A recent visit to Dunglass Collegiate Church reminded us that it was used a a burial chapel for the Halls of Dunglass including a Captain Basil Hall, RN.
While looking at the extended family of Charles Darwin, I realised that Basil Hall’s grandson, Huston Chamberlain married Eve Wagner, the daughter of German composer Richard Wagner and granddaughter of Hungarian composer and pianist Franz Listz!
Appropriately the connection between them and us goes via Janet Dalrymple, the inspiration for Sir Walter Scott’s Bride of Lammermuir (set here in the Lammermoor Hills), which in turn inspired Donizetti’s opera Lucia de Lammermuir.
Dunglass Collegiate Church lies just north of Cockburnspath. It was founded by Sir Alexander Home in 1444, and its founding charter was confirmed by King James II and by the Pope in 1450. When originally founded it was staffed by a college of priests (hence the description “collegiate”) comprising a provost, three chaplains, and four boy-choristers.
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