Glimpses of Peebles: or, Forgotten Chapters in its History ... With illustrations

Front matter

GLIMPSES OF PEEBLES OR FORGOTTEN CHAPTERS IN ITS HISTORY From a Photograph by G. W. Wilson High Street of Peebles. Glimpses of Peebles OR FORGOTTEN CHAPTERS IN ITS HISTORY BY Rev. ALEX. WILLIAMSON, F.S.A. Scot. EDINBURGH Author of "Light from Eastern Lands," &c (ZBtfB 3f?u0frattone SELKIRK: GEORGE LEWIS & CO. MDCCCXCV All Rights reserved PRINTED by GEORGE LEWIS AND CO., SELKIRK PRE FAC E This book — as the title indicates — is not intended to be an exhaustive history of Peebles. It is designed to afford merely " Glimpses " of its condition during portions of the last and present centuries. A few pages only are devoted to a sketch of ancient times in the Royal Burgh, and to the origin of those two churches the ruins of which still remain, carrying our thoughts back to an early period of the Scottish monarchy.

The author has selected, for various reasons, 1760 as the starting point of his account. But in order to bring into view the age immediately preceding it, there have been intro duced what are supposed to be recollections of old persons living at that date, whose fathers may have narrated to them certain events which happened in their days, and whose personal reminiscences embraced the allotted " threescore years and ten" of human existence. Thus, as far as possible, a dry enumeration of facts has been avoided, and an endeavour made to render VI

Preface

. the "glimpses" more widely interesting than other wise they would be. The author is perfectly well aware of the defects of the volume he now gives to the public, but he trusts that these may be overlooked, and his sincere desire alone remembered, which is to give to the inhabitants of Peebles, and those connected with it, some information they may not possess regarding the town and neighbourhood. He has written the following pages in leisure hours, and the work has been to him a labour of love. Such as it is, he offers it for acceptance. To the objection which may be taken that many incidents mentioned are not really "for gotten," but are chronicled in the Records of the Burgh, edited by the late Dr William Chambers and by Mr Renwick, of Glasgow, as well as in the Fasti Ecclesitu Scoticanœ of Dr Hew Scott, it may be replied that these works have no general circulation, that they are to be found only in the libraries of a limited circle, and that, though of inestimable value to the antiquarian, they form unattractive literature to the vast majority of the public.

The object has been to preserve notices of local events apt to be forgotten, and of humble as well as con spicuous individuals once well known, but whose names are not familiar to the existing generation ; in short, to present Peebles as it was not long before the time in which we live. Peebles as it is has not been described. ' It lies within the sphere of daily observation.

PREFACE.

. VII The author cherishes the hope that the Glimpses may not be unacceptable to dwellers in his native town ; to such as have left it to reside in other parts of the Kingdom, only visiting now and again the scenes of their youth ; and to those who, though they have made their homes in far-distant lands, retain bright memories of the green hills, silent glens, sparkling burns of Peeblesshire, the hoary ruins on which they often looked, and the old landmarks of the once quiet, quaint, restful burgh. Change has gradually crept over Peebles. No longer a "sleepy hollow," as it was deemed — "still as the grave," according to Lord Cockburn — it now exhibits evidences of manufacturing and mercantile activity. It possesses large mills devoted to the celebrated "Tweed trade;" the population is rapidly increasing ; new streets and numerous villas have sprung up, covering what were, in the recollection of many people, green fields or luxuriant gardens.

The improvements of 1846 swept away the last relics of former days — " outside stairs," prominent wells, arched pends — and enforced a uniformity to which our fathers were strangers. The aspect of the main streets is now obtrusively modern, and few and far between are the vestiges of earlier times. Railway stations, with their inevi table accompaniments, have obliterated the grassy haughs and well-stocked "nurseries" which were familiar to the last generation. Modern enterprise has transformed Peebles. It has planted a mag-

PREFACE.

. nificent hydropathic establishment, with its lawns and pleasure grounds, on the spot where boys were wont to ramble in search of adventure. It has called into existence an extensive suburb where plantations afforded a resort for juvenile " bird nesters." It has invaded localities long deemed safe from the intrusion of trade and traffic. The former things have passed away. Names which of yore were household words have gone down into oblivion. Traditions which clustered round crumbling relics of a bygone era, and hung about sequestered spots haunted by the fairies or ghosts which have dis appeared, are unknown except to residents far advanced in life, whose "places will soon know them no more." To gather together some of these tales, to link the past to the present, to awaken interest in what has been, is the chief aim of the author.

