An Extract from Memoranda respecting the Discovery of an ancient Stone
Coffin, in the Church-yard of Chatton, Northumberland, by the Rev.
JOSEPH COOK, of Newton Hall, Vicar of Chatton, &c.

On the sixth of March, 1814, as the sexton of Chatton was digging
a grave on the north side of the church of that place, he met with a
stone about ten inches below the surface of the church-yard, and in
breaking it to proceed with his work, a human skull shewed itself,
lying in water, and surrounded with stone work. The cover was com-
posed of three stones of nearly equal size, joined together with short
iron cramps, embedded with lime and lead, and neatly bevelled off at
the sides and ends. The shell, or excavated part of the coffin, was
nearly full of water. The skull was not lying in the nich or curvature
made for it; but in the place of the chest: it was nearly perfect, only
the under jaw being wanting. The teeth of the upper jaw were a full
set, and quite perfect. The thigh bones measured eighteen inches.
All the mud was carefully filtered off from the contents of the coffin,
but no relic of metal, or of any other description, was found.

At first I conjectured that this coffin, on account of its lying so
near the surface, had been removed out of the church or chancel,
when they were rebuilt in 1764: and the recollection that nearly
two-thirds of the chancel had been excavated, under my own inspec-
tion, to the depth of nine feet, in 1804, for a vault for the family of
John Wilkie, Esq. of Hetton, in this parish, without the least trace of
any kind of sepulture appearing, would have assisted in confirming
me in that idea, had I not satisfied myself by enquiring of people,
who remembered the rebuilding of the church, that though several
coffins were at that time removed out of the chancel, nobody recol-
lected having either seen or heard of this of stone.

Some time after this discovery, I gave directions that the coffin should be raised from its bed, and placed in safety in the church; when the persons employed in the operation found, at its eastern end near the bottom, a curious ancient spur, evidently that of a warrior: it had been of steel, and was much wasted with rust. The radii of the goad or rowel measured half an inch. Nothing more was then found.

On Easter-eve, in the same year, I employed two steady men to dig and trindle the earth adjacent to the bed of the coffin. They found one small silver coin lying near the head of it, and several pieces of ornamented brass and iron work: the brass nearly decomposed to copperas, and partly to black earth, of which there was a considerable quantity. In the same place, fragments of pottery, apparently portions of an urn, were found, and also masses of putrified matter, and a great deal of baked or burnt earth. I directed the men to dig full four feet west of the coffin, and, as far as they went, portions of these articles, lying in a regular strata, were found, from two to three feet below the surface.

The penny was one of Robert Bruce's. The relics of ornamental brass and iron work, were probably the remains of the helmet of the warrior who was interred in the coffin. In 1318 Robert Bruce and his adherents had been excommunicated by the Pope, for contumacy to his Highness's messengers, and having assaulted and taken the fortress of Berwick, as well as those of the castles of Wark, Harbottle, and Mitford, and laid waste all the intervening country, it is probable that this warrior now alluded to, fell at this juncture; and that the vicar of Chatton, on the strength of the above named papal anathema, refused sepulture to his remains, in any other part of the consecrated ground, than that of the north side of the church, the place in those times allotted, I believe, for the unhallowed interment of excommunicated unfortunates.

JOSEPH COOK.

* Smollet's Hist. of Eng. vol. iii. p. 258. Hume, vol. ii. p. 262, 372. Encyc. Brit Art. Scotland, sec. 178, 179. 3d. ed.

An Account of the Opening of an ancient Grave near Denton, in the County of Northumberland; and some Notices respecting an Arrow Head of Flint, by Mr. EDWARD WOODHOUSE, of Scotchwood.

THE small urn and arrow-head of flint, which I presented to the Newcastle Antiquarian Society some time ago, through the medium of Mr. Stanton, were found in the under-mentioned situations.

About two years since I found the urn in the most elevated part of a field, in the occupation of my father, a little more than a quarter of a mile south west of the Roman wall, and almost in a direct line to the same point from Denton Hall, three miles west of Newcastle, in the county of Northumberland. A large stone had, for several years, obstructed the plough, and on raising it I found three enclosures, about two feet in length, and from twelve to eighteen inches in breadth; they were each composed of four flag stones set on edge, about eighteen inches deep, the uppermost edge of each stone level with the surface of the ground.. The longest stones ranged south west and north east. There was a space of about twelve inches between each, filled up with tumbling stones, apparently to support the flags, and keep them upright; the same occurred at the extremities. The centre enclosure contained the urn, the bottom of which was about the same depth as the edge stones; the remaining space within was filled up with very fine soft yellow sand, almost to the surface. The urn contained a substance very much resembling (what is commonly called) shag tobacco. * The eastermost one was quite full of bones, the greatest part of them, from time, reduced to white powder. I * The capacity of this urn is about a quart of wine measure.

found many pieces from a quarter of an inch to an inch in length. The whole were so much decayed, as to render it impossible to ascertain whether they were human or not. There was nothing found in the westermost division, but the same kind of sand as that in which the urn was placed: it was quite of a different nature to any of the soil in the field.

To the best of my recollection the arrow was found about fifteen years ago, upon that part of Lanchester common, called the less improveable part, about a mile and a quarter west of the village of West Butsfield, in the county of Durham. It was a part of the common purchased by my father, now called Woodburn Farm. At that time it was entirely covered with the various kinds of heath natural to this island. After pairing and burning, which is generally the first operation in the cultivation of this kind of land, it was afterwards ploughed; some time after which the arrow-head was found upon the surface, washed quite clean by the previous rains. There was not the least trace, or smallest vestige of this land ever having been in cultivation before.

EDWARD WOODHOUSE.

Might not the eastern division of this arca contain the bones and ashes of a person, who had fallen in some battle; and the urn in the centre division, some manuscript roll on papyrus or bark, containing an account of the conflict in which he fell? Or perhaps more possibly, the person interred here might be of some religious order, and the contents of the urn a book on matters relative to his profession. When Numa Pompilius was buried, his body was put into one arca, or coffin of stone, and his sacred books into another. He died beføre Christ 670, and 485 years afterwards, when one Terentius, a writer, was improving a piece of ground, near the Janiculum, he struck upon these coffins in which the books, which were made of papyrus, were remaining in a perfect state. Pliny says, he derived this account from Cassius Hemina, a very ancient annalist, who to the question of persons who wondered, how it was possible that the books could have lasted so long, gave this reason:"Lapidem fuisse quadratum, circiter in media arca vinctum candelis quoquò versus. In eo lapide insuper libros impositos fuisse: propterea arbitrarier eos non computruisse. Et libros cedratos fuisse : propterea arbitrarier teneas non tetigisse. In libris scripta erant,” &c.-Nat. Hist. xiii. 13. See also Plutarch's Life of Numa. Valer. Max. 1. i. c. i. sec. 12. and Varro quoted by S. August. de Civit. Dei, J. H.