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TRANSACTIONS. 165 
is a Norman doorway, of beautiful proportions and with richly 
carved arch, at the south-western corner of the nave. Mr Galloway 
is of opinion that this interesting fragment does not occupy its 
original position ; and the presence of interpolated stones in the 
arch courses is apparent on a careful survey. It had probably 
been “ restored” when additions were made to the buildings in the 
fourteenth or fifteenth century. But in any case we have preserved 
what is undoubtedly twelfth century workmanship. Several 
quaintly sculptured stones are built into the wall at the same place. 
In one of these a small animal is seen to be entering the mouth of 
a larger; and it has been conjectured that it may have been 
intended to symbolise the Christian’s hope that death shall be 
“ swallowed up in victory.” On the outer side of the north wall 
are still to be seen some of the corbels which had carried the beams 
of the cloister arcade. The crypts to the east form a long double 
row, with barrel-vaulted roof; but the remains of two short pillars 
indicate that originally the more ornamental form of the groined 
arch had been used. In the northern-most crypt have been found 
remains of the red deer, the boar, and other animals of the chase, 
indicating that it had served the purpose of a larder. In one of 
the walls there is constructed a beehive-shaped apartment of which 
the purpose can only be conjectured. It may have served either as 
a punishment cell or as a place of solitary retreat for some of the 
more spiritually-minded brethren. Within the nave are two low 
tombs built into the southern wall, and enriched with dog-tooth 
ornament. They have no doubt been the resting-place of persons 
of distinction ; but there is now nothing to indicate their name or 
condition, whether lay or clerical. In the course of recent exca- 
vations, the skeletons were found, in cists partly cut out of the 
rock and partly built, but there were indications that the graves 
had been previously opened. The nave is now a perfect antiquarian 
museum. There has lately been deposited within it, for better 
preservation, a curious monolith that long stood, like a mile-stone, 
by the road-side about a quarter of a mile from the burgh. On it 
are traced a peculiar combination of the circle and cross and this 
inscription, in irregular letters : ‘‘ Lociti Petri Apustoli.” (2) It is 
supposed to be as old as the fourth century, contemporary therefore 
with St. Ninian, and to have marked probably a place of worship 
dedicated to St. Peter. It is now taken under the protection of 
the board charged with the administration of the Ancient Monu- 
ments Act. Ancient crosses have been collected in large number 
