Meetings of Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, by J. Hardy. 395 



■while the course of one of the supplies of water for the town of 

 Wooler was being rectified. Geranium lucidum was pointed out 

 in a corner near the style, where it may have been transplanted 

 from the waterfall above Humbleton Mill ; and even there it is 

 doubtfully native. 



The higher field above the one crossed by the footpath is called 

 " the Broomy Knowe." When brought into cultivation, by the 

 father of the late tenant, a deep furrow with three horses attached 

 to the plough was held, which brought to light an ancient grave* 

 Similar interments have been come upon below the exit of the 

 footpath on Humbleton loaning, in the upper corner of the field, 

 that stretches along the loaning to the turnpike. One of the 

 fields, across the lane, is called "the Priest's piece," being an 

 allotment in lieu of certain tithes. On the same side of the lane 

 there is a transverse stony bank, topped by a hedge, which 

 carries brushwood and grass. This is one of "Humbleton 

 Balkses," and was once famous in the domestic economy of the 

 place, owing to the milk of the cows that grazed there, being 

 productive of butter, superior both in quantity and quality. 

 Others of these balks are still preserved, in the open pasture at 

 the base of Humbleton hill. Part of them are natural divisions 

 along lines of rock; others have been dressed or formed by 

 human agency. Another series lay in a transverse direction in 

 the stony field behind the ponds at the eastern end of the hill, 

 but were ploughed up, and levelled in recent times. Before 

 this happened they bore a thick crop of broom. These last are 

 the "Humbleton Banks" of Wallis ; about which he, and the 

 other historians of Northumberland have advanced a number of 

 crude theories, one not more plausible than the other. 



The only remains of the old cemetery of Humbleton is a gravel 

 knoll, in what is still called the "Chapel Field." The ruinous 

 village stands on an irregular rocky foundation. The village 

 green is occupied by a goose dub in the centre. The buildings 

 that once bordered it are now unsightly broken walls. Many old 



* Another is recorded in Mackenzie's " Hist, of Northumberland," vol. ii., 

 p. 385. " At the bottom of the hill, where stands Humbleton Burn House, 

 and close to the burn, the plough in 1811, struck against a large stone. On 

 removing this impediment, a human skeleton was exposed to view, lying in a 

 kistvaen, formed of six large flags. The bones were in a high state of preser- 

 vation, of a close texture, and^remarkably large. An urn was found beside 

 the remains." 



