
clostridial infections. After the last War we had access
to most of the preparations based on penicillin and its
derivatives, and results achieved were often quite spec-
tacular.

To give an example of how easy it is to treat acommon
ailment, let us consider what is known as foul of the foot in
cattle. Briefly, the animal becomes lame, is unable to
graze with the herd, quickly loses flesh, and, if a dairy
animal, the milk-yield falls off. Former treatment con-
sisted of getting the animal to a place where you could
throw it and holdit down. The cleft in the hoof had to
be cleaned with a knife and/or a clean rag. Then Stock-
holm tar was applied, the foot was bound up ina piece of
clean sacking, and with luck the beast might be fairly
sound after three weeks.

Now, as soon as you see an infected beast, you get it in,
stand it in stocks or behind a gate, and give it a sub-
cutaneous dose of a sulfonamide or an intramuscular
injection of an antibiotic. The beast will probably be

16 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

sound in about two days, and you do not even need to
touch the affected foot.

Anybody glancing into our veterinary cupboard and
seeing our collection of syringes, phials and bottles
might well think that we were drug addicts of the worst
sort. Much more veterinary surgery is now undertaken
as a matter of course. Itis not uncommon for calves or
lambs to be delivered by caesarean section. In former
days it was not worth the cost, and was rarely attempted.

Since the First World War the perfection of the tech-
niques for artificial insemination is revolutionised the
breeding of cattle. Initially the practice was confined to
dairy herds, but now it is widely used by breeders of beef
cattle also. In addition, it was found to be possible to
store bull semen for very long periods by deep-
freezing. A popular bull was thus able to sire thousands
of calves, and today there are calves being born which are
sired by ‘bulls which died several years ago.

A natural corollary of this is the development of a
technique for transplanting fertilised ova. I will not
spell out the details here, at suffice it to say that the
deciived results have been achieved, and that the implica-
tions for the future are enormous and far-reaching
indeed. We are also able to prevent illness in animals
before it strikes, as we have many excellent and well-
proven prophylactic treatments available.

It would be most remiss in an address such as this not
to say something about Flora and Fauna. These obser-
vations are not backed by any hard figures, but are
merely trends which I have observed.

It seems to me that Ragwort is spreading alarm-
ingly. Time was when it grew mostly in sand dunes
near the coast, but now it is found on many roadsides, on
the banks of streams and ditches, and even on islands
in the middle of Tweed. Another weed which has
made great inroads in recent years is the Giant Hog-
weed. It has colonised many of our river banks, it
grows to aheight of about 12% feet, and the plant exudes
an irritant which can cause dermatitis, especially in chil-
dren. Other weeds which have established themselves
of late include the Wild Oat, which is thought to have
arrived here from East Anglia in a consignment of
poorly-dressed seed grain.

~The wild rabbit population as we knew it is now

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 7/

largely a memory. It was decimated by myxomatosis
about twelve years ago. This is a horrible disease and
most distressing to see, but, having said that, there is no
doubt that rabbits were an unmitigated pest, and that we
never realised fully how much damage they did until they
were no longer there. From time to time there has
seemed to be a resurgence of rabbit numbers, but each
time the disease seems to overtake them. It is rampant
with us just now, and it seems to maintain its virulence
year after year.

Partridges seem to be fewer innumber. It is doubtful
if they are inhibited by agricultural sprays as was
thought. We have land which has never been sprayed,
and where cover in the form of double hedges is ideal, but
still the partridge fails to prosper. Itseems probable that
many of the young chicks die of pneumonia, as we often
have a wet period at the end of June and the beginning of
July, when they are most vulnerable.

It is said that the heron is making a comeback. I
would endorse this, as I have seen them this year and last
after a lapse of several years.

At this time of year we used to have hundreds of wild
geese. They used to frequent the same fields year after
year. They reached their maximum concentration in
1959. After that the numbers began to tail off, and for
the last four years we have had none at all. They still
feed on Hallyburton Moss on Greenlaw Moor, but they
have entirely deserted our part of the Merse. In 1959 we
had a Snow Goose with the usual migrants. This was a
most magnificent bird. There were other sightings of it
in the district, but it never returned.

Roe deer appear to be on the increase. We often see
them, especially in spring and early summer. With us
they do little or no damage, but people who have young
woods often consider them a nuisance.

Before the last War, I was sometimes a member of a
squad of volunteers who netted the river Glen and lower
reaches of the Bowmont. The idea was to take out the
coarse fish, mostly roach and grayling, and put back the
trout, and soimprove the rod fishing. We caught large
numbers of fish, especially in the deeper pools, and very
roughly the proportion was one-third roach, one-third
grayling, and one-third trout. The netting was discon-
tinued during the War and resumed in 1945. We were

18 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

surprised to find then that we caught ten times as many
roach as the total of all other fish put together! There
must be something to be learned from this, but I merely
record the facts as a matter of interest without making
any suggestions.

What of the quality of life in the rural areas as com-
pared with fifty years ago? One no longer sees the
grinding and abject poverty that I sometimes remember
in my youth. People have more leisure, more material
possessions, better housing and better pay, and surely
must be happier.

The farm worker does, and always has done, a magni-
ficent job. Perhaps this is because he works with rather
than for his employer. His job today is probably more
interesting than at any time in the past. He uses expen-
sive and sophisticated equipment and, given the weather,
can do a great deal of productive work ina day. Some
jobs and systems have disappeared, the criteria of others
have altered, but in my experience the farm worker
remains adaptable, capable, conscientious, honest, re-
liable, and above all cheerful. His living standards have
undoubtedly improved and I rejoice to see it so.

I now turn to a subject which is of concern to us all,
namely money!

These £1 notes are both older than I am, and you will
see that they are much larger than those we use
today. Not only are today’s notes smaller in size, but
their purchasing power has been devalued drastically.

An old man, who worked for my father for many years
as a farm steward, used to illustrate this fact all too
clearly. As a young man, before marriage, he had
worked on farms in the Bamburgh and Seahouses area,
and I do not suppose that, at that time (pre-1914), his
wage was more than eighteen shillings, or ninety new
pence, per week. Ona Saturday evening he used to be
able to go to his local public house with one shilling or
twelve old pence in his pocket. With this princely sum
he could purchase three pints of strong beer, or three
glasses of whisky. The beer was threepence per pint
and the whisky threepence per glass. With the remain-
ing threepence he could acquire one ounce of tobacco,
one clay pipe, and one box of matches!

If you live in the country and on the land, as I have been
privileged to do, you learn from painful experience that

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 19

you cannot “win them all”. This is especially so when
you go out in the morning and find a valuable animal
lying dead, even though the evening before it appeared to
be in perfect health; or when, on a day when soil and
weather conditions are perfect, an expensive implement
breaks down for no apparent reason, and urgent and vital
work has tostop. You develop a philosophical outlook
and carry on as best you can till things get better—as they
surely will.

When I read or hear of all the tragedies, strife, and
disorder in other parts of our land, I tend to count my
blessings, and I am glad that I have had my life in such
beautiful surroundings and with so many kind and
delightful people.

I think you will agree that there have been great
changes in our rural life. To the outsider they may not
be very spectacular, but now, thanks to the continued
application of the results of research, we produce more
from the land than ever before, and with decidedly less
toil, sweat, and tears.

In conclusion I would like to read the Ploughman’s Ode,
which is by an author unknown, but seems to symbolise
the continuing spirit of our countryside:

The gate swings closed, the task is o’er,
The furrows afi are deep and straight,
The ploughman smiles in honest pride,
And slowly shuts the gate.

Satisfied he wends his way

To his home and evening’s rest,

And sleeps the sleep that comes alone
To him who’s done his best.

Each task will end, each gate will swing,
Each ploughman will go home to rest,
And furrows left upon the field

Should say, He ploughed his best.

THE CLUBIN 1974

Durinc 1974 the office of President was held by Mr. A. R.
Little, and that of Vice-President by the Rev. J. C. Lusk.

In the course of the year, the Club accepted with much regret
the resignation of Mr. W. Ryle Elliot from the office of Secret-
ary, after a tenure of eighteen years. It was agreed to divide
the duties until then performed by him: accordingly, Mr. T. D.
Thomson became Corresponding Secretary, and Mr. and Mrs,
D. Mackenzie Robertson joint Field Secretaries.

As is customary, six principal meetings were held during the
season:

(1) On 8th May the Club visited GREENLAW and
LaAuDER. Members were addressed, first in Greenlaw Kirk by
the Rev. F. Levison, and then at the Town Hall by Sir Robert
McEwen of Marchmont, Bt., who described the campaign
through which the building had recently been preserved, with
the new function of a swimming-pool. Proceeding to
Lauder, they were received by the Rev. R. F. James at the Old
Kirk, the tercentenary of which had occurred a year ear-
lier. The day ended with a visit to Thirlestane Castle, under
the guidance of Captain The Hon. Gerald Maitland-Carew.

(2) On 13th June the Club went south to County Durham,
visiting the medieval priory of FINCHALE and the classical
GissIDE Chapel. At Finchale, Mr. Lang and Mr. Piper of the
University of Durham had kindly arranged to be present, and
their commentaries greatly helped our understanding of the
site.

(3) On 10th July the Club had the privilege of viewing two
Northumberland manor-houses of the seventeenth cen-
tury-—CAPHEATON Hall and MitrorpD—through the kindness
of Mr. J. Browne-Swinburne and Mr. T. C. H. Sanderson
respectively. Mitford Castle was visited, and also the Church
of St. Mary Magdalene, where members were addressed by the
Rev. John Richardson.

(4) On 8th August the Club travelled to HaAppDING-
TON. Members were welcomed in St. Mary’s Parish Church
by Mr. J.G.S. Macphail, Secretary to the Friends of St. Mary’s,
~ and Mr. F. S. Mills, Clerk to the Session, who reviewed the

20

THE CLUB IN 1974 21

history of the church and the restoration then in prog-
ress. During the afternoon the burgh was toured under the
guidance of staff from the County Planning Department.

(5) On 4th September the Club once more met in Northum-
berland. In the morning the achievements of the VIN-
DOLANDA Trust, at the fort of that name, were studied. A
visit was then made to HEXHAM Abbey, where members saw
work ranging from the Saxon crypt of Wilfrid’s seventh-
century church to the 1974 organ by Lawrence Phelps of
Pennsylvania.

(6) The Annual General Meeting took place on 10th
October. A General Election on that day had made it imprac-
ticable to meet in the morning. In the afternoon, however,
Mr. A. R. Little delivered his Anniversary Address on Fifty
Years of Rural Change, and introduced Dr. G. A. C. Binnie as
the new Vice-President.

* The year’s activities had also included a Nature Walk in the
grounds of MIDDLETON estate, near Belford (8th June), and a
Botanical Meeting on CATTLESHIEL Moor (17th August). An
account of the latter will be found in these pages.

CONFERENCE

Reapers of these Proceedings may care to be reminded of the
annual ROXBURGHSHIRE HisTORICAL CONFERENCES. Founded
in 1967 by Roxburgh County Council and the University of
Edinburgh, they are occasions for the giving of papers on
varied periods and aspects of Border history. The 1975 con-
ference will take place in Kelso on 8th and 9th November,
when the theme will be Border Life in the Eighteenth Cen-
tury. Details may be had from Mr. B. C. Skinner, University
of Edinburgh, 11 Buccleuch Place, Edinburgh, 8.

THE MARJORIBANKS HATCHMENT
IN LADYKIRK CHURCH

By Major C. J. DIXON-JOHNSON

THE arms on the hatchment in Ladykirk Church may be
described as gules three wolves’ heads erased argent armed and
langued azure, all within a bordure argent (for Robertson), and
in pretence a small shield charged with thesamearms. Below
each shield lies fesswise a naked chained man proper. Above
the shield is a baron’s coronet, and on a wreath of the colours a
dexter cubit arm proper charged with a cross-crosslet gules,
the hand holding an imperial crown also proper.

The supporters on either side are two bay horses with black
manes and tails and white harness, each having a gold chain
about the neck from which hang shields bearing the arms
argent on a chief gules between two mullets pierced a cushion
argent being the arms of Marjoribanks.

Above the shield are the words VIRTUTIS GLORIA MERCES, and
below the shield ADVANCE WITH COURAGE.

The dexter half of the background is black and the sinister
half white, showing that Lady Marjoribanks survived her hus-
band.

The hatchment is in memory of David, Lord Marjoribanks
of Ladykirk. The fourth son of Sir John Marjoribanks of
Lees, Baronet, he was born in 1797 and married in 1834 Mar-
rianne Sarah, daughter and co-heiress of Sir Thomas Haggers-
ton, Baronet, and co-heiress of her mother Margaret, only
child of William Robertson of Ladykirk.

David Marjoribanks took the name and arms of Robertson
in 1834, and was created Baron Marjoribanks of Ladykirk on
12th June 1873, dying on the 19th of the same month. Lady
Marjoribanks of Ladykirk died in 1889 and their elder daugh-
ter, the Hon. Sarah Robertson, married in 1856 Watson Askew
of Palinsburn, who in 1890 assumed by Royal Licence for
himself alone the additional name and arms of Robertson,
following his wife’s accession to the Ladykirk estate.

Duncan, son of Robert chief of Clan Robertson, having with
great courage and intrepidity apprehended the murderers of
James I, had been granted by James II the crest and motto above
the arms, and the wild man in chains was also adopted in
commemoration of the same event.

Reference may be made to HBNC XXXIII, 175-8, from
which some of the above is taken.

22

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS
(X)

By DUNCAN NOBLE, M.A.

THE fifth season of excavation took place from 8th to 20th
April 1974. The team included Mr. W. J. Webb, assistant
director; Miss P. James, site supervisor; Mrs. B. Coulton, B.A.
and Mr. J. Curtis, B.A., archaeological assistants. Taking part
were students from Whitelands College, Putney, and the Uni-
versity of London Department of Extra-Mural Studies.

We wish to express our gratitude to the President, Commit-
tee and Members of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club for
their sponsorship and financial support. Much of the burden
of the pre-excavation arrangements was born by Mr. T. D.
Thomson, to whom we owe a great deal.

To Mr. R. D. Birch, M.A., Director of Education for Ber-
wickshire, and the Berwickshire County Council Education
Committee go our heartfelt thanks for their generosity in
providing a grant towards the expenses of excavation.

Our thanks are due 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,
to which they contributed much.

To Dr. J. Hazeldene Walker, of Whitelands College, we are
grateful for much assistance and advice on the planning of the
dig.
Visitors to the site included Mr. P. J. Ashmore, of the
Department of the Environment. His interest and advice
were very welcome.

Excavation this year was undertaken first of all in the area of
the cloisters. The object was to search for a portion of the
wall between the cloister walk and the conventual buildings to
the east, amid the walls in the ornamental gardens south of the
church. By local repute some of these walls are of recent
date. It was also the intention to look for a floor which might
be related to such a wall and to examine the details of the
construction of the wall and floor.

Area D5 (see plan) was opened therefore east of the cloister
garth where there was likely to be found, in a part currently
given over to a flower bed, a wall of ancient date. A wall in

23

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS (X) 25

such a spot ought to have been the wall between the cloister
walk and the room south of the Chapter House.

In the area a wall was found (see Plate 1) aligned north and
south. It was 1.50 m. wide and a length of 3.70 m. was
uncovered. To the south of the area excavated it had been
completely robbed out, which allowed us to draw a section
through the wall. There are indications that the wall may
continue to the north of the area excavated.

The fabric of the wall is of large red sandstone rubble set in
mortar. No ashlar faces survive on the excavated portion,
nor is there any indication that they existed.

On the west side of the wall is a concrete surface 5-7 cm.
thick, made of small flint pebbles in yellow mortar. It is
much less distinct in plan close to the wall, although clear in
section, and it extends only for a distance of between 0.80 m.
and 1.34 m. westwards from the wall.

No archaeological context survived to the east of the wall,
but it could be seen that of the two other walls which run from
the east to meet the wall we excavated, the southern one is
modern and a fanciful piece of ruin-building earlier this cen-
tury; while the northern one, except for its top course which 1s
modern, is contemporary with and bonded into the excavated
north-south wall. [Oak the northern wall is shown in this
year’s plan.)

The wall was built on bedrock, with larger stones in the
lowesttwocourses. Thereis on the eastern side only a found-
ation ledge which meets the ledge of the foundations of the
southern face of the south wall of the Chapter House.

To the west of the wall the section showed in descending
order the following levels (see drawing of section):

1. The soil over the top of the wall. This is brown loam
which formed the flower bed which covered the area prior to
excavation.

2. A band of brown loam 22 cm. thick whose top is on a
level with the top of the wall. This is interpreted as make-up
of fairly recent date. At the bottom of this layer is the con-
crete surface. From the character of the mortar used in this
concrete and the stratigraphy of the area it appears as if the
concrete surface is of the same date as the wall: medieval.

3. A layer of brown clayish loam 11 cm. thick, interpreted
as being make-up under the concrete surface.

4. A band of brown loam with pebbles and stones in
it. The top of this layer is horizontal, while the bottom rises
up towards the wall and at a distance of some 70 cm. from the
wall again rises away from the wall. This layer has the
appearance of soil mixed with builder’s rubble and it is likely,
notwithstanding the upward slope of the bottom of the layer
towards the wall, that the layer is associated with the building

26 COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS (X)

of this wall and that the surface below this layer was the ground
level at the time of building.

5. The lowest layer is loamy clay with stones init. This
has all the appearance of undisturbed soil.

No clear indication of a foundation trench could be detected.

The concrete surface is in the position of the cloister
walk. There is no direct evidence that it is the actual surface of
the walk, but itis probable that it is the decayed remains of the
floor of the walk. It is not the type of surface found at
Coldingham underlying a floor like that of the Chapter House,
which was flagged. So the walk was, we think, of this soft
concrete. It is some 40 cm. above the level of the Chapter
House floor.

This area would repay further excavation to discover more
of the wall and floor to the west and north. Eventually the
manner in which the cloisters meet with the church must be
investigated. The concrete surface found this year is well
above the absolute level of the two ground surfaces found
adjacent to Edgar’s Walls in 1972! and 1s just 16 cm. below the
level of the threshold of the blocked-up doorway which led
from the conventual buildings to the Abbey Yard Field. An
extension of excavation in this area should do much to tie
together different parts of the site and show how they were
terraced.

Excavation was continued this year in the Abbey Yard Field.

North of the Chapter House the area was extended.
Twenty cm. above the absolute level of the Chapter House
floor and 3.00 m. north of it were found the fragmentary
remains of two surfaces. One had onit pieces of stained glass
of the kind found east of the church in 1972? and it ey tO
be related to post-Reformation destruction.

Under these surfaces and on the same absolute ec as the
Chapter House floor but starting 3.00 m. to the north of it is a
black surface with stones embedded in it. This surface
extends eastwards as far as a shallow gulley, and east of that is
agricultural soil. Between the stony surface and the remains
of the north wall of the Chapter House is a red surface contain-
ing crushed sandstone.

There are visible signs that both to the north and south of the
Chapter House the Phase IV walls, now partially robbed out,
originally extended as far as the east end of the Chapter
House. The heavier Phase III walls were investigated beyond
the stage reached during the 1973 season.3 On the north and
south of the Chapter House the Phase III walls exist only to the
extent uncovered in earlier years, not reaching to the east end of
the Chapter House. Mention was made in the 1973 report of
two parallel layers of crushed sandstone south of the Chapter
‘Noble: Sabo OKI 102:

2Noble: o
3Noble: HBNC XX XIX, 178.

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS (X) 27

House. These were further examined and found to go down
to the depth of the foundations of the Phase III wall and to
follow its alignment eastwards beyond the eastern wall of the
Chapter House. This feature is composed of crushed sand-
stone and mortar, often appearing as thin irregular
layers. There is no corresponding feature to the north of the
Chapter House. As to its interpretation, judgment is defer-
red.

Further excavation was undertaken of the mass of rubble
mortared together which was found south of the southern wall
of the Chapter House and lying ata slight angle toit. To the
east this is contiguous to a feature composed of closely-packed
stones lying on their edges. This disappears into the unexca-
vated ground east of the area of operations. It should be the
site of further excavation.

To the south of this last feature, and running parallel to it,
there is found a wall of not very solid construction. For part
ofits lengthitis robbed out. Meeting this at right angles to its
south side is another wall, suggesting a building divided into
two rooms. Stratified green glazed pottery was found
associated with the silting-up of the remains of this building.

CONCLUSIONS

Part of the cloister walk was found, as well as a stretch of the
wall between the walk and the room south of the Chapter
House. This area gave a great deal of information on the
construction of walls and floors at Coldingham and pointed
the way to future operations.

The 1973 work north of the Chapter House was continued
and more learned about the surfaces there.

The complicated southern wall of the Chapter House was
further investigated.

South of the Chapter House there was found a building with
stratified medieval pottery in it.

The work this year produced new architectural features and
gave indications that the buildings on the site might be built on
a series of terraces rather on just two. The season’s excava-
tions also were a considerable advance towards the construc-
tion of a chronology of the phases of Coldingham Priory.

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS
(XI)

By T. D. THOMSON, M.A., F.S.A.SCOT.

FOR the past two years the Club’s own activities at Colding-
ham have been limited. Some further work has been done on
Baulk 4 in Edgar’s Walls, revealing more of the postholes at
present associated with the post-1216 reconstruction
period. Finds consisted only of the familiar yellow-green
glazed pottery. A small party of seniors from Eyemouth
High School worked hard and well in this area in June 1974,
and it is hoped that similar parties will come in future years.

A party of the Conservation Corps were again with us at
Easter 1974, and considerably improved the cloister area by
removing much of the modern boundary wall between the
cloister garth and Edgar’s Walls so that the latter can be seen
properly as part of the Priory complex. A further small
deposit of sherds of the familiar type was found in the core of
this wall while it was being dismantled; it would appear to have
been part of a shovelfull of filling.

Preservation work, at the expense of the County Council
but organised by the Club, has continued. More has been
done on the north wall of Edgar’s Walls, and the top and
exterior of the east wall have been made good.

AWARD

THE Council of the Club has decided to offer an annual prize of
the value of five pounds to the contributor of the best paper to
the History by a member who has not contributed previously,
beginning with the issue for 1975.

Papers entered for this prize must be sent to the Editin
Secretary not later than 31st December of the year concerned,
and must be typewritten, double-spaced and on one side of the
sheet only. They must be entered under anom de plume and be
accompanied by a sealed envelope bearing the nom de plume on
the outside and containing the contributor’s name and address.

Adjudication will be by a panel consisting of the President,
Vice-President and Editing Secretary, who bane entire discre-
tion in the matter. No correspondence will be entered into
about any awards made, and submission of a paper does not
guarantee publication.

28

eae Or TWO PAINTINGS
By Sir TRESHAM LEVER, Bt.

ONE day during the autumn of 1972 I chanced to lunch at a
London club of which I am a member, but which unfortu-
nately I have little opportunity to visit. I was descending the
stairs—rather carefully as they are broad and steep—when, on
looking casually to the right, something familiar arrested my
attention.

For a few seconds my mind was a blank: then the truth came
tomeinaflash. The two paintings on the opposite wall were
of Walter Scott the fifth of Raeburn and his wife Jean, daughter
of Robert Scott of Sandyknowe, uncle and aunt of Sir Walter
Scott.

The artist’s small preliminary paintings hang in the armoury
at Abbotsford, but this was the first time I had set eyes on the
finished portraits. The secretary of the club informed me that
they co there for some years, at first on loan from a
member, and, after the member’s death, by purchase at a
modest figure from his son.

I explained that the Scotts of Raeburn had been lairds of
Lessudden at St. Boswells in Roxburghshire for just over three
centuries, that these portraits had undoubtedly hung in the
house for many years, and that my wife and I, the present
owners of the property, must feel that they should return home
after their exile. Would the committee sell the paintings?

The secretary said, probably yes, but at a price less modest
than the one for which the club had acquired them. The deal
was in due course concluded, and the two paintings, restored
and reframed, have returned to the house from which they
came.

This Walter Scott (1746-1830) and his wife (1737-1828) were
cousins; so Jean Scott was Sir Walter’s aunt by blood as well as
by marriage. The great man had much affection for his
aunt—Lady Raeburn as he habitually called her—and thus
described her on a visit he paid to Lessudden when she was
almost ninety years of age:

My aunt is now in her ninetieth year—so clean, so nice, so well arranged in

every respect, that it makes old age lovely. She talks both of late and

former events with perfect possession of her faculties and has only failed in
her limbs. A great deal of kind feeling has survived in spite of the frost of
years.

The “frost of years” had been intense, for Sir Walter detested

29

Sir John Watson Gordon

R. Clapperto ih)

PLATE 2. Walter Scott of Raeburn.
(By courtesy of Sir Tresham Lever, Bt.)

|
I
§ John Watson Gordon R. Clapperton

PLATE 3. Jean, wife of Walter Scott of Raeburn.
(By courtesy of Sir Tresham Lever, Bt.)

32 A TALE OF TWO PAINTINGS

his uncle—the old Caliban, he called him. Raeburn was cer-
tainly an unpleasant personality—eccentric, selfish and, what is
worse, mean. Though very well off, he would part with
nothing to his children.

Thus in May 1826, when Lady Scott was dying, his daughter
Barbara walked to Abbotsford to see her, and, though Scott
offered the use of his carriage, insisted on returning to Lessud-
den on foot, a walk of some seventeen miles. “The old Cali-
ban, her father will not even allow her a pony,” records Sir
Walter, “‘and I believe makes my aunt lay out all the interest of
her own fortune and Barbara’s to keep the family and save his
own wretched pelf.”’

The fate of Raeburn’s eldest son William, usually known as
Willie, was even worse, for he too could obtain no help from
his father, and his needs were great. Poor Willie had ten
children (twelve in fact), as Sir Walter Scott, who was trying to
help him, told Lord Montagu,

and may have God knows how many more for his wife will breed and his
father my much honoured [uncle] will not die. So there are many mouths
and I fear very little meat for the old trojan will not part with a penny
though he has an estate of £1200 a year.

And a couple of weeks later:

I have great hope he will soon give the crows a pudding in which case the
devil may wear black for I will get a suit of sables as Hamlet saith.

Nine years were to elapse before Walter Scott of Raeburn
gave ‘the crows a pudding”: and, when he did, Sir Walter for
form’s sake attended the funeral in the burial aisle at Lessudden,
but had nothing good to say about his relative: “‘I came here to
attend Raeburn’s funeral,’ he wrote,

Iam near of his kin, my great grandfather Walter Scott being the second son
or first Cadet of this small family. My late kinsman was also married to
my aunt, a most amiable old lady. He was never kind to me and at last
utterly ungracious. Of course I never liked him and we kept no
terms. He had forgot though an infantine cause of quarrell whichI always
remembered. When] was four or five years old I was stayin[g] at Lessud-
den house, an old mansion, the abode of this raeburn. A large pigeon
house was almost destroyd with Starlings, then a common bird though
now seldom seen. They were seized in their nests and put in a bag and I
think drowned or thre[sJhd to death or put to some such end. The
servants gave one to me which I in some degree tamed and the brute of a
laird seized and wrung its [neck]. _I flew at his throat like a wild cat and
was torn from him with no little difficulty. Long afterwards I did him the
mortal offence to recall some superiority which my father had lent to the
Laird to make up a qualification which he meant to exercise by voting for
Lord Minto’s interest against poor Don [Sir Alexander Don, M.P. for
Roxburghshire and a great friend of Scott’s]. This made a total breach
between t[w]o relations who had never been friends and though I was
afterwards of consid[e]r[a]ble service to his family he kept his ill-humour
allegeing justly enough that I did these kind actions for the services of his
wife and family not his benefit. [now saw him at the age of eighty two or
three deposited in the ancestral grave, dined with my cousins and returned
to Abbotsford about cight o'clock.

A TALE OF TWO PAINTINGS 33

The two portraits of Walter and Jean Scott of Raeburn were
painted in 1820 by an artist destined to be greatly admired and
popular, Sir John Watson Gordon, president of the Royal
Scottish Academy, but at that date a young man of thirty
making his way. They must have hung at Lessudden until the
death of Willie Scott in 1855, after having been laird since his
father’s death a quarter of a century earlier. After Willie’s
death family affairs went from bad to worse under the last two
lairds, Robert and Walter Scott, and at some uncertain date
towards the end of the last century the paintings were removed
from Lessudden to a more prosperous branch of the family.

Walter and Jean’s third son, Hugh, had done better for
himself than the feckless Willie. He had been in the service of
the East India Company and had made his small pile. On his
return home he had married an heiress, Sarah, daughter of
William Jessop of Butterley Hall, near Derby, and had bought
the neighbouring estate of Draycott upon which he built the
large Victorian mansion known as Draycott Hall.

Here Hugh and Sarah Scott settled down to a happy married
life, marred only by the fact that their marriage was child-
less. Accordingly, on his death in 1852 Hugh had left the
property to Willie’s fourth son William Hugh. He had mar-
ried Sarah, eldest daughter of Alfred Fellows, and died in 1906
leaving two sons and two daughters.

The elder son, Hugh, succeeded to the Draycott
estate. This Lieutenant-Colonel Hugh Scott had two sons,
both of whom died unmarried, and on the death of the elder,
Haliburton Scott, in 1939 the estate passed to a distant relative,
Haliburton Mortimer.

This owner and his family do not seem to have lived at
Draycott, for the house had by this time fallen into a state of
disrepair, and he removed the paintings of Walter and Jean
Scott to his London house in Cadogan Square, where they
hung untilthe war. After the war the owner lent them to his
club, and after his death his son sold them to the club.

There they were when I chanced to see them for the first
time. Now they hang on the stairs at Lessudden, having
returned home after an absence of at least a century.

This article, which first appeared in “The Scotsman” of 13th July

1974, was felt to be of especial interest to members of the Berwickshire

Naturalists’ Club. Some months before his death, Sir Tresham

Lever with characteristic kindness had agreed to its being reprinted in
these pages.

THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE
AND ST. ANDREW’S PRIORY
AT NORTHAMPTON

By KEITH STRINGER

University of Lancaster

IT is too easily forgotten that the turbulent history of the
Border zone during the later Middle Ages, and of Anglo-
Scottish relations in general, stands in sharp contrast to the
many years of peace and friendly contact between the realms
prior to Edward I’s attempts to subdue Scotland in
1296. Despite occasional hostility and discord Scots kings
from Malcolm Canmore to Alexander III had enjoyed impres-
sive personal and territorial connections south of the Tweed
ent they fully exploited to attract into Scotland barons and
knights, and merchants and churchmen, from Norman Eng-
land and other parts of the French-speaking world in order to
strengthen and extend their rule in the northern king-
dom. Amongst the most important incomers from the Ber-
wickshire point of view were those Flemish merchants
recorded at Berwick from the early twelfth century,'! whose
enterprise helped to secure for this burgh the position of Scot-
land’s premier port. Around the same time Norman and
Breton landlords came in from England to join forces with the
Northumbrian house of Cospatrick, later the earls of Dunbar,
in stamping a new concept of feudal authority upon the fertile
lowlands of the Merse. The Morevilles quickly gained the
rich prize of Lauderdale and by 1200 lesser estates had been
hammered into shape by the Eus, Lindsays, Stewarts and Vie-
uxponts. In the same century Berwickshire saw the founda-
tion of three convents of Cistercian nuns, of a Premonstraten-
sian abbey and a Benedictine priory.

A good deal of attention has been focused on the substantial
contribution that these forms of commercial, aristocratic and
ecclesiastical colonisation made to the life of Scotland as a
whole. But this concentration upon the country of the mig-
rants’ destination has obscured the fact that the incoming lay
familics from Norman England and northern France were
often just as anxious to keep in close touch with the back-
ground from which they had sprung as they were to pursue
34

:

THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE 35

their new commitments across the Tweed. There is also a
danger of neglecting the interests which contemporary
families of native ‘“Scots”’ descent, besides the Canmore dynas-
ty, had the luck and opportunity to build up outside the Scot-
tish kingdom. Although we have been taught that the Border
was stabilised along roughly its present line in the east in the
eleventh century and in the west by the mid-twelfth century,
for such men the Tweed-Solway boundary was not the obsta-
cle it became during the years of protracted warfare from 1296
when, undeniably, it began to shape into a firm barrier between
the realms. Indeed, as this study of the early lords of Lauder-
dale will suggest, the Border can be shown to have been of no
real significance in their private concerns and activities.

* * *

Ineeor, imaortly before 1100 the first Senlis .earl of
Huntingdon-Northampton settled a community of Cluniac
monks at St. Andrew’s, Northampton, with an endowment of
parish churches, lands and other property mainly confined to
Northamptonshire itself. Later gifts were never sufficient to
raise the priory to the level of a large ecclesiastical landowner
and so far as can be judged it mostly depended upon local
support of the kind that an unpretentious house of monks
could usually expect to receive in medieval England. But one
particular feature of its fairly meagre resources compels atten-
tion. Among the priory’s surviving muniments are copies of
three charters which show that during the first years of the
thirteenth century St. Andrew’s added a small estate in Ber-
wickshire to its existing possessions. This property com-
prised: (1) a ploughgate in Newbigging (in Lauder parish)
given by Helen de Moreville shortly before her death in 1217;
(2) an annual rent of five marks from ““Grombelau”’ (uniden-
tified), Redpath (in Earlston) and Glengelt (in Channelkirk)
granted by Helen’s son Alan, lord of Galloway (d.1234). In
addition Helen’s other son or stepson, Earl Thomas of Atholl
(d.1231), gave the same priory a yearly pension of two marks
from “‘Newland” (nova terra) in Tweeddale, possibly identifi-
able with Harehope (in Eddleston), Peeblesshire.2 These gifts
of Scottish property to St. Andrew’s at Northampton provide
an excellent illustration of the lack of concern for the Border in
the affairs of an important baronial family in Scotland during
the early thirteenth century; and we are encouraged to dig
deeper into this family’s history in an attempt to uncover a little
more about its activities and attitudes.

It is unnecessary to go back further than the first half of the
twelfth century when a small band of apparently landless
Normans left their home at Morville in the northern part of the

36 THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE

Cotentin in the hopes of making names for themselves on the
other side of the English Channel. William de Moreville
crossed over into Dorset in the wake of the powerful
Vernon-Reviers clan, his family’s overlords in Normandy, and
was installed as a minor landowner at Bradpole.4 Geoffrey
and Herbert de Moreville made a better move, setting them-
selves up in Yorkshire and the Midlands as prominent tenants
of the Mowbray honour.5 Yet another of these migrants
from Morville, and by far the most successful, was Helen de
Moreville’s grandfather, Hugh. His first notable appearance
is about the early 1120s when he is described in a charter by the
future David I, king of Scots, as one of David’s “‘nobles and
knights”.6 King David secured for him a tenancy in the
English honour of Huntingdon which had recently passed by
marriage into the Scottish royal family, and much greater
rewards awaited Hugh in Scotland itself. By 1140 David had
promoted him to the prestigious office of constable for the
northern realm and for services past or anticipated he estab-
lished Hugh in Berwickshire and Ayrshire with the two mas-
sive fiefs of Lauderdale and Cunningham.’ Thus thanks to
his attachment to the Scots king Hugh’s journey from Morville
proved more than worthwhile. He had rapidly climbed from
humble origins to a position of enormous wealth and status,
and before his death in 1162 he catered for his soul in a manner
appropriate to a baron of the highest standing by founding the
two abbeys of Dryburgh and Kilwinning, one for each of his
Scottish lordships.

As Hugh’s career amply demonstrates, Scotland offered
considerable opportunities to men of Anglo-Norman stock in
the first decades of the twelfth century. Lauderdale, with its
castle at Lauder and the abbey of Dryburgh, was probably the
chief basis of Hugh’s new-found wealth, and it was at
Dryburgh that he took the habit of a canon regular just before
he died.® This estate, together with Cunningham and the
constableship of Scotland, passed from Hugh to his son
Richard and then to Richard’s own son, William. But in
Hugh’s case, as in others, the sudden rise to fame and power
north of the Tweed did not mean that he and his immediate
family were either prepared or forced to renounce their ties
with the environment from which they had emerged. This is
clearly seen in the marriages of Richard and Hugh’s daughter
Ada, both of whom married into the social milieu of Norman
England. Ada became the wife of Roger Bertram I, lord of
Mitford in Northumberland, by about 1171; and it is worth
adding that the main branch of the Bertrams had held property
adjacent to Morville at Bricquebec and Magneville from the
- mid-eleventh century.? By 1170 Richard de Moreville mar-
ried Avice, daughter of William de Lancaster I, whose family,

THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE oi

in spite of its Anglo-Scandinavian ancestry, had survived the
Norman Conquest as substantial landowners in north-western
England.!°

The point to stand out above all, however, is that when
Hugh de Moreville made his fortune in Scotland he did not
relinquish his existing possessions in England. For many
years Hugh and his descendants retained this property in their
own hands and lost no opportunity to augment it. In the
medieval period marriage itself usually entailed the transfer of
land, and with Avice Richard had gained a large estate based on
Lonsdale in the West Riding of Yorkshire.!? Richard’s mar-
riage therefore confirmed not only his family’s social but also
its territorial affiliations with Norman England. Earlier, in
1157, when Malcolm IV surrendered Northumberland, Cum-
berland and Westmorland to Henry II, it looks very much as if
King Henry accepted Richard’s (? younger) brother Hugh as
his tenant for the lordship of Westmorland or Appleby.!? In
this year Henry gave the same Hugh the great manor of
Knaresborough, and when young Hugh subsequently entered
the annals of general history as one of those who took part in
the assassination of Archbishop Thomas Becket, he was
described by Becket’s chaplain and biographer, Herbert of
Bosham, as a leading member of King Henry’s baronial fol-
lowing. Certainly, this son of a Moreville lord of Lauderdale
had no difficulty in rising to territorial prominence (and even-
tual notoriety) under the English crown. But whether young
Hugh was originally given Westmorland and Knaresborough
as hereditary fiefs is not clearly known, and in any event his
acquisitions were not fully incorporated within the family
patrimony. Lineal descendants of his father Hugh constabu-
larius are found exercising some form of lordship over a couple
of manors around Appleby in the thirteenth century, and in
1279 they eroded, the whole Westmorland lordship iure
hereditario but were amerced by Edward I’s justices for making
a ‘‘false claim”’.13. The constable’s family was more successful
in retaining its lands in Lonsdale and the honour of Hunting-
don; it was this property which formed the core of the English
inheritance of the early lords of Lauderdale.

The Lonsdale estate was far from the fees in the Huntingdon
honour and each of these enclaves of English property was
remote from Lauderdale or Cunningham. But although such
scattered interests posed many problems of administration
there was no attempt to sell off or exchange the Lonsdale and
Huntingdon possessions in order to strengthen the more valu-
able concentrations of wealth in Berwickshire and Ayrshire; no
hint of a thorough reorganisation according to the dictates of
economic and administrative convenience. These estates in
England were obviously important to the Moreville lords of

38 THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE

Lauderdale and they maintained a firm stake in the English
countryside by keeping some of this property as demesne
rather than tenanted land. In the Huntingdon honour, for
example, they evidently had a park at Whissendine, Rut-
land. Perhaps it was there or in nearby Charnwood Forest
that Malcolm, another of Richard de Moreville’s brothers, met
his death in a hunting accident.14_ In short, the Border was
largely irrelevant to this Moreville scheme of landhold-
ing. We can reasonably suppose that Lauderdale more than
Cunningham formed the nucleus of their estates, their princi-
pal: ‘seat: and theé@eéconomic «centre. of gravity of their
wealth. But the Morevilles regularly travelled across the
Tweed, conserving their lands in Lonsdale and the honour of
Huntingdon as carefully as they exploited their greater con-
cerns in Scotland.45 And before the family died out in the
male line in 1196 all of this property in the two kingdoms, no
matter how acquired or how dispersed, had assumed the iden-
tity of a single unit of lordship, of one cross-Border inheri-
tance.

War between the realms naturally threatened the unity of the
property. But this is not to say that the sporadic outbreaks of
hostility between England and Scotland in the twelfth century
seriously disrupted the Anglo-Scottish landholding of the
elder Hugh de Moreville and his heirs. Following the Scot-
tish invasions of England during King Stephen’s reign, in
which this Hugh was actively engaged,!© the Scots king was
dispossessed of the honour of Huntingdon and Hugh’s fees in
that lordship were taken from him. Nevertheless, it is
instructive that about 1152 Hugh’s wife, Beatrice de
Beauchamp, tried to dispose of property in the honour at
Bozeat, Northants., for although her rights there were at once
contested,” the family was clearly not prepared to write off the
Huntingdon fees as a total loss; and in ict Hugh was reinstated
in them in 1157 when the honour was restored to Malcolm
IV. During the war of 1173-4 Richard de Moreville also
forfeited his English concerns. But after a new entente was
negotiated between the crowns in the latter year Richard man-
aged to recover rents at Whissendine.1® He also reached an
agreement with the Knights Templars on the assumption that
other losses in the Huntingdon honour would eventually be
made good, and whilst it is true that Richard did not live to see
this happer ied 1
obstructive attitude of Earl David of Huntingdon than to
continued disfavour at the English court.19 In Yorkshire he
regained his Lonsdale holding by buying back the land “from
the hands of William de Stuteville” for 300 marks, a huge sum
in those days and a measure of the high regard in which he held
‘this property.2° Thus when war disturbed the predomin-

THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE 39

antly peaceful relationship between the kingdoms, and the
Moreville lords of Lauderdale were forced to opt for one side
against the other, England and the English lands took second
place to Scotland. Yet when that happened they did not give
up the Lonsdale and Huntingdon estates as lost for ever and
their landholding links with England, though temporarily
undermined, were not permanently broken. With the return
of peace the connections were reconstituted.

Let us move on a stage further. The Morevilles of Lauder-
dale were like any other medieval magnates in that the claims
of family and of piety, and the need to attach to themselves a
strong body of lay supporters, imposed recurrent demands
upon their resources in land. Unfortunately there is not
enough information to see how these pressures worked out in
detail. But since distance and frontiers occupied no predo-
minant place in the Moreville mind, it is perhaps no surprise to
learn from the fragmentary evidence alia oes survive that
these men readily involved others from outside Scotland in the
organisation of their Berwickshire property. In 1150 Hugh
de Moreville arranged for his new foundation at Dryburgh to
be colonised by canons sent out from Alnwick abbey.?!
When Ada married Roger Bertram she brought to the Ber-
trams an interest at Nenthorn and thereby the lords of Mitford,
like the canons at Alnwick, extended their concerns from
Northumberland into southern Scotland.2*, Ona more gen-
eral note, the great dynasties of St. Clair (Sinclair) and Haig,
whose origins lie in western Normandy, clearly owed their
original advancement in the Scottish kingdom to Moreville
support.2? The Norman family of Masculus, ancestor of the
Maules, was also closely associated with the Morevilles in
Scotland.24 None of these three lineages can be directly
linked with Moreville estates south of the Tweed, although the
St. Clairs had property near the family’s fees in the Hunting-
don honour.?> But Alan of Clapham, another Moreville vas-
sal in Scotland, took his name from a village in Lonsdale with
which his family was still connected in the early fourteenth
century.2© His father Uhtred had served as priest of Clapham
around the time that this place had passed into Moreville hands
through Richard’s Lancaster marriage, and Alan himself was
soon ensconced at Addinston beside Cleekhimin Burn, six
miles north of Lauder, by grant of Richard’s son and heir
William.?7. Another highlight in Alan’s career was his
appointment as sheriff of Lauder by 1203; then since he had
‘prepared for his old age by buying himself into the spiritual
fellowship of Furness abbey, he apparently retired to end his
days in this Lancashire monastery.?8 But his descendants
continue to crop up in Scottish sources and, as the Clephanes,
they are still with us today.

40 THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE

It therefore seems quite plain that the Moreville lords of
Lauderdale were more than just prominent barons in Scotland
who also had lands in England and strong ties with northern
France, for they deliberately manipulated their network of
contacts outside the Scottish kingdom in order to attract others
from the Anglo-Norman world to share in their own cross-
Border interests. The scraps of information about Alan of
Clapham, showing how the vassal of a Norman baron in
Scotland was recruited direct from the lord’s property south of
the Border, are particularly enlightening. We may note, too,
that when nell married Beatrice de Beauchamp she appears
to have been assigned dower both in Berwickshire and the
Huntingdon honour, and that Dryburgh abbey’s original
endowment, though it mainly comprised property in the
Morevilles’ Scottish patrimony, also inelodedaes Northamp-
tonshire church of Bozeat.2? These lords of Lauderdale
thought of their complex of lands in England and Scotland as a
single entity and it was natural for them to create close links
between one part of their estate and another.

A family’s achievements in the past are not, of course, a firm
guarantee of future prosperity, and if the Morevilles experi-
enced the luxury of success they also knew disappointment and
failure. The blow fell when William de Moreville died in
1196 without male issue to succeed him. In consequence the
continuity of his line was decisively broken and all that had
been achieved by the Moreville lords of Lauderdale through
nearly a century of good fortune and ambition devolved upon
William’s sister Helen and her husband Roland, lord of Gallo-
way. The Moreville inheritance, bothin England and in Scot-
land, was swallowed up within that of the Galloway fami-
ly.3° Nonetheless, it needs to be recognised that this merger
of patrimonies represented a union between two families
whose widespread interests and concerns were basically identi-
cal. Before Helen married Roland the native lords of Gallo-
way had already distinguished themselves by marrying into
the highest rank of Anglo-Norman society, and one of their
marriages brought them an estate at Torpenhow in Cumber-
land.3!_ Their horizons were therefore by no means restricted
to their own district of Scotland. They moved in the same
social orbit as the Morevilles, sharing a similar outlook on life
and the same disregard for the Tweed-Solway frontier. In
1196 the Morevilles’ Anglo-Scottish lordship had passed into
capable hands.

The creation of this new Moreville-Galloway estate, one of
the greatest fiefs ever to straddle the Border, is of more than
passing significance in the history of feudal Britain. The
influence it carried was enormous, and Helen and Roland’s son
~ and heir Alan had a notable public life in the two kingdoms: in

THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE 41

England this lord of Lauderdale was among those upon whose
advice King John claimed to have granted Magna Car-
ta. Alan’s prominence in Anglo-Scottish politics also won
him an extensive Irish estate when John put him in charge of a
large block of territory approximately coincidental with the
modern counties of Antrim and Londonderry. Suchaccumu-
lations of landed wealth demonstrate how the interests of a
“Normanised”’ Scottish family might easily transcend the land
and sea boundaries between one part of the British Isles and
another. But in the narrower context of Berwickshire history
a more specific consideration comes to mind. How did
Lauderdale fit into the system of Moreville-Galloway land-
holding? There can be no full answer to this question, but it is
at least clear that the cross-Border contacts enjoyed by this area
under the Morevilles were extended and intensified after 1196.

At this point we can return to the grants of Scottish property
to St. Andrew’s priory at Northampton, and it appears that the
steps leading up to these endowments can be reconstructed in
some detail. In November 1200, after accompanying Wil-
liam the Lion to a conference with King John at Lincoln,
Roland of Galloway rode through the heart of the Huntingdon
honour towards Northampton, his mind most probably
occupied with the legal proceedings he and Helen had recently
initiated in an effort to recover land in the honour sequestered
from Richard de Moreville in 1173-4.32 But before the year
was out Roland was taken seriously ill, and when he died at
Northampton a few days short of Christmas his servants man-
aged to arrange for his burial in the priory church of St.
Andrew.33 Now in past years St. Andrew’s had received
much support from tenants inthe Huntingdon honour. In
right of its foundation by Earl Simon de Senlis I, the lord of the
honour himself cultivated the status of advocatus or special
protector and feudal superior of the priory,74 and those mem-
bers of the Scottish royal family who held the Huntingdon
estate gave the Northampton monks a steady stream of gifts
and confirmations of English property. But it seems that
until Roland’s death neither the Galloways nor their Moreville
predecessors had taken a direct interest in this house. After
the first shock of bereavement, however, it would have been a
perfectly normal reaction for Roland’s wife Helen and his sons
Alan and Thomas to make thank-offerings to St. Andrew’s for
the honourable burial Roland had been given, and we can
probably assume that it was for this purpose that their gifts in
Lauderdale and Tweeddale were intended.

* * *

We have come a long way in pursuit of the early lords of

42 THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE

Lauderdale, and the journey, starting in some small corner of
Normandy, has taken us across almost every major boundary
in Britain. The ability to build up important Anglo-Scottish
interests is the central theme in their spectacular rise to promi-
nence and in this their story matches those of other leading
families in Scotland during this period. Though few of thew
neighbours in Berwickshire approached their level of wealth
and status, the house of Cospatrick, the Lindsays of Earlston,
the Stewarts of Legerwood and the Vieuxponts of Horndean
and Langton were not only established elsewhere in southern
Scotland but all of them also kept a tight hold of property in
England which they occasionally managed to extend through
skilful exploitation of the marriage market or success in win-
ning political rewards. And if space permitted it could be
shown that in distributing the sources of patronage at their
disposal this important group of Anglo-Scottish landlords was
as little concerned about the Border as the Moreville-
Galloways.

What seemed convenient to the patron was not necessarily a
suitable arrangement for the grantee, but the practical strains
which these men sometimes imposed upon their beneficiaries
were not as severe as might be imagined. Lay lords, both
great and small, were used to moving about their estates in the
company of their retinues, and if they wished to extend the
itinerary in order to directly supervise remote assets in another
country, and profit from the opportunities of future advance-
ment which such perquisites could often offer them, this could
be done without too much hardship or inconvenience. Alan
of Clapham, whose property in Lonsdale and Lauderdale was
separated by many miles of hard riding, minimised the discom-
forts of long-distance travel by negotiating with the monks of
Furness for the provision of one good horse each year “which it
is considered honourable for them to give and for me to
receive’’.3° An abbot or prior might find it difficult to visit
isolated estates as frequently as a man of Alan’s stamp, and in
the last analysis his aim as an administrator was to mobilise
forms of arable and pastoral enterprise to satisfy the needs of a
static corporation which was not geared to continuous peram-
bulation from one manor to another. But the problem of
running possessions sited at considerable distances from a
monastery was by no means insurmountable. Direct man-
agement might often be attempted by sending out members of
the community to oversee outlying properties on the
spot. Occasionally this technique would involve the erection
of a grange or monastic farm; in other circumstances it could
result in the setting up of a regular conventual priory. Thus
the Benedictine cell at Coldingham owed its existence to the
desire of the monks of Durham priory to maintain a close

THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE 43

supervision of their extensive estates in the Merse.3® But
every now and then an isolated estate or a rent-charge imposed
on some far-distant manor was the cause of more administra-
tive difficulty than it was worth, and economic pressures
forced the landlord to reconsider his position.

The monks of St. Andrew’s at Northampton soon found
themselves in this situation over their gains in southern Scot-
land, which were far too insignificant to warrant the creation of
a grange or priory in the north. Helen de Moreville’s
ploughgate at Newbigging had been given, at least initially, for
them to farm for their own direct support, and the difficulties
of trying to run this distant asset at first hand must have
presented more serious problems than the collection of those
annual rents conveyed by Alan of Galloway and Earl Thomas
of Atholl. But even the collection of a fixed income from a
remote centre was hardly a simple undertaking in the medieval
period. Bitter experience had already taught Dryburgh
abbey this lesson, for shortly after its foundation this house had
been obliged to send couriers to St. James’s abbey at North-
ampton in order to obtain a small annuity accruing from
Bozeat church, and this had been the cause of much trouble and
expense. Clearly the stage was set for some reorganisation
involving Dryburgh’s far-off pension in England and St.
Andrew’s equally distant concerns in Scotland. Which
monastery took the first initiative is not recorded, but they
finally reached agreement about 1243 when St. Andrew’s
overcame the embarrassment of directly administering its
Newbigging demesne by releasing it to Dryburgh in per-
petuity. In return Dryburgh authorised St. Andrew’s to col-
lect for its own uses nearly all of the Bozeat pension from the
abbot of St. James’s. Both parties were presumably well
satisfied with this transaction, since each aa emer an impor-
tant step towards the reconstruction of its accretions across the
Tweed into more manageable economic units. They had
combined to redistribute peripheral gains under Moreville-
Galloway patronage along more convenient lines.377_ Regrett-
ably, we do not know the fate of St. Andrew’s annual rents in
Scotland, which are not mentioned in the agreement with
Dryburgh, but there is no indication that this interest survived
the thirteenth century.

* * *

The historian of baronial families in early medieval Scotland
has often found it easy to neglect the concerns that many
members of this group also maintained beyond the Scottish
kingdom. Theassumption is that the Tweed-Solway bound-
ary forms a sharp dividing line cutting across the range of
baronial interests. This article has attempted, albeit ‘on a

44 THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE

modest scale, to beat down this supposed barrier. Whilst it
does not pretend to provide a detailed history of the Morevilles
and their Galloway successors, enough has been said to show
that these lords of Lauderdale were more than simply large
landowners in Scotland. Their territorial power stretched
deep into England, and Alan of Galloway’s success in Ireland
reminds us of the wider opportunities which were open to
ambitious men in thirteenth-century Britain. These mag-
nates were not “Scottish barons’’. If anything they belonged
to a larger baronial society of Norman-French descent or incli-
nation whose only frontier that clearly mattered was the one
set by the limits of its own expansion. Itisimpossible to draw
firm lines between their extensive concerns.

What is permissible is to emphasise that England and Scot- |
land formed the main area of activity for the Moreville-
Galloways. Nor would it be an exaggeration to claim that
when they travelled across the Border they may scarcely have
realised that they were passing from one kingdom into
another; and something has been revealed of the Anglo-
Scottish contacts forged in- the shadow of these great
lords. Politically they were important figures, and favours
might be bestowed upon them by the kings of both
realms. We have also seen that though periodic warfare
threatened the Morevilles’ position as landowners in the two
kingdoms it did not destroy their cross-Border estate; and
when the crowns were at peace it was easy and acceptable to
hold property across the Tweed. Ultimately it was the failure
to produce male heirs which caused the Morevilles’ downfall,
yet their widespread interests survived within the framework
of a larger Galloway patrimony. In 1234 Alan of Galloway
also died without male issue and his massive lordship, exclud-
ing the Irish lands, was dispersed amongst his three daugh-
ters. Their husbands, Roger de Quincy, John de Balliol and
William de Forz, were consequently promoted into the fore-
front of the Anglo-Scottish baronage of their day.38 _Balliol’s
son went on to become king of Scotlandin 1292. Thus in the
early Middle Ages the Anglo-Scottish bond could survive a
family’s inability to ensure the continuity of its line as well as
the intermittent warfare between the kingdoms; and once this
bond was established it was constantly being renewed through
the exercise of patronage. True, intractable administrative
problems might result in attempts to round off cross-Border
gains, as was the case with Dryburgh and St. Andrew’s. But
that these two houses were able to organise a profitable
exchange is in itself a reflection of the complexity of the
Anglo-Scottish nexus, and where the difficulties of administra-
tion were less pressing there was no need to rationalise the
endowment in this fashion.

THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE 45

The argument expounded in these pages could be extended
in order to gain a closer understanding of the dynamics of royal
authority in Norman and Angevin Britain and of the effective-
ness of the Border as a political division between the English
and Scottish realms. But this conclusion must confine itself
to one final point. It was only from 1296, when war between
England and Scotland became more common than peace and
the pulse of national feeling quickened on each side of the
Tweed, that the tradition of landholding across the Border was
really stretched to breaking point. And then it would be
wrong to envisage a sudden dislocation of the pattern. The
earls of Dunbar hung on to their Northumberland estate until
1335,39 whereas for many years Durham priory battled with
remarkable success to preserve its connections with Berwick-
shire. But even the Durham community was eventually
obliged to recognise that times had changed, and in May 1462
the “‘last English monks on Scottish soil” were finally ejected
from their cell at Coldingham.*® In the twelfth and thirteenth
centuries many influences drew England and Scotland close
together, but the Anglo-Scottish links created by great lords
like the Moreville-Galloways could not outlast a drastic break-
down in friendly political relations between the realms.

REFERENCES

E.g. Early Scottish Charters, ed. A. C. Lawrie (Glasgow, 1905), no. 169.

iF

2. See Appendix.

3. Cf. Liber S. Marie de Melros (Bannatyne Club, 1837), i, nos. 82-84.

4. G.W.S. Barrow, The Kingdom of the Scots (London, 1973), pp. 323-4; cf.
Sir Christopher Hatton’s Book of Seals, ed. L. C. Loyd and D. M. Stenton
(Northants. Rec. Soc., 1950), no. 178.

5. Cf. Charters of the Honour of Mowbray, 1107-1191, ed. D. E. Greenway
(Oxford, 1972), p. xxxiv, n. 1.

6. Lawrie, Charters, no. 46.

7. R.L.G. Ritchie, The Normans in Scotland (Edinburgh, 1954), pp. 154, 188;
Barrow, Kingdom, p. 281.

8. Regesta Regum Scottorum, 1, ed. G. W. S. Barrow (Edinburgh, 1960), p.

35. Lauder castle was begun before 1173; Gesta Regis Henrici Secundi,
ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Ser., 1867), i, p. 47.

9. Liber S. Marie de Dryburgh (Bannatyne Club, 1847), nos. 92, 150; Recueil
des Actes des Ducs de Normandie de 911 a4 1066, ed. M. Fauroux (Mémioires
de la Société des Antiquaires de Normandie, 1961), no. 205.

10. Pipe Roll 16 Henry II, p. 53.

11. Coucher Book of Furness Abbey, Il, ii, ed. J. Brownbill (Chetham Soc., New
Ser., 1916), pp. 301-2, 334-5. This property included the town and
castle of Burton in Lonsdale; cf. Early Yorkshire Charters, 1x (1952), ed. C.
T. Clay, no. 43.

12. For the identification of Hugh, lord of Westmorland, with Hugh son of
Hugh de Moreville, constable, see Calendar of Documents relating to Scot-
land, ed. J. Bain (Edinburgh, 1881-8), ii, no. 169. Cf. Reg. Reg. Scott., i,
no. 125.

46

13.

20.

40.

THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE

F. W. Ragg in Trans. of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiq. and
Archaeol. Soc., New Ser., xii (1912), pp. 382-4, and ibid., xvii (1917), pp.
228-9. On the litigation of 1279, see Cal. Docts. Scot., ui, no. 169.
Curia Regis Rolls, vii, p. 189. Malcolm was buried in Leicester abbey; J.
Nichols, The History and Antiquities of the County of Leicester (London,
1795-1815), I, 1, app., p. 74.

Skeleton itineraries of Richard de Moreville and Hugh, his father, can be
compiled from the following sources: Lawrie, Charters; Reg. Reg. Scott.,
i; ibid., ti, ed. Barrow (Edinburgh, 1971). They show them often
travelling between England and Scotland in the Scots king’s household;
and we may be sure that both men were attending to their own interests
in the two kingdoms as well as the concerns of the king of Scots.

He was with the Scots army before Norham castle in June 1138 (Lawrie,
Charters, no. 119).

Liber . . . de Dryburgh, no. 93; British Museum, Harley Chr. 52.C.4
(charter of Walter de Isel, c. 1150 X 1153).

Cur. Reg. Rolls, vii, p. 189.

Most, perhaps all, of the losses in the honour came back by restitution or
exchange in the early 1210s. The main references here are W. Farrer,
Honors and Knights’ Fees (London and Manchester, 1923-5), ii, pp. 357-8;
Cur. Reg. Rolls, vn, pp. 189, 213.

Another private quarrel, that of Mowbray versus Stuteville, had compli-
cated Richard’s position; cf. Greenway, Mowbray Charters, pp. xxviii-
sax le | the money just before he Hed by selling pasture at
Selside and Birk with (Yorks., W. R.) to Furness abbey (Furness Coucher,
Il, ii, pp. 334-5); but note the different terms in ibid., pp. 335-7.

H. M. Colvin, The White Canons in England (Oxford, 1951), p. 367.
Liber . . . de Dryburgh, no. 150.

Barrow, Kingdom, pp. 317-8, 324.

E.g. Liber. . . de Melros, i, nos. 94, 108; Registrum Episcopatus Glasguensis
(Bannatyne Club, 1843), 1, no. 45.

Barrow, Kingdom, p. 318.

Furness Coucher, Il, 11, pp. 299-300.

Ibid., p. 306; Acts of the Parliaments of Scotland, vu, p. 153.

Barrow, Kingdom, p. 298. For his connection with the monks of Fur-
ness, whom he endowed with land at Clapham, see Furness Coucher, II, 11,
pp. 306-7.

Lawrie, Charters, nos. 219, 238.

For references and a fuller discussion of the main points raised in this and
the next paragraph, see K. J. Stringer in Trans. of the Dumfriesshire and
Galloway Nat. Hist. and Antiq. Soc., 3rd Ser., xlix (1972), pp. 49-55.
The Register of the Priory of St. Bees, ed. J. Wilson (Surtees Soc., 1915), p.
493

Roger of Howden, Chronica, ed. W. Stubbs (Rolls Ser., 1868-71), iv, p.
141; Farrer, Honors, 11, p. 357.

Howden, Chron., iv, p. 145; cf. Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, MS.
281(2) (Chronicle ot St. Andrew’s priory, Northampton), fo. 24v.
Facsimiles of Early Charters from Northamptonshire Collections, ed. F. M.
Stenton (Northants. Rec. Soc., 1930), no. 55; cf. Barrow, Kingdom, p.
174.

Furness Coucher, Il, ii, p. 307.

Barrow, Kingdom, pp. 168-9; cf. R. B. Dobson, Durham Priory, 1400-1450
(Cambridge, 1973), p. 317.

K. J. Stringer in Innes Rev., xxiv (1973), pp. 133-47.

Cf. Scots Peerage, iv, p. 142.

A History of Northumberland, vu, pp. 85-86.

R. B. Dobson in Scott. Hist. Rev., xlvi (1967), pp. 1ff.

THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE 47

APPENDIX

THE following charters are known from the two St. Andrew’s
priory cartularies in the British Museum: MS. Royal 11 B. 1x
(xiii cent.) = A; MS. Cotton Vespasian E. xvii (xv cent.) =
B. Words and parts of words lost through injury to A are
supplied from B and placed within square brackets. Other-
wise each document is printed here from A, noting only major
variantsinB. Punctuation and capital letters have been mod-
ernised. Abbreviated forms are usually extended, and the
extension is in italics where it is uncertain. Scribal insertions
are indicated by oblique strokes.

UR Sil (CHARS ER

Helen de Moreville grants land at Newbigging to St. Andrew’s
priory, Northampton (Dec. 1200 X Jan. 1210).

A fos. 102v-3r; B fo. 253r.

{Uniuersis sancte] matris ecclesie filiis ad quos presens
scriptum peruenerit, Helena de Moruilla, [salutem in
Domino. Sciatis] me dedisse et concessisse et hac carta mea
confirmasse pro anima [Rollandi viri mei et pro] animabus
antecessorum et successorum meorum et pro salute anime mee
Deo et ecclesie sancti Andree de Norh’t et monfach]is ibidem
Deo seruientibus vnam carucatam de dominio meo in ualle de
Laued’ in uilla Neubigginge cum toftis et croftis /qui fuerunt/
Liulfo et G[lede]wis, scilicet quatuor acras terre Sveinesbreche
per altam uiam que uenit de Neubigginge uer[sus] occidentem
usque ad exitum predicte uille et sic ascendendo inter capita
croftorum usque ad proximum sichetum et ex altera parte wie
predicte Ridptlat. scilicet a uia predicta uersus orientem usque
ad proximum fontem et a uiridi wia que uenit de Egrehope
uersus boream usque ad capud de Huntendon’, et tres acras et
dimidiam prati a fontem iuxta Derimedue; habendam in
liberam, pu{ram] et perpetuam elemosinam cum communi
pastura eiusdem uille quantum pertinet ad vnam {caJrucatam
terre et cum omnibus pertinenciis eiusdem terre et cum
omnibus libertatibus et cum o[mnibus] aysiamentis in bosco,
in plano, in pratis, in pascuis et in omnibus locis. Quare uolo
et [conce]do ut predicti monachi prefatam terram cum
omnibus pertinenciis suis habeant et possideant inperpetuum
ita honorifice, libere et quiete ab omni exaccione et con-
suetudine sicut aliqua elemosina in regno Scocie liberius et?
quietius et honorificencius datur et possidetur. Et ego et

48 THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE

heredes mei prefatam terram predictis monachis contra omnes
homines warantizabimus. His testibus Fergus fratre domini
Rollandi, Henrico de Ferlington’, Alano de Tirlestan, Petro de
Hage, Willelmo de Cuningesburg, Thoma filio Rollandi,
Artur de Ardros, Ricardo de Warewik, Ricardo de Wincestr’,
Alein de Chapham, Willelmo de Hertesheued, Ailredo, Yuone
clericis et aliis?

Notes." B adds et. °B omits et. ‘Read Clapham as in B. 4et
multis aliis, B.

Comment: The occurrence of Roland’s son Thomas without
comital style and his low position in the witness list indicate a
date before Jan. 1210; cf. Reg. Reg. Scott., ii, no. 489.

SECOND CHARTER

Alan son of Roland, constable of the king of Scotland, confirms No. 1
(Dec. 1200 X 1234).

A fo: 103t=v: Bb fo. 255

Uniuersis sancte matris ecclesie filiis presentibus et futuris,
Alanus filius Rollandi constabularius regis Scoc’, salutem.
Sciatis me concessisse et hac carta mea confirmasse pro anima
Rollandi patris mei et pro animabus antecessorum et succes-
sorum meorum et pro salute anime mee Deo et ecclesie sancti
Andree de Nor[thampton’] et monachis ibidem Deo seruien-
tibus vnam carucatam terre de dominico meo in ualle de
Lauwede, eandem scilicet quam E. de Moruilla mater mea
eisdem monachis’ dedit [vbi vti]lius et maius aisiamentum eis
fuerit, habendam in liberam} puram et perpetuam
elem[osinam cum communi] pastura quantum pertinet ad tan-
tam terram et cum omnibus pertinenciis ei1usdem [terre et cum
omnibus] libertatibus et aysiamentis in pascuis et” bosco, in
prato, in plano et omnibus locis. [Quare vo]lo et concedo ut
predicti monachi prefatam terram cum omnibus pertinenciis
suis [habeant et possi]deant inperpetuum ita honorifice, libere
et quiete ab omni exaccione et consuet[udine sicut carta]
Helene matris mee testatur et confirmat. Huis testibus Gil-
berto filio Co[spatricii, Alexandro filio Cospatricii}, Willelmo de
la Mare, Thoma Anglico, Radulfo de la Ch[am] paygn’, Jacobo
decano, Hugone capellano, Ada capellano, Waltero et
Ethereldo‘ clericis meis et aliis‘

Notes: ‘Word omitted, B. °B adds et.‘ in, B. “Etheldredo, B. “et
multis aliis, B.

THE EARLY LORDS OF LAUDERDALE 49
THIRD CHARTER

General confirmation by Roger de Quincy, earl of Winchester, of
grants made by Helen de Moreville, Alanand Thomas. ?At Halse
(Northants.) (1235 X 1250; possibly X c. 1243).

A fo. 103v; B fo. :256r-v.

Omnibus sancte matris ecclesie filiis presens scriptum uisuris
uel audituris, Rogerus de Quency comes Wint’ constabularius
Scocie, salutem eternam in Domino. Nouerit vniuersitas
uestra me Caritatis intuitu et pro salute antecessorum et succes-
sorum meorum, assensu Helene uxoris mee, [conc]essisse et
hac presenti carta quantum ad me pertinet confirmasse" Deo et
ecclesie sancti eae [de NJorhampton’ et monachis ibidem
Deo seruientibus omnes terras et redditus quos habent [ex]
donis antecessorum meorum. Videlicet ex dono Alani filii
Rollandi tres marcas de firma de Redepeth et viginti solidos de
firma de Langeld et dimidiam marcam de firma de Grombelau,
dimidiam ad festum sancti Martini et dimidiam ad Pentecos-
ten;’ de dono autem Helene de Moruilla vnam carucatam terre
de dominio suo in ualle de Louedere in uilla que uocatur
Neubigginge cum toftis et croftis qui fuerunt Liulfi et
Gledewis et cum communi pastura quantum ad tantum terre
pertinet et cum omnibus libertatibus et aysiamentis in pascuis,
in bosco, in prato, in plano et omnibus locis; de dono uero
Thome filio Rollandi, comitis Attholl’, redditum duarum
marcarum in uilla que uocatur noua terra in uilla’ de Tuede de
terra que fuit Ricardi de Moruille. Quare uolo et concedo et
precipio ut predicti monachi omnes predictas terras et redditus
cum omnibus pertinenciis suis habeant et possideant inper-
petuum, honorifice, libere et quiete ab omni exaccione et con-
suetudine sicut carte predictorum donatorum quas inspexi
apud Hausho melius [et] liberius protestantur. His testibus
Seero de Sancto Andrea, Johanne Monaco, Bernardo de
[Ryp]el’, Ada decano de Brackele, Philippo seruiente, Ricardo
de Elinton’, Simone Page, [Ricardo] de coquina et multis aliis.

Notes: “hac presenti carta mea confirmasse quantum ad me
pertinet, B. 'ad festum Pentecost’, B. ‘Sic; read filii. “Read
valle as in B.

Comment: De Quincy was earl of Winchester from 1235 and his
wife Helen was dead by 1250. Since the agreement between
St. Andrew’s and Dryburgh over Newbigging is not men-
tioned in this confirmation, it was possibly given before c.

1243.

“SCANDAL” AT AUCHENCRAW
By WILLIAM LILLIE, D.D.

My Berwickshire forbears, the Bogues of Auchencraw, were
not people likely to be in trouble with the kirk-
session. During the whole eighteenth century not one of
them seems to have been found guilty of those sexual abberra-
tions that occupy far too large a place in the kirk-session
records of that century. Atleast three of them were elders of
the Kirk. Even in more worldly affairs they were, in a small
way, men of property, ““portioners” as they were called in
Berwickshire, holding a portion or small feu of land, and
engaged in numerous transactions over money and property,
which were duly recorded in the Registers of Deeds and
Sasines to the great advantage of a descendant trying to inves-
tigate their relationships. Yet some of these very respectable
people were three times involved in what the kirk-session
records called “‘scandals” between the years 1710 and 1721.

Perhaps the most worthy of them all was John Bogue, who
was not only a portioner at Auchencraw, but also joint-tenant
with his father-in-law David Crooks of the farm of Oldtown
of Dowlaw near the coast to the west of St Abb’s Head. Both
men had been earnest Covenanters, and David Crooks had
even been imprisoned for his faith. John Bogue’s disting-
uished grandson, Dr. David Bogue, one of the founders of the
London Missionary Society, and the only member of the fam-
ily to be included in the Dictionary of National Biography, wrote
in a letter: “Our grandfather (John Bogue) was frequently
obliged, 1n order to escape the barbarous soldiers employed by
the accursed governments of the Stewarts, to run down the
steep descent and hide himself in the caves by the seaside.”’ In
quicter days John Bogue was an elder of, and a generous giver
to, the Kirk of Coldingham.

It must have been a shock to the pious John, when a young
cousin, then just over twenty, Patrick Bogue, also a portioner
of Auchencraw, cursed him and his family, and that publicly
before people belonging to two other parishes—something
that the ee -session clearly regarded as a serious aggravation
of the offence. John duly reported the matter to the kirk-
session, naming his witnesses. At the same time he very
properly declared his own “‘carnest desire of his friend’s [i-e.

50

“SCANDAL” AT AUCHENCRAW 51

Patrick’s] edification, repentance and amendment,” and
expressed “sorrow for his stiffness and obstinacy.”’ The kirk-
session’s officer was sent to Auchencraw to charge Patrick, and
to summon him to the next meeting of the kirk-session. At
this stage, Patrick denied that he was guilty, although his own
mother admitted that her son had used the offending
words. This was the beginning of a process of pastoral con-
cern and ecclesiastical legalism that lasted for some nine
months.

The minister himself went to Auchencraw and tried to per-
suade Patrick to come to the session and to confess his guilt,
and “‘after some pains taken upon him,” Patrick promised to
do so. But at the next meeting of the kirk-session, the
Auchencraw elders reported that “‘a little time after the minis-
ter was gone” Christian Sheriff, Patrick’s widowed mother,
had come to them, and told them that she would never allow
her son to come before the session. The session recognised
that Patrick had made a private confession to the minister, but
that was not enough; he must confess “‘judicially” (i.e. offi-
cially before a duly constituted meeting of session) what he had
confessed “‘extrajudicially.”” That Sunday was “exceeding
rainie,”’ and Patrick did not appear, but the Auchencraw elders,
still feeling the sharpness of Christian Sheriff's tongue, induced
the session to certify that Christian Sheriff “cannot escape
censure if she amend not her ways and bridle her unruly
tongue.” Month after month minister and elders tried to get
Patrick Bogue to appear before the session. He indeed
repeatedly promised to do so, but he “‘would not condescend
upon a day.”’At last the time for the summer celebration of
Holy Communion was near, and warning was given from the
pulpit that none “under process for scandal” could expect to be
admitted to the Lord’s Table. This was too much for Patrick;
he made due confession of his guilt, and was gravely
rebuked. Somewhat chivalrously he ‘“‘did now assert that he
was not hindered by his mother.”” We can almost see the
Auchencraw elders shaking their heads!

Meanwhile the Coldingham session and Christian Sheriff
were in conflict over another matter. Isobel Paxton, the wife
of William Bogue, a cousin of both John and Patrick, had said
to a servant that John Purves, junior, another Auchencraw
portioner, was blamed for the corn stolen in the west end of
Auchencraw, and that he had been seen in the stackyard of
Patrick Crooks, from whom the corn had been stolen. The
servant to whom Isobel Paxton had spoken was unfortunately
the ““good-brother”’ of John Purves, and when Purves heard of
it from him, he made a formal complaint to the kirk-
session. Isobel Paxton appeared before the session, and, as
she had already told the minister, confessed that she had made

by? “SCANDAL” AT AUCHENCRAW

the accusation, but declared that it was because she had heard
Christian Sheriff say so. Although Christian Sheriff had not
been cited to appear before the session, she was on the spot and
acknowledged that she had said the words repeated by Isobel
Paxton and that she could prove them true. Isobel Paxton
was immediately “‘assoyl’d and dismissed.” One feels that
she deserved at least a rebuke for engaging in malicious gossip,
but the session clearly felt that it had now a more Rilabie
offender to deal with. Christian Sheriff stated that her
authority for making the accusation was one Elizabeth Mar-
shall, but, if Elizabeth Marshall were to deny that she had said
it, Christian Sheriff would prove it with witnesses. Christian
Sheriff evidently said a good deal more, for she was
admonished for misbehaving by foolish talks and assertions.

At the next meeting of session Elizabeth Marshall admitted
that she had said that the peas were found in John Purves’
stable, but that she had been told this by one Janet
Denholm. So Janet Denholm was cited to appear. She
denied the accusation, but said that she would tell the session
what she knew without dissembling. Patrick Crooks, then
on his death-bed, had reproved her and her husband John
Greenfield because their children had pulled peas out of his
stack. He said that he would break their legs if he found them
there again, and his wife joined in the scolding. Janet
Denholm was particularly grieved because her children were
those of a former husband, and she was afraid that her present
husband John Greenfield might chide bothherandthem. She
had heard that the children who had put the peas in John
Purves’s stable were Patrick Crooks’ own children. Realis-
ing, however, that her own children might have been playing
with them, she duly reproved them. While this scolding was
going on, Elizabeth Marshall had come into her house to get
the heck! of her spinning-wheel mended, and had overheard
part of the talk. She added that Patrick Crooks’ wife had told
her that John Purves, cither the father of the complainer or
himself, had come to the Crooks’ house and reproved the
children for bringing the peas into his stable. She further
declared that she had never accused John Purves of the theft nor
mentioned his name to Elizabeth Marshall.

We with our hindsight may think that the session should
have accepted Janet Denholm’s explanation as a reasonable
account of these trivial on-goings and dropped the whole
matter, but neither the session nor Christian Sheriff were pre-
pared for that. At two more session meetings Christian
maintained that Janet Denholm had said that the peas were
found in John Purves’ stable; at the carlier meeting she became
so, wiolent. im, Iver accusations) that’ » she’ had to jibe

‘Heck: the toothed part of a spinning-wheel.

“SCANDAL” AT AUCHENCRAW 53

removed. Elizabeth Marshall supported her, but Janet
Denholm and her husband John Greenfield who appeared for
her at the earlier meeting denied that she had said any such
words. As the second Sunday was again “exceeding rainie,”’
it was considered not expedient to spend more time then on the
matter, but what we would now call a commission of the
session was appointed to go to Auchencraw and examine the
witnesses produced by Christian Sheriff. John Bogue of
Dowlaw was appointed one of the commission, but, although
Christian Sheriff did not raise any objection to his being
included, he apparently stayed away, or left early.

At Auchencraw on the following Friday, the witnesses were
all ‘sworn and purged in common form,” and after giving
evidence had to sign written statements, or, in the case of the
illiterate, to put their hand on the pen, with which the minister
signed on their behalf. The one witness whose evidence was
not largely hearsay was Andrew Dods, who had been a farm
servant with Patrick Crooks. He said that he had reproved
John Greenfield and Janet Denholm’s children for pulling the
stalks of peas out of his master’s stackyard. John Greenfield
had then said to him that he could go to John Purves’ stable,
and he would find both the peas and his master’s bairns
there. One of the children (presumably one of Janet
Denholm’s) had owned the theft, and the other “‘cry’d being
afraid to be whipped, and was as guilty as_ the
other.” Andrew Dods told the session besides that there was
much white corn stolen; this probably meant more than chil-
dren would have takenin play. Hesaid finally that he was not
charging anybody with the theft.

William Bogue, Isobel Paxton’s husband, and Patrick
Bogue, Christian Sheriff's son, were among the other witnes-
ses. Both were cautious, William stating that in a conversa-
tion he had had with John Greenfield about the story of the
stolen corn, Greenfield said that his wife “kend [knew] a cuple
of twelve months since of John Purves,” and Patrick merely
reporting what he had heard Andrew Dods say. John Green-
field was allowed to question the witnesses, but used such
“reflective words” against both judges and witnesses that he
had to be gravely cautioned and exhorted to bridle his ton-
gue. His particular accusation was that his opponents had
“clapp’d Andrew Dods shoulder as they went up and down the
Town, that Andrew should be a witness & they would lay it
all upon John Greenfield.”. It was pointed out that at the
previous meeting Dods had been offered as a witness by Chris-
tian Sheriff, so that there was no question of his being pushed
into the role of witness. John Greenfield went on “making a
noise’’ to such an extent that the session deferred their final
decision to their next regular meeting at Coldingham.

54 “SCANDAL” AT AUCHENCRAW

When the session met on the following Sunday and heard an
account of what had happened at Auchencraw, its first step was
to rebuke John Greenfield for his misbehaviour and unseemly
talk. The charges made against John Greenfield and Janet
Denholm by Christian Sheriff were found to _ be
unproved. John Purves, who before had expressed anxiety
over recovering the deposit he had to pay when making the
original complaint, now wished to let the whole matter drop,
and the session agreed, in consideration of the fact that most of
the evidence was on hearsay and seemed to come from children
hiding stolen peas in an open stable.

The whole storm in a tea-cup evidently blew over, for when
John Greenfield and Janet Denholm brought a child to be
baptized four years later the witnesses or sponsors were their
old accusers, William and Patrick Bogue. Patrick’s name
appears once again in the Coldingham records; when he died in
his mid-twenties in 1715, the new velvet mort-cloth or pall
hired out by the session was used.

In 1721, the Coldingham session appointed some new
elders, and among those chosen were William Bogue, Isobel
Paxton’s husband, and his brother John, who was the farmer at
Heughead. There was no objection “‘to the life and conversa-
tion”’ of William, who seems already to have been a leader in
the Auchencraw community. But, when John’s name was
considered, the session clerk George Edington maintained that
John Bogue was not fit to be an elder, and that he would never
sit along with such a man in the kirk-session. His grounds of
objection were that John Bogue’s wife was “‘a most scandalous
woman in her tongue’’, and that John himself had ““deponed
unlawfully” in Greenlaw Court. John’s wife was his cousin
Margaret Bogue, the daughter of Christian Sheriff, and she had
apparently inherited her mother’s tongue and_ reputa-
tion. Although Edington was ready to produce evidence for
particular instances of Margaret Bogue’s unseemly speech, the
session felt that the accusation against her was too general to be
considered. One Auchencraw elder stated that “he had
known John Bogue since his infancy, and never saw or heard
anything scandalous laid to his charge, and, since he was come
to the age of a man, he was of an harmless and blameless
life.” At the next meeting Edington was required to say
whether he was accusing John Bogue of perjury. Edington
avoided the word “‘perjury’’, but affirmed that Bogue had said
in giving evidence in Greenlaw Court something that he could
not have possibly known.

When the session met again, Edington withdrew the charge,
acknowledging that it had been made in anger. He was duly
rebuked for his “ill-conceived and worse-retained pas-
sion.” John Bogue was not satisfied, feeling that accusations

ROYAL ARMS IN THE TOWN OF BERWICK 55

made publicly were now being withdrawn privately, but the
session knew that talk of the withdrawal would spread as
quickly as talk of the accusations had done. Edington and
Bogue bore witness to their reconciliation by taking each
other’s hand, and Bogue was duly ordained an elder.

Quieter times seem to have followed in Auchencraw at least
as far as the Bogue family was concerned. Many of the family
left the parish, and some prospered. The portions of land-
which they had inherited from ancestors as far back as the
sixteenth century, passed into other hands. The scandals of
our story look, after two-and-a-half centuries, very trivial, but
they do reveal some of the tensions and humours of life in a
village at the beginning of the eighteenth century.

ROYAL ARMS IN THE TOWN OF BERWICK
By Major C. J. DIXON-JOHNSON

THERE are six exainples of the Royal Arms to be seen in Ber-
wick.

The oldest are those of King William III in the Customs
House. Painted on wood, they show the arms of France and
England quarterly in the first and fourth quarter, those of
Scotland in the second quarter and those of Ireland in the third,
with an inescutcheon of his own arms of Nassau in pretence,
which were the Royal Arms from the death of Queen Mary II
in 1694 until the death of William in 1702. The arms of France
had been quartered with those of England since 1340, when
Edward III claimed to have inherited the throne of that country
on the death of Charles IV.

Above the entrance to the Barracks is a fine example of the
Royal Arms of George I in full colour, showing quarterly (1)
England impaling Scotland, (2) France, (3) Ireland, and (4)
Hanover (1714-1801). The quarter for Hanover is divided
into three parts containing the arms of Brunswick, Luneberg
and Westphalia, with an inescutcheon over all bearing gules the
crown i a Emperor Charlemagne or, being the arms of
office of the Arch-Treasurer of the Holy Roman Empire—an
office held by the rulers of Hanover.

A shield of the same arms hangs over the door of the Cus-
toms House.

The most recent examples are on the Royal Tweed Bridge,
where the present Royal Arms are on the Tweedmouth end
and those used in Scotland on the Golden Square end, and on
the gate into the Barracks.

THE: MATHEMATICS OF THEE?
By T. D. THOMSON, M.A., F.S.A.SCOT.

WHEN the renovators of Coldingham Priory started work in
1854 one of their first tasks was to empty the interior of the
post-1662 pews and galleries which encumbered it; the state of
the church “‘before”’ and “‘after”’ can be judged from prints in
Carr’s Coldingham and Raine’s North Durham respective-
ly. However, when the renovation was completed the con-
gregation had to be seated again, to a number estimated by Mr.
Munro, the parish minister, at about 320. Pews were there-
fore provided, forming a hollow oblong facing inwards to the
pulpit, which was placed against the south wall just east of the
present door, which is how the interior is portrayed in King
Hunter’s Coldingham Priory and how it remained for a century.

So far, so good, but to avoid disputes the sittings had to be
allocated according to law among the heritors (the owners of
heritable property in the parish), who had been assessed pro-
portionately to the valuation of their holdings for their share of
the cost of the renovations. Three documents which have
recently come to light show how this was done: a copy of the
printed Valuation Roll for Berwickshire, parish by parish, for
1855; a certified copy of the manuscript proposals for alloca-
tion, the minutes of the heritors’ meetings thereanent and their
petitions to the Sheriff and his decernitures; and a plan of the
seating showing the allocation of space among _ the
heritors. (The first two were found in a disused safe and the
third in a tin trunk under the floor of the church hall.)

The scheme was drafted by William King Hunter of
Stoneshiel, Reston, as agent for the parish; he had taken a
leading part in the renovation of the Priory and published the
contemporary account of it, but he set about this next job with
less imagination than he displayed over the renovation. He
sets out the law with clarity: the seating must be divided
proportionately to the valuation of the heritors’ holdings and
the order of choice of seats must be the order in which these
valuations run, from greatest to least (Matthew xix.30 appar-
ently did not apply); he then followed these rules.

He had first to measure the available seating; initially this
totalled 532 feet, less seven feet nine inches for the manse pew
traditionally assigned to the minister’s household. That left

56

'

:

THE MATHEMATICS OF THE PEW 57

524 feet three inches divisible between £13,148.19s.2d. Scots of
valuation, but the division was not a simple matter of arithme-
tic as may have been hoped. In three cases there were dis-
crepancies between the list by which the parochial assessments
were levied and a recent Cess Roll; a full folio page is devoted
to sorting these out. One discrepancy amounted to £12 Scots
(£1 sterling) and another to £3.6s.4d. Scots (5s.6 2d. sterling);
the practical effect of adjusting the latter was to reduce the
Fairlaw sitting by three and three-quarter inches.

The roll of heritors is givenin A. A. Thomson’s Coldingham:
Parish and Priory as Appendix XI, and the Scheme of Division
followed this. The principal heritor was Mrs. Milne Home of
Wedderburn, Billie and Paxton, whose initial entitlement came
to 119 feet ten inches; on King Hunter’s estimate of an average
of eighteen inches to each worshipper this provides for some
eighty people. Northfield received accommodation for
thirty adults and Houndwood for eighteen. My great-
grandmother was entitled to two and three-quarter inches and
my great-aunt to one anda half. Two interesting provisions
were for the North British Railway Company—two feet four
and a half inches—and the Coldingham United Presbyterian
Congregation—two inches.

At this stage there had to be an addendum based on fresh
information; its main effect was to alter the accommodation of
the first eight on the roll (but in no case by more than four feet)
and the order of priority of choice. No. 33 moved up to No.
26 and No. 26 had to be content with the twenty-seventh place.

The heritors then duly met, approved the Scheme, pro-
ceeded in order of priority to choose their seats and petitioned
the Sheriff to confirm the division, choice and allocation of
seats, which he was pleased to do on 28th December 1855.

This should have been the end of the story. However, the
Presbytery of Chirnside intervened in October 1856, after
further alterations in the seating had increased the linear total
from 532 to 618 feet, so King Hunter had to start again.
He had completed the revision by 2nd June in the following
year: the Wedderburn share went up by just under twenty feet;
my two relatives received an additional half-and quarter inch
respectively.

The new Scheme of Division was printed and submitted to
the heritors on 14th August, but it was claimed by Mr. Milne
Home (for his wife) that in the original Scheme there had been
“too little of sittings allocated to the Billie Estate to the extent
of twenty-four feet.”” There were still twenty-two feet of
wall seats unallocated which he would be willing to accept pro
tanto, and he had also observed that three feet six inches had
been allocated to the Earl of Home, but as the latter was not a
heritor but only the owner of certain feu-duties he was syprely

58 THE 1974 BOTANICAL MEETING

not entitled to seating in the church. The meeting agreed to
give Billie this accommodation for an additional sixteen peo-
ple, and Mr. Hunter was instructed to write appropriately to
Lord Home (no reply is recorded). The new Scheme was
then agreed and submitted to the Sheriff, who confirmed it on
3rd November 1857.

Since then, no one seems to have worried very much.

* * *

THE 1974 BOTANICAL MEETING

By Dr. A. G. LONG
The Hancock Museum, Newcastle-upon- Tyne

A BOTANICAL meeting was held on Saturday, 17th August
1974, at Cattleshiel and Wellcleugh Burn, to look for Saxifraga
hirculus the Yellow Marsh Saxifrage. The President, Mr.
Adam R. Little, together with about 26 members and visitors,
met at 10.30 a.m. on the Westruther road between Foul Burn
bridge and Cattleshiel Farm. Prior arrangements had been
made by Mrs. E. O. Pate, who obtained the necessary permis-
sion from the three farmers on whose land the search was
made. The morning was bright and sunny with a westerly
breeze, and although one or two showers threatened rain this
was very slight and in no way spoiled the proceedings.

Members were first shown henbanrein specimens of the rare
Saxifrage collected last century by Robert Castles Embleton,
R. B. Bowman, and Dr. George Johnston, from the Langton-
lees site. R.C. Embleton, surgeon, was a founder member of
the Club and his specimens are of spectal interest since they are
dated 1832—the year in which the plant was first found by Mr.
T. Brown whose father was Minister of Langton Parish. The
data label on this sheet reads “‘Saxifraga hirculus, Langton Lees
Farm, Berwick, Mr. T. Brown and R. Embleton 1832”. In
addition, two sheets of Sedum villosum Hairy Stonecrop and
Sagina nodosa Knotted Pearlwort were also shown as these
plants frequently occur in the same kind of habitat as the
Saxifrage. A rapid résumé of the history of the plant in Ber-
wickshire was then given.

In 1832 it was discovered by Mr. T. Brown at the Langton
Lees Cleugh site, HBNC I, 9, 29, and New Statistical Account,
1845, p. 236.

In 1853 Dr. Johnston wrote in his book Natural History of the
Eastern Borders, p. 84: “‘In a wet moorish spot near Langton

- wood, plentiful—Rev. T. Brown who had the good fortune to
add this beautiful species to the Flora of Scotland.”

Se. -

THE 1974 BOTANICAL MEETING 59

In 1867 it was again recorded by Dr. Frances Douglas “‘In a
wet spongy bog, Langton Lees Cleugh. Found by Dr. Clay,”
HBNC V, 300.

In 1872 Dr. C. Stuart wrote: “In great beauty, on 14th
August on the sides of sheep drains on left-hand side going up
Langtonlees dean,” HBNC VI, 436, also in 1873, HBNC VII,
£9.

In 1878 Dr. C. Stuart wrote this warning: “‘It is a duty I owe
to the Club to inform the members that Saxifraga hirculus is all
but extinct at Langtonlees Dean, in consequence of a number of
sheep drains having been constructed through the place where
itused to grow. My second son and Capt. Norman were up
at the station last summer and came back with hardly a vestige
of a specimen. It, however, may spring again, but I am not
sanguine. At one period it was plentiful,’ HBNC VII,
533. In spite of this the plant still continued to occur; thus in
1879 Mr. C. Watson recorded it again at Langton Lees Cleugh,
HBNC IX, 49, and in 1883 it was found at Langton again, by
Mr. Arthur Evans, HBNC X, 264. _ This was the last recorded
occurrence of the plant at the Langton site although in 1886 Dr.
C. Stuart wrote in the Transactions of the Edinburgh Botanical
Society, Vol. 6, 19-26: ““Rev. T. Brown found S. hirculus—new
to the Scottish flora in a bog where sheep drains threaten to
destroy it. It grows with a profusion of Sedum villosum and
Spergula nodosa.”

In 1885 James Hardy recorded the plant at a second site only
about two miles distant from the first site. Thus he wrote:
“Mr. Robert Renton has picked up on the Cattleshiels Moor
the rare Saxifraga hirculus. There would be over a hundred
plants at the place,” HBNC XI, 68. This is the last record of
the species inthe County. Thus, in 1916 A. H. Evans wrote:
“Extinct at Langtonlees, in the locality originally recorded,”
HBNC XXIII, 223. Again in 1931 Alan A. Falconer wrote:
ee eerently this plant has been extinct for many years at the
station in the Wellcleugh, Langtonlees, where it was disco-
vered nearly 100 years ago by Mr. (afterwards Rev.) T.
Brown. I have frequently visited the spot at its flowering
season in vain.

The party first followed the path which crosses the moor to
Dronshiel and then diverged to the left and spread out over
Shiningpool Moss to the Under Bog approaching the Big
Dirrington. The expanse of likely territory here was too
large to cover adequately and another hour could easily have
been spent. The land has been drained by sheep drains and
although these have a nice flora no sites with Sedum villosum or
Sagina nodosum were found. Flowering plants encountered
were: Ranunculus acris Meadow Buttercup; R. flammula Lesser
Spearwort; Drosera rotundifolia Round-leaved Sundew; Ver-

60 THE 1974 BOTANICAL MEETING

onica scutellata Marsh Speedwell; V. officinalis Common
Speedwell; Linum catharticum Purging Flax; Mentha aquatica
Water Mint; Pedicularis sylvatica Lousewort; Erica tetralix
Cross-leaved Heath; Prunella vulgaris Self Heal; Potamogeton
polygonifolius Bog Pondweed; Juncus squarrosus Heath Rush; J.
articulatus Jointed Rush; J. bulbosus Bulbous Rush; Carex nigra
Common Sedge; C. echinata Star Sedge; C. lepidocarpa Long-
stalked Yellow Sedge; C. demissa Common Yellow Sedge;
Scirpus caespitosus Deer Sedge; Sieglingia decumbens Heath
Grass; Molinia caerulea Purple Moor Grass.

Among insects seen were C. graminis the Antler moth of
which the males were very active flying in the sunshine; C.
pamphilus the Small Heath butterfly—abundant;, A. urticae the
Small Tortoiseshell; M. jurtina the Meadow Brown—com-
mon; C. didymata the Twin-spot Carpet; and the larvae of L.
quercus var. callunae the Northern Eggar; M. rubi the Fox moth;
and S. pavonia the Emperor moth. A single specimen of the
coppery green beetle Carabus nitens was caught. A lizard was
seen and the sloughed skin of an adder. A solitary Golden
Plover was heard making its mournful call-note.

After a picnic lunch taken sitting in the hot sunshine and
sheltered by a dry stone dyke a move was made to Camp Moor
and the Wellcleugh Burn. Plants found here were Iris
pseudacorus the Yellow Flag—in large patches; Mysotis caespitosa
Tufted Forgetmenot—all along the burn; Lysimachia nemorum
Yellow Pimpernel; Pimpinella saxifraga Burnet Saxifrage; Salix
aurita the Eared Sallow; Empetrum nigrum Crowberry; Populus
tremula Aspen; Briza media Quaking Grass. In the Lees
Cleugh were found Phillitis scolopendrium Hart’s Tongue fern;
and Campanula latifolia Giant Bellflower. A female P. icarus
the Common Blue butterfly was seen at rest and a few P. napi
the Green Veined White were on the wing along with many
Meadow Browns.

Bryophytes collected by D. G. Long and D. F. Chamberlain
are listed below. Mosses numbered as in Census Catalogue
(3rd Edition) and Hepatics as in Census Catalogue (4th Edi-
tion). “All recordstin VC 81 and NF 75;

Cattleshiel Moor:

1/3 Sphagnum papillosum.

12/1 Ditrichum cylindricum, on soil.

21/1 = Pseudephemerum nitidum, on mud by ditch.
22/1 = Dicranella palustris.

22/2. D. schreberana, on mud by burn.

22/4 =D. varia.

35/1 Tortula ruralis.

35/10 T. subulata. Both Tortula species on wall.
53/1 Leptodontium flexifolium, on burned peat.

79/12
126/1
131/4
134/3
134/4
8/1

12/4

14/4
33/2
33/4
54/2
63/5
66/1
66/2

Damp

11/1
12/1
22/-
40/5
66/2
12/3
20/8

THE 1974 BOTANICAL MEETING 61

Mnium seligeri, in ditch.

Campylium stellatum.

Drepanocladus fluitans var fluitans, in damp peat hollow.
Acrocladium cordifolium.

A. giganteum, in ditch.

Marchantia polymorpha var alpestris, gravel by burn, new
VC record.

Riccardia latifrons, on rotten log in marsh, new VC
record.

Pellia endiviifolia.

Calypogeia muellerana.

C. fissa.

Mylia anomala.

Cephalozia connivens.

Odontoschisma sphagni.

O. denudatum.

field above Well Cleugh Burn:

Pleuridium acuminatum.

Ditrichum cylindricum.

Dicranella staphylina.

Pottia truncata.

Ephemerum serratum var minutissimum.
Riccardia sinuata.

Fossombronia pusilla.

Lees Cleugh:

z2)2
22/4
73/11
woii5
79/4
79/12
138/2
142/1
148/2
149/4
149/9
149/10
46/1
75/1

Dicranella schreberana.

D. varia.

Pohlia annotina.

P. delicatula.

Mnium marginatum var marginatum, on shady rocks.
M. seligeri, in ditch.

Brachythecium glareosum, on calcareous rocky bank.
Rhynchostegiella pumila, shady rock ledge by burn.
Isopterygium depressum, shady rock ledge.
Plagiothecium denticulatum var denticulatum.

P. roeseanum, on shady rocks.

P. succulentum.

Solenostoma triste.

Lejeunea cavifolia.

Although the Saxifraga hirculus was not found at either of its
previous stations the meeting was most enjoyable and reward-
ing. A more thorough search of the Upper Ram Bog and of
the Foul Burn and Cattleshiel Burn is needed before one can be
sure that the S. hirculus is indeed extinct at these places. It may
still be with us.

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS
DURING 1973-74

Notes compiled by Dr. A. G. LONG
The Hancock Museum, Newcastle-upon- Tyne

BRYOPHYTA.. Allrecords by: DsiGy Long:

Mosses numbered as in Census Catalogue (3rd Edition) and
Hepatics as in Census Catalogue (4th Edition).

Crags near Swecthope Lough, VC 67, NY 98; 23.12.1973.

79/4 = Mnium marginatum var marginatum.

30/1 = Bazzania trilobata.

31/1 = Lepidozia pinnata.

33/1 Calypogeia neesiana var meylanii. All on sandstone
rocks.

Darney Crag, E. Woodburn, VC 67, NY 98; 23.12.1973.

36/2 ~~ Barbilophozia atlantica, on sandstone rocks.

Colt Crag Reservoir, VC.67, NY°97- 23.125

1/10 Sphagnum riparium, in boggy hollow.
10/1. = Archidium alternifolium.
77/130 Bryum klinggraeffii. Both on damp mud.

Hareshaw Dean, Bellingham, VC 67, NY 88; 24.12.1973.

17/2 Seligeria pusilla, rock face by stream.
22/7 ~~ Dicranella subulata, rock ledge.

69/2 Tetraphis browniana, rock face by stream.
47/1 Plectocolea obovata, rock face by stream.
59/2. Harpanthus scutatus, on shaded boulder.

Beanrigg Moss near Selkirk, VC 80, NT 52; 29.12.1973.

22/6 Dicranella staphylina, in field nearby; new VC record.
126/5 Campylium elodes.
137/3 Camptothecium nitens, both at margin of fen.

Greenknowe Tower near Gordon, VC 81, NT 64; 17.8.1974.
35/6 = Tortula laevipila.
35/8 T. papillosa, both on trees.
59/1 Physcomitrium pyriforme, muddy pasture.
104/1 Leucodon sciuroides, on trees.
62

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS DURING 1973-74 63

Mowlaw Wean, VC 81,.NT 97; 30.3.1974.

35/10 Tortula subulata var angustata, on dry rocky bank.
98/1 Orthotrichum rupestre, on boulders by stream.
98/15 O. pulchellum, on elder.

122/3 Anomodon viticulosus, on rocks by stream.

34/6 Lophozia excisa, on soil.

Mertoun Bridge, VC 81, NT 63; 31.3.1974.

35/8 Tortula papillosa, on tree.
77/6 = Bryum micro-erythrocarpum, on river bank.
122/3 Anomodon viticulosus, on rocks by river.

Hume Castle, VC 81, NT 74; 31.3.1974.

34/2, Encalypta vulgaris.

35/5 Tortula princeps with fruit; on rocks.

85/7 ~~ T. ‘virescens.

35/8 TT. papillosa, both on ash trees.

51/5 = Trichostomum brachydontium, on rocks.

Whitegate near Duns-Grantshouse road, VC 81, NT 76;
9.6.1974.

21/1 Pseudephemerum nitidum, on damp ground.
22/1 Dicranella palustris, on damp ground.
27/2 —‘Ptilidium pulcherrimum, on juniper stems.

VASCULAR PLANTS, numbered as in Dandy’s List (1958).
imecords for VC 81 by Dr. R. W. M. Corner, 17.11.1974.

Steep bank of Tweed below Bemersyde Hill (Gateheugh), NT

5.

22/2 = Polystichum aculeatum Hard Shield Fern, locally com-
mon.

25/1 Polypodium vulgare and P._ interjectum Common
Polypody.

356/1 Calluna vulgaris Heather.

358/1 Vaccinium vitis-idaea Cowberry, at NT 591338, under
Quercus petraea Sessile Oak.

358/2 Vaccinium myrtillus Blaeberry.

403/1 Echium vulgare Viper’s Bugloss.

420/4 Linaria vulgaris Common Toadflax.

485/2 Galium boreale Northern Bedstraw, on crag near river.

CORRECTIONS

Helleborus viridis recorded for Gateheugh in HBNC XXXIX,
208 should read Helleborus foetidus; at present this is the only
Station known for this plant growing wild in Berwickshire
though I saw it some years ago growing in Hutton Manse
garden.

Bryun violaceum recorded for near Mountmill, Oxton in
HBNC XXXIX, 206 should be deleted as the material was
considered inadequate for confirmation of this identification.

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66

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

Letter 61. Oldcambus, by Cockburnspath,
Aug. 4, 1877.

Dear Mrs. Carter,

Dr. Stuart is a great loss, not only to us but to the coun-
try. Few have laboured so conscientiously and continuously
and with such satisfactory results as he; but all that maturity of
wisdom is no longer ours. I will use the memoir you kindly
sent lately, along with that in the “Scotsman’’, for the Club’s
notice, when the time arrives for that. The life ofa scholar has
little variety, and probably we cannot obtain much more, than
his friends have put into the hands of the public. I heard from
him shortly before he left for Ambleside. He was pleased
with the notice of Gullane and Dirleton, which1 gave. The
reason why I did not attend at Acklington, was that I was
unwell the day when I should have set out; and I found I could
not get there the next day in any kind of time. It was a
disappointment, as I had been thinking of that place for some
time previously. My attacks of illness come on so suddenly,
that I am never sure; and they are more annoying than seri-
ous. On this account! never like to go to an inn, and it would
be well, if the Club obtained one to arrange the meetings,
rather than myself. I enclose you a report of the Coldstream
meeting... I found more about Simprim, but it can be given
afterwards. Had your father’s relatives no connection with
that place? If so, it can be added also. I copied Dr. Baird’s
epitaph for insertion. I had not time to see Hirsel, but the
grounds were very beautiful; nor did I see Lees or Lennel. I
became unwell during the night (I stayed with Mr. Cunning-
ham) and this prevented my going to those places next day. I
was glad to find his orchard to be of such antiquity... I
borrowed from Mr. Cunningham a few slips of pansies and
sweet william, as memorials, and I am pcr to find they are
likely to thrive. The Mummy pea also is profusely in
bloom. It marks my former visit.

I have this week been up seeing Oldhamstocks, and Mrs.
Hardy with me. We were admitted to see the church, and
then the manse, to inspect the parish records. Afterwards we

67

68 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

resolved ona journey to the fairy glen, to gather ferns; but rain
came on in torrents. I left her sheltered behind a wooden
chest, for feeding sheep; and went on a mile in the mist, and
found the ferns wanted, and then we walked home, our feet
soaked in water. We were nothing the worse. I was back
again yesterday alone. It will be a nice place for a Club
meeting.

I suppose I shall have to go to Newcastle, for the next
gathering. The members wished it, but it is very trouble-
some to me.

We will arrange about the Berwick meeting afterwards. It
is now late, and I must conclude for the day. With kind
regards,

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

Note.—For an obituary notice of Dr. John Stuart, Fs.a.scor.,
MR1A., (1813-77) see HBNC VIII, 232-8.

Letter 62. Oldcambus, Sept. 4, 1877.

DearMrs. Carter,

We had a very successful and pleasant meeting at Choller-
ford. I enclose you the Reporter’s account of the matter, and
my own short notice in the Newcastle Journal, so that you may
see what we accomplished, and may impart it to enquirers.
I did not see anyone answering to Mr. Stuart Macaskie at the
meeting, but I proposed him, and I think Dr. Paxton sec-
onded. We were exceedingly well pleased with the aspect of
the country, and what we saw, and the day was delightful.
I never before obtained such a fine view of Northumberland.
I was bedfast next day, but revived in the evening, and saw
Jesmond Dean, where Sir William and Lady Armstrong are
reproducing Cragside. The next day was wet but I saw alittle
of Newcastle. The town is quite renovated since I lived in
that vicinity. I saw only three kenned faces, over and above
my own relations, who held a family meeting on the occa-
sion. There were nice views in the downcoming. At Ber-
wick I had merely time to get a look over the newspapers. I
met Dr. Maclagan, and saw two others to speak to. When
passing through I saw Capt. Forbes at the Station. I wonder if
he bought any of Mr. Procter’s books. None of the Club’s
members knew of the sale, as being Mr. Procter’s, otherwise
- commissions might have been sent.

I will send this off by one passing the door. We have no

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY 69

harvest yet. Next week I may go down to Coldingham for a
few days. Iam glad you are always attentive to the interests
of the Club. We have already 27 new members for this year;
but we have losses now and again.

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

Note.—Philip Whiteside Maclagan, M.D., (1819-92) was son-
in-law and successor of Dr. George Johnston, formerly he was
a surgeon in the Royal Canadian Rifle Regiment and later in the
20th Regiment. He was a keen field botanist.

For an obituary notice of Capt. James Arthur Forbes, RN.
(1831-1905) see HBNC XIX, 364.

Letter 63. Oldcambus, ‘Oct. 2, 1877.

Dear Mrs. Carter,

I have you kind favor. I fear you will be disappointed,
when you hear that the Berwick Meeting is to be a business one
only, beginning at 1 o’clock p.m. or so, and permitting no
excursion. We will dine at 3. On this account... I will
come and see you in the morning after my arrival, and there
may be others, like myself who cannot land at mid-day, and
may find themselves out of their latitude. I will write you
again about our arrangements.

We had a fine day at St. Boswells. About 50 attended.
The attendance is frightening Dr. Douglas and some others,
and they are proposing to limit our bes Tam not of this
opinion, although 39 joined us last year and 37 this. If we
wish to promote a mild taste for Natural History and anti-
quities, I cannot see what propriety there can be in checking
our popularity. . .

We much enjoyed the extensive views of the Border-
land. The prettiest and best kept place of the three seats
visited, was Linthill. Lilliesleaf is the most respectable vil-
lage: Midlem and Bowden looked well at a distance, but were
not answerable to the expectations they excited. I was at
Longnewton the previous day, and botanised as far as
Clarilaw, finding a plant or two of rarity. I passed some time
copying tombstones in the old churchyard. There is a tradi-
tion about a place called Newhall, near Clarilaw, connected
with Queen Mary, but I did not find out the proper infor-
mant. Riddell is an old fashioned place, with much fine
wood; amongst others a gigantic beech, not noticed in the

70 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

Newspaper report. The country is much intersected by stone
walls, where one expects hedges; but I suspect this is a bleak
place in spring. .

I was much pleased that Mr. Walker of Greenlaw attended,
now one of our oldest members. He said, that owing to his
wife’s bad health, it was the first time he had been abroad this
season, and certainly it was a day that epitomised all the good
days we have so seldom seen this year.

I have got my corn cut, but not much led yet. It is not
drying well, and one must be cautious.

Mrs. Hardy is not of the heroic school, and so is somewhat
afraid, when I am absent from home at night. I returned the
night of the meeting, and surprised her. With kind regards,

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

Note.—Rev. John Hunter Walker (1801-81) was minister at
Greenlaw and prior to this at Legerwood. For an obituary
notice see HBNC IX, 495.

Letter 64. Oldcambus, Ocre20" 18777
DeandMVinss Carter,

I now have pleasure in sending our programme; although it
is going to be attended with considerable trouble to you. I
have only to plead, that I followed your suggestion. Possibly
you may not be crowded atall. Professor Balfour and his son
are coming to the meeting. If they come early, perhaps you
would give them harbourage, and they would see Miss Dickin-
son’s paintings etc... I will arrive about 10 o’clock, and can
take charge of any stranger who may not know how to pass the
time. Perhaps you may havea visit of Capt. Milne Home, at
least I will bring him, if I can to see your collections.—I have
been much occupied transcribing documents of the olden
times. With kind regards,

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

Note.—John Hutton Balfour, a.M., MD., E.RS., ERS.E, FLS.,
(1808-84) was Professor of Medicine and Botany in the Uni-
versity of Edinburgh and President of the Club in 1878. For
an obituary notice see HBNC XI, 218-26. His son Isaac
Bayley Balfour, M.D.,sC.D., was admitted a member of the Club
in 1877, and later succeeded to his father’s professorial chair in
Edinburgh University—see Letter 70 (March 28, 1879).

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY 71

Letter 65. Oldcambus, Nov. 2, 1877.

Dear Mrs. Carter,

I write you to thank you for your kindness to the Club, and
also to thank Miss Dickinson. I had not time to look over her
paintings, but the memory of them lingers somewhere in my
memory’s picture gallery. I could not rightly get back, but I
left a party, who would likely adjourn to your hospitable
mansion. Mr. Scott asked me to go to his house and see
something curious in the Guild Books, which may be useful
for the Proceedings; and I took with me, the East Lothian
antiquary I spoke of, who never reached your house. Col.
Crossman, at the Museum, explained to us, several plans and
maps of Berwick in the olden time, and there our rural anti-
quarian had in time made his resort. He brought me a
number of documents to examine. I carried home with me
also, the Latin copy of the History of the Humes of Wedder-
burn; and an old copy of Godscroft’s History of the House of
Angus; and heard of various other quarries, which may yet be
worked.

The address was a judicious one, not over laboured, perhaps
somewhat curtin places. We settled the matter of admittance
quiteamicably. Itis already ajoke among members, that Mr.
Bigge wanted to make the Clublittle. | On the other side, I send
for your private amusement, a list of the Club as analysed for
the occasion. I did not read it.

There were only 18 when we entered the Inn, but the late
trains nearly doubled the number, aided by those who attended
from the town. I saw faces looking in upon us, who did not
turn up at dinner; but we had quite sufficient.

I found the road quite bright for walking. I must now
prepare for the winter campaign. With kind regards,

Believe me,
DearniMrs. Carter:
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

P.S. You will not have seen any more notices of Dr. Stuart
ED.?

PINAL YSIS-OP THE CPU,

Otetes eSullayl tele
Ordinary Members 322
Honorary and Lady Members 5
Corresponding 5
Landed Proprietors 80

Clergymen 79

We THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

Army and Navy 26
Legal profession 43
Medical profession 2,
Farmers, Factors, and Landagents 33
Manufacturers and Merchants 2
Literary and Scientific professions 15
Professors and Scientific Lecturers a
Bankers if
Architects, Sculptors and Artists 3
Nobility 4
Members of Parliament a
Foreign Consul (not Mr. Jerningham) 1
DISTRICTS
Northumberland 109
Berwickshire, including the Town of Berwick 74
Roxburghshire 63
Edinburgh and neighbourhood ps;|
London and South of England 21
Durham, county of 13
Selkirkshire and vicinity 8
East Lothian 6
Glasgow 4
Oxford 1
Norwich 1
Thurso 1

322

Note.—For a short notice of John Scott (1833-90), historian of
Berwick-on-Tweed, see HBNC XXIV, 109-10.

Letter 66. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
Jume Zs 7s:

Dear Mrs. Carter,

Iam a great defaulter I fear, but I have as yet taken few of
those excursions which I used to acquaint you with. First of
all, however, I am going to ask you, if you can help me, in a
little scheme I have on hand, of having a memorial book of the
Club, in the shape of photographs of the principal mem-
bers. I hada great many local views of places in Northumber-
_ land and the Borders, for which Mrs. Hardy got a friend to
bring a handsome album from London, and it is filled to

:

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY 73

overflowing with these; but it has ovals for portraits, and we
thought as it was intended for Club scenery, these might be
rendered available for Club Men and Ladies. Accordingly
you have been placed next a blank, as second in the series,
awaiting a carte of your father, which perchance may be yet
procurable, I know at one time it might be purchasable, but I
did not think of it, having a good original, in my volume of the
Proceedings. The subject was started lately, when I was at
Ormiston, and Mr. Boyd handed me his; I rather think he
spoke of such a scheme of his own accord, and I did not tell him
of the Album atall. ThenI have Mr. Bigge’s and Mr. Tate’s,
andsome others, butnot very many. Ihave not yet got one of
my own worth anything. I had one of Mr. Embleton, but
have mislaid it somewhere. This is all I have done in the
meantime; except that I have made a collection of prints of
noted places on the Borders.

As regards the “‘Proceedings’’, the printing is almost at a
close, but there are some plates for Dr. Bruce’s paper to be
struck off at Newcastle... Mr. Cunningham’s Orchard is
commemorated. Shouldn’t he get photographed for us both
himself, and his residence of Rosy-bank? It is a delightful
place. I did not ask Dr. Archbold to send an analysis of the
Spittal well, as I found he had done so, for a guide book to
Berwick, written by Mr. Scott of the Academy.

I was at the Chirnside meeting, but we had a wet gloomy
day, as happended twice in your father’s time, when Black-
adder was visited. We got sheltered in the greenhouses, but
the mists obscured the prospect. It cleared up but then we had
to hurry away. I liked the look of the place, which is rather
hidden, but well protected with tall trees. . .

I was several days at Ormiston since, and a short time at
Kelso. A day was devoted to Old Roxburgh and the banks of
the Teviot upwards; another to the ground about Penielheugh;
and a third to Ruberslaw and the land intervening. I only
looked up the vale of the Jed, which we had proposed visiting,
but didnot findtime. Teviotdale is very fresh and inviting at
present, and the scent of flowering lime trees is one of the
amenities of the season there. Teviot’s ‘““willowed shore’’, is
still as Scott sung it. I have now become familiar with the
bolder features of that district.

Last week Mrs. Hardy and I were at Dunbar, and took the
occasion of going to Tynninghame, the Earl of Haddington’s,
to see the gardens, which were in good trim, and pretty, and
with a great variety of species. The house happened to be

open, at least we were invited in, and saw the family portraits,

and the collection of birds, and the fine views from the upper
windows of park scenery, and the collection of antiques. We
walked to Dunbar, skirting the sea, I doing a little Botany, and

74 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

Mrs. Hardy taking note of the flower gardens, with which
almost every cottage is supplied; and this being new ground
the day past pleasantly, without fatigue.

Weare going a week to Wooler at the next Meeting, whichis
on the 26th; but in the meantime if the weather permits, I wish
to revisit Gullane and Dirleton, to pick up some plants.

I hope you get the Circulars. The printer is now to address
them, and the Proceedings... Tenclosea litthe Memoir of Mr.
Embleton, which I was asked to write for the Border Almanac

. Mr. Middlemas was to write one for the Club, but he has
not said yes or no. With kind regards, and hoping you are
well,

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

eeiCi to 7. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
June 19, 1878.

Wear Mess Carter;

Ihave only time to send youa line in acknowledgment of the
kind favor of your father’s likeness, which is very like him as a
portrait, and fits nicely at the head of the long (at least I hope it
will be so) roll of silent, and yet speaking, faces. And I will
welcome Mr. Cunningham’s, ifitis tobe had. Ihavenow got
the two Kelso Doctors, very characteristic of the men. I will
try to get Dr. Balfour in Edinburgh. I was there yesterday at
my sister's marriage to a Mr. George Johnstone, who has
charge of the branch of the Commercial Bank, at Loanhead
near Roslin. He is a nephew of Dr. McCrie, the author of
Knox and Melville, etc. Heand his two brothers, both book-
sellers, appear to be intelligent men. One of them 1s provost
of Bathgate, and with him I had a talk about books of family
relationships. I hope it will be a happy union for
both. Edinburgh was very pretty in the Princes Street region,
a combination of town and country, of Highland scenery with
the charms of architecture and art. I looked into the Univer-
sity, and it remained in the area much as it was, but silent and
deserted, in midst of the crowded streets. The new buildings
and streets behind were all new. What wretchedness was
swept away from its precincts, by the alterations. There are
some ugly kirk spires in Edinburgh in the style of your own
Town-house, at Berwick. I looked at Prince Albert’s monu-
ment in Charlotte Square, very favourably placed.

‘I goto Wooler on Monday, and stay till next Monday, when

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY 75

I goto Coldstream, and remain till Tuesday, and catch up Mrs.
Hardy in time for the evening train. I will probably see Mr.
Cunningham, when there. One of our members has asked
me to help him decipher some old writs, if I can.

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

Letter 68. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
Sept. 6, 1878.

ear irs. Carter,

As this is a more quiet day, owing to the harvest going to be
finished, so far as cutting is concerned, I answer your kind
letter at once, the more as I have a spare circular to send you,
and also I wish to tell you of an explanation I have sometimes
heard of the name Mount Misery. This place as well as Friar
Dykes, which lies beyond it, belonged to the Abbey of Mel-
rose; and tradition reports that refractory or ill-conditioned
brethren of the house underwent a sort of penance by being
banished for a time to their Lammermoor settle-
ments. Mount Misery according to this account signifies
Miserere, in other words Pity Me, which I have seen applied to
some localities in the N. of England.

Thank you much for your preparations in anticipation of our
visit. I must get on with the Reports for the Professor’s
address, assoonasI can. Ihave only got a Newspaper report
of the Embleton Meeting... We have only got 6 new mem-
bers this year; but I like to see the Club increasing instead of
standing still.

If any are willing to lend you family heir-looms to shew the
Club, it would be interesting, and we would record them, if
you would give me a note afterwards of their history.

Mrs. Hardy is well: very fond of gardening; about which I
think she is engaged at the present moment; but we have not
anything very nice yet.

My Lady correspondents do not quite forget me, especially
those connected with the Club—‘‘Our Club’’—as one fondly
expressesit. There must be something more charming about
it, than its rivals.

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

76 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

Letter 69. Oldcambus, Oct. 2,1878.

Dear Mrs. Carter,

I have not much time for writing, as I am preparing the
reports for the anniversary meeting. I have just written a
letter to Mr. Clay to endeavour to make the terms with Mr.
Carr at the King’s Arms. I rather think there is going to be a
large assemblage. The Galashiels meeting was successful,
and we enjoyed the visit to Ashiesteel, where everything was
shown us, by Mrs. Russell’s kindness, and there we stayed
longest. Fairnalee was a melancholy ruin, nothing but dark
walls, the front overgrown withivy. Yair was very beautiful,
and Mr. Pringle affable; but we could only glance atit. There
were several papers and notices read. I saw Mr. Cunning-
ham, and he was one of the remainder of the party who had tea
at Dr. Gloag’s. I stayed with Mr. Wood, and returned next
day.

I have not heard from Canon Greenwell, the supposed presi-
dent elect. There is a possibility of the next annual meeting
being at Durham; for Berwick is a mere temporary arrange-
ment; at least Durham is spoken of.

The trefoil-like plant was not the Wood Sorrel, but another
species . . . Yellow Wood Sorrel, not a native plant. The
OrchisI donot know. ‘“Love-in-a-mist”’ is Nigella damascena,
Common Fennel Flower, native of the south of Europe.

I have offered to Prof. Balfour to read the reports, which will
ease him, and they are of my own preparation. . .

I beg to enclose Mrs. Balfour’s note. Before the Meeting I
wish to go to Marchmont to look at it for a place of visit.

[hope you will not make too many preparations, for we will
not have much spare time, the transaction of business being the
aim of this extra meeting. With kind regards,

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

Letter 70. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
March 28, 1879.

Dear Mirs. Carter,

I have not written to or heard from you for a very long time,
the reason for which is I suppose, that temporarily we have

——

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY Wi

been otherwise occupied. I intended giving you a letter of
thanks for entertaining the Club so pleasantly, but other things
interfered, and the printing commenced, and I had to collect
information for the Report, which turns out in my hands to be
literary rather than scientific. I appear to have done very little
this winter; have not transcribed much; and have had better
health for the repose. The number is pretty well advanced in
size, andis now among the ornithological incidents, which are
numerous as usual. We have a good deal about Selkirkshire,
and have a lady contributor in Miss Russell of Ashiesteel, who
gives us some notes on Sir Walter Scott’s connection with that
place... Ihave the Index to draw up; but I have been getting it
forward, during vacant minutes. I have a paper on the Pape-
day family, the ancestors of the Homes of Berwick-
shire. Apparently the number will be filled up to its last year’s
size.

Some year, if you would give us leave, we could print your
father’s list of Berwickshire Fishes and Crustacea. It appeared
to me to be a finished article, while other portions—on the
quadrupeds and birds, by no means represent the rich addi-
tions, the Club’s members have made of late years in Ornithol-
ogy; while almost nothing has been done to the sea-animals.

Can you tell me when “pewter-plates” left off to be used in
farm or cottager’s houses? I never saw them used in Berwick-
shire at all, but they were in usage in Northumberland, not so
very long ago. Ihave to notice an article of the kind found in
draining in Channelkirk parish. I find them used in Colding-
ham, Holy Island and Farne Islands, in monkish times. I have
seen the wooden trenchers for eating meat from, which ran
alongside these pewter vessels, and have an example or
two. Some ladies, acquainted with the neighbourhood of
- Berwick, will know about them. They were something like
the silver dish belonging to Mr. Willoby.

The winter has been dreadful, and very confining. I hope
you have enjoyed fair health, notwithstanding incle-
-mences. Mrs. Hardy and I have had no complaints; vexed to
_ see our flowers nipped in their prime, and little but a barren
| Besret from ever sO many rarities set in autumn, which,
however, may be safe after all. I have been feeding a little
flock of birds up till now, including a Robin, 4 Tit-mice, 4
_hedgesparrows, several house ditto, and an unlimited number
_ of Chaffinches, as also 3 Blackbirds. There has been great
_ destruction of the thrush tribe early in the season, out in the
Open country. The Grey Linnet has since I wrote this made
itself evident (returned from the south) perched in a thorn
_ before the window and has sung over all its vernal song.

I do not know how the contest for the Edinburgh chair will

terminate. I suppose it lies between Prof. Dickson of Glas-

|
|
|

f

78 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

gow, and young Dr. Balfour. I have, however, emitted a
testimony in favour of Dr. Stirton of Glasgow, but he has
started too late. I know him but not the others.

I was sorry to hear of the death of Mr. Forster. I sat beside
him at the Berwick meeting, and he was the last of the mem-
bers, to whom I bade good-bye. I suppose he has other
brothers.

With every good wish,
Believe me,
Dear Mes? Carter,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

P.S. Last Wednesday I was nearly up at “Mount Misery”’: the
people call it ““The Mount” as if it were an “‘a-per-se”’.
Note.—Mr. Ralph Forster of Whitsome Hill died at Rome on
17th February 1878 in his 44th year.

Letter 71. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
Junep27 1379:

Dear Mrs. Carter:

I wrote a line to Dr. Macaulay of the “Leisure Hour’’, etc.,
but I had not any information toimpart about Dr. G. J. Allman,
whom I saw only once, and had a sherk conversation with. It
was about the horn of an Elk figured in our Proceedings, but he
could not tell me anything, I had not known previously.

I have been kept very busy all this spring, with one thing or
other, and I cannot undertake anything new, till the ““Proceed-
ings” are finished. The List of Members has been revised
today, and then only the Indices remain to print. Our Mem-
bership is still upwards of 300, and we have already added 10 or
11 this year at the two meetings. A number have been struck
off, aed ahiawe that replace them may be more useful, and better
behaved.

We hada good meeting at Kelso on Wednesday, 35 being the
number present, and the day though lowering admitted us to
see all, that the outline promised. In addition we saw the
Grahamslaw Caves, and Linton Church. Dr. Charles Doug-
las made the arrangements, but there was no room for him in
the conveyances. The damp air too might have injured
him. I was for two nights at Ormiston. The Orchids are
fine at present, but the spring flowering in the garden was
over. The Hawthorns and Horsechestnuts, and Rhododen-
drons were in full blossom, and the former especially, are
loaded with blossom.

