254 Report of Meetings for 1880, by James Hardy. 



lately heard tlie boom of tbe bittern on tbe Till. There were 

 three common buzzards {Buteo vulgaris) ; and the honey-buzzard 

 {Pernis apivorus) had also been seen there. A nest of the king- 

 fisher along with the bird, has also local interest. 



The fourth meeting was on August 25th, at the Queen's Head 

 Hotel, Morpeth, for Newminster Abbey and Mitford. There 

 were present — Mr Charles "Watson, President ; Mr Hardy, Sec- 

 retary ; Eevs. Thomas Eogers, precentor of Durham Cathedral ; 

 J. Hill Scott, Kelso ; E. Anchor Thompson, Newcastle ; and E. 

 Hopper Williamson, Whickham ; Messrs Thomas Arkle, High- 

 laws ; Henry Hunter Blair, Alnwick ; James Bogie, Edinburgh ; 

 Eobert G-. Bolam, Berwick ; M. G. Crossman, Berwick ; James 

 Fergusson, Morpeth ; James B. Kerr, Kelso ; A. G. Legard, H.M. 

 Inspector of Schools, Leeds ; Adam Eobertson, Alnwick ; Stanley 

 Hill Scott, Kelso ; George H. Thompson, Alnwick ; John Thom- 

 son, Kelso ; and William Wilson, Berwick. 



Morpeth is an agreeable place for holding a meeting. It is a 

 town of considerable antiquity, and it is picturesquely placed 

 amid the shelter of a background of trees ; closer to it are culti- 

 vated fields, market gardens and orchards, and spacious nurseries ; 

 an unpolluted stream encircles it ; several of its public buildings 

 and quaint hostelries remain unimpaired ; it has a well-kept old 

 church, and the ruins of a castle ; with much to commend in its 

 modern edifices ; the sylvan banks of the Wansbeck afford a suc- 

 cession of pleasing and varied views, and contain many lovely 

 retired spots where Natural History researches may be prose- 

 cuted undisturbed ; while in the. juxtaposition of monastic sites, 

 ruined fortresses, village churches, family mansions, and rural 

 villages, we have a closer combination, within narrow compass, 

 of the past with the present, than few other places can offer. 



It was within this charmed circle that the Club now took. its 

 journey. During the preliminaries for starting, some of the 

 more remarkable buildings in the town were scanned. There is 

 an old chantry at the end of the wooden bridge over the river ; 

 a clock or bell-tower near the market place — once the town -jail 

 it is supposed — at least it was the depository of the town-stocks f- 

 the old Grey Nag Inn, in Newgate Street, whose Elizabethan 

 front has fortunately been preserved during internal repairs, to 



* In 1668, was presented in the Court-leet, "the necessity of pillory and. 

 Clicking stoole." (Hodgson). 



