218 Report of Meetings for 1880, by James Hardy. 



tached as a fixture to the side of the churcli door. They were dug 

 out from about the foundations of the building. One of the tomb- 

 stones, nearly grown up with grass, has sculptured on it a cross 

 and sword, and may mark the resting place of a knight templar, 

 or knight of St. John, as there were several templar lands here. 

 St. John's well, which is conducted in pipes to Dunbar, it is 

 almost certain, derived its name from the knights of St. John of 

 Jerusalem, who acquired most of the templar lands on the disso- 

 lution of that order. That they might have resided in Spott ap- 

 pears from a Eetour, Oct. 29, 1640, where the templar lands are 

 explained as being " dwellings and buildings in the village of 

 Spot, and templar lands in Easter and Wester Broomhouses." 



On regaining the carriages a good view of the country at the 

 foot of the Lammermoors here lay in view. The face of the land 

 hereabouts is very unequal — one may say tumultuous — being 

 separated into sections by deep cleughs descending from the hills, 

 or by other gullies running cross-ways to these ; in some in- 

 stances presenting long flat-backed ridges, and in others heaved 

 up, or rather worn down — for that is the process that has moulded 

 them — into detached hillocks (called Knocks, or Knowes, or 

 Dodds), of conical and a variety of irregular forms. Places that 

 appear to the eye to be distant but a short way are removed far 

 apart by these, hidden ravines, which are often so steep and 

 destitute of passes, with no passage up or down except for the 

 stream between their banks, that one has to take a far circuit to 

 get across them. The level of the tops of the sides of these 

 ravines usually coincides. Many of the deep cleughs are wooded 

 with native trees. Small groves also crown the brows of the 

 green steeps above grassy dells ; these, if of oak, were at the 

 period of the meeting, of a yellow green intermingled with the 

 tints of the brown branches; Elsewhere, crowded into masses 

 of one uniform height, the trees occupy a whole hill-face, grow- 

 ing like a corn crop. Amidst them will tower up, singly or in 

 groups, scattered holly-trees of ancient growth — for seldom is a 

 holly cut down — always remarkable for their weather-beaten 

 aspect, and their dark solemn hue. There are groups both of 

 mountain ashes and hawthorns occupying special banks, but the 

 latter are not so well branched as in lower districts. Nearest 

 the hiUs the birch prevails. The indigenous trees here are oak 

 Cwhich predominates), birch, hazel, mountain ash, wych elm, 

 sallows, holly, bird cherry, ash (doubtfully native), hawthorn. 



