Tate on the Meeting at Powburn. 195 



sented. The Camp tells of the military occupation of the island 

 by a foreign power, which while it reduced to subjection the 

 barbarous aboriginal tribes, whose fortlets and towns are scattered 

 over the neighbouring hills, nevertheless introduced amongst 

 them the elements of civilization. Both conquerors and con- 

 quered totally disappear; a more vigorous but turbulent race 

 succeeded, and the Peel Tower marks a period of Border raids, 

 of pillage, burnings and bloodshed. Another and a better change 

 comes gradually over the scene ; hostile yet kindred nations are 

 united; civilization and the peaceful arts have progressed, and 

 now at length the modern farm-stead, standing amid the 

 decaying relics of troubled times, overlooks smiling hamlets and 

 luxuriant fields, and sees, not far in the distance, hills and 

 upland pastures on which thousands of sheep browse in perfect 

 security. 



In the walk towards the Breamish, Ranunculus fluviatilis was 

 seen in great abundance, adorning with its beautiful white flowers 

 the surface of the Powburn ; in the same water were Callitriche 

 verna, Callitriche platycarpa, Callitriche autumnalis, and along 

 the banks Malva moschata was pretty abundant. Besides many 

 of the plants common in moist woods, the following were more 

 particularly noticed in Crawley Dean : — Crepis succisafolia, 

 Crepis paludosa, Epipactis latifolia, Campanula latifolia, Vicia 

 sylvatica, Anagallis tenella, Parnassia palustris, Polystichum acule- 

 atum, Equisetum Talmateia, and Chrysosplenium alternifolium. 



The village of Powburn is in the valley between the porphy- 

 ritic range of the Cheviots on the west, and the carboniferous 

 strata on the east. As seen from Crawley, these hills are at 

 this season beautiful, many of them, especially those of Fawdon, 

 being of a regular conical form, and covered with a fine green 

 sward, diversified here and there by the purple bloom of the 

 heather. Sandstone shales and impure limestones constitute the 

 stratified rocks. A sandstone on the summit of Glanton Hill 

 furnishes one of the best building- stones in the county, and 

 out of it issues a spring of remarkably soft and pure water, 

 which is conveyed to the village of Glanton for domestic use. As 

 showing the connection between the character of a rock and the 

 quality of the water, it may be noticed that Mr. Collingwood 

 found the water obtained by sinking at a lower level on Glan- 

 ton Pike, where calcareous rocks occur, to be hard and of 

 an indifferent quality ; and from the same calcareous beds a 

 spring issues in Crawley Dean, so saturated with lime, that it 

 incrusts with calcareous matter the mosses and other plants it 

 passes over and forms what is popularly called a " petrifying 

 spring/-' A good section of the rocks, upwards of 100 feet in 

 thickness, is exposed by a cutting made on the hill-side in 



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