194 Tate on the Meeting at Powburn, 



Notes of the Meeting at Powburn. By Mr. George Tate, F.G.S. 



The Club met on the 16th of August at Powburn, which, being 

 a locahty not before visited, and remarkable, moreover, for its 

 archseological remains, would, if the weather had not been un- 

 settled and threatening, have attracted a large attendance. 

 There were present, the President accompanied by his two Sons, 

 Dr. Johnston, Mr. CoUingwood, Mr. Tate, Mr. Carr, the Rev. 

 H. Parker, and Mr. G. R. Tate, with Mr. Clay, junior. After 

 breakfast, the party set off to examine the banks of the Breamish, 

 and purposed, if time permitted, to visit the Camps on the neigh- 

 bouring hills and the more interesting remains of an ancient 

 British town near Linhope. A thunder-storm accompanied by 

 a heavy fall of rain compelled the party to retrace their steps. 

 In the course of the afternoon, however, Crawley Tower was 

 visited, and the botany and geology of Crawley Dean were 

 noticed. 



Crawley is a high sandstone ridge overlooking the Vale of the 

 Breamish. According to Mr. Carr, it was formerly written 

 Crau-law, which is supposed to be a modified form of Caer, used 

 by the ancient Britons to designate Roman forts, united with 

 the Anglo-Saxon word law, which has a secondary meaning of 

 'hill.' On this commanding position a Roman Camp, a Peel 

 Tower, and a modern farm-house are singularly grouped to- 

 gether. The Camp is distinctly Roman, being of a rectangular 

 form, and near the line of a Roman road, the remains of which 

 are yet visible eastward of Whittingham. On the west side, 

 where the hill is steep, there is only a single rampier, but on the 

 north side, which is naturally the weakest, a double rampier and 

 a fosse are distinctly to be seen ; the other sides have long ago 

 been levelled; but their foundations have in course of draining 

 been recently exposed ; the whole originally enclosed about two 

 acres. Within this Camp stands a Peel Tower — one of those 

 fortified buildings which are peculiar to the Border districts, and 

 which were erected to protect the inhabitants and their cattle 

 against Border marauders. It is a massive oblong building, with 

 the walls, excepting that on the north, tolerably entire, and having 

 the enormous thickness of 8^^ feet. The north wall may have 

 been battered down during some unrecorded attack by the Scots, 

 for a forty-two pound cannon-ball has been found in the imme- 

 diate neighbourhood. Some of the original windows yet remain ; 

 two of them in the south wall are double and pointed, and re- 

 semble those in the Barbican of Alnwick Castle ; they indicate 

 that this Tower was erected in the fourteenth century. These 

 ancient walls now enclose a modern farm-house. Here, within 

 a limited area, three widely different states of society are pre- 



