CHAPTER VI

SCOTTISH MONASTICISM

The old Celtic monastic system, with Iona as its centre, was superseded

by the monastic system of the Roman Church in the eleventh century, and

the old Culdee monks were either driven from their ancient settlements

or compelled to become Augustinian canons or Benedictine monks. The life

of Queen Margaret marks the period of transition in Scotland from the

old system to that of the Church of Rome both in building and in every

other department, and what Queen Margaret began, her sons, Edgar,

Alexander and David completed. St. Margaret had a monk of Durham for her

chaplain; Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, was her chosen counsellor.

She introduced Benedictines from Canterbury into her foundation at

Dunfermline. Edgar and Alexander took for their adviser St.

Anselm--Lanfranc's successor, preferred English priests, and peopled the

monasteries with English monks. David was even more earnest in the

pursuit of this policy, and the kings who followed him found little to

"Anglicise." Saxon refugees were followed into Scotland by Norman

knights; these were received by David and presented with lands, and the

extent of their possessions is apparent in the names of the proprietors

settled in every part of the country. The policy is apparent: their

settlement helped to keep the country in order, and defend it from the

attacks of the unsubdued tribes in the north and west. It also helped to

facilitate the spread of the Roman Catholic system throughout the

country. "The new colonists," says Dr. Cosmo Innes, "were of the 'upper

classes' of Anglican families long settled in Northumbria, and Normans

of the highest blood and name. They were men of the sword, above all

service and mechanical employment. They were fit for the society of

court, and many became the chosen companions of our princes. The old

native people gave way before them, or took service under the

strong-handed strangers, who held lands by the written gift of the

sovereign."[307] ... "The new settlers were of the progressive party,

friends of civilisation and the Church. They had found churches on their

manors, or if not already there, had founded them. To each of these

manorial churches the lord of the manor now made a grant of the tithes

of his estate; his right to do so does not seem to have been questioned,

and forthwith the manor--tithed to its church--became what we now call a

parish."[308] Examples of these parish churches have already been

considered, and the two-fold movement of a cathedral system with

parochial benefices was continued for a time. It was the most effective

way of superseding the old Celtic church, and the policy was throughout

inspired by the aim of substituting the parochial system with a diocesan

episcopacy for the old tribal churches with monastic jurisdiction and

functional episcopacy. But this was accompanied by a third movement,

which to a very great extent paralysed it, and became a source of

weakness to religion. The parochial system was shipwrecked when scarcely

formed by the introduction of monasticism, which was then in the

ascendant throughout Europe. "The new monks," says Dr. Cosmo Innes, "of

the reformed rule of St. Benedict or canons of St. Augustine, pushing

aside the poor lapsarian Culdees, won the veneration of the people by

their zealous teaching and asceticism.... The church, too, with all its

dues and pertinents, was bestowed on the monastery and its patron saint

for ever, reserving only a pittance for a poor priest to serve the cure,

or sometimes allowing the monks to serve it by one of their own

brethren. William the Lion gave thirty-three parishes to the new

monastery of Arbroath, dedicated to the latest and most fashionable High

Church saint, Thomas à Becket."[309]

The Church thus became territorial instead of tribal; episcopal instead

of abbatial, and the new abbeys began to acquire large territory in the

country. By the end of the thirteenth century the old line of Celtic

kings closed in Alexander, and the movement was complete; the Church had

ceased to be Celtic in usage and character, and had become Roman. This

stream of tendency came from the south, and cathedrals with abbeys were

constituted after English models. "Of the Scottish sees, all," says Dr.

Joseph Robertson, "save three or four, were founded or restored by St.

David, and their cathedral constitutions were formally copied from

English models. Thus the chapter of Glasgow took that of Salisbury for

its guide. Dunkeld copied from the same type, venerable in its

associations with the name of St. Osmund, whose "Use of Sarum" obtained

generally throughout Scotland. Elgin or Moray sent to Lincoln for its

pattern, and transmitted it, with certain modifications, to Aberdeen and

to Caithness. So it was also with the monasteries. Canterbury was the

mother of Dunfermline; Durham, of Coldingham; St. Oswald's at Nosthill,

near Pontefract, was the parent of Scone, and through that house, of St.

