Report of Meetings for 1888. By J. Hardy. 211 



old plain pewter plate for the collections is not inscribed. The 

 Bell has on it, John Lee, Newcastle-on-Tyne, 1767. 



In the churchyard the only remains of the old church is a 

 Norman arch of red sandstone with a row of dog-tooth ornaments 

 placed in quatrefoils. An old residenter (Mr Bell, Langholm) 

 recollects of its being included in the old church, in a rather 

 concealed position. He also said that this old church was 

 thatched with heather, and that a young man when shooting at 

 some pigeons or jackdaws set fire to the roof with the gun 

 " colfin," and the kirk was burnt to the bare walls. The per- 

 petrator fled the district for a time. There were numerous Border 

 names on the monuments, Grahams, Armstrongs, Littles, Bells, 

 Beatties, all clan names. Several stones had on them death's 

 heads and cross-bones, as well as implements of trade. By a 

 walk on the exterior of the churchyard and glebe alongside the 

 river the visitor is brought opposite a fine section of Red Sand- 

 stone, which is of a particularly rich tint in the sunshine, and 

 retains its glow even after sunset. This overhangs a very deep 

 pool, called the Dead pool, where, before a bridge was erected to 

 cross the river, numerous people had been drowned in returning 

 from church. Below the pool is a ford, and it was when the 

 river rose suddenly that people were entrapped. An instance 

 was mentioned from the Session Records of Kirk Andrew's 

 parish in Cumberland, when 15 or 16 were drowned at once here, 

 and only two boys escaped. The recorder regarded it as a divine 

 punishment on these people for deserting their own church, and 

 going to the sacrament at Canonbie. This red rock simulates 

 the aspect of the New Red Sandstone, but it is actually of the 

 Carboniferous group, but stained with red by the colouring 

 matter of a New Red Sandstone formerly overlying it, but now 

 swept away, which had oozed through the porous rock underneath. 

 A strong bed of gravel topping this at a great height above the 

 present river, appears to represent an ancient river channel before 

 Canonbie holm was hollowed out. By a slip on the bank a 

 wealth of flowering broom and honeysuckle has been precipitated 

 into the river. 



Dinner was at the Cross Keys, a famous old hostelry on the 

 Carlisle and Edinburgh road, now a resort of anglers. The 

 Rev. Dr. Snodgrass occupied the chair. Mr Thomas Black 

 Short, Quay Walls, Berwick ; Mr Matthew Mackey, 8 Milton 

 Street, Newcastle ; Mr William John Robinson, Newmoor House, 



