Notes on Maxton, by the Rev. M. H. Graham. 221 



west side of the burn, tradition has fixed the site of that 

 hospital which Mr Jeffrey has placed on the haugh at Ruth- 

 erford. But the following details will assist, 1 hope, in 

 determining the questio vexata. In the fields on both sides 

 of Broomhouse burn, close by the present school-house, and 

 crossing the quarry at the back of the school, are trenches 

 of from 5 to 7 feet deep, full of rich fatty earth and contain- 

 ing human bones. In trenchingthe garden here, close by the 

 traditionary site of the hospital, two of these trenches were 

 crossed : one was 28 feet broad, and 6 \ feet deep ; the other 

 20 feet broad by 5 deep ; and in these were found quantities 

 of human bones. A few horse- teeth were also turned up, and 

 the upper half of a quern ; here was also found a rudely hewn 

 stone jug. A portion of this jug will be shown to-day; but 

 the larger half has been crushed by one of those wretched 

 pests of the archaeologist, the floor-scrubbing girl, who always 

 will go to one's most valued treasures for her sandstone. 

 This jug had a spout like a cream-pot on one side. In a field 

 also close by, there was dug up, by a drainer, a considerable 

 mass of sheet lead. Was this a theft from the hospital ad- 

 joining, thus buried for concealment and never uplifted ? Is 

 tradition right then ? In front of the school-house, two 

 workmen, in removing the earth from one of the trenches, 

 came at 6^ feet deep on rock. The rock was level and smooth, 

 but there was an indentation, or cut, made into its surface, 

 about 3 inches deep, forming a square of 6 feet or so ; and in 

 the centre of this square there was a hole of S inches diameter. 

 What meant all this ? 



Let us now go down to the Broomhouse Quarry here for a 

 minute. It is, like all our quarries in this district, of old red 

 sandstone. Here, as elsewhere in this stone, many excellent 

 specimens of scales of the Holoptychius have been found, some 

 of which will be shown to-day. In forming a road, many 

 years ago, to this quarry, the workmen turned up several flat 

 stones, and some small pieces of flint. From their description 

 of the flint pieces there is much probability that they were 

 arroio heads ; but, I lament to add, they were so quickly 

 used up and so utterly disfigured by the men striking lights 

 on them for their pipes, that they were not thought worth 

 preservation. Here, also, in tirling about 4 feet deep, was 

 cast up an elk's horn, which the men, in their ignorance, 

 smashed to pieces. A few of these pieces were afterwards 

 secured, and will be shown to-day. Embedded in the stone 



