Anniversary Address. 5 



ablest of her younger clergy, of a mind of rare calibre and 

 power fitted for her service "; Mr F. J. Leather of Middleton 

 Hall, Northumberland. We have also to regret the loss of 

 Mr John Scott, who joined the Club in 1869, the compiler of 

 the latest Historj'- of Berwick, whose name I have left to the 

 last, as I intend to make a few remarks on the records of 

 the town. 



"Many of us have read, and still do read, with pleasure the 

 quaint old volume of Dr Fuller, that odd mixture of Medical 

 Jurisprudence, jumbled up with interesting details of the 

 state of the town as it then was, with praises of the beauty 

 of the ladies of Berwick and the hospitality of its burghers, 

 and withal, a strong strain of common sense running through 

 the book. If it does not afford much information, it will at 

 anyrate always afford amusement to any one who takes it 

 up. After him come two others who wrote short treatises 

 on the place, which, however, are hardly worth mentioning ; 

 Good's Directory in 1806, which is interesting as giving the 

 names of the inhabitants of the town at that time ; and 

 another small book by the Rev. Thomas Johnston in 1816. 

 In 1849 another Bistory appeared, written by Frederick 

 Sheldon. I remember him in my youthful days, in the 

 streets of Berwick, a tall, melo-clramatic looking figure — 

 whether he had ever been on the stage or not I do not know, 

 but he was called by the boys of the town the " Play-actor." 

 Although the writer's lively imagination has sometimes led 

 him to describe trifling details in rather high-flown language, 

 yet, considering that he had not the opportunity of con- 

 sulting the records of the Corporation, his book contains a 

 great deal of information, and is, I think, worthy of more 

 attention than has been given to it, though I fear that it is 

 now difficult to obtain. Mr Scott's work — I wish he had 

 omitted the illustrations, which, with the exception of some 

 of the photographs, ai-e not worthy of a place in such a 

 book— contains a very good historical account of the stirring 

 events that took place at Berwick before the time of the 

 Union, and as he had access to the Corporation records, the 

 History is by far the fullest and most complete that has yet 



