REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1906 29 



sauntered along the bank of the Whitadder, dammed at 

 this point to form a miniature lake which abounds in trout, 

 and entered the grounds of the Parish Church by a stone 

 staircase on which are recorded the measurements of the 

 most memorable floods on the river. The site of the present 

 edifice corresponds in some degree with that of the Priory 

 of Cistercian nuns, founded here at the close of the 12th 

 century by Ada, daughter of William the Lion, and dedicated 

 to St. Mary. The church of the Priory served as the Parish 

 Church after the Reformation, but has undergone so many 

 alterations that very little of the original structure now 

 remains. What is the East wall of the existing building 

 is pierced by a window of two lights with distinctively 

 ancient tracery, and has been described as the West wall 

 of the earlier building. The lower portion of the North 

 wall also is ancient, and in it at its Western extremity is 

 enclosed a semi-circular headed doorway, through which access 

 may have been obtained to the domestic buildings, said to 

 have been situated to the North and nearer the river. 

 Within a recess in the East wall of the church lies the 

 recumbent full-length figure of a prioress, which having 

 been at one time built into the wall was discovered and 

 removed to its present position at some later alteration 

 of the church. Time did not permit of the walk being 

 extended to Strafontain about a mile to the West, where 

 three springs are still to be seen, as well as the scattered 

 foundations of another Chapel, founded by David I. in 1118, 

 and suppressed in the beginning of the 15th century, the 

 lands being afterwards conveyed to the Collegiate Church 

 of Dunglass. 



A walk of about half-a-mile along the North bank of the 

 Whitadder brought the party on their return 

 Club journey to the School-house, where a cold 



Dinner. luncheon, purveyed by Mr J. McAlpine, Duns, 



was heartily partaken of at 2 o'clock, the 

 President being in the chair, and having the Estate Manager 

 on his right as the guest of the Club. Captain Norman, 

 E.N., acknowledged in behalf of the Berwick Ancient Monu- 

 ments' Committee receipt of the sum of £5 voted to the 

 Fund at the last meeting, and a letter of a like nature 



