48 Transactions. 



Public exposure l)eiiig ;i pivvuiling method of punishment, the 

 church as a public place was fitted with the usual appliances 

 for carrying into effect the sentences of the ecclesiastical courts, 

 and also of the Civil Magistrate. " The seat of repentance " stood 

 within, and the Jongs and gorgets hung at the principal door, 

 attached to the wall by chains. The first of these occupied at one 

 time a place on the Common Loft, afterwards it was placed in the 

 body ot the kirk opposite the pulpit. That it was raised consider- 

 alily above the church floor is evidenced by a minute of Session 

 excusing a culprit going xip to it on account of bodily infirmity. 

 It is designated in the Session Records " the place of repentance," 

 oftener perhaps " the pillar " — short for " pillory," which name 

 occurs in full in a few instances. 



After the Reformation a north wing was built, and other 

 extensions and alterations followed from time to time, until only 

 the nave and chancel remained of the pre-Reformation building, 

 and the foregoing details exhibit the altered church and its acces- 

 sories as an incongruous jumble, inartistic, uncomfortable, and 

 inconvenient. 



Its original form and character were different. The pre- 

 Reformation Church comprised a nave, with aisles separated from 

 it by arcades of three bays each and with the usual lean-to roof ; 

 also north and south transepts ; and a chancel. Mention is 

 made in the records of " the lean-to called the altar of St, John the 

 Baptist." Other documents show that the windows were filled in 

 with stained glass to St. Mary, St. Andrew, St. Christopher, &c. 

 Many altars and chapelries were founded within the church. 

 Mention is made of altars of the B.V. Mary, St. John the Baptist, 

 St. Ninian, St. Andrew, &c., and of an altar erected by the Tailor 

 Trade in the year 1547 and dedicated to St. Anna, the patron of 

 that trade. The chapels were designated after their founders, and 

 the areas occupied by them continued to be so named after the 

 Reformation. Thus we have the M'Brair aisle, the Newall aisle, 

 the Cunningham aisle, and the Maxwell aisle. In this connection 

 the following extract from the Minute of Committee on the regula- 

 tion of the Seats in the year 1695 is of interest. Referring to a 

 claim by Martin Newall to the second seat in the Newall aisle, the 

 minute proceeds : "And because it is by several old charters and 

 papers evidenced that the Newalls had a special interest in that 

 part of the church these hundreds of years, therefore they allow 

 this dask to Martin Newall and his posterity." 



