NOTES ON CHURCH AND BARONY OF LINTON 153 



that Haughead Kip is a similar accumulation of sand, and 

 both may be ascribed generally to some form of wind and 

 water action. The very name of Linton (the same Lin as in 

 Linlithgow) reminding us that the whole basin of this valley 

 was once covered by an extensive loch, the last portion 

 of which was drained only in 1832. In ancient days this 

 loch must have formed a striking feature in the landscape. 

 Thus, we find an instrument,* dated 2 1st April 1539, whereby 

 "Lancelot Ker, called Lance Ker, son to Andrew Ker of 

 Gaitshaw," is infefted in certain lands — ^'beginning at the 

 Loch of Lyntoun towards the East." 



The gravestones are not of surpassing interest, the friable 

 nature of the stone used in this neighbourhood for that purpose 

 making the inscriptions, unfortunately, very short-lived. Still, 

 it is on record that not a few illustrious men lie buried here. 

 Take, for example, all the earlier Lords Somerville. Thomas, 

 sixth lord, was the first to depart from the rule, since, upon 

 his death-bed, he bade his son bury him "in Oambusnethan 

 quier," beside his wife. Beneath the pavement of the Church 

 there moulders, also, the dust of many generations of Graden 

 Kers. This ancient race was attainted in the '45, and deprived 

 of the small estate which they had held, in unbroken 

 descent, since at least the time of Flodden. The last 

 laird. Colonel Henry Ker, took a prominent part in the 

 rising, serving nominally as aide-de-camp to the Prince, 

 but practically as Quarter-Master-General to the expedition. 

 One interesting tomb is that of the Pringles, tenants of 

 Blakelaw, who emigrated to the Cape in 1820. Here is buried 

 the mother of Thomas Pringle, the South African bard, author 

 of "Afar in the Desert" (and other poems), adjudged by 

 so excellent a critic as Coleridge, " one of the two or three 

 most perfect lyric poems in our language." Another tomb 

 worthy of notice, though quite modern, is that of Thomas 

 Barnewall, 16th Lord Trimleston, the stone railing being 

 copied from a portion of Jedburgh Abbey. 



As to ecclesiastical monuments, the most precious perhaiis 

 is the Nurman font.f Like all genuinely ancient fonts, it is 



*Vid. Protocol Book of Sir William Corbet. 

 fVid. Ber. Nat. Club Transactions for 1850, p. 44, 



