Page:The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland ( Volume 3).djvu/504

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In the historical books relating to the locality, a story is repeated of the finding, on this site, of a magnificent cross in 1261, of the miracles performed by it, and the ultimate founding of a church by the king, which was called the Cross Church. Such a church existed in 1296, for Frere Thomas, Mestre de la Maison de Seint Croce, de Pebblis, swore fealty to Edward I. at Berwick.[1]

At the Reformation the Cross Church became the church of the parish, and on the lintel of the door at the east end are cut the words "Feir God," with the date 1656. A portion to the west of this may have been

Fig. 1434.—Cross Church, Peebles. View from South-West.

the part, about 30 feet in length, which Grose says was walled off to form a school, probably at the date just mentioned.

The monastic buildings were used for various purposes, such as a school and schoolmaster's house, and for persons suffering from the plague, but from about the beginning of the eighteenth century they gradually became ruinous, and have now reached their present lamentable condition.

  1. Caledonia, Vol. II. p. 942.