Report of Meetings for 1889. By Dr. J. Hardy. 467 



by earthworks. In the opinion of Skene and others the occasion 

 of the Scottish invasion of Northumbria was the rebellion of 

 Theobald against his brother Ethelfrid, and it is possible that 

 the Britons, whom Bede carefully distinguishes from the Scots, 

 may have had little or nothing to do with the war. Others, 

 however, consider that the Scots came to assist the Britons in 

 their conflict with the Angles, and that the allusion to Theobald 

 and his forces being slain, does not signify that he was in arms 

 against his brother, but that he had been worsted by the enemy 

 before Ethelfrid won his victory." 



Mr Doughty and Mr Elliot joined us here. Mr Currie and 

 Mr Mark Turnbull were early on the hill, but had to leave before 

 the separate companies rejoined. The carriages came round by 

 the road bordering the Liddel, and picked up the whole near 

 Hudshouse, a farm- steading even in recent times, but now in 

 ruins. There are here the scanty remains of an ancient tower of 

 the Croziers. The gravelly haughs were mantled with a blaze 

 of blooming wild-thyme. Beds of the black-headed Carex riparia 

 clustered in the swamps. We passed round beneath Thorlieshope 

 of which afterwards, and crossing the bridge at Saughtree 

 House, regained the morning route ; slackening for a little to 

 examine the site of Liddel Castle, with its triple row of ramparts. 

 The fine scaur on the river here is 94 feet high. The fresh, grassy, 

 and partly wooded hollow on the opposite side, reminded several 

 of the view of the banks of the Irthing opposite Birdoswald. 



The present churchyard of Castleton is quite close to the site 

 of the old Castle. In the churchyard is an interesting monument 

 erected to the memory of Armstrong, the poet, (born 1709, died 

 1 779) who was a native of the parish, and whose father and brother 

 were both ministers of it. It also contains a stone recording the 

 death of one of the last of the Armstrongs of Whithaugh. For 

 inscriptions of theso two tomb-stones and a figure of the first, 

 see Mr Bruce Armstrong's Liddesdale, pp. 85, 86 and notes. 



Although several had to depart by train, twenty remained to 

 dine. In the absence of the President, who was otherwise 

 engaged, Mr W. T. Hindmarsh, F.L.S., Alnbank, Alnwick, 

 presided. The healths of the guides were given in addition to 

 the usual toasts, with the thanks of the company. The house 

 of the late Dr. Murray was visited to inspect some local 

 antiquities, including the supposed old Key of Mangerton Tower, 

 which was of the old barn-door type ; the last hand-cuffs used 



