118 Elsdon Parish Register. By Robert Arkle. 



Plate II. fig. 2. Is a flint celt in possession of the -writer. It 

 was found by a young man in the month of February, 1882, 

 while trenching a piece of ground, little more than 100 yards 

 from the site of the Cadger's Cairn mentioned above. It is of a 

 pale gray colour, roughly chipped, polished at the cutting end. 

 It belongs to the middle stone age and is allowed by Dr. Ander- 

 son to be a very fine specimen of its kind. 



William Stobbs. 



Remarks on the Registers of the Parish of Elsdon. By 

 Thomas Arkle, Highlaws, Morpeth. 



The Elsdon Parish Registers, the only chronicle of a large 

 portion of the people of Reedwater since about the year 1670, 

 are in general meagre in their details, which consist of little 

 more than names and dates, interspersed with a few brief inci- 

 dental observations on circumstances thought worthy of a passing 

 notice. 



In the records of a district like the Parish of Elsdon, accounts 

 of the burial of men slain in personal encounters might have 

 been expected ; for though the fierceness of border warfare had 

 abated, still in the seventeenth century petty feuds were frequent 

 in the district, where parties at enmity generally pursued each 

 other with the bitterest rancour. However, the only entry of 

 this nature is the burial on the 15th of April, 1693, of "Mark 

 Potts of High Carrick, who was slain upon y^ Mote Hills," but 

 by whom is not stated. Accidents are in a few instances noted, 

 but the invidious chroniclers have mostly perpetuated derisive 

 appellations, have alluded to personal and mental infirmities, 

 have almost treated indigence as a crime, and recorded with un- 

 failing assiduity conjugal incontinence, and slips indicating the 

 frailty of a few of the ladies of Redesdale, whilst in the whole 

 history there has not been found room for the commemoration of 

 a single act of disinterestedness, charity, or virtue. 



In 1689, we find that " Thomas, y^ son of Jo. Potts of Carrick, 

 was drowned near Cants Miln Dam hed," whilst in 1741, "James 

 and John, sons of William Dunn of Hole Miln," met with a 

 similar fate, but the place of the accident is not recorded. 



In 1688, "Bartholomew, son of Wester Will of Landshott," 

 was baptized, and from 1686 to 1709 there were buried "John 



