Report of Meetings. By James Hardy. 249 



itself on the top of one of the cellars, and intertwined its roots 

 with the stones and lime of the fabric, but it has rent one of 

 the arches, a not unfrequent result of cherishing such parasites. 

 The mansion-house is old, of three stories height, plain but with 

 much accommodation. To the rear of the house is a square 

 orchard, with very high and thick walls and a pond in the 

 centre ; in the S.E. corner is a very large plane-tree {Acer pseudo- 

 phtanus), which is 14 feet at 2 feet from the ground, and 13 feet 

 at 4 feet. The spread of the branches is 78 feet. It forks, and 

 the secondary stems after the first great branch is given off, con- 

 tinue of remarkable thickness. It has been eased by lopping 

 off some of the weighty branches. This is one of the row of 

 trees already spoken of as having lined the public road near the 

 churchyard. Here again Sir John Paterson had cheated the 

 heritors out of this tree, and a slice of the road side also. The 

 orchard wall is considerably advanced beyond the boundary of 

 the churchyard, and narrows the road inconveniently. It is re- 

 ported that he made the heritors tipsy, and meantime had staked 

 off the plan, to which in their muddled condition they readily 

 assented. Sir John was a racing man, and the extensive and 

 commodious stablfis attached to the mansion were built by him, 

 with money, which he had won by playing at cards with the Duke 

 of Roxburghe. There is a very fine umbrageous lime-tree before 

 the house. It measures 12 feet circumference at 2 feet from the 

 ground; and W^ feet at 6 feet. The spread of the branches is 

 74 feet in diameter. There are some fairly grown oaks and 

 ashes in the grounds. There is a stout short-stemmed oak of 

 somewhat remarkable growth behind the western lodge, which 

 at 2 feet above the ground girths 1 1 feet 4 inches. A fine view 

 of the Cheviots is obtained from the grass park to the south of 

 the policy. There is a rookery in the woods. A long established 

 sandstone quarry is situated in a field to the east. 



The members were hospitably entertained at Eccles House by 

 Mr and Mrs Dove. The family portraits were viewed, and the 

 bronze spear-head discovered at Bowsden, engraved in last year's 

 " Proceedings," was exhibited by Mr Hood, factor to Sir John 

 Marjoribanks. 



In January, 1867, a gold coin of Nero, with "SALVS" on 

 the reverse, was found near Eccles. In October, 1883, a heavy 

 polished stone-celt, of about 9 inches long by 3 across, of white 

 indurated sandstone with some red streaks, was ploughed up in a 



Fl 



