178 On a Cinerary Urn at Otterbum. By J. Hardy. 



tradition is told at length by Mr Yair in a note to the Statistical 

 Account of the Parish of Eckford (New Stat. Acct. Rox., p. 227, 

 note). Mr Yair said that the anvil was not sent to Sir Walter 

 Scott, as had at one time been proposed. 



We inquired about the Urn that had been discovered on the 

 Pokie Knowe in the field called the Priest's Crown, on the farm 

 of Eckford East Mains, in 1831, in the locality where another 

 cist, also described by Mr Winning, had recently been disclosed. 

 We obtained no other particulars than those given in the Statis- 

 tical Account, p. 227. The cist " contained a few decayed bones 

 in one corner, and a small jar with some black dust in it, in the 

 other." Mr Yair could assign no reason for his calling it 

 "Roman," oxcept that a friend to whom he had shown it had 

 said so. From the nature of the cist, and its resemblance to 

 others in the neighbourhood, this is certainly a misnomer. It 

 does not appear to have been a cinerary urn. It was destroyed 

 by the carelessness of a servant girl. 



On our return we called at Otterburn House, when unexpec- 

 tedly a very large and well preserved Cinerary Urn was shown 

 to us. This, Miss Milne most kindly offered to have photo- 

 graphed for the benefit of the Club, on my pointing out its 

 peculiarity ; and she has sent two different views of it, by Mrs 

 Mackintosh, Kelso, from which Mr Dixon's pen and ink fac- 

 simile has been carefully drawn for the cut. 



The Urn was taken from a cist, that had a large stone at 

 each end, and one over the top, found in a field called " Swanrig," 

 in some stony ground (porphyry or "trap,") on a light soil, 

 about ten minutes or a quarter-of-an-hour's walk from the 

 dwelling house. The urn is capacious, 1 1 inches high, the same 

 in diameter at the top, and 2 inches at the much contracted 

 apex. The Urn is clay coloured ; and is encircled by four pro- 

 jecting bands ; and the ornament is of the common herring-bone 

 pattern. 



What distinguishes it are a number of irregular rude strokes 

 dashed obliquely, and sometimes crossing each other, in two 

 directions on the smooth terminal portion of the Urn, of the same 

 character as those on the small urn, Plate III. fig. i. B.N.C. Proe. 

 x., described by Mr G. H. Thompson, from Amble, p. 524. It 

 is obvious that these have been intentionally produced. 



A flint arrowhead was afterwards picked up in the same field 

 where the urn had been obtained. 



