Mr. Tate on Yevering Bell, &c. 433 



iiig to Nennius, Arthur, the favourite hero of romance, 

 achieved one of his victories over the Saxons at the mouth of 

 the Glein, which may readily be recognised as the river Glen 

 in Northumberland. Tradition says, that a long quadrangu- 

 lar house at Old Yevering, now occupied by a shepherd, is Ed- 

 win's palace. The walls are five feet in thickness and built 

 of porphyry blocks, but not in regular courses, and seemingly 

 without lime; squared oak posts pass perpendicularly through 

 the middle of the walls, and they supported the roof and 

 helped too to give stability to these walls. Old doorways 

 and windows with square headings are traceable; but besides 

 rudeness of structure, there are no characters to carry back 

 this building to the Saxon period. Possibly it may stand on 

 or near the site of the old palace ; it probably belongs to 

 mediaeval times, and may have been a i-ude pele for the pro- 

 tection of the village against the raids which rendered life 

 and property insecure in the border land. 



Our chief business, however, is with the early antiquities 

 of Yevering. Through the liberality of His Grace the Duke 

 of Northumberland, means have been supplied to explore 

 them by excavations, and in this Memoir the result of the 

 investigations will be given.* Too much must not be ex- 

 pected from each digging ; we are groping our way through 

 a dark period, when indeed there existed but few of the 

 appliances of civilized life ; the people who lived then had 

 little to leave behind them, and therefore but few relics can 

 be discovered. Sometimes indeed some object of peculiar 

 significance may turn up; but it is more by the accumulation 

 of facts made known by the extensive and systematic appli- 

 cation of the pick-axe and spade, that we can hope to arrive 

 at sound general views respecting the military and domestic 

 arrangements, and the habits and character of pre-historic 

 times. 



All the antiquities examined are in the porphyritic hills, 

 protruded through the sedimentary rocks lying at their 

 base. Many conical peaks rise above this elevated mass, 

 and though distinct and separated by high valleys, they 



* The Club is indebted to F. Sitwell, Esq., Matthew Culley, Esq., and "Wil- 

 liam Roddam, Esq., the owners, and to Mr. Borthwick, Mr. Elliott, and Mr. 

 Gibson, the tenants of the estates examined, for their readiness in grant- 

 ing liberty in making excavations. We had also the benefit of Mr. Coulson's 

 (of Corbridge,) experience in directing the workmen. Thanks are due to Sir 

 Henry James for the Ordnance Survey ; and I am especially indebted to my 

 friend Mr. Wm. Wightman, of Wooler, for the accompanying map of the dis- 

 trict examined. 