I

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY 72

We got 6 new members at Kelso, including Canon Tristram
of Durham. The Rev. J. F. Bigge was at Ormiston, and
brought an account of what is expected to be done at the
Durham Meeting, where we are to experience a most hospit-
ablereception. The Architectural and Archaeological Society
intend to entertain the Club to dinner in the Hall, and we are to
have the Cathedral Choir, and the Dean and Chapter MSS. and
charters are to be open to inspection; the Bishop even may
honour the meeting by being present. I hope we shall not
forfeit the vantage ground we have gained; nor the respect that
should attend old age. Our 50 years anniversary will soon
arrive, and will be commemorated at Grant’s House, as I hear it
said,in 1881. Ihave notsaida word either for or against; but I
am not sure, but that the Rev. Thomas Brown should be the
president of that year, as he was in the original list of Members.

I have been seeing a number of gardens lately. One week I
was at Chirnside visiting Dr. Stewart, and on that occasion we
saw Mr. Muirhead of Paxton also. On Saturday last I was at
Houndwood House inspecting the beautiful collection of
Rhododendrons there, which is very fine. There is a good
collection of Pelargoniums in the greenhouse. A few days
before Mrs. Hardy and I were viewing the Manse garden at
Oldhamstocks, where there are a great number of curious
forms of vegetation, not of the present style of things. Our
own borders are as gay, as any that I see, and the variety is
always on the increase.

I have been writing letters all day, and have not yet
ceased. Mrs. Hardy is not very well, andI am all alone, and it
is wet outside. The “Proceedings” will form a bulky volume
this time again. We have two woodcuts, and several plates.

Hoping you keep well, Believe me,
Dear Mrs. Carter,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

P.S. Isaw Miss Dickinson yesterday in the train, but only to
speak a few words.
JH

Letter 72. Oldcambus, Oct. 2, 1879.
Dear Mrs. Carter,

I found your kind letter awaiting my return from Durham,
and feel much obliged for your invitation. Mrs. Hardy may
possibly come with me, but do not be disappointed if she is
detained athome. Ifshe does come, she knows nothing about

80 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

Nat. Hist. specimens; but delights in flowers and gar-
dens. She will probably have something to do in town to fill
up the day. Wei.e. the Club are invited to breakfast with the
Vicar, hour not fixed, I suppose about 10. I have not written
him yet. He cannot expect a large party at that hour, as the
meeting will likely not be till 1.30. I suppose we may dine at
3, but have left this to the determination of Dr. Douglas, as I
have forgotten last year’s appointments, which were thought
rather limited.

I am not quite sure, who will be next President, most likely
Mr. Charles Watson of Dunse, it being the turn for Berwick-
shire.

The Meeting at Durham was very numerous, but over-
crowded by the townspeople, and the members of the other
society. Our members were quite lost in the crowd. I hear,
however, that they were greatly pleased. I had been thrice
before at Durham. I stayed the rest of the week at Newcastle;
went and saw Gateshead, Long Benton, and Winlaton. Mrs.
Hardy was at Tynemouth, but did not go to Durham. We
shall probably print Canon Greenwell’s address.

Iam engaged with the harvest. The cornis mostly cut, and
the crop looks fairish; but there is very little as yet in the
stackyard. The moist weather of this season has prevented all
kind of excursions.

I see I have nothing in my notes about last year’s Berwick
Meeting. There must have been nothing to record, except
that Sir Walter Elliot exhibited some fossils. Ihave not evena
list of those present. Having reported none of the Meetings
for Newspapers, Iam equally deficient in the other meetings of
the season, but that long-winded editor of the Kelso
Chronicle has said more than enough, on every occasion.

We have again a very large number of aspirants for member-
ship. There is no possibility of stopping the increase. Iam
not troubled with it. Our meetings are not more crowded
than usual. I shall write you again ‘about the arrange-
ments. I have yet to apply to Mr. Carr about the dinner.

Believe me,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

Letter 73. Oldcambus, Oct. 9, 1879.

Dear Mrs. Carter,

I enclose two Circulars as you requested, but I told the
printer tosend three to you. Ihope the notice will suffice, and
that you will give mea list, and history of novelties, which you

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY 81

may be able to assemble for the occasion. I am at a loss
whether to come and breakfast with you, or go to the Vicar-
age. If Mrs. Hardy can come, I will at least bring her to your
residence. Mr. Carr wished me to tell him the previous day,
how many I expect to attend; but I have found it a vain task to
bind down members, as they are not sure till the day
arrives. ‘There will probably bea good gathering. There are
upwards of 30 new members already proposed. I am under
no anxiety about the increase. Mr. Watson consents to stand
for President. Iam busy preparing Reports, as Iam not sure
how Dr. Paxton may get over his many interruptions. Ihave
only one to get up now. Dr. Paxton may possibly come
down, for a a or two.

I have got the crop cut, and a good deal secured. The
remainder does not lie in any airy situation, and must await a
breeze. Hitherto it has been good harvest weather.

Believe me,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

Letter 74. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
Dec. 18, 1880.

Dear Mrs. Carter,

I have to thank you for your kind remembrances of our
deceased colleagues, Mr. Fyler and Wm. Chartres, both of
whom I knew personally. It is useful to me to have all that is
said about them. They are not the only losses we are having
now and again. The Chillingham sketch is also of value, as
containing some new details. The writer John Aitchison of
Belford is an old post runner, and as I learnt, now not able to
walk. He has been writing on the Birds of Glendale in the

_ Alnwick Mercury, and the printer sends me the series. I
_ wrote to Aitchison to ask him to extract the local matter, and I

would place it in the ‘Proceedings’, and he will probably do
so. His papers are nearly all copied from books. He has
been writing on Quadrupeds and Reptiles in the ““Newcastle
Chronicle’, whence the article you sent was extracted, but
these Newcastle papers are out of my reach. I preserve all I
can get of details about local families and historical places.

I hope you are keeping well during the many changes of this
winter. Both Mrs. Hardy and J are well, and busy with one
thing or another. .. I have not begun the “Proceedings”
yet. We don’t get on well till after Christmas, as the printers

_ then get holidays at Alnwick... Miss Procter has assisted me

82 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

by copying portions of her father’s account of Doddington
parish containing the townships of Earle, Humbleton, and
Ewart, all of which you will know. We will probably give
Earle... I have got the Newminster Chartulary, and Lord
William Howard’s Household Book, to examine; both Surtees
Society publications. I get them from the Lit. and Phil. Soc.
of Newcastle, having a kind friend at court. I will glean some
new particulars from them, about Morpeth, and Naworth and
Lanercost and Gilsland. When at Gilsland I went and saw
Hexham. The vicar at Gilsland proved to be a nice intelligent
man: I gota few notes from him. Naworth and Lanercost are
too long a story to give. After the meeting I went to Rose
Castle, the Bishop of Carlisle’s residence. My old teacher
lives with his sister at the Bishop’s farm, and I was kindly
received there. The park was very fine, and I was round all
the garden, and the exterior of the Bishop’s Castle, the family
being athome. The woods are a great protection of birds, as
there are no slaughtering gamekeepers to uproot them. The
situation is in view of the Cumberland and Westmorland hills,
Crossfell, Helvellyn, Saddleback, Skiddaw, etc., all famous
names; and on the Scotch side of Skiddaw, Burnswark etc., a
glorious and animating view. Since then I have only been
abroad twice, the first time in the woods above Innerwick,
where I was surprised by a downfall of rain, and came home
soaked completely. The second excursion was to Biel near
Dunbar (Lady Mary Nisbet Hamilton). The house is in a
very sweet seclusion, on a terraced platform, above a green
haugh, and a gentle flowing stream. The entrance is across a
deer, park of . great extent.’ Il) “had -all) taeweplace) ae
vay cell There are some fine old trees. I hope to return in
spring, having got an ““opensesame’’. Our first meeting next
year is to be there.

My brother at Horsley is looking out forafarm. Ihave not
heard that he has succeeded yet, but he will leave his present
place, which is too dear. My brother at Penmanshiel has got
his finger torn by a ‘cleek’ on which he was hanging an um-
brella. It is mending very slowly, after much surgical treat-
ment. My father still wears on, butis very feeble. Heisnow
99.

I hope Dr. Maclagan has fully recovered, and that his useful-
ness is not impaired by his accident.. I have heard recently
from Miss Dickinson—with a report of the winter’s inclemen-
cies in her garden last year.

Iam collecting accounts of the famous Wells of the Borders:
can youhelp me? The Saints’ wells, if they can be ascertained,
will be noticed. There is some Holy well about Norham or
~ Ladykirk. Mr. Milne Home has given mea few hints. Iam
also collecting notices about the Polecat, Badger, Viper,

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY 83

Raven, Squirrel, their present localities etc. Some ofthese are
becoming extirpated, and we must try to shield them, or at
least not to let them pass away un-remembered.

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

Wetter 75. Oldcambus, June 14, 1881.

Dear Mrs. Carter,

I was glad to see your handwriting again. Iam so busy at
times, that I forget whether Iam owing or due letters, and I ea
cherished the intention of writing to you, but I did not think
the blank was so great. [lately saw the announcement of Miss
Downie’s demise, and wondered if she was the lady you once
spoke of. I congratulate you on her mindfulness, as money is
always useful.

Iam always busy with the pen at one thing or another. I
have got all my Folk-lore Book completed, and the materials of
the “Proceedings” ready; but the printing, always slow, is
again behind. In the coldest part of Winter I was summoned
as a witness in the case of the Shotts Iron Company, versus
Inglis: the Glencorse case now in the second Division of the
Court of Session. I was in Edinburgh four days, and was
fortunately not called, but I was well paid, and on obtaining
leave to depart, I looked in, along with another equally fortu-
nate, and Dr. Douglas Maclagan was in the witness box, sub-
jected to the tearing of the council. He was on the same side as
I would have been, the Iron Company’s, whose smoke had
been voted a nuisance by several proprietors, by destroying
their woods. The company held that it was the season, and
bad drainage and not the smoke that had killed the trees. I
was glad to get back to my comfortable fire-side; but I had met
and conversed with several of my scientific correspondents
who were also summoned, and whom I might never have had
an opportunity of conversing with. This was my first outing
for the season.

In May I spent part of a day at Edrom seeing the church and
- copying the inscriptions on the tombstones, and then had a
walk to observe the new arrivals among the birds by the
Whitadder and so on to Chirnside, where a small company of
amateurs had assembled to see the riches of Dr. Stuart’s
_ flower-garden. I am going to get some information about

Edrom, and we may have a Club meeting yet, in the haugh
_ near Blanerne.

84 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

Thad a day also at Biel and Belton two days before the Club’s
Meeting to nous the arrangements, I had the places again all to
myself; and became aware of the reception we would meet. I
had lent Miss Nisbet Hamilton some MSS. on Dirleton, some
years since, and this paved the way, as she is engaged with the
family history. Mr. Thomson did not see the statesman,
William Pitt’s gold chain, which was shewn only to a
few. The Prayer Book appeared to have been at most of the
Royal Marriages of the present Queen’s male descen-
dants. The Vault at Stenton was expressly opened that we
might inspect it, and had been closed for nearly 50
years. There was a very good array of prints, said to be
valuable, in the manse at Stenton. Mr. Marjoribanks was
most kind and attentive.

Yesterday I went to Grant’s House to settle about the June
Meeting. Weareto havea tent, and if it is true what I heard at
Dunbar, upwards of 100 are to be present. Mr. Grant being
on the spot, will take charge of the notices, so that we may
ascertain how many are likely to be there. I have heard about
the Testimonial to be presented, but as I have received no
notice, I have not alluded toit. Dr. F. Douglas and Mr. John
Boyd are perhaps not home from the continent yet. I wrote
for Capt. Norman to meet me, but the letter did not reach him
intime. I hadintendedto take him up Blackburn-rigg dean to
botanise. It was up this dean that I conducted your father and
Mr. Robert Home on perhaps the last Grant’s House meeting
your father ever attended. The rest went to Pease Bridge, and
we had the whole day to ourselves. Your father said he
would never again carry his Vasculum. We went over several
walls, and Mr. Home leapt lightly, and your father humor-
ously asked him, how he cpalatde that, it gave such a shock to
thesystem. We went on tothe River Eye, traversed part ofits
course, and returned by a different route. I thought of this
yesterday, but the grass was so wet that I took another favour-
ite dean of his, Edmersdean, or Edmondsdean, a lonely wind-
ing glen, with many fine bits of woodland scenery, bare green
banks, clad with cedar-like junipers, and other diversities, and
so lonely you could feel the stillness, there being no sound
louder than a bee’s hum. I had a long round ee to get
home, but observation was active, and I never relaxed.

Iam glad you have told me of Mr. Cunningham, whom I do
not forget. Will you mention to him that Mr. Baird Bell, the
former owner of Rosybank, is still alive in Canada, and in
prosperous circumstances as a chemist? One who knew him
brought the news last month.

I have got a learned correspondent in Miss Russell of Ashie-
steel. She is going to print her own paper, and then give us a
synopsis of it. I wrote an account of the places we visited in

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY 85

last week’s Chronicle. We won’t have room in Proceedings
forit. Mrs. Hardyis well. The garden has been very beauti-
ful, but drought is hurting it, and our turnips also. My
brother had a long fight with the healing of the hand, but has
come forth again recruited. Mr. William Cairns wrote the
Newspaper notice of my father. Except rheumatisms, he felt
little pain. The demise was like falling asleep. I have been
writing all day, and my fingers are tired. Believe me,

Dear Mrs. Carter,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

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church

OLDINGHAM PRIORY 1974

HISTORY vA

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE

NATURALISTS’ CLUB

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HISTORY

2 BERWICKSHIRE
ab URALISTS’ CLUB

__ INSTITUTED SEPTEMBER 22, 1831

VOL. XL. PART 2.
AN 1975 |

OFFICE-BEARERS

Joint Field Secretaries

D. MACKENZIE ROBERTSON, Esq., Buxley, Duns.
Mrs D. MACKENZIE ROBERTSON, M.C.S.P., F.S.A.Scot.
(Tel. Duns 3273).

Eovccpaneiie Secretary.

T. D. THOMSON, Esaq., C.N.G., O.B.E. M.A., LL.B., F.S.A.Scot., The Hill,
Coldingham, Ene (Tel. Coldingham 209). SS ae

Editing Secretary. Bw “

P. G. HENDRY, Esq., 44 Craigleith View, Edinburgh EH4 Stab
. (Tel. 031-337 3025). pat

Treasurer.

J. STAWART, face 4 Douglas Close, Berwick upon Tweed. ye sg
(Tel. Berwick 7549) ; '

HISTORY OF THE {
BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB ‘

CONTENTS OF VOL. XL

PART 2.—1975.
1. Presidential Address—Marriages atLamberton Toll. ... a 89
Preece lub in 1975. .. oe ” as de a We 95
3. The History of Lyne Kirk. Rs o Pe nh — 97
4. The Valley of Manor Water. Ys oe ‘ ue a 99
5. Coralroot in Selkirkshire. aE - eee
6. The 1975 Botanical Re roly rice ts sis w) LOZ
7. Natural History Observations during 1974-75... ar a - 108
8. The Last Will and Testament of Sir James de Douglas.
(The writer of this paper received the annual award for the
best contribution to the History submitted by a member
who had not contributed previously.) .. a ae 205
9. Red Deer Antlers. hie a “3 we a) MOR
10. Coldingham Priory Excavations, XIL * 2 ths ce OR
11. Note ona Denier of Guy de Lusignan. .. - bie ss lo
12. Foulden and the Binns. S As as be Fis cot eile
13. Northfield House, Prestonpans. i. As
14. Records of Sa aa dea in Roxburghshire and
Selkirkshire. bd 122
15. Nisbet House and Waderburn ere a0 th oe Be al 25.
16. An Armorial Stone at Edrom Church. Be a aed eli26
17. Hillslap Tower, Masons and Regional Traditions. ay 28
18. Obituary: Mrs M. J. McWhir Bs Be Oe 55) al 2
19. Further Extracts from the Correspondence of Dr. James Hardy. 142
20. Obituary: Dr P. W. Maclagan. .. ae ap a ig) Bley)
21. A Coldingham Resurrectionist. “2 a - a2 4156
22. Financial Statement and Balance Sheet. We ss oe hal
ILLUSTRATIONS
PART 2.—1975
Plates
1. Lamberton Toll, c. 1890. il
2. Coldingham Excavations: Chapterhouse Wall. 109
3. Northfield House, Prestonpans 118
Plans
Coldingham Priory Pe WIS)

Hillslap Tower 132, 133, 134, 135

“A1njuss YI6T

aa] TOL

u

ouoquiey “| aLv1d

THE BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB
| (The 22nd of September, 1831)

Rules and Regulations

BADGE: Woop SorreEL.
) MOTTO: Mare ET TELLUS, ET, QUOD TEGIT OMNIA, COELUM.

1. The name of the Club is ““The Berwickshire Naturalists’
Club’’. (1831).

2. The object of the Club is to investigate the natural history
and antiquities of Berwickshire and its vicinage. (1831).

3. All interested in this object are eligible for membership.
(1831).

4. The Club consists of (a) Ordinary Members, (b) Junior
Members (under the age of 18), (c) Contributing Lib-
raries and Societies, (d) Corresponding Members (emi-
nent men of science whom the Club desires to honour),
(e) Associate Members (non-paying members who

‘work along with the Club) and (f) a limited number of
Honorary Life Members.

5. New Members are elected at any meeting of the Club or
Council by the unanimous vote of Members present, the
official forms having been duly completed, and the
nominations having been approved by the office-
bearers. New Members are entitled to the privileges of
membership upon payment of the entrance and mem-
bership fees, concerning which they will be duly
notified. If elected in September a new Member is
eligible to attend the Annual Meeting for the year, no
fees being due before 1st January. The names of new

Members who have not taken up their membership
within six months of election will, after a reminder, be
removed from the list. The Club Rules are sent on
election.

. The entrance fee is £1 and the annual subscription is £3,
both of which are due onelection. Thereis no entrance
fee for Junior Members, from whom the subscription is
50p; they may pass from Junior to Ordinary member-
ship at the age of 18 without paying an entrance
fee. No fees or first subscriptions should be sent until
requested by the Treasurer.

. Subsequent subscriptions are due after the Annual Meet-
ing and entitle Members to attend the meetings and to
receive a copy of the Club’s History for the ensuing year;
the History is issued only to Members who have paid
their year’s subscription. Names of Members who are
in arrears of subscriptions after 22nd September in any
one year will be removed from the roll.

. The number of Ordinary Members is limited to400. The
names of candidates are brought forward in priority of
application, power being reserved to the President to
nominate independently in special cases irrespective of
the number on the roll.

. The Club shall hold no property (1831) except literature.

. The Office-bearers of the Club are: a President, who is
appointed annually by the retiring President; a Vice-
President, who is nominated by the retiring President;
Corresponding and Field Secretaries; an Editing Secret-
ary; a Treasurer; and a Librarian, all of whom are elected
at the Annual Meeting.

. The Office-bearers form the Council of the Club along
with the immediate past President (for one year only)
and six members elected for two years of whom three
retire annually but are eligible for re-election. The
Council has power to co-opt not more than two further
members for special purposes, for not more than a year
at a time.

. Expenses incurred by the Office-bearers are refunded; in
particular, the Secretaries’ expenses, both in organising
and in attending the meetings of the Club, and those of
the organisers of extra meetings, may be defrayed out of

the funds.

13.

14.

15.

16.

iy.

18.

19.

Five monthly meetings are held, from May to September.
(eo). Fhe. Annual - Meeting. is ‘held in
October. Extra meetings for special purposes may be
arranged.

Notices of meetings are issued to members at least ten days
in advance.

Members may bring guests to meetings but guests may
only attend when accompanied by Members. When
guests are brought the host is required to hand to the
Treasurer (or his deputy), at the meeting in question,
50p in respect of each guest.

At field meetings no litter may be left on the ground and all
gates passed through must be left closed. Dogs must
be kept under strict control.

Members omitting to book seats for meals or drives
beforehand must wait until those who have done so are
accommodated.

Contributors of papers to the History receive five extra
copies.

The Corresponding Secretary must be notified of any
suggested change in the Rules not later than Ist Sep-
tember in each year, and notice of such suggestions shall
be sent to all Members not less than ten days before the
Annual Meeting.

*““RULE FIRST AND LAST”

“Every member must bring with him good humour,
good behaviour, and a good wish to oblige. This rule
cannot be broken by any member without the unanim-
ous consent of the club’’—(1849).

(Correspondence of Dr George Johnston, Founder and First
President of the Club, p. 414)

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)

PRO CEE DIN-GS

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE
NATURALISTS’ CLUB

MARRIAGES AT LAMBERTON TOLL:
1753-1940

being the Anniversary Address delivered by the Revd.
geC. Lusk, B.D., President of the Club, on 9th
October 1975 at Berwick-upon- Tweed.

IN my parish, there stand beside the Great North Road at
Lamberton two sad wrecks of houses, which affront the
eyes of any one entering Scotland at that point—the
remains of the Toll House and of the Inn or Marriage
House. Their future has been recently in debate, and it
seems likely that they will soon be demolished.

Their past now forms a finished chapter of history,
which I am here attempting to outline. (Whether it is
“antiquity” or “natural history’, the two interests of this
club, I leave you to judge. Perhaps marriages without
benefit of clergy are “natural history’’.)

Much has been written on the subject of the Lamber-
ton marriages, and I can claim little originality. But I
have been able to study the records of Mordington Kirk
Session, in whose parish Lamberton lay: and I have here
to-day, kindly lent to me by Miss Margaret Campbell-
Renton (whose family were lairds of Lamberton
throughout the period of the marriages) three volumes of
the records kept by Henry Collins, one of the celebrators

89

90 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

of marriages. between 1833 and 1849. IfI can add little
new knowledge, I hope I may be able to put the subject
into true perspective.

The starting point is the year 1753, when the law of
marriage in England was changed by the Act of Parlia-
ment known as Lord Hardwicke’s Act. This act was
noteworthy in England as the first step in the regulation
of marriage by parliamentary statute apart from
ecclesiastical law. But it is noteworthy from the Scot-
tish point of view because it introduced a major differ-
ence between the marriage laws of Scotland and Eng-
land. In England after 1754 no marriage was valid
unless (generally speaking) it was celebrated in church
after due publication of banns. Later, in 1836, civil mar-
riage was introduced in England.

But in Scotland, the law recognised as valid both regu-
lar marriages celebrated by a minister and also irregular
marriages. An irregular marriage might be “‘by habit
and repute’’: more often it was by “declaration de praesen-
ti’; that is, a man and woman who declared themselves
(before witnesses) to be husband and wife were regarded
by the law as married from that time. An irregular
marriage by declaration de praesenti could take place any-
where in Scotland, and without any preliminaries such as
banns: but it had the disadvantage of being difficult to
proveinacourtoflaw. The Lamberton marriages were
of this sort—irregular but legally valid.

From 1754, an English couple who wished to be mar-
ried without the trouble necessary in England could eas-
ily come to Scotland and contract an irregular marriage,
which if it could be proved was valid in Scotland or
England. The number of such marriages of English
people in Scotland seems to have been not large to begin
with, but gradually increased over the years until it
reached a peak in the 1850s.

In 1856, the Scottish law was changed by the Marriage
Act of that year, known as Brougham’s Act. It made
two important changes. First, one at least of the parties
had to reside in Scotland for 21 days before contracting
the marriage: this greatly reduced the numbers coming
across the border. Second, an irregular marriage could
now be registered, with the recently appointed registrars,
by warrant of the sheriff: this made irregular marriages

-more easily proved in law.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 91

After 1856 there was little change in the law until the
Marriage (Scotland) Act of 1939, which abolished irregu-
lar marriages by declaration, and introduced civil mar-
riages in registrars’ offices. This change took effect in
1940, and so marks the end of our period.

Up to 1940, irregular marriages by declaration could
be made anywhere in Scotland. It is therefore rather
strange that certain places and certain celebrators became
popular for Scottish couples. For English couples the
obvious places were the commonly-used border cros-
sings. ‘That is why Gretna and Lamberton were popu-
lar, and also Coldstream. In my parish Mordington
Toll was sometimes used, instead of Lamberton. And
in the next parish, Paxton Toll and the Chain Bridge
were also used. These places must have become popu-
lar first with English couples, and then later with Scottish
ones also. But it should be remembered that irregular
marriages (of English people or Scots) could equally well
be, and actually were performed in any place in Scot-
land—in lawyers’ offices, in public houses, in Edinburgh
or Glasgow or anywhere else. The popular celebrators
of irregular marriages, the blacksmith of Gretna, and the
so-called ‘“‘priest’? of Lamberton, were individuals who
seemed to ae sufficient knowledge of the law to per-
suade couples that their marriages were legal. The
celebrators at Lamberton were (I believe) usually resi-
dents of Berwick, who arranged for English couples to
go with them to one of the nearest points in Scotland to
bemarried. And because these celebrators became well
practised, Scottish couples also resorted to them, to be
married quickly and without the publicity entailed by a
regular marriage.

Throughout the period 1753-1940, the Great North
Road, crossing the border at Lamberton, was always one
of the principal routes between England and Scot-
land. The railway from Edinburgh to Berwick was
opened in 1846, and must have taken away from the road
much of the long-distance traffic, but not so much of the
local traffic.

But at the beginning of the period, in 1753, the line of
the road at the border was not what it is to-day. Going
north from Berwick, it diverged from the present line at
New East Farm, going up the hill and passing to the west
of Lamberton Church. Its line can still be clearly seen,

92 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

marked by a wall, and passing the three small holdings
above the ruined church. It then went along the top of
the moor, and dropped steeply down to Ayton by Cock-
law Farm. It therefore crossed the border at a point
one-quarter mile west of what we know as Lamberton
Toll. A new road was built in the years 1806-8, which
crossed the border at the same point as the road does
to-day. The ruins of the Toll House and Marriage
House therefore have no significant history for us before
1808. After that, the Toll House must have been in use
for collecting the tolls, until the turnpike system was
abolished about 1878. Before 1808, there must have
been another toll house on the old road which has now
completely disappeared. If there were any marriages
celebrated there, they could not have been many: the
fashion was only beginning in 1808.

It does not seem to be possible to estimate the total
number of marriages at our Lamberton Toll between
1808 and 1940. The Registrar General for Scotland, of
whom I enquired, has no estimate of the total. Even
after 1856, when irregular marriages could be registered
with the registrar, most of them were not. All that can
be done now is to study a representative sample of the
records. The three volumes which I have here are the
records of marriages performed by one Henry Collins
from 1833 to 1849. His name is not in these volumes:
but the Mordington Session records refer to certain mar-
riages as being performed by Henry Collins, and these
are in these volumes. I have thus been able to identify
them as belonging originally to him. I do not know
where he lived, or any other facts about him: I presume
that he lived in Berwick, and not at Lamberton, since he
celebrated marriages at other places also.

The annual totals of Collins’s marriages are truly
astonishing. In 1834 (the first full year of his records) he
performed 54 marriages, of which 33 are recorded as at
Lamberton: his Lamberton total may have been more, as
some of the entries give no place. His numbers steadily
increase for 15 years. His greatest total is in 1848, when
he performed 406 marriages, of which 367 were at Lam-
berton (an average of one there for every day of the year).

Collins seems to have stopped his work in 1849:
perhaps he died then. Thereafter, a number of other
~ celebrators were at work. The best-known was

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 93

Andrew Lyon (or Lyons), tailor, of Walkergate, Ber-
wick: his advertisements for his marriage trade were
deplored by the President of this Club in his presidential
address of 1858. Mr. A. C. A. Steven, in his publication
The Story of Lamberton Toll (1933), says that Lyons per-
formed 482 marriages, not all at Lamberton Toll, be-
tween 1854 and 1885 (p. 22). This is a very much smal-
ler annual number than Collins’s in his heyday, illustrat-
ing the steep decline in numbers which followed
Brougham’s Act of 1856. By the end of the 19th cen-
tury, marriages at Lamberton had become rare, unlike
what happened at Gretna. The last one at Lamberton is
said (by Mr. Stephen) to have been performed by Mr.
Harry Smith, who died about 1910.

The peak year was 1856. One can only guess how
many marriages there were at Lamberton that year. If
the increase continued from 1849 (Collins’s last year) to
1856 as it had done in the previous years, then the annual
number may (by my guess) have reached 1000. It can
hardly have been less than Collins’s 367 for 1848.

Further study of Collins’s records reveals some
interesting points. Places other than Lamberton where
he celebrated marriages in 1848 were Mordington Toll
(9), Paxton Toll (17) and Chain Bridge (5): Lamberton
with 367 hada big lead. But three years earlier, in 1845,
when the Lamberton total was 168, Mordington Toll had
48, Paxton Toll 46 and Chain Bridge 15. Thus these
other places were giving way to Lamberton Toll before
the peak years.

To analyse exactly the places of origin of the couples is
noteasy. The writing and spelling are sometimes poor:
and a knowledge of geography greater than mine is
needed. But in 1848 (Collins’s busiest year) the very
great majority of couples seem to have come from what
isnow Northumberland (at least 254), almost ten times as
many as came from Berwickshire (27). The numbers
coming from further afield in England were only 3 cou-
ples and 7 individuals. More came from further afield in
Scotland, 16 couples and 8 individuals.

The picture then, in the years approaching the peak of
1856, is of many runaway marriages from Northumber-
land, with a handful from other parts of England: and a
few from Berwickshire, and rather fewer from the rest of
Scotland.

94 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS
The number of Scottish marriages at Lamberton was

no doubt kept down by the Church’s discipline. When
an irregular marriage by parishioners came to the notice
of the Kirk Session, ie couple were rebuked before
being restored to church privileges: sometimes they were
made to pay five shillings, the usual marriage fee, to the
Session Clerk. If the evidence for the marriage did not
satisfy the Session, the case was treated as one of fornica-
tion: if the evidence of irregular marriage were judged
sufficient the Session might declare the couple to be
married in the eyes of the Church. In Mordington Ses-
sion records, I have found 5 cases of irregular marriages
during the 60 years from 1777 to 1837: but from 1837 to
1848 (after which there is a gap in the records) there are no
fewer than 14 cases (in 12 years), and in 9 of these 14 cases
Henry Collins is named as celebrator. Ofthe 14,5 were
at Lamberton Toll, 3 at Paxton Toll, 3 at Chain Bridge,
and 3 have no place given.

Collins did not (Ihave presumed) reside in the parish of
Mordington, and so was not subject to the jurisdiction of
the Kirk Session. The toll-keeper and the innkeeper and
the other residents of Lamberton, being subject to the
Session, would not usually dare to celebrate an irregular
marriage. The myth of the Lamberton toll-keeper
celebrating hundreds of marriages seems to be without
any foundation. The celebrators were generally
Berwick men.

Mr. Steven, in his publication already quoted, names,
for example, Joseph Atkinson as celebrating a marriage at
Lamberton Inn in 1830: he was later convicted of celeb-
rating a marriage in Berwick on the wrong side of the
border, and sentenced to transportation for seven
years. In 1850, W. Ness, Blue Bell Inn, High Street,
Berwick, was advertising his services as a celebrator of
marriages. Another was ‘German Jim’’, a Berwick
shoemaker. Harry Smith, who was functioning in
1897, and is credited with being the celebrator of the last
marriage at Lamberton, also lived in Berwick.

The history of Lamberton marriages is full of tantalis-
ing gaps. But I hope I have assembled a sufficient
number of the facts to enable us to make an intelligent
judgment of the value of the two ruined houses which at
present mark the border at Lamberton.

THE CLUB IN 1975

Durinc 1975 the office of President was held by the Revd. J. C.
Lusk, B.D., and that of Vice-President by Dr. G. A. C. Bin-
nie. The other office-bearers remained as in 1974, having
been re-elected at the Annual Meeting of that year.

As is customary, six principal meetings were held during the
season.

(1) The first meeting took place in Berwickshire, on 7th
May. Inthe morning our members assembled at THE HirsEL,
where a talk was given by Major the Hon. Henry Douglas-
Home, and then drove to Nisset House. After the building
had been toured under the guidance of Mr. Peter Daniel,
luncheon was taken outside. In the afternoon, Mr. Daniel
again addressed us, this time at WEDDERBURN CASTLE, and the
meeting ended with a visit to the Woodland Gardens, Man-
DERSTON, where we were met by Major C. W. H. Bailie.

(2) On 12th June the Club went to WarRKworTH. In the
morning we were received at the Church of St. Laurence by the
Revd. S. S. Huxley, who gave an account of its history and
leading features. After luncheon the Club gathered in the
outer bailey of the Castle, where in a pleasing ceremony Mr.
W. Ryle Elliot, the newly-retired Secretary, was presented
with a set of record tokens in recognition of his ine ser-
vice. The various parts of the Castle were visited, and a
number of members walked up the Coquet to Warkworth
Hermitage. In contrast to the somewhat bleak weather of the
May meeting, the day was bright and warm.

(3) During the meeting of 9th July the weather tended to be
overcast. On this occasion the Club travelled to West
Lothian, gathering first in the ancient church of ABERCORN,
where an address was given by the Revd. William Mair. The
next visit was to BLACKNESS Castle, after which luncheon was
taken. In the afternoon we were received at THE BINNS by
Mrs. Tam Dalyell, who gave a talk on the history of the house,
its architecture and furnishings.

(4) Peeblesshire was the venue for the meeting of 7th
August. The day began at INNERLEITHEN with a visit to St.
Ronan’s Wells, one of the several spas which flourished in
19th-century Scotland. Here our members listened to an
address by the custodian and tasted the once-famous waters,
before proceeding to KIRKTON Manor. In the churchyard
Mr. D. Mackenzie Robertson gave an account of the valley of
Manor and its rich traditions, after which the grave of David
Ritchie—the “‘Black Dwarf’—and his statue at Hallyards were
seen. In the afternoon the company went on to Woodhouse
Farm, the site of the Black Dwarf’s cottage, and was received
by the Revd. H. E. Turner in the remote Kirk of LYNE. The

95

96 THE CLUB IN 1975

day ended with a walk to the nearby Roman camp, where Mr.
H. G. Welfare of the Ancient Monuments Commission was at
hand to explain thesite. During the whole of this meeting the
weather was outstandingly fine.

(5) Bright sunshine alternated with heavy skies and driv-
ing rain for the meeting at PRESTONPANS on 10th Sep-
tember. The Club assembled in the garden of Professor Gor-
don Donaldson, who spoke on the subject of the nearby Pre-
ston Tower. The tower itself was visited, our members
entering at first-floor level by ladder. Walking through the
town, we were shown the Mercat Cross and Hamilton House
by Mr. B. C. Skinner, and Northfield House by Mr. W.
Schomberg Scott, its owner. In the afternoon we gathered in
the spacious Preston Church, to hear an account by the Revd.
R. C. M. Morton of its intricate history. Moving along the
coast to PRESTONGRANGE, we saw relics of another sort in the
Mining Museum and the spectacular Beam Engine of
1874. The meeting ended outside Prestongrange House, the
home of the Royal Musselburgh Golf Club, where Mr. Skin-
ner spoke of the building and its history, our members then
going indoors for tea.

(6) The season closed with the Annual Meeting on 9th
October, the Revd. J. C. Lusk taking as the subject of his
Anniversary Address Marriages at Lamberton Toll. He nomi-
nated Miss Grace A. Elliot, M.B.E., as the Club’s Vice-President
for the coming year, and installed Dr. G. A. C. Binnie as his
successor.

The activities of the season had also included a Botanical
Meeting on LINDISFARNE on 21st June. An account of it
appears in these pages.

* * *

Tue Council of the Club met formally four times during the
year. Apart from financial matters the most important sub-
ject discussed was the drafting of revised Rules and Regula-
tions, following on instructions from the last Annual Meeting
to review the membership of the Council. It was felt that the
opportunity should be taken to bring the Rules and Regula-
tions as a whole up-to-date, and the agreed draft is now before
the Club for its consideration.

Note was taken that the Club would be celebrating its ses-
quicentenary in 1981 and the Revd. H. S. Ross, Spittal,
accepted the Council’s invitation to prepare an Index to the
History for the years 1932 to 1981. Weare very grateful to Mr.
Ross for undertaking this considerable task.

At a pleasant informal ceremony within Warkworth Castle
on the occasion of the Club’s visit on 12th June, the President
presented a record token to Mr. W. Ryle Elliot, Honorary Life

THE HISTORY OF LYNE KIRK 97

Member, in recognition of his long and valuable service as our
Secretary. The fine weather, the large turnout of Members,
the perfect setting and the brief but apt words of both the
President and Mr. Elliot made this a memorable occasion.
The Coldingham excavations were continued at Easter by
our friends from London. Unusually vile weather prevented
them from doing anything like as much as had been planned
but progress was made in the Cloister Chapterhouse area; Mr.
Noble will be reporting on the work in the History as usu-
al. Ill fortune in the firm which undertakes the consolidation
work at the Priory has prevented any progress in that this

season.
* * *

tae HISTORY OF LYNE KIRK
By the Revd. H. E. TURNER

THE origin of Lyne Kirk is lost in the mists of antiqui-
ty. There are Roman camps nearby, and the military com-
mander of the fort at East Happrew was Gaius Caristanius
Fronto, the son-in-law of Sergius Paulus, the “‘prudent man”
mentioned in Acts xi1.7._ The neighbouring church of Manor
is named after St. Gordian, a Roman Christian and Viceroy of
Gaul, martyred in A.D. 362 during the persecution of Julian the
Apostate.

Before the Romans left around a.p. 410, Nicholas and
Ninian preached the Gospel in the Borders, and after they left
so did Kentigern (Mungo) and Cuthbert, and many churches
were established by these missionaries. That there was an
early church at Lyne is shown by the doubt in the reign of
William the Lion (1165-1214) whether the church at Lyne
belonged to the Plebiana, the mother-church of Stobo, or to
the lord of the manor. The authorities decided that it should
be under the mother-church of Stobo.

Around 1320 Lyne became free of the mother-church, and it
was then that the present building was erected. It is one of the
smallest churches in Scotland, and has no windows in the north
wall. The porch was added around 1888. In 1644 the church
was renovated and the bell re-cast. The canopied pews were
given by Lord and Lady Hay of Yester and bear the monogram
of Lord Hay, first Earl of Tweeddale, and the date 1644. The
oak barrel pulpit, made in Holland, was added then. To the
left of the pulpit in a lead coffin are the remains of one Burrell, a
lapidary of Edinburgh and owner of Lyne Townhead.

The lintel of the former porch, inscribed Holynes becums thy
Hous, O Lord, was used in Lyne manse, erected in 1830. The
ancient baptismal font was found in the north wall and restored
to use in the last century.

98 THE HISTORY OF LYNE KIRK

At the Reformation in 1560 Patrick Grinton, vicar since
1553, continued as “‘ane reidare at Lyne” until his death in
1574. So there was no-break in worship. In 1575 Gilbert
Hay from Peebles became minister. Hediedin 1592. It was
during his time that the first edition of the Bible in English was
published in Scotland. In 1580 bishops were abolished and all
ministers declared equal. In 1584 episcopacy was _ re-
introduced and James VI became supreme spiritual as well as
temporal head of the Church. Presbyterian worship and
government were brought back in 1592.

During the Civil War, the Revd. Hew Ker was accused of
favouring James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, and sus-
pended and tried by Presbytery. ‘On his humility upon his
knees, he heartily confessed his slips and by his prayers and
tears gave full contentment to the whole seat of Presbytery.”

The Revd. Alexander Johnston “‘was getting out of bed on
the Sabbath, when he expired suddenly in a fainting fit without
a groan, the Father of the Church, on 8th March 1788 in his
102nd year and the 60th of his ministry. In dress and diet he
was homely and simple, he enjoyed uninterrupted good health
and had a strong antipathy to every kind of medicine which he
used on only one occasion.”

In 1621 Megget was annexed to the Parish of Lyne “‘in all
time coming.” This very inconvenient arrangement con-
tinued until 1949, in spite of protests from Megget, when
Megget was united to Yarrow, and on 1st September 1951
Lyne was united to Manor.

Ona tombstone is a carving of the Temptation in the Garden
of Eden, dating from 1712, and on the back appears this inscrip-
tion:

Here lyes Janet Veitch, daughter to
John Veitch, Tennent in Hamiltoun,
who dyed 31st January 1712 aged 16 yrs.

Life is the road to death,
and death Heaven’s gate must be;
Heaven is the Throne of Christ,

and Christ is life to me.

The Kirk of Lyne was visited on 7th August 1975.

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THE VALLEY OF MANOR WATER
By D. and L. R. MACKENZIE ROBERTSON

Manor Water, a tributary of the River Tweed, arises from the
watershed of the Tweedsmuir hills on the Peeblesshire-
Selkirkshire border. Its pleasant meandering course is rich in
monuments to its ancient past. This river, from its head to its
meeting-place with the River Tweed at Old Manor Bridge, is
only about ten miles long, but its small valley is full of sites of
historical and archaeological interest.

The story of the valley begins with pre-history man, and
upon its slopes is the evidence of his rons sojournhere. From
Manorhead to the Tweed are to be found his settlements,
scooped homesteads and forts, both early and late. For those
whose interests lie far in the past there are those early, pre-
history dwellings at Langhaugh and in Glenrath val-
ley. Further indications of ancient peoples are the cultivation
terraces at Posso and the Sware, amongst others.

An early Christian memorial found in association with a
cairn (now destroyed) once stood on the left bank of the
Newholm Hope Burn; it was inscribed in early British charac-
ters, probably of the 6th century. This stone is now pre-
sumed to be in the care of the local authority. The site known
as St. Gordian’s Kirk is adjacent to the Newholm Hope Burn,
where a modern cross commemorates the holding of
Covenanters’ services in this valley. An annual service is still
held here in the month of July. This area which, by tradition,
was the site of the early Christian cell of St. Gordian, is now a
terraced hillside where the outlines of dwellings of many ages
may be seen. The early Christian stone previously men-
tioned was found in this vicinity.

Following the river from its source the first place of note is
Manorhead Tower, the 16th century remains of which are
incorporated in the steading of Manorhead Farm. Originally
the home of the Inglis family, it was perhaps several storeys
high, the only one now remaining giving very little idea of
what character the tower once had.

Immediately east of the present farm of Langhaugh are
several turf-covered mounds, possibly the last remains of the
Tower of Langhaugh and its outbuildings. The largest of
these mounds is thought to be the lower storey of the tower
occupied in the 16th century by William Cockburn. Again,
maybe, like many mediaeval tower sites, this one was sur-
rounded by the cottar houses of a largish village.

The last traces of the old house of Posso stand some 250
yards west of the farmhouse of the same name. As with so

99

100 THE VALLEY OF MANOR WATER

many Border tower houses, this building is in a ruinous state,
its tower being its best remaining feature. Traces of many
outbuildings and earthworks surround the remains. The
lands of Posso were in the hands of John Baird of Posso, who
died before 1526, and he is credited with the building of the
tower. The Naesmyths of Posso were the later lairds of the
estate.

Another much dilapidated building, Castlehill Tower,
stands on the west bank of Manor Water, 1% miles above
Kirkton Manor. This ruin still stands to a height of two
storeys, and is built of boulder rubble and dressed yellow
sandstone. Two barrel-vaulted cellars can still be seen in the
basement. Lowis of Manor was the earliest owner of the
estate—in the 15th century. It passed through various hands
over the years, until in 1838 it became the property of Thomas
Tweedie of Quarter.

While strictly not in Manor Valley, access to the tower of
Barns is gained from the village of Kirkton Manor. The
tower stands on highish ground to the north-east of the stables
of Barns House, ona curve of the River Tweed not far from the
mouth of Manor Valley. The building was erected towards
the end of the 16th century and rises to a height of three storeys
and an attic. It is more complete than any of the towers in
Manor Valley. The lands of Barns were owned by the family
of Burnet; the 4th laird of this name is presumed to have built
the tower in 1576. John Burnet of Barns, the novel by John
Buchan, was based on this family and its house. ‘The latter
residence of the Burnets is the Georgian house of Barns stand-
ing near the tower. It was built by James Burnet of Barns
about 1780 and replaced an earlier house. The new house of
the family was probably designed by Michael Naesmyth, an
Edinburgh architect. This pleasantly-facgaded house has good
plasterwork ceilings and decorative features.

In more modern times we come to the cottage, at
Woodhouse, of David Ritchie who died in 1811. David
Ritchie was the character portrayed as the Black Dwarf in Sir
Walter Scott’s novel of that title. He, unlike Sir Walter’s
Black Dwarf, was not an aristocratic philanthropist but a surly
recluse who, nonetheless, was an ardent nature-lover. His
cottage has been altered to form a farmworker’s house, but
traces of the 3'2-feet high doorway are still visible. His strik-
ing statue, by Forrest of Leith, stands in the grounds of Hal-
lyards House and his grave, “‘protected”’ by rowan trees, 1s in
Kirkton Manor churchyard.

The present house of Hallyards incorporates features of
older buildings, and certainly on the site in 1666 there was a
tower house. In the 17th century the lands were owned by
Scott of Hundleshope.

CORALROOT IN SELKIRKSHIRE 101

The modern church of Kirkton Manor stands on the site of a
much older foundation. The oldest remaining feature, how-
ever, is the church-bell on the west gable; it is inscribed
IN HONORE SANCT. GORDIANI MCCCCLXXVIIL.

The final feature of this valley journey is found near where
the waters of Manor and Tweed meet. The single-arched
Old Manor Bridge was designed by William, Duke of
Queensberry, and built by his second son, William, Earl of
March, in 1702. It is of bold yet symmetrical design which
blends pleasingly with its quiet background of hills and river.

The foregoing notes are of the outstanding features of
interest in the Manor valley, but for those wishing to know it
more thoroughly there remains much still to be seen and
enjoyed.

The valley of Manor was visited on 7th August 1975.

* * *

CORALROOT IN SELKIRKSHIRE
By ARTHUR J. SMITH

A LETTER dated 22nd June 1895 from the Revd. Dr. Farquhar-
son to Dr. Hardy is published in the Club’s History (vol. XV, p.
363) and reports the finding “last week” by Dr. J. S. Muir of
Selkirk of Coralroot Orchid Corallorhiza trifida in Whitmuir
Bog.

On 19th July 1899 the Club visited Whitmuirhall Bog and
found “‘a few plants in seed” (HBNC XVII, 50). This location
was equated with Dr. Muir’s site.

Another visit of the Club was on 22nd June 1905, but no sign
of the Coralroot was found. It was a very dry season (HBNC
XIX, 264). The location was described as ‘‘a belt of wood on
the south-east” (of Whitmuirhall). The following year (1906)
plants were photographed at this site by Mr. D. S. Fish of
Edinburgh Botanic Garden, and a good reproduction is in the
1905 History (HBNC XIX, Plate XIII facing p. 264).

I recall helping the Club’s 1929 search on 22nd August,
which again proved unsuccessful though Dr. Muir directed it
(HBNC XXVII,50). The date was rather toolate. Since the
1905 report had clearly stated that the location was south-east
of Whitmuirhall, my recent searches have been there, but this is
in fact an error, for the actual marshy wood lies south-east of
Whitmuir Farm, as was pointed out to me by Dr. R. W. M.
Corner, B.S.B.I. recorder for this area. On 30th June 1975 I
was successful in finding four spikes in what should properly

_ becalled Whitmuir Moss. It is gratifying that this rare orchid

survives in the original site of 80 years ago.

THE 1975 BOTANICAL MEETING
By ELIZABETH BUGLASS

ON Saturday, 21st June 1975, about twenty members and
friends enjoyed a most delightful day on Holy Island under the
expert and kind leadership of Mr. Arthur J. Smith of Selkirk.

After meeting at the mainland end of the causeway, Mr.
Smith spoke of Dr. Johnston’s stay on the island from 19th to
30th May 1854, from which visit Dr. Johnston compiled his list
of the flora and fauna (HBNC VII, 27-52). The Club also
visited the island in June 1883, when the Revd. James Farquhar-
son of Selkirk compiled a botanical list (HBNC X, 257-
61). Mr. Smith then drew our attention to the advance made
by the Rice Grass Spartina x townsendii which now has formed a
Spartina meadow (Spartinetum) extending well out into what
was previously a Glasswort zone (Salicornietum). Glasswort
(Salicornia) is now only occupying the edges and odd patches
ofbaresand. Behind the main Spartinetum where the ground
is less salty there were a few areas of pure Thrift Armeria
maritima making a wonderful display. Here also the Greater
Sea-spurrey Spergularia media was present.

Crossing to the island the party turned in to the Snook to see
the finest display of Marsh Orchids for many years. There
were great colonies of pure Dactylorhiza purpurella, some as big
as hyacinths, and large groups of D. incarnata varying from
washed-out pink to magenta, and a few rather small D. fuchsii
(Common Spotted Orchids) which were just coming into
flower, including one albino. The wealth of colour was
greatly admired, contrasting with the many yellow flowers
such as Birdsfoot Trefoil Lotus corniculatus on the drier parts
behind the dunes. We had noticed the broad-leaved Lyme
Grass Elymus arenarius along the base of the dunes on the
seaward edges giving way to the Marram Ammophila arenaria
which is less tolerant. Here one specimen of Scarlet Pimper-
nel Anagallis arvensis was noticed.

Three colonies of Coralroot Corallorhiza trifida, already turn-
ing yellow since they were setting seed, and leaves of Marsh
Helleborine Epipactis palustris and Dune Helleborine E. dunensis
were noticed.

The New Zealand Burweed or Pirri-pirri-bur Acaena
anserinifolia is also extending its range, and was seen both in
flower and fruit. Mr. Smith recalled how he had first found it
here in 1946, and the story of its introduction was briefly
told—it came in wool to Galashiels and colonised the banks of
the Tweed in 1911 where its seeds had arrived in the washings
from the wool-cleaning processes. It still grows there, and its
seeds were probably washed out to sea, arriving on the Holy
Island shore, and so starting a colony which causes a great
nuisance to humans with its hooked achenes, and also to birds

102

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS DURING 1974-75 103

who can actually be made flightless, so encumbered do they
become with burrs.

After lunch a walk was taken along the cliffs between the
priory and the harbour and round the castle. Where lime was
present, plants like the Rock Rose Helianthemum chamaecistus,
Kidney Vetch Anthyllis vulneraria and Burnet Rose Rosa pim-
pinellifolia flourished. Sea Campion Silene maritima and Red
Valerian Centranthus ruber abounded on the castle rock, and in
the short turf there were Rough Clover Trifolium scabrum,
Lesser Yellow Trefoil Trifolium dubium, Hare’s Foot Trefoil
Trifolium arvense, Hop Trefoil Trifolium campestre, Purple
Milk-vetch Astragalus danicus and Black Medick Medicago
lupulina. By the roadside Hemlock Conium maculatum was
abundant, and along the bottom ofa wall several yards of Sand
Spurrey Spergularia rubra was in full flower in the sunshine: its
flowers were noticeably smaller and pinker than those of the
Greater Sea-spurrey Spergularia media already noted.

A single Cinnabar moth was seen, and several Garden Tiger
moth larvae, one of which had been parasitized probably with
an ichneumon fly, for the parasitic larva was in process of
leaving its host.

There were no unusual bird sightings, in fact we saw surpris-
ingly few birds, the Fulmar colony round the castle being the
exception.

Having been requested to give a report of this meeting for
the Club’s History, and being totally unsuited for the task, I
sought the help of Mr. Smith who very kindly sent a résumé of
the day’s happenings which I have merely copied, with a few
additions of my own which Mr. Smith’s modesty would not
allow him to include.

* * *

ma TURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS
DURING 1974-75

Notes compiled by Dr. A. G. LONG
The Hancock Museum, Newcastle-upon- Tyne

BRYOPHYTA. All records by D. G. Long.

Mosses numbered as in Census Catalogue (3rd Edition).
Hepatics as in Census Catalogue (4th Edition).

iieviot, Roxburgh Castle, Kelso. VC 80, NT 73, 11.5.1975.

35/6 Tortula laevipila var laevipiliformis; very rare in Scotland
and new to S.E. Scotland.

35/8 = T. papillosa.

35/9 T. latifolia.

77l- Bryum flaccidum, new to VC 80.

104 NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS DURING 1974-75

Tweed banks near Roxburgh Barns, Kelso. VC 80, NT 73,
(lS isp

40/1 Pottia lanceolata.

122/3 Anomodon viticulosus.

144/10 Eurhynchium murale.

Tweed bank, Gateheugh, Gledswood. VC 81, NT 53,
ISAO:

139/1 Scleropodium caespitosum, very rare in Scotland.

82/4 Frullania fragilifolia, on Quercus.

Darnick Bridge, Melrose. VC 80, NT 53, 18.5.1975.
77/27 Bryum radiculosum, new VC record.

Eastnook near Elsdons, V@67, NY 99; 25.5.1975)
45/2 Gymnostomum recurvirostrum.

69/2 Tetraphis browniana.

79/12 Mhium seligeri.

90/6 Philonotis calcarea.

109/2 Neckera crispa.

144/2 Orthothecium intricatum.

15/5 Metzgeria pubescens.

36/3 Barbilophozia attenuata.

Linkum ‘Bay-" ' VC 8) INE9617-8:1975,.
12/7 Ditrichum flexicaule.
45/2 Gymnostomum recurvirostrum.

98/15 Orthotrichum pulchellum, on elder.

Mouth of Dowlaw Dean. VC 81, NT 87, 30.3.1974.

77/1 Bryum marattii, on silt-covered boulder by water-
fall.“~An’- exceedingly” ‘fare’ ~ moss. New!) 97ae
record. Determined by A. C. Crundwell.

ENTOMOLOGY

Anthocharis cardamines Orange Tip butterfly. On Tweed bank
near Gledswood, VC 81. Several—at least ten, 18.5.1975, VC
81, NT 53. The first known record in Berwickshire since
1880. D.G. Long.

Vanessa cardui Painted Lady butterfly, one seen at Linkum Bay,
VGsi, NIA9641'7:8. 19754, XG Wong:

Acherontia atropos Death’s Head hawk moth; one larva found
feeding on potato leaves at Cockle Park Research Station,
Morpeth, VC 67; NZ, 29,.8.9.1975. _ .B.Miutchell:
Macroglossum stellataruam Humming Bird hawk moth; Swinton
House garden, VC 81, NT 84, 22.6.1975. Lieut. Col. W. M.
Logan Home.

Hyles gallii Bedstraw hawk moth. One larva found feeding
on Rose-bay Willow-herb at Fell Cottage, 2 miles north of
_ Haydon Bridge, VC 67, NY 86. Capt. H. V. Green.

THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF 105
SIR JAMES DE DOUGLAS

Phalera bucephala Buff Tip. A batch of larvae were found
feeding on a beech hedge at East Fenton, near Wooler,
ee VE 68> NI 993. First imago ‘emerged
m61975. «Mrs. E. Logan.

Vanessa atalanta Red Admiral. One larva found at Humble-
ton, Wooler. The imago failed to emerge but showed wing
coloration on 8.8.1975, VC 68, NT 92. Grace A. Elliot.

mae PAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF SIR
JAIVIES DE DOUGLAS

By MARGARET McLEAN

THE Will dated 1392 with an earlier version dated 1390 was
published by the Bannatyne Club in 1836, it is said from the
original, but there is no trace of the actual Will in Rae
House so it may well have disappeared. Sir James had suc-
ceeded to the castle and lands of Dalkeith on the death of his
uncle, William Douglas of Lothian, and he in turn had gained
the estates on his marriage about 1341 to Marjorie, sister and
heiress of John Graham who had no children. Both families
were of high standing. John was descended from William de
Graham, the first known occupant of Dalkeith Castle. His
signature as witness appears on many important documents,
the earliest being ihe foundation charter of Holyrood
Abbey. William had received a grant of lands in Dalkeith
during the reign of David I, the grant being confirmed to his
son Henry, and to Henry’s son, then to a third Henry during
the reigns of Alexander II and Alexander III. The next heir
was Nicholas, whose grandson John had no family, so that
Marjorie, one of his two sisters, became his heiress. On her
marriage the estates and castle passed into the hands of the
Lothian Douglases, and remained in their possession till they
were sold in 1642 to Francis Scott.

William’s nephew James inherited the castle and lands in
1369, and according to custom, on 8th December of that year,
at Melrose he resigned the castle and lands into the hands of the
king (David II) ‘on bended knee” receiving them again the
following day “to himself and his heirs as a free barony and free
forest” on paying to the king if sought a pair of white gloves or
a silver penny at Pentecost.

Sir James Douglas was a man of substance, benevolently
inclined. In 1372 Robert II gave him leave to endow a chap-
laincy in the chapel of St. Nicholas in Dalkeith. He made

106 THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT OF
SIR JAMES DE DOUGLAS

other endowments later to the same church, and also endowed
a small chapel within the precincts of the castle itself, though no
trace of thisremains. Thesecond of Sir James’s wills, written
in Latin, is very long and detailed, but a portion only will
suffice to give a vivid description of the goods and chattels
cherished by a knight of this time:

Item: I give and bequeath one set of plate for tournament of war, with basnet
and coat of mail, gloves, greaves of iron, and other armour and the best jack I
have, and tusches, to James my son and heir, with my second-best horse:
Item:1 have given beforehand and granted in my prosperity to the said James
my son an ouch with a ruby in the centre and ten buttons of gold and all the
pearls I have both set and unset, and one relic of the hair of Blessed Mary
Magdalen set in gels and a golden circlet and one large conterselat of gold:
Item: I give and bequeath to the same one ring of the pillar of Christ:
Item: I give and bequeath to the same my best new gilded belt with fetter-
locks ant another new belt from Paris which John Gibson brought last:
Item: I give and bequeath to the same one broad covered ewer weighing 15
pounds 3 shillings and 10 dinarios, my best drinking cup weighing 18 pounds 2
shillings, and my best ring with the sapphire which belonged to my lady
mother, and which she gave and granted me with her blessing: so also do I
leave it to my heir with my hearty blessing:
Item: wee and bequeath to the same my best twelve silver dishes weighing
21 pounds 18 shillings, and one silver charger weighing 4 pounds 2 shillings,
also twelve silver spoons weighing 48 shillings:
Item: I give and bequeath to the same my best embroidered bed and the red
bed with fetterlocks, and all my books as well of civil law and statutes of the
kingdom:
Item: I give and bequeath to the same one sapphire which purges the blood
and has a case of gold.

Then James goes on to leave books to “my son John de
Douglas, of grammar and rhetoric’, but failing him they are to
go to the heir, and here with one of his many little individual
touches he enjoins anyone who has borrowed his books to
return them. He also leaves armour to Archibald Earl of
Douglas, and a gold ring in which is set longways a ruby with
an inscription Vertu ne puz avoir contrepois. Healso leaves the
Earl his “best drinking cup after the first.” Also to his son
William he leaves a gold ring with an emerald and the posy
round beginning Remembrance . . .

An interesting item is that Sir James orders all obligations
which his uncle may have owed him to be burned and declared
void in future. His garments of cloth of gold and silver were
to be dispersed according to secret instructions left in a sealed
letter. Then all the rest of his silver vessels were to be sold for
the good of the poor. Another strange but quite usual
bequest was that “I forgive and release to Sir Robert de Living-
stone his marriage belonging to me by gift of the illustrious
King David...” The right to make the marriage of a feudal
vassal was a- valuable piece of property which could be
bequeathed and given like any other. Sir James left money to

RED DEER ANTLERS 107

servants and followers, and silver dishes to the refectory of
Newbattle. Finally there is an endowment for chantry priests
in the Chapel of Saint Nicholas in Dalkeith.

It seems probable that Sir James dictated much of the will
himself, but it was drawn up by a notary public, the Clerk of
Dunkeld Diocese, and signed in the Castle of Dalkeith on 19th
December 1392. Among the witnesses were members of his
family including two brothers and two of his sons.

GLOSSARY

Basnet—Headpiece for armour.

Conterselat—Seal.

Greaves—Plate-armour for the shins.

Jack—Sleeveless padded leather jacket.

Ouch—Jewelled beooch or clasp.

Posy—Line of verse inscribed on a knife or within a ring.

Tusches—This has defied easy translation: it may refer to the bands or fasten-
ings, often ornamented, which went with the “jack”.

Vertu ne puz avoir contrepois—Virtue cannot be surpassed.

SOURCES

New Statistical Account for Dalkeith.
Lawrie’s oe Charters (for Holyrood Charter).
Bannatyne Club Miscellany: II, 113.

* * *

RED DEER ANTLERS
(found near Wooler c. 1833)

Mr. Humphrey H. Simpson, of Firwood, Wooler, has written
(15.11.1975) to the Corresponding Secretary to draw attention
to a set of fine antlers of the Red Deer Cervus elaphus which
were exhumed from Cresswell Bog on the estate of Middleton
Hall, Wooler, about the year 1833. These are described and
illustrated in the Club’s History (vols. I, 41; X, 281; and XVI,
81-5). The last reference is an article entitled “‘Notes on the Red
Deer (Cervus elaphus Linn.)” by G. Pringle Hughes, Esq., of
Middleton Hall. In his Anniversary Address of 1883 Mr.
Hughes stated that it was his father who discovered the antlers
“some 50 years ago” (HBNC X, 228). A good photograph of
the antlers is reproduced on Plate IV in vol. XVI.

The antlers, which have 21 points, came into the possession
of Mr. Simpson and his sister Miss N. Simpson in 1945 when
the estate was sold, Mr. Simpson being a nephew of Mr. G. P.
Hughes. As this set of antlers has probably not been surpassed
in size or preservation (in Britain), Mr. Simpson and his sister
gave them on permanent loan to the Hancock Museum,
Newcastle-upon-Tyne, where they can be seen on display at
the present time.

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS
(XII)

By DUNCAN NOBLE, .a., PHD.

THE sixth season of excavation at Coldingham Priory took
place from 24th March to 13th April 1975.

The team included Mr. W. J. Webb, assistant director; Miss
P.L. James, chief site supervisor; Messrs. E. Dorrington and A.
Forsyth, site supervisors, and students from the University of
London Department of Extra-Mural Studies and Whitelands
College, Roehampton Institute of Higher Education.

The excavation was sponsored by the Berwickshire
Naturalists’ Club, and to the President and Committee we are
grateful for their continuing encouragement and financial sup-
port. Mr. T. D. Thomson was of especial help over many
things concerning the planning of the excavation. His know-
ledge of Coldingham and its history does much to assist our
efforts.

Excavation with the size of staff employed was made possi-
ble by a grant from Berwickshire County Council Education
Committee, and to Mr. R. D. Birch, M.a., lately Director of
Education for Berwickshire and the members of the Education
Committee we are most grateful for their generosity.

To Mr. R. F. Knight, M.a., Principal of Whitelands College
and the College Governors we wish to express our thanks for
making it possible for Whitelands students to take part in the
excavation. Dr. J. Hazeldene Walker of Whitelands College
did much of the preliminary organisation without which exca-
vation would never take place and we are most grateful.

Visitors to the site included Dr. R. Fawcett of the Depart-
ment of the Environment, and we benefited again from consul-
tation with him.

During the first week of the season a selected advance party
worked on the west wall of the chapter house, allowing the
most experienced staff to use their excavation skills unham-
pered by administrative duties. Then for the next two weeks
the dig personnel came up to full strength and excavation was
undertaken in the cloister walk west of the chapter house, of
the wall between the cloister garth and the cloister walk, and in
the Abbey Yard Field.

Work proceeded quickly in the first week. In the middle of
the second week the weather broke. Several days were lost

108

P\TE2. The western wall of the chapterhouse and the cloister walk, from the north-east.

109

110 COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS (XI)

due to the rain, sleet and snow of one of the hardest Eastertides
of recent years.

Here I feel I must interpose a personal note as director. The
steady wind reduced the effective temperature to just below
freezing and I should like to say how touched I was by the
steadfastness of the excavators, particularly those in the Abbey
Yard Field who carried on voluntarily, working in two-hour
shifts.

In the Abbey Yard Field excavation was ina rectangular area
through Romanes’ backfill south of the chapter house. Alow
ridge 90 cm. wide and 10-20 cm. high and covered in mud was
found. It was exactly in the position of one of Romanes’
“‘walls’’ and ran south-eastwards on the alignment of the wall
excavated in 1974 which was thought to be possibly a wall
between two rooms of a building.1__ By the time the area was
cleared down to the wash over Romanes’ excavation condi-
tions had become unendurable in the Abbey Yard Field. So
the area was backfilled, to await another year.

The area D5 round the wall between the west side of the
chapter house and the cloister walk which was excavated in
1974 was extended northwards under the designation of area
D6 (see plan) to the limit where the cloister walk disappears
under the raised gravel round the church. It was also taken
westwards to include the wall along the eastern side of the
cloister garth (area D7).

The heavy wall on the west side of the chapter house is now
excavated for a length of 8 m. and much has been learned about
medieval building standards.

Excavation was through a flower bed that had below its
pa loam topsoil a layer of red earth containing small

roken stones and white pebbles. This is clearly part of
Romanes’ dump, originating in the 1920s in some other part of
the site. Below this is the medieval western wall of the chap-
ter house. This is, as is the length to the south excavated in
1974, made of red sandstone rubble, roughly dressed to a face
on the eastern side. On the western side it does not survive
about floor level. Between the stones is mortar. It has a
gravel aggregate which is finer than the aggregate of the con-
crete walk found in 1974 to the west of the southern portion of
this wall. Often there are spaces of up to 150 cm. across
between the stones, and these have been filled in with mortar
and gravel during the process of construction. In one place
deep down within the wall, in the lowest courses laid bare by
stone robbing, mortar has been dispensed with and there is red
earth between the stones. Building standards appear to have
been relaxed at times where the skimping would not be visible.

To the west of the northern portion of this wall, in the
cloister walk, there was found a surface of hard-packed, very

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS (XII) 111

small stones. It runs up to the cloister garth wall and appears

to run up to the chapter house wall, which is robbed down to

its level in this part. To the north it goes under the raised

modern path round the south-east corner of the church. To

the south it is cut through by the 20th-century path made to
ive access from the cloister walk to the interior of the chapter
ouse.

Underneath this surface is a mat of jagged stones 1.40 m.
wide, which stretches across the cloister walk from the chapter
house wall to the cloister garth wall.

South of the modern access to the chapter house and be-
tween the cloister garth wall and the concrete walk found in
1974 is another surface. This surface is directly under the
modern path which is over the eastern part of the cloister walk,
and separated from it by only 2cm. of earth. It could, there-
fore, be modern. However it is of a different character from
the modern paths. It is of very small stones set in soil, as are
the recent paths, but it is not cambered and the stones lie with a
flat side uppermost, which they do not in the modern paths.

A broken copper finger-ring was found just at the western
edge of the chapter house wall in the red earth layer which
extends over the wall. The ring is circular in section with an
outside diameter of 1.99 cm. and a thickness of 0.28
em. Stylistically it is similar to a ring found in the earlier
phase of the cemetery below the chapter house in 1971, and it is
most probably that it belongs to that culture, but has reached
its find spot as a result of the many excavations and distur-
bances of the site.

At this point in the excavation of this part of the site the
weather deteriorated to an extent that made further excavation
of delicate surfaces unwise. They were backfilled.?

The cloister garth wall wasinvestigated. Study of the plans
of earlier excavations at Coldingham drawn up in the offices of
the Ancient Monuments Department of the Office of Works
under the direction of Mr. J. Wilson Paterson in 1923 suggested
that during Romanes’ excavation there were found just frag-
ments of the garth wall at the south-east corner and in the
middle of the eastern side. On inspection of the wall no
mortar was visible between the stones and our survey showed
that the buttresses were asymmetrical. It was decided, there-
fore, to excavate the garth wall to see what remains there might
be of the medieval wall under or inside the standing one.

After the removal of the grass growing on top of the wall it
could be seen that the top course was of unmortared rubble

laced in position by aninexpert hand. Thestones of the two
ower courses of the wall, although displaying no mortar bet-
ween them visible at the faces of the wall, were seen to be
mortared together in the interior of the wall. The mortar was

COLL

64-14

cloister qc |

142

1975

surface | Chapter house

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jurfacje eps ft. Meal

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—

heritors’ wall

£13.

114 COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS (XII)

similar to other medieval mortar found on the site, while much
more yellow in colour than the mortar of the chapter house
wall. This brought us to the conclusion that the two courses
at the bottom of the wall, standing to a height of between 30
and 50 cm. above the present level of the cloister garth, are of
medieval construction. The mortar had, over the years, been
washed out from the sides of the stones. The irregularity of
the buttress in the middle of the east wall was due to the way in
which the corner stones of the lower course had slipped out-
wards. That the angles of the eastern buttress on the southern
wall were not right angles showed how uneven the original
building was. Parts of Coldingham Priory, in the chapter
house and Edgar’s Walls, are of very fine ashlar mason-
ry. Other parts are very rough . Perhaps they reflect the
varying fortunes of the house.

The heritors’ wall, which delimits the northern side of the
path between Edgar’s Walls and the conventual range east of
the cloister garth, runs into the eastern side of the sich cates
corner of the cloister garth wall. It was examined to see what
indications there might be of its date. The pointing was very
recent. In the interior of the wall the mortar was sandy, quite
different from that of the cloister garth wall. The wall was
much thinner at the top than at the bottom, in the style of a
garden wall rather than the wall of a building. The conclu-
sion is that the heritors’ wall, at least above the present level of
the path along the north side of Edgar’s Walls, was built within
the last 150 years.

The junction of the heritors’ wall and the cloister garth wall
was excavated and the south-east outside corner of the garth
wall showed, when the adjacent part of the heritors’ wall had
been removed, a fine example of how post-Reformation wall
robbers worked. The outside corner of the garth wall had
been torn out in an ascending series of four quarter circles, a
nice demonstration of how to drop a wall.

The cloister wall was preserved after excavation by covering
the top with earth and stones. Plastic laid in the interior of the
wall will make quite clear, to any mason who may in future
have occasion to point it, what is original medieval wall and
what is our protective cover.

While the excavation was taking place we were approached
by members of the Club Del Mar sub-aqua club of Leicester,
who were staying in Coldingham but could not dive in the sea
because of the bad weather. They asked if they might dive in
the cloister well and permission was given. The well, which
was exposed in 1925, was found to have a bottom of stone
slabs. It is stone-lined down to the bottom except for part of
the western side immediately above the bottom where there is
-acavity. This is consistent with local Coldingham opinion

|
|

COLDINGHAM PRIORY EXCAVATIONS (XII) 115

that the well is fed by a spring coming from the west.

The well contained about a ton of stone rubble, including
pieces of eighteenth and nineteenth century tombstones, part
of a bedstead, and a considerable amount of currency amount-
ing in all to 701 coins, distributed as follows:

George II Halfpenny 1
Victoria Pennies, from 1860 15
Edward VII Pennies Sil
George V Pennies 210
George VI Pennies 148
Elizabeth Pennies 88

Shillings 3

Sixpences 8

Threepennies 16
Decimal Coppers 180
Belgian Franc 1

Most were very worn and the distribution in general suggests
that they found their way into the well after 1925. It may be
that some were thrown in for luck and that others had been part
of the “poor oot”’ which is traditionally a feature of weddings
in this part of the country. The total weight of the pre-
decimal copper was 9 Ib. One last find was a live 20-mm.
cannon shell of World WarIItype. The money was presented
to the church and the cannon shell to the police.

In the topsoil of the modern flower bed over the west wall of
the chapter house were found eight pieces of roofing
slate. None of the slates, which are 1.5 cm. thick, is com-
plete. Seven of them have a hole of about 1.5 cm. diameter
through them and onehastwoholes. The pieces have mortar
adhering to one side.

These slates have been identified by Mr. J. Gillies, a Coldin-
gham builder, as pieces of sizeable Scotch Slate. He says that
such slates were three feet by two feet in size and were used
within his memory. The roof was covered completely with
¥," thick sarking boards of Scots fir. Into these were driven
ash or oak pegs '/4-in. to 2-in. thick and 2'2-in. long. The
slates were hung on these pegs, one peg to each slate.

There has never been any evidence that any of the building
rubble on the site came from anywhere but the church and
conventual buildings. We may therefore presume that the
priory was once roofed with these slates. It is not impossible
that this was so at the height of its fortunes.

1975 was a difficult season but for all that a considerable
amount was uncovered and our studies of medieval building
methods advanced. Where areas had to be backfilled without

_a full study of the evidence they contained, they were reopened

in 1976 and their excavation completed. The results will be
published in the next number of this journal.

116 NOTE ON A DENIER OF GUY DE LUSIGNAN

(Note: Owing to casualties in the building firm concerned no conservation
work was practicable in 1975, but in 1976 the length of chapter house wall
described ee was consolidated and left exposed and the north-east corner of
Edgar’s Walls was made good.)

1 Noble: HBNC XL, 27.
2 In 1976 excavation was continued in this area.
3 Further excavation of this area was undertaken in 1976.

NOTE ON A DENIER OF
GUY DE LUSIGNAN

THE finding of a denier of Guy de Lusignan, King of Jerusalem
1186-1192, at Coldingham Priory in 1971 was recorded in
HBNC XXXIX, 18.

This coin was found during excavation of the remains of the
twelfth-century church just west of the west end of the present
parish church (details are in the 1971 report). It was identified
at the British Museum, but the experts there and at the
National Museum of Antiquities in Edinburgh were doubtful
about the length of time that this coin had been in the position
in which it was found (see HBNC XXXIX, 133). It was
therefore submitted to two tests by the British Museum’s
research laboratory.

The first test showed that a white deposit on the coin was
silica sand with no trace of having been in contact with the lime
mortar of the area under excavation. In the second test two
other coins of Guy de Lusignan from the British Museum
collection were examined for comparison, and samples of Col-
dingham mortar were also examined. The following is taken
from the report by Dr. A. E. Werner and Miss M. Bimson:

“The samples of mortar are of a pale pink friable material,
which was shown by X-ray diffraction analysis to contain a
high percentage of carbonates, chiefly calaum carbo-
nate. The acid-insoluble residue was found to consist of
iron-stained particles of clay and quartz sand and also some
relatively large white fragments of quartz sand.

“One coin (BM. no C 1940 Schlumberger pl. 3, no. 25)
showed almost no green corrosion surviving over the deposit
of cuprite. A green corrosion product was present on the
other coin (BM. no. 1870/5/7 14365 Schlumberger pl. 3, no. 26)
and this was identified by X-ray diffraction analysis as a mix-

NOTE ON FOULDEN AND THE BINNS 117

ture of atacamite and paratacamite. In the case of the Coldin-
gham Priory coin there were massive green and blue deposits
on one small area. X-ray diffraction analysis showed the
green corrosion product to be atacamite (basic cupric chloride)
and the blue corrosion product to be connellite (a basic mixed
cupric chloride cupric sulphate). This latter mineral is rarely
found in corrosion products of copper objects.

“The nature of the corrosion products on the Coldingham
Priory coin would indicate the coin corroded over a long
period of time in an environment rich in chlorides and sul-
phates. In view of the composition of the mortar it must be
assumed that the coin could not have been embedded in the
mortar for a prolonged period of time.“

Dr. Werner and Miss Bimson therefore conclude that there
is no evidence from this test to support the medieval
archaeological context suggested for this coin.

seal) I

NOTE ON FOULDEN AND THE BINNS

Mempers of the Club who visited Abercorn Church and The
Binns on 9th July 1975, were interested in the Berwickshire
_ connection of the Dalyell family.

From shortly after 1600 the estate of Foulden belonged to the
_ family of Wilkie. As the result of a Wilkie-Dalyell marriage
_ in the early 19th century, Mr. James Wilkie of Foulden in 1911
inherited the estate of The Binns and became Sir James
_ Wilkie-Dalyell, 9th Baronet of The Binns. His daughter
Eleanor, whose home in her youth was at Foulden, lived for
_ MInany years at The Binns till her death in 1972, and gave the
_ house to the National Trust in 1944. It is now occupied by
_her son, Mr. Tam Dalyell, M.P., whose wife very kindly
_ received the members of the Club on 9th July. In the house
are portraits of the Wilkie family.

ei

NORTHFIELD HOUSE, PRESTONPANS
By W. SCHOMBERG SCOTT, a.R.1.B.a.

THE earliest record of Northfield occurs in the year 1607 when
Joseph Marjoribanks, an Edinburgh merchant, bought a house
and land at Salt Preston from one George Hamilton, of whom
nothing more than thenameisknown. Joseph Marjoribanks,
however, was atypical example ofhis times. During the later
16th and early 17th centuries, in Scotland as elsewhere, a new
class was arising of men with wealth and influence derived
from industry and commerce rather than the ownership of
land. The family of Marjoribanks, who came originally from
Annandale, just south of Moffat, had held lands in Renfrew-
shire and at Ratho for some time back, but the first member of
it to rise to any prominence did so as anadvocate. This was a
certain Thomas Marjoribanks who, before he ended his career,
had become a Lord of Session, Lord Clerk Register, Provost of
Edinburgh in 1541 and M.P. for the city for nine years. His
son James and his grandson Joseph were both merchants and
burgesses of Edinburgh. A grand-daughter, Christian, prob-
ably Joseph’s first cousin, became the wife of George Heriot,
Jeweller at King James VI’s court and founder of Heriot’s
Hospital. This then is the background for Northfield, not the
world of lairds and landowners, but that of prosperous Edin-
burgh merchants and professional men.

There is now no means of knowing for certain just what the
house was like that Joseph bought in 1607 but a study of the
building as it stands to-day suggests that it was a simple rectan-
gular block, the eastern half of the present house, with a turn-
pike stair projecting at the north-west corner. Certainly
Joseph Marjoribanks made fairly extensive alterations and
additions, for the cross-wing at the western end which makes
the house L-shaped on plan, with the stair turret tucked into the
re-entrant angle, dates from his time. He also formed a new
entrance into the older part of the house, over which he placed
his coat-of-arms and initials with those of his wife Marion
Sympson, the date 1611 and the motto EXCEPT THELORD BULD IN
WANE BULDS MAN.

The design, both of the original house and the new work,
was on strictly traditional lines, tall, and narrow and turreted in
the Scots manner, though not so compact as to qualify as a
tower-house. The whole of the ground floor was taken up
with the essential domestic service areas; kitchens, bake-house,
store-rooms, etc. The great arched kitchen hearth with the
dome-shaped oven opening off it still survives. Immediately
within the new front door a straight scale-and-platt stair in two
flights was taken up to the screens end of the High Hall, which
occupied almost the whole area of the original house at first-
floor level. At the further end of the Hall, where the High

119

120 NORTHFIELD HOUSE, PRESTONPANS

Table would have stood, a door led through into the new win
where the owner and his wife had their private rooms, ait
from here the old turnpike stair went on up to further small
rooms anda Gallery running the whole length of the new wing
immediately under the roof timbers.

Equally the external treatment carried on the traditions of
the Scots style; harled rubble walls with plain stone facings
round the windows. Everything is typical of the inherited
traditions of the old defensive tower, but now with the motifs
of war modified and adapted to the uses of peaceful domestici-
ty.
"The Marjoribanks family continued to live at Northfield
until the time of Queen Anne, when the head of the family
became a laird in earnest through the inheritance of the estates
of Leuchie, near North Berwick.

The next family to live at Northfield was that of
Syme. Inevitably they proceeded to make some changes to
bring the house more up-to-date, though luckily these were all
of a fairly superficial nature, such as putting a light timber
partition across the High Hall to divide it into two rooms, one
opening off the other, and covering the old open timber ceil-
ings with plaster. All these changes were made with remark-
ably little damage to the earlier work. Further modifications
were made early in the 19th century when the old narrow
turnpike stair was taken down and a new open circular stair
within a larger tower took its place. Thelatter part of the 19th
century, when so many old houses lost much of their character
through alternations and additions, left Northfield completely
unscathed, perhaps because through most of this time it was
occupied by a series of tenants.

In the early part of the 20th century when gas lighting was
being installed, it was noticed that some of the floor boards cut
away to give access for the pipes were painted with designs of
flowers and fruit on the underside. This decorative work of
course had been hidden ever since the plaster ceilings were put
up in the time of Queen Anne, but the significance of the
discovery does not seem to have been realised at the time it was
made. However, the fact was recorded and this led, some
twenty years ago, to further investigation. Gradually as this
proceeded and plaster ceilings began to come down again and
the older wall-surfaces were opened up, it became apparent
that there still remained, after two-and-a-half centuries of con-
cealment, a quite remarkable amount of the original 17th-
century painted decoration, much of it in a very good state of
preservation and certainly enough to establish that almost
every room.in the house had once had gay and elaborate
designs wherever the surface was of a nature to take
them. This included ail the original ceiling joists and board-

NORTHFIELD HOUSE, PRESTONPANS 121

ing and the internal partitions. The inner faces of the external
walls seem to have been left plain to take linen hangings, no
doubt because paint on these surfaces would have been soon
disfigured by titan penetrating through from the outside.

At Northfield the designs are mostly running patterns of
fruit, flowers and leaves without any of the heraldic or
philosophical themes which are to be found elsewhere. The
ceiling of the High Hall is unusual in that it has a black back-

round, only found elsewhere at Aberdour in Fife. Normal-
a though not invariably, the designs were carried out on a
white background.

The Gallery on the second floor originally had a boarded
ceiling covered with an elaborate painted design. A tradition
with regard to this exists and it seems to have been somewhat
similar to the surviving examples in Provost Skene’s House in
Aberdeen or the one in the gallery at Earlshall, near St.
Andrews. Unfortunately this was taken down and replaced
by plaster early in the 19th century. The scheme of decora-
tion on the walls around this room has however survived in
sufficient areas to show just what it was like; a painted arcade
the full height of the wall with elaborate classical mouldings
round the arches and between each one a column with a Corin-
thian capital. The keystone of each arch is decorated with a
lion’s head holding a ring in its mouth. This has a particular
interest as the only part of the house or its decoration which
shows the influence of the Renaissance and the Classical styles
then beginning to make headway.

Very few of the names of the painters employed on this sort
of work have been recorded and so far no identification of any
individual working at Northfield has been possible. The
most that can be said is that both in style see decane the
Northfield paintings are typical of many examples carried out
by craftsmen based on Edinburgh both in the city and in the
surrounding country of Fife and the Lothians.

The paintings now form the principal point of interest about
the house and although not altogether undamaged, the general
condition of much of it was found to be so good and so vivid
that it has proved perfectly acceptable as part of the decoration
of the rooms to-day. Furthermore it has been possible to
keep it in the state in which it was found without any repair,
restoration or touching-up, so that there is none of it which
does not date wholly from the 17th century, and it is therefore
available as a sample of the pigments and techniques used at
that time.

This, then, is the essence of Northfield, that, although it is a
house almost without a history in terms of events or per-
sonalities, it has retained in its architecture and decoration
much that can bring alive to our imaginations the domestic life
of a merchant family in the 17th century.

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124

NISBET HOUSE AND WEDDERBURN CASTLE
By PETER DANIEL, a R..B.a.

THE Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club visited Wedderburn Cas-
tle and Nisbet House on 7th May 1975. The Club had come
once before to Wedderburn, in 1876, and to Nisbet, in 1892.

In 1892 a report in the History described Nisbet House as
being in a state of complete preservation, the internal arrange-
ments altered only to suit modern requirements. On that day
the visitors saw also the gardens and finely timbered parks
surrounding the mansion.

Alas poor Nisbet—the house survives as a fine example of
Scottish vernacular architecture, but only the skeleton of its
once magnificent setting remains, and unless it is soon lived in
or used its survival must be in doubt.

Wedderburn, described in the History of 1877 as “‘a large
imposing modern [it was already a hundred years old] building
embosomed in dark woods’’, seemed hidden away from the

_ public eye: it became a “Grecian” mansion in the Ordnance
| Gazetteer of 1885. It is only recently that its architectural
_ significance has been recognised as a result of the research

undertaken by the architectural historian Dr. Alistair Row-
an. Dr. Rowan has recorded his work both in Country Life
(vol. CLVI, pp. 354-7) and the Journal of the Royal Society of

_ Arts. He confirms by his identification of drawings in the
-Soane Museum in London that the Adam brothers were

responsible for the design of the elevations of the house. He
tells us too that a local architect, James Nisbet of Kelso, was

_ responsible for the execution of the plans. Wedderburn was
_ built for Patrick Home of Billie, who had already built and sold
| for his own personal reasons nearby Paxton House. Paxton,

_ also designed by the Adam brothers who had employed James

Nisbet as a “‘mason’’, has many details which were repeated at

| Wedderburn by the same craftsmen. The design of the stair-

case rail is unique in both houses, and this same design turns up
again in the eighteenth century extension to Nisbet House, a
square tower, containing finely-proportioned rooms and
elaborate plaster work. This tower, referred to as an “Adam”’
extension, 1s, I believe, more likely to have been designed and

_ built by James Nisbet and his craftsmen, repeating, amongst
_ other similarities of design, the window details used on the

_ stable block at Wedderburn.

In making these notes I came to realise how little is known
about the country houses and estates which were built in the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries in Berwickshire. The
remnants of many of them and their bedraggled landscapes

125

126 AN ARMORIAL STONE AT EDROM CHURCH

testify to the rate of their destruction in this century and
possibly should concern us sufficiently to try to keep those that
survive.

Vast country houses are an anachronism, but I for one am
always saddened by their decline, because they have added so
much to the quality and interest of our landscape. The visit
on 7th May had started in the grounds of the Hirsel and ended
in the beautifully-maintained policies of Manderston
House. It seemed that one lesson to be learned from the day
was the importance of the landscape setting of such buildings
in the countryside. Such settings to-day must often reflect
the intelligent use of land for farming or forestry. My only
plea might be that where old country houses survive and have
some useful purpose they should be allowed the dignity of a
modicum of Sasllapd and planting around them, and if neces-
sary this should form part of their “listing” by the Department
of the Environment.

* * *

AN’ V ARMORIAL “STONE | TA TP SED Rios
CHURCH!

By the Revd. HUGH MACKAY

SET into an exterior wall of Edrom Church is a sculptured
heater-shaped shield which bears no obvious relationship to its
immediate surroundings. Originally it apparently showed
the arms of a man and his wife, for it is parted per pale, though
the design of the sinister half is obliterated. The dexter ide
however, bearing what would be the arms of the husband, is
legible, and although one writer has described it as containing
three escutcheons (which would assign it to a Hay family), the
charges are clearly human heads. If this be accepted then the
likely provenance of the stone is indicated, since three heads
were the armorial bearings of the family of Chirnside of East
Nisbet. That place—now called Allanbank—contained one
of the pre-Reformation chapels of Edrom parish, and it seems
entirely possible that the stone was transferred to Edrom after
the demolition of the chapel building. Robson’s Churches and
Churchyards of Berwickshire says of the chapel that “The ruins
were taken down about the beginning of the present [i.e. XIX]
century, and the stones used in the erection of a march
dyke...” The subject of our enquiry may therefore be one of
the last identifiable traces of the building.

The name “de Chirnside” occurs (variously spelled) in
documents from at least the XIV century. Laing’s Supplemen-
tal Catalogue at No. 206, lists, without dating, a Charter by

AN ARMORIAL STONE AT EDROM CHURCH 127

Mariote (or Mariete) de Chirneside, ‘““Quondam uxor Ricardi
de Reston’, of a caracute of land at Remingston to the Prior of
St. Ebbe at Coldingham. Thesealis of astyle—oval, carrying
a tree or bush not on a shield—found in pre- or proto-heraldic
centuries, from the late XII, as for example in the seal of John
Montgomery of Eaglesham, c. 1170 (JJ. H. Stevenson: Heraldry
in Scotland, Vol.1, Pl. 1,2). Inthe Roll of Arms of Lord Lyon
Sir Robert Forman of Luthrie, c. 1562, a trick is given of the
arms of Chirnesyd of East Nisbet, and this is filled out in R. R.
Stodart’s Scottish Arms, 1370-1678 (Vol. I, Pl. 20 and Vol. I, p.
71) as Azure, three human heads Argent, banded about the temples of
the field. The draftsmanship is not such as to encourage con-
clusions about the heads beyond the fact that they appear to be
male, but the MS. of Sir David Balfour of Kinnaird blazons the
arms as Azure, three moriscoes’ heads erased Argent, and Pont’s
MS. gives Or, (or Argent), three women’s heads Sable attired (sic)
Azure. Both ofthese blazons are quoted by Stodart, while the
last (with the field Argent) is that given in Burke’s General
Armory of 1884, where the attribution 1s “Chirnside of that Ilk
and East Nisbet”. The illustration in Stodart is puzzling
insofar as it carries, written above the name “Chirnesyd of East
Nisbet” the appellation “Nisbett of that IIk”! By assuming
some slightly cross-eyed haplography, one may perhaps detect
herein the source of the Burke entry, but the presence of the
name Nisbet of that lk is hard to understand. The present
writer knows of no instance in which the Nisbets bore arms of
this description, their regular shield being Argent, three boars’
heads erased Sable. (It is remotely possible that the entry is an
allusion to the marriage whereby East Nisbet is said to have
come into possession of the Chirnesyds—alternatively, the
three human heads could just be regarded as a deliberate deriva-
tion from the three boars’ heads, if the Chirnesyds claimed
relationship, familial or feudal, with the Nisbets.) No arms
are matriculated for the name of Chirnside in the first volume
of the Lyon Register, covering the period to 1804.

A Berwickshire family to bear very similar arms were the
Edingtons of that Ik. The Workman MS. (c. 1565) gives
these as Azure, three human heads erased Argent (v. Stodart, I, 58;
II, 171), and they are recorded in the Lyon Register, I, 294,
between 1672 and 1697, in the name of George Eddingtone of
Balbartan, the heads being specified as ‘‘savadge-
heads”. Laing (op. cit., Nos. 331, 332, 333) gives early seals of
persons designated ‘“‘de Edington”. One Adam (document
undated) bears three birds on a chief; Gilbert (1453) has a bend
charged with three mullets, and a buglehorn stringed in sinister
chief; Richard (c. 1450) seals with a chevron between three
birds. The last is reminiscent of the chevron between three
papingoes of John de Mandriston, c. 1410 (v. Hood: House of

128 HILLSLAP TOWER, MASONS, AND REGIONAL TRADITIONS

Cockburn of that Ilk, p. 38). These differing arms (as that of
Mariete de Chirneside) are not necessarily variants used within
the same family, since the surnom terrien does not of itself
guarantee blood-relationship.

Of the Chirnsides of East Nisbet, Stodart speculates that the
estate was acquired at the marriage prior to 1479 of Alexander
Chirnside and Elizabeth Nisbet. He also recounts that in
November, 1615, Sir Patrick Chirnside of East Nisbet “‘carried
off from Haddington Adam French of Thornidykes, a boy of
fourteen, confined him at East Nisbet, carried him to Berwick,
and there married him to his own daughter Jean. For this he
was prosecuted, but the youthful bridegroom having declared
that he went of his own free will, the matter was allowed to
drop.” The Frenches of Thornidykes were one of several
Berwickshire and neighbouring houses whose arms were var-
iants on those of Swinton of that Ilk, being Azure, a chevron
engrailed Or, between three boars’ heads erased Argent.

J See HBNG, Xi 127.
* * *

HILLSLAP TOWER, MASONS, AND
REGIONAL TRADITIONS

By PHILIP DIXON
University of Nottingham

CHRISTOPHER Lowther, visiting the West March a quarter of a
century after the Union, noted that “‘the houses of the Grames
that were, are but one little stone tower garretted and slated or
thatched; some of the form of a little tower not garretted; such
be all the leards’ houses in Scotland.’ About these minor
lairds themselves we can now say very little; few have left more
than a bare record of their names, and an occasional charter or a
notice in the correspondence of the Wardens of the
Marches. Modern studies have revealed much about the
national and local legal administration,” and something about
general social and economic conditions,? but the borderers
themselves remain quite shadowy figures, their individual
motives and interests often obscure. Their houses, too, pres-
ent us with problems. Here a very few specific documents
would resolve many perplexities. Had we more personal
letters we could appreciate the reasons underlying landowners’
decisions to build or rebuild their “‘little stone towers”. If we
had more rentals and similar financial documents we could
identify some at least of the sources of surplus capital now
being converted into masonry. Had we only a few building
contracts we could begin to put names to some of the distinct
. styles of craftsmanship visible in the surviving buildings.

HILLSLAP TOWER, MASONS, AND REGIONAL TRADITIONS 129

In other areas evidence of the work of single masons or of
schools of masonry tradition has been traced. A group of late
15th century towers on Clydeside may, for instance, be attri-
buted to a local school,* and in the later 16th century several
closely related towerhouses have been linked with the family
of Bell, master masons;* a little earlier in the same area another
group of towers was the product of a separate school. On
the border, however, very little is known of the masons them-
selves. Only one can be identified by name, Robert Graham,
mason of Dumfries, who died in 1592, and whose testament
reveals nothing of his work.”? But the quantity of mason-
work surviving in the region reveals something of the numbers
of masons involved: here at any point in the later 16th century
at least half-a-dozen towers must have been under construc-
tion, and to judge from the pace of medieval stone building
most must have been in the builders’ hands for two or three
seasons. The reconstruction of Branxholme, Roxburghshire,
for example, as the building inscription tells us, was begun on
24 March 1571 and not completed until October 1576, at an
apparent cost of more than 2000 pounds Scots.? The num-
bers of masons engaged in the major towers was commensu-
rate with the high expense involved: in 1520, when Thomas
first Lord Dacre was building in northern Cumberland, Lord
Maxwell’s men captured sixteen masons and wallers and car-
ried off ‘four draughts of oxen bearing stones.’’1°

In the absence of further information, the suggestion that the
Dissolution in both England and Scotland made available
numbers of masons for secular work is not susceptible to
proof, nor is it possible to estimate the effect on the level of
craftsmanship produced by the extensive Royal works at Car-
lisleand Berwick. The use of properly worked stone is found
far down the social scale: even the undistinguished, drystone-
built fortified farmhouses (‘‘pelehouses”’ or “‘bastles’’) of the
later 16th century have dressed work as surrounds to open-
ings—some indeed are precisely-shaped mouldings identical to
those on major buildings.1!_ In view of the additional struc-
tural problems involved in the building of towers it is thus no
surprise to find obvious mason-work in all, but few are so
elaborated that the work of individual masons can be iden-
tified.12 Significant similarities, however, can be found, and
it is the purpose of the present paper to discuss the relationship
of a group of late 16th century towers in north Northumber-
land, and the adjacent parts of Roxburgh and Berwickshire.

THE PROBLEM OF HILLSLAP
About two miles to the north west of Galashiels three towers
stand together at the head of the Allen Water (Nat. Grid Ref.
NT 5139). Two, Colmslie and Langshaw, are much ruined;

130 HILLSLAP TOWER, MASONS, AND REGIONAL TRADITIONS

the third, Hillslap, despite the collapse of its basement vault and
the loss of floors and roof, is a comparatively complete L-plan
tower, inscribed on its doorhead N icholas C airncross 1585
E Ie . Its internal arrangements are typi-
cal of many late 16th century Scottish towerhouses: the entr-
ance door, in the short arm of the L, led by a broad staircase to
the first-floor hall. The upper floors of the main block and
the wing were reached by a small spiral staircase, corbelled out
in the re-entrant angle of the L, and so immediately above the
outer doorway. As in many late towerhouses its roofs came
straight down to the wallheads without a parapet, and almost
all rooms above the basement were heated: the total, six
hearths, is not at all unusual (the nearly contemporary
towerhouse at Greenknowe has ten), though it compares
favourably with the smaller manor houses of England. What
is remarkable about Hillslap is the variety of its masonry
details, many of them odd enough to have provoked the sug-
gestion that the master-mason of this Scottish tower came
from across the border. 13

The evidence, however, is not at all straightforward, and
must be examined more closely. The entrance doorway (fig.
1C) is quite elaborately dressed: the lintel has been worked to
form a series of ridges and hollows, of rather mean scale,
surrounding the tiny inscribed panel and continuing around
the jambs of the door. Above them isa “‘label’’, a rectangular
hood moulding returned at right angles at its lower
end. Similar labels surmount the staircase window above the
door (fig. 1A), both southern windows of the hall on the first
floor (fig. 1D), and two windows in the upper part of the
staircase tower. The typeisa common motif of late medieval
building in England, and is found frequently in the late 16th
and 17th centuries in Northumberland and Cumberland,
where it is normally combined with four-centred or “Tudor”
doorheads (e.g. fig. 3, Duddo). It is rare in Scotland, and in
the Border area seems confined to Roxburgh, at the tower of
Hillslap and the castle of Branxholme.!4 The entrance door-
way of the latter building belongs perhaps to 1571 or 1572, and
is surmounted by a particularly well-formed label of English
pattern. The doorway itself, however, is certainly not
English, for it has a flattened segmental head, similar to that of
the Great Hall of Stirling Castle (c. 1500),15 but quite unlike
contemporary English design, and probably irrelevant to dis-
cussion of the Hillslap group of the 1580s.

The openings finished with a label at Hillslap are not other-
wise identical: the mouldings of the doorway (fig. 1C) are not
elsewhere repeated; the staircase window (fig. 1A) is worked to
_aseries of square-cut rebates dressed to small chamfers on their

leading edges. This treatment is repeated in a small first-floor

9 meal

HILLSLAP TOWER, MASONS, AND REGIONAL TRADITIONS 131

window without a label on the west side of the staircase turret
(fig. 1B). These mouldings, though small in scale, are
analogous to late medieval rebated and chamfered openings in
Northumberland.1®° The southern windows of the hall (fig.
1D) have been dressed back to form half-round mouldings
projecting both from the wall-plane and within the jambs of
the window, an extravagant use of stone for which it is difficult
to find local parallels. In marked contrast, the window at the
lower, western end of the hall (fig. 1G) is ornamented with a
narrow quirked edge-roll of standard late sixteenth-century
Scottish type. Its lintel, now lost, was probably finished by
returning the roll over the opening in similar style to that of the

_ adjacent chamber window (fig. 1F). The latter is itself atypi-

cal for it lacks the quirk within the window opening and the

_ roll consequently runs straight back without interruption.

PILASTER MOULDINGS
The remaining ornamented window at Hillslap (fig. 1E)

_ links the masonwork of the tower specifically with that of a

group of contemporary local buildings: the hall window on the
east side, overlooking the re-entrant angle, 1s decorated with a

_ pair of attached shafts of rectangular section, capped by
_ square-cut terminals which support a dripmoulding cut to a
hollow on the soffit, and finished at the base by rounded
_ bosses, only one of whichsurvives. The design echoes that of

windows at the slightly earlier tower of Buckholm, some two

_ miles to the south-west (NT 483379), begun in 1582. Here a
_ second floor window of the main block (fig. 2A) displays the
_ round bosses, angular finials and hollow dripmoulding of the

Hillslap example, while a third floor window of the staircase
turret (fig. 2B) is finished at its lower end with a short billet-
like ornament similar to that at Hillslap. Lower down the
Tweed, at the tower of Greenknowe (NT 639428), begun in
1581, the fifth-floor window of the main staircase wing has a
rectangular version of the same motif: the capitals emerge from
the wallhead stringcourse, with, perhaps, shafts of circular
section, mostly now eroded (fig. 2). A larger window on the
third floor of the main block, is ornamented with similar

Meapitais, but seems never to have had engaged

shafts. Greenknowe is the earliest securely-dated example of
the pilaster moulding in the area, but at Littledean Tower, on

_ the Tweed between Melrose and Kelso (NT 634313), a much

worn recessed panel for armorial or inscription seems once to

_have been finished with shafts and a dripmoulding (fig.
| 2). The panel stands in that part of the ale

ng attributed to
the period 1544-50. 17

The style was still vigorous at the end of the century. By
1598 at Ferniehirst (NT 653179) the rustic shafts of Buckholm
and Hillslap have been translated into quite elegant classical

Buckholm

YW Hebburn

Greenknowe

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Featohirst

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Hillslap

Figure 2

133

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136 HILLSLAP TOWER, MASONS, AND REGIONAL TRADITIONS

imitations (fig. 2): the projecting dripmoulding is no longer
slung between the pilasters but as at Greenknowe rests directly
on capitals; the shafts end not in a plain boss but in a claw-foot
resting onastand. Despite the elaboration all the elements of
the design recall the earlier versions, and a further link with the
previous work (which, in view of the anonymity of its prac-
titioners, may be termed simply the “Buckholm style’) is
provided by Ferniehirst’s main entrance doorway, whose ogi-
val decoration echoes that of the southern window of the garret
at Buckholm (fig. 2C).18

THE BUCKHOLM STYLE AND OTHER REGIONAL TRADITIONS

The establishment of the Buckholm style as the product of a
local school of masons affects our interpretation of the building
of Hillslap tower, for the dressed stone can now be seen as the
handiwork of separate Scottish and English schools. Nor 1s
the Scottish work necessarily homogenous, for two distinct
designs of shot holes are used.!9 In the east wall of the base-
ment the mouth of the loop is formed of two shaped sandstone
blocks, narrowing to a gorge (fig. 2 Hillslap B); the type is
widespread i in Scotland and was in almost universal use in the
Tweed valley. The south wall of the tower, on the other
hand, is defended by a rectangular shot hole (fig. 2, Hillslap A)
of which only the gorge is a dressed stone, a pierced block of
most unusual form.?° This design, which can occasionally be
found in England, is the normal pattern in the West Marches of
Scotland but cannot be locally paralleled, and provides further
indication of external influences at work within the Buckholm
style.

There can be little doubt that the masons whose products are
visible at Hillslap were working simultaneously; not only do
the dressed stones of doors and windows fit snugly into the
walling with no likelihood of later alteration or insertion but
parts of the surrounds of the entrance doorway and the win-
dow above it are actually bonded into the adjacent wall-returns
(fig. 1A and C). It is quite clear, furthermore, that all were
actually engaged onsite. Therough-walling masons used the
local stone, angular Silurian grey wackes; for the dressed work
this intractable stone was unsuitable, and Old Red Sandstone
was Imported in a variety of shades from light yellow to bright
red. Chippings of these stones discarded by the freemasons
were incorporated by the wallers as their work progressed; toa
remarkable extent these correspond in colour to the worked
stones used in the adjacent openings; the two teams must have
been working side by side.

Whether or not the master mason at Hillslap was English is
now a less important question than it Sec appeared, for
both English and Scottish masons seem to have been

HILLSLAP TOWER, MASONS, AND REGIONAL TRADITIONS 137

involved. But two features of the general setae aon
sumable field of such a master—are worth consideration: first,
the stair wing was carried up above the main roof and finished
off with its own freestanding inner gable. Theresult is a little
unusual, and may be contrasted with the treatment at the
Scottish tower of Greenknowe, and compared with that at
Coupland Castle, near Wooler, Northumberland (fig.
3). Secondly, the gables are capped not, as would be normal
locally, with crow steps, but with a plain coping, the usual
termination to an English gable. A further oddity is perhaps
significant: the stair turret in the re-entrant angle rests upon the
conventional courses of oversailing corbelling. But the cor-
bels themselves do not spring in the customary way from the
angle immediately above the entrance doorway;?! they rest
instead upon a squinch arch contrived between the walls of the
main block and the stair wing. There would have been room
to support the corbelling in the normal manner, and this alter-
native technique is not only visually ugly, but also unparal-
leled. The arch was designed to transmit the weight of the
turret away from the lintel of the doorway. This need does
not seem to have been felt elsewhere: at Greenknowe, indeed,
the lintel lacks even the protection of a relieving arch; in the
event, failure at this point is exceptional. The expedient
adopted at Hillslap is thus a clear sign of hesitation in a tower
whose other details are deftly managed, and perhaps an indica-
tion of a mason unaccustomed to a common Scottish motif.

SCOTTISH STYLE IN ENGLAND

The English influences on Scottish towers were matched by
the appearance at the end of the sixteenth century of elements
of Scottish design in English buildings. In northern Cumber-
land Kirkandrews and Brackenhill Towers share mouldings
and details of planning with towers in Dumfriesshire: both of
the Cumberland towers belonged to the Grahams, a surname
with representatives on both sides of the border, and the coin-
cidence of design may be explicable in terms of kinship,
extending even to the employment of the same masons. The
influences within Northumberland are in general less
direct. Here quirked edge-rolls of normal Scottish type are
found in several late 16th or early 17th century pelehouses: in
the North Tyne valley at Falstone (1604), Rig End and
Gatehouse; in Redesdale at High Rochester; in South Tynedale
at Tow House; in the rebuilt wing at Halton near Cor-
bridge. They represent a comparatively late extension across
the Border of an already long-established Scottish tradition;
apart from Halton the buildings themselves are too plain for it
to be clear whether Scottish masons were responsible, and a
simple imitation of a widespread style is possible.

138 HILLSLAP TOWER, MASONS, AND REGIONAL TRADITIONS

In northern Northumberland, at Coupland, Duddo, and
Hebburn, the Scottish element is more complex. Coupland
Castle, about four miles north west of Wooler and six from the
border (NT 934312), is a substantial early 19th century man-
sion incorporating a much-restored towerhouse, which has
attracted less attention than it deserves.2* The plan is
T-shaped, for the staircase wing projects from the side of the
main blot: The entrance doorway in the re-entrant angle
opens on to a broad newel staircase, which rises only to the hall
on the first floor; a separate doorway from the hall leads to a
narrow newel stair giving access to the upper chambers of both
main block and staircase wing. The tower, as Pevsner says, is
for England “curiously enough”’ planned,?? but the arrange-
ments are identical to those in the Scottish towers discussed
above. Further Scottish influence is suggested by the upper
staircase in the re-entrant angle which is carried on courses of
oversailing corbels above the entrance doorway. The door-
way itself is round-headed with a broad hollow moulding (fig.
3): both doorhead and moulding are unique in the area, but
closely resemble those at Oakwood and Todrig in Selkirk.?*
Coupland’s battlements are modern, but sufficient survives of
the original to show its form, and this is purely English; as at
Hillslap, then, the work is not homogenous.

When Coupland was built is not precisely known. No
fortified building stood here at the time of Christopher Dacre’s
report and map of 1584.24 The date of 1619 carved on the
present hall fireplace has indeed been taken to refer to the
foundation of the tower.?5 This fireplace, however, blocks an
earlier window, and the tower is probably the “‘hall howsse”’
mentioned by James Wallis of Coupland in his will of
1611.26 A date for the tower in the late 1580s or the 1590s is
probable, and the work is almost certainly later than the con-
struction of Hillslap.

About seven miles to the north a fragment of a tower stands
on the crags over the village of Duddo (NT 938426). Little
can now be said of the ruins, but a photograph of the structure
in 1884 has fortunately been preserved,?’ and forms the basis of
the reconstruction in fig. 3. Like Coupland the tower was
T-shaped; the entrance doorway in the re-entrant angle was
four-centred in the English tradition, and the turret above the
doorway, though carried out with corbels of Scottish type, was
eccentric in leading not from the first but from the second
floor. The styles of doorhead and turret belong to the later
16th century, and the date may be more precisely esti-
mated. A tower at Duddo was damaged in 1496 and had not
been repaired by 1561, when only half was still stand-
ing.28 Dacre’s report makes no reference to Duddo, which
must have been stall ruins, and the replacement or restoration

HILLSLAP TOWER, MASONS, AND REGIONAL TRADITIONS 139

of the 15th century tower therefore postdates 1584, and thus
postdates too the work at Hillslap.

The arrangement of the re-entrant turret may be compared
with that at Dilston, near Hexham (NY 976632). Herea large
tower of the first half of the 15th century was extended in the
16th century by a block containing additional accommodation
and a broad staircase (fig. 3); details are confused by 17th
century rebuildings and by vegetation, but doors and windows
of the new block are of typically late 16th-century form, and
the work may be attributed to the last years of Sir George
Radcliffe (died 1588) or to the early years of his son, who began
a further reconstruction in 1622, at the end of his life.29 The
turret in the re-entrant angle is carried on moulded corbels of
normal Scottish type. At Duddo the turret stair led upwards
from the second floor; at Dilston the turret does not begin until
the fourth floor, and so is perched uncomfortably near the
wall-heads. In neither case is the design as harmonious as in
the Scottish towers—both are examples of the degeneration of
a functional arrangement into a decorative motif—and in view
of the associated doors and windows of English type both
towers are likely to be the work of English masons imitating
and adapting contemporary Scottish style.

A more convincing instance of direct Scottish influence can
be seen at the final structure under consideration, Hebburn
Bastle on the edge of Chillingham Park (NU 071248).3° This
is a long rectangular building of excellent ashlar whose two-
centred doorheads suggest a date not later than the early 16th
century. Inits original form it may have been crenellated, for
traces remain of a parapet door on the second floor, but it was
reconstructed, piebebty in the late 16th century, as a gabled
house with a double-pile roof. The entrance doorway,
roughly rebuilt in modern times, incorporates a re-used rybat
ornamented with an ordinary Scottish quirked edge-roll and
probably derived from a lost 16th century window now
replaced by one of several openings of the later 17th cen-
tury. Atleast one of the gable windows inserted during the
16th-century rebuilding has attached shafts of round section
resting on bosses with billet protuberances and bead decora-
tion, in the Buckholm style (fig. 2). The head, which is plain
and square, is a later replacement, but the surviving jambs
within the pilasters are taken back with chamfered rebates
similar to the work of the “‘English mason” at Hillslap (com-
pare fig. 1, A and B), and not with the simple rounded arrises
one might expect. The rebuilding of Hebburn, therefore, is
linked not merely to the Buckholm style, but more specifically
to the masons of Hillslap: precise dating is conjectural, but that
the work began soon es the settlement on 29th August 1588
of the blood-feud between the Hebburns and the Storeys3! is

140 HILLSLAP TOWER, MASONS, AND REGIONAL TRADITIONS

consonant with the available evidence, and would accord with
the likely completion date of Hillslap in 1587 or 1588.

It is likely, then, that an English mason was engaged in the
mid-1580s at Hillslap and that he or another of the group
subsequently was responsible for work at Hebburn. It has
been shown that Scottish motifs at this time were becoming
fashionable in England, and, at Duddo and, more clearly, at
Dilston, were being used on buildings whose other details are
English and whose masons were perhaps local; the unique
arrangement at Coupland, however, suggests strongly the pre-
sence of a Scottish mason whose style has its best parallels far
from the border in Selkirk. The architectural evidence alone
is insufficient to support a detailed explanation in terms of the
careers of el masons, but the discussion has thrown
some rather unexpected light on the movements of craftsmen
across the border in the years before the Union.3?

1. Hist. Mss Comm. XIII, appendix pt. vii Earl of Lonsdale , 1893, p. 75.

2. E.g.T.1. Rae, The Administration of the Scottish Frontier (Edinburgh, 1966).

3. E.g.G. Watson, The Border Reivers (London, 1974) or S. J. Watts, From
Border to Middle Shire, Northumberland 1586-1625 (Leicester, 1975).

4. §. Cruden, The Scottish Castle (1963), 139.

Sy hid 172-3:

6. W.D. Simpson, “Craig Castle...” Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot. xiv (1929-30),
48-96.

7. Scot. Record Office, Edinburgh: Edinb. Test. CC8/8/22.

8. R.C.A.H.M., County of Roxburgh (H.M.S.O., 1956), 139.

9. Debts owed in 1574, see S.R.O., Edinb. Test. CC8/8/3.

10. Lett. and Pap. Henry VIII 3 pt. i, no. 1091. The tower being built was
either Rockcliff or Drumburgh.

11. For the type cf. H. G. Ramm, R. W. McDowall, E. Mercer, Shielings and
Bastles (H.M.S.O., 1970).

12. But Elshieshields and Amisfield, Dumfries, have without explanation

been attributed to the same hand: R.C.A.H.M., Dumfries (H.M.S.O.,
1920), 196.

13. R.C.A.H.M., Roxburgh, 292; comparatively good plans and other draw-
ings were published in D. MacGibbon and T. Ross, The Castellated and
Domestic Architecture of Scotland III (Edinburgh, 1889, repr. 1971), 548-
550.

14. The example noted at Oakwood R.C.A.H.M., Selkirk (H.M.S.O.,
1957), 53 is not a label but a cable moulding with pendant swags;
Buckholm and Greenknowe towers have rectangular surrounds on lin-
tels, but not properly worked labels.

15. R.C.A.H.M., Stirling I (H.M.S.O., 1972), 207, plate 89G.

16. E.g., Longhorsley tower or Castle Hill, Haltwhistle: cf. P. Campbell and
P. Dixon ‘Two Fortified Houses in Haltwhistle’ Arch. Ael.* xlviui (1970),
esp. plate XVII.

17. R.C.A.H.M., Roxburgh, 262: the inference of date is not certain.

18. Cf. MacGibbonand Ross, op. cit. 11,157-60. Similar accomplished work
occurs elsewhere, at Mains, Forfarshire (1582), Edinburgh Castle (1580),
and Huntly (1602).

19. See in general A. M. T. Maxwell-Irving ‘Early Firearms and their influ-
ence on the military and domestic architecture of the Borders’ Proc. Soc.
Ant. Scot. (1970-1), 192-223, esp. 206-7.

20. For some remarks, ibid, 206.

21. Compare Greenknowe (fig. 3) or R.C.A.H.M., Berwick (1915), fig. 86.

22. For a cursory description: Hist. of Northumberland = NCH xi (1922),

227-9.

|
|
|
|

MRS. M. J. McWHIR 141

23. N. Pevsner, Buildings of England: Northumberland (1957), 133.

Poa RC.A-H.M., Selkirk, figs. 33, 55.

24. C.J. Bates, Border Holds (1891) = Arch. Ael. 2 xiv , 78-9 and xvii.

25. Ibid, 54.

26. Durham Rec. Off., Probate, will dated 3 Jan. 1610/11.

27. Published by Bates, op. Cit., 409.

28. Ibid, 53.

29. NCH x (1914), 286-9.

30: Cf, Bates, op. cit., 302-4; NCH xiv (1935), 347-50.

31. Bates, op. cit, 303.

32. I would like to thank Patricia Borne, Alan Cameron and Professor M. W.
Barley for their help and criticism.

Mrs. M. J. McWHIR

WitH the death on 15th April 1975 of Margaret Hewat,
McWhir, our Club lost a member whose recollections of it
went back to the opening years of this century. James .
McWhir, the able and dedicated physician whom she married
in 1907, had become a member as early as 1904, and before his
untimely death was to be President and for seven years to edit
our History. :

The third child and only daughter of Thomas and Isabella
Hogg, Mrs. McWhir was born on 9th August 1885 at Mid-
dlethird in the parish of Gordon. There 1s a pleasant story
that, when a pupil at the village school, she would cause a pet
goat to follow he there in the mornings, knowing that she
would certainly be sent home with it. Later she boarded at a
girls’ school in Melrose.

At the time of her marriage to Dr. McWhir, he was in
practice in Swinton, and it was there that her four eldest
children, all daughters, were born. Her two youngest chil-
dren, ason anda daughter, were born after the family removed
to Norham in 1916.

When Mrs. McWhir’s husband died in 1935, it could hardly
have been foreseen that she would survive him by forty
years. Quite soon she left Norham to live in Edinburgh, and
also briefly in Fife. Early in the 1950s, however, she came
back to the Borders, and during the twenty years that followed
contributed greatly to the life of our Club. She was its Presi-
dent in 1958, and until 1971 attended, as its representative, the
annual meetings of the British Association, of which she pro-
vided reports for the History. To the end she remained a
diligent attender at meetings of the Club and its Council,
greeting all whom she met with the same alert and kindly
interest.

Although her death had not been unexpected, it was no less
felt when it came, and a large gathering attended her funeral at
Norham Parish Church. The closing weeks of her life had
been cheered by the birth, in Canada, of her first great-
grandchild.

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

Letter 76. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
July 21, 1881.

Dear Mrs. Carter,

I feel greatly obliged for your congratulatory letter. I do

not feel that I have done anything extraordinary to merit so
much approval. I cannot say that I ever relished popular
applause. Some good discovery always has enough of joy
attending it, as to be a full reward. There was much said
during the day about your father. Mr. Brown, Prof. Balfour,
Capt. Norman, Mr. Sadler of the Botanic Garden, young Mr.
Evans, Mr. W. Weatherhead and myself made the pilgrimage
of the route taken by the original members on their first
meeting-day, and then we went to Penmanshiel; and after-
wards to Renton House to Lady Stirling’s who was very kind,
in not only entertaining us, but sending her carriage to the
Pease Bridge with members, decorating the tent with flowers,
and supplying some of the attendance at the dinner table.
n our walk we talked over the re-printing of the first volume of
the Proceedings, but it seemed desirable that I should edit it, to
avoid printer’s blunders. The articles are all out of copyright
so that we cannot prevent anyone printing them. A great
many members wish to have the early volumes, and some of
the numbers have been re-printed privately to supply
defects. It has occurred to me, that if the 3 first volumes were
reprinted, it might be possible by supplying supplementary
pages, they might be made equal in size with our bulkier
volumes. These supplementary pages might be made up of
some of your father’s papers contributed to the Mag. of Nat.
Hist. etc. some of them having been read to the Club, but being
too bulky for its funds at an early period; others of Mr. Selby’s,
and Dr. R. D. Thomson’s, and one of my own placed in similar
circumstances. There could be found a place for those chap-
ters in the Fauna that I pointed out, viz. the Fishes and Crus-
tacea, when they canbecopied. Weare now getting so many
papers, that some have to be left over from year to year
unprinted. Those of your father would come better in, in the
period of his life-time as appendices. I have a good many of
them, or could get them copied. It would allow ready refer-
ence to such of his articles as have a local bearing. I daresay
you have not yourself copies of them. I have not yet talked
_ over the subject with Craig and Thomson, Kelso, who at their
own risk, propose to undertake the re-print. | do not know,

142

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF Dr. JAMES HARDY 143

where the wood blocks, and copper plates are with the figures
of the Club’s engravings. I suspect all will have to be done
anew.

[have had a deal of running about since the meeting. I first
went to Dunbar, and visited Barneyhill to see the garden,
which contained several fine flowers of which I brought away
some examples, and then Thurston where there were both
good flowers and fine trees; and then I had a copying of
inscriptions at Innerwick Church, and a walk by the sea-side as
far as Dunglass Mill. Another day I was at Dunglass, where
the woods are in full beauty of foliage and form. ThenI was
at Horsley paying a sort of farewell visit, as the family are now
divided, my brother and eldest daughter and the oldest and

oungest son remain till Martinmas at Horsley. I was on the
hill above Mayfield to enjoy the view. On another day, the
Rev. W. Stobbs, Gordon, invited Dr. Stuart, Capt. Norman
and myself, to inspect his new locality for Linnaea borealis in
Huntly wood and to botanize Gordon Moss, and we had a very
enjoyable day. It was such a pilgrimage as your father
delighted to pay. We visited a nursery at Dunse on our
return, and were equally gratified there, with a prospect of rare
flowers. Another day we were at Bowshiel to see a very
bright garden there, with a good many curious old flowers,
that the Miss Allans cultivate. The country looks very beauti-
ful. The wild roses this season are blooming very profusely,
and some of the bushes are pretty pictures.

Thad a letter this week from Mr. Hepburn and he is inquiring
after yourhealth. He wants one of the re-prints of vol. lifitis
tobedone. Heis to giveusa paper for next year’s number...

The Marquis of Tweeddale and Mr. John Scott of Gala were
proposed as members at Grant’s; but we have lost the Earl of
Home, an old member, and Col. Home of Bassindean.

I set out on Tuesday for Highlaws near Morpeth to be the
guest of Mr. Arkle during the Elsdon and Otterburn Meet-
ings. ‘These are out of the way places, and there will not be
many attending.

Mass Russell of Ashiesteel has smoothed the way for admit-

tanceto TraquairandtheGlen. Weare eondletilly favoured
_ by our clever lady members, and by the ladies in general who
_ feel interested in flowers and antiquities.

Mrs. Hardy desires to beremembered. Sheisa most ardent

florist, and our “herbaceous border”’ is becoming notable.
Believe me,
Dear Vins) Carter,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

144 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF Dr. JAMES HARDY

Note.—The meeting referred to in this letter was the Jubilee
Meeting held at Grant’s House on 29th June 1881 (see HBNC
IX, 442). Atthis meeting the Club presented Mr. Hardy with
a testimonial of respect, a cheque for £111, and a microscope
(see Obituary by J. Ferguson, HBNC XVI, 352).

etterii., Oldcambus, Aug. 8, 1881.

Dear Mrs. Carter,

I thank you for your kind favour, and obliging invitation
with respect to the reprint of “‘Proceedings’’. [hope partly to
accept of it, on my return from the Meeting, but probably not
to stay the night. I have already arranged to go to my
Brother’s at Harpertoun tosee the farm, on the Monday. The
meeting will be on the Tuesday and not the Wednesday, owing
to the Edinburgh Border Society having taken our day, to meet
at Jedburgh, which must be avoided now that we know. ..

I cannot exactly say, whether I will leave Harpertoun on
Wednesday or Thursday, but I will come with an early train to
enable me to get home, as harvest will have commenced, and
there will be little time tospare. Butit will enable me to look
over anything you may kindly haveready. Iam going to take
the Proceedings to Kelso that it may be seen, what printing
may berequired... Possibly instead of printing an Appendix,
we may be able to bring out, a volume almost wholly your
father’s, as asupplemental work. Ihave not had any talk yet
with the Kelso printers. I cannot come by your way, asI have
to go to Greenlaw station, to meet a conveyance for Harper-
toun.

We had a delightful visit to Redesdale. The people laid
themselves out to help us, and furnished conveyances and beds
for those who were not otherwise provided. We had numer-
ous papers, and good weather, and a fine pastoral country new
to most. There was a deficiency of active explorers, and this
is almost sure to happen, when we employ conveyances. . .

The ‘‘Proceedings”’ are finished, and you will be getting
yours, probably next week. This allows me a little liber-
ty. Mrs. Hardy and I went one day last week to North
Berwick to see some friends, and I took advantage of being
there, to ascend to the summit of the ““Law’’. It is, however,
barren of nearly all interest, except the fine and extensive views
on all sides round. We have both gota cold, but it will wear
off. With kind regards and hoping you are well,

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

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF Dr. JAMES HARDY 145

Letter 78. Oldcambus, Sept. 23, 1881.

Dear Mrs. Carter,

I will be happy to bring the Microscope, but most people are
disappointed with the look of it, who are not acquainted with
its magnifying capacity. Iam not quite up to working it yet,
but some of the members will be able to fit it up to show whatit
cando. Ihave only two slides as yet, besides what came with
it. As regards old illustrated Herbals I have a very full
assortment, as well as on some branches of Zoology. They
illustrate the early condition of Natural History from
mediaeval times to our own period. I must try and send a
boxful, but even that would not exhaust the collection. Some
of them are notin the best condition. One of them has been in
Scotland since the days of the Regent Murray, and has a prayer
for his safety written on one of the fly leaves. It wants the title
pase, assome oftheothersdo. Ihavehad SirGeorge Douglas

ere from Kelso, andI was shewing some of my rarities to him;
but our landlord, Sir Basil Hall, who accompanied him, grew
impatient, and so he only saw a small portion of my treasures.

I have not got any of the Reports written yet. I can only
give a summary; so many things come in afterwards, I do not
care for doing the work twice over. I will leave for Galashiels
on Monday for Mr. Wood, Mrs. Hardy accompanyin
me. On Tuesday I may take the train to Thornylee, and wale
down Tweedside to Yair, where Mr. Pringle has been led to
expect me, and then cross by a foot road to Galashiels. Miss
Russell is writing notes on what we are to see, but some of her
speculations aril be very satisfactory. I havea kind note
from Mrs. Tennant at the Glen and another from her
son. The owners of Traquair House are, or were to be,
abroad. On Thursday morning we start for Kelso, and have
to call and see Springwood Park ground and garden. They
may perhaps put us across with the boat to Roxburgh Cas-
tle. We willseea little of Kelso, and then walk out to Harper-
toun. By what route we return is dubious. At any rate we
will stay till Saturday morning. I may havesome time to see
the printers about the re-print of the ‘‘Proceedings’’.

In this kind of weather I do not care about looking out till it
clears up again. Ihave got the oats ledin, butno more. The
barometer has risen a good deal today.

