"About half-way up the south-east pier, rebuilt by Abbot Hall, the springer of an arch may be seen projecting to the west. Abbot Hall had evidently intended to throw an arch across the transept at this point, but Abbot Cranston changed his plan and the arch was not carried out. The mouldings of the portions executed by the two abbots differ in their respective parts of the structure.

"To the north of the original Norman north transept an addition to the transept has been erected. It is cut off from the old transept by a wall, and thus forms a separate chapel, measuring 27 feet in length by 22 feet in width internally. This chapel is vaulted with the pointed barrel vault usual in Scotland in the fifteenth century, and, consequently, the side windows are low, their pointed arch being kept below the springing of the vault. The window in the north end wall, however, is of large dimensions. The windows are all filled with good fifteenth century tracery, similar to that in the restored south aisle of the choir. This part of the edifice is now used as a mortuary chapel for the family of the Marquess of Lothian. The tower over the crossing is 33 feet square and 86 feet in height. It contains three pointed and cusped lancets on each side, and is without buttresses. It appears to have been erected about 1500. At the top, near the north-west corner, are engraved the arms and initials of Abbot Robert Blackadder, who was afterwards promoted to the offices of Bishop and Archbishop of Glasgow. He was appointed to that see in 1484, and died 1508. His arms are a chevron between three roses."

The abbey thus completed was not permitted to remain unmolested. Described by Sir Ralph Eure as "the strength of Teviotdale," and by Hertford as "a house of some strength which might be made a good fortress," it was, as already mentioned, the frequent object of attacks by the English. It was pillaged and burnt in 1544 and 1545, and never recovered from the damage done. In 1559 the monastery was suppressed. In 1587 the bailery of the abbey was continued or restored by a grant of King James VI. to Sir Andrew Ker, and in 1622 the entire property of the lands and baronies which had belonged to the canons of Jedburgh was erected into a temporal lordship, and granted to him with the title of Lord Jedburgh. Sir Alexander Kerr of Fernieherst was ancestor to the Marquess of Lothian.[326]

Dryburgh Abbey (Berwickshire).—The name Dryburgh has been derived by some from the Celtic darach-bruach, "bank of the grove of oaks," and vestiges of pagan worship have been found in the Bass Hill, a neighbouring eminence. St. Modan, a champion of the Roman party, is said to have come hither from Ireland in the eighth century, and a monastery on very scanty evidence has been attributed to him. St. Mary's Abbey was founded by Hugh de Morville, Lord of Lauderdale and Constable of Scotland, in 1150. According to the Chronicle of Melrose, Beatrix de Beauchamp, wife of de Morville, obtained a charter of confirmation for the new foundation from David I.; the cemetery was said to have been consecrated on St. Martin's Day 1150, "that no demons might haunt it"; the community, however, did not come into residence till 13th December 1152.

The monks were Premonstratenses or White Friars; called by the latter name because their garb was a coarse black cassock, covered by a white woollen cape, "in imitation of the angels in heaven, who are clothed with white garments." The monks introduced were from Alnwick. "A large part of the domestic buildings seems to have been erected within fifty or sixty years of the date of the foundation, as they are built in the transition style of the beginning of the thirteenth century. The church appears to have been in progress during the thirteenth century, as in 1242 the Bishop of St. Andrews, owing to the debts incurred in building the monastery and other expenses, gave the canons permission to enjoy the revenues of the churches under their patronage, one of their number performing the office of vicar in each parish. The canons took the oath of fidelity to Edward I. in 1296, upon which their property was restored to them. Their possessions were widely spread, and extended into several counties, as appears from letters addressed by Edward regarding them to the sheriffs in the counties of Fife, Berwick, Roxburgh, and Edinburgh."[327]

Tradition states that the English under Edward II., in their retreat in 1322, provoked by the imprudent triumph of the monks in ringing the church bells at their departure, returned and burned the abbey in revenge. Dr. Hill Burton remarks that Bower cannot be quite correct in saying that Dryburgh was entirely reduced to powder, since part of the building yet remaining is of older date than the invasion. King Robert the Bruce contributed to its repair, but it has been doubted whether it ever was fully restored to its former magnificence. Certain disorders among the monks in the latter part of the fourteenth century brought the censure of Pope Gregory XI. upon its inmates. Being within twenty miles of the border, the abbey was frequently exposed to hostile English attacks, and we hear of its burning by Richard II. in 1385, by Sir Robert Bowes and Sir Bryan Latoun in 1544, and again by the Earl of Hertford in 1545—James Stewart, the abbot commendator, having with others crossed the Tweed into Northumberland and burned the village of Horncliffe. It was annexed to the Crown in 1587, and the lands were erected into a temporal barony, with the title of Lord Cardross, in favour of the Earl of Mar, from whom they have passed by purchase through the hands of several proprietors.

Chaucer was held to have visited the abbey, but the claim has been demolished by Dr. Hill Burton in Billings' Antiquities. Among the distinguished men, however, connected with the abbey was Ralph Strode, "the Philosophicall Strode," to whom and the "moral Gower" Chaucer inscribed his Troilus and Cresseide. He was a friend both of Chaucer and John Wiclif.[328] Andrew Forman was superior of Dryburgh, and was much occupied with affairs of Church and State under James IV. and James V. He was appointed in 1501 to the bishopric of Moray, holding at the same time the priories of Coldingham and Pittenweem, with the commendatorship of Dryburgh. He became afterwards Archbishop of Brouges, and finally Archbishop of St. Andrews. He is said to have written (1) Contra Lutherum, (2) De Stoica Philosophia, (3) Collectanea Decretalium.[329]

The monastery had the usual buildings around the cloister; the church was on the north side, and stood about ten steps above the level of the cloister garth. The sacristy, chapter-house, fratery, and other apartments stretch from the transept southwards along the east side; above these, on the upper floor, were the dormitories, entering by an open staircase from the south transept. Along the south side of the cloisters lay the refectory, which, on account of the slope of the ground, was raised on a basement floor of vaulted cellars. On the west side of the cloister garth are now only a few vaulted cellars. A small stream runs along the S.W. side of the monastic buildings, and beyond the stream are the remains of what seems to have been a detached chapel.

The oldest portions of the structure are those forming the eastern range; they are of Transitional date or about the beginning of the thirteenth century.[330] The sacristy has a stone bench round the walls and three steps in the floor. It has a door from the transept and an outer semicircular-headed doorway of Transition character from the cloister. Access is also obtained by a small door in the north side to a wheel-stair leading to the upper floors, and visible as a projecting turret at the S.E. angle of the transept. The east window of the sacristy is pronounced remarkable, having two round-headed windows surmounted by a visica-formed aperture. It has a piscina in the south wall near the east end. The apartment next the sacristy may originally have been a parlour, but is now appropriated as a mausoleum. There is an ambry in the south wall near the east end, and the doorway is semicircular and of Norman character. The floor of the chapter-house is several feet below the level of the cloister walk; the ordinary central doorway and side windows opening from the cloister are placed in their usual position on the level of the cloister walk. The side openings were unglazed, and were used for seeing and hearing what was proceeding in the chapter-house below. The doorway is large and deeply recessed; the outer arches of the windows on each side of the doorway are plain semicircles, filled in with two pointed lights having a central shaft.

The chapter-house retains its round barrel vault, and has three pointed windows in the east end and two similar ones in the side walls, where the chapter-house projects beyond the general line of the buildings. In the interior a round arched arcade runs along the east side, supported on single shafts, and there are traces of a similar arcade running round the side walls. There is an entrance doorway in the south wall; the east gable wall over the chapter-house still exists, possessing flat buttresses of a Norman type at the angles and between the windows, but the pointed arches indicate Transition work. There is a lovely fragment of carved work still preserved in the chapter-house, representing the pascal lamb slain and surrounded by a wreath of foliage, above which are the letters I.H.S. The vine leaves flowing from the lamb may symbolise the branches springing from the true vine.

South of the chapter-house was probably the fratery or monks' day room. It has been vaulted at a late period—probably third pointed. There is a fire-place in the centre of the west wall, and an outer doorway at the south end of the same wall. The apartment was lighted by three plain round arched windows in the east wall, one of which has had tracery inserted in after times. At the N.W. angle, opening from the level of the cloister, is a round-headed doorway, and traces of a staircase which served as the day access to the dormitory. South of the fratery is the slype or passage, with arched openings to the east and west. It has also a doorway to the fratery, and another to the apartment on the south side, the latter of which now only exists in part, the south end of the range having been destroyed. The range of these buildings still retains its eastern wall to the full height of two stories—the upper story being doubtless the dormitory.

On the south side of the cloister, where the refectory once stood, there are now only the ruins of the vaulted basement on which it stood. At the east end of this range there is a doorway from the cloister giving access to a staircase which led down to the lower level of the fratery, and the remainder of the south side was probably all occupied by the refectory. The west wall is almost all that survives; it is now ivy-clad, and contains a picturesque circular window, with radiating tracery. Adjoining this wall in the S.W. angle of the cloister there is an arched recess, apparently intended for a tomb and monument, but now empty. Over the doorway in this angle is a large shield, containing the arms of John Stewart, who was commendator in 1555. On the shield are the initials J.S., with the crozier in the centre. He was brother to the Earl of Lennox, and uncle to Lord Darnley, who married Queen Mary. The arms are those of the Stewarts of Lennox.

