112 Anniversary Address. 



piers, arches, and windows belonging to the early English 

 style of architecture, and dating backward to the thirteenth 

 century. The members next visited the pele tower, which 

 is a good example of one of the latest fortified houses. A 

 stone panel in the wall tells us that it was erected by Sir 

 Thomas Grey, in 1584. The township of Doddington now 

 belongs to the Earl of Tankerville, who is a descendant of 

 Ford, Lord Grey of Wark. There was, however, formerly, 

 a large number of small proprietors, who owned houses, 

 lands, and who had rights over a large common in Dod- 

 dington on copyhold tenure, one of the conditions of 

 which was the payment, yearly, of a hen or capon. For 

 election purposes these copyholds were converted into free- 

 holds a little before the contested election of 1734 ; and 

 in 1748, when Lord Ossulston was the Whig candidate, 

 thirty-four lairds of Doddington voted for him. It is a 

 reminiscence of the ancient glory of this place, that forty of 

 these lairds, each mounted on his own horse, attended the 

 funeral of a deceased laird. All now have disappeared, save 

 one, who is non-resident. Mark tells us that in 1734, Dod- 

 dington " was remarkable for its largeness, the badness of its 

 houses, and low situation, and perhaps for the greatest 

 quantity of geese of any in the neighbourhood." The cottage 

 houses are still bad ; but " decay's effacing fingers ate sweep- 

 ing" over the place, houses are tumbling down and destroyed, 

 and the population is decreasing. It is still remarkable, as 

 in Mark's time, for " one of the largest, and best springs in 

 the country, which sends out a current sufficient to turn a 

 mill." The Dod Well yields seventy gallons per minute of 

 pure water. A popular song celebrates this well, but only 

 one line is preserved — 



" The Bonny Dod Well, with its yea pointed fern." 

 Leaving the well, the party proceeded to the great inscribed 

 rock at Roughting Linn, situated at the edge of wild, dreary 

 moorlands, about midway between. Doddington and Ford, by 

 the side of a burn, which tumbles over a sandstone cliff some 

 thirty feet in height into the linn or pool at its bottom. 