I have had a long letter from Miss Nisbet Hamilton with a
list of the best paintings in Biel House, and an account of a
lucky English prayer book that has been used at royal mar-
riages from the time of George III and Queen Charlotte, down
to the Duke of Connaught and his princess. It belongs to her

146 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF Dr. JAMES HARDY

mother Lady Mary, and we saw it when at Biel... There are
lots of sketches this year handed in, more I fear, than we can
engtawme. 4.

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

P.S. I have a number of photographs of ““The Stoat’’ in its
changes of appearance, one of a variegated Buzzard, and one of
a moth, presented by one artist, whom I met with at Gilsland;
and I have also another small series of photos of magnified
objects taken by micro-photography which have been lent me
by an Edinburgh amateur as a specimen of what can be done in
this way. I have also a series of magnified drawings and
dissections of Mosses given me by my friend W. C. Unwin of
Lewes, some of the drawings being from Border exam-
ples. Would they be of any service?
LH:

Letter 79. Oldcambus, Oct. 6, 1881.

Dear Mrs. Carter,

Mrs. Hardy andI were bent on coming home by Berwick on
Saturday last, but at Harpertoun we found a conveyance had
been brought over from Horsley to take us there: I just had
time on Monday hastily to write the circular, and ask Mr. Carr
to entertain us. I have not heard from him yet, if he can do
so. [arranged with Capt. Norman to come to his house on
Tuesday and stay all the night, so I will be in Berwick on the
Tuesday. I will only bring a few books, as they are clumsy to
manage, and I am far from the station. I have, however, got
some beautifully set up microscopic slides, and I expect more,
and I willlook up the drawings of Mosses. Ihavehad enough
to do to get the Reports ready to read to the meeting, but I am
now pretty well forward. Owing to my going to Capt.
Norman’s, Mrs. Hardy will not accompany me. ‘There is to
be a party.

I saw the President at Innerleithen, and he is coming. Prof.
Balfour will probably be there also. He had been sojourning
in Arran, and his health is much improved.

We were in a beautiful country in upper Tweedside, I visited
Meigle and Caddon Hills, Clovenfords, Thornilie, Elibank,
Laidlawsteel and Whytbank. Mrs. Hardy saw Yair, Fairnalie,
Faldenside, Abbotsford and Melrose. Innerleithen is a pretty
place, with tall clean hills all round, and in some aspects
~ wooded banks crowned with heather. At Traquair, 12 were

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF Dr. JAMES HARDY 147

admitted to see the house. The floors and beams are very
rotten, and you felt the deals bend beneath the foot. There
was not much to be seen, except some rare books. The Glen
both in its woods and gardens, as well as the conservatories,
and the house itself was very beautiful. The company saw
over the principal rooms; and young Mr. Tennant and Lady
Ribblesdale Eb siess luncheon prepared for us, and helped the
company, without the intervention of servants. Everything
passed offagreeably. We invited young Mr. Tennant and one
of the young gentlemen to dine with us, and the same was done
at Traquair. The Hon. H. C. Maxwell Stuart and Mr. Ten-
nant, jun. got themselves proposed as members. Dr. Steven-
son Macadam, the chemical lecturer, also was proposed. . .

Isaw Mr. Thomson at Kelso, who shewed us the Abbey and
the Museum. A portion of the day was passed at Spring wood
Park.

We are still busy with harvest here. If it keeps two good
days, most of what I have, will be secured.

I may possibly come to Berwick with the afternoon train,
and will take a cup of tea with you before going to Capt.
Norman’s, where I believe we are to dine, at least we are to eat

and drink.
With kind regards.

Believe me,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

Letter 80. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
Dee 101681;

Dear Mrs. Carter,

fam reminded of writing to you in consequence of the books
being yesterday unpacked. How very careful you were of
them. They are now in their places; and today Mr. Timp-
son’s slides and photos will be returned to him, to the anatomi-
cal Museum, of which he has since they came here, received the
charge. Your nephews may perhaps meet with this young
and ardent naturalist during their studies.

The subject I was busy with when I wrote the card was the
Kelso Charters, which I have been copying and translating, so
far as they relate to Border affairs. Iam not near finished yet,
and I hadit only for a month, which I hope will be extended. |
got it from the Kelso Library. I got a present of a number of
antiquarian papers from Mr. Joseph Anderson of the Anti-
quarian Society, and I thought I would like to get his book so I
procured one as good as new at half price, and have been much
interested in it; and I also have got recently Mr. Evans’s great
work on Bronze Implements. I have got a drawing of a

148 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF Dr. JAMES HARDY

curious Brass vessel found at Langton, which may be of use for
the Club when engraved. All those who can use a pencil
should help us with sketches to embellish our book.

Last week we had a visit from Miss Russell of Ashiesteel and
Lady Hall. Unfortunately was fromhome. Miss Russell is
most attentive in trying to help us; her great theme is the traces
of Cymric inhabitants in the South of Scotland. She has sent
me a number of books to read on that topic: Skene’s Ancient
Alba, the Four books of Wales, Innes’s Essay, Mitchell’s Past in
the Present etc. We don’t agree in theory, what she makes
Cymric in local names I take for Saxon, and so we have little
controversies, which are all very well, so long as they are not
serious.

After the Berwick Club Meeting, Mrs. Hardy andI went for
a day to Marchmont to see the immense havoc among the
woods there, and Mr. Loney our member drove me across the
woods, and then to Rowchester on the other side of the railway
at Greenlaw, where there are some fine Coniferae which he
measured for record in the “‘Proceedings”. We called at
Dunse on the return, and picked up some information about
antiquities from a bookseller there.

My brother has now gone to Harpertoun, which I think a
much better place than Horsely. Lady Stirling has not got a
good tenant in his place.

Are there separate copies of Miss Sara Crossman’s Verses on
the Fishermens’ Disaster? If there are, will you kindly secure
one for me? I would like to have all the literature on the
subject to preserve. . .

Snow has fallen rather unexpectedly. Fortunately the first
portion of the feeding sheep have just been sold. There are
very few birds on our coast this winter; not a Mavis anywhere,
and wrens are nearly as scarce. I am drawing up lists of
arrivals and departures this year again.

Christmas Roses are well forward, and great numbers of
primroses and Polyanthuses; with daisies and buttercups in the
fields.

There is a steam vessel on the coast near Siccar which attracts
great numbers of visitors. It was driven ashore on the 14th
Oct. and attempts have been made to draw it off, repeated]
with steam tugs. It was avery pretty sight to witness 5 stall
steamers attached to one large, towards evening when the
shadows fell, and the last sunlight lay on the red ferns and green
grass of the sea-banks.

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

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF Dr. JAMES HARDY 149

Letter 81. Oldcambus, June 1, 1882.

Dear Mrs: Carter,

I have your favours in several forms. I will attend to the
missing number, which requires to be sought out, and if yours
turns up, you can give me it, as the stock is short. I fulfilled
your message yesterday, and the stone is in as good order, as if
you had it under your personal inspection daily. There is a
yellow lichen on a portion of the inscription, but it is an
ornament and protective. The churchyard is wellkept. We
saw Mrs. Carlyle’s tomb, and the alabaster effigies of the
Maitlands, and many other memorials. I read a short notice
of St. Martin’s Church, which pleased the Hadding-
tonians. Since I wrote the circulars, I have studied the char-
ters, and come to the conclusion that the present church is not
as popularly supposed “‘the Lamp of Lothian’’, and the town
documents bear me out. The “Lamp of Lothian” was the
church of the Friars Minor destroyed by the English under
Edward II, and rebuilt shortly after. It stood where the
Episcopalian church is now, and was demolished entirely by
the direction of the Town Council of Haddington, and the
materials disposed of, considerably after the Reformation. . .

We had 48 present at the meeting, besides several
ladies. There were no less than 14 clerics present; several
preferred the Club to the General Assembly... There was a
very fine view from the Garleton Hills. John Home’s (author
of Douglas) residence, at Kilduff was a very pretty white
mansion, backed by a wood, looking out to the south upon the
back of these hills, and quite secluded, but he was always a
wanderer. Wepickedupafew plants. There was not much
time for paper reading; we had far too elaborate and tedious a
dinner.

New Proceedings nearly finished, except Indexes, and
Plates. I had better conclude this today and catch the post.

With kind regards,
Believe me,
faithfully yours,
James Hardy.

P.S. Several Berwick Members were present. Being day
before Club Meeting I could not attend the opening of the
Institute. Iam told there were some good speeches. I came
home with Capt. Norman.

Note.—The meeting referred to in this letter was that at Had-
dington on 31st May 1882 (HBNC X, 2).

150 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF Dr. JAMES HARDY

Letter 82. Oldcambus, Sept. 30, 1882

Dear Mrs. Carter,

I found your welcome letter on my return from the Jedburgh
meeting, last night... There were about 36 present... I
stayed at Harpertoun with my brother. The morning was
rainy, but the background appeared through the misty screen,
and before Jedburgh was reached, it had faired. I look with
melancholy interest on Jedfoot and its garden, where I had held
council with poor Archibald Jerdon. After viewing the
Abbey and Queen Mary’s House, and the Museum, most of
the party left in conveyances to proceed up the Jed, as far as
Edgarston. The mouths of the caves at Lintalee, and perhaps
much of the caves also, are now effaced by slips from the
bank. The scaurs on the southern bank of the Jed were finely
decorated with autumnal tinted Scotch Elms, sprinkled here
and there among the fissures. All the way up the woods were
very fine, and the foliage was beginning to change its hue, toa
greater degree than with us. It was a fine calm day, with a
clear atmosphere, with no mist upon the Cheviots, which were
only three miles distant: those in front being near the Carter
Bar. We turned off the main route to go to Edgarston at
Sheriff Russell’s suggestion, and without warning Mr. Ruther-
ford. We were well received, a few of us as representatives
going into the house, to see the paintings etc., and afterwards
we saw the grounds and garden. On returning we caught
sight of Mossburnford, again associated with A. Jer-
don. Someone told us of his extreme patience under acute
suffering. We saw Langlee House, Glen Douglas, and the
roof of Ferniehirst, but Lintalee was not apparent, except that I
recognised a ravine which I had botanised in once. In a
crowded conveyance you obtain only imperfect views. We
stopped the carriages and saw the interior of the new estab-
lished church built by the Marquis of Lothian, in place of the
one cleared out of the Abbey... The President and I were
detained clearing up the bill, till we were almost too late for the
train, and had to run the great distance to the train, amidst a
downpour of rain. We were both perspiring when we gained
the stationin time. It still rained when Kelso was reached and I
had 4% miles afterwards to walk in the dark; but it faired after
passing Ednam. It had been a dreaful day of thunder and rain
and hail at Harpertoun, and I was not expected back that
night. I got thereat9o’clock. Nothing the worse next day,
I resolved thoroughly to explore Eccles’ ecclesiastical struc-
tures. Itis two miles distance. Having procured the key of

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF Dr. JAMES HARDY 115

the churchyard I locked myself in, and proceeded to copy all
the stones that related to landowners, or principal people.-

When this was almost accomplished a number of young-
sters, girls, from Ednam House, who have a private key,
entered and surrounded me, and I gave them employment to
read, while I wrote. Then the Head of the house, relatives of
the Greigs, joined and aided, and finally the ladies were sent for
to supply information: Mrs. Dove, who was the wife, of the
late owner, being one; and his sister being another. The key
of the church was procured, and then the remnants of the
priory were examined, a font in the garden, and some old
stones. The large trees came next under review, and it was
proposed after lunch, that they should be measured. There
were from 16 to 18 at table; among others Mrs. Dove, formerly
of Wark. We got on very pleasantly, as we found we had
mutual friends. We then sallied out again to the churchyard
to complete the copying. You are probably aware that your
ancestry have a very large stone there, with a notice of the
family from the first buried there. Although very long, with
the aid of Mr. Dove reading, I managed to transfer the inscrip-
tion to my note book. Itisinexcellent preservation. If you
have not a copy of this inscription can copy it out for you. I
could not find any record of any of the clergy. We next got
the help of the gardener to measure the two best trees, the third
I accomplished with a piece of string on my way back. This
was quite a little adventure among obliging strangers, who
were glad to have something to do, to fill up the time; and
welcomed the diversion, especially the children. Mr. and
Mrs. Dove have the house taken from the trustees of the
owner, their son-in-law, who is under age. Yesterday fore-
noon I paid a similar visit to Ednam, saw the church and
churchyard, the house where Thomson was born, the old
mansion of the Edmonstones, now a barn; and what is called
the tomb of Thorlongus, but possibly Newton Chapel and
churchyard, on a hillock. I then saw the parish records, and
had the offer of the loan of the oldest volume, of the time of
Thomson’s father, which I accepted. I then measured the
great tree at the Brewery, interviewed two of the oldest
inhabitants, and questioned them about particulars of the
parish history. One of them was Andrew Brotherston’s
father—a fine old face he has; but memory is failing. The
mother isalive also. [then hastened back, andin course of the
afternoon reached Marchmont station. In waiting for the
next train at Dunse I met an old acquaintance, and had a cup of
tea, and got safely here between 7 and 8, and found all
right. Our leading of white corn will be concluded tonight,
but we have many beans yet tostore. At Selkirk meeting lam
going to Mr. Wood’s at Galashiels, and expect to be able to see

152 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF Dr. JAMES HARDY

Ashiesteel and the hills above Yare. Our excursion will be to
Philiphaugh, Hangingshaw, Bowhill, Newark Castle etc.

Recently I went with Capt. Norman to Aberlady, and Gul-
lane Links. I recollected that your husband had stayed at
Craigielaw, which we saw. We got many plants. Mrs.
Hardy is well and sends her respects. Iam always kept very
busy.

Yours faithfully.
James Hardy.

Note.—Andrew Brotherston (1834-91) was only 56 years old
when he died. He was one of the most able field botanists in
the Club’s area. -For an obituary notice see HBNC XIil,
399-402.

Letter 83. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
Oct. 24, 1882.

Dear Mrs. Carter,

I thank you much for your letter and enclosure. Iam gladI
am able to entertain so many with the recital of my wander-
ings, and thus reduplicate my own feelings by the faint reflec-
tion of them. If Mr. Giles prints his list of Episcopalian
Clergy, I should like much to see a copy of his paper. It was
only on the tombs that I saw no mention of clergy, and won-
dered where they had gone in their declining years. Ihave not
seen the Church Records at Eccles, but I hear of a Presbytery
book kept there, which I may manage to get a sight of. The
only Episcopalian Session Book I have examined is that of
Buncle, which is preserved by the Nicholsons at Thornton. |
copied it all. I have at present the oldest book at Ednam, and
have nearly finishedit. It was kept in the time of Mr. Thomas
Thomson, father of James Thomson, the poet. Its oldest date
is 1692. I finda Robert Johnston then an Elder, but it does not
say where he resided. I find, however, the ancestors of Daw-
son the agricultural improver, living at Harpertoun, where my
brother now is, and both parties mentioned were elders at
Ednam._ The first a James Dawson dies in 1696, and his son
James Dawson is induced to become an elder in Feb. 1697, and
was ‘‘ordained”’ to that office, March 14 ofthat year. William
Dawson of Graden, who introduced turnip husbandry into
Scotland, belonged to a later generation. The first named
would be contemporaries of your ancestor in that parish.

I had a very pleasant time of it when I went to the Selkirk
meeting, when I stayed with Mr. and Mrs. Wood, both natives
_ of Earlston, at Galashiels. The weather was so threatening
that I went two days beforehand. On the first day I had

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF Dr. JAMES HARDY 153

contemplated going to Peebles as a pioneer for some future
visit of the Club, but the day was not inviting, so I took a walk
in the afternoon across the hill country between Galashiels and
the Tweed to trace a portion of the Catrail, and mark the
outline of the Selkirkshire hills, where I intended to explore
next day, that I might know them again, if mist should fall. I
looked down upon Yair and Fairnalee. The yellow tints on
the elms by the Tweed towards Sunderland Hall were very
striking, mingled (like grey hairs), with the green. A peculiar
musical call of the Tweed rushing over gravel about its junc-
tion with the Ettrick was very soothing heard afar off on the
bare hill ridges, where otherwise all was silent. The fine
flame coloured Maples at Yair have been blown down, which
we noticed with admiration when the Club met there. Next
day Mr. Wood and I took the train to Clovenfords, with the
intention of visiting ““The Three Brethren Hill’, which over-
tops Yair and Ashiesteel. We first visited Peel, and Glenkin-
non Burn (see the Introduction to Marmion), and landed at
Ashiesteel, where the guardian shewed us all over the house,
and we had plenty of leisure to inspect the paintings, and
portraits and the books, and the family relics, and not the least
interesting enjoyment, the views from the windows. The
accommodation in bed-rooms for a not over-large house, and
one built over a peel-tower, is most extensive.~ After visiting
the garden, and procuring the root of a flower as a memorial,
and trying to carry away as much of the scenery as we could
contrive to retain an image of, we departed for the “‘Shirra’s
Knowe’’. By this time the mists had risen from the hills, and
the sun enlivened the somewhat bare hillsides, which we took
our way between towards Williamshope. The yellow leaved
birches, and scarlet hues of the mountain ashes formed pretty
pictures. Glenkinnon was a broad angry stream after the
rains. Passing up into the region of pastoral quietness, till the
Brethren Hill stood out before us, we left the Williamshope
vale, and its alders and birchen groves, and struck aslant the
boggy and heathery hills, for the ridge that divides the vales of
Tweed and Yarrow. Unfortunately the mist never left the
hills, which were ridge beyond ridge till lost in dimness, but we
saw Yarrow descending in a glittering stream a vale bare of
trees, and enclosed by high banks, we know not where. We
were rewarded in having seen it, although only as “‘thro’ a glass
darkly”. The view from the ‘‘Three Brethren” was dim in all
the distances, except on the hills above Innerleithen and the
head of the Caddon. Even the Eildon Hills appeared only as
dark shadows. A pipit lark and a wasp seeking a winter’s
retreat in the cairn were the only living objects on the hill. We
descended on Yair where there is a very pretty birchen glen on
the burn leading past the mansion, and finely variegated ferns

154 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF Dr. JAMES HARDY

on the green braes beneath the birches. We crossed over to
Fairnalee, and lamented over its ruinous state once more, and
saw Alison Rutherford’s turret where she wrote the “Flowers
of the Forest’’, and the supposed walk where she met “John
Aikman’’, while the world yet was new to both. The recent
harsh seasons have withered the entire foliage of the ivy on the
ruin (except one tuft), which renders it very unsightly. It was
6 o'clock ere we reached Galashiels. The same evening at 8 I
heard Prof. Veitch lecture on the influence of Natural Scenery
on Scottish Poetry, the very theme we had been practically
studying that day. I was very tired that evening. The Club
Meeting day was very dismal looking after rain in the morn-
ae Selkirk is a town you have to climb up to, by a succession
of terraces, i.e. if you want to go up straight, and not by a
roundabout. We were at first a small party in the corner of a
large room, but mustered strongly erethe close. The Haining
is seldom open to strangers, but the proprietor on this occasion
was most gracious, and also sent some fossil horns to be
exhibited. Haining lies immediately above the town on the
top of a ridge which is well planted with old well grown
trees. The other side of the ridge sinks down into a deep
depression, that contains the lake, which is of some
extent. The house stands on the green bank at the head of the
lake. Tworising grounds parallel to the lake are planted with
large beeches, and there are shrubs, and reed-like plants on the
margins. Itswarms with waterfowl, wildandtame. There
is a deer park also on the East that comes down to the walk by
the water’s edge. The gardenis rather neglected. There was
nothing in it that had not been seen before elsewhere. From
the garden we came upon the Back Row of Selkirk, once
dedicated to the ‘“‘Sutors’”. I went to Dr. Anderson’s to
inspect the memorials of Mungo Park, while the rest viewed
the Monument. The remainder of our journey is given in the
Newspapers. It was a dripping day, and things were seen
under the disadvantage of having an umbrella above us. We
had liberty but did not enter any of the mansions. Only at
Bowhill we alighted and walked round the house in front. |
find we have among our Selkirk members James Brown dis-
tinguished as a poet... a quiet retired grey-headed gentleman
of gentle aspect; Geo. Rodger, the town Clerk; Dr. Anderson
who has been long provost; T. Craig Brown, the future
annalist of the town and district, a young man, of literary
capacity; and two others. Two young Galashiels manufac-
turers became members: A. Cochrane, jun., and A. L. Brown.

When we broke up the strangers were invited to tea by the
President, Dr. Anderson and T. C. Brown. I returned with
Dr. Gloag and went and heard a recital of organ music in his
- fine new church at Galashiels, where I met my hostess, and

Dr. P. W. MACLAGAN 155

conducted her home. Next morning I unfortunately missed
Miss Russell of Ashiesteel who landed by the train that I
departed by. I found acquaintances at nearly all the stations
we stayed any time at; meeting at Reston the niece of an old
college friend.

The weather has been very adverse to farming interests for a
month. At last we have got the last of the Beans carried, and I
hope the hill farmers will have got the remainder of their crop
secured, although it must be sore spoiled. Somehad only two
stacks in when the rains commenced.

I was invited to go to Milne Graden soon, but it will depend
on the weather keeping good. IfI gol expect to see the Hirsel.

Two beautiful plates are already engraved for next number
of gold and silver ornaments, etc., found under a cairn at
Gordon; also a plate given by Miss Russell for her paper on the
Catrail.

I never send a number to a Review, but this year it has been
done for us, and the last number is to be reviewed in ‘‘the
Antiquary” for November or December, for Dr. Robertson
and Mr. Arkle’s papers. I have gota fine old correspondent at
Morpeth, Mr. William Woodman, who delights to forward
our objects.

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

* * *

Dr. P. W. MACLAGAN

IN May, 1975, the death took place in his 91st year of Philip
Whiteside Maclagan, a retired general practitioner in
Berwick-upon-Tweed and for long a leading citizen of the
borough. As many who read these Proceedings will know,
he was a descendant of this Club’s founder, being a grandson of
the Philip Whiteside Maclagan who, as a young physician,
married Dr. Johnston’s daughter Margaret in 1850. Dr. Mac-
lagan was awarded the Military Cross in the Great War, and the
O.B.E. for his services to Berwick. A daughter and a son
both predeceased him, and his descendants live in Australia.

A COLDINGHAM RESURRECTIONIST

From the Berwick Advertiser of 16th December, 1820:
COLDINGHAM,, December 8. For more than a twelvemonth
by past, the inhabitants of this town and Eyemouth have been
considerably agitated by rumours of corpses being dug out of
their respective churchyards and sent to Edinburgh .....

On Monday last, from some cause or other, a strong suspi-
cion prevailed in Eyemouth, that a trunk, in the cart of a carrier
who goes from Eyemouth and Coldingham to Edinburgh, and
which had been delivered to him by a Dr Lawrie, of this place
(always suspected as a resurrection man) contained the corpse
of an old woman, buried last week in the churchyard here; and
at length sundry of the inhabitants proceeded to take the trunk
out of the cart, and to break it open, when the corpse of the
woman was actually found in it, ina bag.....

The whole town then got into a violent commotion; a party
obtained a warrant from Mr Renton of Greystonelees and
along with a constable proceeded with great speed to this
town, and apprehended Lawrie and carried him before Mr
Renton, for examination, where he confessed the crime and
declared his accomplices to be a Dr Wilson, in Swinton, and a
young lad of the name of Nicol, in this place, who has since
absconded.

Letters were also found in his desk from one M’ Kenzie, No
94, Nicolson’s Street, Edinburgh (not far from Surgeons
Hall—Ed.) who appears to be his employer, requesting him
“‘by all means to send a cock or hen, and a chicken, as two
full-grown ones might be too much at once’.

(The corpse was decently re-interred, and on 17th March,
1821 George Lawrie pleaded Guilty before the Justiciary Court
in Edinburgh to raising dead bodies and was sentenced to six
months imprisonment. He was the occupant of Homefield,
just outside Coldingham on the Eyemouth road. A. A.
Thomson records that he served his sentence in Greenlaw jail,
‘“‘where, it is said, he continued his practice of medicine among
his fellow-prisoners’’ during the eight weeks to which his
sentence was reduced.)

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HISTORY

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE

smd CLUB

INSTITUTED SEPTEMBER 22, 1831

WOE XL. PART 3.
1976

OFFICE-BEARERS

Joint Field Secretaries

D. MACKENZIE ROBERTSON, Esq., Buxley, Duns.
Mrs D. MACKENZIE ROBERSTON, M.C.S.P., F.S.A.Scot.
(Tel. Duns 3273).

Corresponding and Editing Secretary.

i eis

T. D. THOMSON, Esq., C.M.G., O.B.E., M.A., LL.B., F.S.A.Scot., The Hill, :

Coldingham, Eyemouth. (Tel. Coldingham 209).

Treasurer.

J. STAWART, Esq., 4 Douglas Close, Berwick upon Tweed.
(Tel. Berwick 7549)

Librarian.
Miss Buglass, 29 Castle Drive, Berwick upon Tweed.

The Index to Vol. XL will be published in Vol. XLI, Part 1.

—S _—_ —
Nes

iS.
14.
15.
16.
17.

ONS

SSF OO SOS ie ag ee

FISTORY OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS* CLU

CSONTENTS OF VOL “XL
PART 3.—1976.

Club Notes.

Presidential Non Folk i in 1851 oa 1971.

Union Bridge.

Lennel House.

Palaeobotanical Reminiscences.

List of Publications on Fossil Plants.
Ladythorne House.

Spiders found in the Garden of Bieta sek.
Natural History Observations, 1976.

Domestic Life in the Great House in the 18th Centaty

Coldingham Excavations, XIII.

Parish Schools in Berwickshire in the 17th Gea. met I
(The writer of this paper received the annual award for the best
contribution to the History submitted by a member who had

not contributed previously.)

Records of Macro-Lepidoptera in Resablnephishire said Sealine!
The Correspondence of Dr Hardy and Mrs Barwell-Carter.

Club Meetings in 1976.
Financial Statement and Balance Sheet.
Roll of Members.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Plates

Ladythorne House in 1910

Ladythorne House: Moulded Ceiling. ;
Coldingham Priory: Wrought Iron Chandelier.
Coldingham Priory: Trefoil Ornament.

Plans

Coldingham Priory: Excavations, 1976.
Coldingham Priory: Section of Eastern Face of B2.

The Index to Vol. XL will be published as an inset to Vol. XLI,

Part 1.

223
252
234
235
236
238

190
191
219
DPA

216
218

CLUBUINOTES

Since our last issue the Club has lost no fewer than four Past
Presidents, Mrs Swinton of Swinton, Major Dixon-Johnson,
Captain Walton and Mr Little. All worked hard for the Club
and were familiar figures at our Field Meetings. They will be
greatly missed. Obituary notices will appear in our next issue.

The Editing Secretary apologises for the delay in publication
of this Part of the History, caused by a combination of ill health
and technical hitches. He hopes that the Part for 1977 will
appear much more speedily.

In 1981 we shall be celebrating our one hundred and fiftieth
birthday. Suggestions for marking the occasion suitably will
be welcomed by the Council.

The same year is the bicentenary of the Society of Anti-
quaries of Scotland. We have agreed to participate in their
celebrations, which will include a function at Dryburgh
Abbey, with which their founder, the Earl of Buchan, was so
closely associated.

Attention is drawn again to the annual award for the best
paper for publication in the History submitted by a Member
who has not contributed previously.

PROG EE. DINGS

OPWEE

BERWICKSHIRE
NATURALISTS’ CLUB

NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971

being the Anniversary Address delivered by Dr. G. A.C.
Binnie, President of the Club, on 28th October, 1976.

THIS Is My last duty as President of the Club, and I must
thank the Club for the great honour it did me when I was
invited to become President.

Our aim is to study the natural history of Berwick and
its vicinage. I would like to look at the human popula-
tion of Norham parish as part of the natural history of
Berwick and district. My purpose is to compare the
census returns for Norham in 1851 with those for 1971,
an interval of 120 years and a time of very great social
change. My sources have been varied, and will be ack-
nowledged in the usual place but I must mention Mrs
Bagley of Norham who]! am sure 1s the only member of
the Club at present living in Papua—New Guinea. She
copied the basic facts of the 1851 census from the County
Archives in Gosforth, and left them with me when she
and her husband and family went overseas 2 years
ago. With her permission I have been able to use these
records.

The Club President in 1851 was the Rev. W. S. Gilly,
Vicar of Norham for 25 years, whose book ““The Peasan-
try of the Borders” has recently been republished and
gives a great insight into social conditions in his time. |
might add that the Club subscription in 1851 was 7/6 per
annum which is equivalent to £6 in 1976; but before the
Club’s Treasurer thinks of doubling the subscription I
ought to mention that the Club in those days met for
breakfast at members’ houses before meetings.

159

POPULATION

160 NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971

The figures given usually relate to the whole of
Norham Parish, but some figures relate only to the vil-
lage and some only to the rural part of the parish which
incidentally excludes Norham Castle (in Horncliffe
Parish), and the Salutation Inn (in Shoreswood Parish).

Age Distribution

Figure I is a histogram of the age distribution of the
population in 1851 in five year bands, and it is obvious

103 103

Table I: Age Distribution in 1851

NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971 161

how high the numbers are in the younger age groups
there being 167 children under the age of 5, that is to say
about 1 personin6. The medianage in 1851 was 24, and
this is shown by the arrow on the diagram.

Figure II shows the age distribution in 1971, the pattern
being almost level with a median age of 47. In 1971 in
the village of Norham itself approximately | in 6 of the
population was over 70 years of age. One might say
that in 1851 every sixth person in Norham was learning
to walk and that in 1971 every sixth person was trying to
remember how to walk.

AGE

Table II: Age Distribution in 1971

The age of the oldest inhabitant is always reputed to be
high in rural communities but it deserves to be pointed
out that where accurate records are kept of births and
deaths, figures for long life very quickly fall far short of
the expectations generated by claims from regions where
births and deaths are incompletely recorded. In 1851
the oldest inhabitants were a male farm servant of 82, no
doubt retired, and a 93 year old female annuitant—she
must have been a source of grief to whoever underwrote
her annuity. In 1971 the oldest man was 83 (and he is
still going strong) and the oldest woman was 93, figures
which are very similar to those in 1851.

Population Size

Figure III shows three histograms illustrating the change
in population size in the whole parish, in the village and in
the rural part of the parish between 1851 and 1971. It

162 NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971

can be seen that in each case the population has been
almost exactly halved.

1033

POPULATION

185iy 1974 1851 1971 1851) 197
PARISH VILLAGE RURAL AREA

Figure II: Total Population in 1851 and 1971.

In 1851 the population of Norham reached its greatest
number, and it is interesting to note that in the preceding
ten years it had increased by almost 12%;)um 19715 aa
contrast, the population had decreased by almost 11% in
the preceding ten years.

Parish Relief

This was regarded with disfavour in Victorian times, and
it is interesting to note that according to the census
returns of 1851 there were 70: people yon) parisia
relief. These included four who were described as
invalids, and seven young widows with families. In
addition three individuals are described as being insane,
and there were two blind people. Parish relief led to
pretty frugal living; one elderly lady was described by Dr
Gilly as receiving one shilling per week, and allowing for
an inflation factor of 16 times as judged by the price of
corn, this is still only equivalent to 80p per week
today—the price of four large white loaves in
1976. Fortunately for this particular lady she lived with
a married daughter and so had a roof over her head; but
the condition of a widow of 46 with six children aged less
than 13 must have been precarious in the extreme. In
contrast in 1971, 27% of the population was eligible for
the old age pension; and today, to the best of my know-
ledge, there 1s no person in the parish drawing unemp-

NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971 163

loyment benefit, which must be something of a record
faeeror Britain in 1976.

Family Size

The birth rate in 1851 was at least twice what it was in
7 sand in 1976 it fis still falling, as is the death
rate. Family size in 1851 was limited almost solely by
the mother’s stamina and age, and averaged 4.7 chil-
dren. Today family size, no doubt asa result of the Pill,
has shown a radical fall over the last 20 years, so that the
average family size is now two children, usually of oppo-
site sexes, and larger families often seem to be where the
Saercarly babies are of the same sex. ‘This is having an
_ obvious effect on the maternity services in the district:
_ the last home delivery in the parish was in 1960, and any
future home deliveries will probably be the result of
miscalculation of the time needed to get to the nearest
maternity home; it is also likely that there will be occa-
sions when the place of birth will be given as “‘an ambul-
iaeeanice On Soutra’.

Family Surnames

As a family doctor I am interested in families, and how
diseases repeat themselves, but unfortunately only male
m@e@estors are readily traced by family sur-
_ names—perhaps this will change with the onset of
__ Women’s Lib. Figure IV details the fate of surviving
Seesurnames.

]
| Figure IV.
|
§

=nded in last Ending in this Continuation
‘2 years generation possible

foung (11 families) Burns Davidson (7 families)
Robertson (5 families) Gibson Purvis (2 families)
Aynsley (4 families) Hill Shepperd (1 family)
Allen (2 families) Muckle Wharton (1 family)
Robinson Patterson

tobson Richardson

kg Scott
Swan (4 families)
Todd
Weatherburn

‘mnames Persisting from 1851: Numbers of families in 1851 in brackets.

164 NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971

Of the four surnames with the possibility of continua-
tion, three are reduced to a single family; the fourth is
represented by six families who are descendants of the
Rev. George Wharton who came to the village from
County Durham as a curate/school master in 1813.

Place of Birth Village Rural Area Parish |
| Norham | 872 55% | 500| 66% | 72|29% | 200 40% |

North
Northumberland 216 | 21% 135 | 18% 81 |] 32%

Rest of
Northumberland 19} 2% 3% 4%

Scotland

Etc.

Figure V: Place of Birth.

In 1851 55% of the population was born in the parish;
in 1971, 40%. If, however, the children are removed
from these totals (children have no say in their place of
birth!), the figures for adults become 18% born in the
parish in 1851, and 21% born in the parish in 1971, a
figure which shows surprisingly little difference. The
numbers from North Northumberland are virtually !
unchanged, and the rest of Northumberland still pag

vides only a very small part of the population of the
village. It is noticeable that the rest of England has
supplied as increasing proportion of the population, 4%
in 1851 and 15% in 1971, which suggests that Norham is
becoming a retirement haven, although not yet on the
scale of the wheelchair resorts of the south coast.

As far as Scotland is concerned the figures for both
years are the same, but it is noticeable that in 1851 26% of
the population in the rural parts of the parish had their
origins in Scotland, and this no doubt is a reflection in the
way in which hinds moved backwards and forwards over
the border in those days. It would appear that there is
no change in the urge of Scots to head south until stopped

by the white cliffs of Dover.

NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971 165

In 1851 there was 1 French-born English person; in
1971 there were individuals in the parish who were born
in Wales, Ulster, Eire, Hungary, Germany, Poland, and
also India. One at least of the latter was due to the
presence of my mother-in-law in India on a certain
important occasion!

214

HOUSEHOLDS

eel We NSS 1971 1851 1971
PARISH VILLAGE RURAL AREA

Figure VI: Number of Households in 1851 and 1971.

Housing

The change in the number of households has taken place
almost entirely in the village, and this increase is almost
exactly the number of council houses in the village in
1971.

23

EMPTY HOUSES
S)

1851 1971

Figure VII: Number of Empty Houses in 1851 and 1971.

166 NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971

It will be seen from figure VII that the number of
empty houses has almost doubled, and these are nearly all
holiday houses or second homes. I need hardly remind
members that this 1s an increasing problem in rural areas;
the hamlet of Polwarth in Berwickshire can be quoted,
where of ten houses only three are occupied all the year
round. ‘This sort of use obviously contributes a great
deal to the run down of services in an area; for example
shops and buses. One possible suggestion to compen-
sate rural areas for such temporary householders, 1s
increased rating assessment on second homes; but the
whole problem is dogged by the fact that our parliamen-
tary legislators have very often got, not only second, but
third and fourth homes, and our last Prime Minister had
five when he was in office.

Before Local Government re-organisation in 1974,
Norham was administered by Norham and Islandshires
Rural District Council which had a very canny policy of
building small numbers of council houses each year in the
different villages in the area: one year it would be
Scremerston, the year after it would be Norham and so
on. Asa policy this certainly served to maintain life in
the rural communities. Unfortunately the new District
Council’s policy is one of concentrating new Counal
house icra ing in larger villages and Berwick town, with
the result that there are large housing estates, as for
example in Spittal, with virtually no community facilities
at all. This policy is defended on the grounds that peo-

le like to have houses in Berwick, but this may well be
Becvuse they know houses are being built in Berwick,
and are not being built in the rural parts of the area; one
would have thought that Counal policy ought to have
been to encourage population at the least to remain static
in the rural parts of the district so that deterioration in
services due to population loss is kept as low as possible.

In 1971 on average there were almost five rooms in
every household, with two rooms per person, and there
were only four houses without hot water, five without an
inside water closet (contrasted with dry closets in 1851)
and only ten without a bath.

NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971 167
7.0

18511971

Figure VIII: Number of Persons per Household.

Dr. Gilly’s work gives a graphic description of the
appalling conditions in farm workers’ cottages in his
time; only 27 out of 174 or 15% had any form of sanita-
tion and more than one room. Cottages were single-
roomed buildings, similar to the black houses of the
Highlands, often with no ceiling and no plaster on the
walls. The room was often shared with a cow and a
whole family of perhaps eight, together with a bondager,
Siept and did everything in this one area. As far as
sanitation was concerned, as often as not there was none,
and Dr. Gilly remarked with pleasure that new houses
were being built at Duddo and Grindon of one or two
rooms which had an outside privy together with a pig sty
and byre. The imagination boggles! Since reading
Dr. Gilly’s book I have been interested to notice that the
farm cottages in Duddo, approaching the village from
the north, show obvious signs of having been originally
single roomed, and have been extended upwards by hav-
ing a second storey and stairs added, and backwards to
give a kitchen and scullery. Pig stys are there but no
longer used—the last pig I can remember being killed
from a hind’s sty in this area was about ten years ago near
Coldstream; and the only farm worker I can recall having
a cow in fact worked for a very recent past President of
this Club, but this custom too is most unusual in this area
now.

Car ownership provides an interesting statistic not
available in 1851. In 1971 56% of householders in this
parish had two cars, and in the rural part of the parish
80% of householders had one or two cars which is con-
siderably more than the figure for the United States; I
ought to add that a pedestrian in Norham parish is not yet
a figure of fun.

168 NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971

Occupations

Agriculture and fisheries have been, and still are, the
major sources of employment in the parish, as shown in
figure IX, and one statistic worthy of note is the way in
which the number of farm workers has fallen to a total in
1971 of at least one-sixth of what it was 120 years previ-
ously.

Full time
Part time

Full time equivalents
Numbers

Transport. Railway employees

Blacksmiths
Carters

7

S

5

eee SS ae
Drivers 10
Garage workers 2D

Pa tae

Geneatworss |e

Figure IX: Major Occupation Groups in 1851 & 1971.

Dr. Gilly observed in 1841 that farm workers moved
from farm to farm very frequently, and in his figures one
third of the farm workers moved after one year, and two
thirds moved within five years. They had nosecurity of

~a continuing job and very little certainty of a good job
and a good house from one hiring day to the next. In

NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971 169

1971 the picture is of stability. Of the 20 farm workers
at present in Norham parish, 17 have been here at least 12
years, and those who have come in have all been replace-
ments for workers retiring. There are however occa-
sional farm workers’ families in the district, perhaps only
5% of the total, who move from job to job at very short
intervals. They usually have deprived families with
children who are grossly disturbed at school because of
the short time they are actually in any one school. For
example one child of seven started his seventh school
yesterday. Such families cause very many problems for
the Social and Health services of a district, not excluding
your present President.

The number of full time equivalents of fishermen has
almost exactly halved in line with the population fall,
although the numbers of individuals engaged in fishing
has shown a less obvious fall. I must admit that it has
often seemed strange to me that the number of fishermen
on the Tweed has not been reduced to five or six by the
simple expedient of netting the river at the Royal Border
Bridge for three or four days each week the other days
being free days for salmon to move up the river to
replenish the species and to satisfy the claims of rod
fishermen and poachers. The 1976 salmon fishing sea-
son has been stated many times to be the worst in living
memory. I must however point to Raine’s comment in
1851 that the fishermen “‘submit with patience and with-
out complaint to the unfruitfulness of the Tweed”, and to
Raine’s note that in 1400 “‘a tythe of 10d was the only
product of the Tweed fisheries because of the unproduct-
iveness of the water”. It would therefore seem that any
season just finished is the worst within living memory.

Factory workers are a new feature in the Norham
employment scene, as shown in the table. While those
employed in shops and trades have almost exactly halved
in keeping with the fall in population size it is worthy of
note that there were in fact far more master tradesmen in
the village in 1851. The majority of workers in these
trades now work outside the parish, there being only five
shops in the parish plus a post office; but the parish does
have its own baker and butcher, both to be recom-
mended.

In 1851 there was a postal delivery and collection at
1.20 p.m. but I did notice that in 1895 there was what was

170 NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971

described as an 11.0 a.m. walking post on Sundays. In
1971 there were two deliveries daily, and collections at
11.0 a.m. and 4.30. p.m., with 11.0 a.m. collections on
Saturday and Sundays.

Transport workers in total show little change in num-
bers but the railway closed in 1964, and so there were no
railway employees in the parish in 1971, nor were there
any blacksmiths or carters. Bus transport was still
available in 1971 but this is decreasing and it is common
to see a 42 seater bus being driven around the countryside
with the driver as its only occupant. So far the post
office 1s not prepared to allow its vans, which come into
the village four times daily, to be adapted to carry mem-
bers of the public either on straight forward bus type
journeys, or perhaps more usefully, to and from the
various places visited by the postal delivery service.

In 1851 the clerical staff included, surprisingly enough,
three members of the Inland Revenue; there are certainly
none of the latter in the parish today, but I doubt if this is
due to the efficiency of the inhabitants of the parish in
avoiding taxation.

It is noticeable that in 1851 there was no police rep-
resentative in the village. In the directory of 1855 a
police constable, and a sergeant of Tweed Police were
recorded so it may be that the police were temporarily
absent from the village on the census nightin 1851. The
police cells in the parish were closed a matter of 20 years
ago; and only ten years ago the sergeant of police was
transferred to Berwick, and replaced by a police consta-
ble who now shares his duty with the constable at
Scremerston. Poaching is still very much a local pas-
time, and there was a period of a few days last month
when people from Norham in the know avoided the
river banks between the Bridge and the Castle because a
net had been found hanging in the river, and the bailiffs
were known to be watching it and anyone tying their
shoe lace in the vicinity would have been viewed with
suspicion. A net was found ina similar position about a
year ago by four or five small boys from the village, and
when they pulled it out they found a salmon in it which
they were able to sell for £3. After sharing out the
proceeds they handed in the net at the police sta-
tion. The sting, however, was in the tail of the story
because the net belonged to the father of one of the boys.

NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971 171

There were five public houses in Norham in 1851,
perhaps a reflection of the saying that it was possible to
drown one’s sorrows in gin for twopence. There are
two public houses in the village now, and it will be
interesting to see if their trade declines with the changes
proposed in the Scottish licensing laws to allow opening
hours to be extended.

There were various interesting occupations in
1851. There was a huxter; this the dictionary tells me,
was a tinker, a literal tinker who mended pots and
pans. There was also a washer woman and an errand
girl aged 11. That which arouses most pathos was a
lrother and sister, the brother being aged 55 and
described as a blind carter on parish relief. The sister
was aged 70 and “‘keeps a mangle”. There would be
little cake in that household, even on Christmas day.

lim 1971 there were three interesting occupa-
tions. One was an old gentleman who had spent the last
two years of his working life rowing up and down the
Tweed collecting salmon from the various fisheries. He
has been replaced by a young man driving a van. The
second was being paid Social Security benefit to look
after his aged mother, who otherwise would have had to
bein hospital, and costing the state far more than it cost to
pay the son to look after her athome. Finally, I should
think that Norham is the only parish in Britain with a
lady gamekeeper—and a very good one too.

Schools

Raine noted that “Will de Twizel was appointed master
for 2 years in 1348’, and states that he was a school
master. This same Will de Twizel however, founded a
chantry in 1344, so one wonders if he was in fact master
of a school.

A field of 20 acres was bought in 1761 when the com-
mon was enclosed and this field is still known as the
School Field and is on Morris Hall Farm. Its purpose
was to provide an income for the master of the endowed
school who in the early days was also the curate of the
parish. Discussions about the school started in 1776, 30
years before it was opened in 1806 in the building still
known as the Old School. This was an endowed church
school with accommodation for 100 boys. Freeholders
were allowed to send their children free of charge, but

72 NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971

others paid 3/- per quarter. In the same building there
was a girl’s school with accommodation for 80 children;
their fee was 1d per week payable in advance 1.e. 1/- per
quarter. In addition there was an English Presbyterian
school in 1851, and this must have been in the building
which is now used by the United Reformed Church as a
Church Hall.

i See

Village 154
Rural 32
Taught at home 6

Under 11, at school in Norham
11-14 at school in Berwick
Over 15, at school in Berwick

51

26

12
it) Ses eel pie ake palo ae

Table X: Numbers of Children of School Age, 1851 and 1971.

The average school attendance in Norham parish was
about 90% but in Twizel parish (a much more rural area)
school attendance was only about 50%. The childrenin
1851 were taught by a master and a mistress, with four
pupil teachers, three of them women and one a man:
there was a governess at the Vicarage. The master’s
stipend was £30 plus his house and garden, and the rent of
the School Field. Attendance was sometimes irregular,
especially in harvest time and stormy weather; perhaps
the former is hardly surprising when a hind with five
children would have to pay £3 for one year’s tuition for
his family out of a total cash income of £4.

In 1971 Norham still had a primary school for under 11
year olds with three teachers in the new school building
opened in 1911 on the western outskirts of the vil-
lage. Now, with re-organisation, children start school
in the term in which they are five, and are taught at
Norham school until they are nine: there are about 40
children at Norham school withtwo teachers. The pre-
sent head teacher has been at Norham school for 24 years,
the fifth head teacher since 1851; out of 308 children who
have been through Norham school in the last 24 years
only 98 still live in the parish.

Finally, it might be of interest to members to know
that Cardinal Hume’s grandfather was at one time school
master in Norham.

NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971 173
Churches

The parish church in Norham, which seated 500 people
when Lord Home’s daughter was married during his
premiership, is over 800 years old and built upon the site
of a more ancient foundation still, as everyone here
knows. This may be an evil age, but in 1314 Raine
records that Norham required four confessors, and that
there was sanctuary in the church for 37 days. This is
perhaps connected with Galagate Farm, which presuma-
bly derives its name from the gallows which there would
be conveniently close to the village. As I said earlier, in
1851 the Vicar was Dr. William Gilly, and that was the
year in which he was President of the Berwickshire
Naturalists Club. I should think that Iam safe in saying
that he is the only President of the Club whose full size
effigy worked in marble can still be seen; this is in
Norham church, where he laboured for 25 years. He
had a curate, and the gross income attached was
£597. On the day of the census in 1851 Dr. and Mrs.
Gilly and their family of two had a visitor, “‘a minor
canon without care of souls’’; I trust that he was not
careless of his own soul. The vicarage household
included a governess, a housekeeper, a cook, a nursery
maid, a house maid, a kitchen maid, a footman, a groom,
and a gardener; a total staff of nine. I think I can safely
say that the present incumbent, the Rev. G. H. Salisbury
(a member of the Club), would be very happy to hear
from any member who would be prepared to assist his
wife in any capacity!

There was a United (Scots) Presbyterian Church in
Norham in 1851; this was built in 1752, had seating for
300 people, and was extensively renovatedin 1852. The
minister was the Rev. James Anderson, and this building
is still used by the United Reformed Church. There
was also an English Presbyterian Church now used as an
agricultural machinery store, which is next door to the
present United Reformed Church Hall. This church
was built in 1845 for £600, and seated 500 people.

1877 saw the climax of Norham’s church life with the
opening of a Primitive Methodist Chapel in Castle Street;
this is now used asajoiner’s workshop. Today, services
attract congregations of only a handful and the clergy-
men of both Churches share their duties with other
churches.

174 NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971

Medical Services

The first doctor I can trace in practice in Norham was Dr.
Walter Ainslie who has been recorded for posterity by a
plaque in the parish church which states that he was
drowned in the Tweed on the 6th October 1837 in his
37th year. Perhaps asa result of this, the first bridge was
opened in 1839. It was a wooden bridge on stone piers,
and by 1851 Raine recorded it as being in an unsafe
condition, but the replacement, the present stone bridge,
was not completed until 1887, 36 years later. Dr. Walter
Ainslie’s widow is mentioned in the 1851 census, and
from this itis obvious that their youngest child must have
been born some five or six months after her father’s
death. Two ofthe Ainslie children are still remembered
in the village.

Dr Ainslie’s practice was taken over by Dr. John Pax-
ton, Senior who was born in Scotland, and commenced
his studies in Berwick in 1826 under Dr. Cahill, and
during his time in Berwick helped Dr. George Johnston,
the founding father of the Club, with the preparation of
his book on the Botany of the Eastern Borders. The
census of 1851 records that Norham had a second doctor,
a Mr. Donaldson, bornin Cornhill. There was only one
practice in Norham in 1828 and I have no other informa-
tion about a second practice in Norham until the early
part of this century when a Dr. Crawford was in the
village; presumably both Mr. Donaldson and Dr. Craw-
ford attempted to establish practices by putting up their
plates.

I have been unable to obtain any general practice
records for 1851 but there were some prescriptions in an
old pharmaceutical formulary which may be of interest
to members. There were about 20 preparations for
gout (a relatively uncommon condition) all containing
colchicine, which for many years was the only effective
treatment for gout. There were as many preparations
for “‘female troubles’, all containing pennyroyal, an
abortifacient if taken in such heroic doses as often to be
fatal. There were various prescriptions for alcoholism
all of which contained tinctures: tinctures are composed
of 60% alcohol. Finally, the instructions for many of
the prescriptions directed that they were to be taken three
times daily in a wineglassful of water.

NORHAM FOLK IN 1851 AND 1971 175

Dr. Paxton was President of this Club in 1879, the
eighth medical President. This Dr. Paxton had eight
children in 1851 (three more were born before the 1861
census) the first being born when Dr. Paxton was aged
19. His eighth child, also named John, succeeded to the
practice when his father died in 1893. He in turn took
his own son John into the partnership about 1910 when
the young man must have been about 25. John
Minimus was brought up and went to school in the
village, and an old lady still living in the village recalls
that when she had her ne child in 1911, Dr. Paxton said
that he would like young Johnny to give her some
chloroform, at which the old lady said “‘Oh no, no, no, I
cannot have that youngster coming in and seeing
me”. This young Johnny Paxton sold the practice in
1918, and it was bought in 1920 by Dr. McWhir who
became President of this Club in 1923, and was Editing
Secretary from 1922 to 1929. His widow died only last
year and was well known to many of us.

In 1971 there was only one practice in the village, the
practitioner being your President for 1976.

Conclusion

Dr. McWhir’s Presidential address in 1923 was on
“Social Changes in our Time’’, andI can recommend it to
members. ‘Two of his stories I must quote before clos-
ing. One is about the early motorist who was fined 6d
with 19/5 costs for driving in his motor car up Hide Hill
without being preceded by a man witha red flag. The
other story is one that Dr. McWhir told about Adam and
Eve as they were being chased out of the garden of Eden
by the Angel of Judgement. Eve remarked to Adam
“My dear, what times of change we live in”’.

As we look back over the 120 years between 1851 and
1971 we can see that many things have changed in
Norham parish but the Frénch saying “‘plus ¢a change,
plus c’est le meme chose” applies: loosely translated,
“changes, but the same sort of things.”

References and Acknowledgements

1. 1841 Peasantry of the Borders by W. S. Gilly, repub-
Reiied 1973.

2. 1851 Census Returns for Norham Parish; County
Records Office, Gosforth.

ga t851 Gilly W. S., HBNC III 53-62.

176 UNION BRIDGE

4. 1852 North Durham by James Raine.

5. 1855 Directory of Northumberland, published
Whallen & Co.

6. 1879 Paxton J., HBNC IX 1-5.

7. 1904 Pharmaceutical Journal Formulary.

8. 1923 McWhir J.. HBNC XXV, 1-24.

9. 1971 Census Returns for Norham Parish and for

Norham and Islandshires. Northumberland
County Planning Department.

UNION BRIDGE
Revd. J.-C. Lusk

Inscription on tower on English side: ““Designed and executed
by Capt. S. Brown, R.N., opened in 1820”.

(1) The most interesting feature is the special kind of chain
(flat iron links) which was patented by Brown in 1817, and
later used and developed by Telford.

In the second half of the nineteenth century, wire cables
superseded chains in most suspension bridges. Here one wire
cable was added above the chains in 1902. In recent repair
work (not yet finished) the chains are being restored to hee
original condition; but the wire carries most of the weight.

Mr. Gordon Miller (who has studied the bridge as an
engineer) says that it holds two records. It was the first
suspension bridge in Britain to carry road traffic. (Earlier
bridges were foot-bridges.) And it is probably the oldest
surviving chain bridge in the world. (In America a number
were built before 1820, but none survives.)

A curious story still in engineering text-books, that this
bridge collapsed soon after it was built, apparently has no truth
in it whatever.

(2) Samuel Brown, who was knighted in 1838, is of interest
to us in Berwickshire, because he owned and lived in Nether-
byres. He built the main part of the house as it now stands:
and in the grounds he built a “tension bridge’, which was
demolished within living memory. Brown is also credited
with the bridge over the Teviot at Kalemouth near Kelso.
(3) Finally, the Club should notice the motto, written on
both towers below a rose and thistle, VIS UNITA FORTIOR
(Strength united is stronger). This surely is the answer to the
Scottish Nationalists.

Visited by the Club on 15th July, 1976.

a =

LENNEL HOUSE
By Sir ILAY CAMPBELL

THE parish of Lennel is mentioned in charters as early as 1127
when Heuricus, Presbyter de Lienhale was one of the clergy
present at a meeting between the Archbishop of York, the
Bishop of Durham and others in relation to the privileges of
Coldingham. Lennel was, at this time, part of the great
Mormaership or Earldom of Dunbar, and it was Cospatric,
2nd Earl or Mormaer of Dunbar who between 1140 and his
death in 1166 founded the Cistercian nunnery at Coldstream at
the confluence of the rivers Leet and Tweed, and granted it land
in the vicinity. Under the Earls of Dunbar two families, both
probably related to them, are known to have held the lands of
Lennel, and both made grants of land to the Nunnery, Richard,
son of Norman of Leinhal and his mother Annabel, in the
closing year of the 12th century, and Sir Patrick Edgar of
Laynall, believed to be a descendant of Edgar, 3rd son of
Cospatric, 2nd Earl, in the second half of the 13th century.

By the end of that century all the lands which now comprise
the Lennel estate, as well as those of Skaithmuir, Darnchester
and many more, had passed into the hands of the Cistercians
and remained the property of the abbey until in 1545 it was
burned to the ground by the Earl of Hertford. Presumably
the abbey lands reverted to the Crown, for, in 1634 they were
granted to Thomas Hamilton, 1st Earl of Haddington, in his
day the richest landowner in Scotland. The Estate remained
in his family until 1903 when it was purchased from George,
the 11th Earl, by Captain Walter Waring, my grandfather, who
had married Lady Clementine Hay, daughter of the 10th Mar-
quess of Tweeddale.

Curiously enough it has, so far, proved impossible to estab-
lish details about previous buildings on this site. There is a
tradition that there was an “‘off-shoot”’ of the Abbey here and it
is not unlikely, as the Parish Church, said to have been built
towards the close of the 13th century, is nearby. The ruins of
this church still exist. Part of the cellars of the house are
thought to date from this time.

Towards the end of the 18th century there was undoubtedly
a mansion house here as it was occupied by Patrick Brydone,
the traveller, author and antiquarian, who died here in
1818. During his tenancy he was visited by Robert Burns,
who described Brydone’s house as “‘long, low and pillared.”’

It is thought that the present house must have been built
shortly after Brydone’s death, perhaps about 1820. The
architect was almost certainly James Paterson, one of William
Adam’s assistants who eventually became an architect in his
ownright. He was the architect of Barmoor Castle in North
Northumberland, and probably Seggieden in Perthshire, now,

177

178 LENNEL HOUSE

sadly demolished. There are architectural similarities bet-
ween Lennel and Seggieden, and unexecuted plans by Paterson
exist for Castle Forbes in Aberdeenshire which show an almost
identical, if rather longer, layouttoLennel. The 1834 statisti-
cal account of the county says little about Lennel except that it
was “‘lately built.”’

In 1855 the wing to the East of the main block was
added. Captain Henry Baillie Hamilton, R.N., 4th son of the
10th Earl of Haddington, lived here after his marriage in 1872
to the Hon. Harriet Scott, daughter of Lord Polwarth. He
died in 1895, his widow and family remaining until the estate
was sold, when they built Lennel Bank next door.

My grandparents added a storey to the East wing, converted
the ble into a dairy and service rooms and the loft above
into bedrooms. They joined this to the house, at the same
time building ona further extension. They built a new stable
block, enlarged the main house by filling in the spaces between
the projections of the original “‘E” shaped design, moved the
front door to the West facade and built anew domed outer hall,
surrounded by columns.

A new front drive led from gates at Coldstream Bridge, and
the old entrance off the road was done away with. Two bow
windows were added to the drawing room and smoking room
and the interior of the house was largely redesigned, the pres-
ent staircase being put in at this ttme. They also laid out the
terraced gardens in the Italian manner. All this took three
years to complete and my grandparents moved in in the Sum-
mer of 1906. My grandfather died in 1931 and from then until
1966 Lennel was the home of my mother, Mrs Sitwell.

In 1956 it was necessary to modify the house to enable it to be
run by a much reduced staff. Unfortunately we did not at
that time foresee that only 20 years later, my wife and I would
run it with the assistance of one very hard working daily
help. At that time we re-sited the front door in its original
position and constructed the present entrance. My wife and]
moved here in August 1966. There are now three other
families occupying flats in the house besides ourselves. We
live upstairs, and with the exception of the smoking room,
which I use as a study, the reception rooms are used only when
a function is held here.

Visited by the Club on 15th July, 1976

PALAEOBOTANICAL REMINISCENCES

By Albert G. Long, Hancock Museum, University of
- Newcastle upon Tyne.

After completing two years of research under Professor W. H.
Lang at Manchester University (1937-9) I decided to enter the
teaching profession as I had no means of financial support. I
took my teacher’s certificate at Hull University College
(1939-40) and then offered myself for military service but was
turned down on account of my crippled left foot—the result of
a shooting accident when 14 years of age. My first teaching
post at Lewes County School for Boys, East Sussex, was only
temporary (1940-42) and I moved from there to Leek High
School for Boys, North Staffordshire where I remained until
the end of 1944. AsI was not happy in this school I looked for
another post and was successful in being made Assistant Sa-
ence Master at the Berwickshire High School, Duns, Scotland
where I commenced on January 4, 1945 (the 15th anniversary
of my shooting accident).

While at Leek I had been able to complete for publication
two papers on the coal-ball fossils Botryopteris hirsuta Will. and
Lagenostoma ovoides Will.. These appeared in the Annals of
Botany (Long 1943 and 1944) and I still cherished the desire to
describe the leaf-borne buds of Botryopteris antiqua discovered
in Pettycur material as mentioned in the first of these pap-
ers. However, the difficult circumstances I encountered
when living in lodgings and frequently changing address made
me wellnigh despair of ever doing anything further. Iapplied
for various posts which I felt would have given me the chance
to realise my hopes but to no avail. In my disillusionment I
turned to my first love—entomology, and built up gradually
an apiary of about 30 stocks of bees while collecting lepidopt-
era, trichoptera, and other insect orders.

At first my wife and I lived in lodgings at the foot of
Bridgend in Duns but these were temporary. In 1946 we
moved to the vacant Preston Schoolhouse near the Duns-
Grantshouse road. ‘This was our first home and conveniently
near the River Whitadder where I first learned the gentle art of
fly fishing. It was while living at Preston that our daughter
and son were born in 1947 and 1948. Another noteworthy
event was the great flood of August 1948; this proved to be of
some palaeobotanical significance as it scoured the banks and
bed of the Whitadder and cleaned the shingle beds in readiness
for my later discoveries. As if to further the good work the
year 1956 brought another flood this time in September. My
fossil collecting, however, did not begin in earnest until

179

180 PALAEOBOTANICAL REMINISCENCES

1957. By this time we were living in Gavinton 3 miles west of
Duns near the Duns-Greenlaw road. We moved there in
October 1949 after a record honey year in which my eight
stocks of bees averaged 110 lbs. of honey perstock. It was my
interest in bees which kept me grounded in Berwickshire as
once again I was not settled in the school where I was teach-
ing. This state of affairs lasted until 1966 when I reluctantly
decided I would have to leave.

My first attempt at collecting fossil plants in Berwickshire
was made in 1945. I cycled to the coast near Cockburnspath
and dug compressions from shale near Cove Harbour. These
I sent to Professor Lang who replied from Withington,Man-
chester, on 20th May, 1945 informing me that they were from
the Lower Carboniferous. I could not get a geological map of
the area at first as stocks had been bombed during the
war. Later, an old hand-coloured geological map was disco-
vered in the Geography Department at School and this I
copied. About 1949, after moving to Gavinton I resolved to
try and continue my work on Botryopteris antiqua in some
Pettycur material which I had been given to investigate at
Manchester. I went to Manchester early in 1950 to arrange
for the material to be sent up to Duns. I prepared celluloid
solutions and made some peels but as I had no cutting facilities
the work proved impracticable and I gave up to it. Mean-
while I had tried trout fishing in the Langton Burn near where I
lived and in 1951 at the unfinished ruined bridge known locally
as ‘“‘Hanna’s Bridge’ I saw some sandstone blocks containing
plant fossils. I casually examined these but dismissed them as
useless compressions. Six years later I returned to this spot
and made a closer examination with good results as the blocks
gave me my best specimens of Genomosperma (Calymmatotheca)
kidstonii and G. latens (Long 1960a).Although I had the two
volumes of D. H. Scott’s Studies in Fossil Botany in a bookcase
in our Gavinton cottage dating back to 1760 I did not realise
that the Langton Burn was mentioned on p.141 of volume II
where Scott cited it as a locality for Stenomyelon. My moveto
Gavinton was thus neither science nor pre-science and could
therefore have been only one of two possibilities, either Provi-
dence or coincidence.

In fact I was too engrossed in entomological studies at that
time to pay much regard to fossil plants. I bought a portable
Pioneer generator (ex U.S.A. army equipment) and used it to
operate two mercury vapour light traps from an old ex Post
Office Morris van and Pitecced moths and caddis flies in out of
the way spots like Kyles Hill, Gordon Moss, Elba, the Retreat
near Abbey St. Bathans, and the Hungry Snout in the Lam-
mermuirs. Other spots visited were Broomhouse on the
Whitadder, Old Cambus Quarry near Siccar Point, Burn-
mouth, the Hirsel near Coldstream and Paxton. In this way I

PALAEOBOTANICAL REMINISCENCES 181

scoured the Berwickshire countryside and compiled card inde-
xes of the insects and plants not to mention ringing and photo-
graphing birds.

It was soon after the Suez crisis of 1956 and while preparing
to resume my moth collecting after the first petrol shortage
that I received a letter dated 17th February 1957 which changed
the tenor of my lifeina most unexpected way. This letter was
from P. D. W. Barnard, of Birkbeck College, London, and at
that time a complete stranger to me. His letter acted like a
catalyst and spurred me to undertake a search of the Langton
Burn near Gavinton. In this letter he wrote “I have bea
generally reading through the literature describing Calciferous
Sandstone plants. Two localities from which material is
recorded are near to your address which I have just come across
in the Palaeobotanical Report, 1954-6. These localities from
which petrified remains have been described are LANGTON
BURN, 400 yds. north of Gavinton, and Edrom.... If you
have collected from any of these localities recently or know of
any other localities where material has been collected recently I
should be pleased to receive any supplementary information
concerning this area you can offer’’.

As a result of this letter I first searched the Langton Burn
upstream to Langton Glen but without success. Then I
decided to search downstream from the road bridge near the
Red Brae below Langton Church. When I reached Hanna’s
Bridge I remembered and rediscovered the blocks first seen in
1951 when fishing. As soon as I got the first specimens of
Calymmatotheca kidstonii Calder the “penny dropped’’and
immediately I realised that here was something of great interest
and significance. Lagenostoma ovoides from the upper Car-
boniferous coal-balls has an integument with 8 chambers at its
apex obviously suggesting that the integument had evolved by
union of 8 free lobes. C. kidstonii and Genomosperma latens
were obviously making no secret of how this had hap-
pened. The sudden revelation of these fossils now gave the
moths and the bees some respite. I continued to use a garden
moth trap but suspended other night collecting and completed
my lists of the Berwickshire macro-lepidoptera and trichopt-
era as best I could. They are published in the History of the
Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club, volumes 34-38. My bees were
sold in 1958 and this cleared my feet to procede with the fossil
work. At first I tried making peels by the old celluloid solu-
tion method but my attention was drawn to the new technique
using cellulose acetate film (Joy, Willis and Lacey 1956). This
technique came just in time for my needs. At first I ground
blocks down from the surface and used a bench in the gar-
den. Later, when I had sold my honey extractor and other
pear I used a wash-house which I had had re-built as a honey-

ouse; this became my laboratory.

182 PALAEOBOTANICAL REMINISCENCES

Besides the Langton Burn material which gave me Genomos-
perma and Lyrasperma I soon discovered a remarkable block (in
September 1957) on a shingle bed by the Whitadder near
Hutton Mill. This gave me Stamnostoma (Long 1960b). It was
a great thrill to find this exquisite seed and to discover a pair of
cupules of which one conveniently contained a single
seed. These specimens of Stamnostoma cupules have never
been bettered though during the recent fine summer (1976)
further specimens containing seeds have been obtained from
the Wooler Water; these are the first yet discovered in North-
umberland. I made over 900 peels from the Hutton Mill
block and in all the time taken there was never a dull
moment. It produced in addition the new seeds Hydrasperma
and Deltasperma. As Deltasperma like Lyrasperma possesses
only two integumental lobes it became clear that the ovule
integument most probably evolved from sterile telomes rather
than from a cluster or synangium of fertile telomes as post-
ulated in Benson’s theory.

At the time of writing (1977) I have described fourteen
species of petrified fossil seeds from the Lower Carboniferous
Cementstone Group of S. E. Scotland. These are listed
below.

ORDER LAGENOSTOMALES.

FAMILY GENOMOSPERMACEAE.
Genomosperma kidstonii (Calder) 1960.
Genomosperma latens 1960.

FAMILY EOSPERMACEAE.
Eosperma edromense 1966.
Deltasperma fouldenense 1961.
Eccroustosperma langtonense 1961.
Camptosperma berniciense 1961.

PAMILY EUR YSHOMACEAE.

Lyrasperma scotica (Calder) 1960

Eurystoma angulare 1960.

Eurystoma burnense 1966, 1969, 1975.
Tantallosperma setigera Barnard and Long 1973.
Dolichosperma sexangulatum 1961, 1975.
Dolichosperma pentagonum 1975.

FAMILY LAGENOSTOMACEAE.
Stamnostoma huttonense 1960 and S. bifrons 1961 probably one
species.

ORDER CARDIOCARPALES.
Mitrospermum berwickense (in press).

PALAEOBOTANICAL REMINISCENCES 183

It is my opinion (not fully demonstrable) that—
Genomosperma seeds are assignable to Rhetinangium;
Eosperma seeds may be assignable to Aneimites;

Eurystoma and Lyrasperma seeds may be assignable to Calamopi-
tys, Stenomyelon and Alcicornopteris;

Salpingostoma may be assignable to Calathopteris;
Stamnostoma is assignable to Pitus.

I stress that these opinions are suppositions based partly on
incomplete evidence such as association and only new speci-
mens showing proof of connection can demonstrate what is
the truth.

Among these fourteen species of fossil seeds is one which I
consider of unusual significance though my deductions must
not be taken as any more that theoretical. I refer to Camptos-
perma berniciense. This seed I have placed in the Eospermaceae
along with Eosperma, Eccroustosperma and Deltasperma. They
are all obviously related and show a transition from bilateral
symmetry to dorsiventral campylotropy. In its campylo-
tropous condition Camptosperma shows a striking resemblance
to that in some Angiosperm seeds. In 1966I pointed out that
this could shed light on the origin of the second (outer)
integument in many Angiosperm seeds. In Camptosperma the
curvature of the seed has led to the development of a pro-
nounced dorsal lip (or hood) hanging over the mouth of the
seed as if to protect the pollination droplet. At the same time
the two short, free lobes of the integument (possibly secretory)
have sunk downwards and inwards alongside the lagenostome
somewhat like the two paws of a squirrel when holding a nut to
eat. Here we have the possible inception of a division of
function and structure within the single integument of this
primitiveseed. It would only need the two free distal lobes of
the integument to unite around the lagenostome below the
hood-like dorsal lip to produce a condition like that seen in
those Angiosperm ovules possessing outer and inner integu-
ments. ‘The fact that in these the outer integument is absent
ventrally (between seed body and funicle) supports this view
that the outer integument in Angiosperm ovules could really
represent a lateral and forward overgrowth of the first integu-
ment correlated with curvature and serving to protect the
pollination droplet from rain.

Besides contributing to a theory of the evolution of ovules
the Berwickshire fossils have pointed the way to what I call the
cupule-carpel theory which if true in turn sheds light on the
origin of Angiosperms. It was in the Hutton Mill block
found in Autumn 1957 that I first discovered attached seeds of
Eurystoma angulare (Long 1960c and 1965). These were borne
in a primitive reflexed cupulate organ obviously composed of
cylindrical non-laminar branchlets produced by cruciate

184 PALAEOBOTANICAL REMINISCENCES

dichotomies. It suggested to me that an Angiosperm carpel
probably represents—not a conduplicate laminar leaf—but a
bivalved cupule originally constructed of cylindrical branch-
lets of an appendicular organ comparable to a leaf. With the
discovery of cupules of Calathospermum fimbriatum Barnard at
Oxroad Bay and in the bed of the Whitadder it has become
evident that the typical Angiosperm carpel may have evolved
from a pair of cupules derived from an entire dichotomous
frond originally composed of cylindrical non-planated bran-
chlets. These two cupules must have later coalesced to form
the two halves or valves of a single cupule or carpel.

The small seeds named Hydrasperma were also found in the
aforementioned Hutton Mill block and described in
1961. No more came to light until 1971 when sixteen tiny
attached ovules were discovered inside a pair of cupules from
Oxroad Bay on the East Lothian coast. ‘These paired cupules
are borne ona very short common stalk (originally on a slender
axis) and each is itself bivalved and has a proximal umbrella-
like region from which tapering cylindrical lobes project like
fingers from the palm of one’s hand. Ovules are sessile and
pendent below the umbrella region of each cupule so that
placentationislaminar. This supports the view that in carpels
laminar placentation is primitive. A further interesting fea-
ture of this pair of cupules is that one has eight microsporan-
gia. This suggests that Pteridosperm sporophylls were origi-
nally bisporangiate i.e. capable of bearing both micro- and
mega- sporangia. One question raised (but not answered) by
the Hydrasperma cupules is whether or not Angiosperms have
two kind of carpels evolved slightly differently? Type 1, the
Calathospermum type having two halves each of which repres-
ents one half of a complete megasporophyll (cf. Magnolia).
Type 2, the Hydrasperma type, in which one megasporophyll
produced a pair of carpels united basally and each possessing 2
valves representing 2 quarters of the complete mega-
sporophyll. Sucha type would have its carpels in pairs prob-
ne forming bicarpellary gynoecia as in Salix. The
arrangement would then be a spiral of pairs, rather than of unit
carpels.

During the early phase of my work on the fossil flora of the
Cementstone Group I contacted the late Professor John Walton
of Glasgow University and visited him during December
1957. He kindly communicated my earlier papers to the
Royal Society oe Edinburgh and gave me much support in
many other ways and this continued right up to the time of his
_ death in early 1971. It was through Professor Walton that I
learned of D. H. Scott’s correspondence in connection with his
search for a portrait of Henry Witham. Later I was able to

PALAEOBOTANICAL REMINISCENCES 185

publish this correspondence in the History of the Berwickshire
Naturalists’ Club, Vol. 34, pp. 267-273 (1959). Since coming
to the Hancock Museum in 1966 I have discovered (in the
museum), a fine petrological section which I recognised
immediately as one figured by Henry Witham in his book
Observations on Fossil Vegetables 1831, Plate Ill, fig. 1. Itisa
transverse section of part of the Lennel Braes tree Pitus antiqua
and shows two areas of preserved tracheids surrounded by the
characteristic honeycomb appearance of the secondary wood
where it has been disrupte o crystallisation of the mineral
matrix.

Later (in 1968) this Museum was given a collection of 111 old
petrological slides by Ushaw College. Many of these slides
had been inscribed by means of a diamond with the place
names of origin. The principal localities are Tweed Mill;
Allanbank Berwickshire; Craigleith (1830 and 1831); Scarbro;
Ushaw; Gateshead; Rothbury; and near Glasgow. It is clear
that these slides must have been Henry Witham’s. Probably
they would be given to Ushaw College by Henry Witham’s
son who was a Roman Catholic priest and lived to the age of
100. One of the eight slides from Craigleith is a section of the
branch of Pitus withami which fell off the tree trunk when it was
blasted from the rock in Craigleith Quarry, Edinburgh. This
quarry is at present (1977) being filled in. A section of this
branch was figured by Witham in the Transactions of the Natural
History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle upon
Tyne (1831), Vol. I Plate XXV, fig. 5 and in Witham’s second
book The Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables 1833, Plate VI,
fig. 5. It was first named Pinites medullaris by Lindley and
Hutton in their Fossil Flora Vol. I, pp. 13-14. The generic
name Pitus was first used in 1833 by Witham in his second
book, pp. 37-38 and 71 and was first applied to Pitus antiqua
from Lennel Braes near Coldstream on Tweed. In the same
work Witham also described Pitus primaeva from Tweed Mill
about a mile below Lennel Braes. Although Pitus antiqua is
thus the type species of the genus the Craigleith species (Pitus
withami) was described first but without a scientific
name. ‘The first specimen was obtained in 1826 and described
in the Philosophical Magazine for Jan. 1830, Series 2, Vol. VII pp.
23-31 “On the vegetation of the First Period of an Ancient
World’. This stem was 36 feet long and 3 feet in diameter at
its base. A second specimen was discovered at Craigleith in
1830 and described by Witham in the Transactions of the Natural
History Society of Northumberland, Durham, and Newcastle upon
Tyne, Vol. 1, pp. 294-301 in 1831. This description was also
without a scientific name. In this paper Witham also men-
tioned a third specimen from Craigleith on p. 297 and said that
it was blasted, during which a branch broke off. This was the

186 PALAEOBOTANICAL REMINISCENCES

branch sectioned and figured by Witham in 1833. The speci-
men, however, was earlier figured by Lindley and Hutton in
1831 in their Fossil Flora and given the name Pinites medullaris
whereas the tree from which the branch fell was named Pinites
withami. Thisidentity of P. withami and P. medullaris was first
pointed out by Witham in 1833 and later confirmed by D.H.
Scott in 1902. The generic name Pinites was first used by
Lindley and Hutton in 1831 for the type species Pinites brand-
lingi (Fossil Flora Vol. I p.1, and Plate 1). This specimen, also
ane to as the Wideopen Tree, was Upper Carboniferous in
age and came from Wideopen, 5 miles north of Newcastle
upon Tyne. It was described and figured (but not named)
also by Witham in 1833 p. 31 and Plate 4, figs. 1-5. It was later
(1917) placed by Seward in the genus Dadoxylon and is now
generally recognised as identical with Cordaites Unger
1850. Hence Witham’s name Pitus has superseded the name
Pinites as far as the Berwickshire and Craigleith fossils are
concerned, and the specific epithet medullaris has been dropped
as a synonym for withami.

It was the late Professor W. T. Gordon who first showed (in
1935) that Pitus sometimes has attached leaves borne fairly
close together near branch apices. The leaves probably
became separated by stem growth and possibly reflexed. The
stem cortex seems to have been relatively soft so that the leaves
readily became detached without leaving attached petiole
bases. Each petioleis swollen atthe base. The leaf-trace is at
first surrounded with secondary xylem. On passing through
the stem cortex it divides into 3 and then 6 vascular bundles
which join in the petiole base to form a large V- or U-shaped
bundle in cross section. Such a large bundle is not unlike that
of Lyginopteris and suggests that the frond had a large transpir-
ing surface. Detached petioles of this type occur mixed with
stems of Pitus primaeva in Berwickshire and are known as
Lyginorachis papilio Kidston. Gordon’s attached petioles were
probably too young to have a fully expanded frond so he
interpreted the leaves as phyllodes somewhat like the leaves of
certain Araucarias. The size, form and angle of bifurcation
shown by Lyginorachis papilio (detached) suggest that it was a
typical pteridosperm frond up to 1 or 2 feet in length and thus
comparable in size to the compression known as Sphenopteris
(Telangium) affinis, a very common ‘fern’ frond in the Lower
Carboniferous oil shales (see frontispiece to Hugh Miller’s
‘Testimony of the Rocks’).

Some petioles of Lyginorachis papilio were trifurcate i.e. they
had a median stem-like third rachis (Tristichia ovensi Long)
between the two outer secondary rachises of the Y-shaped
frond. In the compression Diplopteridium teilianum Walton

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS ON FOSSIL PLANTS 187

the median rachis bore branches which in turn branched by
repeated wide dichotomies ultimately bearing clusters of term-
inal microsporangia (Telangium). Evidence from _ the
Crooked Burn compressions suggests that other trifurcate
fronds probably of L. papilio bore seed cupules of the species
Stamnostoma huttonense Long. If the evidence is interpreted
correctly it suggests that Pitus was an arborescent Pteridos-
perm bearing three kinds of fronds comparable in size to
Sphenopteris affinis. No doubt other such arborescent
Pteridosperms existed in Lower and Upper Carboniferous
times though the majority seem to have been of a shrub habit.
Henry Witham was a founder member of the Natural His-
tory Society which built and for long maintained the Hancock
Museum. I feel sure he would have rejoiced to see the branch
of Science he so famously pioneered being continued and
furthered in the institution which he helped to launch 148 years
ago. Strange and wonderful are the vicissitudes of fossil
plants but stranger and even more wonderful are the ways of
Providence. ‘‘O the depth of the riches both of the wisdom
and the knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his
judgements and his ways past tracing out’”’ (Romans 11, 33).

Bist OF PUBLICATIONS ON’ FOSSIL
PANTS

1. 1943 On the occurence of buds on the leaves of Botryop-
teris hirsuta Will. Ann. Bot. 7, 133-146.

2. 1944 On the prothallus of Lagenostoma ovoides Will. Ann.
Bot. 8, 105-117.

3. 1959 The fossil plants of Berwickshire: a review of past
work. PartI. Work done mainly in the nineteenth
century. Hist. Berwicks. Nat. Club, 34, 248-273.

4. 1960 The fossil plants of Berwickshire: a review of past
work. Part II. Work done mainly in the present
century. Hist. Berwicks. Nat. Club, 35, 26-47.

5. 1960a On the structure of Calymmatotheca kidstoni Calder
(emended) and Genomosperma latens gen. et sp. nov.
from the Calciferous Sandstone Series of Berwick-
shire. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 64, 29-44.

6. 1960b Stamnostoma huttonense gen. et sp. nov.—a
Pteridosperm seed and cupule from the Calciferous
Sandstone Series of Berwickshire. Trans. Roy.
Soc. Edin. 64, 201-215.

7. 1960c On the structure of Samaropsis scotica Calder
(emended) and Eurystoma angulare gen. et sp. nov.,
petrified seeds from the Calciferous Sandstone
Series of Berwickshire. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 64,
261-280.

188

10.

le
Ze
13:
14.
15:
fo:
V7.

18.

19:
20.

Zit

1961

1961

1961

1963

1964

1964

1964

1965

1966

1967

1968

1968

1969

1971

LIST OF PUBLICATIONS ON FOSSIL PLANTS

On the structure of Deltasperma fouldenense gen. et
sp. nov. and Camptosperma berniciense gen. et sp.
nov., petrified seeds from the Calciferous Sand-
stone Series of Berwickshire. Trans. Roy. Soc.
Edin. 64, 281-295.

Some pteridosperm seeds from the Calciferous
Sandstone Series of Berwickshire. Trans. Roy.
Soc. Edin. 64, 401-419.

Tristichia ovensi gen. et sp. nov., a protostelic Lower
Carboniferous Pteridosperm from Berwickshire
and East Lothian with an account of some
Associated seeds and cupules. Trans. Roy. Soc.
Edin. 64, 477-489.

Some specimens of Lyginorachis papilio Kidston
associated with stems of Pitys. Trans. Roy. Soc.
Edin. 65, 211-224.

Some specimens of Stenomyelon and Kalymma from
the Calciferous Sandstone Series of Berwick-
shire. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.65, 435-447.

On the structure of some petioles associated with
Rhetinangium Gordon. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin., 66,
A petrified Lower Carboniferous Lepidodendron
showing rooting organs identified with Calamopsis
Solms Laubach. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 66, 35-48.
On the cupule structure of Eurystoma angul-
are. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 66, 111-128.

Some Lower Carboniferous fructifications from
Berwickshire, together with a theoretical account
of the evolution of ovules, cupules, and car-
pels. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 66, 345-375.

Some specimens of Protoclepsydropsis and Clepsyd-
ropsis from the Calciferous Sandstone Series of
Berwickshire. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 67, 95-107.
Some specimens of Mazocarpon, Achlamydocarpon
and Cystosporites from the Lower Carboniferous
rocks of Berwickshire. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 67,
359-37 1.

Some specimens of Cladoxylon from the Calcifer-
ous Sandstone Series of Berwickshire. Trans.
Roy. Soc. Edin. 68, 45-61.

Eurystoma trigona sp. nov. a Pteridosperm ovule
borne on a frond of Alcicornopteris Kids-
ton. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 68, 171-182.

A new interpretation of Lepidodendron calamopsoides
Long and Oxroadia gracilis Alvin. Trans. Roy. Soc.
Edin. 68, 491-506.

LADYTHORNE HOUSE 189

2973 With P. D. W: Barnard. On the structure of a
petrified stem and some associated seeds from the
Lower Carboniferous rocks of East Lothian, Scot-
land. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 69, 91-108.

23. 1973 The early history of seeds. Hist. Berwicks. Nat.
Club. 39, 85-98.

24. 1975 With P. D. W. Barnard. Triradioxylon—a new genus
of Lower Carboniferous petrified stems and
petioles together with a review of the classification
of early Pterophytina. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 69,
231-249.

25. 1975 Further observations on some Lower Carbonifer-
ous seeds and cupules. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 69,
267-293.

26. 1976 Calathopteris heterophylla gen. et sp. nov., a Lower
Carboniferous Pteridosperm bearing two kinds of
petioles. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 69, 327-336.

27. 1976 Rowleya trifurcata gen. et sp. nov., a simple vascular
plant from the Lower Coal Measures (Westphalian
A) of Lancashire. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin. 69, 467-
481.

28. 1976 Psalixochlaena berwickense sp. nov. a Lower Car-
boniferous fern from Berwickshire. Trans. Roy.
Soc. Edin. 69, 513-521.

29. In Press Some Lower Carboniferous pteridosperm
cupules bearing ovules and microsporan-
gia. Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.

30. InMS. Observations on some Carboniferous fossil seeds
of Mitrospermum, Conostoma, and _ Lagenosto-
ma. Submitted to Trans. Roy. Soc. Edin.

LADYTHORNE HOUSE
By Dr GAC. BINNIE

Tue last owner of Cheswick with that name died in 1402 or
1403 and his heiress daughter married Robert Strangeways,
whose descendants in turn sold part of their Cheswick estate in
1676 to Richard Windloe, Burgess of Berwick. The name of
Ladythorne is unknown before 1712 when John Wilkie of
Broome House bought what is now known as Ladythorne
Farm from the Windloe sons, John Wilkie (Wilkin in previous
family documents) having himself been a Burgess of Ber-
wick. John Wilkie died in 1720 and the house was presuma-
bly built by his son Robert in 1721. The property descended
to a bachelor descendant, Robert Wilkie, who died intestate,
probably in the 1840’s, from whom it passed to his heir at law,

1

19

192 LADYTHORNE HOUSE

John Himsworth, son of Robert Himsworth, a rector in Holy
Orders in the Church of Rome, afterwards M.D., who had
married Wilkie’s cousin Hannah; but the latter had died in
1802. The Himsworth family owned the property and lived
in it until the latter years of the first World War.

The estate was sold in 1920 to Mr Walter Curry, of Bridge
Mill, father of Mr George Curry, the present owner. ‘The
house was leased out to a Newcastle family as a holiday house
until the Army took over the building during the 1939-45 War
leaving it at the end of the war in a considerably worse state
than at the beginning. The main portion of the house has
been unoccupied since 1945, the servant’s quarters having been
occupied by a shepherd until 1974; since then it has been
empty, and is now increasingly dilapidated. It has been
scheduled as a listed building.

Raine noted that in 1360 a licence was given to Alexander of
Cheswick to cause Divine Service to be celebrated in his
Chapel of Cheswick for one year; the site of this Chapel is
supposed to have been on Chapel Hill at the east end of the
village, but this is not known today; and nearby “Our Lady’s
well was lately drained”. The font from the Chapel was
removed to the private Chapel in Haggerston Castle, and all
the oxen and horses in Cheswick were unable to move it past
Ladythorne although it was taken the whole distance at some
later, and, presumably, propitious date.

The name of Ladythorne itself is said to be derived from a
clump of blackthorn surrounding a well although the site of
this is not certainly known. Some 50 yards south of the
present garden wall is the well which supplies the house, and
this was renovated in about 1921. There was an old planta-
tion of thorns hereabouts which was replanted and fenced in
1827 by Robert Wilkie, evidently replacing old thorns which
were already there. The trees planted in 1827 were removed a
few years ago, and there are still signs of where they grew
between the well and garden. On the 2’2” Ordnance Survey
map “‘Ladythorne” is shown some 300 yards south of the
house, and this is a clump of mature trees on a knoll surrounded
by asunk wall with no evidence of a well. It is likely that this
was planted to improve the outlook from the house, probably
at the time the house was built. There is said to have been an
old gallows tree but where this was, is now uncertain. It
seems likely that the original Ladythorne Well, with its pre-
sumably pre-Christian sacred spring, followed by its Christian
dedication to Mary, is the one near to the house. Another
interesting feature is to be seen on the south aspect of the
garden wall at its western end, where there are remains of
plastering on the wall which look older than the house itself,
arid at one point there seems to have been a chimney in the wall

ti

LADYTHORNE HOUSE 193

which has been bricked up with bricks similar to those used in
the construction of the house. One wonders if this had some
connection with the well, possibly from a religious foundation.

Ladythorne House itself is in an L shape with the northern
wing the servant’s quarters, and the south-facing main front of
the building occupied by the principal rooms, presenting a
very attractive facade which, unusually for this part of the
world, is built in brick. The bricks were said to have been
imported from the Low Countries in the early 18th century as
ballast in boats returning from trading journeys. The ground
floor has two principal rooms joined by a large folding oe in
the east wall is a modern fireplace with the stone surround of
the original fireplace showing the very worn arms of the
Wilkies of Ladythorne.

The main staircase has a moulded ceiling as illustrated, with
the initials ‘““W”’ and the date 1721 around what could well be a
representation of a mulberry. The initials are probably those
of the first owner and builder of the house, Robert Wilkie, and
his wife Jane. The roof timbers are of unworked timber in
parts, but the whole attic rooms are now unsafe due to wear
and tear and dampness.

Like so many houses of this nature it has its own ghost, a
midnight horseman who is reputed to arrive and knock on the
front door; any reason for this nocturnal visitation 1s now lost.

The present agricultural holding of Ladythorne extends to
about 120 acres. To the east of the lane down to the house,
and a short distance from the main road, is an old building now
used as astore which once hadtwo floors. This is said to have
been the house where Cromwell slept when he was in the
district in 1648; it certainly looks old enough to have been
standing at this time but he is more likely to have stayed in the
house of the Strangeways which was situated near to present-
day Cheswick House. There is a large central chimney piece
with a large fire place to the room in the west, and what appears
to be a brick lined oven in the stone work of the chimney piece
on the south; in the north of the dividing stone work are the
remains of a stone staircase. Between this building and the
lane was a shepherd’s house, demolished some 25 years ago,
and a further pair of worker’s houses facing on to the main road
at the north west corner of the holding, near the road junction,
were demolished at about the same time. A short distance
down the lane from the old store is a deep, brick-lined well; it is
said that buckets of coal could be removed from this as readily
as buckets of water. In this context a modern drift mine was
sunk in 1943 in the field about 100 yards east of the mansion
house and used for a few years before being filled in only ten or
SO years ago.

194 RECORD OF SPIDERS FOUND IN THE GARDEN OF
BIRGHAM HOUSE
Finally, there are four stone posts in various fields on the
holding which have relatively recently been erected and are
rubbing posts.

Acknowledgements

I must acknowledge with gratitude the help given by the
owner of Ladythorne, Mr George Curry, in allowing his prop-
erty to be examined and in supplying much useful background
information.

The source for most of the historical data was pages 227 to
crane page 385 of North Durham by James Raine, published
in ;

Visited by the Club on 28th October, 1976

RECORD OF SPIDERS FOUND
IN THE GARDEN OF BIRGHAM HOUSE

By GRACE A_EEEIOT

Tuis record was taken between March and August 1963, not
because of any specific knowledge of Spider fauna but for two
other reasons, the more important being that in 1858 the Ber-
wickshire Naturalists’ Club published in their “History” Vol.
IV the first list of spiders ever recorded in Scotland. These
had all been caught in the county by James Hardy whose
original record is dated December 1848, and who later sent the
collection to Mr Blackwall, an authority on the Order of
Arachnida, for identification. Another list, which included
spiders from Northumberland, appeared in Vol. VII (1874) and
was identified and catalogued by the Rev. O. P. Cambridge at
Dr Hardy’s request, and in Vol. XII (1888) George Bolam
reported a new specimen for the county, meta minardi which he
had found among rocks on the coast below Lamberton
Shiels. The last record of “Spiders (Aranidea) and Harvest-
men (Phalangidea)”’ is printed in Vol. XV (1894) of a collection
made by Wm. Evans FRSE. in the vicinity of Eyemouth when
several new species were added to our Berwickshire records,
since when no other attempt has been made by our Club
members to collect data and bring these records up to date.

The second reason for Birgham records arose from the fact
that a large variety of Lepidoptera were found in our garden
between 1958 and 1965 which suggested that the spider
families might be equally well represented and perhaps might
add some to the earlier lists.

RECORD OF SPIDERS FOUND IN THE GARDEN OF 195
BIRGHAM HOUSE

Forty three specimens were taken but twenty five proved to
be too immature to identify, or were progeny of those listed
here. Fourteen were taken in the aden three at Cloverhall
(Birgham wood), and one found in Dundock is included,
although not in Eccles parish, making eighteen species in
all. Their comparison with the old records shows that ten of
the garden spiders are in Dr Hardy’s original record; eight are
mentioned in the Eyemouth one by Evans; sixteen occur in the
1970 record for Wicken Fen, Cambs. and seven of these only
appear in both Hardy (1858) and Wicken Fen. Of the twenty
six spider families known to Great Britain nine are represented
in the Birgham list, to which are also added one Harvestman
and a mite.

Identification was difficult as the nomenclature used by the
early collectors had changed and did not always tally with the
present day names of British Spider fauna. Dr Bristow,
whose work in this field is well known, had in the 1930’s drawn
up anew and corrected list of names which was “‘in compliance
with the International Rules of Nomenclature.” So, on Dr
Long’s advice, the Birgham collection was sent in 1965 to Dr.
A. S. Clarke, Assistant Keeper of the Department of Natural
History, the Royal Scottish Museum, who passed it on to Mr
Michael Usher of Edinburgh University, who very kindly
identified the species for me, giving the modern name for each
spider, with the old one in brackets. Iam most grateful to all
three for this help.

In 1875 there were 105 ascertained Berwickshire spiders;
Bolam added one; in 1888, Evans added sixteen bringing the
totalto 122. Out of the Birgham collection No’s 3, 23, 36, 37,
44, 30, are six not found in the early lists, thus, so far as our
Club records relate, there are now 128 known spiders for
Berwickshire, although it is quite possible that outside Arach-
nologists may have collected here unknown to the Club,
whether or not this is so, there seems to be unlimited scope for
someone to continue recording our spiders whenever possible.

Unfortunately the Birgham records remain unfinished
Owing to other commitments, but I would like to think that the
lovely all-green spider which we saw on one of our shrubs last
July was the Micrommata Viridissima. fit proves to beso, then
it is a rare find. It is such a pity that this spider like the
Emerald moths, loses its pretty colour in preservation. One
to look for is the purple spider which Dr Hardy found on the
heather in the Lammermuirs.

196

No.

No.

RECORD OF SPIDERS FOUND IN THE GARDEN OF

3)

512

23
20
FAA
2119)

PAG
4

50

1S

mts,

OO

. 50

45

BIRGHAM HOUSE

Spiders from Birgham House garden
Ciniflo similis. Blackwall (Amaurobius similis. Cam-

bridge)
Clubiona stagnatilis. Kulczynski (C. holosericea.
(Black wall)
(C. Grisea. Cam-
bridge)

Clubiona Lutescans. Westring.
Clubiona Compti. C. L. Koch.
Ero Cambridgei. Kulcz.
Therion ovatum. Clercke (Araneus redimitus. Linn.;
(A. lineatus. Linn;
(Therium lineatum.
(Blackwall and Theridion
(redimitum. Wiehle.)
Theridion Pallens. Blackwall.
Araneus diademetus. Clercke (Epeira diademata.
Black wall)
Gongylidium rufipes, Sundevall (Linyphia rufipes.
(Sund.)
(neriene munda.
(Black wall)
Bathyphantes dorsalis. Wilder (Linyphia dorsalis.
(Wider)
(L. Claytonia. Black-
(wall)
Linyphia montana. Clercke (Araneus resupina dom-
(estica. Degeer)
(Linyphia marginata.
{Blac
Linyphia Clathrata. Sundevall (Neriene marginata.
Black wall)
Linyphia. Possibly Labulla thoraciea.
Savignia frontata. Blackwall (Walckenaera frontata.
Blackwall)

Spiders from Cloverhall

Segestria senoculata. Linnaeus.

Philodromus aureolus. Clercke.

Lycosa lugubris. Walckenear (L. chelata. Dahl.; Par-
dosa lugubris. Simon)

From Dundock, The Hirsel

Linyphia peltata. Wider (L. Rubea. Blackwall. Lep-
thyphantes Nigrescens. Cambridge)

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS DURING 1976 197

Birgham. Allied Orders. Family
ion 19 Platybunus triangularis. Herbst. ....-... Opiliones
SeomP CPUS MeMONUM. - 03. ee bee Acari

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS
DURING 1976.

Notes compiled by A. G. Long, Hancock Museum.

The outstanding feature of 1976 was the long hot summer
starting during the third week of June and continuing into the
first week of September. One consequence was a serious
drought and another was the influx of immigrant lepidoptera
making 1976 the best antiopa year this century.

On March 31 some large barnacles were sent to the Hancock
Museum from Blyth. They were identified as Balanus hameri
described and figured by Charles Darwin in his monograph of
the Cirripedia.

After the mild winter Small Tortoiseshell butterflies Aglais
urticae were seen in abundance flying around the large rocks at
Doddington Quarry near Wooler on April 10. Doubtless
they had hibernated in the rock recesses.

The Spring Squill Scilla verna was seen in flower at
Dryburgh Abbey on April 14 by Mr. G. Waldie.

On April 15 a Nuthatch was seen by Mr. D. G. Long at
Wallington. It flew onto a piece of suspended fat at Close
House. Later on the same day the very rare moss Trochob-
ryum carniolicum was seen just coming into fruit on limestone
boulders at its known site in the Lordenshaws Burn.

The Scarce Prominent moth Odontosia carmelita was taken at
two sites in south Northumberland during the last week of
April viz. at Allerwash Hall (Mr. P. Tennant) and at Tranwell
Woods near Morpeth (Mr. D. Sheppard).

On May 8 at Duns Castle Woods the Wood Warbler,
Chiffchaff, Garden Warbler and Blackcap were heard in song.

Many specimens of the Large Elephant Hawk moth
Deilephila elpenor were seen in June and later the larvae were
common. On July 141 found one nearly full-grown larva of
the beautiful green variety on Rose-bay Willow-herb by the
Wooler Water near Haugh Head about 1'4 miles south of
Wooler.

Larvae of the Puss moth Cerura vinula were very common
both on wild sallows and on cultivated willows. Six larvae of
the Buff Tip Phalera bucephala were seen on Grey Sallow near

198 NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS DURING 1976

the Wooler Water on August 7 and one specimen of the large
Tachinid fly Larvaevora grossa (a parasite on lepidopterous lar-
vae) was seen on mint flowers. Another specimen was
received earlier in the season from Ottercops.

Two larvae of the Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta (green form)
were found on Stinging Nettle near the Wooler Water on July
24 and later on the same day an imago was seen at Padgepool,
Wooler. Throughout August they were very abundant and
as late as Oct 24 one was seen at Scremerston by Miss G. A.
Elliot. It flew out to sea about 50 yards and then returned.

On August 9 a Peacock butterfly Inachis io was reported
from Riding Mill (Mrs. Pybus) and later many more were seen
in south Northumberland. One was seen at Wallington in the
walled garden on August 15 (Mr. G. Hardy) and one at Wooler
on Sept. 5 (Miss G. A. Elliot).

Six specimens of the Convolvulus Hawk moth Agrius con-
volvuli were recorded in the Newcastle area between August 24
and Nov. 2.

Painted Lady butterflies Cynthia cardui were seen in small
numbers, one at Brownslaw, Wooler on August 31 together
with a Humming Bird Hawk Macroglossum stellatarum and one
Camberwell Beauty Nymphalis antiopa all feeding on Buddleia
flowers (Mrs. A. Holmes and Mr. A. M. Tynan).

A grayling butterfly Hipparchia semele was observed at Swin-
ton House in August (Lieut. Col. W. M. Logan Home) and the
gardener reported one butterfly answering to the description
of a Camberwell Beauty. Two other specimens of antiopa
were caught in south Northumberland, one at Stagshaw
House nr. Corbridge on Sept. 5 (Mrs. J. J. Straker) and one at
Highbury, Newcastle, in a house on Oct. 4 (Miss A. N.
Coates).

Two specimens of the beautiful immigrant moth Catocala
fraxini the Clifden Nonpareil or Blue Underwing were
reported, one taken at Wells Sawmill in Mr. Andrew Buck-
ham’s light trap and one taken near Morpeth in a house porch
on September 21. Mr. Buckham also reported a Camberwell
Beauty seen feeding along with 15 Red Admirals on the exud-
ing sap of a damaged Ash tree at Dryburgh.

Three larvae of the Humming Bird Hawk moth were found
feeding on Galium mollugo in a hedge at Whitley Chapel near
Hexham on Aug.1 (Dr. I Wallace).

On August 21 a Waterhen’s nest containing 5 eggs was seen
on a large stone about 6 inches above water level in the middle
of the Whitadder at Clarabad.

A Wryneck was seen on two days in late August feeding on
the ground near the garden pond at Swinton House (Lieut.
Col. W. M. Logan Home).

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS DURING 1976 199

A specimen of the Northern Dart Moth Xestia alpicola was
taken on the peat at the top of Cheviot on 17.7.1975 (Dr. M. R.
Young, Ent. Gaz. 27, p. 274). It was first recorded in the
northern Pennines in 1950 by T. R. Eagles (Ent. Rec. J. Var. 62,
p. 98) and was also taken on 23.7.1963 by Mr. J. Heath ina m.v.
trap at Moor House Nature Reserve, near Alston, Cumbria,
altitude 1800 feet (Ent. Gaz. 24, p. 6). Later 15 specimens
were obtained at the same site between July 6 and Aug. 3, 1973
(B. G. Withers, Ent. Gaz. 25, p.87). This moth has atwo year
cycle and in the Highlands is more commonly taken in even
years. This suggests that the race found in the north of Eng-
land is distinct from the Scottish race. Larvae should be
looked for on Crowberry on any high hills in southern Scot-
land and northern England in May-June of even years by

bending back the food-plants to expose the stem bases. Later
it @iould be possible to find the pupae in similar situations.

Records of Bryophyta by D. G. Long.

Mosses numbered as in Census Catalogue (3rd Edition) and
Hepatics as in Census Catalogue (4th Edition).

Pease Mean, VC 81, NT 79.69., 21.2.1976.

75/3 Lejeunea lamacerina var. azorica; new VC record.
78/2 Cololejeunea rosettiana.

140/3 Cirriphyllum crassinervium.

141/6 Eurhynchium schleicheri.

154/1 Hypnum cupressiforme var. mamillatum; new VC record.

Sicear Point, sea banks VC 81, NT 81.70., 21.2.1976.

8/5 Fissidens incurvus.

38/1 Pterygoneuron ovatum.

40/9 Pottia davalliana.

41/1 Phascum curvicollum.

41/2 Phascum cuspidatum var. piliferum.

Fir Wood nr. Tudhope, Jedburgh, VC 80, NT 64.20., 5.4.1976.

71/2 Orthodontium lineare.
155/1 Ptilium crista-castrensis.

Fallow field, Lanton Hall, Jedburgh, VC 80, NT 62.22.,
5.4.1976.

10/8 Riccia sorocarpa.

73/10 Pohlia bulbifera.

73/11 Pohlia camptotrachela (P. annotina var. decipiens). New
VC record.

200 DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE GREAT HOUSE IN THE
18th CENTURY

R: Coquet, Linshiels, NT 89.06., 15.4.1976.

75/1 Lejeunea cavifolia. New record for VC 68.

16/1 Brachydontium trichodes. VC 67.

44/13 Barbula nicholsonii. VC 68.

51/3 Trichostomum sinuosum. VC 68.

77137 Bryum capillare var. rufifolium. New VC 67 record.
93/1 Campylostelium saxicola. VC 67.

Skirl Naked nr. Wooler, VC 68, NT 89.06., 17.4.1976.

77137 Bryum flaccidum. New VC record.
151/1 Pylaisia polyantha, both on elder.

Langlee Crag ravine, Harthope Burn, VC 68, NT 96.22.,
17.4.1976

34/4 Lophozia alpestris.

46/4 Solenostoma pumilum.

70/11 Scapania aspera. New VC record.
90/6 Philonotis calcarea.

Gordon Moss, VC 81, NT 63.42., 13.6.1976.

14/3 Pellia neesiana. New VC record.
98/7 Orthotrichum striatum.

99/1 Ulota phyllantha.

103/1 Cryphaea heteromalla.

DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE GREAT HOUSE us
THE 18dy GEN LURY

By LADY MCEWEN

An actress I knew told me how it would restore her sense of
reality, not to say her courage, if, when facing a cigar-smoking
theatrical agent across his mahogany desk she thought of him
getting up in the morning. We are all mortal as we emerge
from sleep. The thought of Henry VIII at the Field of Cloth
of Gold waking to find Francis I standing at the fire warming a
shirt for him makes both kings human. Reading of DeQuin-
cey’s servant making the bedroom fire and then warming his
shirt at it makes man and master live. Evento learn of Milton
going to bed at 9 and rising at 4 in the Summer and 5 in the
Winter, if less sympathetic, makes him real. It was when I

DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE GREAT HOUSE IN THE 201
18th CENTURY

read, in the letters of Amabel, Lady Polwarth who visited
Marchmont as a bride in the 1770’s that ““We rise between 7 &
8, and breakfast at 9” that she began to stir into life.

Marchmont is one of the crop of eighteenth century Border
houses and it was built in 1750 at the instance of Hugh, 3rd Earl
ofthatname. NHisson Alexander, Lord Polwarth was married
to Amabel, daughter of the Earl of Hardwicke and his wife the
Marchioness Grey, who was always refered to as Lady
Bell. It is her letters to her Mother as well as the Inventories
for the house in 1760 and 1794 and a number of account books,
which have survived in the Register House, in Edinburgh that
convey quite a clear picture of domestic life in a large Border
house of that date. ‘‘We rise between 7 and 8.” Lady Bell
may have risen then but at what time would the servants have
had to get up? cockcrow probably, if not a good deal earlier in
the winter-time; there was water to be brought (not drawn, as
the water was piped from a spring, as it still 1s), fires to be laid,
food to be prepared and no doubt clothes to be warmed there
also. In some houses indeed there were more unusual tasks;
an old gentleman told me, when he first came to live in Ber-
wickshire, that an aged housekeeper he had known as a boy
told him that as a new young housemaid in a large house her
first duty had been, on rising, “‘to go into the dining room and
loosen the gentlemen’s collars.”’

Day and night have a more or less constant relation to each
other—man needing a certain amount of sleep—even if, with
the invention of instant and (used to be) cheaper forms of
lighting, day delves into night, and night prolongs itself often
past the best hours of the morning. Meal times, one would
suppose, have a more or less constant relationship to one
another also, but just when one thinks one has the time-table
pe it does the unexpected: Breakfast at nine—Dine at three,
take tea at six; Lady Bell does not mention when she had her
supper but, at Mellerstain, her husband’s great aunt, Lady
Grizell Baillie, took hers at 9. ““The bell being rung half an
hour before when the Butler had to lay the bible and cushions
for prayers.” But if time can be puzzling, questions of food
and money and privacy are more curious. By the mid-
eighteenth century in a large house the famous oatmeal and
herrings which has been the staple diet of so many (like the
students at St. Andrews taking a sack of oatmeal and a barrel of
oe for a term) were obviously superseded, though both
items figure in the Marchmont account books and though all
the estate workers had their weekly allowances of a couple of
stone of oatmeal. Every day quantities of lamb, or chickens,
of collops of venison, or turkeys, or fish, figure in the list of

202 DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE GREAT HOUSE IN THE
18th CENTURY

food consumed notionly by the family but by the 2nd table,
who were the servants (generally about 12) and the strangers
(usually a couple), and this was before Marchmont itself was
ready and they were still living at Redbraes (a smaller
house). One does wonder, though, what was happening that
1100 oysters (at 4d a hundred) should have been consumed
between 23 October and 6 November 1734. The question of
the vast menus one sees is settled by the realization that they are
concurrent rather than consecutive; a table plan rather than a
programme. All the “‘patrages and young geese, rosted larks,
rost bief, rost mutton, ragow cocscomes ncn feet,” not to
mention the “‘chestnuts, confections, jellys and aples,” were on
the table together, removes being removed, and reliefs brought
in. The game is given away by some menus where the second
half of the meal is a mirror image of the first, or by those which
figure ‘‘candles”’ apparently as the middle course; they were in
the centre of the table.

Money is more bewildering. Men quarrying the stone to
build Marchmont got 6d a day. Of course the value of a
sixpence was much greater then than now and the men did get
their share of oatmeal, often their accommodation and in some
cases their clothes. But all the same, when these men were
getting 6d a day, butter was 5d a lb., coffee 3/6, tea 7/- (both
luxuries admittedly) and little Lord Polwarth aged 3’ was
wearing shoes which had cost £1-8d. It is the proportion that
seems strange, the relation of one commodity to another: that
Wesley on turning to God as a student at Oxford could have
saved 2gns a week by not having his hair dressed; that
Goldsmith could have spent the 12 gns, procured for him by
Dr.Johnson on the sale of the manuscript of the Vicar of
Wakefield, on one bottle of wine; that, on moving house in
Edinburgh, a young and humble legal man, called Walter
Scott, could have had to shift 36 dozen bottles of claret.—these
are the riddles—.

But in a way the question of privacy strikes one as the
oddest. We can accept that a dressing room was precisely
what it was called. None of the Dressing rooms in the Mar-
chmont Inventories contains a bed: they were not the sort of
spare rooms they have become, to which a snoring husband is
relegated; on the contrary they were public rooms. Lady
Bell’s Dressing room contained, besides the portraits and
ornaments, the large looking glass, the mahogany wardrobe
and the dressing ante with its japanned mirror and 18 match-
ing boxes, and a pin cushion, eight elbow chairs with yellow
silk bottoms. It must have been a pretty room—everything
yellow silk some of it painted, with lines and ‘tossells’ for the

DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE GREAT HOUSE IN THE 203
18th CENTURY

bells of mixed colours. Lady Marchmont’s Dressing room
had similar furniture: 2 silk covered settees, four chairs, two
stools, as well as the mirrors, dressing table, mahogany stands,
and the japanned stand with its dressing box and 19 small
boxes. No doubt all the washing and the under-dressing; the
putting on of stays and petticoats had been done (with the help
of a maid), in the inner sanctum, the dressing closet, if not the
bedroom, but for the top dressing and the hairdressing, proba-
bly lengthy procedures, company was expected and catered
for. Lady Bell tells her sister what she was wearing for Lord
Polwarth’s birthday: ‘‘I was dressed in my purple and silver,
with my Diamonds and Brussels lace. I cannot help flattering
myself that my magnificence will be the wonder of the whole
county. I have brought gowns for every day of the
week!” But as she says later “I beg Papa may not see this
letter—he would lose all patience at such silly paddy-noddy,
but I fancy myself chattering in your room at home.”

The days were over when a King of France could receive an
ambassador while enthroned ona chaise percée, or when one of
Louis XIV’s most exalted nobles had the nightly privilege of
holding what Winston Churchill called ‘the article’ for his
monarch; however it still strikes us as curious to find two
chamber pots listed among the furniture in the saloon at
Marchmont, the main front hall and the most public room of
all. Who? and how? and when? and then by whom? It is
mysterious to us—but then it is a modern mistake to think that
sanitation equals human dignity. Perhaps this has somethin
to do with Lord Polwarth’s reaction when he and Lady Bell
lived in a small house called Leighton: “So compact a house
was odd” it made Polwarth stare to meet the servants in the
passages after being used to a great rambling place where one
never saw any of them or with that habit which survived in
some circles past the Edwardian era of always calling the
footman John or Henry or whatever, no matter their true

name. It was a kind of arm’s length policy, more humanly
_ embodied in the deference with which husbands and wives
spoke of and to one another.

| Whatever Lord Polwath’s reaction to servants, his father,
_ Lord Marchmont, seems to have been pretty brisk. Among
the lists kept in his own hand of the men servants he
engaged—butlers, footmen, postilions, cooks, coachmen,
park-keepers and valets-de-chambre, over and over again, the
_ word “‘discharged”’ appears againstthem. Butitis interesting
_ to note that these names,—particulary those of the footmen
_ and valets de chambre—among whom there was the quickest
turnover (a butler did last 7 years, but a couple of months was
|
|

}

204 DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE GREAT HOUSEIN THE
18th CENTURY

unexceptional for a footman)—are generally English, Welsh or
French. One can imagine the feelings of a young Frenchman
in a Border household then: probably there was a certain
amount of red wine and meat, but what of the “‘hagish”’ and the
porridge and the long prayers every night? The names which
endure and which reappear over and over again are the good
old Border names which are still with us—Patterson, Trotter,
Mitchell, Jeffreys, Moffat, Nisbet, Kerr— the list is like a
current local telephone directory. These people had been in
the area for as many centuries as the Humes, of whom the
Marchmonts were a branch. They formed an organic unit
with the big house and its occupants: interdependent and long
enduring a tightly-knit going concern.

This is the impression one also gets from Lady Grizel Bail-
lie’s household papers. She was the legendary daughter of Sir
Patrick Hume, the first Lord Marchmont, to whom she took
food when he was hiding in the vault of Polwarth Church in
the 1680’s. Mellerstain, which has just celebrated its 250th
anniversary, was also very much a going concern and one on
which Lady Grizel kept a sharp eye and a firm hold. She
seems to have had a certain trouble with her cooks: at least five
in the course of 1717: Jean Dickson lasted a fortnight, Pegie,
only a night, Betty, ten weeks, Ann Phillips 2 months and 2
weeks, and Ann Griffeth, who was offered an extra pound on
her £7 years wage, “if she does well’’, lasted 7 months and 3
weeks. Lady Grizel must have been very particular especially
if she got the maid to sift the ashes three times so as to lose no
combustible material when laying the fire. All the food was
weighed out exactly and she stipulated that the housekeeper
was to ““Take care there be no hangers on, no santering odd
people come about the house, but those that have business and
that not at male time, which they will always do if not hin-
dered”’ but she knew what she was doing. She had learnt in
the hard school of poverty when her father had escaped to
Holland and later, before it was possible to regain his forfeited
estates, and she did not wish to waste any money she had,
although she was perfectly capable of spending lavishly if she
chose. Her husband later thought her extravigant but
‘“‘minded not so as I be not in debt’’—which he was not.

Another direction she has, this time to the butler, is that “‘as
soon as a glass is drunk out of, range it directly in the brass pail |
which you must have there with water for that purpos, then |
wype it,’ which makes one understand how it is that such a
comparatively large quantity of 18th century glass survives—it
was washed in the presence of the Lady of the house, if not ina |
brass pail, often in those tallish, 2 lipped straight-sided glass |

DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE GREAT HOUSE IN THE 205
18th CENTURY
bowls which were actually put on the table. Lady Grizel
seems to have had a specific ““Dining-room’’. Often this was
not a fixed room, the family eating where it suited them. At
Marchmont, to judge by the furniture, it must have been
ossible to dine in the Salon where there were 12 leather
ottomed chairs, or the Breakfast Parlour where there were 10
hair bottomed ones, both rooms having suitable tables, though
not in the Drawing room where although there were 16 chairs
there were not the right sort of tables. Wherever they ate it
must have been quite an undertaking as the kitchen was in the
wing unattached tothe house. It is still there now, but before
the house was enlarged and the wings joined internally, the
poor Victorians felt obliged to try and rectify the situation by
installing what is called on the plans “‘a railway to the dining-
room’’. Here is another mystery about food—could it have
ever been hot? When tea was taken it was no doubt in Lady
Marchmont’s room where a japanned tea-table, 12 china cups
and saucers, butter boat, cream pot, sugar dish, all with stands,
a teapot and a bread and butter plate all figure in the inven-
tory. Here again, I believe, is the reason any tea services at all
survive: the Lady washed them herself at the tea table and put
them carefully away where she could keep her eye on them: no
uestion of entrusting them to the maidservants, let alone the
Se nan,

Very often the chatelaine of the 18th century especially such
a one as Lady Grizel Baillie was very much the working centre
of her household just as she would have been if she had lived in
the Middle Ages. She was sure of her social position and had
come through materially hard times so that she did not think
she was demeaning herself by taking a close interest in her
household, and by knowing how to cook andhowtosew. A
ea of generations later and the picture would have begun
to change: the Industrial Revolution would have produced the

nouveaux riches, resulting in what might be described as gen-

tility, the sensitivity of the border line case, with more money
but fewer connections: the lady whose position might have
been eroded by washing a tea cup. “Half an hour every
morning and perhaps an hour on Mondays will see the business
through’’—as some Victorian Lady confidently asserted about
the running of her large establishment. That would not have
suited Lady Grizel one bit, nor Lady Marchmont either. The
household was still an organic whole with the master and
mistress the centre of the web, not a decoration stuck on at the
top.

Perhaps this is one of the keys when trying to open the door
on the life they lived then. Paternalism and self-efficiency
epitomise the whole. The second concept is in favour at the
moment, the first not, however there is no doubt that life as

|
:

206 DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE GREAT HOUSE IN THE
18th CENTURY

exemplified by Marchmont in the 18th century was patern-
alistic. Of course there are good fathers and bad fathers, but
at least a father knows his children whereas bureaucracy can-
not. Lord Marchmont may have been a truculent and
domineering father to his own children, and indeed he disin-
herited his grandson and heir, (this is why the present Lord
Polwarth does not live at Marchmont), but to his own emp-
loyees, retainers and tenants he was very good. As the Rev.
Robert Hume says in his entry on Polwarth in the First Statisti-
cal Account (1796): “Besides the inrolled poor there are several
who receive from the Kirk Sesssion interim supplies; and
others, particulary 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 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 unable to
perform.”

And not only to them, but to the poor of Greenlaw and,
because of houses he had, first in Bruton Street, then in Curzon
Street, Mayfair, to the poor—strangely—of Battersea did he
also give money. His father, the second Lord Marchmont,
had been likewise kind, repeatedly letting people off their rent.

Money payments may have been small—as Graham points
out there was a genuine lack of actual coin at the beginning of
the eighteenth century in Scotland—but payment in kind was
quite substantial. Besides the long list of those receiving
meal: the hinds, the herds, the wrights, the carters, the barn
men, the labourers, and (while the house was building), the
“sclaters’’, the “‘plummers”’ and “‘plaisterers”’ as well, not to
mention the schoolmaster and the minister; and those who
were given dwellings and grazing for their cow; there were
numbers who were clothed. Naturally some of these were in
livery (“‘cloath and furniture for a frock and bretches to A.
Donkin, footman’’), but others such as the garden boys were
looked after too (“Pair of stockings to Gib, garden boy
9d. Cloath to be shirts to Gib and Robert Shiel 7/-’’), besides
also getting a wage, oatmeal and kitchen money.

It may be imagined what a labour it was to keep track of all
these allowances and expenses. Lady Grizel Baillie says
“Bring up your Account Books every Monday morning and
lay them at my door’’, and at one time she would sit up late for
two nights a week to do her family’s accounts. On looking at
the Journals (i.e. the daily entries of expenditure), and the
Ledgers (where all the entries are indexed and abstracts made)

DOMES TICIIFE IN THE GREAT HOUSE IN THE 207
18th CENTURY

one wonders at the punctiliousness and industry of the Secret-
ary. Everything was noted—oats for the pigeons, mending
Lady Margaret’s watch, food, travel, wages, rents, and some-
times curious items such as 2lbs butter for ““greesing the horses’
hooves” or “brandy for cleaning the stoves.”” Everything
was laid down, for instance in 1741 Patrick Winter, who
received £7 per year, plus 1/2 stones meal per week, plus the
help work of an apprentice, was only meant to work for the
estate: ““‘He nor any for him, to work Carpenter work for his
ownuse.” (I wonder if he was the son of the Winter who had
constructed Sir Patrick Hume’s hiding place under the floor-
boards at Redbraes). There must have been someone keeping
a sharp eye on everything—the housekeeper, the factor, the
secretary and Lord Marchmont himself. In one of the Jour-
nals among the lists of expenditure on household goods the
secretary has overwritten: “His Lordship says ‘Pickles’,’’ His
Lordship says ‘Half a pound of tea’.”” In fact Lord Mar-
chmont did keep very minute records himself of all that he
Spent on his “Apparell’’, his stables, his library, his
staff. £1,400 a year went on his horses, £1,300 on all his other
expenses. Lady Marchmont’s expenses on the other hand

reached £3,000.

Elizabeth, Lady Marchmont, was Lord Marchmont’s 2nd
wife, and he had astonished London when, as a staid and rather
severe widower of 42, he had married her—the beautiful 17yr.
old, daughter of a bankrupt linen draper—after a courtship of
three weeks. Herson, Lord Polwarth, was born in London in
1750 just as the building of Marchmont was begun. She may
have been young and she certainly had the help of a house-
keeper but at all events the house was being lived in by 1754
and was fully furnished by 1760. The furniture and hangings
were carefully chosen and meant to last because, with the
exception of one purple and white bedcover which had
descended from the main bedroom floor to the maids’ room
downstairs, everything is still the same 34 years later. Her
own room was hung with yellow and crimson balsamine,
Lady Bell’s with straw-coloured painted “‘tafati lined with
persan’’; the Drawing rooms had green and yellow, the Salon
yellow, Lord Marchmont’s room green. Upstairs the bed-
rooms and their matching dressing rooms had blue and white
sprigged cotton, a red and white cotton, orange chintz with a
pattern of urns, blue check, red check, crimson velvet, crimson
brocade on tapestry hangings. Each room was well fitted
out: elegant beds and tables and chairs, looking glasses, pic-
tures, presses, fire-irons, bed clothes and the inevitable line and
tassel for the bell and the inevitable chamber pot (generally
concealed in a closet, cupboard or stool).

208 DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE GREAT HOUSE IN THE
18th CENTURY

Lady Marchmont herself must have been a delightful per-
son. Her daughter-in-law, Lady Bell said “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 hap-
py,” though, in her own heart as Lady Bell says “I fancy Lane
Marchmont 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.’’ The bustle must have been considera-
ble. The fact that seventeen smoothing irons were necessary
and thirty five saucepans with lids in general use, not to men-
tion the quantities in more obscure cupboards, gives an indica-
tion of the meals that had to be cooked. And think what is
entailed both in terms of those being lit and in those having to
do the lighting (polishing the candlesticks and lamps, carrying
them to the appropriate place, lighting them, tending them,
refilling them, snuffing them, cleaning them, putting them
away) by 18 silver candlesticks, 2 japanned candlesticks, 4
passage lamps, 3 staircase lamps, 25 brass candlesticks, a chan-
delier in the saloon and 2 brass ones in the library (all with
leather covers), a glass lamp with 12 candles in the Drawing
room, a couple more glass lamps, and another with the hours
on it for the table during meals.

‘The house could accommodate over forty: thirty nine beds
are listed, many of them double, besides a number of extra
feather beds and mattresses which no doubt served if there was
not an actual bedstead. The Marchmonts and the Polwarths
had their bedrooms on the main floor and both bedsteads were
made of mahogany. On the floor above them there were 15
bedrooms, one for the butler, two for maid servants and the
rest for family and visitors. On the floor below them, where
the housekeeper kept state in her room hung with family
portraits, with a tartan curtained bed lined with green, there
were rooms for the Porter (who only had an old bedstead), the
Gardener, the Cook, the Servant Maids and the Laundry
Maids. If the housekeeper felt any anxiety about the proxim-
ity of all these males and females, she could confine it to the
Servant Maids and the Laundry Maids because the cook
always, in this household, seems to have been a man. and was
generally assisted by a boy. The other men on the staff were
housed above the stables where postillions and footmen slept
on 6 fixed beds, 3 tent beds, and 1 common fin bed, the
coachmen being ensconced in a curtain bed hung with green
stuff. (This room also contained a screen for drying the coach
harness on).

I have not yet come across any records of the daily food

consumption at Marchmont and a record of the number of

people at table each day as there is for Redbraes (the previous

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DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE GREAT HOUSE IN THE 209
18th CENTURY

family house). But from the quantities of meal used by the
house, by the family, by the malt house, not to mention by the
pigeons and the common swine and the fattening swine; from
the animals kept on the place: black cattle, sheep, pigs, turkeys,
hens, geese, guinea fowl, pigeons and bees, besides the dogs
and horses; from the game which was bought in areca mr
moor fowl, generally out of season to our way of thinking),
from the plants ordered for the garden and indeed from the
very existence of the garden with its staff of a gardener, 6
garden boys and other labourers; from the brew house and the
dairy; from all of these it is quite clear that a full scale feeding
operation was envisaged—and possible.

Self-sufficiency,—that concept which unlike paternalism, is
increasingly in favour now, as people, for economic or health
reasons, or merely from a desire to live a simpler and less
frenetic life,—was the basis of existence then. Lord March-
mont and his family, his retainers and his tenants could have
managed quite comfortably cut off from the outside
world. But they did not limit themselves in this way. It is
intriguing to note how much they bought and how far flung
sometimes, were the shopping expeditions. Constant large
supplies of candles from Greenlaw are to be expected (even 1n
the 1730’s 39lb was the order for 2 months), especially as
Greenlaw was very much part of the estate, containing besides
the mill and the malt house. Wine would have had to come to
Leith, as the shipments from France docked there, though one
wonders why the bottles for the wine had to be collected from
Eyemouth (did they perhaps come from Poland?), and the
corks from Berwick (ships still trade from there with
Spain?). Berwick seems to have been quite a source of sup-
ply—wood, a wainscot plank, lobsters, crabs and salmon came
from there as well as many pecks of ‘flower’ (no wheat was/is
grown at Marchmont), and quite often fine bread. But why
not? perhaps there was just rather a good baker there. Coal
came from Shoeswood and “‘Dudo’’, bellglasses for the garden
from Newcastle, and seeds from Edinburgh, with money paid
to the “‘Carrier for bringing ’em out.” The list, with items
everyday, is endless—‘“‘clouts and dishes for the milk maid,”’
“sweet almonds,” “pins, thread, cotton ribbon, silk laces for
Lady Jane,” 15 ells of windmill sails, “‘goloshes for my
Lord.” There was constant movement: the carter, one year,
made the journey to Berwick 46 times.