The natural beauties of the neighbourhood remain to charm all who love the picturesque. The rounded, rolling hills ; the spreading woods ; the classic river ; the brawling streams ; the lonely valleys, are still there — improved, perhaps, as agricultural skill has advanced, and taste for scenery has developed, but presenting the same outlines and features as they did to our forefathers. A rich field lies before the antiquarian and the poet. Almost every height has its pre-historic camp, every glen its story, every keep its legend ; and there is an indescribable fascination in the landscape that must attract every soul not dead to the beauties of nature.

PREFACE.

. IX The author acknowledges the help he has received from many quarters. He is much indebted to Mr Renwick. The " Peeblesshire Society " placed at his disposal, through Mr Stirling and Mr P. H. Cosens, W.S., joint-secretaries, the Minute Book extending from 1782; Mr Charles Ker, those belong ing to the " Gutterbluid Club ; " Mr Andrew Brown, solicitor, Peebles, that of the "Incomers;" Mr Ramsay Smith, solicitor, the printed proceedings of the Tweeddale Shooting Club, edited by the late Professor Veitch ; Mr Alexander Yellowlees, a few extracts from the Session Records of the parish ; while the aid afforded by the Rev. A. J. Murray, Clerk to the Presbytery, and by Rev. P. MacVicar, Manor, is mentioned in the body of the volume. It may be added that a few of the sketches appeared in the Peeblesshire Advertiser. A CONTENTS.

Chapter I

— BEFORE 1760. glimpse of the history of Peebles in early times — The importance of the Burgh — Royal visitors — Tur bulence in the sixteenth century — Execution of Thomas Patersone, weaver, for sheep stealing — Ecclesiastical and other buildings — St Andrew's and Cross Kirk — Chapel of the Virgin — Reformation period — Incidents — Neidpath Castle and neighbouring " keeps " — Aspect of the town — National events in the eighteenth century — Persons con nected with General Wolfe's campaign in Canada — State of the country at the period — Mr John Hay's settlement in 1717 — Interference of the General Assembly — Mr Hay's personal recollections — Martyrdom of Mr John Nicol in Grassmarket — Recollections of aged people in Peebles at the time of Mr Hay's ordination — Mr Hay's predecessors, Mr Freithie and Mr Veitch — Highlanders in Peebles in 1745 — Their conduct during their stay — Provost Forrester — His ancestors and relatives — Insult to his uncle when Provost in 1695 — Descendants of the Forresters — The Burnetts of Barns — Their leanings to the Pretender — The Highlanders at Broughton — Incidents of the march south — Murray of Broughton, secretary to Prince Charles — Fac-simile of a receipt by him to Mr Henderson — Unpublished letter of CONTEXTS.

Page I 58 the Marchioness of Annandale — The minister of Lyne and the Burnetts — The church plate used in Roman Catholic times, and what became of part of it — Com munion cups presented to the church in seventeenth century— Riding of the commons — Water supply — Clock from Mid Calder — Keepers of the clock in the past — Traditions of St Gorgham's Kirk at Manor,

Chapter II

— FROM 1760 to 1807 Mr William Dalgleish presented to church and parish in 1761 — His personal appearance — Anecdotes about him — The Cross Kirk in his time — Psalmody and music — Steeple taken down — Proposals for a new church in 1777 -Meetings of the heritors — Erection of new church in 1784 — The bungled spire — Aspect of Peebles at close of the eighteenth century — Shops — Dwelling-houses — Dr Dalgleish's publications — William Scott's attack on his doctrines — Characters who came about Peebles: " Beni Minori," "Daft Jock Gray," Andrew Gemmell, "Bow'd Davie" (Black Dwarf), stories about him — Powdered hair — National events at close of the century — Rev. Mr Johnstone of Lyne — Assaulted at Linton — Anecdotes about him — His death in extreme old age — Price of grain, &c. — Meal Mobs — Bakers in the town — Tailors — The Presbytery— The "Gytes" meeting — The family of the Leckies — Dancing masters — Snuff mill proposed — "Old Q " and the Neidpath yews — Neighbouring properties and farms — Mungo Park — His career — Letter from him — His friend, Dr Adam Ferguson, Hallyards — Marriage of Park's sister — Miss Ritchie (Meg Dods) — Tontine — The fly — Danish prisoners — Cavalry ball — French prisoners — Commissary Robertson — Floods — Death of Provost Reid — Military manœuvres — Erection of prison — Farm of Edderston — Candidate for Parliamentary representative in 1796 — Repairing Tweed Bridge — Other local matters, ........ CONTENTS. XIII Page 117