Andrews and Holyrood. Melrose and Dundrennan were daughters of Rievaux,

in the North Riding. Dryburgh was the offspring of Alnwick; Paisley, of

Wenlock."[310]

Roman monasticism thus became an important factor in Scottish life, and

it is true to say that for a very considerable period the history both

of piety and civilisation in Scotland was the history of its

monasticism. It was a stage in the national development, a movement in

religious progress, and it was only abolished when the salt had lost its

savour, when monasticism had ceased to be spiritual and had become

worldly and corrupt. The system had served its day in helping to educate

the nation, and when its purpose was achieved it passed away.

Mediæval architecture was, too, the outcome of the leisure in the

cloister, and the men who designed and built those venerable temples

must have been men to whom their work was their religion, and who

regarded it as the way of honouring God. One cannot look at their

architecture without realising how true are Ruskin's definitions of

Art:--"Art has for its business to praise God."[311] "Great Art is the

expression of a God-made great man."[312] "Art is the expression of

delight in God's work."[313] "All great art is praise." "Art is the

exponent of ethical life."[314] One cannot look at their ruins and not

recall that by their destruction a beauty has passed away from the

earth; one cannot read of the rude forces that destroyed them, and not

see that the judgment on things is always on character, and that the

last testing principle is, "See--not what manner of stones, _but what

manner of men_." While we deplore the forces that destroyed, we have

also to deplore the indefensible lives of the monks which at their last

stage stirred such forces to their depths.

There were four principal rules, under which might be classed all the

religious orders. (1) _That of St. Basil_, which prevailed by degrees

over all the others in the East, and which is retained by all the

Oriental monks; (2) _That of St. Augustine_, which was adopted by the

regular canons, the order of Premontré, the order of the Preaching

Brothers or Dominicans, and several military orders. (3) _That of St.

Benedict_, which, adopted successively by all the monks of the West,

still remained the common rule of the monastic order, properly so

called, up to the thirteenth century; the orders of the Camaldules of

Vallombrosa, of the Carthusians, and of Citeaux recognised this rule as

the basis of their special constitutions, although the name of monk of

St. Benedict or Benedictine monk may still be specially assigned to

others. (4) _The Rule of St. Francis_ signalised the advent of the

Mendicant orders in the thirteenth century. It is to be noted that the

denomination of monks is not generally attributed to the religious who

follow the rule of St. Augustine, nor to the Mendicant orders.[315]

The canonical hours at which the monastic bell regularly summoned the

monks were seven in number:--(1) Prime, about 6 A.M.; (2) Tierce, about

9 A.M.; (3) Sext, about noon; (4) Nones, from 2 to 3 P.M.; (5) Vespers,

about 4 P.M. or later; (6) Compline, 7 P.M.; (7) Matins and Lauds, about

midnight.

Scottish monasticism exhibited the expansion of the two main

streams--the Augustinian and the Benedictine, and each subsequent order

is to be regarded as an endeavour towards reform. Space will only permit

us to deal with the Augustinian establishments at St. Andrews, Holyrood,

and Jedburgh; with the Premonstratensian abbey of Dryburgh; with the

Benedictine abbey of Dunfermline; with the Cluniacensian abbey of

Paisley; with the Tyronensian abbeys of Kelso and Arbroath; with the

Cistercian abbey of Melrose. The Premonstratensian order was a reform on

the Augustinian, and the Cluniacensian, Tyronensian, and Cistercian

orders, reforms on the Benedictine order. A study of their history and

architecture in representative forms will introduce us to the piety and

beauty of former days, as well as to an order of things very different

from our own.[316]

_St. Andrew's Priory._--The priory or Augustinian monastery was situated

to the south of the cathedral (_q.v._), and was founded by Bishop Robert

in 1144. The structure has now almost disappeared. It comprised about

twenty acres, and was enclosed about 1516 by Prior John Hepburn with a

magnificent wall, which, starting at the north-east corner of the

cathedral, passed round by the harbour and along behind the houses, till

it joined the walls of St. Leonard's College on the south-west.

