40 Report of Meeting* for 1887. By J. Hardy. 



and Equisetum sylvaticum were noticed in the hedge bank. A 

 good deal of Bartsia Odontites, and Prunella vulgaris, called here 

 " Poor Peter," had sprung up in the intervals of the grass. On 

 the clayey soils on these white or yellow sandstones, grass does 

 not cover well in to exclude these tokens of barrenness. 



The present exterior of the well of Paulinus, or Well of Our 

 Lady, is entirely modern and artificial. A quadrangular pond of 

 excellent water, walled with ashlar and paved at the bottom, has 

 a great stone-cross erected in the pool, and at the south end, a 

 statue of Paulinus wearingawig; and is sheltered bya group of trees 

 of no great age. The ei&gy of the saint is believed to have been 

 made by one of the masons who sculptured the figures on Alnwick 

 Castle, and others at Hulne Abbey. The statement by Mackenzie, 

 (Hist. ii. p. 45), and repeated to a similar effect in an inscription 

 on the cross, that here, "according to Venerable Bede, did 

 Paulinus baptise 3000 persons, on the first introduction of Christi- 

 anity," nowhere appears in the works of that earliest of English 

 Church historians.* St Mungo also has a well here, whence we 

 might infer Cumbrian influence to have extended here, earlier 

 than from York. 



The heather-clothed Holystone Beacon overhangs the bare 

 brown Holystone Common, by one of its spurs, Dues Hill. This 

 ground has been looked at, as far down as Swindon — a fine 

 mixture of white, pink, and full purple Foxgloves near Will 

 Allan's old homestead, Woodhouses Peel, must not remain con- 

 cealed — but the Club's excursion terminated at Holystone. Some 

 of Canon Greenwell's successful excavations were on Holystone 

 Common (see Club's Hist. x. p. 318.) 



Holystone is a small crowded, cramped, decaying village, with 

 most of the old houses down or unroofed. Sites still sell dear 

 for building cottages on, although apart from lodgings there is 

 no work. The older generation lived by grazing cattle on the 

 common, chance work, and poaching. The gardens are skilfully 

 cultivated — and productive in vegetables, and flowers that bring 

 honours to their growers. Sempervivum teclorum studded several 

 roofs. The roofs of the dilapidated cottages had been wattled 

 and thatched. 



*The fable originated from a misappropriation of Becle's words, (Eccl, 

 Hisfc. B. II. chap, xiv.) when Paulinus baptised on Easter day, 627, at York 

 King Acduini " in the church of St Peter the Apostle;" not at " sancta 

 petra" or Holystone. (Stevenson's Beda, p. 379,) 



