12 Anniversary Address. 



lane, sought the haugh on the river side, whereon stands the 

 remains of the church of Guyzance or Brainshaugh, as it is 

 now generally called. Mr Longstaffe thus describes the ruin : — 

 *' From the level sward of a large haugh among the intri- 

 cate winds of the Coquet, between Felton and Warkworth, 

 rises a small but interesting ruin. It adds a charm to the 

 pleasant amphitheatre of which it forms a centre, and is a 

 striking feature of the scene from every point of view. A little 

 west is the residence called Brainshaugh. The ruin consists 

 of a nave and chancel, the eastern wall of which has entirely 

 disappeared. The general character of the building is tran- 

 sitional Norman, of which style a striking example remains 

 in a capital adorned with numerous vertical strings of the 

 nail-head ornament. This fragment, which perhaps adorned 

 the destroyed chancel arch, forms the headstone of a grave, 

 (for the consecrated earth has not been wholly secularised,) 

 and another piece of stone moulded v/ith a succession of right 

 angles like steps, lies near it. The nave is very short in pro- 

 portion to the choir, and has perhaps been used for domestic 

 purposes. The north doorway of the choir is pointed ex- 

 teriorly and is square within ; but above the lintel stone of 

 the square arises a semicircular blank arch. The south wall 

 has arrangements of the decorated period. There is a cham- 

 fered doorway and a piscina of two or three basins. Between 

 these objects is a wide opening in the Avail at a height of 

 about a couple of stones from the ground, with bold converse 

 mouldings of a quarter circle. There is a kind of socket at 

 the base of this opening, as if a screen or door had moved in 

 a vertical manner. To the southward of the opening are in- 

 dications of domestic apartments. The ruins are walled 

 round and every care is taken to preserve them. Here is the 

 site of the church of St. Wilfrid of Gysnes, which Richard 

 Tison gave to the canons of Alnwick in the 12th century. 

 * * * Judging from the early mention of the church 

 in the Halgh, it is very probable that we really have the 

 relics of an obsolete parish. I am told that burials are per- 

 formed among the ruins by the incumbents of any of the 



