Report of Meetings for- 18S7. By J. Hardy. 28 



along' the hedges, the spangles of white Guelder-rose were con- 

 spicuous among the blooms of the wild roses, which were mostly 

 of a red hue. Shilbottle, with its square church tower, and the 

 "Round Plantation" at the top of the hill-ridge, were passed, 

 always prominent land-marks. An oak and beech wood, cramped 

 in its tree-growths, on the right screened Snipe-house, behind 

 which the green ground slopes up to Alnwick Moor. We then 

 descended to Hampeth Burn, so admirably described in Mr 

 Tate's History of Alnwick, which originates near the Thorny 

 Knowe (699 feet) a little to the east of the Black Lough on 

 Edlingham Moor. Here roses still more lengthened their luxuri- 

 ant sprays, and again intermingled with the snowy Guelder- rose. 

 These native garlands were worth going miles to see. On a slope 

 behind Newton-on-the-Moor, the land is subdivided into numer- 

 ous small fields, which were in a fair state of cultivation. 

 Barlej" was then shooting into ear. We passed the Sun Inn, 

 where in coaching days was wont to be had " the best ale under 

 the sun." Shiveringly cold and cheerless were those coaching- 

 tours, requiring all the solace afforded by the little wayside inn. 

 There now opened up an extensive prospect sea-wards, with 

 Hauxley and Coquet Island to rest the eye upon. We next 

 crossed the Newton Burn, including Hesley Burn, which drains 

 much of the moist ground round the Black Lough, and the Lough 

 itself ; having descended in its course from 699 to 329 feet before 

 it unites with the Hampeth. The Newton village, 423 feet above 

 the sea, lies in a compact line on a ridge ; the colliery was in full 

 operation, and emitting its volume of black smoke. 



At the entrance to Newton Hall, the abundance of Monkshood 

 near the lodge, shows what a favourite this poisonous plant once 

 was in the garden. The lurid blue that it supplied is now eclipsed 

 by the substitution of the gayer and brighter tinted Delphiniums 

 closely allied to the Aconites. 



In the fir plantations, and by the road-sides, the white Ox-eye 

 Daisies grew T like a sward, as they do in Alnwick Park and at 

 Shawdon. Their white stars twinkling through the trees were 

 very enlivening. The scent — a strong coarse perfume is not so 

 agreeable as their forms. I saw in Eslington garden a pretty 

 variety of this from Tynningham in East Lothian, with the 

 ligulets more drooping in the ray. The fertility of the land im- 

 proves, although the wheat crop was thin ; there were now good 

 examples of clover hay. Swarland monument was passed ; and 



