Report of the Meetings for 1895. 209 



Just outside the plantation, in which the ruins stand, was 

 seen the "Hanging Tree" — a venerable ash — on which, 

 tradition says, p«?rsons convicted of crime, or unfortunate 

 enough to fall under the displeasure of their feudal lord, 

 paid the last penalty of the law. 



BUNKLE CHTJRCB. 



Passing on to Bunkle Church, the company were welcomed 

 by the minister of the parish, the Rev. Ludovic Mair, who 

 showed them the present church — a plain Presbyterian 

 structure erected in 1820 — and the deeply interesting Norman 

 apse of the pre- Reformation edifice, which is thus described 

 by Mr Ferguson in his " Pre-Reformation Churches of 

 Berwickshire": — "Bunkle Church was repaired about the 

 time of the annexation of Preston parish (1718), but was 

 almost entirely demolished about a century afterwards, and 

 the materials used in the erection of the present church in 

 1820. Of the early structure nothing is left, indeed, save 

 the small semicircular Norman apse, which stands a short 

 distance to the south-east of the modern building. This is 

 probably one of the earliest examples of mediaeval ecclesi- 

 astical architecture in Scotland. Mr Muir, no mean authority, 

 believes that it may date from even before the beginning 

 of the r2th century; and the excessive plainness — I had 

 almost said rudeness — of such features as it presents certainly 

 indicates great antiquity. The arch, which opened to the 

 chancel, is totally devoid of ornament, being a plain 

 semicircular-headed, square-edged specimen, resting on 

 slightly projecting imposts — 7 feet 4 inches above the level 

 of the ground— square on the upper edge, but chamfered 

 on the lower. The north-west corner has evidently been 

 repaired at a very recent date, and two stones built into it, 

 which were doubtless taken from some other part of the 

 ancient church, are marked with the zig-zag or chevron 

 ornament in its earliest and simplest form. On several 

 stones in the facing of the wall, and on some of the 

 vouasoirs of the arch, a variety of masons' marks are 

 observable — some of them similar to those on the earliest 

 Nurman portions of Jedburgh Abbey. The walls of the 

 apse are three feet in ttiickness. The roof is a plain 

 rounded vault internally, and is covered on the outside 