This, about a mile in extent, is all that now remains, but it is

thought at one time to have passed back from the college to the

cathedral. The wall has thirteen turrets, and each has a canopied

niche for an image. The portion towards the shore has a parapet on

each side, as if designed for a walk. There were three gateways, the

chief of which, on the S.W., is known as the Pends, and of which

considerable ruins still remain. Another gateway is near the

harbour, and the third was on the S. side. Martine in his _Reliquiæ

Divi Andreæ_ mentions that in his time fourteen buildings were

discernible besides the cathedral and St. Rule's Chapel. Among these

were the Prior's House or the old inn to the S.E. of the cathedral,

of which only a few vaults now remain; the cloisters, W. of this

house, and now the garden of a private house, in the quadrangle of

which the Senzie Fair used to be held, beginning in the second week

of Easter, and continuing for fifteen days; the Senzie House, or

house of the sub-prior, subsequently used as an inn, but now pulled

down and the site occupied by a private house. The refectory was on

the S. side of the cloister, and has now disappeared, as well as the

dormitory between the Prior's House and the cloister, and from which

Edward I. carried off all the lead to supply his battering machines

at the siege of Stirling. The Guests' Hall was within the precincts

of St. Leonard's College, S.W. of Pend's Lane; the Teinds' Barn,

Abbey Mill, and Granary were all to the S.W. The new inn, the latest

of all the buildings, was erected for the reception of Magdalene,

the first wife of James V. The young queen, of delicate

constitution, was advised by her physicians to reside here; she did

not live to occupy the house, as she died on 7th July 1537, six

weeks after her arrival in Scotland. It was for a short time the

residence of Mary of Guise when she first arrived in Scotland, and

after the priory was annexed to the archbishopric in 1635 the

building became the residence of the later archbishops. Several of

its canons had sympathies with the Scottish Reformation. The prior

of St. Andrews had superiority over the priories of Pittenweem,

Lochleven, Monymusk, and the Isle of May, and was also a lord of

regality. In Parliament he took precedence of all priors, and he,

his sub-prior, and canons formed the cathedral chapter. The priory

possessed in all thirty-two churches or their great tithes. From

1144 to 1535 there were twenty-five priors; from 1535 to 1586 the

lands were in the possession of the Earl of Murray and Robert

Stewart, as lay commendators; from 1586 to 1606 they were held by

the Crown; from 1606 to 1635 by the Duke of Lennox; from 1635 to

1639 by the Archbishop of St. Andrews; from 1639 to 1661 by the

University; from 1661 to 1688 by the archbishop again; from 1688 by

the Crown. The part within the abbey wall was sold by the

Commissioners of Woods and Forests to the United Colleges.[317]

_Holyrood Abbey (Midlothian)._--The abbey of Holyrood was founded by

King David I. in 1128 for the canons regular of the order of St.

Augustine, and was dedicated in honour of the holy cross or rood brought

to Scotland by his mother, Queen Margaret. This cross, called the Black

Rood of Scotland, fell into the hands of the English at the battle of

Neville's Cross in 1346. The abbey was several times burned by the

English, and the nave on the last of these occasions, 1547, was

repaired with the ruins of the choir and transepts. This was used as the

parish church till 1672, when it was converted into the chapel royal. In

1687 it was set apart by King James VII. for the service of the Roman

Catholic Church, but was plundered and again burned at the Revolution in

the following year. It remained neglected until 1758, when it was

repaired and roofed; the new roof, proving too heavy for the walls, fell

with a crash in 1768, destroying all the new work. It suffered neglect

again till 1816, when it was repaired, and in 1857 it was still further

improved.

The abbey early became the occasional abode of the kings of Scotland,

and James II. was born, crowned, married, and buried in it. The

foundations of a palace apart from the abbey were laid in the time of

James IV., Edinburgh having then become the acknowledged capital of the

country. Holyrood Palace was henceforth the chief seat of the Scottish

sovereigns. In it the nuptials of James IV. were celebrated; here also

Mary Queen of Scots took up her abode in 1561 on her return from France,

and here James VI. dwelt much before his accession to the throne of

England in 1603.

The abbey church was beautiful in its architecture and of great

size. It consisted of nave, choir, transepts with aisles, and

probably lady chapel to the east, two western towers, and a tower

over the crossing; but of all that splendid structure there now only

remain the ruins of the nave and one western tower.

The surviving nave is in a ruinous state and consists of eight bays,

the main piers of which are complete on the south side, but only

represented by two fragments on the north side.[318] The vaulting of

the south aisle still survives, but that of the north aisle is gone.

The north wall of the aisle still stands, and the east and west ends

of the nave are restored. The N.W. tower is still preserved, but the

companion tower at the S.W. angle was demolished when the palace was

rebuilt in the seventeenth century. Some remains of the cloister are

still observable on the S. side of the nave.

The chief part of the architecture is pronounced to be first

pointed, but the doorway at the S.E. angle, which led from the

cloister into the nave is pronounced to be of genuine though late

Norman architecture. There was a nook shaft on either side, the

divided cushion caps of which survive. The arch is round and

contains two orders, both ornamented with zigzags. These orders are

enclosed with a label, containing a double row of square facets and

sinkings.

