The Pre- Reformation Churches of Berwickshire. 147 



Pointed date, probably about the middle, or second half, of the 

 14th century. We know that, about 1322, the abbey was pil- 

 laged and burned by the English, under Edward II., and that 

 afterwards King Kobert Bruce contributed liberally to its 

 repair ; and it is nut improbable that the western portion of the 

 church was rebuilt from the funds supplied by the great mon- 

 arch. The abbey was a second time burned, by Hichard II., 

 when he invaded Scotland in 1385 ; and it is clear from various 

 documents quoted by Mr. Morton, that it suffered subsequently, 

 on more than one occasion, from the " devastating inroads of the 

 English," and especially from the incursions of Sir George 

 Bowes, Sir Brian Layton, and the Earl of Hertford, in 1544 and 

 1545. In all likelihood the mischief caused by these arch- 

 marauders was never repaired ; and at the Reformation, which 

 followed not long afterwards, the possessions of the abbey were 

 annexed to the Crown, and the buildings allowed to fall into 

 decay. These latter, after passing through various hands, were 

 purchased in 1786, by David Stuart Erskine, eleventh Earl of 

 Biichan, a nobleman of eccentric character, but at least en- 

 titled to the credit of having preserved the ruins, which, at the 

 time he acquired them, were freely utilised as a quarry, from 

 being utterly swept away. 



The Al'bey buildings were arranged round the cloister garth 

 or quadrangle in the usual way; the church occupying the north 

 side of the square ; the sacristry, chapter-house, abbot's parlour, 

 librar3\ etc., the east side; and the refectory the south. The 

 ground slopes so much to the south that the church, which stands 

 on the highest part of the site, is five feet above the level of the 

 cloisters ; and these, in turn, are fully six and a half feet above 

 the floor of the chapter-house. 



The Sacristy, called St. Modan's Chapel,* is a narrow, 

 oblong apartment adjoining the south transept of the church, with 

 which it communicates by two doorways, the smaller of which 

 also conducts to a wheel-stair in the transept wall leading up 

 to the triforium and clerestory. It is entered from the cloisters 

 by a recessed, SHmicircular-tieaded doorway, measuring 7^ feet 

 by 3^ feet. The inner arch of this doorway has a plain 

 chamfer round its entire edge; the outer is square-edged from 

 the ground to the spring of the arch, but is chamfered round the 



* From St. Modan, an early Scottish saint, who is said to have founded 

 a church here in the sixth century. See preceding page. 