The cloister occupies a space of 93 feet by 91 feet, and was surrounded by a vaulted walk which has entirely disappeared. It is evident that the cloister walk was at least partly vaulted, from the small remains of the springing of the vaults which are visible in the eastern wall on each side of the doorway to the chapter-house. The south wall of the nave of the church extends along the north side of the cloister, and at the N.E. angle is the doorway which led from the cloister into the nave—a handsome specimen of the Transition style. The nave of the church is entered through this handsome doorway by ten steps up from the cloister, and presents a scene of terrible destruction. The west end wall partly remains, "and shows by the responds attached to it the form of the nave piers, with their caps and bases. The position of the piers along the nave is now roughly indicated by a collection of fragments arranged as nearly as possible in the original position and form. The mouldings indicate a late date, and were, doubtless, restorations; but the responds, which were not so liable to destruction, are of first pointed date. The responds which form part of the west wall show that there was a central nave 28 feet wide and side aisles, each about 13 feet 6 inches wide, making a total width of 55 feet. There have been side chapels in the nave, apparently divided by walls, some portions of which remain, with ambries in the chapels. The western doorway has a round arched head, but its details show that it is of late design. This part of the edifice has apparently been restored in the fifteenth century, after the destruction of the abbey by Richard II. in the end of the fourteenth century."[331]

The transept has a slight projection to the north and south; this part of the building and all to the east of it are evidently of thirteenth century work, but only a few detached portions remain. The south transept gable has a large window filled with simple pointed tracery, rising in steps above the roof of the dormitory. The arch through which the stair to the dormitory passed is visible in this wall. To the east of the transept is a choir of two bays, with aisles, and beyond which is an aisleless presbytery. The portions left are pronounced to be of a very beautiful design, both internally and externally. The exterior is simple but elegant, and of first pointed work; the interior shows evidence of more advanced design. The clerestory is of beautiful design; "each bay contains an arcade of three arches, the central one, which is opposite the window, being larger than the side arches. The arches are supported on detached piers, behind which runs a gallery. These piers each consist of two shafts, with central fillet. They have first pointed round caps, over which a round block receives the arch mouldings as they descend. A small portion of the north end of the transept adjoins the above, which shows that the structure has been carried up in two stories of richly moulded windows, all in the same style as the adjoining portions of the choir. The remaining portion of the aisle is vaulted with moulded ribs springing from responds and corbels corresponding in style with the choir."[332]

Here rests the dust of Sir Walter Scott and his kinsfolk, and of it Alexander Smith wrote that "when the swollen Tweed raves as it sweeps, red and broad, round the ruins of Dryburgh, you think of him who rests there—the magician asleep in the lap of legends old, the sorcerer buried in the heart of the land he has made enchanted."

Dunfermline Abbey (Fife).—Dunfermline was from a very early period the residence of the kings of Scotland and here Malcolm Canmore had his tower; here he entertained the royal fugitives from England, and married the Princess Margaret in 1068. The Glen of Pittencrieff contains the remains of the Tower of Malcolm Canmore, and of a subsequent royal palace, and they were in 1871 pronounced by the House of Lords to be Crown property. Malcolm's Tower is believed to have been built between 1057 and 1070, and the royal palace may have been founded as early as 1100, although more likely it was not built till after the departure of Edward I. of England, in February 1304. The kings of Scotland, from Robert Bruce onward, appear to have frequently resided in the palace.

According to Turgot, Queen Margaret, after her marriage, founded a church "in that place where her nuptials were celebrated," and it was dedicated to the Holy Trinity in 1074. It became the place of royal sepulture, and Queen Margaret was buried within it. There are frequent references from this time onwards of grants to the church of the Holy Trinity, and to interments of royal personages therein. "The original church of Canmore," says Professor Innes, "perhaps not of stone, must have been replaced by a new edifice when it was dedicated in the reign of David I.,"[333] and Messrs. MacGibbon and Ross add

"As no notice has been preserved of the erection of any new church till the building of the choir in the first quarter of the thirteenth century, it has been supposed that the nave of the existing structure (which is in the Norman style) may have been the church founded and erected by Queen Margaret. But the style of the building forbids this supposition. None of the English cathedrals were founded till the end of the eleventh century, and few were carried out till the expiry of the first quarter of the twelfth century. Scotland would certainly not be in advance of England in its style of architecture, and we know that little, if any, Norman work was executed in this country till the days of David I.... The style of the structure is early Norman, and would naturally follow the erection of Durham Cathedral, which took place about twenty-five years earlier."[334]

The same authorities think that the original church of Malcolm stood where the new choir was afterwards erected, and that David I. added the Norman nave to it.

"The nature of the site seems to favour this view, as the ground to the west slopes rapidly away, and scarcely allows room for the west end of the nave; while the conventual buildings, for want of suitable space, have had to be carried with an archway over a public street."[335]

Alexander I. seems to have contemplated its erection into an abbey, and in the year of his succession David I. remodelled it as a Benedictine Abbey, and placed in it an abbot and twelve brethren brought from Canterbury. By the close of the thirteenth century it had become one of the most magnificent institutions in Scotland.

David I., after introducing the Benedictine order, probably added the Norman nave to the then existing church erected by his royal parents, and it was evidently resolved at no distant time from this to rebuild the early church and form a new choir and transept worthy of the new settlement. This was done, and between 1216 and 1226 the choir, aisles, transept, and presbytery were erected, and Abbot Patrick, formerly Dean and Prior of Canterbury, presided at Dunfermline during the whole of the above time. Appeals were made to the Popes Honorius III. and Gregory IX. on account of the expenses incurred by church erection and the increase of the number of canons from thirty to fifty.

In the dispute of 1249 regarding the consecration of the new choir, Pope Honorious IV. decided that a new consecration was not necessary, as the consecrated walls of the oldest part (the nave) continued in use. In that year Queen Margaret was canonised, and in 1250 her body was transferred from the old church to the new lady chapel in presence of all the chief men of the kingdom. "The translation of the saintly foundress," says Professor Innes, "was probably arranged to give solemnity to the opening of the new church."[336] This is known in history as the "Translation of S. Margaret," and the "grate companie" of king, nobles, bishops, abbots, and dignitaries in procession kept time "to the sound of the organ and the melodious notes of the choir singing in parts." Soon after this, describing what it had become towards the close of the thirteenth century, Matthew of Westminster wrote: "Its boundaries were so ample, containing within its precincts three carrucates of land, and having so many princely buildings, that three potent sovereigns, with their retinues, might have been accommodated with lodgings here at the same time without incommoding one another." In 1244 it had become a mitred abbey, Pope Innocent IV. having, at the request of Alexander II., empowered and authorised the abbot to assume the mitre, the ring, and other pontifical ornaments; and in the same year, in consideration of the excessive coldness of the climate, he granted to the monks the privilege of wearing caps suitable to their order; but they were, notwithstanding, enjoined to show proper reverence at the Elevation of the Host and other ceremonies.[337]

"This sumptuous pile," says Professor Innes, "was destroyed and levelled with the ground by the soldiers of Edward in 1303, excepting only the church and a few dwellings for the monks[338]—Edward I. of England having occupied it from 6th November 1303 to 10th February 1304. It was restored, probably in much less than its former magnificence, after Bruce was settled on the Scottish throne, and it evidently remained in that condition until 28th March 1560, when the choir, transepts, and belfry were, with the monastic buildings, "cast down.""

It was a very wealthy abbey, and the greater part of the lands in the western, southern, and eastern districts of Fife, as well as in other counties, belonged to it. The abbey also possessed many rights, and the abbot was Superior of lands—the property of others—and received the resignation of his vassals sitting on their bended knees, and testifying all due humility. The abbot and convent were invested with the power of enforcing their rights by excommunication, and they exercised it on several occasions. The abbey possessed the right of a free regality, with civil jurisdiction equivalent to that of a sheriff over the occupiers of the lands belonging to it, and with a criminal jurisdiction equivalent to that of the Crown, wielding the power of life and death. A bailie of regality, appointed by the abbot, and officiating in his name, resided in an edifice called the Bailie House, near the Queen's House, and presided in the regality courts.

The abbey church succeeded Iona as a place of royal sepulture, and kings, queens, and princes were buried within it. Gordon gives the list of eight kings, five queens, seven princes, and two princesses, besides other notable persons,[339] so that it may well be called the "Scottish Westminster."

The abbey church, when complete, was cruciform, and comprised a seven-bayed nave, with side aisles, a transept, a choir with a lady chapel, and three towers, two western ones terminating the aisles and flanking the gable of the nave, and the great central tower rising from the crossing. The monastic buildings were also on a magnificent scale, but of the church and monastic structures there only now remain the Norman nave, the base of the Lady Chapel, and part of the refectory and kitchen.

