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



Oldhamstocks Bridge. In a field belonging to Hoprig farm, 

 above the tree-sheltered site of Cockburnspatk Townhead, a 

 steading now obsolete, a British grave was some years since 

 turned up by the plough. 



The party now crossed the gravelly farm of Kirklands, to 

 the upper portion of Dunglass Dean. The Welted-Thistle is 

 a frequent weed here, not a generally distributed plant ; and 

 also the Corn Chamomile. The gravel is also of the same 

 character as that in the channel of the burn between this and 

 above Oldhamstocks, and contains fragments of greenstone, pro- 

 phyry, and sandstone, as well as the more common constituent, 

 greywacke. On entering the dean the Painted Lady Butterfly 

 appeared. It was general this year (although sometimes absent 

 for long periods), both on the coast and up among the hills. 

 Another entomological feature this season was the absence 

 in the woods of those crowds of summer flies that so persistently 

 annoy visitors, and earwigs were exceptionally scarce. On the 

 other hand, wasps were aggressive and ubiquitous ; and the vex- 

 atious harvest mites allowed little peace either by day or night 

 to tender-skinned people. 



At the Dean Mill cottages, now roofless, at the head of 

 Dunglass Dean, was at one time located a busy colony of 

 weavers ; and the mill had its share of country business, and a 

 road of exit and entry, now never used. Robert or " Eobbie " 

 White, the grandfather of Eobert White, the author of the 

 Histories of the Battles of Otterburn, Flodden, and Bannock- 

 burn, and not unknown as a Border lyric poet, officiated as 

 "pock-laddie" at Dean Mill.. Thence he removed to Belton 

 Dodd, in the Lammermoors, which outlandish place the family 

 farmed, or attempted to farm, for they failed. Finally he crossed 

 the Borders— a man of little pith in fighting the world's battle 

 was the testimony of his descendant. . 



The steep whinny bank on the south side belongs to Berwick- 

 shire — the opposite, on Springfield farm, is in East Lothian. 

 The company crossed the boundary farther on at the issue of 

 Berwick Burn, which here joins the Dean or Oldhamstocks 

 rivulet. Both are narrowly margined with native oaks, hazels, 

 elms, black thorns, sallows, and alders. At the entrance of 

 Berwick Burn xavine the handsome Wood Vetch grows. The 

 rock here is the Old Eed Sandstone, but the Oalciferous 



