There is a tradition that a church stood at one time on the Muir, at a place known at the present day as Kirkhill, and that this church, like the houses, was built of feals and thatched; but I have not been able to find any record of a church there. There may, however, have been in pre-Reformation times more than one church on the muirs, for a knoll to the north-east of Earlshall bears a name which is distinctly gaelic, that of "Tammie Knowe." This is evidently Toma-naomh (pronounced Tom-a-nuv), the holy or consecrated hillock. Many of the place-names on the Muir, as I have already remarked, are of Gaelic origin, such as Kinshaldy, Fetters, Shanwell, Reres, Garpit, Culbaikie, etc.

I forbear to follow up this line of investigation, tempting as it is; Gaelic phraseology is plastic enough to yield any desired result to ingenuity of suggestion, and only those who are Gaelic scholars can deal with such questions.

The sandy surface of Tentsmuir, where not under cultivation, is covered by a vegetable coating of heath and bent grass, broken in some parts into hollows, where the sand is blown out in stormy weather. In these hollows, and chiefly after a gale of wind, small articles of antiquarian interest are occasionally to be found; although they may also be picked up in certain of the cultivated fields in dry weather, and after a gale has blown away the sand and left the heavier particles, such as stones, cinders from the manure, etc., and sometimes amongst these a specimen of the handiwork of a long-past age.

The articles of antiquarian interest here alluded to are fragments of pottery of the Bronze Age, and of much more recent date; implements of flint, and other relics of the Bronze Age, such as whetstones, beads, bronze buckles, and needles made hollow by rolling up a thin sheet of bronze to the required form; hammer-stones with abraded ends of a uniform type, showing that they have been used in some special art that required repeated strokes with the stone delivered in the same direction and at a uniform angle; brass pins, having heads of twisted wire; spinning whorls or charm stones, iron fish-hooks found at about a mile from the coast; the small pipe-heads of the class known as "Picts' Pipes," but known to be much more recent than the Picts; silver and copper coins, mostly Scottish, from Robert Bruce downwards to Charles II.; with many articles of more modern origin, such as buttons, etc.

When the drains or ditches were being dug to carry off the water from the then numerous pools as formerly mentioned, there were found many fragments of the horns of the extinct red deer of Scotland (Cervus elephas), and in one instance the skeleton of a boar, having long curving tusks like the wild boar of India.

Numerous collections of shells have also been cut through, as mentioned by Rev. Mr. Kettle. They are, however, close to the surface, and not, as he seems to say, at a depth below it. There are also to be seen on the Muir many shell-mounds, varying in height from a few inches to eight or nine feet. These demand more than a passing notice.

I shall deal with these first, and then pass on to describe briefly one or two of the antique articles mentioned above which seem to require more than a passing reference.

In regard, then, to the shell-mounds, it is necessary to mention that no part of the muirs rises to more than 25 feet above high water of ordinary spring tides, and even that height is only reached in the case of some of the sand-hills, and in the highest of the shellmounds. I have used the term shell-mounds, although they are commonly spoken of as kitchen middens, and they are so nanied on the maps of the Ordnance Survey. They are not, however, characterised by the usual contents of the kitchen middens of Denmark, which contain, along with shells, many implements of stone and bone, together with the bones of animals, birds and fishes, fragments of deer horn, and pieces of burnt wood and charcoal giving evidences of fire, whereas in the shell-mounds of Tentsmuir there is nothing but shells mixed with sand. Even of the later pottery, which is so common on the muirs, there is not a scrap. Pottery, however, is not a usual relic in the true kitchen midden. What, then, has been the origin of the shell-mounds of Tentsmuir? Some of them are at a great distance from the shore. The shells are of edible kinds, the cockle, mussel and whelk. A remarkable feature is that the shells are all of comparatively small dimensions; whereas one would have expected that the largest specimens would have been collected, as has been found to be the case in the Danish kitchen middens. Another equally noticeable difference is that the shells seem all to be on the top of the mound. On digging downwards, one gets beyond the shells into pure sand. It is the same in the smaller shell-mounds away in the heart of the muirs. These, however, are rather shell patches than mounds.

One sees a whitish patch among the heather. On going up to examine it, it is found to be a thin layer of shells, mussel and whelk mostly. And here also, in digging downwards, the pure sand is found, where there are no shells. It would seem as if all these collections of shells had once lain at a considerably greater elevation than at present,—that as in the course of years the sand was blown away, the shells being heavier would drop downwards, but in the process the shells would offer an obstacle to the denuding power of the wind, and so the mounds of sand would come to be formed, for the so

called shell-mounds are really sand-mounds with a collection of shells on the top. This, however, leaves us still in the dark as to why these shells are in groups, and if to be regarded as of human origin, why there are no relics of man among them, no flints, no bones, no pottery.

It has been suggested that they may be the work of sea-birds, or perhaps of crows or ravens, which, in bearing the shells inland to break them up if that were possible, and alighting many times on the same spot, came in the course of time, it might be of centuries, to form these accumulations of shells. Much might be said both for and against this theory, but this would take up too much time on the present occasion, and I have not been able to arrive at any satisfactory solution of the problem. It ought to be mentioned that the largest and most important group of these mounds, some ten or eleven in number, are situated not far from the mouth of the Eden.

