212 Mr. J. Stuart 07i St Ehha and Coldingham, 



venerable aspect, to build an oratory to her on the site of the 

 former one. He for a time neglected the warning, but at 

 last obeyed, and erected an oratory — of poor materials, indeed, 

 but illustrious by reason of the frequent miracles performed 

 at it. One ot these was the cure of a young woman, the 

 daughter of Merlin,* who having become blind of an eye, 

 and having lost the hearing of one of her ears for fifteen 

 days, was brought to St. Ebba's Oratory to be cured. During 

 her vigils over night, a Avhite dove came to rest on the altar, 

 which immediately restored her power of speech, and freed 

 her from all her infirmities. We learn farther, that all this 

 happened in the year 1088. f 



If the arch described as Saxon by Dr. Carr, is to be re- 

 garded as having been a Norman one, it might possibly be a 

 relic of the building constructed at this time. I am inclined, 

 however, to believe that by the term Saxon arch, Carr merely 

 intended to describe the arch of a window or doorway which 

 might have been either circular or pointed, and that in either 

 case it would be unsafe to infer from the form, without refer- 

 ence to the mouldings, an extreme age, as the circular arch 

 is found in Scottish architecture of all orders, and it does not 

 appear that the building of Henry had any pretence to archi- 

 tectural character. 



We have more authentic evidence of the erection or restor- 

 ation of a Chapel of St. Abb towards the end of the fourteenth 

 century. In the accounts of the Sacristan of Coldingham 

 for the year 1372, he takes credit for a payment of twenty 

 shillings made by him to the fabric of the Chapel of St. Ebba; 

 and in the account of the following year for a payment of 

 seventy three shillings and twopence in the construction of 

 the Chapel of St. Ebba, besides the donations and oblations 

 made for the Chapel. 



In the year 1413, he debits himself with two shillings and 

 threepence received from the Pix of St. Ebba. 



It is most likely that the ruins described by Dr. Carr are 

 to be referred to the Church of the fourteenth century. 



The Legend of St. Ebba in the Breviary of Aberdeen, from 

 which I have already quoted, states that on the Headland 

 where the Virgin's Oratory was erected, a pleasant spring 



* Merlin was not an nncommon name in the neighbourhood in these early 

 times. In a charter granted to St. Cuthbert, St. Ebba, and the Prior of Colding- 

 ham in the year 1250, of a toft in Upper Ayton, we find a notice of Maurice, the 

 son of Merlin. North Durham, Appendix, p. 48. 



f Breviar. Aberd., Pars. Estiv., fol. Ixxxvii. 



