310 On Urns and Antiquities of the Cheviot Hills. 



being called Roman. This spot of ground called The Guards, 

 consists of 18 J acres by ordnance measurement, now lying in grass 

 but much of it formerly cultivated in elevated ridges, and bounded 

 by ditches and swamps on most of the sides. 



It is unnecessary to describe it, as it has already been 

 sufficiently referred to by Mr MacLauchlan, in his "Memoir," 

 and by Sir David Smith, in the Alnwick MSS., afterwards quoted. 

 "It might be reasonably expected," says Mr MacLauchlan, p. 

 21, note, "that some traces of a Eoman place of defence would 

 be found in the neighbourhood of the intersection of Eoman 

 Ways, and we visited an entrenched place at Bolton called The 

 Guards, fully expecting to find traces of Eoman lines, particularly 

 as we had heard that remains having a Eoman character had 

 been disinterred on the spot ; but though the place is naturally 

 strong and has been occasionally surrounded by water, and 

 though it bears in addition the marks of ancient enclosure, we 

 could not fix on any outline to indicate Eoman occupation. 

 Bolton is about a mile (elsewhere he says two miles) N.E. of the 

 junction. The Guards is probably the site of the hospital 

 founded by Eobert de Eos in the 13th century." 



"Here was a hospital," says Hutchinson's View of Northd. 

 vol. I. p. 233, "founded by Eobert de Eos of Wark, before the 

 year 1225, for a master, three chaplains, thirteen lepers and other 

 lay brethren, and was dedicated to St Thomas the Martyr or the 

 Holy Trinity. It was subordinate to the Abbey of Eival and the 

 priors of Kirkam in Yorkshire." The charter, however, bears 

 that it was dedicated to "the Blessed Mary and St Thomas the 

 Martyr," (see a fuller statement of its endowments in Mackenzie's 

 Hist, of Northd., vol. II. p. 37.) 



"There is a field," say the Alnwick MSS, " near the mansion 

 house and to the north of the church, containing about 1 6 acres, 

 which is called The Guards ; its shape is oblong ; and it is some- 

 what elevated above a ditch and small bog which has encompassed 

 it — now drained. Old foundations are to be traced in several 

 parts of the field, and several pieces of antiquity have been 

 found." (Memoir, p. 55, note.) 



The Patella is not exactly an index of Eoman occupation, 

 as it may have been procured by barter, or have been produced 

 by native fabricators. On the Lantern Hill, however, is a 

 British Camp, where, when a woman was reaping, in October 

 1824, she took up at the point of her sickle a lachrymatory. 



