Report of Meetings for 1881. By Jas. Hardy. 463 



duck and the Gooseander and Dun-diver. There is a very fine 

 wild swan shot in the Eede, by his son Mr John 0. James and 

 Dr. Robertson. Mr James himself had shot here the Piciis minor 

 and the Solitary Snipe. Ptarmigans, Woodpeckers, Capercailzie, 

 French partridges, Indian pheasants, birds of Paradise, &c., make 

 up the residue. The ground in front is prettily laid out in ter- 

 races. I did not notice any particular new border plant. The 

 Phloxes were gay, and the scarlet Lychnis chalcedowica, of which 

 there was also a white variety. Some shrubs had been victim- 

 ised by the winter, and several of the trees were severely touched. 

 This party also visited Otterburn Church, which has been only 

 recently erected. The Misses Davison of Lemmington Hall and 

 Mrs Askew of Pallinsburn built the church, in 1857, and left a 

 fund which provides a stipend of ^200 a-year to the curate, who 

 is appointed by the rector of Elsdon as patron. It is in the decor- 

 ated style. It has many fine stained glass windows, the gifts of 

 Miss Eeid of Old-town, Lord James Murray, etc. There are a 

 few graves in the recently-consecrated ground, but only one tomb- 

 stone—a fine granite monument, which marks the last resting 

 place of the first curate, the Rev. Timothy Wearing. In the font 

 is a carved stone brought from Hexham Abbey. 



Otterburn is a small clean village, with good substantial houses 

 having slated roofs. The trees by the side of the Otter burn, in 

 the low lying haugh, had been much affected by the hoar frosts 

 of the past winter. Oaks, elms, and ashes had their stems muf- 

 fled with tufts of twigs, and large leaves, while the tops and outer 

 branches were destitute of foliage. In driving to the battle-field, 

 hay-making was seen to be at the present as essential a branch 

 of rural economy, as it was at the period that the old ballad 

 speaks of, when '' the Doglas and the Perse met," August 15th, 

 1388. There is a considerable ascent over ground rough with 

 bent {Nardus stricta) before the apex of the battle-hill is reached. 

 Wood anemone springs up in some profusion at places. There 

 was a remnant of old wood on the west side. Most of the trees 

 were mountain-ashes, two of them were sore broken ; for being a 

 stiff, obstructive, twiggy tree, the mountain ash is often over- 

 turned in a gale. One of the trees grew on the British camp 

 which the Scots occupied. The Scots, Froissart relates, "made 

 huts of trees and branches, and strongly fortified themselves." 

 Wood would be more within their reach then than now. The 



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