The nave is well preserved and the piers are circular. The plan of these with that of the wall responds shows that the original intention was to groin the aisles. The two eastern bays between the eastern pillars are built up with solid masonry, and only a portion of the arches is visible. The two western bays and the triforium arches above them have also been filled up with solid building to strengthen the western towers.[340] "The pillars which support the west towers are of greater size than the others, and are of a different section. One of the pillars and the corresponding arch of the north arcade are of late Gothic work, and may be part of the repairs ordered by the Privy Council in 1563, or of the work done in 1594 under the direction of William Schaw, Master of Works, who at that time built the north-west tower and steeple, as well as the porch on the north side of the nave. At the same time, also, certain great buttresses were built against the outer walls, which are now conspicuous features of the structure."[341]

The great western doorway, a good example of Norman work, remains unaltered, and consists of five orders, having alternately round and octagonal shafts, chiefly with cushion caps, but some are ornamented with scrolls. The abacus is heavy, and is carved with sunk diapers. The orders are continued round the arches, and contain chevron ornaments (much decayed), rosettes, and diapers.[342] The outer order contains large heads and geometric figures in the alternate voussoirs—an arrangement similar to that of Whithorn and Dalmeny, where the geometric figures also resemble those adopted here.[343] The original north doorway, partly concealed by Schaw's porch, is similar in design, with the addition of an arcade above the arch, resembling but still plainer than that over the doorway of Dalmeny Church. The south doorway of the church is of late work, and there appears to have been another south doorway at the east end of the nave, but it is now built up.[344] The whole of the aisle walls are arcaded in the interior up to the height of the window sills, but the arcade has been partly cut away for monuments. The general design of the nave recalls that of Durham Cathedral, and Dr. Joseph Robertson remarks, "Though not of great size, the sombre masses of the (nave) interior are impressive. The English visitor will remark more than one point of resemblance to Durham and Lindisfarne; and there is no violence in the conjecture that the same head may have planned, or the same hands have hewn, part of all the three. We know that when the foundations of Durham were laid in 1093 by the confessor and biographer of St. Margaret, her husband Malcolm was present; and when the new church received the relics of St. Cuthbert in 1104, her son Alexander witnessed the rites."[345] Both at Durham and Dunfermline there are the same circular piers with zig-zag ornaments, and massive cushion caps and clustered piers occur in each. The small circular bases, resting on great square plinths, are also common to both. The triforium and clerestory are simple in design, and the aisles are vaulted and groined. The windows of the aisles are single round-headed lights, having plain sconsions, with one recessed shaft on each side, and the arch enriched with chevron mouldings.[346] Internally and externally they are of similar design.

From the existence of the large west end pillars, it was evidently intended from the first to have two western towers. The northern one, along with the upper part of the adjoining gable, was destroyed to a considerable extent at the Reformation, and in its present state it was designed and built up by William Schaw. The bold corbelling at the top recalls the similar treatment of the towers of St. Machar's, Aberdeen, and other examples derived from domestic architecture.[347] The south-west tower seems to have remained intact, although in a ruinous condition, till 1807, when it fell, having been struck with lightning. Three years later the present top was put on the old walls.[348] The Lady Chapel at the east end was built to receive Queen Margaret's shrine, and is now reduced to a small fragment, consisting of part of the south and east walls, which remain to the height of about 2 or 3 feet. "It has been a small structure of about 26 feet 9 inches by 22 feet, of delicate and refined pointed work, as is apparent from the bases of the wall arcading and the edge of the surrounding seat, enriched with nail-head ornaments, which still exist. The Lady Chapel appears from an old view to have been a low structure, reaching only to the sill of the great east window of the choir, and it was evidently vaulted in two compartments."[349]

No stones now remain of the thirteenth century choir, as they were all removed to make room for the modern church, begun in 1818; before this, however, considerable remains of the choir and the whole of the foundations were standing.[350] The choir was a prolongation of the present nave, having transepts and a great aisle on the north side. There was a lofty central tower of two stories, with three windows in each storey facing the four sides, and it was this part of the structure which suffered on the 28th March 1560, when "the wholl lordis and barnis that were on thys syde of Forth passed to Stirling, and be the way kest doun the Abbey of Dunfermling."[351] The nave was used as a parish church till 1821, when the new choir was opened. In the south transept of it are three much-admired white marble monuments: General Bruce's by Foley (1868), the Hon. Dashwood Preston Bruce's by Noble (1870), and Lady Augusta Stanley's by Miss Grant of Kilgraston (1876). The remains of King Robert the Bruce were discovered in 1818 at the digging for the foundation of the new parish church. They were found wrapped in a pall of cloth of gold, thrown apparently over two coverings of sheet lead, in which the body was encased, all being enclosed in a stone coffin. "There was strong internal evidence of the remains being those of Robert Bruce, and after a cast of the skull had been taken, they were replaced in the coffin, immersed in melted pitch, and reinterred under mason work in front of the pulpit of the new parish church. An inlaid monumental brass was in 1889 inserted in the floor over his tomb." Near the east end of the church is a square tower, with terminals showing an open hewn stone-work, in place of a Gothic balustrade, having in capitals on the four sides of the tower's summit the words "King Robert the Bruce," and at each corner of the tower there is a lofty pinnacle.

The church occupies a commanding situation, from which the ground falls away on the west and south sides. The monastic buildings were on the south side of the nave, but on a lower level. Of these structures considerable remains still exist. "The ground between the dark walls and the church has, in recent years, been levelled up, the outer portions of the monastic buildings serving as retaining walls. With the exception of these outer walls, the site of the monastery is thus buried."[352]

The refectory stood on the south side of the cloister, and the whole length and height of its south and west walls still exist. The south wall was divided into seven bays, and in six of them there are lofty two-light windows. The eastern bay has a reading desk, from which one of the monks read aloud during meals. It is lighted from the outside by two windows. On the side next the hall there are two lofty openings.[353]

Adjoining the refectory on the south-west is a large tower, beneath which runs St. Catherine's Wynd, through a "pend" or archway, whence it is called the "Pend Tower." "The outside of the refectory and 'Pend Tower' is very imposing, with a simple row of lofty buttresses and windows along the top. The west gable wall of the refectory is still entire, and has a large window of seven lights. The tracery of this window is in good preservation, and is one of the most favourable examples of a kind of tracery developed in Scotland during the fifteenth century. At the north-west corner of the refectory is the staircase tower, which leads down to the offices below, and upwards to the refectory roof, over which access was obtained to the upper story of the 'Pend Tower.' In the north wall of the refectory, near the west end, are the remains of a flue, which may have belonged to a fire-place. The 'Pend Tower' is still entire, wanting only the cape house and roof. It served as a connecting passage between the abbey buildings and the royal palace beyond. A door led from the refectory by a passage into a groined chamber, and from thence into a room in the palace situated over the kitchen. The kitchen is a lofty room, now roofless, having remains of large fire-places and some curious recesses. Below the kitchen, but entering from another part of the palace, there is a large vaulted apartment with central pillars. These pillars were continued up through the kitchen, and probably to the room, now gone, which stood over the kitchen. Another arched passage led from this apartment through below St. Catherine's Wynd and up to the monastery. The building known as the palace was doubtless intimately connected with the monastery, and the kitchen may have been used in connection with both."[354] Within the "Pend Tower" on the first floor is a five-sided room with a fire-place, and it appears to have been a sort of guard room. It is vaulted and has irregularly placed ribs. Over this, and entering from the circular stair adjoining, is another groin-vaulted room, which had a fire-place of good design.

The passage and staircase are additions made at the time when the tower was built, and the arches were thrown between the already existing buttresses of the refectory, and in the second bay the arch is at a low level to permit of the descending stair, while the builders have just managed to save a very beautiful doorway belonging to the earlier building, and now hardly seen in the shadow of the overhanging addition.[355] To the east of the refectory is a narrow chamber with the remains of a two-light window in the south wall, and projecting southwards from this is the lower part of the wall of the fratery, reaching as high as the floor of the refectory. On the east side of the fratery extends the south wall of a building called the Baillery Prison.[356] These fragmentary structures exhaust the remains of the monastic buildings. The chapter-house was on the east side of the cloister garth. The monastery was burned by Edward I. in 1303-4, but Tytler says the church escaped.[357] Froissart states that in 1385 Richard II. burned the abbey and town, and it is doubted if any of the existing monastic buildings belong to an earlier date than that last mentioned.[358] "William Schaw, Master of Works, besides the buildings already referred to,[359] erected in 1594 certain of the immense buttresses which form such conspicuous features in all the views of the abbey. He likewise built, and doubtless designed, the Queen's House and the Bailie and Constabulary House. In connection with the latter houses there are considerable remains of buildings still existing to the north-west of the abbey, and there seems every probability that they formed part of the structures of the abbey and of the Queen's House. They are extremely picturesque as seen from the low ground to the west. The lofty house on the right hand dates probably from the end of the seventeenth century, and is a fine example of the period. The adjoining buildings are considerably earlier, and in the lower parts, where they are buttressed, they are probably of pre-Reformation times. The upper portions are somewhat later, and are very likely part of the work of Schaw. The porch to the latter buildings is on the other side, and is quaint and well known from being seen from the church. William Schaw died in 1602, and was buried in the nave, when the monument to his memory was erected by order of Queen Anne."[360]

Paisley Abbey (Renfrewshire).—In his history of this great abbey, the Very Rev. Dr. Cameron Lees thus describes its situation:—

"In the heart of the busy town of Paisley stands the Abbey, its venerable appearance contrasting most strangely with its surroundings. Many chimneys—so many that it seems impossible to count them—pour forth their smoke on every side of it; crowds of operatives jostle past it; heavily laden carts cause its old walls to tremble; the whirr of machinery and the whistle of the railway engine break in upon its repose; while within a stone's throw of it flows the River Cart, the manifold defilements of which have passed into a proverb. But it is not difficult, even without being imaginative, to see how beautiful for situation was once the spot where the Abbey rose in all its unimpaired and stately grace. It stood on a fertile and perfectly level piece of ground, close by the Cart, then a pure mountain stream, which, after falling over some bold and picturesque rocks in the middle of its channel, moved quietly by the Abbey walls on its course to the Clyde. Divided from the Abbey by this stream, rose wooded slopes, undulating like waves of the sea till they reached the lofty ridge called the Braes of Gleniffer, from the summit of which the lay brother, as he herded his cattle or swine, could get views of the Argyleshire hills, the sharp peaks of Arran, and the huge form of Ben Lomond. To the north, on the other side of the Clyde, were the fertile glades of Kilpatrick, and beyond, the Campsie range. Gardens and deer parks girdled the Abbey round; few houses were near except the little village of dependants on the other side of the stream; and no sound beyond the precincts broke the solitude, save the wind as it roared through the beech forest, the bell of a distant chapel, or, on a calm evening, the chimes of the Cathedral of Saint Mungo, seven miles away. It was a well-chosen spot, answering in every way the requirements of the Benedictines, who, we are told, "preferred to build in an open position at the back of a wooded chain of hills.""[361]

Paisley illustrates what was said by Dr. Cosmo Innes regarding the country as a whole.

