64 Transactions of the 



encyclopaedias and dictionaries, as short notices from members of 

 things which they themselves have come across, and of which the 

 rest might otherwdse have never heard. 



If any of you ever hapjDeu to be in Berwickshire, and near the 

 parish of Polwartli, you ought to go and see the church there. 

 It is a small building of the plainest sort, beings as I said before, 

 like a barn ; but its antiquity is great, and there are interesting 

 historical associations connected with it. On a stone over the 

 door there is a roughly-carved inscription* which tells, in rather 

 doubtful Latin, the various times at which it was built. I shall 

 not trouble you with the original, but may briefly say, that it 

 shows how the church was first founded before the year 900 A.D., 

 by the lords of the estate ; how it was repaired in 1378 ; and 

 again (finally) in 1703, since which date it has remained 

 untouched. At one extremity there is a small tower, and in the 

 wall at the other end a grating is noticed reaching about a foot 

 above the ground. If you stoop down and look through this, you 

 will see, when the eyes have become accustomed to the gloom, a 

 subterranean vault with nothing in it but three or four moulder- 

 ing coffins. But with this vault a story is connected — one of the 

 many tales of strange escapes made in times of political 

 persecution. 



After the discovery of the Rye House Plot, in 1681, a diligent 

 search was made, not only for those who had taken a part in it, 

 but also for many who were guilty in a less degree, inasmuch as 

 they wished to exclude the Duke of York from the succession. 

 Among the number of this latter class was Sir Patrick Hume, of 

 Polwarth, who at a subsequent time became Earl of Marchmont. 

 The way in which he is said to have received warning of his danger 

 is curious, for the story runs that a party of soldiers having come 

 to the house of a lady, who, though friendly to the government, 

 was also well inclined to him, her suspicious were aroused by the 

 questions they asked regarding the road to Polwarth Castle. She 

 did not dare to despatch a letter or verbal message to Sir Patrick ; 

 she therefore sent a boy to him with a sheet of paper, enclosing 

 nothing but a feather, and on various pretexts detained the 



* The inscription runs thus : — Templum hoc Dei cultui in ecclesia de Polwarth, 

 a fundi douiiuis ejusdem prius designationis, dein cognominis, sedificatum et 

 dicatum ante annum salutis 900, rectorioque beneficio dotatum. Sed temporis 

 cursu labefactum, a Dno. Johanxe de^ Sancto Claro de Herdmanstou geuere Dni. 

 Patrioii de Polwarth de eodem, circa annum 1378, reparatum, tandem vero 

 vetustate ad ruinam vergens, sumptibus utriusque prosapia) hseredis, Dni. 

 Patricii Hume, Comitis de Marchmokt, &c., summi Scotae Chancellarii, et Dnte 

 Grissellae Kar, Comitissje, ejus sponsee, sepulchri sacello arcuato recens 

 constructum, et canipanarum obelissco adauctum fuit. Anno Domini 1703. 



1 i.e. Lord John Sinclair. 



