Report of Meetings for 1886. By J. Hardy. 335 



Durham to York. Again he passed through it on September 

 8th, 1322, on his way to Barnards Castle, after a disastrous 

 retreat from an invasion of Scotland, where his army, from its 

 defective commissariat, was hungered out. By King Kobert 

 I.'s orders the low country had beeu laid waste, and the cattle 

 and flocks driven to the hills, and the only prey that fell into 

 the hands of the English was a lame bull at Tranent in East 

 Lothian. According to Walsingham almost one half of the great 

 army which Edward had led into Scotland, was destroyed either 

 by hunger or intemperance on their return to commodious and 

 plentiful quarters in England.* 



After departing from Newbiggen, the greater number, under 

 the guidance of the Rev. R. E. Taylor, vicar of Oresswell, 

 directed their course across the links to Cresswell. He led them 

 across Newbiggen moor by way of the "Eairy Rocks" and the 

 "Line Bum Dene," into the woods and grounds of Cresswell 

 Hall. "To many the house presented features of a novel 

 character. The grounds, conservatories, gardens, and old 

 tower — which is said to retain a ghost of its own — were all 

 examined." One thing was forgotten — a visit to the celebrated 

 Salicetum of the Rev. J. E. Leefe, which is still preserved by his 

 successor, Mr Tajdor. This was quite an oversight. The coast 

 is notable for stranded Cetacea ; and the links or moor for a 

 vantage ground for the capture of Lepidoptera. The margins 

 of the muddy streams are practically unsearched for Coleoptera ; 

 and it is very rarely that we meet with a minute marine rarity, 

 with the names of any of the localities in this part of the coast — 

 say from the mouth of the Wansbeck to Warkworth — attached 

 to it. Chance visits are of little avail ; stationary observers are 

 absent, and it is they who make the most thorough research. 



There is a notice in the "Proceedings of the Society of Anti- 

 quaries of Scotland," vol. v. n.s. pp. 138-9, unknown probably 

 to most of our members, but of considerable local interest here. 

 On Feb. 12, 1883, there were presented to the Museum of that 

 Society by Dr David Page, Kendal, "three bronze spear-heads, 

 (broken) 10 inches, 8 J inches, 7f inches, and 5f inches in length, 

 found together at Newbiggen, Northumberland, The spear- 

 heads are all of the type with leaf-shaped blade, socket coved 



* Hartshorne's Itinerary of Edward the Second, pp. 22, 23, 27 : Hailes' 

 Annals of Scotland, ii. p. 103. 



