138 REPORTS OF MEETINOS FOR 1910 



department rendered it difficult for the members to do full 

 justice to this source of entertainment, though considerable 

 time was devoted to the examination of the numerous specimens. 

 Thereafter the party was conducted through the cellars of the 

 mansion to view the walls of the enclosed pele-tower, which was 

 erected by Gerard Selby in 1542. The lands of Pawston have 

 been in the possession of the Selby family from an early date 

 though in a branch distinct from the present family, which 

 ascends to 1512, when Roger Selby was owner of Grindon Ridge, 

 and includes the name of P. J. Selby, the well-known ornitholo- 

 gist and an original member of this Club. In his circular of 

 a meeting held at Mindrum in 1889, Dr Hardy mentions that the 

 district obtained early notice from the grants made to religious 

 communities. King Oswy and his nobles having conferred on 

 Lindisfarne extensive tracts on the Bowmont before 670, the 

 Kelso monks having had lands and pastures in Shotton in the 

 reign of Alexander II. of Scotland, Melrose Abbey owning 

 property near Kilham and Trowhope, and the Knights Templars 

 at Mindrum, Pawston, Kilham, etc. Bolton hospital for lepers 

 also, in the time of Edward I. and Edward II., had two 

 carucates of land and the mill at Mindrum. 



About one and a half miles North- West of this mill was 

 fought on 30th September 1435 the battle of Piperdean, to 



which the same careful investigator has left the 

 Battle of following references : — It has sometimes been 

 Piperdean. suggested that this skirmish was not unlikely 



to have furnished materials to the Border minstrel 

 for the ballad of Chevy Chase ; but as any one who reads the 

 ballad of that name can readily perceive the more modern 

 of the two is merely a feeble version of the old Battle of 

 Otterburtt. This view was apparently first brought forward 

 in Armstrong's map of Northumberland (1769), where after 

 indicating Piperdean it is said that near this place was the 

 battle of Chevy Chace in 1436; and was adopted in Ridpath's 

 Border History,* and quoted from that work in Percy's Reliques. 

 But this is probably a modern note, as the Reliques were 

 printed in 1765. Possibly Armstrong had read Percy's work. 



* Border Hiatory, 4to., p. 401. 



