REPORT OF THE MEETINGS FOR 1896 51 



came from Haddington across the Lammermuirs, past Johns- 

 cleugh and Ellem to Langton, on the expedition known as the 

 Raid of Ellem, and on the 19th of that month there was paid, 

 as appears from the accounts of the Lord High Treasurer, a 

 sum of £5 Scots "to the man and the wif of the hous quhar 

 the King lugyit at Ellem." The expedition, which was 

 ostensibly in support of the pretensions of Perkin Warbeck 

 to the English Crown, had no practical result. Proceeding up 

 the valley, Cranshaws, with its fine old Tower — still in excellent 

 preservation, and recently partially restored by the proprietor, 

 Mr Smith of Whitchester — was seen on the high ground to the 

 left, with Harehead on the opposite ridge across the river. 

 Here the mouth of the Bothal glen came into view, with 

 Bothal and Crichness in the distance. A little above the 

 junction of Bothal Water with Whitadder, the latter takes a 

 bend to the left, and the road leads up the narrow pass, with 

 "The Bell," — a steep stony slope rising from the north bank of 

 the river to a considerable height, beautifully dotted over with 

 patches of birch wherever the trees could find a root-hold — 

 shutting in the view to the right. At its upper extremity is 

 Snail's Cleugh, a pretty little bosky ravine running up towards 

 the heights on the same side. There is a tradition, mentioned 

 by the Eev. J. Wood Brown in his " Covenanters of the Merse," 

 that a Covenanting cooper in the village of Garvald used to 

 cross the Lammermuirs, and hide behind a waterfall in the 

 Cleugh in the persecuting times. A wealth of ferns — amongst 

 them Polypodium dryopteris, P.phegopteris, and Cystopteris fragilis 

 — adorns the rocky sides of the ravine. 



BRITISH GAMP AND HUT CIRCLES. 



On the height above the Cleugh to the east is a remarkable 

 series of hut circles, which some of the party carefully examined. 

 Nearly opposite, Kilmade Burn joins the Whitadder, and on 

 the elevated ground, occupying the angle formed by the 

 junction, is a large hill fort. Mr Francis Lynn, F.S.A. Scot., 

 Galashiels, made a minute inspection of the fort, and has 

 kindly supplied the following particulars regarding it. "The 

 enclosure is very irregular, measuring 430 feet by about 280 

 inside, the external measurements being 550 feet by 490. The 

 general plan is egg-shaped. On the side to the hill, where the 

 fort was most open to attack, there are as many as four 



