28 REl*ORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1906 



information which is available regarding this place of worship. 

 The masonry appears to be of a very rude description, no 

 mortar having been employed in its construction except in 

 the case of a window, which may have been inserted at a 

 later date. Its external length is 46 ft. 6 ins., and its width 

 20 ft. 6 ins. The North and South walls are each upwards 

 of 3 ft. in thickness, while those on the West and East are 

 fully 5 ft., a recess in the latter, which doubtless provided 

 space for the altar, reducing it by about 16 ins. Fragments 

 of a primitive baptismal font and of a grave slab without 

 inscription, were seen lying within the enclosed area. A 

 popular belief regarded this building as the site of a 

 cell founded by St. Bothan, a relative of Columba and his 

 successor in the abbacy of lona ; but in view of the fact 

 that there is no historical evidence of his having ever visited 

 this region, and of the likelihood that the people of Lammer- 

 muir owed their Christian instruction to the ministrations of 

 the Northumbrian Church, one is inclined to question a 

 claim to so great antiquity, and to accept Mr Ferguson's 

 reasonable conjecture that the Chapel, named after its dedi- 

 cation Saint, *' was built on the spot where the first Celtic 

 missionaries preached the Gospel to the wild tribes then 

 inhabiting the Eastern parts of Lammermuir."* 



Retracing their steps towards the lodge of the Mansion- 

 house, the party took special note of a fine display of 

 Tropceohcm polyphyllum beautifully trained up the wall of the 

 house ; and entering the grounds were charmed 

 Abbey St. with the fine variety of Rhododendrons then in 

 Bathans. full bloom. Into the wall of the Mansion has 

 been built a stone with the inscription: — 

 "durum patientia frango, 1694," ascribed by some to 

 Stewart, Commendator of Dryburgh. Within a stone's 

 throw, at the foot of a steep bank clothed with luxuriant 

 shrubs, is situated St. Bathan's Well, whose clear and cool 

 waters flow into a basin of red granite, surmounted by a 

 canopy on which are engraved the opening words of Psalm 

 LXX. — "deus in adjutorium meum intende." Thence 

 by a well-kept path, known as the Bishop's Walk, they 



* B.N.C., Vol. XUL, Part i., pp. 90-92. 



