Notice of Ancient Burial Urns, by Thomas Craig. 129 



which it is known their hands have handled or fashioned, that, 

 may now be brought to light, than was the case not many years 

 ago, and there is the greater likelihood not only of their being 

 preserved in private collections or in public museums, but of 

 their being duly recorded in some printed repository, where 

 particulars of them will be accessible to the student of ancient 

 history or to the local historian. The parishes of Yetholm, 

 Morebattle, and Hownam have yielded not a few treasures of 

 this kind, though the recent great find of Roman coins at Choller- 

 ford throws lesser discoveries temporarily into the shade. Yet 

 the funeral rites and customs of the ancient inhabitants of the 

 Border district have an interest of their own, which is enhanced 

 by the recent discussions, investigations, and experiments among 

 certain " advanced" personages who have challenged the ad- 

 vantages and propriety of the ordinary form of interment as 

 against cremation. As is well known, the parishes named con- 

 tain many Ancient British and Eoman camps, besides other 

 traces of the olden inhabitants, including the great Watling 

 Street. Vast tracts of this territory being in permanent pasture, 

 which is seldom disturbed by spade or plough, it may readily be 

 conjectured that when the turf is turned up the workmen should 

 now and then come upon traces of the ancient people. Not a 

 few of these have unfortunately been unwittingly destroyed, and 

 of many more, it is feared, no record has been preserved. Lest 

 all knowledge of three urns, discovered in Morebattle and How- 

 nam parishes should perish, they are now recorded in these 

 pages. 



I. 

 In the beginning of November, 1874, a burial urn was ex- 

 humed on the grounds of Elliesheugh,* now incorporated with 



* Elliesheugh, under the spelling of Hulaweshou and other modifications, 

 appears frequently in old charters, in one of which, according to Jeffrey 

 ("History of Koxburghshire") "all Hulcheshou, in wood, plain, and pas- 

 ture," was made the subject of a grant. In 1545, Esheughe (Elliesheugh) 

 was one of the many "towns" in Bowmont water destroyed hy Hertford. 

 A local saying — supposed never to have been in print — was at one time very 

 popular, that 



" The lang Gaunts of Elliesheugh 



Were heard at Blackden lane." 



Oral tradition affirms that the saying originated in the circumstance of a 



noisy family of the name of Gaunt having at one time lived at Elliesheugh ; 