Some alterations have taken place adjoining the doorway, and two of

the windows, that over the doorway and that to the west of it, are

circular-headed and have a Norman character in their nook shafts and

cushion caps. These windows were probably constructed in imitation

of Norman windows which existed there originally. It is not

improbable that the choir was built before the nave, and was of

Norman work, and this supposition is regarded as accounting for the

Norman work found at the first bay of the nave, and which may have

been erected in connection with the choir and crossing.

The oldest part of the nave after the S.E. doorway is the wall of

the north aisle. The windows above the arcade are single lancets,

one in each bay. The south wall of the south aisle is similarly

designed, but the details are different and of a rather later

character. The lower story contains a wall arcade having single

pointed arches, with first pointed mouldings. The windows over the

arcade correspond generally to those in the north wall, and are all

pointed except the two east bays already mentioned. The lower part

of the exterior of the south wall, running westward from the Norman

doorway, is arcaded with a series of large pointed arches, each

enclosing five smaller pointed arches, and with a plain wall space

between the large and small arches. The above large arches were the

wall arches for a groined roof over the cloister walk, but whether

that vault was ever built it is now regarded as impossible to say.

The vaulting of both aisles has apparently been similar, but the

south aisle alone retains it, which is of a simple character,

consisting of transverse and diagonal ribs.

The main arcade of the nave has consisted of eight bays; the

triforium is divided into two arches in each bay by a single central

shaft, springing from a corbel over the apex of each arch of the

main arcade, and running up to the string-course beneath the

clerestory. This would suggest the view that the vaulting was

sex-partite. Each arch of the triforium is acutely pointed, and

contains two smaller pointed arches within it, each of which has an

inner trefoiled arch. The tympanum of the large arch is pierced

with a quatrefoil or trefoil. To counteract the weakening tendency

of the triforium passage, saving arches, as may be seen from the

south, have been introduced to carry the chief pressure across from

main pier to main pier. A similar strengthening arch exists in the

outer wall of the triforium gallery at Amiens. The west end is

pronounced to have contained the finest work of the building, and

the west door with the two towers must have presented a lovely and

imposing front. The S.W. tower was removed to make way for the

palace being erected, and even the W. doorway is encroached on by

the palace wall. A portion of the S.W. tower is still visible in the

interior, and contains a doorway. The upper part of the W. end was

reconstructed by Charles I. in 1633, and contains two nondescript

windows of seventeenth century Gothic with an inscription between

them. The tympanum of the doorway has also been altered at this

time, and an oaken lintel introduced containing a shield with the

initials of Charles I. The western doorway has been a beautiful

specimen of first pointed work, and the W. side of the N.W. tower is

ornamented with two tiers of arcades. "The lower arcade contains

five pointed arches, with a trefoiled arch within each. These rest

on triple shafts, with carved caps and rounded abaci. Over each

shaft and between the arches there is a circle containing a boldly

carved Norman head. The feature is unique and its effect is fine.

The upper arcade consists of three larger arches, each containing

two smaller arches, and all resting on shafts with carved and

rounded caps. The shields in the larger arches are pierced with bold

quatrefoils. Two circles occur in the spandrils over the arches, but

they do not now contain heads."[319] The same design is continued

round the S. side of the tower, and along the W. wall of the nave as

far as the main doorway, but the N. and E. sides of the tower are

plain. Above the two arcades the tower contains a large two-light

window on the N.E. and W. sides. Each window is divided into two

openings by a single central shaft, having a carved cap and broad

square abacus, on which rest the two plain pointed arches of the

inner openings. The shield above is pierced with a bold quatre-foil.

The two western piers of the crossing are still standing, and within

the arch there has been erected in modern times a large traceried

window. The spaces below the window and across the side aisles have

been built up with fragments of the demolished structure, and a

window is thus formed at the east end of each aisle.

The church has evidently undergone a thorough repair during the

fifteenth century, probably during the period when Crawford was

abbot (1460-1483). "The work executed at this time consisted of the

addition of seven buttresses on the north side and several

buttresses on the south side of the aisles. Those on the north side

are large, and may either enclose the old buttresses or have been

substituted for them. They have a set-off near the centre, above

which each contains an elaborately ornamented and canopied niche.

