The Pre- Reformation Cliwrches of Berwickshire. 91 



centuries borne his name. But there is no proof, and very little 

 likelihood, that he was ever in the south east of Scotland ; and 

 it is much more probable that the first religious establishment 

 here was founded by missionaries of the Northumbrian Church, 

 in their efforts to christianise the district of Lammermuir, 

 and dedicated to Baithen as one of the great saints of the 

 parent church of lona.* We can only speculate as to the 

 character of this earliest structure, but in all probability 

 it was nothing more than a simple hut of wood and turf. 

 Be this as it may, I am disposed to attribute a high anti- 

 quity to the Chapel whose remains were rediscovered in 

 1870, and fully described by the late Mr TurnbuU, the pro- 

 prietor of Abbey St. Bathans, in the Club's Proceedings for that 

 year. The ruins, which consist of little more than the founda- 

 tions of the walls, are situated in a field, which, from time 

 immemorial, has been known in the locality as "The Chapel 

 Field," about a quarter of a mile to the east of the parish 

 church. The masonry is of an extremely rude description, 

 closely resembling that of many of the oldest chapels or 

 oratories in Scotland and Ireland associated, traditionally at 

 least, with the early Celtic church ; and what seems an additional 

 indication of a remote antiquity, is the fact that no mortar has 

 been used in the construction, except in the case of a window, 

 which may have been a later insertion. The external length of 

 the chapel is 46 feet 6 inches, and its width 20 feet 6 inches. 

 The N. and S. walls are each upwards of 3 feet thick, those 

 on the W. and E. are fully 5 feet thick, but there is an internal 

 recess, 8 feet long, in the centre of the E. wall, where the Altar 

 probably stood, which reduces the thickness of that part by 

 about 16 inches. Fragments of a rude baptismal font, appar- 

 ently some 2 feet in diameter, and a grave slab without 

 inscription or mark of any kind, 5 ft. 10 inches long, 20^ inches 

 broad at one end, and 16|^ inches at the other, are lying within 

 the area enclosed by the walls. 



If, as we may reasonably conjecture, this chapel was built on 



* Some antiqaariaus, and among them Bishop Forbes of Brechin, 

 (Kalendars of Scottish Saints, p. 276) are of opinion that the dedication 

 Saint was Baithanus, one of the Scottish Bishops to whom the Epistle by 

 Pope John iv. a.d. 639, quoted by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History, b. n. 

 c. XIX., was addressed. See also the note by the Writer of the New 

 Statistical Account of the parish, p. 106. 



