REPORT OF MEETINGS FOR 1907 1S9 



landing which has been protected by a draw-bridge, the 

 outer edge of which rested on a tall built pier, having a 

 deep pit between the pier and stair-landing. The remainder 

 of the stair was probably of wood, and moveable.'^" An old 

 print depicts the Castle in 1797 as a barn-like structure, 

 without external attraction or shelter from the kindly shade 

 of trees or copsewood ; but to-day though roofless and ruinous 

 it has acquired a picturesque charm from the background of 

 foliage against which it may be viewed from the opposite bank 

 of the river. 



At 11-30 carriages were in waiting on the high-road to 

 convey the members back to East Linton, and thereafter 

 through Tyninghame to Tantallon. The village of East 

 Linton, which presents an up-to-date and prosperous appear- 

 ance, is said to have derived its name from the deep rocky 

 gorge through which the Tyne rushes immediately below it. 

 At its North-East corner stands the parish church, which 

 before the Reformation was called Lynton, but since that 

 date has been known as Prestonkirk. Originally dedicated 

 to St. Baldred, the earliest mention of it occurs in a charter 

 dated 1127, to which the priest of Linton gave his signature, 

 although it has been claimed that in point of antiquity it 

 ranks with the neighbouring parishes of Whitekirk and 

 Tyninghame, which date from the 6th century. An old 

 chronicler also avers that Thenew, daughter of King Loth 

 and mother of St. Kentigern, was in the habit of frequenting 

 a place of worship here, and that her son, better known as 

 St. Mungo, entrusted the oversight of the churches of these 

 three parishes to St. Baldred, who according to "The Lives 

 of the Saints" died on the Bass Eock in 606. The parish 

 church-yard is believed to liave been used as a Christian 

 place of burial for upwards of a thousand years, though with 

 the exception of a Gothic chancel attached to the modern 

 building, no trace of any ancient foundations has been 

 discovered in it. Below the church-yard on the bank of the 

 river stands a quaint Flemish mill, and on its farther side 

 stretches the farm of Phantassie, where in 1761 was born 



* Caetellated andl Domestio Architecti|re pf Scotland, Vol i„ 

 pp. 122.6, 

 % 