Chapter III

— FROM 1807 to 1843. Floods in 1807 — Provost Smibert - Cross Kirk — Cross proposed to be demolished — Death of Lieutenant Colonel Murray — Death of Dr Dalgleish — Inscription on his Tombstone — Letter from Mr Little, W.S., about Dr John Lee — His presentation to the parish — His school days — John Leyden, his teacher — Lee's university course — Light from his Inaugural Address on these early days of his life — Offered appointments while a student — His friendship with Carlyle of Inveresk — His popularity as a preacher — Sketch of his remarkable career — His library in Edinburgh — Bulwer Lytton's eulogy on Principal Lee — His love for Peebles through life — Mr Robert Buchanan, his successor in Peebles — Letter from Mr John Hay — Tent preaching — Battle of Waterloo — Reception of the .news in Peebles — The drummers of Peebles, and the history of the institution — Letter from Mr Little, W.S. , about " retour chaise " — Bishop Mackenzie — Mr Buchanan appointed Professor in Glasgow University — Mr John Elliot, his successor in Peebles — Precentors — Communion Sundays — Erection of the Relief Church — Rev. Mr Thomson — Erection of the Episcopal Church — Postmen — British Linen Company's Bank — Mr John Welsh, W.S.— Mr Arthur Burnett, Sheriff-Substitute — His character — His successors — The stage coaches — Tweed Green — Ord's circus — Ministers of the East United Presbyterian Church — The Free Church — Rev. W. W. Duncan, and successors — Sketch of " Old Q/s" life,

Chapter IV

-THE SCHOOLS OF PEEBLES. The schools in 1464 — The schoolmasters and their duties in 1555 to 1570, in 1616 to 1649 — Schools damaged by floods in 1631 — Regulations in 1637, I656. 1688 — Plague in 1656 — Grants to schools in 1651 — Case of refusal to send CONTENTS. Pa ise 173 205 237 children to Public School in 1693 — Mr Simpson, teacher, in 1709 — Retirement in 171 1 — Dispute between teachers in 1711 — Mr Gray— Mr Oman — Poem about him by an old pupil, in 1780 — Mr Sloane — Adventure Schools — Specimens of applications for some of them — Mr Brown — Certificate about Grammar and English schools in 1S07 from Dr Dalgleish, Mr Marshall of Manor, and Mr James Nicol of Traquair — Mr Sloane's Boarding School — Teaching in the schools - Private schools — Mr Balfour and Mr Russell, successors to Mr Sloane — Monsieur de Chastelaine— Sketch of his life — Rev. Mr Bliss and Rev. Mr Wyer— Burgh School — Mr Alexander Bathgate — Mr John Willins— The Murrays and others — Booksellers, .

Chapter V

The Times of the Resurrectionists — Stories — Hare — Medical men in Peebles — Dr Reid — Dr John Reid — Dr Marshall — Mungo Park— Dr Williamson — Dr Hutton —Dr Bryden— Dr Wood— Dr Wardlaw— Dr Craig— Dr Renton — Dr Macnab — Dr Crawford — Dr Fergusson — Dr Gunn — Dr Smythe — Dr Junor — Dr Connell — Appointment of Rev. Mr Monilaws of Tulliallan to Peebles — Improvements in Peebles in 1846 — Residents at the Eastgate End — Old people — Christopher North — James Hogg — Whipman's Play — Thomas Smibert — The Lawyers of Peebles from the last century — Elections of Members of Parliament — Hustings — Fall of hustings — William Robertson, the auctioneer — Local events, .

