422 NORTHUMBERLAND. 



fragment of pottery. Here again the free admission of air and 

 moisture would account for the entire disappearance of the bones 1 . 



PARISH OF ALWINTON. Ord. Map. cvm. S.E. 



The valley of the Coquet is another district affording abundant 

 evidences of having been largely settled at an early period. On 

 both sides of the valley, at and above Rothbury, fortified places are 

 numerous, while the ridges of the enclosing hills show upon the 

 horizon-line the cairns which cover the burial-places of the ancient 

 occupants. Implements of both stone and bronze have been met 

 with frequently, and cists and urns have revealed themselves to 

 the eye of the ploughman or the stone-quarrier, who satisfied 

 himself with telling his neighbours of some imaginary battle, and 

 that he had seen with his own eyes the bones of the slain ; and 

 thus in many instances a tradition of a fight has been created from 

 the simple fact of the finding of a few human bones thus casually 

 disinterred. Rock-markings, both of the pit and the circle descrip- 

 tion, are to be seen in at least three localities ; and what is called 

 ( The Five Kings ' has probably formed part of what once consti- 

 tuted a megalithic circle. 



CCII. The accidental discovery of a cist in ploughing at 

 Harbottle Peels led me to examine the site, and I found that 

 upon the spot had once been placed a cairn which, within man's 

 recollection, had been removed to furnish the materials of a neigh- 

 bouring wall. The place indeed proved to be prolific of interments, 

 though not productive of anything in the shape of weapon or imple- 

 ment. In consequence of the entire removal of the cairn, it was 

 impossible to make out where the centre had been or what the 

 limits of its circumference. The measurements given are therefore 

 made without reference to any centre, assumed or real, and only 

 with regard to the position of one of the burials relatively to 

 another. The bodies had been principally interred in cists; the 

 first of which was placed north-east and south-west, and was 

 2fi't. long, 2Jft. wide, and 11 in. deep. It was made of four 

 stones set on edge, with one at the bottom and another as a cover. 

 Like all the others, it was sunk to its full depth below the surface. 

 At the west corner was found a 'food vessel;' but no remains 



1 For an account of this barrow, with a figure of the knife, see Proc. of Berwick- 

 shire Nat. Club, vol. v. p. 201. 



