7^ Report of Mcetinya for 1890. By Dr J. Hardy. 



border fight, in which Lord Home brought up a detachment of 

 cavalry, and with them decided the fate of the day. 

 Wark. 

 The Club having partaken of luncheon, the President on part- 

 ing, returned thanks to Mrs Hodgson Huntley for her very great 

 kindness. After breaking up this very pleasant assemblage, the 

 party took the road for Wark in two separate divisions, one by 

 the public road, the other by the river-side, till the great mound 

 of Wark arose like a vast moat crowning a crag, where gaining 

 the passage at Wark boat-house, the company after reaching the 

 top, gathered round the President, who read a State Paper docu- 

 ment which described the Castle in the days of its glory. There 

 was a fine view from the summit — the Yetholm hill range being 

 in the extreme distance, and a great range of the surrounding 

 lands up to Hume Castle on the one side, and those up to Presson 

 ridge and on by Moneylaws on the other. The Club has more 

 than once visited Wark Castle. An account of it has been written 

 by the Eev. Peter Mearns, Coldstream, first briefly in the 

 History of the Club, v., pp. 61-66 ; then extended in the 

 "Border Magazine," and afterwards re-published as a tractate; 

 also as a lecture in the Transactions of the Hawick Archaeological 

 Society ; while Mr Mearns has also treated of the Kaim of Wark 

 in the Hist, of the Club, vol ii., pp. 224-31, and has otherwise 

 contributed to the knowledge of its History and Geology. In- 

 formation regarding it is also to be obtained in the Rev. C. H. 

 Hartshorne's Feudal and Military Antiquities of Northumber- 

 land and the Scottish Borders (1858), vol. i., pp. 29-36 ; and it 

 is now expected that Mr J. C. Bates in his " Border Holds," will 

 still further augment our knowledge by narrating, with ample 

 details, from hitherto unused State papers, the entire story of 

 this once famous and important fortress. The following summary 

 of events connected with it, I take from the report of the present 

 meeting contained in the Newcastle Daily Journal, Sep. 11, 1890. 

 No castle in Northuuiberlaud is so rich in historical associations as that 

 of Wark, which for centuries was the scene of almost constant warfare. 

 Erected in the 12th century by Walter Espec, it was captured by David I. 

 in 1135. and restored to England in 1136. In the following year David 

 again laid siege to it, but failed to reduce it. In 1138 King Stephen made 

 Wark the base of his depredatory excursions into Scotland, and after 

 leaving it King David of Scotland again besieged it, and took it after a 

 lengthened blockade. The castle remained in the possession of the Scots 

 until 1157, when it was restored to England. The battering which the 



