Anniversary Address 23 



minute thorougliness has made himself acquainted with its place- 

 names and antiquities, writes: — "Longformacus lies in a shel- 

 tered hollow, well screenecj with plantations. A well-defined 

 basin of rising ground stretches beyond it, and far round it on 

 either hand, which is terminated on the north by the heights 

 above Cranshaws, and the detached bulk of Spartleton, with the 

 green fields of Bothal spread out on its eastern slopes, which here 

 closes up the vale of Whitadder, Below these ridges lie Cran- 

 shaws Castle, environed in trees, and the kirk and farm nearer 

 the river, aad opposite to them Harehead and Western Wind- 

 shiel, and, higher still, Crichness. The lands of Fellcleugh and 

 Ellemford and Smiddyhill are lower down the Whitadder. In 

 the flatter space between Whitadder and Dye, Eedpath stands 

 lone and bleak." After the rather cheerless country through 

 which we had been driving, and under the light of a bright 

 summer day, Longformacus presented itself as a most attractive 

 spot— a wooded and sheltered oasis dropped among the bare up- 

 lands of the Lammermoors. 



Some of the party remained to inspect the village, and visit the 

 mansion-house and its grounds; but the majority proceeded up 

 the valley under the guidance of Captain Brown and Mr Wilson. 

 Above the village the Dye forms a succession of deep pools, 

 which by some are believed to have a connection with the sin- 

 gular name, Longformacus. "The British Llwcher, according to 

 Chalmers, signifies a place of pools, or a stream that stagnates 

 into pools. The popular name of the place is * Lochrie'." Pro- 

 ceeding along the south side of the stream, its tributary, the 

 Watch, was soon crossed by a rather frail wooden bridge. The 

 party then dispersed to hunt for objects of interest in a natural 

 birchwood which stretched for some distance along the Dye. . One 

 good plant, Crepis succisafolia, was found in considerable quantity ; 

 but beyond this, and a profusion of Polypodium Dryopteris, no plant 

 was met with deserving special mention. At a point where the 

 stream makes an abrupt turn at right angles to its former course, 

 and where some shaly rock is exposed, Mr Wilson showed 

 those who accompanied him numerous specimens of worm-tracks 

 and casts. Similar vestiges of early Silurian annelid life were 

 found in a small disused quarry just as the party, quitting the 

 wood, struck across a narrow haugh, and by aid of extemporised 

 stepping stones, which Captain Brown had sent a man on to lay- 

 down, passed to the north side of the Dye. 



