This morning we went to Newbattle Abbey to see the “Putting on the Blitz” exhibits about the time when the place was requisitioned during WW2 for training Royal Army Medical Corps and the Auxiliary Territorial Service, often known as The Women’s Army.   Then after the war demobbed service personnel were taught skills to prepare them for civilian employment.  It was very interesting but my photos were not very good so as part of my occasional series on Mary Queen of Scots I’ve decided to do the font in the little chapel.

The hexagonal font in Newbattle Abbey is believed to have been originally in St Michael’s Parish Church at Linlithgow and used in 1542 for baptising the infant Mary Queen of Scots when she was only a few days old.  On the sides are coats of arms including those of her mother, Mary of Guise and her father, James V and Abbot Haswell, the former Abbot of Newbattle Abbey.  The font was brought to Newbattle Abbey in the 1870s from the grounds of Mavisbank House a few kilometres away, although it is unknown how it came to be there. 
 
(Mary Queen of Scots 15)

The desire for alcohol on the war front meant some people made illicit stills with the extra showing a homemade still.  Apparently these were often overlooked by the officers as perhaps they also benefitted from this illegal drink.