“Bower states (pp. 368-369) that Prior John of Haddington, who sat
1263-1304, ‘made the great chamber which is situated in the east
part of the monastery, beside the burying-ground;’ that Prior John
of Forfar (1313-1321) ‘built the new chamber adjoining the
cloister, which the priors have usually had, and which Prior
William of Lothian (1340-1354) afterwards enclosed on every side
with a very strong wall;’ also, that William of Lothian roofed ‘the
eastern chamber’ at great expense.” Lord Bute goes on to say--“My
impression is, that the ‘new chamber’ is that afterwards called the
senzie chamber; several priors and bishops are mentioned as having
died ‘in the prior’s chamber,’ but that Halderston rebuilt the
eastern chamber, erecting a fine house there, and also rebuilding
some rather decayed old oratory on a finer scale [_decentiori_]. He
was the first who obtained for the priors the use of the pastoral
insignia--viz., the mitre, staff, and ring. ‘He strikingly
increased for their glory the pomp of divine service, at the
celebration of the mass of our lady in her chapel. [Probably it was
the custom for the priors to sing or say it on certain days, or
every day].... In his days the Lord William Bower, vicar of St.
Andrews, completed the altar of [Christ] crucified in the nave of
the church, adorned with its permanent [_solido_] throne and
sumptuous figures; and likewise William of Ballochy, his sub-prior,
with the desire of the said prior, completed in a very beautiful
and comely manner the space of the dormitory at the sides and the
other pavements.’”