46 REPORT OF THE MEETINGS FOR 1899 



and the lochs and mires, especially about the irrigation 

 works, are often visited by Gulls, including even that noble 

 bird the Great Black-backed Gull.* 



Appendix I. 



On Selkirk Old Castle. — By T. Craig-Brown, 

 F.S.A. (Scot.) 



The first recorded mentioa of Selkirk is in a charter 

 of David I., who, about 1110-1120, some years before he 

 ascended the throne, founded an abbey at Selkirk, endowing 

 it with extensive lauds and valuable privileges. In that 

 charter Earl Ddvid speaks of the old town, of his castle, and 

 of a previously existing church — doubtless the church which 

 gave its name to the original settlemeat — Scheleschyrche, or 

 the kirk of the Shiels. Shiel or shieling (in monk Latin, 

 scalenga) was the name given to a hut or house erected 

 within the precincts of a forest, sometimes coupled with 

 certain rights of pasturage. Although there is no certainty, 

 the wrong presumption is that the primitive church occupied 

 the same site as the ruined building in the churchyard, not 

 far from where they stood. When David became king, he 

 transferred the monks from Selkirk to Kelso, and with them 

 the endowments. Tacked on to the end of the charter of 

 removal there was a curious clause which provided that the 

 abbots of Kelso should be chaplains of the king and his 

 successors at " the aforesaid church," meaning probably the 

 church of Selkirk. It may be noted that up till the time 



* It would be very desirable if details of the occurrence of some 

 of the rarer birds, above mentioned, could be furnished ; without full 

 verification, casual references to such rarities as the Kite, Red-le}j;ged 

 Hobby, and Garganey, lose half their value. — G.B, 