His colleagues when not quarrying stone for the building of
the house were hedging, ditching, bridge-building, thrashing,
leading thorns, digging out the ponds, harvesting, shearing,
plowing, levelling the ground, mowing, cleaning swine;
though one wonders what one afternoon’s entry in the work
book in 1759 entailed—‘“‘helping the dairy maids’’?—Those

210 DOMESTIC LIFE IN THE GREAT HOUSE IN THE

18th CENTURY
maids too were constantly employed as Lady Grizel’s direc-
tions illuminate: ““Keep the maids closs at their spinning till 9 at
night when they are not washing or other necessary work...
the laundry maids must be kept closs at spinning at all times
and at all times when they have not other necessary business
such as Hay and Harvest which the dairy maid goes to when
she has a moment’s time for it, and always to the miln with any
melder. The dairy maid, house maid and kitchen maid
always to spine when they are not otherways necessarily
imployed which they will often pretend to be if, they are not
diligently lookt after and keep to it.”

But there were compensations—the sense of security under a
conscientious employer and all the enjoyment of company in
hard work and relaxation. When 52 people, men and women
were haymaking as their ““Darg’’, or stipulated service, for
Lord Marchmont in the summer of 1752, for which they
received 8 stone of meal among them, there was a piper play-
ing, and he got his share of meal too.

There often seem to have been holidays enlivened by the
piper—he figures at fairs of which there were a number (Green-
law, Kelso, Simprim, St. Boswells to name but a few;) and he
appears also at a Birthday Dinner for Alexander, 2nd Lord
Marchmont: By Alex Swire pipes which he blowd upon my
Lord’s Birthday—one shilling.”

It was not always a piper, though, who provided the music at
celebrations. Lady Bell gives her mother a description of a
dinner given for Lord Polwarth which caused a certain embar-
rassment: “‘Did you ever hear Lord Polwarth tell a story about
the Grace the day he was of age?—One of the ministers had
conn’d and prepared one with no small pains; but unfortu-
nately orders had unthinkingly been given for the fiddlers to
play as soon as the company were to Dinner. So the instant
the poor Clergyman had set himself to rights and begun to
utter, the profane fiddler struck up, Polwath onthe Green. A
Scotch Grace set to the tune of a Scotch Reel was so ridiculous
an idea, as disorder’d the countenance of many, and none heard
it, but the speaker’s next neighbour who declared it was a very
well-written piece’.

To sum up, life in a well run large-house in the 18th century
was a carefully ordered, organic self-sufficient existence. Life
had its labours, its rigours, and the bustle must often have been
tremendous, but it must have been rather fun.

As the poet Laurie Lee says about his mother when she went
into service as a girl: ““The long hard days the girls had of it
then; rising before dawn, all feathered with sleep, to lay twenty
or thirty fires;.the sweeping, scrubbing, dusting and polishing
that was done but to be done again; the scouring of pyramids of
_ glass and silver; the scampering up and down stairs; and those

COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS XIII 211

irritable little bells that began ringing in tantrums just when
you'd managed to put up your feet.”

All the same, below stairs was a lusty life, an underworld of
warmth and plenty, huge meals served cosily cheek-by-jowl,
with roast joints and porter for all. Ruled by a despotic or
gin-mellow Butler and a severe or fun-fattened Cook (or
perhaps by a kindly if eagle-eyed house-keeper) the young
country girls and the grooms and the footmen stirred a seeth-
ing broth together.

COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS XIII
By DUNCAN NOBLE M.A,, Ph.D

The seventh season of excavation at Coldingham Priory took
place from the 5th to the 17th of April, 1976.

The team included Mr W. J. Webb, assistant director; Miss
P. L. James B. A. chief site supervisor; Messrs E. Dorrington
and A. Forsyth, site supervisors; Mr C. Jenkins, photographer;
and students from the University of London Department of
Extra Mural Studies and the Roehampton Institute of Higher
Education.

The excavation was sponsored by the Berwickshire
Naturalists’ Cub and we wish to thank the President, Commit-
tee, and Members for their support. Mr T. D. Thomson, of
Coldingham, again took upon himself much of the burdon of
the administration and planning, without which such an exca-
vation would be impossible.

The Borders Regional Council generously gave a grant
towards the cost of the season’s work, and we were happy to
welcome Councillor G. Craig as a visitor to the site.

The Roehampton Institute of Higher Education made finan-
cial provision so that students could work on the excavation.
Dr J. Hazeldene Walker, of Whitelands College, R.I-H.E., was
ad ey? great assistance in matters concerning the running of
the dig.

Thanks are due to Mr D. H. Caldwell, of the National
Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh, and Mr A. R. E. North of
the Victoria and Albert Museum, London, for their opinions
on the coins and metal objects.

Visitors to the site included Dr R. Fawcett, of the Depart-
ment of the Environment.

Excavation this year was 1n the cloister walk, in the modern
alley way to the north of the eastern part of Edgar’s Walls, and
in the Abbey Yard Field.

In 1975 we excavated the western wall of the chapter house
and examined the cloister walk between the chapter house and

212 COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS XIII

the cloister garth wall. The wet weather, unfortunately, forced
us to close down that area early, before any conclusions could
be reached about the construction of that part of the cloister
walk. We reopened the area in 1976 and continued excavation.

In 1975 excavation? in the eastern part of the cloister walk
had uncovered a hard surface of small stones packed in soil in
the north end of area D6. It was against the eastern wall of the
cloister garth and north of the recent path which ran, till we
removed it, from the cloister garth into the chapter house (see
site plan. Pl 1). This surface, whose possible point of junction
with the mortar floor found in 1974? alongside the east wall of
the chapter house was destroyed by the recent path, was found
by levelling to be exactly the same height above sea level as the
mortar floor. They may, therefore, be parts of the same floor,
although made of different materials.

West of the mortar floor (D5) which goes with the chapter
house wall, there was found in 1975 a very flat fine surface at
the south end of D6. Damage caused by the building of the
ornamental gardens has removed the area where this might
have joined the mortar floor, so we cannot say how these two
surfaces and the one in the north of D6 might have met. Spot
heights were taken and the very flat surface was seen to be 5cm
higher than the surface to the north and the southern part of the
mortar surface to the east. However, the flat surface is exactly
the same height above sea level as the most northerly part of the
mortar surface, which is rather uneven.

So our conclusion is that, while it is difficult to be sure, since
earth pressure may have moved them, these three surfaces are
probably, all parts of the mediaeval cloister walk, although not
necessarily of the same phase of it.

In 1972 excavation in the Abbey Yard Field led to our cutting
a section 3 (P] 2) between Edgar’s Walls Field Walls and the end
of the north-south wall in the Abbey Yard Field. This showed
that there were two ground levels to the north of Edgar’s
Walls. We set out this year to excavate down to the uppermost
of these, the surface that goes with the wall that runs south-
wards from the chapter house in the Abbey Yard Field.

We first of all examined the heritors’ wall which formed the
northern side of the alleyway along the northern face of
Edgar’s Walls. We knew from our work in 1975 that at the
point where it met the south-east corner of the cloister garth
wall, the heritors’ wall was not mediaeval. Close examination
showed that the cement on the rest of the heritors’ wall was of
very modern type and that, because of the large unmortared
irregular spaces in its interior, the wall could not possibly be
load bearing. So the heritors’ wall was removed down toa level
just above the existing ground level.

COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS XIII 2S

We then started excavating between the heritors’ wall and
Edgar’s Walls, working westwards from the 1972 B2 section.
This part was designated area F2, with level F2/1 being the fill
down to the first floor, and the same as levels B2/1 and B2/2.

First we came on a layer of earth with mortar and stone
tumble in it. Below that was that sheet, 3 cms thick, of very
yellow mortar. Below that was a 2 cms thick layer of brown
clay. Under that was a layer of dark burnt earth extending
westwards half a metre beyond the westernmost edge of the
heavy cornered buttress of Edgar’s Walls. The lower parts of
this buttress now bein Saved were seen to be of dressed
stone, contrasting with the rubble of the hitherto visible
remains of Edgar’s Walls.

In the west the dark burning meets a stone feature which
runs across the alleyway from the heritors’ wall for a length of
1.60 metres, stopping a metre short of the exterior northern
face of Edgar’s Walls. This feature consists of two courses of
four flat stones, each about 30 cms square, dressed to a rough
face to the east and very irregular to the west. Against the
western side of these stones is a pack of smaller stones which
gives the feature a full width of just over half a metre.

The dark burnt layer, as far as can be seen at present, runs
underneath the heritors’ wall and also under the stone feature.

Underneath the black burnt layer is a surface of compacted
mud and pebbles, with occasional patches of mortar on it.
There can be no doubt that this is the same surface as the upper
floor seen in the B2 section and that the dark burnt layer is
occupation or destruction debris. This compacted surface
seems to run under the heritors’ wall and the north-south stone
feature, as far as can be seen from visual inspection without
removing them.

West of the stone feature, the levels above the compacted
surface east of the feature were not found. There was instead a
fill of mixed nature going down toa hard surface, probably the
same as the compacted one to the east of the feature. The
various layers of soil above the black layer east of the feature do
not run right up to contact with the feature, so it is possible that
the feature is later than the fill to the east.

Lying on the surface to the west was a coin which has been
identified by Mr Caldwell as a Nuremburg jetton of between
the second half of the 16th and the 17th centuries. Associated
with the fill immediately above the floor was a black farthing
of James III, of the first issue of 1466.4

In the course of the excavation of this area the easternmost
gap in the north face of Edgar’s Walls was cleared out and a fine
doorway revealed. The door was hung on the eastern side of
the doorway and opened outwards from Edgar’s Walls. In the

214 COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS XIII

eastern return of the doorway was found the stump of an iron
bar, set in lead in to the stone. This must be the remains of a
door hinge. In the centre of the doorway were several iron
objects which may be nails or studs, possibly the remains of the
door fittings. The door was hung well to the inside of the
doorway and when fully open would not have projected more
than 35 cm beyond the outer face of Edgar’s Walls.

The door is lower by 25 cm than the floor represented by the
top of the compacted layer outside. Measurements indicate
that it is just 5 cm above the lower floor surface in B2, which
has not yet been excavated, under the one dug this year. The
base of the nearest interior pillar inside Edgar’s Walls is 26 cm
below the doorway and 21 cm below the outside lower ground
level at the corner. No conclusions can yet be drawn about the
relationship between the doorway, the floors in the cloister
walk, and the interior of Edgar’s Walls.

Inside the doorway, immediately inside Edgar’s Walls, was
found a fine wrought iron chandelier which could hold two
half-inch diameter candles (PI 3). It was probably made by a
local blacksmith and could by its style be of any date between
the 14th and 18th centuries. It must be regarded as unstratified
as it was in the area of the trench dug by King-Hunter in
1854-56, but it is a beautiful piece of metalwork.

Excavation outside the east end of Edgar’s Walls produced
their base. There is a substantial corner buttress which extends
at its bottom 60 cms out from the wall and is 2.2 metres from
east to west. The eastern face is much robbed out, but the
indications are that its dimensions were the same. Ona founda-
tion of flat rubble sit two courses of chamfered sandstone, and
above them survives one course of vertical ashlar masonry.
The compacted floor found in F2 north of Edgar’s Walls is ona
level with the upper chamfered course. The top of the ashlar
course is level with the junction between level B2/2 on the B2
section which contains a good deal of mortar and level B2/1
above it which contains more earth and rubble. The lowest
floor in the B2 section is on a level with the bottom of the
lowest course of Edgar’s Walls.

At present, and more digging has yet to be done in this area,
the hypothesis is that Edgar’s Walls were built and a cobbled
surface ran north from them. Then the north-south wall in the
Abbey Yard Field was built, coming to within a metre of the
north-east corner of Edgar’s Walls, one metre higher up. A
new ground surface, the one which we have been excavating in
F 2, was laid down at this greater elevation. The eastern door-
way in Edgar’s Walls must have been raised also, or else the
door would have not opened fully, but no trace of this altera-
tion remains.

COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS XIII 215

Then at some time at or after the beginning of the seven-
teenth century Edgar’s Walls were burnt down, leaving black
char on the ground outside. Some molten lead, which we
found just outside the doorway, splashed down from the
roof. The ground to the north, passageway or room, was raised
by the tumble from Edgar’s Walls, and then people came and
robbed out the ashlar facing down to the level of the tumble.
Over the years the ground level rose, till by the end of the
eighteenth century there were only a few feet of Edgar’s Walls
projecting above the ground.

To the east of Edgar’s Walls, ona line with the southern limit
of Romanes’ excavation there was found a fragment of wall
measuring 1.30 metres east to west and projecting 60 cm from
the southern limit of our excavation. This wall was originally,
before the robbing, up against the east wall of Edgar’s Walls. Its
stratigraphical connection with the rest of the site is unknown
at present. It was not excavated by Romanes, but was cleared
by King-Hunter and not recorded.

On the very last day of the excavation, such is the nature of
these things, we discovered at a distance of three and a half
metres east from Edgar’s Walls, the top of a two metre length
of a fine ashlar wall. The uppermost course of this wall, buried
in Romanes’ rubble, is below the level of Edgar’s Walls, and
only two courses of its beautiful masonry were exposed before
we had to plan and recover it. We cannot say how deep are the
foundations of this wall, which does not appear on the Wilson
Paterson plans. It is, from its position, depth, and good work-
manship, of particular interest.

We continued excavation in the Abbey Yard Field and it is
appropriate to point out that the trench B1 shown on the site
plan (PI 1) is of the 1970 season. Consideration of the relation-
ship of the pits in that trench to the building in B3 is held over.
We dug in area B3, which had been cleared down to the bottom
of Romanes’ backfill before the weather broke in 1975. We
worked westwards to link the B3 area with the north-south
wall excavated in 1972 (discussed in another context above).

It will be recalled that in 1974 a stone rubble wall was founds
running south-west to north-east five metres south-east of the
chapter house. From this wall another wall ran south-east,
dividing the building into room I to the west and room II to the
east. The first surface we found in these rooms under Romanes’
rubble was a layer of red clay. The wall between the rooms was
of stone for its northernmost half metre. South of that, as it was
left at the end of 1975 before backfilling, the wall was a ridge of
the same red clay.®

Romanes backfill was removed between the 1975 area of
operations and the north-south wall.

COLDINGHAM PRIORY 1976

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220 COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS XIII

The red clay level (B3/1) we found in room II was found also
extending westwards into room I for 30 cm from the wall
between the rooms, and also over the western end of room I. In
the eastern part of room I, between the two areas of red clay,
we found a very black burnt surface, with, towards the north,
where the red clay met the black surface, a considerable
amount of charcoal. This black surface is B3/2.

In level B3/1 we found mediaeval pottery and also two nails.
The level appears to be of mediaeval date. The red clay surface
B3/1 lay over the black surface B3/2 where they met. At the
junction the red clay was 1 cm thick, but it was up to 15 cm
thick at the western end of the excavated area.

To the north the portion of the red clay surface B3/1 which
was in the west part of the room and the black surface B3/2 ran
up to astone filled gully halfa metre wide which was alongside
the southern side of the northern wall of the room. The south-
ern edge of the gully was vertical, as ifit had been cut out with
tools. The red clay ran over this gully, while the black surface
stopped short of it.

In the southern part of the room a large circular pit (pit 6)
was found. Most of it is beyond our present area of operations.
The part revealed measured 4.5 metres from east to west and
1.5 metres from north to south. The red clay surface and the
black surface did not extend over it. The pit was filled with
dark greyish brown soil containing occupational debris such as
food bones, potsherds, pieces of corroded iron, and a short

iece of thin copper tubing 6 cms long and a few millimetres in
ore.

Returning toa consideration of the floor of the room, a grey
occupation deposit (B3/3) was found under the red clay level
B3/1. It was often under one centimetre thick and nowhere
more than three centimetres in depth. It consisted of soil with
mortar and animal bones in it. Sealed under the red layer B3/1,
and between it and the occupation layer B3/3 was found a gilt
copper fleur-de-lis mounting (Pl 4). Such mountings, Mr
Caldwell informs us, were applied to clothing and other
accoutrements in mediaeval times. This one has the remains of
a tiny rivet in the lower part of the back. It could be dated to the
15th-16th centuries.

Under B3/3 was discovered a white mortar surface which
also formed the bottom of pit 6. It stopped at the gully to the
north. It seems at present as if the burnt surface B3/2 and the
mortar surface may be contemporary in different parts of the
room, with the clay surface being (ie than both of them.
Unusual finds lying on the mortar surface were nine very
fragile brush bristles, 35 mm long and 0.5 mm thick. They are
not modern.

COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS XIII 221

0 AeM

To the west it was seen that the red clay B3/1 ran up to the
face of the north-south wall and stopped there. There the top of
the clay was 35 cm below the existing top of the wall and the
clay itself was 30 cm thick. The clay was seen to run under the
short length of wall which runs eastwards from the north-
south wall’s southern end, so this short wall may be later.

The ridge of red clay between rooms I| and II was sectioned,
in the expectation of finding a southward extension of the
stone wall. To our surprise the ridge was found to be com-
pletely of red clay with fairly small stones init. Room II has not
yet been excavated below the level of the red clay B3/1.

As the southern part of this building has not yet been exca-
vated it is better to postpone any consideration of the pottery
associated with it. Still, one must attempt some provisional
interpretation.

One which fits in with the available evidence is that the
building had stone foundations under the wall, but the parti-
tion wall between the rooms was of red clay and stone pisé de
terre. The floor was covered with a mortar mix on which
occupation debris accumulated. The building ran up to the
oh wall, which may also have served as its western
wall.

When the building was abandoned a robber trench was dug
vertically down along the inside of its northern wall. Then,
possibly after the roof had been removed, the pisé washed
down and covered the floor, except in the eastern part of room
I where the black soil remained visible. The short west-east
wall was built on top of this collapsed pisé and the shallow pit 6

222 COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS XIII

was dug through the collapsed pisé, but not right through the
mortar floor, whose thickness is at present unknown to us.

There is interesting evidence concerning the roof. Three
post holes were found in room I aligned east-west, almost in a
straight line. The eastern hole (PH2) is circular and 70 cm
across. It is 70 cm deep and filled with reddish brown clay with
small pieces of rock in it. Up against its western side is the
cavity, filled with grey mud, left by the 17 cm square post. The
post, 2 metres away from the centre of the eastern wall of room
I, had a flat foot, slightly chamfered on the western side. Post
hole 3 (PH3), the western one, 2.8 metres to the west of PH2,
was not excavated, but the mark ofa post of similar dimensions
to post 2 was seen.

Between these two post holes, 1.6 metres from PH2 and 1.3
metres from PH3 is a larger post hole (PH1) 1.2 metres in
diameter and 80 cm deep, filled with the same kind of material
as PH2. Just south-east of its centre, and 20 cm north of a direct
line between the other posts, we found the preserved water-
logged stump of a wooden post 60 cm high and measuring 24
by 34 cm across. It was chamfered on its western face to give a
flat foot of smaller area than the cross section of the post. These
posts must have supported a ridge pole which, as the posts are
not in a straight line, was probably made in two parts.

Work was done on the masons’ marks of Coldingham and
the Borders. This will be the subject of a separate report.

1: Noble: H:B:N.C. XE. Pt2..1975 pp. 0-iie
2. Noble: H.BIN-C. XL. Pel 21974 p-25
3: Noble: EL BINtG.2X Xx XI, Pt2. 1972 p02

4. see I. M. Stewart: The Scottish Coinage, London. 1970.
p.56, EL Will 113

5... Noble. ELBAN CXL, Ptl W974. p.27
6. Nobles TIER ING@? XLaPtZ, 1975. p10

PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE IN
PE EAthsCENTURY

By MARGARET ELLIOT

In Scotland before the Reformation there were grammar
schools in the main burghs and often song schools attached to
the churches there, while the children of the rich might have
private pedagogues. The country parishes, however, were neg-
lected in education as in other respects, and the Reformers
made it part of their policy from 1560 onwards to set up a
school in every parish. Little progress was made at first, but
during the seventeenth century the essential matter of provid-
ing funds was tackled by successive Education Acts, which
gave presbyteries or bishops, according to which system of
Bich government was in force at the time, powers to impose
an education rate. Thus the Privy Council Act of 1616, which
specified that a school should be established in every parish
‘upon the expensis of the parrochinaris according to the quan-
titie and qualitie of the parroche, at the sight and be the advise
of the bischop of the Boe .., was followed by an Act of
Parliament in 1633 empowering the bishops ‘to set down ane
stent upon everie plough(land) or husbandland. . . for mainte-
nance and establisching of the saide schooles.’ In 1646, episco-
pacy having been abolished, the presbyteries were given pow-
ers to stent the heritors, and the financial provision was now
prescribed as ‘a commodious hous for the schole and... a
stipend to the scholemaster whiche sall not be under ane hun-
dereth merkis nor above tua hundereth merkis to be payit
yeirlie at tuo termes’. These improvements in salary became
unenforceable when the presbyterian legislation was repealed
in 1661, but the terms annie 1633 Act automatically became
law again and the bishops resumed responsibility. When pres-
byterianism had been re-established an Education Act passed
in 1696 repeated the salary provisions of the 1646 Act, and gave
it extra teeth, in that the Commissioners of Supply received
powers to stent the heritors if necessary.

It is difficult to assess how effective this legislation was in
Berwickshire because the source material is extremely scanty
for the first half of the century and hardly satisfactory for the
second. Nevertheless a survey of the surviving presbytery and
parish records brings me to the conclusion that while there
were very few schools in the county in 1627 most parishes had
one by the sixteen-fifties at latest. There is positive evidence for
the existence of schools in thirteen of the thirty five parishes
before 1660, and no indication that schools in most of the other
parishes are new foundations when they first appear in the
records after that date; they are mentioned because the school-
master lacks ‘legal maintenance’, a salary legally enforceable on

223

224 PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE IN THE
17th CENTURY

the heritors. Moreover the parishes where schools are
recorded before 1660 are not only the larger villages, burghs
and ecclesiastical centres such as Ayton, Chirnside, Colding-
ham, Coldstream, Duns, Gordon, Greenlaw and Lauder: they
include the country parishes of Cockburnspath, Hutton,
Ellem, Polwarth and Westruther. Since it is only the accident of
survival of documents that gives us evidence for these places I
assume that other country parishes were in the same state,
either already having schools in the 1650’s or like Channelkirk,
Ellem and possibly Longformacus setting them up in that
decade. If the arrangements for paying the schoolmaster broke
down and he left, or vice versa, the minister was prompt to
report to the presbytery that he had no school nor mainten-
ance, as at Ellem in 1667, ‘the want of a school being notour’,
and Bunkle and Preston in 1683. The delays experienced in
persuading heritors to stent themselves make it clear why an
Act involving the Commissioners of Supply was needed in
1696; indeed several of the parishes in the Duns Presbytery did
not get a legal salary settled even under that Act until about
1720. Long before that, however, schools had existed in
those same parishes and some support from heritors was forth-
coming, stimulated by the previous Acts, though seldom so
generous as they specified. The Duns Presbytery’s edict of
1663 ‘that everie Minister within his bounds bring in to the
Presbyterie all chaplins pedagogs and schoolmasters to sub-
scrybe the acts of the synod and oath of alleageance’ indicates
that it was generally assumed that there was at least one school
in every parish, and from then on it was the absence of a
schoolmaster, not his presence, that was noteworthy.

Even where the heritors were backward in submitting to a
stent there was a living to be made for the schoolmaster. He
was usually reader, session clerk and precentor as well, and
often received an annual fee as such from the church’s own
funds, which were derived from collections at the church door
and from penalties imposed by the session for offences such as
fornication. He would be entitled to the ‘casualties’, or dues
paid by the parishioners for baptisms, marriages and funerals.
The children’s parents were obliged to pay school fees, and
when they coulcnee afford them the money might be found by
the elders from the poor box. In a few places there were
enough children to support a second school, which was not
always regarded as a threat to the parish school, particularly if
kept by a woman. But unless a schoolmaster’s salary was
‘settled’, i.e., legally enforceable on the heritors under the Act,
he was likely to find it difficult to get it paid. Even where the
law backed his claims he had often to present them himself, and
in a country where money was often short be would have

PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE IN THE 225
17th CENTURY

nothing to leave his heirs but the debts owed him by dilatory
heritors. He was fortunate in some parishes in being pro-
vided with a small plot of land as well as a house, to help to feed
his family.

In some of the parishes, particularly the older towns, sec-
ondary or Latin-based education was also provided. A
schoolmaster with a university degree was required; he would
always be given the prefix Mr. in any document..Later in the
century some of the country parishes also aspired to a Latin
school. Education for the sons of the gentry was usually pro-
vided at home by a young graduate chaplain or pedagogue
who hoped eventually to be ordained as minister of a
parish. For example, we have the following list from Chirn-
side Presbytery in 1700:!

Mr. Patrick Lawrie, Pedagogue to Sir Robert Hume of
Renton

Mr. Robert Moncrieff, Governor to Lord Dunglass at the
school of Ayton

Mr. Andrew Cochran, Governor to (—) Morriston at Gray-
doun

Mr. John Campbell, Chaplain at Swinton House

Mr. John Jenkinson, Chaplain to Sir Robert Stewart of Allan-
bank

Mr. George Ridpeth, Pedagogue to Kimmerghame Younger.

Mr. Campbell later became Minister at Cranshaws, and Mr.
Ridpeth at Ladykirk.

The parishes of Berwickshire are here considered in
alphabetical order in groups according to the presbyteries to
which they belonged in the seventeenth century, namely
Chirnside, Duns and Earlston, plus the single parish of Cock-
burnspath from the presbytery of Dunbar, and Hume (with
Stichil) belonging to Kelso. Where the minutes of the Presbyt-
ery meetings still exist they sometimes mention schools in
their reports on the brethren’s visitations of the parishes, and
the surviving kirk session records give us some evidence parish
by parish which is occasionally filled out from other surviving
documents such as the collection in the Duns County Library
edited by Miss Grace A. Elliot.

Chirnside Presbytery was united with that of Duns for the
years 1690-1698, and no minutes survive for the preceding
period. Three of its parishes, Lennel, Mordington and Swin-
ton, are included in the Reports to the Commissioners on the
State of Certain Parishes in 1627; none of them had a school,
and it may be assumed that most of the other parishes were in
the same case, since none are in the special position of either

Ayton or Coldingham, both of which had schools before that

226 PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE IN THE
17th CENTURY

date. By 1700, however, there were schools in thirteen of the
fourteen parishes, and by 1708, in answer to an enquiry by the
synod, it could be stated that “all the parishes within the bounds
of the presbytery have schools’.?

The parish of Ayton had a Latin school in the town, and the
first master of whom we have record is Mr. Leonard Hous-
ton, who left Ayton to become minister of Ellem some time
before 1624 (By the time he retired from Ellem he was called
Leonard Millar; see below under the burgh of Duns.) There
is no evidence for the next fifty years, and the next master we
hear of is George Christison, who as ‘late schoolmaster in
Ayton’ sent his account to ‘Alexander Home of Sclaithous’ in
1675 ‘for learning Alexander Home and John Home; for learn-
ing John Home after Alexander Home went to Coldingham
school; for learning Dorathie Home ane year’. Possibly Christ-
ison was followed by Mr. Robert Bowmaker, who was
schoolmaster at Ayton in 1680 and left to become minister at St
Bathans in 1682. Then in 1695 we find John Comb, not yet
qualified, being accepted as schoolmaster, and by 1700 he has
his degree and signs the confession of faith as Mr. John
Colm. At this time the young Lord Dunglass is at the Ayton
school, with his governor Mr. Robert Moncrieff; the latter fell
foul of the Presbytery for his ‘haughty insolence’ in the matter
of signing the confession of faith, and reference was to be made
to Lord Home about him.

The parish school of Chirnside was already in existence in
1660, when the extant Kirk Session book starts. The school-
master was Archibald Purdie, who also acted as session clerk;
poor scholars were paid for from the box, and there was a sum
of £4 allowed in 1663 for mending the school. In 1664 Purdie
was delated to the session for drunkenness, but there was
evidence to clear him and he was continued in his charge; he left
it, however, some time in 1665, and was granted a testimonial
(disjunction certificate) in November 1666 on moving away
from the parish. James Lennox, the new schoolmaster, was
admitted clerk to the session in June 1666. The session
granted ten shillings for a lock and key for the schoolhouse the
next month, and in 1669 ‘the minister and session has
appointed the first penaltie that shall happen to come into the
box that it shall be given to the schoolmaster for making of a
writing table in the school for the schollars’. The schoolmas-
ter had previously borrowed 50 merks from the session, and on
the same date in 1669 ‘considering the great paines (he) hath
been at these many years bygone in thatching and keeping the

school watertight’ they waived the ‘annual rents’ (interest) due
onthesum. The records after this are scrappy, but improve

PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE IN THE 227
17th CENTURY

from 1690 under anew minister. In May, 1691 ‘It is ordained
that the Elders in several quarters of the paroch speak to these
Be ons that have their children at the woman School that they
orbear to keep their boyes at the said schooll’. Was the distance
to the parish school too great, or the master there too stern, that
parents preferred the dame school? In any case we see that
people did seek out education for their girls too, even if it was
different from that considered suitable for boys. The name of
the schoolmaster and precentor in 1695 was Alexander Cock-
burn, whose wife was Isobel Hoom; he was still there in 1702.4

In Coldingham, where the Priory had been a centre of literacy
in the Middle Ages, we find a recordofa schoolmaster in 1590;
he was Andrew Watson, who in 1593 became minister of the
parish. Perhaps the school kept going without interruption; in
1652 a Mr. James Greisson was Session Clerk and probably
also schoolmaster. in 1670 “William Whyte, Schoolmr. at Col-
dingham’ gives a receipt to ‘Wm Craw of Heughhead for his
proportion of the stent roll for the schoolmaster of Colding-
ham; full and complete payment and satisfaction from Whit-
sunday 1669 till Whitsunday 1670’. Here we have an example
of the arrangements for stenting working satisfactorily under
the law. Some time before 1675 young Alexander Hume of
Sclaithous went on to Coldingham school from Ayton, which
indicates the relative status of the two, or perhaps simply the
relative merits of the schoolmasters. In 1700 Mr. Richard
Smith was the master, and stayed till 1716 or longer.$

The parish of Coldstream, which was properly called Lennel
until 1718, also had a schoolmaster qualified to teach Latin by
the end of the century. In 1627 it was reported that there was no
school or foundation to pay a master, although there were
great numbers of young children, and maintenance could well
be provided in view of the size of the teinds. In 1659 James
Oswald was session clerk and may have been schoolmaster as
well, since he is named as such in his widow’s will, but other
documents refer to him as a notary. Next was George Fortune,
who was schoolmaster by 1663 and until 1669 or later. When
the kirk session records start in 1690 we find Mr. William
Willis being appointed session clerk, but there seems to have
been some trouble about the position of schoolmaster. The
session resolves in March 1691 that two elders are ‘to speak to
Geo. Kinghorn in Coldstream and tell him that it is the mind of
the session that he put away the man who keeps school in his
house being that he is a stranger not attested and a most profane
wretch’. ‘The elders report the next week that ‘they spoke to
George Kinghorn . . . he told them he was to go to the end of
the next month wherefore the session thought fit to forbear
medling in this affair at this time; only it was enacted, That no

228 PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE IN THE
17th CENTURY

man should keep school within the parish without leave first
asked and given of the session’. The next week they formally
allow Mr. W. Willis ‘to tak up school and to keep it in the
Abbey of Coldstream’. Perhaps George Kinghorn’s tenant
had moved in to teach in the parish in an interregnum between
pee attested and appointed schoolmasters. Mr. Willis

imself did not stay more than a few months; in November
1691 Alexander Trotter, one of the elders of Lennel, ‘was
spray to speak to My Lady Rothes when he went to
Edinburgh about ane other schoolmaster’, and meanwhile
John Brown, junior, was chosen to be clerk till the session
should be better provided. This took some time, and in July
of the next year the session was considering inviting a presbyt-
ery visit ‘for the ordering of the church affairs and in order to
the settling of a schoolmaster’. But the children did not
escape entirely; in January 1693 one of the elders was ‘to speak
to aschoolmistress who remains in Agnes Ramsay’s anent her
testificat’, and in February payment of half a dollar for four
poor scholars was made to one James Greir. Then in June we
find Mr. John Scott ‘received to be session clerk having a call
signed by all the heritors of the parish to be schoolmaster at
Coldstream’. He was followed in 1698 by Adam Mill, who
by 1700 was known as Mr. Adam Miln and later became
minister of Melrose.®

At Edrom John Lockie or Lockhart must have been school-
master in 1681 when the Test Oath was imposed, because in
1691 when he is in trouble with the Presbytery, apparently on
other grounds, he ‘acknowledges his fault in taking of the Test,
professing sorrow for it, promising to behave in future as his
station requires’. The Presbytery allowed him ‘to continue in
his office with certification if he be hereafter found guilty of
drunkeness or other scandalous behaviour that he shall be
deposed’.”

Eyemouth is almost entirely undocumented. In 1699 James
Watson, late schoolmaster, was leaving the parish; we cannot
tell how long he had been there. The same year Mr. John
Anderson was settled as schoolmaster after a ‘trial’ in which he
showed pretty well on the classical authors.§

Foulden is another parish almost unrecorded. In 1698 a
schoolmaster called David Logh was approved and confirmed
in office by the Presbytery, and was still there in 1700.?

At Hutton in 1651 ‘David Home schoolmaster reports’ to the
session “That he spake Wm. Sumervail annent the littil thing he
~ gettis of the lands of Lintonhall zeirlie (yearly) and that the said

PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE IN THE 229
17th CENTURY

William refused to pay him because of the laird his absence
untill he gets an act of the session for his warrantie. The
session grants ane act in the said David’s favoris and appoints it
to be extracted (copied) and send to the said Wm. Sumervail
with the kirk officer’. When David Home’s will was proved
in 1677 he had no property and no debts, but was owed money
by Patrick and Robert Home, Adam Nisbet and George and
William Kerr amounting to £309. 18s. 8d., probably unpaid
salary which he had been unable to collect from them in spite of
legal entitlement and kirk session pressure. In 1700 the
EP ioalmaster at Hutton was John Hoom or Hume, who may
or may not have been related to David. He was not qualified
to teach Latin, and he was rebuked for having lost the kirk
session book. ?°

The Presbytery visited Ladykirk in 1695 and found that the
schoolmaster, James Home, was ‘both scandalous and insuffi-
cient’. ‘They agreed he should be tested, and the next month
‘the brethren appointed to examine James Home reported that
they find him defective in his Arithmetick particularly in the
rule of division and the other rules’. But although the parish
now wanted a better qualified man and one who could teach
Latin they found no grounds for dismissing James Home and a
compromise was reached whereby he would demit the offices
of precentor and schoolmaster but would continue to do the
bedell’s duties in the parish and receive ‘all the dues of the
funerals half of marriages and half of baptisms’. In the event
James Home’s son officiated for him when required, while he
himself, living outside the parish but not far away, taught an
English school which was tolerated. The first new Latin
schoolmaster was John Murray, who was required to do
penance for a disorderly marriage (probably conducted by a
minister outwith the established church) before taking the
job. Two years later, in 1697, one Watson is precentor, fol-
lowed in the same year by John Young, who is “established as
schoolmaster, the heritors consenting’, which implies that they
were paying his salary. He did also have to act as bedell and
gravedigger, the fee of 10s. to be paid by the parish in the case
of a poor person’s grave; and for teaching poor children he was
to get 12s. from the box. The parish still tolerated more than
one school: Agnes or Anna Brackenden was sometimes paid
for teaching poor scholars, though she was also on the roll for
receiving charity herself.14

At Mordington in 1627 ‘there is ane great necessitie of ane skule
for not ane of the paroche can reid nor wryt except the Minister
but no foundation’. This parish was united until 1666 with

230 PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE IN THE
17th CENTURY

Longformacus, but obviously they were too far apart to share a
school. In 1691 the Presbytery took action, recommending to
‘the heritors and elders to stent themselves for a schoolmaster
conform to the act of Parliament’. The Presbytery thought the
school should be at Mordington Church, but the next year
there was some discussion with Lady Lammerton, who was
dealing with the presbytery about her seat in the kirk, and
‘anent the school she was satisfied it should be at Lammerton
Dyke’. A few weeks later the minister calls the heritors to settle
aschoolmaster. All this makes it look as if the school set up in
1692 was anew foundation, but there is no record to show that
it had not been in existence earlier and had lapsed. 1?

Simprim school is only mentioned by the Rev. Thomas
Boston in his memoirs; he inspected it on his first visit to the
cake in 1699. There is however an indication that there may

ave been a schoolmaster there in the 1670’s; John Wallace,
who kept the parish accounts, acknowledges receipt of £1. 6s.
8d. ‘for my Whit-Sundayes Shoes’, and again at Martin-
mas. In some parishes it was the officer or bedell who was
given money for shoes, but at Gordon the schoolmaster and
session clerk was paid partly in this way, so this may have been
Simprim’s method too.13

Swinton had no school in 1627—‘but most necessar being ane
multitude of poor common people’. One was established
some time before 1693 when the schoolmaster, Thomas
Brook, witnessed a bond. In 1700 the Presbytery approved
the appointment of George Watson as schoolmaster.!4

At Whitsome the evidence for a schoolmaster’s existence in
1694 comes from the scandalous behaviour of his daughter,
Agnes Brown, with some dragoons. She was not the only
girl in the parish delated for this offence.»

Hilton, united with Whitsome in 1734, does not appear in the
records before the end of the seventeenth century.

1 Chirnside Presb. Mins. 1 Oct 1700
2 Maitland Club, Vol. 34; Chirnside Presb. Mins 24 Feb 1708

3 Fasti; Berwickshire Documents in Duns County Library, Folio 3, Folder 30;
Gordon K. S. Mins 29 Oct 1680; Home Papers (Nat. Reg. Archives Survey
859) Box 19, Folder 2; Chirnside and Duns Presb, Mins 22 May 1695; Chirns.
Presb. Mins 1 Oct 1700, 15 Jul 1701.

4 Chirnside K. S. Mins 13 Aug 1661; 26 Jul, 2 Dec 1662; Feb 1663; 26 Jun 1664; 4
Nov, 17 Jun, 11 Jul 1666; Jan 1669; 24 May 1691; Berwicks. Docts Chirnside
Folio, Folder 2; Chirns. Presb. Mins 1 Oct 1700; Chirns K. S. Mins 13 Nov
1702.

PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE IN THE 231
Wis CENTURY

5 Fasti; Greenlaw K. S. Mins 31 Apr 1652; Berwicks. Docts Folio 3, Folder 29;
Chirns. Presb. Mins 1 Oct 1700.

© Report to Commissioners, 1627; Greenlaw K. S. Mins 3 Apr 1659; Lauder
Commissariat, Will of Elizabeth Storie, relict of Jas Oswald, sometime
schoolmaster at Coldstream, 1682; Part. Reg of Sasines, 24 Jul 1663, 7 Sep 1669;
Coldstream K. S. Mins 28 Dec 1690; 8, 15, 22 Mar; 21 Nov; 27 Dec 1691; 1 Jul
1692; Jan, 12 Feb, 4 Jun 1693; Chirns. and Duns Presb. Mins Mar 1698; Chirns.
Presb. Mins 1 Oct 1700.

7 Chirns. and Duns Presb. Mins 21 May 1691.

8 Chirns. Presb. Mins 3 Oct, 6 Apr 1699; 1 Oct 1700.

9 Chirns. and Duns Presb. Mins Mar 1698; Chirns. Presb. Mins 1 Oct 1700.

10 Hutton K. S. Mins 10 Aug 1651; Lauder Tests 1 Jun 1677; Chirns. Presb.
Mins 1 Oct 1700, 6 May 1701.

11 Chirns. and Duns Presb. Mins 18 Apr, 22 May, 18 Jun 1695; 16 Sep 1697;
Ladykirk K. S. Mins 21 Nov 1697, 27 Mar, 17 Apr 1698.

12 Report, 1627; Chirns. and Duns Presb. Mins 21 May, 9 Jun 1691; 5 Jan, 3 Mar
1692.

13 Simprim K. S. Mins 5 Aug 1677; Apr 1678; Gordon K. S. Mins 19 Dec 1686.

14 Report 1627; Berwicks. Docts Folio 11, Folder 23; Chirns. Presb. Mins 21
Nov 1700

15 Chirns. and Duns Presb. Mins 4 Dec 1694.
(To Be Continued)

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234

FURTHER EXTRACTS FROM THE CORRES-
PONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY WITH
MRS JANE BARWELL-CARTER.

Letter 84. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
Dec. 26, 1882.

Dear Mrs. Carter,

I owe you a letter, and may as well as other friends send you
my compliments at this propitious season. I have cultivated the
acquaintance of Mr. Batters, and he has engaged to furnish a list
of Berwick Algae for the present number of the “‘Proceed-
ings’. He was speaking of a Plate last time I heard from him,
but plates are expenisve, and it appeared to be not necessary at
present; and there are other illustrations to be paid for. We need
some clever member who could etch. I have not written to
your Edinburgh correspondent as yet, but hope to do so, when
requisite.

In the beginning of the month, or end of November, I have
not the precise time, I was for two days, or part of them, at
Milne Graden, for the purpose of inspecting a curious artificial
hillock surrounded by a trench and rampart, at Castle Law near
Hirsel. It is something like a Mote hill. It was a raw day with
snow on the ground, and with a mist on the uplands, the
prospect was not very inviting. It is within view of Wark
Castle. I thought of our friend Mr. Cunningham not very far
off, but Coldstream never came into view. In consequence of
that visit I have had several communications, among others
one from Sir John Marjoribanks, with a drawing of a bronze
spear head recently found at Bowsdean.

I am busy collecting facts about some North Northumber-
land parishes, especially Wooler, preparatory for the meeting
there in 1883. Young Mr. Culley has been collecting informa-
tion for me, about Copeland and neighbourhood; and also Mr.
Selby of Pawston; family memoranda, and such like.

Our printing has commenced but our President has not yet
completed his account of the year’s proceedings. I left him to
do this, furnishing him with notes. I got more about the
Hounam district than I was able to put into the report. I hope it
will be better known in the future. It is these out of the way
places that we should specially cultivate. I see the people there
are notorious salmon poachers.

I am getting a paper on Jedburgh Abbey, and have got notes
on the geology of the country above Mossburnford. It was
strange none of my friends took me in that direction in times
gone by. We generally made for Ruberslaw, or Ancrum, or
Penielheugh, and in one instance to Crailing Dean. Mr Stobbs

CLUB MEETINGS IN 1976 235

of Gordon and I have a walk planned across by Oxnam to
Blindburn on the Coguet, he to fish, and I to botanise. The
head waters of Coquet have not been examined. The country is
wild and cheerless, but it suits my love of quiet.

The other day I got a very fair sketch from Miss Dand,
Morwick, of some sculptured rocks on the Coquet. There 1s
another drawing to come. They may be used next year. This is
a very good way in which young ladies can help us.

Our storm has gone by but it rather threatens another. We
are very diligent improving the interval in the field labours. We
had a shipwreck within view, but I did not go down, as I saw
from here, the ship’s crew land in their own boat. It was not a
place where any one could be drowned, as the vessel came close
to the beach. Two of the men were drunk, and had to be taken
off with the rocket apparatus.

We have primroses and monthly roses still in the garden, but
they lack admirers at this season. The birds eat a number of the
primroses, and we have great flocks.

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

Note.—Edward A. L. Batters, LL.B.,F.L.S. (1860-1907), barrister,
was admitted to the Club in 1883. He produced a “‘List of the
Marine Algae of Berwick-upon-Tweed” (HBNC XII, 221-
392). For an obituary notice see HBNC XX. 215-6.

CLUB MEETINGS IN 1976

1st. Kelso Parish Church, ‘“‘Walk-about’’ Kelso, Makers-

toun.

2nd. Craigcrook Castle, Royal Botanic Garden, Gallery of
Modern Art.

3rd _ ‘Paxton House, Union Bridge, Lennel House.

4th Auldhame Old Mansion, Seacliff House,
Adjacent Coastline.

5th Roddam Hall, Ingram Church, Northumberland
National Park Information Centre, Brough Law.

AGM Ladythorne House in morning.

236

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— ETD aS

LIST OF MEMBERS

*Those marked with an Asterisk are Ex-Presidents

LIFE MEMBERS

Date of

Admission

Cockburn, J. W.; Heriot Water, Cockburnspath 1925

Dodds, Mrs.; Davorgilla House, George Street, Dumfries. 1951

*Elliot, W. R.; 32, Victoria Street, Aberdeen. 1936
*Finnie, Rev. J. I. C.; 6, Horsleys Park, St. Andrews, Fife. 1953
Purves, Thomas; 18, Castle Terrace, Berwick-upon-T weed. 1923

*Swinton, Mrs. E. K.; Swinton House, Duns. 1923

ORDINARY MEMBERS

Addison, Mrs. O. S.; Coverheugh Cottage, Reston, Eyemouth.

TD14 5LE
Aitchison, H. A.; Lochton, Coldstream.
Allen, as E. D.; 47, Ladywell Road, Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-
Tweed.
Allison, Mrs. E.; 1, West End, Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-T weed.
Anderson, A.; ““Balgownie’’, Coldstream, Berwickshire.
Anderson, Mrs. M. S.; ““Balgownie’’, Coldstream, Berwickshire.

Appleyard, Miss Ethel H.; M. A., J. P. Longknowe, Alnmouth Road,

Alnwick.
Askew, Major J. M.; Ladykirk House, Norham.
Ayre, Mrs. V. M.; Marshall Meadows, Berwick.

Bagley, Mrs. E.; 39, West Street, Norham, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Baker, Mrs. Jean K.; 10, Temperance Terrace, Berwick-upon-T weed

Barber, Antony O.; Newham Hall, Chathill.

Barber, Mrs. M. P.; Western House, Lowick, Northumberland.
TD15 2UD

Barker, Mrs. Claire H.; 19 Quay Walls, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Bathgate, Mrs. C.; Langshaw Lodge, Galashiels.

Bell, Mrs. H.; Ninewells Mains, Chirnside, Duns, Berwickshire.

Bennet, Miss M. E.; Elton Cottage, Donaldson’s Lodge, Cornhill-on-

Tweed.

Bennet, Hon. George W.; Polwarth House, Greenlaw.
Beveridge, Miss Anne; 29, Duke Street, Coldstream.

*Binnie, Dr. G. A. C.; Buchan Lodge, Norham.
Binnie, Mrs. B. E; Buchan Lodge, Norham.
Blair, Miss A. L. Hunter; Padgepool, Wooler.
Blench, Dr. J. W.; 15, North Crescent, North End, Durham City.
Boston, Miss S. W.; 53, Main Street, Spittal, Berwick-upon-T weed.
Bousefield, Mrs. Marjorie C. D.; Northfield, Lowick.
Bowlby, Mrs. C.; The Hermitage, Kelso.
Brackenbury, Chas. Hereward; Tweedhill, Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Browell, Dr. Ethel (Miss); 17, The Meadows, Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Brown, Mrs. E.; 66a, Church Street, Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Brown, Mrs. Isabella; 30, Castle Drive, Berwick-upon-T weed.
Brown, Mrs. May; 11, Warkworth Terrace, Berwick-upon-T weed.
Brown, Raymond Lamont; 34, Spottiswoode Gardens, St. Andrews,

Fife. KY16 8SB.

Brunton, Miss Helen Scott; Greystones, Allanton, Duns.
Brunton, Miss Isabella D.; Greystones, Allanton, Duns.
Buglass, Miss Elizabeth T.; 29, Castle Drive, Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Burn, Mrs. Helen B.; Wellwood, Paxton, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

~ Burns, Miss N. D.; 4, Tintagel House, Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Bush, Mrs. P. M. E.; Wilton Cottage, Chirnside, Duns.

238

1964
1946

1976
1975
1977
1977

1970
1958
1959

1974
1959
1953

1975
1971
1960
1977

1975
1953
1972
1965
1965
1957
1976
1976
1935
1954
1947
1973
1977
1963
1969

1970
1972
1972
1965
1965
1956

LIST OF MEMBERS

Cameron, W. P. Legerwood; 25, St. Ninian’s Road, Edinburgh.
E12 8AP.
Carey, T. P.; Hill View, Eckford, Kelso. TD5 81G.

239

1972
1964

Carpenter, Mrs. A. L.; Brookview House, Walshes Road, Crowborough,

Sussex. TN6 3RE
Carrick, Mrs. Z.; 8, The Meadows, Berwick-upon-T weed.
Carter, Mrs. M.; Garthrig, Lanton, Jedburgh.
Chisolm, Miss Georgina; 49, Ladywell Road, Tweedmouth.
Connel, Mrs. Anne R.; 5, Murrayfield Avenue, Edinburgh EH12 6AU
Corner, Dr. R. W. M.;: Hawthorn Hill, 36, Wordsworth Street,
Penrith, Cumbria. CA11 7QZ
Cowe, Mr. F. M.; 10, Ravensdowne, Berwick-upon-T weed.
Cowe, Mrs. M. M.; 55, West End, Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-T weed.
Cowe, Mr. R. P.; Causewaybank, Chirnside, Duns.
Cowe, Mrs. R. P.; Causewaybank, Chirnside, Duns.
Cowper, R. A. S.; F. S. A. Scot.; Donwal, Kings Road, Wallsend.
Craw, H. A.; Greenways, Sutton Place, Abinger Hammer, Surrey.
Curry, Miss Rita I.; 45, Ivinson Road, Tweedmouth.

Darling, Mrs. A. J. D.; Ladyflat, Duns.

Davidson, G. E.; Beechknowe, Coldingham.

Davidson, Mrs. M. I.; Horseley, Reston, Eyemouth.

Davidson, Dr. W.; Tigh-Na-Bradan, Kelso, Roxburghshire.

Day, Harry B.; 52, Mountbel Road, Stanmore, Middlesex

Dickinson, Mrs. Agnes May; 9, Cross View, Norham.

Dixon, Mrs. L. E.; Avenue House, Weddell’s Lane, Berwick-upon-
Tweed.

Dixon-Johnson, Mrs. M. D.; Middle Ord, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Dods, Mrs. M. L.; 23, Mansefield Road, Tweedmouth.

Dodsley, Miss L.; 33, Lennel Mount, Coldstream. TD12 4NS

Dougall, Mrs. S. E; Gala House, Spittal, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Drysdale, Mrs. Flora E. S.; Old Cambus, East Mains, Cockburnspath.

Dudgeon, Mrs. E.; Lickarmoor Farm, Bowsden, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Dudgeon, Mrs. E.; Loughend, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Dudgeon, Mrs, P. M.; Long Acre, East Ord. TD15 2NS.

Dykes, Mrs. M. E.; Cambuslea, Cockburnspath.

Edgar, Mrs. E. A.; ““Chaldon’”’, Coldingham, Eyemouth.

Edgar, J. A.; “Chaldon”’, Coldingham, Eyemouth.

Elder, Mrs. E. S.; ‘“‘Langlea’’, 26, Castle Terrace, Berwick-upon-
Tweed.

*Elliot, Miss Grace A.; Padgepool, Wooler, Northumberland.
Elliot, Mrs. M. R.; 9, Easter Belmont Road, Edinburgh. EH12 6EH.
Esther, Mrs. J.; Old Parsonage, Ancroft, Berwick-upon-T weed.
Esther, M.; Old Parsonage, Ancroft, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Evans, Miss M.; 12, Carrick Close, Berwick-upon-T weed.
Ewing, Rev. J. M.; Tweed Cottage, Union Bridge, Berwick-upon-
Tweed. TD15 1XG.

Fenwick-Hunter, Mrs. J.; Stonehaven, Branxton, Cornhill-on-Tweed.

Fleming, Mrs. K. B.; Hardens Way, Duns.

Fleming, Mrs. M. J.; Middlefield Farm, Duns.

Foley, Flt.-Lt. M.; The Laws, Duns.

Forman, Mrs. I.; 49, Church Street, Berwick-upon-Tweed. TD15 1EE.

Forrest, Mrs. H. N.; Stuartslaw, Duns.

Forster, Christopher; 11, King’s Drive, Wembley Park, Middlesex.
HA9 9HP

Forster, C. P.; M. A.; Burradon, Thropton, Morpeth.

Forster, Mrs. E. M.; 13, Ravensdowne, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Fraser, Mrs. J.; 55, Low Greens, Berwick-upon-Tweed. TDI5 1LX.

French, Mrs. N.; Hutton Rigg, Berwick-upon-Tweed. TD15 1XG.

1970
1961
1961
1969
1970

1975
1958
1966
1975
1975
1963
1933
1974

1974
1946
1959
1975
1971
1970

1972
1957
1958
1975
1972
1965
1963
1965
1954
£955

1974
1974

1954
1936
1964
1977
1977
1967

1976
1974
1974
1965
OTA
1966

1934
1969
1977
1973

240 LIST OF MEMBERS
Furness, Mrs. M. G.; Mordington House, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

TD15 1XA 1971
*Furness, Flower, Lady; Netherbyres, Eyemouth. 1961
Gibson, Dr. J. A.; Foremount House, Kilbarchan, Renfrewshire. 1974
Gilchrist, Mrs. L.; 3, Hillcrest, East Ord, Berwick-upon-T weed. 1976
Gilchrist, Mrs. M. H.; 92, High Street, Coldstream. 1970
Gillon, Miss, I. A.; Abbey St. Bathans, Duns. 1970
Gilmour, Lady Mary; Carolside, Earlston, Berwickshire. 1976
Glahome, Mrs. J. A.; Longstone View, Berwick-upon-T weed. 1938
Graham, Mrs. E. J.; 22, Mansefield Road, Tweedmouth. 1952
Graham, Mrs. R. R.; 63, Lennel Mount, Coldstream. 1958
Grahamslaw, Mrs. J. B.; Craig House, Eglingham, Alnwick. 1968
Gray, Miss C. M.; 11, Sea Bank, Alnmouth. 1971
Gray, N. J.; Grey Gordon, St. Aidans, Seahouses. 1972
Gray, Mrs. N.; Grey Gordon, St. Aidans, Seahouses. 1957
Grey, Mrs. D. M.; Oxendeane Burn, Cornhill-on-T weed. 1960
Hamilton, Mrs. ©. B.; Lowood, Melrose. 1969
Hamilton, Mrs. }.. J.; 9, Percy Terrace, Berwick-upon-T weed. 1970
Hampton, Miss I. S.; 70c Church Street, Berwick-upon-T weed. 1977
Hannah, Canon John M. C.; Caddon Mill, Clovenfords, Galashiels. 1972
Hay, Mrs. M. M.; 6c, Low Greens, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 1972
Hedley, Mrs. A. M. H.; The River House, Kelso, Roxburghshire. 1976
Henderson, Mrs. J.; Waterloo Park, Chirnside. 1957
Henderson, T. S.; Colville House, Kelso. 1936
Hendry, P. G.; M. A., F. S. A.; 44, Graigleith View, Edinburgh.

EH4 3JY. 1972
Herriot, Mrs. P. D. V.; Garden House, Horncliffe, Berwick-upon-

Tweed. 1977
Hinton, Mrs. T. C.; 3, The Avenue, Berwick-upon-T weed. 1958
Hodgson, Mrs. J. P.; Swinhoe North Farm, Chathill, Northumberland. 1976
Holmes, Miss D. S.; 7, Ness Street, Berwick-upon-T weed. 1953
Home-Robertson, Col. J. W.; Paxton House, Berwick-upon-Tweed. 1947

*Hood, J.; Linhead, Cockburnspath. 1932
Hood, J.; Townhead, Cockburnspath, also 3, Santor Road, Putney,

S.W. 18 1969
Hood, Mrs. J. M.; Linhead, Cockburnspath. 1976
Hood, Mrs. M. S.; Greenhaugh Cove, Cockburnspath. 1970
Hood, Thomas; Townhead, Cockburnspath. 1937
Hugonin, Mrs. R. E.; St. Mary’s Cottage, Duns, Berwickshire.

TD11 3NW. 1977
Hunt, Mrs. E. A.; Greenwell, Chirnside. 1946
Jaboor, Mrs. S. M.; 16, Gourlay Bank, Haddington. 1961

Jack, Col. A. C.; (O. B. E.) Crown Point, Kelso, Roxburghshire. 1977
Jackson, Miss M. H.; 4, Station Cottages, Mindrum, Northumberland.

TD12 4GL 1971
Jeffries, H. D.; Alwinton, 41, Castle Terrace, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

TD15 1NZ. 1975
Jeffries, Dr. M. C.; Alwinton, 41, Castle Terrace, Berwick-upon-

Tweed. TD15 1NZ. 1975
Jerrard, Miss E.; Plough Cottage, Oldhamstocks, Cockburnspath. 1971
Johnson, Mrs. M.; 37, Windsor Crescent, Berwick-upon-T weed. 1977
Johnston, Mrs. E. S.; Ellanlea, 4, Palace Green, Berwick-upon-T weed. 1957
Jones, John O.; 18, Hodge Street, Falkirk. FK1 1BN 1955
Kerr, Lt.-Col. F. R.; Blanearne House, Edrom, Berwickshire. 1970

King, Mrs. E.; 5, Longstone View, Berwick-upon-Tweed. TD15 1JA. 1968
King, G. H.; 5, Longstone View, Berwick-upon-Tweed. TD15 1JA 1971

tee ee EE EES EEE

LIST OF MEMBERS

Kirby, Mrs. M.; 45, Ivinson Road, Tweedmouth. Berwick-upon-
Tweed.
Kirtley, Mrs. H.; 225, Mains Street, Spittal, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Lamb, R. H.; clo Miss Lamb, Saltcoats Road, Gullane, E. Lothian.

Lang, Mrs. J. D.; Newton, Jedburgh.

Laws, Miss I.; 45, Windsor Crescent, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Leith, Mrs. W.; 20, The Meadows, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Leslie, Mrs. B. G.; 2, Garden Terrace, Dunstan, Craster, Alnwick,
Northumberland.

Bese, Major Di; M. B. E.; 2, Garden Terrace, Dunstan, Craster,
Alnwick, Northumberland.

241
1974
1961

1969
1969
1977
1958

1976
1976

Leslie, Mrs. M. K.; Bank House, 61, Hide Hill, Berwick-upon-T weed. 1966

*Liddell-Grainger, D.; Ayton Castle, Ayton, Eyemouth.
Logan, Mrs. E.; East Fenton, Wooler.
Logan, Mrs. H. B.; Primrose Hill, Duns, Berwickshire. TD11 3TL
Logan, Mrs. M. S.; The Retreat, Blakerston, Duns.
*Long, A. G.; Dr.Sc.; 64, Cheviot View, Ponteland, Newcastle-upon-
Tyne.
Luke, D. J.; Wedderburn, Kelso, Roxburghshire. TD5 7BN.
Lumsden, Prof. W. H. R.; 45, Queen Alexandra Mansions, Judd Street,
London, WC1H 9DG.
Lusk, Mrs. I. M.; The Manse, Foulden, Berwick-upon-T weed.
*Lusk, Rev. J. C.; The Manse, Foulden, Berwick-upon-T weed.
Lutry, Mrs. Lindesay B.; Bonkyl Old Manse, Preston by Duns.

Maben, Rev. J. A. Brydon; Priory Manse, Coldingham, Berwickshire.

McArthur, Miss D.; 4, Braid Mount, Edinburgh. EH10 6]JP.

McCreath, Mrs. G. C.; Bondington, Castle Terrace, Berwick-upon-
Tweed.

McCreath, Mrs. H. G.; Old Farm House, Castle Terrace, Berwick-
upon-T weed.

McCrow, T. T.; T. D.; Northfield House, St. Abbs, Eyemouth.

McDougal, J. L.; Blythe, Lauder.

McDougal, Mrs. J. Logan; Blythe, Lauder.

*McEwen, Mrs. A. D.; Whiteside, Greenlaw, Berwickshire.

McEwen, Lady; Marchmont, Greenlaw.

McEwen, Sir R. L.; Marchmont, Greenlaw.

Mackay, Rev. H.; M. A., F.S.A.; The Manse, Duns.

McKay-Martin, J.; Johnsfield, Duns, Berwickshire. TD11 3RL.

McLean, Mrs. J. Y.; West Cottage, Swinton, Duns, Berwickshire.

McLean, Mrs. M.; M. A.; 20a, Main Street, Gorebridge, Midlothian.
EH23 4BY.

McLean, P. A.; W. S. 28, Inverleith Terrace, Edinburgh 3.

McLean, Mrs. W. M.; M. B. CLB; Windyrig, Cockburnspath.

Macnaughton, Miss J.; 72, Newfields, Berwick-upon-T weed.

McPherson, Miss M. H.; 33, Lennel Mount, Coldstream.

Martin, H. P.; Overlook, Glanton.

Martin, Mrs. J. D.; 8, Douglas Close, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Martin, J. L.; 15, Tweed Street, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Martin, Mrs, M. L.; 15 Tweed Street, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Martin, Mrs. M. F.; Overlook, Glanton.

Mattinson, W. B.; Mansfield, Kelso.

Maxwell, D.; Royal Bank House, Duns, Berwickshire.

Maxwell, Mrs. M.; Royal Bank House, Duns, Berwickshire.

Maxwell, S.; 23, Dick Place, Edinburgh. EH9 2JU.

Middlemas, Mrs. E. M.; The Old Rectory, Howick, Alnwick.

Middlemas, R.; M. A.; The Old Rectory, Howick, Alnwick.

Millard, Mrs. E. E.; White Lodge, Castle Terrace, Berwick-upon-
Tweed.

Miller, Mrs. A. S.; West Loanend, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

1956
1960
1975
1958

1955
1956

1975
1975
1970
1976

1976
1975

1958

1963
1964
1950
1958
1977,
1966
1966
1971
1971
1976

1970
1971
1971
1971
1975
1968
1949
1966
1955
1968
1967
1976
1976
1970
1951
1928

1971
1956

242 LIST OF MEMBERS

Millican, Mrs. G. B.; Greenwood, Grantshouse, Duns.

Mills, Miss H. D.; ‘““Mayfield’’, 7, Park Lane, Haddington, E. Lothian.

Mitchell, A. D.; Woodville, Gavinton, Duns.

Mitchell, Dr. L. I. S.; Woodville, Gavinton, Duns.

Mitchell, Mrs. M.; St. Leonard’s, 38, Castle Terrace, Berwick-upon-
Tweed.

Moffet, Miss M.; The Old Manse, Cheviot View, Lowick.

Mole, Mrs. I. F.; Ruthven, Coldstream, TD12 4JU.

Moore, W. H.; Glendale County Secondary School, Wooler.

Mosgrove, Mrs. E.; 1, Paxton Road, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Muir, Mrs. A. M.; 19d, Wallace Green, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Murray, Mrs. M. S.; 8, Northumberland Avenue, Berwick-upon-
Tweed.

Murrin, Miss, J. M.;45, Windsor Crescent, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Needham, Dr. C. D.; ““Drumgray”, Edrom, Duns, Berwickshire.
Needham, Mrs. M.; ““Drumgray”’, Edrom, Duns, Berwickshire.
Neilan, Dr. D. F.; “‘Adre’’, Seahouses, Northumberland.

Nelson, Mrs. Joan; Sanson Seal, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Nichol, Miss D. E. C.; 191, Main Street, Spittal, Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Nichol, Miss T. M.; ““Rosyburn’”’, Market Square, Coldstream.
Niven, Mrs. J. R.; Whitsome Hill, Duns, Berwickshire.

Ogilvie, Mrs H. M. E.; Chesters, Ancrum, Jedburgh.
Oliver, J. S.; 1, Morebattle Road, Lochside, Kelso.

Pape, Miss D.; Ubbanford Bank Cottage, Norham.

Parker, Mrs. M. E.; The Old School House, Mordingtion, Berwick-
upon-T weed.

Pate, Mrs. H. K.; 65, Hawthorn Bank, Duns.

Pate, Mrs. O. E.; Horseupcleugh, Longformacus.

Patterson, Mrs. M. E.; 1, Well Close Square, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Payne, Major P. I. C.; Whitehall, Old Cleeve, Minehead, Somerset.

TA24 6HU

Pender, Mrs. M. Y.; Balfour Bank, Reston, Eyemouth.

Petrie, Mrs. A.; Whitestacks, Ingram Road, Bamburgh. NE69 7BT.

Pitman, Mrs. C.; 14, Oswald Road, Edinburgh. EH9 2HT.

Prentice, Mrs. B.; Cockburn Mill, Duns.

Pringle, Miss F. C.; M. B. E.; 5, Midleton Hall, Belford.

Purvis, Mrs. M. I.; Richmond Villa, Horncliffe, Berwick.

Ramsey, Lady; Priorbank, Hermitage Lane, Kelso.

Rea, ne Catherine; 7, Ladywell Road, Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-
Tweed.

Reid, John; B.Sc.; 1, Bryce Avenue, Edinburgh, EH7 6TX.

Richardson, Miss M. M.; 3, Well Close Square, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Riddel-Carre, Mrs. E.; Cavers Carre, Melrose.

Ritchie, Miss Jean; 1, Pentland Drive, Edinburgh 10.

Roberts, Miss M. E.; Johnsfield, Duns. TD11 3RL.

Robertson, Miss A. H.; Cawderstanes, Berwick-upon-T weed.

*Robertson, D. M.;Buxley, Duns.

Robertson, Miss E. G.; Cawderstanes, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Robertson, Miss J. E.; Cawderstanes, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Robertson, Mrs. L. R.; Buxley, Duns.

Robertson, Mrs. M. J.; Mount Alban, Reston, Eyemouth. TD14 5TW.

Robson, Mrs. D.; Venchen, Yetholm, Roxburghshire.

Robson, Mrs. F.; Fordway, Horncliffe, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Romanes, Mrs. S. A. B.; Norham Lodge, Duns.

Rose, J. D.; Dunstan Hall, Craster, Alnwick.

Ross, Mrs. E. L.; St. Paul’s Manse, 176, Main Street, Spittal.

1967
1972
1974
1974

1957
1957
1961
1968
1965
1957

1946
1977

19779
1977
1974
1976
1971
1964
1975

1960
1964

1933

1973
1959
1928
1973

1974
1964
1974
1951
1965
1963
1967

1968

1969
1975
1976
1967
1968
1971
1946
1950
1946
1946
1950
1975
1957
1951
1963
1962
1971

te

LIST OF MEMBERS

Ross, Rev. H. S.; St. Paul’s Manse, 176, Main Street, Spittal.
Ross, James M.; O.B.E., M.A.; Marden, Duns. TD11 3QB
Rutherford, Miss A. M.; The Cottage, 23, St. Aidan’s, Seahouses.

Scott, Miss A.; 54, Ladywell Road, Tweedmouth.

Sharp, Mrs. S.; Heriot Mill, Heriot, Midlothian. EH38 5YE.

Short, David C.; Humbleton, Wooler.

Simpson, Mrs. E. A.; 23, Moray Place, Edinburgh. EH3 6DA.

Simpson, Capt. H. H.; Firwood, Wooler.

Simpson, Mrs. J. H.; 30, West Street, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Simpson, Miss J. L.; “‘Kiloran’’, 45, Ladywell Road, Tweedmouth.

Simpson, Mrs. L. W.; 8, Percy Terrace, Berwick-upon-Tweed.
D5) TLD.

Sinclair, Mrs. E.; “Dervaig”’, 1, North Road, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Skelly, Mrs. A. D.; High Lethem, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Smail, Col. J. I. M.; Kiwi Cottage, Scremerston.

Smart, Mrs. C.; 3, Grosvenor Place, Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-
Tweed.

Smith, A. J.; “Glenview’’, 3, Croft Terrace, Selkirk.

Smith, Miss E. A.; 31, Castle Drive, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Smith, Dr. F. R.; Alton Cottage, Grantshouse, Duns, Berwickshire.
TD11 3RR.

Smith, Mrs. J. E. T.; 20, Castle Terrace, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Smith, J. E. T.; 20, Castle Terrace, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Smith, P. C. P.; Woodbine Cottage, East Ord, Berwick-upon-Tweed.
TD15 2NS.

Smout, Mrs. E. S.; 112 Main Street, Spittal.

Somervail, Mrs. M. J.; Thornton Loch, Dunbar, E. Lothian.
EH42 1QS.

Souter, Mrs. J. M.; Chatsworth, Moor Crescent, Gosforth, Newcastle-
upon-Tyne.

Spence, Mrs. H.; 3, Braeheads, Reston, Eyemouth, Berwickshire.
TD14 5LA.

Sproule, Mrs. I. E.; Ladiesfield, Coldstream.

Sprunt, Mrs. B. R.; 35, Castle Terrace, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Stafford, Robt.; Brockely Hall, Alnwick.

Stawart, Mrs. E. H.; 4, Douglas Close, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Stawart, J.; 4, Douglas Close, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Steven, Mrs. M. C.; St. Duthus, Palace Street, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Stevenson, J.; M. A.; 24, Lensfield Road, Cambridge, also Sparrow
Castle, Berwickshire.

Stobart, Mrs. A.; Ford Hill, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Stobart, Col.; G. K.; Ford Hill, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Stoddart, Mrs. D.; 2, Bay Terrace, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Stott, F.; 104, Marygate, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Straughan, Mrs. E.; 10, The Crescent, Horncliffe, Berwick-upon-
Tweed.

Stuart, Mrs.; Maines House, Chirnside, Duns, Berwickshire.

Sutherland, Mrs. B.; 21, Woodlands Park, Coldstream.

Swallow, Mrs. M. K.; 22, St. Aidan’s, Seahouses.

Swan, Mrs. D. K.; Harelaw, Chirnside.

Swan, Lt.-Col; W. B.; Blackhouse, Reston.

Swinton, Major-General J.; O.B.E.; Kmmerghame, Duns.

Tait, Mrs. E. S.; 6, Quay Walls, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Tait, S. A.; 6, Quay Walls, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Tankerville, Dowager Countess, Chillingham, Chatton, Alnwick.
Taylor, Miss F.; 2, Pedwell Way, Norham, Berwick-upon-T weed.
Templeton, Mrs. M.; Goshen, Kelso, Roxburghshire.

Thompson, Mrs. J.; Hetten Hall, Chatton.

Thomson, Mrs. Moffat C. T.; Stable Cottages, Lambden, Greenlaw.

243

1971
1976
1957

1974
1977
1946
1973
1974
1975
1974

LOTT,
1977
1955
1948

1950
1977
1968

1976
1956
1960

1976
1960

1962
1974

1977.
O72
1937
1968
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1948
1965

1964
1977
1977
1967
1951

1975
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1973
1969
1946
Loa
1970

1965
1973
1939
1955
1976
1962
1934

244 LIST OF MEMBERS

Thomson, Mrs. M.; 11, Tweed Street, Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Thomson, Mrs. M.; The Hill, Coldingham, Eyemouth.
*Thomson, T. D.; The Hill, Coldingham, Eyemouth.

Thorp, R. W.; B. A. Oxon.; Charlton Hall, Chathill.

Trainer, Mrs. E. M.; Halidon, Kelso, Roxburghshire.

Turnbull, Mrs. A. E.; Greencroft House, 84, Shielfield Terrace,

Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-Tweed.
Turner, Dr. R. W. D.; 15, Russel Place, Edinburgh.

Veitch, Mrs. A.; Springbank, Castle Terrace, Berwick-upon-Tweed
Veitch, Mrs. A.; Stonycroft, Castle Terrace, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Waldie, J.; Greenbank, Gordon, Berwickshire. TD3 6JP.

Walker, Dr. J. H.; Whitelands College, Putney, London, S.W.15.

Wall, Mrs. A. W.; Herringthorpe, 233, Main Street, Spittal, Berwick-
upon-T weed.

Wall, J. S.; Herringthorpe, 233, Main Street, Spittal.

Wardale, Mrs. E.; Akeld Manor, Wooler.

Wardale, H.; Akeld Manor, Wooler.

Weatherhead, R.; B.Sc.; 1, Viewforth, Dunbar, E. Lothian.
EH42 2AX.

Weatherston, Miss J. F.; 3, Greenside Avenue, Berwick-upon-
Tweed.

Whiteford, Mrs. J.; Borewell Farm, Scremerston, Berwick-upon-
Tweed.

Wight, Mrs. M.; The Birn, Cockburnspath.

Wilkie, Mrs. E.; 3, Windsor Crescent, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Willins, Miss, E. P. L.; Kirklands, Ayton.

Willis, Mrs. B. R.; 11, Bankhill, Berwick-upon-T weed.

Wilson, Mrs. H.; 6, Riverside Road, Tweedmouth, Berwick-upon-
Tweed.

Wilson, Miss J. H.; 11, Bankhill, Berwick-upon-Tweed. TD15 1BE.

Wragg, Rev. J. G.; Wark Rectory, Hexham, Northumberland.
NE1 3PP.

JUNIOR MEMBER
Dods, Susan; 10, Cramond Gardens, Edinburgh.

SUBSCRIBING LIBRARIES

Literary & Philosophical Society, Westgate Road, Newcastle-upon
dive sINEIE SE:

Northumberland County Library (Berwick Branch), Marygate,
Berwick-upon-T weed.

Scottish Record Office, P.O. Box 36, H.M. General Register House
Edinburgh. EH1 3YY.

Society of Antiquaries of London, Burlington House, Piccadilly,
W1V OHS.

The Balfour & Newton Libraries, Dept. of Zoology, Downing Street,
Cambridge. GB2 3EJ.

The Central Library, New Bridge Street, Newcastle-upon-Tyne.

The Northumberland County Library, The Willows, Morpeth.

University Library, St. Andrews, Fife, Scotland.

EXCHANGES

The Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

The Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.
Glasgow Archaeological Society.

The Scottish Ornithological Club.

Scottish Studies, Edinburgh.

1977
1964
1964
1955
1976

1977
1969

1952
1974

1965
1963

1976
1970
1958
1970

1970
1959
1977
1949
1967
195i
1974

1976
1971

1965

1909
1976
1969
1915
1915
1901

1964
1961

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HISTORY

On PHE

- NATURALISTS’ CLUB

7
ie 9) & Ry

The Centenary Volume and Index, issued 1933, price 50

tar ray “Ww GENERAL
{ 27 JANI98I
Sas
Ss reonieanl :
Sat we

HISTORY

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE

NATURALISTS’ CLUB

-INSTITUTED SEPTEMBER 22, 1831

VOL. XLI. PART 1.
1977

OFFICE-BEARERS

Joint Field Secretaries
D. MACKENZIE ROBERTSON, Esq., Buxley, Duns.
Mrs D. MACKENZIE ROBERSTON, M.C.S.P., F.S.A.Scot.
(Tel. Duns 3273).

Corresponding and Editing Secretary.

T. D. THOMSON, Esq., C.M.G., O.B.E., M.A., LL.B., F.S.A.Scot., The Hill, —
Coldingham, Eyemouth. (Tel. Coldingham 209). oe

Treasurer.

J. STAWART, Esq., 4 Douglas Close, Berwick upon Tweed.
- (Tel. Berwick 7549)

Librarian.
MISS BUGLASS, 29 Castle Drive, Berwick upon Tweed.

(ONC OT eas 1)

(
i

BISTORY OF THE

hs
27

7p

BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS‘ CLUB

CONTENTS OF VOL. XtrI
PART 1.—1977.

Club Notes. Le De MOC ae oT ee me ee oa
Presidential Address—Forgotten ede a Ber ick
Natural History Observations During 1977.

Obituary: Major C. J. Dixon-Johnston, T.D., J.P., F.S.A. Sectth
Pilmuir House, Haddington.

The Macro-Lepidoptera of Ro rianbenend
A Review of Past Work. :

Hailes Castle. :
Obituary: A. R. Little, ae

Parish Schools in Berwickshire In The Se
Century, Part II.

Records of Macro-Lepidoptera in Reburskekine “na Selkirkshire
Obituary: Captain R. H. Walton, R.A.

Obituary: Mrs Swinton of Swinton.

Eight Husbandlands of Whitsome.

The Correspondence of Dr Hardy and Mrs Barwell’ ene
Financial Statement and Balance Sheet.

ILLUSTRATIONS

Plates

Pilmuir House Haddington.
Corstopitum: Mr Gilson addresses an Club.

ily)
62

Ss
on re

L

(2 GENERA!

JAN 1981

& LIBRARY
x Sf : eo

°°
vA iL We ‘4

)

CLUB MEETINGS IN 1977

1st. Dalkeith Church, Arniston House, Melvill Castle

2nd. Etal Castle, Etal Manor Gardens, Ford Castle and Heath-
erslaw Mill.

3rd. Hailes Castle, Pilmuir House and Lennoxlove.

4th. Corbridge.

5th. Jedburgh.

AGM. Berwick Town in morning.

CLUB NOTES

For the first time in ten years the History does not include a
report on the Coldingham Priory excavations, because there
were none owing to all-round financial stringency. However,
the Regional Council’s annual grant enabled progress to be
made with conservation of Edgar’s Walls and the sacristy wall.

Anyone looking for a new line of research could do worse than
investigate the clockmakers of the Club’s area. There seems to
have been a remarkable large number of them a century and a

half ago.

Thanks to Mrs Burn, the Rules and roll of the North North-
umberland Picnic Club, 1842 have been brought to light. We
hope that they will be available with notes for publication in
our next issue.

Through Mr Ross’s kindness, we have also acquired a bundle
of plans and sketches connected with the restoration of Col-
dingham Priory in the 1850s. These too may be written up for
the next issue. Meantime, their custody has been gratefully
accepted by the Royal Commission on Ancient Monuments,
Edinburgh.

No papers were received for this Part of the History from

members who had not contributed previously. Consequently |

the annual award has not been made for this year.

CORRIGENDUM

Vol. XL, p. 232. Small Purple Base. “NT75” should be
“NT51”.

ul

PRO @EhDINn Gs

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE
NAT wORATISTS *CEUB

FORGO PTTENSNDUSTRIES: OF
BERWICKSHIRE

Being the Anniversary Address delivered by Miss Grace
meiiiot, M.B.E.,F.S.A. Scot., President of the Club,
on 21st Ocotber, 1977.

Salt, Fern, Kelp, Lint—some of the oldest industries in the
world—once flourished here, although long ago pushed out of
existence and forgotten. Because of a few scattered references
to Salt, Lint and Linen in the Berwickshire Archives, as well as
the search for two missing Mss. on Linen and Weaving, they
were listed on a page of one of my note books in 1960 among
“Those things which someone should write about.’’ The fact
that they seemed dependent upon each other prompted me to
gather as much information Hout them as possible. This has
not only been rewarding and enjoyable but it has produced
some unexpected local surprises.

Salt being one of mankind’s greatest necessities may be the
oldest industry of the four; it was taken originally from the sea
hence the many records of salt-workings all around our coast.
Certainly from the Stone Age, people have used it to flavour
their cereal foods and preserve meat and fish for winter con-
sumption. In Essex and East Anglia the remains of salt-works
date at least from the early Iron Age; from our earliest written
records we know that there were many salt pans on the coast-
line of our three Border counties. The monks of Coldingham
Priory, who traded in wool and hides, also shipped salt from
the ancient harbour of Eyemouth.

Some years ago, during alterations at the Whale Hotel there,
remains of the “‘Green salt pans’ were found to have lain
behind it. The name of “Green salt pans”’ is perhaps significant
here, and, although I take it to mean “‘salt pans on the village
Green”’ it could refer also to the primitive method of filtering
the sea water through an artificial salt marsh made of stones,
clay, straw, turf, and high-tide sand into a reservoir from

1

2 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

which the brine was taken elsewhere to be boiled and evapo-
rated.

The remains of a salt pan used in 1669 were found at Red-
heugh when the coastguard station was removed to St. Abbs
Head in 1907; but there is only a vestige of the “Old Salt Pan”
to be seen at Bilsdean today. Dr. Hardy, who was born there,
must have known it well, yet he only mentioned it once in the
Club’s “History” without describing it; recently however, Mr.
Cecil Sanderson of Birnieknowes showed us the site and some
remnants of the building which had been on top of a large flat
rock standing higher than the rest; when in use the incoming
tide would fill it with sea water and it would remain full after
the tide had turned, and supposedly the salters then added high
tide sand to it, thus giving the sea water a greater strength of
salt. Before the next high tide all the brine in the pan would be
filtered off into buckets and taken further inland to be boiled in
shallow pans or salterns and evaporated.

Itis thought that the monks of Newbattle who were allowed
to start a saltworks in 1189 may have built one at Bilsdean.

William of Lamberton, bishop of St. Andrews, made a new
agreement about the salt works with Gervase the Abbot of
Newbotle in 1316, which was signed at Berwick. In Northum-
berland there were many salt pans; those near to us were at
Bamburgh and Beadnell, while the Salt Pan How now being
slowly levelled at Cocklaw beach reminds us of the industry at
Scremerston.

Salters’ roads were the earliest trade routes in the world,
leading from the coast to many inland countries where salt was
unobtainable and where it was looked upon by primitive man
as a gift from the gods, a symbol of eternity and immortality.
In this country these legitimate trade routes were used by
Salters who conveyed their blocks of salt in panniers carried by
ponies, to villages and towns remote from the sea; possibly
smugglers used the “theives Rode” which ran between
Hedgehope and Cheviot after the salt tax was imposed. The
Salters’ road leading from Hartley (near Whitley Bay) into the
country crosses A1 in the centre of Gosforth, while another ran
from Craster to Alnham. The Lauderdale Girthgate is said to
have gone by Leaderfoot to Old Melrose, for we are told that
“‘a little west from Cobleheugh on Tweed was the Salters’

fOLrd,~”

During the 18th century less primitive ways for obtaining
salt was used; proper Salterns were built some way from the
beach and brine was pumped up to them; these were long low
buildings divided by brick walls into two or three compart-
ments; if three, the central one was used as a fuel store and
furnace room, the others held the salt pans, which were large
and rectangular, about 15’ x 12’ x 114" in size and made of cast

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS Ss)

iron plates. They held about 1400 gallons of sea water, and
were heated by a hot air system; they were filled up and boiled
four times a day; whites of egg were mixed with the water
before heating for clarifying and the scum taken off later. The
whole process took twenty four hours, the salt being scraped
off after the fourth evaporation, when it was handed over to the
Customs officers, who dried and prepared it for sale. Much

- patience and heavy labour was involved, the Salter’s day was

mie. his wages low and sometimes his expenses exceeded his
ues.

Berwickshire does not seem to have had a Salters’ Guild or
Fraternity, fortunately perhaps, as in accordance with an early
17th century Act such a Guild had to keep a strict hold over its
members, and after the Restoration there was a lot of forced
labour, in that the Salt Masters were told to seize all vagabonds
and beggars and put them to work in the coal heughs (i.e.
heughs for fuelling the saltern furnaces).

In 1598 Thomas Makdougal of Makerstoun “sowed salt on
his land to make it more profitable.”’ John Ray the Naturalist
spoke of “‘a salt work in Berwickshire”’ in 1662, but he did not
say where it was. It could have been the one mentioned in a
“Discharge dated 3 June 1689 at Coldingham by Elizabeth,
duchess of Lauderdale! to James Murray, Saltgrieve at the
Magdalene Pans, for the sum of £150 for 100 Bolls of Salt
which is to be allowed him.”’ I have not discovered where these
salt pans were but they do not seem to refer to the Magdalene
fields at Berwick, which had passed out of Home possession by
1650; nor are any mentioned in Scott’s “‘History of Berwick’;
nor have I found records of salt pans at Coldingham itself.
Another Ms relating to salt pans dated 7th February 1628 at
Dunbar, is an “Assignation”’ from Issabell Johnstoun spouse to
John David, a merchant in Edinburgh”’ who, in his absence
pays his debt to one Jon Smyth by giving him their salt pan
“shewing Toom Tais’’? together with the last barrel of salt
taken from it’’.

Towards the end of the 17th century a new era of salt mining
appears, for in 1698 the Earl of Marchmont as H.M. High
Commissioner for Scotland was instructed to ‘‘Pass Acts to be
proposed for encouraging the manufacture of inland salt’’.
Perhaps this is the reason why part of the Stonymuir at Duns
was in 1829 still called ‘“‘the Salt hill park”’ and maybe one day a
record proving it could turn up.

Besides its practical uses, salt was sometimes used as money
or barter, when cakes of it were impressed with the owner’s
name or insignia. ‘“Covenants were made over sacrificial meals
where salt was used; the Orientals venerated it—it created a
bond of Piety and guest friendship between the participants.”
They would say “There is salt between us’, and to be “‘untrue

4 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

to the salt”? meant disloyalty or ungratefulness. Such phrases
date from very early times, and out of the Laws of Chivalry
drawn up by the Crusaders; people sat at table either “‘above or
below the Salt” according to their importance; those below
were inferior to those who sat above it. Large and ornamental
“Salts”? were the most important pieces of household plate in
medieval times, the smaller salts were placed near the plate of
the guests. In our County Archives there is a late ‘Inventarie of
the furniture of the House of the Mains of Blackadder” dated
1675, which includes “A silver Salt fatt, (vat); a poudder Salt
fate’’, etc., and almost a hundred years later we find included in
the Edinburgh Society’s list of awards for 1758;—“‘For salt
butter for sale £4. to William Stevenson, tenant in Homebyres,
Berwickshire, and £2. to Alexander Marjoribanks in Stainrig
for the same’’. Again in the book “Duns Dings A’ ”’ there is a
record of a Salt office in Duns kept by a woman called Mar-
garet Rutherford—commonly known as “Saut Meg”’. No date
is given for this office, which sold only salt.

We must not forget either, that the importance of salt was
emphasised by Christ in his Sermon on the Mount.

Alas, by the end of the first quarter of the 19th century our
Salt trade had given way to the manufacture of Kelp which was
more profitable. Before talking of it however, the common
bracken and Polypodys must be considered. These ferns were
used by the ancients for medicinal purposes in diet and drink,
and as a healing astringent externally, but the Scottish people
also cut the plants and burned them for the ash which contained
large quantities of carbonates and potash used in the manufac-
ture of glass and soap. Anne Pratt the botanist, who died in
1894, gives a description of the preparation of fern ash for use as
a ‘‘lye” or lather, in her book on the “Ferns of Great Britain’.
The task of cutting the fern and laying it out to dry in the sun
was quite laborious; large heaps were necessary for burning
and once burnt, water was mixed with the ash to make it stick
together, when it was rolled into balls; these when quite dry
were sold at market or from door to door at 3d to 8d a dozen.
Many people bought the Lye-balls for household washings or
bleaching linen to save soap. Before use, the balls were fired to
white heat then dropped into the washing water when they
frothed up like soap. The use of fern lye seems to have been
given up in the middle of the 18th century.

The several place-names in Berwickshire connected with
ferns do not in themselves refer to the industry but rather to
where they grew, there is however the word “Assypods”’
described by Dr. Henderson in his ‘“‘Popular Rhymes of Ber-
wickshire’’ as ““Low dirty females with faces and hands bes-
meared with soot and ashes’. etc. ‘‘and their clothes more
filthy still”, which suggests that it was women’s work to

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 5

gather and burn ferns and make them into Lye-balls. Today we
can still buy Fern soap—and surely those of us who are prone
to them will always have “‘Ferneytickles”’ in hot weather; their
likeness to the spores on the back of fern leaves have given
“Freckles” this deli tial name.

Kelp is the name of a family of seaweeds found on our
coastline, the deep sea Tangle which we used to hang up as a
weather guide, and the various Wracks, including Bladder-
wrack which as children we all loved to “pop’’. Farmers used
seaweed for centuries as a manure on their farms, but the name
of Kelp was used also for the ashes they produced when burnt;
the Lye from these being used by Linen manufacturers for
washing and bleaching skeins of flax or lengths of linen. Kelp
was cut from the rocks at low tide in summer time or gathered
on the beaches after being torn up by stormy seas, then dried in
the sun on the links and afterwards put into pits and burned, the
ashes being treated like those of fern, rolled into balls and sold
to housekeepers, weavers, flax-dressers etc. Twenty or more
tons of seaweed only produced one ton of ash.

A large Kelp trade was carried on at Lindisfarne from as early
as the 13th century?. In 1845, when the foundations were laid
for a railway leading past the Snook to the lime-kilns, the
remains of store-houses, huts and ovens of the Kelp burners
were found.

How long Salt and Ash had been venerated by man before
the coming of Christ we do not know, nor do we know for
how long they had been prayed for in the dedication services of
our ancient churches, before David de Bernham, then Bishop
of St. Andrews came to Simprim to dedicate the new church
there in 1247. In that service, among other things he prayed
“For the Blessing of Salt, Ashes and Water, and for the mixture
ot all three’’.*

Kelp gathering was carried on at Burnmouth but no detailed
records have been found as yet. The Lye produced from it was
a boon to those washing and bleaching linen, as well as having
medicinal and cosmetic values in its derivatives of lodine and
carbonates; it is also used in beer-making.

Lint and Linen. It was the fact that both were known to
Stone-age man which encouraged this research on an industry
so old that the later Lake-dwellers in this country and in
Switzerland knew how to cultivate Flax and weave it into
Linen. The earliest spindle whorls found in Berwickshire and
elsewhere must date from this period.

Left over from the Ice-Ages we have a butterfly, the Large
Heath; we have plants, some rare ones, which are to be found in
those areas of land we call ‘“‘Mosses’’, and far down in these we
have the remains of early civilisation and cultures, some of
which have been found and many, I suspect, are as yet undis-
covered.

6 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

The Spottiswoode estate is the only place in the County
where Lake-dwellings have been found, first in Jorden moss
about 1840, then, after several more had turned up while
draining Whiteburn moss, Lady John Scott excavated two
there in 1868. This was two years before either the Broch of
Burrian in Orkney, or the Swiss Lake-dwellings were exca-
vated and where both flax and weaving artifacts were found. It
is to be regretted that Lady John found none of these things
among the bones, withered grass and fern matted together
inside the wooden structures which she dug out in Whiteburn
moss; whether or not she knew what to look for, her quick eye
would have seen them had they been there. Nor were any
artifacts of any sort found in the Earth-house at Broomhouse
which was also excavated in 1868.

From 12th century records we know that the Border Abbeys
received Lint in Tithes, while two 13th century Coldingham
Priory charters concern (1) a grant of ‘“‘an acre of land in
Lintelades”’ and (2) “an acre of land between Flaxiewelles and
Kellolawe’’. The first two names obviously refer to growing
and soaking of Lint or Flax. At Lindisfarne in the 14th century
the monks and novices were not allowed to wear linen so
Lindsay-Wolsey was bought for them in 1343 while in 1347 the
kitchen expenses included Linen for tablecloths and napkins @
6d the ell. At Roxburgh in 1320 ““Thomas the Fuller was a
juryman there considering the Liberties of Sprouston’’, while
in 1453 the tithes of Upsettlington included hay, lint and hemp.
In 1489 James IV in his charter to the town of Duns gave “‘to the
inhabitants of the town” among other things, “‘full power to
peed sell within the Burgh, wine, wax, woollen and linen
cloth’.

Published references for the 16th century concerning linen in
Berwickshire are almost nil, one however refers to ““Franpath

and Hardhassells with their grain and cloth mills’’. Both places’

were near Abbey St. Bathans and their names suggest either the
wool or linen industry. Franpath probably means “Fern path”’
while the other points to the making of a finer cloth than usual
from “‘Hards”’ and “‘Hassell” may be derived from “‘Haslock”’
which is the fine wool round the throat of the sheep. Usually
Hards or Hardens makes a coarse material like sackcloth.

Ladykirk fair may date from this period as we know that both:

Lint seed and linen were sold.

The 17th century is quite a different story—records are easier
to find as gradually a major linen industry was emerging in
Scotland, and Berwick itself comes into the limelight. On the
“20th Sept. 1604 John Wacke is alsoe admitted to the freedome
of this towne in regard of his great care he hath of bringinge up

yonge children and youth, teachinge them and settinge them :

- on worke to knitt and spinne”’.

Se Ses

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS W

In 1614 William the weaver had a toft and croft with a garden
in Fishwick. In 1621 “‘Greine Hardenes”’ a fine linen was sold
for ““Fyve schillin sax-d ye ell”. by 1626 the price had gone up
by 2d. and in 1652 it was 8/- the ell. (a Scottish ell was approxi-
mately 37 inches). An entry in the Session book of Hutton

arish for 1656 records that “‘Jean Rule was compeared for the
Reich of the Sabbath by Clodding lint’’, ie, winding it round a
clew.

The laird of Kimmerghame bought ‘ane bout of twilled
Knittines” (ie. tape) from Mrs Ancrum in Duns in 1682. A
“bout”’ in this case was as much thread or tape as was wound
round a clew or claw into a ball.

One of the most important Mss. on Lint in the Berwickshire
Archives refers to a place in Eccles parish not far from my old
home: it is a ““Tak”’ (or lease) of the lands of East Printonan”’
given by Jon Bowmaker of Printonan to George Paco in Dead-
rigs, (Crosshall) and written “‘At Dedrigis the twentie nynt day
of Junii the yeir of God 1A.1. Victh and threttie yeiris’’> in
which George Paco gets “‘All and haill the lands of East Printo-
nan and innie lands yrof p’teinding to the said John Bowmaker
and presentlie possessed be him”’, with the agreement that Paco
must look after certain lands, barns and stock which Bow-
maker retained there, and to which is added this feudal clause:—
“And su that Lint or Hemp the said George sall happen to saw
within the yeard dykes the said John sall have libertie sawane
the third pairt yrof. And alsoe the said George obleiss’s him to
labour of the millie® ane peck of frie lint sawing for the quhilk
cause the said John obleiss’s him to cause the millie do the haill
sh’r’vett (service) to the said George as he is obleist to himself
be witness of this Tak’’.

The third part of the sowing retained by Bowmaker refers to
the teinds of Printonan; the peck of Lintseed sowing is part of
the miller’s wages which later would represent 1% stones of
unspun lint. The tenant acting as miller had to look after the
whole sowing. Thirty years later it is mentioned again in an
Assignation dated 11th June 1660, by David Thorbrand in
Printonan, (servant to Archibald Aitcheson in Printonan) ‘““To
George Wilson”’ who for certain monies is assigned sowings of
grain ‘“‘due to Thorbrand from Aitchesone” and “ane peck of
Lintseed sawing yrof under the said Archibald Atchisone over-
seer yr and pertaining to me of and for my services’’.

It is also a strange coincidence that the 1630 Tak was ““Wry-
ten be James Madir’’. Today another James Mather has fol-
lowed his late father James, who followed his Uncle Matthew
Mather’ in the farm of Printonan, otherwise East Printonan.
Madir and Mather are synonymous and if a connection bet-
ween 1630 and today could be-found it might prove interest-
ing. James Madir was a Notary Publick and os bable agent for

8 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

Mr Bowmaker and he may have lived in or near Duns.

Later in the century Bowmakers were still at Printonan, the
Woods were at West Printonan and the Bells at Printonan Hill,
there was also Bowmaker Hill and Bite-a-bout, this latter place
is now incorporated in Printonan, as, is East Printonan.

Flax cultivation was both laborious and messy, sown on
poor ground in six feet wide strips, watering and hand-
weeding was easy; an Account was sent to John Roched in June
1754 for:— ““Tinsons (10d) for Widen lint and Tipens for Roben
(roping or tying) lint”’.

The flax was pulled up by the roots when it was ripe, tied
into bundles and soaked in clean running water. Soaking in
rivers was illegal as the rotting stalks caused stench and pollu-
tion and killed the fish. Fines were heavy for breaking this law.
After being dried on grass in the sun the flax was “‘beetled”’ ie.
hammered on stone benches with flat wooden mallets made of
rowantree wood, to loosen and shake off the dead outer skins
before being scutched clean with an iron comb. All this was
done by or under the direction of a Flax-dresser who prepared
the resultant “Beats” of flax, now properly called Lint, on the
distaffs for the spinners. Distaffs were also called “rocks” and
unspun lint was referred to as Rock Lint. An account from
William Davidson in Duns to the Rev. Roger Moodie in Fogo
in 1729 included “‘halfa stone of Rock Lint, Tron W’t.”’ Tron
weight was the standard weight used at the Tron. (Market).

Some of the flax fibre which could not be used for linen went
to the paper mills of Broomhouse and Allanbank. Spinning
was done by the women in winter time, the yarn going to the
weavers later. After weaving, the cloth was bleached, first
being soaked in the waulk mills in a lye of cow manure and
possed by the women with bare feet before being rinsed and
soaked again in sour milk; later it was fulled or trodden by the
fuller in a lye of fern or kelp, rinsed and laid out on grass to dry
and bleach in the sun. This process was often repeated and took
a whole summer. Dyeing was also done at the waulk mills by a
Dyster or Litster; the Smith family were dysters at Cumbledge
West waulk mill for over a hundred years; the last was William
whose widow died in 1776.

The price of bleaching varied, there is an Account for
‘“‘Bleachen the webs of William Tait, merchant in Dunse’’. “28
yds att 3d; 30 yds att 4 “2d; and 31 yds att 42d. Totall 29/102.”

Before linen could be sold it was measured and rolled by a
Lapper, then stamped by the Stamp-master. The legal length of
a roll of linen was 28 ells; the legal width was 1 ell and 1 inch.
After it was measured it was stamped at both ends of the roll.

The most valuable references we have on the lives of those
who lived by the culture of flax and weaving of linen are to be
found in the “Baron Court Book of Stitchel’’® edited by the

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 9

Rev. George Gunn. In 1682 the weavers there were fined for
not “weaving their cloath ane ell and ane inch broad and also in
the keiping of insufficient weights, nor trying the samyn with
the weights of the Sheriffdome or Howbuceh sheers Another
weaver was heavily fined because he refused to be a witness ina
case against a waulker at Stitchel waulk mill in 1695.

To promote the making of fine linen in Scotland an Act was
passed in 1686 forbidding the burial of people in anything
except plain linen; this continued until the Union when only
woollen cloth was allowed for burials.

In 1694 a Linen Company in England and the Royal Burghs
in Scotland agreed to form a private Company to “‘carry on the
Linen Industry in Scotland with a capital of 6000 x £5. shares,
half being held by Scotsmen’’. This was the true, start of the
British Linen Company, which in ‘‘1746 was erected into a
body corporate to encourage the industry”, but by 1801 it
became a banking company and had no further connection
with the Linen Hall.

A marriage Contract dated 15th August 1716 was made
between ‘“‘Alexander Bell, onlie lawful son of Mark Bell in
Printonanhill and his wife Elspeth Allan, and Christian Wood
second lawful daughter of the deceast John Wood in Wester
Printonan with consent of her brother german Robert Wood”’.
There is nothing unusual about this long Contract; the Bells
were of an Old Horndean family and Robert Wood was
already the owner of the “Eight Husbandlands of Whitsome’’,
but our second surprising coincidence can be found in Dr.
Henderson’s “Popular Rhymes of Berwickshire”? and the
crude verses he quotes about “‘Clarty Kirstan”’ whom he sup-

osed “‘lived about 100 years before” (c.1750) and that her

usband was “Baillie Bell, a baron bailiff’ of a local barony
who lived at Bite-a-bout, a place on the farm of Printonan
where it is still a field-name and where there are still ruins of a
house. Since the name of “‘Kirstan” is short for ‘‘Christian”’ it is
obvious that she was the Christian Wood of the Marriage
Contract with Alexander Bell and who had become known as
“The Clarty Dame of Bite-about’’. This unseemly title proba-
bly arose from her old-fashioned use of cow dung in the
bleaching of her linen; that she was a flax-dresser we know,
because she ‘“‘Swingled the lint wi’ awfu’ buffets’’. There is a
sharp contrast between poor Kirstan, the Assypods of Black-
hill and the ““Good wife of Whitecornlees who keepit close the
house and birrilit at the wheel’”’.

Bite-a-bout is omitted from the “‘Place-names of Berwick-
shire” and it is not on Pont’s map of the County although it
appears on Armstrong’s in 1771 when two houses are shown.
It is probably an occupational name and here could refer to the
land “within the yaird dykes” 1630. In Scotland a “‘Bite”’ was a

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 10

small pasturage, while a “‘Bout”’ is the extent of ground mown
by ascythe as the labourer goes straight forward. Anything cut
by a scythe and lying in rows is said to be “Lying in the Bout’.
The length of a Bout is variable and dependant on the size of the
field but the width is usually about 6 or 8 feet. In some Feu
charters the measurement of land is given as so many ““Bouts’”’
or ‘Butts’. As far as Bite-a-bout is concerned the charter
suggests that a Bout was a piece of land large enough to
produce from a peck of Lint seed sufficient flax fibre to make a
“bout”’ of cloth; in this case a roll or Bolt of linen is likely.

In 1964 H.M. Stationery Office reproduced for sale a Ms. in
the Scottish Record Office on the ““Annual Progress of Linen
Manufacture in Scotland 1727-1754’. This was now Scotland’s
major industry, which was subsidised by the Malt Tax. Trus-
tees were appointed in 1727 and they immediately appointed
Lappers and Stamp-masters; Lint mills with new flax-dressing
machinery were set up in 1729. Bleachfields by 1732; our
largest seems to have been at Ayton while there were small
ones at Duns (where the park is now) and at Coldstream,
towards the far end of Home Place where it was used by
professional washerwomen till late in the 1930’s, when it was
taken over as a market garden; after the war pre-fabricated
houses were built over it.

Experiments in bleaching with fern and kelp ashes were
made in 1733 and since fern ash took longer it was finally given
up.

The flax grower at this time does not appear to have been
able to produce enough to make the required amount of yarn
so 1t was imported from Holland; spinning schools were set up
with French and Dutch teachers. General Officers travelled
through the country checking the conduct of the Lappers and
Stamp-masters, to report on their behaviour and to “keep
them to their duty’’. It would be wrong to call them all rogues,
but rogues there were among the Stamp-masters, and even
Berwickshire was not immune from their trickery. There is a
letter dated 19th August 1780 from John Fordyce Esq. of
Ayton Castle to James Lorain of Angelraw, then Sheriff Clerk,
in defence of David Porter who had been summoned to appear
before the Sheriff “‘In consequence of a complaint from the
Stamp-master at Dunse against him for the alleged offence of
selling unstamped cloth’’, when the Stamp-master could claim
the fine of £5 for each offence. Mr Fordyce was careful to point
out that the Stamp-master had been sent for several times but
had not taken the trouble to go to stamp the cloth, so was in this
instance, guilty of deliberate neglect and fraud, and that “if he
continued to do that sort of thing he would ruin half the
manufacturers in the Country”’.

The first missing document is that of ‘““The History of Dunse
~ Linen Factory” by James Watson, Clerk to the Justices of

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS ull

Peace. It is likely that this Ms. went to the waste paper collec-
tions during World War 2 and is thus lost forever. The second
is an Omnibus book of the “Records of the Fyve Treds of
Dunse’’. The original is lost but copies of it had been made by
Mr A. A. Falconer, once a member of our Club, which his
sister gave to Mr. W. G. Johnston then County Clerk; he made
typescripts of them, publishing some of the records in his book
“Duns Dings A’ ”’ as well as in his articles for the B.N.C.
Volumes, particulary in his Presidential address to the Club in
1953. He intended, and I have ascertained that he did so, to
hand the Falconer Mss. in to the County Library at Duns
before he left the district in 1959, yet, they were not there when
the late James Crawford became Librarian, nor have they
turned up since, so, except for a few odd sheets in the County
archives Mr. Johnston’s published works are all we have about
the ““Fyve Treds of Dunse”’ and even then there is little about
the Weavers’ Guild. Strange things happen however—when
Mr. Hendry retired as Editor of the Club’s ““History”’ last year,
he handed me a folder of old Mss. which he suggested should
be looked at as they were out of date. To my surprise the folder
contained Mr. Johnston’s full typescript copy of the ““Weavers’
Incorporation of Dunse 1726’’.? A pencil marking of “omit” '
was on the outside, showing that these had never been pub-
lished in the “History”. This valuable Ms. gives a description
by Mr. Falconer of the original Weavers’ book as being “‘What
is known as a pott folio bound in vellum; on the original
fly-leaf which is printed in type is:— This book was got be
William Dickeson, Deccon, for the use of the Incorporation of
Weavers in Dunse 1726’. Its records are unique for they con-
tain not only the Twenty Acts, Rules and Articles of the Guild
but also the examination questions given to four young
apprentices who were to be entered as Masters Freemen into
the Incorporation together with their replies. The Minutes and
Accounts show by 1766 how much had been paid to Alexander
Mill, reed maker to the trade for many years, until Duns had an
accumulation of reeds, and started to hire them out.

The Ms. ends in 1768 relating that the Weavers gave £5 stg.
for “‘the making of an easy passage from Haddington to
Dunse”’ the amount “being as much as their weak circums-
tances will admit for the publick and necessary Design’’, signed
“George Wallis”’.

Eighteenth century records cover the peak period, and one
of the poorest times of the Linen Industry here. It saw the
passing from hard and constant hand labour to the machinery
of the Lint mills, from the bleaching by natural methods to
chemical ones, from dyeing with a variety of plants, barks and
lichens to the analine dyes coming on the market. During the
nineteenth century the industry gradually declined until the

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 12

growing of lint gave way to the easier and more profitable crop
of potatoes, and the bonny blue fields of Berwickshire were
soon forgotten.

The old hand-loom weavers, whose lot had never been very
good, lasted much longer, but they became largely weavers of
cotton, and continued to live and work in cramped surround-
ings with their large families, generally in two room or “‘but
and ben” hovels like those in the Weavers’ Row at Bogan, who
were perhaps descended from the original weavers for Coldin-
gham Priory, and who at this late date were famous for ging-
hams and striped shirtings. The last hand-loom weaver at
Bogan died in 1900. Like those at Redpath, Chirnside and
elsewhere only a few managed to live above poverty; Robert
Young, a weaver in the Wester Row of Greenlaw, must have
been better off as he was a small feuar. He died in 1791 aged 87,
yet I doubt if his house was really big enough to house besides
his weaving apparatus, his seventeen children, and, we won-
der, where they all slept?

At Langton a weaver’s shuttle can be seen on a gravestone
and at Nenthorn another shows a shuttle threaded.

Perhaps the old bearded man we saw as children, cycling
into Birgham to visit his daughter, was the last of the linen
weavers. He was known as “Auld Robson the weaver frae
Leitholm’’. In a basket on the handle bars of his bicycle was a
black American cloth pack full of ““Black mens’ sokes and
coorse weemens’ brats’ which he offered for sale at every
cottage door.

Perhaps with this man, who wove those coarse linen aprons
until he died in the 1920’s, the old Linen Industry in Berwick-
shire came to an end.

REFERENCES

—

Elizabeth, Duchess of Lauderdale was Countess of Dysart in her own right
and second wife of the Duke.

‘“‘Toom Tais” means ““Empty measure’.

HBNC II

“Simprim Church and Parish” by Rev. J. B. Longmuir DD.

“In Anno. l(thousand) VI hundreth and thirty years.”

“Millie” is a small mill.

A Matthew Madir was witness to a charter of the lands of Rodono Granted
to James Stewart, eldest natural son of James V. Dated at Melrose 25 May
1535.

ND 1 WL

se a le SS

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS

DURING 1977

Notes compiled by A. G. LONG
Hancock Museum, Newcastle-upon- Tyne

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

1/1
1/5

24/4
29/1
131/12

143/4

403/1
541/1

636/1

672/2

674/1

Lycopodium selago Fir Clubmoss. Lewis Burn, North
vnc. V C167; NY 68: 23.5.1977, DG. Long.
Lycopodium alpinum Alpine Clubmoss. Black Hill Earl-
ston. Near Cryptogramma crispa on partly stabilised
scree, VC 81, NT 584372. 12.5.1977. M. E. Braithwaite
and A. J. Smith.

Thelypteris dryopteris Oak Fern. Lewis Burn. VC 67,
INNO68. 23.5.1977.,D. G. Long.

Ophioglossum vulgatum Adder’s Tongue. Scremerston.
B7@.68, IN 04, 23'7.1977. G. A. Elliot.

Cerastium semidecandrum Little Mouse-ear Chickweed.
Sivbb s Head, cliff ledges, VC 81, NT 96; 216.1977:
M. E. Braithwaite.

Spergularia media Greater Sea-spurrey. St. Abb’s Head,
rock ledge 2m. above H. W. M. single large plant. VC
81, NT 96. M. E. Braithwaite.

Echium vulgare Viper’s Bugloss, pink variety. Scremer-
ston. VC 68, NU 04. 16.7.1977. G. A. Elliot.
Silybum marianum Milk Thistle. Coast S. of St. Abb’s
village, established on cliff rubbish. VC 81, NT
920670. 4.8.1977. M. E. Braithwaite.

Gymnadenia conopsea Fragrant Orchis. St. Abb’s Head,
small colony at Burnmouth Harbour. VC 81, NT
919683. M. E. Braithwaite.

Vulpia bromoides Squirrel-tail Fescue. Rocky outcrop
by Mire Loch, St Abb’s Head. VC 81, NT 915686. M.
E. Braithwaite.

Catapodium rigida Hard Poa. With last species. M. E.
Braithwaite.

BRYOPHYTA. All records by D. G. Long

Mosses numbered as in Census Catalogue (3rd Edition).
Hepatics as in Census Catalogue (4th Edition).

Above “The Forks”’, Lewis Burn, N. Tyne, VC 67, NY 63.88.

23 May 1977.

1/26 Sphagnum quinquefarium.

17/7 — Seligeria recurvata.

44/8 Bistuts reflexa.

69/2 Tetraphis browniana.

91/1 Breutelia chrysocoma.

97/1 Zygodon baumgartneri (= Z. viridissimus var vulgaris).

New to VC 67.
13

14 NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS DURING 1977

142/1 Rhynchostegiella pumila.
161/1 Hylocomium brevirostre.
27/2 ~~ Ptilidium pulcherrimum.
70/12 Scapania gracilis.

70/19 S. subalpina.

Shaftoe Crags nr. Belsay. VC 67, NZ 05.82. 22 May 1977.

29/8 Dicranum scottianum
30/1 Bazzania trilobata.
31/1 Lepidozia pinnata.
39/2 Sphenolobus minutus.
54/1. Mylia taylori.

Lichens (det. B. J. Coppins).

Pertusaria corallina.
Sphaerophorus melanocarpus.
Ochrolechia frigida.

Alectoria fuscescens.

Upper King Water, Gilsland. VC 70, NY 61.69. 21 May 1977.

55/7 Grimmia alpicola var alpicola on Pitus fossil trees; new to
VE70:
55/13. Grimmia doniana on wall.

ENTOMOLOGY

Anthocharis cardamines Orange Tip, one male flying across a
bare field between Bolam Lake and Shaftoe Crags. VC
6/5,.INZ, 08; 22,1977 Aa GE:

One ovum seen at Wallington, on Alliaria petiolata. VC. 67,
NZ 08. 26.6.1977. P. Summers.

Two males seen near Desoglin and Highstead Ash by
King Water, Cumbria. VC 70, NY 56. 28.5.1977.
AGU.

Aphantopus hyperantus Ringlet. Crooked Burn near foot, abun-
dant. VC. 88, NT 95: 16:7.1977, AnGae
Field near Haugh Head Ford, Wooler Water. VC 68,
IN'W102! 2337 1977. Ae Gale

Inachis io Peacock. Kershopefoot, Cumbria. VC 70, NY 48.
SOA OT 7. Be Well:

Spadeadama,..V C 70, NY 66..15.10.197 7578 Ge

Xylena vetusta Red Sword-grass. One on footpath near
Padgepool, Wooler. VC 68, NT 92.\22. 100977
A. G.L

Deilephila elpenor Large Elephant Hawk. The increase of this
species still goes on. Larvae are now being reported
from gardens on Fuchsia and in greenhouses on Vines.
They were reported at Wooler on Rose-bay Willow-
herb near the old railway station 8.9.1977. G. A. Elliot.

MAJOR C. J. DIXON-JOHNSTON T.D., J.P., F.S.A. SCOT. 15

Blepharita solieri (Boisduval). On the morning of 29th Aug.
1976 when checking the contents of a light-trap at Wells, near
Denholm, Roxburghshire, an unusual moth was found which
looked rather like a Flounced Rustic Luperina testacea. It was
determined as B. solieri by Mr. E. C. Pelham-Clinton of the
Royal Scottish Museum with the aid of the British Museum
(N.H.). The species has a distribution throughout southern
Europe but does not come very far north and is not known to
migrate. It seems most likely to have been imported, perhaps
with vegetables, and the record as far as known is apparently a
new one for the British Isles. Andrew G. Buckham.

ORNITHOLOGY

A Peregrine Falcon was seen at Oxroad Bay near Tantallon
Castle on the E. Lothian coast 1.10.1977. It circled over the
cliffs and Bay making repeated harsh calls like “‘kerk, kerk,
kerk” and made a mock stoop at a Redshank, this made all the
other birds go silent. A. G. L.

Major C. J. Dixon-Johnston, T.D., J.P.,F.S.A. Scot.

Itis with deep regret anda sense of personal loss that I write this
short tribute to my friend John Dixon-Joknston. I know that
this loss must be felt by every member of the Club, of which he
was President in 1962/63 after serving it as Secretary for some
years from 1954. His interest in the activities of the Club, and in
all North Country antiquarian affairs, was of a sort rarely
matched; his great kindness and personal charm will ever be
remembered. A heraldic scholar of no small reputation, his
contributions to this study cover a wide field.

Born in 1908, he was the son of C. H. Dixon-Johnston of
Akey Heads (an ancient Co. Durham family stemming from

Robert de Ros and his wife Isobel, daughter of William the

Lion, King of Scots) and his wife Christian Elfrida Grey of
Millfield, an agcient Northumberland family. He was educated
at Durham School and the Royal Agricultural College. In 1932
he married Mary Davy Wilkinson of Cleasby.

During the war John served in the Middle East and was
twice Mentioned in Despatches. He was a Justice of the Peace
for Northumberland, serving on the Norham and Islandshires
bench and Northumberland Quarter Sessions and on many
committees.

John’s love for his home at Middle Ord was deep and sin-
cere, as were the countless unrecorded kindnesses that he was
wont to do. His death is a great loss to the Club. We remember
Mollie his wife, as he will be remembered by us all.

Woes

PILMUIR HOUSE, HADDINGTON

Graham Duncan

The house was built in 1624 by William Cairns at the time of
his marriage to Agnes Broun. Their coat of arms with the date
of the building can be seen over the north door. According to
the experts the house, walls and dovecote were all built at the
same time.

There was an earlier Pilmuir, but so far its site has not been
discovered.

Apart from the annexe built in the 1930’s, which is separate
from the house, there have been only two additions to the
house since it was built. In the 18th century the door in the hall
replaced a window and a flight of steps to the garden was
constructed. In the 19th century to the right of the north door a
small addition was made in what was an L. This addition
comprises pantry and bathroom. Otherwise the house appears
as it was when built.

Originally the smoking room and hall were one room where
the family would have lived and taken their meals keeping the
drawing room for very rare occasions.

SMOKING ROOM

There is a stone wall round the aumbry. When the house was
built this would have been the interior surface. The aumbry
was discovered in 1929 when repairs to the panelling were
being carried out. The door of this aumbry is the original one;
the door of the aumbry in the drawing room is a copy. The
panelling was probably added in the middle of the 18th century
when the house appears to have been considerably embel-
lished. At that time the old large fireplaces in this room and the
drawing room were replaced by smaller stone ones. These
were later filled in with cement and Victorian grates.
DRAWING ROOM

The ceiling is contemporary with the house.

The west windows were rediscovered in the 1920’s having
been bricked up presumably at the time of he window tax.
WEST BEDROOM
This room would originally have been a square toom. The bed
recess and powder closets are 18th century additions as is all the
carving.

DINING ROOM

This room together with the passageway and present store-
room were probably originally one large storeroom adjacent
to the kitchen. The window in the east wall was discovered in
the 1930’s together with another similar window over the
modern fireplace. The small recess shows where the window
was in the north wall.

Visited by the Club on 14th July, 1977
16

‘uo SuIppeH ‘osnoHY jmMu]Ig “| ILV1d

17

THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF
NORTHUMBERLAND.
A REVIEW OF PAST WORK.

Albert G. Long, Hancock Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne.

The earliest records of Lepidoptera taken in Northumberland
(Watsonian Vice-Counties 67 and 68) are those of John Wallis
(1714-1793). Wallis came of a South Tyne family and claimed
to have been born at Whitley Castle near Kirkhaugh, about
two miles below Alston—just in Northumberland and very
near the boundary with Cumbria. He matriculated at Oxford
at the age of 18 (in 1733) and later graduated B.A. and M.A.
After a curacy at Portsmouth and a spell of schoolmastering at
Wallsend he became curate at Simonburn from 1748 to 1775.
Simonburn was the largest and wildest parish in Northumber-
land, 33 miles from south to north and 14 miles from east to
west.

Wallis published his famous book The Natural History and
Antiquities of Northumberland in 1769 with the help of 294 sub-
scribers. In this book are some of the earliest records of plants
and animals occurring in Northumberland. At that time the
scientific naming of plants and animals was in its infancy. The
binomial system invented by Linnaeus is considered to have
started for plants in 1753 with the publication of the Species
Plantarum and for generic names in 1754 with the publication of
Genera Plantarum. For animals the start of scientific naming is
taken as 1758 with the publication of Systema Naturae (10th
Edition) Vol. 1 though some names go back to Fauna Suecica
published by Linnaeus in 1746. Thus when John Wallis was
writing, scientific names were not really established and he had
to use a short description quoting in footnotes Latin descrip-
tions by Ray, Petiver and Linnaeus 1746.

Wallis listed nine species of Northumbrian butterflies—

Orange Tip Anthocharis cardamines—‘‘the orange-yellow and
white butterfly”’.

Common Blue Polyommatus icarus—‘‘the small sky-blue but-
terfly”’.

Wall Brown Lasiommata megera—‘‘the gold yellow and brown

butterfly which delights much to rest on dry banks, stones |

and rocks in July and August”’.

Small Copper Lycaena phlaeas—‘‘the small yellowish red but- |
terfly with black spots flying in the latter end of May or

beginning of June”’.
Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta—‘‘the stately butterfly called the

Admiral—a visitant of gardens and fields in the harvest |

months’. Wallis knew both the larva which he called the
eruca and the chrysalis and noted that they were variable in
colour.

18

THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTHUMBERLAND _ 19
A REVIEW OF PAST WORK

Tortoiseshell. By the Latin footnotes Wallis identified this as
the Large Tortoiseshell. This was probably erroneous as the
insect seen was described as frequenting “Alpine woods”’.
The late Professor J. W. Heslop Harrison thought this but-
terfly was most probably the Dark Green Fritillary Argynnis
aglaja (see Vasculum 15, 60-62).

Small Tortoiseshell Aglais urticae—This is called the lesser tor-
toiseshell and Wallis wrote that it “‘out-lives the Winter by
concealing itself in private recesses”’.

Comma Polygonia c-album—‘‘the tortoiseshell butterfly with
laciniated wings—not unfrequent in vale meadows and gar-
dens in August”’.

Peacock Inachis io—‘‘the peacock’s eye butterfly”? which Wallis

:

|
|
|

. |

knew could be found in the winter months in close retreats.
Wallis did not include the three species of common white
butterflies in his list.

Amongst the moths Wallis listed 10 Northumbrian species—

Death’s-head Hawk Acherontia atropos—this he calls the Bee
Tiger.

Bispic Abraxas grossulariata—‘‘the white, black and yellow
moth’’. Wallis knew that the larvae hibernate and that there
is a moorland race feeding on Erica and Vaccinium.

Cinnabar Tyria jacobaeae—‘‘the small, beautiful red and dark
brown moth”’. This Wallis had caught in the vicarage garden
at Haltwhistle and he knew that the larvae feed on Ragwort.

Burnished Brass Diachrysia chrysitis—‘‘the gold-yellow and
brown moth”’. Wallis found a specimen under an edging of
wild thyme in a border of his garden at Simonburn.

White Ermine Spilosoma lubricipeda—‘‘the white moth with
black spots’.

Wallis said it was frequent among willows near houses.

Ghost Swift Hepialus humuli—‘‘a large white and yellow
moth”. He does not mention that the larva is a root feeder
known to anglers as the ‘docken grub’ and used for bait.

Buff-tip Phalera bucephala—‘‘the silvery grey, brown and yel-
low moth”. Wallis had received a speamen from “Mrs.
Reed of Chipchace’’. He knew the larvae.

Large Yellow Underwing Noctua pronuba—‘‘the brown and
golden yellow moth’’—not unfrequent in gardens.

Garden Tiger Arctia caja—‘‘the brown, white and red moth”’.
Wallis knew the hairy caterpillar and wrote “It is frequent in
gardens and has an extraordinary affection for table salads
and kitchen greens”.

Puss Cerura vinula—‘‘the beautiful white and blue moth some-
times observed by the sides of moist groves, under the shade
of willows and other aquatic trees but not common’’. He
met with this moth in July 1761 among some tall herbage on
the left-hand within the gate in going to Nunwick-Hall.

20 THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTHUMBERLAND
A REVIEW OF PAST WORK

In the early years of the nineteenth century the most notable
Northumbrian naturalists who collected Lepidoptera were the
brothers Albany Hancock (1806-1873) and John Hancock
(1808-1890). Albany was senior to John by two years but died
aged 66 while John died aged 82. In their late teens both
Albany and John were keenly interested in insects and collected
different groups at places like Tynemouth, Prestwick Carr,
Winlaton Mill and Gibside. Many of their records are first
records for Northumberland and most are for the years 1826
and 1827. They kept similar notebooks planned on the same
lines with six columns and similar entries as for example the
records for finding and rearing the larvae of the Humming
Bird Hawk moth at Tynemouth. In John’s notebook we
read—under Sphinx stellataruam—‘‘] found 11 caterpillars at
Tynemouth in 1826 feeding on the Yellow Ladies Bedstraw,
on the 12th Aug. they changed to the pupa and the perfect
insect was produced on the 3rd Sept...” In Albany’s notebook
the entry under Sphinx stellatarum reads—‘‘John found on the
banks at Tynemouth eleven caterpillars on the yellow Ladies
Bedstraw .. .”” He then goes on to describe the colour changes
observed when the larvae were preparing to pupate. “They
were green with a streak of yellow along each side and
minutely dotted with white. A short time before they changed
to the pupa they became a dirty pink, the streaks were almost
invisible but the dotting remained perfectly distinct. They then
covered themselves with a kind of open network where they
lay from the 12th Aug. to 3rd Sept. when the perfect insect was
produced. The pupa at first was white, afterwards dusky”’.

The first record of the Large Elephant Hawk moth in
Northumberland was made by John Hancock at Tynemouth
in 1826. Concerning this species there were only two records
for Northumberland between 1826 and 1900 and only two
records between 1900 and 1941. The sudden increase during
World War II must have commenced about 1940. It is now
probably as common and widespread as the Poplar Hawk
moth.

John and Albany Hancock made the first record for North-
umberland of the Gatekeeper or Hedge Brown Pyronia tithonus
at Hartley and Blyth on 26.6.1826. Albany Hancock
recorded the Orange Tip as common at the sides of lanes
4.6.1826 and 29.4.1827.

John Hancock recorded Orange Tips on the Ponteland road
on 3.6.1827.

The earliest records of the Small Blue Cupido minimus in
Northumberland were made at Tynemouth 10.6.1827 and
13.7.1827 by Albany and John Hancock under the name alsus.

They recorded larvae of the Red Admiral and Painted Lady
at Tynemouth in 1826 and a Peacock on 29.4.1827 also at

THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTHUMBERLAND _ 21
A REVIEW OF PAST WORK
Tynemouth.

Albany knew the Dark Green Fritillary and recorded it on
the road to Dinnington—on flowers of Thistle 1825.

They also recorded the Large Heath Coenonympha tullia at
Prestwick Carr on 15.7.1827.

