60 REPORT OF TflE MEETINGS FOR 1899 



Appendix I. 

 Maxton Church. — By Rev. M. H. N. Graham. 



This church, or rather this venerable fragment of a large 

 edifice, is designated in our circular " Pre-Reformation." 

 That may mean anything iu relation to years. The Reform- 

 ation period is a baby time in our case, for the church 

 was erected many centuries prior to John Knox and his 

 iconoclastic confreres. 



It is said to be as old as the Heptarchy, which everybody 

 knows prevailed during the 8th century. It has passed 

 through many transformations during these 11 centuries. It 

 was thatched with broom as late as 1793. One precious gem 

 at least remains, the fine Norman door at the west end. 

 There are also a few scroll stones of unknown age stuck 

 apparently at random into the western gable. In common 

 with many others, Maxton Kirk was attached to Dryburgh, 

 and was dedicated to that popular godfather, Saint Cuthbert. 



It must have been, as I have said, a comparatively large 

 edifice, for Maxton was a village of some 5000 souls — the 

 population is now about 464 — and as there was then no 

 U.P. or Free Church to draw away the population, the 

 worshippers would swarm beyond our present limited walls. 

 The building must have had some architectural pretensions, 

 for I possess what is believed to have been the capital 

 of a Corinthian pillar, which was found embedded among 

 rubbish about half-way down our north aisle, which aisle 

 was built on my advent in 1866. Among other hallowed 

 uelics there are interred beneath the pulpit the rough, 

 undressed stones which formed its stairway, trod for rude ages 

 by my predecessors — Si tnonuynentum requiris circumspice ! 

 Yes, but I regret I cannot gratify that curiosity unless I 

 remove the pulpit, but, believe me, these uncouth monamenta 

 are in safe and friendly custody. 



One of my predecessors was the eminent Gabriel Wilson, 

 who, with the more eminent Thomas Boston, was one of the 

 martyr Marrow heretics in a poor ^asco theological controversy', 

 which you will pardon me for not discussing. Another of 

 my predecessors lost his head and his living amid the mazes 

 of a millennial craze. His latest successor still retains both. 



