REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1904 137 



Circcea lufetiana ; Silaus pratensis ; Solidago Virya-aurea ; 

 Veronica Anayallis ; Mimulus luteus ; Meritha satwa — cardiaca 

 gentilis L. ; Epipactis latifolia ; Sparyanium ramosum ; 

 Juncus glaucus ; Carex remota ; C. paniculata ; C amptdlacra ; 

 C. paludosa ; C. riparia. So entertaining did the ramble 

 along the water-course prove, that the hour named for 

 assembling at the parish church of Whittingham, aituated 

 above its banks as it flows through the old fashioned hamlet 

 of the same name was almost forgotten, and a word of 

 remonstrance well nigh escaped the lips of those of the 

 larger contingent who had reached the village by the 

 public road. 



Among North country villages Whittingham occupies 

 a place of honour in respect of its history 

 Whitting= and picturesque surroundings. The name, 

 ham. which is of Saxon origin, has been given to 



a quiet hamlet situated on the banks of the 

 Aln which divides it into two portions, that on the North 

 side entitled "the Church Town" including in former days 

 the church, the vicarage and the schools, and that on the 

 South, an ancient pele-tower, the court-house, and the 

 Castle Inn. A delightful irregularity marks the arrange- 

 ment of the dwelling houses and shops, and preserves the 

 old-world character of the place. It has been identified 

 by some with the " Twyford near the river Alne" mentioned 

 by Bede as the scene of a great Synod assembled in the 

 presence of King Egfrid 664, at which Cuthbert was 

 chosen Bishop of Lindisfarne. During the civil war in the 

 seventeenth century it was visited by a company of 400 

 horse, who came from the Brandon Hills singing psalms 

 all the way, but whose devotion to such spiritual exercises 

 did not prevent their manifesting civility and making 

 payment for the breakfast which its straitened stores 

 provided. A second invasion overtook it in the summer of 

 1648, when Cromwell's Eoundheads made prisoners of 

 Lieutenant-Colonel Millet and 200 horse. Little of a 

 warlike aspect marks the village to-day, though there 

 remains in excellent preservation the ancient Border keep 

 which had dominated and protected the dwellings clustering 

 round it. The basement consists of the usual stone-arched 



