346 On the Incised Rocks at Morwick. 



way to its smaller representatives. I find figure 5 has long been 

 known in the village as * The Lion.' It is much the largest ; is 

 about 1 foot from the ground in a part of the rock that is very- 

 coarse and gritty, and appears much effaced by the weather. 

 The cups round the horse-shoe in figure 6 are very much deeper 

 than the lines, being cut into the rock about an inch. This 

 figure is about 12 feet above the surface of the river. Figure 3 

 is about 7 feet above the river, is much overgrown with lichens, 

 and is very indistinct." 



I visited the scene under the disadvantage of a heavy thunder 

 plump ; and the troubled and discoloured river was in flood, 

 sweeping down rafts of wood and branches. This necessitated a 

 cautious guidance of the boat, which had to be steadied and held 

 secure by a chain from the shore. The rock is a single cliff 

 below the high bank, supposed to have been once crowned with 

 a British Camp. It was ornamented with ferns from its numer- 

 ous crevices, and one face of it was guttered from the top with 

 numerous water runnels. It was surmised that the figures might 

 at one time have been more numerous. The rock is crumbly, 

 and detached masses of it have fallen ; and the inscriptions now 

 remaining are preserved on the more indurated projections. The 

 northern bank of the river is grassy and without trees. The 

 wooded scene above this free space, where the mill-race and the 

 main stream of the Coquet meet at the apex of an islet clad with 

 tall umbrageous trees, is exceedingly fine. 



To discuss the particular object and meaning of these rock- 

 writings is beyond the scope of this paper. Among them are 

 examples of the first spirals as yet observed among the North- 

 umbrian rocks. Next to the Berwickshire Club, the Antiquarian 

 Society of Scotland have in their "Proceedings'' figured 

 examples of cups, circles, and other rock markings ; but among 

 them I have failed to find spirals exactly according with those 

 represented in the accompanying plates. On the stone, however, 

 engraved in Plate V., the similarity of the incised figures to those 

 at Morwick, is too obvious to be disregarded. It is derived from 

 a plate at p. 106 of Mr Eobert Bruce Armstrong's elaborate and 

 careful " History of Liddesdale, Eskdale, Ewesdale, Wauchope- 

 dale and the Debateable Land, " Part 1, Edinburgh, David 

 Douglas, 1883, 4to ; which the liberality of the publisher has 

 placed at the disposal of the Club. The stone, evidently only a 

 fragment of a larger block once containing more figures, forms 



