From the general style of the details of the building there can be no difficulty in fixing its date during the middle pointed period. Most of the mouldings are of an early character, but some of the features (such as the arch mouldings dying on the jambs) are later. Besides, in Scotland allowance must be made for backwardness, and we should be inclined to regard this structure as being of about the end of the fourteenth century. It is valuable as an example of the decorated period in Scotland, of which period few, if any, parish churches are now to be found. THE PARISH CHURCH, HADDINGTON, EAST LOTHIAN. The town of Haddington is situated on the left bank of the Tyne, near the centre of the county to which it gives its name. It is of very ancient date, having been a royal residence from the time of David I. till the thirteenth century. The last remains of the royal palace were only removed in 1833. The town was formerly well provided with ecclesiastical edifices, having, besides the Parish Church, the monasteries of the Franciscans and Dominicans, the Cistercian Nunnery (about a mile lower down the river), and the chapels of St. Martin, St. Ann, St. Katherine, St. John, and St. Ninian. Of these establishments, the only one (except St. Martin’s, already described)[169] of which any trace of the structure remains is the Parish Church, which, although now to a great extent ruinous, still retains enough of its noble architecture to justify its ancient name of the “Lamp of Lothian.” Considerable difference of opinion has been expressed as to the identity of the existing edifice. Dr. Barclay, who wrote in 1792,[170] says:--“I am decidedly of opinion that the present Parish Church of Haddington is the same that formerly belonged to the Franciscans, and which Major says was called _Lucerna Laudoniæ_; as a field, now converted into a garden, and which is still styled the Friars’ Croft, lies contiguous to the churchyard, and is not above 30 yards distant from the Parish Church.” On the other hand, as has been pointed out by Mr. Robb in his _Guide to Haddington_, the site of the property of the Franciscans is fully described in the charter of 1560 disponing it to the burgh, which charter is signed by one of the friars. From this it appears that the position of the Church of the Franciscans, as defined by the boundaries of their lands, lay a little way lower down the river. One of the boundaries is called in the charter the high road leading towards the Parish Church, thus indicating that the Parish Church was different from the Church of the Franciscans. Besides, the other boundaries are pretty distinctly defined, and may still be followed. This matter has been further fully discussed in a paper by Mr. Henry F. Kerr, in the _Transactions of the Edinburgh Architectural Association_, Vol. I. p. 21, in which Mr. Kerr concurs with Mr. Robb’s views.