It is quite possible that about the same period (1826-7) there
were other amateur entomologists active in south Northum-
berland but I have not located published or unpublished histor-
ical facts. Certainly in north Northumberland there was a very
active naturalist paying attention to the insect fauna about this
time. This was Prideaux John Selby (1788-1867). Selby was
educated at Durham Grammar School where he had for his
contemporaries Sir Roderick Murchison, geologist, and Dr.
Graham later master of Christ’s College Cambridge, and
afterwards Bishop of Chester.

From Durham Selby went to University College, Oxford.
In 1810 he married a daughter of Bertram Mitford Esq. of
Mitford Castle by whom he had three daughters. About the
year 1811 he took up residence at Twizell House near Belford.
Between 1821 and 1834 Selby published his great work on
ornithology with 228 plates of which all but 28 figures were his
own eik: In 1829 Selby seconded the resolution moved by
Sir John Trevelyan which brought the Natural History Society
of Northumbria into being. He became a member of the Ber-
wickshire Naturalists’ Club in 1832. In 1837-8 along with Dr.
George Johnston and Sir William Jardine he became an editor
of the Magazine of Zoology and Botany—later The Annals of
Natural History. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society of
Edinburgh and of the Linnean Society and Durham University
conferred on him the honorary degree of M.A. He is buried in
Bamburgh Churchyard. Dr. James Hardy left a description of
P. J. Selby in his unpublished notebook No. 4—this reads “Mr.
Selby is an exceeding pleasant, unassuming, polite man, who
appears more willing to listen than to speak. He is of middle
size, grey haired, mouth and chin rather prominent, with the
mouth inward; dressed in plaid suit light closely checked and
oldish hat, square coat, as had Dr. Johnston.”’

Selby published his work The Fauna of Twizell in 1839 in the
Annals of Natural History Vol. I and part of it is his list of the
Lepidoptera taken on Twizell Estate near Belford. Excluding
varieties his list includes 255 species of Macro-lepidoptera and
5 recorded on the coast near Belford and Bamburgh.

Among the butterflies Selby recorded the Speckled Wood
Pararge aegeria and the Wall Brown Lasiommata megera and he
remarked that the Dingy Skipper Erynnis tages was confined to
a single field where its larval foodplant the Bird’s Foot Trefoil
was abundant. He also recorded the Small Blue Cupido minimus
in the appendix to his list.

22 THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTHUMBERLAND
A REVIEW OF PAST WORK

Among moths he said that the Large Elephant Hawk had
occurred once—in striking contrast to its abundance today. He
recorded the Bedstraw Hawk Hyles gallii and got the Convol-
vulus Hawk Agrius convolvuli at tobacco flowers. He said that
there was scarcely a tree of the Goat Willow which was not
bored by the larvae of the Lunar Hornet Clearwing Sphecia
bembeciformis.

His records of Noctuidae were much increased by his
method of sugaring by the use of honey smeared on a bee skep
which “‘from its circular form allows the moths when settled
upon it to be easily captured by the flappers”’. By this means he
also deduced that about three weeks was the average duration
of a species in a season.

In his list he recorded the Small Chocolate Tip Clostera pigra,
the Small Eggar Eriogaster lanestris (now probably extinct in the
County), the White Satin Leucoma salicis, Dingy Footman
Eilema griseola, Blossom Underwing Orthosia miniosa (included
only with a ?), and the Uncertain Hoplodrina alsines a species
recently recorded in south Northumberland (J. D. Parrack).

Selby was able to distinguish and record both the Dark
Chestnut Conistra ligula and the Common Chestnut Conistra
vaccinii. The distribution and relative abundance of these two
species in Northumberland is still incompletely known but
may be correlated with their food-plants. C. ligula associated
possibly with Hawthorn is the more common of the two at
Ponteland but in other parts vaccinii appears more common and
usually associated with Oak.

Selby recorded the Large Nutmeg Apamea anceps under the
name Hama aliena, we have still only six other records, mainly
coastal, for this species in the County. Other interesting
Twizell records were the Double Lobed Apamea ophiogramma,
Grey Arches Polia nebulosa and Sweet Gale Acronicta euphorbiae
recorded only with a ? The last mentioned has since been
recorded by W. G. Watson at Sidwood on 24.5.1919 and was
mentioned by G. Wailes in Stephen’s Illustrations 3, 325 so that
Selby’s record for Twizell could be correct. Similarly Selby’s
record of the Dusky Lemon Sallow Xanthia gilvago was the first
for the County; Bolam was sceptical but as the moth has
increased and is now widespread I think Selby was right. This
may not be so in another hundred years if Dutch Elm disease
decimates the Elm population as the larvae feed on the fruits.

Selby knew the difference between the Common Shark
Cucullia umbratica and the Chamomile Shark C. chamomillae.
The latter has been taken in Jesmond (1874, 1899), Dinnington
(1962) and Bedlington (1972). This again substantiates Selby’s
record. .

Among Geometers Selby recorded several scarce species
such as the Barred Umber Plagodis pulveraria, Birch Mocha

THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTHUMBERLAND — 23
A REVIEW OF PAST WORK

Cyclophora albipunctata recorded under the name Ephyra pen-
dularia, Chalk Carpet Scotopteryx bipunctaria (rare in Northum-
berland but common on the magnesian limestone of Durham),
Striped Twin-spot Coenotephria salicata (recorded as Cidaria
latentaria), Beech-green Carpet Colostygia olivata, Cloaked
Carpet Euphyia biangulata (recorded as Harpalyce biangulata),
Chestnut Coloured Carpet Thera cognata—a Juniper feeder,
Large Argent and Sable Rheumaptera hastata and Grey Spruce
Carpet Thera variata (though this may have been the Grey Pine
Carpet T. obeliscata which he did not record).

Amongst the Waves he recorded the Silky Wave Idaea
dilutaria, Cream Wave Scopula floslactata (under lactata), Lesser
Cream Wave Scopula immutata (under Ptychopoda immutata) and
Plain Wave Idaea straminata (under Acidalia inornata). It is
strange, however, that he does not seem to have recorded the
Common Wave Cabera exanthemata or Willow Beauty
Peribatodes rhomboidaria.

From the coast near Bamburgh Selby recorded the Scotch
Brown Argus Aricia artaxerxes—this must be near the southern
limit of its range; also the Crescent Dart Agrotis trux (under A.
lunigera)—still the only record for the County, and the Bor-
dered Straw Helioth is peltigera probably an immigrant. There
are a few doubtful species in his list but as his collection went to
Cambridge the specimens are no longer available to check.

Another collector who was active in the early part of last
century was George Wailes (d.1882). He was one atte prom-
oters and original founders of the Natural History Society of
Northumbria. He drew up the first Trust Deed and carried out
other legal matters for the Society. In 1857 he published a list of
the Butterflies of Northumberland and Durham (Transactions
Tyneside Naturalists’ Field Club, 3, 189-234). In this paper he
mentioned that most of his collecting was done between 1826
and 1834. He included 36 species of butterflies in his list (by
modern naming). Like the brothers Hancock he knew the
Gatekeeper or Hedge Brown Butterfly and said that it occurred
in two Northumberland locations—

(i) “in profusion in a single field near Whitley where the road
to Hartley crosses the Briardean Burn’.

(i) ““Meldon Park—by the roadside about half way between
Morpeth and Longhirst’’. He also recorded the Large
Heath at Prestwick Carr and from other Northumberland
sites.

Regarding migration of the Camberwell Beauty Wailes wrote
that William Backhouse informed him that about 1820 he saw
vast numbers strewing the sea-shore at Seaton Carew both
dead and alive. Wailes was sceptical about the possibility of
migration and said it was more reasonable to suppose that they

24. THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTHUMBERLAND
A REVIEW OF PAST WORK

had been blown from the land (1.e. Britain) than that they had
crossed a sea at least 300 miles wide. For evidence supporting
the immigration theory relative to the invasion of 1976 the
reader is referred to the article by J. M. Chalmers-Hunt in Ent.
Rec. 89, 89-105. Wailes mentioned that the Camberwell Beauty
was known locally as the “White Petticoats”. It seems probable
that George Wailes visited Meldon Park near Morpeth and one
wonders if that is how John Finlay got his interest in Lepidopt-
era. Edward Newman quoted a description by Wailes of a visit
to Meldon Park in 1831 (see Newman’s IIlustrated Natural
History of British Butterflies and Moths pp. 293-294). On the
occasion of this visit he witnessed the morning flight of male
Antler moths.

Perhaps the most knowledgeable local entomologist in
south Northumberland last century was Thomas John Bold
(1816-1874). He was born at Tanfield Lea, County Durham
26.9.1816 and died at Long Benton 5.5.1874 aged 58. Bold lived
for most of his life at Long Benton and worked for Mr. T.
Pattinson grocer and seedsman in the Bigg Market. At the age
of 51 he was paralysed and lost the use of both legs (1867).
Earlier in life he was a close friend of James Hardy and together
they formed the original Wallis Society when Mr. Hardy was
running his private school in Gateshead between 1840 and
c.1846. Bold concentrated mainly on Coleoptera, Hemiptera
and Hymenoptera. In 1877 he related how the Hancock
Museum’s collection of insects started. A series of drawers was
provided. In thirteen of these the beetles purchased from the
Rev. R. Kirkwood with a few from other sources were
arranged. Names and spaces were provided in three other
drawers for Hemiptera and one drawer for Homoptera. To the
Lepidoptera eighteen drawers had been allocated. Earlier in the
same article he wrote ““We have now a local Entomological
Society with a respectable list of members which under the able
Presidency of Mr. W. Maling is actively employed in collecting
our native insects, devoting, for the present most of its atten-
tion to Lepidoptera of which some good private collections
have been formed”. After his death Bold’s collections were
presented to the Society by his brother Edwin Bold.

Although Bold was not pnmarily a Lepidopterist he pub-
lished records e.g. he recorded a Bedstraw Hawk moth at
Newbiggin-by-the-Sea in 1870 and wrote—‘‘Thad the pleasure
of seeing this beautiful insect on the wing at Newbiggin on the
evening of the 15th of August. Animago... was bred by Mr.
Hamilton (Secretary of our Entomological Club) from a larva
found in the engine-shed of the Newcastle and Carlisle Rail-
way, on the 7th of September, it fed on Ladies’ Bedstraw,
pupated, and the moth emerged on the 30th of April following.
- Mr. Hamilton thought that the larva had come in sand brought

THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTHUMBERLAND — 25
A REVIEW OF PAST WORK
for the use of the engines.”’

Another noteworthy lepidopterist of the second half of last
century was John G. Wassermann. I have no dates for his
life-span but he probably died in 1883. He was elected to the
Natural History Society in 1871 and his address was 50, Bever-
ley Terrace, Cullercoats. In the Society’s Transactions, vol. V,
1873-6 (pp. 282-295) he published a paper entitled “‘Notes on
some Macrolepidoptera occurring at the Coast, near the mouth
of the Tyne’. His collection was donated to the Hancock
Museum in 1883 by Mrs. Wassermann suggesting that he
probably died about that year.

His records include some interesting spedaes—

Large Tortoiseshell Nymphalis polychloros on an old sugar patch
on the palings of his garden 12th Sept. 1875...

Large Footman Lithosia quadra, two, on Town Moor and
Westgate, 1872.

Brown-tail Euproctis chrysorrhoea at Cullercoats.

Yellow-tail Euproctis similis at S. Shields.

Wassermann recorded both the Grey Dagger Acronicta psi
and Dark Dagger A. tridens but there is doubt about the latter as
the identification was not apparently confirmed by genitalia
differences. He said that only the time of appearance could
guide the collector in deciding which was which as the Grey
Dagger emerges in June and the Dark Dagger in August. To
date we do not seem to have an authentic record of tridens in the
County though Renton claimed to have reared it from three
larvae obtained near Kelso, Roxburghshire (see Entomologist
1903).

Other interesting coastal species mostly obtained by sugar-

ing were—
Reddish Light Arches Apamea sublustris, Clouded Brindle
Apamea epomidion, Crescent Striped Apamea oblonga, White
Colon Sideridis albicolon, Brown Crescent Celaena leucostigma,
Pearly Underwing Peridroma saucia, Stout Dart Spaelotis ravida,
Square Spotted Clay Xestia rhomboidea, Great Brocade Eurois
occulta, Cloudy Sword Grass Xylena exsoleta, Red Sword Grass
X. vetusta.

William Maling was another keen amateur who took a lead-
ing part among the Newcastle entomologists in the latter part
of last century. He probably died in 1893 and published lists of
Lepidoptera in the Transactions between 1870 and 1876. He
was elected a member of the Society in 1870 and served on the
Committee. His records were later incorporated into Robson’s
Catalogue (published 1899 and 1902). At one time he lived at
St. Mary’s Terrace opposite the Museum and later at 15, Jes-
mond Road.

John Finlay was another active amateur lepidopterist last

26 THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTHUMBERLAND
A REVIEW OF PAST WORK

century though again I have no dates for his life-span. He died
prior to 1902 but was still alive in 1895. This can be inferred
from the following facts. J. E. Robson referred to him as the
“late John Finlay” in the introduction to the Catalogue. In the
Transactions of the Tyneside Naturalists’ Field Club Vol. 13, pp.
173 we read that the first meeting of the Club in 1895 was on
23rd May and was held at Morpeth, Wansbeck Valley and
Angerton—‘‘Meldon House and gardens were enjoyed under
Mr. Finlay’s guidance who also exhibited his unrivalled private
collection of Moths and Butterflies which deserved more
attention than we could give’’. John Finlay was apparently the
gardener at Meldon House, the home of Mr. Clayton Swan.
After his death Finlay’s collection was gifted to the Hancock
Museum by a Mrs. Moffat. Unfortunately Finlay did not put
data labels on his specimens. Finlay took the only speamen of
the Copper Underwing yet caught in Northumberland but
owing to lack of data labels one cannot be sure of the speamen.
He also took a specimen of that widely travelled immigrant the
Small Mottled Willow Spodoptera exigua (Meldon 5.8.1879), as
recorded in his Diary, where he also recorded the Oak Lutestr-
ing Cymatophorina diluta three times between Oct. 8 and 23,
1879. The only other record for this species in Northumber-
land is in Jesmond in 1899 though Bolam recorded it at Alston
within a mile of the Northumbrian boundary (Sept. 1917).
Finlay knew Greenleighton Moor as a locality for the Large
Heath Butterfly and also collected at Coal Law Wood where he
got the Early Grey Xylocampa areola. This species was still
present in this locality in the late 1960’s (H. T. Eales).

John E. Robson lived at Hartlepool and died on Feb. 28, 1907
aged 74 years. The first two parts of his Catalogue covering the
Macro-lepidoptera of Northumberland and Durham were
published in We Transactions of the Natural History Society in
1899 and 1902 (old series Vol. XII). The parts covering the
Micro-lepidoptera were completed in 1913 (after his aeik) by
John Gardner. His list records a total of 422 species of Macros
for Northumberland. For these he relied mainly on John Fin-
lay, J. G. Wassermann, W. Maling and George Bolam.

John Gardner (1842-1921) was born at Egglestone in Tees-
dale but lived most of his life in Hartlepool. He was a timber
merchant and saw-miller. He was both a coleopterist and
lepidopterist and knew John Sang also a micro-lepidopterist.
After J. E. Robson’s death in 1907 Gardner helped to complete
the second part on the Micros published in 1913. Otherwise he
did not publish much himself apart from records sent to Bar-
rett, Tutt, Fowler and Buckler. His collections of Coleoptera
and Lepidoptera came to the Hancock Museum between 1913
and 1921) He died at the age of 79 (july 21/1921) For am
- obituary see Vasculum, VII, 27.

HE Oke LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTHUMBERLAND = 27
A REVIEW OF PAST WORK
In this period spanning the two centuries there lived mostly
outwith the County the most lavish patron of the Lepidoptera
this country has produced. This was James John Joicey who
died in 1932 at the age of 61. He was a scion of one of North-
umberland’s most notable families and had a boyhood interest
in insects. Some of his British specimens in the Hancock
Museum such as the Black Rustic Aporophyla nigra came from
the Ingram Valley and are labelled Linhope where he used to
collect when on holiday in the early years of this century. From
this locality came a specimen of the Triple-spotted Clay Xestia
ditrapezium the only Northumbrian specimen in the Museum.
When nearly 40 years of age J. J. Joicey embarked on the
formation of a private museum at The Hill, Witley near Guild-
ford in Surrey. His collection of Lepidoptera from many dif-
ferent countries amounted to about 380,000 specimens after
already presenting about 75,000 speamens to the British
Museum. His collection of British Macro-lepidoptera was
gifted to the Hancock Museum in 1934 and three special
cabinets were purchased to house them. The collection was
arranged in the cabinets in 1949 by H. Hargreaves with the aid
of a Carnegie grant. Obituaries of J. J. Joicey are published in
The Entomologist 1932, vol. 65, 142-4 and in Ent. Record vol. 44,
68

Of Northumbrian Lepidopterists linking the Victorian gen-
eration with those of the present century the best known was
probably George Bolam (1859-1934). Bolam’s family were of
Norman descent. He was born 8.11.1859 at Barmoor but from
1864 lived at Weetwood Hall. In 1877 the family moved to
Berwick and he entered his father’s office to learn the business
of a land agent. He was well acquainted with the Hancock
brothers, James Hardy and Abel Chapman. For 2 years ee
8) he lived in Wales and wrote a book ‘“‘Wild Life in Wales”.
1912 he settled in Alston and became very friendly with J. E
Hull the Vicar at Ninebanks and student of spiders. Along with
Hull, Bagnall and Harrison he helped to start the Vasculum in
1915. Bolam’s greatest contribution to local entomology was
his work ‘“‘The Lepidoptera of Northumberland and the East-
ern Borders” published 1926-30 in H.B.N.C. vols. 25-27.
Bolam collected much at Berwick, Kyloe, Haggerston and
Newham Bog. From the latter he recorded the Dark Bordered
Beauty Epione paralellaria 29.8.1890. He used to get the caterpil-
lars of the Confused Apamea furva “‘at the roots of tufts of grass,
growing from the sides of the old Berwick town walls in May
and June” the moths he took at sugar ‘‘at a considerable eleva-
tion upon the hill ridges at Langleyford in August and Sep-
tember”’ proving that Bolam did not confine his moth hunting
to places of easy access.

Bolam recorded the Small Engrailed Ectropis crepuscularia at

28 THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTHUMBERLAND

A REVIEW OF PAST WORK
Kyloe Wood 17.5.1896 though John Finlay had already
recorded it in his diary for Stobtree Whin on 24.5.1879. It is
now known from six grid squares in the County but Bolam’s
record is the only one for VC 68.

Another keen amateur contemporary with Bolam was John
Robert Johnson (1865-1935). He was a manual instructor and
machine construction teacher at Gateshead Secondary School.
In his spare time he made a special study of the life-histories of
our three species of Fritillary butterflies and of the small
Geometers known as Pugs whose larvae feed inside flowers.
He succeeded in rearing the Valerian Pug Eupithecia valerianata
from flowers of the Large Valerian growing by ditches near
Prestwick Carr. He was a honorary curator at the Hancock
Museum between the Wars and for some time put on a
monthly exhibit of local butterflies and moths. He was well
acquainted with Professor J. W. H. Harrison and Robert Craigs
of Catcleugh. For a portrait see the Vasculum vol. XXI (1935)
opposite p.119.

During the early part of the present century interest in
entomology gradually increased among the Newcastle
naturalists. Among those involved was Frederic Charles Gar-
rett D.Sc. a chemistry graduate of Manchester University who
became a lecturer in chemistry at King’s College, Newcastle.
He lived at Hexham and later at Alnmouth where he died
19.12.1940. He took an active part in founding an entomologi-
cal section of the Natural History Society in 1920. This became
the second Wallis Club in 1923. In 1924 he helped to found the
Northern Naturalists’ Union. Dr. Garrett collaborated with
Professor J. W. H. Harrison in experiments on industrial
melanism in the Early Thorn Selenia dentaria and Engrailed
Ectropis bistortata. It was. claimed that melanism in these species
had been induced by feeding the larvae with leaves contami-
nated with manganese and lead salts. This has never been
conclusively verified so that it is probable that the melanism
was caused by recessive genes in the original stock. Dr. Gar-
rett’s collection came to the Hancock Museum in 1951 and
contains many fine bred series of Lepidoptera from Durham,
Northumberland and Cumberland. Melanic specimens of the
Early Thorn bred by Garrett are in the Niebelee collection.

In the period between the Wars there lived in Redesdale an
amateur lepidopterist known as Robert Craigs. His death
probably occurred in 1948. He lived at Reservoir Cottages,
Catcleugh and worked for the Newcastle and Gateshead Water
Company. His collection of local Lepidoptera came to the
Hancock Museum in 1957. Initially he was interested mainly in
the bird-life at Catcleugh in the early nineteen twenties and
thirties. About 1922 he became interested in Lepidoptera partly
through a visit to Rev. J. E. Hull then at Belford. This he

THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTHUMBERLAND — 29
A REVIEW OF PAST WORK

described in an article entitled “Lepidoptera in Upper Rede-
sdale”’ (H.B.N.C. 30, 147). In this article he recounted various
incidents and mentioned the capture of certain species includ-
ing the Large Heath Coenonympha tullia, Great Brocade Eurois
occulta, Treble Lines Charanyca trigrammica, Golden Plusia
Polychrysia moneta, Smoky Wave Scopula ternata, Manchester
Treble Bar Carsia sororiata, Tissue Triphosa dubitata, Thyme
Pug Eupithecia distinctaria, and the Cloaked Pug E. abietaria. He
also claimed that the Red Sword Grass X. vetusta is more
common about Catcleugh than the Cloudy Sword Grass X.
exsoleta. Robert Craigs knew the Newcastle collectors such as
J. R. Johnson and G. T. Nicholson.

George T. Nicholson lived in Fenham, Newcastle and died
10.2.1949. His collection was gifted to the Hancock Museum in
1951. He was a member of the entomological section of the
Natural History Society and later of the second Wallis Club.
He was acquainted with J. R. Johnson, Harry Sticks, the Rosies
and Professor J. W. H. Harrison. He was the first collector to
take the Scarce Prominent Odontosia carmelita in Northumber-
land (in the Corbridge area). He reared a lot of specimens
including Pugs and frequently collected at Prestwick Carr. He
also Pail ced with Robert Craigs in Redesdale. His notebook
came to the Museum in 1973. He took the only specimen of the
Beautiful Brocade Lacanobia contigua yet recorded in North-
umberland on 23.6.1910. It was sitting on the trunk of an alder
by the Coldgate Burn in Langleeford Valley.

Professor John William Heslop Harrison (isst- 1967) lived
at Birtley, County Durham are DIN 1967 aged 86. He
graduated at Armstrong College in 1903 and became a science
master at Middlesbrough High School up to 1917. Later he
became a lecturer in Zoology at Armstrong College (1920),
Reader in Genetics (1926) and Professor in Botany (1927) until
his retirement in 1946. As well as studying the Lepidoptera he
took an interest in other insect orders and in Botany and was a
general field naturalist. He carried out experiments on induced
melanism and induced food preferences in sawfly larvae. He
added many new species records to the faunal lists of Durham
and Northumberland as well as the Hebrides. He recorded the
rare Dark Bordered Beauty Epione paralellaria along the Fal-
lowlees Burn in July 1952 (Vasculum 37, 24). One web most
valuable contributions is an account of the differences between
the various Oporinia species (now Epirrita) in the Transactions of
the Northern Naturalists’ Union—showing how to distinguish
the eggs, larvae, pupae, and imagines of the November moth
E. dilutata, Autumnal moth E. autumnata, Small Autumnal E.
filigrammaria and Christy’s Carpet E. christyi. This work stimu-
lated more interest in these moths which were further studied
by Mr. J. Percy Robson, schoolmaster, of Barnard Castle.

30 THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTHUMBERLAND
A REVIEW OF PAST WORK

Robson’s researches are published in a paper entitled ‘“Varia-
tion in the November Moth” (Ent. Gaz. 7, 199-200). He was
one of the earliest northern lepidopterists to record the Marsh
Square Spot Diarsia florida, this he had unwittingly taken in
Westmorland in 1914 (Ent. Gaz. 3, 43). Numerous other notes
were inserted in the Vasculum mostly relating to Yorkshire and
Durham Lepidoptera. J. P. Robson died in 1958 and his magni-
ficent collection was gifted to the Hancock Museum in 1959.
In the period following World War II a prime impetus to
Lepidoptera collecting was given by the development of the
Robinson mercury-vapour light trap. This was later adapted at
Rothamstead and used widely especially by participants in
connection with the mapping scheme of the Monk’s Wood
Biological Records Scheme. One of the first to adopt this new
collecting technique in Northumberland was F. W. Gardner
B.A., A.M.I.C.E. He was an Army Major who worked for
Parsons and had a long connection with the Natural History
Soaety of Northumbria to which he was elected in 1919 and
later served on the Counal. When in Newcastle he lived in
Heaton but after retiral went to Riding Mill where he con-
tinued to collect Lepidoptera. Eventually he moved to Brock-
enhurst in the New Forest always an attractive area to lepidop-
terists. Whilst he was at Riding Mill I corresponded with him
as a result of reading his published list ‘“Macrolepidoptera in
Northumberland” (1962) in the Entomologists Gazette vol. 13,
22-30. Amongst other things he recorded for Riding Mill was a
Brimstone butterfly Gonepteryx rhamni—‘‘flying across the
garden in June 1950”. This species is resident in Cumbria
where its foodplant grows but is only known asa stray vagrant
in Northumberland. He also recorded the Poplar Kitten Har-
pyia bifida as occasional, the Four-dotted Footman Cybosia
mesomella, Scarce Prominent Odontosia carmelita, Grey Arches
Polia nebulosa, Double Lobed Apamea ophiogramma, Sprawler
Brachionycha sphinx—of regular occurrence, Burnet Compan-
ion Euclidia glyphica—infrequent, Scallop Shell Rheumaptera
undulata—not uncommon near Corbridge, both species of the
Lead Belle Scotopteryx mucronata ssp. umbrifera and S. luridata
ssp. plumbaria (more common), the Common Bordered
Beauty Epione repandaria, and Satin Beauty Deileptenia ribeata.
During the period before and after World War II Robert H.
Benson lived and collected in Newcastle at Jesmond Park East.
He joined the Natural History Society in 1934 and died c.1957.
He was a member of the Amateur Entomologists’ Society and
his collection was given to the Hancock Museum in 1957. It
consisted of life-history stages—ova, larvae, pupae, and
imagines of species collected locally with a few from the Lake
District and Kent where he was apparently stationed during
the War. His earliest records were in 1933 and the latest in 1956.

THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTHUMBERLAND 31
A REVIEW OF PAST WORK

One name fairly well known among amateur entomologists
in Newcastle was that of Rosie. The family included at least
four different collectors—

(i) David Rosie who became a member of the Natural History
Society in 1897.

(ii) Miss Annie Rosie who gave a variety of the Small Copper
butterfly to the Museum in 1896.

Their collection of Lepidoptera was gifted jointly in 1936.
David Rosie successfully practised the technique of preserving
and mounting larvae of the Lepidoptera during the period
1898-1902.

(iii) Alexander Rosie gifted to the Museum a collection of
micro-lepidoptera in 1915 and in 1921 he arranged John
Gardner’s collection of micros in a new cabinet.

(iv) Donald Rosie gave two small collections of Diptera to the
Museum in 1915 and 1916. In 1950 he presented some
Macro-lepidoptera taken in his garden in Newcastle.

Since the passing of former generations of lepidopterists
records have been continued and new species added to the
County list. The Hancock Museum has fis been enabled to
build up a card index of all known records ultimately to help
the production of distribution maps.
From the Cheviot area have come records of the White
Underwing Anarta melanopa (W. M. Logan Home, I. & B.
Wallace, Ent. Rec. 87, 159); Northern Dart Xestia alpicola (M.
me yYoung, Ent. Gaz. 27, 274); and- Speckled Yellow
Pseudopanthera macularia (I. & B. Wallace, a small colony in
College Valley 28.5.1974).
From the North Tyne valley and Kielder area have come
records of the Golden Rod Brindle Lithomoia solidaginis, Sand
Dart Euxoa cursoria, Least Yellow Underwing Noctua interjecta,
Straw Point Rivula sericealis, Large Blood Vein Cyclophora
_ punctaria, Sharp-angled Carpet Euphyia unangulata, Clouded

Silver Lomographa temerata (also from near Kyloe), Scorched
: Wing Plagodis dolabraria, London Brindled Beauty Lycia hir-
| taria, Oak Beauty Biston strataria.

From the south and west of the County some of the more

_ notable recent records are the Satin Beauty Deileptenia ribeata
| (Dipton Woods, 28.7.1974 J. D. Parrack), Large Seraphim
_ Lobophora halterata (Staward, 3.6.1977 J. D. Parrack), Barred
_ Carpet Perizoma taeniatum (Oakpool, 5.8.1975 D. A. Shep-
| pard), Pretty Pinion Perizoma blandiata (Bedlington, 12.7.1977
fay. D. Parrack).

Of species which have been confused mention should be
made of Lempke’s Gold Spot Plusia putmani ssp. gracilis for-
merly confused under P. festucae. Both occur in Northumber-

32. THE MACRO-LEPIDOPTERA OF NORTHUMBERLAND

A REVIEW OF PAST WORK
land and the evidence suggests that gracilis is the more common
and widespread of the two. According to Baron de Worms the
general foodplant of gracilis is still not known though it is
thought that it may be Iris like that of festucae (Ent. Gaz. (1978)
Vol. 29;'26):

The Marsh Square Spot Diarsia florida was formerly con-
fused with the Small Square Spot D. rubi. Both are present in
the County e.g. both occur at Prestwick Carr but northwards
rubi seems to decrease and I never took it in Berwickshire
though florida was widespread and fairly common. The dis-
tribution of rubi in VC 68 needs to be ascertained by light
trapping in May and September as this species is double
brooded unlike florida which flies in June and July.

The three common species of Ear moths all occur in North-
umberland though their distribution is not adequately worked
out. Their identification is only ascertained for certain by
examination of the genitalia. Similarly all dark speamens of
the Grey Dagger should be kept for examination of the
genitalia as we still do not have an authentic record of the Dark
Dagger A. tridens. Of species which are apparently increasing
the Wall butterfly is of interest as it is now present again in the
Tweed area after a long period of eclipse. The range of the
Scotch Brown Argus Aricia artaxerxes especially at the coast
should also be investigated while the Scotch Argus Erebia
aethiops long ago recorded near Elsdon and Fawdon in the
Cheviot area may still be awaiting rediscovery in some area of
marginal ground where its foodplant Molinia caerulea grows. It
would also be worth while searching the Langleeford valley
and Ingram valley to try to confirm the old records of the
Beautiful Brocade and Tnple-spotted Clay. The same is true
for John Finlay’s record of the Copper Underwing now
known to be represented in Britain by two species Amphipyra
pyramidea and A. berbera. Again we would like to know if the
Speckled Wood butterfly is still present in the County, we have
no certain records for this century. The Green Hairstreak is
well known in south Northumberland but has not been taken
in VC 68, it should be sought for in May at localities having
plenty of Bilberry. These examples must suffice to show that
much remains to be done to complete our knowledge of the
habits and distribution of the Lepidoptera of Northumberland.

i
|

HMAIEES CASTLE
Lady McEwen

On September 25th 1907 the Club visited Hailes Castle. They
came on the market train from Berwick and arrived at East
Linton at 9.32. Then “leaving the Railway station, on one of
whose walls facing the South a specimen of the Japanese
Climbing Hydrangea (schizophragma hydrangeoides) was
well established, the party proceeded along the pathway, for
years the subject of litigation between the inhabitants of Linton
and the proprietors of Phantassie and Hailes,” and “inspected
the picturesque ruin.” Carriages came at 11.30 and transported
the members to Tantallon.

The Club came again in 1919 and again in August 1939, the
last meeting before the outbreak of war.

The curious thing about Hailes Castle is that it has so little
history: Hotspur attacked it, Bothwell owned it, Mary Queen
of Scots may have visited it, but otherwise there is little,—and
there is little because it had no strategic importance. It did not
command the heights, control a roadway or a ford (though it
was near both), guard a port or watch the stretches of the sea. It
could be made fast itself but its “being surrounded by higher
ground rendered it far from being a strong defensive position.”
Indeed now, when seen in early summer encircled by trees on
the grassy river bank at the foot of Traprain Law, with a burn
running on either side of it into the Tyne, and wild flowers
growing everywhere, even in the walls, it has more the air of
some delightful waterside manor house than the “‘fortalice of
Hailes.” Why then was it built where it was? A personal view,
which if it does not echo the scholars, may have the dubious
merit of originality, is that as Newstead was to Eildon, and
Stratford-sub-Castle to Old Sarum, so perhaps was Hailes to
Traprain Law. All three are on the banks ofa river, near a ford,
near an ancient road, at the foot of a hill occupied by pre-
Roman tribes. Newstead and Stratford-sub-Castle are known
to be the sites of Roman Camps. Might it be that Hailes was,
also? As Newstead and Stratford have existed quietly, but
figured not at all, in later history, so Hailes has figured little
except in so far as a castle was built there, the rocky site by the
Tyne providing a modest security unafforded by the flat
meadow banks of the Tweed and the Avon. The mid-Eildon
was never inhabited again after the Roman assault on the
Selgovae who lived there. Old Sarum had a chequered history,
surviving as a town until the founding of Salisbury in the early
Middle Ages (and as a rotten borough until the nineteenth
century). But the Votadini who lived on Traprain are said to

_ have fared uniquely in that, it is thought, they came to terms
_ with the Romans in a way no other hill-dwelling tribe in

Britain did.
33

34 HAILES CAS BEB

Traprain Law that “huge intrusive mass of igneous rock,”
“that trachytic boss” which rests on the flat East Lothian
coastland like some “‘stranded whale” of “‘porphyritic clink-
stone” was inhabited for over a thousand years from about 700
B.C. When the Romans came to the Borders towards the end
of the first century A.D. they would have found a walled town
covering about 40 acres, and “containing numerous inhabit-
ants employed upon industries such as metal-working, agricul-
ture, stock-breeding and trading with the South, probably by
way of the East Coast route.” And when they withdrew in
A.D. 370 it was in the hands of these inhabitants that the
Romans left their authority, binding the Votadini into a
foederatus, a treaty state.

Twice in the intervening years (in A.D. 197 & A.D. 297)
Traprain had been raided by the Picts; and it was perhaps the
Picts, or the Votadini themselves, in league with the Picts, who
around A.D. 400 made a piratical raid across the North Sea and
returned (up the Tyne, disembarking at Hailes?) to bury their
booty on the hill: half a hundred weight of Roman silver was
unearthed there in 1919. It had been largely broken up, the
pieces being folded into small ‘packets’ (some with pieces of
pewter concealed inside them: human nature never changes;)
ready for the share-out and subsequent melting down. It can
now be seen in the National Museum of Antiquities in Edin-
burgh where most of it has been carefully pieced together.
There are platters, dishes, goblets, spoons, strainers, flagons,
etc., all of great beauty, some—it is said—of origin as distant
Alexandria, and some having Christian significance: including
a flagon with Christ and the Magi, Moses and Adam & Eve, a
spoon with the Chi Ro monogram, and a strainer with Jesus
Christus pricked out on it.

Traprain’s other Christian link is St. Kentigern, Bishop of
Glasgow, the sixth century contemporary of St. Columba with
whom, tradition has it, he exchanged croziers. Thenew daugh-
ter of King Loth (whose name gives us the Lothians) was
thrown down the precipitous south side of Traprain when she
was found to be having a child by a young shepherd. She
survived and her friends sought to improve her situation by
setting her on the sea in an open boat. Fortunately, the boat
came to land at Culross where the child was born. He was
called Kentigern, though he is as well known as Mungo
(meaning darling) the nickname given him by his tutor and the
patronal name of many churches and places in the Borders.

It was not long after, in 638, that the habitation of Traprain
came to an end when Cunedda, chief of the Votadini, went
with his people to Wales to help the British Gwynedd against
the Irish, and none of them ever returned.

Meanwhile, what of Hailes? There is perhaps more than one

nen

HAILES CASTLE 35

reason for not agreeing whole-heartedly with John Mungo
Bell when he says that the castle “‘As far as the old wreck shows
any architecture, has been built on the foundations of an older
baronial fortress.” Still less would one claim that anything
Roman remained. In Europe, as McGibbon & Ross say, a
number of old Roman buildings were used by their successors
and formed the basis of, and the model for, Frankish and then
Norman fortresses (not to mention the link between Roman
villas and the lay-out of mediaeval monasteries) but there were
only a few instances of this in England, such as Pevensey
Castle, and none in Scotland. The word Hailes is supposed to
come from a Celtic word meaning hillock and there is no
evidence that the hillock carried any buildings, even if one
chooses to think it did. The earliest and finest building work
was done in the thirteenth century and the influence was
English, making Hailes resemble a fortified manor house more
than a northern stronghold. There are only three examples of
thirteenth century work in East Lothian—Dirleton, Yester and
Hailes—and the standard is high, as befits a century which
brought prosperity to the whole of Europe, including Scot-
land.

The lay-out of the original building can be thought of as a
rectangle whose north-west corner is the tower now roughly
to one’s right on entering the main gateway, and whose eastern
walls (with remains 7 feet thick) border the burn about 40 yards
over to the right. The chief points to notice apart from the
lower reaches of handsome and regular stonework (best seen
from the river bank) are the vaulted dungeon under the tower,
some upper parts of which were later converted for use as a
doocot, and the “specially noteworthy” northern postern stair
which is “‘strongly ribbed and vaulted,” both of which require
further comment.

If one wonders why dungeons and indeed more usual
household offices such as kitchens should have been—in this
case so beautifully—vaulted, the answer lies in McGibbon &
Ross’s comment that “in disturbed districts, these tower
houses had the ground floor vaulted against fire,” apart from
the necessity of having a solid foundation.

If one also wonders why the steep and splendid postern stair
should lead to ‘“‘a well’, as if it was for the mediaeval kitchen
maids to trip down when fetching their pails of water, the
solution must surely lie in the fact that this was not really a well
so much as a 21ft deep pit to guard the northern postern which
served those travelling by river, and it could be covered and
uncovered at will with a wooden lid. One hesitates to assert
that it fulfilled both functions as a foe (or a friend) in the
drinking water would surely not have been acceptable even in
those days.

The earliest name associated with Hailes was Fraser, that

36 HAILES CASTLE

Norman family so often thought of as pure Highland, and also
connected with Neidpath Castle, Peebleshire, who were vass-
als of the Earl of March and Dunbar. This Earl was one of the
most powerful nobles in Scotland: he owned seven fortresses,
including Hailes and Dunbar, and lands stretching far into
Berwickshire (specifically including Greenlaw and Lambden)
and was the forbear of the Homes. As the Douglas Peerage
says, “Though the surname of this noble family is certainly
local yet there are few in Scotland can boast of so high and
princely an origin as that of Home, being a branch of the great
and illustrious house of Dunbar, Earls of March who were
undoubtedly sprung from the Saxon Kings of England, and the
princes and earls of Northumberland.” Their royal Saxon
descent is said to be through Edgar, forebear of Edmund
Ironside. Chased by the Conquerer they were given shelter and
land by Malcolm Canmore. The Saxon-Norman-Scots links
were many and often surprising. It is pleasing to think of them
cemented—and = epitomized—in Matilda (otherwise
Edith/Eadygth) daughter of the Scots King, Malcolm Can-
more, and his Saxon wife, St. Margaret, herself the grand
daughter of Edmund Ironside and sister of Edgar the Atheling
(the weakling who would have inherited the English Crown
on his return from his Hungarian upbringing if Harold had not
been chosen by the Witan) who married Henry I, younger son
of William the Conqueror.

The Earl of March and Dunbar actually built Hailes for a
vassal named Hew Gourlay who sounds less of a contempor-
ary and more convincing as Hugo de Gourlay, a Norman
knight. Unfortunately for him he offended the Earl, forfeiting
his favour and the castle.

In the next century, at the time of David II, son of the Bruce,
who had been King since 1329 but only returned from exile in
1341, a royal charter was given by which Hailes passed to
Adam Hepburn who had saved his Lord of March and Dunbar,
husband of the legendary Black Agnes, from a savage horse. It
remained in Hepburn hands for over two hundred years.

The fourteenth century building consisted of the western
tower over to one’s left on entering the main gateway, the wall
fronting the river between the two towers and the immensely
thick curtain wall which curves southward from the western
tower towards the entrance. This tower, which had four
storeys, also has a dungeon underneath it, which is worth a
—temporary—visit; and the keen student of architecture
might like to-look for the loopholes in the north-eastern angle
of one of the upper floors where the “‘jambs . . . have quirked
bull nosed arrises.’’ There was some further building at the east
end of the castle and there must have been some work done on
the inside of the wall joining the two towers because although

HAILES; CASTLE oT,

the chapel on the upper floor is said to be fifteenth century there
are details, such as the piscina, which are earlier.

Perhaps Hailes was by now more robust than it had been, no
longer just a fortified manor house but “‘the fortalice of
Hailes.” The moat, cut out of the rock, was 18ft deep, the
curtain wall 8’ 6” wide (a sentry could easily walk along the
top) and the great doorway with its wooden equipment, its
iron door and its drawbar all contributed to its strength. At all
events at Christmas 1401 it was twice able to withstand the
combined assault of the Earl of Dunbar (the loyalties of the
contemporary incumbent not always being with Scotland) and
Harry Percy, Hotspur the renowned, to whom Shakespeare
gave that memorable exchange with Owen Glendower:

Glendower: I can call spirits from the vasty deep.
Hotspur: Why, so can I, or so can any man;
But will they come when you do call for them?
Henry iW cPart a:

The following year Patrick, the Hepburn heir, was killed at
Jedburgh while ona retaliatory raid against the English, headed
as they were by George Dunbar, Earl of March.

More building was done in the course of the 15th century,
towards the end of which the title of Bothwell was given to the
Hepburns by King James IV, whose murdered predecessor had
been loyally served by Ramsay, the previous Earl. This build-
ing consisted chiefly of the bakehouse and above it the chapel,
between the East and West Towers, though as said before
several details in the chapel indicate work of an earlier date.
Some of the stone work of the barrel vaulted bakehouse is of
marine stone.

In the sixteenth century some rebuilding and repairs must
have been necessary. James IV gave drink money to the masons
at work here in 1507. James V on the other hand attacked and
burnt part of the castle in 1532 as revenge for Patrick, Earl of
Bothwell’s treachery with the English. (There are marks of fire
on the chapel window). The Earl, although his own father had
been killed by the English at Flodden, was in league with the
Scottish Queen Mother, Margaret Tudor, whose perpetually
shifting loyalties wearied even her own brother Henry VIII.
After this misbehaviour the castle was not destroyed but the
iron gate was taken off and the French soldiers of Mary of
Guise were encamped there.

There is a bill for what the diarist, John Evelyn, calls “‘foun-
taineers”’ at this time: some French masons were making a
fountain there. Perhaps this is the true nature of the bath in “the
ablution room to the south of the well,” that “uncommon
feature in a feudal stronghold’’? not a mediaeval bath at all, but
a much later fountain.

38 HAILES CASTLE

Further work of renovation must have been done in the next
ten to fifteen years because in 1547 the English commander,
Lord Grey of Wilton, Governor of Berwick, spoke of it as “of
such excellent bewtie within as I have seldom sene in Englande
except in royal dwellings, a proper house . . . of verie good
strengthe.”’

In 1556 Earl Patrick died and his son James succeeded him as
4th Earl of Bothwell, Lord High Admiral of Scotland, Sheriff
of Berwick, Haddington and Edinburgh, Baillie of Lauderdale,
and Custodian of Hailes and Crichton. Although a Protestant
he, unlike his father, always sided with the Queen, for all that
she was Roman Catholic and French, against the Lords and the
English. In fact, when he was twentythree, a couple of years
after succeeding, he waylaid Cockburn of Ormiston near
Traprain and imprisoned him at Crichton having first relieved
him of the £3,000 he was carrying from the English to the
Lords of the Congregation. For this exploit he was imprisoned
in Edinburgh but he managed to escape. Subsequently “‘this
glorious, rash and hazardous young man,” as Throckmorton
described him to Queen Ehizabedty was imprisoned for a time
in the Tower of London, went abroad, married a Norwegian
wife whom he abandoned in Holland, was a gentleman of the
chamber to the King of France (where he must have seen Mary
Queen of Scots) and finally returned to Scotland, landing at
Eyemouth in 1565. When he was next imprisoned in Edin-
burgh, this time for “riotous behaviour”, Knox interceded for
him. He must have hada way with him and whatever his faults,
his brutality, his ruthless drive, who can do anything but pity
this man of action his terrible end: eleven years in increasingly
strait captivity, chained, so that he could neither stand up nor
lie down fully, in the semi-dark of a dungeon where he finally
died insane, overgrown with hair like some wild beast.

Poor Mary Queen of Scots, he was the oldest husband she
had ever had and the most a man. Her first husband, the French
Dauphin and later Francois II was fourteen (and she sixteen)
when they married and he died two years later. Her second
husband, Darnley, married at twenty and was dead by the time
he was twenty two and ailing before that, though he did father
a child, James VI & I. Bothwell was thirty and she twenty four
when they married and they were only together for seven
weeks. He must have seemed a man of strength to her for all
that she may only have married him, swayed by the Ainslie
bond, because she was compromised and desperate, being low
in mind and body and surrounded by treachery and enemies.

It is said she may have come to Hailes on her way to Dunbar
from Edinburgh or that—on a subsequent visit to Dun-
~ bar—she came on the return journey. The first would seem less
likely because on that occasion, Bothwell, who had kidnapped
her forty miles away, the other side of the Capital, would

HAILES CASTLE 39

naturally have been wanting to reach the security of Dunbar
before her servant, Borthwick, had time to summon the offi-
cials in Edinburgh; and also there is little point in resting so
near the journey’s end. Would it not seem more likely—if
indeed she came to Hailes at all—that she rested there several
weeks later, after her marriage to Bothwell, on her way from
Dunbar to the sad day at Carberry when she saw him for the
last time and was then carried distraught and alone to the
effective beginning of her imprisonment? She had after all
recently started the baby she was to miscarry at Loch Leven
and she probably felt poorly and in need of a rest. Her morale
can not have been high as they vainly tried to gather support on
the way, especially as, having escaped from Borthwick in
man’s clothes to join Bothwell at Crichton, she had had to
borrow clothes when they got to Dunbar and was wearing “‘a
short red petticoat, a muffler, velvet hat and sleeves tied with
bows such as the women of Edinburgh wore’’—not her usual
queenly garments.

After Mary’s capture and Bothwell’s escape to the Orkneys
as a pirate, Hailes was given to Lady Jean Gordon, Bothwell’s
recently divorced wife and was kept by her when all else of his
was forfeited.

In 1576, his nephew, Francis Stewart, grandson of James V
wrongfully succeeded to the Earldom of Bothwell although
his uncle was not yet dead, and moved into his room
as—among all the other titles—Custodian of Hailes. He mar-
ried Lady Margaret Douglas, widow of Sir Walter Scott of
Buccleugh, by whom he had six children. In 1624, he died in
Naples, having fled the country with charges against him of
witchcraft, assault and designs to seize the King’s person, and
his eldest son Francis was restored to his forfeited estates and
honours by a writ under the Great Seal, which was ratified in
1633.

Of this son the Douglas Peerage says, “he married Lady
Isabel Seton, daughter of Robert Earl of Winton, relict of James
1st Earl of Perth; but whether he had issue or not we never
could learn, so can trace his genealogy no further.” Be that as it
may, Hailes was in the hands of his in-laws, the Setons, at the
time of Cromwell’s victory at Dunbar in 1650 as Sir George
Seton claimed £4.700 sterling for troops quartered there or
thereabouts, and for damage done. Indeed Hailes was said to
have been dismantled by the Roundheads. Whether they did
too good a job or whether the crippling fines, (£40,000 in 1645;
£100,000 in 1646; £2,000 in 1654) paid to the Government by
the Setons, left nothing over to restore and support Hailes, at
all events no further building would seem to have been done
either by them or by Sir David Dalrymple who bought it in
1700 and took the title of Lord Hailes. He did however build
Newhailes in Musselburgh enshrining the name, and left the

40 ADAM R. LITTLE, ESQ.

old Hailes, its west tower still intact and its chapel weather-
proof enough to serve as a granary till the end of the eighteenth
century. But then it became even more dilapidated, ‘“‘a barn-
like structure without external attraction or shelter from
kindly shade, roofless and ruinous.” And there it stands today
on the river at the foot of Traprain now surrounded by trees
and wild flowers but still lacking in history, obscure 1n origin
and as McGibbon & Ross say of the layout of castles, “designed
to puzzle a stranger.”

Visited by the Club on 14th July, 1977

ADAM R. LITTLE, ESQ.

The late Adam Little died on the 14th January, 1977, in his 66th
year, at Swinton Hill, which he farmed since 1940.

He was our Vice President in 1973 and President in 1974. He
had been a most enthusiastic member of the Club for many
years, culminating in his Presidency to which he brought much
drive and energy.

I well remember a delightful trip to Tynemouth Priory and
Seaton Delaval Hall, when he struggled to be with us whilst in
considerable pain following a fall in his Corn Drier.

Adam was blessed with a wonderful memory and a keen
interest in the histories of families and country houses over a
wide area. I have just been re-reading his Anniversary Address
on October 10th, 1974, entitled “Fifty Years of Rural Change”’
in which he gives further evidence of his deep knowledge and
interest in local affairs. This knowledge was so great that one
found it hard to take in all the information he gave you. It was
always stimulating to hear him talk on these and other matters.

He will be sadly missed by a wide circle of friends.

As Ova.

PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE IN
THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY (continued)
MARGARET ELLIOT

Duns Presbytery minute book starts in 1660 with a population
table:

‘Polewarth communicates 100
Cranshawes 100
Elim 100
Abbay 100
Buncle 400
Fogo 300”

In 1663 the Presbytery required all schoolmasters to take the
oath of allegiance. Some of the masters ‘hath a time granted for
their information before they subscryve the Acts of Sup-
remacie and Alleadgeance etc’. but unfortunately they are not
listed individually at this time. Again in 1674 the bishop was
enquiring about the discipline a the educational forces; he
wrote to the Presbytery ‘desyring a list of all schoolmasters and
chaplenes within our bounds who have not a licence. The
brethren knew of none such but them that walked orderly, and
ee to enquire afterward if they have any
icence’. Nothing further was reported. In September 1682
the Test Act had to be enforced: ‘In obedience to the act of the
last synod appointing the several ministers to adminster their
test to their respective schoolmasters the brethren thought
convenient for the more solemnity of the action that all the
schoolmasters within their bounds be brought in befor the
presbytery for taking the test together’. At the end of the
month the schoolmasters of Fogo, Eccles, Polwarth and Green-
law took the oath together, with the others brought in one by
one during the winter, which gives us a score of nine parishes
out of eleven supplied with schools at this date.1®

Abbey St. Bathans was the last parish in the county to have a
school. In 1627 the Commissioners were told that a school
was ‘very neidful; but no meanes’, and the message was under-
lined at the end of the report, which was ‘signed by the Minis-
ter only, for the sworn men, because they cannot write’. The
Presbytery conducted a visitation in 1681 and found there was
still no school, nor any maintenance for aschoolmaster. The
one heritor present, Alexander Home of Abbey, agreed to take
his part under the law, and the minister was charged to exert
pressure on the others; this may have had some effect as the
Presbytery did not pursue the matter, but there is no evi-
dence. In spite of the powers supposedly given to the
authorities under the Acts, even that of 1696, the heritors
managed to hold out against being stented for the maintenance
of a schoolmaster until well into the eighteenth century.17

41

42 PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

The Parish of Bunkle and Preston had no school nor founda-
tion for one in 1627, ‘but had great need of ane’. It was a
populous and fairly large parish, but the people took a long
time to accept the amalgamation carried out in 1621; even
when the old church at Bunkle was demolished in 1671 it was
found that ‘none will go to Preston kirk’, considering it too far,
especially for baptisms. In 1667 the session clerk, John
Montgomerie, was paid £8, which was ‘allowed him by the
session yearly during their pleasure, there being yet no provi-
sion for him’. This would imply he was teaching school at
this time, since it was his salary as schoolmaster, not as session
clerk, which the session would expect to recover from other
sources. In any case in 1673 the session ordained that John
Montgomerie, present precentor and session clerk, should
keep a school and teach the children to read and write, and ‘for
his Hee encouragement’ they conferred on him the office of
church officer with its profits, sacking the old church officer,
Patrick Sligh, who was alleged to be negligent of his duties.
They also took the opportunity to oil their yearly payment of
eight pounds, which they called back ‘for its proper use, the
mentinence of the poor’. In 1683 the parish bought a new
mortcloth which John Montgomerie was to keep, and a prop-
ortion of the fee paid for the loan of it would go to him. In
March of that year when he should have taken the Test he was
digging a grave and could not attend, but he took it the next
month. In August ‘the Rentallers in Preston met at the Ses-
sion with the Minister and Elders and willingly condescended
to lead in their several proportions of stones, timber and other
necessary materials for building a school of three couples in
Preston on the same ground where formerly it stood’; they also
agreed ‘to advance their several proportions of money for that
effect’. But the minister reported to the Presbytery at a visita-
tion of his parish the next month that he had no school or
maintenance foraschoolmaster. There was certainly no legal
maintenance yet; the minister was to speak to the heritors but
the session was again obliged to make arrangements, and in
March 1684 they agreed, since there was no salary, that John
Montgomerie was ‘to keep school henceforth yearly from
Michaelmas to Lambas’ and to get baptism fees (6s. 8d.) and
marriage proclamation fees (24s.) plus £6 yearly from the box
at Martinmas. Itseems thenew school was not built after all.

There was another visitation in January 1687, “well attended
by the feuars’. The local people were clearly keen to have a
school, but the heritors were the people who had to produce
the salary; they comprised at this time ‘the Marquess of Doug-
las, the Countess of Sutherland, Alexander Trotter of Ket-
tleshiel, James Renton of Billie, Younger, and the heirs of
umquhill (the late) William Renton of Sleighhouses’. ‘The

a

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PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE 43
IN/ THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
Moderator and brethren falling upon the settling of a mainte-
nance of a schoolmaster in the said parishes by virtue of the
foresaid warrant (from the Bishop of Dunkeld) finding that the
parish was considerable, consisting of 6 or 700 examinable
persons besides many children’ and that the rents amounted
easily to £1000 scots or more a year, concluded that the
minimum fee for a schoolmaster should be £100 scots. Mr.
Alexander Trotter should deal with the other heritors and
provide a qualified person. The heritors should provide a
schoolhouse in Preston and a dwellinghouse for the school-
master there, as the most fitting place in the parish for a
school. The reasons were several: worship was settled there
by law; the Marquis of Douglas had a dwellinghouse there; and
it was ‘most convenient for accommodation of young ones, for
boarding or otherwayes, and most fit for the children their
recreations’. In May the session agreed that a ‘qualified per-
son’ should be provided for teaching school in Preston, ‘seeing
there was a etic orderly and legally settled for a qualified
schoolmaster his encouragement in this place’. John Mont-
gomerie kept the job, however; as kirk officer he was in charge
of kirk repairs in 1688, and in 1689 he received his regular £6 fee
from the session as schoolmaster. He was still there in
1690. Some time between this and 1696 Ninian Home seems
to have put in a spell as schoolmaster here before going to Fogo
as schoolmaster and then returning to Bunkle and Preston as
Minister. In spite of the agreement apparently reached in
1687 there may ioe been no legal salary paid to the schoolmas-
ter before the end of the seventeenth century, as further trouble
about it lasted into the eighteenth. 1®
In 1673 the Presbytery visited Cranshaws, where they found
‘no heritors present, not being resident. Being interrogated
concerning the school, (the elders) answered ther was no
schoole nor any legall mentainance for a schoole. The elders
present shewing a great disyre to havea school for education of
their children, the brethren of the presbytery do appoint the
minister of the place to use legall diligence, and for that effect it
is seriously recommended to our bishop to interpone his
authority and to give his concurrence thereto’. So in 1682
there was a schoolmaster at ‘Crainshes’ who took the Test, and
in 1686 when the parish was visited again it was ‘reported,
there was a schoolmaster and 50 merks yearly for him, plus £4
scots yearly which should come from a mortification paid
from Swinton lands, but not for the last 3 years’.19
The burgh of Duns had a school in 1647 and probably well
before that, to judge from the wording of one of the documents
in the County ab aay collection. It is a disposition by the
heritors of the parish in favour of Patrick Millar, son and heir of
‘the deceased Leonard Millar, sum tyme minister at Ellem,

44 PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

indweller in Duns town, (who) purchast and obtenit ane
ground... for biging building and repairing . . . of that hous
under and above buildin be him upon his own proper chairges
within the kirk yaird of Duns. Qlk hous nor ground yairof
(thereof) wes never sequestrate alloted designit or set apairt for
the use and behove of any scoolmaster that ever was in Duns. .’
The heritors had to confirm Patrick Millar in the possession of
the house, and no doubt had to find other premises for the
schoolmaster. In 1652 this was George Fortune, possibly the
same who was at Coldstream in the 60’s. By 1669 at latest the
school was a grammar school taught by Mr. William Layng,
who diedin 1671. Thenext schoolmaster named is Mr. James
Bullarvail or Bullarwall, who was appointed in 1682, after he
had been tried by the Presbytery on Horace, Sallust and Q.
Curtius. It was he who taught the young Thomas Boston,
who recalls in his autobiography starting at the grammar
school at the age of 8 or 9, i.e. in 1684 or 1685; he left in 1694 and
died before 1699. He was succeeded by Mr. William Hamil-
ton, on whose death in 1697 David Christie, lately schoolmas-
ter at Dunbar, was appointed. The schoolmaster usually had
an assistant, or doctor, at any rate from 1663, and the heritors
kept the school building in moderate repair, although in 1701
David Christie and Andrew Bow his oes are recorded as
keeping school in the church, perhaps during the extensive
repairs to the school, including heightening the walls, which
were authorised in 1699. Apart from the grammar school,
where the master would take the higher class while the doctor
taught the rudiments, there may have been other dame schools
or adventure schools from time to time in the town such as the
one Thomas Boston attended; he says he was ‘early put to
school . . . the schoolmistress having her chamber in my
father’s (a cooper’s) house’ and that he could read the Bible
when he was seven.?°

Eccles had a session clerk called Thomas Hastie in 1652 who
may well have been schoolmaster; there was certainly a school
by 1663, when the Presbytery were informed that ‘the school-
master at Eccles complains for the want of a competent
maintenance. the Meiting Recomends it to Sir Harie Hume,
Belchester and Newon to speak to the rest of the heritors for
laying down a Course for satisfaction’. The next month Mr.
John Cook, the minister, ‘declares that the heritors of Eccles
parish hath met and aggreed for augmenting the schoolmas-
ter’s maintenance’. In 1682 they had Mr. Alexander Ewen as
schoolmaster, so it was a Latin school by this time. In 1694
the heritors had called William Sanderson to be their school-
master, and the Presbytery appointed three of their number to
tryhim. They reported that ‘they were not well satisfied with
his literature for teaching a Latine school’, but there is no

PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE 45
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
record of whether or not he was confirmed in the appoint-
iment.21
Ellem kirk session recorded in 1658 that they were ‘pleased
with the boy we got to be schoolmaster’; the school was to be
held at Fellcleuch and ‘every scholar to give 10s. scots in the
quarter for their learning’. The schoolmaster was also to stay
at Fellcleuch and ‘his boarding was appointed 10 pound in the
uarter’. In 1661 and 1662 John Muir or Moore was paid a fee
or precenting on the sabbath, and in 1665 Alexander Brewster
similarly, but if they were also teaching school the pay was not
enough. In 1667 when the Presbytery visited the parish the
report was ‘that there was no way for instructing the children
of the parish for want of a competent maintenance to a school-
master .. . the want of a school in the place being notour, the
moderator did represent the same to the Laird of Blackerton
the most considerable heritor of the parish . . . and withal the
presbyterie thinks fit in case of the heritors’ neglect of diligence
the minister . . . should tak the ordinar legal course for. . .
setling a school in the said parish’. Some action resulted, but
the next we hear of the schoolmaster, in 1669, is that he is
‘going away’. This may have been the Patrick Millar who was
paid for precenting in 1668. In 1673 there was ‘given out of
the box 14s. scots to the schoolmaster for learning a daughter
of Robert Richeson’, but later the same year the Presbytery on
a visitation found no school nor maintenance. The minister
was desyred to use legal diligence to that effect, and the Laird of
Longformacus being desyred did promise to concur with the
minister in settling a public school and maintenance’. The
parish records give further details: the manse which was ruin-
ous was ‘to be rebuilt next year when timber could be gotten;
likewise for the scole since it was but in the winter they would
studie to get a man to wait upon the children to teach
them’. In January 1675 a new schoolmaster was appointed,
who took the precaution as session clerk of recording his own
contract of employment: “The Session agreed with Alexander
Swinton to be scolemaster till mertimes next for 24 lib. scots, a
sixpence from persons married, of each child baptised a two-
pence, as much for a testimonial to a single person going out of
the parish, a grot from married persons for their testimonials,
which are to be allowed as a part of the 24 lib.; and the jalf of the
sum to be payed to him at Candlemas nixt.’ Ifthe heritors did
not pay up the minister was to pay him, and presumably then
exert pressure on the heritors to recover the money. Alexan-
der Swinton and his wife Agnes Alen had a daugher born at
Fellcleuch and baptised Margaret later in the same year. The
salary arrangements seem soon to have broken down; in 1680
when the parish was visited ‘the Minister did desyre that
something might be provided for the maintenance of a

46 PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE
IN: THE SEVENTEENTH GENTURY

schoolmaster, which being proposed to the heritor present, he
willed that it might be taken to advisement till another tym to
which the minister consented’. Eventually in 1687 the Pres-
bytery found a schoolmaster in action, and in possession of a
salary. There are no further records until after the parish is
united with Longformacus in 1712.?

Fogo was visited by the Presbytery in 1683, and it was found
that the schoolmaster and the arrangements for his salary were
satisfactory. He was at that time Mr. William Scot, who had
taken the Test the previous year. In 1696 the current school-
master, Mr. Ninian Home, applied to the Presbytery for per-
mission to be ‘put on tryall for the ministry’, and he was
ordained as minster of Bunkle and Preston the same year. In
1700 Thomas Duns was presented by the heritors of Fogo to be
schoolmaster there, and was examined as to his fitness by two
of the ministers, who reported that ‘he turned Latin into
English indifferent well but was very defective in the rules of
the grammar. He was exhorted to give paines to qualify
himself, and they would take notice of his diligence and
improvement at their visitation of the parish’.?%

At Greenlaw there was a schoolmaster called James Lear-
mont in 1648, receiving a salary of 20 merks a year from parish
funds. He was paid an extra fee in 1649 from some service
rendered in connection with the Solemn League and Coven-
ant—perhaps subscribing their names for those parishoners
who could not write. He was replaced in 1650; he had been ill
and may have died then. Alexander Lindores, who was
appointed at the end of 1650, was in trouble in July the next
year for fornicating with his wife before marriage, and was
suspended from his charge. He showed evidence of repen-
tance, however, and after his wife Alison Park had done so too
he was ‘reponit to his place’ of schoolmaster and percen-
tor. His annual wage from the church was £13 6s. 8d. (20
merks), and the fees of poor children, if any, were also paid by
the church. The minister reminded the elders in 1655 ‘to be
carefull that all those within their respective quarters should
put their children to the school’. Alexander Lindores was still
at the Greelaw school in 1682. Heshould have had part of his
salary paid from money mortified for charitable purposes in
the parish, but it was reported to the Presbytery in 1684 that
this was not yet secured. The town managed to provide the
schoolmaster with a tolerable living, clearly, although a legal
salary was not settled until the next century.

The 1627 report on Langton reads ‘A school is most necessary
for the instructing the youth to be maintained be a portion out
of the teinds’, which probably indicates that there was no
school at that time. In 1654 Adam Galloway was session
clerk; he may well have been schoolmaster also, but the first

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PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE 47

IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
man definitely named as such is Leonard Miller in 1683, when
he took the Test, and there is no mention of how he was
paid. He also was in trouble with the Presbytery after the
Revolution for having taken the Test; in April 1691 his repent-
ance for this is recorded, but he is ‘to keep out of the reader seat

till Mr. Dysart (the minister) callshim’. Why this schoolmas-

ter and John Lockhart at Edrom were formally proceeded
against for having taken the Test, about which they had little
choice at the time, while others such as James Bullarvail in
Duns and John Montgomerie at Bunkle were left alone is not
clear from the minutes. In 1700 ata Presbytery visitation the
school and schoolmaster were reported to be satisfactory; the
salary was probably the £50 scots which it still was in 1711.25

The report on sie alc for 1627 also survives; there was
‘a great necessitie of a school but no foundation for it’. In
1674 the parish was visited by the Presbytery and a respectable
number of heritors was present: Sir Robert Sinclair of Long-
formacus, the Laird of Eccles, Alexander Trotter of Ket-
tlesheell, Robert Klinkscails of Otterburne and James Ridpeth
of Byrecleugh. The minister was asked if there was ‘a school,
and maintenance for a school; he answered there was no
maintenance for a school. The Heritours were desyred to
agree among themselves and condescend upon a maintenance
for the schoolmaster. They agreed and condescended to give
50 merks yearly for a settled maintenance to a schoolmaster,
and to begin this year with the payment thereof and to appoint
stentmasters to cast the same amongst them’. In 1682
Thomas Smith was schoolmaster and had scruples on taking
the Test oath, but overcame them and signed within a few
weeks. The 50 merks salary was still being paid satisfactorily
in 1686 and indeed up till the time the parish was united with
Ellem in 1712.76

Polwarth’s first surviving session book covers the years
1652-1658, during all of which time Robert Anderson was
schoolmaster. On the first page is written “This book was
bestowed upon the session of Polwarth by Dame Christian
Hamilton, Lady of Polwarth, anno 1652’. There was a new
minister this year; on his entry to the parish he enquired about
the schoolmaster, and was told there was ‘no maintenance for
him excepting his quarter payments’. He took early oppor-
tunity to exhort the people to send their children to school, and
the fees of some poor scholars were paid from the parish
box. A lock for the school door in 1653 cost 12s. There was
a complaint the next year about scholars playing football on the
sabbath, which Robert Anderson was expected to
check. Then in the same year “The Lady of Polwarth and the
minister having voluntarily these years past given to the
schoolmaster each of them half a boll of victuall per annum and

48 PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

seeing by reason of the confusion of the times a settled mainte-
nance cannot be had for him, therefore the elders were ear-
nestly desired to deal with the labourers of the ground that for
each pleugh within the parish the schoolmaster might have
either a peck of barley or a peck of oats. The elders promised
to do their diligence herein’. In 1656 the schoolhouse needed
repairing, and since the laird of Polwarth was a minor and his
curators met at long intervals the session guaranteed the
repairs, which came to £3. 15s. The minister, later the same
year, ‘signified unto the session that he had dealt with the Laird
of Polwarth and Creallin and Cummergham his curators that
the school and the house wherin the schoolmaster dwelleth
with the yaird lying thereto (might) be appropriate to that use
and be free of meale or work. And that they had promised
this in their own and in name of the rest of the curators before
Mr. John Pringle Minister at Fogo and Mr. George Holywell
paedagogue to the laird of Polwarth Witnesses’. In 1657 the
minister was still active on behalf of Robert Anderson and dealt
with the Laird of Polwarth’s curators again; he reported that
‘the curators, until the laird himself be major, would yield only
to give the schoolmaster 6 firlots of oats yeirlie with rest of that
aoe that lyeth next the school and that instead of that peck of

eir that each plough payed before he should have 3 sheaves of
oats and one of beir. And that he himself had promised to
give himself a boll of oats as he had done yeirlie since his entrie
to the ministrie here and 2 threaves of straw for his beasts’.

Payment in kind left Robert Anderson chronically short of
cash; his fee as precentor was £3 a year, but he tended to borrow
out of the poor box in advance of the payment, and in 1658 he
‘desired to borrow £15 out of the box, whereto the session
condescendit but desired him to draw up a ticket bearing the
receipt and obliging himself to restore it thankfully’. He paid
back the last of three £5 instalments in 1661, but immediately
borrowed a further £4. In 1663 ‘the schoolmaster having
yearlie received £3 of pension out of the box did this year
receive £4. And the session did appoint that in all time com-
ing he shall have £4 per annum Leanist his burden is now
greater than before especiallie the publick reading twice every
sabbath’. A note of meanness, however, is sounded by the
session in 1664: they resolve to pay the fees for two poor
scholars, but the master is to take two more gratis. The rate
was a merk, 13s. 4d., a quarter, and the number of poor
scholars, boys and girls, varied between one and four.

In 1664 George Holywell, previously pedagogue to the
young Laird of Polwarth, Sir Patrick Hume, became minister
of the parish, and shortly afterwards his pupil, now of age,
became an elder. The new minister exhorted the people ‘to
have a care of putting their children to school that they might

PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE 49
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

be taught ereneels of religion’. Soon afterwards ‘the
session did ordaine Robert Anderson schoolmaster to enroll
those that were to be catechised and for his paines therein they
ordained him to have from each communicant at their receiv-
ing of the tickets 6 pennies scots to be collected by the elders
when they distribute the tickets to several quarters’. Robert
Anderson needed further support the next year, however:
‘Lent to Robert Anderson out of the box to help him to buy a
cow that which he had having died—£8’. He had paid back all
but £2 of this by the time the book ends in 1668.

We hear next of Polwarth in the Duns Presbytery record in
1682, when Patrick Christie the schoolmaster takes the
Test. In 1685 the parish was visited, and the Presbytery heard
that one man filled the posts of reader, precentor and school-
master, but his ‘encouragement’ was very small, not exceeding
£20 scots. The Presbytery instructed the minister to apply to
the Bishop of Edinburgh to get the heritors to act, but nothing
seems to have happened and the salary in kind continued to be
paid until 1719.27

The Presbytery book of Earlston does not start until 1690,
and by that time we find that all its Berwickshire parishes
except possibly Merton have schools.

The 1627 Report on Channelkirk made no reference at all toa
school, but the kirk session records survive from 1650
onwards, and it is clear that by then the leaders of the commun-
ity were taking education seriously. In April 1653 the elders
declared ‘they had visited the families, and that in every family
there was prayer as they were informed, but that there was no
reading in the most part of families because none in the family
could read. Recommended to the elders they would be care-
ful to stir up such masters that could not read themselfs to
provide a servant against the next term that might read the
scripture to the family and the lesser catechism’. And in
September the minister reports that he had visited each family
and ‘set the masters of families upon their duty of praying,
reading of the scriptures, saying of psalms, and catechising
their children and servants according to the laudable acts of the
general assembly. There is no mention of a school at this
point, but in 1654 the elders and parishioners are being
exhorted to make provision for a schoolmaster, although ‘the
heritors will not grant to maintayne him’, and by November
1656 there is a school in existence, and the elders are ‘exhorted
to visit their quarters and stir up parents to put their children to
the school, as they promised the minister when he did visit
them’. This was essential, as the master would depend
entirely on the fees the parents would pay him. In May 1657,
however, ‘the heritors that were convened drew up a paper
binding themselves yearly to pay 40 lib. for the maintenance of

50 PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

a schoolmaster and subscribed it and resolved to send it to the
rest of the heritors and (persuade them to) subscribe it, and
appointed Mr. Jas. Achison and (two other elders) to cast every
man’s proportion according to their valued rents for payment
of the same once a year in February beginning February
next’. The master was still owed his salary for the previous
year, but the tenants and elders were willing to cover this since
the heritors had committed themselves for the future.

The next problem was to make sure the children came to
school. In September 1657 an act of session was made ‘that no
tennant should get baptism till they bind to put all their young
children to the school to learn to read, the poor that cannot pay
their quarter payments to get out of the poor’s box quarter-
ly’. This was not entirely effective; we find in November
‘complaint made that the tennants take no care to put their
children to the school’. Publicintimation was to be made that
parents should have no benefit of sacraments unless their chil-
dren were put toschool tillthey couldread. ‘Also anact made
that parents that has children to be baptised shall come first to
the minister and give (evidence) that they themselves are
(progressing) in knowledge, and shall bring an elder or some
honest man to bear witness that if they have any children come
to 7 or 8 years they are at the school learning to read, or can
read; who shall also be caution that he shall put all his children
to school to learn, how soon they come to years capable of
learning’.

Then we see the machinery for collecting the schoolmaster’s
salary getting into gear in 1657; two elders are to ‘cast the
schoolmaster’s proportions’ and the list is handed to him so
that he can collect what is due to him from each tenant and they
can claim it as a deduction from the rent due to their landlords,
the heritors. The system seems to have worked satisfactorily
for there is no further mention of the schoolmaster’s salary in
the session records, and we proceed to the building of a
schoolhouse in 1661 ‘at the kirk’, the elders having met ‘to
agree with workmen for building a school and providing
material to the workmen’. The money probably came from
the kirk’s box, as it did again in 1695 when repairs were needed.

In November 1661 ‘Patrick Anderson being recommended
by a testificat from Borthwick is received schoolmaster . . . and
session clerk to have all the benefit of marriage and baptism and
burials and he to be precentor, the children to be entered to the
school on monday, and an act made that whoso puts not their
children to school to learn at least to read sall be discharged of
the Sacrament’. In 1665 it was ordained that 10s. was to be
paid to the box for the loan of the mortcloth, and 2s. to the
schoolmaster for keeping it, which meant a small extra source
ofincome. In March 1670 the minutes read ‘After pash (Eas-

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PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE 51
INSEE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

ter) next the schoolmaster and his wife shall go down to
Ugston (Oxton) to dwell and to teach the school there during
the minister and session’s pleasure; the minister and session are
to provide as large a house as he is in at Channelkirk and to pay
the male (mail: rent) of it as long as heis init there’. How long
he was there is not recorded, but again in April 1672 it is
‘ordained that the schoolmaster should go to reside in Ugston
for the space of two years for the accommodating of the Laird
of Ugston’s children and the children thereabout during which
tyme the Laird of Ugston is to give him a free house with two
rooms and a yard, and this to continue during his residence
there, the house in Channelkirk wherein he resides at present is
to be set, and the rent that is to be gotten for the said house the
schoolmaster is to lift the rent of it and makes his use of it. Itis
further provided that the libertie granted to Ugston to have the
school 2 years shall not prejude the privilege of the school
being at Channelkirk after the time is expired’. Patrick
Anderson himself did not stay at Ugston for long; on 3rd June
1672 he records in the book ‘I Patrick Anderson Clerk put off
my place, and the session book the minister took from me till
the 2 of March 1673; Laus Deo’. There is then a gap in the
minutes, and after they resume we realise that Patrick Ander-
son’s first wife must have died, for he records that on 13th
August 1676 he was proclaimed to marriage with Janet Fedes in
the College Kirk parish of Edinburgh. On 8th January 1678
he had a daughter baptised named Agnes. From the end of
that month until March 1680 there is another gap, and a new
hand takes up the record.

The next schoolmaster we hear of by name is Mr. Patrick
Ross; in 1689 he was delated for fornication, but he ‘had run
away, and left the session book in confusion’. It was not until
March 1691 that ‘the heritors and elders did meet and agree to
appoint Andrew Vetch to be schoolmaster in Ginglkirk for a
year and thereafter to continue as the ministers and elders
should find he deserved and that he should enter to his office at
his best conveniencie as he could conveniently come from Falla
where he was schoolmaster for the present’. The parish was
still tidying up after Patrick Ross; in May 1691 ‘the Minister
declares he had baptised one of Mr. Patrick Ross his children
gotten with Janet Thomson and called Patrick’, and in
October, when a Presbytery visitation was imminent, the
minister ‘Desyred the schoolmaster Andrew Vetch to have the
register of what was done... in order against the said day and
that in ae Mr. Patrick Ross (had fled) the kingdom and left
4 years of the minutes in confusion that he would be at paines to
write them over again in order .. . and he was ordered to have
£4 scots yearly as being session clerk in all tyme .. .’

Andrew Vetch was still at Channelkirk in 1708. He hada

52 PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE
INP SE VABINGIE EIN Gils Gi Nii Oia

child baptised John in 1695. In 1693 there is a note that the
heritors were stented for his salary, and poor scholars are
regularly paid for out of the box, as for example in June of the
same year: ‘Those who had their children at the school and
were not able to pay for them were appointed to go to the elder
of the '4 and speak to them and tell them how long they were at
the school’—and the elders would see to it that the schoolmas-
ter was paid.?8

Earlstonhad a school well before the records begin in 1691; in
1679 the schoolmaster, Walter Scott, left to go to the school at
Bolton. From 1688 to 1693 Mr. Thomas Rutherford was

schoolmaster, and was in receipt of the annual rent of asum of “

500 merks scots mortified by the late Mr. Robert Young,
minister of Dumbarney, to the schoolmaster of Earlston for
teaching the poor scholars of the said parish. In 1694 the
heritors and elders met to choose a new schoolmaster, and
unanimously appointed Mr. John Lookup to be schoolmaster
and session clerk, but he was there only two years, and then
Mr. Rutherford returned to the post. Both he and Mr.
Lookup acted as clerk to the Presbytery as well as to the
parish. During Mr. Lockup’s time in office the kirk formally
discharged (prohibited) an adventure schoolmaster, Alexander
Hastie, from ‘keeping a school to the prejudice of the public
school’.??

Gordon’s Kirk Session records survive from the 1650’s and
contain accounts of payments made from the box. These
include 5s. ‘for the see aihisinses possibly for repairs, in 1654,
and various sums for its rent in 1657, at which time the name of
the master may have been James Fairbairn. In 1658 Archibald
Fortune was the schoolmaster and was paid from the box for
teaching six poor scholars; in 1662 ‘the Heritors being met did
condescend and agree upon a set fee for a schoolmaster, did
appoint and ordain Archibald Fortune, schoolmaister for this
present, to have 10s. scots of ilk land in the parish of those that
are resting awand (owing) preceding Whitsunday 1661 years
And since the said term of Whitsunday 6s. 8d. scots money
yearly at the term of Whitsunday in tyme coming, to be paid by
the possessor of the land whether heritor or tennant And
ordaines the same to be marked and set down in the kirk
session book’. School fees for poor scholars continued to be
paid regularly, and the schoolmaster in his capacity as reader
was usually given 30s. out of the money collected at the annual
communion service in June. Archibald Fortune, whose son
George was born in 1661, departed in 1677, and soon after-
wards Thomas Kerr was ‘settled and ordained scholmaister
and precentor and reader of the church, with the consent of the
Countess of Hoome, Laird and Ladie Greenknowe . . . except
for Aldexander Home of Belita and Ladie . . . his wyf who

PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE 53
INE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

would have a Latin schoolmaster which the rest would not
consent to’. Thomas Kerr married Betrick (Beatrice) Lamont
in 1680, and left Gordon in 1682. John Wood was then
‘admitted Schoolmaster, precentor and Reader of the Church
of Gordon with the consent of Mr. Charles Home brother
german to the Earl of Home, Laird and Ladie Greenknow,
Ladie Ffaside and James Home her husband .. .’

In 1683 the minister and schoolmaster went through the
parish collecting for a new mortcloth; it was to be kept and
cared for by John Wood and he was to get 2s. out of the 14s.
fee charged for using it. The fees for poor scholars, usually
numbering two or three, were paid at a rate varying between
12s. and 13s. 4d. per quarter, perhaps depending on the pupil’s
age or attendance record. One of them was given money to
buy a New Testament. At this time there was also a private
or adventure school in East Gordon, far enough away br it to
offer no threat to the public school, for Robert Williamson the
schoolmaster there was also paid out of the box for poor
scholarshetaught. John Wood left at the end of 1689 and was
succeeded by Mr. Robert Stodhart, who had graduated from
Edinburgh University in 1686 and was qualified, clearly, to
teach Latin. He was not always paid regularly; in 1691 ‘the
minister is appointed to write a letter to my Lady Home as
touching Mr. Robert’s entry to Gordon school and to be
precentor there in reference to his salary which he wants of her
ladyship’. Mr. Robert left at Martinmas 1692; the heritors
met on 6th December and appointed Mr. John Wilson in
Galashiels in his place, the Countess of Home signifying her
agreement by letter. The bedell of the parish took a letter of
appointment to John Wilson, who ‘came and entered to his
office Sabbath day next the 11 of December and took up school
upon the Tuesday next after’. Exactly a year later he was
succeeded by John Young, who stayed until March 1696 when
he recorded his own departure: ‘This day it being enquired of
me whether I had engaged to take on to be a soldier in the
service of our King William I answered in the face of the
minister that had done so. In witness qrof (whereof) I have
subscribit the minutes of the sessionbook with my hand—John
Young, Clerk’.

During this period the school in East Gordon was taken by
Margaret Edgar. The session enacted ‘that any poor scholars
that 1s taught be Margaret Edgar afterwards come and present
themselves before the session’, and having thus satisfied them-
selves of her capacities they regularly thereafter paid her for
poor scholars she taught. Her pupils were mainly the
younger children and ‘those not able to go to the public
school’, presumably because of distance; she may have taught
most of the girls, but some at any rate went to the publc school,

54 PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

and if poor had their fees paid. She was still there in 1700.

The public school’s new master in 1696 was James Lauder,
and he was followed in 1697 by John Inglis, both appointments
being approved by the heritors. In 1698 the pe found it
necessary to repeat its policy on the education of the poor: “The
session appoints in time coming that every parent that hath
children to be put to the school that if they be not able to pay
their 4s. (quarter’s) wage that they speak to the elder in the
bounds before they put a totheschool’. InJanuary 1699 a
brief entry in the book records that John Inglis was ‘rebuked
and acknowledged fault and was reponed to his place’. He
probably kept the session book himself and was thus able to
suppress any details of what he had been up to. He seems to
have remained in office for some years after this.3°

In the ancient burgh of Lauder there was a Latin school at
least from 1621 when Mr. George Ewein was given his fee of
£40 from the town’s common good fund; previously, in 1594,
£16 was paid to an anonymous schoolmaster who may not
have been a graduate. In the 1670’s Mr. William Johnstone
was schoolmaster and had a doctor called Robert Tait. The
Presbytery made an informal visit in 1693 and spoke to the
schoolmaster, but his name is not given.34

The Report on Legerwood in 1627 makes no mention of a
school, and one supposes there was none. Kirk session
minutes for part of 1689 and 1690 are extant, and the loss of the
previous book is explained in entries in March 1690: Thomas
Wilson the last schoolmaster was supposed to hand over the
parish register, but he refused to do so or to give any reason,
although he ‘undertook to give up the roll of them that payed
for the Bell’. His reasons were probably well known at the
time: in August 1690 the neighbouring Presbytery of Chirn-
side and Duns discussed the grievances of the kirk session of
Legerwood anent the misbehaviour of their schoolmaster, and
in September they noted that he was deprived of office. He
did go on taking pupils, for in October 1691 the Presbytery of
Earlston was obliged to enact that “Thomas Wilson con-
tumaciously keeping school at Legerwood is discharged . . . to
keep school any longer there under pain of being further pro-
ceeded against.’ We hear no more of him, but a successor in
the position of precentor in the parish, William Ker, was alsoin
trouble with the Presbytery, and was suspended for some
offence in) 1:701,92

Mertoun has no records before 1697, and the first entry
connected with schooling reads ‘To John Ker for his son being
learned at Stitchel upon charity—14s.’. There was probably a
school at Mertoun at this time, however, as there is good
_ evidence for it the very next year; possibly John Ker’s son was
boarding with relations at Stitchil. The schoolmaster in 1699

PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE 55
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY
was William Henderson, who was paid 10s. for “every scholar
in this parish that is learned upon charity’.3%

Nenthorn was in Earlston presbytery until 1776, but the
minutes in the 1690’s do not mention a school, which may well
indicate that the state of affairs was satisfactory.

At Westruther, where scanty records start in the 1650’s there
was certianly a school in 1659 and poor scholars’ fees were paid
out of the box. In 1680 half-a-crown was ‘given... ie a
fordas (—dais) to the schoolmaster’s seat.’ In 1691 the minis-
ter of Gordon was ‘appointed to examine Mr. Richard Fraiter
in order to his being schoolmaster at Westruther’. It is prob-
able that his salary was the £6 scots yearly which is reported in
1704 when Mr. Alexander Lindsay was session clerk, precentor
and schoolmaster; he received casualties as well.34

Evidence for Cockburnspath comes from the Dunbar Pre-
sbytery records. At a visitation in 1656 ‘the minister being
asked if they had a school answered they had, and that they had
a hundred pounds for stipend to the schoolmaster, but there
was some debate anent the payment of it because it was not
equally stented as was alleged; the Presbytery desires the
heritors to meet and divide the same equally’. Butin 1659 the
matter was still not settled; one of the heritors, Sir James
Nicolson, was refusing to agree to the stent on grounds that the
relict of the previous schoolmaster had some counter-
claim. The conflict was eventually smoothed out and it was
reported in 1665 that the school was ‘provided by law’; at this
time it was noted that the kirk was ‘not yet plenished since the
English displenished it’. Later the same year the minister had
to complain to the presbytery that there was ‘no school kept’;
the remedy was for the Presbytery to visit the parish and speak
to the heritors, and this must have had the effect of ue kine
them pay up, for Mr. Robert Gaudie was nominated and
elected to be schoolmaster; he came with his testimonial from
Dalkeith and took the oath of allegiance. In 1682 Mr. David
Guild was schoolmaster, but had aspirations for the ministry;
in 1701 Mr. John Gibson had the job.%5

Hume was officially united with Stichil in the neighbouring
county in 1640, but one minister was already reporting for
both parishes in 1627: there was no school nor foundation for
one. In the 1640’s there was a clerk called J.Halyburton, and
in the 1650’s one called James Lennox; they kept the register of
baptisms and probably taught school as well. Thomas Ker,
who left Gordon in 1682, came on to Stichil as schoolmaster,
and died there some time before 1694.36

The evidence here collected, and summarized in the
appended Table, on schools in Berwickshire in the seventeenth
century suggests to me that while the letter of the law was not
observed its spirit was, and that reading, writing and the prin-

56 REFERENCES

ciples of religion were taught in nearly every parish during
most of the second half of the century. The story of heritors
denying or delaying the payment to the schoolmaster which
they should have made under the Acts goes on well into the
eighteenth century, but schoolmasters could scrape a living,
and education was increasingly available for those who wanted
ites

REFERENCES

16 Duns Presb. Mins 24 Jul 1660; 25 Aug 1663; 29 Sep 1674; 5, 26 Sep, 7,27 Nov
1682; 6 Feb, 6 Mar, 3 Apr 1683.

17 Duns Presb. Mins 3 Aug 1681, 28 Jan 1701, 18 May, 7 Aug, 4 Sep, 7 Oct 1705.

18 Report, 1627; Duns Presb. Mins Jan 1671; Bunkle and Preston Session
Records, ed. J. Hardy, B.N.C. 1899: 29 Sep 1667, 5 Oct 1673, 1 Apr 1683; Duns
Presb. Mins 6 Mar, 3 Apr, 2 Sep 1683; B&P. Records 7 Aug 1683, 9 Mar 1684,
22 May 1687, 13 May 1688, 3 Feb 1689; Duns Presb Mins 20 Jan 1687, 22 Feb
1711, 5 May 1715; Fasti sub Sprouston.

19 Duns Presb. Mins 1 Jul 1673; 27 Nov 1682; 3 Aug 1686.

20 Berwicks. Docts. Folio 8, Folder 35; Greenlaw K.S. Mins 25 Apr 1652; Duns
Presb. Mins 14 Dec 1669; Lauder Tests 25 Jul 1682; Duns Presb. Mins 26 Sep
1682; Rev. Thos Boston, Memoirs; Duns Presb. Mins 11 Sep 1690; Lauder
Tests 27 Sep 1699, 13 Jul 1697; Chirns. and Duns Pr. Mins Jun 1697; Duns Pr.
Mins 22 Jun 1683, 24 Apr 1671, 18 Jul 1699; Chirns. Pr. Mins 2 Oct 1701.

21 Greenlaw K. S. Mins 25 Apr 1652; Duns Pr. Mins 25 Aug, 8 Sep 1663, 26 Sep
1682; Chirns. and Duns Pr. Mins 12 Jun, 26 Jun 1694.

22 Ellem K. S. Mins 14, 28 Nov, 12 Dec 1658; 29 Nov 1661; 11 Aug 1662; 4 Jun
1665; Duns Pr. Mins 22 Nov 1667; Ellem K. S. Mins 30 May 1669, 10 May
1668; 29 Jun 1673; Duns Pr. Mins 3 Aug 1673; Ellem K. S. Mins 5 Aug 1673; 10
Jan, 15 Apr 1675; Duns Pr. Mins 24 Aug 1680, 12 Jul 1687.

23 Duns Pr. Mins 14 Aug 1683, 26 Sep 1682; Chirns. and Duns Pr. Mins 21 Jan
1696; Duns Pr. Mins 22 Apr 1700.

24 Greenlaw K. S. Mins Oct 1648, May 1649; 27 Oct, 15 Dec 1650; 27 Jul, 17
Aug, 14 Sep, 12 Oct, 30 Nov 1651; 1 Apr, 16 Dec 1655; Duns Pr. Mins 26 Sep
1682, Jun 1684.

25 Greenlaw K. S. Mins 8 Jum 1654; Duns Pr. Mins 6 Feb 1683; Chirns. and
Duns. Pr. Mins 14 Apr 1691; Duns Pr. Mins 30 Jan 1700, 22 Feb 1711.

26 Duns Pr. Mins 26 May 1674; 7, 27 Nov 1682; 2 Jul 1686, 20 Apr 1717.

27 Polwarth K. S. Mins 1, 29 Feb, 10 Oct 1652; 4 Dec 1653; 12 Feb, 29 Aug 1654;
1 Jun, 27 Jul, 27 Aug 1656; 12, 19 Apr, 16 Aug 1657; 16, 23 May 1658; 5 Jun, 14
Aug 1659; 17 Jun 1660; 9 Jun, 6 Aug 1661; 16 Aug 1663; 9 Oct, 20 Nov, 4 Dec
1664; 22 Apr, 22 Jul 1666; 10 Jun 1667; Duns Pr. Mins 26 Sep 1682, 2 Jun 1685,
22 Feb, 10 Apr 1711, 4 Jun 1717, 6 Jan 1719.

a

REFERENCES 5i/

28 Channelkirk K. S. Mins 17 Apr, 4 Sep 1653; 22, 29 Oct, 1654; 3 Nov 1656; 4,
24 May, 13 Sep, 1, 22 Nov, 5 Dec 1657; 3 Jan, 14 Feb, 30 May 1658; 5 May 1661;
2 Aug, 17 Nov 1695; 20 Nov 1661; 28 May 1665; 27 Mar 1670; 14 Apr, 3 Jun
1672; 13 Aug 1676, 8 Jan 1678; Jan 1689; 17 Mar, 5 May, 4 Oct 1691; 5 May
1695; 2 Apr, 11 Jun 1693.

29D. J. Withrington, E. Lothian Transactions Vol. IX; Earlston K. S. Mins 7
Jul, 2, 24 Sep 1694; Earlston Presb. Mins 20 Dec 1694, 25 Apr 1695, 8 Oct 1696;
Earlston K. S. Mins 26 Nov 1694.

3° Gordon K. S. Mins 29 Oct 1654, 15 Mar 1657, Greenlaw K. S. Mins 20 Apr
1658, Gordon K. S. Mins 12 Jun 1660, 25 Mar 1662, 14 Jun 1663, 21 Oct 1666, 9
Jul 1671, 3 Feb 1661, 28 Jan, 24 May 1677, 8 Feb 1680, 11 Jun 1682, 4 Feb 1683,
13 Apr 1684, 15 Apr, 3 Jun 1688, 12 Nov 1689, 4, 18 Jan 1691, 23 Oct, 23 Dec
1692, 10 Dec 1693, 29 Mar 1696, 31 May 1694, 2 Jul 1697, 24 Nov 1700, 12 Apr
1696, 16 May, 13 Jun 1697, 8 Jan 1698, 1 Jan, 23 Jul, 26 Oct 1699.

31 Maitland Club Miscellany, Vol II Part I; Lauder K. S. Mins 7 Jan 1677;
Earlston Pr. Mins 2 Nov 1693.

32 Legerwood K. S. Mins 2, 9 Mar 1690; Chirns. and Duns Pr. Mins 14 Aug, 11
Sep 1690; Earlston Pr. Mins 27 Oct, 13 Nov 1691.

33 Mertoun K. S. Mins 26 Sep 1697; Earlston Pr. Mins 12 May 1698; Mertoun
K. S. Mins 19 Dec 1698, 17 Mar 1699.

34 Westruther K. S. Mins 24 Aug 1659, 23 May 1682; Earlston Presb. Mins 27
Oct 1691; Westruther K. S. Mins 21 Sep 1704.

35 Dunbar Pr. Mins 12 May 1656, 27 Jul 1659, 31 May, 28 Jun 1665, 28 Feb 1666,
2 Aug 1682, 16 Apr 1701.

36 Stichil and Hume Parish Register of Births—flyleaf; Lauder Tests 20 Feb
1694.

58 PARISH SCHOOLS IN BERWICKSHIRE
IN THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

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Captain B..H. Walton, R. A:

In the death of Captain R. H. Walton of Wilkinson Park the
Club has lost one of its best known, best loved and most active
members. Northumberland has lost an active and knowledge-
able antiquarian, and the country has lost one of its leading
authorities on firearms both ancient and modern.

He was President of the Club for 1960/61 and during my
many years as Secretary was a veritable tower of strength.
Affectionately known as “‘Bill’ to almost everyone, his con-
tributions to the History have been of the greatest interest and
importance. An authority on the strategy of war, his accounts
of the battles of Otterburn and Flodden have the authenticity
which is missing in so many other versions. He knew every
contour of the Border Counties, having traversed so much of
them on foot leaving no stone unturned, no possibility unexp-
lored. In investigation of historic sites, be they camps, build-
ings or merely places connected with lore and legend his
thoroughness and patience were as scholarly as they were
sincere. The dullest pieces of history became fascinating when
recounted by Bill.

Bill was born in Wales, grandson of the inventor of “‘Wal-
ton’s Lincrusta” and “‘Anaglypta’’, wall coverings so beloved
by the Victorians. He was educated at Charterhouse and
Sandhurst, and later studied engineering at Armstrong
Whitworth’s Elswick works. During the war he served with
distinction in Burma with his own “private army”’.

In 1948 he returned to Northumberland to make his home in
his beloved Coquet valley. Nothing was a trouble to him and
his kindness to all was an example of perfect altruism. At his
home at Wilkinson Park he had not only a famous collection of
firearms of all periods but also a library of rare local works and
a museum of antiquities. ““The Park”’ was ever a delight to visit.
Bill and Marjorie his wife were wonderful hosts and one
always left feeling inspired.

He was perhaps the leading authority also on standing
stones, stone circles and sculptured stones in the area, having
visited and listed them throughout its length and breadth. A
crack shot, he reorganised the Northumberland Rifle Club and
its annual meetings at Ponteland, and for many years he
instructed the Northumberland Constabulary in _pistol-
shooting.

One of my eldest friends, I am greatly saddened by Bill’s
passing, as many others must be. I can say with Geoffrey
Boothroud, the famous gun authority and author, in his tribute
in the Shooting Times, ‘Bill Walton was one of a rare breed of
men. I am the richer by knowing him, and the poorer by his
passing”’, which I am sure we all are.

Wie ReEE:
63

Mrs Swinton of Swinton

Mrs Swinton of Swinton, who died on 19th November, 1977,
at Coldsream, was Eva Catherine, second daughter of Major
George J. N. Logan Home, 13th of Broomhouse, a lineage
derived from one of the “Seven Spears” of Wedderburn, and
his wife Eva Seton of Teskerby, Cornwall.

In 1925 Miss Logan Home married the late Rev., later
Canon, Alan Edulph Swinton of Swinton, Rector of St. Mary’s
and All Souls at Coldstream, where they lived at Eaglesheugh
for some years, beloved not only by their own Congregation at
Coldstream and those who attended the weekly service in their
Mission hall at Birgham, but by the many townspeople who
came to know Mrs Swinton well. Her help and advice so often
sought were gladly given, and when occasion demanded, she
willingly joined in the affairs of the other Churches of the
town; I can remember several excellent addresses which she
gave, especially at the annual remembrance of the Women’s
World Day of Prayer.

Mrs Swinton was also a Commissioner of Girl Guides,
during which time] learnt to appreciate her lively interest in so
many things, as well as her kindness and friendly welcome
which I have valued very highly ever since.

‘As Miss Logan Home she joined the Club in 1923, and in
1960 Mrs Swinton became its President. Like her sisters and
brother she had a great love of Natural History, which sprang
perhaps from her younger days spent in India. She had a
worldwide knowledge of Botany and as a member of the Wild
Flower Society had collected rare plants all over Britain on
excursions which she referred to as ‘great fun’, and certainly
those botanical outings on which she took our Club members
were most enjoyable

In 1974 Mrs Swinton became the ‘Mother’ of our Club, ie.
having the longest membership, and at a great age, a few
months after her brother, this quiet gentle lady passed on, the
last of her generation of the Logan Homes of Broomhouse and
Edrom.

GA

64

EIGHT HUSBANDLANDS OF WHITSOME
Grace A. Elliot

The several unpublished Mss. found among the ‘‘Old Docu-
ments of Berwickshire” in Duns Library concerning Whit-
some and a certain Dr. John Brown in Coldstream prompted
me to look again at the records of this old village. Dr. Brown’s
small pecuniary embarrassment led to his eventual bankrupt-
cy, mainly through the delayed repayment of a much larger
debt due to himself from the sale of his husbandlands in Whit-
some. The village has a long and obscure history from the
stone and bronze ages to a probable Roman occupation,
proven by the so-called cairn of Doons Law; the fort of the
Battleknowes on the farm of Leetside with the supposed
Roman camp there, as well as by the artifacts, and a coin, of
these periods found in the neighbourhood.

The Bernicians who settled throughout old Northumbria
(of which Berwickshire was a part) after the Romans had gone,
gave to us many of the OE Be eerie found on the eastern
Borders. No mention seems to be made to either Whitsome or
Hilton during the Anglo-Saxon era, but, that Hilton is an O E
name and probably the older village of the two, is confirmed
by a charter of King Edgar’s (1098-1116) granted to the monks
of St. Cuthbert at Coldingham priory, in which Hilton is
mentioned for the first time, but not Whitsome, yet Uuiet
Hwite, who witnessed an earlier charter of Edgar’s, is sup-
posed to have lived at a place to which he gave his name,
Hwite’s ham or Whitsome as we knowit. This is likely correct
for both places are listed in the Ancient Taxatio of 1176 and
again in Bayamund’s roll of 1275 when the Ancient Taxatio is
given as 40 merks and the Churchlands of Whitsome as
£6-13-4. Scots.

The names of two vicars appear in the Ragman Roll of 1296
when they gave their Oaths of Allegiance to Edward I of
England at Berwick during the War of Independence.

The Templelands and the Spitalfield of Whitsome are also
referred to in old records, although Mr. John Ferguson makes
no reference to them in his Presidential address to the Club in
1896. These old names do not occur together without reason
and are usually associated with the two Orders of Chivalry,
first introduced into Scotland by David I (1124-1153). The
Knights Hospitallers were the older of the two Orders but the
Knights Templars, who became too powerful politically, were
abolished in 1312 by Papal Bull. Their trial took place at
Holyrood in 1319 when the Knights Hospitallers of St. John of
Jerusalem fell heir to all the Templars’ possessions; from such
an origin the Templelands and Spitalfield of Whitsome may

65

66 EIGHT HUSBANDLANDS OF WHITSOME

have sprung; also the name of Battleknowes, even if located
beside the pre-historic fort, may be modern and derived from
the time of the destruction of the village by the Duke of
Gloucester when he made his inroad into Scotland in 1482.
It is strange to find that Whitsome does not appear in the
1831-1931 Index of the Club’s “‘History”’, but this could be due
to the fact that the New Statistical Account of Berwickshire
which was published in 1842 gave a very good account of the
history of this parish, and consequently its mention in our
publications only occurs in other articles such as: ‘‘Pre-
reformation Churches in Berwickshire’’; ““The Haitlies of Mel-
lerstain”’; ‘“Gravestones of Berwickshire” and ““The Hepburns
of Hailes’’, as well as in the Historical Manuscripts Commis-
sion’s Reports on the “Homes of Wedderburn” and the
“Homes of Marchmont”’ etc. Gradually from these records we
are able to discover something of the Superiors and feuars of |
Whitsome and its husbandlands.

From the beginning of the reign of Robert the Bruce the
Superiority of Whitsome at first belonged to John de Ile but in
1322 ‘“‘Robert Bruce gives to Roger Pringle the half lands of
Whitsome which had belonged to John de Ile extending to 100
shillings worth of land’’, at the same time he “‘Gave the other
half of the same lands on the same terms to Nicol Foulter’’.
Except for a short period of forfeiture the Pringle family held
the superiority of their lands in Whitsome until 1535 when the
Hepburns of Hailes acquired it; since the latter had held some
landin Whitsome from about 1400 it seems to suggest that they
may have become the owners of Nicol Foulter’s land at some
time. The whole estate of the Earl of Bothwell was forfeited to
the Crown in 1592 and in 1595 the superiority of Whitsome
was granted to Sir George Home of Wedderburn.

Many other families held lands by feu charter from these
superior lords, lands which were known by their measurement
as husbandlands, i.e. twenty six acres, or as much as can be |
ploughed by two oxgangs and mown by scythe. The feuars of
these lands had their own court—the Bourlaw court, whose |
members were chosen from among themselves; rules were |
very strict and it was compulsary for each member to attend all
meetings; at Whitsome these were held on the Birlie Knowe, a
mound which lay behind the school house.The feuars also |
controlled the Common lands which were let out tothe tenants |
and sub-tenants. The husbandlands of Whitsome comprised:
Whitsome itself, 10; Whitsomehill, 4, (called Rundabutts);
Whitsomelaws, 20; Whitsome Newton, 7; and in 1560 Hep-
burn’s Quarter comprised 8, 6, and 9 hbds, the 8 and 9 being in
1841 included in the farm of Leetside; 10 hbds belonged to
Ravelaw, while Whitsome Quarterland contained % of a hus-

bandland.

EIGHT HUSBANDLANDS OF WHITSOME 67

The Templelands must have lain round what is known as
Templehall, a row of cottages which stood near the Temple
spring where the Temple well was discovered in 1832 on the
farm of Leetside; there were also 40 acres belonging to the
Templelands in Myreside, a place demolished later and
annexed to Dykegatehead; also by 1841 Deadrigs, Cartrigg
and Leethead had disappeared, a fact which emphasises the
importance of recording old field-names now.

The eight husbandlands of Whitsome inherited and disposed
of by Dr. John Brown, Chirurgeon and Apothecary in Cold-
stream are likely to have been those eight in Hepburns’ Quarter
and later included in Leetside.

In 1517 ‘‘Sir Alexander Hepburn of Duntarvy was succeeded
by his son Alexander Hepburn in the lands of Whitsome, and
who was under the legal direction of William Brown, who
gave sasine to Alexander Fockhart as Attorney for Alexander
Hepburn”. The suggestion here is that Alexander Hepburn
was still a minor and that William Brown was his legal
“Tutor’’ or trustee for the estate of Whitsome; he may have
been a local man connected with a family of that name at
Kimmerghame mill.

John Home, brother of Sir David Home of Wedderburn got
a lease of eight husbandlands of Whitsome in 1560 from Sybilla
Wallace widow of John Hepburn of Kirklandhill (Lauder
parish) all of which he promised “‘to red up and out so that she
may enter the same as her life-rent heritage, and all tenants to
be cleared out’’.

There is a Precept for a charter of the fourteen husbandlands
and a cottage land of Hepburn’s Quarter in Whitsome in the
King’s a. through the forfeiture of the Earl of Bothwell and
granted to William Home, to be held in fee and heritage for the
customary services. Dated 12 November 1592. These were the
six and eight husbandlands of Whitsome. The Voult of Whit-
some, William bought in 1633.

In a Contract dated 1596, between George Home of Wed-
derburn and Patrick Hepburn of Whitsome, “‘the latter to assist
the clearing off of his debts sells to George Home the superior-
ity of the lands of Whitsome for 2250 merks which is all that
remains to him’’. This sale may refer to the remaining nine

husbandlands which had belonged to the Hepburns.

George Home had already granted a lease of the Easter corn
mill of Kimmerghame to another William Brown who was
still there in 1608; his grand-daughter Agnes got 500 merks in
marriage tocher in 1648 from her father, a third William
Brown in Kimmerghame East mill, and in the following year
this same William Brown had a Letter of Horning from John
Falla a merchant in Kelso for £36. This must have been paid

68 EIGHT HUSBANDLANDS OF WHITSOME

however, for he is still in Kimmerghame east mill in 1657.
When Sir George Home of Wedderburn died in 1616 he owed
the Browns 2500 merks; this figure is given in the list of debts
owed by Sir George which was drawn up by his grandson in
1656; the list also shows that Catherine Home wadsetter of
Whitsome Voults had lent him 13,000 merks.

George Brown, a son of William, became a merchant
burgess of Edinburgh and married Catherine Home, who, in
1661 was served heir to her grandfather William Home in
Manderston, thus getting the Voults of Whitsome.

The actual relationship between Catherine and the Homes of
Abbey St. Bathans is not entirely clear but is probably the
following. The Homes of Abbey were derived from the pro-
vosts of Dunglass and were described as “‘of Barnesyde”’ in
Auchencraw; the kirklands of Dunglass belonged to the Pre-
bendary of Barnesyde in 1621, and by 1632 there was a James
Home of Barnesyde, Franpath and Abbey St. Bathans. Alex-
ander Home of Abbey who owned the eight husbandlands of
Whitsome is described as ‘“‘Apperand heir” of Barnesyde in
1629. An Alexander Home is found mentioned also, as “heir of
his father William Home merchant burgess of Glasgow”’ in
1661, but whether he was Catherine’s grandfather or not is
uncertain although her father is thought to have been William
Home, merchant burgess of Edinburgh. If all this was so, then
Catherine was a niece of Alexander of Abbey, and it would also
explain how he came to own the eight husbandlands in Whit-
some. Alexander Home married Anne Reull daughter of the
Rev. George Reull of Longformacus, c.1664. In the Berwick-
shire Old Documents, Folio 5. folder 59. there is a Heritable
bond dated May, 1675 given by Alexander Home of Abbey to
Isabell Reull, dodenens of the Rev. George Reull sometime
minister of Mordington, in which Alexander borrows 1,000
merks from Miss Reull his sister in law, and for which sum she
is to receive “the Rents” from his eight husbandlands of Whit-
some.

That he was a Covenanter is well known, but he must not be
confused with Alexander Hume of Hume who was executed in
1682. In 1683 we find that Alexander Home of Abbey was
imprisoned in Haddington because he would not take the
“Test”; later the same year Alexander Home of Abbey was
freed and sent back to Duns and told to stay there. “The price
he paid for that Indulgence was a bond of 4000 merks” The
next year he appeared again in court with others “when the
Process against them was dropped. 1st April 1684.” He is listed
in the Porteous Roll in September of that year “‘for reset. Found
caution to compear.” He had been fined £200 1n 1680 and again
for not turning out asa heritor to the host before Bothwell, soit
is small wonder that he kept borrowing money, and the eight

EIGHT HUSBANDLANDS OF WHITSOME 69

husbandlands were probably fully mortgaged to Catherine his
niece, and maybe her sons, who appear in the covenanting roll
of fugitives, “David Brown feuar of Whitsome and James his
brother”. They are supposed to have inherited through their
mother, lands in Whitsome.

In 1681 a George Brown, schoolmaster in Whitsome witnes-
sed a bond, but it is not known what relation he was to the
others. In 1690 he had no salary.

David Brown is likely to have been the father of Dr. John
Brown of Coldstream for it is clear that he had inherited the
eight husbandlands of Whitsome before 1696, as his name is on
the ‘“‘Roll of Heritors who attended the Rendezvous on Fogo
moor, conforming to ane Act of His Majestie’s Council” and
where he is termed as ‘‘a portioner of Whitsome.”’ (Folio. 6,
folder 10.)

Dr. Brown found it necessary in 1712 to borrow £15 stg
from Francis Thomson at Ross in Northumberland, the terms
of repayment being annually £5, with complete repayment by
1719. Also in 1712 he borrowed £25 stg. from a fellow
Chirurgeon Apothecary in Berwick called Batherstone, but by
1716 both men were suing Dr. Brown for the non-payment of
the debts. Meanwhile Dr. Brown, who either disliked being in
debt, or did not like being encumbered with 208 acres of land
so far from his place of business, sold in 1715 his eight husband-
lands of Whitsome for 10,500 merks to Robert Wood, tenant in
Wester Printonan in Eccles parish, who is mentioned for the
first time in the Heritors Roll for the County in 1715 as “‘a
portioner of Whitsome’’; he gave Dr. Brown 500 merks of this
sum as a first payment on the land; his cautioners were Robert
Patterson and Robert Sanderson.

However, since Dr. Brown had repaid nothing by 1716,
Francis Thomson brought a summons against Robert Wood
and Robert Patterson “‘for repayment of £20 stg and the said
John Brown, common debtor, for his interest, which being oft
and diverse’. Dr. Batherstone also obtained a Decreet against
them for £25.19.7'2 but as no effort was made at that time to
repay these monies it is not surprising to find that the Sheriff of
Berwickshire then ordered them to pay both Thomson of Ross
and Dr. Batherstone of Berwick all that they were due, but it
wasn’t until 1717 that Dr. Brown paid £5 of it and the others
paid the rest. Poor Dr. Brown, having been denounced as a
common debtor, had to leave the country; he went to Wil-
lamsburg in Virginia where he died; perhaps he need not have
gone, had he been paid for his eight husbandlands in full in the
first place.

- After a lapse of fourteen years we find David Laing,
Chirurgeon Apothecary in Jedburgh acting for Charles
Brown, Dr. of Medicine son of the deceased Dr. John Brown

70 EIGHT HUSBANDLANDS OF WHITSOME

of Coldstream and discover that when Dr. John had died,
Robert Wood still owed him 6,000 merks of the original 10,500
merks due for the eight husbandlands of Whitsome. Dr.
Charles Brown uplifted £50 stg. of this and also went off to
Virginia, leaving Dr. Laing in charge of affairs; the latter
obtained another £60 stg. from Wood and gave him his final
receipt. Thus Robert Wood tenant in Wester Printonan became
a feuar of Whitsome and owner of the eight husbandlands there
which were later incorporated in the farm of Leetside. The first
time Robert Wood is named as “‘of Leetside”’ is in the Roll of
Landed men summoned upon Assizes to the Circuits in Ber-
wickshire when he appears in 1749 as “Robert Wood of Leet-
side.”’ Strangely enough Leetside is not marked on Arm-
strong’s map of Berwickshire but “Mr. Wood” appears in its
aes and he was most likely a son of Robert Wood in 1715; his

eirs were still there in 1788 when they appear in the Heritors
Roll for that year.

Perhaps it 1s well to remember that Dr. John Brown of
Coldsream should not be confused with Dr. John Brown born
at Lintlaw in. 1735, founder of the Brunonian system in
medicine.

Documents referred to in this article are contained in:—

Folio 5. folders 50-62. ‘“‘Recently Acquired old Documents of Berwickshire.”
HBNG, Vols. XIII, XV, XVI, XXI, XXIV.

Historical Mss. Commission’s Report. Vol. 1902.

Robertson’s Index, Ancient Scottish Charters.

Covenanters of the Merse.

Armstrong’s Map of Berwickshire. 1771.

Fenton Wynes’ “Royal Valley”.

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

Letter 86. January 2, 1884

I congratulate you on the arrival of another season. May you
enjoy all the happiness and comfort it can afford. I have several
times intended to write you, but work came in the way. It is the
same with Miss Dickinson, I must have neglected thanking her
for the very nice drawing of the spoon, and the coin, when I
was from home, and other letters or employments put it out of
mind. But I intended to have taken it with me, on my next visit
to Edinburgh and then I would have recalled all the crcums-
tances, and at the same time felt the propriety of making an
apology.

I went into Edinburgh to represent the Club at the Jubilee of
the Edinburgh Geological Society, and also to do some busi-
ness with the engravers for plates to the next number. I then
proceeded to my sister’s at Loanhead for a few days. When
there I visited Roslin, and formed the acquaintance of the
incumbent, Mr Grant, whom I found immersed in papers and
charters. I then passed down by Hawthornden, finding the
woods rather bare, but the ferns very fine in the crevices and
ledges of the rocks. In the evening I saw Mavisbank now
neglected. I hada day at Dalkeith and Newbattle Abbey, seeing
the interior of the Duke’s palace, and all his woods and gardens;
and then at Newbattle, the giant trees and the gardens. [had not
time to go into the house—and heard about the preparations
for the Forestry Exhibition. After my return I had a deal of
writing to get done, and I took a week’s reading without
writing to anyone of some new books, and then recommenced
work, and so the time rolls on.

We have not yet started printing, but one of the plates is
ready. I have to go to Edinburgh to see about more, especially
those by Miss Dand of sculptured rocks at Morwick, and Iam
only waiting for a finished sketch of Piers Cockburn’s tomb at
Henderland, before setting off on this new errand.

I had some correspondence with Mr. Leather of Middleton
Hall, about reprinting Vol. I of Club’s Proceedings. Mr. Blair,
Alnwick, to whom I wrote, says it could be done if 200 sub-
scribers at 7/6 could be obtained; or 7/- as the engravings would
have to be reproduced. Where the plates and blocks of this first
volume are, I know not. Some of them were by your mother,
especially the illustrations of Dr. Baird’s Entomostraca. I do
not know if you have got back the plates from John Thomson.
He appears to be at Kelso still. Mr. Craig, however wrote me,

71

72 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

that he had no intention of reprinting the vols. Mr. Leather is to
be at the expense of the circular in the first case, to ascertain
what support the scheme may have. The Club itself is in debt at
present, and cannot afford a contribution.

Iam bad of a cold at present, which is rather uncomfortable,
and will not allow of going much out.

I have not got all the Proceedings sent off yet. There were
not any funds; but the embargo is now removed. Edward
Batters has got his copy. I wonder if he is going to give us
another paper. We cannot afford any plates this year, as we
have 4 or 5 to pay for, besides others spoken about, and a
woodcut. Miss Russell promises a plate at her own expense.

We have snow this morning, which does not look so very
agreeable. Mrs. Hardy is well. We have enjoyed the glorious
sunsets and sunrises.

Wetter as January 25, 1884

I did not intend that you should pay anything for the dupli-
cate number that was not sent to you, or for its postage either. I
will not affront you by returning the stamps, but will place
them among the Club’s stock, to further the good work. .. . I
have been sticking close to my work so as to get out of the way
of the printer, who was waiting on me, when all these articles
were passing between us. lam happy to say Iam now far ahead,
and last night waved above my head, the account I have drawn
up of the Vale of Yarrow and St Mary’s Lake. I have only now
the Wooler and Berwick Meetings. You must know that at
Berwick asmall party of three, Mr. W. Wilson, Mr. Batters and
I, visited the Camp at Habchesters, and took its dimensions.
These I have to record, and also the measurements of some
“wild bull’? horns, found on the low near Broomhouse, now
in the Museum. I have not got Miss Dickinson wrote yet,
but Mrs Lumsden’s coin has been recorded with some
others found, or exhibited at Holy Island...

I have been getting numbers of little sketches of antiquities
from Mr. Andrew Currie of Darnick, the sculptor, which I
hope will be useful for woodcuts. .. . I have got a book with
sketches to copy, and really cannot find time. They are pen and
ink drawings; and oneis the old bridge at Ednam, mentioned in
Moir’s poetry; which is now taken down. Had we had a
draftsman near, he could easily have furnished it with the
proper qualifications for a wood-cut.

I have snatched time to read all the “Standards”’ for which I
thank you. Our Scotch papers do not take so much interest in
big animals. The forestry Exhibition appears to be going to
succeed. I went to the second meeting: and there were not

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY 73

twenty altogether, but the energetic working committee was
appointed, who have done everything. I expect to be called in
again, when the prizes are to be given, as | am one of a special
Committee on Forest insects. |am, however, preparing to visit
Edinburgh for a day very soon, to see about an engraver for our
pen and ink sketches.

Mrs. Hardy has had a number of out doors flowers all along,
but the birds pick off many of the blossoms, especially of the
Primroses and Polyanthuses. Some of the real spring flowers
are appearing but this frost and snow will check them.

Letter 88. August 4, 1884.

I have at length found an interval to write to you, as I ought
to have done long ago. I must first of all congratulate you, on
recovering your woodcuts. Iam glad Mr. Muirhead took it in
hand, as I am afraid I would have failed, I had seen John
Thomson before that, and he spoke of carrying out his project
of reprinting the two first volumes, and impudently said you
had presented him with the wood blocks for the cuts. As he had
been well received by members at the Cornhill Meeting, I
could not behave rudely to him; but I would rather not have
met him as I was entering Kelso; for he kept me from seeing his
late colleague, Mr. Craig, a decent man, by whose aid I got
your volumes returned. Sol went on my way to Harpertoun to
my brother’s, and saw no more of him.

I was going the next day to Coquetdale, in behind the
Cheviots, and accomplished it. My nephew drove me to How-
nam, and then to Buchtrig, and there a man was waiting to take
my luggage across the hills to Blindburn, a farm near
Coquethead. The tenant gave me his room for a week; for only
shepherds live up there; and in that time I explored western
Kidland, as I had accomplished in respect to the eastern portion
last year. This was while the Farne Islands meeting was getting
up, at which demonstration I was absent. I was near Alwinton
in one of my journeys; and within view of Redesdale in
another; at the head of the Beaumont on the day when I
returned, and near the head of Kale and Jed on the next day. I
came at last across by Oxnam to Jedburgh, and got home ona
Saturday night, much stronger than when I went away,
although fatigued everyday for a fortnight.

Since I came back I have had one day’s excursion with Dr.
Stuart and young Mr. Evans to the wild glens above Oldham-
stocks. Dr. Stuart was extremely pleased.

I had to start and examine the ground on foot for our last
meeting at Whittingham, and very tired I was. These East

74 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

Lothian meetings have cost me more walking than all the rest
of the great district we now include in our bounds; and the
meetings have generally been poorly attended. People do not
know how beautiful East Lothian is, and how accessible from
the railway. To get up attendance at this meeting I had “‘to issue
a whip’’, and it was successful. Those who came were more
than usually rewarded. The grounds of Whittingham were
beautiful, in themselves; but in the Mansion there was a
Natural History Collection made by the late Prof. Balfour of
Cambridge, and by Miss Balfour, and it was in wonderful
good order, with many rarities. Miss Balfour came down from
London apparently to show us, at least to get the house ready,
for when I went first the furniture and pictures were covered
up, which now all were permitted to see. Refreshments were
on the table in one of the rooms. We then hurried off to
Pressmennan, and had a short walk on the wooded shores
beside its winding waters; and having picked up a few plants
and obtained the best views, we returned to Stenton and saw
the church and the monuments, as we had done at Whitting-
ham, the ministers shewing us every attention. Almost in the
eleventh hour, Miss Nisbet Hamilton invited the Club to visit
Biel, which is most charming at present on the outside. In the
interior a much more extended range of rooms were shewn
than on our previous visit, which members still speak of with
rapture. Miss Hamilton was from home, but the minister of
Prestonkirk, had been deputed to point out and explain what
was more remarkable. ... Of the 29 present 25 dined. We hada
greedy innkeeper, but got his cravings appeased peacefully. ...
Then we went to the Manse at Prestonkirk and saw the gar-
den and flowers, and the young trees, and the church and
churchyard. The multitude of impressions that must have
passed through the sensorium of the members that day would
be hard to calculate. Apparently everyone enjoyed the sights
and must have had pleasant dreams... .

I was at Dunse Castle last week on a visit to Mr. Hay to see
the damage done to his woods by the gale. I saw also some of
the contents of the Charter chest; which I may see again, if
spared.

We are going to Ettrick this month. Lord Napier wished to
dine the Club, but we will accept luncheon only, and return to
Selkirk to dine. George Hughes has gone to Canada to the
British Association Meeting. I hope you keep well.

——————

—————— CC

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY 75
Letter 89. March 5, 1885.

I thank you much for your kind remembrance. I had a notice
of Mr. Bigge’s demise, and then a newspaper also (both from
Berwick). It is a sad loss to the Club as he was well liked, and
had extensive influence among the clerical members. He took
to our Club instead of the Tyneside, after he had found a more
congenial membership. I have always been friendly with him.
A few years ago I spent two days with him at Stamfordham,
and he kindly shewed me as much of the district as we could
command by driving across it. He was very much respected by
high and low. He knew everybody, and enjoyed the old
fashioned ways of country folks, and had a good deal of an easy
gossipy style in conversation. At Christmas time he sent pres-
ents of game to the Librarians and Museum keepers in the
Scientific and Literary Institute of Newcastle, some of them
old acquaintances of mine. They were greatly pleased with the
attention he had paid me on this visit. Only his two youngest
daughters were at home. His time was very much occupied
with Poor Law business; and when I heard from him last, in the
end of January, he said they were occupied with some troubles
over a lawsuit, as I understood it between parishes. He had
been suffering from lumbago but had got over it then, and had
just finished writing for the Club, a memoir of Mr. Carr
Ellison, who was a relation of Mrs. Bigge. This I have not yet
received, and was every day expecting, when I heard that we
should “‘see his face no more’. He might have been promoted
in the churches but refused titles, and wished to be let alone
where he was. In our little garden there are numerous memori-
als of his love of flowers, as every now and then he was sending
something fresh. The rooms at Stamfordham looked out on
the richest profusion of summer blossoms. His library was rich
in local books, especially Berwick relics, and county histories.
His tastes ran after wild plants and birds and quadrupeds, about
which he had many anecdotes, some of which I have not yet
used. He was fond of ‘‘Folk-lore’, and wrote a paper on
country “‘freits”. He had not a very good style of composition;
more of crack, than intellectual exertion. Itis nearly forty years
since I saw him first at the meeting to found the Tyneside
Naturalists’ Club, and his is the only countenance except that
of Mr. Carr-Ellison’s, that I have a recollection of, as being
present, some of the others I knew.

Iam glad to have Mr. Price’s little paper in good form, which
I will preserve. The decayed tree stump, reminds me that when
I was at Shawdon two years ago, I was shewn a blown down
tree in an avenue that had frightened the servants who chanced
to pass that way, by emitting a phosphorescent light after dark.
They imagined that it was a ghost. I will get the story when I go

76 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

back, as I expect to do this summer. A young man there is
making drawings of antiquities, preparatory for my advent,
for descriptions for the Club... .

Shortly after you wrote me about Sir Walter Elliot, another
“strapping Elliot’? came into the field in his brother Col.
Charles Elliot, who is married for his second wife to a Miss
Davidson, whose mother was a Campbell Swinton. He wishes
to become a member of the Club, and I had a letter from Sir
Walter recommending him. He can only sign his name now.

I am going into Edinburgh next week to see about engrav-
ings for our next number. We are to have quite a number of
Urns figured this year... . There has been an ancient British
burial ground disturbed by a quarry at Amble, and one of our
Alnwick members secured most of the Urns, and has written
an account.

Mr. Batters has sent his notes on Algae: it is not very long.
We have another Algologist at Alnwick named “Andrew
Amory’. There are five species new to the coast in his
Alnmouth list. I have not seen him.

Mr. Blair our printer has been very ill, but is a little better.
The Reprint is finished as far as the two first numbers. This
illness of the Master is against us.

I am very busy having a deal of information to transcribe
from rare volumes to be prepared. My visit to Edinburgh has
also the acquisition of correct dates in view.

I was greatly at loss for assistance in sketching illustrations.
A distant relative of Mrs. Hardy has been helping me at Roth-
bury: the same who sketched the Flints and Dagger in our last
number. I am getting into quite a stock, which I may bring to
some anniversary meeting at Berwick, I hope. Thank you
much for an occasional “Standard” to enliven an evening after
a heavy day’s writing. I wish to finish their work in March and
then get out of doors.

