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 chequé_ of the Stewarts between three roses; the third the
_fess chequé_, 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
lîteratura 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 façades 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 à 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]
The abbots had several special privileges; they were exempted from
assisting at the yearly synods; they had the custody of the Brecbennach,
or consecrated banner of St. Columba; they acquired from Pope Benedict,
by Bull, dated at Avignon, the right to wear a mitre, and were in some
instances the foremost churchmen of the Kingdom. The abbey was
toll-free, _i.e._ protected against the local impositions which of old
beset all merchandise.
"But," says Dr. Cosmo Innes, "the privilege the abbot most valued
(and intrinsically the most valuable) was the tenure of all his
lands, 'in free regality,' _i.e._ with sovereign power over his
people, and the unlimited emoluments of criminal jurisdiction....
Even after the Reformation had passed over abbot and monk, the lord
of regality had still the same power, and the Commendator of
Arbroath was able to rescue from the King's Justiciar and to
'repledge' into his own court four men accused of the slaughter of
William Sibbald of Cair--as dwelling within his bounds (quasi infra
bondas ejusdem commorantes). The officer who administered this
formidable jurisdiction was the Bailie of the Regality, or
'Justiciar Chamberlain and Bailie'--the Bailiary had become
virtually hereditary in the family of Airlie.[433] ... The mair and
the coroner of the abbey were the executors of the law within the
bounds of the regality, and the best thought it no degradation to
hold their lands as vassals of the great abbey."[434]
The monks made a harbour and fixed a bell on the Inchcape Rock as a
warning to sailors; the abbey was burnt in 1272 and 1380.
Referring to its chartulary as a record of the names of the old Scottish
families Dr. Cosmo Innes says:--
"Many of our ancient families went down in the War of Independence,
and few of our present aristocracy trace back beyond the revolution
of families and property which took place under Bruce. The Earls of
Angus, Fife, and Strathearn are little more than mythological
personages to the modern genealogist.... It is the common case all
over Scotland."[435]
In connection with the monks he has the following interesting note:--
"It is to be remarked that in Scotland, as in other countries, while
the secular or parochial clergy were often the younger sons of good
families, the convents of monk and friars were recruited wholly
from the lower classes; and yet--not to speak of the daily bread,
the freedom from daily care, all the vulgar temptations of such a
life in hard times--the career of a monk opened no mean path to the
ambitious spirit. The offices of the monastery alone might well seem
prizes to be contended for by the son of the peasant or burgess, and
the highest of these placed its holder on a level with the greatest
of the nobility."[436]
The last abbot was Cardinal Beaton, at the same time Archbishop of St.
Andrews. The abbey suffered after the Reformation from the revenues
having become the property of the Hamiltons, and as they were
appropriated to the private use of that family, there were no funds to
keep up the buildings, which fell gradually into decay, and were freely
used by the magistrates and townspeople as a quarry. The property was
converted into a temporal lordship in favour of Lord Claude Hamilton,
third son of the Duke of Chatelherault.
In sketching the history of this famous abbey, the "Aberbrothock
Manifesto" of 1320 must be recalled, in which it becomes manifest that
the Scottish Church was never a complaisant vassal of Rome.[437] There
breathes in it a spirit of freedom and natural independence, and a
refusal to accept the interference of Rome in the affairs of the State.
The Scottish nobles protest against the papal countenance given to the
English aggressions, and distinctly tell Pope John XXII. that "not for
glory, riches, or honour we fight, but for _liberty alone_, which no
good man loses but with his life."[438]
The abbey church consisted of a choir of three bays, with side
aisles and an aisleless presbytery; a nave of nine bays, with aisles
and north and south transepts with eastern aisles; two western
towers and one large central tower. Considerable portions of these
divisions still remain, but the greater part of the north side of
the choir, the north transept and nave, and almost all the piers and
pillars have been swept away. Beginning at the east end, the eastern
wall is entire for nearly half its height, having an arcade below
and three lancet windows above, with the lower portions of an upper
row of similar windows. Somewhat less of the return wall of the
south side of the presbytery, comprising two bays, remains, and
adjoining it is the sacristy, a late building fairly well preserved.
The end wall of the south transept is almost complete, along with a
considerable portion of the west wall of the transept, which gives a
good idea of the grandeur of the church. The whole of the nave south
wall remains, showing a row of windows and indications of the
groining of the aisle. The central aisle was not vaulted, but
covered with a wooden roof. Most of the bases of the nave pillars
are in position, as are also the foundations of the north transept.
