454 Report of Meetings for 1881. By Jas. Hardy. 



"As wild as the rae," is a well-known Border phrase; on Che- 

 viot we have the Eae (or Roe) burn ; and Eaa moreover, is the 

 original A.S. form of the word. 



In descending the next declivitous hill, Elsdon village appears 

 opposite, withdrawn within an angle of the hills which back and 

 shelter it, and occupying in a straggling manner a considerable 

 space, somewhat raised above the level meadows, through which 

 runs the Elsdon or Monk burn. It is a small, somewhat decay- 

 ing place, with the houses — most of them slated — chiefly on the 

 one side of a very large village green, on which there were sev- 

 eral collections of geese. The venerable church with its field of 

 graves in front is placed on a more elevated position at the top 

 of the green. Higher still among trees the old steep-roofed Bor- 

 der tower, now and for long, the Eectory, crowns the ascent ; 

 while opposite it and on a level with it, across the Elsdon or 

 Carrick burn, is the double Mote hill, encircled by a stone dyke. 

 The subsidiary valley below Elsdon is very flat and this continues 

 to the vale of the Eede. In the meadows preserved for hay, there 

 is a profusion of the blooms of the betony {Stachys Betonica). 

 The pied wagtail haunted the burn sides. There are small co- 

 lonies of sand-martins on the sandy or clayey banks of the 

 streams. The colour of the soil is yellow, where displayed in 

 fissures. At Otterburn the same kind of soil occurs, derived from 

 the waste of the yellow sandstones of the district ; apparently 

 of little agricultural value. The Monk burn is made up of two 

 others which here unite — Carrick or Elsdon burn from above the 

 village, and Whiskershields or Tod-holes burn from the east. 

 When we are across, the village property in the green sidings of 

 the road commences ; and it was here the Midsummer bone-fires 

 were long continued to be kindled, even in Mr Arkle's boyhood, 

 when he attended Elsdon school. 



The name Elsdon is a corruption of Elisden, EUesden, or Elles- 

 dene, for so it is written in the oldest forms. The Eev. Mr 

 Hodgson (Hist, of Northumberland, Part 2, vol. i, note pp. 86, 

 87) tries to establish that this signifies the valley of waters ; and 

 one of the rectors, Eev. Charles Dodgson (1762-17G5) would have 

 agreed with him, for he alleges that the view of the place from 

 the hill on the south " gives a person an idea of a few houses 

 built in a boggy island," (Table Book, Leg. Div. i. p. 234). 

 Mr Hodgson is correct as to the dene not being dun or don ; but 

 the personal name Ella has a very good handle ; besides it is the 



