roxburgh-1956-vol-2/-05_062

Transcription

No. 568 -- MELROSE PARISH -- No. 569

mason. The fleur-de-lys on his shield points to his
French extraction. The fabrics said to be under his
care (p. 280) are those of the diocese of St. Andrews,
a metropolitan see with its cathedral and Augustinian
priory : Glasgow cathedral : Melrose, a Cistercian
abbey : Paisley, a Cluniac abbey : Nithsdale, a
deanery of Glasgow : the diocese of Galloway, with
its cathedral and Premonstratensian priory. With
such an extensive practice John Morow must have
been pre-eminent in his calling, and yet there is
nothing known of the man of his family. It may
be noted, however, that a certain Thomas Morow
was abbot of Paisley from about 1418 to 1440. This
abbot's surname is sometimes given as Murray and
it is possibly the case that the master-mason's father
was a Scot named Murray since many Scotsmen,
including at least one painter and one sculptor,
resided in France at the turn of the 14th and 15th
centuries.1 In 1548 a certain Walter Morro was a
member of the convent at Kelso.2 The identification
of John Morow with John Murray of Falahill, who
died before 1477,3 rests on very slender grounds.
548341 -- N viii. -- Various dates.

568. Parish Church Tower, Melrose. The
tower of the church that was built in 1810, when the
congregation moved from the abbey, abuts the south
side of the existing 20th-century fabric near its W.
end (Fig. 41). It is square on plan, is built of cream-
coloured droved ashlar, and rises in four stages,
defined by string-courses or cornices, to the base of
the spire. The lowest stage has, on its S. side, a
round-headed recess in which is set a door with a
semicircular fanlight above a lintel which bears the
date MDCCCX. Similar recess on the E. and W.
sides are blind. The second stage also contains three
round-headed recesses, the S. one containing a
window and the other two being blind. This stage
terminates in a moulded cornice, slightly above which
the tower is intaken-the clock-chamber, which
constitutes the third stage, being of smaller dimen-
sions and having its angles recessed so as to leave
the three clock-faces prominent on E., S., and W.
Above another moulded cornice comes an octagonal
bell-chamber, having a round-headed opening on
every face except the one to the N. and louvres in all
except those to NW. and NE. Above a final moulded
cornice there rises an octagonal steeple, first in three
steps and then tapering to a cap surmounted by two
balls and a gilded weathercock. Somewhat below the
mid-point of the steeple there are oval lucarnes, closed
with boarding, on the sides facing the cardinal points,
with blind openings to correspond on the other sides.
542342 -- N viii ( " Church "). -- 23 February 1952.

569. Chieldhelles Chapel. In his history of
Melrose (1743) 4 the Rev. Adam Milne says, " There
are several of the Feuars here. . . . By the bounding
Charter of the Nether Town of Blainslie, it appears
they have had a fine Chapel called Cheildhelles Chapel ;
it has been built of hewn Stone." But the structure
now known by this name is a ruinous building of
rubble, standing on the uplands three-quarters of a
mile NNW. of Upper Blainslie, which possesses no
ecclesiastical features and may well be the remains of
a farm-building. It is oblong on plan, with its major
axis running NNW. and SSE., ; the N. gable,
together with part of the E. wall, has been rebuilt,
the former obliquely to the major axis, so as to make
the length of the E. side 39 ft. 3 in. and of the W.
side 35 ft. 9 in., while the width averages 17 ft. over
walls about 1 ft. 9 1/2 in. thick and still standing about
7 ft. high. The original entrance was in the E. wall,
and was evidently built up when a new entrance was
struck out through the S. gable. Above the later
doorway can be seen a built-up window. Two other
built-up windows can be traced in the W. wall.
The O.S. map marks the site of Chieldhelles
Chapel and its burial-ground on the left bank of the
Milsie Burn, about a quarter of a mile NW. of the
building described above. Here may be seen the
last vestiges of an oblong enclosure, measuring about
15 yds. from NW. to SE. by 12 yds. transversely,
within a boundary-wall, now very much wasted,
which has been from 3 ft. 6 in. to 5 ft. thick. Within
the enclosures there are fragments of one or more
tombstones not earlier than the 18th century, but
there is no traces of a building.
HISTORICAL NOTE. More than one attempt has
been made 5 to identify Chieldhelles Chapel with
" Childeschirche ", the early church dedicated to
St. Cuthbert and situated in the country of his youth ;
but the weight of opinion remains in favour of
Channelkirk in Berwickshire, which, indeed, seems
to be indicated by an entry in the list attributed to
John Wessyngton, prior of Durham from 1416 to
1446, where he includes " Ecclesia de Chyldynkyrk "
among the Cuthbertine churches of Lauderdale.
Be that as it may, this site is one of some
age. Chieldhelles Chapel is obviously the Chapel of
St. Mary standing in the park of Milcheside, which
" Parc " was granted in 1188 to Melrose Abbey by
Richarde de Morville, his wife Avice and his heir
William.6 From the charter of confirmation granted
in the following year,7 it appears that this chapel
stood within an enclosure, ditched around and
entered from the E. ; near by was burn, the Milsie
or Milkside Burn, on which were two fish-ponds,
the upper of which was assigned to the chapel.
Before the Reformation the place was already
ruinous. Thus in a charter of 1546-7, confirmed in
1550, 8 the remains are referred to as " the walls

1 Francisque-Michel, Les Écossais en France, i, 9, etc.
2 Laing Charters, No. 540.
3 Macgregor Chalmers, A Scots Mediaeval Architect, 57.
4 Reprinted in Wade, History of St. Mary's Abbey,
Melrose, 78.
5 Cf. Times Literary Supplement, issues of July and
August, 1942.
6 Melrose Chronicle, 46.
7 Liber de Melros, 96, 97.
8 Laing Charters, N. 569.

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Douglas Montgomery

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