152 REPORT OF THE MEETINGS FOR 1897 



3. — Morpeth for Kirkwhelpington. Bj the President. 



For the third meeting of the year, on 28th July, Morpeth 

 was the centre and Kirkwhelpington the objective^ Several 

 members arrived at Morpeth on Tuesday evening, and visited 

 the ruins of Newminster Abbey, some half-a-mile out of the 

 town on the road to Mitford. Beyond the foundations of the 

 Chancel, excavated some years ago by the Rev. J. T. Fowler of 

 Durham, and Mr Wm. Woodman of Morpeth, and the mounds 

 which mark the outlines of its former buildings, there is little 

 to see of this Cistercian Monastery — the first offshoot from the 

 famous foundation of Fountains Abbey. On Wednesday morn- 

 ing the members and a few friends met at Morpeth railway 

 station, where the carriages were waiting the arrival of the 

 early trains from North and South. There were present the 

 Eev. Canon Walker, President ; Eev. George Gunn, Stichill, 

 Kelso, e/ow^ Secretary; Mr George Bolam, Berwick, Treasurer; 

 Rev. Thomas Leishman, D.D., Linton ; Rev. E. Arkless, 

 Earsdon ; Messrs W. B. Boyd, Faldonside ; C. B. P. Bosanquet, 

 Rock Hall ; John Hogg, Quixwood ; John Cairns, Alnwick ; 

 Cuthbert E. Carr, Low Hedgeley ; H. A. Carr (.36th Worcester 

 Regiment) Rock Hall, Alnwick ; A. M. Dunlop, Ashkirk ; 

 B. Morton, Sunderland ; John Dunlop, Lanark ; W. R. Arkless, 

 Morpeth ; Rev. D. Paul, LL.D., Edinburgh ; Chas. S. Romanes, 

 Edinburgh ; Edward Thew, Birling ; J. L. Newbigin, Alnwick. 



A start was made by half-past ten westwards. We drove 

 under the shadow of hill and earthworks still crowned by the 

 gateway and curtain wall of the mediaeval castle of the De 

 Merlays, past the old Parish Church on Kirkhill, between which 

 and the Castle was probably the first site of the town of 

 Morpeth. There is a reference to the Newtown of Morpeth in a 

 grant of a road made to Newminster by Roger de Merlay iii. The 

 long incline of Morpeth Common was traversed, and thence the 

 road to Whalton and Belsay, which to the former place follows the 

 watershed between the Wansbeck on the North, and the Blyth 

 to the South. Simonside Hills were in full view, and away to 

 the north-west. Great Cheviot and Hedgehope were visible as we 

 pass Edington, now only a very small hamlet of one farm, but 

 bearing a name which carries the mind back to Saxon times, 



