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



While the account of this meeting is being printed, the occur- 

 rence of an additional old stone implement, obtained in the 

 beginning of February, 1882, by Mr John Hedley, having been 

 turned up by the plough on Otterburn Townhead farm, calls for 

 a few remarks. It appears to have been a whet-stone for sharp- 

 ening a scythe, but instead of being as at present of a hard 

 sandstone, this is of finely granular greywacke, possibly from the 

 Eoxburghshire Silurians. The exterior is brown, the interior 

 grey, with minute micaceous specks. The outline is sub elliptical, 

 but more sloped at one end than the other ; the one side is also 

 more convex than the other. On the most convex side it is much 

 worn from use. The under side is marked by a cross, and it is 

 also worn. The length is 1 1 inches ; the greatest thickness 2 

 inches ; the greatest breadth 3^ inches ; near the ends its breath 

 is about 2 inches to 1^. It is almost of the shape of modern 

 home-made scythe stones. 



The thanks of the Club are specially due to William Wood- 

 man, Esq., StobhiU, Morpeth, for contributing at his own expense 

 the wood blocks, to illustrate Dr. Eobertson's paper on the Horses' 

 heads from the belfry of Elsdon Church. 



While most of the members obtained beds in the village or at 

 Elsdon, a considerable number were indebted to the hospitality 

 of the neighbourhood — some going as far as six miles for sleeping 

 accommodation — as well as for the supply of conveyances to take 

 numbers of the company from -one place to another, and " to 

 speed the parting guests " by driving them to the nearest sta- 

 tions. 



Next day there was still a considerable muster ; the' Alnwick 

 members, and most of those from across the Borders remained, 

 while their local friends stiU. rendered them aid and direction. 

 In early morning the little wooded ravine on the banks of the 

 Otter, opposite the inn, was examined, and presented several 

 good plants. The following were picked up: — Campanula lati- 

 folia, Lysimachia vulgaris, Ihalaris arundinacea, Carex hirta, Triti- 

 cum caninum, Geranium sylvaticum, Stachys Betomca, Sanguisorha 

 oflcinalis, Mercurialis perennis, Geum rivale, Spircea Ulmaria, My- 

 pericum quad/rangulum, Crepis succiscefolia, and C. paludosa, Valeri- 

 ana officinalis, and dog-roses red and white. The melancholy 

 plume thistle fCarduus heterophyllusj was very prevalent, and it 

 was afterwards noted in the grass fields bordering on the Eede. 

 The burn cuts through sandstone, and although shallow, contains 



