Annicersary Address. S23 



and there form caverns. One of these, Wedderburn's Cave, 

 vv^as examined ; another bears the name of the Priest's Cave. 

 In times of disturbance and insecurity, when the borders, 

 especially, were subject to plundering and slaughter, such 

 caverns may have been used as hiding places, and have taken 

 their name from the persons who found refuge in them. Some 

 persecuted minister of religion may have found temporary 

 safety in the Priest's Cave, and possibly a freebooting Wed- 

 derburn may have escaped death by concealment in the dark 

 recess which bears his name. 



The ascent through the wood to the top of the crags is very 

 steep, but the party were rewarded for their toil, by the 

 magnificent view they enjoyed over the Whittingham Vale. 

 Resting on the summit for a while, they scanned over the 

 varied ajid beautiful features of the scene, and traced the 

 boundary of the geological formations which have impressed 

 their character on the district. The fine conical forms of the 

 porphyritic hills, belonging to the Cheviot range, are seen roll- 

 ing into each other at the head of the valley. A mass of 

 this rock protrudes like a promontory as far eastward as the 

 Ryles, and northward in a deep bay we have old red sand- 

 stone conglomerate ; some patches of the Tuedian or lower 

 carboniferous group are in the lower grounds at Garmitage and 

 Crawley Dene. From beneath the sandstone hill on which we 

 rested, there comes out one of the lowest limestones of the moun- 

 tain limestone group, and in one of the shales, interstratified 

 with it, we found a species of Modiola. The thick beds of sand- 

 stone, forming the great crags of Thrunton, belong to the same 

 formation, and are a continuation of the ridge, which, after 

 bounding the valley of the Till and Breamish at Doddington, 

 Ros Castle, and Bewick, sweeps round by Beanley and Aln- 

 wick Moor to Thrunton, and thence in a southerly direction 

 over the bleak upland moors of Northumberland. The broad 

 vale which lies beneath is highly cultivated, adorned with 

 woods and studded over with halls, villages, and hamlets ; 

 forming, indeed, one of the most beautiful and diversified 

 scenes in Northumberland. 