Note:— For a memoir of the Rev. John Frederic Bigge, M.A., (1814-1885)
formerly Vicar of Stamfordham see H.B.N.C. 11, 207-215.

77

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

1979

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HISTORY

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE

NATURALISTS’ CLUB

HISTORY

OF THE

| BERWICKSHIRE |
\TURALISTS’ CLUB

_ INSTITUTED SEPTEMBER 22, 1831

2 ET TELLUS, ET, QUOD TEGIT OMNIA, C@BLUM”

VO. ALE

PAR Ib, 1978.
PAR LP E92:

OFFICE-BEARERS

Joint Field Secretaries

D. MACKENZIE ROBERTSON, Esgq., 4, Hermitage Lane, Kelso.
Mrs D. MACKENZIE ROBERSTON, M.C.S.P., F.S.A.Scot.
(Tel. Kelso 2252).

Corresponding and Editing Secretary. 5

T. D. THOMSON, Esq., C.M.G., O.B.E., M.A., LL.B., F.S.A.Scot., The Hill, = |
Coldingham, Eyemouth. (Tel. Coldingham 209).

Treasurer.

J. STAWART, Esq., 4 Douglas Close, Berwick upon Tweed.
(Tel. Berwick 7549)

Librarian.
Revd. H. S. ROSS, B.D., 16 Ravensdowne, Berwick upon Tweed.

The Index to Vol. XLI will be included in
the first part of VoJ. XLII.

we maIt ANF WN |

EUS TORY OF THE

CONTENTS-OF VOLLXLI
PART 2 — 1978

Seestdential Address — Two Clerical Friends ............0..00hesenees 79
PTC S BTM Ty. Boake neath ve leie che Aol Shee atl oh ee See Pale 89
eemeamaical Meeting at Scremerston, June 24th, 1978 ...........0.. 0020 e- 89
aieNorthe Northumberland Pic INic'‘Club......2....22.00.95..00. 0. 91
Meerabislistary Observavons, 1978 i le eR ee SEL OE. ee ne 93
memyenoricaen and William Drummond ..............62.2.2+5.e05+s 0 97
MEHR WOOLEN. hes flats bale ooh Ae iplns dards Wea oe Ss 107
Rereasmocmicimat Silverwells:: se. sNoss 4 os. Mee eee Sea el Sat. Ee 110
feet rans for Coldingham Priory, 1850... 0.20... eee 111
Records of Macro-Lepidoptera in Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire —... .113
Semis anc Warjcelme Policemen... 2... es 2 Me ee ee eee 116
meeerooms, Bodles.and Mortcloths .............. 0.000. cece ee bene 117
The Correspondence of Dr Hardy and Mrs Barwell-Carter ............ 121
al SeOS IMIG TIES: ARES teat toy re ke eo ares em pete Se opr Pe 127
mma Stateiment- and Balance: Sheet a... - Ss. asm sce + ne elevate sore 128
ILLUSTRATIONS
Semmeristac! Craic, Minister of Lowick 1793-1843... 2... ee 85

Proposed Restoration of the East End of Coldingham Priory, c.1850 ....112

The Editor tenders his humble and respectful apologies for the
lengthy delay in the appearance of these two Parts of the Club’s
History. This has been due to circumstances beyond his control, and
he thanks Members for their forbearance and understanding.

;

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PROCEEDINGS

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE
NATURALISTS’ CLUB

TWO CLERICAL FRIENDS

being the Anniversary Address delivered by Rev. H. S.
Ross, President of the Club, on 20th October 1978

THE two ministers whose lives I want to compare and con-
trast, were both Presbyterians, or as they might have been
called, since they ministered south of the Scottish Border,
Protestant Dissenters. They are Israel Craig, who served in
Lowick from 1793 until 1843 and William Whitehouse, who
served in Spittal, Berwick-upon-Tweed, from 1813 until

857.

Both men were inducted during the nearly twenty years of

almost continuous war with revolutionary France, Israel
_ Craig at Lowick in the year it began, William Whitehouse at
_ Spittal near its end. Craig must have witnessed the ‘“‘false

|

alarm” of 31st January 1804 and the riot over recruiting in
Berwick on June 9th of that year, while Whitehouse must have

_ seen the effects of the Press Gangs’ activities among his con-
| gregation. Yet the war, as such, seems to have made little

impact on their lives or ministries.

The first half of the nineteenth century was a time of great
political and social ferment, the period of agricultural
improvement and prosperity but low wages and poor rural
housing, of corn laws and agitation for their repeal, of pressure
for local government re-organisation and parliamentary

_ reform. Moreover for Presbyterians in the North of England it
_ was a period of uncertainty and some difficulty. Prevented by

_ the various provisions of the Clarendon Code from setting up

any effective national organisation in England for the previous

_ century and a half, they watched theological developments in
_ the south with apprehension and the growing tension regard-

ing Patronage in Scotland with mixed feelings. After the fail-

}

ure of an attempt in 1826, in 1836 the “Presbyterian Church in

80 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

England in connection with the Church of Scotland” was 7
inaugurated, and the Presbytery of Northumberland joined it

in 1840. However, the Scottish connection was broken at the
Disruption of 1843, whose effects are well known north of the
border, but less well known though no less damaging to the |
Presbyterian interest south of it, especially in the northern |
parts of Northumberland. .

It was a time of political, social and economic stress and r
change, during which, as I do not need to remind you, our
own Club was founded, the first purely field club of its kind.
Neither of my subjects became members, though Israel Craig
at Lowick had some scientific interests, possessing a telescope,
a barometer, anda “grand electrical machine” which he valued
at £10 and a ‘‘small cylinder electrical ditto”. The circums-
tances of the time and the climate of thought influenced and is |
reflected in the lives of both men, and in the acts of generous
charity by one toward the other which both bea soa

Israel Craig as we shall see, was a quite wealthy and well
connected bachelor, who was able to be generous to his con-
gregation and to many other individuals and good causes,
while William Whitehouse was married, hada large family, no
resources but his meagre stipend, and was often in great finan-
cial difficulty. Undoubtedly Craig was the more noteworthy
of the two, and of his life and circumstance a good deal is
known, partly because of a controversy which arose after his
death about a clause he had inserted in the Trust Deed of the
Lowick Presbyterian Meeting House, whose building he
helped to finance. William Whitehouse appears only briefly
and with less credit in the records, as one who with his con-
eregation seceded from the Presbyterian Church in England in |
1847 in order to join the Secession Church, his motive being
largely, so far as can be determined from his own letters, the
betterment of his condition. But at least he was honest about
his reasons, and we should not judge him too critically until
we have heard his own account of his circumstances.

Craig tried to secure for Lowick a succession of orthodox
and evangelical ministers, by inserting in the Deed of his new
Meeting House the requirement that future ministers should |
hold licence to preach from a Presbytery of the Church of |
Scotland. From the perspective of history and without stirring }
up old arguments, it seems most likely that Craig intended to |
exclude both English Unitarians (who often claimed the name |
“Presbyterian”’) and ministers of the “moderate party” in the |
Church of Scotland, since he is said to have approved the action

of those who set up the Free Church, before he died, and might |

|

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 81

well not have approved the transfer of the congregation and its
property to the post disruption Church of Scotland in 1848 held
to be required by the Trust Deed. On the other hand the Spittal
congregation, founded in 1745 as a body of ‘‘Protestant Dissen-
ters’, had already, from 1784 to 1790 given their allegiance to
the Relief Synod and then returned to an English loyalty. By the
irony of history after Whitehouse had led the congregation into
the Secession Church, that Church, in the same year, united
with the Relief Church to form the United Presbyterian
Church, the English Synod of which joined with the Pre-
sbyterian Church in England in 1876, so Spittal returned again
to English Presbyterianism and is now of course in the United
Reformed Church.

What kind of man was Israel Craig?

Preserved in the Library of United Reformed Church His-
torical Society are two manuscript account books, which
record the personal expenditure of Israel Craig between 1st
January 1794 and 15th October 1843, a period of very nearly
fifty years. These books were written up for the Journal of the
Presbyterian Historical Society of England in 1949 (Vol.IX pt
2) by Dr. P. J. Maclagan. Towards the end of a delightful
article Dr. Maclagan noted that among places Craig had vis-
ited, and which he had helped financially, was Spittal. It was
on re-reading this article a year or two ago that I determined to
find out more about Craig and his connection with the place
and congregation I now have the honour to serve. Also in the
BER.C. Ses there is a paper, apparently written by him-
self, giving personal details about Craig, some of which I do
not think are recorded elsewhere. It is there stated that he was
born at Outterston, in the parish of Temple, in Midlothian, on
4th November 1763, the sixth child and eldest son of William
mraie, farmer, and Jean, his wife. The family had farmed
Outterston for at least three generations, but the young Israel
had no inclination for agriculture, so his father sent him to the
local Grammar School at Temple, where he was taught by
Alexander Tweedie, and afterwards to the High School in
Edinburgh. He writes that he went to the College in
November 1781 (aged 18) and was licensed to preach by the
Presbytery of Dalkeith in December 1791 and ten months later
was engaged as Assistant by the Rev. Cornelius Lundie of
Kelso. When Lowick became vacant he offered himself as a
candidate and was one of seven, each of which, he states, was
to be allowed to preach three Sabbaths. By a majority vote, he
Was invited to preach first, and as a result received a unanim-
ous Call, being ordained and inducted on 5th December 1793.

As a bachelor, he lived in rooms for about the first six

82 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

months of his ministry in Lowick, but in May 1794 he paid
10/6d for the carriage of his furniture from Kelso and set up
housekeeping. In that month he wrote out an inventory of his
household furniture, beginning with twelve silver teaspoons
and sugar tongs. The list is interesting for what it contains and
for what is omitted. He had plenty of cutlery, crockery, glass-
ware and kitchen utensils. Other items include a mahogony
escritoire, ““my own picture’, a map of the world and two
other maps, and a silver pencil. The list is headed ““Household
Furniture” which may explain the absence of books, with the
possible exception of ““The Four Seasons’”’ (2/9d) which may
be Thomson’s work, or perhaps a picture. The total value adds
up to £187/14/5d. Thirty three years later, in 1827, he made out
another inventory, listing his possessions room by room. By
now the value had grown to £236/1/5d with an additional list of
silver plate valued at over £60. So he prospered as the years
went by.

Indeed an obituary notice speaks of his life style in terms of
both “‘genteel opulence” and “‘strict frugality’’. There is evi-
dence of both in his account books, which are a record of
expenditure only, for no details are given of income. It is clear
however that he had financial resources beyond his stipend,
and from records of gifts to his mother and sisters, it would
appear significantly greater than other members of his family.

It is also clear that he used what he caper but careful- |

ly. In 1796, after supplying the needs of the manse, the surplus
produce of his garden was given away, but in future years it
was sold, bringing in between £5 and £10 each year.

He subscribed to newspapers and journals; The Edinburgh
Weekly Journal, The Berwick Advertiser, Chambers Journal
from its beginning, the Religious Monitor, and the Evangeli-
cal Magazine. He made donations to the Edinburgh Missio-
nary Society and to Berwick branch of the Bible Society. He
kept a series of resident domestics, and by the standards of the
time was generous to them during and after their service. He
bought both food and spirits in bulk, in quantities which
appear to indicate generous hospitality. No doubt he felt the
effects of inflation—14 lb of beef @ 5d per lb in January 1796,
171b @ 7d per lb. in 1805. In August 1819 he bought two
salmon for 8/9. (43p)

The most usual dood purchases are mutton, oatmeal, flour
and tea, though the manse diet became more varied as the
years went by and he prospered. One item which would be
less likely than most to find a place in a modern manse budget
is the frequent mention of bulk purchases of wines and spirits.
Rum, two gallons at a time, brandy in similar quantities quite

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 83

frequently, port wine by the dozen bottles but less frequently,
but above all, whisky, often nine or ten gallons at a time, at
least once a year, sometimes more often, once 27 gallons and,
in January 1840 21 gallons of Glenlivet at a cost of £22/5/-. In
1831 he records that he had £9 worth of whisky “‘taken by the
gaugers’ and was involved in a fine of £120 and legal costs of
nearly £20. Which shows an attractive human side to his
character. Purchase of ale is rare, though this may have been
home brewed. The bulk purchase of spirits probably again
implies hospitality as well as some medicinal use in the village,
and may say something about the state of the water supply.
Craig rode a horse, which he hired, on his ministerial visits.
It was probably a riding accident which caused the broken leg
for which he bought a cradle in December 1799 at a cost of
half-a-crown. He visited various Doctors, including Dr. Fuller
of Berwick to whom he paid five pounds for “‘wasting, abus-
ing and mismanaging my ankle’’—probably in attempts to
reduce swelling. His temper at this period cannot have been
improved by the imposition for the first time of Income Tax at
10%, though the first £60 was exempt and the next £140 at
reduced rates. At the first imposition Craig managed to pay
only thirty two shillings (£1.60) plus his usual window tax, but
by 1815 he was paying £25/2/6d. Almost the only note in the
books not connected with expenditure thankfully records that
on 5th April 1816 “‘Property Duty of 10% ceases this day”’.
This level of taxation gives some evidence of the private
resources from which Israel Craig financed the many cash gifts
recorded in his accounts. First, of course to his family, his
mother and sisters, and to the younger members of the family,
for whose education and maintenance he provided. Then his
own church, paying apparently from his own pocket the
increasing ground rent charged by the ground landlord, then a
gift of £300 to the building fund for the new Meeting House,
plus a guinea in the collection, and subsequently apd: the
interest on the outstanding debt on the building
fund—generosities which do not seem to get all the credit they
might deserve in the official histories of Lowick Church of
Scotland. Then presents to many named individuals, his ser-
vants, his ministerial assistants and colleagues in other
churches, in amounts both large and small, from one shilling

(5p) to £200. And in particular, gifts to one of my predecessors

;

}
|

in Spittal—the Rev. William Whitehouse and his family.

Whitehouse was so different. Apart from the bare facts of
dates and minutes regarding presbyterial actions affecting
him, the only discoverable sources for his life, so far, are three

_ letters written by him in 1847 and one about him of the same

84 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

date, all addressed to Robert Barbour of Manchester, and the
1851 Census Returns for Spittal. He was born in Wetherby,
Yorkshire, about 1780, and was ordained by the Morpeth
Class (or Presbytery) of Northumbrian ministers at Thropton
in 1811. Though his wife was born in Scotland, he was there-
fore himself an English Presbyterian without any Scottish |
ecclesiastical connection. However he counted himself.a Pre-
sbyterian and was both annoyed and hurt when the Rev.
Thomas Johnstone of the Low Meeting in Berwick, writing
his History of Berwick in 1817, referred somewhat scornfully
to the Spittal congregation as “‘professing the doctrines and

church discipline of the Independents”. Certainly for many |)

years after this Whitehouse regarded himself as subject to the |
discipline of his Presbytery and there is no evidence that he or
his congregation held any of the characteristic doctrines of |
Congregationalism. |

In his 1847 letters Whitehouse refers to having a household |

of twelve persons dependent upon him, and the Census |7
Return of 1851 shows that there were even then six living in |j

the manse, Whitehead himself being 71 years of age, his wife
Jane 52, and the four children still at home 16, 14, 11 and 9 |}
respectively. Their home was the old manse, which still |
stands, in somewhat modernised form, the last house at the |
end of West Street, Spittal, facing down the Billendean, but in |
those days on the very edge of the village. It was held on |
copyhold tenure from the Lord of the Manor of Spittal by
successive ministers of the Meeting House until the present
manse was built for the Rev. William Porteous, who suc-
ceeded Whitehouse.

William Whitehouse was poor. The poverty trap is no |
invention of the mid-twentieth century. He had no private |
resources, a large family, and a stipend from the date of his
induction at Spittal in 1813 up to the time when he led his
congregation into the Secession Church in 1847, of £80 per |
year. By 1842 Israel Craig was paying his personal assistant, a |
young un-married minister, £50 per year ae his own pock- |
et, and in 1841 Craig’s expenditure for food and clothing for |
himself and his resident domestic, a household of two, was
£63, his total expenditure that year, most of the extra being |
gifts, being £284. From Craig’s account books you can trace a
steady, though not by our standards very dramatic rise in food
prices: Mutton 8d (3p) per Ib in 1813 and 1/- (5p) in 1842 and |
this is fairly typical. With rising prices and a growing family,
Whitehouse must have been hard pressed to provide the barest
necessities. But there were other difficulties.

In 1842 his eldest son, then 16 years old, left an apprentice- |

-18

93

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86 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

ship with a Berwick Draper unfinished, having apparently had
a difference with his Master over the amount of credit allowed
to customers. With one of his sisters he set up a small retail
drapery business in the manse parlour. Unfortunately the little
business did not prosper. As the family had no capital they had
to take their stock on credit and were apparently again too
generous in giving credit to their own customers and were
soon in difficulty.

In the second of the three letters written to Robert Barbour
of Manchester in March 1847, and preserved in the United
Reformed Church History Society archives, and in which he is
acknowledging a gift of £10 from Barbour, Whitehouse says
that the gift is especially opportune, since it comes at a time
when he had to wait two months more for his stipend pay-
ment, was living on credit for food, and already owed £40 of
the next years stipend of £80. He writes that the previous year
he had only managed to pay his debts by “providentially
selling my encyclopedia for £25” and he blames much of this
difficulty on his son, though he says it was to save him “the
desperation of going to sea” that he had encouraged him to
start his little shop, without, as he says, any capital except ‘‘the
£60 left to my little boy by the late Rev. Israel Craig of
Lowick’’. In Israel Craig’s accounts there is an item of £60 to
Rev. Mr. Whitehouse, on 8th August 1840. Although this is a
year or two earlier than the date given by Whitehouse for the
start of the business, and was a gift made three years before
Craig died, on 13th October 1843, it is possible that this was a
gift in lieu of a legacy. It was, in any case, a generous gift, and
the last recorded of a series of benefactions in Spittal, which
had begun as far back as May 1802 with the gift of 1/- to the
maid of the then minister, Rev. Henry Cant. In August 1814,
the year after Whitehouse’s induction, Craig gave a guinea for
the repair of Spittal Meeting House. In August 1835 he gave £5
to the Meeting House, in 1836 £5 to Mr. Whitehouse’s chil-
dren as a present, with another £3 the following year. In 1838
Mrs Whitehouse received £3 and Miss Whitehouse £1, and
Mrs Whitehouse another £1 in the summer of the following
year. The Spittal manse was not the only one in the area to
benefit from his generosity, but the regularity and amount of
the gifts indicate the measure of Craig’s friendly concern for
the material welfare of the Whitehouse family, especially the
children.

It may be significant that apart from the last gift of £60, all
Craig’s presents were given to Mrs Whitehouse or the chil-
dren. Whitehouse himself not only lacked resources but he
also lacked Craig’s business sense. One man who met him and

a ee a = md, — - ° — ~~ ar eee <9 mee

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 87

tried unsuccessfully to dissuade him from a course of action
described him afterwards as foolish and obstinate. In 1826 he
had to appear before his Presbytery for a minor infringement
of its rules, for which he duly apologised. There is no doubt
that he inspired loyalty in his congregation, the great majority
of whom supported his desire to transfer from the Pre-
sbyterian Church in England to the Secession Church, the
reason for which is quite frankly stated in one of his letters to
Barbour—that if the Spittal congregation transferred to the
Secession Church, that Church would increase his stipend and
provide him with an assistant minister, and that a number of
people in Spittal with Secession sympathies would join his
ik egation and so strengthen it, and that otherwise they

t start a new church in Spittal which would weaken his
Bracch. There is an interesting minute in the records of the
Golden Square Church (now Wallace Green Church of Scot-
land but then in the United Secession Church), to the effect
that on 26th February 1847 the Clerk reported that “‘one of our
members at Spittal had requested him to mention to the Ses-
sion that several in communion with us there, wished that
there should be in that village a preaching station in connection
with the Secession Church. The Session unanimously
approved of their design’”’. There were therefore, other pres-
sures besides the economic, influencing Whitehouse and his
congregation. The transfer to the Secession Church was
agreed by the congregation, who ignored the arguments set
before them by the Northumberland Presbytery, no other
Presbyterian congregation was set up in Spittal, and we may
hope that the Whitehouse family fortunes improved.

We should not be tempted to criticise the Spittal congrega-
tion for allowing their minister to be placed in so difficult a
position, for at this time it is clear that most members of the
church in Spittal had very little themselves. In fact, in one of
his letters, Whitehouse gives an interesting, if somewhat jaun-
diced, account of Spittal in 1847 : He writes ““We havea greater
proportion than I have seen or heard of in any village, of very
aged, infirm, lame, maimed, drunken, dissolute and very poor
persons. This is occasioned by the consequence of former
smuggling practices, the Sabbath desecrations of the pilots and
their families, the bondage system of the neighbouring mon-
strous large farms - whose labourers when aged are not
allowed a habitation on the lands on which were spent their
strength and sweat, and they come here to occupy our many
miserable hovels, to enjoy their starvation parish allowance;
the disasters on the seas and in the neighbouring collieries,
producing many poor widows and alee ... Almost all

88 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

young females and youths leave us for domestic service and

employment in distant parts, or on the devouring sea.... The |

railroad workers are also occasioning much evil among us by
their profanity and drunkenness on the Sabbaths, and by their
requiring the women at whose houses they are lodged to stay
at home cooking for them” (1.e. on Sundays) “*. . . Spittal was,
within these five years, insulated from Berwick, by the bad
footways, and the tides when full preventing persons going
the shortest way without climbing a dangerous rock....
Now the rock 1s cut away, and the Spittal people and Summer
bathers can walk dryshod.... or have a pleasant ride for a
penny in the. ... two steamers that ply between the village
and Berwick.”’

Most of what he says is, of course, a piece of special plead-
ing, designed to discourage any thought in Robert Barbour’s
mind about setting up another English Presbyterian congrega-
tion in Spittal, after the change in allegiance.

Soon after the transfer was completed, Whitehouse received
the help of his first assistant, a James Falconer, whose name is
still honoured in Spittal, though he had to retire owing to
ill-health after only two years. Then in 1850 there began the
greatest ministry in the congregation’s long history, that of
William Porteous of Coldstream, first as colleague and succes-
sor to Whitehouse for seven years, and then after Whitehouse
died, as full minister until his own death in 1881. So we may
hope that the last years of Whitehouse’s ministry in Spittal
were happier and easier than the middle years. Seventeen years
younger than Craig, Whitehouse outlived him by fourteen
years, and died on the thirteenth of October 1857, in the year
of the Indian Mutiny.

I have said nothing about the two men’s theology, which I
would not think an appropriate subject for this present occa-
sion, nor have I said much about the spiritual effects of their
ministries, which I would not wish to either assess or compare.
I do not claim to have achieved what I would not venture to
attempt, but I hope I have added just a little to our Club’s
knowledge of one aspect of our interest, the local history of
our area.

Sources

MS Account Books of Rev. Israel Craig ) in U.R.C. History

MS Letters of Rev. William Whitehouse ) Society Library

MS Minutes of Northumberland Presbytery

MS Rev. W. Z. Gibb : Notes on Golden Square Records

Rev. W. Mackelvie : Annals & Statistics of the United Presbyterian
Church 1873

—

— —-——

BOTANICAL MEETING AT SCREMERSTON 89

Rev. Israel Craig : History of the Presbyterian Church of Barmoor
and Lowick. 1824 ; ; ay th

Rev. W. Samuel : History of Presbyterian Nonconformity in
Lowick. 1902

F. Ross : Short History of the Scottish Presbyterian Church at
Lowick. 1960

Dr. P. J. Maclagan : A Minister’s Petty Cash (In Journal of Presb.
Hist. Soc. of England, Vol. IX p.68, 1949)

FIELD MEETINGS, 1978

17th May. Mertoun and Bemersyde.

15th June. Coldingham and St Abbs Head.

19th July. Simonburn and Chipchase.

17th August. Chesters (Drem), Whitecastle, Nunraw.
20th September. Roslin and Hawthornden.

20th October. Annual General Meeting.

BOTANICAL MEETING AT SCREMERSTON,
JUNE 24th. 1978

During 1959 some members of the Club held a Botanical meeting at
Scremerston, yet nothing has been published in the “History” about
the plants found since the record of 1913, a gap of sixty five years.
Recently, changes have taken place over part of the Dunes, hollows
have been filled in with rubbish, lime waste hillocks levelled, and the
whole covered with soil from elsewhere and rolled in, under the
direction of the local Council. The one time fishermens’ cottages
disappeared during World War II when the Air Force used the area.
Today the number of visitors to the beaches is greater and conse-
quently there are many more parked cars.

Such changes destroy the natural habitat of many plants and the
food on which our insects depend, and are sufficient reason to
suggest an opportunity to bring the Club records up to date.

In 1978 twelve members shared in this botanical search when 26 of
the 56 plants listed in 1913 were found. Unfortunately only six
members handed in their records for inclusion in the new list, which
is too long to print here; a typed copy of the complete records for
1913, 1977 (animpromptu list) and 1978 however can be consulted in
the B.N.C. Library if required. The most important plants found
this year are given here, and also those 1913 records* still to be
looked for.

Our thanks go to everyone who helped to make the afternoon so

90 BOTANICAL MEETING AT SCREMERSTON

enjoyable; and surely none will forget the sight of the bank of Burnet |
Roses in full bloom, the thick carpet of Northern Marsh Orchids _
near the shore, and the lovely Bloody Cranesbill everywhere.

HBNC Vol. XXII |

1st. Records for 1977 and 1978

1977

Adder’s Tongue Fern.
Carline Thistle.
Grass-leaved Orache.
Greater Knapweed.
Moschatel.

Oxford Ragwort. (in-comer)?
White Bugloss (Sport).

Pink Bugloss (Sport).

1978

Pink Bugloss Same plant.
White Cranesbill. (Sport).
Wite Rest-harrow. (Sport),
Corn Salad. (Lamb’s Lettuce)
Cuckoo Flower. (Ladies Smocks)
Early Purple Orchid.
Mouse-eared Chickweed.
Mullein.

Scentless Mayweed.

Sea Stock.

Smooth Hawksbeard.

Spotted Cat’s Ear.

Wild Mignonette.

1913 Records to be looked for

Dove’s Foot Cranesbill.
False Oxlip. Moonwort.
Square St. John’s Wort.
Water Forget-me-not.
Dark Green Mouse Ear.
Sea Milkwort. Felwort.
Water Crowfoot. Water

Speedwell.
Yellow Flag.

Particular attention should be given to the Rushes and Sedges in
the 1913 list. These are difficult and if found should be checked if
possible with Sowerby’s “‘English Botany” which has excellent
coloured illustrations of all Sedges, or by a second opinion.
A.L.H.B. & G.ALES

Collingwood, G

THE NORTH NORTHUMBERLAND
PIC NIG-CEUB

(Editor’s Note: The original manuscript of what is printed
below was found by our fellow-member Mrs Burn in an old work-
box bought for her son about 1977. It has been transcribed by her and
Miss Elliot; the latter adds ““The whole is in the handwriting of
Thomas Henry Liddell, Baron of Eslington, Lord Ravensworth.
Eslington is beside Whitingham in Northumberland and the one-
time estate of Ravensworth is just south of Gateshead in County
Durham. Ravensworth castle was pulled down just before World
War Il, leaving Eslington as the main residence of the present Earl of
Ravensworth ’.

Miss Elliot has also provided biographical notices of almost all the
members of the Pic Nic Club; these are available for reference in our
Library. Some of them were connected with our own Club.

The manuscript was contained in an envelope addressed to Mrs

( pane Pyke, which is initialled ‘““T.H.L.”’ This does
not appear to have passed through the post and was presumably
delivered by hand.)

The first Annual Meeting of the
NORTH NORTUMBERLAND PIC NIC CLUB

Thursday April 24th 1843.

Will be held at 11 oclock in the Forenoon at the same spot
as last year.

President
wy Honbll Mrs Liddell, Eslington.

Vice President
2: Walter Selby Esq., Biddleston.

Committee of Management

3. Thomas Selby Esq., Biddleston.
4. William Forster Esq., Alnwick.
D. Arthur Bigge Esq., Linden.
6a. Bryan Burrell Esq., Bolton.

Annual Members
1 Mrs William Forster, Alnwick.
2. Revd. Mr and Mrs Goodenough.
3 & 6a. Bryan Burrell Esq. & Mrs Bryan, Bolton.
4. Mifs Liddell, Eslington.
5. Mifs Florentia Liddell, Eslington.
6 Seymour Liddell Esq., Eslington.

91

THE NORTH NORTHUMBERLAND PIC NIC CLUB

Miss Bigge, Linden.

Rev’d Mathew Burrell.

Mifs Sarah Pulleine.

Rev'd Mr Buckell, Edlingham.
Mr Burrell, General Burrell’s son.
Wm. Grey Esq., Bolton.

Mrs Wm. Grey, Bolton.

Mrs Henry Grey, Bolton.

Mr Hy. Grey, Bolton.

Rev’d Leonard Orde, Alnwick.
Rev'd Charles Harcourt, Rothbury.
Mis Bells (2) of Longouton.
Rev’d H. Bell.

Mifs Clutterbuck, Warkworth.
Mrs Clutterbuck, Warkworth.

P. Selby Esq., Swansfield.

Mrs Selby, Swansfield.

Mr Conybeare.

Charles Liddell Esq.

Honorary Members at Discretion

Rules of the North Northumberland Pic Nic Club

—

0 OND Ww AF WY DN

it

That there be always four meetings held annually of the North
Northumberland Picnic Club.

That there be one meeting during the Spring, two meetings
during the Summer and one during the Autumn of each year.
That these annual meetings of the Club be held always either on
the Eslington Estate or on the Biddelstone Estate.

That each member of the Club bring with him or her one bottle
of Champagne and one dish.

That in the case of married people, one bottle of Champagne |

and one dish be enough for the Contribution of two persons.
In the case of a family this rule also holds good.

But this rule be enforced to the utmost.

That any member not strictly observing these rules be
immediately expelled the Club.

That any member having been expelled the Club for any
infringement of these rules he never again be restored to the
Club—on any pretence.

Each member is expected to bring to the meetings:—“‘a cheer-
ful countenance and demeanour—and to leave their cares at
home’.

That each member exert him or herself to the utmost of their
ability to sustain the character, activities and sociability as well
as the excellence of the meetings.

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS 93

12. That each member is expected to repeat a story, to supply an
anecdote or a song on being called upon by the general voice of
the meeting.

13. That the taking place of the meetings of the Pic Nic Club be
entirely dependent upon the state of the weather and the temp-
erature.

signed T. H. Liddell

April 1844. Walter Selby Esq.

Established 2 years.

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS
DURING 1978

Notes compiled by A. G. LONG
Hancock Museum

ENTOMOLOGY
On Feb. 3, three melanic males of the Pale Brindled Beauty
Apocheima pilosaria and one Early Moth Theria rupicapraria were
taken at street lamps near Cheviot View, Ponteland. Industrial
melanics of pilosaria are much more abundant on Tyneside than
Tweedside.
On Feb. 4, three specimens of T. rupicapraria were taken in Cock-
burnspath village near a street lamp.
_ The fine hot weather of May and June favoured the Orange Tip
butterfly Anthocharis cardamines which has undergone a widespread
_ population explosion. It was recorded as follows:-
May 9, at Wells Sawmill, Roxburghshire, 2 males (A. G. Buck-

ham).
_ May 16, at Wylam and Warden on Tyne (T. M. Martin and A.
| Garside).
_ May 17, several at Newtown St. Boswells, St. Boswells, and Max-
| con(A.G. B:):

May 18, at Peebles, 2 males; Innerleithen, several (A. G. B.).
May 19, near Denholm on Hawick Road, 1 male (G. A. Elliot).
May 20, roadside 2 miles from Morebattle, 1 male (M. E. Braith-
waite).
_ May 24, Abbey St. Bathans, 1 male; Kelso, 2 males; Stitchill 1 male
| (AsGwB:)s Eccles, dimaled2., Summers).
May 25, St. Mary’s Loch, 1 male (A. J. Smith).
ees; Selkirk Hill, 1. male (A... J. ,S.);,. below~. Lennel
Churchyard on Tweed north bank, 2 males and 2
ova on Alliaria petiolata (A. G. L.); at Brunton, Hums-
haugh, and Haughton, several (M. E. B.).
| May 29, between Riding Mill and Slaly, 2 males (Mrs. Pybus).

94 NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS

June 3, Kielder, on site of new dam (A. G. L.); at Hawick and
Blackpool Moss, several (A. G. B.).

June 4, Lindean Reservoir, several (A. J. S.); Nether Whitlaw Moss
(A. G. B)).

June 11, below Lennel Churchyard on Tweed bank, 1 female (A. G.
E

ah
June 20, Selkirk, several (Ag1G.,B:):

This increase in the Orange Tip has not been solely a local
phenomenon but 1s part of a more widespread and gradual build-up
in northern England and Scotland. Miss G. A. Elliot reported that at
Kildrummy, Aberdeenshire, Orange Tips were flying freely in early
June 1978 and had only ap eared there in 1977 for the first time in 25

ears. One Red Admiral Vanessa atalanta was seen on Tweed bank
Below Lennel churchyard on June 10. Others were reported from Haux-
ley on the Northumbrian coast in September (B. Little).

On May 21 four Small Blues Cupido minimus were seen at Coldin-
gham—an early date (P. Summers).

On June 10a velvet black wind-blown larva was found on a path at
Lennel Braes. It had a brown head and three pairs of lateral white
spots near the front end. It pupated and produced an imago of the
Satellite Eupsilia transversa on Sept. 20. The caterpillar 1s a notorious
cannibal.

On July 16 a larva of the Chamomile Shark Cucullia chamomillae
was found ona flower head of Scentless Mayweed near the coast at
Scremerston.

On July 29 the large Tortrix Archips podana was reared from a larva
found on a fruit tree at Padgepool, Wooler (G. A. Elliot).

On Aug. 26 (a late date) one Large Heath Coenonympha tullia was
seen on the Cumbrian side of the R. Irthing above Lampert.

The following lepidoptera were taken by m.v. light trap at
Sourhope Agricultural Research Farm, Roxburghshire, by J.
McConway and S. J. Burns during August.

Garden Tiger Arctia caja.

Confused Apamea furva.

Hedge Rustic Tholera cespitis..

Antler Cerapteryx graminis.

Common Sallow Xanthia citrago.
Square-spot Rustic Xestia xanthogapha.
Autumnal Rustic Paradiarsia glareosa.
Common Rustic Mesapamea secalis.
Dark Arches Apamea monoglypha.
Smoky Wainscot Mythimna impura.
Rosy Rustic Hydraecia micacea.
Northern Spinach Eulithis populata.
Chevron Eulithis testata.

Barred Straw Eulithis pyraliata.

Dark Marbled Carpet Chloroclysta citrata.
Small Autumnal Carpet Epirrita filigrammaria.

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS 95

Purple Bar Cosmorhoe ocellate.
July Highflyer Hydriomena furcata.

On Sept. 6 a Small Autumnal Carpet E. filigrammaria was found
under a street lamp at Cheviot View near Ponteland, it could possi-
bly have come from Prestwick Carr which lies about a mile to the
east.

On Sept. 21, Mangold Flea beetles Chaetocnema concinna occurred
as pests in sacks of Barley at Tindle near Wooler (B. Mortimer).

On Sept. 23, larvae of the Broom moth Ceramica pisi and the
Beautiful Yellow Underwing Anarta myrtilli were found at Ros
Castle near Chillingham.

On Sept. 28, a specimen of the Celery Fly P. heraclei was brought
from N. Shields.

On Oct. 27, two specimens of Palomena prasina the Green Shield
bug were found on pomegranates in Newcastle, probably imported
from abroad.

On Oct. 8, a specimen of the Small Copper Lycaena phlaeas was
feeding on flowers in a garden at Cheviot View, Ponteland.

‘ ORNITHOLOGY .
A Merlin appeared at a bird table at Horseupcleugh and two King-

| fishers were reported from the R. Dye near Dye Cottage (E. O.
| Pate).

| BOTANY
Records by M. E. Braithwaite.
| From Bemersyde Moss VC 81, NT 61.34.; 16.5.1978
Scrophularia umbrosa Green Figwort.
| Bidens cernua Nodding Bur-marigold.
| Ranunculus lingua Greater Spearwort.
| Ranunculus sceleratus Celery-leaved Buttercup.
- Sanguisorba officinalis Great Burnet.
Silaum silaus Pepper-saxifrage.
Carex X involuta with both parents C. rostrata Bottle Sedge
and C. vesicaria Bladder Sedge.
Typha latifolia Great Reed-mace.
Sparganium emersum Simple Burr-reed.
- Sparganium erectum Branched Burr-reed.
_Rorippa sylvestris Creeping Yellow Cress.
From crag on east side of Ale Water (NT920632)—Viola hirta
| Hairy Violet.
_Helianthemum chamaecistus Rock Rose.
| Saxifraga granulata Meadow Saxifrage.
_Asplenium adiantum-nigrum Black Spleenwort.
_A. trichomanes Maidenhair Spleenwort.
_Polystichum aculeatum Prickly Shield-fern.

| From junction of Eye and Ale VC 81, NT 939626, 1.7.1978—
| iia glycyphyllos Wild Liquorice on east bank, scarce.

|

96 NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS

Thalictrum minus Lesser Meadow-rule, plentiful.
Echium vulgare Viper’s Bugloss, on N. west bank.

On river Eye below Ayton Mains NT 936622—
Aconitum napellus Monkshood—large colony.

Near Little Dean—

Vicia sativa Common Vetch—in pasture at NT 928626;

Heracleam mantegazzianum Giant Hogweed continues to
spread e.g. road verge at NT 920620.

Tropical seeds.

Two sea beans of Entada gigas, a tropical climber found in America
(family Leguminosae) were found at Amble by C. Finch. Such seeds
can be carried to Europe by the Gulf Stream but are usually found on

the west coasts of Britain, mainly in Ireland and Scotland.

Records of Bryophyta by D. G. Long.

Mosses numbered as in Census Catalogue (3rd Edition) and Hepa-

tics as in Censu Catalogue (4th Edition).

Staward Bridge, Allendale. V©.67, NY. 79.59., 25.3:1973.
29/7 = Dicranum tauricum Sapehin (D. strictum)—on log.
77/27 Bryum radiculosam—on stonework of bridge.

Haugh Head nr. Wooler VC 68, NT 92, 26.3.1978.
8/1 Marchantia alpestris (Nees) Burgeff—calcareous soil.

77l- — *Bryum gemmiferum Wilczek and Demaret—sandy

shingle.

Ro Tillnr, Ford VC 68, Nii 93; 263.1978.
77(- Bryum gemmiferum—silty river bank.

Nr. Leaderfoot Bridge VC 81, NT 53, 2.4.1978.
77/27 *Bryum radiculosam —on old wall.

R. Tweed, Mertoun Bridge VC 81, NT 63, 2.4.1978.
8/12 Fissidens exilis —soil under trees.
139/1 Scleropodium caespitosum —on Populus.

R. Tweed nr. Lochton VC 81, NT 73, 2.4.1978.
151/1 Pylaisia polyantha —on Sambucus.

R. Tweed opposite\Garham Hall VC 81, NT 83, 244978

77l- — *Bryum gemmiferum —muddy river bank.
44/13 Barbula nicholsonii —calcareous rocks.

R. Tweed at Union Bridge VC 68, NT 95, 2.4.1978.
103/1 *Cryphaea heteromalla —on Sambucus.

NOTE: species with * are new VC records.

HAWTHORNDEN AND WILLIAM
~ DRUMMOND

BRIGID McEWEN
The Club visited Hawthornden on 20th September, 1978.

Divino Munere Gulielmus Drummondus Johannis Equits Aurati
Filius ut Honesto Otio qui Esceret Sibi et Successoribus Instauravit
Anno 1638.

(By divine favour, William Drummond, son of Sir John Drum-
mond, Knight, that he might rest in honourable ease, founded this
house for himself and his successors. 1638)

Dates are in time what places are in maps, and some dates, like

some places seem to be the nodal point, familiarity with which
illumines the surrounding area. 1638, the date on this inscription in

_the courtyard at Hawthornden, is such a date. It was the year of

William Drummond’s final installation in his old home, but—Jenny

‘ Geddes having thrown her stool—it was also the year of the Coven-

ant, the culmination of the prolonged struggle between Prelacy and
Presbyterianism, between King and Kirk, between King and Parli-

~ament which ultimately burst out into the Civil War and the execu-
-tion of Charles I, burned throughout Oliver Cromwell’s Com-

monwealth and fizzled away under his son Richard, Tumbledown

’ Dick. “These recent troubles’ as he termed them, had a melancholic

effect on William Drummond, and from them dates the last and least
productive phase of his life, though itis unnecessary to hold as did his
earlier biographers that it was grief at the King’s death in January

' 1649 that hastened his own the following December.

Because of the inscription, it might well be thought that 1638 was

the date of Drummond’s first entering into Hawthornden, but this

filled in. Although he marrie

was not the case. He had inherited it on his father’s death in 1610.
There are, however, several gaps of time and place that need to be

tin 1632, the first child to be entered in
the local parish register at Lasswade was Richard born 1639, by
which time there were already several other children in the Drum-
mond nursery. This would seem to indicate that in the first few years

of married life the household was elsewhere. David Masson, whose
Drummond of Hawthornden’ (1873) is still the standard life,

favours the theory that they were staying with the Scots of Scotstar-

"vet in Fife or Edinburgh. Drummond’s sister was married to Scots-

_tarvet, the author of ‘The Staggering State of Scots Statesmen’. I
believe no one, as yet, has checked the appropriate parish registers
for the baptisms of the elder children. This would account for the gap
in time, but as to the gap in space, that perhaps is exaggerated. A ie
inscribed on a house does not necessarily mean that that was when it
was built and that there was no dwelling there before. In regard to
Hawthornden several points seem to justify this view.

No doubt Drummond was acquainted with Francis Bacon’s
“Essay on Beauty’ and shared a number of its opinions including that
typical of the time that ‘There is no excellent beauty that hath not
some strangeness in the proportion’ but one wonders—delightful

| Oi

98 HAWTHORNDEN & WILLIAM DRUMMOND

though the result is—whether when buiding from scratch he would |!
have set out to pierce the wall containing the inscription with six |

windows (at the last count) all different in size, form and level.

Besides, parts of Hawthornden are very much older, its origins in |
the caves hollowed out of the cliff on which it stands going back to |

the night of time; and of its building Father Hay, the eighteenth
century historian, says ‘It is thought an ancient fortification. . . . John

Major (the scholar writing in 1521) makes mention of this fortin the —

life of King David’ (c 1340). Perhaps there was a banqueting hall in
what is now the courtyard with the well in the middle; perhaps a stair
does descend from there beside the well to the caves below; perhaps

the caves were used by the castle-dwellers as well as by much earlier |

inhabitants: the steps have been worn away by very many feet. There
is much to be unravelled. But basically there were three phases of
building. The keep with its 7 foot thick walls at the left of the
entrance existed by the fifteenth century and its foundations possibly
a good deal earlier; the central section area over the main doorway,
bearing the Drummond arms impaled with those of Scott (‘a good
specimen of that class of work’ as McGibbon and Ross put it) by the
sixteenth century; and the right hand end, extending across the east
side of the courtyard, by the seventeenth, with Drummond’s reno-
vations completed by 1638. Beyond that Bishop Abernethy Drum-
mond who married the poet’s great granddaughter, the last of the

direct line, in 1760, is said to have made quite considerable altera- |

tions; and the Victorian generation are said to have added turrets and

the kitchen which brings the house almost to the brink of the |

precipice.
The third reason for believing in the existence of a liveable-in
house before 1638 is where, otherwise, would Drummond have

housed his library and where entertained Ben Johnson on his visit in |

1618? He was a figure, who, as a fortnight’s guest and “Drink being
the natural element he liveth in’, would have needed a certain
amount of room. It is the two windows at the extreme right end,
when facing the main doorway, that are said to light Drummond’s
study and above it, his bedroom with its fire-place bearing ‘the
scallop shell of quiet’. It is from the study that he is said to have seen
the approach of Ben Jonson and gone out to greet him under the
sycamore tree whose trunk, severed in 1957, gives an indication of its
great size and age:

‘Welcome, welcome royal Ben’
‘Thank ye, thank ye, Hawthornden’

The poet William Drummond, was born in 1585, three years

before the Armada. His grandfather was Sir Robert Drummond of |
Carnock, ‘master and surveryor of all the King’s works’ of whom |

the poet Montgomery had written when he died:

‘This realm may rew that he is gone to grave,
All buildings brave bids Drummond now adieu’

HAWTHORNDEN & WILLIAM DRUMMOND 99

His parents were Sir John Drummond, Gentleman Usher to King
James VI, and Susannah, sister to Mr. Secretary Fowler, courtier to
Queen Anne. It was his father who acquired Hawthornden, with its
neighbouring lands of Slipperfield, Whitfield and Kingsfield, in
1598.

William Drummond was the eldest of seven children. He was sent
first to the High School in Edinburgh and then to the University, and
when he was twenty-one he went to Paris and to Bourges where he
studied Law. He could indeed have practised as a lawyer but when
his father died four years later, in 1610, he took up residence at
Hawthornden, ‘that beloved spot of his life-long habitation’ and
devoted himself to study and to writing.

He was not typical of an early seventeenth century gentleman, but
more like some pensive romantic of the late eighteenth, early
nineteenth century. ‘Content with my books’ he wrote ‘and the use
of my eyes, I learnt ever since boyhood to live beneath my fortune’.
Just as well, as where his money actually come from is as bit mysteri-
ous: his property was scarcely extensive and when he was obliged,
against his will, to send soldiers to Leslie at Duns Law, it was only a
few fractions of men he was due for.

As Bishop Sage says in his Memoir prefacing the 1711 Folio
Edition of Drummond’s Works

“He was a great cavalier, and much addicted to the King’s
party, yet was forced to send men to the army which
fought against the King; and his estate lying in three
different Shires, he had not occasion to send one entire
man, but halves and quarters and such like fractions:
upon which he wrote extempore the following verses to
his Majesty—

‘Of all these forces raised against the King

‘Tis my strange hap not one whole man to bring
From diverse parishes yet diverse men;

Butt all in halves and quarters. Great King then,

In halves and quarters if they come ‘gainst thee,

In halves and quarters send them back to me.’

Whatever the financial situation Drummond apparently did not
need to earn his bread. He travelled, he built on to his house, he
entertained, he played the lute, he studied the stars, he meditated, ‘in
that sweet and solitary seat, very fit and proper for the muses’, he had
a large library of 550 volumes: 267 Latin, 35 Greek, 11 Hebrew, 61
Italian, 8 Spanish, 120 French, 50 English, which last included
Spenser’s Faery Queene and Sidney’s Arcadia, for which he had paid
six shillings each, and Romeo and Juliet for which he had paid four
pence. It may have been said of him that ‘It is a great desparagement
to Vertue and learning that those things which make men useful to
the World should also incline them to go out of it’, but somehow
although he did not live in the world, his writings circulated. As
Edward Phillips, Milton’s nephew and a helper in his blindness,

100 HAWTHORNDEN & WILLIAM DRUMMOND

prefaced the 1656 edition of Drummond’s works saying “his poems
are the effect of a genius, the most polite and verdant that ever the
Scots nation produced?—The first work that brought him to public
notice was ‘Moeliades’ written on the untimely death of Henry
Prince of Wales in 1612. It stands out among the black-edged offer-
ings that poured from the inkwells of every poet, writer, versifier,
and rhymer in the land.

Drummond became the correspondent of Michael Drayton,
author of Polyolbion; the friend and correspondent of Alexander
Menstrie later Earl of Stirling; and, most famously, friend, corres-
pondent and host of Ben Jonson.

Falstaffian, if not Rabelaisian, Ben Jonson’s life, productive
though it was, did not lend itself to the keeping of diaries and
correspondence. As his near contemporary John Aubrey says in his
‘Scandals and Credulities’ at that time of his long retyrement his
pentions (so much as came in) was given to a Woman that governed
him, and with whom he lived and dyed nere the Abie in Westmins-
ter; and that neither he nor she took much care for next weeke, and
would be sure not to want wine; of which he usually tooke too much
before he went to bed, if not oftener and sooner’. ‘My Reports not
unacceptable to his Majesty,’ the account of his journey to Scotland,
was consumed by fire when his lodgings were burnt, as he lamented
in “An Execration to Vulcan.’ It is Aubrey himself who provides
much that is known of Jonson. The other chief source is Drummond,
who kept detailed notes of their conversations and Jonson’s opinions
which were ultimately deposited in Edinburgh by Bishop Aber-
nethy Drummond, and edited by David Laing in the last century.
Bishop Sage says “In their conversation there was a deal of Learning,
Wit and Innocent Mirth’, but there was also boasting, sweeping
dismissal and scurrility on Jonson’s part and a certain distaste and
censoriousness on Drummond’s for all that he busily wrote every-
thing down. Queen Elizabeth, Leicester, King James, Inigo Jones, Sir
Philip Sidney all receive similar treatment and one is sad to be told
that the last named was ‘no pleasant man in countenance, his face
being spoiled with pimples and high blood and long.’ Spenser,
Raleigh, Hooker, Bacon, Shakespeare who ‘wanted art’ and Robert
Southwell the Jesuit poet, of whom he does say he ‘was hanged, yett
so he had written that piece of his, the Burning Babe, he would have
been content to destroy many of his.’ Jonson could be generous. He
did tell Drummond he wished ‘Forth Feasting’ were his own,
‘otherwise my verses all good especially the Epitaphe of the Prince,
save that they smelled too much of the schooles and were not after
the fancie of the tyme.’ And of him Drummond wrote ‘he was a
great praiser of himself, scorner, minded more to lose a friend than a
jest... . jealous of every word and action of those about him (espe-
cially after drink which is one of the elements in which he
liveth)... . a dissembler. . . . a bragger.’ Though, or perhaps there-
fore, Jonson did maintain that ‘Of all states he loved most to be
named honest.’ It must have been quite a wearing visit.

That apart it cannot really be thought that Ben Jonson’s only

HAWTHORNDEN & WILLIAM DRUMMOND 101

reason for visiting Scotland was to see William Drummond, but it
was part of his reason and that was tribute enough.

In the Summer of 1618 when Jonson was 46, weighing nearly 20
stone, and at the height of his powers, the father fi ure of all the
London taverns and the chief poet of his day, valued by King and
Court, people and poets, he set off to walk to Scotland. Bacon
remonstrated that ‘he loved not to see poesy go on other feet than
poetical dactylus and spondaeus’ and it was joked, that he would get
no further than the north of London. But after a month on the road
and a new pair of shoes, which cost a shilling at Darlington, he
reached Edinburgh at the beginning of August. Perhaps he wanted
to be away from London. Five years before ‘Sir W. Raulighe sent
him Governour with his son....to France. This youth being
knavishly inclyned, among other pastimes. ... caused him to be
drunken and dead drunk, so that he knew not where he was, there-
after he laid him on a carr which he made to be drawn by pioners
through the streets, at every corner showing his Governour
stretched out...: at, which sporte young Raughlie’s mother
delyghted much (saying his father young was so inclyned) Though
his father abhorred it.’

This young man had died in January 1618 on the fateful expedition
to San Tomas which was to cause his father’s imprisonment in the
Tower and his execution that same October. Perhaps besides getting
copy, Jonson did also wish to return to his roots, described grandilo-
quently to Drummond: ‘His Grandfather came from Carlisle and he
thought from Annadale to it, he served Henry 8 and was a gentle-
man. His father losed all his estate under Queen Marie, having been
cast in prisson and forfaitted, at last turned Minister.’ The troubles of
the past century were a convenient way of fudging origins and
accounting for present impoverishment.

Jonson was feted in Edinburgh which he called “The heart of
Scotland, Britain’s other eye.’ The Provost and Burgesses feasted
him more than once during the autumn and winter 1618/19, a par-
ticular banquet costing them £221.6.4. Scots, and they made him a
freeman, the notice of which caused them a little trouble: Item 20 Jan
1619, at direction of the Counsell to Alex. Patersone for wrytting
and gilting of Benjamine Johnstonnes burges ticket being thryes
written. His finances were apparently so good, and his temper so
generous, that he gave gold to one John Taylor, the London Water
Poet who had also walked from London, setting off after Jonson in
an attempt, it was thought, to emulate if not to riducule him.

A few years before he met Ben Jonson and long before he himself
met death, Drummond had been preoccupied with the subject. As
Bishop Sage says: ‘Notwithstanding his close retirement and serious
applications to his studies love stole in upon and did entirely capti-
vate his heart; for he was on a suddenly highly enamoured of a fine
beautiful young lady, daughter to Cunningham of Barns, an ancient
and honourable family. He met with suitable returns of chaste love
from her and fully gained her affections; but when the day for the
marriage was appointed and all things ready for the solemnization of

102 HAWTHORNDEN & WILLIAM DRUMMOND

it, she took a fever and was suddenly snatched away by it, to his great :
grief and sorrow.” This is thought to have happened in 1615. The |
following year saw the publication of his second work: Poems: |

Amorous, Funerall, Divine, Pastorall: in Sonnets, Songs, Sextains,
Madrigals: by W. D., Author of the Teares on the Death of

Moeliades’. He wrote with a lucidity ahead of his time, and with the |
straightforwardness whose lack makes a Jonson more alien to our |
ears than a Shakespeare: lyrical, rich and yet simple, with echoes of |

the future. He speaks of Hawthornden:
‘What sweet delight a quiet life affords
And what it is to be of bondage free
Far from the madding wordlings hoarse discords
Sweet flowery place, I first did learn of thee.

In 1617 James VI & I visited his Northern Kingdom for the first |
time since his departure in 1603. Dr'ummond’s contribution to this |

event was the poem that Jonson had admired, entitled ‘Forth Feast-

ing: A Panagyric to the King’s Most Excellent Majesty’ in which the |

River Forth invites all the Scottish Lakes and Rivers to come and
celebrate:
... Our floods and lakes come keep this holiday:-
Wate’er beneath Albania’s hills do run,
Which see the rising or the setting sun,
Which drink stern Grampius’ mists or Ochil’s
snows
Stone-rolling Tay, Tyne, tortoise-like that flows,
The pearly Don, the Dees, the fertile Spey,
Wild Navern, which doth see our longest day,
Ness smoking sulphur, Leven with mountains
crowned,
Strange Lomond, for his floating isles renowned,
The Irish Ryan, Ken, the silver Ayr,
The snaky Doune, the Ore with rushy hair,
The crystal streaming Nid, loud-bellowing Clyde,
Tweed which no more our Kingdoms shall divide. ....

Two years after Jonson’s visit Drummond was seriously ill, and it
was only three years later that he published his next work “The

Flowers of Sion’ and ‘The Cypress Grove’ the first being poetry and _

tne second prose, bound together and of an altogether serious, 1f not

metaphysical nature. Walter Scott contended that they were written |
in one of the—more accessible—caves, reached by walking past and

beyond the house, at Hawthornden: very suitable for musing on the
melancholy inherent in man’s existence.

It might be thought that the granting by Charles I of
Letters Patent to Drummond in 1627 for the Mechanical Inventions

(including the Box Pistol, Shooting Pike, Fiery Waggon, Open Gun |
etc. etc.) might indicate that his time was not solely devoted to the

muses, to writing and study, and that he was a fitting successor in
science to his late neighbour, Napier of Merchiston; however this

:

HAWTHORNDEN & WILLIAM DRUMMOND 103

was probably no more than a useful form of patronage on the part of
his friend, the Scottish Secretary of State, then still Sir William
Alexander of Menstrie, later Earl of Stirling; besides being a slight on
the latter’s predecessor in office, the Earl of Melrose, later Earl of
Haddington, whose brother ‘Sandy’ Hamilton did know about
military inventions. It is ironic that it was the next Lord Haddington
who was blown up in the explosion at Dunglass Castle in 1640.

At this time Drummond’s movements or indeed plans do not
seem quite clear. In that same year he gave his library to the Univer-
sity in Edinburgh. But the previous few years and the subsequent
couple present a blank. It is thought from his son’s diary written in
the 1650s, which is of additional interest as it refers to still familiar
names e.g. “Young Trotter of Charterhall’ that the character referred
to as ‘Lodi’ or ‘Ludovicus’ is in fact a natural son of Drummond’s
born about this time, though whether the liaison kept him at
Hawthornden, or the prospect of the birth sent him abroad, is still a
matter for conjecture. However in 1632 Drummond did marry, and
his wife was said to resemble his lost love. She was Elizabeth Logan,
granddaughter of Sir Robert Logan of Restalrig who owned Fast
Castle and was a friend of the Napier of Merchiston who invented
logarithams. Drummond was 46 and he and his wife were to have
nine children.

Though for the next few years, Drummond was away from
Hawthornden, his pen was not idle. In 1633 he ‘produced’ Charles I’s
Scottish coronation, so preceding Sir Walter Scott as a deviser of
royal ceremonial in this country—’how pleasant it would have been
if a Linklater or a Compton Mackenzie had been charged with
running the proceedings in Edinburgh in 1953 (not, I think, Hugh
McDairmid)’ as T. D. Thomson says.

The previous year 1632, he had written some ‘Considerations’ to
the King who, by allowing the Earl of Menteith to re-assume the old
family title of Strathearne, had unwittingly raised up a rival royal
claimant. This stemmed from the two marriages of Robert II, the
first to Elizabeth Mure, and the second to Euphemia Ross. From the
marriage to Elizabeth, the Stuarts were descended; from the mar-
riage to Euphemia, the Strathearne’s. But the legitimacy of
Elizabeth’s marriage was said to be doubtful and therefore the throne
should rightfully have belonged to the Strathearnes. 200 years before
Charles had allowed its resuscitation, the title had been carefully
resumed by the Crown so as to obscure this claim. It was one of
which Buchanan made great play against Mary Queen of Scots, and
here was Charles, when many would have been glad to get rid of
him, himself re-inforcing it, while the new Earl of Strathearne went
bragging round Edinburgh: ‘I have the reddest blood in Scotland.’
Drummond’s interest in this was not disinterested. Since their Hun-
garian forebear had accompanied Queen Margaret, the Atheling’s
sister, from their exile in his land, to the court of Malcolm Canmore
in 1066, the Drummond family’s greatest claim to fame was that
Annabella Drummond, daughter of Sir John Drummond of Stobhall
had, in 1394 , married Robert III, son of Robert II and Elizabeth

104 HAWTHORNDEN & WILLIAM DRUMMOND

Mure, and had been the mother of the Poet King James I, first of the
Stuarts. The Drummonds, those ‘energetic Scottish somebodies’
Masson calls them, could not hold their heads so high if the marriage
of Robert II and Elizabeth was null and void. No doubt this was one
reason which prompted Drummond to embark on his ‘History of
the Five James’ which was not published until after his death and
which Masson refers to as ‘an indifferent work.’ A pity he was not
alive on Wednesday 26 May 1694 and present in the royal Abbey of
Saint Germain des-Prés in a gathering of lawyers, royal librarians,
counsellors, scholars besides members of the Jacobite Court to see a
charter discovered among the muniments that Archbishop James
Beaton of Glasgow had brought with him to the safety of Paris in
1560. It was a charter of King Robert II, founding a chaplainry in
Glasgow Cathedral in fulfilment of conditions imposed by the pope
who dispensed the King from the impediments of consangunity and
affinity when he married Elizabeth Mure. This provided authentic
and contemporary evidence that the marriage had received the
requisite papal dispensation and that the Stuart dynasty which
sprang from that marriage was unquestionably legitimate. The Jaco-
bite court at Saint-Germain-en Laye was overjoyed: this document
routed at a single stroke, George Buchanan and his followers who
had impugned the legitimacy of the Stuart Dynasty.

Apart from working on his ‘History of Scotland during the reign
of the Five James (1424-1542’ all Drummond’s other writing now
was prose. The times were too troubling, and besides, poetry is the
genius of youth, and he was no longer young. He seemed to see with
a clear eye the dangers of one liberty becoming another tyranny, and
the consequences of the attack on Authority: ‘But out of that duty a
subject oweth to his Sovereign I ever favoured the party of Authori-
ty, knowing it to be the main-beam of the state; which being once
shaken, the whole frame built on it is ready to be over-tumbled’. In
all his writings, whether directed to his king or the king’s many and
various opponents he urged justice, moderation, tolerance, peace:
‘Irene’; “The magical. mirror’, ‘Queries’ of State$n-Squibs]
‘Skiamachia’ and ‘Remoras’ all written between 1638 and 1642, are
models of good sense and of their kind. However, his wisdom
unheeded, the furies were unleashed. And he said ‘Should I meet a
number of madmen and they were to have me dance with them I
were the occasion of my own destruction if I opposed them’. He
survived. He sent his fractions of men to Duns Law in 1639, but
managed not to go himself; likewise the following year he was
fortunately not, as he was supposed to be, at Dunglass Castle when it
was blown up. He epitomized Scottish Conservatism, ‘Drummon-
dism’ as Masson calls it, and while not joining Montrose, to some
extent inspired and supported him by his writings. For these he did
have to answer and, as it says in the 1711 Memoir ‘Being a reputed
Malignant, he was extremely harassed by the prevailing party and
for his verses and discourses frequently summoned before their
‘Circular Tables’, he was let off, as those men, whose own weapon
should have been the pen, apparently believed it to be less of a danger

HAWTHORNDEN & WILLIAM DRUMMOND 105

than the sword; and Drummond did not use his sword. But perhaps
that was because he saw prophetically. In 1646 in his ‘Objections
against the Scots Answered’ he urges that the Sots ‘unless they
would fall under the fearful sin of perjury... .cannot render their
Sovereign to the disposing of a nation who intended (as they have
given forth in many pamphlets) his disposing, the ruin of his authori-
ty, and perhaps of his royal person; for that nation who struck off the
head from the grandmother may make small reckoning to do the
same to the grandchild’.

When that very deed occured, Drummond’s grief was profound.
He now no longer wrote urgent political prose. He wrote the
obituaries of several friends who died the same year dating them
‘Died with our Monarchy and State—D.O.M.S.; and he again took
up his History of the Five James. But not for long. In December 1649
he was dead. He was buried in Lasswade churchyard. The next year
Montrose would be caught and executed, and for a further eight
years Cromwell would be the Protector. However:times had
changed since a royalist wrote ‘Who would have imagined a twelve
month since that Noll Cromwell’s nose could ever have entered
Edinburgh without putting it into a combustion?’ and only two
years after the “Almighty Nose’s’ death, with General Monk’s assis-
tance a Stuart King was on the throne once more.

William Drummond’s connections continued to live at Hawth-
ornden until the middle of this century, though the direct line ceased
when his great granddaughter, Barbara Mary Drummond, died in
1789. She had been married secondly to Dr. William Abernethy,
physician and Episcopal Bishop, who assumed the name of Drum-
mond. They had one daughter, but she died aged thirteen in 1777.

It is a curious thing that an Abernethy figures also in the early
history of Hawthornden. There is an inscription to the left on
entering the courtyard which is in memory of ‘Sir Lawrence Aber-
nethy of Hawthornden. . . . A brave and gallant soldier, who, at the
head of a party in the year 1338 conquered Lord Douglas, Knight of
Liddesdale five times in one day yet was taken prisoner before
sunset’, Sir Lawrence was on the side of the English who had
captured Edinburgh in 1338. Yet at that time, Sir Alexander Ramsay
of Dalhousie, to whom David II is said to have given Hawthornden,
and who was very gallantly and successfully fighting against the
Engiish, was said to be hiding with his band of men in the caves in the
cliff below. It is hard to see how they could have coincided, though
they were united in one thing. David II ‘injudiciously’ as the Douglas
Peerage puts it ‘Bestowed the office of Sheriff of Teviotdale, previ-
ously held by William Douglas, Knight of Liddesdale, on Sir Alex-
ander Ramsay’ and thereafter, for all that they had been friends
before, Sir William became the implacable enemy of Sir Alexander
whom he eventually captured and starved to death in Hermitage
Castle in 1342. Sir Alexander’s death was lamented by Wyntoun, and
as the Douglas Peerage says, of the company of young men he raised,
who took up their quarters in the caves of Hawthornden ‘to be of
Alexander Ramsay’s band was considered as a branch of military

106 HAWTHORNDEN & WILLIAM DRUMMOND

education, requisite for all young gentlemen wo meant to excel in
arms.
The Abernethy, Ramsay, Douglas families seem to entwine.
There is an Abernethy-Douglas connection in that Margaret daugh-
_ter of Sir Alexander Abernethy, by dispensation of Pope John XXII
married in 1329, Sir John Stewart of Bonkyl, first Earl of Angus.
They had a son, the second Earl, Thomas ‘a turbulent and profligate

2S Fo RS ORS Se —

person’ who married Margaret, daughter of Sir William Sinclair of |

Roslyn, and they in their turn had Thomas, the third Earl on whose
death his nephew, George Douglas was granted the Earldom by
Robert II with the lordships of Abernethy and Bonkyl. Hawthorn-
den passed into Douglas hands for 200 years until it was acquired by
William Drummond’s father in 1598. Its fortunes throughout that
time are not known, though it is unlikely it would have escaped
Hertford’s repeated Rough Wooing in the 1540s, any more than
Craigmillar or Roslyn did. In the early seventeenth century it was
being restored and lived in, but whether Cromwell came in 1650, or
Monk, from his headquarters in Dalkeith, to batter down the walls
of the banqueting hall or whether that had been done—as might be
supposed, over a hundred years before—is speculation.

A matter for speculation too is the origin of the caves in the cliffs
beneath the castle. One of their later uses was as a doocot, the
constructed niches very similar to those at Hailes Castle, not being as
F. R. Coles rather peevishly writes in his article ‘Rock Hewn Caves
in the Esk Valley.’ (Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries
1910/11) ‘Bottle-racks for some Troglodytes or Cyclops’ as Masson
had said. Before that they were perhaps used as an extension of the
keep above, reached either by the possible stair beside the well or by
the door on their landward side: the steps there, which have been
levelled up with concrete, have a three inch depression worn away in

the middle.

Before that again, their true entrance was 27 feet up the side of the
49 foot cliff-face, reached in Pennant’s day by twenty-seven steps cut
in the rock. This opening bears the marks of the bars and hinge bolts
of a gate and of much use. There is no doubt that, like the other caves
on the Esk, they were used as hideouts and dwellings by bands of
robbers or of soldiers such as Sir Alexander Ramsay, but when or by
whom they were in fact hewn is unknown. In their ‘Notes on Rock
Scribings at Hawthornden’ Professor Gordon Childe and John

Taylor (PSAS 1939) describe figures cut in a recess of rock just up the |

river from Hawthornden which closely resemble Irish Bronze Age
carving.

One inhabitant the caves surely cannot claim is Bonnie Prince
Charlie who, when he was in the area in the autumn and winter of
1745/6, far from hiding was aiming rather to be seen as much and as
frequently as possible. But distinguished visitors they have had:
besides Pennant, Stukeley and Pococke there were, as well as Ben
Jonson, Boswell, Scott, Chambers, and of course Queen Victoria

and Prince Albert. They came on 14 September 1842, a couple of |

years after their marriage when she was having her third child. A

CANNIBALS IN WOOLER 107

picture of this visit by Sir William Allan hangs in the Portrait Gallery
in Edinburgh. It shows the Queen in a pink dress and white bonnet,
holding a blue fringed shawl on her arm, and Prince Albert, in black
with a white waistcoat and a top hat. They are standing in a group of
13 figures and 2 children overlooking the edge of the precipice. It is
the late afternoon of their second last day in Scotland. They are
accompanied by the Duchess of Buccleuch and Queensberry, Col-
~ onel Bauverie, and in the absence of the owners, the Walker Drum-
- monds, by their agent Mr. Henderson. Prince Albert reads out to
Queen Victoria the inscription to William Drummond by Young
which ends:
O sacred solitude, Divine retreat,
Choice of the prudent, envy of the great!
By the pure stream, or in thy waving shade
I court fair Wisdom, that celestial maid!

| Whatever its previous or subsequent history, it is Drummond
_ who epitomizes Hawthornden. Drummond of Hawthornden he is
called; indeed Jonson in the old Scottish usage just called him
Hawthornden. The two names are inextricable. Hawthornden
iluminates Drummond. Drummond immortalizes Hawthornden.
Now, though, that his descendants no longer live in the castle, it is
fitting that it should be occupied by a family bearing the name of one
of his Edinburgh teachers, Adamson. And it is to them and in
memory of Mr. Adamson, who with his wife, was such a kind host
and guide to the Berwickshire Naturalists and to myself in the
autumn of 1978 that I would like to offer this present essay.

CANNIBALS IN WOOLER

YPSOLOPHA dentella, (Fabricius 1775).
GRACE A. ELLIOT:

‘Not much has been written locally about this pretty moth since
‘Linnaeus found it in the 18th century. A member of the Micr-
|‘ lepidoptera, Order of Plutellinae, like many Lepidoptera it has had
several name changes, so to keep our records straight these are
| repeated here, and also, because a new ‘“‘Check List of British
Lepidoptera” is due in 1979 when we may find the names revised
) again.

| eThe moth is listed in Richard South’s Synonymic List of British
ee optera (1884, p.31.) under the name of Harpipteryx xylostella
(Linn).

| Edward Meyrick in his Revise Handbook of British Lepidoptera (1928
p.799) named it Cerastoma xylostella (Linn) and wrote that it was
“common in Britain to Roxburgh, N. Ireland, Europe and Asia
Minor in July and August.”’ He described the larva as pale yellow-ish
| green with a broad reddish dorsal stripe, feeding on Lonicera. 5-6.
| Ge. May-June).

|

—

;

108 CANNIBALS IN WOOLER

L. T. Ford also used Mayrick’s name of Cerastoma xylostella (Linn) ,
No. 1133. in his Guide to the smaller British Lepidoptera (1949, p. 171)
and wrote concisely “Larva 5-6 on Lonicera in a web. ae 6-7 in 2
rather long white cocoon affixed to rubbish on the ground. Imagey
7-8.’ He made no mention of the larva being cannibal.

Kloet and Hinks in their Check-list of British Insects (1945 p.137) i
named the species Ypsolophus xylostella (Linn, 1767), and I. R. P.|
Hislop in his Indexed Check-List of British Lepidoptera (1947, p.33). i
also called it Y. xylostella (Linn) and gave it the unattractive English | |
name of Tooth-streaked Hooked Smudge (No. 2077). In his revieey
Check-list (1964) the number was changed to 2165.

The most recent Check-List of British Insects ( os ublished by | jo
the Royal Entomolgical Society of London, uses the name of |
Ypsolopha dentella (Fabricius 1775) and gives heeballa (Dennis ack
Schiffermiiller. 1775), and xylostella sensu auct. as synonyms. (1:

Fabricius it will be remembered attended lectures given by Lin- ;
naeus at Upsalla and became famous for his System of Classification of | ;
Lepidoptera.

The meanings of the various names given to the moth are in the
Accentuated List of British Lepidoptera (1858. p.83). published by che |
Oxford and Cambridge Entomological Societies, thus the generic
name Ypsolophus (from the Greek) means “with a high crest.” This! :
probably refers to the appearance of the Moth’s wing-tips when at |
rest. The epithet dentella, presumably refers to the peculiar tooth-like | |
wing-tips, while the synonym harpella, the Greek word for a sickle, |
refers to the shape of the fore-wing tips. The larval food-plant
Xylosteum (Bush Honeysuckle) now included in Lonicera gives it the
lesser epithet of xylostella. i

Both the 1968 and 1973 editions of the Oxford Book of “eh

(pp.120-121) named the moth Ypsolophus harpella (Schiff), where itis’
illustrated in two positons: one, an oblique stance of rest, is most
striking. It is described as a “Common moth with hook- -tipped
wings flying in July and August in wooded districts everywhere
except N. Scotland. The eggs overwinter, and the larvae feed in May)
and June within flimsy webs spun beneath the Honeysuckle leaves.
They pupate within slender white cocoons.’

According to George Bolam (H. B. N. C. XXVII.234) he onl
took the Species at Alnwick Park, but Robson considered it common >
and generally distributed in Northumberland; Grant Guthrie found |
it not uncommon amongst Honeysuckle about Hawick and Shaw
had it from Eyemouth. Dr. A. G. Long took it on Honeysuckle in his)
garden at Gavinton, but we never found it on the plant in our garden
at Birgham; however, our Northumberland records for last year are)
interesting. .

On the 20th June 1978 some of the attractively coloured larvae of!
this moth were found eating the leaves of a garden Honeysuckle at
Padgepool, Wooler. They were about % inch long, flat, slender and
pale green with a crimson-brown stripe along the centre of the back.
They wriggled when disturbed but did not fall from the leaves as
some caterpillars do. Four were transferred with a piece of the

|
{ CANNIBALS IN WOOLER 109

food-plant to a jam jar and by the 22nd there was a long sleek
_ silky-white cocoon hanging down the side of the jar; the cocoon was
empty and only three larvae remained in the jar. On the next day one
of the three was found wriggling on the bottom of the jar, but later it
too had disappeared leaving no trace. On the 24th, a second cocoon
appeared with the larva inside it, thus the third larva seemed to be
safe, and there was hope that the fourth would pupate successfully
‘also. However it did not work out that way for on the morning of the
25th it was obvious that there had been a fierce battle. Larva No.4
had climbed to the cocoon and pulled larva No. 3 halfway out, but
No. 3 held fast to the silken case with its claspers while both clung
together in a sort of tit-for-tat death bite, neither having survivied to
eat the other. Human beings could learn a lesson from this!

_ Cannibalism is well known though not frequent among lepidop-
terous larvae. The Orange Tip butterfly, the Dunbar and Satellite
moths are all cannibals but we were unaware of the occurrence
among the Ypsolopha dentella; had it been suspected each caterpillar
would have been placed in a separate jar and four moths most likely
obtained. Neither has cannibalism been mentioned in connection
with the Diamond-back moth, Plutella xylostella (Linn. 1758) which
isa close relative of Y. dentella, and which has often nearly ruined the
turnip crops, especially that of 1891 in Berwickshire and elsewhere.
See. H.B.N.C. Vols.11, 336; V.89; XIII, 296, 379-385; XX VII, 232.

|
|
:
|
|

PLANTS FOUND AT SILVERWELLS

|
i

i
|
{

Mrs Logan-Home has kindly provided a list of plants found at |
Silverwells, Coldingham during the ownership of the late Misses |
Logan-Home, whose plant-hunting experience covered such a vari- |

ety of places.

Alopecurus geniculatus
Marsh Foxtail

Aphanes arvensis
Parsley Piert

Betula pendula

Silver Birch

B. pubescens

Downy Birch
Doronicum pardalianches
Leopard’s Bane
Equisetum arvense
Common Horsetail

Erica cinerea

Bell Heather

Geranium pyrenaicum
Pyrenean Cranesbill
Gnaphatium sylvaticum
Wood Cudweed
Myosotis discolor
Changing forget-me-not
Ophioglossum vulgatum
Common adders tongue
Potentilla sterilis

Barren strawberry
Raphanus raphanistrum
Wild Radish

Trientalis europaea
Chickweed Wintergreen
Valerian pyrenaica
Pyrenean Valerian

Viola palustris

Marsh violet
Corallorhiza trifida
Coral root Orchid
Pyrola minor

Common Wintergreen

110

18.6.58
6.6.58
19.4.59
19.4.59
6.6.58
29.4.58
1.8.58
28.8.66
29.8.66
6.6.58
6.6.58
4.3.58
29.959
18.6.58
6.6.58

6.6.58

|
.
;
|

GRAY‘S PLANS FOR COLDINGHAM PRIORY

As was noted last year, the Club came into possession, through the
kindness of the Revd. Mr Ross, of a bundle of plans and sketches
made by William Gray of Berwick who was the architect for the
restoration work at Coldingham Priory in the eighteen-fifties.

Many of these are of small details such as mouldings but a number
are of importance and interest. We learn from one that there was “‘a
priest’s door now blocked” in the arcade arch of the north wall
immediately in front of the present pulpit; another indicates a door in
the south (post-1662) wall opposite the “‘priest’s door.” A plan
which includes the surroundings of the present church shows a small
area of black and yellow tiling on the floor of the south transept,
something of which there had atiiee to been no indication; unfortu-
nately it appears from measurements recently taken on the spot that
this area, if it still exists, is under the tarmacadam path leading to the
church door.

Other plans give some indication of the state of affairs before 1850.
There are some details of the stair and its housing at the west end of
the church and of a stone seat running along the first few feet of the
west end of the south wall, presumably related to the similar one in
the south transept. This plan (which bears the signature “C.
Graham’’) also shows an arch immediately north of the northwest
corner of the church and a tombstone decorated with stepped cross,
sword and (?) cock lying on the top of the remains of the twelfth
century wall which is under the church floor.

One set of drawings shows what Coldingham escaped because
funds were limited. The original proposal to the restorers seems to
have included bringing out a broad and shallow transept to the

_ south, roughly including the area of the present porch and com-
pletely departing from the historical origin of the present church as
_ the choir of the monastic church. It was also proposed (as illustrated
Opposite) that each of the four corners of the church should be
| surmounted by a “‘pepper-pot.”’
The National Montments Record of Scotland has accepted cus-
tody of these documents for safekeeping.
T.D.T.

tt

———ss st

-
t

be foe - 1) kote ae oe ce

i

Proposed Restoration of East end of Coldingham Priory, c.1850.

(Photo. Royal Commission on Ancient and Historical Monuments
of Scotland)

112

113

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STARLINGS AND DARJEELING POLICEMEN |

G. A. C. B. (reprinted from the British Medical Journal)

In Darjeeling 20 years ago the policeman on the beat was relieved in |

rather an unusual manner. A small detachment of six or eight
policemen, together with a sergeant, would emerge from the police
station in the bazaar and march around the town without stopping;
as each police post was passed, one policeman would peel off from
the unit to be replaced by the man he had relieved. Thus the sergeant
arrived back at the police station with a completely different group
of men in his unit. I was reminded of this ritual a couple of years ago.
I had overwintered a handful of bullocks (as a typical anti-Midas,
my touch transformed gold into dust), but all was not lost on my

expeditions at first light to feed the stock: the morning flight of geese

from river to fields and tidal mud flats some eight miles away, and
the swans flapping heavily overhead in the morning mist were an
experience in themselves. The starlings too aroused my
interest—great flocks numbering thousands flying up the river
Tweed each morning from their roosting places, which were more
often in pheasant coverts than in the buildings of Berwick, causing
farmers to complain of the fall in value of shooting rights. At the
fluttering of thousands of wings overhead, companies of starlings
could be observed, like the Darjeeling policemen, breaking off at
various points without any apparent command. One company
appeared to be directed to our village where it split into smaller units
of four or five birds, and one of these units made its post in the tall old
crab apple tree in our garden, there to perch chattering and watching.

When scraps were thrown out, a loud call whistle would sound out |

and it seemed that within seconds the whole company of starlings
detailed to the village had descended and was making the most of the

human largesse. In the evening the dispersal process took place in |
reverse order, and the same flocks could be heard and seen getting up |

and winging overhead to their nightly roosting place.

116

:

}
|

r
|

|

BRIDEGROOMS, BODLES AND
MORTCLOTHS.

T. D. Thomson.

When my greatgreatgreatgreatgrandfather was asked to serve a sec-
ond term as the Coldingham Kirk Treasurer he “peremptorily
refused” (to quote the Session Minutes). As one of his successors, I
cannot blame him; whatare the problems of inflation compared with
counting and disposing of 221b (Dutch weight) of bad coin accumu-
lated in the poor’s box—£32. 14. 4d of bodles and £7. 7. 6d of bad
halfpennies?.

The old Kirk Sessions are mainly remembered nowadays for their
concern with the morals of their neighbours and the keeping of the
Sabbath. True, our stool of repentance seems to have been kept
fairly warm and fisherfolk who were spotted still at sea in the early
hours of Sunday morning could be in trouble, but the Session was
normally much more busied in administering the welfare apparatus
of eighteenth-century Scottish society.

They met every Sunday after service. Their first duty was to
count the collection for the poor, which in our rural parish usually
amounted to about £3 Scots or five shillings sterling; the exception
was at the Communion season in July when about £50 could be
expected. Then they authorised payments of poor relief and saw
any balance deposited in the parish kist, the keys to whose two
differing locks were held by two of the elders dignified with the title
of clavigers. However the collections were by no means the only
source of revenue. With the deathrate of those days there was a
steady income from the hire of palls for funerals. We owned sever-
al, to suit all ages, purses and social stations: “‘the little claith
mortcloath” (9/-),the plush mortcloth (18/-), the little velvet
mortcloth for a child (£1. 16/-), the second velvet mortcloth
(£1. 16/-) and the best velvet mortcloth (£3, 12/-). The beauties of
the last can be judged from the bill, in sterling, for a new one (its

_ predecessor had been bought from a bequest for the purpose, not an
uncommon benefaction):

pees best. Black Genoa velvet © ....2.46...0.. LOCORO
Suerte (OZ. black: fringe |yis. 09. cehece. eee sedends os a 2
mememiiack olaved linet) i iiel lint eees 9 4
meee Diack (silk friiee Ot BS I A le An. 5 57%

£14 17 10% Steg.

It seems to have been a good investment, even if it took about fifty
funerals to recover the capital alone. The two little cloths, inciden-
tally, were in use far too frequently. However, these funeral pomps
were not always administered on a purely business basis, for occa-
sionally one finds an entry such as ‘“‘Retorned the money for the
mortcloath to So-and-so, be being poor’.

Deaths on outlying farms involved carrying the body to the

Ad?

118 BRIDEGROOMS, BODLES & MORTCLOTHS

churchyard over considerable distances, so for families who wanted
to do the thing properly a horse litter was available at a charge of £1
4/-. Its maintenance was not expensive; in the fourteen years
covered by this Minute Book there is only one charge, 3/6d, for “‘oyle
for the horse litter’.

At the other end of life there were occasional collections at bap-
tisms in the more distant parts of the parish, but a considerable
income came from marriages. The bridegroom paid 12/-, but if he
were a party to an irregular or private marriage it could cost him £2
8/-. One wonders what lay behind the record that “Elizabeth
desired that her proclamation to marry with Joseph might be stop-
ped because she was already promised to John”. As John insisted
on the promise Joseph’s banns were stopped, John’s were published
and the kist profited by £3 12/- from this little drama.

In passing, it was enacted in this field in 1749 that every brideg-
room should deposit £3 on putting up his banns, repayable after nine
months or else given to the Session, with 1/-, for the poor, this Act
being ‘‘for performance, and abstinence until marriage’’. It seems
to have been ineffective and was repealed two years later.

There were also deposits by people who complained that they had
been defamed and sought the Session’s judgement. Most were
run-of-the-mill cases of vulgar abuse but at least one episode kept the
Session occupied and, no doubt, the parish edified, for several
weeks. The Session Clerk, of all people, complained of a fama that
he and his wife had had a violent quarrel one night to the disturbance
of the peace. He admitted that they had had “‘a reasoning but no
bad words nor offence given to anybody” but was acquitted after
numerous hearings which are recorded at greater length than most
other Session business. Nevertheless he and his wife were
admonished to refrain for the future from “loud reason-
ings’. Shortly afterwards the complainer’s deposit in such cases
was raised from £2 to £4.

Income in 1745 totalled £329 Scots (£27 8s 4d stg.). Much of this
went on immediate poor relief, to “passengers, poor strangers and
children at the door”’ to the extent of perhaps £2 each week; a few
orphans and others had regular weekly allowances. The big annual

distribution took place after the Sacrament in July; a number of

regular beneficiaries received from twelve to thirtysix shillings each

year but there were also—as might be expected—“‘a great number of

stranger poor at the doors” who might share four or five pounds.

We lie astride the Great North Road, so the “passengers’’ were
numerous. Too often they did not travel any further, as witness
frequent payments for coffins and graves. In some cases the Ses-
sion could be generous:

“May 12th. To a poor stranger woman brought to bed of a
child—6/-. To Jean J for waiting on the poor stranger woman and
her child—8/-. To the said sick stranger woman—
18/-.” Next week there is a similar entry, but in the third one there
Iss

_““For making a grave to a poor stranger child—4/-. For making

erent einen ee

BRIDEGROOMS, BODLES & MORTCLOTHS 119

the stranger distrest woman’s child’s coffin—
12/-." The mother remained in care for another week and then
passed from our history.

Things were not so good three years later when after a grant of 16/-
to “a stranger woman pregnant with child in her way to Glasgow
from York, likely to bea burden on the parish” the next entry is 12/-
paid ‘‘for carrying her on a horse out of the parish”. However, the
itinerant poor were by no means left helpless: they included “‘two

oor stranger men taken by Algerians”’; “two broken sailors taken
Ey pyrots”; “‘a Hungarian travelling to London”; ‘‘a gentlewoman
an object of charity” and “‘two poor women and four children from
Virginia going to Belfast’’.

The period includes the ’45, and our neighbourhood had been
involved in the ’15, but although Cope’s dragoons must have fled
through the parish after Prestonpans the Rising seems to have
impinged but little. The Minutes record sundry papers and proc-
lamations read from the pulpit anent the “unnaturall rebellion’,
ending on 15th June, 1746 with Cumberland’s proclamation to
magistrates and ministers to “discover and give account of ‘the
rebells’’ and the General Assembly’s Act backing it. Ten days later
there was a thanksgiving service for the Government’s victory; the
sermon was on Ezekiel XXXVI, 32, the relevance of which is not
immediately apparent. Of more local consequence were the num-
bers of soldiers’ wives and children travelling the roads and in
distress and, in due course, of disbanded soldiers themselves, not to
speak of half a dozen deserters from Lord John Drummond ’s (Jaco-
bite) Regiment.

We did not neglect what nowadays would be called “‘the wider
work of the Church”. Twelve shillings were sent to a poor man in
Berwick whose house had been burned, and a special collection by
appointment of the General Assembly yielded £24 “for the relief and
assistance of the Protestants in Breslow in Silesia and for helping to
build a church and school there”. We also helped to re-roof a
meeting-house in Northumberland and contributed £19 16/- (includ-
ing half a guinea from our resident Baronet) to “a publick collection
at the church doors of all the parishes in Scotland for carrying on the
harbour of Eyemouth”’.

The most distant venture with which we were concerned was a
contribution of £30 to help the infant College of New Jersey (for
which our neighbours across Lammermuir at Yester provided one of
its early Berit). This has truly been bread upon the waters, for
twice in the past thirty years the University of Princeton has recipro-
cated generously towards works of our own.

The Session were also involved in education nearer home, having
some responsibility for the schools in the parish and their staff (one
would like to know more about a local schoolmaster who was
delated for producing “‘a libellous ballad called ‘Tom Brown’s
Treatment at Cairncrosshall’’’). In particular they paid for and
supervised the schooling of poor children at 12/-a quarter. At first
such payments were recorded as a matter of routine, but there must

120 BRIDEGROOMS, BODLES & MORTCLOTHS

have been suspicions of a racket for in 1748 it was enacted that no |
‘school wages”’ be paid without a means test by the local elder and
that from time to time the schoolmasters were to bring such children |
before the Session “‘to be tryed what progress the saids poor Schol-
lars make in their learning”’, with payment by results. Only one |
such examination is actually recorded, when a successful reader
before the Session was given eightpence to buy a New Testament as |
“they were pleased with his progress in learning”’.
Such matters must have kept the Treasurer busy enough when he |
could spare time from his farming. However, there were further
worries, thanks to the absence of country banks in those days. I can
pay the Sunday offerings into the Bank the next day; he had to
deposit the unexpended balance in the kist, whence the bad money
was periodically sold off at one shilling sterling for the pound |
weight. Checking its contents must have been a long business: at |
the annual audit in May, 1745 they comprised four and a half guineas
in gold, three twenty shilling notes, £139 Scots silver and £43 7s 9d in
halfpennies, farthings and bodles. Surplus balances were lent from
time to time to elders and others (including the Minister while he ©
was waiting for his stipend to come in) at five per cent, which was
only due when the principal was repaid. On the whole this seems
to have been fairly safe, although at least twice “‘desperate bills” had
to be written off when the borrower had long since died bankrupt.
Dead debtors were one thing, live ones another. When my
ancestor’s immediate predecessor demitted office after some years he
had to give the Session a six weeks’ bill for most of the previous
year’s surplus (the clavigers must have been very easygoing). This
was followed by the discovery that twentyfour mortcloth fees were
outstanding, some of them for nearly twenty years, and had to be |
collected, even if receipts for two of the oldest were eventually
produced. Add this sort of thing to the normal duties and one year
of the job must have been good enough reason for peremptoril
refusing to continue in it. I get off lightly with occasional Iris
florins or Sunderland tramway tokens—and these were more than |
compensated for when a half-sovereign turned up in the plate.

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

Letter 90. April 18, 1885

When last I had the pleasure of seeing you we talked of the family of
the Tancreds in connection with Twizell House. Today I have an
inquiry about them and the descendants of the late Mr. Selby, from
an old friend of Mr. Selby, once the Rev. Leonard Jenyns, but now
Blomefield, a corresponding member of the Club, and a well known
writer on Natural History. He intends writing some reminiscences
of his visits to Twizell House as far back as 45 or 50 years ago. Could
you assist me to give him a few data. The eldest daugh-
ter—Lewis—Marianne married Charles John Bigge eldest son of
Charles William Bigge of Linden, who died in 1846: their oldest son
Charles Selby Bigge born 21 July 1834, was married and had chil-
dren. I know nothing more of him. He was nephew of Rev. J. F.
Bigge. I suppose he had no share of Twizell. Linden was sold in
consequence of the failure of a Newcastle Bank perhaps by this
Charles Selby Bigge.

Second daughter. Frances Margaret was married to Rev. Edmund
Antrobus youngest son of the Rev. William Antrobus, Rector of
Acton, Middlesex. I suppose both are dead, leaving no family?

3. Jane, married to Sir Thomas Tancred, 16 April 1839. I think Sir
Thomas was bankrupt through some of those Newcastle banks, or
some other speculation, and is now dead. The lady now at Twizell
will be this daughter of Mr. Selby: and the present Sir Thomas
Tancred the engineer of Forth Bridge her eldest son. There is another
son, but whether any more of the ils is a question. I suppose for
lack of other heirs, the estate of Twizell has descended to them. Of
course I want to answer something to the purpose although Mr.
Blomefield merely wants to satisfy his curiosity about the family of
his old acquaintance. Mr. Bolam will tell me the rest.

I lately had a letter from Miss Carr of Dunstan Hill along with the
late Mr. Bigge’s memoir of her father for the new number of Club’s

_ Proceedings. It contains a paragraph will be interesting to you. Two

years ago when visiting Alnwick. Mr. Carr-Ellison was at Hedgeley
and was desirous that I should come and pay him a visit, and have
some conversation. He sent down for me, and I stayed two days with
him, when he shewed me the grounds, and was most desirous to
have the names of the wild flowers, as well as the old standards in the
garden, noting down their names carefully. His grandchildren who
attended us part of the time, thought I was a most “‘knowledgeable”’
person, as everybody applied for information to their grandfather,
but now he was indebted to me. It is in reference to this Miss Carr
writes: ‘‘I am going to Hedgeley this week; and it is full of memories
of my father. I am very glad he had the pleasure of seeing you there
on his last visit in summer of 1883. He got me afterwards here

12a

122 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

(Dunston Hill) to help him to make out his own rough pencil notes
from your information about plants there, in the garden and out, and
he laid it in his favourite book, Dr. Johnston’s Berwickshire. I think witha
feeling it might be read with an interest some day by children and
grandchildren”.

That day Isaw you I found Mr. Bolam busy with the very papers
he wished me to look over with him, so we had a busy hour of work;
and I had done something that day, for I dislike to have an idle one. I
got the volume I wanted also, and have nearly finished transcribing
the portion requisite.

I hada copy of Dr. Howden’s Montrose address in pamphlet form |
last week. I will bind it up with other papers.

I am left alone for a week, as Mrs. Hardy has gone to visit her |
Northumberland friends. It is the period when migratory birds are |
noted, so I will have several woodland, moor and sea-side rambles. |
The Swallow came this morning; only one, but early for it here. I see |
Primroses are peeping out on the sea-banks; there is a very pretty |
flowering tuft in a crevice of the rockery: it must have sown itself. _
Humble bees, two kinds out today, and Tortoiseshell Butterfly. But |
none of the warblers are present yet. .

Letter 91 Probable date Nov. 1885 |

There was a large gathering: and much rain fell in the evening. I was |
the only one left behind. Mr Dixon and the Independent Minister
who writes a Guide Book conducted me to Simonside Hills, show-
ing the Camps and tombs and sculptured stones on the moors, and
then ascending the Hills for the extensive prospect. Next morning I
went to Alnwick where Mr Hindmarsh expected me; we saw the
Park and the gardens and the Museum, and the excavations where |
the old Abbey stood. Then we took to the country, driving by |
Lemmington and Whittingham to Eslington Park to see the flower
garden, on to Glanton Park where we lunched, then to Glanton, and |
forth to Greenville, to see an Urn; and then we proceeded to Shaw-|
don, where dinner was waiting us. I stayed here a night and a day and
another night, having had some botanical work, and got the mail gig
to Alnwick again. Then we went one day to Dunstanboro’ Castle, |
and another to Felton, taking notes of what was most apparent. |
The third meeting was on Tyneside. I stayed with Miss Carr at |
Capt. Carr Ellison’s her brother, at Dunston Hill, in close proximity) |
to Mr Williamson, whom I accompanied next day to Hexham to join |
the two societies, our own and the Durham archaeologists, for! ©
Haughton Castle, Simonburn, and Chipchase Castle. We had com-| |
petent antiquarians to describe these. There was luncheon at Chip-
chase and then we returned by Chollerton to dine at ChollerfordInn.
There was a great turn out. I returned again to Dunston Hill, came! +
down the Tyne ina steam-boat, and got the train for Dunbar, in time) |
to catch the train back to Cockburnspath. ;

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THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY 123

Before the next meeting came round I spent three days at Long-
formacus with Capt. and Mrs Brown, and saw a good deal of
Lammermoor, even as far up as Priestlaw; and another day I was at
Bedshiel Kames and Marchmont. The Club meeting at Westruther
was so prolonged owing to some parties getting lost that some of us
got no dinner. It was a good day’s work however; and two papers
and a number of drawings have resulted. Next day Mrs Hardy and I,
and a Club friend went to Coldingham to meet Canon Greenwell
and the Durham Archaeologists at St Abb’s Head and Coldingham
Church, returning in the evening.

My next visit was to Loanhead whence I climbed the Pentland
Hills one day, and enjoyed the view in a pure clear atmosphere; and
went the next day to Peebles, and had a most busy day note-taking in
the Chambers’ Institution, afterwards going to Neidpath Castle, and
up the Manor Water to the bridges and then by an upland road back
to Peebles. I had been a day at the Edinburgh libraries before I went
out to Loanhead. I made preliminary inquiries for a Club meeting at
Peebles next year.

The next meeting was Cockburnspath which was a wet one.
Previous to that Capt. Norman and I had been exploring the hills
above Oldhamstocks for a day and now it was Mr Hindmarsh’s turn
to visit Fastcastle and Lumsden Dean.

Previous to the Kelso Meeting I had to visit Dr Leishman to give
instructions about the Address. The second day was a good one and
it was devoted to a drive to see some British graves newly turned u
near Eckford. We took Miss Leishman with us to sketch Henry Hall,
the Covenanter’s house, while we were grave hunting. One of the
graves was directly opposite Ormiston, where Mr Wm. Boyd used
to stay. We saw the minister, Mr Yarr, and then returned and picked
up our sketcher, and called at Otterburn, where Miss Milne was very
kind, and showed her garden, and paintings, and ornaments of cut
jasper etc., and among other things an urn found on the place. This
she has since got photographed for a Club illustration. When we got
back Mr Elliot of Clifton Park was waiting for us, and we had to go
there to see his grand deer antlers, and Indian spoils in general. We
had a very wet day to encounter before reaching Kelso, and I had no

art in the day’s excursion. Before the meeting was finished I had to
eave for Harpertoun, from which I returned two days after to
examine the Urns in Kelso Museum. I only saw the Drs Douglas on
the streets, on their way coming out. On my return home I had to go
up to Gordon to value or puta price on Mr Stobbs’s antiques to allow
Lady Jonn Scott to purchase them.

Since then I have been two days at Duns Castle with Mr and Mrs
Hay to give some information about some of the paintings, which I
was fortunate to accomplish.

I have had a Highland Society Prize Essay to read and decide on,
just as I was about to commence the Club’s Reports, and several
researches to make for others .. .

I hope the Printer will use his new type and new Press. The
Reprint looks very well. I made some improvement in my own

124 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

papers which had been printed without my revision; and put several
wrong spelled words here and there right.

|
Letter 92 Oldcambus, Feb. 2, 1886 |)
I was glad to see your hand, although I may have appeared very |
remiss during the past season. I have been oppressed with work all

the latter end of the year and up till now, and involved in a mass of

correspondence about some inquiries on subjects connected with |
Club papers of the future. .

Ihave your copy of Proceedings and Mr Selby’s letters laid out for |
return for some time, but Mr Cunningham’s letters have got mislaid
in some house-cleaning operations, and I have not been able to find |
them. I had better send the two first, and the others will be certain to |
be recovered, in some of my overturns of papers, as they are still in |
the original packet. I find I cannot manage to write the biographies of |
members as they fall. [have not a ready manner of expression for that |
kind of writing; and I know very few of the mdehiees personally. |
The keeping up of a varied stock of papers is heavy enough woul
besides characterising the scenes of the Club’s Meetings. Ihave hada |
great number of applications similar to that of Mr Evans; from |
whom I have a letter yesterday on the same subject. There are no
duplicate parts, except one year, 1854, I think, older than 1863, and |
they are no longer to be given away, but to be sold for the benefit of
the Club .. . The Club has an unbound series, the Rev. John Baird’s |
besides his bound copy, but I was directed not to part with these. The |
Club bought them for its own reserved stock. Several who wish old |
numbers are not putting them to a proper use, their object being to
form illustrated copies out of them, and convert them into local
books of great value. One party is sprinkling them all through with |
Bewick’s plates, another purchases photographs at the shops where |
they are sold in the towns where we visit, or makes sketches of his | _
own. The proper way to illustrate is to collect a separate volume of
sketches or plates.

Iam glad you have got Mr Alder’s portrait: you are more fortu-
nate than I have been as yet. I suppose I only need to remind Mr
Howse, when I begin to have the Tyneside Transactions bound. I
have got Mr Blomefield’s effigy. It is very singular that I should have
a hand in these Reminiscences of a Naturalist of a bygone era.

I have just finished the account of the Club’s first Meeting of the
past year. There is nothing in print yet. The President’s address is
very meagre.

As I have been tired out with putting into shape this meeting, it
will be a relaxation to recount our last year’s history. The first
meeting was at Jedburgh and Oxnam. I stayed the first night at
Sheriff Russell’s,—Jedbank, whence there is a fine look across to
Hartrigge and its shady trees, and along the Fernieherst oaken-bank.
We had the flower garden to go over minutely, and walks to the

-_

_sepulchral circles, mistakenly calle
_ Chatto ground, then crossed the moors and bogs for Cunzierton Hill
_ which we climbed to the camp on the top, and there were caught up
and driven along the height where we had very extensive views. We

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY 125

town to see the Abbey, and I had a number of drawings and photos
to show to the Miss Russells (2); and I induced one of them to draw
for the Club the bronze and other antiquities preserved in the
Museum. Mr Simson, Oxnam Row, had written to ask me to go
there after the meeting, and he would drive me round the parish the
next day. He came down to Jedburgh and guided us up the Oxnam
water and to the Church, and gave the Club luncheon, and returned
to Jedburgh, to bring me back in the evening. We had gone round by
Dovesford and across the country to Oxnam, and back by Crailing
Hall and Hartrigge to Jedburgh. Next day we went up the Oxnam as
far as the Roman Camp overlooking Kale Water, sending on the
conveyance along the Watling Street to intercept our course north-
wards, when we had finished our explorations. We looked at two

A Druid Circles near Upper

sent the conveyance home and walked leisurely back to Oxnam, and

_ invited the Minister to dine with us, and betook ourselves to separate

sofas and slept till he actually surprised us before we had got dressed.

_ He showed us the silver communion cups and other ecclesiastical
_ plate, which was stored at Oxnam Row. Mr Simson has a very large

' new house his landlord is the Marquis of Lothian. They are an old
_ farming family the Simsons. We had another hill to climb before |

left next day. I heard afterwards he was greatly pleased. We disco-

vered that George Stephenson, the engineer’s father had been born in

_ one of the houses or cottages at Oxnam Row. It was not a botanical
country at all.

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Our next trip was to Rothbury to which I went in company with

_ Mr Loney, visiting Morpeth on our way. I stayed with Mr D. D.

Dixon, who is a draper and banker and merchant in general along

| with his brother who makes the sketches for us, a native of Whittin-
_ gham, and connected with our Wooler friends. We had a nice walk in

the evening and saw a number of Sir William Armstrong’s wonders.
The Club day was damp, but Sir William had resolved to lead us

round to show us everything, both in the house, and all along his

marvellous creation. Meantime I had been back to Carolside and
Chapel and Earlston, and afterwards two days at Duns Castle with
Mr and Mrs Hay, and also three days at Longyester near Gifford,
when I climbed the Lammerlaw and saw Hopes dean, and the back of

the Lammermoors. There was a wonderful mist swept up from the
_ sea, and surrounded our little company on the hill-tops, and blotted

out the fine view of the Firth of Forth and East Lothian. I was also a

second time in Edinburgh to see the Exhibition. It was the most
_ tiresome day I have had for long. I hada walk nearly to Pennycuik on
this occasion. Our last meeting was at Alnwick. Owing to wet day I

did not get forward to see the Castle, but was there in time for
business. All defaulters in payment are to receive no Proceedings till
'they pay, and those who do not attend to the admonition of the
Treasurer are to be struck off the roll. We meet at Berwick for the

126 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

October meeting: Rev. David Paul of Roxburgh is President. Meet-
ings in order are: Edrom, Felton, Alwinton, Stow, Rule Water,
Berwick. We require to avoid as much as possible old places of
Meeting, whose interest is exhausted. I went that night to Shawdon,
8 miles distant from Alnwick, and next day walked to St Ninian’s
Well and Thrunton to Eglingham vicarage and Castle, and called on
the fine old vicar Mr Buckle. Eglingham les on the margin of

Rimside Moor. Next day was deplorable for rain. I got away the day |
after, proceeding to Dunbar, and getting home in the afternoon. I _
have not been far abroad since. I have only one visit to pay—to |
Harpertoun by Kelso. At Kelso I suppose I shall have to get myself |

photographed as the Club has voted that this be done, for the |

Proceedings. I had perhaps better try Mr Green also and Mr Mid-
dlemas is also to have his effigy taken for services done to the Club.

Iam expecting Mr Batters to give us a paper on Algae next year. I
wish to complete the volume in that time. If you have received your
copies, you will see that this year’s is a double number. There will
probably be delay in sending them out till the subscriptions are paid.
I had nothing to do with the enactment of this rule, and even the
treasurer protested that it wouldn’t do to run payment too fine. But
there were some heinous defaulters.

Iam as busy as ever. I have been transcribing some of my notes for
Mr Muirhead’s book, and have more in store. I will copy out all I
have upon the subject. I have got more Urns etc. to have sketched
and described.

I have at last discovered Mr Cunningham’s missing letters. They
were close beside me within reach all the time, on the top of some
books on one of the bookshelves. I had sought everywhere for them.
Ihave also your father’s letter to Mr Selby, etc. which forgot to send

with Mr Muirhead. The post office had broken the boards when they |

came and I did not like to entrust them to that mode of transit again. |

You will be getting both as soon as a trusty messenger can be found.
Thave not heard much from Kelso. Dr Charles Douglas was at St
Boswells. Sir George Douglas visited me during the season. I see he

has been writing another novel. He is a good attender of Club |

meetings. Our losses of old members are very grievous. I cannot
lament them adequately, as I did not know many of them. Very
curiously a number of old men of Mr Williamson’s stamp are joining
us from the Newcastle district, several of them Clergymen. We are
very friendly with the Newcastle Antiquarians, lending them our
cuts, and receiving the like favour from them. A sumptuous work in
2 vols. 4 to by one of our members, Mr Craig-Brown, ““The History
of Selkirkshire’ has appeared, and a copy has come to the Club. lam
only commencing to read it. I lent him all our cuts; our latter vols.
have been of great use to the author. I have given up farming, but still
reside here. My brother takes it in hand.

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HISTORY OF THE
BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB

CONTENTS OF VOL. XLI
PART 3 — 1979

Presidential Address — The Archives of the Borough of

Rema TION NCCC. ee 25 eco nr lemiemewel nie ive wi dtw nop els open ga Nomen 131
RMB ARE IN VM che, 5 cette eta Last c. 80,6 Sis ¥Sse oad asda uti wer tes So elee 139
Med Burn Excavation, 1979 (An Interim Report), .... 5c. 05 5.--855s- 141
berietet rAtStOM COOSErVatlONS,, (OLD no. nue wetuelewieutlasni ces oie vedwace 143
The Tho.nas Arkle Collection, A Bronze Looped Spearhead from

the College Valley, and some Notes on Side-Looped Spearheads..... 149
Meemarvomthe ctte! librarian fot 22.) Pos0 32 Eee ek oe ae ted 159
meng s@ist/(Grave near Coldingham Loch? ... 0.0266 ..00- cde eee gees 160
Records of Macro-Lepidoptera in Roxburghshire and Selkirkshire ..... 166
Reema tees PD EAIN ES sei kare + 25st a ge emia SEBES- vel heey 98 SRE 168
The Correspondence of Dr Hardy and Mrs Barwell-Carter ........... 180
Eanancial Statement and Balance. Sheet../.0.5 ois jo. ore oye wie ole ems we re eles 185

ILLUSTRATIONS
Mest of Common Wasp, Morpeth: 61 cm x 30 cm. .4.......-..4.- 0. 146
Long Cist Grave at Coldingham Loch — Location................... 162
Long Cist Grave at Coldingham Loch — Plan ....................-. 162

Long Cist Grave at Coldingham Loch — The Unshaped Stone Lintels . 163
Long Cist Grave at Coldingham Loch — The Grave Fully Excavated .. 164

Pon gE LING S

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE
NATURALISTS’ CLUB

WEE wARCHIYV ES.OF THE-BOROUGH. OF
BERWICK-UPON-TWEED

Being the Anniversary Address delivered by J. S. Wall, Esq.,
President of the Club, on 17th October 1979.

Before I say anything else, may I express here, so that it will be
recorded in the History of the Club, my thanks for the great honour
which was done me when you accepted me as your President. No
_ office which I have ever held has given more pleasure to my wife and
_ myself. I would say that it ele equal, in that respect, with the
Shrievalty of the Borough. And now to business!

It seems to me that this may well be a most appropriate time to talk
| about the archives of this historically most interesting Borough as
_ members will have seen references in the Press to the fact that those
_ archives are to be made much more readily, and much more simply,
available to the public than they have ever been before, and I, for one,
_ hope that every use is going to be made of this facility by all those
) who are knowledgeable about—or even merely interested in—the
’ colourful past of this locality. Whether that intzrest be in the history
) of the town, or in how that history fits into the greater history of the
_ Nation, or in Berwick’s most peculiar ancient government—divided
as it was, in varying degrees according to the period, between the
) garrison and the Guild of Freemen—or in the former way of life of
| the people, then those researchers are going to find much of absorb-
’ ing interest in these archives.

But, first, let me say a word as to how this very desirable easy
_ access to the Borough’s papers has been brought about. When the
' Borough Council was asked by the last government to think about
| Job Creation Schemes Mr. Mathew Chicken, the Borough Secret-
ary, had the brilliant idea of using that means of putting the archives
' in order, and of classifying and cataloguing them, firstly, to see to
' their preservation, and, secondly, to make them more readily availa-
' ble to anyone who desires to study them.

__ We owe, therefore, a great debt of gratitude to Mr. Chicken, in the
i first instance, and also to the members of the Borough Council—and
) Ican say this because I was not one of their number at the time—who

131

132 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

readily adopted the suggestion. Later 1t was to win the support of the
Northumberland County Council and of their archivist, Mr. Robin
Gard, who, with his staff, gave very valuable advice and assistance.
Whether or not the scheme was regarded as of great benefit as a Job
Creation Scheme I do not know, because, apparently, it never emp-

loyed more than two people. But there can be no doubt as to its |

outstanding success from a cultural point of view. Indeed I am
amazed by how much was done in the fifteen months or so that the
scheme operated, and as an earnest of that I have here the Handilist
which was produced almost as a side issue to the real work of
cataloguing and classification. Admittedly it was based on a Handilist
produced by Mr. P. Rutledge in 1960 for the Northumberland
County Counail, but the new list has expanded and refined the 1960
Handlist until it can be regarded as almost definitive. As an index to
the archives the new Handlist will prove invaluable, and it obvious]
took much careful toil over many many hours to prepare in sud
ordered detail. There are, as one would expect, only a few copies of
the Handlist scattered among the Archives Office in Berwick, the
Municipal Offices and the Northumberland Archives Office, and
this is the only “‘spare’’ as it were—it may, indeed, be the one which
inquirers will consult at the office when they desire to identify the
papers they need—and certainly I had to exercise considerable per-
suasiveness to be allowed to have it by me in the preparation of this
talk, and, of course, to-day. However it is here and anyone who
desires to examine it is very welcome to do so.

The cyclostyled sheet which has been circulated, and for whose
production I am very grateful to my predecessor in this office, the
Rev. Mr. Ross, is little more than the Contents page of the Handilist,
but, even though it shows only the broadest possible classification of
the archives, I believe it does demonstrate the enormous scope of the
documents available and the width of the work which had to be
undertaken to bring them to a condition of order. It was for that
reason that I prepared the sheet, and also because I thought that
having it might stimulate someone among our members to find‘out
what the Berwick archives could do to help in the study of a subject
in which he or she might be interested.

For the first six months or so of the Job Creation Scheme, the
leader in the work was Miss Margaret Rennison, a local girl who is a

History graduate of Edinburgh University, and so well qualified to ©

take charge. By a lucky chance she moved to a permanent vacancy in
the department of the Chief Archivist of the Northumberland
County Counal, who, as I have already indicated, has taken a close
interest in the work, and, indeed, it is now a joint venture with some
of its aspects being virtually under his ultimate control, and, as a joint
venture, it is the subject of much bargaining and negotiation bet-

ween the two authorities. Miss Rennison’s work is mainly at the |

County Office, but the Scheme provides that on one day each week
she i come to Berwick to act as Archivist here. It will be neces-
sary, therefore, for anyone desiring to inspect any part of the archives
to obtain an appointment on the day on which Miss Rennison is here,

. —_ = eo =

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 133

and I can assure them that they will receive all the help which that
charming and knowledgeable young lady can give them. I have
referred to her as Miss Rennison because that is how I have always
known her, but, in fact, she was married two days ago in Edinburgh
University Chapel, and is now Mrs. John Fox. I was very relieved to
find out, however, that she still intended to carry on with her work
for and in Berwick.

Ihad hoped, when I first deaded upon the subject of this talk, that
the scheme would be on the point of operating by the time of this
meeting so that I would be able to tell you precisely who should be
contacted to make an appointment and on what day in each week
Mrs. Fox, as I must now learn to call her, will be in Berwick. But, as I
have already said, negotiations had to be conducted between the two
local authorities, and anyone connected with local government
knows just how long such negotiations can go on. On top of that,
difficulties may have arisen because of Fire Prevention requirements,
but I still hope that the scheme will operate before the end of the year.
When it does I would expect it to receive publicity in the local Press.
However, if anyone wanting these details in the future cares to get in
touch with me, I will be only too happy to give them the latest
information. Alternatively, if any member wants to use the archives
for purposes of research before the scheme is perfected and lets me
know, I will see that he or she obtains the earliest possible access in
advance of the completion of the project.

At the moment the archives are housed in some of the cells on the
top floor of the Municipal Buildings in Wallace Green—that build-
ing having been built originally as a gaol—and that is where it is
hoped Mrs. Fox’s office will be situate. It is possible, however, that
for the Fire Precautions reasons I have already referred to, it may
have to be in some other part of the same building.

It is obvious that most of the long line of Town Clerks of
Berwick-upon-Tweed have taken their duties relating to the preser-
vation of the Town’s documents very seriously, and that accounts
for the completeness of the Records in many instances. As one would
expect oi of the paper is extremely fragile with age, and can only
be handled with the greatest of care, but it is amazing how well most
of the documents have stood up to the ravages of time—a state of
affairs again attributable to the care taken by successive Town Clerks
and their staffs.

Those gentlemen undoubtedly kept the Records in some sort of
good order, particularly when they impinged upon the duties they
were carrying out at any time. In this century at least they had their
own systems of classification and numbering to aid with the finding
of any part of the archives which might be required. However good
they were though, according to the lights of their times, it was
inevitable, over hundreds of years, that many of the papers—particu-
larly those not in bound volumes—would become a sort of hotch-
potch of all manner of things which successive generations would
regard as the trivia of the past, but which are nowadays of absorbing
interest to those enquiring into the life styles of former centuries.

134 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

That sort of consideration applied on a national scale, and led to
the setting up in 1869 of the Royal Commission on Historical
Manuscripts, and the importance placed upon the archives of Ber-
wick can be gauged from the fact that only three years after it was
brought into being the Commission had already printed and pub-
lished a Report upon the “Books and Papers” of Berwick. That
Report was supplied by the Rev. Joseph Stevenson who was appar-
ently born in Berwick and educated at its Grammar School. In the
main I am not very impressed by Mr. Stevenson’s Report which
consists mainly of an alphabetical list of what he found, often under
such general titles as ““Boundary Papers” or ‘Highway Papers”
which give little clue to their contents. However, in illustration of
what I have just said about the accumulation of “‘hotchpot’’, he does
mention “‘about 100 bundles of undated documents, the exact nature
of which has not been fully ascertained”. I would not mind wagering
that most of what now remains of those 100 bundles has been
classified and catalogued under the Job Creation Scheme.

Mr. Stevenson gives practically nothing of the substance of the
Records which he did examine except for one book lettered ‘““Coun-
cil Book from 1574” which still exists, and which, despite its name,
seems to contain a very large number of Courts decisions. Mr.
Stevenson was intrigued by the lists it contained of “‘Scottish men
and women who were resident in the town, and whom the Jurors
wished to banish’’, and from it he quotes such entries as

“They present that there is a vagabond woman in the house with

Gracy Pearson. She is sister unto Nicolas Pott’s wife.’ Opposite

this entry occurs the following note in the margin by another

hand—“To be whipt out of the town.” and “‘They present that

Goodchild’s children do run abegging through the town.” Mar-

ginal note:—‘‘Set them awork, or they be banished out of the

town.”’ Another entry—‘‘They present that Widow Clarke is an
idle vagabond whore, who Hath a child the last year to Mr.

Kingarnel’s son, and now she goeth abegging through the town,

with the child in her arms.”’ Marginal note:—‘‘To be taken and

punished, and put out of town; and he to be punished.” And
again— ‘Item. Isabella Pickering, who hath her relief forth of the

Benevolence, doth neglect to repair to the Church, as well on the

Sabbath day as otherwise.” To which the marginal note

reads—‘‘To be punished, and to have no relief.”’

It would appear that in the last quarter of the 16th. century tolerance
was not a virtue much in evidence in the rulers of our town.

Whether or not the Royal Commission was or was not satisfied
with Mr. Stevenson’s Report I do not know, but in 1901 they
published another Report, this time a very long one by Mr. W. D.
Macray on the town’s Manuscripts. His first paragraph refers to Mr.
Stevenson’s Report in the following rather dismissive way:—

“This was, however, little more than a list of books and papers,
and of the royal charters, with but further particulars. It was

thought therefore that the records of so ancient and historical a

town deserved somewhat fuller examination.”

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 135

Mr. Macray makes no attempt at classifying or cataloguing, appar-
ently believing that Mr. Stevenson’s efforts in that direction were
sufficient, but he sums up his own offering by the following words
in the Preface:—

“In the following pages the more interesting items contained in
the volumes noticed by Mr. Stevenson, but which were not
extracted by him, will be found.”

Undoubtedly, in the hundreds of volumes and thousands of pieces
of paper which faced Mr. Macray, there is much which is cheerless or
repetitive or uninteresting—or, perhaps, all three. Even so, I cannot
understand how anyone can claim to cull from them “the more
interesting items” and compress them into a Report, even though it
does extend to some 14,000 or 15,000 words. To do what Mr.
Macray claims to have done would amount, I would think, to many
years of work, particularly if one were collating them properly and
putting them into such perspective and offering such explanations as
would make them easily comprehensible to the reader.

Undoubtedly what he does quote is interesting. For instance, I was
particularly struck by a chilling formal report which seems to me to
convey the essence of the almost insufferable conditions under
which poor people lived towards the end of the 16th. century:—

“On 14 Nov. 1573, Isabel Haggerston, who sued her mother for
her part of goods, is found to live idly, and had been well set out
by her mother to divers honest and good services, but would tarry
in none; wherefore it is ordered that she be delivered to the wife of
Dishworthe the executioner, and whipped secretly, and is put
again to service, and if any complaint come against her hereafter,
then to be used as a vagabond.”’

Another snippet which conveys the same atmosphere, but which
had a happier ending than one would expect, reads as follows:—

“16 Nov. 1594, Bartholomew Richardson, a watchman, who,
being ignorant of the statutes of the town, departed from his
stand-watch on the wall after he had received the watchword, and
had received judgment of death as in that case provided, was
brought to the place of his offence, where the gibbet was set for
execution, where there were many people to meet and the man
being ready to receive execution, which was a great terror to the
multitude, it was thought good by the deputy governor and the
mayor to spare the life of the poor man, and to banish him the
town; which was accordingly done.”’

Much of Mr. Macray’s Report is taken up by the Orders or
Statutes of the early 16th. century whereby the town was gov-
erned—mainly, of course, in the interests of the Freemen who consti-
tuted a sort of “ruling class’, matched at that time only by the
officers of the garrison. Those Orders are of absorbing interest, but
much too long to give here, as, indeed, is the rest of Mr. Macray’s
Report, dealing with such diverse matters as the extraordinary cir-
cumstances btsich apparently sometimes surrounded the appoint-
ment of a minister, and, later, the fortunes and misfortunes of men

136 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

held in connection with the Jacobite rebellion of 1715, including the
adventures of Lancelot Errington and his nephew, Mark, who, fora }
short time captured Holy Island Castle for the Chevalier, were
themselves taken and, some months later, escaped from the gaol in }
the Tollbooth at Berwick.

I have a photostat copy of the whole of Mr. Macray’s Report, as |
indeed I have of Mr. Stevenson’s very much shorter one. If any |
member would like to borrow either or both of them for a reasona- |
ble time, I shall be very happy to let them have them.

To deal adequately with the contents of the archives, rather than |
just the story of their care and classification, would obviously take |
days rather than hours of talking, and you will be relieved, therefore, |
to know that I do not propose to attempt it, but there are one or two |
things I would like to mention.

Firstly, the Charters of the town, of which you have a list in the |
circulated sheet. The great disappointment here is to find that thereis |
no trace of any Scottish Charter, or, indeed, of anything at all relating |
to that period in Berwick’s history when it was one of the most |
important towns of Scotland. Such documents there must once have
been. Berwick could scarcely have reached the status of one of the |
Four Burghs—the original Royal Burghs of Scotland—without it |
being recorded, and there were other grants—notably by King Alex- —
ander III—which must have appeared on parchment. It 1s well |
known—indeed it is recorded in a subsequent Charter—that when |
Robert the Bruce was in possession of the town in the early part of |
the 14th. century he carried off the Charter granted by Edward [after |
that English monarch had so cruelly sacked the town in 1296. It must |
be presumed that Bruce also took the early Scots ones as well, |
including the one granted by himself. ,

Although the first Charter in the archives is that of Henry V, itisa _
fact that that Charter is largely an Inspeximus (that is, in effect, it |
contains a fair copy) of the Charter of Edward III which, in turn, is an
Inspeximus containing a copy of an earlier one of the same King, |
which in its turn is an Inspeximus containing a copy of the Charter of |
Edward I. So that it has always been known what that earliest of
English Charters said despite the Bruce’s purloining of the original,
and that is just as well because it was basically the governing Charter
of the town until that granted by James VI and I. |

The Charter of James is shown on the circulated sheet with the _
date 16th. April, 1603. I first noticed that only a few days ago after the
sheets had been duplicated. It then struck me as more than strange as
Elizabeth had died less than a month previously. Scott’s History of |
Berwick gives the date of the Charter as 30th. April, 1604, and that |
year must obviously be the right one, but Iam ere that Ihave no |
idea at the moment which day of the month is correct. The mistaken |
date is given in the rather slipshod Report of Mr. Stevenson, and \!
demonstrates how such an error can be perpetuated. That Charter of |
James VI and I was the governing Charter of the Borough until the I)
operation of the Reform Act of 1832, apart from an extraordinary |
interregnum when the Charter was surrendered, at his command, to

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 137,

Charles II, who, after promising a new Charter, proceeded to die.
James VII and II also promised a new Charter, but, in the end, the old
Charter was restored into full force and returned to Berwick, where
it has remained ever since.

Some of the Charters are in a very delicate condition, and will not
be available for full public inspection. In any case, only an expert
could read the ancient writing, but there are modern readable copies
_ of at least the more important, and these are available.

The books and papers of the Guild of Freemen, extending back in
one form or another to 1505, are obviously the most interesting and
(after the Charters) the most important section of the archives. They,
_ more than any other parts of the collection, take the researcher back
‘ to historical times, and enable him to understand better the factors
~ which made up the various ways of life of succeeding generations,
although, in the very nature of things, it is the formal, the grave and
\ the bad which tend to be recorded, leaving a lopsided picture in
_ which gaiety and happiness scarcely feature.
.

The Guild, as a matter of course, consistently administered the
» town for the benefit of the Freemen. This is nowhere better illus-
‘ trated than in the tables of Tolls or Duties to be taken at the Gates by
| the Tollers. Here is one example:—

“Every horse-load of ane eebip goods bought of a Burgess
(i.e. Freeman) and going out of town 1d.
do. bought of a stranger 8d.
A curious sidelight on the way staff were paid is provided in the
| List of Tolls by the following item:—

_ “Every horse-load of eggs coming in at the gates 1’”’d.
Besides 1 egg in every Creel paid in the Market to the Tollers who
clean the Market
| One interesting custom of the Guild was the giving of what I can
only describe as a form of passport which was known as a “Protec-
| tion”’ to its citizens—not for going abroad in the modern sense, but
| to allow travel through towns and rural areas of England and Scot-
| land. There are several examples in the archives of which one dated
| 1745 reads as follows:—
“BERWICK UPON TWEED THESE are to certify all whom
| 1t may concern that the Bearer hereof Robert Dodds the Younger
__ who was bound an Apprentice unto his father Robert Dodds the
| Elder of this Borough Burgess and Shoemaker for the term of
| seven years has served his said master for upwards of years
| during which time he hath behaved himself soberly discreetly and
__ honestly and that he is now going abroad by his said Master’s
__ consent about some particular business of his own
| THESE are therefore to require all manner of persons to permit
__ and suffer the said Robert Dodds the Younger to pass and repass
about his lawful business he behaving himself civilly as becometh
his Majestie’s Liege People.”’
_Thavea photostat copy of that Protection if anyone would like to see
_| ib.
As time passed the Guild operated more and more like a local

138 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

authority of our town times, with more and more Committees
taking over its work—there was, in 1824, even a formal Committee
for Gilding the Faces of the Town Clock, which I have rather taken
to my heart for no very good reason that I can think of. There was a
Committee of Retrenchment at about the same time, and I mention
it only in case there is anyone present whom believes that the cutting
of local authority expenditure is an original ideal thought up by Mrs. |
Thatcher! |
One of the most endearing documents in the section devoted to
the Guild appears in the Handlist as “Sonnet by Mark Jameson”. |
When I first came across the entry I could scarcely believe my eyes, |
particularly as I knew that Mark Jameson had been Town Clerk of |
Berwick for many years. Having been a Town Clerk myself, it gave
me a feeling of pride in my profession. This, I felt, must surely be a
chef d’euvre; a love sonnet? something, perhaps, to stand alongside
even Shakespeare’s sonnets? Alas, when I did get hold of it I found
that it was not really a sonnet at all—in fact Mr. Jameson calls it a
“Sonnet doubly elongated’’—and it is addressed to Guy Gardiner,
the then Master at the Grammar School. It would appear that those
two gentlemen and their ladies, and perhaps others, had been at table
the night before when a shelf full of books gave way, and that
“remarkable event”’ as the poet calls it is the subject of his effusion.
{
|
|

Let me quote two verses:—

“A shelf well stored with ponderous tomes

In French and Latin, German, Greek,

Gave way, then learned ruin comes

Around their ears—the ladies shriek.”
And later:—

“No: Think it not a direful token,

The work of any tiny elves.

