. ··:;.,.-, ... ' . ' . ,. I I ' • " '., I • I ' ' • - TRANSACTIONS OF THE EAST LOTHIAN ANTIQUARIAN AND FIELD NATU·RALISTS' SOCIETY THIRD .VOLUME HADDINGTON PRINTED BYD. A:ND J. CROAL FOR THE MEMBERS OF THE. SOCIETY 1 9 3 8 . CONTENTS Page. ANCIENT DOVECOTS OF EAST LOTHIAN: A SURVEY I With Illustrations , - SOME NOTES ON OLD DUNBAR By T. WILSON FISH, J.P~, F.S.A. Scot.. 23 - REDHOUSE AND ITS OWNERS By J. D. FI~LAYSON 28 With Illustrations FAST CASTLE: ITS ROMANTIC STORY By .JoHN RusSELL, F.S.A. Scot. 40 . JO~N KNOX AND EAST LOTHIAN By JAMES H. JAMIESON, F.S.A. Scot. 49 WHITTINGEHAME TOWER By Very Rev. MARSHALL B. LANG, D.D. Bo With Plan Page. DIRLETON: ITS CASTLE, PARISH CHURCH, CHAPELS AND COLLEGE By W. DOUGLAS SIMPSON, D.Litt., F.S.A. Scot. 94 With Illustrations THE " LAMP OF LOTHIAN ": PARISH OR FRIARY CHURCH? By JAMES H. JAMIESON, F.S.A. Scot. II2 THE FALLS OF DUNBAR: A NOTABLE SCOTS FAMILY By W. FORBES GRAY, F.R.S.E., F.S.A. Scot. I20 THE BELL OF SAMUELSTON AND ITS DONORS 'By A. CAMERON S~ITH I42 . With Illustrations A HADDINGTON BOAT INDEX I53 APPENDIX- OFFICE-BEARERS, ANNUAL REPORTS, EXCURSIONS, LIST OF MEMBERS, ETC. --':;; ANCIENT DOVECOTS OF EAST LOTHIAN: A SURVEY THIS communication owes its origin to the late Mr Joseph Whitaker, of Rain­ worth Lodge, Nottinghamshire, a well-known naturalist. Though an Englishman ·by birth and training, one who spent a long life of more than eighty years south of the Tweed, Mr Whitaker was a frequent visitor to Had­ dington, with which he had an ancestral connection. During his boyhood he resided with his aunt, Miss Randall, at Elm House and attended Walter Haig's Academy in Paterson Place. A keen fisher, he caught his first trout in the river Tyne in I859, and within a year of his death landed another at the same spot as that at which he had his first success with the rod. Mr Whitaker was a Fellow of the Zoological Society and Vice-Pr~sident of the Selborne Society. Such was his enthusiasm for the pursuits of the naturalist that for many years his home in Nottinghamshire was a natural history museum and the park surrounding Rainworth Lodge a bird sanctuary. His knowledge of bird· life was quite exceptional. White birds he made a special study, and collected them in various parts of the world. In all, Mr Whitaker had over 500 varieties of birds and about fifty species of animals. His collection of albinos, in particular, attracted so much attention from naturalists hailing from all parts of the country that he 'had to reserve certain days for visitors who wished to inspect them. He was also an excellent marksman, and took delight in recounting to Haddington friends his exploits at partridge shooting. But ornithology was his chief study, and as indicative of his deep interest, it may be stated that many of the trees near Rainworth Lodge were provided with nesting boxes. Besides being a diligent and observant student of natural history, Mr Whitaker contributed extensively to the literature of the subject, and though he had not the literary faculty of his master, Gilbert White of Selborne, he produced several works that were widely read. His publications include Notes on the Birds of Nottinghamshire, Scribblings of a Hedgerow Naturalist, The Deer Parks of England (he formed a deer park which was stocked with I ANCIENT DOVECOTS OF EAST LOTHIAN: A SURVEY Japanese deer), ~and Nimrod, Ramrod and Fishing Rod-an intriguing title. But perhaps his most popular book was The Dovecots of Notts. Anyhow it appealed strongly to some of his Haddington friends, who urged him to compile a companion volume dealing with the rich variety of these structures to be found in East Lothian. The idea commended itself to Mr Whitaker, and though he had reached the advanced age of seventy-eight, he set to work to compile a descriptive list of the ancient dovecots of the county. But declin­ ing powers, a serious illness, and the fact that he resided three hundred miles from the scene of his labours, militated against the progress of the work, which for a time was at a complete standstill. Notwithstanding his difficulties, however, he managed to visit personally a large number of the dovecots, and in collecting information, _as well as in the work of photographing the build­ ings, he was greatly assis~ed by many of the owners. But his chief coadjutors were Mrs Ramsay of Lochside, Tranent; Mr William Ingles of North Berwick, and Mr Thomas T. Bisset, Rosskeen, Dunbar, and in a rough sketch, which apparently was intended to form an introduction to the book, Mr Whitaker singles them out for special acknowledgment. Unfortunately, Mr Whitaker's lamented death in r932 put a period·to the proposed work. Since then, the materials he collected, together with the corres­ pondence and many fine photographs, have come into