360 Mr Hardy on Langleyford Vale and the Cheviots. 



sought out the junction, but this hill itself is nearly encircled 

 by an ancient wall on the south, enclosing folds, and guarded 

 by forts; which at the eastern end combines or coincides 

 with the huge balks of the ancient cultivator, which are such 

 conspicuous objects, and have been mistaken for fortifications, 

 and have given rise to several absurd speculations. A line 

 of wall, with cross-ribs, sheltering huts and folds, burrowed 

 out from the immense congregation of stones, descends the 

 eastern side of that hill (I believe there are three lines of 

 these walls on the hill face, but they are not equally trace- 

 able), till near the base, where it may unite with the under 

 wall of defence. The bottom wall turns the eastern corner 

 of the hill, where there are clusters of huts in ruins, accom- 

 panies the hill round and passes away to the plantation in 

 the direction of an ancient road that crosses through it. 

 Again, behind Humbleton hill on the west, a new series of 

 hut-circles associated with dikes resembling enclosures, com- 

 mences ; the main-wall running up the road, by a hollow, 

 towards the great fortress on a promontory (Harehope camp) 

 at the head of a ravine. This is now partly occupied by a 

 recent march fence. Coming back, traces of walls continue 

 among the fine fortlets still remaining at the southern base 

 of Standrop, and proceed round the hill-edge for the exten- 

 sive camp overlooking Akeld fields. These dikes are 

 numerous at Swintlaw, and are as evidently the results of 

 Ancient British labour; as are the huts, and forts, and 

 hollowed out roads, marked by stones on edge. They re-appear 

 among the scattered settlements at Heathpool linn. They 

 can be traced on Whiteside, not far from the eastern in- 

 scribed stone, running behind the ground where the fair 

 holds, towards the camps now enclosed by Fowberry Park 

 wall. In Berwickshire, they are prominent at Cockburn 

 Law ; and especially on Bunkle Edge, where tradition calls 

 them " Dane Camps," and points out the water-tables in 

 front of them as a sort of rifle pits whence, with dart or 

 arrow, an attacking foe might be annoyed. There is also 

 there a tradition, but very small traces, of a forgotten ditch 

 and turf wall named the " Black Dike,"* the counterpart of 



* In Berwickshire, there is also a ruinous entrenchment, called the "Black 

 Dike," which can still be traced for two miles on Earlston Moor. In the 

 ' New Statist. Acct. of Berwickshire," p. 43, anothei rampart — the " Black 

 Dikes " — is noticed in connection with the camp named " Blackcastle Rings," 

 near Greenlaw, which runs in the direction of Hume Castle. Being prin- 



