32 REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1906 



strip of land which separates it from a smaller and 

 natural sheet of water, the members left the carriages, and 

 proceeded on foot over the moor to the margin of the lake. 

 The character of the flora resembled what may be met with 

 on the lower ridges of Cheviot, and afforded the botanist 

 little scope to add to his store of specimens ; but the fine 

 bracing upland air proved most exhilarating and enjoyable. 

 In the shade of a Pine wood by the lake, in which Pyrola 

 minor and Corydalis claviculata grew in profusion, the 

 President supplied a few notes on the history of the neighbour- 

 hood. Sweethope, which has given rise to a Northumbrian 

 family patronymic, is an ancient township, whose Northern 

 boundary corresponds with that of Throckington parish, 

 namely, the river Wansbeck, which issues from the Lough. 

 The lake covers an area of 180 acres, and was constructed 

 at a cost of £750. On the occasion of its being drained to 

 eliminate the pike in which it abounded, the bottom was 

 discovered to be studded with tree-stumps. In 1541 a 

 bastle-house stood near it. The population of the township 

 has been rapidly decreasing, from 27 inhabitants in 1801, 

 to 8 in 1891. On its Eastern boundary, between Sweethope 

 Crag and Plashetts, are the remains of a camp, and from 

 its Western extremity has been reported a cinerary urn, of 

 which only the overhanging rim is preserved, proving it to 

 have been a vessel of considerable size, probably not less than 

 16 inches in height. At the East end is a cattle-shed 

 surrounded by a few trees, near which stood an old water 

 corn-mill, which was washed away in a flood caused by the 

 heavy rainfall of June 1770. The party divided into two 

 sections and rambled round the edge of the lake, where 

 facilities for botanizing had been granted by Messrs Stobart, 

 and Hon. C. A. Parsons. No plants of special rarity 

 were discovered, the shores of the lake being exposed, and 

 doubtless swept by fierce winds during the greater part of 

 the year. At its upper end the Wansbeck, under the name 

 of the Curtis Burn, enters the Lough in the modest habit 

 of a mountain rivulet, pure and limpid, as is the water 

 enclosed in the lake. It is noteworthy that with the exception 

 of Ranunculus aquatilis and Polygonum, am,phibium, no plant 

 life was observable on its surface, 