The thing long worn at length had broken,

And of course came down the shelves.”
Not, I think you will agree, great literature! In fact a year or two after
the governing powers of the Guild had been abolished, and some-
thing approaching a modern town council had taken over, Mr.
Jameson was sacked, and I cannot help wondering whether a Coun-
cillor with a love of poetry was at the bottom of it.

I would have liked to discuss several other sections of the archives.
There is, for instance, much worthy of comment in the parts dealing |
with Courts and the Town Counail. In particular, the making of a |_
comparison between the old powers of the Town Council and those |
of the oes day. It is, for instance, within my memory when |
Berwick had a police force—and a Watch Committee whose |~
Minutes are in the archives—of its own, before amalgamation with |
the Northumberland force. I well remember Mr. Nicholson, the last |
Chief Constable of Berwick. Indeed there can be few people to-day |
who can claim to have had their ears cuffed by a real live Chief !
Constable, as, obviously, behaviour of that sort is beneath the man- |
darins of to-day. My difficulty arose from living near the Police
Station, and probably being the first child encountered by Mr.

CLUB MEETINGS 1979 139

Nicholson on his daily rounds.

But that was a diversion from the main theme of my discourse. I
had started to explain that my real purpose is to talk about the care,
condition and keeping of the Records and about their character,
cataloguing and classification, rather than about their detailed con-
tents. Such illustrations as I have given of the long and often sombre
story which they encompass have either been incidental to that
purpose—as, for instance, in discussing the Reports of Messrs.
Stevenson and Macray—or have been a few matters which caught
my attention, and where I could not resist my own selfish inclina-
tions to talk about them.

However, I feel I must ask you to indulge me further, as I come to
an end of what I have to say, with ceases one item of a personal
nature—personal, that is, particularly to my wife. When I saw that
Group W—Posters—contained six old holiday posters advertising

_ Berwick, I asked to see them, and, sure enough, there were two, the
_ originals of which had been painted by my father-in-law. Much
_ more importantly, as he had been killed in the First World War, they
_ had been painted by the father my wife had never known. This
_ seemed almost to give me a personal link with the people whose
_ lives, throughout many generations are touched upon in the arc-
hives, and brought me, more than anything else had done, to a
| realisation that they were real people who had lived and breathed and
had their being in Berwick.

_ Thope that what I have said may be of some interest and help to
| any members of the Club who may feel drawn to explore the
| archives of the town.

}
|
}
| FIELD MEETINGS, 1979
|

17th May. Pencaitland, Fountainhall, Winton House.
20th June. Culross, Dunfermline.
19th July. Torwoodlee and Galahaugh Fish Farm.
(15th August. Inveresk Church and Houses.
| 13th September. Holy Island.
17th October. Morning: Walk-About, Duns.
Afternoon: Annual General Meeting,
Berwick.

EXTRA MEETINGS, 1979

J. A. Edgar |

Duns Castle Wildlife Reserve, 26th May i.

The visit lasted approx. from 1400 h. to 1630 h. Dr Long and the |
Honorary Warden Mr. Waddell accompanied the party which total- |
led 26. Mr. Wm. Renton, former Town Clerk of Duns, gave a short
talk on the ancient town of Duns which lay on the West slope of |
Duns Law down to the Hen Poo. As the season is a very late one, the |
flowers were just becoming alive again, and the wildlife was difficult |
to see.

In addition to the information on the attached leaflet, the follow- \
ing information was noted. )

(1) A few grebes and pochards have appeared at the South end of |
the Hen Poo, and three herons have been fishing in the lake regularly. |
They are thought to nest in a heronry somewhere in the region of |
Watchwater reservoir. |

(2) There is a colon; of red squirrels in the trees next to St. Mary’s |
Cottage. The nesting places of snipe and woodcock are also in this
ated:

(3) The habitat of badgers, just outside the reserve, was also |
pointed out. )

(4) The patch of Purple Toothwort Lathraea clandestina just within

;

the private grounds of the Castle, has now spread quite extensively
and covers an area of more than 10 sq. yds. This is a rare plant for this
area and Dr. Long thinks someone must have planted a root a few |_
years ago.

(5) What was a small patch of Bogbean 18 months ago has now
spread extensively along the North side of the Lake.

(6) A goldcrest nested recently at the lake end of the Green Ride.

Bemersyde Moss and Whitrigbog, 14th July
Despite petrol problems 12 members found their way to Whitrighill,
Farm Cottages at 11 a.m. One or two others did not turn up. Mr. |
Forsyth, Adviser in Environmental Education to the Regional
Council, who has spent many years researching on the site, met the
party and conducted it over the two adjacent sites. The morning was
spent on Bemersyde Moss studying the small black headed gulls | .
which nest there in their thousands and several varieties of wild duck
which also live on the Moss. The party walked back along the edge
of the Moss studying the dense but restricted plant life, including |
some very fine grasses. Apparently about 100 years ago a party from |

B.N.C. also did this.

After lunch the party was entertained by an excellent lecture from | |
Mr. Forsyth, illustrated by numerous drawings and charts of the! .
geology, history in the middle ages, and the more recent industrial
history of Whitrigbog, including the building of 70’ shafts and a
drainage system by unemployed Durham miners in the depression. |
The party then proceeded to the site where Mr. Forsyth made a

140

DOD BURN EXCAVATION 1979 141

cutting showing the different layers of sand, peat, mall, dark red clay
(but not the blue clay), illustrating various depositions made from
the glacial periods. Members took away samples for further study of
their contents at leisure. Some University scientists have also been
taken deep bores on this fascinating site.

A universal request was made to Mr. Forsyth to try to find time to
write up his findings, including the historical and legal wrangles (and
indeed murders) about the ownership of the commercial interests
including water rights of this valuable site.

It was an outstandingly interesting visit but it requires to be

published for further study.

DOD BURN EXCAVATION 1979
AN INTERIM REPORT

I. M. Smith

In November and December 1979, the first season of excavation,
' financed by the Scottish Development Department, took place at the
| Dod Burn site (NT 47260600), five miles from Hawick. Despite the
‘inclement weather conditions the results proved to be both enligh-
‘| tening and promising, and have consequently paved the way for a
| further investigation in 1980.
__ The site is strategically located at the confluence of three valleys
.and shares a comparable position to the earthwork at Allan Water
less than a kilometre to the west. The topography of the Dod
settlement may be viewed as two seperate elements, though these
need not be dissimilar in age. The first is an oval enclosure, bounded
| by a double rampart and ditch, the second, a less substantial perime-
ter which serves also as a bailey to the former. Internally the area is
‘further sub-divided into subsidiary areas, some apparently hut
| scoops.
| Sections were cut through the ramparts at two points, and a third
_ was placed across a linear earthwork that ran parallel to the
site on the west. Interpretation of the results suggests that the ram-
parts were of a simple dump construction, incorporating the mater-
ial derived from digging the ditches. The banks were originally some
3m wide and still stand some 2m high, the ditches were of a similar

width, approximately 1.5m deep, and exhibited a blunt ‘V’ profile.
Bi Geial evidence was found for a timber revetment but none for a
\breastwork, although the numerous fragments of masonry in the
jupper fill of the ditches may be collapse from such a feature.
[A large area was opened within the site’s outer perimeter and over
‘the edge of an appended ‘D’ shaped enclosure. The exercise was most
informative, revealing a complex of stone structures, one of which

|

142 DOD BURN EXCAVATIONS 1979

disclosed evidence for minor industrial activity. The work also made |
ainfully clear the problems to be met when interpreting such shal- |
ne and insubstantial stratigraphy.
A section placed across the linear earthwork to the west of the site
suggested that its probable function was that of a dam. This fears
should perhaps not be seen in the conventional sense, but rather,
taken in association with the rampart ditches, as a conscious attempt |
to ward off the threat of rising water-levels and the danger thus
posed of waterlogging across ihe lower part of the site.
Numerous pollen samples were taken from the ditch fills and from |
a buried soil horizon, sealed beneath the inner rampart, and these,
coupled with tadio-carbon dates, should provide an environmental
context for the site, and will perhaps reveal the impact of its occup- |
ants upon the immediate surroundings. )
The finds consisted of a number of iron objects, the fragment of a

rotary quern, and several pieces of wood and bone from the ditches,
some bearing signs of having been worked. Taken as a group they
suggest activity on the site in the post-Roman period, although the
chronological balance is redressed by a radio-carbon date which
suggests that the site was functional in the pre-Roman Iron Age.

The results from the first season present a complementary pictures
to the excavations at Harehope Knowe, Bonchester Hill and How-|
nam Rings. However, the waterlogged state of the site, although
confounding the archaeology, increases the potential of a complete|
site record through the preservation of organic material.

The trial season has clearly shown that ‘ts site’s shallow interior)
stratigraphy necessitates an ambitious scale of detailed examination]
in order to distinguish and clarify the structural relationships within
the enclosures.

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS
DURING 1979

Notes compiled by A. G. LONG
Hancock Museum, Newcastle upon Tyne.

On March 10, 1979, four short-eared owls were seen hunting by
daylight about 5 pm. along a 1 mile stretch of the A697 near Lilburn
Glebe not far from Roddam between Wooler and Powburn (NU
034223). Doubtless they were winter immigrants preparing for
return to Scandanavia.

On March 23, a large Squid (Loligo forbesi) 18 inches long was
washed up at Seaton Sluice.

The long hard winter extended into April and delayed the arrival
of migrant birds. I first saw Swallows at Powburn on 25th April but
on May 1st we had more snow showers. Sandpipers and willow
warblers were back near Wooler Water at Haugh Head on May 6th
and the Green Veined White butterfly was seen at Coldstream on the
same day.

The Muslin Eermine Diaphora mendica was taken by Mr. G. Evans,

Warden at St. Abbs Head in July. It was first taken in Berwickshire at
Birgham House by Miss G. A. Elliot in 1960 and again in 1961 and
1962 (see H.B.N.C. 38, p.136). It is widespread but never very
common in Northumberland as evinced by the following records
from our file at the Hancock Museum—
Jesmond NZ26, 1899 (Mr. Henderson per J. E. Robson); Kenton
NZ26, 1899 (Mr. Rhagg per J. E. Robson); Sidwood NY78, 1922
(W. G. Watson per G. Bolam); Rochester nr. Catcleugh NY89, 1936
and 1938 (Mr. Clegg per R. Craigs); Shoreswood NT94, 1899 (G.
Bolam); Bolam NZ08, 1925 (G. Bolam); Riding Mill NZ06, 1962 (F.
W. Gardner); Longwitton NZ08 n.d. (R. H. Benson); Benwell
NZ26, 1969 (H. T. Eales); Prestwick Whins NZ17, 1973 (D. A.
Sheppard and M. Eyre); Throckley Pond NZ16, 1977 (D. A. Shep-
pard and M. Eyre); Whitley Bay NZ37, 1978 (J. D. Parrack); Gos-
forth NZ27, 1979, (M. A. Walker); Bedlington NZ28, 1979 (P. R.
Paul).

Six larvae of the Bedstraw Hawk moth Hyles gallii were seen on
Holy Island on 26.8.1979 and 2.9.1979 by P. W. West and D. P.
Hammersley. They were feeding on Rose-bay Willow-herb. Fifteen
larvae of the Large Elephant Hawk moth Deilephila elpenor were also

seen on the same foodplant on the island.

On 11.8.1979 a patch of Rose-bay Willow-herb Chamaenerion
angustifolium var. brachycarpum was found growing at Oxroad Bay E.
Lothian on the steep bank below the path a little above high tide
level. The only other site I have seen for this variety is the right bank
of the Whitadder about a ‘4 mile below Blanerne Bridge. In this
variety the fruits are about '% an inch long. It is well known that the
common form of this plant (var. macrocarpum) has fruits about 2
inches long. This is the variety that has increased so remarkably this
century and thereby favoured the increase of the Large Elephant

143

144 NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS

Hawk and Bedstraw Hawk moths. In the Hancock Museum her- |
barium there are 33 sheets of C. angustifolium of which 28 are var. |
brachycarpum. Most of these were found last century growing wild in
craggy localities such as Tweed banks 1831; Swale banks 4 miles W.
of Richmond 1831; Invercauld 1832; Glen Dole, Clova 1837; Glen |
Isla 1837; Ravelrig 1837; Crag Lough 1841; High Force Teesdale |
1846; Sewingshields Crags 1850; Grasmere 1858; Biddulph Staffs. |
1890; Hareshaw Linn Bellingham n.d.; Burnmouth ravine n.d.; |
Moffat Water nr. Cragie Burn n.d.; Derwent banks Blanchland n.d.; . ;
above Langley Ford n.d. There is one sheet with both varieties from _
Crag Lough and another with var. macrocarpum from near Aldstone, |
Cumberland collected by John Hancock in 1837. It is clear therefore |
that both varieties occurred in similar wild localities last century but |
that var. brachycarpum was relatively more common than it is now. |
This poses the question as to whether the predominant var. macrocar- |
pum so well known today is a distinct race with a different origin and _
ecological preference.

I have described the remarkable increase of the Orange Tip but- |
terfly Anthocharis cardamines in Ent. Record 91, pp. 16, 42, and 158. |
Since that article appeared Mr. M. E. Braithwaite has —
Orange Tips at Gordon Moss on 10.6.1979 and Mr. P. Summers saw |
them there on 17.6.1979. These are the first records known for |
Gordon this century. Mr. Summers also saw one by the A7 three ~
miles N. of Galashiels on 19.6.1979.

Mr. W. Davidson of Kelso recorded Orange Tips at Makerston |
25.5.1977, Roxburgh Castle 27.5.1977, Lochton 20.5.1978, andj
Makerston 17.6.1979. .

In East Lothian Orange Tips have been seen near Pencaitland
1977-9 by R. W. Barker and P. Summers and at Humbie by Dr. G.
Waterston 1977-79. |

In Northumberland the recovery has similarly been widespread. |
Males were seen each year 1977-9 at Longramlington by D. G.
Burleigh and at Elyhaugh 1977-8 by Mrs. P. Henzell.

Another species of butterfly which is increasing its range is the |
Wall Lasiommata megera. According to J. E. Robson it suffered an
unaccountable crash last century (in 1861). This was widespread in
northern England. This century it has very gradually recovered. In _
Durham and Northumberland the recovery has been mainly in the }
coastal area. The records for Northumberland are as follows—__—_ |
1769 Simonburn (Wallis); Newcastle 1826 (A. & J. Hancock); 1839 |
Twizell (Selby); 1857 General (Wailes); 1871 Rothbury (Maling); [
1870, 1871 Beadnell (Maling); 1880 Spittal (Renton); 1886 Berwick |
(Bolam); 1891 Norham (Miss Dickinson); 1924 Bamburgh (Harm |
son); 1929 Corbridge (Cooke); 1976 Wylam & Whitley Bay (Par- |
rack); 1977 Benwell (Eales); 1979 Seaton Sluice and Holywell (Bain- |
bridge & Douglas). I
The records for Berwickshire are as follows— j
1832 (Johnston); 1873 Lauder (Simpson); pre 1902 Billie Mains
(Allan); Edrom 1955 (Logan Home).

Last year (on 5.8.1978) Mr. E. Hamilton recorded in the Journ. }

+

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS 145

| Edin. Nat. Hist. Soc. p.31 a party of five or six of these butteflies
_ flying over a grassy cliff near Siccar Point.
— Anest of the Common wasp Paravespula vulgaris was built under
_ the roof of the former police headquarter at ““The Kylins”’, Morpeth.
Its dimensions were—length 2 ft. (61 cm.), depth 1 foot (30 cm.). It
_ was photographed on 14th Oct. when many drones were present on
the exterior and again on 21st Nov. when a single dormant young
_ queen was present clinging to the outer shell. This was removed for
_ identification. It had the typical markings of germanica on the face and
_ abdomen, This was of interest since the brown light and dark band-
"ing as well as the texture of the nest agreed with P. vulgaris as shown
) in the book entitled Wasps by J. P. Spradbery (1973) Plates X and XI.
_ Activity in the nest continued through the mild autumn up to the
’ first frost of Nov. 10-11. lam indebted to Mr. Joseph Gibb of Seaton
‘Sluice for information and photographs of this remarkable nest.
- Three dead worker wasps brought by Mr. Gibb from below the nest
had the typical markings of P. vulgaris. This suggests that the ger-
_manica queen found hibernating on the exterior of the nest was not a
_ daughter of the colony but had found its way into the roof space
' from elsewhere.
__ The Bearberry Arctostaphylos uva-ursi (L.) Spreng.
Does is still occur in Berwickshire?

In the Flora of Berwick-upon- Tweed Vol. II published in 1831 Dr.
' George Johnston recorded this plant under the name Arbutus Uva-
_ ursi Red Bear-berry “‘on the west side of Dirrington Law, plentiful,
_ Mr. Thomas Brown. June’’. This station is in the Longformacus 10
' km. Grid Square NT 65.

__ The record was repeated in 1845 by Rev. H. Riddell in the New
_ Statistical Account p.94.

__ In 1853 Dr. Johnston again recorded it in his Natural History of the
_ Eastern Borders Vol. 1 Botany, p.138.

In 1858 Rev. W. Darnell M. A. (President) mentioned in his
| Anniversary Address that the Club met at Greenlaw on 28th July and
|

|

on the walk to Black Castle Ring and the Kaimes by way of the
_“Fawngrass” (Fangrist) burn Arbutus uva-ursi was observed along
/ with Triglochin palustre and Pinguicula vulgaris. Unfortunately the
precise location is not stated but it seems unlikely to have been
_Dirrington Law (H.B.N.C. 4, p.63).

_ In 1886 Dr. Charles Stuart recorded the plant as growing plenti-
fully with Vaccinium vitis-idaea Cowberry on the west side of Dir-
| rington Law (Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinb. 6, 80).

In 1932 J. H. Craw wrote of the Bearberry “In former days

| reported from Dirrington but as it has never been found again this
would seem to have been in error” (H.B.N.C. 28, 20). However I

- now have evidence that the old records were correct since there is a
_ pressed specimen in the R. C. Embleton herbarium in the Hancock

| Museum. The label attached states that the collector was Dr. G.
| Johnston, date 1832, and site Dirrington Law.

| As Bearberry can very easily be confused with Cowberry the

LT EA ALD OT

‘6L61 (PO ‘ediow ‘,sulAy a4L,,
ye Joos Jopun ying “yy. x ‘YZ Buunseour suvsjna vjndsaavavg dsepyy UOUIWIOD JO SANT

feiss :
ee, 3 Big re

i“

146

NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS 147

following features should be looked for:-
(i) In Cowberry, which is the more common, the underside of the
leaves is studded with small glandular dots readily observed through
a hand lens.
(ii) In Bearberry the leaves tend to taper towards the stalk i.e. they are
more characteristically cuneate than in Cowberry.

It would be of interest to re-investigate the western side of Dir-
rington Law to see if the Bearberry is still growing there.

VASCULAR PLANT records numbered as in Dandy’s List (1958).
PTERIDOPHYTA by A. Willmot July 1979.

1/4 Lycopodium clavatum Stag’s Horn Clubmoss. Duns Castle
wood, NT 779553 and 8.

4/6 Equisetum palustre Marsh Horsetail, near Whitadder
Reservoir in Juncus marsh NT 66.63.; Coldstream, marsh
by Tweed NT 84.40.

4/9 Equisetum arvense X fluviatile = E. litorale, St. Abbs in
Phragmites marsh with parents, NT 91.68. Det. c.n. Page.

14/1 Phyllitis scolopendrium WHart’s Tongue, Mellerstain
NT 64.39.; Greenlaw NT 71.46.

15/5 Asplenium trichomanes Maidenhair Spleenwort, Mellers-

tain
NT 64.38.; Coldstream NT 84.39.

15/7 Asplenium ruta-muraria Wall Rue, Newton Don NT 71.37.
Coldstream NT 84.39.

18/1 Athyrium filix-foemina Lady Fern, NT 70.37.; Stichill Linn
IN 70-37.

21/2 Dryopteris borreri Borrer’s Male Fern, Black Hill
NT 58.37.; Eccles Holes NT 77.41.; Hirsel NT 82.39.;
Ladykirk NT 88.47.; Edrington Mains Dean NT 94.54.

21/6 Dryopteris lanceolata-cristata Narrow Buckler Fern,
Lithtilum NT 802408; Bunkle Wood NT 81358;
Coldingham Common NT 853687.

21/7 Dryopteris dilatata x lanceolatocristata = D. X deweveri,
Duns Castle, damp patch in mixed deciduous wood
NT 77.55.; Gordon Moss, Birch wood on peat,
NT 63.42. Det. M. Gibby BM (NH).

22/1 Polystichum setiferum Soft Shield Fern, Mellerstain, by
lake overflow NT 651384; Manderston, wall in gardens
NT 810547; Tower Dean NT 785698.

25/1 Polypodium interjectum, Pease Dean on damp outcrop,
NT 79.70. Det. J. Crabbe BM (NH) & R. H. Roberts.

25/1 Polypodium vulgare (ss.) Dye nr. Little Law NT 59.58.;
nr. Duns Castle grounds NT 780565; Burnmouth
NT 95.60.; Eccles NT 76.41.; Otter Burn NT 78.60.;
Hume Castle NT 70.41.; Aller Burn NT 76.61.;
Raecleugh Head NT 73.52.; Ellemford Bridge NT 73.59.
Nr. Whitadder res. NT 66.62.; nr. St. Helens Church
NT 80.70.; nr. Cambridge NT 58.48.; Dowlaw Dean

148 NATURAL HISTORY OBSERVATIONS

NT 86.70.; Howpark Burn 82.66.; all det. by J. Crabbe &
R. H. Roberts.

FLOWERING PLANTS recorded by M. E. Braithwaite.
66/7 Fumaria micrantha Dense-flowered Fumitory,
Haigsfield NT 813397, 43.7.79.
430/4 Veronica scutellata Marsh Speedwell, Haigsfield. Damp
area in cornfield, NT 814400, 13.7.1979.
532/1 Matricaria recutita Wild Chamomile, Haigsfield
NT 814400, 13.7.1979.
638/2 Platanthera bifolia Lesser Butterfly Orchid, Long Moss
Coldirgham Common NT 853657, 13.7.79.
656/3 Eleocharis quinqueflora Few-flowered Spike-rush, flush
on Coldingham Common NT 859689, 13.7.79.
663/20 Carex riparia Great Pond Sedge, Bishop’s Bog
NT 785405, also at Eccles Pools NT 771415, 12.7.79.
663/57 Carex otrubae False Fox Sedge, Lithtillum Loch
NT 803409, 12.7.79. Rare inland.
674/2 Catapodium marinum Sea Fern Grass, Burnmouth, nr.
Breeches Rock, NT 956620, 11.7.79.

ORNITHOLOGICAL NOTE

A Black-throated Diver Gavia arctica was present on Lindean Reser-
voir near Selkirk on 20-21 December 1979 and seen by several
ornithologists—A. G. Buckham and A. J. Smith.

Tae THOMAS ARKLE COLLECTION,

A BRONZE LOOPED SPEARHEAD FROM
THE COLLEGE VALLEY,N’THUMBERLAND,
AND SOME NOTES ON SIDE-LOOPED
SPEARHEADS.

Colin Burgess and Roger Miket

In March 1875 the Rev. G. Rome-Hall set out for London to be

formally admitted as a member of the Society of Antiquaries of

London, and present a paper describing the results of his recent

excavation of native hut cirles at Birtley?. To illustrate his lecture,

“on an area about which they do not know much”, he carried with

him on the journey a large number of prehistoric antiquities, many

of which had been borrowed for the occasion from friends and
neighbours. The objects lent by the acquisitive William Greenwell
have escaped record, but Mr. Hunter-Allgood of Nunwick contri-
buted a bronze sword found ploughed up at East Hill near Glanton
on June 5th 18573, and possibly two stone axes, now lost. Mr. Hugh

Taylor of Chipchase Castle loaned two socketed axes and two

spearheads recently discovered nearby‘, and Mr. Hall of Dunshouses

some stone axes. Mr. Thomas Arkle of Highlaws near Hartburn,
then only recently admitted as a member of the Society of Anti-
quaries of Newcastle upon Tyne, lent an interesting group of objects
comprising a stone axe, a bronze wing-flanged axe, and a bronze
spearhead. At present these objects are in the possession of Mr.

tkle’s grandson, Mr. John Crowe of Truro, Cornwall, and the

urpose of this note is to record in a little more detail the context and
importance of his surviving collection.

In 1865 Mr. Arkle was rector of Hartburn, although the more
important items he possessed seem to have been acquired during his
— residence at High Carrick, Elsdon. His collection was not
arge, amounting to little more than the pieces he lent to his friend,
Mr. Rome-Hall. It consists of:—

1. Polished stone axe, incomplete, butt missing. Described as ‘fels-
tone’, a fine grey stone patinated buff on the exterior. Cutting
edge damaged, pointed oval section. Surviving length 120mm.
max. width 69mm. thickness 45mm. From Redeswater, Elsdon
(Fig. 1.1).

Z. Be iorated whetstone, of sub-rectangular section. Fire
grey/brownstone. Length 86mm. width 16mm. thickness 10mm.
diameter of perforation 4mm. Provenance unknown (Fig. 1.2).

3. Bronze angle-flanged axe, with raised shield-pattern below a
gentle slope-stop, and ‘nicked’ sides. Angular flanges have ham-
mered edge facets, and the blade is bevelled. Good, smooth dark
brown and green patina. Length 170mm. width at cutting edge
65mm. Found in a peat bog at Elsdon in 1865 (Fig 1.3).

4. Bronze side-looped spearhead, with bevelled blade edges, nar-
row, rounded midrib, and slightly expanded loops of
oval/lozenge plan. The socket base is crimped, and slightly

149

150 THE THOMAS ARKLE COLLECTION

broken. Length 157mm. max. blade width 32mm. max. socket
diameter 20mm. Described as found at Redeswater near Otter-
burn about 1850 while cutting the field drains, but the length of
this specimen tallies exactly with the 6% inches quoted for a lost
side-looped spearhead found on Daveyshiel Moor, Otterburn, in
1850, in draining. Rome-Hall (op. cit.) implies that the spearhead
he borrowed from Mr. Arkle was discovered ‘twenty five years
since’ (i.e. c. 1850/55) in cutting a drain near Otterburn. Further-
more, the County History (6) gives this same reference for the
Daveyshiel Moor specimen. It therefore seems likely that the two
are one and the same. (Fig 1.4).

5. Stone mould. A smooth, flat stone slab with pecked annular and
cup-shaped depressions on both faces and on the sides. Prove-
nance unknown. (Fig. 2.1).

It is also perhaps worth noting an otherwise unrecorded and now
lost polished stone axehead from the Elsdon area. (Fig. 2.2).
Although not a part of Mr. Arkle’s collection it was minutely
recorded and illustrated by him. For many years it had lain on the
bench of George Carr, a clogmaker at Elsdon, until it passed to Mr.
Whaley the innkeeper, who allowed Mr. Arkle to draw and record it

in October 1866. It was described as being ‘a dull yellow or ochre |

colour with darker clouds which in some places approach nearly to
brown’. Its length measured 103mm. and its width tapered from
57mm. at the cutting edge to a little under 30mm. at the butt-end.
The cutting edge is chipped in places and the tip of the butt-end is
missing.

A looped socketed spearhead from the
College Valley

This battered and broken specimen has lost its point and much of the
midrib and socket on one side. The loops are large and prominent,
and appear to have been expanded to a lozenge shape. Patches of
worn, olive-green patina servive, but the surfaces have generally a
corroded black and green appearance. The surviving length is

91mm. Discovered in August 1976 by Mr. R. J. Coe, lying on the |

river gravel on the south side of the Lambden Burn (NT 895234). At
present it has been returned to its owner, to whom weare grateful for
allowing us to draw and record it. (Fig. 2.3).

|

Discussion |
Little further can be said about most of the objects listed above. The |
unprovenanced whetstone resembles the classic perforated whets-
tones of the Early Bronze Age ‘Wessex Culture’, but similar whets- |
tones are widely scattered in time and space. A similar perforated

whetstone comes from Howhill Farm, Norham, and is in the |
National Museum of Antiquities, Edinburgh (Accen. no. AL124).
The stone mould is perhaps most closely paralleled in a mould found

in the excavations at High St. Perth which is dated to the thirteenth |

|
|

century A.D., and was used in casting circular brooches (7).
The angle-flanged axe is of particular interest in that it is the third

he

151

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152

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241

154

THE THOMAS ARKLE COLLECTION 155

example of its type to have been found in the Elsdon area. There

seems little to add to the previously published discussion of this type

(Burgess and Miket, 1974) which can be assigned to the Hotham

Carr phase of the Northern Middle Bronze Age (Southern Taunton

Phase, or ‘Ornament Horizon’), in absolute terms the 14th-13th
centuries B.C.
The spearheads from Daveyshiel Moor and College Valley
deserve more detailed consideration. Side-looped spearheads were
the standard small spearhead used in Britain in the Middle Bronze
Age, equivalent to the socket-looped spearheads, with kite-shaped
blade, of Ireland. The latter are rare in Britain, but in Scotland in
particular side-looped spearheads may betray influence from the
Irish form, either in a more angular blade shape, or a ‘short’ midrib,
i.e. the midrib instead of running the full length of the blade, tapers
sharply to a point only half way down the eee beyond which it

continues to the tip as a solid ridge. In both regions basal-looped

spearheads, at first with leaf-shaped blade, in the Penard phase with
triangular blade, constituted the larger, heavier spearhead in the

Warrlor’s equipment.

The chronology of socket-looped spearheads is more securely

- established than that of the side-looped weapons. The Killymuddy
' moulds, Co. Antrim (Coghland and Raftery, 1961) show they were
/in production in the opening, Acton Park, phase of the Middle
| Bronze Age, a logical development from the end-looped, solid-blade
_ spearheads of the Inch Island industry of the Irish Early Bronze Age.
_ At the other end of the scale, examples in Late Bronze Age personal
' hoards, with a Wilburton sword and tongued chape at Corsbie
| Moss, Berwickshire, and in a deposit of the Dowris eee at Ballin-
| liss, Co. Armagh, show them still in use in the 10th-9th centuries
| B.C., but for the centuries in between there appear to be no associa-
» tions.
_ Forside-looped as for leaf basal-looped spearheads the chronolog-
_ ical problems are altogether different. Neither are attested in Britain
| before the second, or Taunton, phase of the Middle Bronze Age, and
' this had led some recent authorities (cf. Rowlands 1976, 50-1) to
doubt their existence in the preceding Acton Park phase, c. 15th
century B.C. For one of us (CB) the early development of side-
| looped spearheads, at the same time as the socket-looped variety, has
_ always seemed likely if only because without them Britain would
| have lacked spearheads in the Acton Park phase, apart from a small
number of imports. Their absence from associations of this period is
_ hardly surprising since over most of Britain this was to all intents and
_ purposes a ‘hoard-free’ period.
| __ In fact there is at least one Continental hoard which vindicates this
) assumption of early side-looped beginnings. This was found at Caen
| in Normandy in 1938, but only published much more recently
_ (Edeine, 1961). Itis in most respects a typical hoard of the north-west
French Tréboul group (Briard, 1965), which was contemporary
with the British Acton Park phase. Cross-Channel contacts in this
_ period were intense, as they were throughout the Bronze Age, and

|
|
|

156 THE THOMAS ARKLE COLLECTION

the Caen hoard illustrates the range of shared traditions which united |
British and north-west French workshops. Its flanged axes are |
characteristic Tréboul types, but also included is a Group II palstave |
of Liswerry type which would be happily at home on either side of
the Channel. So, too, would two Group II dirks, though these are far
more common in Britain and Ireland than France, and are rep-|
resented by matrices on the Killymaddy moulds. Of four}
spearheads, three are of the short-midribbed peg-hole type, charac- |
teristic of Tréboul contexts, but the fourth is a typical, small side- |
looped spearhead, such as is represented by less than a dozen finds |
from France. This example was therefore almost certainly imported |
from Britain, but could only have had curiosity value ina land where |
peg-hole spearheads were supreme. |

The traditional interpretation of side-looped origins thus seems to
be confined. This sees them as a reaction by British craftsmen to
Continental leaf-shaped spearhead traditions at the start of the Mid-
dle Bronze Age. For some reason they chose to adopt the socket-| |
loops of Irish tradition for use on this novel development, rather than’
the Continental peg-holes, despite the fact that they had already been| |
using these on solid-blade socketed spearheads of Arreton type. | —

The manufacture and use of side-looped spearheads in the Acton
Park phase is thus not in doubt though it remains poorly
documented. The bulk of the associated finds, as of basal-looped) |
spearheads, belong to the Taunton and Penard phases, c. 14th-11th
centuries B.C. There are examples in such typical southern ‘Orna-
ment Horizon’ hoards as those from Burgesses Meadow, Oxford-
shire, and Stump Bottom, Sussex (Rowlands, 1976, 54), and the|
Inshoch Wood association, Nairn, is of this or the succeeding Penard
phase. Survival into the First Millennium B.C. is less likely in the! :
south than the north, for peg-hole attachment returned to popularity
in the south in the Penard phase, and there is little or no trace of
looped spearheads in the southern Wilburton tradition of the 10th! ©
century B.C. But Highland Zone metal working traditions diverged
notably from southern developments at this point, persisting both!
with the old Middle Bronze Age tin-bronze alloy, instead of the
novel Wilburton lead-bronze (Burgess and Tylecote, 1968), and
with Middle Bronze Age products. Hence the continued use of
socket-looped spearheads in Ireland and Scotland referred to above.
A similar survival of side-looped spearheads, at least in northern
England, is suggested by the example in the Shelf hoard, Yorkshire.
This belongs to the Wallington tradition, the northern contempor
ary of southern Wilburton metal working. A reputed association of |
side-looped spearhead and Yorkshire 3-ribbed socketed axe at Fell
Lane, Penrith (Burgess and Tylecote, 1968, fig. 16:8), would be even!
later, in the Eward Park phase. The beginning of this phase must |
now be put back toc. 900 B.C., for it was clearly contemporary wit
both Hallstatt B2, as well as B3 in central Europe.

The fact that some side-looped spearheads have proved to be 0
lead-bronze, as at Fyfield, Berkshire, and Methwold, Cambridge
shire, has for long been taken as a sign of continuing production -

tl

:
THE THOMAS ARKLE COLLECTION 157
an era of Late Bronze Age technology (Brown and Blin-Stoyle,
_ 1959). However, current research on lead-bronze shows it to have
been characteristic of the Middle Bronze Age in some regions, so
_ that this simple argument is no longer secure.
Various schemes for the classification of side-looped spearheads
' have been proposed (e.g. Rowlands, 1976), but with so few associa-
tions, and certainly in the absence of a full corpus, a comprehensive
_ typological scheme with chronological significance cannot yet be
_ attempted. The main areas of variation are the shape of the blade,
whether lanceolate, elliptic, flame-shaped or angular, the form of the
»midrib , whether rounded, arched or ridged, the relationship of
» midrib and blade, whether defined one from the other by a clear
‘midrib margin, or curving imperceptibly one into the other, and the
treatment of the loops, whether of the thin ‘string’ form, expanded
_ to an oval or lozenge plan, or worked up into strong lozengic plates
like those which grace socket-looped spearheads. Other features
- derived from the latter must also be taken into consideration.
Some of these variations will be evident from the north-eastern
_side-looped spearheads published here. From the above it will be
clear that local side-looped spearheads cannot at present be dated
»more closely than the several centuries between the beginning of the
‘Acton Park phase, the northern Pickering phase, c. 1500 B.C., and
ithe Wallington phase, which ended c. 900 B.C. The distribution of
\the type in northern England and southern Scotland shows the
'general scatter characteristic of other regions, with notable concent-
‘ations in the upper Tweed basin, the Dumfries area, North
‘Tynedale-Redesdale, and north Cumbria. Most have come from a
iriver valley, but this no doubt in part reflects the dependence of
_ chance finds on human activity.
- Footnotes
1. Published in Archaeologia, XLV (1880), 370, and reported in the
| Newcastle Daily Journal, March 19th, 1875.
2. Correspondence in the possession of Mr. J. Crowe (c.f. fn. 5).
3. Nowinthe Museum of Antiquities, Newcastle upon Tyne, Accn.
no. 1932.21. It is reported as having been found with two others
now lost, at East Hill, Glanton, near Brandon, and more fully
described in HBNC (1885/6), 283-4, IV ( ) 253 AA2. Exhi-
bited by Hunter Allgood ‘‘one of three large leaf shaped bronze
swords found together at Ingram.” The other two were at Aln-
wick Castle. PSAN 4. V (1933) 254, and AA 4 X (1933), 185. It
___was given to Mr. Allgood by Thomas James Rome Hall; papers
__ with illustration, in Museum of Antiquities.
4. The spearheads were discovered buried points downwards in
| 1871 and the socketed axes in 1874 ‘within a few feet’ of each other
__ at Park House Quarry, Chipchase Castle. At present they are in
| the British Museum, Reg. nos. WG.1920, WG.1921, WG.2052,
__ and WG.2053. They were published in Archaeologia, XLV (1880),
| 317, AA2. VI (1881), 209-11, and NCH, XV, 54-5. Illustrations of
|

158 THE THOMAS ARKLE COLLECTION

these objects, together with socketed axeheads from Stagshaw
(2), Elsdon, Simonburn. A flat bronze axehead from Stamfor-
dham, a decorated stopped axe from N. Chollerford Bridge.
Angle flanged axe from Bellingham. A flint axe head from Halton
Chesters, axe heads from Felston Gunnerton Fell and L-Potts
Daltr in Redeswater. (Illustrated on large linen sheet in Rome Hall
Papers, Museum of Antiquities). As these objects formed part of|
the purchase by J. Pierpont Morgan of the remainder of the
Greenwell collection, Greenwell may have either been the owner
of some of these objects by 1875, later consolidating his owner-
ship of the remainder, or obtained the whole group sometime
alter UST.) )
5. Weare extremely grateful to Mr. J. Crowe of Devoran, Truro, for
permission to publish the collection and quote from Mr. Arkle’s)
correspondence, and to Mr. David Hutchinson of Yetholm for
first bringing these objects to our attention. Our thanks are also)
due to Angie Townshend, David Esslemont and Bob Herbert for
the drawings, to Miss Moore of the Department of Prehistoric
and Roman Antiquities at the British Museum, for information
concerning the Park House Quarry discoveries, and to Rosemary)
Annable for drawing our attention to the whetstone from
Howhill Farm.
. NCH, Vol. XV (1940), 21.
. N.Q. Bogdan. The Mediaeval Excavations at the High Street, Perth|
1975-6. An interim report Perth High Street Archaeological Exca-|
vation Committee 1978, p. 23.

SIS

Bibliography

Briard, J., 1965. Les Dépots Bretons et L’Age du Bronze Atlantique.
Rennes.

Brown, M. A., and Blin-Stoyle, A. E., 1959. “A sample analysis o
British Middle and Late Bronze Age material using optical spec-
tometry’, Proc. Prehist. Soc., XXV, 188-208.

Burgess, C., and Miket, R., 1974. ‘A Bronze axe from Elsdon, ~
Northumberland, and the problem of Middle Bronze Age
flanged axes’, AA5 (1974) III, 27-32.

Burgess, C., and Tylecote, R. F., 1968. Bronze Age metalwork in
Northern England, c. 1000-700 B.C. Newcastle upon Tyne. .

Coghlan, H. H., and Raftery, J., 1961. ‘Irish prehistoric casting
moulds’, Sibrium, VI, 223-44. |

Edeine, B., 1961. ‘De quelques objets de l’age du Bronze, inédits ou
peu connus, trouvés dans le départment du Calvados’, Bull. Soc.
Prehist. Francaise, LVIII, 676-92.

Rowlands, M. J., 1976. The Organisation of Middle Bronze Age Metal-
working = British Archaeol. Reports.31. 2 vols.

REPORT OF THE ACTING-LIBRARIAN TO
foe ANNUAL-MEETING,
(Pit OCTOBER 1979.

_ The Club Library is now housed in a room at the Berwick Public
» Library and is available for use by holders of the special Club Library
_ Ticket, which is issued on application to the Librarian. Regulations
for the use of the Library were approved by the Council in March

1979 and circulated to all Club members. So far ten members have
_ been issued with tickets and one student ticket has been issued by the
| Berwick Librarian.
The Librarian administers the Club’s stock of past issues of the
‘Club “History’’, and would welcome offers of unwanted past issues
_ by members. In particular, copies of Vol. XX XI parts 1, 2 & 3 (1947,
/1948 & 1949) are urgently needed to fulfil orders from important
libraries.

Acquisitions by gift since re-opening in Berwick include:

HANSEN, A. A Geological & Geomorphological Survey of the
Coldingham-Eyemouth area. (typescript thesis) 1977

SELBY, P. J. A History of British Forest Trees 1842 (Dr. G. John-

ston’s copy with his bookplate)

ELLIOT, G. A. et al. Index of plants found on the links at Scremers-

| ton by members of the Berwickshire Naturalists’ Club 1913,

1977 & 1978. (typescript) 1979

‘Manuscript Cash Book of Dr. G. Johnston’s Will Trustees
‘TOMLINSON, W. W. Life in Northumberland during the Six-
teenth Century. (1897)

‘ROBSON, J. Border Battles and Battlefields. 1897.

Library Finance. The Library has no income apart from sales of past
issues of the “History”. While most acquisitions in the past have
been by gift and it is hoped that such gifts will continue in the future,
it may be considered desirable to be able to purchase books which
deal with the Club’s interests, and which are not available in the
(Berwick Public Library, from time to time. Some additional income
would be useful. An Income and Expenditure Account from March
~ to October 1979 is appended.

INCOME EXPENDITURE

_ Opening balance (March 1979) 142.44 Paid to Club Treasurer

"| Sales of ‘‘History”’ 33.54 for printing 12.66
' Bank interest 13.86 Librarian’s postages 1.26

7 Balance forward (Royal

: | Bank of Scotland) 175.92
j 189.84 189.84
I

| Owing to pressure of other business, Miss E. Buglass resigned
'from the Librarianship early in 1979, and the Council asked the Rev.
H. S. Ross to serve as Acting-librarian until the Annual Meeting in
October 1979. In submitting this report, he would pay tribute to
Miss Buglass’ care of the Library over a long period, and thank her

for her help. Ht. S’ROSS
159

A LONG CIST GRAVE NEAR
COLDINGHAM LOCH, BERWICKSHIRE |
|

I. M. Smith

During the course of mechanically cutting a pipe-trench the south- )
western corner of a long cist grave was dislodged exposing a skele- |
ton within. The discovery was reported to the police, and Dr. M. ©
Robson (curator of Hawick Museum) went to investigate the site l
and examine the skeletal remains. Damage was feared from vandals
and livestock, so an excavation was promptly organised and cone |
ducted on 13th December, “1979:

The site is in a prominent position on the lee of a slope about 150m
above Ordance Datum. It overlooks St. Abb’s Head, 2km to the east,
and is overshadowed by a hillfort! less than 20m to the west, and
itself 400m west of Coldingham Loch. (Fig. 1)

The grave, orientated north-south, was cut into the upper edge of
a slight mound, thought to be of natural origin. Internally the grave
measured 1.75m in length, approximately 50cm in width, and had a_/
depth of 75cm below the lintels, which were a further 15cm below
the present ground surface. Cut into bedrock it was faced on the
longest sides by coursed walling, perhaps indicative of the difficulty |
in cutting large slabs from the parent rock”. The grave-pit was scaled }
by unshaped stone lintels whose edges were coopera, the inter-_
nal facings (Fig. 3) and these in turn were covered by a graded }
aggregate, presumably derived from digging the grave. The sur-|
rounding sub-soil consisted of compacted gravel, below 3 to 5cm of | °
humus.

The skeleton lay prone, on a flat but unprepared surface, fully|
extended, with both arms flexed and crossed over the chest. The legs
also lay over each other approximately 5cm above the ankles. (Fig. 2)/
Skeletal preservation was good, although only residual stains indi-| ©
cated the position of the feet and the extent of the rib-cage. The) ©
cranium was shattered by a collapse created during the cutting of a] ©
pipe-trench but apart from this the skeleton was free from any other|’
deposit within ~~ grave. There were no grave goods.

Often recorded but little discussed,? such cists present a problem in) ~
Scotland*. Long cists are a widely spaced phenomenon chronologi-|
cally and geographically. Unfortunately, few cists have produ
provenanced finds from which a reliable date may be inferred®, aT
where the cists are grouped into cemeteries, a deliberate rite is
implied by the invariable absence of grave goods.

In Scotland long cists are concentrated in the south-east and east, | 1
particularly in southern Angus and Fife®, although outlying exam-| ©
ples are noted from Gairloch (Wester Ross) and Galson (Lewis).’ 4
There are no other long cists from the Parish of Coldingham,
although a few are recorded from around Cockburnspath,$ seventy
kilometres to the north. |

160

i
Discussion i

:
|
;

|
|
|

|

}

A LONG CIST GRAVE NEAR COLDINGHAM BERWICKSHIRE 161

The problem of dating the cists is not confined to Scotland.
Associations with Bronze Age contexts are known for example, at
Addinstone (Berwickshire),? whilst in Ireland some examples are
ascribed to the Early Iron Age (i.e. before 500 B.C.) ?°. In the south of
England rows of regularly aligned, east-west orientated, extended
inhumations, from the Frilford Cemetery?! might be ascribed to the
fourth and fifth centuries A.D. and thus to the late Roman Period. In
Wales and the Isle of Man slab-lined casts have been identified with
the Celtic Christian Church and Viking contexts!?. Examples from
the abbeys of Whitby, Kelso and Angus}? suggest a continuation of
this form of burial rite well into the medieval period.

To ascribe a relative date to the Coldingham Loch long cist grave
is difficult. Its proximity to a fort might imply contemporaneity.
Unfortunately no excavation has established a date for this fort,
although Professor Gordon Childe suggested a date between A.D.
150 and A.D. 400 for the Earnsheugh forts!*, excavated in 1934, each
less than 900m to the north-west.

A large number of cists, many included in cemeteries, have been

-ascribed to Christian communities. Such a context might also be

argued for the Coldingham Loch example, if acceptance is found for
the reputed site of St. Ebba’s chapel, on St. Abb’s Head. This is less
than 2km to the east and, as already pointed out, is overlooked by the
cist. However, as R. B. K. Stevenson has illustrated,!® there is little
evidence either to prove or to disprove the important point of

Christian association. Similarly, a north-south orientation need be

no more diagnostic of a pagan bumial than an east-west orientation
imply that of a Christian.
The unusual position of the skeleton, laid on its front with arms

flexed up over the chest and its legs crossed, invites some comment.

There are three possibilities. First, that rigor mortis set the limbs

| prior to burial after they had been placed in their requisite positions.

‘Second and incorporating the latter elements, that a ightly wrapped

\ shroud was used, holding the limbs in position and perhaps explain-
| ing the apparent disrespect exhibited in depositing the body. Third,
that the limbs were set into position after the body had been laid in

the grave. With view to the time needed in preparing a rock-cut cist

grave the first two suggestions might be more tenable.
|

| Conclusions

'A radiocarbon date would be necessary to resolve the problem of
‘dating. The skeletal remains have been submitted to Professor A.
‘Usher of the Department of Forensic Pathology, Sheffield, for the
preparation of a pathology report. The cist grave was left intact, (Fig.
4) and was resealed by the lintels with their overlying aggregate.

| Thanks are due to Mr. W. E. Scott, the landowner, for reporting
the discovery and for his co-operation throughout. Thanks also to
Mr. J. Forsyth for his assistance in the excavation.

|
|

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A LONG CIST GRAVE NEAR COLDINGHAM BERWICKSHIRE 165

_ References

es
bWNrR ©

=a
Nu

ee ee ee

R.C.A.H.M. Berwick (1914) No. 84 Page 48

. Geological Memoir for S.E. Scotland. (H.M.S.O.) 1971 pages

42, 50, 59
P.S.A.S., XLII (1908-9), 317-24; Arch. Ael., X XIII (1945), 94-5
A.S., LXXXVI (1951-52), 108-110

A.S., XX XVII, 233 and LIX, 116; P.S.A.S. XI 369

AS. LXXXIX (1955-56) p. 266

A.S. LXX XVI (1951-52) p. 106-115

BENG, SKV 317

S.A.S. LXXXIX (1955-6) p. 278-281, P.S.A.S., IX (1870-1)

NnNNN(

. RAFTERY in P.R.I.A., XLVI (1941), 299-315

. OXONIENSIA, 1939

. MEGAW in Tr. Dumf. and Gall. A.S. (1948-9), 181
_ P.S.A.S. LXXXVI (1951-52), p. 109

. P.S.A.S. LXVI, (1931-2) p. 152-183. R.C.A.H.M.

Berwick p.46

. H.B.N.C., (Centenary Volume) 1931-2 — index
tees. XX XVI (1951-52)-p. 106-115

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LAUDERDALE’S LIBRARY
J. Buckroyd.

John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale is not an easy man to understand.
Born in 1616 in Scotland the son of the first earl and heir to a family
of successful royal servants and politicians, he was educated at St.
Andrews University before embarking on a long and successful
political career. In the 1630s and 1640s while all Britain was absorbed
in the turmoil of the civil wars he made his name while his father was
still alive, as a promising young man on the side of the rebellious
Scottish presbyterians.
Robert Baillie, an eminent minister in the Covenanting party,
worked with him and was full of praise, not only for his abilities but
also for his religious zeal.

In 1645 he inherited his title as second earl of Lauderdale and
continued his political career as a progressively more important
member of the Scottish nobility, negotiating with Charles I during
his last few years and then with his son Charles II.

This ever more successful career was brought to an abrupt halt |
with Cromwell’s defeat of the Scottish forces in 1651 and Lauder- |

dale’s subsequent imprisonment. Nevertheless, during nine years of |

oa

detention until the Restoration of Charles II in 1660, Lauderdale —

showed no obvious sign of any change of character. He remained the

pious, god-fearing man he had seemed to Robert Baillie. He main- |

tained his contacts with the moderate, royalist pee and
took the opportunity to study. Ministers in London provided him

with the latest literature on theological and ecclesiastical controver- |

sles.

In 1660 Lauderdale’s fortunes changed once again, as abruptly as
before, with the return of Charles I]. From 1660 almost until his
death in 1682 he enjoyed the office of Secretary of State for Scotland
which he transformed into the most important post in the Scottish

administration. But with renewed power and success Lauderdale’s |

character appeared to change. He became coarse and violent. His

former piety and restraint were overtaken, so his contemporaries |
alleged, with debauchery and blasphemy. Gilbert Burnet, a former |

friend turned enemy, wrote of him at this later time:

He was haughty beyond expression; abject to those he saw
he must stoop to, but imperious and insolent and brutal to
all others. He had a violence of passion that carried him
often to fits like madness, in which he had no temper... He
at first seemed to despise wealth: but he delivered imself up
afterwards to luxury and sensuality: and by that means he
ran into a vast expense, and stuck at nothing that was
necessary to support that.?

Now it may well be that this paradox between the pious youth and
the degenerate senior statesman is an over-simplification and a mis-
understanding. Unfortunately, although there 1s a wealth of availa-
ble material, there is no modern biography to which we can turn. W.

168

LAUDERDALE’S LIBRARY 169

C. Mackenzie’s gallant attempt was published 40 years ago and badly
needs revision.

In default of a definitive biography the reader interested in
Lauderdale turns with interest to material which may help him form
an estimate of this curious and important figure. Therein lies the

"significance of the catalogue of the Duke’s library. It is one element

“ina large mass of primary material all still waiting a modern evalua-
tion. Its particular attraction lies in the fact that it seems a fairly
simple piece of evidence to evaluate—no ambiguous politician’s
letter this, but a simple catalogue.

+. G. Burnet, History of My Own Time, edit. Osmund Airy, 2 vols
- (Oxford, 1897, 1900) I, 184-5.
:
~ We are what we eat: but just as surely, we are what we read. To
“look at a man’s bookshelves is to look into his mind, to know his
interest and pre-occupations, to touch his dreams and aspirations.
When the man is dead his library affords us a glimpse of a personality
‘lost to us for ever. Cannot such a glimpse be caught from, the
catalogue of the library of John Maitland, second earl and first duke
of Lauderdale? At the sale of his books in 1690, eight years after his
) death, the catalogue lists 659 books in English, 750 books in French,
| Italian or Spanish, and more than one hundred manuscripts. Surely a
) rich field for the investigator!
But before we start to rummage among the books and pass
| comments on the tastes and interests of their owner, some reserva-
‘tions must be expressed about how much we can learn from the
| enterprise. The collection is just a little suspicious; there are probably
{too many foreign books and too many old books (that is, 16th-
| century volumes) for it to be the library collected entirely by
| Lauderdale. One thing is clear; no additions were made to the library
after his death. The catalogue gives the dates of publication of the
) volumes it lists, and none of them is after 1682, the year of Lauder-
| dale’s death. It is much less clear whether he was building on an
) inherited collection. This, indeed, seems the most obvious explana-
| tion for the large number of old books: that Lauderdale had inherited
) asignificant number of books from his father and grandfather. They
| were, after all, both prominent public figures who might be expected
| to have an interest in acquiring a library. An additional explanation
may be that Lauderdale at some stage was paying someone to buy
books for him in considerable numbers. That sort of book-buying
| was not uncommon in the 17th century and might explain the rather
Odd shape of the collection. A book dealer might well have been
instructed to collect books in a number of areas; and we need not
‘necessarily assume that Lauderdale personally vetted each purchase,
Or that he ever read every one.
_ In short therefore the collection of 750 foreign books sold in 1690
‘is likely to have been an amalgam of volumes collected over three
generations reflecting the considerable political standing, cultural
encima and linguistic ability of three generations of the Mait-
nds.

170 LAUDERDALE’S LIBRARY

However the books were acquired, the point to be made is the
same. It cannot be assumed either that the books were originally
Lauderdale’s, or that he selected them personally, or that he had read
them at all. Something, of course, can be deduced from the fact that
he was willing to give them house room, but perhaps not much. We
cannot place too much weight on the catalogue as an independent
piece of historical evidence. What we can do 1s use the catalogue to
verify and expand what is already known of the character and tastes
of their owners.

One probable source of many of the 16th century foreign books 1s
the library of the duke’s grandfather, Sir John Maitland of Thirles-
tane, lord chancellor of Scotland in the reign of James VI. He had
been educated as a lawyer partly in France and like many late 16th
century politicians was a man of culture and urbanity capable of |
writing verses on the political events of the day. The 16th century
French and Italian volumes, just over a hundred of more than 700,
reflect the tastes of a Renaissance courtier: histories such as that of
Guiccardini, geography, genealogy, military arts, mathematics, the
literature of Tasso, Petrarch and Boccaccio, architecture and natural
history. For the cultivated Renaissance man, Italy and France were
the leaders of taste and fashion. To speak those languages and to be
familiar with ideas current in those countries was the mark of a
civilised man. As we shall see, Thirlestane’s grandson shared many
of these tastes, and it was no doubt for that reason that many of his
books found their way into Lauderdale’s collection.

Of the 65 Spanish books in the entire collection, 16 or approxi-
mately a quarter of them date from the period of Thirlestane’s life.
Two grammar books also date from this period,
so that it is not impossible that Thirlestane had some knowledge of
Spanish, although some of the volumes in the Spanish collection
may have been ‘coffee table books’. A ‘Who’s Who?’ of the nobility
of Andalucia, books on the West Indies, China and the Cities of the
World, or a manual on the schooling of horses could possibly all be
looked at and understand without any great knowledge of Spanish.

Some of the early Spanish Books, however, argue a more pro-
found knowledge: Cervantes’s Don Quixote, copies of the Latin
classics in Spanish and religious books such as that entitled The Art of
Serving God Perfectly, all would demand a considerable knowledge of
Spanish.

This brings us to a dilemma typical in assessing the significance of
the catalogue. We have no means of knowing whether the date of
publication of the books was also the date of purchase. Often it may|_
have been; sometimes it almost certainly was not. If those 16 Spanish
books were all bought by Thirlestane we must assume that he could
speak Spanish. Thus we have amplified for us the picture of a
Renaissance courtier to whose undoubted linguistic aptitudes in
French and probably Italian, we must add a command of Spanish.

On the other hand, virtually all of the Spanish books published
before 1595 have some kind of enduring value and interest, whether
Don Quixote or a Spanish grammar. It is therefore by no means

LAUDERDALE’S LIBRARY W7/Ah

impossible that they were the purchases of Thirlestane’s son, the Ist
Earl of Lauderdale, who was it seems the man who collected the
majority of the Spanish books. There is no means of knowing with
any certainty just who bought them.

This same problem is raised again when we come to the English
books dating from Thirlestane’s library. The most immediately
surprising thing is how few of them there are. Of the 659 English
books noted in the catalogue only about 18 date from before 1595.
Among them, what is more, there are very few ‘ordinary’ books;
indeed it is easy to imagine that they might have been bought later as
collectors’ items. Chaucer’s poetry, a copy of Saneeee History,
the statutes of Edward, Mary and Elizabeth, Virgil rendered in
Scottish metre and James VI’s Discovery of Witchcraft are surely all
sufficiently remarkable to have attracted the attention of a bib-
hophile two generations later. On the other hand, it is true that one
can imagine Thirlestane, the sophisticated courtier and politician
taking an interest in any one of these.

Thirlestane died in 1595 and was succeeded by his son who later
became the first Earl of Lauderdale. His date of birth appears to be
unknown but was probably about 1585. In that case he was only
about 10 years old when his father died—certainly not of a book-
buying age. That brings us to another problem because a number of
books in the catalogue date from the period immediately after Thir-
lestane’s death. How are they to be accounted for? Surely they
cannot be the purchases of a child or can they? Was Thomas Morley’s

Plain and Easie Introduction to Practical Musick perhaps acquired for the
schoolroom? W. Lambard’s Office of the Justices of Peace sounds a
much less likely choice of text book; a history of Genoa in Italian is
only marginally more probable; and how would one rate Political and
_ Military Discourses in French, or Guicciardini’s History of Italy in
Italiane The Italian School-master in Italian and English on the other
hand sounds a likely candidate for the classroom, and so does a
History of the late Troubles in France in the Reigns of Henry III & Henry
_IV. But would a protestant chld be exposed to an apologetic for the
_ Jesuits written in French, even if he were equipped with a French and
Italian dictionary? Surely he would have no use for a medical text
book on female complaints.

| No doubt the point is made. It is by no means clear that all these
- books were contemporary purchases, and highly likely that some at
_ least were later acquisitions, presumably by the Duke of Lauderdale.

| But before we assume that really there is nothing apart from dates
| of publication to suggest that any of the library was acquired by the
Duke’s father and grandfather, let us examine the Spanish books
which mostly seem to date from the first earl’s lifetime.

| Itis fair I think to assume that a man will collect books published in
his own. life time on a subject of interest to him. Now of the 65
Spanish books in the catalogue, no less than 39 date from the period
1595-1645, between the death of Thirlestane and the death of the first
earl. As we have seen only 16 date from Thirlestane’s lifetime, and
even fewer, only 10, from after 1645. In principle then it seems most

172 LAUDERDALE’S LIBRARY

likely that of the three Maitlands it was the first earl who was the
Spanish speaker.

If we can then consider with renewed confidence that the |
catalogue does contain a core of books inherited by the Duke from
his father and grandfather, what can we learn about the first earl from |
the books he may well have acquired? |

Lauderdale’s father is the shadowiest of the first three Maitlands
although there is no real reason why that should be so. His biography |
is simply another gap in the history of 17th century Scotland, despite
the fact that the primary sources from which it could be written
undoubtedly survive. For him, as for the great Lauderdale, the
catalogue therefore offers a potentially very valuable sidelight. What
is known of the first earl is that he was politically able and initially |
played a part in the Covenanting revolution. His father however had
been above all a royal servant, a politician created by service of the
king and the first earl was to follow in his footsteps. His stance was
fundamentally that of a moderate royalist.

What the catalogue additionally appears to show is that he was a __
man of as broad a cultural background as his father. This much can |
be deduced not only from the Spanish books but from the other parts
of the library most likely bought by him. But let us consider first the
Spanish books. They cover a large number of subjects: medicine, |
religion, military theory, the classics; but the bulk of the collection
consists of books of history, travel and exploration and literature.
Naturally this reflects contemporary taste—the Spanish expeditions
to the new world for example had created tremendous interest in
Europe. They are the collection of a cultivated and educated man
with the interests appropriate toa 17th century gentleman, of what-
ever nationality.

The same point may be made about the acquisitions of books
ate in this period in Italian and French. Unlike the Spanish

ooks, the majority of these do not date from the first earl’s lifetime;
nevertheless a substantial number date from these years. Of the 685
French and Italian books 273 date from the period between the death
of Thirlestane in 1595 and of the first earl in 1645. Obviously by 1645) —
the second earl, later Duke, could well have been making his own
collection; he had been born in 1613 and had reached years of
discretion long before his father’s death. However, even if we take|_
1635 as an arbitrary point before which the young Lord Maitland)
was perhaps unlikely to make any major addition to his father’s|
library, still 179 French and Italian books had been added to the)
collection by that date. These calculations of course assume as before}
that date of publication and of purchase are the same, but if we can|_
have some certainty that the first earl spoke Spanish, then we are]
very probably on secure ground in imagining he spoke French and|_
Italian, both much commoner accomplishments in the 17th century
gentleman.

Indeed a number of pieces of evidence from the catalogue for this|_
period suggest that the first earl spoke all three languages. There are
listed an Italian/Spanish vocabulary, a Spanish grammar in French, a}

LAUDERDALE’S LIBRARY 7S

_ Spanish reader in French and a collection of readings in Italian,
- Spanish and French. These books certainly argue familiarity with all
three tongues.
__ If then we venture to assume that the first earl did collect at least
some of the French and Italian as well as the Spanish books with dates
of publication in his lifetime, what can we learn from their titles of
his character and tastes? The most immediately striking thing about
this collection is that it bears a very strong similarity to the foreign
books dating from the time of Thirlestane. The same subjects are
dealt with, sometimes even the very same books appear: Guiccar-
dini’s History for example, is here in a later edition. Exploration and
travel, particularly in the New World, the care and schooling of
horses, ha caey. architecture, genealogy, all make their appearance in
. the first earl’s library. Now on one level that is not surprising; sons
: frequently share their father’s tastes. Both Maitlands were gentle-
_ men leading public lives who might be expected to share currently
fashionable intellectual tastes. Yet on the other hand it is rather a
» revealing insight into the mind of a 17th century Scots earl.
It has been granted by historians that Scotland in the late 16th
_ century was part of a European community, but it has often been
_ assumed that the Reformation of 1560 and the Union of the Crowns
+ of 1603 put an end to those cultural and intellectual ties and that for
» virtually a century Scotland relapsed into parochial self-absorption.
| It has often been alleged as part of this argument that the Scottish
‘nobility knew nothing but what their very narrow experience of
Scottish life had taught them. Yet what we appear to see in the
) library of the first earl (remembering always any hesitations in
_ ascribing it to him) is a rather large collection of books on subjects of
| contemporary intellectual interest which he appears to have been
able to read in three foreign languages.
_ It might be possible to argue that this collection was in fact not so
) much contemporary as Renaissance-like, a legacy of the preoccupa-
| tions of half a century before, and that therefore the first earl was not
up to date but rather old-fashioned. This argument however seems
_to be invalidated by two elements in the collection of foreign books
)which do not appear in Thirlestane’s collection and which are
undoubtedly more characteristic of the seventeenth century than
they are of the 16th. One of these is mathematics and the other is
religious controversy. The first earl appears to have been very
‘imterested in mathematics. There are books from this date on
geometry, trigonometry and even logarithmic tables, supremely the
-mathematical invention of the 17th century. Side by side with these
are contemporary analyses of Roman Catholicism, often the work of
European Catholics, although some are the criticisms of Huguenots.
It is probably fair to say that the 16th century Renaissance man was
very little interested in religious controversy—Thirlestane’s library
/as we have seen contains virtually nothing on the subject despite the
fact that he lived at a time when Scotland was racked by the consider-
ation of such issues. It was as if he considered it to be beneath
‘consideration, a legacy from the unenlightened past. In 17th century

174 LAUDERDALE’S LIBRARY

Britain however religious controversy took on a new lease of life,
and it is that changing taste which the first earl’s collection mirrors.

The books in English dating from this same period echo the)
themes manifested in the foreign books. Again however, as with the
collection dating from Thirlestane’s time, it is interesting to note}
how few books in English there are compared to the number of
foreign books. Whereas 320 out of 750 foreign books date from the)
period of the first earl’s life time, 1595-1645, only 230 English books,
out of 650 date from the same period.

As with the foreign books there are volumes of history, including
Sir Walter Raleigh’s History of the World, accounts of exploration
such as the Discovery of Newfoundland, manuals of military strategy
and echoes of a landowner’s preoccupations in Francis Bacon’s|—
Natural History. Collections of sermons and the works of contem-
porary divines form a conspicuous part of the collection, parallelling
those works of controversy among the foreign books and including| —
the works of such men as es Hall, William Chillingworth and|_
Archbishop Laud. Beside these are to be found translations from the) —
classics—Livy, Seneca, Marcus Aurelius, Tacitus and Ovid amongst] ~
them. When added to the translations in modern European lan-
guages there is a sizeable total of classics in translation; is it an)
unworthy thought that 17th century men were perhaps not quite aq
much at home with classical languages as we have been led to)
believe? Certainly the first earl was interested in contemporary) ~
literature and knew quality when he saw it since he was equipped) ©
with the plays of both Shakespeare and Ben Jonson. | |

There is however another theme hardly visible in earlier parts of]
the collection, despite Thirlestane’s very active public career: an| —
interest in contemporary Scottish politics. This is manifested not ~
only in collections of contemporary statutes, but in examples of the} ~
pamphlet literature of the time. There is for example a copy of the}
Proceedings in the Assembly of the Church of Scotland, Perth, August 25,
1618, a meeting that was the scene of the first major confrontation! ~
for 20 years between King James and the increasingly radical minis-_
ters in Scotland. King Charles’ vain attempt to turn the tables on his ~
rebellious subjects who had signed the National Covenant in 1637 by ~
publishing in 1639 his version of events in the Large Declaration, is ©
similarly to be found in the catalogue. It is of course not surprising to) *
find these echoes of contemporary politics, but they do serve to} |
remind us that the first earl as well as being a man of culture and wide’ ©
interest was also a Scottish politician. :

Nevertheless, whatever can be painfully and tentatively deduce
from the catalogue about Thirlestane and the first earl, it must be *
acknowledged that the library was for the most part undoubtedly the —
creation of the second earl. Even if we assume that he bought *
nothing whatever during his father’s lifetime and that none of the *
books dating from before 1645 were later antiquarian pur+
chases—both rather rash assumptions—still the bulk of the collec »
tion must have been bought by him. Of 750 foreign books at least «
316 bear dates of publication after 1645. Of approximately 650 ©

LAUDERDALE’S LIBRARY 175

English books, 410 were published after 1645.

We can then turn to the analysis of these books published after
1645 with rather more assurance that we know who bought them
than has been possible so far in the discussion. If we restrict ourselves
for the moment to considering these, what can be learnt of the

greatest John Maitland?
Let us begin as usual then by looking at the foreign books. As has
already been noted there are a mere handful of Spanish books dating
from after 1645 and it seems highly likely that the Duke did not speak
Spanish. Foreign books therefore implies books in French and
‘Ttalian. Many of these fall into categories with which the reader is by
/ now familiar. There are the usual books on architecture and painting,
occasional medical volumes and genealogical and heraldic treatises.
- There are large numbers of books of travel and exploration, some of
‘ them with maps, but it is interesting to note that although there is a
» number of volumes on the New World—on Brazil, Florida and the
’ West Indies for example—interest had shifted for Lauderdale to the
\ East. He had collected numerous volumes on Turkey, Persia, Egypt,
‘the Holy Land and China, and plainly was fascinated by these
. countries.
_ Like his father, the Duke had a number of foreign books on
- ecclesiastical controversies: apologies for the Jesuits, discussions of
‘the Council of Trent, analyses of the Papacy and discussions of the
-eucharist among them. Interestingly enough for a man who was at
one stage to attempt a reconciliation between episcopacy and pre-
_sbytery in Scotland he had also picked up a book for a scheme of the
‘re-union of Christendom. He had likewise continued the literary
‘interests of his father and had collected works by Corneille, Racine,
f Moliére and Rabelais, as well as less illustrious authors. Again like his
father his library included numerous translations of the classics into
i French or Italian, including works by Herodotus, Thucydides,
Tacitus, Caesar and Cicero, not to mention commentaries on
authors such as Pindar, Horace, Aristotle and Epictetus.

__ All this is fairly similar to what has gone before. One difference in
the Duke’s collection is that he collected vastly more contemporary
;memoirs than his predecessors had done. This may be simply
| because more were becoming available, but it may reflect Lauder-
_dale’s position in a political sphere far larger than anything his father
or grandfather had ever been involved in. The Duke was an impor-

tant figure at the court of Charles II and as such had a status in
European politics that none of his family had previously attained.
| The memoirs of a whole range of European politicians were perhaps
‘more obvious reading for him.

The omissions too are interesting. There are for instance no

foreign books on military matters in the Duke’s collection. The
»world which the Duke inhabited was really no longer one in which
any politician worth his salt was also expected to be a soldier.
Furthermore there is only one book in the foreign section of the
_\catalogue for this period on horses. The Duke was a man who had
left that kind of practical involvment behind him, and who was

4
Ai

176 LAUDERDALE’S LIBRARY

grand enough to travel by coach and sedan chair, at least when in
London or Edinburgh.

The English books were sold separately from the foreign books |
and were listed in a catalogue which announced the sale on the title
page of ‘Choice English Books in Divinity, History, Geography,
Law, Poetry and Miscellany.’ Unfortunately this helpful description |
is rather misleading, particularly as it applies to those books pub- |

lished after 1645. There is in particular almost no law and very little
poetry. No doubt the description was composed by some busy |
bookseller who had more to do than take precise note of how many |
books fell into what categories.

How then can the collection of English books dating from after
1645 best be described? The most notable feature, and one that
certainly corresponds to the bookseller’s description, is the large
number of books on the general subject of ‘divinity’. Now it is true,
as we have already seen, that Lauderdale’s father had demonstrated
an interest in religious issues, and that the foreign books bought by
the Duke himself include a good many religious works. The English
collection of that date, however, is dominated by the subject. There |
are manuals of biblical commentary on books such as James, Jude
and the Psalms. There are numerous collections of sermons by
seventeenth century divines. Religious controversy: Protestantism
versus Catholicism, Jesuits, the Eucharist, church government, |
comprehension among Protestants, is fully represented. Ecclesiasti- |
cal history was clearly of interest and so was theology. The Duke
appeared to own full sets of the works of some eminent ecclesiastical
figures; the works of Baxter, for example, figure very prominently.

What can be deduced about the Duke on this collection? It
seems abundantly clear, to begin with, that Lauderdale had retained
his early interest in religious affairs. Libertine and debauchee in later
life he may have been, but ifso he was a libertine who kept amazingly
well abreast of contemporary religious literature. That of course is
no guarantee that the Duke’s behaviour matched up to the piety that
Robert Baillie had admired in him as a young man, but it does
undoubtedly demonstrate a continuing compulsive interest in many
aspects of religion.

We can perhaps go a little further towards analysing his intellec-
tual make-up if we consider two other aspects of the collection.
Firstly there is a number of books on magic and witchcraft and a
large collection of almanacs. In itself this says nothing. There were
plenty of Lauderdale’s contemporaries who combined an interest in |
astrology with religious belief or indeed with a scientific interest, but |
itis when we consider that there are virtually no books on science of |
any kind dating from after 1645 that a picture begins to emerge of the |
Duke’s cast of mind.

It will be remembered that there is a large number of mathematical
books in the collection dating from the time of Lauderdale’s father.
Not only is there no sign of a continuation of this interest—at a time
moreover when mathematics was making some remarkable
advances—but there is virtually no vestige of the pre-occupation

Neen SSE
— ee a eee —

LAUDERDALE’S LIBRARY L7G

with science and technology which characterised many of Charles
II’s court, including the king himself, and which led to the founding
of the Royal Society. True, there is a history of the Royal Society, but
no trace of that fascination with experiment which characterised its

-members.

It is perhaps not stretching the point too far to say that what we see
in Lauderdale’s intellectual preferences is the mind of an old-
fashioned seventeenth-century man, untouched by the secular spirit
which dominated the end of that century. Whatever the deficiences
of the Duke’s practice, it would be hard to say that here was the
library of a secular spirit, of an unbeliever.

Further consideration of the English collection will, I think, sup-
port the contention that at the same time the Duke was supremely a
man of affairs deeply immersed in the events of his day, but far less

than his father or grandfather a cultivated gentleman with a gentle-

man’s knowledge of the classics, of literature and of aesthetic mat-
ters. At a time when many members of the nobility were beginning
to be passionately interested in the development of their estates, the
Duke, although he had an estate in Scotland and indeed continued a
building programme on his house there, boasted not one book
which suggests an interest in such matters. His first wife indeed
complained that he had let her house in Highgate deteriorate almost
toa ruinous state. Similarly there are very few books on architecture,
and continuing a theme noted in the foreign books, virtually none on
horses or military strategy.

On the other hand there are considerable collections of material
that relate to contemporary political affairs both in England and
Scotland. Lauderdale was a career politician whose fortunes were
directly related to his success in maintaining order in Scotland for
Charles II. His involvement in this task is manifested not only by
books which any contemporary public figure would have used for
reference, such as Parliamentary Statutes and legal case histories, but
also by the writings of the presbyterian non-conformists whom he
came to see as his principal enemies. Naphtali, the Apologetical Rela-
tion and Jus Populi Vindicatum appear among his books because they
were, so to speak, opposition propaganda.

The Duke’s See however, had its base in the court and
in English political life. It is not therefore surprising to find evidence

of a continuing interest in English contemporary affairs. A run of

copies of the London Gazette, the ‘government’ newspaper, is only to
be expected. Nor is it surprising to find among the babe of one
whose political fortunes had suffered dramatic reverses a life of
Oliver Cromwell and a copy of the trial of the Regicides in 1660.

As well as these insights into the Duke’s character and pre-

occupations, the Catalogue gives glimpses of more light-hearted

interests. The passion for travel and exploration that was shown in
the foreign books is visible here too, and with the same bias towards
the East. There are books on Asia, Japan, China and Ceylon as well as
more extraordinary volumes, for example one on Lapland. There are
selections of plays and volumes of memoirs.

178 LAUDERDALE’S LIBRARY

This description of the foreign and English books bought by
Lauderdale does, however, omit one whole element in the
Catalogue, and that is a collection of manuscripts. So far in the
description of Lauderdale’s library an attempt has been made to
differentiate between the character and tastes of the three generations
of Maitlands by supposing that the dates of publication very proba-
bly give some indication of the date of purchase of the books. The
reader who has persevered thus far will have realised that despite the
imperfections of this method it has enabled us to suppose with some
degree of probability that, for example, the first earl spoke Spanish
and enjoyed mathematics while neither his father nor his son shared
these accomplishments.

It is most regrettable that it is impossible to discriminate in the
same way over the manuscripts since inevitably they bear no date of
publication. Can any sense then be made of the 107 manuscripts
carefully listed by the bookseller for the sale? The reader will perhaps
recall that at the very beginning of this paper it was suggested that
the Duke might very well have bought books which were not
published in his own lifetime, that he might in fact have been
something of an antiquarian book collector. This idea is not total
guesswork. There are one or two clues which support the theory.
The first of these 1s the presence in the catalogue of some extras
old books: William Caxton’s Chronicle of England, for example, dates
from 1500; Hall’s Chronicle of England bears the same date; Polichroni-
con by Ranulph, Monk of Chester, is dated 1459. Now it 1s possible
to suppose that these books had descended through the family of
Maitlands, but it seems a highly unlikely supposition particularly
given that all three are English works. It seems much more possible
that they were the purchases of a bibliophile.

If we proceed on this assumption there is one fragment of evidence
to suggest that the bibliophile was the Duke and that is the presence
in the catalogue of W. London’s Catalogue of the most vendible books in
England. Perhaps itis not unreasonable tosee this as the pointer to the
antiquarian tastes of the Duke. What is more, may we not assume
that if he bought books, he was the most likely purchaser of the
manuscripts? After all he was living in a society where antiquarians
were anything but uncommon as any reader of Aubrey’s Brief Lives
or Evelyn’s Dianes or Pepys will know.

When we consider the nature of the manuscripts, these rather
vague theories seem more tenable because in fact the manuscripts
largely reflect what we have already seen to be the Duke’s tastes.
They consist very largely of ‘divinity’ in its broadest sense, travel and
history, particularly Scottish history, with a good dash of Scots law.
There are some exceptions. There is a number of mathematical and
astronomical manuscripts which perhaps date from the first earl.
Persian manuscripts, however, seem the likely acquisition of a man
fascinated by Persian history and geography and a Russian liturgy,
the not improbable purchase of one whose obsessive interest in
ecclesiastical history extended to a history of the Greek and Arme-
nian churches. A regular buyer of almanacs might even be supposed

eee
2 * - “ a Ms s

ae

es

A nt

——

LAUDERDALE’S LIBRARY 179

a likely purchaser of a number of astrological manuscripts.

The hesitations expressed at the beginning of this paper about how
uch can be learned from a historical investigation such as we have
ndertaken of the catalogue of the Lauderdale library must now
seem all too well justified. It may seem to the reader that the entire
"exercise 1s too speculative to be valuable. However, while the uncer-
ainties are a useful reminder of the tentative and provisional nature
_ of most historical conclusions, our discussion has enabled us to see a
little more clearly into the minds of those three Maitlands who lived
so long ago. It will be a happy day for sixteenth and seventeenth
century Scottish history when these fragmentary insights can be
joined to definitive histories of these great men.

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

I have your favour, and am glad to find that you continue well. I
have that vol. of Parkinson—a rare book—Miss Dickenson wishes
to see, and will have pleasure in bringing it, so that she may have it
for a long time.

I only got home yesterday from our last successful Meeting at
Cranshaws. There were 35 present. I went up the night before to
help Mr Bertram. We selected the lowermost room—the kitch-
en—as the largest and it answered the purpose. The others were |
too small. It was a beautiful day, the heather not quite faded. I

t
j

Letter 101. Oldcambus, Aug. 31, 1889.
i
:

.
.

:

.
|

gave the history of Mayshiel, Penshiel, Priestlaw and Bothal from
the Charters. Wehada fine architectural drawing of the Castle, and
the plans of the different flats; and other drawings. There was only
an hour to spend out of doors, it is rather too distant for one day. I
returned at night, and being invited to Duns Castle went there, and
was very kindly received as if I had been one of the family. Next
day I saw all their charters, had a walk in the woods and in the
garden: and got home without any mishap.

At Mindrum meeting I rather broke down, the heat was so
oppressive. I went down to Alnwick with Mr Hindmarsh who
took me to Buston Grange where we dined and had tea (old |
fashioned ways) and then went on to the Coquet at Brainshaugh and
back to Alnwick by Hazon and Shilbottle. I was also at Edlingham |
and Beanley and saw a number of the Northumbrian farmers, very
intelligent men; some of them our members, and others to become |
eats Then another day we went to Beadnell and saw Mr
Howey Taylor, and looked in on Mrs Embleton, and settled about
the ensuing Meeting of the 11th Sept. We returned by Chathill and |
Preston and Ellingham and North Charlton, and had a glorious |
evening return to Alnwick. My last visit was to Alnmouth, and |
then the weather failed. I saw a large number of pleasant people.

The printing of the Algae proceeds; the printer is getting more |
into the technicalities of the science.

Wetter 102, Oldcambus, Jan. 15, 1890.

Itis not a month since Canon Tristram applied to me for three parts
of Club’s early numbers, including the one you mention. I was able
to give him one; but could hold forth no hope of the others, unless
some old members may have had duplicates, for each of the original
members appear to have got a few copies for their friends. This is |
the rarest of all, and I remember one of your copies hadn’t it at one
time. When Mr Bolam wanted a copy, I once transcribed one for
him; but he afterwards procured one. He more frequently thanany | )
one else falls in with spare numbers. Ai little stock had been pre- |

180

Pi

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY 181

served at Belford Hall, but these are I believe now distributed by Mr
James Tait, the agent, and Mr John Bolam profited on that occa-
sion. If the Club ever had a stock of early vols. they were distri-
buted in Mr Tate’s time. Lately when shifting residence I sent the
Club’s Books and Copies of Proceedings to Berwick, where they are
preserved at the Museum under the care of Mr Scott of the Corpora-
tion Academy, and a Committee of the Club. There are no old
numbers, except of the one I sent to Canon Tristram. I have no
longer any charge of them, except for the number of each new year’s
issue. They were becoming quite oppressive and inconvenient as
they occupied two rooms, and we could not get at our own articles
and books and papers for them. We are now at Townhead, in
another house—a rented house—and for the first time, except those
books required for reference, have it to ourselves. Itis not quite on

_ the main road, but is a larger and newer house, and away from ali

noise—except the wind among the trees—and is surrounded by a
large garden. It is only two field breadths from the old place, and
hasabetter view. Itis the ‘““Townhead” of Old Cambus, so that the
Club’s address does not require to be changed. My brother and
nephew’s places—Redheugh and Old Cambus East Mains are quite
near. The outlook is towards the sea and Fastcastle Head, and the
great wood of Aikieside lies behind. We both like it as it is heal-
thier, although higher situated.

The new number of Proceedings is now at the Binders, if Mr
Batters’s plates have arrived. Itisathicknumber. To conclude it
I have given the history of “Heathpool’’, written since I came up
here. I could not enter into details as they belong to the barony of
Wooler rather than to one of its manors; but thereis a good deal more
to tell.

The materials for the concluding number will be all ready in due
time I hope. I hear that Mr Middlemas’s portrait comes with the
present number.

_ Ihave not got my books and papers arranged yet, but am getting
on by degrees. This new house affords me a room fora “Library”
and devoted to that purpose solely.

My walk is usually in the Pease dean, but is not yet enlivened with
the society of the birds. I have seen the Greater Spotted Wood-
pecker here. Fortunately there is no shooting here.

Our pets are two entirely black Cats, which we brought with us,
and they perambulate the garden. We had a call of Miss Russell of
Ashiesteel, our only visitant since we came, except our rela-
tives. The only rarity sent from correspondents is a rubbing of a
Latin Cross from the Roman Station of Chew Green near Coquet
head, and close on the boundaries between Scotland and Eng-
land. Ifno one else takes it up, a drawing of it may be made for the
Club’s ‘Proceedings’. This Chew Green is close beside Watling
Street, the great drove road that passed into Scotland near Bonjed-
ward and Mt. Teviot, and Melrose etc. in the middle ages, and till
recently.

182 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY
Letter 103. Oldcambus by Cockburnspath,
Feb. 26, 1890.

Perhaps you have been told, but it is not generally known as yet
among members of the Club, that I am to be honoured with the
degree of LL.D., at the next graduation in Edinburgh University on
April 18th. Yesterday I was served with the Notice, and today I
intend to accept. It 1s certainly unexpected so far as success is
concerned; although I was aware that something was intended, from
having had to furnish a list of my writings. The degree comes from
the scientific Professors who have two of these degrees to dispose of
each year. I willsoon have to make preparations. At present lam
more concerned about the Club’s Reports for 1889, as they have still
to be written.

I thought you would be pleased to know what is likely to hap-
pen. Mrs Hardy and I have already had the offer of hospitality for
the two days required, and then we will gladly return to our quiet
home very thankful I have no doubt to have got over the ceremony.

We have had colds, but not influenza, although it is all round. I
hope you have escaped. The Book Miss Dickenson wanted to see
has turned up.

Letter 104. Oldcambus, July, 29, 1890.

I got your letter on my return from Faldonside in the end of last
week (Saturday), and was glad to hear from you. The idea of
printing a selection from your Father’s is a good one. I will try to
help you. I must read over again the Thompson series, and
return. I have been so busy I have not had time to consider the
contents. You are quite right that the Club cannot undertake any-
thing extra, at present, when it has got into a working state, and
young men are coming forward. Your Father intended to print a
selection of his papers from the Nat. Hist. Magazines. I had several
of these collected, but the nomenclature is so altered, that they would
be “dead stock”. The same may be said of the Fauna. It ought to

fall on the shoulders of a young man, who has nothing else to attend |

to. Nomenclature and arrangement are quite changed from those
old times, as we have an example of in Mr Batters’s Algae, which has
been pronounced by a competent judge to be “one of the most
important that has ever dealt with the British Algae”. “It will prove
indispensable to students of Algae. Its value and thoroughness can
be appreciated only by a reference to the original”.

Nowadays I scarcely know animals by their old names, as the
continental nomenclature has superseded everything British that did
not coincide with it. British naturalists were working away in a
corner, and neglecting their brethren abroad, who had done much of
their work long previously.

The Club’s funds are in fair order, but the papers unprinted and
ready will occupy our pages for a considerable time yet. Our
present part is more to fill up pages for the vol. than to take up a

ee ee ee ae

THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY 183

subject in earnest; but next number will be more than occupied with
papers lying ready, and all requiring expensive illustrations. I have
enough to do to see that they are correctly printed.

We have had immense assemblages this year at the two first
Meetings, upwards of 80 at each; and last week there were 34. Iam
sending off a meagre report to the ““Advertiser’’, if they printit. It
was a more important meeting than I have made it to look like,
owing to hints I have got of what others are doing. At Melrose I
stayed a night with Mr John Freer, Solicitor, and find he can write,
and will undertake some work. His family were residing on the
Yarrow, the President was at Mr Alexander Curle’s, where I was
invited also. I was two nights at Faldonside, and then a night at
Duns, with Mr John Ferguson, whence Preston and Bunkle were
visited. He drove me and his family there, and they are coming
over. He is an accomplished man.

I will see if I can induce Mrs Hardy to accompany me to Ber-
wick. She shrinks from strangers, and ought not, for as regards
knowledge of flowers and their names, she knows more than even
gardeners whose business it is.

In Liddesdale I stay with a Mrs Johnstone quite a stranger till last
year, her nephew drives me. I was over at Kielder Castle; and this
year I want to climb Peel Fell. I saw her son Dr Johnstone at
Melrose. She is a Stewart of Saughtree, and an old woman nearly
90 years of age. Her husband was a Minister and then a painter. I
will be back for Carham Meeting. Iam getting acquainted with all
lovers of Flowers over the country.

Letter 105. Oldcambus, Sept. 29, 1890.

I have to thank you for your kind invitation to Mrs Hardy and
myself on the 8th October. We will only be able to join you for a
small part of the day. The arrangements thought of are these. |
am asked to Cheswick for the Tuesday afternoon and night, and the
forenoon of Wednesday; so you need not prepare, or rather wait for
breakfast to us; but I propose calling on you on Tuesday forenoon
when the morning train arrives, ene with me some flowers for
decoration such as a newly started garden affords, and also deposit-
ing with you “The Book” of Memorial presented by the Club for
you to show to your visitors, and to have the signatures of Sir
William Crossman and Dr Stuart which are wanting. It 1s too
precious to be taken to the Museum as it was costly. The Ladies
who are with you will thus have an opportunity of seeing it under
your good care.

Mrs Hardy expects to be able to come on the 8th but it may
perhaps be mid-day train; if not she will be shopping up to about that
time. We would like a cup of tea before we leave, if possible in
good time, as it is late before we can reach home.

Sir William Crossman proposes to drive from Cheswick, so it
may be mid-day before we arrive. Mr Watson Askew will be the

184 THE CORRESPONDENCE OF DR. JAMES HARDY

new President. Sir George Douglas is to be at the Meeting for
dinner, but not sure about the Museum. Last year he had to leave it,
on account of the cold room in the Museum, as well as some others;
so that the Museum roomis not so serviceable as the Inn, where there
were no complaints.

If there is anything more to do, you can inform me in the inter-
val. The papers you have got toshow will no doubt interest many.

Letter 106. Oldcambus, Feb. 5, 1891.

Ihave to apologise for having appeared to be negligent, but when I
got your first letter I was engaged with the Index to Vol XII, a
serious business, as you will perceive, for my fingers, and while I was
upon this, I had resolved to let correspondence rest. Following on
it many documents have come in which had to be copied preparatory
for future work. Iam not quite finished, so you may allow mea
fortnight or so, as I then have to begin the Club’s Reports for the
Printer. It is going to be a very busy year with me among proof
sheets, as there is to be a reprint of two Club’s Numbers, and a
Northumbrian Book to edit. Our next number is to bea thick one;
perhaps I may get some of the writers to edit their own pap-
ers. There is no doubt that Mrs Blair (for Mr Blair is dead and she
and her daughters continue the business) would do the work cheaper
than anyone else, and the printing is good; but excessively slow, and
she would have to engage assistance. Our Proceedings don’t
require to be out at a day fixed. Weare to have numerous cuts and
plates.

You will notice by the new list of members that a great many of
the old members have been removed, or grown careless in their
subscriptions and been cut off, and for two years past their places
have been occupied by new men, many of them strangers. It is
chiefly the Northumbrians who take an active interest in the Club’s
well-being. [Iam not sure whether or not you have sent the letters
as your last seemed to indicate. I donot know what has become of
Sir Alexander Jardine, possibly he may have gone abroad. I think
the estate was sold to Sir Robert Jardine of Castlemilk, M.P. for
Dumfriesshire. Apparently Sir Alexander Jardine is no longer one
of the Duke of Buccleuch’s Commissioners. I have no correspon-
dent in that district to ascertain where he is; but we have some of the
Duke’s officials in our ranks, who might inform us. I have never
seen the library advertised for sale; perhaps the mansion is still left.

I am afraid I will not know uel about your father’s correspon-
dents, as my information about Naturalists is now much out of date;
and I have been contracting my reading very much. Some of our
members may be able to give information.

I seldom get out; but one day before the new year found a wild
grass in a dean here new to Berwickshire, a very fine one—Millet
Grass. It is a mere patch on the face of a rock, over which water
drips. I have frequently looked at the place before, and never
observed it.

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HISTORY

OF THE

NATURALISTS’ CL

The Centenary Volume and Index, issued

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HISTORY

BERWICKSHIRE

ATURALISTS’ CLUB

_INSTITUTED SEPTEMBER 22, 1831

2 ET TELLUS, ET, QUOD TEGIT OMNIA, ‘CELUM”

t

(a NOLS TUE,
PART IV, 1980.

OFFICE-BEARERS

Joint Field Secretaries
D. MACKENZIE ROBERTSON, Esq,., 4, Hermitage Lane, Kaleo,
Mrs D. MACKENZIE ROBERSTON, M. 3 = oe F.S.A.Scot.
(Tel. Kelso 2252).

Corresponding and ee Secretary. — gi A: |

T. D. THOMSON, Esq., C.M.G., 0.B.E., M.A., LL.B., F.S.A.Scot., The ne |
Coldingham, emote (Tel. ruled Wit 209). ws

ate

Treasurer, (3) ii): Oe ie A i
J, STAWART, Esq., 4 Douglas Close, Berwick upon n Tweed. tte’
(Tel. Berwick 7549) ogy

Librarian.
Revd. H. S. ROSS, B.D sh 16 Ravensdowne, Berwick \ upon” » Tweed,

te

ee pe a ear

i
\ oe bt
HISTORY OF THE Sr
BERWICKSHIRE NATURALISTS’ CLUB. SZ
CONTENTS OF VOL. XLI
PART 4 — 1980
iD ISIDEES 60 5 algae © Sec Rane CUO lane are a Cor eg 188
Presidential Address — Conservation along the Berwickshire Coast .... 189
SEGht Oise love lie i ae a anne as 200
Cpldinghann Excavations — XIV jf.) lc. lwe sl. obs et ae 201
Botanical and Ornithological Meeting, St Boswells .................. ZA
mommacrimer tients ini berwickshire ). 09. 2..0. eek ca ene ee bese tas 218
Me IME MADE Petey HPO Ty ELLA osilk a safle viaia,e cies he eve degen tf bigtn aby 3 218
Wintering and Mortality among Whooper Swans on Teviot .......... 221
iitewWodingham: Resurrectionists...050....2 06.0... Selb ei ik) .. 227)
TIS HES LOSS RE Ie Se hi seer ee eee eae eee 234
The Present Vegetation of Linton Loch, Roxburghshire .............. 236
Berwick Dispensary and Infirmary, 1814-1898....................... 243
A Tale of Two “Mosses’”’ (Coldingham and Drone).................. 259
imemermcat ert NGA.) oe oh Pe es ce been ge see oe os 264
omaniccinstacement.and. Balance SHEE, .).-4. ir: s+ esas sume «4 apeeed aecvned 266
ILLUSTRATIONS

Eyemouth|— Barefoots Marine’ Reserve .:..3. 2s. ..2. 050.00 2 ee 198-199
Coldingham Priory Excavations — Sections ...:............ 000 eeees 209
Coldingham Priory Excavations — 1979 Plan and Section ........ 210-211
Moldmenann Priory Excavations: — Section..../..........:.+8...500- 212
Coldingham Priory Excavations — Paved Floor and Buttress ......... Zils
Coldingham Priory Excavations — Quarter Circular Feature, etc....... 214
Coldingham Priory Excavations — Quarter Circular Feature, etc....... 215
Coldingham Priory Excavations — Alleyway North of Edgar’s Walls .. 216
Perera TIO E Sg ISOCALION ii hs ye se ctceha Qicta ahaats - v ose ns ree Cage pares 238
moten och — Present Vegetation... .0:. 2.2 o2. gee eee cheese 240-241

PCr eN O72: 4. 2 es. ese sbas failed sSauth. kee SMaious 249

CLUB NOTES

Although Mr Edgar, whose Anniversary Address is published
herein, died shortly after the period now covered, it is fitting to
record here the Club’s great sense of loss at his passing and its deep
sympathy with Mrs Edgar and her family. A full appreciation will
appear in Our next issue.

Meetings were held in 1980 as follows:—
21st May. Netherbyres, the ELBA plant at Eyemouth,§
Gunsgreen House and the Eyemouth vicinity. .
19th June. Cragside and Brinkburn Priory.
16th July. Biel, Stenton and Tyninghame.
21st August. Howick Hall, Craster Tower and Dunstan Hall. |
17th September. Cranshaws Church and Tower and Whitches-|_
ter.
15th October. Annual Meeting in Berwick. Ladykirk Church in|_
the morning. |

Three Extra Meetings were also held. In May a small group of| _
members were enabled toinspect DrR. J. P. Allan’s collection of rare
breeds of domestic livestock near Drone Hill, Coldingham, and|_
thereafter to enjoy Dr and Mrs Allan’s hospitality at Buskinburn. At|*
the beginning of June there was a visit to Barns Ness, East Lothian,
and later in the month a party of members under Mr Edgar’s leader-| ~
ship went seafaring round St Abbs Head. |

This issue of the History comes as Part 1V of Volume XLI, to bring us| «
up to our one hundred and fiftieth birthday in 1981. The Index t
Volume XLI will be incorporated in the 1932-1980 Index now bein
prepared.

—ROCEEDINGS

OFTHE

BERWICKSHIRE
NATURALISTS’ CLUB

| CONSERVATION ALONG THE BERWICKSHIRE
‘COAST FROM SICCAR POINT TO EYEMOUTH

being the Anniversary Address delivered by J. A. Edgar Esq.,
B.A., M.A., President of the Club, on 15th October, 1980

;
|
:
|My definition of a conservationist is anyone who wishes to
“preserve the beauty of the countryside with its legacy of
animal and plant life, and its general attraction and appeal.
‘Since the advent of the steamship one hundred and fifty years
ago this has become steadily more difficult. Towns and cities
increasingly have been fed from overseas, and at the same time
they expanded at the expense of farm land. Despite so much
farm land going under new buildings, roads and reservoirs,
‘the acreage under the plough is about the same as one hundred
‘years ago. Farmers have reclaimed waste land to ie aan
Bit very little land is now left worth the capital cost of reclam-
ation. The motor car explosion has Bratiene new problems as
Ber increasingly people drive out into the countryside which
‘many regard as their playground by right, and ignore the
/Country Code. Since about 1970 by conferences and other
/means attempts have been made to reconcile what at first sight
/are conflicting interests, but progress is slow. In the process of
“assessing what had been achieved so far, I came to the conclu-
‘sion that along the East Lothian and Berwickshire coasts as
“much had been achieved as anywhere, much of it through
‘voluntary efforts by farmers, Councils and individuals so I
‘changed my intentions, and chose part of the Berwickshire
Coast to see what had been achieved so far and where further
progress might be made in my view. In this part of the coast
there are two wildlife reserves, and between them the village
of Coldingham with a number of streams flowing down to the
a at Milldown Beach.

|

190 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

St. Abbs Wildlife Reserve was established by the owners of |,
the land, Mr. & Mrs. Tom McCrow, about three years ago asa jj
major sea bird sanctuary, and was managed until 1st October)
of this year by the Scottish Wildlife Trust in conjunction with jj,
the owners, anda ranger was appointed. It originally consisted |)
of approximately 240 acres, part of an arable/stockbreeding
farm, and stretched along the rocky coast from near St. Abbs}),
village to Petticowick Bay. The National Trust for Scotland),
bought 192 acres on October 1st, which will continue to be),
managed as a Wildlife Reserve in conjunction with the Scot-|),
tish Wildlife Trust and others.

The Nature Conservancy Council describes the area as aj,
fine series of seacliffs with considerable botanical interest, and},
the most important locality for cliff breeding birds in South}.
East Scotland. The Head itself is about 94m. above sea level. AJ,
little to the North West, and outside the Reserve lies Fast\))
Castle, and close by, Telegraph Hill (174m. high) which is the},
highest point on the East coast of Scotland. The Head itself has jj,
impressive views of the cliffs. These are largely composed of}.
Lower Old Red Sandstone Lavas, cut by several steep open),
fractures which define the faces of high offshore stacks. Par-)),
ticularly in early summer the visitor cannot fail to be im-jj,
pressed by the vast number of sea birds nesting in the cliffs or),
wheeling over the sea. The most important species are Guil-))
lemots, Razorbills, Kittiwakes, Fulmars and Herring Gulls.
Shags are common on the lower rocks, and there are several
groups of puffins nesting in holes in the rocks. Further along),
the coast at Fast Castle there is a colony of puffins using rabbit
burrows for nests, and beyond Fast Castle at the Greenstone
Rocks a colony of Cormorants, the first in Berwickshire, is}}.
becoming well established. In favourable weather there arejj,
magnificent views up the Forth and across to Fife, including|},
the conical plug of North BerwickLaw, the Bass Rock with its).
gannets, Largo Law and the flat profile of the Isle of May. |)

The excellent pamphlet called “St. Abbs Head Wildlifej},
Reserve’’, which has been availabe in shops in St. Abbs andj,
Coldingham, is really a necessity for anyone visiting the
Reserve. If it can be obtained the St. Abbs Head section of “Anj).
Excursion Guide’ which is part of the “Geology of the},
Lothians and South East Scotland” published in 1975 by the
Edinburgh Geological Society is an excellent guide for anyone
walking right round the Reserves. Many walkers and ramblers
do in fact visit the Reserve, and they would be well advised to
stop at Bell Hill as well as at St. Abbs Head. From the cliff path},
there is an extensive view to the South which includes the).
Farne Islands and Holy Island, and nearer at hand the Old Red), ;

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 19

Sandstone cliffs between St. Abbs and Eyemouth. The best
exposures of Lower Old Red Sandstone are on the northern
slope of Bell Hill. The view to the north comprises the lavas
round the Lighthouse, and further to the right, the lava cliffs of
Bell Hill.

Much has already been achieved but not unexpectedly many
more problems remain to be solved. During the summer there
is a very large number of visitors at weekends and holidays,
many of them skindivers wishing to operate from Pet-
ticowick.

There is only limited car parking space in the Reserve, a very
‘limited amount at Petticowick, and another small area at the
lighthouse. A parking fee is now charged, but there is often

resentment by those who are turned away. Control of the
‘situation might possibly be better by a conservation approach.
‘Skindivers now appear to be divided into two groups. Increas-
ingly organised groups are being formed, and these tend to be
conservationists studying the underwater marine life, but not
‘removing or destroying it. The other group is usually not
‘organised, and destroys or removes the marine animals. If
-skindiving is to continue at Petticowick, it might be possible
‘to limit its use to the conservation groups, letting the others
operate from St. Abbs harbour.

Another serious problem is the stealing of gull’s eggs and
even the removal of the gulls themselves. Asa result (nete are
‘frequent serious accidents through falling over the cliffs. The
law as it now stands seems to leave too many loopholes for
dealing with these marauders.

Provided visitors observe the Country Code, they have
been given considerable freedom to wander over the Reserve
by well-defined paths shown on both the Ordnance Survey
‘Map and in the Reserves pamphlet, but there are no indications
of viewpoints on the tops of the cliffs from which to study the
different sea birds nesting below. This is important because
powerful binoculars are necessary for identification purposes.
‘At many places the cliff edges are dangerous, particularly in
windy weather; some form of safety rail would be helpful at
such places, and might have a sobering effect on school parties
who find the heights rather stimulating. Visitors would be
well advised to seek to go round the Head by boat from St.
Abbs harbour during the early summer nesting period, where
the opportunity to study and photograph the vast colonies is
greater than from land. Flights of terns and shearwaters from
the Torness area, and rock pigeons living in the caves below
the Head are also more easily seen from the sea than from the

cliff tops.

192 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

St. Abbs Head is used as a navigation land mark, and staging | *
post for migrants. On one occasion I watched a flock of geese |”
coming from the direction of Berwick and Norham split |’
neatly into two when they sighted the Head. One detached |’
itself and acted as a traffic policeman, giving loud instructions | *
so that half of the flock turned in the direction of Duns and) '

Greenlaw, and the remainder flew stright on towards Dunbar.
The ‘policeman’ then joined the Duns group.

The establishment of the conception that a Nature Reserve} *
is not a recreational area but a conservation area demanding} ‘
due respect from the visitors to it, may require perseverence .
and understanding, and in the case of entry through farmlanda |!
real knowledge of the Country Code. As many people as} *
possible should have the pleasure of visiting a Reserve like that} "
at St. Abbs Head, but this in turn imposes a discipline on the
visitors to see that any necessary restrictions are respected. | |

I would now like to deal with the conservation effort made} '
by a group of volunteers in Coldingham five or six years ago. |
Several streams rising on the Moor run through the village, |
and join one another finally becoming one just beyond)
Scoutscroft Caravan site, and then flow alongside the Mill-|
down farm road as the Scavie Burn, reaching the sea through a]
deep wooded gorge at Milldown beach. These streams were] *
all cleared of garden refuse, tins, bedsteads, etc., resulting in a) *
free flow of water, but at the same time preserving the pools,|™
shallows and broken water. One group, led by a young man, |»
also constructed a path and a Bid ae alongside Fishers Brae,|
and so completed foot paths which together with the farm} «
road went right down to the sea, and joined the public foot}
path constructed by the Regional Council which links Col-|)
dingham Bay with Eyemouth. They also tidied up the banks) «
and planted some trees. On the North side some of the hedges}
were reasonably complete. The whole effect was to produce}!
an ideal setting for mammals, birds, shrubs and wild HoweNll
which could now be seen by walkers from the village to the)»:
sea.

It transpired that particularly along the Fishers’ Brae section} *
enough Willow Herb and fruiting shrubs had been left to
provide winter feeding for the birds, and at various points|)
flocks of bullfinches and goldfinches could be seen enjoying} i
the willow herb seeds and the haws and brambles in the heges,|
and on the steep banks in the North side of the stream. Herons *
returned to the burns. Most of the members of the tit family,»
including a pair of willow tits, and of the finch group could be ne
seen regularly. Pied wagtails were very common and redpolls \i:
anda pair of dippers could be spotted regularly. Wild flowers}

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 193

are abundant along the whole length of the walk at all times of
the year. The steep southern banks of the stream and the shore
are particularly attractive with spring flowers, such as snow-
drops, primroses and cowslips, but there is a rich variety at all
seasons especially along the edges of the farm road. A pair of
otters were recently seen disporting themselves on the beach,
and one was reported earlier by a St. Abbs resident. Roe deer
/ are sometimes seen fairly close to the shore, and there are
several small concentrations in the woods nearby. Weasels and
hedgehogs are very common.

Directly attributable to the clearing of the banks are two
large patches of bluebells that have appeared, and the spread of
early spotted orchids. Mimulus has also moved well down-
stream.

Unfortunately there doesn’t appear to have been any follow-
up to the original effort, and debris is again accumulating at
various points. Recently the growth of willow herb and shrubs
along the banks has been so dense that its sheer weight has
caused it to collapse right across the streams at various points.
Giant Hogweed is spreading downstream very rapidly, and is
even establishing itself in the middle of the stream at various
places. In order to retain this pleasant walk, the paths require to
be kept clear, the growth of willow herb and hogweed should
be brought under control, and some of the overhanging shrubs
and bushes cut away. Blockages in the streams themselves
should be removed. It would be most unfortunate if an amenity
like this could not be looked after properly as there has been a
steadily increasing number of tourists and holidaymakers using
these paths. Youth Hostellers often seem to prefer walkin
along the farm road rather than down Sands Road, whic
frequently is a very busy one. It is possible that some scheme in
the future to help the unemployed might also enable the Reg-
ional or District Council to find the necessary labour to preserve
and improve this amenity. Watercourses such as this need to be
planned judiciously, especially where they require to be cleaned
out in places, and the co-operation of the Water Authority may
be required. ‘Farm and village ponds are other examples of
amenities which can enrich the environment. A little inexpen-
sive dredging to provide some open water will make a pond
more attractive for dragonflies and other water insects, frogs,
and depending on the size, some birds. Shading by trees, how-
ever, particularly on the South side, will decrease the interest”.
(Farming with Wildlife Leaflet.) Even larger areas of water
“such as waterfilled gravel pits are often landscaped into very
-attractive amenities and prove of particular interest to wild-
fowl.

194 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

Let us now walk along the cliffs from Milldown Beach to}
Barefoots Marine Reserve
This reserve is unique at least in this part of the world. It}
stretches from Weasel Loch along the exposed rocky coast to |
Black Carr in Eyemouth Bay. It is the creation of one young |
man, Mr Lawson Wood, whose family owns the foreshore |
along this stretch down to Mean High Water Springs, which
effectively gives control over anything removed from the sea |
as there is practically no dry es thre M.H.W.S. The depth
of water covered by the Dive Sites is generally around 25 to 50
feet, but some are as deep as 70 feet at Spring Tides. The area |
has been charted and the main dive sites and species areas
marked. A copy of this operating chart is attached as appendix 1. |
To understand the work being undertaken here which was
started less than two years ago, it is necessary to understand
the objectives of Mr Wood, who had no previous training or
experience. He believes intensely in conserving the marine life |
of this and other parts of the coast. His equipment is the!
underwater camera, and his approach is scientific. In the first |»
year of his experiment he was awarded by the Under Water iF
World magazine the title underwater skindiver of the month).
for services to underwater conservation; by the Scottish Sub-|}
Aqua club the title of Scottish Underwater Photographer of)»
the Year. The International Underwater Festival which is held},
once every three years gave him their Bronze Medal in 1979. |)
He is now Underwater Conservation Officer for the Scottish |,
Sub-aqua Clubs, and works closely with the Royal Scottish}
Museum and, amongst others, York and Bristol Universities. |)
His objectives are very clearly stated by him as follows:
“The Reserve is an entirely serpin © run area, and
originated more as a protest against the irresponsible
actions of several groups of individuals whether they be
skindivers or not.

Over the years, as is evidenced at St. Abbs, people have
taken marine life from the sea. Not just for souvenirs or
private profit, as in the case of the sea urchin, but more
often than not, just for the sheer fun of it!

Whole areas have been denuded of sea urchins, crabs
and lobster, where once they were as commonas ‘pebbles
on the beach’. This has caused great unrest between
skindiving groups themselves, not to mention the aggra-
vation caused to the local inhabitants, i.e. lobster fisher-
men, who are now up in arms against the skin diving
fraternity as a whole. Divers have oe seen to take crabs
and lobsters from the sea, then throw them away,
because they have changed their mind about wanting

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS 195

them. Holidaymakers take sea urchins because they look

‘nice and pretty’ then discard them because they get

“smelly”? when not cleaned properly. Lumpsuckers have

been witnessed to being stabbed “‘Just to see what they

would do”’.

These are only a few isolated incidents to illustrate the
mindless attitude of some people. Hopefully, by starting
this Reserve in Eyemouth, we will abate these types of
actions and make the Barefoots Marine Reserve a mar-
vellous place to come and dive in—as it is now, and not
just another black spot on the map.

There are no hardfast rules and regulations for tourists
beneath the waves, except that the Barefoots Marine
Reserve is private property, and permission should be
obtained first. Follow the Conservation Code—

“LOOK BUT DO NOT TOUCH”

A shortened species list of the Reserve is attached as Appen-
dix 2. Among his discoveries have been 41 species of sea-slugs
of which at least 12 have not been recorded before, and the first
recorded specimen of Octopus Vulgaris in East Scotland since
1893. His specific interest at the moment are British Nudi-
branchias, and his findings are published bi-monthly in the
magazine Underwater World. He hopes fairly soon to publish
a book entitled “‘Barefoots Marine Reserve’ which will be a
guide for amateur biologists like himself. This scientific

| Ra to the conservation problem bodes well for the
future. It involves an attempt to identify as much marine life as
‘possible in well defined areas, and to photograph a large
“number of species, work that can go on for years. It might be
possible to extend this type of controlled study area to other
‘suitable sites along the coast, and for instance it could provide
evidence of the effect of the hot water effluent at Torness
“power station on the sea temperature, and on changes in the
marine life due to these small rises in temperature.

_ Immediately behind the coastal belt we have been discus-
‘sing there is some very rich arable land, where numerous
hedges have been cut down—but not necessarily to make
larger fields to suit modern farming techniques. In some cases
hedges on top of banks have been cut down, but the banks
remain. Presumably these have been boundaries of some kind
‘in days gone by. Furthermore the farmers alae to have kept
herbicides well away from the bases of the hedges so that
nesting birds and wild flowers can coexist with grain growing,
etc. Nevertheless, removing hedges takes away from the land-
scape one of its most interesting features. It was for this reason
that discussions started in 1969 to explore the possibilities for

196 PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

establishing a rather closer dialogue between the two camps of |
farming and conservation. Finally in July, 1969, a conference
was held at the National College of Agricultural Engineering
at Silsoe, which was supported by some very well known
public figures such as Sir John Winnifrith, the Director of the
National Trust; Mr James Fisher, Deputy Chairman of the
Countryside Commission; Mr Emrys Jones, Chief Agricul-
tural Adviser to the Ministry of Agriculture; Mr Walter
Smith, Director of N»AcA:Ss and’ Dr: Martinibloldgate, a
deputy Director of Nature Conservancy.

In 1970 regional appreciation courses for Ministry staff were
under way; many “‘Silsoes’’ took place in various parts of the
Country, and the post of Farming and Wildlife Adviser was
created by the committee which had been set up. This was an
independent group of all the principal farming and conserva-
tion organisations. A very enlightening report of these
developments is given in the book “‘Farming and Wildlife—A
study in Compromise’, and in subsequent pamphlets such as
‘Farming with Wildlife’. These include excellent suggestions
for relieving the monotony of very large areas of arable land,
including the place of hedges and trees and ways of planting
trees for a big field corner where land cannot be fully utilised.

This was originally intended to be the starting point for my
lecture until my researches revealed that progress had been
much slower than I had anticipated. In Farming and Wildlife
the editor asked conservationists to state clearly what they
wanted farmers to do, and the farming and wildlife advisory
group have been looking for that answer ever since, but quitea
number of practical excerses are taking place, and perhaps ina
few years the position will become very much clearer than it 1s
today.

F.W.A.G. has established many county groups, through
which it offers an adisory service for any one who cares to ask
for it, and to do such things as encourage interest among
farmers and landowners, which will prompt them to go into
the subject of farming and wildlife in greater detail. In one
County in England where F.W.A.G. have a full time adviser
there is a never ending interest in what is really the farmers
trade, managing the countryside with all its aspects. To reach
such a point, they have had to have the manifest interest of
conservationists in general. Without this the farmer is entitled
to shrug his shoulders and pursue the line of maximum effi-
ciency.

So this talk ends where originally it was intended to begin.
Possibly within the next few years there will be enough con-
sensus for someone to give the lecture I intended.

PRESIDENTIAL ADDRESS

Appendix 2
A Shortened Species list of the area
Tubularia indivisa Hydroid
Clavelina Lepadiformis Tunicate
Tonicella maimorea Chiton
Actinia equina Beadletanemone
Tealia Celina Dahlianemone

Metridium Senile
Alcyonium digitatum
Aremicola marina
Galathea strigosa
Corciaus maenus
Homorus gammarus
Hyas areneus

Cancer pagurus
Macropipus pubar
Macropipus depurator
Elodone cirrhosa
Archidoris pseudoargus
Trinchesia caerula
Cadlina laevis
Coryphella pedata
Coryphella lineata
Ancula cristata
Limacea clavigera
Tritonia Lombargi
Tritonia plabeia
Polycara quadrilineata
Centranotus gurmellus
Cyclopterus lumpus
Conger Conger
Squatina squatina
Labrus bergylta
Scyliorhinus canicula
Callistoma zizyphinum
Echinocordatum candatum

Plumrose anemone
Dead Men’s Fingers

Lugworm
Squat lobster
Shore crab
Lobster

Spider crab
Edible crab
Velvet crab
Swimming crab
Octopus

Sea leman

Nudibranchs

Butterfish
Lumpsucker
Conger eel
Monk fish
Ballan Wrasse
Dog fish
Painted top shell
Sea potato

Sn | BOBO

Sea Potato A —<_ 7 ve) Cave

12 10 A) Corn a
Sand 6 Forth”

Killredraughts Bay A
iP 5

“~~ __ Low mean water springs
UY Rocks & Cliffs
ll\\\. Grassy Slope

| “= High mean water springs

‘_L’ Dive Site

Depth in metres

a 4 Wreck

~~
*. Foot Path

SS
~"> Rough track

/),

ZL ® “Conger \

Northburn
Caravan Park

EN
(~

\

e

oe

° Phone Box

Police
Station

Cre

ae ‘Tunnel

Coastguard
Station

7 Nudibranchs 46

©.’ wry caer
ZB Sea

j
al
Coastgud
Why om Lookou ;

Fort Poin

Swimming

;
He
Gate

\

EYEMOUTH _ 1:50(_

|

oh
Stream a

Poe ®)12 Fish 26
See NG

= Buss Craig 20
15

Rae Thi 11 ee
oS u r :

D\\ , Big Fish

\) \Wery Picturesque) Oe Frcre ae 22
: 12 re
9 Y N

Spiny Spider
Crabs

Sura
| (on a ra ;
) d 5° Ww a aes Me,
Large 10 <
Rocks (3
C7 Black Carr S See
8 9 9
7 Eyemouth
Bay

Cert Squat

Lobsters
Chiton
9 11

)
Slipway /,

Slipway —»

\\ Weasel Loch
\
Golt Club Conger Reef
1/ House Blind Buss

II

Divers’ Hole

Hairy Ness Point
Little Leeds

! Gate Luff Hard Reef
‘Mauritania’
Hincar Rock

Green Ends Gulley

REPORT OF THELIBRARTIAN LO THE ANNUAL
MEETING

The Club Library is housed at the Berwick Public Library and is
available for use by holders of the special Club Library Ticket, which
is issued on application to the Librarian of the Club. Regulations for
the use of the Library were approved by the Council in March 1979
and then circulated to all Club members. Further copies can be
obtained from the Librarian, together with a check list of books and
periodicals in the Library. The Librarian will be pleased to meet any
interested members, by appointment, to explain the facilities availa-
ble and show the library stock.

The Librarian administers the Club’s stock of past issues of the
Club “‘History’’, and would welcome offers of unwanted past issues
by members. Several such gifts, including some important runs have
been gratefully received during the year. Copies of Vol. XXXI, parts
1, 2 & 3 (1947, 1948 & 1949) are especially needed.

Accessions, all by gift, since the last Annual Meeting, include:
McIVER, Rev. D. An Old-time Fishing Town—Eyemouth

2nd edn 1979
MACK, J. L. Abbey St. Bathans 1925
LONGMUIR, J. B. Simprin, Church & Parish (paper covers)
BERWICK SALMON FISHERIES Co. A Salmon Saga (paper

covers) 1956
da PRATO, E. S.& S.R. D. Berwickshire Sea Bird Populations

197 Siiduplic). 1979
RCAHMS Archaeological Sites & Monuments, Berwickshire

District Borders Region 1980

Library Finance.
The Library has no income apart from sales of past issues of the
“History” and Bank interest. An Income and Expenditure Account
is appended.

Income Expenditure

ae Balance (Oct 79) 175.92 Librarian’s postages 2.10
Sales of “History 16.00 Photocopy 24

Photocopy & postage 36 Balance forward (Oct 80) at
Bank interest 24.27 Royal Bank of Scotland 214.21
216.55 216.55
H. S. ROSS
Librarian

200

COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS—XIV
Duncan Noble, M.A., Ph.D.

The eighth season of excavation at Coldingham Priory took place
from the 7th to the 21st of April, 1979.

The team included Mr W. J. Webb, assistant director; Mrs P.
| Tickell, B.A., chief site supervisor; Messrs E. Dorrington and A.
Forsyth, site supervisors; Mrs P. Noel, B.A., surveyor; Miss S.
Wool, B.A., M.A., small finds supervisor, with students from the
University of London Department of Extra-Mural Studies and Bur-
ford School, Oxfordshire.

The excavation was sponsored by the Berwickshire Naturalists’
Club and we wish to thank the President, Committee, and Members
for their support and also to express our gratitude to those whose
generous financial assistance made the excavation possible. Particu-
larly we wish to thank Mr T. D. Thomson, of Coldingham, for the
‘initiative he has so many times taken in helping us and for the
encouragement and wise practical advice he has so often given us.
That in Coldingham now there is a much larger exposed part of the
‘Priory that can be enjoyed by the visitor is very much his doing.

Visitors to the site included Lt-Col W. B. Swan, H.M. Lieutenant
for Berwickshire, Professor L. Alcock, of the University of Glas-
gow, and Mr N. Reynolds, of the Scottish Development Depart-
‘ment.

In our previous seven seasons of excavation we had shown that
there were several phases of the Norman Priory, and demonstrated
their chronological relationship to each other. In the area south of the
‘Chapter House we had excavated part of a two-roomed cottage of
the mediaeval period and shown its relationship to two phases of the
Norman Priory. In 1976, on the last day of the excavation, when, as
all excavators know, new and unexpected finds are most likely to be
made, we found south of the cottage the top of atwo anda half metre
length of fine ashlar wall. It was recorded and covered up again. This
wall did not correspond with any of the structures suggested on the
old 1920’s Wilson Paterson plans. Clearly with this, and the southern
wall of the cottage, and the area immediately east of Edgar’s Walls
awaiting excavation, 1979 looked like being one of our most interest-
ing seasons of excavation. So it proved to bE the most exciting yet.

Work was continued north of Edgar’s Walls, in area F, where the
backfill from the 7th season in 1976 was removed and excavation
commenced in an area extending four metres westwards of the 1976
limit, to within two and a half metres of the corner of the cloister
garth wall. In the part of this area dug in 1976 we then found a floor
which went with the massive north-south wall in the Abbey Yard
Field. When we now restarted excavation we found that this surface
did not run further west into the new extension of the area. Instead
there appeared a mixed fill with no stratigraphical evidence in it,
extending just a few centimetres westwards. Then to the west of that
and a few centimetres higher up we found a cobbled surface set in red
clay. The surface, which is buried in a mixed fill which is probably

201

202 COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS—XIV

deposition after the destruction of Edgar’s Walls, measures one anda }

half metres from east to west and threequarters of a metre from south
to north. It butts up against the outer face of Edgar’s Walls and
extends only part way across the alleyway. As it was excavated the
character of the adjacent face of Edgar’s Walls was seen to change.
Down to the level of the ground surface before excavation began, an
arbitrary level produced by past site clearance, the outside face of
Edgar’s Walls presented a fairly uniform appearance of predomin-
antly long flat stones which had been repaired from time to time, |
dressed to a fair face. From where the excavation started, a few
centimetres above the cobbled area, the face of Edgar’s Walls was
much more irregular, with places where stones had been pulled out
of it.

North of the cobbled area, between it and the Heritors’ Wall, is
mixed earth with small stones in it which is interpreted as the fill of
the construction trench of the Heritors’ Wall. The Heritors’ Wall
would appear therefore to be later than the cobbled surface.

The Heritors’ Wall that stood above ground when we started
excavation was certainly of fairly recent date, within the last two
centuries. Its foundations have not been excavated but we have given
some thought as to whether these might be mediaeval. On architec-
tural grounds it is not impossible. The ground to the north of the
Wall was so cut away by the making of the ornamental gardens in the
1920’s that it is impossible to find any surface to the north of the wall |
to match those to the south. At the moment we incline to the view
that the evidence of the cobbled surface being cut through by a
construction trench is against the Heritors’ Wall being based on a
mediaeyal one.

West of the cobbled surface, and associated with it, is a band of red

clay which runs west for halfa metre towards and into a white stone
feature whose stones are set in red clay and mortar. This feature, a

metre and a half wide and, as far as has been excavated, one stone |~

deep, runs from the face of Edgar’s Walls northwards up to the
Heritors’ Wall foundation trench. During excavation it was
immediately obvious that it was on the same alignment as the eastern
wall of the Chapter House. Now in 1972, in area B3, a foundation-
trench on the same alignment was found to the north of the Heritors’
Wall, where the Chapter House Wall had been robbed out in antiqui- |
ty. So one must conclude that this feature in area F is a southern
continuation of the Chapter House wall, not necessarily in the Chap-
ter House but perhaps in some other chamber, up to Edgar’s Walls. It
certainly formed the outside wall of the south-east wall of the cloister
walk. Here it is brought home forceably to one that ina large site like
Coldingham the information may appear in apiecemeal fashion, but
eventually it will be put together and it will pee obvious what
one had all along. It requires just patience, and years of experience of
the site, for which we are grateful to our sponsors.

At the east end of the alleyway north of Edgar’s Walls excavation
continued down from the F/2 surface found in 1976 to the surface
below, which was known from the 1972 B2 section to go with the

.

|

:
|

:

ae

COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS—XIV 203

bottom of Edgar’s Walls. In digging down from the upper floor we
came first on a layer of red clay which must be the material of which
the upper floor was made. Below this was loose soil with which was
associated a layer of burning which was too localised to be a destruc-
tion level. In it we found three green glazed sherds, two with raised
decoration, and a yellow glazed sherd stained by the burning. This
pottery, and also the rest found in this and earlier years, awaits study
as our knowledge of the site advances.