"Scotland of the twelfth century had no cause to regret the endowment of a church.... Repose was the one thing most wanted, and people found it under the protection of the crozier."[362]

The Church became the great factor in the development of civilisation throughout the district. Had not the monastic system been good, it would not have lasted so long; had it not had within it the elements of weakness, it would not have come to such an untimely end. And even while we criticise it is well to recall the words of Newman: "Not a man in Europe who talks bravely against the Church, but owes it to the Church that he can talk at all."[363]

The great abbey of Paisley was much to its neighbourhood, and its history is the history of its district. It is a memorial of the coming to Scotland of the great family of Stewart, which has left such a deep impress on Scottish history. Walter, son of Alan of Shropshire, joined David I. at the siege of Winchester, and the king showed to him great favour, taking him into his household, and conferring on him the title of Lord High Steward of Scotland. King Malcolm was even more generous, ratified the title to Walter and his heirs, and bestowed on him a wide territory, chiefly in Renfrewshire.[364] The Steward soon colonised after the fashion of the time, built a castle for himself in the neighbourhood of Renfrew, and gave holdings to his followers throughout the wide territory of Strathgyff, as his Renfrewshire property was called. But in those days no colonisation was complete without a monastery, and this the Lord High Steward proceeded to found, entering into an agreement with Humbold, Prior of Wenlock Abbey in the native county of his family, to establish at "Passelay" a house of the Cluniac Order of Benedictines, being the same order as the house at Wenlock. Humbold in 1169 brought thirteen monks from the parent house, and, having settled them at Renfrewshire in an island of the Clyde called the King's Inch, returned to Wenlock. There was at this time in Paisley an early church, dedicated to St. Mirinus, an Irish saint of the sixth century, and a disciple of the great school of St. Congal at Bangor. St. Mirin was a contemporary of St. Columba, and must have been a friend of the great apostle of Scotland. He was probably the founder of the early Celtic church at Paisley, and seems to have been an itinerant preacher round the district, regarding Paisley as his centre, where at last, "full of miracles and holiness, he slept in the Lord." It matters little whether these legends regarding miracles are historically correct, for the value lies in the moral of them. "The falsehood would not have been invented unless it had started in a truth, and in all these legends there is set forth the victory of a good and beneficent man over evil, whether it be of matter or of spirit."[365]

When the monks had founded their church at Paisley they dedicated it to the Virgin Mary, to St. James, St. Milburga, and St. Mirinus. St. James was the patron saint of the Stewarts, and to him the church on the Inch of Renfrew, where the monks first took up their abode, was dedicated. St. Milburga was the patron saint of Wenlock, and it was natural that the Shropshire monks should place their new home at Paisley under the patronage of a saint whom they held in reverence, and who was a link between Paisley and the scene of former days. St. Mirinus was the Celtic saint of the neighbourhood, and by calling the new monastery after his name they reconciled the sympathies of the people to themselves, and connected their church with the old historic church of Scotland. The monastery was at first in the second rank of religious houses, and was ruled by a prior. The abbey of Clugny was very jealous of raising any of its subordinate houses to the rank of an abbey, but it was very inconvenient for the monastery of Paisley to be in subjection to one so far away as the French abbot, and commissioners appointed by a papal bull in 1219 decreed that the monks of Paisley might proceed to the canonical election of an abbot, the patron of Paisley, the Lord High Stewart, also giving his permission. Twenty-six years later, the abbot of Clugny surrendered his rights, which had been reserved by the papal bull,—the monks, through the Bishop of Glasgow, promising prompt payment of the two marks for the future, and undertaking that the abbot of Paisley should personally or by proxy visit Clugny every seven years to make obeisance and render an account to his superior.[366]

William was probably the first abbot of Paisley, and he presided from 1225 to 1248. He established and consolidated the prosperity of the convent, and obtained from the Popes several bulls conferring privileges on the monastery.[367]

The following picture, drawn by a master-hand, has been applied by Dr. Lees to the monastic life at Paisley during the prosperous reigns of Alexander II. and III.

"In black tunics, the mementoes of death, and in leathern girdles, the emblems of chastity, might then be seen carters silently yoking their bullocks to the team, and driving them in silence to the field, or shepherds interchanging some inevitable whispers while they watched their flocks; or wheelwrights, carpenters, and masons plying their trades like the inmates of some dumb asylum, and all pausing from their labours as the convent bell, sounding the hours of prime, nones, or vespers, summoned them to join in spirit where they could not repair in person, to those sacred offices. Around the monastic buildings might be seen the belt of cultivated land continually encroaching on the adjoining forest, and the passer-by might trace to the toil of these mute workmen the opening of roads, the draining of marshes, the herds grazing, and the harvests waving in security under the shelter of ecclesiastical privileges which even the Estergoth and Vandal regarded with respect. If we exchange for the 'Estergoth and Vandal' the marauding baron and Highland chief, the picture is a true one of the surroundings of Paisley Abbey in those peaceful years."[368]

"During the prosperous reigns of Kings Alexander II. and III. the church was erected, but of the work of that period (the thirteenth century) there remain only a portion of the west front and part of the south wall of the nave, including the south-east doorway to the cloister and three windows. The structure appears to have suffered severely during the War of Independence. It stood in the vicinity of Elderslie, the land of Sir William Wallace, and doubtless met with a similar savage treatment to that allotted to the patriot leader. It is stated to have been burnt by the English in 1307, and the burning would appear to have led to a very complete destruction of the edifice, as the portions of the original work which survive are very small."[369]

The abbey church was a parish church, within the territory of which the house of Elderslie was situated, and the connection of the family of Elderslie with the monks of Paisley would naturally be very close. Wallace himself was probably educated at the school of the Paisley Clunaics,[370] and the influence of the abbey may have helped to mould within him the character which Fordun thus describes:—

"He (Wallace) venerated the church and respected the clergy; his greatest abhorrence was for falsehood and lying; his uttermost loathing for treason, and therefore the Lord was with him, through whom he was a man whose every work prospered in his hand."[371]

The monks of Paisley during the times of Wallace and Bruce were on the patriotic side. After Bruce had murdered the Red Comyn before the altar of the Franciscan friars at Dumfries, the deed lay heavy on his conscience, and the Steward used his influence with the Pope to procure absolution. A commission was issued to the abbot of Paisley by Berengarius, the penitentiary of the Pope, to absolve the Bruce and appoint him proper penance for his crime.

"How the duty committed to him was discharged by the Abbot or what penance he enjoined, we do not know. It may have been to fulfil the penance imposed at Paisley that Bruce desired so ardently to visit the Holy Sepulchre. He was excommunicated again soon afterwards, and years elapsed before he was finally restored to the favour of the Church; but his absolution at Paisley was a gleam of sunshine in the midst of his stormy life, and one of the most interesting pictures in the history of our abbey is that of the monarch kneeling before its altar and amidst its fire-stained walls."[372]

James, the Steward, died on 16th July 1309, and, like the earlier Stewarts, was probably buried in the ruined abbey. He was succeeded by his son Walter, who married Marjory, the daughter of Robert the Bruce. Their married life was short, and the untimely death of Marjory took place within a year. Walter died at Bathgate in 1326, and, like his wife, was buried in the abbey.

"When long time their dule had made The corps to Paslay have they had, And there with great solemnity And with great dule eirded was he."

Robert, the son of Walter and Marjory, was but a boy of ten or eleven years of age at his father's death, but he was a boy with great expectations. Failing the death of the king's son without heirs, the Scottish Parliament had solemnly ratified his succession to the Scottish throne. King Robert the Bruce died in 1329, and his only son, David II., succeeded him. By neither of his marriages had he any issue, and he was succeeded by his sister's son, Robert II., who became the founder of the Stewart dynasty.

"The abbey was now under royal patronage, and Walter, the son of Alan, its founder—the Shropshire colonist—the progenitor of a race of kings."[373]

Under royal favour and patronage the abbey entered on a course of prosperity, unbroken till the time of the Reformation. Robert II. died in 1390, and was buried at Scone.

"If this be true, he was the first of the Stewarts who were laid elsewhere than in the precincts of the abbey, and the circumstance is all the more strange because Elizabeth More, the much-loved wife of his youth, and Euphan Ross, his queen, are buried there."[374]

Robert III. had two sons, the elder of whom was David, Duke of Rothesay (1378-1402). He was under the guardianship of Albany, who after a short time starved him to death at Falkland. Robert, anxious for the safety of his younger son, James, resolved to send him to France, but on his way thither he was captured by an English vessel, and thereafter imprisoned in the Tower of London. There is good reason for believing that Albany and the Douglases had to do with the imprisonment of the Prince, and they did everything to prevent his release. When the news was brought to the king in the castle of Rothesay, he succumbed to paroxysms of grief, and died 4th April 1406.

"Touched by grief," says Fordun, "his bodily strength vanished, his countenance paled, and, borne down by sorrow, he refused all food, until at last he breathed forth his spirit to his Creator."

