164 The Pre-Reformation Churches of Berwickshire. 



There is a local tradition that the wooden railing or screen 

 in front of the Marchmont pew, is part of the ancient altar-rail, 

 but a glance is sufficient to show that it is not older than the 

 rest of the structure. 



The basin of the baptismal font was discovered many years 

 ago at the back of tlie cburch, and is now placed on a graduated 

 circular base or pedestal, near the entrance. It is an extremely 

 plain example, with the usual perforation at the bottom, of 

 rude cylindrical form, without carving or ornament of any kind, 

 and apparently of early date. The external diameter is 28 

 inches, the height 20-|- inches, and the depth of the basin 14 

 inches. 



SWINTON AND SIMPRIN. 



By a charter, granted between 1098 and 1107, King Edgar 

 conveyed to the monks of Durham, for the endowment of 

 Coldingham priory, villain totam Sivintun cum diuhis sicut Liulf 

 hahuit.'^ The terms of this charter show that Swinton was a 

 Saxon manor in the end of the 11th century. A Chukch was 

 erected at the place not long afterwards, and numerous refer- 

 ences to it are found in the chartularies of Coldingham and 

 other local religious houses. Since the Reformation the building 

 has undergone so many alterations and repairs that, with the 

 exception of the monument to be presently noticed, not one 

 detail of mediaeval date remains. An examination of the E. 8. 

 and W. walls, the lower portions of which are apparently 

 original, but destitute of any architectural features, shows it to 

 have been, like most early Scottish churches, a long narrow 

 oblong. Many generations of the ancient family of the Swiutons 

 of that Ilk lie buried within its walls ; but the only monument 

 of note it contains is that of the fifth baron — Sir Alan de 

 Swinton — who received from Bertram, prior of Coldingham, a 

 charter of the barony of Swinton, about the end of the 12th 

 century. The monument is placed within a semicircular niche 

 or recess at the side of the pulpit, near the middle of the S. wall 

 of the church, and exhibits a recumbent, full-length effigy of 

 the Knight, with the arms resting in a devotional attitude on 



* Coldingham Charters, No. 4, Appendix toRaiiie's North Durham. The 

 charter bears that the King attended personally at the dedication of the 

 church of the priory, and offered his gift on the altar. 