Chapter VI

History of the Peeblesshire Society from its origin in 1782 — The Peeblesshire Union — The Tweeddale Shooting Club— The Gutterbluid Club— The Incomers' Club— The late Professor Veitch, LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS. High Street of Peebles, - Frontispiece St Andrew's Church, - - Facing page 16 The Cross Church, - - - ,, .,64 The Black Dwarf's Cottagl, - ,, ,, 80 The Chambers Institution, - ,, ,, 176 Neidpath Castle, - - - ,. „ ERRATA. Page 22, line 4. — Read "was" for "were Page 38, line 13. — Read "Marchioness" for "Countess." Page 244. — "Mr Needham" was not a lawyer, but officer of excise. FORGOTTEN CHAPTERS IN ITS HISTORY.

Chapter I

Peebles in 1760 was a very different town from Peebles in 1895. The area it covered then was much more limited than it is now. It had sub sided into a quiet, dull, soporific condition. It once possessed attractions of which it was bereft. For centuries the annual recurrence of "Beltane" had drawn crowds from all quarters to witness the games — horse-races, archery, feats of strength and agility — and to participate in the boisterous festivities which marked the celebration of that ancient and famous fair, the scenes of which had been sung by at least one Royal Poet, but which, about 1760, dropped out of existence. The old race-course between Horsburgh and the East Gate had been exchanged for Whitehaugh Muir, and Whitehaugh had passed from the list of the grad ually diminishing possessions of the town.

No other suitable field could be obtained. The feeble A effort to revive public interest had proved unsuc cessful. Languor crept over the people. Peebles ceased to be the centre of a great national gathering. The loss was severely felt. The money once circulated by visitors of all ranks no longer enriched the merchants of the burgh. Native industries suffered a severe check. Traders who were wont to bring their goods for sale at such a time sought a market elsewhere. Beltane was shorn of its charms for ever. Though the fair lingered on in attenuated form for many years, it gradually dwindled till it is now lost. The name alone survives. In that name is enfolded a long forgotten past. It re flects the fires by which our heathen ancestors lit up the mountain tops in honour of Baal. It reminds us of the gay processions and dances which hailed the advent of May returning with freshness and verdure and beauty to the earth.

It recalls to the Peeblean the old days of jollity and mirth which spread the renown of his native place far and wide — the days when James I. and his courtiers held fete and revelry in the castle, the convent, and the "keeps," which have all vanished; when the rough barons or rude " commonalty " rushed to the burgh ; and when the Queen and her suite took up their abode in some ecclesiastical dwelling reserved for them. We can readily believe that the tidings of the brutal murder at Perth of the monarch so familiar to the inhabitants of Peebles, and to whom they had such reason for gratitude, excited horror and indignation ; and that for years his absence was mourned at the Beltane gathering. We do not wonder that a daily mass, according to the custom of the period, was said in St Andrew's Church for the repose of his soul.

The population in 1760 did not exceed 1700. The public paths leading from the town were narrow and not well repaired. As a rule they were carried across the hills. They were then as they had been for centuries before. England could be reached by the " drove road." But Peebles was apart from the main route by which trade was carried on with the sister kingdom. Nevertheless, Peebles had a history of which it might be proud. It had been for ages a royal burgh. It is believed that charters had been granted by William the Lion, Alexanders II. and III., Robert Bruce, and other Scottish sovereigns. They had conferred privileges on it. They had gifted lands to it. Some of them, besides James I., had made it a favourite retreat ; fixed their temporary abode in its castle situated between "Peebles Water" and the Tweed; hunted in the glens ofthe Manor and the Lyne, the Leithen and the Quair ; and swept with their brilliant equipages over the green hills to Meggetdale and St Mary's, to the Yarrow and the Ettrick.

As a general rule, the royal assemblages for pleasurable and warlike expeditions in the south country were held at Peebles. And it must be borne in mind that in the days of the earlier monarchs " Ettricke feir foreste " was still a part of the vast Caledonian forest, traces of which are yet visible far away under the shadow of the Cairngorms and in the solitudes of Guisachan in Inverness-shire. Not until James V. exchanged deer for sheep on the uplands of the Yarrow was the desertion of the hunting-ground complete. Queen Mary was disappointed by the results of the chase in a land which was once so well stocked with "game;" and it soon came to pass that only here and there was a lonely, sad, but venerable relic of the immense "brotherhood of noble trees" to be found in all that wide district.

