6 ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS 



Canon Greenwell, which I am glad to have this oppor- 

 tunity of acknowledging, the privilege has been allowed 

 me of seeing the originals in the muniment room of the 

 Cathedral. I do not envy the Borderer who could, with- 

 out any stir of heart, look upon and handle those ven- 

 erable parchments, which have so long outlasted all 

 other memorials of their royal or noble granters. Most 

 of the places named in these early charters — Aldcambus, 

 Lumsden, Renton, Swinewood, Keston, Ayton, Prender- 

 guest, Eyemouth, Lamberton, Paxton, Fish wick, etc. — 

 are familiar to us to-day — a striking instance of the 

 singular tenacity with which a rural population clings to 

 old localities and designations. Within the territory 

 bestowed by King Edgar, the Priory had churches at 

 Swinton, Fishwick, Aldcambus, and i.amberton, and 

 chapels at West Reston, Ayton and Eyemouth.* The 

 second Cospatrick, Earl of Dunbar, added to the endow- 

 ments of the monks the church of Edrom, with its chapels 

 of Nisbet, Blackadder, and Kimmerghame ;-f- and Thor 

 Longus, one of King Edgar's retainers, gave them a 

 carucate of land at Ednam, which he had himself trans- 

 formed into a settled district, with the church he had 

 founded there. The vigorous malediction with which 

 his charter concludes, shows Long Thor to have been a 

 person with whom it must have been decidedly unpleasant 

 to have unfriendly relations. He says — " If anyone 

 shall presume by force or fraud to take awa}^ this, my 

 donation, may the Omnipotent God take away from him 

 the life of the celestial kingdom, and may he endure 

 eternal torments with the Devil and his Angels !"| As 

 the surrounding district came to be populated, Ednam 

 had subordinated to it the chapels of Stichill, Naythans- 

 thirn (Nenthorn), and Newton. § The case of Ercheldun 



* Coldingham Charters in Appendix to Raine's North Durham; and 

 The Correspondence Inventories, &c., of the Priory of Coldingham ; 

 Sartees Society. 



t Coldingham Charters, Nos. Ill, 543, &c. 



X Ibid., No, 161. § Ibid., Nos. 448, 473, 523. 



