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Report of the Meetings of the Berwickshire Naturalists 

 Club for the year 1897. 



1. — Morpeth for Belsay Castle. By the President. 



The place of meeting of the first of the series for 1897 

 was at Morpeth on Wednesday 2nd June, the object being 

 to visit Belsay and Belsay Castle, the seat of Sir Arthur 

 E. Middleton, Bart. Several members from the North arrived 

 in Morpeth on Tuesday evening, and visited the extensive 

 nursery gardens of Mr Thomas Matheson, and. the fine collection 

 of orchids and tropical plants in the houses of Mr Edward 

 Hopper, Bridge Street, by the kind permission of the owners. 

 After breakfast at the Newcastle Arms Inn in the Castle 

 Square, the party numbering 26 started in two two-horse 

 brakes under the direction of the President. The drive 

 followed the Newcastle road under the Castle and past the 

 Parish Church of Morpeth, a beautiful specimen of 14th 

 century architecture, situated some short distance from the 

 town on Kirkhill, under the shadow formerly of the Castle 

 and keep of the De Merlays, of which all that remains are the 

 gateway and curtain wall. Passing beneath the Reedsmouth 

 branch of the N.B. Railway, Morpeth Common — an extensive 

 tract of enclosed land, belonging to the burgesses and freemen 

 of the town — was traversed. Here the road lies on the water- 

 shed between the waters of Wansbeck on the north, and Blyth 

 on the south. The spire of Mitford Church is seen in the 

 valley of the Wansbeck, and Spital House — the site of a 

 mediaeval Hospital of S. Leonard perched on the north bank 

 of the same stream. The Gubeon — a farmhouse on the 

 roadside just after leaving the Common and crossing the road 

 from Ponteland to Mitford— derives its name probably from 

 the grant of land here with the town of Shilvington made by 

 William I. to Hugo de Gobion ; as the same William made a 

 grant of Morpeth to William de Merlay. Willelmus de Gobyon 

 is witness to a grant from Roger de Merlay to Ralf de Noes. 

 At an inquisition "a.d. 1316, the heirs of Hugh de Gubyon 

 held the manor of Shilvington from the manor of Morpeth in 

 chief for the half of a knight's fee and the sixth of the living 



