350 On British Cists at Frenchlaw and Edington Hill. 



found it to be a short cist, 3§ feet long, 2 feet deep, and 2. 

 feet broad, composed of six slabs of free-stone, containing a 

 complete skeleton, in a good state of preservation. The 

 bones, however, upon exposure to the air, began to crumble 

 away ; and I was sorry I could not secure the entire cranium, 

 to examine it at leisure. Of this, however, I made myself 

 sure, that it was of the Brachycephalic type, to which 

 Retzius and other Scandinavian ethnologists refer the crania 

 of the men of the stone age. Upon carefully searching the 

 floor of the Cist, I came upon a flint implement, since iden- 

 tified as " a scraper " for cleaning the hides of animals. 

 There were no inscriptions on the cover or sides of the Cist ; 

 and I believe the remains to have been those of an ancient 

 Briton, taking us back to a very remote period in the pre- 

 historic annals of the country. I find, upon referring to the 

 " New Statistical Acct. of Scotland " (parish of Whitsome), 

 that several stone chests were dug up on the farms of 

 Frenchlaw and Leethead (now incorporated with Leetside 

 farm), about 1831. The flags composing these Cists were 

 identified with the free-stone at Todhaugh, a natural quarry 

 on the banks of the Whitadder, five miles distant. The 

 sizes of the bones of the skeletons found at that time, were 

 examined, and indicated a stature of upwards of six feet. 

 Roman remains have also been found in a field still known 

 by the name of Battle Knowes, on Leetside. A bronze kettle 

 (evidently Roman) was dug up near the traces of a camp in 

 the same field in 1827 ; and the ground adjacent is worthy 

 of further examination by those interested in antiquities. 



On the farm of Edington Hill, in the parish of Chirnside, 

 a Cist was discovered many years ago — the top of which Mr 

 Wilson has placed over a well, which is situated due north 

 from Edington Hill toll about a quarter of a mile. I asked 

 the late Mr Tate, who was so well qualified to form an 

 opinion as to inscribed stones, to examine it, as I believed it 

 to be a good specimen of the usual circular markings de- 

 cribed in his paper in the Club's Proceedings. This he did 

 on the occasion of a meeting of the Club at Chirnside ; and 

 he informed me, that he was quite satisfied that the mark- 

 ings corresponded with those described in his paper. 



