On Ancient Interments, by James Hardy. 101 



who carefully inspected the pMal, were of opinion that it was of 

 Grecian manufacture, and about 700 years old, a date which 

 nearly corresponds with the building of Kelso Abbey, by King 

 David of Scotland. Such phials are believed to have contained 

 unguents for the anointing of the dead. The drawing which 

 accompanies this brief account was made by my friend, Mr 

 Erain, whose name is a sufficient guarantee for its correctness. 



On Ancient Interments in a Tum^ulus, called the Fairy 

 Knowe, near Stenton, East Lothian. By James Hardy. 



A DISCOVERY of a funeral urn and accompaniments was made 

 in a cairn or mound, on the 20th January, 1878, on the farm of 

 Meiklerig, near Stenton, East Lothian, the property of Lady 

 Mary Nisbet Hamilton, and farmed by Mr Stewart. For the 

 particulars, and a sight of the articles then disinterred, I am in- 

 debted to the Eev. George Marjoribanks, minister of Stenton, 

 who was not aware of the circumstance of any such operations 

 being proceeded with, or of anything being found, till after- 

 wards, when the most interesting portion was removed. 



The mound for generations stood in the middle of a flat field, 

 and was supposed to be composed of rock, with a thick layer of 

 earth covering it, and stones led from the fields piled about it. 

 The name of the mound was the Fairy Knowe ; and in former 

 times it was a source of fear to the children of the parish, be- 

 cause of the fairies who danced round it. Whins and broom to 

 shelter the " good people," when tired with their frolics, grew 

 on its skirts. The tumulus was 110 yards in circumference; 

 and from 10 to 12 feet high in the centre. As the mound 

 covered a good large space of valuable ground, the farmer was 

 induced to remove, at least a portion of it. The constituents, on 

 being tested, proved to be entirely of stone and boulders, without 

 a rock nucleus. Hundreds of cartfuls of stones were led away. 

 When the workmen had got beyond the outer stones — the accu- 

 mulation of ages from the field itseK — they came to a much 

 larger size of boulders, forming quite a circle round the heap. 

 These were with difl&culty got into the carts. 



