ARCH^OLOGICAL DISCOVERY AT OLD JEDWARD 75 



thought by many that a large town existed here at an early 

 period, of which a farm-onstead and the ruins of a small 

 chapel are the only remains." Chalmers states that "on the 

 West bank of the Jed, in the middle of a vast forest, Egred, 

 the Bishop of Lindisfarne, who died a.d. 845, built a village, 

 ■which he named Ged worth, and a church for his village. 

 Even before the age of the beneficent David I., another village 

 of the same name, with a church and a castle a few miles 

 lower down on the Jed, had arisen, and had eclipsed the 

 ancient hamlet. At New Jedburgh David founded a house 

 for the monks of St. Augustine." I doubt if there is any 

 authority for holding that the hamlet on the Jed is older 

 than the burgh. It is no doubt true that the locality of the 

 ruined chapel is called Old Jedworth, but that appellation 

 has been conferred on it in modern times, without reference 

 to its being founded anterior to the existence of the royal 

 burgh. It is believed that long before David's day, Jedburgh 

 was a wearth, or town, of considerable importance, with a 

 religious establishment presided over by a Prior, who was 

 afterwards venerated as a saint. On David succeeding to the 

 territory at his brother's death, the town was fortified by a 

 castle. In his charter to the monks, granting them the 

 multure of his mill of Jedworth, he takes care to distinguish 

 the town from the castle — " ubi castellum est." The same 

 expressions are used in Earl Henry's grant, and in the charter 

 of King William. When Edward of England granted the 

 forest of Jedburgh to Percy, he also distinguished the town 

 with the castle from the other Jeddeworthe and Bonjedworth. 

 It seems probable that the town at the castle was first founded, 

 and on account of its situation became at an early period a 

 royal residence, while the place called Old Jedworth consisted 

 merely of a few houses gathered together in the neighbourhood 

 of "the chapel, which was founded in the forest glade, opposite 

 Zernwingslawe. The situation is one of great beauty, in the 

 middle of one of the little haughs formed by the windings of the 

 river Jed as it flows down the valley from the Border mountains. 

 The only remains of this little chapel, in which the rude fore- 

 fathers of the hamlet worshipped, are a few of the foundation 

 stones, which have escaped being carried away to repair the 

 farm-onstead or dykes, and a number of ash trees growing 



