288 Report of Meetings for 1891. By Dr J. Hardy. 



between Oambo and Close Houses ; E. viridis, S. hifolia, 

 Gymnadenia conopsea, NeoUia Nidus-avis, Paris quadrifolia, 

 Pyrola minor, Parnassia palustris, Rubus saxatilis, Ophioglossum 

 vulgatum, Polypodium Dryopteris, Myosotis syhatica, Gymnos- 

 tomum viridissimum ; of those planted out, Riles alpinum, Vinca 

 minor, Spircea salicifolia, Polygonum Bistorta, Myrrhis odorata, 

 and Asarum europceum. 



At a little distance we saw the Middletons, about which there 

 is an accumulation of documentary evidence preserved in Mr 

 Woodman's collections relative to the Morpeth district. " North 

 Middleton," Mr Tomlinson observes, "is a little place of some 

 interest, because there survived here until 1806, the pure Arian 

 form of a village-community, precisely as it is in Eussia and 

 India." (Guide, p. 257.) Professor Lebour in ("Outlines of 

 the Geology of Northumberland," p. 10), speaks of traces of an 

 old lake at " Middleton, near Angerton in the Wansbeck 

 Valley." Perhaps it was near this that the following deposit 

 had been made: — "A little over half-a-mile north-east of 

 Wallington, in a locality that used to be known as Middleton 

 Moss, an ancient swamp underneath Middleton Hill, there were 

 found, on May 14, 1879, some remarkable relics of the old 

 British inhabitants — viz. 15 axe heads, 4 spear heads, 3 sword 

 blades, and 3 female armlets. They are all deposited in a glass 

 case in the hall at Wallington. On the hill top are the remains 

 of a Celtic village, and near to it a small, but distinctly marked, 

 Eoman Camp." (Tomlinson's Guide, p. 266.) 



Crossing " solitary Wansbeck's limpid stream " at Middleton 

 Bridge, the clayey banks heaped up in great mounds on the 

 slopes in front were deeply carved out by the tracks of rushes of 

 water from the surface, or the drainage of underground springs ; 

 and the flatter meadows beneath bore witness in the changeable 

 old channels to repeated bygone overflows, when the stream, at 

 present so shallow as to be steppable across its "rocky pave- 

 ment," swept along impetuously in full spate. Heavy alluvial 

 deposits have accumulated along the lower course of the 

 Wansbeck. As we ascend the steep road, we obtain a more 

 accurate conception of the features of the country we were 

 leaving, which hitherto had been hidden by the lie of the 

 ground, and the crowded forest trees. North Middleton, and 

 Middleton Hall, and East Deanham, and South Middleton are 



