118 REV. MR CLARK'S ADDRESS. 



the party diverged to the right, and, passing over Bamburgh Moor, 

 ascended the basaltic range of hill which stretches to the west, and 

 leads to Spindlestone Crag. From the summit of this ridge a 

 very extensive view is obtained, embracing Bamburgh Castle in 

 another fine position, the Fame Islands, and a line of coast 

 stretching to the south of Dunstanburgh Castle, with the whole of 

 the rich and productive tract of Bamburghshire, covered at this 

 time with weighty crops of grain, which, though cut, for the most 

 part remained still unearned. Arrived at Spindlestone Crag, 

 where the whin presents a perpendicular shape, in many parts of 

 great height, facing to the south-east, the party lingered for 

 some time, admiring the almost columnar form of the rock, which, 

 in several places, is finely broken by masses of ivy, as well as 

 elder, and other bushes, springing from the ledges and broken parts 

 of the precipice. Nor was the Bridle, and perhaps the Spindle 

 stone, described in the oH legend, and still standing uninjured, 

 forgotten ; but the party regretted that the hole or cavity in the 

 rock, the fancied retreat of the tortuous worm into which the 

 beauteous princess was transformed by the envious queen, had, a 

 few years ago, been destroyed, by quarrying that part of the cliif 

 in which it was situated. A few of the plants usually met with 

 in trap districts were still observed in flower, but nothing rare was 

 procured. In a new-made plantation at the west end of the Crag, 

 a few specimens of Chrysomela graminis were taken upon the 

 Hypericum perforatum^ which grew in great abundance, and on 

 which Mr Selby, in previous years, had taken this, and another 

 species, the Chrysomela hyperici. Several specimens of a hymen- 

 opterous insect, belonging to the family of Andrenidce, were also 

 capture<l, half benmnbed by the coldness of the day, upon the 

 flowers of a thistle ; and two or three specimens of a large Penta- 

 toma, which infests the whin. From the Crag the party proceeded 

 by way of Spindlestone Mills (where a pretty pied variety of the 

 common sparrow was shot by Mr Brodiick), up to Loch Nairn, a 

 large piece of water, where the little river Waren has been curbed 

 by a dam or weir of vast strength and considerable height, and 

 where the waste water discharges itself by a perpendicular and 

 circular shaft of beautiful masonry. There the party made a dis- 

 covery which arrested attention, and called all their energies into 

 immediate action, for it wa» found that the pool immediately be- 



