222 Report of Meetings for 1880, by James Hardy. 



Mils to the neighbourliood of the castle. Tlie castle (wMch is 

 figured by Grose) belongs to Lady Mary Nisbet Hamilton. 



At Dunbar, after partaking of a most sumptuous dinner, busi- 

 ness was proceeded with. Messrs John Crawford Hodgson of 

 Buston Yale, Lesbury ; John Sadler, curator of the Eoyal Botanic 

 Q-ardens, Edinburgh ; and Joseph and Ealph Moore, superin- 

 tendents of mines, Inveresk, were proposed as members. A 

 letter was read from Sheriff Russell relating to a badger trapped 

 on Timpendean Moor, and killed after it had made off with the 

 trap. It was mentioned that Mr Eobert Oalder's hounds had 

 once killed a badger near Foulden. Below Thurston Mains 

 there is still a bank called the Brock-holes. Mr Robert Gray 

 read a paper on Mr Alexander Wilson, the Paisley poet, and 

 American ornithologist, containing an extract from his journal 

 of a visit paid by Wilson to Dunbar on September 24, 25, and 

 26, 1789, Mr Gray exhibited several most interesting relics of 

 Wilson from his private collections. These consisted of — 1st, A 

 portrait with autograph ; 2, Letter addressed to Miss Sarah 

 Millar ; 3, Original Drawing of the Hermit or Solitary Thrush ; 

 4, Thirty -three proof plates of Wilson's work on Birds ; 5, Rough 

 medallion portrait ; 6, Photograph of Wilson's grave. Mr Gray 

 also exhibited a photograph of the eggs of the Great Auk. The 

 President exhibited two books acquired at Mr Maidment's sale : 

 (1) Genealogical account of the family of Home of Wedderburn, 

 by John Home, who died in 1791, with MS. notes by Mr Maid- 

 ment. John Home claimed to be the rightful heir of George 

 Earl of Dunbar, as well as heir male of the family of Home of 

 Wedderburn. (2) A collection of Parchments labelled " Chartse 

 et Sasinse Antiquse 1451-1582." The first of these is a charter 

 by William Earl of Douglas of the lands of Hutton Hall, Ber- 

 wickshire, to George Ker, dated at Edinburgh, 11th January, 

 1451. — A MS leaf of one of Thomas Boston's sermons, sent by 

 Mr David Jordan, Dalkeith, was handed round, as a specimen of 

 the careful hand- writing of the author of the " Fourfold State." 



Much interest was felt in the exhibition of the flag of Henry 

 Hall of Haughhead, in Teviotdale, the famous Covenanter, 

 which had been borne at the battles of Drumclog and Bothwell 

 Bridge. It is of blue silk, and carried in red letters painted on 

 it the vindictive inscription, " No Quarters to ye Active 

 OF YE Covenant." The golden letters of another 



