444 Beport of Meetings. By the President. 



looking up the records of tlie day in our 2nd volume, discovered 

 an excellent reason for that Wednesday morning heing specially 

 impressed upon our worthy Secretary's memory. 



There was no breakfast! "Notwithstanding" records the 

 president in his address for 1844 ''notwithstanding that there 

 had been a week's previous notice, we found an ill assorted board, 

 with such a paucity of provisions as visibly affected the stoicism 

 of many of the as&embled members. " 



It is satisfactory, however, to know that by perseverance, and 

 by repeated applications of the bell, " sufhcient provender of a 

 homely nature was at length procured to satisfy the cravings of 

 the appetite, and the ruffled equanimity of the party was re- 

 stored." 



A short inspection of the castle sufficed, and we had no time to 

 spare for the Mansion House of the Fitzclarences, so re-mounting 

 our vehicles we drove towards Duddo. 



" A-t Broomridge " obser^^ed I, innocently quoting from a 

 county history for the information of my companions in the car- 

 riage " at Broomridge, one mile south of Ford, are the lines 

 and entrenchments of the brave Saxon King Athelstan, who here 

 defeated a combined force of Scots and Danes." 



The defiant flash of the eyes, the prompt, loud, and unanimous 

 chorus of "Never!" which arose from the lungs of the brave 

 sons of Caledonia who heard me, seemed to revive the memories 

 of Flodden, and almost threatened, had I persisted in my history, 

 a repetition of it on a small scale. Surely the amor patrm is a 

 grand ingredient in a man's as well as in a national character. 



The next halt was at Duddo — the name being derived from 

 Dod a round topped hill, and hoe -a height. The Club has no 

 records of former visits to this place. We clambered up a rocky 

 eminence, admired the magnificent view, and inspected the Tower, 

 which is the remains of a little fortress, the ancient Peel of the 

 Lords of Tillmouth, that was destroyed by the Scots a few days 

 before Flodden. It is in a very decayed condition, and though 

 buttressed up in parts, the structure to the south has long been 

 cracked, and the breach is becoming wider. Dr. Thomson, in 

 a Paper on the Strata of Berwickshire, which appears in our 

 Proceedings for 1835, incidentally notices this condition of 

 Duddo Tower — "rent from top to bottom in consequence of 

 being undermined by the subterraneous working of the neigh- 

 bouring coal seams.'' 



