Field Meetings. 169 
been built in 1592, and to have measured 72 feet in length. The pulpit 
was of oak, carved, and inscribed with the date 1598. It is now in the 
Antiquarian Museum, Edinburgh. The remains of the church consist of 
the east gable wall and small portions of the two side walls attached to it, 
and the width of the building is 15 ft. 3 in. over the walls. The walls are 
built of the common whinstone of the district, the corners being formed of 
the same materials. The door, which is in the south wall, and a window 
in the east wall, have hewn and chamfered dressings of a whitish sand or 
gritstone ; and the lintel of the window deserves special notice. It is 
curved lengthways, and gives to the window top the form of a segmental 
arch, and its cross-section shews a hollow on the under side, a round on 
the upper, and between them a flat edge about two inches broad, on which 
there is an incised inscription in old English characters. The stone has 
evidently been part of a dripstone of an arched opening, and there is little 
doubt it is of medizval date. 
Two corbels of white stone, moulded and having leaf carvings, project 
from the outer face of the gable wall at corresponding points near the 
skewpits, which, as at present placed, could not have served any practical 
purpose, and they have the appearance of being old work. Probably all 
the hewn stones are remains of an earlier church. 
The bell turret is built of white sandstone, and there is a small panel in 
the gablet of it, inscribed : Laus deo, 1636. 
The bell in the old turret, which measures 9 inches in height and 103 
inches diameter, is still in use, as there is not one in the new church. Its 
age is unknown, and it bears no inscription. 
The early ecclesiastical history of Parton is meagre. We learn that in 
August, 1296, Walter de Derrington, parson of Parton, swore fealty to 
Edward I., and nothing more until 1426, when John MacGilhauck was 
rector. He was also secretary to Margaret Countess of Douglas, whose 
rich tomb adorns the chancel of Lincluden Abbey. In the reign of James 
IV. James Hepburn, afterwards Bishop of Murray, was rector. 
Some time ago, when the door step of the new church was being 
repaired, a sculptured stone was turned up, and Mr Pattullo, the minister, 
had it placed within the church for preservation, where it now is. The 
stone is a very interesting one, and it clearly belongs to medizval times. 
It is part of a recumbent sepulchral effigy, cut in bluish white stone, and 
is in such excellent preservation that its position must have been within 
the church. 
There is at the bottom of the stone an inscribed border, the letters being 
in old English and raised, and doubtless the border would extend round 
the four sides of the complete slab. The effigy has been full length and in 
half relief, and represented an ecclesiastic vested. The points of the feet 
appear above the inscribed border, and over them the albe. Over the albe 
is the stole, with ornamented end borders and fringes, inscribed in raised 
old English letters what appears to be the words Jshnas ute. Above 
the stole is a small part of the chesible, pointed, and coming low down, the 
surface of which is richly and beautifully worked in scrolls and foliations, 
representing embroidery, and the design possesses much delicacy and 
grace, This beautiful monumental slab evidently belongs to a period 