The west end fragment and the two towers left standing, are striking
and impressive in their vigorous work.[439] Bold, vigorous work,
with refinement of detail, is seen in the western doorway. It is
round arched, and its outer order, if it may be so called, extends
inwards for about five feet, unadorned as a bold and plain tunnel
arch, having a pointed arch in each ingoing. It then becomes shafted
and richly moulded, after the transition manner. This arrangement,
while it gives a fine shadow under the arch, has a feeling of
rudeness, which, to a considerable extent, characterises the whole
west front. "There is a remarkable resemblance in the decoration of
this doorway to that of the doorway in the porch of Lerida
Cathedral, Spain, supposing the tunnel arch of Arbroath away, and
the moulded part brought forward to the face of the wall, as is the
case at Lerida.... A similar ring ornament, on a large scale, is
also to be seen in a doorway at Lamington, Lanarkshire, where it is
likewise used along with the zig-zag, but there the ringed order is
the outer enrichment."[440]
The removal of the outer part of a gallery, which existed over this
doorway, has increased the rude appearance of the west front, but
the inner part of this gallery still remains. Within the great
thickness of the wall a chamber of considerable size was obtained,
and it opens into the nave by six pointed arches, and to the outside
over the doorway by three arches. It is regarded as obvious that
three gablets projected outwards from the wall for a distance of
about four feet, supported on two intermediate shafts, and that the
gallery was closed in at each end with walls or haffits, both of
which still remain in part. We now see the west front robbed of its
most unique features; the gallery was reached by a long passage at
each end from stairs in the angle-buttresses. It probably was a
gallery for an orchestra, and may have also been used as a pulpit to
address an open-air audience.[441]
Above this gallery was an immense circular window, a portion of
which still survives. "It is probable that this part of the building
was erected at two different times, the west doorway and some of the
pillars of the gallery being in the early transition style, while
the triple windows to the front and the six-light arcade towards the
interior are in the first pointed style. When the gallery was
completed in the first pointed period, the floor space was enlarged
by extending it to the front, hence the necessity for the deep
tunnel arch over the west doorway. The pointed arches in the ingoing
also indicate this first pointed period."[442]
The western towers opened with arches into the north, south, and
central aisles, but only the north tower retains its massive pier
and arches, while of the south tower nothing but the foundation of
the pier exists. The south wall of the transept is externally plain,
the upper part being visible above the dormitory roof. The façade
has two plain lancet windows, one shorter than the other, and above
them is a large wheel window. The interior of the transept is a very
grand design in the early pointed style.[443] Beneath the splayed
lancets there is a round arched open arcade, with a passage behind
it, and beneath this, two tiers of wall arcades with pointed arches,
the central arcade being very acutely pointed, the lower one not so
decidedly, and with trefoil cusps in the arches. A staircase in the
S.E. angle of the transept gave access to the dormitory by the door,
seen built up on the outside.[444] This staircase also leads to the
various passages in the thickness of the walls, and the church
doorway leading to this stair is round arched and ranges with the
lower pointed arcade. The lower arcade of the south end is continued
along the west wall, and above this rise two widely-splayed windows.
All the lofty south transept windows have passages on two floors,
and the transepts had chapels on the east side. "The respond of the
great arcade against the south wall is beautiful in detail. Above
this there exist fragments of the responds of the triforium story
and the clerestory. All the above features of this part of the abbey
point plainly to its having some lingering remains of transition
style, retaining, as it does, some round arches along with the
general features of the design."[445]
The vestry or sacristy was built by Abbot Walter Painter between
1411 and 1433, and is a two-storied building, the ground floor
having a groined ceiling, still entire, and the upper room being
roofless. Its features are of fifteenth-century work, and the
building is in good preservation.
