East Lothian and the Bass, by Dr. J. Stuart. 87 



tatives in the youthful church of Alba, and by whom, 

 according to the witness of Turgot, the Christian spirit was 

 maintained towards the end of the Celtic period, when the 

 monastic bodies of the country had become corrupted and 

 secularized. 



The great apostle of East Lothian was St. Baldred, or 

 Balther, who is said to have died in the early part of the 

 seventh century. He had a cell at Tyningham, a site where 

 in later times a monastery was raised, which, as we are told 

 by Symeon of Durham, had a territory stretching from the 

 Lambermore to the mouth of the Esk. (" Hist, de Sancto 

 Cuthberto.") We learn, however, from the legend of St. 

 Baldred, in the "Breviary of Aberdeen," that one of his chief 

 places of resort was the Bass Rock, where he for a long time 

 dwelt, occupied, like his reputed master St. Kentigern, in 

 fasting and devout meditation on the Passion of Christ. In 

 the district of Lothian where he laboured, there are three 

 churches which are specially associated with his memory : 

 those of Aldham, Tynyngham, and Preston. On the death 

 of the venerable man, each o± the churches desired to have 

 his body for interment, and when the people could not come 

 to an understanding, they were advised to pray to God to 

 give a sign of his will. On the following morning, they 

 found three bodies laid out for burial, and each congregation 

 carried off one to its own church, where (as the " Breviary " 

 asserts), it was kept in great honour thereafter, and down to 

 its date, which was the beginning of the sixteenth century. 



At an early period we find St. Baldred's Church at 

 Tyningham distinguished as a place of sanctuary. King 

 Malcolm IV. granted to the monks of Kelso the church of 

 Inverleithan, with the like privilege of sanctuary as that 

 enjoyed by the churches of Tynyngham and Stow ; and we 

 learn from the " Chronicle of Mailros," that the church of 

 St. Balther and the village of Tynyngham fell under the 

 desolating hand of the Danish Anlaf, in the year 941. The 

 saint's memory is kept up by the association of his name 

 with various localities in the district. In the neighbourhood 

 of the church of Preston there is a fine spring which is called 

 " St. Baldred's Well." A pool in the Tyne is known as "St. 

 Baldred's Whirl "; and on the coast a bason formed in a rock 

 by the sea is called " St. Baldred's Cradle." In the church- 

 yard of Preston, St. Baldred's statue remained till towards 

 the end of the last century, when it was destroyed. 