He was buried in the abbey of Paisley before the high altar, and was the last of the Stewarts who was laid there.[375]

After the destruction of the abbey, caused by the wars with England, the edifice seems to have remained for long in a dismantled condition, but gifts having been received from the Bishops of Argyle and Glasgow to aid the restoration of the building, the work was begun. Besides, the abbey was from 1388 to 1408 under the ban of excommunication, and this must have powerfully added to the delay in the building operations. Part of this work was carried out under Abbot Lithgow (1384-1433), who was buried by his own desire in the north porch, where his memory is still preserved. The chief part of the rebuilding of the abbey church was carried out under Abbot Thomas de Tervas (1445-1459). The Chronicle of Auchinleck says of this abbot:—

"The quhilk wes ane richt gud man, and helplyk to the place of ony that ever wes, for he did mony notabil thingis, and held ane nobil hous, and wes ay wele purvait. He fand the place al out of gud reule, and destitute of leving, and al the kirkis in lordis handis, and the kirk unbiggit. The bodie of the kirk fra the bucht stair up he biggit, and put on the ruf, and theekit it with sclats and riggit it with stane, and biggit ane great porcioun of the steple, and ane staitlie yet-hous: and brocht hame mony gude jowellis, and clathis of gold, silver, and silk, and mony gud bukis, and made statelie stallis, and glassynnit mekle of al the kirk, and brocht hame the staitliest tabernakle that wes in al Skotland, and the maist costlie: and schortlie he brocht al the place to fredome and fra nocht till ane michty place, and left it out of al kind of det, and al fredome, till dispone as them lykit, and left ane of the best myteris that wes in Skotland, and chandillaris of silver, and ane lettren of brass, with mony uther gud jowellis."[376]

Abbot Thomas is said to have obtained the privilege of having a tavern and selling wine within the gates of the monastery, and is believed to have raised money thereby for the reconstruction of his church.[377] The quaint language of the ancient Chronicle of Auchinleck, translated into ordinary English, means that besides journeying to Rome and procuring the articles mentioned, he carried up the triforium and clerestory, finished the roof, erected a great part of the steeple, and built a stately gate-house.

At the death of Abbot Tervas, Pope Pius II. decreed that the disposition of the office and of the whole revenues of the monastery should fall to the Pope, and he appointed Henry Crichton, a monk of Dunfermline, to be commendator of the abbey, and assigned a pension of 300 florins out of the revenues to Pietro Barlo, Cardinal of St. Mark's in Venice, to be paid to him by Henry and his successors at the Feast of St. John the Baptist, under pain of excommunication, in case of his failing to make payment within thirty days after the appointed term, and total deprivation if he persisted in his opposition six months after his excommunication. When he got himself fairly installed as abbot he declined to pay the stipulated pension to the Cardinal of St. Mark's, and made some legal quibble the ground of his neglect. Trouble followed, and since this, the appointment of its first commendator, the rights of the abbey began to be invaded. Abbot George Shaw (1472-1498) endeavoured to guard the monastery against encroachments; he built a refectory and other structures, reared a lofty tower over the principal gate, enclosed the church, the precincts of the convent, the gardens, and a little park for deer within a wall about a mile in circuit.[378] Of this once magnificent wall, with its four-sided beautiful stones and lofty statues, very few fragments now remain, but there are still two tablets that belonged to it. The central shield bears the royal arms, the shields to the right and left of it the Stewart arms and the abbot's own; and there is an inscription by the pious builder himself, which is as follows:—

Ye call it ye Abbot Georg of Schawe About yis Abbey gart make yis waw A thousande four hundereth zheyr Auchty ande fywe the date but veir [Pray for his saulis salvacioun] That made thys nobil fundacioun.

It has been thought that this inscription was designed by John Morow, whose name appears on a tablet in Melrose Abbey.[379]

"The character of the lettering in design and workmanship is the same as at Melrose. The references to the building operations, the poetical form of the composition, the manner in which the names are introduced, 'Callit was I,' and 'Ye callit,' and the devout expressions with which they close, make it clear that the inscriptions are the work of the same author."

The fifth line is chiselled away, and was possibly deleted because it did not harmonise with the theology of the Reformed Church.

Abbot George Shaw was succeeded by his nephew, Robert Shaw, vicar of Munkton, and a son of the Governor of Stirling. He was canonically elected, and his election was approved by the Crown,—the Pope also gave his consent on condition that Robert Shaw should take the monastic habit within six months, and decreed that the old abbot should enjoy as his pension a third part of the fruits of the monastery, and might return to his former position when he thought proper. Robert Shaw took office in 1498, and his uncle lived for some years after, "the pensioner of the abbey" as he is called in charters. George Shaw died probably in 1505, and Dr. Lees says of him:—

"He filled his place well, and the visitor to Paisley who sees his shield of three covered cups with the pastoral crook behind them upon the wall of one of the outhouses, which has been ruthlessly transformed by modern iconoclasts, or reads the defaced inscription which tells of the 'nobil fundacioun' he reared, will do well to remember that they are the memorials of a good man, one of the best of his time, to whose wisdom and benevolence the town of Paisley owes its existence."[380]

This refers to the creation of Paisley as a burgh by Abbot Shaw, who obtained in 1488 a charter creating the village of Paisley into a free burgh of barony, and thereby raising the status of the people both socially and politically. The burgher was no longer in the condition of a serf or slave, who could be transferred from one master to another, and he escaped from all the severities and exactions of the feudal system. The burghs had power of self-government, and were able to develop commercial and industrial operations. The burgh of Paisley was endowed with the usual privileges, and a right to hold a market every Monday, and two yearly fairs—one on the day of St. Mirren, and the other on the day of St. Marnock. In 1490 the abbot and chapter granted to the magistrates of the burgh in feu-farm the ground on which the old town stands and certain other privileges.

After an examination of the Rental Book, Dr. Lees regards it as "corroborating all that historians tell us regarding the lands of those ecclesiastics being the best cultivated and the best managed in Scotland.... The neighbourhood of a convent was always recognisable by the well-cultivated land and the happy tenantry which surrounded it, and those of the Abbey of Paisley were no exception to the general rule prevailing throughout the rest of Scotland.[381]

"The monks were kind masters. No cases of eviction or deprivation are recorded. The same lands descended without rise of rent from father to son. Children are held bound to maintain their parents in their old age, and widows are specially cared for, and are occasionally provided with another husband!"[382]

During the fifteenth century many altars were erected and endowed by the burgesses, and the Chapel of St. Mirin, which occupies part of the site of the south transept, was erected in 1499, and endowed by James Crawford of Kylwynet, a burgess of Paisley, and his wife.

Abbot Robert (1498-1525) was received on 19th October 1525 as Bishop of Moray in the cathedral of his northern diocese, and the next abbot was John Hamilton, a natural son of the Earl of Arran, who had entered the church as a monk of Kilwinning, and whom Magnus speaks of with contempt as a "yonge thing." The earl was high in favour with the queen, who had at the time the disposal of the church benefices, and he wished the bishopric for his son. The queen, however, appointed Abbot Robert to the see of Moray, and Hamilton to the abbey of Paisley. It was one of the deeds of shame enacted in the Scottish Church which ultimately brought its severe judgment.

Abbot John Hamilton (1525-1547) rebuilt at immense cost the first tower that appears to have had insecure foundation, and fell. It seems to have had an untimely end, falling, according to one account, with its own weight, and with it the choir of the church, or, according to an another account, being struck with lightning. In 1559, with Kilwinning and Dunfermline, the abbey of Paisley was suppressed, and what that meant can best be expressed in the words of Sir Walter Scott:—

"They fumigated the church with burnt wool and feathers instead of incense, put foul water into the holy-water basins; they sung ludicrous and indecent parodies to the tunes of church hymns; they violated whatever vestments belonging to the abbey they could lay their hands upon; and playing every freak which the whim of the moment could suggest to their wild caprice. At length they fell to more lasting deeds of demolition, pulled down and destroyed carved woodwork, dashed out the painted windows, and in their vigorous search after sculpture dedicated to idolatry, began to destroy what ornaments yet remained entire upon the tombs and around the cornices of the pillars."

Although the monks were expelled, the people of Paisley still continued firm in adhering to the old faith, and the doors of the abbey were "steyked" against the reformed preachers. The abbot and his friends were accused as

"in the toun of Paslay, Kirkyard and Abbey place thereof, openlie, publicklie, and plainlie taking auricular confession in the said kirk, toun, kirkyaird, chalmeris, barns, middens, and killogies thereof, and thus makand an alteration and innovation in the state of religion, which our Soverane Lady found publicklie standing and professit within this realm, ministrand, and alswa irreverently and indecentlie the Sacramentis of Holy Kirk, namely, the Sacramentis of the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ."

It was a serious charge, and if proven was punishable by death. Hamilton had a powerful friend in Queen Mary, who interfered in his behalf, and he and his companions were committed to ward.

Besides retaining the office of abbot at Paisley, Hamilton was appointed Bishop of Dunkeld in 1543-44 by his brother, acting for the Queen, and after the murder of Cardinal Beaton, on 29th May 1546, was raised to the position of Archbishop of St. Andrews and Primate of Scotland. Probably he never returned to Paisley until, in the adversities of his later years, and the monastery being sacked and burnt by the Reformers, he was forced to take refuge at Dumbarton Castle, where he was made prisoner, and afterwards executed at Stirling. The Master of Sempill had been appointed bailie of the monastery, and, at the dissolution, the whole of the church property was handed over to Lord Sempill. The property finally came into the possession of Lord Claud Hamilton, nephew of the archbishop, and the monastic buildings were converted into the "Place of Paisley," the residence of the Abercorn family.

