22S Eeport of the Meetings for 1895. 



Instead of carrying out Mr Mathewson's sketch of seating and 

 pulpit, the present absurd arrangement was proceeded with, in 

 defiance of every consideration of coQvenience, comfort, sightli- 

 ness, and acoustics, and rendering it the subject of ridicule by 

 every person of taste, and imposing on the minister a most 

 unjust strain — rendering it for its size the most difficult of 

 edifices in which a congregation could be addressed — the pulpit 

 facing a wall instead of the body of the congregation. 



Mr Blanc followed with an architectural description of the 

 building, and closed by pointing out two features of very bad 

 taste in the present internal arrangements of the church — the 

 one being the pulpit placed so as to face a dead wall instead of 

 the congregation, and the other aflat wooden roof. He thought 

 the pulpit should have been placed at about the fourth arch 

 from the east end, and looking ti> the west, while a vaulted roof 

 would have been in harmony with the sweetness and gracefulness 

 of this fine relic of media3val ages. Rev. Dr Hunter, Grala- 

 shiels, briefly explained how the location of the pulpit had been 

 ruled by the old Presbyterian custom of placing the communion 

 table in front of the congregation, so that they might, as it 

 were, sit around it. 



The company afterwards viewed the exterior of the cliurch, 

 the architectural features of which were pointed out by Mr 

 Ferguson, Duns. 



[The excavations at the Refectory are lying in a very rough 

 condition. It would be desirable to have the soil more minutely 

 examined. It is more like the refuse of a "kitchen-midden," 

 or ash-pit than anything else. There are numerous bones of 

 cattle and sheep ; possibly also the place had been a charnel 

 house for carrion as well as a deposit for ashes ; the tooth of a 

 horse was picked up. Many shells of the common Mussel and 

 of Oysters were intermixed. Some of the fragments of glazed 

 ware are coarsely ribbed : they are red in section when broken. 

 Pieces of modern white crockery were scattered about.] 



THE DINNER. 



At 3-30 p.m. a company of over 60 sat down to dinner in 

 the Public Hall. Mr W. T. Hindmarsh, F.L.S., Alnwick, 

 president, occupied the chair, and the Rev. Mr Jones, Stanning- 

 ton, was croupier. Amongst those present were Lord Wark- 

 worth ; Dr Hardy, Secretary ; Rev. Dr Hunter, Galashiels ; Rev, 



