252 Report of Meetings. By James llardy. 



for grazing above the bridge. Having no proper bants tbe burn 

 is liable to overflow the haughs. Its "hooks and crooks," that 

 " fill the bowie and fill the kirn," are proverbial. It enters Leet 

 a mile below this, and ancient Leitholm is said to have been 

 situated at the junction. " The Chapel of Leitholm," says Dr. 

 Thomson, " stood at the west end of the present village. The 

 site of it is marked by an old ash tree known by the name of 

 the chapel tree, which grows on the summit of the chapel know. 

 The adjoining ground was used as a place of burial, and is now 

 cultivated. Bones and coffins have been occasionally dug up." 

 Alexander the parson of Letham witnesses more than one of the 

 earlier charters of Coldstream Priory. On a previous occasion I 

 went to see the village, which is the most thriving in the parish. 

 It has a large school, and a Presbyterian meeting-house, and has 

 a sort of independent position. It consists of a double row of 

 houses, built along a ridge, on each side of the public way; some 

 empty and in disrepair, but the majority renovated ; and several 

 of a better cast. There were flower plots before a number of the 

 houses ; on the whole a respectable looking place. The village 

 ends on the east in a green lane, at least as much grass as road 

 on it, between tall unkempt hedges. On a higher parallel ridge 

 on the opposite side of the stream stands Belchester, the tall trees 

 near it, that maintain the rookery, being very prominent. In 

 Armstrong's Map, 1771, an old British Camp is set down near 

 Belchester. 



The Virtue "Well is at the Leet. Its present state is thus de- 

 scribed to me : "It is in a sort of marsh, and all the back water 

 from the burn has surrounded it,. so that no water can be got 

 from it. It would be worth cleaning out," as undoubtedly 

 ought to be done. This chalybeate well was furnished with a 

 stone cover in 1780. Dr. Thomson, who analysed the water, 

 says "the supply of water is pretty copious." "Its specific 

 gravity is 1*00237, and in summer the temperature is 48°. The 

 solid contents are sulphate of lime, common salt, and a minute 

 portion of iron held in solution by carbonic acid." 



The carriages drove up to Anton's Hill, where there is a com- 

 paratively new mansion, with charming well laid out lawn and 

 flower borders, Capt. Hunter was unfortunately absent in 

 London. Among the usual assortment of plants grown in a 

 greenhouse, there were here several forced examples of Saxifraga 

 pyramidalu, (which is shy of flowering on some borders), that 



