262 Mr. Stuart on Kelso. 



long been without a roof, so that the foundation probably 

 was an old one.* 



But from whatever cause David was induced to fix on Sele- 

 Kirk as the site of his monastery, it did not remain there be- 

 yond a few years; for in 1126, being two years after David's 

 accession to the Scottish throne, he translated the monastery 

 to Kelso, on the ground that the former situation had not 



*_ It is not to be wondered at that the country on the banks of the Tweed and 

 Teviot should have memorials of the sainted Cuthbert, to whose early labours 

 the rude people who dwelt there and among the adjacent hills owed so much ; 

 and perhaps we need not account for the early occurrence of the churches dedi- 

 cated in the name of the saint by the reason provided for us by John Wessyng- 

 ton, Prior of Durham, who asserts that in general, wherever a church was in 

 after days dedicated to St. Cuthbert, there the body of the saint had rested in 

 the course of its numerous wanderings. At Old Melrose, a chapel dedicated to 

 St. Cuthbert arose on the ruins of the first monastery, and became famous as a 

 resort of pilgrims. Further down the stream, we find a dedication to the saint 

 at Norham, and there his body did rest on its wanderings. At the church of 

 this place, as we learn from Reginald of Durham, was preserved a cross made of 

 the wood of a table upon which St. Cuthbert had been in the way of eating his 

 meals, and upon which the people of that neighbourhood were accustomed to 

 swear when an oath was required. The same writer tells us that a school was 

 kept in the church of Norham, according to a custom " now common enough and 

 recognized." On a fine peninsula formed by the confluence of the Till and 

 Tweed, are the ruins of a small chapel called St. Cuthieri's Chapel, and here was 

 to be seen till lately a stone coffin, which has been called by some a boat of 

 stone, on which St. Cuthbert's relics were floated down the stream from Mel- 

 rose ; but as one of the most careful historians of St. Cuthbert * has stated that 

 this story is little better than a modern fiction, it is hardly worth alluding to. 

 Then in Teviotdale is the chapel of Slitrig, in the parish of Cavers, to which I 

 have referred above. This chapel, although roofless, was much frequented on 

 St. Cuthbert's day, by the aged, for devotional purposes, and by the young for 

 dancing and other amusements On one of these occasions, a great storm of 

 wind and rain and snow arose, which drove all to take shelter within the ruined 

 chapel, where they spent the night, and although in the morning the ground 

 outside was found washed by torrents of rain and covered with snow, yet within 

 the sacred limits not a drop of rain nor a flake of snow had fallen. On another 

 occasion, when William king of the Scots had wasted Northumberland, a per- 

 son called Hugh Flamang, residing at Maltune near York, took flight from his 

 own abode and took refuge in Teviotdale. Having left all his goods at home, 

 after a time he began to wish to look after them, but dared not stir for fear of 

 the enemy. At last he had recourse to St. Cuthbert, who appeared to him when 

 sleeping, after he had paid his devotions in the chapel of Slitrig. The saint in 

 answer to his prayers, told him to go in the morning to a hollowed stone out- 

 side the chapel in the cemetery and take a portion of the moss which would be 

 found adhering to it, and which, as Reginald tells us, naturally grows in vessels 

 generally filled with water. This moss he was ordered to put under his hood 

 on his head, and then he would be under the saint's protection, and might 

 return to his home. Having done all this, he was enabled to pass through the 

 ranks of his enemies without their being able to see him, and so he returned to 

 Maltune. 



Among other memorials of St. Cuthbert, it may be noticed, that payments used 

 to be made to the convent of Kelso on the day of his festival. 



• Baine's St. Cuthbert, p. 44 (note), Durham, 1828. 



