170 Transactions. 



Meeting of Cotincil. IWi of September. 

 It was agreed, on the motion of Mr James Barbour, to hold an 

 exhibition in November of the Baxter Bequest of mineralogical 

 specimens, and of other interesting articles, together with the 

 portraits of celebrated natives of the district. 



The Kirkmadrine Crosses. 

 Note.Seej^. 53. 



I gladly add this note to my paper at the request of the Hon. 

 Secretary in order further to emphasise the two points for wdiich 

 it w^as chiefly written, viz., to draw public attention to the 

 neglected condition of these primitive grave-stones ; and to 

 strengthen my theory now for the first time, so far as I know, 

 put forward that the Church of Kirkmadrine was originally dedi- 

 cated to St. Martin of Tours. 



The opinion of all learned antiquarians was summed up by 

 Dean Stanley in 1872 when he wrote that, " Nowhere m Great 

 Britain is there so ancient a Christian record." These stones 

 were scheduled in Lubbock's Act, and yet no practical steps 

 have been taken for their preservation, but they still serve as 

 gate-posts and parts of the churchyard wall of Kirkmadrine. 

 They had been carefully preserved until the Reformation, probably 

 within the church (like the Ruthwell cross, which was not turned 

 outside of its sacred edifice until after 1772) ; but now the sacred 

 symbols and inscriptions upon them are almost illegible. It was 

 anciently the custom to bury the dead and set up their tombstones 

 within the church, but this was limited to priests in the 10th cen- 

 tury (Bloxam's Gothic Archit. III., 11 Ed., p. 371). They should 

 be removed to the Antiquarian Museum in Edinburgh, where 

 there is a large collection of incised stones and also what is 

 believed to be the first church bell, of Candida Casa. 



In regard to the second point, it is well known that when St. 

 Ninian was building Candida Casa — the first church of stone 

 instead of wattles in Scotland — he heard of the death of St. 

 Martin of Tours, A.D. 397, who had been his revered teacher, 

 intimate friend, and generous helper towards its completion, and 

 that he forthwith dedicated the church to his memory. But when 

 Ninian died, A.D. 432, this church became the shrine of his grave, 

 to which countless pilgrims resorted down to the time of the 

 Reformation ; and there is every probability, I think, that after that 



