TRANSACTIONS OF THE ' . EAST LOTHIAN , . -AN-TIQUARIAN AND FIELD NATURALISTS'. SOCIETY \TOL. XIII. 1972 . TRANSACTIONS OF THE E·AsT LOTHIAN ANTIQUARIAN AND FIELD NATURALISTS' SOCIETY THIRTEENTH VOLUME I9J2 HADDINGTON: PRINTED BY D. AND J. CROAL, LTD. FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE SOCIETY CONTENTS Page LONG CIST GRAVES FOUND ON No. 3 GOLF COURSE, GULLANE, EAST LOTIDAN By Audrey HenshaU and M. J. Moun.tain 1 THE GULLANE LINKS AND OTHER SCOTTISH LONG CIST SKELETONS By Michael Walker 3 THE POETRY OF SIR RICHARD MAITLAND OF LETHINGTON By Alasdair A. MacDonald 7 THE BUILDING OF YESTER HOUSE 1670-1878 By John G. Dunbar 20 THREE EAST LOTHIAN PIONEERS OF ADULT EDUCATION By John M. Simpson 43 QUEEN VICTORIA IN SCOTLAND, 1842, EXTRACTS FROM THE DIARY OF LORD DALHOUSIE, PART II Edited by Edith C. Broun Lindsay 61 THE IDSTORICAL GEOGRAPHY OF THE GIFFORD AND GARVALD LIGHT RAILWAY By Ian H. Adams 77 OFFICE-BEARERS AND COUNCIL 97 SUBSCRIBING ORGANISATIONS 98 LIST OF MEMBERS 99 INDEX 105 LONG CIST GRAVES FOUND ON 1No. 3 GOLF COURSE, GULLANE, EAST LOTH IAN By A. S. HENSHALL and M. J. MOUNTAIN The site is about a quarter of a mile South of the village of Gullane, and less thian a mile from the coast at Gullane Bay to the North and rather further from the coast at Aberlady Bay to the South. The site is about 77 ft. a:bov~ Ordnance Datum, in an extensive area of sand-dunes now largely given over to golf courses, bwt with agricultural land a short distance further inland. The map reference is NT 47928213, about 165 ft. West of the main road A198. In December 1968 four long cists were discovered by green-keepers removing sand from a small turf-covered sandhill. The sand was being removed from the East side of the sandhill, and the East ends of three cists · had be.en found at roughly the new ground level created during the sand remov~l operations. Abowt 1 ft. 6 in. above the cists an old land surface showed as a dark band in the section of the sandhill across the West ends of the cists, above which, at this point, was another 2 ft. 6 in. of sand up to the present turf cover. When our investigations began cists 1, 2 and 4 had been cleared of their c:'ap­ stones and some of the interior sand to expose part of the skulls. Two more cists, 3 and 5, were lociated with their capstones in place (the capstones of 3 shown on plan). A small trench to the West of cist 5, cut from the undisturbed surface of the sandhill, revealed fue capstones of a sixth cist. This was not investigated. Cists 1-5 were excavated, and the skeletons were recovered in good con· dition. The cists were carefully constructed of well-fitting thin slabs of slaty sandstone, mostly about 1 in. thick though three heavier stones were used in cist 5. The slabs were liable to flake and disintegrate. The floors were paved with closely fitting sla1bs (shown on plan in cists 1 and 2). All the cists had had capstones. The four adult graves measured internally between 5. ft. 5 in. and 6 ft. 1 in. long, between 1 ft. 4 in. and 1 ft. 7 in. wide at the West (or head) end, Miss Henshall is Assistant Secretary of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Miss Mountain is Lecturer in Archaeology, Edinburgh University. 1 LONG CIST GRAVES and between 10 in. and 1 iit. 2 in. wide at the East end. Cist 4 had evidently been for a baby, and measured 2 ft. 3 in. long by 6 in. wide. The four adult cists were ftairly evenly spaced in a row side by side 3 ft. apart, their East ends in line. They were orientated North East to South West. Cist 4 was not in line but lay to the North East orientated East North East-West South West. A'bove the North West corner of cist 5 there was a setting of three stones, their bases about 3 in. above the level of the capstones, two set vertically 1 ft. apart with the northern one over the North side of the cist, and betwee.n them a third stone had been laid horizontally forming a flat floor. Beside the head of cist 3 the.re was a SJlllall rectangular stone set upright, its pointed base on a level with the upper surface of the adjacent capstone. It was 1 ft. 4 in. high, and seemed to have been deUberately set, perhaps as a marker for the grave. The number of cists at the site is unknown, but the fact that at least a seeond row of graves exists sug•gests that there is a well organised cemetery. There is no record of a chapel. Cemeteries of long cists are a well known feature of the Lothians, but little work -has been done on them. They cannot be more preciseiy