278 On Urns and Antiquities of the Cheviot Hills. 



restored, and then committed them to the artist, who prepared 

 the excellent lithograph, Plate V. "We have had nothing exactly 

 like them, and they form a valuable illustration of ancient fictile 

 art. Mr Thomson supplies the following descriptive notes : — 



"December 14th, 1885. The large urn is in every respect a 

 contrast to the small one (Fig. I), which I will describe first. 

 The first thing is its beauty of design : if it had been cast in a 

 mould it could not have been more perfect : it is 3 inches high, 

 3£ inches across the mouth, 1 foot in girth, with a finely formed 

 beading dividing it into equal sections. [As will be perceived 

 from the figure the ornament is lozenge-shaped]. The rim is 

 flat with the side markings carried over it. It is broken, but all 

 the pieces are complete, capable of being made perfect. "The 

 larger (Fig. II,) is remarkable for its rude construction and 

 design, and want of symmetry ; bh inches in height, 6 inches 

 over the brim, 19 inches in girth, 10 inches in circumference at 

 the base. A piece is wanting on one side. The clay has been 

 of the coarsest kind ; where a fracture was made it crumbles 

 away. The most remarkable thing about it is a sort of adorn- 

 ment without any regular design, or rather that the operator 

 has been unable to carry the same design all round it." 



It will be noticed that part of the ornament is of half a lozenge 

 pattern. The same artist may have wrought both. 



Mr Ilderton also sent a heavy brass spur, found on Eoseden 

 Edge about 30 years ago (1855), with the remark "not very far 

 off a battle was once fought there." As it belongs to a different 

 class of antiquities, a figure of it may be given on some future 

 occasion. 



In the last week of November, 1884, an urn was discovered in 

 the cutting for the new Railway between Alnwick and Wooler in 

 a field upon the farm of Eoseden. It was about two feet deep 

 below the surface, and was placed between two large stones, one 

 of which was still lying in the cutting in December ; the other 

 was tipped into the embankment. When Mr A. J. Cottle, the 

 contractor's nephew, removed the urn at Christmas, he found it, 

 when unpacked, in fragments, only one side remaining. The 

 place where it was found was about 60 yards from the turnpike 

 road, and about a quarter of a mile from Plea Piece, upon the 

 Wooperton road. . 



Before I heard of it, the urn had been sent to Nottingham to 

 Mr Frank Haseldine, who politely returned it, along with two 