After the archbishop's execution his body was quartered, and afterwards buried, probably in Paisley. Dr. Lees says:—

"There is in the church a tablet, which looks as if it had marked his grave. It has upon it the archbishop's coat of arms, the letters J. H., the initials of his name, and the motto he assumed, and which contrasts strangely with his troubled life and tragic end—'Misericordia et Pax.'"[383]

Amid all that is said against the last archbishop of the old Church of Scotland, and the last abbot of Paisley, it is well to recall that the "Catechisme," which usually passes under his name, from having been printed at his expense at St. Andrews in 1552, exhibits a solitary instance of an attempt on the part of the old Roman Catholic clergy to convey spiritual instruction to the people, and is creditable to Archbishop Hamilton's memory.[384]

Referring to the disposal of the abbey property, Dr. Lees says:—

"The manner in which the Church property was gifted away forms a scandalous episode in the history of Scotland. Men like Claud Hamilton, who never had done anything for their country, became enriched and ennobled through the spoliation. It is vain to picture regretfully what might have been; but any one can see how much better it would have been for Scotland if the whole community, instead of a few unworthy individuals, had got the benefit of the Church's wealth. Those who did get it have in too many instances made a very miserable use of their ill-gotten gain."[385]

Prior to the Reformation the monastery consisted of a church, the cloister and conventual buildings. The church comprised a long aisleless choir, a nave with aisles, a north transept, a south transept, with St. Mirin's Chapel attached to the south of it, and a tower and spire over the crossing.[386]

The choir walls, containing an elegant sedilia and piscina, remain standing to the height of 9 feet, and it is questioned whether the choir was ever finished during the restoration. There is a string-course all round; the building is of fifteenth century work, and occupies the place of an earlier choir, which has been demolished. The wall at the east end of the nave, which separates it from the transept, may have been erected during the restoration of the fifteenth century, with the intention of rendering the nave a complete church until the transept and choir were restored. This seems to have been in progress when the Reformation interrupted the work. The design of the sedilia resembles that at St. Monans, Fife, and adjoining the sedilia is the piscina, the aperture of which is still visible.

The north transept is in ruins, but the north wall, with the remains of a fine traceried window, still exists, as well as a traceried window in the west wall. The south transept is also in ruins, while the tower and spire have disappeared. St. Mirin's Chapel is well preserved, but the openings connecting it with the south transept are built up.

The nave survives as a whole, and contains six bays, divided by massive piers, and surmounted by a triforium and clerestory. There is a north porch, and two doorways from the cloister on the south side.

The oldest portion of the building is pronounced to be the eastern part of the south wall of the south aisle of the nave, where it adjoins the transept. This portion of the wall consists of three bays, containing the S.E. doorway from the cloister to the nave, and three pointed windows in the upper part. The doorway is of the transition style, and the windows above are simple in style, and are early pointed work—this part of the building probably dating from the first half of the thirteenth century.[387] The western portion of the south aisle of the nave and the whole of the south clerestory are evidently portions of the restored church of the fifteenth century.[388] The south aisle wall contains the S.W. and S.E. doors from the nave to the cloister.

The west end of the nave is in part amongst the ancient portions of the structure, and the western entrance doorway is thirteenth century work.[389] The aisle windows of the west front belong to the first pointed period. The upper portion of the west front above the two large windows is of considerably later date.[390] "The design of the west front, which contains above the door-piece two large windows, with pointed niches and small circles inserted between the arch-heads, is probably original, but the upper portion and gable, including the large traceried window, are doubtless part of the restoration of the fifteenth century. The tracery of the two central windows is peculiar, and may possibly be of the fourteenth century, but that of the large upper window is later, probably of the same period as the restoration of the interior of the nave. The tracery of the large upper window is a specimen of the late kind of design employed in Scotland in the fifteenth century."[391]

The interior of the west end of the nave exhibits the change of style caused by the restoration of the fifteenth century. The first or western bay of the main arcade is original, including the first arches (one on each side), the first pillars, and the arches between them, and the aisle responds. "These pillars and arches are of large dimensions and first pointed section, and appear to have been designed to carry western towers, but a part of their thickness has been cut off next the choir. A portion of the triforium wall, a piece of the string-course over the main arcade, and the corbelled vaulting shaft in the angle as high as the top of the triforium, are also parts of the original structure. The later work has been joined to the above old parts in a very awkward manner."[392] The cap of the west pier on the north side belongs to the first pointed work, while the corresponding cap on the south side and all the other caps belong to the fifteenth century restoration.[393] Except the west piers, the piers of the nave are of the clustered form, common in late Scottish work, and might be about the same date as the restoration of St. Giles, Edinburgh (which they resemble), in the early part of the fifteenth century.[394]

The triforium design consists of large segmental arches, the same width as the main arches, springing from short clustered piers introduced between them. It somewhat resembles the triforium of the nave at Dunkeld Cathedral. The clerestory is probably designed in imitation of that of Glasgow Cathedral, and is divided into two pointed arches in each bay. They spring from a series of clustered shafts with round moulded caps that are late imitations of early work.[395] The earlier part of the nave restoration, including the main piers and arches, and perhaps the tracery of the two lower windows of the west front, were possibly executed by Bishop Lithgow, who built the north porch, and the completion of the nave (the upper portions) was carried out in the time of Abbot Tervas—the middle of the fifteenth century. A peculiarity of the nave interior is a series of large corbels, which project from the spandrils of the triforium arcade, and the object of which was to enable a passage to be carried round the solid piers introduced between the windows. Each of the large corbels springs at its lowest point from the sculptured grotesque figure of a man or animal. They were mostly the work of Thomas Hector, a sculptor, who lived at Crossflat,[396] and whom the abbot retained for his skill in the art.[397] The employment of such grotesque figures was very much affected by the monks of Clugny, and was the occasion of a rebuke from St. Bernard. "What business had these devils and monstrosities in Christian churches, taking off the attention of the monks from their prayers." One of these figures near the west gable represents a man in a kilt, and Dr. Lees thinks that many worshippers in the Abbey in more modern times have in the midst of long sermons found relief in the contemplation of those curious carvings which the saint thus vigorously denounced.[398]

St. Mirin's Aisle was erected in 1499, and there is a large pointed window in the east end, having jambs with single shafts. It is divided into four lights, and the arch-head is filled with good simple tracery. Beneath the eastern window is a frieze of one foot eight inches deep between two cornices of eight inches deep, which were intended for sculpture. Three compartments, measuring four feet, at the north or right side, and seven compartments, measuring ten feet, at the south or left side, are carved and filled with sculpture. Dr. Lees says the reference of them to Mirin is clear beyond all doubt: "In the one on the extreme left we see Mirin's mother bringing him to St. Congal. In the next St. Congal putting the religious habit on Mirin. In the next Mirin taking oversight of the monastery of Banchor. There is after this a blank, and then we have certain sculptures relating to Mirin's encounter with the Irish king, who wears a crown on his head. In the first we have the servant of the King driving Mirin away from the door of the palace. In the next the King roaring with pain and held by his servants. In the next the Queen lying in bed with a picture of the Virgin on the wall, it being the custom to hang such before women during confinement. Then we have the King on his knees before Mirin, and afterwards Mirin received by him with joy. The next two sculptures represent the last two acts of the Saint—the brother looking through the keyhole and seeing Mirin illuminated by a celestial light, and the Saint restoring to life the dead man in the Valley of Colpdasch.... As they are evidently earlier than the date of the erection of the chapel, they have probably been transferred with the relics of the Saint from an older shrine. They look like twelfth-century work, but it is possible they may be even earlier."[399] The ceiling of the chapel is beautifully groined, and the east end, where the altar stood, is raised four steps above the western part. The west wall contains an outer doorway from the cloister court, and there is a traceried window above it. A large ambry adjoins the door in the outer wall. The chapel was connected with the south transept by two wide archways, now built up, and near the east end is a piscina, with three-sided head, like that in the choir.

There is a dormitory above the chapel, arched by stone, and the entrance is by a doorway in the middle of the south side of the arch. The apartment is lighted by two windows—one in the east gable, and the other in the west. In the west gable there is a private stair leading from the dormitory to the chapel, and the priest, who was bound by the charter to live at the chapel, doubtless occupied the sleeping-place above it.[400] The chapel at the Reformation was converted into a family burying-place by Claud Hamilton, the commendator, and various members of the Abercorn family lie buried in the vault below, the chapel belonging to the present Duke, and being under his control.

On the floor of this chapel there now stands an ornamental altar tomb, which was found lying in fragments near the Abbey by the Rev. Dr. Boog, one of the Abbey ministers, and who in 1817 had it brought within the chapel and erected again. It supports a recumbent figure, believed to be the effigy of Marjory Bruce, the daughter of Robert I. and the mother of Robert II. "The head of the figure is surmounted by a large cusped canopy, placed in a horizontal position, on the end of which is carved a crucifixion. The pedestal is carved with a series of Gothic compartments, in each of which there is carved a shield, enriched with heraldic blazons and figures of ecclesiastics. The panels at the west end contain—the first the fess cheque of the Stewarts between three roses; the third the fess cheque, surmounted of a lion rampant, and the central one, two keys saltierwise, between two crosiers in pale."[401] The chapel is famed for an echo, described by Pennant in his Tour Through Scotland,[402] but Dr. Lees regards the description of the far-famed traveller as either much exaggerated, or the strength of the echo has become diminished since his time. "When any number of persons are within the building, an echo is scarcely audible at all. It is amusing sometimes to see a group of people expending the strength of their lungs in vain by attempting to evoke it."[403]

Crosses seem to have been placed at intervals on the roads leading to the church. One of the south piers of the nave is called the Cathcart pillar, and has carved upon it a shield bearing the Cathcart arms. This is believed to be a memorial of Sir Allan Cathcart, who has thus been described by Barbour:—

A knycht, that their wis in hys rout, Worthy and wycht, stalwart and stout, Curtaiss and fayr, and off gud fame, Schyr Allane of Catkert by name.

