190 REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1907 



John Eennie, the noted architect and engineer, from whose 

 designs no fewer than three of the Thames bridges — Southwark, 

 Waterloo, and London — were constructed. Skirting the policies 

 of Smeaton-Hepburn, the party drove through the village of 

 Tyninghame, gay with the profusion of the popular Sweet 

 Pea ; and leaving the Mansion-house on the right continued 

 their route midst the russet tints of the famous Binning 

 Woods, designed and planted in 1705 by the sixth Earl of 

 Haddington in a field of 300 Scots acres, called the Muir of 

 Tyninghame. From this point the road led through Whitekirk 

 and afterwards past Seacliff to Castleton, where the members 



alighted at one o'clock, proceeding on foot to 

 Tantallon Tantallon Castle, situated on a cliff of Trap 

 Castle. Tuff or Volcanic Ash, part of a bed which 



probably extended from North Berwick to 

 Dunbar. The approach to this formidable fortress led over 

 a wide grass-grown court beyond which a deep ditch with 

 a high mound forms part of its Western fortification. To 

 the North and East tliis platform is defended by perpendicular 

 rocks and the sea, and to the South by a rocky ravine through 

 which flows a small stream. Alongside it winds the entrance 

 road, so that before reaching the gateway, defended at once 

 by a ditch cut in the rock and by a draw-bridge and portcullis, 

 the besiegers would be exposed to attack from a series of 

 outworks. The aspect of the Castle is most imposing, its 

 turretted keep and enormous battlemented curtain-walls on 

 either side rendering it an object of peculiar interest and 

 a place of extraordinary strength. The interior of the keep 

 has been so entirely demolished that it is impossible to 

 summarise its details, though a guard-room was situated on 

 the South side of the passage, and a steep staircase in the 

 North wall led to the rooms above, as well as to the battle- 

 ments. From the central keep the curtain-walls running 

 North and South incline inwards at an angle, and are 

 strengthened at the points where the building touches the 

 sea by large towers, which are now greatly defaced. With 

 reference to this feature of defensive construction John Hill 

 Burton declares ;— " It has been the natural growth of 

 European fortification to expand into flanking works. At the 

 period of the War of ladependence, castles had so far developed 



