feet from the base, the diminutive building is actually
surrounded with what the observer at first sight takes to
be vicious looking pieces of artillery, ready to blaze away
alike on friend or foe, but on closer inspection these turn
out to be very peaceable gargoyles. They are eight in number,
and very peaceable indeed, for most of them have their mouths
gagged. Some of them it is evident, from the fineness of the
workmanship, belonged to the original building; others have
been restored. Another six feet or so above the gargoyles
brings us to the summit of this octagonal building. Thus we
have a height in all, from base to parapet, of fifteen feet
to a nearness. There is a touch of carved work over each of
the gargoyles.
Towards the west side there is a wicket gate, showing a dungeon
on a small scale. There are no windows to give light to it,
and we have no evidence to show what it was meant for, or
that a refractory person was ever incarcerated there.
The circumference of the building is about forty feet.
Towards the eastern side is the entrance to the top. That
a very strong door had hung here in former times to debar
intruders is evident from the powerful iron sockets still
fixed in the door cheeks. There are nine steps leading to
the platform, and bounding up we find a ridge about three
feet in height surrounding the structure. Capping the ridge
are eight very strong corner stones: these from the outside
give the building its octagonal appearance. These corner stones
are firmly bolted down with flat iron bands, and deeply cut
into each stone is a square recess meant apparently for a
flagstaff. Examining with not a little curiosity that great
oval-shaped, finely preserved monster monolith, rearing its
head heavenwards, defying the elements as proudly to-day as
it challenged and defied them centuries ago, we wonderingly
inquire, " Is this a pillar cut out of one great solid
block of stone?"
Just then we remembered a visit paid to a coal pit on Tranent
estate some twenty odd years ago, where the miners had actually
worked their way through an old forest there, and everywhere
we found great tree roots, solid stone, petrified trees, monsters
of the forest; some as if they had been cut by the axe of
the woodman in long distant ages, and others as if they had
been broken over by the force of the raging storm, while all
around stood great upright trees whose weighty trunks pierced
the roof, but how far they pierced the roof no one ever tried
to find out. One of these upright fossil trees came directly
in the way of a miner's working-place. He worked carefully
all around and left it standing, a curious yet beautiful
pillar. It was straight as a pine and about thirty inches
in circumference. Some eight feet of this petrified tree was
exposed, but how deep or how high it went was never learned.
There were quite a number of fossil trees in this old forest,
far surpassing the Cross in circumference, but none so nicely
shaped. They were all left standing. Of the root stumps, eight
were sketched and described in the Evening Dispatch of
that day. These were afterwards, at the instigation of Messrs
James Waldie and Sons, brought to the surface, borne to Edinburgh,
and shown at the International Exhibition there. Examine carefully
this mighty pillar at Preston. Behold the grains as in wood,
how they run upwards, and observe that pieces shell off its
sides as old bark does off a tree. Probably this mighty pillar,
whereever it came from, is neither more nor less than a tree
fossil.
The great pillar is planted exactly in the centre of the octagonal
building, and the base into which it is batted with lead is
a solid block of bluish whinstone. In this block may be observed
a quartette of neatly cut holes. These recesses held the feet
of a table which was wont to encircle the pillar long ago,
and on which the chapmen of old were wont to transact their
business annually.
The pillar at its base is 43 inches in circumference; 36 inches
up, it is 42 inches; and 6 feet from the base, it measures
41 inches in circumference. The pillar is exactly 21 feet
in length, and losing as it does 1 inch in 36, its circumference
at the top must still be about 36 inches. It is square-cut
at the upper end, with some beautiful carving on it.
Over and above these 21 feet, another 3 feet may be added
to its height, on account of the " Puggy " surmounting
the whole.
Years ago, when no one took any interest in the cross, many
a mischievous urchin in passing would run in with his hands
full of stones, to " get a crack at the puggy on the
top o'the pole. " This so-called " Puggy "
surmounting the pillar, is a beautiful work of art, in the
form of a unicorn, posing erect, and on the breast of the
unicorn, easily discernible from the ground, on a shield stands
the lion rampant, etc.
The head of the unicorn was wont to be adorned with the ever-accompanying
horn; but one day, some forty years ago, Jock Burns, a stirring
youth, who worked in the gardens with the present tenant's
father, was having a " prap at the Puggy " with
a stone when he smashed the outstanding horn in pieces. It
has never been replaced, and perhaps never will, unless Jock
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