26 EEPORTS OF MEETINGS FOR 1909 



stretch of meadow-land watered by the rivers Till and Glen, 



to which in his Address, as President in 1904, 

 Ewart Mr G. G. Butler ascribed the title of Ewart 



Lake. Lake, the members had their attention drawn 



to the physical features of the country immedi- 

 ately surrounding. On crossing the Till and ascending the 

 rising ground at the base of Dod Law with its circular camps, 

 within which may be traced many hut-circles which formed the 

 dwellings of a people who inscribed their cryptic symbols on 

 boulders strewn upon its broken surface, they had presented 

 to them an extensive view of Milfield Plain, bounded on the 

 South by Humbleton and Yeavering Bell, and on the West by 

 Branxton Moor and Flodden Hill. The conjecture that in an 

 antiquity not very remote Ewart was submerged beneath 50 

 feet of water receives support from the general aspect of the 

 district, which in its immediate neighbourhood is so depressed 

 as still to be inundated by the periodic overflow of the river 

 Glen. A remarkable characteristic of the soil in close proximity 

 to the Till is the prevalence of a fine light-coloured sand, 

 which may to some extent account for the proverbially good 

 quality of Wooler barley, and for the high price obtained for 

 it in the Berwick corn-market. 



The village of Doddington, three miles distant from Wooler, 



is situated on low lying ground on the East of 

 Doddington. the Till, and consists of a number of scattered 



cottages, the representatives of a thriving hamlet 

 which at one time could boast of a weekly cattle-market, and, 

 according to tradition, furnish forty local lairds to attend 

 the funeral of a neighbour at Belford. It is still remarkable, 

 however, for its copious supply of drinking water issuing from 

 the Dod Well and yielding a volume of seventy gallons per 

 minute. This ancient spring was enclosed in 1846 and sur- 

 mounted with a massive cross of Calvary, which forms a 

 striking object near the highway. It is celebrated in a 

 popular song, only a fragment of which has been preserved, 

 containing a reference to " the yea-pointed fern," believed to 

 be Osmunda regoMs, which tradition alleges to have occurred 

 in the neighbourhood, though no trace of it has of late years 

 been discovered. Descending from the public road the party 



