162 The Pre- Reformation Churches of Berwickshire. 



NENTHORN. 



In early times, probably before the end of tbe 12tli century, 

 two chapels — those of Naithansthirn and Newton — existed in 

 the district subsequently embraced in this parish ; and, at the 

 parochial erection in the following century, the chapel first 

 named became the parish church. Both were originally sub- 

 ordinate to the church of Ednam, which was a dependency of 

 Coldingham ;* but about 1316-17 they were acquired by the 

 Abbey of Kelso,t and they remained in connection with it until 

 the Reformation. 



The ancient Church of Naithansthirn, now Nenthorn, situated 

 within its graveyard — still used as the parish burying-ground — 

 and occupying a delightfully secluded spot on the north bank of 

 the Eden, near Nenthorn House, is represented by the merest 

 traces of its S. and E. walls. It has apparently been about 12 

 feet in internal width, but its length is unascertainable. 



At Nenthorn (Nanthanira) according to the continuator of 

 Fordun, David de Bernham, Bishop of St. Andrews, by whom 

 most of the churches in Berwickshire were consecrated, died on 

 '26th April 1253. 



The walls of a decayed burial-aisle, of no great age, a few 

 hundred yards to the west of the mansion house of Newton Don, 

 are all that mark the site of the Chapel of Newton. Inserted 

 in the E. wall, and forming the sole entrance, is an ancient 

 semit'ircular-headed arch, which, on examination, I was able to 

 identif}' as the two missing inner orders of the fine doorway at 

 Dryburgh, which communicated between the cloisters and 

 the nave of the abbey-church. When, or by whom, they had 

 been removed to their present situation, I have been unable to 

 discover ; but their dimensions, the character of the mouldings, 

 and the colour and grain of the stone, place their identity beyond 

 doubt. It is to be hoped that their present owner will return 

 them to Dryburgh, and thus restore to its original complete- 

 ness what has been one of the finest individual features of that 

 beautiful church. 



* Coldingham Charters, Nos. 448, 473, 523, 535. Appendix to Raine'a 

 North Dnrham. 



t Liber de Calchou, Nos. 310, 311, 312, 315, 



