Anniversary Address 39 



Hospital in this neighbourliood were put up to auction, and 

 Dilston Castle and estate were purchased by W. B. Beaumont, 

 Esq., M.P., who has added to the modern house, and makes it 

 occasionally his residence ; and who, as has been already men- 

 tioned, has done much for the preservation of the old walls of 

 the Castle and the Chapel. If there must still be melancholy 

 associated with Dilston Castle, it is the romantic sadness of a 

 tragedy in the distant past, no more the irritating sadness of 

 modern neglect. 



Dilston and the glen of the Devil's Water are good botanizing 

 ground. Among the grass between the ruin and the brink of 

 the precipitous descent into the glen Vtola odorata was found 

 growing in profusion. Half a dozen of the party walked up the 

 east side of the stream, crossed by stepping-stones, and returned 

 by the west side. It was late in the season, but such good plants 

 as Prenanthes muralis, Stellaria nemorum, Veronica montana, Equise- 

 tum hjemale, Circoea Lutetiana, Melica uniflora, Ptunus Padus, Sani- 

 cula Europcea, Asperuh odorata, Betonica officinalis, &c., were recog- 

 nised. Rihes alpinum and Aquilegia vulgaris were also noticed, but 

 could scarcely be considered indigenous. The course of the 

 Devil's Water above Dilston is very picturesque. Steep banks, 

 occasionally breaking into rocky scaurs, but for the most part 

 covered with brushwood, and well-grown trees, now closely gird 

 the stream, now recede and leave room for sheltered grassy haughs. 

 The view is constantly varying, and always pleasing, certainly 

 never suggestive of aught connected with the prince of darkness. 

 On emerging from the wooded valley at a cottage a short distance 

 from Dilston MiU, we found by the wayside a profusion of Malva 

 moschata, Linaria vulgaris, Parharea vulgaris, Sypericum perforatum, 

 and Ruhus ccesius. Near the new Cemetery Convolvulus arvensis 

 was observed growing in abundance along the margin of the 

 road. 



The scattered groups into which the party had broken up 

 were all assembled in the Angel Inn soon after 4 o'clock, when 

 29 sat down to dinner. After dinner Dr Allen Wilson, Alnwick, 

 was proposed as a member. The following two papers were 

 read: — 1. On Temple Thornton Farm Accounts in 1308, com- 

 municated by Mr William Woodman, Morpeth. Temple Thorn- 

 ton was the only Preceptory of the Knight Templars in North- 

 umberland ; this they farmed ; all their other property in the 

 county was in the hands of tenants. The return, here translated 



