36 Orjniston Hall: its Yew-Tree [Sess. 



before the Castle of St Andrews, in presence of Beaton and his 

 friends. Knox was greatly influenced by Wishart's preaching ; 

 and several of the landed gentry, including the Laird of Or- 

 miston, were also much attached to him. Thus it is related 

 that " when, in 1545, George Wishart courageously ventured to 

 preach in Leith, among his auditors were the Lairds of Brun- 

 stane, Longniddry, and Ormiston, at whose houses he after- 

 wards took up his residence in turns, accompanied at times by 

 Knox, his devoted scholar, and the bearer of his two-handed 

 sword." 1 The mention of Knox recalls the circumstance that 

 Alexander, son of Sir Alexander Cockburn, was a favourite 

 pupil of the Keformer, and is spoken of in affectionate terms 

 in his ' History of the Eeformation.' A monumental brass to 

 the memory of this talented young man, who died in Aug. 

 1564, in his twenty-eighth year, is on the north wall of the 

 only part left standing of the old church, within the grounds 

 of Ormiston Hall — viz., what was probably the chancel. The 

 classic elegiac verses of George Buchanan, in praise of his 

 linguistic attainments and regret at his early death, are still 

 perfectly legible ; ^ but the building itself is dark, half choked 

 up with rubbish, and has been roughly roofed over at some late 

 period. It is said that a number of stone coffins, the last 

 resting-places of several Cockburns of Ormiston, are here at 

 no great depth below the surface. A brief notice of this old 

 church, where both Knox and Wishart are believed to have 

 officiated oftener than once, is found in a volume printed by 

 the Maitland Club, in 1835, from a manuscript discovered acci- 

 dentally about that time in the Eegister House. It is there 

 stated that " the Kirk of Ormistoun of old wes ane of the 

 Kirkis of the Trinitie College of Edinburgh, consisting of 4 



1 ' Old and New Edinburgh,' vol. iii. p. 150. 



" This monumental brass forms the subject of a short paper by the Kev. Dr 

 Struthers of Prestonpans, in the ' Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of 

 Scotland,' vol. iv. p. 225. The late Dr David Laing adds the remark to Dr 

 Struthers's jiaper, that the tablet "is of peculiar interest ; and as few specimens 

 of the kind exist in Scotland, it was thought desirable to give a reduced fac- 

 simile of the 'rubbing'" which Dr Struthers had made. This facsimile has 

 been executed in a very artistic manner, and will be found in the Society's 

 ' Proceedings.' Dr Laing was of opinion that the tablet in St Giles's, in 

 memory of the Regent Earl of Morton, was of the same period, perhaps executed 

 by the same hand ; while the inscription upon it, by a curious coincidence, is 

 also by George Buchanan. 