I now proceed to notice the pottery. It is of two kinds, first, the prehistoric or urn type; and second, what for want of a better name I shall call the late medieval or jug type. Of the first very few fragments are to be found. It is usually in very small pieces, and is about half an inch in thickness. It is coarse in grain, and bears on the outer surface the "herring-bone" and "twisted-cord" impressions characteristic of this type. I have found fragments of this pottery in patches of dark earth that suggested an ancient burial-place and a cremated burial. Doubtless the absence of stones with which a cist might be formed had induced urn-burial in the sand, and doubtless also in the course of ages the urn, soaked with water in wet weather, and parched and cracked in dry weather, at last collapsed, leaving only a few fragments of the harder-baked parts of the urn, and the dark stratum of sandy earth mixed with minute particles of charcoal to show that a burial by cremation had there been consummated untold ages ago. Dr. Blair, Tayport, was fortunate on one occasion in recovering all the parts of an urn of the "drinking-cup" form, a thinner and more artistic variety, which he reconstructed. It was exhibited to the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland in 1883, and the urn is now in the Dundee Museum. The urn is five inches in height, of Bronze Age type, and of special interest, inasmuch as it exhibits a peculiarity which renders it unique. This is the appearance of having been impressed externally in the soft clay with a twisted cord wound spirally around the urn from the lip to the foot. This has been demonstrated by winding a fine cord around the vessel following the markings. No other instance of a spirally ornamented urn has been recorded.

The other class of pottery found on the muirs is of a very different type and widely different period. It possesses, however, well marked

features, which serve to distinguish it, even to the smallest fragment. It is to be found all over the Muir, lying on the surface or in blown out hollows, or in rabbit-holes; everywhere that the surface is broken it is visible, but always in fragments an inch or two across. It has been turned on the wheel, but bears the marks of the hands of the potter. Especially is this latter peculiarity visible around the lip, which is frequently ornamented with a sort of "frilling" produced by the thumb and finger working in concert in something like the same way as bakers used to fashion the edges of their cakes of shortbread before the introduction of moulds, and as is yet more roughly exhibited round the edges of oaten cakes in those households where this almost forgotten art is still practised by the careful housewife. Some of these jars or jugs had been furnished with handles like the ordinary waterjug; and the handles also show at the ends the impress of the potter's finger and thumb.

Some of the jugs have been glazed on the outside with a greenish yellow glaze, very thin and imperfectly put on. The pottery itself, which averages one quarter of an inch in thickness, is of a light creamy colour, with dark grey granulations. Some of the vessels had been of considerable size, pieces of the lips having been found indicating a diameter of 9 inches, but I have as yet found no means of determining their height. It is very strange, when one thinks of the multitude of fragments, that no completely entire specimen, so far as I have been able to discover, has yet been found, or even such a fragment as would determine depth. Dr. Blair was just as anxious as I was to secure if possible a whole jar, and enlisted in the search all those dwellers on the Muir whose occupation led them to be much abroad among the sand hills, so that a watch might be kept for any appearance of a whole specimen or even of a larger fragment than usual. The Doctor's experience with one of these individuals may here be related, as it may help to enliven a dry subject, and, moreover, it illustrates the too common characteristics of his class, who when they find any valuable curiosity usually break it to find out of what it is made. Dr. Blair, interviewing this individual, asked, "Did you ever see a whole jar anywhere on the links?" and received the following reply, "Weel, Doctor, I canna' say I ever saw a hale ane. I've whiles seen, whan gaun through amo' th' bunkers efter a gel o' wind, I've seen me noticin' ane o' thae jougs stickin' oot o' th' sand, an' I've taen'd a bit bash wi' my spade as I gaed by, but I cudna say 'at I ever saw a hale No, I never saw a hale ane, Doctor!" It is almost needless to say that this reply carried with it conviction.

ane.

The Doctor could only inwardly groan, and outwardly implore this worthy if in future he should adventure upon any other such specimen, to refrain if possible from "bashing "it with his spade, at the same time

promising as an encouragement a substantial reward for his forbearance, but sad to say without any satisfactory result. Perhaps our friend found his predilection for testing the strength of an earthenware jar with his spade too strong for him to resist. When such a spirit is abroad among the "rustick" inhabitants on the Muir, it is no wonder that the pottery has come down to us in fragments.

It is difficult to assign a period for this class of pottery, as it displays no distinctive features. I have called it late medieval, and probably we should not be far from the date if we attribute it to the sixteenth century, some of it earlier and some later.

It probably was made in Holland; there was much intercourse between Scotland and the Low Countries during the period named, and many vessels crossed the North Sea, only to be cast away on reaching the rocky and shoal-encircled coast of Scotland. Not a few of them would come to grief on the sandy shallows which fence Tentsmuir from the ocean; and doubtless many a valuable cargo intended for other hands would be gathered in and stored in all the nooks and hiding-places in and about the clay biggins on the Muir, the more by token that the Muir-dwellers were evil spoken of as wreckers, luring the storm-tost and belated mariner to his doom. In this way, we cannot doubt, the presence of much of this pottery from the Low Countries may be accounted for.

The flint implements are found all over the Muir. They are of usual type, arrow-heads, scrapers, saws and flakes, worked and unworked. They are finely polished by the sand blowing over them for centuries.

It is different with the bronzes, which are only to be found in the sand hollows. They are all excessively fragile, and will scarcely bear handling. The searcher had therefore better provide himself with a few small boxes of stout make to resist the effect of pressure in the pocket, tin match-boxes or a nest of the ordinary wood boxes in use by druggists are suitable, and with some cotton wadding, for the safe conveyance of articles of bronze, coins, pins, or other fragile objects which may be met with, otherwise if such are instead placed in vest pocket or purse, all that will be found on reaching home will probably be a little greenish dust, to represent what may have been a relic of extreme rarity. Allied to the bronzes, as being also of the Bronze Age, are those exceedingly rare small whetstones of which several have been found on the Muir. (See Proc. Soc. of Antiq., Vol. XXIV., p. 382).

I have already referred to the smooth rounded pebbles with abraded ends, which I have termed hammer-stones, to distinguish them from stone-hammers, a stone implement shaped like a hammer, and with a hole through it for a handle. No example of the latter, so