Report of Meetings for 1881. By Jas. Hardy, 465 



Wi' note forlorn the bugle horn 

 Shall echo from thy hills no more. 



" No more shall ruthless flames devour 

 The trembling shepherd's lowly shiel ; 



Nor fierce moss-troopers burst the door, 

 That strongly bars the shelt'ring peel." 



K. EOXBY. 



Turning now towards '' Otterburn by the highway," the course 

 by the Douglas pillar was taken, although it is said to be dis- 

 placed from its original site. It is disfigured with the names of 

 holiday seekers. Some one has sown '' the mother of thousands," 

 (Zinaria cymhala/ria) ; 



" the crevice flowers 

 That sprinkle beauty o'er decay," 

 in the chinks of the stones at its base. 



After a late dinner at the Murray Arms Hotel, the Eev. J. E. 

 Bigge in the chair, Dr Eobertson read two papers, one being on 

 the horses' skulls found in the tower of Elsdon Church. This 

 and kindred topics led to an animated discussion and conversa- 

 tion. The Eev. J. Elliot-Bates addressed the meeting on the 

 influence the Phoenicians might be supposed to exert in the in- 

 troduction of sun-worship, charioteering, and horse-racing into 

 Britain. The Eev. C. Wesson, not being a member, wished, 

 however, to contribute a few observations on horse-sacrifice as 

 practised by the Scythians according to Herodotus. I have since 

 looked up '' the father of history," and find that he has recorded 

 also a curious instance of burial of horses that were thrice victori- 

 ous on the Olympic course, and J^llian refers to another parallel 

 example. Mr Wesson also intended to have spoken of the church 

 of Ippolyts in Hertfordshire, which was dedicated to St. Eip- 

 politus, whose shrine had the virtue of bringing under subjection 

 the temper of those unruly steeds, that were brought to the high al- 

 tar of this church. " The horses were brought out of the North 

 Street, through the north gate, and the north door of the church, 

 which was boarded on purpose to bring up the horses to the 

 altar."* Mr Thomas Turnbull said that in taking down an old 

 cottage on his property, in Lilliesleaf, the gable of which had 

 formed part of an ancient Peel House (Hector's Peel), the work- 

 men came upon the skull of a horse which had been built into the 

 wall near the centre of the gable. It was found in an upright 



* Handbook of Hitchen, pp. 71, 72. From Chauncy's Hist, of Hertford- 

 shire, p. 181. 



