122 REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1901 



VOTE OF THANKS TO THE PRESIDENT. 



On the motion of Mr Campbell Swinton, of Kimmerghame, 

 a hearty vote of thanks was passed to the President for his 

 conduct in the chair, and throughout the whole of his year 

 of office. 



Before the business meeting Captain Norman met those 

 members of the Club who were present at the railway Viridge, 

 at 11-30 in the morning, and conducted them round the 

 principal part of the ancient walls of Berwick, starting from 

 the site of the ancient castle, the modern railway station, 

 and travelling northward and eastward at first. Captain 

 Norman spoke of the date of the castle as being old but 

 uncertain, though undoubtedly it was a fortified inhabited 

 stronghold in Edward the First's time. He pointed out the 

 deep fosse of the ancient city wall, and, upon the remains 

 of the wall now dismantled and reduced to a grassy mound, 

 the Bell Tower, which he named as the oldest tower in the 

 county : he gave an interesting account of his endeavours to 

 trace the present whereabouts of the old Bell, which, according 

 to Scott (Qistory of Berwick, p. 201) was sold to Burnt 

 Island in 1619 for £36 10s. He then explained the differ- 

 ence between the present Elizabethan and the old Edwardian 

 lines of circumvallation, and called attention to the "Spades 

 Mire," an outlier of the latter, and to the "Covert Way" 

 of the former. Next was seen the Soulis' Tower, also called 

 the "Murderer," because of the old cannon formerly lodged 

 there which bore this descriptive name. Then, turning south, 

 the "salient" of Queen Elizabeth's time was observed, and 

 the well-jointed masonry of the rampart admired; and the 

 inspection concluded by a visit to the Brass Mount, and to 

 the Armoury beneath the " flanker," reached by narrow and 

 dark subterranean passages. 



Mrs Barwell Carter again, as on many former occasions, 

 threw open her house and its collections to be visited by 

 members of the Club, of which her father, Dr George Johnston, 

 was the founder. 



