MELROSE Parish Church
It was Palm Sunday, the beginning of Holy Week, marking the entry of Jesus into Jerusalem, amid the crowds, followed by the daily events of the week leading up to the crucifixion on Good Friday and the Resurrection on Easter Day, Sunday, March 31, and worship on the Saddle of the Eildons at 7.30am. Do remember. that the clocks go FORWARD to arrive at that time!
There is a service each weekday evening beforehand from Monday 25 to Friday 29 in the churches in rotation – Parish, H Trin, St Cuthbert’s, H Trin, Bowden Kirk. On Saturday 30th Bach’s St John’s Passion in Parish Church at 2pm, tickets £15, £10 and free (unsder 18s).
Sunday 31st 9.30am Bowden Kirk, communion. 11am Melrose Parish Morning Worship inc. Easter anthems.
The Palm Sunday Service included items to be encountered during the Holy Week Services – palm crosses (distributed to the congregation); a rope (for driving out the money changers); perfume (for the anointing); bag of bribery coins; bread and wine for the Last Supper; a cockerel to mark Peter’s betrayal; bowl and towel for the washing of feet; a hammer and nails; a large stone – to be rolled away.
News: Open Door Thursday am Church Hall; Bowden Cafe April 17. St John’s visit April 12. Messy Church Sunday, May 12, start of Christian Aid Week. Old Melrose Walk Tuesday, April 2, 1.30pm, adults £4. Galafoodbank usual pickups and https://www.justgiving.com/ galashielsfoodbank
Trimontium
While still digging at the Newstead site James Curle has his eye on what will be his coming book and he plies Reginald Smith of the British Museum with questions about parallels for his finds and illustrations that will come in useful for the publication.
‘Dear Smith, The small Samian (red-coloured) pot arrived safely last week. Mr Ready has done it beautifully. Will you kindly ask him to let me know how much I owe him for it?
[Mr Ready was one of a family of ‘restorers’ who worked for the British Museum and also apparently undertook private work for clients like Curle.]
We are not finding very much at Newstead – we have drawn blank at eight pits – which is rather disappointing. I have got a few more potters’ marks and coins - but nothing good. Do you think it would be worth going to Vienna to see the Roman things there? I suppose they must have a lot of interesting things. I don’t quite know where the Carnuntum finds are preserved. [Vienna, originally Vindobona, was the capital city of the region while Carnuntum was an enormous Roman legionary fortress some 32 km East of the capital at a place called Bad DeutschAltenburg in south Austria. It produced multiple armour examples and Curle used finds from there as parallels for his own armour discoveries.]
Do you know of any good monuments of Roman soldiers in England, showing dress etc other than these figured by Bruce, and the stone to M.Favonius at Colchester?
[Rev. John Collingwood Bruce FSA (1805-1892), a schoolmaster in Newcastle, was the early interpreter of Hadrian’s Wall on which he led the first ‘Pilgrimage’ in 1849. His 1853 book became a standard for the study of the Wall and in 1863 there followed a ‘Wallet book’ for ‘pilgrims’ wishing to explore the Wall on foot. A ‘Pilgrimage’ of renewed study along the Wall every ten years continues to this day. Curle was referring to Bruce’s book of 1885. It took Curle a long time even to go and see Hadrian’s Wall and he asked Haverfield to be his guide.
As for the Colchester reference, Marcus Favonius was a centurion of Legio XX, whose tombstone (AD43-50) was found at Colchester and is displayed in that museum.]
I am anxious to know how the London Society of Antiquaries interprets my Newstead finds’.[This refers to some ‘saddlestrengtheners’ which Curle considered as parts of armour..Sir Charles Read presented them to the London meeting in Curle’s absence and is recorded as wondering if they were parts of the saddle – a remark which was proved right some 80 years later by Peter Connolly and Carol van Driel-Murray].