Beneath and above the niche there are carved panels, which have

contained angels and shields, with coats of arms. The arms of Abbot

Crawford are said to have been carved on the panels, but they are

now too much decayed to be distinguishable. Above the upper panels

the buttresses are continued with several set-offs, and finished

with a small square pinnacle. The pinnacles have been crocheted and

terminated with a carved finial, but they are now greatly wasted

away. There were, doubtless, flying arches from the above buttresses

to the clerestory, but they must have fallen with the roof. A

somewhat elaborate north doorway has been introduced, in a style

similar to that of the buttresses, in the second bay from the west

tower. The arch is semicircular, and has an ogee canopy. There are

small niches above the arch on each side which contained statues,

now demolished. This doorway was probably constructed by Abbot

Crawford at the same date as the buttresses."[320]

"A series of buttresses was also erected about the same time on the

south side of the fabric. It is believed, however, that these

buttresses are partly old or are on old foundations. In order not to

interfere with the cloister walk, which ran along next the south

wall, and where it would have been inconvenient to have any

projections, the buttresses were carried in the form of flying

arches over the top of the cloister roof. At the clerestory level

flying arches, similar to those on the north side, rested against

the upper portions of buttresses and pinnacles introduced between

the windows. On the outside of the cloister walk the flying arch

abutted upon oblong masses of masonry, which probably at one time

were finished with pinnacles, but these no longer exist."[321]

Robert Bellenden, the twenty-fifth abbot of Holyrood, and successor

to Abbot Crawford,[322] presented the abbey with bells, a great

brass font, and a chalice of gold. He was also beneficent to the

poor, and completed the restoration of the fabric by covering the

roof with lead. This happened about 1528, and in 1539 the office of

commendator was given to Robert, natural son of James V., while

still an infant. The brass font was carried off by Sir Richard Lee,

an officer in Hertford's army, in 1544, and was removed to St.

Alban's Abbey. It was afterwards sold for old metal. The brass

lectern of the abbey was also taken by Sir Richard Lee, and

presented to the Parish Church of St. Stephen's at St. Alban's,

where it still is. It is in the form of an eagle with outstretched

wing, and contains a shield with a lion rampant and a crozier, with

the inscription, "Georgius Crichton, Episcopus Dunkeldensis."[323]

Before becoming bishop, Crichton was abbot of Holyrood, 1515-22.

_Jedburgh Abbey (Roxburghshire)._--In 1118 David I., while Prince of

Cumbria, founded a priory on the banks of the Jed, and placed it in

possession of canons regular from the Abbey of St. Quentin at Beauvais

in France. In 1147 the priory was raised to the dignity of an abbey and

dedicated to the Virgin Mary, while the smaller buildings of the priory

served as a nucleus for the larger buildings of the abbey. Its abbots

were sometimes men of distinction, and in 1285, when John Morel was

abbot, Alexander III. was married in the abbey with much ceremony to

Iolanda, daughter of the Count de Dreux. In the wars between England and

Scotland (1297-1300) the abbey suffered so severely that the monks were

unable to inhabit it, and were billeted on other religious houses.

Jedburgh had to bear the brunt of many English onslaughts, and in 1410,

1416, 1464 it was damaged by repeated attacks of the English. In 1523

both town and abbey fell before the forces of the Earl of Surrey. The

abbey was stripped of everything valuable and set on fire. In 1544-1545

the process of destruction was twice repeated under Sir Ralph Eure and

the Earl of Hertford respectively. In 1559 the abbey was suppressed, and

its resources went to the Crown. For some years it was left a roofless

ruin, and a building designed for the parish church was afterwards

erected within the nave, roofed over at the level of the triforium, and

used as a place of worship till 1875, when a new church built in

excambion by the Earl of Lothian was opened for worship, and the abbey

ruin can now be viewed "clear of that incubus upon its lovely

proportions."

Like most ancient buildings that have been added to from time to time,

the abbey shows different styles of architecture, and the choir, which

is early Norman, is undoubtedly the oldest part. The church consists of

a choir with side aisles extending eastward for two bays, beyond which

was an aisleless presbytery, the east end of which is demolished; a nave

of nine bays, which had vaulted side aisles; a central crossing with

square tower above; a north transept well preserved, and a south

transept, of which the south end is destroyed.[324]

It has been suggested that the choir may have terminated with an

eastern apse, but of this there is no proof. What survives consists

of two bays next the crossing, the lower portions of which are in

the Norman style. A unique arrangement is visible here, as far as

Scotland is concerned, and resembles a somewhat similar design at

Gloucester Cathedral and Romsey Church, Hampshire. The main piers

have the peculiarity of being carried up as massive cylindrical

columns to the arch over the triforium. The lower story has the

round arch and vaulting ribs supported on corbels, projected from

the round face of the piers. The triforium arch is round and

moulded, and has a well-wrought chevron ornament. "It rests on large

caps of the divided cushion pattern. The main arch is formed into

two openings by a central round shaft and two half round responds,

with massive cushion caps carrying plain arches."[325]

