REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1905 279 



those present. Mr 0. F. Murphy, Morpeth, also attended, and 



brought with him excellent drawings of the 

 Ha Hill. Ha Hill, the outstanding natural feature of the 



district. (Plates XIV. and XV.) This notable 

 landmark on the right of the Castle occupies a position 

 in a curiously hollowed meadow, bounded on the South by 

 the Postern Burn, and consists of a truncated ridge of loam 

 and black viscid clay, which terminates very abruptly on the 

 East, but slopes gradually towards the river. In character 

 and appearance it resembles the accumulations of drift, else- 

 where known as Mote Hills and Kaimes, which in some 

 cases have been subsequently modified and adapted by the 

 art of man. Its upper portion is artificial and capped with 

 rough gravel, and has been adjudged by Canon Greenwell, 

 among others, as having been formed into a defensive position 

 in prehistoric times, though there is little or no evidence to 

 determine the precise period of its occupation. Its title 

 suggests its adoption as a seat of judgment in early times, 

 and allies it with the Mote Hills of Northumberland and 

 notably those at Elsdon, a particular account of which may 

 be obtained in the Proceedings of 1881.* 

 While assembled in front of the gateway-tower of the 



ancient fortress, whence an extensive survey of 

 Morpeth the thriving market-town and the surrounding 



Castle. country could be obtained, the party were 



favoured by Mr Fergusson with an exhaustive 

 account of the origin and history of this feudal stronghold. He 

 stated that the ascription of the foundation of the Castle to the 

 first Baron de Merlay, to whom the barony had been granted 

 by William the Conqueror, was discounted in his view by the 

 facts that the Conquest of England did not extend farther 

 North than the river Tees, and that the district now known 

 as Northumberland was not included in Doomsday Book. Not 

 till the reign of Henry I. was the farther portion of Northum- 

 berland subjected to Norman institutions and government, so 

 that probably the later date, 1129, suggested by more reliable 

 authorities, is worthier of acceptance as the time at which 

 the Castle was erected. The original barony consisted of a 



* Ber. Nafc. Club, Vol. ix., Ft. in., pp. 538-543. 



