422 Dr. John Stuart on the History of Dunbar. 



bible rebound ; but, as soon as it was removed from the castle, 

 the spectre commenced his nocturnal orgies, with ten-fold noise ; 

 and it is verily believed that he would have burst from his con- 

 finement, had not the saored volume been speedily replaced." 



Dr. Grierson of Thornhill informs me that the date of Sped- 

 ling's Tower is 1528. The bible mentioned, is the edition " Im- 

 printed at London by Robert Barker, and by the assignes of John 

 Bell, A.D. 1634." 



[J. H.] 



The Early Ecclesiastical History of Dunbar. By John 

 Stuart, LL.D., M.R.I.A., Secretary to the Scottish 

 Society of Antiquaries. 



To understand the ecclesiastical history of Dunbar, it is 

 necessary to keep in mind that the country of Lothian in 

 which it is placed, formed no part of the Scottish dominion 

 till the early part of the eleventh century. Before that time 

 the district known as Lothian formed part of Bernicia, and 

 was ruled over by the princes of Northumbria ; while its 

 people were of the same Saxon race as their subjects on the 

 south side of the Tweed. The Celtic annalists of Scotland, 

 or on the country on the north side of the Scot Water, refer 

 to the district of Lothian as Saxonia ; and perhaps the 

 earliest notice on record of Dunbar is in one of their chron- 

 icles, where, after relating the many invasions of Saxony by 

 Kenneth Macalpine, towards the middle of the ninth century, 

 we are informed that during one of them he burnt Dunbar 

 and wasted Melrose. 



We may infer that the origin of the place, as one of settle- 

 ment, is to be attributed to the Dun or fort, which at an 

 early period crowned its rocky point ; and on the site of 

 which the castle of Middle-Age times came afterwards to 

 be erected. 



While Lothian formed part of the Northumbrian territory, 

 it was subject in spiritual things to the Bishops of Lindis- 

 farne, and the knowledge of Christianity was propagated 

 among its inhabitants by means of the monastic colonies 

 which drew their existence from the parent monastery on 

 Holy Island. Among the most influential of the mission- 

 aries in this great work were St. Cuthbert and St. Baldred. 



