REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1907 173 



At its bottom lay three bronze camp kettles and a beautiful 

 bronze oenochoe with a decorated handle. Near the latter 

 was found a rake, and higher up a number of hub-rings, 

 a stylus, a strigil, a bone cube belonging to a set of dice, an 

 iron lamp, a bowl of coarse earthenware, a fragment of a 

 charred oak beam, a human skull, the visor-mask of a helmet, 

 a sword — the short heavy blade of the Legionary — another 

 sword doubled up but still retaining the greater part of its 

 bone hilt, and portions of two others. 



From the foregoing may be gathered that the Society by 

 means of their exploration at Newstead have obtained much to 

 illustrate the history of the Roman advance, and to aid in the 

 elucidation of many of its problems. To a great extent they 

 have been dependent on the generous assistance of the public 

 and of kindred Societies, and without its continuance they 

 may be unable to prosecute their investigations in the direction 

 of ascertaining the site of the cemetery and the position of the 

 bridge crossing the Tweed, the starting point of the road 

 that leads Northward through Lauderdale to Inveresk, and 

 onward to the forts of the Antonine wall. Meanwhile the 

 remarkable collection of articles, chiefly dug up from the 

 recesses of the pits and ditches in the vicinity of the Fort, 

 have been attractively arranged in cases in the National 

 Museum of Antiquities, Queen Street, Edinburgh, and will 

 amply repay a visit to that interesting institution. 



Though the digression from Melrose to Newstead inverted 

 to some degree tlie true historical sfquence, it paved the way 

 for a visit to Ravenswood further down the river, where, 

 through the courtesy of its present proprietor, Mv William 

 Younger, access to its beautiful grounds was obtained for the 

 purpose of examining that " bare promontory," on which 

 stood tlie monastery of Old Melrose. The drive 

 Old thither led along the North public road, from 



Melrose. which near Leaderfoot was unfolded a charming 



stretch of the Tweed, spanned by a stately 

 bridge erected in 1780 where it receives the waters of the 

 Berwickshire upland stream, and sweeps onward past Glads- 

 wood and Gaitsheugh, girdling the lands of one of the earliest 

 Chribtian settlements in North Britain, On arrival, the parly 

 were epoorted by Mr Julin Wa]]^er, forester, through the 



