34!8 Ancient British Flint Implements. By D. D. Dixon. 



an article of barter between tribes, and during tbe long winter 

 months the occupants of a settlement or camp at Farnbam may 

 have employed themselves in the making of tools from the pieces 

 of flint, got in exchange for other commodities, which may account 

 for the small pieces of flint or chippings, most of which bear the 

 mark of human workmanship. Farnham is in the parish of 

 Alwinton, five miles west of Eothbury, one mile east of Holy- 

 stone, and stands on the gently rising slopes of the eastern bank 

 of the river Coquet, which here runs from north to south. No 

 signs of any camp exist near where the flints have been found, 

 and, at any rate, the tillage of centuries would have obliterated 

 all traces of it had one ever existed ; but in a field contiguous, 

 there are green mounds not yet excavated, which have the ap- 

 pearance of burial mounds. The neighbourhood, too, is thickly 

 studded with ancient remains. Grrave mounds or barrows occur 

 on a hill near Barrow Burn, hence the name ; and on the North 

 banks of the Coquet, at Harbottle, in 1869, several cists or graves 

 were opened by Canon Greenwell, when most interesting remains 

 were discovered ; and, no doubt, in many of the fields around 

 Harbottle, if a diligent search were made while ploughing, there 

 would be found flints of a similar character to those found at 

 Farnham. On Wreigh Hill, about a mile southward is " Hetche- 

 ster, " supposed to be a British camp, where have been found in 

 large numbers the bones and antlers of enormous deer. On 

 Holystone Common there are numerous grave mounds, some 

 of which were excavated in 1870, by Canon Greenwell and C. H. 

 Cadogan, Esq., who found them to contain urns and other relics 

 of the ancient Britons. Two miles south is the camp of Hare- 

 haugh with its triple ramparts, and facing it on the south is the 

 fine circular camp, " Soldiers' Fauld, " at Whitefield, topping 

 the crest of a round hill, a spur of the Simonside range. 



Doubtless, these flints are the weapons of war and of the chase 

 as well as domestic tools, such as would be used by the ancient 

 inhabitants of Coquetdale at a period contemporaneous with the 

 occupation of the camps mentioned. Apart from the finding of 

 flints, Farnham has a few other associations of interest — there 

 once stood there a Border tower, a stronghold of an ancient 

 Northumbrian family, the " Horsleys, " '* A.D. 1460, Turris de 

 Thernham, Eobti Horsley." " A.D. 1542, at Tharnham ys a 

 toure of thinherytance of one Eog' Horsley in measurable good 

 repac'ons. " " Nun's Close " one of the fields known by that 



