Report of Meetings for 1880, by James Hardy. 255 



instruct posterity about the aspect of things long ago ; and the 

 Queen's Head, our bead quarters, contains many capacious an- 

 cient rooms witb low ceilings. It is tbe Morpetb tradition, as 

 we learn from a tractate written by Mr Fergusson, " that it was 

 at tbe Nag's Head tbat Jobn Scott (afterwards Lord Eldon) and 

 Bessy Surtees slept on tbeir way back from tbeir runaway Scotch 

 marriage ;" although Lord Campbell alleges that it was at the 

 Queen's Head. CoUingwood House was occupied by the great 

 admiral of that surname, who, when freed from official duties, 

 delighted to spend his leisure there, and be recreated by the 

 sweets of its garden. Bunker's Hill is a memorial of American 

 warfare. The modern church of St. James was visited. It is a 

 large and massive structure, in the modern style of Norman 

 architecture. Its stained glass windows representing scriptural 

 scenes, are very ornamental. There is an elaborate frescoe in 

 the apse of the Incarnation of the Eternal Word, and there were 

 two fine oil paintings of "the Scourging," and ''the Walk to 

 Calvary." It was approached by a fine avenue of limes. 



Part of the members drove to Newminster and Mitford ; the 

 rest walked under Mr Fergusson's skilled guidance. After 

 crossing the river by the west bridge, the High Stanners by the 

 river side were passed. The Low Stanners are on the low 

 ground at the eastern outskirts of the town. There are Stanners 

 also both at Warkworth and Hexham. Staners are the small 

 stones and gravel on the margin of a lake or river. The walk 

 by the river side still bears the name of the Lady's Walk, being 

 the way that led to the monastery of Newminster, which was 

 dedicated to the Virgin Mother. Myrrhis odorata and Carex 

 pendula grew by the side of the path. To reach the site of New- 

 minster, the party traversed the Lover's Walk, which adjoins 

 the abbey lands. A few large beeches survive, of what was once 

 a long one-sided avenue. These have short principal and numer- 

 ous secondary stems, and hence it was concluded that they are 

 the remains of an old beech hedge. Trees, mostly ashes of large 

 dimensions, are scattered over the area of the field containing the 

 abbey ruins. This is a triangular sheltered haugh on the south 

 side of the river, whose level is broken up by the mounds 

 of ruined buildings spread over much of its space. Of these, till 

 the recent excavations, only a solitary arch of the northern door- 

 way, of 15th century origin, maintained its solitary position. 



