32 Report of Meetings for 1887. By J. Hardy. 



surrounding it, where men now middle aged gathered rushes 

 when they were boys, to plait "rasher caps" with; and its well- 

 strand was prolific of cooling water-cresses. On the opposite 

 side, in front of a couple of cottages, one now ruinous, lies a rude 

 and shapeless ample stone flag, much worn by feet, that had been 

 the hearth-stone of one of the old capacious fire-places, but now 

 dragged to the day, for modern people to wonder at. There is 

 evidence in the numerous houses that are being reconstructed, 

 that after a long slumber the place is being resuscitated. 



While one part of the company drove off in the direction of 

 Newmoor house, another took the direction of Old Swarland, 

 and after considerable detour met the other at Overgi'ass Mill. 

 I was included in the latter party. We had on our left, in a 

 green field what was said to be a camp, and lower down at a 

 turn of the Newcastle road stood Low Framlington. The hedge 

 sides all round both the Framlingtons are full of wild straw- 

 berries. Afar off from the Brinkheugh side we had seen the 

 bare grassy fields in this direction ; and further up towards 

 Snook-bank* and the Glantlees, where culture mingles with the 

 moors, the Lotw corniculatus shone brilliant among the scant 

 pastures. The clayey soils hereabouts are also notable for pro- 

 ducing " Framlington Clover," which is Prunella vulgaris, called 

 in Berwickshire " Poverty Pink."- The country on the right 

 looked bare and moory looking, as it stretched on towards Eimside 

 Moor. Eimside Hill and Shirlaw Pike are the most prominent 

 hills of the range. The " Black Sow of Rimside," is a boulder 

 or detached block of sandstone on the southern contour of that hill, 

 much resembling it is said the animal it is supposed to represent. 

 The saying is ; "If ye were on Rimside Moor at twelve o'clock, 

 ;vdth the Black Sow by the tail, ye wadna' be here the night." 

 See " Eimside Moor," by the present writer in Eichardson's 

 Borderers' Table-Book, Leg. Div. in. pp. 34-5; and the "Denham 

 Tracts" (now printing) for further illustrations. From the "Shire - 

 hope or Chillhope well," on the edge of Shirlaw Pike, Framlington 

 derives its supply of pure water. These two hills are land-marks 

 to the Hauxley fishermen when at sea ; they call the massive 



* Called " Schakelzerdes Noke," in a grant to Brenckburn by Roger 

 Bertram of a certain part of his waste in Glanteley. — (Brenck. Chart. No. 

 xxi). Perhaps this signifies the Nook (land shaped corner- wise) of the 

 chained or shackled enclosures for the protection of cattle and sheep. 

 There are ruins, which may be of any age, of old stone folds on the hill to 

 the N.E. of the present farm-steading. Nook and Snook are identical, 



