There is at first sight a strange confusion amongst the conventual
buildings, owing to what turns out, on careful examination, to be a
comparatively recent erection built in the middle of them.
The chapter house seems to have been appropriated as a mausoleum by the
Earls of Menteith and Airth, and a long avenue has been
[Illustration: FIG. 538.--Inchmahome Priory. West Doorway.]
[Illustration: FIG. 539.--Inchmahome Priory. Mouldings of West
Doorway.]
constructed and enclosed between two high walls leading up to it. This
was, no doubt, erected with the materials of the demolished monastic
buildings right through the centre of what was the cloister garth. This
enclosure is said to have been erected in haste to receive the remains
of Lord Kilpont, son of the first Earl of Menteith and Airth, who was
assassinated in the camp of Montrose at Collace, in 1644, by Stewart of
Ardvoirlich; a weird Highland story, on which Scott has founded his
romance of _The Legend of Montrose_. The body was sent home to his
father, then a State prisoner in his own castle of Talla, and was buried
here.
[Illustration: FIG. 540.--Inchmahome Priory. North-West Tower.]
In the choir are the graves of some of the most distinguished men of the
families of Comyn, Stewart, Drummond, and Graham, with numerous
monuments, much defaced--amongst others, that of Walter Stewart, fifth
Earl of Menteith and his Countess (Figs. 541 and 542). The Earl was one
of the most historic men of his day. He was present at the battle of
Largs, in 1263; he was a witness to the marriage of the Princess
Margaret to Eric of Norway, 1281; and he was a distinguished crusader
under Louis IX.
[Illustration: FIG. 541.--Inchmahome Priory. Monument of Fifth Earl and
Countess of Menteith.
(Drawn from Sketch by Mr. R. B. Armstrong.)]
In 1543 Queen Mary, as a child, found refuge here along with her mother
after the battle of Pinkie, and she stayed here for some months until a
favourable opportunity was found for sending her to France. Dr. John
Brown has pointed out that amongst other interesting and suggestive
relics in the garden may still be seen what seems to have been the young
queen’s miniature or child’s garden--a small flower plot, the boxwood
edging of which has now grown up into a thick shrubbery.
[Illustration: FIG. 542.--Inchmahome Priory. Monument of Fifth Earl of
Menteith.
(Drawn from Sketch by Mr. R. B. Armstrong.)]
At the south side of the island there is a high mound, called the “Nun’s
Walk,” about which a romantic and tragic tale is told. This may,
however, have been an artificial mote or mound, raised for the purpose
of receiving an early wooden castle on its summit. There is a similar
mound close to Lincluden College, Dumfriesshire.