Only fragments of the conventual buildings remain. "An octagonal
turret marks the south-east corner of the chapter-house with the
south and east return walls, and adjoining the south transept is the
slype, the walls of which determine the other walls of the
chapter-house. On the wall of the south transept is clearly seen the
mark of the dormitory roof, with the door between the church and
dormitory now built up."[446] The north wall and a portion of the
west wall proceeding southward from it are all that remain of the
extensive enclosure of the abbey. The enclosure was said to have
been of great height and to have extended 1150 feet on the east and
west, 760 feet on the north, and 480 feet on the south. There were
great towers at the angles and entrance gateways on the north and at
the south-east angle. In the centre of the north wall is the
portcullis entrance gatehouse. The front wall is almost entire, and
the upper floor window is crossed by the corbels which carried the
movable wooden hoarding that was erected over the gateway when
required for its defence.[447] At the western extremity of the north
enclosing wall there is a large square tower, three stories in
height in the inside, and four stories on the outside, owing to the
fall of the ground. The two lower floors are round-vaulted, and the
cape-house on top is said to have been removed during this
century.[448] The building adjoining the tower to the east was
called the Regality Court-house, and had a groined ceiling. The
abbot's house is on the south side of the cloister, and is the best
preserved abbot's house in Scotland. It is three stories high, and
the two upper floors have been converted into a modern private
dwelling-house. It has been altered externally and spoiled of its
ancient internal fittings, with the exception of two fine carved
panels, one representing the Virgin, and the other a large Scotch
thistle. The kitchen has central pillars supporting a groined
roof,[449] and the other offices connected with the kitchen are all
vaulted. The abbey suffered from fire in 1272 and in 1380, while in
1350 it was injured "from the frequent assaults of the English
ships."[450] Service was up to 1590 conducted in the lady chapel
"stripped of its altars and images."
_Melrose Abbey (Roxburghshire)._--The editor of the _Liber de Melros_
has said in reference to this abbey:--
"The incidental mention of the condition of the abbey itself at
different times strongly illustrates the history of the district and
the age. At one time powerful and prosperous, accumulating property,
procuring privileges, commanding the support of the most powerful,
and proudly contending against the slightest encroachment; at
another, impoverished and ruined by continual wars, obliged to seek
protection from the foreign invader: in either situation it reflects
back faithfully the political condition of the country.
But the political events of a country of so narrow bounds and small
resources as Scotland are insignificant unless they are associated
with the development of principles and feelings that know no limits
of place or power. How rich Scotland has been in such associations
is testified by the general sympathy which attends her history and
her literature, and gives a pride to her children that forms not the
weakest safeguard of their virtue. It is in recalling freshly the
memory of times in which the proud and virtuous character of her
people was formed, and which it is their delight and their duty to
look back upon, that such studies as the present are most useful.
Every local association, every faint illustration of antiquity, each
indication of the bygone manners of a simple age, are in this view
to be treasured, not only as filling a page of a meagre history, but
as so many moral ties to bind us closer in affection to the country
of our fathers."[451]
This abbey has a charming site in the hill-girt hollow known as the vale
of Melrose, occupying one of those peaceful situations near a river
which the Cistercians delighted to choose and colonise. An ancient
monastery of Melrose had existed since the seventh century, on a broad
meadow nearly surrounded by a "loop" of the Tweed, about 2-1/2 miles
lower down the river. It was established about 650 by St. Aidan, the
missionary from Iona, who preached in Northumbria, and founded the abbey
of Lindisfarne. Eata was the first abbot we hear of, and he was a
disciple of St. Aidan. St. Cuthbert spent much of his early life at this
monastery of old Melrose, and afterwards chose as the scene of his
labours Hexham and Lindisfarne. The monks of Lindisfarne, when expelled
by the Danes, took refuge at Melrose, and brought with them St.
Cuthbert's body, which afterwards found its resting-place at Durham. In
the eleventh century this old monastery of Melrose had become a ruined
and desolate place. It afterwards became the retreat of a few monks,
amongst whom was the celebrated Turgot, the confessor of Queen Margaret.
A chapel was erected and dedicated to St. Cuthbert, which at first
belonged to Coldingham, but was gifted finally by David I. to the new
abbey of Melrose.
This abbey was founded in 1136 at a place then called Fordell, and was
endowed by David I. and his nobles with extensive lands. The monks were
of the Cistercian order, and were brought from Rievalle in Yorkshire.
The original buildings were not finished till 1146, and on the 28th of
July in that year the church was solemnly consecrated and dedicated to
the Virgin Mary. It is thought that such buildings with an oratory were
probably the residence of the monks, and their period would suggest the
Norman style, like that of the abbeys of Kelso, Jedburgh, and Dryburgh.
