The Pre- Reformation Churches of Berwickshire. 107 



these and other instances, the territorial divisions consequent 

 upon the ecclesiastical arrangements of that remote time have 

 continued, with comparatively little alteration, down to the 

 present day. 



Being subordinate to Durham, the priory occupied a somewhat 

 anomalous position among- Scottish religious houses, and, as 

 might have been expected, it suffered at the hands of both 

 Scots and English during the frequent wars between the two 

 kingdoms. In 1485, James III. made an attempt to annex it to 

 the Chapel Royal of Stirling, thereby exciting the resentment 

 of the Homes, who had for many years claimed and exercised 

 the right of collecting its revenues, no doubt largely to their own 

 advantage, and finally giving rise to the rebellion which termin- 

 ated in 1488 at the battle of Sauchieburn, where the unfortunate 

 king lo^t his life. Sixteen years later it was annexed to the 

 Crown by Act of Parliament; and in 1509 it was placed under 

 the Abbey of Dunfermline. The Earl of Hertford burned the 

 buildings iu 1545; and at the Reformation in 1560 the Estab- 

 lishment was dissolved. In 1648 Cromwell completed the ruin 

 of the church, which had been fortified by the royalists, by 

 blowing it up with gunpowder after the capitulation of the 

 garrison. Only the E. and N. walls of the choir, with a tower, 

 affirmed by Carr to have stood at the N.W. angle of the tran- 

 sept, but which was probably the central tower, or a re- 

 construction of it, and some portions of the transepts themselves 

 and of the monastic buildings, were left standing. A south and a 

 west wall were subsequently added to the choir, to convert it into 

 a parish church ; and it is to this fortunate circumstance that we 

 owe the preservation of the scanty remains of the once glorious 

 fabric. The tower already mentioned fell about a century ago, 

 and its ruins, as well as those of the other portions of the 

 priory not used for divine service, became the prey of every 

 heritor and householder in the neighbourhood who was in need 

 of materials for building. At length, in 1854-5, the choir was 

 restored at the expense of the heritors of the parish, aided by a 

 grant from the Government ; and we have now the satisfaction 

 of seeing this precious fragment of mediaeval Christian art, if 

 not in its original grandeur and beauty, at least in a condition 

 not altogether inconsistent with its sacred character, and secure 

 from every destructive influence save that of time alone. 



In the course of the restorations, the foundations of the 