King Robert the Bruce died in 1329, and Sir Allan of Cathcart and Sir James of Douglass sailed in 1330 for the Holy Land with the King's heart. Sir James was killed in Spain in conflict with the Moors, and Sir Allan came back with the heart of the King, which was buried in Melrose Abbey. The pillar commemorates his safe return.

On the west buttress of the north transept, at 21 feet in height, is the shield of the Stewarts, with a pastoral staff, and the word "Stewart."

The first central tower erected over the crossing seems to have been of inferior workmanship and to have given way. Another is believed to have been erected by Abbot Tervas, which probably fell during the siege by Lennox and Glencairn, and may have destroyed much of the choir and transept in its fall. Western towers appear to have been contemplated.

"We are only able," says Dr. Cameron Lees, "to conjecture what was the position of the conventual buildings. But after comparing the plan of Wenlock, from which the monks originally came, with that of Crosraguel, which they afterwards erected, we think it is probable that the chapter-house, with Saint Mirin's Chapel, occupied the east side of the cloister court, the refectory the south side, and the dormitory the west. The Abbot's house probably stood at the south end of what is called Cotton Street. There were buildings also between the Abbey and the river Cart attached to the monastery, portions of the foundations of which are occasionally uncovered."[404] "The shape of the cloister court has been partially retained. The conventual buildings were almost all converted after the Reformation into dwelling-houses, and though fragments of the old houses, such as an occasional pillar or arch, are to be found, there is little to remind one of dormitory, parlour, or refectory."[405]

The nave is still used as the parish church. About 1782 it was in a dreadful condition. The roof was full of holes, through which the birds obtained free access, "distracting the attention of the worshippers in time of sermon." They built their nests and reared their young under the arches of the clerestory. A few of the gentry had "lofts" or galleries, but the bulk of the worshippers brought their seats to church with them, while the poorest sat upon stones on the earthen floor.[406] Things had become so bad that the heritors thought of pulling down the abbey, and building a "commodious kirk" with the stones.[407] This insane proposal was averted from execution by the energy and wisdom of the Rev. Dr. Boog, minister of the First Charge in 1782, and to him the country owes the credit of preserving all that now remains. "He received much assistance from the Dowager Countess of Glasgow, who resided at Hawkhead, and through their joint exertions the Abbey was not only saved from destruction, but was repaired in a way which, considering the ignorance of that time on the subject of restoration, was highly creditable."[408] Dr. Lees describes the condition of the building at his induction in 1859 as dreadful: "The interior was like a vault in a churchyard."[409] But thanks to the exertions of the Rev. Mr. Wilson and Dr. Lees himself, several thousand pounds were collected and spent in remedying this state of affairs. The church was made seemly as a venerable temple for prayer ought to be. "The unsightly galleries were taken down, the floor cleared of the accumulated rubbish of centuries, the body of the church re-seated, the clerestory windows opened up, the transept walls and windows restored, and the turrets rebuilt. Men of all creeds contributed to the work, and when the Abbey, on the 27th April 1862, was re-opened for public worship, it could scarcely be recognised, so changed was it from its former condition."[410] In closing his splendid volume Dr. Lees adds, "We trust the time is not far distant when the Abbey of the first Stewart will stand forth again in all its pristine beauty—with transept, and choir, and tower, as in the days of the founder." That hope will soon pass into a reality, and Scotland will have a completely restored abbey church used as a parish church.

Kelso Abbey (Roxburghshire).—In 1113 David, Earl of Huntingdon, and heir-presumptive to the Scottish throne, introduced a colony of thirteen Reformed Benedictine monks from the newly founded abbey of Tiron in Picardy, and planted it near his forest castle of Selkirk. He endowed it with large possessions in Scotland, and a valuable territory in his southern earldom of Huntingdon, but the French monks were dissatisfied with their position on the banks of the Ettrick, and on David's accession to the throne of his brother he removed them from Selkirk—"a place unsuitable for an abbey"—and established the monastery "at the Church of the Blessed Virgin on the bank of the Tweed, beside Roxburgh, in the place called Calkow."[411] The abbey was dedicated to the Virgin and St. John the Baptist. Its first abbot was Ralph, one of the French monks, and the Scotch chronicles state that he succeeded St. Bernard, the reformer of the order, in his abbacy at Tiron, on his death in 1116, but Dr. Cosmo Innes thinks this can scarcely be reconciled with the succession of abbots as given by the French writers.[412] The monastery soon became the richest and most powerful in Scotland, and in 1165 the Pope granted permission to the abbot to wear the mitre, and the abbot claimed precedence of all the superiors of monasteries in Scotland. In 1420 this precedence was decided by James I. in favour of the prior of St. Andrews.[413] Many of the abbots were distinguished men, who were employed in the affairs of the kingdom, and several were promoted to bishoprics.[414] Foremost in rank and power, the monks of Kelso also vindicated their place by the practice of the monastic virtues, and a copy of Wyntoun's Chronicle is supposed to have been written at Kelso.[415] They seem to have recalled the saying, claustrum sine literatura vivi hominis est sepultura ("the cloister without literature is the grave of a living man"), and Dr. Cosmo Innes remarks

"That the arts were cultivated within the Abbey walls we may conclude without much extrinsic evidence. The beautiful and somewhat singular architecture of the ruined church itself still gives proof of taste and skill and some science in the builders, at a period which the confidence of modern times has proclaimed dark and degraded; and if we could call up to the fancy the magnificent Abbey and its interior decorations, to correspond with what remains of that ruined pile, we should find works of art that might well exercise the talents of high masters. The erection of such a structure often extended over several hundred years. Kelso bears mark of having been a full century in building; and during all that time at least, perhaps for long afterwards, the carver of wood, the sculptor in stone and marble, the tile-maker and the lead and iron-worker, the painter, whether of scripture stories or of heraldic blazonings, the designer and the worker in stained glass for those gorgeous windows which we now vainly try to imitate—must each have been in requisition, and each, in the exercise of his art, contributed to raise the taste and cultivate the minds of the inmates of the cloister. Of many of these works the monks themselves were the artists and artisans, and it would be a grievous mistake to suppose that the effect was merely that of living and working in an artist's shop. The interest and honour of the convent, the honest rivalry with neighbouring houses and other orders; above all, the zeal for religion which was honoured by their efforts, the strong desire to render its rites magnificent, and to set forth in a worthy manner the worship of the Deity—all these gave to the works of the old monks a principle and a feeling above what modern art must ever hope to reach."[416]

Situated as it was near the Border, the abbey suffered severely during the War of Independence. The monastery was laid waste and the monks were supported by contributions from the other houses of their own order. In 1344 the abbey buildings were destroyed by fire, and David II. granted permission to the monks to cut wood in Selkirk and Jedwart Forest to enable them to carry out the necessary repairs.

In 1511 the Bishop of Caithness was appointed commendator, and decline of the abbey soon followed. After the battle of Flodden in 1513, David Ker of Cessford took possession of the abbey, and his brother was appointed abbot. In 1522 and 1523 invasion and havoc spread over Teviotdale; Lords Ross and Dacre pillaged the town, sparing the abbey; but in 1523 Lord Dacre sacked and burned it. The abbot's house and buildings surrounding it, the chapel of the Virgin, and the cells of the dormitory were all reduced to ashes; the lead was stripped from the roof, and the abbey rendered uninhabitable. All religious services were stopped, and the monks had to retire in want and poverty to a village near. From 1536 to 1538 James Stewart, natural son of James V., was abbot, and drew the revenues. In 1542 the Duke of Norfolk, and in 1545 the Earl of Hertford, again attacked and further destroyed the abbey. On the latter occasion the garrison of the abbey—numbering 100, of whom 12 were monks—refused the summons of the Herald to surrender, and succeeded in repulsing the Spanish mercenaries, who were the first to attack the building. It was then bombarded and the monastery captured; but the garrison still held out in the strong square tower of the church, whence some of them, though strictly watched, escaped by means of ropes during the night. The next day the assault was resumed, the tower carried, and the defenders were put to the sword. The buildings were then sacked and destroyed, the order being given to "breik them" and "thake of the leied, and outer myen the towres and strong places, and to owaier trowe all." By the following Sunday this had been strictly carried out; the abbey was razed, and "all put to royen, howsses, and towres, and stypeles." The removal of the lead to Wark alone occupied the carts of the army for several days. After this the abbeys of Melrose, Dryburgh, and Jedburgh shared in the fate of Kelso,[417] but, unlike it, they did not resist. Kelso Abbey was still further reduced by Lord Eure in 1546; and finally in 1560, when a few monks still remained, the buildings were attacked by the mob, and all the remaining fittings and furnishings destroyed. In 1559 the revenues and property of the abbey were taken possession of by the Lords of the Congregation in the name of the Crown. The temporalities were afterwards distributed amongst the favourites of James VI., and were finally conferred on Sir Robert Ker of Cessford, who was created Lord Roxburgh in 1599. The abbey still belongs to his successor, the Duke of Roxburgh, and the remains of the late duke are buried in the south transept.[418] In 1649 a vault was thrown over the transept so as to convert it into a parish church, and above this another vault served as a prison! This is seen in Grose's view, made about a century ago.