Every trace of these early buildings has disappeared, and, situated as
it was on the border-country, Melrose Abbey was exposed to danger, and
frequently suffered in the wars between the two countries. It was in the
chapter-house at Melrose that the Yorkshire barons united against King
John and swore fealty to Alexander II. in 1215. In 1295 Edward I. gave
formal protection to its monks, and in 1296 he issued a writ ordering a
restitution to them of all the property they had lost in the preceding
struggle. In 1321 or 1322 the original structure was destroyed by the
English under Edward II., and the abbot, with a number of the monks, was
killed. In 1326 Robert I. gave a grant of £2000 to be applied to the
rebuilding of the church, and in 1329, a few months before his death, he
wrote a letter to his son David, requesting that his heart should be
buried at Melrose and commending the monastery and the church to his
successor's favour. His wish was granted, and so late as 1369 we hear of
King David II. renewing his father's gift, and it is to this grant we
owe a considerable part of the present building. In 1328 Edward III.
ordered the restoration to the abbey of pensions and lands which it had
held in England, and which had been seized by Edward II. In 1334 the
same king granted a protection to Melrose in common with the other
Border abbeys, and in 1341 he came to Melrose to spend Christmas. In
1385 Richard II., exasperated by his fruitless expedition into Scotland,
spent a night in the abbey and caused it to be burned. Notwithstanding
these disasters, the abbey increased in wealth and architectural
splendour, and it was not till more severe damage and dilapidations
befell it during the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI. and Elizabeth,
that ruin began finally to impend. The approach of the Reformation
influenced its downfall, and though donations for rebuilding were given
by various individuals, the abbey never recovered the damage then
suffered. In 1541 James V. obtained from the Pope the abbeys of Melrose
and Kelso, to be held _in commendam_ by his illegitimate son James, who
died in 1558. In 1560 all the "abbacie" was annexed to the Crown, and in
1566 Mary granted the lands to James, Earl of Bothwell, with the title
of Commendator. After passing through the hands of Douglas of Lochleven
and Sir John Ramsay, the estates were ultimately acquired by the Scotts
of Buccleuch. The abbey gradually fell into decay through neglect. The
materials were used for the erection of other structures, and Douglas
built from the ruins a house which still stands to the north of the
cloisters and bears the date 1590. The masonry also formed a quarry for
the neighbourhood, and in 1618 the remaining portion of the structure
was fitted up as the parish church, "and in order to render it secure, a
plain pointed barrel vault was thrown across the nave, and was supported
by plain square piers built against the old piers on the north side. The
original vaulting seems to have been previously demolished."[452] A
great number of the stone images of saints which filled the numerous
wall niches were left untouched till 1649, when they were almost all
cast down and destroyed, but by whose order is unknown. Of the abbey
there now only remain the ruins of the church, and of it the most
competent authorities say:--
"No building in Scotland affords such an extensive and almost
inexhaustible field for minute investigation and enjoyment of detail
such as this. Whether we consider the great variety of the
beautifully sculptured figures of monks and angels playing on
musical instruments, or displaying 'the scrolls which teach us to
live and die,' or turn to the elaborate canopies and beautiful
pinnacles of the buttresses, or examine the rich variety of foliage
and other sculptures on the capitals of the nave and the doorway and
arches of the cloisters; or if, again, we take a more general view
of the different parts of the edifice from the numerous fine
standpoints from which it can be so advantageously contemplated, we
know of no Scottish building which surpasses Melrose either in the
picturesqueness of its general aspect or in the profusion or value
of its details. It occupies an important position also historically,
and it in part supplies an admirable example of that decorated
architecture, the existence of which in this country has been so
often denied, but of which, we trust, a sufficient number of
examples are now provided to render that reproach to Scottish
architecture no longer justifiable. We have to thank the fine red
sandstone of the district, of which the church is built, for the
perfect preservation of all the details of the structure. These
remain, even in the minutest carving, as perfect and complete as the
day they were executed."[453]
The cloister and domestic buildings, including the hall of Abbot
Matthew, were situated on the _north_ side of the church. They have
now entirely disappeared, leaving only a portion of the cloister
which indicates their position. The church is cruciform, and the
choir is unusually short and the nave unusually long. The aisled
choir extends only two bays eastwards from the crossing, beyond
which point the presbytery is carried one bay farther, without
aisles, and is lighted by large north and south windows as well as
by the great eastern window.
The shortness of the choir rendered it necessary that part of the
nave should be appropriated for the monks, and the enclosing screen
wall of this portion of the "choir" extended to the fourth pier west
from the crossing, where it was carried across the nave and formed
the rood screen. The screen was wide and contained a gallery, on the
top of which stood the rood.[454] The nave extends to eight bays,
but it has been intended to be longer--the west end being
incomplete. Extending southwards, beyond the south aisle, is a
series of eight chapels, which produced externally, along with the
south aisle, the appearance of a double aisle.[455] The north aisle
is narrower than the south aisle, and the position of the cloister
may have hampered the design.
