250 Mr. R. Embleton on a new Eudendrium. 



and expended in consequence 70s. 3d. ; the fear of the Scots in 

 a.d. 1418 drove them to the land, and cost them 20s. ; and in 

 the following year, " on account of Scots and thieves," they spent 

 15s. on the land: again they found it necessary to purchase a 

 protection from the Earl of Dunbar for 3s. 4<d. The expenses of 

 the House were in a.d. 1430 much more than the income, for 

 their property had been stolen by " Scots and thieves •" and in 

 a.d. 1436 one of the servants was taken by the Scots, and ran- 

 somed at the cost of £4*. Two years after this the island was 

 deserted by the monks, because the town of Newcastle refused 

 to pay the pension due by the town, and because of the defalca- 

 tion of other revenues, owing to the troubled state of Northum- 

 berland. Redress, however, was obtained from Newcastle, Is. 6d. 

 having been presented to the chamberlains to keep them, as is 

 stated, " in humour," and the monks once more return to their 

 island home. Most rapacious were the Scots — the little monastic 

 library had no sanctity in their eyes; for about a.d. 1449, they 

 robbed the House of six volumes, and it proves that at this 

 period books had a high money value, when 53s. 4d. were paid 

 for the restoration of these literary treasures. War broke out 

 again in a.d. 1456 between the English and Scots; but the 

 heaviest blow fell upon the House in a.d. 1464, when goods to 

 the value of £57 were taken from the Fame by " Scottish 

 thieves." These records present a fearful picture of the times : 

 when a monastic house, usually held sacred, in a remote situa- 

 tion and of difficult access, was so repeatedly plundered, we may 

 be assured that the suffering and wretchedness of the border 

 population must have been awfully severe during this period of 

 lawless burnings, harryings and murder. 



The last account, which is for the year a.d. 1537, remains 

 unbalanced; the act passed in the 27th year of the reign of 

 Henry the Eighth having dissolved the monastery and driven 

 away the monks from the island ; and though no act is recorded 

 to dignify their names, and few which benefited the age in which 

 they flourished, yet posterity may feel grateful to them for 

 leaving behind accounts at once amusing and instructive. 



Zoological Notices. By R. Embleton, President. 



[With a Plate.] 



Eudendrium capillare, n. s., Alder. Plate I. figs. 1, 2, 3. 



Polypidom minute, very slender, thread-like, a little branched, 

 transparent, pale horn-coloured, smooth excepting two or three 

 faint rings near the origin of each branch. Polypes terminal on 

 the upper branches, vase- or pear-shaped, with a single row of 