The clerestory is of Transition work, having one lofty stilted and

pointed arch, and two smaller pointed arches in each bay. When the

Transitional clerestory was erected, the eastern part of the choir

is thought to have been built, and the remains of two lofty pointed

windows are preserved to the east of the cylindrical piers. The same

Norman style of architecture as in the choir is continued in the

south and north transepts, and appears to have originally also

extended into the nave. "This is apparent from the mode in which the

string-course over the triforium runs along on the north side from

the choir to the nave, where it is broken off. That the Norman nave

has probably extended westwards from the crossing is further

evidenced by the existence of the west end wall, with its great

doorway and windows, and the south doorway to the cloister, which

portions are all of characteristic Norman design." The Norman work

must have preceded the Transition work in choir and nave by a

considerable portion of time. There is no gradual development

visible.

The nave (129 feet in length and 27-1/2 feet in breadth) "is divided

into nine bays, each of which comprises a main arch resting on

clustered piers, a triforium with one round arch containing two

pointed arches, and a clerestory forming a continuous arcade, with

four pointed arches in each bay. The main clustered piers contain

four principal shafts at the angles, and four intermediate shafts

between them. The former are brought to a point on the face, the

latter are flatter. The caps are simple and of an ordinary

transitional form, each with a square abacus. The bases are also

simple, and stand on a massive square plinth, a feature not uncommon

in Norman work. The arches of the main arcade are somewhat acutely

pointed, and the mouldings are bold, and resemble first pointed

work."

The clerestory shafts are of trefoil section; the arches are all

pointed, and contain first pointed mouldings. The west end of the

nave and doorway are Norman in character, and Sir Gilbert Scott

declared the great western doorway and south doorway to be "perfect

gems of refined Norman of the highest class and most artistic

finish." The doorpiece is surrounded by three gablets, the central

one still retaining a trefoiled arch. The west wall has flat

buttresses of Norman character, and "the upper portion of the wall

has a central round-headed window, flanked on each side by three

small pointed arch heads, the caps carrying which rested on long

single free shafts, now gone. The central window has deep mouldings,

but no enrichments. The west front has been finished with an

octagonal turret on each side, as at Kelso Abbey, and the gable

contains a central circular window, which has been filled with

tracery at a late date. The west end walls of the aisles have each

contained a circular-headed window of Norman design, with a chevron

ornament in the arch and a nook shaft at each side."

"The lower part of the walls of the choir and the western wall and

doorway and south doorway being all of Norman work, it seems

probable that the whole building was set out and partially executed

in Norman times, and that the work was either stopped for a

considerable period and then resumed, or that the structure, after

being completed, was destroyed, and had to be restored in the late

Transition style. The Transition work is well advanced in style, and

may be regarded as being of the date of the end of the twelfth

century or beginning of the thirteenth century."

"The Norman north transept is fairly well preserved, but both the

north and south transepts have undergone great repairs about the end

of the fifteenth century. The crossing appears to have been so

greatly damaged by the assaults of the fifteenth century that it was

found necessary to rebuild it. The restoration is distinctly visible

in the south-east pier of the crossing, the style of which is quite

different from that of the Norman work adjoining in the choir and

south transept, and the junction of the new work with the old is

very apparent. This pier has clearly been rebuilt. It is plain next

the crossing, but next the aisle it consists of a series of shafts

with a moulded cap of late date. The upper mouldings of the cap form

a continuous straight line, while the bells of the caps are broken

round the shafts--a style of cap common in Scotland at the end of

the fifteenth century."

"This pier and the south aisle of the choir beside it appear to have

been restored by Abbot John Hall (appointed 1478), whose name occurs

on the pier and on one of the bosses. The south-west pier of the

crossing has also been rebuilt. This work was carried out by Abbot

Thomas Cranston (appointed 1482). On a shield on this pier are

carved the arms and initials of Abbot Cranston--three cranes and two

pastoral staves--saltierwise. The same abbot's initials are placed

on the north side of the west arch of the crossing, where the

chamfer begins, and on the lower part of the north-west pier. The

south-west pier, the north-west pier, and the arch between them

would thus appear to have been rebuilt by Abbot Cranston. The base

inserted by him is different from the old Norman base.

"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]