This difference may have arisen from the plan of the original abbey of
the twelfth century being adhered to in the later construction.[456]
The transepts contain the usual eastern aisle only, in which are
situated four chapels.
The superstructure of the church has severely suffered and the
western part is greatly demolished. The portion eastwards from the
rood screen is in better preservation. The vaulting of the aisles is
well-preserved, but that of the centre aisle is demolished--a
pointed tunnel vault having been constructed in 1618. The eight
chapels are well preserved, but some parts of the three furthest
west ones are damaged and have lost their vaulting. The tracery in
the chapel windows is lovely; the vaulting of the nave, south aisle
and chapels, is supported by a series of flying buttresses, "which
form one of the most prominent and beautiful elements of the
building. No church in Scotland retains such a striking example of
that important feature of Gothic architecture."[457]
The eastern piers of the crossing were demolished probably in Henry
VIII.'s time, and their destruction entailed that of the central
tower, of which the western wall only remains. The transepts have
suffered by the fall of the tower, but fortunately the south wall of
the transept with its finely decorated window is still preserved.
From the south transept access is obtained to the roof of the nave
aisle and to the uppermost parts of the structure by a turnpike
stair, which also forms the only mode of approach to the tower.[458]
"The choir, so far as the east is concerned, is well preserved, the
buttresses and gable, the celebrated eastern window, and the
remarkable vaulting of the presbytery being all in good order. The
remainder of the choir, however, has been greatly wrecked by the
fall of the central tower; but many of the windows of the choir and
transept with their perpendicular tracery have escaped destruction,
and afford the best example in Scotland of that form of
design."[459]
The building, as it now stands, is, generally speaking,[460] of a
date subsequent to Bruce's time, and much of it is later than the
destruction which occurred under Richard II. in 1385.[461] "The
nave, from the crossing to the rood loft, and part of the transepts
are, undoubtedly, the oldest portions of the existing edifice. The
work in these is, for the most part, of the Scottish decorated
period. The nave piers, with their beautifully carved caps, and the
mouldings of the arches are distinctly decorated work; and the
flying buttresses and pinnacles on the south side of the nave are,
without doubt, of the same period. So also is the south wall of the
transept, with its magnificent window and tracery and its
buttresses, enriched with fine canopies and quaint figures carved as
corbels.
"All these features bear a close affinity to the decorated work of
the nave of York Minster, erected about 1400. The flying buttresses,
with pinnacles enriched with crockets and foliaged finials; the
niches, with their elaborate canopies and corbels composed of
figures of monks and angels; the statues which formerly filled the
niches, of which very few now remain; the decorated tracery of the
south transept window, and the whole character of the work, both in
its general scope and in its details, is of fine decorated design,
and vividly recalls that of York, Beverley, and other English
examples. It is not improbable that some parts of the nave and
transept were erected during the period between the death of King
Robert Bruce and the invasion of Richard II. It should be mentioned
that Bruce's bequest was not all received till 1399, and the
operations also probably proceeded slowly. The doorway in the south
wall of the south transept is apparently an insertion in older
work."[462] The south chapels of the nave have apparently been added
during the repairs in the earlier part of the fifteenth century; the
buttresses were probably executed towards the middle of that
century, and the east one contains the arms of Abbot Hunter.[463]
There is a distinct change in the transept's design from that of the
nave, as if the former had been added to the latter at a later
period.[464] The east wall and the other eastern parts of the choir
are more recent than the nave, and probably this portion of the
church had been more damaged by Richard II. than the nave, and
required to be almost wholly rebuilt. The style here corresponds
closely with the "perpendicular" of England which prevailed in the
fifteenth century.[465] The great eastern window is exceptional and
unique, and has more of the character of perpendicular than any
other style. Scott, referring to it, has described the moon as
shining
Through slender shafts of shapely stone,
By foliaged tracery combined;
Thou would'st have thought some fairy's hand,
Twixt poplars straight, the osier wand,
In many a freakish knot, had twined;
Then framed a spell, when the work was done,
And changed the willow-wreaths to stone.
The design of the west wall of the north transept is different from
that of the other parts of the building, but the clerestory windows
are of the same design as the rest of the older church. "The wall
ribs of the vaulting include two windows in each; and the space
between the windows is occupied by two niches, each carried up from
a shaft--with late canopies, containing statues of St. Peter and St.
Paul, the former having the keys and the latter holding his sword.