No doubt from the time of David I. the ring of the axe was constantly heard in the recesses of the woods ; because the industrious monks to whom permission was given to fell and to carry away found in it an inexhaustible supply of timber for their stately abbeys, imposing churches, hospitals, and homes. There was, for cen turies, ceaseless havoc among the ranks of oak and yew, chestnut, and elm — and an ancient feature of Scottish landscape gradually disappeared. We can imagine how eagerly the population of Peebles would turn out to witness the arrival and departure of the king and his nobles. It might be the mighty liberator who at Bannockburn struck the yoke of England from the neck of Scotand, James the Royal Poet, or James "the Knight of Snowdon." And the followers might be Randolph, Earl of Moray, the High Steward ; Douglas, the Earl of March, the Earl of Mar; Argyle, Huntly, and Athole, with all their train of attendants and staghounds and horses.

The wild Caledonian cattle, a terror to the weak and unarmed, ceased to roam about. The wolf was soon hunted towards the silent Highland ravines which it haunted till the seventeenth century. Specimens of the boar might be encountered now and again. But in the later period of the monarchy " the hart and the hind " abounded in all the glens and on all the hills, till in Meggetland James V. made such a terrible slaughter of these animals that they almost vanished from the Border counties. As we go up by the burns of Manor, Stobo, Tweedsmuir, or Traquair ; climb the heights of Scrape, Dollar Law, Posso Craigs ; Cademuir, Hundleshope, Blackhouse, or Polmood, Clockmore, Minchmoor, we can hardly imagine how the overpowering stillness which awes us had been broken by the shouts of the hunters, the twang of the bow, the blast of the horn.

Yet many names — as Hartfell, Deerlaw, and others — remind us of the scenes of former days. Peebles could boast of the poem, already referred to, " Peblis to the Play." It was, moreover, the home of the " Three Priests of Peblis," whose " Tales" 1 were once popular in the land. It was a resort of Darnley, who met his father there in December, 1565. It could tell how its venerable churches — within and without the confines of the burgh — had been founded, repaired, or extended by the piety of kings and high ecclesiastical dignitaries ; how they had been renowned in history as the 1 Republished and modernised by Dr Gunn, of Peebles, an enthusiastic antiquarian. rendezvous of influential clergy of the Roman Catholic Church ; and how solemn conclaves of Bishops had been held within their hallowed walls.

It could tell how it possessed the privilege of returning a member to the Scottish Parliament ; and how some of its leading men had taken a prominent part in the troubles which so frequently distracted Scotland. It maintained dignity even in decay. Moreover, Peebles did not escape the curse of war. Invading armies had battered it and burned it. Its situation laid it open to attack. The armies of England occasionally wreaked vengeance on its inhabitants. Its defences were not impregnable. Its walls now and again became ruinous, and required to be rebuilt. The assault and plunder by Sir Robert Umphraville, in 1406, was remembered for generations ; for it was on a market day when he appeared, and all the goods of the merchants were readily seized. The destruction of the Town and its churches by another and a later English expedition is also chronicled.

It was the scene of many violent conflicts between the lieges themselves, or between neighbouring lairds who happened to encounter each other on its streets; and on a bright warm July day, in 1572, John Dickison of Winkstoun was foully murdered about the East Gate End. No one saw the assassins commit the deed, and no one was punished for the crime, for the " Assyise " unanimously acquitted five suspected persons. In June, 1590, Patrick Veitch of Dawick was "done to death " by Tweedies and Crichtons near Neid path Castle ; and five years later a remarkable duel with spears and swords was fought at Edston between Brown of Hartree and George Hepburn. The records of the period afford striking evidence of prevalent turbulence, in which all the county families, almost without exception were involved.

There seemed, especially during some of the reigns, to be little protection afforded either to life or property. Might was right. Executions were frequent, and the last penalty of the law was hanging or drowning. No one standing on " Cuddy Bridge," and looking along Eddleston Water to the Tweed, recalls the fact that on a winter day at the close of 1623 (23rd December) the sentence of the law was carried out on Thomas Patersone, a weaver in the Old Town, and that he was judicially drowned, for sheep-stealing, a little west of that bridge. But so it was. The Provost and Bailies sat in judgment on him as a thief of "yowis" from Aikerfield and the Cloister of the Cross Kirk. He had been taken " red-handed," and could not deny the charge. He was found guilty, tied with four fathoms of cords, bought from John Tuedy, merchant, and kept in the water till he was dead.

