president's address. 181 



plants, chiefly in flower, and they recorded their names. Among 

 the most remarkable may be mentioned TrolUus europoeus^ Paris 

 quadrifoUa, Crepis paludosa, and Neottla Nidus-avis. 



Riding Mill and its environs are so well known to our Members, 

 that I need not here attempt any description of their sweet scenery. 



The banks of the Tyne in that vicinity being well wooded, afford 

 very pleasing views. And not far distant, Bywell, a place of 

 antiquity, is discerned. 



A Survey of Forfeited Estates, a.d. 1569, describes the town 

 of Bywell as " built in length all of one street, uj)on the river 

 or water of Tyne, divided into two several parishes" — I con- 

 clude those now named St. Andrew and St. Peter — "and inha- 

 bited by handicraft men, whose trade is in iron-work, for the 

 horsemen and borderers of that country. They are subject to 

 the thieves of Tynedale, and compelled, winter and summer, to 

 bring in all their cattle and sheep into the street in the night 

 season, and watch both ends of the street, and, when the enemy 

 approacheth, to raise hue and cry. In Bywell town, the ances- 

 tors of the Earl of Westmoreland built a fair tower, or gate- 

 house, all of stone, and covered with lead — meaning to have 

 proceeded farther, as appears by the walls, the height of a man, 

 left unfinished." 



I may remark, if this " fair tower" be the " Old Castle," still 

 remaining (which I suppose it is), it must have been commenced 

 or erected by some of the Nevilles (Earls of Westmoreland), 

 between some year in the reign of King Richard II., a.d. 

 1377-99, when Bywell Barony passed to them, and the year 

 1569 or 1570, when it was forfeited. 



At the Second Field Meeting, which was held at Staward 

 Peel, on the 2nd of July, Mr. Storey informed me, that, not 

 being with the Club, he was unable to report, from personal 

 observation, what took place ; but, from a note by the Rev. J. F. 

 Bigge, of Stamfordham, I am enabled to subjoin the following 

 list of plants, which were collected in that excursion : — Asple- 

 nium Ruta-muraria^ on Langley Castle ; Menyanthes trifoliata, 

 Vaccinium Oxijcoccos^Narthecium ossifragum^ Athyrium Filix-fcemina^ 

 Viola pahistris, Viola tricolor, on the banks of the Allen, in the 



