122 The Pre- Reformation Churches of Berwickshire. 



mention is made of a Hospital called " Bona hospitalis de Duns," 

 the value of which is returned at lxviiis^' Nothing is known 

 of either its site or its history. The chapel above described may 

 have been connected with it; but this is a pure conjecture, 

 deriving, however, some probability from the fact that St. Mary 

 Magdalene, to whom the chapel was dedicated, was the patron 

 saint of numerous hospitals throughout the country. 



EARLSTON. 



Under its old name of Ercheldon or Erceldoun — variously 

 written Ercheldoun, Erscildoun, Ercyldoun, Ersildoune, Ersil- 

 toun, Hercyldon, Hersildoun, Yrsiltoune— Earlston is frequently 

 mentioned in ancient charters, from the beginning of the 1 2th 

 century down to the Reformation. Singularly enough, the 

 church of Ercheldon first appears as a chapel dependent on 

 Ederham (Edrom.) It therefore belonged to Coldingham, but 

 the Abbey of Kelso would seem to have preferred a claim to it, 

 the precise nature of which is not very apparent; for, about 1171, 

 we find a controversy respecting it, between Durham and Kelso, 

 submitted to the judgment of the bishop of St Andrews and the 

 abbots of Rievall and Melrose. They decided in favour of Dur- 

 ham ; the ground of the adjudication being that, as a subordinate 

 chapel, Ercheldon followed the mother church of Ederham. f 

 Numerous entries of expenditure incurred in the repair of the 

 chapel appear in the Account Rolls of Coldingham Priory.| 

 These accounts are models of exact book-keeping — a pour-loire 

 of a shilling allowed to certain carriers of materials {canatorihus 

 pro potu xijd.) being set down by the monkish accountant with 

 all due gravity. There was also a Hospital in the " vill " of 

 Ercheldune,§ but the notices relating to it are extremely scanty, 

 and it is doubtful if it survived till the Reformation. 



The ancient Church or Chapkl was taken down, and another 

 church built close to its site, about the year 1736. This, in its 

 turn,has given place to a third,which is now in course of erection. 

 As might have been expected, little of eeclesiological interest has 



* Coldingham Letters, etc., Snrtees Society, Appendix, p. ex. The 

 Hospital is also mentioned in Bayamnnd's Roll, 

 t Raine's North Durham, Appendix, p. 84. 

 X Coldingham Letters, etc., Surtees Society, p. xii., xiii., etc. 

 § Raine's North Durham, Appendix, p. 39. 



