694 EEPORT— 1881. 



an unusual kind still famous on the Scottisli border. These consisted of sculptured 

 stones, earthworks, and actual ceremonies. 



Quoting from former writers, from family pedigrees, and other documents, it was 

 shown that the estates to which pertained such strange matters as follow, had heen 

 held alternately hj' those claiming under the respective nationalities, or more local 

 powers, and these, from their natural defensive features, must have been places of 

 border importance earlier than history records. 



The district is occupied by the descendants — often still traceable — of Danes, 

 Jutes, Frisians, Picts, Scots, Angles, and Xormans ; and by a comparison of several 

 of the languages of these people, as well ancient as now existing, and also of the 

 Gothic, it was shown in relation to a particular class of the most curious monu- 

 ments, that the Norse 'ormr,' Anglo-Saxon ' vyrm,' old German 'wurm,' Gothic 

 ' vaurms,' pronounced like our word worm ; and the word ' lint ' or ' liad,' also 

 German, and the Norse ' linni,' are all equivalent, and mean serpent ; and in some 

 cases the two words are united as in the modern German ' lindwurm,' and the Danish 

 and Swedish ' lindorm.' On this apparently rested the names of some of the places 

 having these strange traditions, as Linton or serpent-town, Wormiston or worm's 

 (ormr's) town, Ijndisfarne, the Farne-serpent island, now Holy Island, &c., and 

 also the various worm-hills, or serpent-mounds, of those localities. 



It was curious that the contest (like that of St. George) was sometimes with 

 two dragons, as shown on a sculptured stone in Linton Church, Roxburghshire, and 

 on a similar stone at Lyngby in Denmark, in the churchyard, where there was a 

 tradition that two dragons had their haunt near the church. 



From these and other facts, the author concluded that the contests were inter- 

 national, and in the case of two dragons, an allied foe, either national, religious, 

 or both, was overcome. He showed fi-om the Scottish seals that Scotland used 

 the dragon as an emblem, apparently deriving it from the Picts. That the Scandi- 

 navians also used it, and that these nationalities were antagonistic to the Saxon. 



In the time of David the First of Scotland, the first gi-eat centralisation of 

 Saxon power took place, and the powerful family of the Cumyns obtained, apparently 

 by conque.st, at least two of the localities havuig these strange traditions. Further, 

 as the political object was to suppress the Celtic and Scandinavian, or other local 

 national feeling, there could be little doubt that, however they obtained them, the per- 

 sons dispossessed were of one or other of the Northern tribes. Hence, probably the 

 middle-age tradition of the slaying of the serpent or dragon, or the serpent or dragon 

 bearer, on the Anglo-Scottish border. But he considered such traditions would 

 hardly have originated through such conquests, had not previous marvellous stories 

 existed of the prowess and conquest by the dragon (bearers) of the lands they in- 

 vaded, all the wonders of which would be transferred to the conqueror's conqueror. 

 Hence these stories were not to be set aside with a sneer, as in them was a germ of 

 history, giving us, perhaps, the only msight we could obtain of the prehistoric 

 customs and mythology of some of the ancient tribes of Britain. Earthen mounds, 

 tumuli, standing stones, &c., still existed in some of these localities, with aU of 

 which the dragon, serpent, or worm was associated in the legends. 



The author then described his personal experiences in the still existing dragon 

 ceremonies in the sinith of France and Spain, which were always either on the 

 present national or former less important provincial fi-qjiti-rs, and which still formed 

 the subjects of great ecclesiastical ceremonies. 



One of the high ecclesiastical dignitaries of the North of England — the Bishop of 

 Durham — is in the position of having to take part in such a ceremony. Whenever a 

 bishop of that diocese enters the manor of Sockburn for the first time, the Lord of 

 the Manor, who holds under the see of Durham, subject to the following tenure, has 

 to present the bishop, ' hi the viiddle of the river Tees, if the river is fordable, with the 

 falchion wherewith the champion Conyers destroyed the tcorm, dragon, ov Jiery Jlying 

 serpent, which destroyed man, woman, and child' in that district, and an ancient 

 altar, called ' Greystone^ still marks where the dragon was buried. 



The subject was illustrated with \-iews of all the places referred to, on the 

 Anglo-Scottish, French, and Spanish border countries, as well as drawings of the 

 sculptm-es, funereal urns, and other antiquities belonging to each locality. 