The officers and others hired to carry out the sentence were duly pro vided with meat and drink for the occasion ; and Cleirie and Makwate, the executioners, received, besides bread, three shillings each for their trouble. There were several churches and chapels in Peebles and the neighbourhood, which have all disappeared save two — St Andrew's and the Cross Kirk (or the Halyrude). These were generally spared by the invaders on account of the sanctity which guarded them. The Red Friars and the other orders had immunity from assaults and robbery, and were consequently able to render some help in providing shelter and food for the houseless and distressed around them. The Par sonage likewise escaped. It is no longer the Manse, but it was occupied as such for several hundred years, till 1890.

On an old map of the burgh, constructed to show what Peebles was in 1609, it is marked as the " Persounes Manse," and was in existence long previous to that date. The ground was gifted by John Geddes of Rachan in 1427 to St Andrew's Kirk. The origin of that kirk is lost in antiquity, for, although said to have been founded in 1195, it appears that it occupied the site of a much more ancient edifice — by whom built, and to whom dedicated, is unknown. The new church, with its massive square tower, its long lines of cloisters, its courts and corridors, must have been an object of awe and admiration to those inhabitants who had never seen so vast a pile of building. The masonry was, of course, substantial ; else it could not have stood the storms of exactly seven hundred years. Though it is true that the greater part of the structure has dis appeared, the work of destruction was commenced and completed, not by the warring elements, but by the hand of the ruthless spoiler.

As Peebles was included in the diocese of Glasgow, several important synods were called to meet within its walls ; and bishops, priests, and friars, moved in sombre procession along its aisles, bearing crucifixes and chanting psalms. No one can tell whether the interior was elaborately finished with arches and pillars, like a cathedral, because no description has been preserved. But we know it had richly endowed altars, and to them were attached a numerous clergy. There was the altar of St Andrew, the patron saint; of St Christopher, St James, St John the Baptist, St Lawrence, St Martin, St Michael, St Mary or Our Lady, St Mary of Geddes Aisle, St Paul and St Peter, of the Rood and the Holy Blood. These testify to the extent of the old church. The names of many of the clergy are known by means of the Burgh Records — Sir Laurence Johnson, Sir John Allane, Gilbert Tuedy, Sir Adam Foster, and others.

In 1562, however, the bells were taken out, and one of them hung in the Cross Kirk to " rigne to the commoun prayeris;" while the other bell was to be laid in the " stepil, to be observit;" and the "trap and timber in the Hie Kirk stepil were to be used to big settis in the Cross Kirk for eis of the' parochin aris." The church was not, perhaps, finally deserted; for in 1564 it was ordained by the Council that the prebendaries of St Andrew's keep the exhortation three days in the week, and sing psalms and do God service, under pain of a fine ; and Andrew Frank is appointed to uplift the annuals of St Laurence altar, and account to the bailies and community. These services, however, may have been performed in the Cross Kirk. Moreover, in 1567, all the priests in St Andrew's Kirk were ordered to appear before the bailies and produce their presentations, to be con sidered by the patrons.

James Davidson, John Allan, and Gilbert Twedy did so. In 1606, the Council granted the gift of St Christopher's altar to William Dickson for seven years, to " interteny " him at the schools. What was worse came afterwards, for in 1609 it was ordained that if it were possible " a dowcot was to be biggit on the Hie Kirk steeple." So, by degrees, the glory of St Andrew's waned, as the glory of the Cross Kirk waxed ; and the latter was formally recognised as the Parisii Church, with Mr John Dikesone as the minister. It never has been forgotten how Cromwell's deputy, General Lambert, desecrated St Andrew's by stabling the horses of his soldiers in it, when he laid siege to Neidpath Castle. The environs, and what was the interior of the church, are now taken up with the graves of many generations, whose dust mingles with the dust of those who, in ages gone by, ministered at the altars of the sacred fane.

The Cross Kirk, erected in the reign of Alexander III. (somewhere about 1261 a.d.), was in close proximity to the outlying buildings of St Andrew's. A road, yet in use, connected the two churches, and served as a common meeting ground of the clergy, in which they were wont to take their ordinary recreation. Because a splendid cross was discovered in a field above " Peebles Water," and an urn filled with human bones, as well as a stone with the inscription, " The Place of St Nicholaus Bishop," engraved on it, the Cross Kirk was built. It is affirmed that the discovery was made in presence of "honest men, churchmen, ministers, and burgesses" — but why it happened that they were all present on such an occasion is not fully explained, unless some hint of the " find " had been already circulated.