The Pre- Reformation Churches of Berivickshire. 119 



has not been ascertained. It was dedicated, or at least contained 

 an altar, to St. Ninian.* Only a featureless fragment of the E. 

 wall, 2^ feet thick, with the foundations of the others, remains, 

 the internal dimensions having been 61 feet by 14 feet.f 



The present parish church was erected in 1739, on a site a 

 considerable distance from the ancient building, a relic of which 

 has been transferred to it in the shape of a mural tablet, inserted 

 in the interior of the north wall, whereon are sculptured the arms 

 of the Eoyal House of Stuart. The local tradition connected with 

 this stone is given in 'The Swintons of that Ilk,' p. 52. It is 

 apparently of post-Reformation date, j 



Indications of a burying- ground were visible, till quite recently, 

 on the "Watch Water, about half-a-mile above its junction with 

 the Dye, near Rawburn, in what was formerly the detached por- 

 tion of the parish, now united, quoad civilia, to Longformacus. 

 A chapel is traditionally asserted to have stood near the same spot, 

 but I can find no mention of it in any ancient documents. A 

 grave slab, having carved upon it the figure of a knight in 

 armour, with a dog at his feet and a sword by his side, was 

 removed from this burying-ground about the beginning of the 

 century, and taken to Lylestone, near Lauder, where it was con- 

 verted into a hearth-stone for the farm house. 



DUNS. 



This parish is now totally destitute of any ecclesiological 

 remains, the last vestige of its ancient church having been 

 removed in 1874. The notices of its early history are extremely 

 scanty and obscure; but we find that in tlie ancient taxatio the 

 parish is rated at 110 marks; and in Bayamund's Roll the value 



* ' Swintons of that Ilk,' Appendix, p. xcii. 



t I am indebted for the measurements to Mr Bertram, tenant of Cran- 

 shaws, who had the foundations of the church carefully uncovered at the 

 time of the Club's visit to the place in August 1889. As in most early 

 churches, there were two doors, both in the S. wall. A portion of the W. 

 end, 13 feet long internally, had been divided from the rest of the building 

 by a partition wall, probably to provide a vestry after the Reformation. 

 Numerous interments had evidently taken place in the interior, no fewer 

 than 10 skulls having been discovered during Mr Bertram's operations. 



X Figured in ' The Swintons of that Ilk,' and in Messrs Macgibbon and 

 Ross's ' Domestic and Castellated Architecture of Scotland,' vol. iii. p. 429, 