Below this loose soil and burning, immediately north of the
corner buttress of Edgar’s Walls, was found a surface, F3, paved with
flat irregularly shaped stones, covering an area one by.one and a half
metres. This floor, which goes with the bottom of Edgar’s Walls, is
the most solid and canis floor discovered in our excavations at
Coldingham. It would seem most likely that, except perhaps in the
most important rooms like the Chapter House, a paved floor in
Coldingham Priory was of no more than such irregular stones and
that many of the floors were of cobbles, soft mortar, or dirt. The
» standard of construction of floors was certainly as variable as the
construction of the walls and presumably reflects also the varying
| financial fortunes of the House in a turbulent area during stirring
) times.
/ When considering the date of these floors one is working on
) relative chronology with one terminus ante quem. The upper floor F/2
) found in 1976 goes with the North-South Wall in the Abbey Yard
‘Field, and with the eastern doorway into Edgar’s Walls as finally
\ raised. Clearly this floor had been raised above the floor level which
“was in use at the time when Edgar’s Walls were built. The burning
and the molten lead on this floor suggest that it was the one in use
»when Edgar’s Walls were burned down. The Nuremberg jetton
‘found on it suggests that the destruction was not before the second
“half of the sixteenth century. The James III farthing found with the
Jetton would then have been 100 years old, which is reasonable. The
| presence of the farthing does, one feels, rule out a date in the 17th
century, when such jettons were still being struck. The conflagration
could have been an accident, but there were enough attacks on
| Coldingham in this period for it to be probable that the destruction
| was intentional. The conventual buildings were sacked and burned
|by the English in 1544 during the War of the Rough Wooing and
jagain in 1545. One of these two years seems the most likely for the
final destruction of Edgar’s Walls. In 1648 the remains of the Priory
| were garrisoned against Cromwell, who mounted cannon on Cold-
jingham Law 800 yards away and bombarded them. Cannon balls
have been found in Edgar’s Walls by earlier excavators and a large
‘chip has been knocked off one of the engaged columns inside Edgar’s
Walls, removed at the angle one would expect from being hit by a
‘cannonball coming from the Law. This suggests that Edgar’s Walls
‘was a ruin with its south side fallen down when Cromwell arrived,
‘not having been rebuilt after the destruction a hundred years earlier.
| The cobbled surface is above the level of the F/2 floor and cannot
)be linked to it. The context in which both are buried is soft mixed fill.

;

204 COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS—XIV

It would therefore seem most likely that the cobbled surface was laid
after the mid-sixteenth century destruction. Being cobbled rather! *
than of the flat stone and puddled clay or mortar that we have seen on)
undoubted indoor surfaces, it is most likely that it was outdoors. |
To the east, in the Abbey Yard field, we wished to find out how)):
the walls of the cottage, of which one room had been excavated in
1975 and 1976, had been made. It was always in the backs of our!»
minds that any evidence of the date of the cottage, and therefore of |
the two phases of the Priory with which it was associated, would bea}
terrific bonus, although we dared not hope for too much. So aj)
running section was taken on an area 1.5 metres wide through the}:
southern wall of room I. This area was labelled AYF B5. On remov-| =
ing Romanes’ backfill a red clay feature was found which was|®
identified as the southern pisé de terre wall of the cottage which had):
collapsed and spread on both sides of its original position to form a
linear feature 0.5 metres high and 1.5 metres wide. Mixed in with it)
were pieces of red stone of up to fist size, a few small bones, pieces of |)
plastered mortar, and three copper objects, a rod, a crushed circular)»
piece of sheet, and an encrusted lump. This debris must have been) =
mixed with the pisé as temper when the house was built. i
Running under the clay of the collapsed walls from the east, from)
inside the cottage, was a 3 cm thick layer of gritty brown earth which
went half a metre under the fallen remains of the wall before tailin
out. It contained small fish and bird bones, a few sherds, a —
metal charm in the shape of a horseshoe, and a coin.
The horseshoe seems to be another pilgrim charm, like the fleur de|
lis found in this area in 1976.} :
The coin has been identified by Mr D. H. Caldwell, of the}.
National Museum of Antiquities, as a cut half penny (with short|)
cross) of Henry III, type VII, minted at Bury St Edmonds by thei)
monayer Norman (c. 1223-42). In the Middle Ages small change was|™
in short supply and circulated afar.
Under this 3 cm occupation layer was a hard packed surface with]:
grey stones in it which was the floor of the house. It was burnt 1
places. It was seen in the section cut in the western side of the area cu
through the wall that this floor ran through under the wall, althou
in the eastern section it was not obvious what happened to it and1
may very well not have gone under the wall. In this latter section 1
seems to have gone into the remains of the wall just as far as t
occupation ahiee went. This was, of course, a considerable help t
us as it confirmed us in our view of where the real cottage wall began, },
Under the centre of the wall there can be seen in both sections aie
shaped feature under the wall with stone in it. This looked ver
much like a foundation for the wall, and from it we deduce that th
wall was about 0.6 metre wide. .
A post hole 16 cms square was found immediately outside the wal
and was earlier than the house.
To the south of the house wall is the deep ashlar terrace wall fou

1 Noble: HBNC XL, Pt 3, 1976, pp 220-221.

COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS—XIV 205

in 1976. The house is on the same alignment as the terrace wall 0.6
metre back from its face and in collapsing the pisé house wall had
fallen over the top of the terrace wall as far as its face. The house was
probably built where it was because the earlier terrace wall provided
a firm foundation.

This deep ashlar terrace wall is of very fine dressed sandstone of
better quality than most of the walls at Coldingham and survives for
a length of 1.3 metres and is four courses high. This is certainly as
high as it ever was and there is no evidence that it was ever any
longer. Cut into bedrock, this is clearly a terrace. It had for long been
obvious to us that Coldingham Priory was a terraced site, although
_ exactly where the terraces were was not at all clear. Now we had a
terrace wall, although regrettably its date and its relationship to the
conventual buildings were not at all clear.

South of the ashlar wall removal of Romanes’ rubble continued
and the area was extended from there a metre southwards. There it
was found that Romanes had excavated down to uncover a complex
of stone structures at different levels built on bedrock, removing as
he did, except in a few places, the ground levels that went with them.
Fortunately the structures run into each other, so it was possible to
reconstruct a sequence for them.

This part of the site is covered by the Wilson Paterson plans, but
what is shown on them bears in this area only a rather distant
resemblance to what exists on the ground.

A short stub of wall, now seen to be 2 metres long and 70-80 cms
wide, was uncovered in 1976 east of Edgar’s Walls and at that time its
relationship to Edgar’s Walls was unrevealed. This year it was com-
pletely excavated from the Romanes’ rubble in which it was buried.
It was found to butt against the projecting foundation of Edgar’s
Walls, over which it ran for 60 cms, although it stopped short of the
eastern face of Edgar’s Walls itself. On the alignment of this stub wall
there was a cavity, since consolidated for us by a mason, in the
eastern face of Edgar’s Walls where it had been robbed out in
antiquity. Itis impossible, therefore, to be sure whether the stub wall
ran into Edgar’s Walls or not, but it is probable that it did. The stub
wall is later than the foundations of Edgar’s Walls.

To the south of the stub wall Romanes had not gone down to
bedrock and it was possible to cut a section through the ground

between the wall and the limit of excavation. There were three strata
‘distinguished. The upper one, whose surface goes with the stub wall,
-had no finds in it. Below that is a layer (G2/3) of red earth with a lot of
charcoal in it. In it was found a small buff coloured thin sherd with a 30
mm wide band of brown paint on it. The stub wall is mortared and sits
on a foundation whose top is level with the wall’s ground surface. This
foundation is unmortared, only half the width of the wall, and offset
ten centimetres to the south. The stones of this unmortared founda-
tion extend two metres eastwards beyond the stub wall and it is not
impossible that this foundation is an earlier wall, on top of which the
stub wall was built. If this is so, then this earlier wall or foundation
goes with level G 2/3. The point where this wall or foundation should
meet Edgar’s Walls has not yet been excavated.

206 COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS—XIV

The foundations of Edgar’s Walls are an impressive platform, |
standing two courses, 30 cms, above earlier features to the east which |
we idl deans later and extending some way out from the Walls. |
It was when we came to measure up for the plans of the area that we
immediately noticed that the foundations of Edgar’s Walls were not
on the same alignment as the Walls themselves. At the chamfered
course at the bottom of the north-east corner of the buttress of]
Edgar’s Walls the foundations project outwards for 18 cms. Two and}
a half metres to the south they are one metre out from Edgar’s Walls}
east face. The plan shows clearly the divergence. We noticed in)
addition that baile Edgar’s Walls have mediaeval mortar between}
the stones, the stones of the foundations are stuck together with|_
brown earth with a lot of clay in it and just a patch of mortar which)”
could have been the remains of an ancient attempt at conservation.|
The inescapable conclusion is that the foundations of Edgar’s Walls}
are an earlier building phase, on top of which Edgar’s Walls were
built.

Now the deep ashlar terrace wall already mentioned, whose stones!”
are also stuck together with clay, is exactly at ninety degrees to the}
foundations of Edgar’s Walls. The two features are separated by|”
another feature and are of very different quality, but itis felt that they
are very probably related. |

On the far south of the trench there was discovered, partially
within the baulk, a wall of rough stones stuck together with mud. Iq”
also was at right angles to the foundations of Edgar’s Walls and
therefore parallel to the lower ashlar wall. Its junction with Edgar’s|”
Walls foundation should be 30 cms beyond the present souther
limit of excavation.

The southern wall is taken provisionally at this stage in the excava
tion to be the same building phase as Edgar’s Walls’ foundations andj ~
the deep ashlar wall. The stub wall and its foundations are on aj”
slightly different alignment from the southern wall, there being sixj~
degrees of difference. |

The southern face of this southern wall was not excavated, being)

Romanes’ excavation.

In the north-west of the area excavation was conducted between ~
the corner of Edgar’s Walls and the heavy north-south wall in the ~
Abbey Yard Field. A section was cut along the latter’s southern face. |~

Below the F3 surface found in the alleyway were 8 cms of brown~
earth and below that was an 8 cm thick band of red brown clay which ~
must be an earlier surface, earlier than Edgar’s Walls. It was found in™
the section but does not appear south of the north-south wall!~
Beyond that it must have been cut out by Romanes’ men, who did
not recognise it for a surface. We were very pleasantly surprised at
what it was possible to rescue in places from Romanes’ methods of
excavation. ,

The north-south wall, which survives two courses deep, was built ~
on a foundation as wide as the wall, made of very large rubble stones! ~
This doubtless, as was the practice with heavy walls, goes down to *

COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS—XIV 207

bedrock, although the presence of surrounding features which pre-
vent further excavation makes this a guess in this case.

In the middle of the area bounded by the features already
described, the stub wall, the foundations of Edgar’s Walls, the
north-south wall, and the deep ashlar terrace, are two features which
must undoubtedly be of the utmost importance for the interpreta-
tion of the early history of Coldingham. They are a floor of hes
stones and a quarter circular feature which surrounds the east end of
the floor.

The floor, excavated in an area 2.5 metres by 1.5 metres, consists
of ten large pieces of rough hewn red sandstone with the gaps
between them packed with smaller stones. The whole feature lies on
bedrock. To the south it runs up to within 16 cms of the stub wall,
the intervening space being packed with small stones. We infer from

this that the stub wall was cut through the earlier heavy floor.

To the east of this heavy floor, running from a position alongside

the stub wall in a quarter circle to where it disappears under the stony
‘surface beside the short wall which runs east from the north-south

wall, is a feature of eight large stones in a curved line. They are set on
‘bedrock on the same level as the heavy floor but, being larger stones,
‘rise above it.

A great deal of consideration had been given to the relative
chronology of the different features found in 1979 in the Abbey Yard
‘Field.

Ideally one would interpret this multi-phase falling site by its
‘stratigraphy, but there is none in the area as yet excavated. Except
‘between the stub wall and the east-west wall at the southern end of
‘the area, where we were able to draw a section, Romanes excavated
“over every surviving stone feature, leaving them intact but remov-
jing their context. Interpretation must therefore be founded on how
(the walls meet each other and on the quality of the masonry, based on
‘eight seasons’ experience of the site.

Our interpretation is as follows:-

1. The quarter circular feature and the heavy stone floor together
‘form the first phase. They are unmortared and of the roughest
construction. The stones of the heavy stone floor do not run right up
(to adjacent structures. There are gaps of shape and size compatible
with stones having been pulled out where walls were sunk through
(the floor. Had the floor been later one would have expected its stones
(to be laid right up to the surrounding walls. It is a possibility, and
here we are indebted to Professor Alcock for the suggestion, that the
quarter circular feature and the heavy floor are part of a semi-circular
apse with the other part under the north-south wall.

Two of the quarter circular feature’s stones lie partially over the
heavy stone floor and it is interpreted that they are part of the same
structure. The heavy stone floor does not go up to the quarter
circular in the east and in its place is brown earth with modern

ottery init. This must be part of Romanes’ backfill and he probably
ad part of the heavy stone floor removed in the course of his
excavation.

208 COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS—XIV

To the east of the quarter circular feature the bedrock under
Romanes’ backfill falls sharply to the level of the bottom of the lower
ashlar terrace wall and it is impossible to say how much the surface of
the bedrock 1s natural, mediaeval, or Romanes’ work. He seems, if he
didn’t dig down to bedrock, at least to have worked to within a very
few inches of it.

2. Edgar’s Walls’ foundations are cut through the heavy floor and
appear to go down below it. Reasons for this interpretation have
been given above. The gaps between the foundations and the heavy
floor are packed with small stones. The foundations of Edgar’s
Walls, although not mortared, are of a considerably higher standard
of workmanship than the heavy floor.

3. The lower ashlar terrace wall is, we think, probably later than the
quarter circular feature. Itis exactly at right angles to the foundations
of Edgar’s Walls and may go with them, although the architectural
relationship with the Edgar’s Walls foundations is impossible to
establish directly. If the lower ashlar terrace wall, Edgar’s Walls
foundations, and the east-west wall at the south edge of the excava-
tion form a rectangular area, one wonders why the builders did not
cut out the quarter circular feature and go through it. Perhaps what
we have found is just foundations, and the floor going with them
was higher.

Mention should also be made of the unstratified wall of large
stones found north of the cottage in 1973! and further investigated 1n
1974? which is on an alignment very close to that of the lower ashlar
terrace wall. This also had its stones fastened together with earth. It
now seems possible that this wall higher up the slope, from its
alignment and construction, may be related to the lower terrace wall
and the walls parallel to and at right angles to it found this year east of
Edgar’s Walls.

In 1975 when we were excavating the west wall of the Chapter
House we lifted some of the turf of the Chapter House (area D4) in
order to clean up the face of the wall. Immediately under the turf we
found the top of a spread of stones packed in red clay. One was large
and flat, the others were small boulders. As they started some 15 cms
back from the wall they could not be the foundations of a buttress.
Indeed they could have been cut through by the wall. Not enough
turf was lifted for us to gain any idea of their extent. We now
remember finding small stones stuck together with red clay low
down in a denuded place in the centre of the Chapter House west
wall. In the light of this year’s discoveries in the Abbey Yard Field it
is not beyond possibility that there be parts of some earlier buildings,
or aseries of buildings, which extend under the Norman Priory from
the Abbey Yard Field for some distance.

To conclude, the sequence of phases in the Abbey Yard Field,
whose numbers are marked on the plan, seems to be:-

I. The quarter circular feature and the heavy stone floor.

I Noble: HBNCG. XXX: Pt 3/1973) pil 78:
7 Noble; HBNGzcia kt 11974, p27.

7 eee eee eee

COLDINGHAM EXCAVATIONS—XIV 209

II. The lower ashlar wall, Edgar’s Walls foundations, and the east-
west wall at the south of the area.

III. The foundations of the stub wall and the stub wall.

IV. Edgar’s Walls, of either the same time or not long before or after
the stub wall, and the F3 floor.

V. The north-south wall in the Abbey Yard Field and the higher
floor F2/1 in the alleyway. This is the same as phase IV Bae
Chapter House. !

VI. The cottage B3. circa Ist half of the 13th century.

VII. The short length of wall running east from the north-south wall.

*sSee the plan in the 1974 report in HBNC. XL, Pt 1, 1974.

CDM 79, Section of west of B5

Soutk north
{

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Romanes! backfill
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occ pa

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62

ARCHITECTURAL SECTION SON ABBEY YARD FIELD
SCALE }:25 COLDINGHAM PRIORY 1979.

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sopetaa Mi Nets Wet skier es adie c

Coldingham Priory 1979. Area F, north of Edgar’s Walls. The scale is lying on the
cobbled surface. Beyond it is the stone feature that runs across the alleyway.

BOTANICAL & ORNITHOLOGICAL MEETING
June 6, 1979. Newton St. Boswells

The above meeting was held under the guidance of County Ranger
(Roxburghshire) Mr Andrew Buckham; unfortunately owing to it
being the period of the “‘shortage of petrol”’ the attendance was very
small, but enthusiastic and was well rewarded. The walk com-
menced at Maxton and took the party all along the river bank
through woods, across the meadows and over the golf course, a
distance of approximately 4'% miles.

The following is a list of the wild flowers and plants identified
throughout the walk; also a few birds were seen on the river.

Birds» june 6, 1979

Water Hens

Ducks Mallard

Water Wagtail

Dipper

House Martin

Dunnock

The Kingfisher and Heron have been seen at times on the river, but
not on this day.

Flora June 6, 1979

Butterwort Leopards Bare
Burdock Ladies Mantle
Birdsfoot Trefoil Meadow Saxifrage
Conifrey Meadow Cranesbill
Tuberous Conifrey Marsh Marigold
Crowsfoot Meadows weet
Cowparsley Monkey Flower
Charlock Opposite Leafed Golden Saxifrage
Dogs Mercury Pyrean Valerien
Davies Violet Ramsons
Few-flowered Leek Red Campion
Greater Stitchwort Sweet Cicely
Germander Speedwell Silver Weed
Ground Elder Danicle
Goldilocks Toothwort
Harts Tongue Fern Tufted Vetch
Hairy Wood Rush Valerian
Hop Trefoil Woodstitchwort
Himalayan Balsam White Deadnettle
Hedge Woundwort Water Forget-me-not
Herb Bennet Wild Strawberry
Herb Robert Water Avens
Jack-in-the Hedge Water Cress
Lords & Ladies Water Crowsfoot
Ladies Smock Yarrow

ALT

218 BOTANICAL & ORNITHOLOGICAL MEETING

FLOWERING PLANTS

Records of Flowering Plants seen in Berwickshire by M. E. Braith-
waite. Numbered as in Dandy’s List (1958).
61/1 Glaucium flavum Yellow Horned Poppy. Reed Point,
NG 77197225471 123; JIC 23) i AIO
133/3 *Stellaria pallida Lesser Chickweed. Greenheugh Point
Ni800708.5727.1979:
249/1 Lythrum salicaria Purple Loosestrife. South of Burnmouth,
INV 966598 17.1979:
371/1 Trientalis europaea Chickweed Eintergreen. Long Moss.
NUE 355685273. 7.1979;
499/1 Scabiosa columbaria Small Scabious. Foulden Dean.
INT 921549) 1657.1979.
605/14 *Juncus maritimus Sea Rush. Reed Point. NT 777723. 7.7.1979
628/2 Listera cordata Lesser Twayblade. Dye Water cleughs and
Long Moss NT 607583, 855685. 8.7.1979., 13.7.1979.
633/1 Corallorhiza trifida Coral Root. Silverwells. Long Moss.
Lurgie Loch. NT 878665;°855685; 676395213,7:-1979:
12797 9S A 1979:
657/2 Blysmus rufus Saltmarsh Flat-sedge. Reed Point. NT 777723.
Fer O79:
663/11 Carex extensa Long-bracted Sedge. Reed Point. NT 777723.
TTS)
663/22 Carex pendula Pendulous Sedge. Dunglass burn. NT 772726.
Te 79!

Species marked with * are new records for VC. 81

DUNSTAN HALL
J. D. Rose

The house is ““L”’ shaped, with a tower projecting from the south
west angle of the “L’’. Itis built largely of free-stone and in the later
parts a good deal of whinstone. The lower part of the tower is of hard
blue limestone. The house consists of an older main building run-
ning approximately East and West a south tower and a long newer
north wing. In the angle between the two portions is a stair turret on
the northern aspect.

The first record of Dunstan Hall is in the reign of Edward I when it
belonged to Michael son of Reyner the first Dunstan in 1298. The
house at that time was probably a timber framed house on stone
foundations, which still exist. It consisted of a hall with a solar at the
east end and kitchen and offices at the west.

When Michael died his son Thomas allowed Richard Wet-
wang—a Yorkshireman from Wetwang in East Yorks—to take over
the house and land, and by 1359 a quarter of Dunstan belonged to the
Wetwangs. He probably rebuilt the house in stone after the Scots had

DUNSTAN HALL 219

burnt it down. The new house was 20 feet shorter but the same
width. It was two stories high, the lower about 9 feet high. The
upper story had a high pitched roof. In its east end there were two
lancet windows, which may still be seen, though now blocked up by
the chimney breast.

In 1440 a Wetwang was constable of Dunstanborough Castle and
repaired the damage caused by the Scots who had again burnt
Dunstan in 1385. The south front of the house was taken down to the
ground and rebuilt 6” inside its former line. The walls were raised
anda high pitched thatched roof was built. The house now measured
20'6" by 55’ and at its south west corner a tower was built up two
stories higher than the rest of the building. On the east gable can still
be seen the sawn off ends of the tie beams of the older house.

Some time between the reign of Henry VIII and James I the house
was again reconstructed. The walls were raised and high pitched
gables were built making three stories. The top story or attic was lit
by dormer windows. The main part of the house was extended 20'
eastwards, and doors were opened into this part from each floor. A
staircase turret was added and the west gable taken down and rebuilt
in line with the west face of the tower, and a chimney breast added to
the original east gable.

In 1598 “Dunstan Hall” was first named and belonged to Henry
Wetwang. Under the Commonwealth the Wetwangs prospered and
Sir John Wetwang, brother of Joshua Wetwang, the then owner, was
a Master of Trinity House in Newcastle in 1677. Joshua seems to
_ have removed the eastern annex, blocked up the doors in the original
east gable, and reduced the three stories to two by raising the second
floor level. He added large new windows to the south front and
heightened the door.

In 1692 the property was sold to Alexander Browne, who in 1705
gave it and some land to John Proctor of Shawdon in exchange for
some other property. John Proctor went on with the reconstruction
refitting the wainscotting of the main building and adding a north
wing which contained a eye and servants quarters. He made the
old kitchen into a parlour, or dining room, and perhaps added the
large window in the upper west room.

In 1778 John Proctor’s grandson sold the property to Daniel
Craster. The Crasters do not seem to have done much to the Hall
until 1831 when a good deal of alteration was carried out by Shafto
Craster—the last true Craster to own Dunstan, he was succeeded by
his nephew Thomas Wood, who assumed the name Craster. He
added a wooden stair in the entrance hall and made a new front door
and entrance porch which projects from the east side of the old
stairway. Over a door in this porch is the date 1831. The late
seventeenth century chimneys lost their moulded copes and were
replaced by brick heads. A large amount of wainscotting was worm-
eaten and was removed.

Later in the nineteenth century the house was divided into four
tenements for farm workers. In January 1937 the house was in very
poor condition, damp, the cleading wormeaten and the South West

220 DUNSTAN HALL

Tower badly cracked and split. The north wing had disappeared
except for a few fragments of wall and an old doorway. The wreck
was bought by Mrs Merz, neé Fawcus, of South Charlton, who
dedicated herself to restoring the property. The work of restoration
was undertaken by Herbert Honeyman who rebuilt the north wing
with Tudor stone from Gloster Hill, Amble, which was being
demolished. He also used some of the roof timbers and three fire-
places. The new wing is now entirely in keeping with the rest of the
house. The tower was extensively strengthened and is now stronger
than it has ever been.

NATURAL HISTORY COLLECTIONS RESEARCH =
GAN YOWHEEP?

A Collections Research Unit has been set up to compile and publish a
register of botanical, zoological and geological csliecaone in Scot-
land, as part of a larger scheme to register the whereabouts of natural
history collections throughout the whole of Britain.

The resulting Catalogue will facilitate the study of Scotland’s natural
history by providing researchers and naturalists with means of
rapidly locating collections containing material of relevance to their
studies.

We are already collecting information from museums, universities,
colleges and schools, but also hope to include details of collections
held by private individuals or societies.

A ‘collection’ can be anything from a few rocks to a herd of
elephants, and if there are records or notes with the collection, all the
better.

Some collections are being actively built up at the moment by keen
enthusiasts or researchers, whereas other older collections often lie
dormant in attics, their true scientific value being unrecognised by
their owners. Unless details of such collections are made available to
other naturalists, valuable collections are effectively lost to science.

If you own or know of any such collections and you think their
existance should be recorded, please contact us at the address below.

We usually ask the owner to record the collections since he/she will
usually know many details about the collections which are not
written down, but we can arrange to visit the collections if required.
Details of the location and ownership of collections can be withheld
from the Catalogue on request to preserve the confidentiality of
valuable private collections.

Save Scotland’s Natural History Heritage.

Write to: The Council for Museums
and Galleries in Scotland (NSCRU)
20/22 Torphicen Street
EDINBURGH
EH3 8JB

A REPORT ON THE WINTERING AND ONE

MORTALITY INCIDENT AMONG WHOOPER

SWANS (Cygnus cygnus) ON THE RIVER TEVIOT,
ROXBURGH

C. O. Badenoch

South East Scotland generally and the Tweed basin in particular has
not been regarded as an important area for wintering Whooper
Swans. Neither Bannerman and Lodge (1957) nor Baxter and Rin-
toul (1953) make any mention of the Tweed area in this regard.
Atkinson-Willes (1963) notes the high use of the Lindisfarne aRanee
just south of the Tweed estuary and records up to circa 450 Whoop-
ers on the lower Tweed, including areas downstream of Carham,
where numbers of 100-300 are not infrequent still, in groups of
varying size. H. Douglas-Home counted 500 in November 1973
(pers. comm.). However Atkinson-Willes makes no special mention
of Whoopers on the River Teviot, although his and other isolated
records do show small groups all over the Tweed basin from St.
Mary’s Loch in the west to Coldingham in the east. Boyd and
Eltringham (1962), in a much more detailed study, also recorded
Whoopers on the lower Tweed but did not include the Teviot in
their figure of places known to have been visited by birds in 1960-62.

Since that time there have been regular reports of wintering Who-
oper flocks using the arable and grass haugh of the Teviot between
Kelso and Jedburgh, with occasional small satellite groups using
outlying watercourses and lochs in the Hawick, Jedburgh, Nisbet
and Eckford areas. Most reports indicate that the river flats between
Kalemouth and Nisbet are the most favoured. Numbers here have
varied according to season. In December-January 1970-74 the
observed range was 8-36 birds (T. W. Dougall, pers. comm. plus
own observations). In the last five years however, numbers appear to
Mame anercased (Pf. Eleard, R. J. Robertson, A. J. Smith, A. T.
Bramhall, pers. comm. plus Nature Conservancy Council observa-
tions). The mean of the irregular counts avaldBKe has not been less
than 75 individuals in December/January, dropping slightly in Feb-
ruary and March, but often rising again in late Marchisely April
(average 130: range 68-192) prior to the main migration exodus.
Most healthy birds have gone by the first week of April but one or
two individuals, usually with some ailment, commonly summer
somewhere on the lower Tweed and such birds often have a small

roup of “‘attendants’”’ who hang on for a time after the main flock
has left, (R. J. Robertson, pers. comm. plus Nature Conservancy
Council observations).

It is inconceivable that Boyd and Eltringham’s observers could
have failed to notice Whoopers using this area if birds had been
ae as much of the roosting and feeding area is overlooked by at
east 4 km of the A698 (Kelso-Jedburgh) and 3 km of the B6400
(Ancrum-Nisbet-Roxburgh) roads as well as by other minor roads
and vantage points. It is probably safe to conclude therefore that use

Papa|

222, WHOOPER SWANS ON THE RIVER TEVIOT

of this site has developed since 1962. What is not clear, because of the
lack of systematic and regular coverage of the Tweed/Lindisfarne
population, is whether the Teviot group are associated with or are
discrete from the lower Tweed group (Carham-Coldstream-
Lindisfarne), circa 25 km to 50 km downstream.

Mortality in March/April 1979

No competent baseline data of Whooper mortality are available for
the Lower Tweed/Teviot area and most casual observations available
have been confined to carcasses seen on fields along the river
observed from the A698 or B6400. In 1977 and 1978 numbers of dead
swans (unspecified) reported to local ornithologists over winter
from the 6 km between Monteviot parks and Kalemouth were 5 and
8 respectively. While undoubtedly a proportion of mortality must be
due to natural causes local people say that powerlines which run
across the south of the site are responsible for some of the swan
deaths or injuries each year. Others are undoubtedly shot (illegally),
probably in very small numbers. No other causes have so far been
suggested. The uneven nature of parts of the terrain and increasing
tall-herb and scrub vegetation which obscure the river downstream
from Eckford to Roxburgh undoubtedly mean that a proportion of
dead birds are unrecorded and as elsewhere, e.g. Scott, Roberts,
Cadbury (1972)—predators may quickly remove bodies or drag
them into cover especially between January and March when other
available food is scarce.

In mid December 1978, one adult and one juvenile bird were
found dead, despite what had been until than a fairly “‘open’ winter.
By 21 January one dead immature Mute Swan (Cygnus olor) and
twelve dead whoopers had been found by local observers and a
report was sent to the Royal Socety for the Protection of Birds.
Thereafter the number of dead birds increased especially in late
February-March after a severe spell of deep snow (in January) fol-
lowed by hard frost. Due to delays and disruption of normal wild-
fowl counts as a result of the weather it was almost a month before
the fragmented reports from local observers, gamekeepers, anglers
and SSPCA showed the real magnitude of the mortality. The sequ-
ence of (amalgamated) reports is given below in Table 1.

On April 9 a fresh carcass was obtained for post-mortem examina-
tion at the Veterinary Laboratory of the East of Scotland College of
Agriculture at Greycrook, St. Boswells. On 12-13 April the Nature
Conservancy Council instituted a more detailed search of the entire
river valley between Monteviot parks and Kelso, 20-22 carcasses and
remains were found round the pondat Nisbet, oman with a pair of
apparently healthy nesting Mute Swans of which the cob was regu-
larly harassing three live Whoopers which were weak, apparently
unable to leave the water and unable to evade the attacks. Most
deaths appeared to have been spleie over at nar month. Two
of these carcasses were sent for autopsy. Elsewhere on the river
valley, six dead Whoopers were found with 10 live birds and 3 pairs
+ 1 single live Mute Swan. Two of the dead swans had undoubtedly

WHOOPER SWANS ON THE RIVER TEVIOT 223

been moved by farm staff away from powerlines which they
appeared to have hit. The live swans seemed to be in reasonable
condition but 7 did not fly off when their flock was approached
although they moved off swiftly. Winds at this time were very high,
and this may have stopped them flying. One bird was taken for
post-mortem examination.

Table 1

Sequence of reports in Whooper Swan Mortality on Teviot, 1978/79

Birds Alive Birds Dead
Teviot
Date (Monteviot- Ploughlands Teviot Nisbet
Kalemouth) Pond Pond
17/12/78 82 9 1 juv.* nil
eae
21/1/79 80 _- 1 juv. (Cygnus olor)
2qfavVhads 10
25/2/79 33 15 - V3
25/3/79 — 43 a 13
3/4/79 78 15 5 —
9-12/4/79 — Se(sick) Oe) (+5) 2)

* Both with wing damage. Suspected powerline deaths.
(+5) refers to reports of other corpses.

N.B. All figures for dead birds are cumulative at any site although some
carcasses may have been removed by predators leading to an underesti-
mate.

At least three further corpses were reported to have been buried by
_anglers in the Ormiston-Kalemouth area, and another 2 were seen to
be washed downriver past Kelso. The rivers at this time were high
with melting snow. When local accounts of the incident were given
it became clear that other ‘‘swans”’ (unspecified) had been seen dead
on other ponds/burns in the Jedburgh and Hawick areas.

The total number of Whoopers confirmed dead was 29 and a
further 5 at least were reported on reliable hearsay evidence, giving a
figure around 1% of the estimated British wintering population.

224 WHOOPER SWANS ON THE RIVER TEVIOT

Post mortem examination and analyses of the 4 carcasses taken
revealed the following:-

Reference Post mortem findings Bacteriology Toxicology*
(parts per million)
B1/4 Carcase in good condition. No significant Liver lead 7.1ppm
No ingesta. findings

B2/4A Esophagus and gizzard No significant Liver lead 14ppm
impacted with long grass. findings

B Bile stained gizzard lining. No significant Liver lead 19ppm
Intestine empty. findings.

B3/4 Gizzard erosions—bile No significant Liver lead 18ppm
stained lining. findings.

Intestine empty.

* Analyses of liver from all birds for organo-phosphates, D.D.E. and

mercury were negative.

Histological examination of tissues from B3/4 revealed no abnor-
malities in kidney or intestine but extensive accumulations of the
breakdown products of red cells were seen in the liver and focal brain
damage was also noted. The latter changes were considered to be due
to the same toxic factor. There was no evidence of metallic lead in the
gizzards and the absence of histological changes in the kidney is not
typical of lead poisoning (Simpson, Hunt and French, 1969).
Nevertheless the levels of liver lead, gizzard impaction, bile staining
and failure would seem to correspond with the symptoms as
described in the now extensive literature (see, for example, the
reviews in Greenwood (1979), and Beer and Ogilvie (1972),
although the cause of death of bird B1/4 must remain a matter of
conjecture. Of the living birds several were noted as being
emaciated, unable to fly or walk properly, or holding their necks
atypically, and it is probable that they may have also been suffering
from lead toxicity. If the effects of sub-lethal quantities of lead on
swans seriously disrupt their feeding/flight/behaviour patterns then
it is possible that they are rendered more vulnerable than healthy
birds to other causes of mortality, e.g. Bellrose (1959) indicated that
Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) suffering from lead poisoning are more
likely to be shot than healthy birds. If this were the case then even
quite small incidents of this kind might be indicative of resultant
greater mortality over the whole migratory population. These ideas
are reinforced by the work of Hovette (1974) as quoted by Thomas
(1978) regarding reduction of daily migration distances in Mallard.

The causes of the incident must remain open to speculation since
the numbers of carcasses in good condition available for examination
and analyses were statistically very small. Potatoes and grain at the
side of the pond, where most dead birds occurred, were put down
specifically for ducks and game and had not been exposed to lead-

WHOOPER SWANS ON THE RIVER TEVIOT 225

based paints or rat-poison. The pond is used for some wild-fowling
and numbers of cartridges were found. Four mud samples taken at
poms round the shallow edges to a depth of some 3 centimetres over

alf a metre square revealed less than 8 pellets per kilogram of
air-dried material. Two discarded oil drums in the pond had appar-
ently been there for some time and if it is suggested that they might
have been a source of contamination then this would have shown up
in other wildfowl. The only other birds to be found dead in the area
were a Coot (Fulica atra) and a Pheasant (Phasianus colchicus). The
latter appeared to have been killed by a fox. There is no doubt that
the swans moved in to the pond during the cold spell of January-
February away from the River Teviot, and that lead levels would be
higher at the pond—from spent shot—than on the river, which is a
strict preserve of fly-fishing. Very small quantities of shot can cause
toxicity if taken into the gizzard, Beer and Ogilvie (1972), but it
usually sinks quickly in mud. However, the absence of any reports of
metallic lead in the carcasses examined must leave the question open
in this case, and the ingestion of lead from an industrial source during
migration may be equally likely.

Acknowledgements

Grateful acknowledgement is given to all the observers and recor-
ders in the locality, in particular to R. J. Robertson, A. T. Bramhall,
A.J. Smith, A. Buckham, T. W. Dougall, T. Heard and the staff of
the Game Department at Lothian Estates; to A. J. Panter and J.
Forsyth for detailed survey and sample collection; and to the staff of
the veterinary laboratory of the East of Scotland College of Agricul-
ture, the Amimal Diseases Research Organisation (Moredun Insti-
tute) and the Department of Agriculture and Fisheries for Scotland,
for post-mortem examinations, analytical work, and comments on

the draft.

Postscript: One sick bird showing some of the symptoms of lead
poisoning summered in 1979 on the Teviot between Kelso
and Nisbett. In December 1979 one of two dead we noene
swans was retrieved for analyses. There were no signific-
ant mercury or D.D.E. levels nor bacterial isolations.
However, lead levels in the kidney were 66.2ppm and in
the liver 21.3ppm. Other evidence—impacted esophagus,
bile staining, braid damage and intra-nuclear inclusions in
the kidney were further indicative of lead poisoning. The
only other bird examined in 1979-80 had died probably as
the result of collision with overhead powerlines.

References

ATKINSON-WILLES, G.A. (ed) (1963)—Wildfowl in Great Britain
Monograph No. 3 of the Nature Conservancy HMSO,
London.

BANNERMAN, D. A. and LODGE, G. E. (1957)—The Birds of the
British Isles Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh.

226 WHOOPER SWANS ON THE RIVER TEVIOT

BAXTER, E. V.and RINTOUL, L. J. (1953)—The Birds of Scotland
Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh.

BEER, J. V. and OGILVIE, M. A. in SCOTT, P. (ed) (1972)—The
Swans (Chapter 6: Mortality). Michael Joseph, London.

BELLROSE, F. C. (1959)—Lead Poisoning as a Mortality Factor in
Waterfowl Populations. Bull. Ill. St. Nat. Hist. Surv. 27, pp |
235-88.

BOYD, H. and ELTRINGHAM, S. K. (1962)—The Whooper |
Swan in Great Britain. Bird Study 9: (4), pp 217-237.

GREENWOOD); .AvsGs in) COOPER, JE. andi BLEYen)ina sed) |
(1979)—First Aid and Care of Wild Birds (Chapter 12:
Poisons). David and Charles: Vermont, U.S.

HOVETTE, C. (1974)—Le Saturnisme des Anatides Sauvage,
L’ Institut Technique de l’Aviculture. |

SCOTT, R. E, ROBERTS, L. J, CADBURY, C. J. (1972)—Bird
Deaths from Powerlines at Dungeness. British Birds 65 (7), |
pp. 273-286.

SIMPSON, V. R, HUNT, A. E. FRENCH, M. C. (1979)—Chronic |
Lead Poisoning in a Herd of Mute Swans. Environ. Pollut. 18 |
(3) pp 187-202.

THOMAS, G. J. (1978)—Lead Poisoning in Waterfowl and Ways of
Reducing It. Bulletin 45, July 1978: International Waterfowl
Research Bureau. |

THE COLDINGHAM RESURRECTIONIST
GE, DAVIDSON

(In 1975 we reprinted from the Berwick Advertiser of 16th December,
1820 an account of the arrest of Dr Lawrie for bodysnatching (HBNC
XL, 156). Mr Davidson now gives us the whole story—Ed.)

REPORTS of the body snatching which took place in Coldingham in
the early 19th century have recently appeared in the local Press and in
the Edinburgh Evening News. These reports, like local gossip,
were vague and in some instances inaccurate.

In an effort to obtain accurate information I went to the Scottish
Records Office in Charlotte Square, Edinburgh and read the deposi-
tions of the witnesses made before the actual trial as well as the
transcript of the trial of George Lawrie. There follows a summary
of this material. The misspellings, grammatical errors and spelling
of the carrier’s name are as in the original. Homefield was recon-
ditioned recently. The roller in the window sill had been removed

but the mortuary under the floor is still there.

George Lawrie
Surgeon

Indictment
by
The Lord Advocate
against
George Lawrie

George Lawrie now or lately
Surgeon in Coldingham and
County of Berwick and now or
lately prisoner in the jail at
Greenlaw.

Your are indicted and accused
at the instance of Sir William
Rae of St. Catherine’s Baronet
His Majesty’s Advocate for His
Majesty’s interest.

227

228 THE COLDINGHAM RESURRECTIONIST

That albeit by the laws of this and every other well governed realm
the Violating the Sepulchres of the dead and the raising and carrying
away dead bodies out of their graves is a crime of an heinous nature
and severely punishable. Yet it is true that you the said George
Lawrie are guilty thereof or art and part. In so far as Elizabeth
Black residing at Coldingham Hill in the Parish of Coldingham
having died in the month of November 1820, and having been
buried in the Church Yard of Coldingham on the 29th Nov., you the
said George Lawrie did on the evening of the 3rd Dec. 1820 with
certain persons your accomplices procede to the Church Yard, and
did then and there wickedly raise up and take out of her Coffin and
grave the dead body of Elizabeth Black and did carry away the same
and you George Lawrie having been apprehended, and brought
before David Renton, Esq., of Greystonelees, J.P. for the county of
Berwick, did in his presence at Eyemouth upon the 5th Dec. 1820,
subscribe a declaration, which declaration as also a letter dated ‘94
Nicolson St. Edinburgh, 30th Oct. 1820,’ and addressed ‘For Mr.
George Lawrie, Surgeon, Coldingham,’ another letter dated, 94
Nicolson St, 13th Nov. 1820, addressed to Mr. George Lawrie and a
third letter dated 8th Nov., 94 Nicolson St, and begining ‘Dear
Lawrie I send in a parcel along with this letter the key,’ and another
letter dated ‘Coldingham, Monday morning,’ subscribed G. Law-
rie,’ and addressed ‘To Mary Home, Edinburgh’: being all to be used
as evidence against you the said George Lawrie, at your trial, willfor §
that te aati lodged in the hands Be Clerk of the High Court of
Justiciary before which you are to be tried. And if found guilty §
before the Lord Justice General you ought to be punished with the
pains of law to deter others from committing the like crime.
sgd MACONACHIE.

List of Witnesses

1 David Renton, Esq., of Greystonelees, J.P.

2 William Hood, Constable, now or lately residing in Eyemouth.
3 John Hood, Constable, now or lately residing in Eyemouth.
4 William Nicol, son of William Nicol, lately weaver in Colding-

ham, and now or lately residing in Auchetermuchty, Fife.

5 Robert Landell, now or lately Surgeon in Dunse.

6 James Wilson, now or lately Surgeon in Swinton.

7 John Guthrie, Blacksmith, Coldingham.

8 Thomas Rae, Customs House, Officer, Coldingham.

9 James Nairn, Wright, Coldingham.
10 John Black, Wricte Coldingham.
11 Robert Rutherford, Mason, Coldingham.

12 William Ferme or Fernie, tenant in Hallydown.

13. Thomas Allanshaw, Baker, Eyemouth.
14. Charles Scougall, Nailor, Eyemouth.

15 James Beuglass, Carrier, between, Eyemouth and Edinburgh.
16 Jean Beuglass, wife of above James Beuglass.
17 Thomas Ford, servant to James Beuglass.

THE COLDINGHAM RESURRECTIONIST 229

18 William Mackenzie, Surgeon, Nicolson St. Edinburgh.

19 David Home of Homefield, Coldingham, now residing in
Haddington Court, Canongate, Edinburgh.

20 Mairia Home, daughter of David Home.

The were 15 members of the jury. All resident in Edinburgh or

4 Leith.

Upon 3rd March 1821, John Morrison, Macer, to the High Court,
charged William Mackenzie, Surgeon, Nicolson St. Edin. David
Home of Homefield, Haddington Court in Canongate, and Mairia
Home daughter of David Home, to compear before the Lord Justice
General, Clerk and Commissioners in a Court holden by them
within the Criminal Court House of Edinburgh on 15th March, curt,
at 10 o’clock forenoon to bear witness as far as they know or shall be
asked anent the said George Lawrie as charged under pain of 100
marks Scots.

I did leave a copy of Citation for William Mackenzie at Nicolson
Street, with servant to be given him as it could not find him personal-
ly. As also a copy to David Home and his daughter Maria.

sed John Morrison.
John Lindsay, witness

Thomas Guthrie, Messanger at Arms summond David Renton,
and the other witnesses to compear on 15th March under a similar
pain of 100 marks.

On 4th Dec. William Ferme, tenant in Hallydown, and Thomas
Allanshaw, baker in Eyemouth, presented to David Renton, J.P.
information bearing that James Bookless, carrier, had in his cart a
large leather trunk, which many of the inhabitants of Eyemouth
suspected contained a female corpse, and that on being opened this
was found to be so.

Bookless stated that he received the trunk from George Lawrie,
Surgeon at the house of Mr David Home at Homefield, and was to
deliver it to Mr Home, Edin. to be left till called for at Carrier’s
Quarters.

The Justices thought it advisable to apprehend Dr. Lawrie in case
he might abscond.

Mr mackenzie, superintendant of Dr. Munro’s dissecting Room
was expected to collect and received a letter informing him to uplift
on Wednesday about noon.

Dr. Lawrie admits he has at least two letters from Mackenzie
about this type of business but very guarded in expression.

Dr. Lawrie declares that on Sunday evening last between 6 & 7
o'clock he, James Wilson, and William Nicol Junr., took up the
corpse from its grave, put it in a sack and then put it in the
trunk. The trunk belongs to Mackenzie and was sent to Mr Home,
about 3 weeks ago. Mackenzie warned Dr. Lawrie to expect it and
that it contained, sack, sheet and crowbar. Mackenzie wrote that he

230 THE COLDINGHAM RESURRECTIONIST

would give Lawrie Six Leaves (which he understands to be six
guineas) for a corpse.

James Nairn, Joiner, went to Eyemouth Mill and identified the
corpse as Elizabeth Black and stated that there was an iron hook also §,
in the trunk, supposed to be to assist removal of the body from the
coffin. John Black declared that the body in the trunk, in James
Bookless’s cart was his aunt. She died on Monday 27th Nov. and
was buried at Coldingham on 29th Nov.

Charles Scoular assisted with the opening of the trunk and taking
the body into Eyemouth Church and the corpse was re-interred in
Coldingham Churchyard on 5th Dec.

Various witnesses testified that the grave of Elizabeth Black had
been robbed of the body.

William Nicol, left Coldingham about 30th Jan. for Auchter-
muchty and stated that he was prevailed to assist by watching the
Churchyard while Dr. Lawrie raised the body. Dr. Lawrie
informed him that Dr. Wilson had arrived and put his horse at
Homefield. Nicol meet Lawrie & Wilson near Kilnknowe and
went with them to collect the necessary tools at Homefield. Nicol
was stationed outside the churchyard dyke, and Wilson on the inside
at the back of John McGall’s yard while Dr. Lawrie proceeded to
open the grave Nicol went to the grave side, saw Lawrie dragging
the body out of the smashed coffin while Wilson was ee ona
rope attached to the body. They put the body ina sack while they
filled in the grave, then carried the bear to Homefield and put same
in the trunk stuffing it with sawdust and some perfume.

James Bookless, carrier, said he had been instructed by Mairia
Home to collect a trunk from Homefield, getting the key HEN Dz
Lawrie and bring it to Edinburgh. Jean Bookless, his wife
remained on the public highway with the second cart, but com-
plained of a strong smell coming from the trunk.

Dr. Wilson denies being at Coldingham on the day the body was}
exhumed but George Lugton, Junr., states that he met Dr. Wilson
between 3 & 4pm betwist Allanton & Broomdykes. (Broomdykes 1s
not on the nearest way from Swinton to Coldingham) Wilson must
have taken this route to avoid Allanton Village or to save toll
charges, or both.

Robert Landell, surgeon in Duns states he was asked to assist
Lawrie Wilson to take up an corpse of an Esquimau but this he
declined to do.

William Mackenzie refused to answer the Sheriff as to whether he
wrote any letters to Dr. Lawrie or ever sent a leather trunk to him by
John Buglass, carrier.

Violating Sepulchres
Curia Justiciaria S.D.N. Regis Tenta in Nova sessionis domo de
Edinburgh decimo seplimo die Marty Millesimo octing—entessimo
et vigesimo primo. Per Honorabiles Viros Davidem Boyle,
Armigerum Dominum Justiciarum Clericum, Adamum Gillies
Amerigerum et Alexanderum Maconochie de Meadow, Dominos

THE COLDINGHAM RESURRECTIONIST 231

Commissionarios Justiciaria dict. $S.D.N. Regis Curia Legitime
affirmata.

George Lawrie lately surgeon in Coldinham, you are guilty of this
crime, i.e. exhuming the body of Elizabeth Black on 3rd Dec. 1820.
The Jury find Pannel Guilty in terms of his own confession.

The Lord Justice Clerk and Lords Commissioners of Justiciary
| decern and adjudge the said George Lawrie to be imprisoned in the
Tolbooth of Canongate for the period of six months from this date
and then to be set at liberty. Requiring hereby the Magistrates of
Canongate and keepers of their Tolbooth to receive and detain the
said George Lawrie in terms of this sentence.

spade De BOVEE iP)

Copy of Letter

94 Nicolson Street
Edinburgh
30th Oct. 1820

Dear Lawrie,

| I would have returned an immediate answer to your letter if I had
| been able to procure for you what you require. But as you must be
| aware that the opportunity of teaching is greatest about the middle of
the winter when young men are preparing for surgeons. Kindly if
itis possible I may not meet with a good chance in pay on before that
_period.. However when I can get two or three hens for you I will
not fail without delay to inform you of the same by letter not
_with-standing you can come down when you may it would no
doubt be making... thing sure. But in this of course you must
requested by circumstance, finances etc.
| Ihave been much surprised in not hearing from you before and
often formed the resolution of writing G. Lawrie when as often
something or another prevented me. You may not know perhaps
that [introduced Ramage to Crouch of London, who wished some-
one to travel with him. Landale being out of the way at the time,
) who by the bye has now left this County, they left thus for Ham-
| burgh with the intention of proceeding through Holland and France,
| but Crouch could proceed with him no further and so paid his
| passage home again. You remember also he was once my assistant
| and might have done well if he had taken care but it would not do, he
| was fond of amusement and... ifto finish the part. He appeared at
the Partheon as a young gentleman’s first second appearance
etc. Since that time I havehad no conection withhim. G. Tulloch
} I hope long ere this has paid you the money you lent him as he now
‘not only in easy but in opulent circumstances in consequence of
being married to a rich widow or rather I believe acting as hen —
Bergamic if you will. J. Kerr is going about this town but I have
not seen him since! returned from London. Of Ramage! will say
} nothing more until I see you . . . but he is walking about.

232 THE COLDINGHAM RESURRECTIONIST

As to myself I have been getting on better since you were
here. Campbell, Butler and the other snatchers are all well. I
think you could not do better than send mea few things (one or two)
which would put you on your feet and enable you to leave a place
that nature never intended for a man of your abilities. Write me as
soon as convenient and please excuse this hasty scoll of

Yours truly
sgd. Wm. Mackenzie

P.S. Remember me to my friend Wilson who I hope is doing well if
one may judge from the time he has remained where he now is.

Copy Letter

94 Nicolson St.
Edinburgh
8th Nov. 1820

Dear Lawrie,

I send ina parcel along with this letter the key. You can keep it as
I have another one that opens the trunk. You will find in it all the
implements necessary. I have some doubt in my mind whether it
would not be better to address it Mr Home, Nicolson Street, Edin-
burgh, to be left till called for, instead of the other direction as the
carriers when they know a person are so anxious of getting a job for
their porters that they never regard to be left till called for but send
the thing off in a moment to its place of destination, but you may
consider of this and let me know by letter your determination.-

When you write do not address to meas Dr. Appis, as the postmen
are apt to be down upon it, but to Mr Mackenzie, Junr. 94 Nicolson
Street. Besure and put some sawdust in the trunk and rope it well
and firm.

Ramage has been grabbed over the water. If the wind is not very
fair do not on any account attempt to sail, the consequences might be
dreadful. If you can get a chicken to send along with a cock or hen
good and well; but I am afraid that two fulgrowns would not
do. This you can think off and follow your own discretion. Con-
sider particularly regarding the direction of the trunk.

Yours truly
Wm. Mackenzie.

Remember me kindly to my old friend W.

—

—

THE COLDINGHAM RESURRECTIONIST « 233

Copy Letter

13th Nov. 1820
94 Nicolson Street
Edinburgh.
Addressed to Mr. George Lawrie Homefield.

Dear Lawrie,

I hope you have already got the trunk etc. which I sent by the
Berwick Carrier and the key and letter which I forwarded by the
Coldingham Carrier. The trunk was addressed Hume as you
wished but I thought it safer to send the key in a parcel addressed to
yourself. I have been disappointed in another quarter of getting
anything for ten days which is an unfortunate circumstance at this
period of the season soI trust you will lose no time in sending me one
at least for the present. With regard to the number of leafs you
_ must get for ae I have only to observe that I cannot afford to lose
anything by them and as they are now rated at £6-6/= that will be
yours but I expect that you will allow a deduction of the payment of
the carriage of the thing from youto me. This however I leave to
you and have only to observe that I will transmit the full amount by
return of post immediately after the arrival of the goods. In the
meantime I intreat you to lose no time in procuring the needful as I
am much in want at present. Hoping that you have got something
perhaps by this time, so be good and write by return of post and let
me know all about it.

Give my best respects to William. Ramage has been grabbed
over in Fife and is now out on bail carrying on as if nothing had
happened.

In haste
Yours ever
Wm. Mackenzie.

Laidal? has gone out to Botany Bay and has most excellent prospects
in that part of the World. Be sure and write me as soon as you can
say anything positive, and consider my former letter.

Wm. M.K.

Copy Letter
Addressed to Miss Mary Home

Coldingham
Monday morning

My Dear Mary,

Good God how John and you astonish one, it was the first whisper
I have heard of it, the anonymous letter was about one whom I find
you do not even dream of Poor Ramage, why did you do so unfortu-
nate Ramage, you know my Dearest Mary he was once my friend and

234 THE COLDINGHAM RESURRECTIONIST

I must feel him. Why did he not think of coming here and screen
himself with one ere I went to his father and secured him money. I
would have done everything to have served him, my last farthing
should have been at his disposal, get one of the Bills, if not write me
word for word what it says. My God what asad misapplication of
parts. Had poor Ramage lived in better times he had never come to
this. I know him well. Thanks to a kind protecting providence
that Lawrie is where he is. What is, is ignorant of the influence of
advice not sound, but I hope he is beyond the reach of detection; but
stilll fear. Desire John to write every particular of his end for tho’ it
is a crime I cannot give it such a harsh name. I never heard of it
from Mackenzie, What I mention is so far accomplished. I am
waiting for B...stosendit...ifitis secured itis probable my trunk
will bein next week and a letter telling you where and when to meet
you. Inever ment to stop here. I only said so to see what influ-
ence it had over why did you take it so cooly. Have you become
more indifferent. My clothes are made and well made, but what does
poor Ramage care for clothes. Mr. Europe will be in arms, better
days are now at hand, I have high hopes. Write me what you
witness on Wednesday, tho’ it is possible I will hear sooner.
I am yours
G. Lawrie

NOTES ON THESHISTORY @E

CRANSHAWS CASTLE
Donald Buchanan Robertson QC

It seems somewhat pretentious to dub the tower of Cranshaws,
‘castle’ since it is, and may always have been a small and simple free
standing tower, but so it is consistently described in documents and
maps from at least the 16th until the 20th century. I note however
that in the latest ordnance survey of 1976 it is relegated to “‘tower’’.
The precise age of the present building is open to argument.
~ Simple keeps are often difficult to date but despite the attribution to
the mid 16th century by McGibbon and Ross in their ‘‘Castellated
and Domestic Architecture of Scotland’, there are clear document-
ary references to a place of strength and importance at Cranshaws
very much earlier and at least some of the basic architectural features
of the present structure argue in their direction. The commonest
features of late border towers are noticeably absent. There are no
turrets, bontizans, elaborate corbelling just emplacements or
shotholes for gunfire and notably the tower is innocent of any sign of
stone vaulting; its four floors are and apparently always have been
beamed from side to side. Plainly there have been alterations to

NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF CRANSHAWS CASTLE 235

windows and ceilings of 16th to 19th century date and it is probably
impossible to assert with any confidence how much of the building
in its present form is 15th century or earlier.

In documents as early as 1442 reference is made to the “‘ancient”’
manor house or chief place of Cranshaws and this seems to indicate
that there was a house of strength and feudal importance perhaps as
early as the turn of the 14th century.

The tower’s geographical position, commanding the upper valley
of the Whiteadder, which was a main military route South over the
Lammermuirs to the historical assembly point for the Scottish host
at Ellem, must have made Cranshaws a fortalice of some strategic
significance. The army assembled at Ellem before Flodden and no
doubt some defeated survivors must have passed the walls of Cran-
shaws on the sad road home.

As 1s indicated in ““The Swintons of that Ik” by George Swinton
and the previous article on Cranshaws in volume XXXVI of the
Club History, the castle was probably built or at least fortified by the
Swintons who held it for over 300 years. They appear to have been a
very active military family and for a time held posts as Wardens of
the East Marches. By tradition Sir John Swinton of the early 15th
century, who probably built or fortified the castle, participated in the
slaying of the Duke of Clarence at the Battle of Beaugé in Anzjou in
1412 during that extraordinary campaign when a strong Scots con-
tingent under the Earl of Buchan defeated the Burgundian faction
who were supported by Henry V of England.

The story Baiies VI’s visit to Cranshaws in about 1598, with the
suggestion that it was he who gifted the Coat of Arms now erected
within the present church, is told in the aforementioned club article
and itis pointed out, correctly, that the form of the arms is of the time
of James IV. It is interesting however that there is in the published
accounts of the Lord High Treasurer a reference to a visit by James
IV to Cranshaws in 1507 ona working expedition and to his present-
ing gifts to the “priests of Cranshaws’’. It is tempting to speculate
whether he in fact gifted the arms or lodged at the Castle but certain
itis that he lost a hawk for in the accounts a few weeks later there is a
payment to “‘the man who found the King’s lost hawk in the Lam-
mermuirs’’.

The previous article in the Club History also refers to the raid on
the castle in 1544 and the original record of this is in the form of a
letter from Capt. Thomas Carlyle to the Earl of Shrewsbury. Carlyle
reports that he ““was in Lammermuir at a castel called Cranshaws
Castel belongyn to the Lord of Swinton being Warden of the Est
Marches oe xxx of the best horstmen we could gett”’

It seems likely that the castle was attacked and probably burned
more than once and certainly the interior shows few early features.
Happily the exterior has not been radically altered or added to over
the centuries and the recent renovations my wife and I have carried
out have attempted to restore at least something of the early layout of
fewer but longer rooms from the Victorian sub divisions of the 19th
century.

THE PRESENT VEGETATION OF EINTON
LOCH, ROXBURGHSHIRE

Dr. A. M. Mannion

1. The Field Area

The Linton Loch basin (Figure 1) is situated immediately north of the
B6401 road between Morebattle and Town Yetholm at National
Grid Reference NT793254. At 91.5m O.D. the Loch is positioned at
the northern edge of the Cheviot Massif and is likely to have once
formed part of the Kale river system, a tributary of the River Teviot
which drains into the Tweed. The solid geology is described by
Carruthers, Burnett and Anderson (1932) and Greig (1971) and
consists of Carboniferous basaltic lavas to the north of the site,
andesitic lavas of Lower Old Red Sandstone age to the south and an
undulating tract of Upper Old Red Sandstone marls and conglomer-
ates to the west. Local superficial deposits of calcareous boulder clay
support base-rich brown earth soils of the Eckford series (Muir,
1956) with a surface pH of 7.5.

The Loch itself represents the remnant of an old lake thought to
have extended much further east to Marlefield at National Grid
Reference NT738528 (Forsythe, 1963). Three small burns enter the
basin from the south and two from the north which carry only a
small volume of water in winter and are dry in summer. There is no
natural drainage from the basin, only an artificial drainage channel
across its centre which has an outlet into the River Kale. The surface
deposit at the site consists of fen peat which is dark brown in colour
and fibrous (Mannion, 1978a). The underlying sediments consist of
pink and blue clays, coarse and fine detritus muds and marl (Mann-
ion, 1978b) and there are numerous records of marl excavations at
Linton Loch itself and its vicinity in the early nineteenth century
(New Statistical Account of Scotland, 1845; Wilson, 1858; Jeffrey,
1859; Leishman, 1937). The ecological history of the site and sur- _
rounding area from the end of the Devensian (last) ice age (c. 12,000
years before present) to present, based on pollen, diatom and chemi-
cal analyses of the sediments, is also el documented (Mannion,
1975391978a; 1978b;,/ 1978 dOTSds198ia; 198i):

2. The Present Vegetation

Figure 2 illustrates the present-day character and distribution of
vegetation at Linton Loch. At its northern edge the dominant species
are Juncus acutiflorus and Carex paniculata. The western boundary,
beyond the drainage ditch is dominated by Filipendula ulmaria and
Crataegus monogyna with Phalaris arundinacea, Juncus Effusus and
Carex paniculata becoming dominant towards west of centre.
Deschampsia caespitosa and Juncus effusus have colonised the southern
rim with Phalaris arundinacea and Carex paniculata towards the east. In
the centre of the basin Equisetum spp. occur in association with Carex

236

THE PRESENT VEGETATION OF LINTON LOCH 2377,

acutiformis, Juncus effusus and Carex paniculata. The pools are sur-
rounded by Phragmites communis with Carex paniculata and Equisetum
spp. as dominants along the drainage channel. Crataegus monogyna
and Salix spp. occur sporadically in the extreme eastern and western
sections of the basin and Alnus species only occur on the slopes to the
north. Other species of note include Valeriana officinalis which is
indicative of a base-rich environment.

3. Comment

The species present in the basin are all rare in acid environments
(Clapham, Warburg and Tutin, 1962) but since the pH of the surface
fen peat is between 7 and 8 (Mannion, 1975) it is surprising that there
are so few calcicole indicators species present and problems arise
when attempting to compare this community with others recorded
from similar environments.

Ratcliffe (1964) states that the base-status and pH is best indicated
by the bryophyte component of the vegetation. Linton Loch, how-
ever, is extremely deficient in bryophytes, possibly a result of
periodic rises in the watertable and seasonal flooding. Ratcliffe also
describes several eutrophic mire associations in Scot and and whilst
there are some affinities between these and the Linton Loch
association there is no direct comparison. For example, the Juncus
acutiflorus—Arcoladium cuspidatum association which Ratcliffe
describes as prevalent on base-rich mire soils has no analogue at
Linton Loch because of the paucity of byrophytes and other dis-
tinctly alkaliphilous species except Valeriana aicinalis Neither is
there any direct parallel between Ratcliffe’s Carex panicea—
Campylium stellatum or Carex rostrata—Schoenus nigrans mire com-
plexes since the listed Carex spp. are almost entirely absent from
Linton Loch.

Looking further afield, itis also impossible to find direct analogues
to the Linton Loch communtity. Tansley (1939), for example,
describing the East Norfolk fen vegetation records reedswamps
consisting of Typha angustifolia and Phragmites communis with Scirpus
lacustris near open water at Barton Broad on the River Ant. This
community merges into closed swamp and fen of Glyceria maxima
and Phalaris eatisacen Although Tansely associates this succession
with high pH values and heavy silting, both characteristics of Linton
Loch, there is no direct comparison between the two communities.

Similarly, there is no direct relationship between the north east
Irish fen vegetation described by White (1932) and Osvald (1949) and
the Linton Loch vegetation. In the former Carex rostrata is dominant
and yet absent at ve latter.

However, other workers have also encountered difficulties in
attempting to classify and correlate small fen vegetation com-
munities. Proctor (1974), for example, describing the vegetation
communities on calcareous peat around the fen margins of Malham
Tarn concludes . . . ‘each site is different from every other, so it
would be premature to attempt to characterise a nodum from the
rather fragmentary stands in and around the fen . . .. He goes on to

THE PRESENT VEGETATION OF LINTON LOCH

238

“Wd SOE

‘WGSOE- OSI

WOSi-0

| ]aAa) DaS aaogn ‘WwW

paam|] - uodn-}21MJ2g

yoo uoqury jo uonro07 “| s1n314

S91JBWO|I}

ve ‘OL

\ ajo
S

\

8 0

2jOW

YU

SQ

Cf Ne 1X
Na

THE PRESENT VEGETATION OF LINTON LOCH 239

explain that the sites fall within the circle of affinity of a widespread
complex of small, open calcareous, high pH marsh and fen com-
munities. It is only possible, therefore, to conclude that the Linton
Loch community is yet another example and that there is no direct
analogue with other fens of similar environmental characteristics.

This view is substantiated by reference to the more recent work of
Daniels (1978) who details the charateristics of fifty-six mire sites in
Britain which he classifies into thirty-five vegetation associations by
indicator-species analysis. None of the thirty-five associations
equates directly with the Linton Loch assemblages and the closest
analogues are those from marginal mesotrophic to eutrophic valley
and basin mires. Wheeler (1980a, b, c) has also recently documented
the vegetation characteristics of a range of communities in rich-fen
systems in England and Wales and similarly no direct analogues to
the Linton Loch association emerge.

Futhermore, despite the high pH of the Linton Loch basin and its
calcereous nature virtually all of the species recorded except Ranun-
culus lingua, are associated with minerotrophic rather than eutrophic
sites in the Scottish Borders (C. Badenoch, Pers. Comm.). Conse-
quently, the character of the community recorded may be due more
to high levels of silting and/or cultural disturbance than to base-
status and pH.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I should like to thank Mr. Cavers and Mr. Playfair for permission of access to Linton
Loch and Mr. C. Badenoch of the Nature Conservancy Council, Edinburgh for his
encouragement and comments on the work.

REFERENCES

Carruthers, R.G., Burnett, G.A. and Anderson, W. 1932. The Geology of the Cheviot
Hills. Memoirs of the Geological Survey of Great Britain. London: H.M.S.O.

Clapham, A.R., Tutin, T.G. and Warburg, E.F. 1962. Flora of the British Isles. Cam-
bridge: The University Press.

Daniels, R.E. 1978. Floristic analyses of British mires and mire communities. Journal of
Ecology, 66: 773-802.

Forsythe, T. 1963. An old lake bed? Scottish Magazine 78: 431-442.

Greig, D.C. 1971. British Regional Geology: the south of Scotland. Edinburgh: H.M.S.O.

Jeffrey, A. 1859. The History and Antiquities of Roxburghshire. London: Whittaker.

Leishman, J.F. 1937. Linton Leaves. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd.

Mannion, A.M. 1975. Late Quaternary Palaeogeographical Environments: a Study from
Roxburghshire. Unpublished Ph.D. Thesis, University of Bristol.

Mannion, A.M. 1978a. Late Quaternary deposits from Linton Loch, southeast Scot-
land. I. Absolute and relative pollen analyses of limnic sediments. Journal of Biogeog-
raphy 5: 193-206.

Mannion A.M. 1978b. Late Quaternary deposits from southeast Scotland. II. The
diatom assemblages of a marl core. Journal of Biogeography 5: 301-318.

Mannion, A.M. 1978c. A palaeogoegraphical study from southeast Scotland. University of
Reading, Department of Geography. Geographical Papers No. 67. pp.42.

240 THE PRESENT VEGETATION OF LINTON LOCH

GRAZED

ARABLE

PZLLLLL Le
eM ME

Figure 2. The present vegetation of Linton Loch

:

THE PRESENT VEGETATION OF LINTON LOCH 241

GRAZED

GRAZED

KEY TO MAIN COMMUNITY DOMINANTS

aa
ii
=

Tn

ea

Tur! Spp. Grazed/Ungrared

Equisetum Spp

Oeschampsia_coespitosa

Arthenatherum_elatius
Juncus effusus
Juncus acutifloris

Phragmites communis

Phalaris arundinacea

Carex paniculata

Carex acutiform:s
Crataegus monogyna/Solm Spo
Betula Spp.

Young Firs in Rough Pasture

Woodland - Acer pseudoplatanus
Pinus sylvestris 5,Piceo abes abies. este

Plantation (Firs)

Filipendula_ulmaria

Valeriana officinalis

Pteridium aquilinum

SCALE 1 2500

242 THE PRESENT VEGETATION OF LINTON LOCH

Mannion, A.M. 1978d. Chemical analysis of the basal sediments from Linton Loch,
southeast Scotland. Chemosphere 7; 291-296.

Mannion, A.M. 1981a. The diatom assemblage of a marl core from Linton Loch.
Transactions of the Botanical Society of Edinburgh 43: 263-270.

Mannion, A.M. 1981b. Chemical analyses of a marl core from S.E. Scotland. Chemos-
phere 10: 495-504.

Muir, J.W. 1956. The Soils of the Country Round Jedburgh and Morebattle. Memoirs of the
Soil Survey of Scotland. Edinburgh: H.M.S.O.

New Statistical Account of Scotland 1845. Edinburgh: Blackwood and Sons.

Osvald, H. 1949. The vegetation of British and Irish Mosses. Acta Phytogeographica
Sueccia 26: 1-62.

Proctor, M.C.J. 1974. The Vegetation of Malham Tarn fens. Field Studies 4: 1-38.

Ratcliffe, D.A. 1964. Mires and bogs. In: J.H. Burnett, Editor, The vegetation of
Scotland. Edinburgh: Oliver and Boyd, pp. 462-478.

Tansley, A.G. 1939. The British Islands and their Vegetation. Cambridge: The Univer-
sity Press.

Wheeler, B.D. 1980a. Plant communities of rich-fen systems in England and Wales. I.
Introduction. Tall sedge and reed communities. Journal of Ecology 68: 365-395.
Wheeler, B.D. 1980b. Plant communities of rich-fen systems in England and Wales.

I]. Communities of calcareous mires. Journal of Ecology 68: 405-420.

Wheeler, B.D. 1980c. Plant communities of rich-fen systems in England and Wales.
III. Fen Meadow, fen grassland and fen woodland communities and contact com-
munities. Journal of Ecology 68: 761-788.

White, J.M. 1937. The fens of northern Armagh. Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy
40; 233-283.

Wilson, M.D. 1858. Notes on the prior existence of Castor fiber in Scotland with its

ancient and present distribution in Europe, and the use of Castoreum. New
Philosophical Journal of Edinburgh 8: 1-40.

BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY

1814-1898
Dr. G. A. C. Binnie

The origin of Berwick Infirmary is to be found in a petition to the
mayor of Berwick which was published in the “British Gazette and
Berwick Advertiser” of December 11th 1813, signed by 22 gentle-
men of the Town and reading:

PF 12.1613

We the undersigned being deeply impressed with gratitude to Almighty God for
the signal downfall of the great enemy to humanity and thinking that the most
proper way to evince that gratitude is by doing good to our fellow creatures do
request you wouldas early as possible have the goodness to call a general meeting of
the inhabitants of this Town and the vicinity to consider ade propriety of
commencing a subscription for the support of a Public Dispensary for distributing
medicines and medical advice gratuitously to the industrious poor of this town and

vicinity.
D. Stow, Wm. Pattison, R. Romer,
Rev. J. Barnes, * A. Kellock, M.D., * John Hall M.D.
Capt. M Forster, Jas. R. Forster, TAR. Batson;

*R. Stevenson, W. Jeffreys, * Ralph Patterson,
George Hogarth, Wm. Barry, * Thos. Gilchrist,
William Grieve, John Clay, James Cockburn,
W. Bailey, * W. Robertson, M.D., Thos. Gilchrist,
James Bell,

*First medical attendants at Berwick Dispensary.

No time was wasted and in the newspaper’s issue of December
18th the following advertisement was published:

Convened by Mr Mayor in consequence of a requisition for that purpose signed by
several respectable persons to consider of the propriety of commencing a subscrip-
tion for the support of a Public Dispensary for distributing medicines and medical
advice gratuitously to the industrious poor of this town and vicinity.

Committee
Mr Mayor. John Hall, M.D.
D. Stow. Capt. M. Forster.
Wm. Pattison. Jas. Forster.
R. Romer. T. R. Batson.
Rev. J. Barnes. Messrs Graham, R. Stevenson,
A. Kellock. M.D., Scott & McDougle.

To report to a meeting on 23.12.1813 at the Kings Arms.

Signed
Grr Ord:
Mayor. At Noon.

Even less time was wasted in convening the first committee for
managing the affairs of Berwick Dispensary which was held later on
December 18th at the Kings Arms Inn (sic) with R. Romer, as
Chairman and T. R. Batson of the Tweed Bank as Treasurer with the
rest of the committee composed of the 2 Forsters and the medical

243

244 BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898

attendants with the exception of Dr Robertson. Dr. R. Stevenson
was elected secretary and his first duty was to compose the following
letter to the Duke of Northumberland:

My Lord Duke,

There has been instituted here by public subscription a Dispensary
for the relief of the sick poor of this town and neighbourhood to the
extent of 12 miles in to the country in every direction. I beg leave, by
direction of a general meeting of subscribers, to acquaint your Grace
of the measure and as they are fully assured of your Grace’s philan-
thropic and benevolent disposition and your wish to promote every
institution that may be beneficial to society they hope your Grace
will excuse the liberty they have taken in nominating you Patron of
the charity believing that under the protection of the Duke of
Northumberland the Institution must have every instrument of
SUCCESS.

I am also directed by the meeting to take this opportunity of
congratulating your Grace on the coming of age of Lord Algernon
Percy:

I have the honour to be, My Lord,
Your Grace’s most obedient servant,
Signed

R. Stevenson, secretary.

The letter of acceptance of the position of Patron included a
donation of £20.

Copies of a similar letter were sent to 48 potential presidents and
vice presidents. The four invited Presidents (Earl Grey, the Earl of
Glasgow, and the Borough’s Members of Parliament A. Allan and
H.H. St Paul) had all accepted by January 11th (with donations of 10
guineas) as had 12 Vice Presidents.

Ata further meeting on December 30th, the secretary and Mr John
Dickson were asked to examine a house belonging to Mr Chartres
and occupied by a Mrs Sands. They were empowered to negotiate a
rental and compensation for the remainder of Mrs Sands’ tenancy.
By January 11th it was reported to the Committee that an annual
rental of £18.00 had been agreed and that Mrs Sands had accepted
£5.00 to quit the premises, so enabling an advertisement to be
inserted in the local papers stating that the Dispensary would be
opened to the public ae the first time at noon on Sunday March 6th
1814. The first Dispensary house was described as being situated in a
“large yard off Chugal Street; opposite the end of Shaw’s Lane”’
(now Chapel Street): this is shown on John Wood’s 1822 map of
Berwick and appears to occupy the whole of what is now 46 A, Band
C Church Street. These were the dispensary premises from 1814 to
1826 and they were used for out patients only, until on May 16th
1815 the medical attendants made a request for one of the rooms to
be furnished for operations and for lodgings for patients operated

BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898 245

upon. The dispensary depended on the instruments of its surgeons
until 1834 when a set of surgical instruments including cupping
instruments was acquired for £32 -5 - 6.

Quay Walls

Even as early as 1819 the committee was requesting the grant of a
piece of land from the Board of Ordnance to build a new dispensary,
and interest was also expressed in a site in Palace Green in 1822.
However, at a special meeting of the committee on 31.8.1826, Mr
Dickson was authorised to bid that afternoon for the purchase of the
house in the Quay Walls and Palace Street formerly occupied by Col.
Hall. A bid of £800 secured a permanent home for the dispensary;
£300 of the purchase price was borrowed from Dr A. Cahill and by
April 1828 ve dispensary was overdrawn to the tune of £356 - 1 - 1.
This was reduced a year later by borrowing £200 on the basis of an
annuity for £8 - 13 - 2paid 6 monthly for June Graham then aged 42;
the last record of payment of an annuity was 1855, when she would
have been 67. These premises, which are now the Customs House at
18, Quay Walls, were used by the Charity until sold in 1873 and must
have been quite modern, for when a subcommittee reported on the
buildings in 1827 it was noted to have a water closet.

The principal work of the charity was for patients attending the
consulting sessions, living accomodation being used largely by sur-
gical patients. It was hoped that the dispenser would live in the
dispensary, and rooms were set aside for his use, and a nurse was
engaged But she only resided in the house when patients were
actually in the wards, when her sleeping apartment was the room set
apart for operations. The 1827 subcommittee recommended that the
previous nurse be offered £5.00 on quitting the premises in Church
Street, this being considered ample compensation for any inconveni-
ence that she might have sustained as a consequence of losing her job!
She was allowed to occupy the old Dispensary House for a further
week which it was hoped would afford her sufficient time to secure a
residence for herself and her family somewhere else. If this proved
impossible the dispensary was prepared to pay her rent until the
following Lammas tide but with a gratuity of only £1 - 1 - 0.: this
was put to the nurse but not surprisingly she was not prepared to say
which she preferred and was given a week to make up her mind! The
emphasis throughout much of the time in the Quay Walls Dispen-
sary was very much on becoming an Infirmary, and when for
example in 1834 a John Burn left £100 to the dispensary (£90 after
deducting tax) the committee commented that they were trying “to
_ make provision for rendering this institution to almost every proba-
bly needful extent an Infirmary” .. . this was in the context of
seeking increased annual contributions from various Churches in the
district. The same sort of plea was repeated in 1854 when it was said
that the want of an Infirmary had long been felt.

246 BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898

Berwick Infirmary

Finally in 1870 the medical attendants proposed that the dispensary
be sold and be replaced by a new dispensary and possibly a hospital.
The Guardians of Berwick Poor Law wanted a fever hospital at this
time and there were some abortive discussions between the two
concerning the possibility of a joint venture. The old dispensary was
sold in 1872 for £1,000 and a temporary dispensary in Eastern Lane
took its place, while a site was secured in the Greenses for
£159 - 12-6. A public meeting was held on 26th November 1872 to
promote the completion of the new Dispensary and Infirmary at that
time being erected to plans prepared by John Starforth of Edinburgh.
One point made in favour of having an Infirmary was that “injured
patients requiring operation had up until then to go by train to
Edinburgh and then by cab to the Infirmary for isolation or infection
or operation”’; and it was further hoped that the new hospital would
be available to “‘persons above the condition of paupers”’ as well as
affording medical and surgical aid to the indigent. The estimate for
building the new premises was stated to be £3,186 at the public
meeting and that after allowing for investments and the price of the
old dispensary, approximately £1,200 would still be needed. The
meeting itself was a great success in that £770 was raised there and
then; later Mrs Jerningham of Longridge (who had previously been
Mrs Mather) donated £2,000 and the Mather Ward was named after
her late husband, and £500 was given by Dr Kellock’s daughter in
memory of her father. By the time of the completion of the Infir-
mary in 1874 the total cost of the site, erection and furnishing had
come to £3,320 - 13 - 3 which left £1 - 2- 2in hand over and above
the costs. A nest egg of investments was left which continued to
provided the Infirmary with an annual income towards its running
costs for the future. As an aid to income by rentals and to possible
expansion of facilities buildings were erected in Infirmary Square
and completed in 1881.

In 1896 it was recorded that the medical attendants had com-
plained about the coldness of the wards, and provision was made for
modern grates to be put in the wards to improve the heating. To
celebrate Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee in 1897 central heating
was installed and this is commemorated by a plaque in the entrance
to the present Infirmary buildings. In 1898 it was moved by one of
the medical attendants that enquiries should be made with a view to
having the telephone installed in the new dispensary, perhaps a
suitable way to enter the twentieth century.

Medical Staff

The medical staff of the dispensary in 1814 consisted of 3 physicians
(Drs Kellock, Robertson and Hall) and 3 surgeons (Messrs Patter-
son, Gilchrist and Stevenson) and although initially the physicians
had the M.D. qualification, new members of the medical staff were
always classified as surgeons and promoted to physicians when
senior members were replaced. This anachronism was abolished in
1886 and until then a physician and a surgeon were in attendance in

a ——- _ Sw

pe — oe — eee ee < eee ee ee

BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898 247

rotation for 3 months at a time; they consulted at the dispensary for
an hour twice weekly, attended to in-patients and emergencies, and
visited ““country”’ or ill cases on request. The services of the medical
gentlemen were given gratuitously apart from a mileage payment of
1/6 per mile for patients residing outside “‘Berwick, Castlegate,
Tweedmouth and Spittal” (Spittal was omitted after 1830), and the
last record of payment for medical attendance was in 1894. In 1850
Thomas Swinney of Spittal had 26 visits and the medical attendants
were asked to enquire about this, and similarly in 1852 when the
medical attendants were allowed to recommend as many patients as
they wished, it was cannily added that mileage patients were to be
agreed to by the rest of the medical gentlemen.

The hours of attendance of the medical gentlemen were initially
from 12.30 to 2.30 on Sundays, but by 1830 this had become
11.0—12.0 on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and this was amended to
9.0—10.0 on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Patients could be visited at
home but the recommendation had to be given to the doctor before
10 a.m. or otherwise the patient might not be seen until the next day:
a similar exhortation is to be found on N.H.S. medical cards in 1982,
and presumably it was as ineffective then as now. Compliance was
also as likely with the regulation that the medical attendants were to
keep full notes.

When the surgeons in attendance thought that a “ capital’ opera-
tion might be neccesary (amended to “‘difficult or important” in
1828), a consultation of all the medical staff had to be called and a
majority had to agree to the propriety of the operation: this regula-
tion was still in force in 1896.

Initially candidates to the medical staff had to-be “regularly edu-
cated having attended some public hospital lectures on Anatomy and
Surgery’, but by 1828 this ba been modified to be testimonials of
having passed an examination before one of the Colleges of
Surgeons; with the passing of the Medical Act of 1858 a position on
the staff was open only to a registered medical practitioner. Before
this date apprentices of the medical attendants could attend the
dispensary free but other medical students had to pay 3 guineas
annually. The only student who appears to have taken advantage of
the latter was Robert Fluker in 1833, who was a member of the
medical staff from 1849 to 1855; but there were several apprentices,
including Dr John Paxton of Norham and Dr William Lilley appren-
ticed to Dr A. Cahill and Dr George Johnston respectively.

The restriction of the size of the medical staff to 6 members was
applied very rigidly, as Dr George Johnston found out in March 1854
when the committee received a letter from him requesting permis-
sion to depute Dr Philip W. Maclagan to attend the dispensary at
such times as it might be inconvenient or impossible for him to give
personal attention. Dr Johnston’s application was turned down as it
was thought it might prove an unfortunate precedent. The secretary

_ obviously found the letter very hard to write and it ended “‘I am not

much gratified at being the necessary medium of communicating to

_ you this resolution . . . but believe me, my dear sir, very sincerely and

248 BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898

affectionately yours, R. Home, Secretary’. This seemed a harsh
decision as Dr Johnston was already unwell and died in July 1855,
when the successor to his practice and his position at the dispensary
was his son-in-law the same Dr Maclagan.

The dispensary was asked by the medical attendants in 1840 for aid
to form a medical library and anatomical museum and an estimate of
£2 for the initial cost was made by the doctors. In fact they were
granted £3 plus the expense of glass and spirits for pickling speci-
mens, and an annual payment of £4 or £5 was made to the medical
library for many years: the 1982 Berwick Infirmary still has a small
medical library which is occasionally strengthened by a small grant
from the treasurer. Unfortunately the whereabouts of the first lib-
rary and museum specimens is unknown.

In 1841, Dr Alexander Kellock last survivor of the original medi-
cal attendants was made an honorary physician of the Infirmary on
his retirement, and this privilege (perhaps made because they sur-
vived to retirement) was later granted to Dr Samuel Edgar, Dr f
Robert Fluker and Dr Frank Cahill, whose family made a ae of £60
to the Infirmary on his death in 1893. Dr Kellock’s connection with
the Infirmary was continued by his daughter Mrs Brown Grieve
who gave £500 in 1875 to the new Infirmary, and the Kellock Ward
commemorated his memory; this was probably between Maclagan
and Weddell Wards and has now been made into various offices in
the present Infirmary, the Verandah Ward having been added in
1911. When Dr P.W. Maclagan died in 1892 the fourth ward in the J
new Infirmary was named after him. A final medical vignette was
recorded on 2nd April 1865 when it was stated that Dr Alexander
Kirkwood had died “‘from fever taken while attending one of the
patients of the Dispensary”.

While the medical attendants were usually the recipients of thanks
and praise from the committee, Dr Wm. Dunbar How M.D. caused
the committee much difficulty. On March 1831 a complaint had
been made to the dispensary concerning the neglect of Robert Wil-
son who had had a fractured thigh on 16th February, and had been
duly attended by Dr George Johnston until the end of his spell of
duty on 28th February. Dr How had visited only once in the succeed-
ing 10 days and this was the cause of the complaint. A second
complaint was made in October of the same year regarding Edward
Dover of Bowsden who had a “dislocation of the tibia”. Dr How
was said to have been confined to the house by indisposition but that |}
his own apprentice had visited Dover regularly and brought back
reports. However, the patient had been constrained to call in Mr
Campbell of Wooler and the committee’s finding was of culpable
neglect. Dr Johnston had to apologise to the committee for mislead-
ing them on this incident but it would seem that Dr How was the
guilty party; anda minute in the following year recorded that he had
Eales deduction from the bill. The Soeeiiee committee was
probably relieved at his departure when he did a moonlight flit with
no notice or warning to the dispensary or to his brother and sister
who lived in the town.

249

BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898

URS. aT

ous

af

250 BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898

MEDICAL ATTENDANTS

BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY

John Hall

Wm. Robertson
Alex. Kellock
Robert Stevenson
Ralph Patterson
Thos. Gilchrist

jor Wodd

Alex. Cahill

W. Hood

George Johnston
John Edgar

Wm. Dunbar How
John Manners
Andrew Henderson
Charles Trotter
Samuel Edgar

Wm. Lilley

Dental Surgeons

1814—1898
1814-1826 Frank Cahill
1814-1831 Robert Fluker
1814-1841 Alex. Kirkwood
1814-1818 James Wilson
1814-1815 Philip Maclagan
1814-1815 A. Morrison
1815-1816 Colville Brown
1815-1851 Thos. Davidson
1816-1818 F. Lockwood Logan
1818-1855 W. Allan Jamieson
1818-1833 Thomas Fraser
1825-1834 Daniel Hegarty
1831-1851 James Mackay
1834-1846 Chas. G. Maclagan
1834-1836 CC. L. Fraser
1836-1858 Berty Mackay
1841-1849 Wm. Y. Grant

1846-1887
1849-1885
1849-1865
1851-1864
1856-1892
1858-1862
1862-1882
1865-1878
1865-1867
1867-1876
1876
1878
1882-1888
1884
1886
1888
1896

In 1870 Mr Arthur Baxter Visick offered his services as dentist to the
charity and this proved so popular that it was quickly made available
to subjects of the charity in the dentist’s consulting rooms, rather
than in the dispensary.

BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898 25

Dentist to Berwick Dispensary and Infirmary

Mr Arthur Baxter Visick 1870-1875
Mr John Wells 1876-1889
Mr Robert Riddle 1889
Mr Richard J. Atkinson 1889

Dispenser

Mr Johnson How was appointed dispensor (sic) on 30.12.1813 at an
“Annual salary of £15.00 and he was allowed £5.00 more at the end of
the year if the funds of the charity permitted’’. He was expected to
prepare prescriptions and bleed Pa and to record whether
patients were cured, relieved, died or dismissed for irregularity; he
was also in charge of the stomach pump and “‘the apparatus for the
recovery of persons apparently drowned within a proper distance of
Berwick”’: by the time a message had reached the dispenser, even at
Quay Walls, and then been transmitted to “‘one of the medical
gentlemen to use every means for his recovery’’, the outcome of the
case of drowning would have been certainly resolved by the passage
of time rather than by any medical endeavours. The purchase ae
slipper bath in October 1814 seemed wise in a bathless world, but the
value of a good (or bad) electrifying machine sounds doubtful. The
day to day running of the institution was largely in the dispenser’s
hands; recommended patients brought to him their forms signed by
a subscriber, and he then initiated medical contracts. He lived on the
premises in Church Street, and then at Quay Walls until 1829, when
he was allowed to move out because he complained that the premises
‘““were damp because of the want of fires”. The committee contemp-
lated dismissing him but compromised by appointing the first Mat-
ron, Mrs Christian Curry, who acted as a housekeeper and nursed
“indoor” patients. Johnson How retired on the grounds of age in
1845 and this coincided with the death of Mrs Curry, whose daugh-
ter took charge until a successor was appointed. In December 1844
the following advertisement was inserted in the North British
Advertiser, the Edinburgh Courant, the Newcastle Courant and the
Glasgow Advertiser.

“Wanted for the Berwick Dispensary a man and his wife to act in the capacity as
Dispenser and Matron. Salary will be £25.00 per year with appartments in the house
and coal and candle. The Matron will be allowed 6d a day additional when patients
not exceeding 2 shall be in the wards and 1/- when the numbers shall exceed that, but
no other perquisites for baths or otherwise.

A retired serjeant who is married and who has been in the habit of attending a
military hospital would be preferred. Application with the testimonials of the
candidates and references to be sent to the secretary”.

William Wright of Musselburgh (sic) and John Ross of Glasgow
were short listed for the appointment and the former was requested
to visit Duncan and Flockhart, and the latter Mr Green of Glasgow to
be examined in their competency to make up prescriptions. Mr
Wright was asked for interview with his wife and he was ordered to

252 BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898

attend the dispensary for a few weeks on probation. This appoint-
ment was confirmed on 14th March 1845.

However, a special committee meeting had to be called on
17.7.1846 in consequence of the death of Mr Wright the dispenser.
Mr John Ross was invited to appear but not surprisingly he had
already got another engagement and Serjeant Cooper residing in
Castlegate was requested to attend with his wife until a permanent
appointment was made. The post of dispenser was re-advertised and
Serjeant James Sullivan late of the 97th Hussars and Librarian at Fort
Pitt, Chatham was offered the job providing he could get a certificate
from someone in Chatham to say he could make up medical pre-
scriptions correctly, and that he was examined by the medical atten-
dants. He was old he would have an opportunity of doing the
journey to Berwick with great ease and comfort by the ‘“‘Manchester
Steamer” belonging to Berwick which would sail from Dublin
steam wharf, London for Berwick on Saturday 14th November. Mrs
Wright the widow of the previous dispenser was then told to be
prepared to leave the house which she should quit with her furniture
on or before the following Thursday morning, and that she would be
ihe up to 2 guineas to cover her expenses for her return to Mussel-

urgh.

Mr Sullivan produced his own problems for the dispensary, for it
was alleged at a committee meeting on 24.2. 1851 thai at the request
of Elizabeth Duffhe had written to 3 different tradesmen of the town
signing with the name of Andrew Duff, the woman’s father, requir-
ing the tradesmen to furnish the woman with goods to be placed to
Andrew Duff’s account; as a result Sullivan handed in his resigna-
tion.

Matron and Nursing Staff

It was recommended by the medical gentlemen on 3rd February
1851 that a Matron be in charge of the house instead of a dispenser
and that prescriptions be sent to druggists to be made up. The

advertisement read:
““Wanted for the Berwick Dispensary a Matron. Her duty will be to take care of the
house and bath, to nurse the patients when any are in the house; to summon the
committee, to attend to the orders of the medical officers. The salary will be £10.00
with coals, candles and gas; 3d for paid baths, 6d per day for nursing patients when
not more that 2 are in the house and 1/- when the number exceeds 2”.

(Gas had been installed in late 1844).

Mrs Elizabeth Aird was appointed Matron on 8.3.1851 and the
supply of medicines transferred to the druggists in the town but 5
years later the cost of medicines at the dispensary averaged out at 6/-
per head, compared with 3/5 at Jedburgh, 1/6 at Coldstream, and 6d
at Sandgate. As a result the supply of drugs (except for leeches and
trusses) was put out to tender with a reduction of more than half in
the cost.

This effectively transferred the day to day management of the
dispensary to the Matron.

BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898 253
Matrons of Berwick Dispensary and Infirmary
Mrs Christian Curry 1829-1844

Mrs Wright 1845-1846
Mrs Odillia Sullivan 1846-1851
Mrs Elizabeth Aird 1851-1862
Mrs June Crow 1862-1875
Mrs Ann Wright 1875-1878
Miss Betsy Ross 1878-1889
Miss Ritchie 1889-1894
Miss Grange 1894-1905
Miss Dunn (Mrs Gray) 1905-1909
Miss Kinross 1909-1920
Miss Forsyth 1920-1950

Miss Grange was the first Matron mentioned as having been
formally trained, having spent three years at Edinburgh Royal
Infirmary, and then coming to Berwick from Glasgow Victoria
Infirmary.

In the Spring of 1892 a District Nursing Association was inaugu-
rated in Berwick and a Queens’s Nurse, Miss Law, attended In-
firmary out patients to such good effect that it was proposed that a
nurse would be appointed who would be both a Queen’s Nurse anda
second hospital nurse with the Infirmary Matron. In the same year
the Matron was granted two weeks holiday and by 1896 her salary
was £40, with disbursement of £29 - 8 - 1 to nurses who were pre-
sumably untrained, as 17/- was spent for nurses, fees for ambulance
classes. Reference was also made to nurses as early as the time of the
move to Quay Walls, but these would also be untrained.

Domestic Staff

The first mention of domestic servants is a reference at a committee
meeting on 25.2.1814 when it was resolved that Elizabeth Carr “‘be
allowed to have the two rooms on the ground floor rent and taxes
free on the consideration that she put on the fires in the Committee,
Waiting and Shop rooms, and keep them and the furniture clean,
carry water and other menial offices for the committee and medical
gentlemen of the dispensary, which she agreed to do”. A year later
the committee ordered that the secretary give a gratuity of 1 guinea
to the housekeeper for her attention. In 1820 Robert Clarke and his
wife were appointed, and by 1896 £23- 10-0 was being spent
annually for servant’s wages, but no others were named.

Public Baths

From 1820 until 1871 the dispensary buildings supplied a public bath
service, as it was believed that bathing was medically helpful. In
August 1829 the proposal was first mooted, and estimates were
obtained for £50 for a marble bath, and £40 for a “‘tyled”’ bath. It was
decided to install a marble bath anda stone bath and on 22nd October
1829 an advert in the Berwick Advertiser read:

254 BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898

“The hot and cold baths in the Berwick Dispensary House are now completed.
There is a marble bath and dressing room exclusively for the use of ladies and
gentlemen.

Marble Bath Stone Bath

Sea water hot 2/6 1/6
Sea water cold 2/- 1/-
Fresh water hot 2/- 1/6
Fresh water cold 1/6 1/-

No gratuity to be paid to the attendant’’.

The matron was allowed 6d for each marble bath and 3d for each
stone bath for preparing the bath and washing the linen etc, but had
to render her services gratuitously when used for patients, on which
occasions the stone bath alone was used. In 1831 it was agreed to
allow each medical attendant to have the use of the bath free except
for a payment of 6d to the Matron, with an extra 6d if a sea water bath
was taken, to defray the cost of carrying the water.

An overdraft of £70 from the Tweed Bank was sanctioned to pay
for the baths, and advertisements for the baths and rates of charges
were printed for the use of the principal inn keepers, “permitting
copies to be neatly framed to hang in their public rooms”’ . . . the
frames cost 18/-. In 1830 the treasurer purchased a barrel on wheels
for conveying sea water for the baths from the sea behind the pier at
Meadow Haven, and in 1836 a pipe was laid from the dispensary on
the Quay Walls into the river 9 feet below the surface at medium
tides; this cost £45- 11-6, and in addition a shower was con-
structed. In 1837 it was “‘ordered that a rope be suspended over the
bath for the purpose of enabling the party to raise himself’’. Ten
years later the annual report stated that the baths were a healthful
luxury and the price was lowered . . . although the use remained
about the same. The baths provided a considerable income and
something like 10% of the annual running costs of the dispensary
were defrayed by the receipts from the baths. The last recorded
income from the bath account was in 1871 when the dispensary on
the Quay Walls closed down.

Honorary Secretaries

As with any voluntary organisation the most vital person is the
honorary secretary and the first was Dr Robert Stevenson (father of
Joseph Stevenson, historian and archivist), and it could well be that
he was the driving force behind the foundation of the dispensary.
When he died in 1818 his place as secretary was taken by Dr Alexan-
der Cahill, who was peliced in 1829 by Thomas Gilchrist a local
solicitor; if the former’s minutes are typically medically illegible they
are brief, while those of the latter are in legal copperplate and very
verbose. James C. Weddell became secretary in 1859 and held the
position during the formative period of the new Infirmary until he
died in 1882. He was joined as secretary by his son Robert in 1881,
and as a Robert Weddell joined the committee in 1821, it could be
that three generations of Weddells served the Infirmary. Weddell

BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898 255

Ward which is the Casualty ward in today’s Berwick Infirmary was
so named in recognition of J. C. Weddell’s work for the institution.

Secretaries of Berwick Dispensary and Infirmary

Dr Robert Stevenson 1814-1818
Dr Alexander Cahill 1818-1829

Thomas Gilchrist 1829-1846
Robert Home 1846-1859
James C. Weddell 1859-1882
Robert Weddell 1881

Honorary Treasurers

The position of treasurer in voluntary organisations is almost as
important as that of secretary and the first treasurer was R. Batson of
the Tweed Bank who retired in 1818; it was probably his influence
which was responsible for the dispensary’s involvement in financial
loss when the Tweed Bank failed in 1842, the year in which the
dispensary lost further funds through the dishonesty of the collector
of subscriptions. Batson was succeeded by James Forster who
handed over in 1821 to Mr John M. Dickson who held the post for 26
years. He was a faithful friend of the dispensary and there is pathos in
one entry in the committee minute book which reads “January 2nd
1834. This was the stated day for meeting but there was present only
John M. Dickson (signed).”’

Treasurers of Berwick Dispensary and Infirmary

Thomas Batson 1814-1818
James Forster 1818-1821
John M. Dickson 1821-1847
G. K. Nicolson 1847-1854
James Marshall 1854-1861
William Alder 1861
Finance

The financial state of the dispensary and the new Infirmary was
usually healthy presumably largely due to the efforts of the treasur-
ers. The Presidents and Vice Presidents were expected to give dona-
tions which were usually a once in a lifetime affair but subscribers
gave donations ranging from 5/- to £10 annually collected by a
collector. These formed a substantial basic income for the dispensary
and about ¥% of the expenditure for many years came from this
source. Every subscriber who subscribed one guinea had the
privilege of recommending 2 patients annually (later 1 recommenda-
tion for each 5/- donated). A further source of income which proved
surprisingly fickle was the various Churches in the district; where a
clergyman ‘“‘preached a sermon for the charity’ he was able to
recommend patients in proportion to the amount of the collection.

256 BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898

On January 12th 1814 a letter was written by the secretary to the
clergymen of Berwick reading:

‘““The Reverend Sir,

I am directed by the committee for the Berwick Dispensary to send
you a copy of the rules and regulations of the charity and to request
your attention to the 14 articles of section first.

The intention of the institution being purely charitable the com-
mittee have little doubt of receiving the assistance of all the ministers
of that Saviour whose life upon earth was a scene of benevolence and
goodness.

I shall feel myself much obliged to you in being able to report your
answer to the committee.

I am reverend sir, your most obedient servant,
R. Stevenson, secretary”’.

At a committee meeting on 13th October later that year it was
recorded that the Minister of Horndean and 2 Berwick clergymen
had promised to preach on the 1st Sunday in November, and it was
ordered that the secretary advertise that these sermons were to be
preached.

In April 1829 the secretary was ordered to write to the Minister of
Coldingham pointing out the expense which had been occasioned to
the institution by the case of an individual from his parish and
requested that the clergyman preach a sermon and have a collection
made in his Church in aid of ile dispensary funds. The only consis-
tent Church income seemed to come from Berwick Parish Church,
although this got less with the passage of time, and repeatedly the
treasurer and the secretary appeared to be contacting the clergymen
of the district in general seeking contributions. In 1834 for example
the committee resolved “‘to confer with the other reverend gentle-
men who have expressed hesitation in exciting themselves to aid this
charity in the way proposed”’ i.e. by having collections in aid of it.
After the new Infirmary was built the Infirmary committee desig-
nated a Sunday as Hospital Sunday, usually in May, and this helped
to produce a regular income from the collections, although it did —
appear to be replaced latterly by Hospital Saturday, which was the
day when the lady collectors made street collections in aid of the
funds.

A further source of income grew from the careful work of the
treasurers and committee from renting out parts of the dispensary
house to various bodies, and the income from these rents was often
as much as 10 or 15% of the needs of the charity. The Savings Bank
for example was an early partner with the dispensary in Chapel
Street at £1 per annum, and later on Quay Walls. The treasurers’
work was also to be seen in the constant income from investments,
often 3 of the income coming from this source. Annual donations of
3 guineas from a “‘well wisher to the institution” were recorded in
the committee minutes for several years in the 1830’s as coming from
Mr Shafto Craster, and from 1881 until at least 1890 Mrs Short and

BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898 257

then Mr Short transmitted annually £2 or £3 “from the inhabitants of
Burnmouth”’.

Other contributions came from strange sources. In 1815 the Rev.
James Watkins of Norham remitted 3 guineas “‘the moiety from a
penalty of two carters racing in the high road”’. . . that must have
been something like 3 weeks wages for the poor carters; and in 1828
Mr Mason of Pallinsburn Cottage gave 7/7'% his half of 2 fines
imposed for “furiously driving’’. In 1863 there was a donation of
10/-, Mr Melrose’s proportion of a fine paid by Bruce and Reed for
trespass on his farm, and in 1867 a French fisherman paid 7/- for the
use of the ward, and a Norwegian fisherman paid 18/-. In the same
year aship’s carpenter paid a self imposed fine of £1, and in 1875 there
was a similar fine of 5/- for assault. In 1833 when the Reserve 42nd
Royal Highlanders left Berwick, the officers gave the dispensary a 6
oared gig, which was sold for £4 - 1 - 0, and the men gave £10 from
the proceeds of their concert party.

The committee could show firmness when it thought money was
owed to the dispensary. In 1826 Michael Hacking was recommended
to the dispensary by Mr Heriott of Whitsome Hill. It seems that he
was admitted to the dispensary ward without a proper recommenda-
tion and that requests for payment for the patient’s diet and nursing
were met with silence. The tolerance of the dispensary lasted for at
least a year when the committee decided that fle atient should be
handed over to the guardians of the poor, and a Duns lawyer was
consulted about the possibility of suing for the sum owed.

In June 1838 a donation of 12/- was offered subject to an advert
appearing in the Berwick Advertiser stating that 12/- had been
received from a “passenger in the Ardincaple, the sum allowed him
by the General Shipping Company in consequence of the complaint
preferred by him against Capt. Thomas Sample of that vessel for
violation of the agreement and great incivility, and for which he was
reprimanded by the company’”’. This was one gift which was refused
by the committee.

In the late 1840’s the railway line was under construction and
McKay and Scott of Belford, contractors for the Tweed Bridge,
were asked to start a sick fund to help defray the expense of people
injured in the works and in 1848 the secretary was directed to write
to the railway directors for payment of £2, the cost involved in the
“effusion of blood by the amputation of William Dickson’s thigh
rendered necessary by an accident on the railway near Reston, which
'. destroyed 2 of the mattresses’.

In the 1870’s payment of “prescription pence’ was introduced
(there were 1554 in 1894) and at the same time increasing amounts
were received for patients “‘aliment’’ . . . although this only averaged
out at 84d for each patient in 1894 . ... not too large a sum by any |
standard. Gifts in kind were also made: a load of firewood was
usually donated every year, and there was an annual appeal for
bedding and linen for the new Infirmary.

The minutes mention only one incident in which the management
of the dispensary was critcised. This was in the Berwick Advertiser

258 BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898

and predictably it was accused of being self elected and self perpetuat-
ing with the inference that a considerable body of subscribers and
supporters held this opinion. After a series of meetings and letters
between the committee, and the Editor and Mr Robson the son of
the newspaper proprietor, it turned out that only one subcriber was
involved and his name was not revealed by the newspaper’s rep-
resentatives; but the newspaper would appear to have won the
bargain, as the committee paid for space in the newspaper to have a

reply published.

Patients

And what of the patients? They had to live within 12 miles of the
dispensary and had to be recommended to the charity on the pre-
scribed form bya subscriber, with a strict tally kept, so that subscrib-
ers did not recommend more patients than their donations covered.
Ideally the charity was for the benefit of the “‘poor sick’’, but if a
parish had none, then industrious sick persons could be referred in
proportion to the amount contributed by a Church or Kirk. Domes-
tic servants and indentured apprentices were excluded, unless their
masters were too poor to obtain proper medical care for them, and
anyone receiving parish relief was also excluded. However, by 1873,
patients ‘“‘who had met with a severe accident”’ could be admitted at
once, but “cases manifestly incurable or women advanced in pre-
gnancy’’ were not to be recommended or admitted to the hospital. In
1814 one group of patients could be brought to the dispensary
without recommendation or fee . . . children of poor people to be
innoculated with cowpox; but the parents had to deposit 2/6, return-
able when the child was brought for the vaccination to be inspected.

Every patient was to be “‘as clean as possible both in person and
clothes”, there was to be “‘no noise or quarelling in the waiting
room, but each was to wait his turn patiently”. When called upon
“they were to answer every question put to them, modestly and
according to the truth; and were to take every medicine according to
the direction and not waste or destroy them’’. “All boxes, phials and
gallipots were to be returned clean as soon as they were emptied or
the patient dismissed”; and they were to “‘behave soberly, attend
regularly and conform to the rules on pain of dismissal’’. Finally,

hen cured they had to thank the subscriber who recommended
them . . . or forfeit all claim on the charity in the future.

These rather repressive measures were not only applied to the
patients; at the new Infirmary, visitors were allowed on two days.
each week between the hours of 2 and 4p.m.... unless disapproved
by the medical officers. Little else is recorded in the minutes about
the patients themselves, only in so far as their illness caused the
committee unusual expense.

An average of about 140 patients was treated annually for the first
40 years of the dispensary’s existence and of these about 120 would
be relieved or cured, about 20 died and 2 would be dismissed for
irregularity.

From the mid 1850’s and continuing afterwards the numbers of

BERWICK DISPENSARY AND INFIRMARY 1814-1898 ZAS9)

patients increased to average 400 annually by the 1890’s.

As might be expected administrative records say little about con-
ditions which actually brought patients to the dispensary, but some
items are worthy of record if only because they are no longer seen in
Britain. One such which came in epidemics was cholera, referred to
in March 1833 as “‘the malignant distemper’ which had appeared in
the last year... and which it was hoped would be prevented by better
cleanliness and better food . . . comments well ahead of the time.
However, an approach by the Berwick Board of Health to use the
uppermost floor of the dispensary for cholera patients was turned
down because it could not be isolated from the rest of the building.
Some 20 years later cholera had once again become epidemic and the
Board of Guardians asked if cholera patients could convalesce in the
dispensary. A first request in 1849 was rejected but in 1854 permis-
sion was granted for one room to be used, but there were so many

atients that other rooms were used, as well as the dispensary’s
Geddine and blankets; worst of all a child named Cavanagh had been
admitted with cholera and had died the day after. The Savings Bank
who were tenants in the dispensary protested about the injury to
their interests, but probably the passage of time and the epidemic
resolved the problem.

Now that smallpox has been eradicated world wide, it is worthy
of record that at the public meeting held on 26.11.1872 to launch the
appeal for the new Infirmary, it was remarked that “‘there had been
100 cases of smallpox in Castlegate a few months ago”’: It is almost as
surprising to learn that “‘it had been stated in the Lancet that among
the 3 centres of scarlet fever in England, Berwick was one’’.

Other items show the wheel of fashion has gone full circle. A
“patent water mattress’’ was purchased in 1867 for £14 - 0 - 7; water
mattresses are becoming fashionable in some medical circles in 1982.
No doubt there will be similar findings in any future examination of
Berwick Infirmary.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

My thanks are due to Mrs Y. Frank, Secretary to Berwick Infirmary for access to the
minute books of Berwick Dispensary and Infirmary Committee and Annual Meet-
ings for the years 1814-1898. I must also thank the proprietors and the Editor of the
Berwick Advertiser for access to the relevant copies of their newspaper in their
archives.

i ALE OF TWOnMOSS ES"
(COLDINGHAM COMMON AND DRONE)

C. O. Badenoch

The Scottish and Northumbrian Borderland is well endowed with
““mosses”’ of various kinds. A hundred or more have been identified
to date and several are now considered to be of national importance
for their vegetation communities as well as for their rare plants and
insects.

Most of these Border wetland areas are situated in hollows of

260 A TALE OF TWO “MOSSES”

boulder-clay drift or within the glaciated grooves of the strongly-
folded Silurian rocks. Many atrel depressions were small lakes or
“‘kettle-holes”” formed during the glacial retreat ten to fourteen
thousand years ago. These gradually filled in with accumulated silt

and plant remains until a mire or marsh resulted. Some remain more .

or less in this condition today, held at this development stage by past
peat-cutting or marl-digging. These sites have a high mineral con-
tent and low acidity, being known now to ecologists as “fens”’.
Others, for reasons not yet entirely understood, were colonised by
species of bog-mosses (Sphagnum) which are rapidly growing and
have the ability to hold quantities of water within their absorbent
stems and leaves—a property recognised in the use of such plants for
absorbent wound dressings in the First World War. As a mass of
Sphagnum grows it can capitalise on any available precipitation, as
well as on the water of the underlying basin, forming a spongy peat
dome with a water-table high above that of the surrounding mineral
soil. This development gives rise to the characteristic acid “‘raised-
bog”’ so typical of moderately high rainfall areas and the flood plains
of large river valleys as for example in the upper valley of the Forth.

Since the “‘mosses’’ owe their singular development and charac-
teristic plants and animals to the combination of high water table and
precise water-chemistry, it is inevitable that they are extremely
vulnerable to land drainage and to increased nutrient supply through
fertilisers. Many of the larger Berwickshire examples such as the fens
of Billie Mire—once home of the Bittern and Hen Harrier—Horse
Bog and Bishops Bog have been reduced in size, dried-out and
modified in the wake of agricultural developments of the past two
hundred years. More recently afforestation has claimed some of the
interesting mires recorded by Club members in the last century. The
raised bog at Penmanshiel Moss is a good example, the peat of which
has been described in its stratigraphic succession by Ragg and Futty
(1967).

It is therefore of considerable interest to be able to record the
presence of two mosses in eastern Berwickshire which—apart from
the inevitable past wood-cutting, grazing and peat-winning
—appear from their vegetation to be ETRE intact. They are the
Long Moss of Coldingham Common, and Drone Moss at the head
of the Mid Grange Burn, a headwater of the Ale. Both mires seem to
be on fragments of unenclosed Commonty and undoubtedly they
owe their survival to this. While the former is still a fen, largely
influenced by the mineral-enriched water supply of its topogenic
basin, the latter is an almost perfectly representative example of the
classic raised-bog, with a typical surrounding lagg burn in which
thickets of Willow (Salix spp.) have developed. Remarkably, the
rainfall of the area is only around 29” (c. 736 mm) per annum, on the
exposed plateau of Coldingham Moor, and it has been suggested that
the healthy development of mosses at these sites must be due in large
part to the effect of our sea haars reducing water loss through
evaporation and plant transpiration during the otherwise dry periods
of early summer.

~~ “= . —_— ee ee ee eee —— ee

_— er,

A TALE OF TWO “MOSSES” 261

The sites were “‘re-discovered” by Club members during the
course of habitat and botanical surveys under the auspices of the
Scottish Wildlife Trust, the Botanical Society of the British Isles and
the Nature Conservancy Council. They were located in 1974 during
scrutiny of aerial photographic cover of the Region, and their respec-
tive interest was confirmed during field survey work between 1974
and 1980 by Club members and professional ecologists from the
Nature Conservancy Council and Institute of Terrestrial Ecology.

Long Moss may have been part of the lands of Lumsden, amongst
others, bestowed by King Edgar to Coldingham Priory in 1098. The
ee of the Lumsden/Lumsdaine titles through the centuries has

een well documented by Romanes (1910). The later process of
division of the Commonty of Coldingham in 1776 has been outlined

| by Adams (1971) and is recorded on the maps of Alexander Low

(1772) and William Cockburn (1772), of which a few copies still
remain with local Feuars. The Statistical Account (Renton, 1793)
leaves us in no doubt that the inhabitants of Coldingham were averse
to the decision to enclose the common land from which they had
obtained not only grazing and peat fuel, but also the divots and turf
for their house roofs. References to the moor and its mosses are also
included in the Club’s own Proceedings. Broderick, in his Anniver-

| sary Address of 1850, recalls the Club meeting when the first Scot-

tish record of the Marsh Fritillary butterfly Melitaea Artemis
(= Euphydryas aurinia, Rott.) was made, and, in the reports of the
meetings of 1897, Stuart (1899) presents a few of the vascular plants
found on the moor. Hardy (1872) records the frequent presence of
the Hen Harrier on the moor in the 1820’s and in a later paper notes
the Sedge Warbler there in 1881.

The site now consists of a long lozenge of some 50 acres lying
along the grain of the Silurian rocks on a North-West to South-East
axis. To the west is wet heath and open pools, rush-fringed and
surrounded by wide lawns of Sphagna with the common cottongrass
(Eriophorum vaginatum and E. angustifolium), White Sedge (Carex
curta) and locally abundant beds of Cranberry (Vaccinium oxycoccus).
Eastwards the site becomes more typical of an advanced poor-fen
with Bog Bean (Menyanthes trifoliata), Marsh Cinquefoil (Potentilla
palustris), Bottle Sedge (Carex rostrata), Creeping Willow (Salix
repens), Heath Spotted Orchid (Orchis fuchsii spp. ericetorum) and
Northern Marsh Orchid (Dactylorhiza purpurella). This poor fen
extends round a central Willow carr (mostly of Salix cinerea and S.
aurita) and a small clump of the lesser Butterfly Orchid (Platanthera
bifolia), a plant now confined to only three or four sites in the Scottish
Borders. Within the woodland a variety of unexpected herbs and
ferns occur. Most noteworthy are: Lesser Twayblade (Listera corda-
ta)—which also occurs on other parts of the moss; Common Win-
tergreen (Pyrola minor); the rare Coralroot Orchid (Corrallorhiza
trifida); Oak Fern (Gymnocarpium dryopteris); Lady Fern (Athyrium
filix-foemina); Narrow Buckler Fern (Dryopteris carthusiana) and the
“Highland” Chickweed Wintergreen ( Trientalis europaea) which has
only four stations now in the Scottish Borders and a similar handful

262 ACKALE OF TWO MOSSES”

in Northumberland—including Kyloe Woods. Some eighty vascu-
lar species were recorded in all.

The list of Sphagnum species 1s not long but includes S. tenellum, S.
papillosum, S. palustre, S. capillefolium and three varieties of S. recur-
vum. The common moorland mosses Pleurozium schreberti, |
Hylocomium splendens, Hypnum cupressiforme agg., Aulacomnium
palustre, Plagiothecium undulatum also occur but full lists have not yet
been made.

Although no detailed invertebrate survey has been carried out, it is
perhaps worth recording the 1979 observations of the damsel fly
(Enallagma cyathigerum) and the Golden Ringed Dragonfly (Cor-
dulegaster boltonii). Samples of Sphagnum taken by the Institute of
Terrestrial Ecology to Dorset in 1979 for experimental work, unex-
pectedly revealed female individuals of the spiders Oxyptila trux, and
Metopobactrus prominulus! Both the Cordulegaster and Metopobactrus |
appear to be new County records.

The moss, being close to the sea and also to good agricultural land, |
is an ideal roost for various waders and wildfowl. Wintering Teal,
Mallard and passage waders are joined increasingly by Greylag
Geese returning again to the site which they appeared to desert
around the time of the Second War. In summer, Teal, Redshank,
Snipe, Mallard, Red Grouse, Reed Bunting, Linnet and Sedge War-
bler breed

Of Drone Moss, far less is known. No historical references or
scientific references have been discovered to date, apart from that of
Daniels (1978) who places the site within the context of the range of
British Mire types, and also draws attention to the anomalous and
unusual assemblage of plant communities, which he postulates are
the result of an exaggerated influence of ground water in the
peripheral peat cuttings, resulting in nutrient poor mire vegeta-
tion—as on parts of Long Moss—and dry, acid raised bog. Certainly
the well-developed central dome is more spectacular than on many
other “‘raised”’ bogs, rising some 3 metres above the outflow burn.
The plant species composition is poorer than on Long Moss, as one
might expect within such an acid system. Only fifty vascular species
are recorded and most of these are on the lagg burn or peripheral
Birch/Willow scrub. In common with Long Moss, Drone Moss has
Trientalis and Dryopteris carthusiana, as well as some rather odd}
Sanicle (Sanicula europaea) which look decidedly out of place! The
dome and wide area of peripheral Sphagnum and woodland ringing
the site has yielded a wide range of bryophytes including: Acroc-
ladium cuspidatum, A. giganteum, Aulacomnium palustre, Brachythecium
rutabullum, Campylopus flexuosus, C. introflexus, C. pyriformis, Dic-
ranum scoparium, Hypnum cupressiforme, Leucobryum glaucum—a typi-
cal raised bog species—Mnium hornum, M. cf. pseudopunctatum,
Plagiothecium undulatum, Pleurozium schreberii, Pohlia nutans, Poly-
seieht commune, P. juniperinum, P. pilliferum, Sphagnum cuspidatum,
S. fimbriatum, S. magellanicum, S. papillosum, S. palustre, S. recurvum, |
S. capillefolium, S. squarrosum, S. tenellum, Calypoegia fissa, C. ¢f.
trichomanis, Cephalozia bicuspidata, C. canniscens, C. cf. media, Chilos-

AT TAVEIOE MU WO? MOSSES” 263

cyphus pullescens, Gymnocolea inflata, Lephidozia setacea, Lophozia
ventricoa, Mylia annomola, Odontoschisma denudatum, O. sphagni and
Pellia epiphylla. Lichens have not been recorded yet in detail.

Both these sites are remarkable in the context of Berwickshire and
indeed the Lothians and Borders, and it is likely that they will be
considered for formal designation as Sites of Special Scientific
Interest. The Scottish Wildlife Trust is currently in negotiation with
the Feuars of Coldingham over a possible Wildlife Reserve at Long
Moss. Whatever happens, perhaps a plea can be made to treat these
priceless pieces of our natural heritage with care. The author would
be delighted to hear through the editing secretary of any further
information regarding the history or biology of the sites, and grate-
fully acknowledges the help already received from the people of
Coldingham and Ayton, Mr M. Brathwaite, Dr Daniels of the
Institute of Terrestrial Ecology and adjacent proprietors notably: Mr
Millican of Lumsdaine, Mr Dykes of Dowlaw, Dunglass Estates and
Mr Kennedy of Drone Hill.

REFERENCES

Adams, I. H. (1971). (ed.) Directory of Former Scottish Commonties. Scottish Record
Society, New Series 2: Edinburgh.

Broderick, Wm. (1957). Anniversary Address. Hist. Berwick. Nat. Club, III, p. 5
(1850-56).

Cockburn, Wm. (1772). Coldingham Common Moor taken before a Division before the
Court of Session. Map. Scale 1:6500. Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh. (Ref: RHP
62).

Daniels, R. E. (1978). Floristic Analyses of British Mires and Mire Communities. J.
Ecol. 66, pp. 773-802.

Hardy, J. (1872). Ornithological Memoranda. Hist. Berwick. Nat. Club, VI, p. 247.

Hardy, J. (1881). Record of Migration and Occurence of Birds on the Borders In the
Order of their Dates for 1881. Hist. Berwick. Nat. Club, LX, p. 560.

Low, Alex. (1772) Plan of the Common or Commonty of Coldingham. Map, Scale 1:9500.
Scottish Record Office, Edinburgh (Ref. RHP 155).

Ragg, J. M. and Futty, D. W. (1967). Soils of the Country Round Haddington and
Eyemouth. Memoir, Soil Survey Great Britain. The Macaulay Institute for Soils
Research. HMSO: Edinburgh.

Renton, J. (1973). Parish of Coldingham in: Statistical Account of Scotland. ed. Sir J.
Sinclair (Bart.), XII, pp. 43-60.

Romanes, C. S. (1910). Lumsden. Hist. Berwick. Nat. Club, XX, pp. 89-109.

Stuart, C. D. (1899). List of Plants gathered in Dowlaw Dean and The Moors in that
Neighbourhood. Hist. Berwick. Nat. Club, XVI, pp. 165, 166.

THE GREAT NORTH ROAD
T. D. Thomson

The late Mr Angus Graham’s comprehensive paper on “The
Archaeology of a Great Post Road” (PSAS XCVI,318-347) leaves
one gap in the history of the Great North Road and A.1. This is the
date when the present route between Ayton and the junction at
Tower Bridge, Cockburnspath with the Old Post Road across Col-
dingham Moor (A.1107) was completed. He inclined to the view
that “‘the route from Ayton by the Eye Water was opened probably
about the same time’’ (1798) as the section northwest of Cock- |
burnspath, between Pathhead and Bilsdean. The scheme of
improvements to the Great North Road began to come into opera-
tion with the opening of the Pease Bridge, on A.1107, about 1786 and |
work on the Ayton-Cockburnspath section of A.1 is described as/
having been in progress since shortly before 1794. A study of the files’
of the Berwick Advertiser suggests that the date of opening was in fact"
twentythree years later.

The new bridges across the Eye at Ayton and Heriot Water at
Cockburnspath Tower were opened in the 1790s, but not until 1809
were the Post Road trustees advertising the let by public roup of the
forming and making of the New Post Road from Ayton to Cock-
burnspath Tower Farm. Mr Graham suggested in correspondence
that with the opening of these two important bridges the new route
may have come into limited use with the road in an “unmade”
condition, i.e. without drainage, bottoming or metal. This may well
have been the case for at least the Ayton-Heughhead section, for on
8th May, 1813 the trustees announced that they had resolved to finish
that section and called for tenders from road contractors. Unfortu- |
nately, the file of the Advertiser for 1814 is missing but on 8th June,
1815 James Mitchell advertised that he had taken the Press Inn on the
Old Post Road and offered ““Handsome Post Chaises, good Horses,
and careful Drivers’’. This suggests that the old line was still the
trunk route (the date of closing the Post Office at The Press is not
definitely known).

Two interesting points arise here. In 1812 it was stated, in advertis-
ing the Press estate for sale, that the Inn was let for ten years at £150
per annum “with a breach in favour of the tenant in certain circum-
stances”, which might very well have been in the event of The Press
being bypassed when the new route was actually opened. The other,
pone out by Mr Graham, is that Mitchell was apparently putting

is money into moveables and not into capital improvements at the
Press Inn (known locally as The Packet House).

I have not found any indication of the date of opening of the
Ayton-Heughhead section but by 17th February, 1816 it was possi-
ble to advertise that a new Inn was to be built at Houndwood further

264

THE GREAT NORTH ROAD 265

up the new road; the notice included the statement that ““The lands
[of Houndwood Mill] are intersected by the New Post Road”’. Later
that year James Mitchell, not one to miss an opportunity,
announced, on 10th August, that ““The new road from Dunglass to
Ayton is nearly completed, and about to open soon; he has taken that
Elegant House of Renton, to be possessed by him as an Inn.”

Mitchell was a little optimistic, for it was not until 21st June 1817
that he could advertise that ““The New Road from Ayton to Cock-
burnspath Tower, via Heughhead, Houndwood, Renton and Pen-
mashiel (sic) is to be open on 1st July” and remind the public that
Renton House had been “elegantly fitted up as an Inn’. A month
later a ““‘New Light Post-Coach”’ was being advertised to leave
Edinburgh for Newcastle at 9 a.m. each morning with the service in
the opposite direction leaving Newcastle at 5 a.m. and arriving in
Edinburgh at 10 p.m.

I therefore conclude that the new line was perhaps decided upon in
the early 1790s (it would be typical of any bureaucracy to plan a new
line very shortly after expensive improvements to the old one) and
that possibly the Cockburnspath—Heughhead section was then
begun, but that shortage of money during the Napoleonic Wars
prevented much progress. Work on the Ayton-Heughhead section
may also have been Gegun but its completion was not undertaken
until 1813. There was no sign of animminent end to the whole work
until 1815, in 1816 progress was promising, and the New Post Road
was opened on or about 1st July, 1817. It was certainly open when
Blackadder’s map of 1821 was published, although the 1818 edition
of “The Traveller’s Guide through Scotland” still describes the
London road as going by the Press Inn.

All the new information came from advertisements; apparently
neither The Scotsman nor the Berwick Advertiser regarded the opening
of this important section of the Great North Road as newsworthy.

Iam much indebted to Mr Graham himself, the Tweeddale Press,
the Edinburgh City Librarian and the Royal Scottish Geographical
Society for their help in this investigation.

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HISTORY

OF THE

BERWICKSHIRE

NATURALISTS’ CLUB ~

The Centenary Volume and Index, issued 1933, price £2
is invaluable as a guide to the contents of the History.

- Price to Non Members and for additional copies £3.00

’ PRINTED FOR THE CLUB
BY MARTIN’S PRINTING WORKS,
MAIN STREET, SPITTAL
1982

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