Dr. Wilson on Linton and its Legends. 27 



The ground plan of the building, as it now exists, presents an 

 outline of the body of the church, measuring about 48 by 26 

 feet ; and a choir, or chancel, the dimensions of which appear to 

 have been about 21 feet in breadth, by 12 or more in depth. At 

 the noi*th-east angle of the main building, and in the adjoining 

 part of the choir, it seems possible to distinguish the repairs exe- 

 cuted by Lord Somerville in 1426, when the original structure 

 was already of considerable antiquity ; the masonry being here, 

 to a considerable height in the wall, of equally skilful execution 

 with the basement courses, and in still more perfect preservation. 

 On recently making some slight excavations in the close vicinity 

 of this portion, two oblong stones were discovered, having an 

 enriched fillet running along their centres, and of such a shape 

 as to render it probable that they had formed part of the broken 

 lid of a stone coffin. From the character of the fillet, this coffin 

 has probably been as old as the beginning of the fifteenth cen- 

 tury. With one remaining exception, the rest of the exterior of 

 the building is now merely a poor and characterless re-fabrica- 

 tion from the old materials, executed, I believe, chiefly within 

 the last half-century. The interior is wholly without mark or 

 memorial ; the seat of the laird occupies, within the little choir, 

 the position of the altar ; the font*, with its ornaments carved in 

 a style which has many analogies in the early Nonnan period, 

 has been transferred to a neighbouring blacksmith's shop, where 

 it may still be seen as a receptacle for small-coal ; and only the 

 shattered pavement remains, to show where, through remote 

 centuries, heroes, the companions of kings, knelt for worship, or 

 perhaps, in the stern fashion of the Northern proselytes, stood 

 up when the Creed was read, laid their hands on the hilts of 

 their swords, and half unsheathed them, in token that they were 

 ready to fight to the death in defence of their faith f. 



The exception in the exterior to which I have alluded is the, 

 in many respects, remarkable sculptured stone J now built into 

 the wall near the south-western extremity of the church. The 

 work is in low relief, and considerably defaced by time, though 

 the figures can still be traced with tolerable accuracy. The ac- 

 tion represents a knight on horseback, clad in a tunic or hau- 

 berk, with a capuchon or round helmet, urging his horse against 

 two large animals, the fore parts of which only are seen, and 

 into the throat of one of which he is plunging his lance. Be- 

 hind him the outline of a figure, resembling that of a bird, or, 

 perhaps, still more probably, that of a lamb with its hinder por- 

 tion obliterated, is faintly discernible. The sculpture is undoubt- 

 edly rude : but there is a certain just proportion preserved be- 



* PI. III. t Afzelius, Swenska Folkets Saco-hafdcr, iii. D. p. 8/. 



: PI. IV. 