"During service on a Sunday in 1771 a panic was caused by the fall of a fragment of cement, and the church was thereafter abandoned. The ruins were partly disencumbered by the Duke of Roxburgh, 1805-16, and in 1823 the buildings were repaired by the noblemen and gentlemen of the county."[419]

Referring to the modern town, Dr. Cosmo Innes says:—

"Reposing on the sunny bank of its own beautiful river, the modern town of Kelso looks a fitting rural capital for 'pleasant Teviotdale.' It has little of the air of an old monastic burgh, and still less calls up any recollection of the heaps of ruins that impeded the plans of the English engineers. There is not much knowledge or tradition of its former state, and but few memorials of its old inhabitants. Last year (1845) a worthy burgher, who had dug up in his garden under the abbey walls what seemed to him a rare coin of a Scotch king, was scarcely well pleased to learn that it was a leaden bulla of Pope Alexander III., bronzed with the oxidising of seven centuries.

In the midst of the modern town the abbey church stands alone, like some antique Titan predominating over the dwarfs of a later world."[420]

Considering all the dangers and neglect of the centuries, it is astonishing that so many of the ruins still exist.

The building has consisted of choir or chancel of considerable length, with north and south aisles, and of a transept and nave without aisles. The north and south divisions of the transept and nave form three arms of equal length round the three sides of the crossing, above which rises the massive square tower.[421] The church was originally constructed in the late Norman style of about the end of the twelfth century, passing into the transition style—the upper part of the tower having been rebuilt at a later period.[422] Of the chancel only a fragment remains—two of the south main piers with arches and two stories of arcades above, which represent the triforium and clerestory. The chancel only had aisles.

The main piers consist of a circular column, five feet in diameter, with smaller attached half-columns on three sides to carry the moulded arches between the main piers and the arches between the latter and the aisles.[423] "The piers have caps of the usual Norman modified cushion pattern, and the arches were moulded and arranged in several orders. The arcade immediately over the main arches has a row of single round shafts, with spreading Norman caps, which carry a series of moulded arches, occupying the position of the triforium. The upper arcade, which takes the place of the clerestory, has shafts of triple form, with wide spreading bases and caps of Norman and transition design. On the latter rest the round boldly-moulded arches. The arches opposite the windows in the outer wall are slightly larger than the others. It will be observed that there is no main vaulting shaft carried up over the main piers, as is almost invariably the case, for the purpose of strengthening the wall. On the contrary, the triforium arcade is continuous, and no provision is made to support the side wall, except the single shafts of the running arcade, which have a very weak effect. In the usual arrangement, the triforium arches are separated by a substantial piece of wall, including a vaulting shaft, and the triforium arch, which is generally subdivided into several subordinate arches, is introduced between the vaulting shafts. That is a much more substantial form of construction, and also more satisfactory to the eye, than the plan adopted here of a simple continuous arcade." In the exterior of this portion of the choir the outside of the clerestory windows is visible, being simple round-headed openings, with flat buttresses between them. The remainder of the wall is plain, but, judging from the level of the triforium window, the vaulting of the aisle, which was very high and partly covered the windows, seems to have been added at a later date. The crossing is square; the piers are about nine feet square—that at the south-east angle standing detached in consequence of the opening into the south aisle, while those at the north-west and south-west angles are incorporated with the walls. The piers are designed as a series of shafts, set in square nooks (four on each of the complete sides), with a large semicircular shaft at each angle. The shafts are all built in courses with the piers, and have transition bases and caps. From the latter spring large pointed arches, with plain chamfered orders. The pointed arch indicates the transitional character of this part of the building, and was probably introduced in this position to give strength to sustain the tower. The three arms of the cross branching to the north, south, and west from the crossing are of equal size—an unusual arrangement, as the nave is generally the longest division of the church. This was part of the original design, as the western doorway is one of the most prominently Norman portions of the edifice, and no satisfactory explanation has yet been given of the shortness of the Kelso nave. The upper portion of the west front has been in the transitional style, and the Norman arcading, which runs round the interior of the nave, was continued across the west end.

The nave, north and south transepts, contain each four stories in height, consisting of an interlacing arcade of Norman work in the interior of the ground level, and three stories of windows above. The upper arcades of the choir do not extend round the nave and transepts, except in a portion of the south transept. The windows in the different stories have all round arches, both inside and outside, and the exterior is marked at each angle by broad and shallow Norman buttresses, with nook shafts in the angles, and an interlacing arcade round the lower story, both internally and externally. In the facades of the west end and north transept the windows of the different stories have been grouped so as to form distinct designs. "In the west end, over the great west doorway, there has been an arrangement of tall windows of apparently lancet form, having on either side an interlacing arcade of round arches, supported on tall, bended shafts. This is now, unfortunately, greatly destroyed. Above the arcade there runs a horizontal flat cornice, enriched with several rows of carved ornaments, and this was surmounted by a large opening of quatrefoil shape, surrounded with numerous mouldings and enrichments. The angle buttresses have been crowned with octagonal turrets."[424]

The north wall of the north transept has a fine transitional door-piece, occupying the two lower stories. The next two stories have each two windows, separated by a small buttress, and the upper story has three arches in the interior. "Above these stories is a small circular window with a curious saving arch over it, and the whole is crowned with a top story, containing three round-headed openings, and a gable with a small circular aperture. The buttresses at the angles are crowned with circular turrets, which have been finished with a projecting parapet, the corbels for carrying which still survive. The upper part of the gable shows signs of having been altered."[425]

The west doorway and the north door-piece are interesting; the former, the south half of which has perished, and which was finished with a sloping gable and stone roof, is regarded as a rich specimen of the elaborate carved work that characterised the late Norman period. "The jambs contained five detached shafts set in nooks, and having Norman bases and carved caps. Over each of these shafts there springs a circular order, carved with rich Norman ornament, now, however, very much decayed. The jambs of the doorway also formed moulded shafts, supporting their order in the arch."[426] The door-piece of the north transept wall is a prominent feature, projects 4 feet 6 inches from the main wall, has two stories, and is roofed with a sloping stone roof. The shafts have the usual Norman caps and bases, and the mouldings of the arch are pronounced to be peculiar in their profile. The outer one is enriched with small medallions, the central with the billet, and the inner one with rosettes. Above the archway there is an arcade of interlacing round shafts—the shafts, which were destroyed, having Norman caps. "The tympanum of the gable is covered with a reticulation of round beads or rolls."[427] The south and west sides and a small portion of the north and east sides of the tower remain. It is 35 feet square over the walls, and "is carried up with plain masonry externally, but the interior has immediately over the great arches of the crossing an arcade of round moulded arches, supported on triple shafts similar to those of the choir. Above this arcade is another story containing simple round arched openings, which are lighted on the exterior by circular windows containing quatrefoils. Over this tier is the upper story, which contains three pointed and deeply-recessed windows on each side of the tower. Broad, flat buttresses are placed at each angle of the tower, similar to those of the main building, and these were, no doubt, originally finished with turrets like those of the transepts.... The upper part of the tower is later than the lower part. This is apparent from the pointed windows of the top story and the quatrefoiled circular windows of the story beneath. The lower story immediately over the great arches is, without doubt, of about the same date as the choir."[428] There were probably similar staircases in other parts of the structure now removed, but the approach to the upper floors is now by one staircase in the N.W. angle of the transept. Passages between the arcades and the outer walls went round the building on every floor, and in the angles of the tower there are small wheel stairs leading to every floor, and passages running round the tower on every story. These arcades and passages have tended to weaken the structure, and it has been found necessary to strengthen it with numerous iron tie-rods, iron beams, etc.[429]

There was an outer door in the S.W. angle of the transept, and another in the north wall of the nave adjoining the crossing. A tomb recess is in the south transept wall, and in the recess beneath are two ambries or lockers and a piscina, the only one remaining in the building. To the south of the transept there is a vaulted chamber that may have been the sacristy.[430]

Arbroath Abbey (Forfarshire).—This abbey was founded in 1178 by William the Lion, and dedicated to S.S. Mary and Thomas a Becket. Becket had been martyred at the high altar of Canterbury Cathedral only seven years before, and William the Lion had recently suffered defeat and capture by the English at Alnwick. William had been personally acquainted with Becket, and is supposed to have regarded him as a private friend.

"Was this the cause," asks Dr. Cosmo Innes, "or was it the natural propensity to extol him who, living and dead, had humbled the crown of England, that led William to take St. Thomas as his patron saint, and to entreat his intercession when he was in greatest trouble? Or may we consider the dedication of his new abbey, and his invocation of the martyr of Canterbury, as nothing more than the signs of the rapid spreading of the veneration for the new saint of the high church party, from which his old opponent himself, Henry of England, was not exempt?"

As showing the eagerness with which King William pushed on the buildings, Hollinshed mentions that

"The King came by the Abbey of Aberbrothoc to view the work of that house, how it went forward, commanding them that were overseers and masters of the works to spare for no cost, but to bring it up to perfection, and that with magnificence."[431]

The abbey received great endowments from King William and from many subsequent princes and barons; acquired in 1204 a charter of privileges from King John of England and was one of the foremost and richest in Scotland. Its monks were Tyronenses, and the first were brought from Kelso Abbey.

"By the year 1178 part of the church was ready for dedication. William the Lion died in 1214, and was buried in the east end of the edifice, which was then finished. Shortly afterwards the south transept was sufficiently well advanced to admit of the burial within it, before the altar of St. Catherine, of Gilchrist, Earl of Angus. On the 18th of March 1233, during the time of Abbot Ralph de Lamley, the church was dedicated. The time occupied in the erection and completion of the structure was thus a little over fifty-five years, and when its dimensions are considered, it will be found in comparison with other churches to have been carried on with great rapidity."[432]