the possession of the East Lothian Antiquarian and Field Naturalists' Society, and the question arose as to whether something could not be done to make the result of his researches available to members, more especially as the subject was calculated to arouse much interest locally. Accordingly a careful examination of the materials was made recently, which showed that the survey had practically been completed, and while it was not possible to bring out a work treating of the dovecots of East Lothian on the lines proposed by Mr Whitaker, it was felt that a useful purpose might be served if the information collected were embodied in an article. In the following pages an attempt has ·been made to give effect to this idea. Of course it may well be that the descriptive notes of the various dovecots are occasionally incomplete and perhaps not always' correct, but it must be borne in mind that the work of transcription and compilation has naturally been done under difficulties, the chief being that the material worked upon had not the benefit of Mr Whitaker's final revision. Still, when every allowance has been made, it may be confidently asserted that in this article there is presented a substantially accurate and, it is hoped, interesting survey of no fewer than 55 ancient dovecots scattered up and down the county. 2 Saltoun. ANCIENT DOVECOTS OF EAST LOTHIAN: A SURVEY In proof of what is here advanced, reference may be made to the thorough­ ness with which Mr Whitaker prosecuted his labours. That he adopted the best means to obtain accurate and authoritative information, there can hardly be any doubt. He first of all secured what seems to have been a complete list of ancient dovecots in the county. It is noteworthy that while the East Lothian volume of the Ancient Monuments Commission records twenty-five, Mr Whitaker's survey includes more than double that number. The next step was to prepare a questionnaire, which was printed and sent to the owners (or their representatives) to be filled up. The information sought included exact measurements, date of erection, architectural features, the number and size of the nests, and other interesting details. These questionnaires, with the answers, constitute, it need hardly be said, the most valuable portion of the material now in the custody of the Society, since upon the information derived therefrom Mr Whitaker based the descriptive notes relative to the various dovecots. But either the response to his appeal was unsatisfactory, or many of the questionnaires have been lost. Anyhow it is a fact that out of nearly sixty forms sent out only twenty-nine can now be consulted. Mr Whitaker, however, must have taken means to supply the deficiency (assuming there was one), for in the draft of his proposed book he furnishes notes for all dovecots in his list. These have now been diligently compared with the questionnaires that have been filled up and returned, and the result makes clear that the discrepancies are few and of minor importance. In the case of dovecots for which no documentary information is available, the reader must rely on the trustworthiness of Mr Whitaker's data or resort to personal investigation. As regards this article, the information obtained from the questionnaires and Mr Whitaker's notes has been put in narrative form and placed under the name of the dovecot to which it relates. It may be reasonably urged that there is a certain sameness about the data, but this is inevitable. However, an effort has been made to vary the phraseology as well as the order of the details, in the hope that the descriptive letterpress may be found readable. There has been no attempt to embody all the information contained in the printed forms, several of the questions, as it seems to us, being of little interest. Finally, alphabetical order has been followed in the arrangement of the dove­ cots. It was an integral part of Mr Whitaker's scheme that a photographic illustration or water-colour drawing should accompany the descriptive matter. This part of the work was gone about with equal thoroughness. The Society in fact possesses a complete set of illustrations. Unfortunately 3 ANCIENT DOVECOTS OF EAST. LOTHIAN: A SURVEY the reproduction of even a fair proportion of them in the Transactions is of course out of the question, but illustrations have been provided of those dove­ cots that are interesting architecturally and apart from the types most com­ monly met with .. The writer of the introduction to the East Lothian volume of the Ancient Monuments Commission notes three early types in the county. Of the first­ single chambered, circular on plan, and referable to the sixteenth century--: the most striking examples are Congalton, Dirleton, Dolphingstone, North­ field, Numa~, and Waughton.