Report of Meetings for 1889. By Dr. J. Hardy. 485 



Mr Thompson states, although he has not given the authority, 

 that at the western base of Paston Hill, in removing a cairn of 

 stones in 1838, a small earthen urn was found containing ashes 

 and small pieces of burnt bones; and also that the " Auld 

 Yaud," a figure of a horse is to be seen on some hills to the west. 

 A discovery of considerable historical value, had it been followed 

 out, was made on the farm of Mindrum, about 1834. The 

 original notice of it is in the Rev. John Baird's Statist. Acct. of 

 the Parish of Yetholtn (Roxburghshire, p. 164) ; but it is quite 

 disappointing in its meagreness. " On the farm of Mindrum, in 

 Northumberland, on the very borders of the parish, was lately 

 ploughed up a vase or bottle of brass containing 500 Roman 

 silver coins." When the Club visited Coldstream, July 25, 1877, 

 Mr William Cunningham allowed me to examine two silver 

 Roman Coins, which had been given to him by Mr Rand, 

 Beaumont Hill, and which he was told had been found, many 

 years previously, on that farm. (Club's Hist., Vol. viii., p. 220). 

 One was of Hadrian, on which he was styled Augustus, Pater 

 Patrice. This emperor assumed the P.P. in a.d. 126 or 128, but 

 it had been conferred on him by the senate in 117. He visited 

 Britain in a.d. 121. The other piece was one dedicated to 

 'Faustina,' the younger, the most beautiful woman of her age, 

 wife of the emperor Marcus Aurelius Antoninus, and inscribed 

 " Diva Faustina Augusta." She died a.d. 175. It is possible as 

 the farms adjoin that these were portions of the hoard of 1834, 

 which ma} r have contained coins later than these, and thus we 

 cannot arrive at a conclusion when it was deposited here. 



The steepest descent of the hill is in the direction of the lake. 

 The hill face is rather bare, as was indicated by the paucity of 

 bracken clumps. It is much roaded with transverse sheep tracks. 

 A few furze bushes and dwarf hawthorns are sprinkled across 

 the upper part of the S.W. aspect. When we descended most 

 of the company were already leaving the lake to cross Harelaw 

 Hill. They had roused several Wild Ducks. The lake lay in 

 the hollow at the base of the two hills, calm, clear, and limpid ; 

 sheltered by young plantations, among which the pale-leaved 

 pendant branching willows imparted a still more aquatic character 

 to the spot, especially to the artificial islands. The margin had 

 an appropriate lining of Phalaris arundinacea and Carex ampullacea ; 

 while arising from the water, Alisma Plantago intermingled its 

 pale blooms with the gay pink spikes that enlivened the floating 

 2 K 