dated than a general ascription to the Early Christian period.I For some reason long cists tend to be arranged in rows either end to end, or side by side. The Gulliane cists appear to be of the latter type, but the significance of these contrasting arrangements is not cle.ar. Some days before the discovery of the cists an upper quernstone was found nearby. It is of the Early Christian type with angled handle-hole passin.g from the upper surlface to the side. This tyipe of quern has been associated with long cists on several ocoasions.2 The quern was donated to the National Museum by Gullane Golf Club (BB 138). We wish to thank the Club for permitting investigation of the long dsts, and in particular their Se•cretary, Mr Balfour Melville, for reporting the dis­ covery and for his heLp. The cists were left intact and covered over with sand and turf. REFERENCES 1. Discussion of cist cemeteries in P.S.A.S., LXXXIX, 1955-56, 265-71; Ordnance Survey, Map of Britain in the Dark Ages, 1966. 25-6, and plotted on map; Thomas, A. C., The Early Christian Archaeology of North Britain, 1971. 2. P.S.A.S. LXXXIX, 1955-56, 261-4, 283. THE GULLANE \LINKS AND OTHER SCOTTISH LONG CIST 6KELETONS By MICHAEL WALKER Two adult male skeletons, two adult female skeletons and 1 inf·ant skeleton, all remarkably complete, came respectively from cists 1, 2, 3, 5 and 4. Cist 1 contained a supernUIDlerary human radius fragment and cist 2 a probably human scapula likewise supernumerary, and it is possible th'at the more complete skeletons from these cists were secondary utilisations therefore.. Cist 1 also contained large mammal long .bone fragments including pig, and cist 3 contained rabbit bones. Age Biological age at death cannot easily be. determined from a study of cranial sutural obliteration alone (see Comas, 1966, 357-360 for discussion). Some obliteration had occurred in skulls C. 1, 2 and 3, but none in C. 5. The spheno­ OC<:ipital suture alone gi:ves sure indication of whether an individual has survived beyond his late twenties, but it was only capaible of investigation in C. 5 where obliteration was almost total. The teeth of C. 1 and 2 were very worn with exposure of dentine, those of C. 3 somewhat less worn, and of C. 5 less so again. It is. proposed that the C. 1 and 2 males were older than the females, and that of these C. 5 was the youngest, perhaps aged around 30 years. It is unlikely that any individual was older than 55 years. The infant was a1bout 6 months old at death. Stature This may be estimated from limb bones or from combined lumbar vertebral and limb bone measurements. Using the former method as applied by Trotter and Gieser (1958) the men appeared less tall than when the. latter method was used with reference to Manouvrier's taibles (Manouvrier, 1893). This is because instead of having t'he usual five lumbar vertebrae the men had an anomalous six. The Gullane statures thus appear to be greater than those of the Dunbar Dark Age men (Brothwell & Powers, 1964-6) and more like those of York Romano-Britons ('Warwick, in Wenham, 1968) or modern British men. The supernumerary vetreibra is clearly responsible for this effect. The GuUane Dr Michael Walker is a Lecturer in Anatomy, Edinburgh University. 3 SCOTTISH LONG CIST SKELETONS women had the no!'mal five lumlbar ve:riteJbrae, and so here the two methods of calculiating stature are in expected agreement. Their heights resemble those of York Romano"British wome·n, but are below those. of mode·rn British women. Relationships The anomalous sixth lumbar vertebrae of the men suggests a close family relationship. Both skulls are rugged with marked supraorbital tori, obelionic flattening and occipital protuberances, and C. 1 has auditory tori. C. 1 appears to have had congenitally absent third molar teeth in upper and lower jaws on the right side, and C. 2 in the mandible only but on both sides. Both have frontal notches, and C. 1 has two fadal zygomatic foramiita on each side (com­ parison with the much damaged C. 2 was not possible here). The cranial measurements obtainable from C. 2 were too few for statistical comparison, but C. 2 seems to have h'ad ra slightly smaller skull but rather longer arm and leg bones than C. 1. The metrical data of the female crania were closely compar­ able, and it is in'tere!Sting that era.ch had a le·ft-sided lambdoid sutul"al Wormian ossicle In short, there is some suggestion that the two males were closely related, and that the two females were closely re.lated.