162 Anniversary Address. 



of England would attain when France was conquered. 



" On the nomination of the President, Ralph Carr, Esq., of 

 Hedgley, was elected President for the ensuing year; and 

 Mr. Chas. R. P. Bosanquet and Mr. Lomas were elected 

 Members. The Rev. J. D. Clark proposed as a Member the 

 Rev. Mr. Green, of Wooler, and Mr. Hughes proposed Dr. 

 James Alexander, of Wooler." 



At the time of that meeting I was far away from home, 

 but it was evidently one full of interest. In the extract from 

 an Inquisition held at Wooler in the reign of Henry the 3rd, 

 communicated by Mr. Clark, we find the word Mota, in old 

 French mote or motte, used in its primary sense of a mound 

 cast up or escarped for the purpose of fortification, and thence 

 for the castle or stronghold which often stood upon such es- 

 carped ground. At a later period our English term moat 

 came to be applied not to the rampart but to the ditch. But 

 this is a secondary application to the word. 



I only- make this observation because it is of some con- 

 sequence in considering the probable etymology of the Mote 

 Hills at Elsdon, and at Wark on North Tyne. It has been 

 too hastily conjectured that the appellation arose from some 

 of the Saxon gemots, mots, moots or meetings for the public 

 business of the neighbourhood having been held on these hills. 

 But in the first place they are called " mote hills" not moot 

 hills, and in the next there is a want of all positive evidence 

 that courts were ever wont to be assembled thereon. 



But to return to our transactions of last autumn : — 



Berwick Meeting, October, 1859. 



I regret to say that neither was I present at this much 

 smaller gathering of our members, when any accession would 

 have been useful. For with part of my family I had sailed 

 in September, for Gibraltar, on a short visit to the south of 

 Spain, from whence we could not return until well on in 

 November. 



The meeting at Berwick, in October, was but poorly at- 

 tended; there were present Major Elliot, the Rev. W. Darnell, 

 Dr. Clark and Messrs. Home, Logan, Church, sen., Macbeath 

 and Embleton. After dinner it was resolved, that in future 



