Beport of Meetings for 1881. By Jas. Hardy. 469 



several trout. The birds in this dean were the white throat ; a 

 common wren, which was singing-, several of Sylvia trochilus, and 

 also the more local wood- wren {Sylvia sibilatrix). Otterburn Hall 

 stands higher up the stream. 



The great cairn removed in 1729, which drew the particular 

 attention of the Eev. John Horsley, owing to the discovery of an 

 ancient tomb within it, appears to have stood on the haugh be- 

 tween Otterburn village and the Eede. About 60 tons of stones 

 were taken away, when there appeared at the bottom a sort of 

 grave, with a large, but rough, and awkward grave-stone above 

 it, with smaller stones wedged in the interstices. The grave was 

 2 yards long, 4 feet broad, and as many deep. At the top of the 

 grave was some very fine mould for about 1^ foot, next to it some 

 ashes and cinders, and at the bottom 2 feet of fine white sand 

 from the side of the Eede. Charcoal and pieces of bone burnt 

 black appeared, and a flint of a particular shape, "though no- 

 thing artificial about it."*' Mr Eobert White says the stone was 

 conveyed to Otterburn walk-mill, when the cairn was cleared 

 away, and it still (1882) forms the landing to a stone stair at the 

 east end of the dwelling house. It is of a darkish blue or grey 

 colour, seemingly hard, and only a few inches thick.f 



After the company had re-formed, the route was taken for the 

 Eoman Camp at High Eochester, By the road- side on the banks 

 of the Eede, the ash trees had suffered much by the severe win- 

 ter and spring frosts ; the ends of the twigs of the spruce firs 

 were bitten, and the furze was nearly killed. Three or four 

 thriving sweet-bay willows (>Sflfe^ew^«w(?ra) ornamented a haugh 

 by the side of the river, but they had been planted, as well as the 

 grey willows {8. cinerea) alongside of them. Before us following 

 up the Eede were sinuous expanses of boggy meadow, margined 

 or dotted with clumps, or continuous groves of birch and alder, 

 excellent cover for black game, and resorts for woodcocks. But 

 we turned up at Elishaw. Of old there was an ecclesiastical 

 structure here. Here, says Mackenzie's Hist, of Northd. ii. p. 

 102 "was an hospital and a chapel, valued in the Liber Eegis., 

 at 1 3s. 4d. a year." The first is probably the hospital of the Eede 

 mentioned in the Testa de Nevill. Its master held a hundred 

 solidates of land in pure alms. It was probably a leper hospital. 



* Inedited Contrib. to Hist, of Northd. pp. 13, 14 ; Hutchinson's Hist, of 

 Northd., i., p. 196. 



t Table-Book, Leg. Div. 1., p. 268. 



