CiruRcii OF St. John the BAPTimT, Dalry. 71 



repair and unroofed, has been very efficiently protected by broad 

 copestones, which have also been carried up the back of the 

 skews. At the north-east angle, externally, a most interesting 

 feature occurs in the remains of one side of a window, undoubtedly 

 pertaining to the old church, and to which the aisle had originally 

 been built as closely as possible. There ai-e three freestone 

 rybats still remaining, with a bold splay externally, then a glass 

 gTOOve with check, and splayed ingoing internally. This shows 

 clearly that the Church of St. John had extended still further to 

 the east, although from the rapid rise of the ground in that direc- 

 tion the extension could not have been great. The window, of 

 which a small portion thus fortunately remains, must have lighted 

 the chancel, and if the Kenmure burial aisle did not open directly 

 from the chancel it must have been very cloi-:e to it. As previously 

 mentioned, a considerable slice having been taken of the north- 

 west angle to form the passage, all information as to the connec- 

 tion at this point between the aisle and the old church is 

 necessarily lost. It is, however, very interesting to know that so 

 recently as 1880, in the ground immediately to the west of the 

 aisle, foundations of the old Church were encountered. No inter- 

 ments had ever been made in this spot, but in the above year, 

 a burial having taken place, the ground was trenched, and a 

 monument erected, the old found being- broken up, and cart-loads 

 of rubble stones removed. So strong, indeed, was the building that 

 it was almost necessary to employ gunpowder to break it up. 

 Most unfortunate operations certainly for archaeology, seeing that 

 these foundations ought rather to have been brought up to the 

 sui'face, and so permanently commemorated than destroyed, and 

 this should certainly be done in the intermediate spaces between 

 the burial aisle and the projection of the church at the south-west 

 corner. This clearly indicates how the south wall of the old 

 church ran, but beyond this all is uncertainty. 



We have already seen that in the three rybats and ingoing of 

 a window at the north-east angle of the Kenmure aisle, there still 

 exists in situ, saving the aisle itself, the only extant portion above 

 fjround of the old Church of St. John. In the form of reused 

 stones, however, the Parish Church itself contains considerable 

 traces of its historic predecessor. At all the salient angles of this 

 building shallow projections in the form of pilasters, 2 feet 3 inches 

 on the face, are carried up to the wall head and there terminate 



