i) CHURCH or St. JOHN THE Baptist, DaAry. 
in pinnacles. On the south front, or that part of the church most 
in view, like the rest of the hewn work, these are all built in 
polished red freestone (Locharbriggs, I believe). On the north 
side, however, to a height of 10 feet, these projections are built of 
massive blocks of strong grained silurian grit, so extensively used 
in ancient times in all buildings of any pretensions, civil or 
ecclesiastical, throughout the province of Galloway. They have 
all, without exception, been carefully hewn for other purposes than 
they now serve. One shows a glass groove with the leaden plug 
for a rivet or stanchion end, still in its place. Others are hewn 
with six inch margins, and so in various ways indicate use in a 
previous building, which there can be no reasonable doubt was just 
the old Church of St. John, which is thus proven to have been a 
most substantial structure. Above this ten-foot tier of re-used 
hewn stone the projecting corners are completed with large blocks 
of ordinary rubble. These observations were all made at a certain 
disadvantage, for the true colour and texture of the stones them- 
selves are not to be seen, the entire building being elaborately 
painted from base to topmost pinnacle a uniform dull grey. 
Thus to recount what remains of St. John’s Church seems like 
describing the contents of a stable after the steed has been stolen, 
and it seems most deplorable that a building to all appearance so 
strongly built, and so substantial, should, at the bidding of modern 
exigencies, have been entirely lost to the historic treasures of the 
country. 
Before proceeding further, I may be allowed a few remarks 
on the coat-armorial carved in the panel on the Kenmure aisle. We 
found that the shield was divided in pale, with three boars’ heads 
erazed on the dexter side, and a lion rampant on the sinister. The 
first is, of course, the usual Gordon arms, differing only from the 
earliest arms, as given by Nisbet, in the fact that these are stated 
to be “ A bend between three boars’ heads, couped,’ * whereas the 
charge on the aisle shield agrees rather with Nisbet’s second 
blazon, borne by Alexander Gordon of Penninghame, who 
succeeded to the honours in 1663, which are simply “‘ Three boars’ 
heads erazed,” without any reference to a bend, and so exactly 
describing the Gordon arms on the Aisle shield. A much more 
“In his ‘‘ Peerage ” (Edin. 1716) George Crawfurd also gives the Ken- 
mure arms as ‘‘ Azure, three boars’ heads, Coupé, Or.” 
