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On a Cist and other Remains discovered near Berwick 

 By George Bolam, F.Z.S. 



In the beginning of February 1898, the plough laid bare 

 part of an ancient Stone Coffin, or Cist, in a field called 

 ** Cocklaw Hill," upon the farm of High Cocklaw, within 

 the Borough of Berwick. In company with Captain Norman 

 and Mr Sanderson, the tenant of the farm, I visited the 

 place a few days after the discovery, and saw the cist in 

 situ. It was composed of five large rough sandstone slabs, 

 one on each side, and one as a cover, but had no bottom 

 save the dry, hard clay. The inside measurements were — 

 length, 4 feet 6 inches ; width, 1 foot 11 inches; depth, 2 

 feet 3 inches. It lay in an east to west direction, and at 

 a depth of about 18 inches below the then surface of the 

 soil ; but from long cultivation of the field, the original 

 depth had no doubt been considerably encroached upon. 

 Owing to the unequal size of the unhewn slabs, the cist 

 was not rectangular, but was considerably widest at the east 

 end. When opened, nothing could be found in it, unless 

 a very small quantity of black earth may have represented 

 remains, but this is very doubtful. 



Mr Sanderson informed us that this was the third cist 

 which he had discovered in the same field. In one of the 

 others, some pieces of charred bone, and the fragments of 

 a broken clay urn, were found. He had also discovered, 

 at different times — in the same field — two querns, one of 

 which is now in the Berwick Museum, as well as several 

 celts ; while in an adjoining field he had seen remains of 

 what he took to be an ancient camp, or village, with traces 

 of what seemed to be a paved road. Near the latter he 

 had recently dug up a large, roughly-squared stone, with 

 a neatly wrought cup running through it, tapering to the 

 base. This we saw lying by the side of the field, and 

 Captain Norman ventured the opinion that it might perhaps 

 have been the base of a flag-staff. 