These are the best preserved statues in the church, but they are not
of very remarkable workmanship."[466] The building or restoration of
the eastern part of the edifice is regarded as indicating, from its
style, work of the middle of the fifteenth century, and the vaulting
of the south transept appears to have been erected by Abbot Hunter
about the same time,[467] probably from 1450 to 1460. More of the
vaulting in the eastern part of the nave may have been carried out
at that epoch. The vaults all contain, besides the main and ridge
ribs, subsidiary ribs, or tiercerons, indicating a similarity to
English examples.[468]
The vaulting of the presbytery is peculiar, and points to a somewhat
later time; examples of vaulting similar to that of the presbytery
of Melrose may be seen at Winchester Cathedral, and other English
examples of the fifteenth century.[469]
The south chapels to the west of the fifth buttress west from the
transept, on which buttress another specimen of Abbot Hunter's arms
is engraved, are of comparatively late date.[470] "This buttress
belongs to the earlier part of the nave, and the chapel seems to
have been repaired when the additional chapels to the west were
erected. Besides the three hunting horns in the shield of Abbot
Hunter in the examples above mentioned, the arms engraved on the
fifth buttress contain two crosiers, saltierwise, and the initials
A. H. on the right and left; also, in chief a rose, and in base a
mason's mell for Melrose. The work in the chapels to the west is
inferior to that of those to the eastward, although copied from
them. The chapels each contain an enriched piscina, and these are so
inferior in style of workmanship as to lead to the belief that they
were inserted after the chapels were built. One of them contains the
initials of Abbot William Turnbull, whose date is the beginning of
the sixteenth century. A late piscina has also been inserted in the
south transept.
"Work in the nave and in the south chapels was apparently in
progress during the reign of James IV., as the royal arms, with the
letters I. Q. (Jacobus Quartus) and the date 1505 on the westmost
buttress testify."[471] On the south side of the cloister is a very
lovely doorway that leads into the church. To the right of this and
along the east wall of the cloister, are arched recesses of a late
style, and in the south wall is an arcade of trefoil form, with
nail-head enrichments. The latter is an example of the late revival
of early forms which prevailed towards the close of the Gothic
epoch.[472]
It has been stated that the arcade of the cloister formerly extended
150 feet each way. The cloister wall is now reduced to the portions
which abut against the nave and transept--50 feet on the east side
and 80 feet on the south side. "The former side contains a wall
arcade of seven arches. These are of the form called drop arches,
with crocketed ogee hood moulding, and have plain spandrils above,
over which there runs a straight cornice, enriched with flowers and
shells of all descriptions very beautifully carved."[473] Of these
Sir Walter Scott said:--
Nor herb nor floweret glistened there
But was carved in the cloister arches as fair.
The tower was doubtless erected about the same time as the
transept.[474] In the south transept are two inscriptions that have
given rise to much speculation and continue to exercise Border
antiquaries. One of these is carved over the doorway in the west
wall which gives access to the wheel stair, and part of the
inscription is carried down one side for want of room. It is the
following:--
Sa gays the cumpas evyn about,
Sa trouth and laute. do but duite.
Behald to ye hende q. Johne Morvo.[475]
The other inscription is carved on a tablet in the wall on the south
side of the same door:--
John Morow sum tym callit was I
And born in Parysse certanly
And had in kepyng al masoun werk
Of Santandroys ye hye kyrk
Of Glasgw Melros and Paslay
Of Nyddysdayll and of Galway
I pray to God and Mari bath
And sweet S. John kep this haly kirk frae skaith.
In the centre of the former inscription is a sunk panel containing a
shield with two masons' compasses, arranged somewhat like a saltier,
and beneath a figure resembling a _fleur-de-lys_.
The late Dr. John Smith, in the _Proceedings of the Antiquarian
Society of Scotland_, considers these inscriptions as applying to
one man, who may have been the master mason of the building. But Mr.
Pinches, in his account of the abbey, mentions that John Murdo, or
Morow, was engaged in building a church in Galloway in 1508. It thus
seems likely that these inscriptions are not earlier than that date,
and have been added to the building after its completion.[476]
An interesting view regarding John Morow will be found in _A
Mediæval Architect_, by Mr. P. MacGregor Chalmers. He believes that
the south chapel of the transept was that of St. John, and as John
Morrow's tablet is opposite this chapel, his prayer to "sweet St.
John" is most appropriate. Mr. Chalmers also points out that the
chapels at the east end of Glasgow Cathedral are dedicated to the
same saints and in the same order as those in the east aisle of the
transept at Melrose.[477]
Immediately beneath the site of the high altar at Melrose is the
resting-place of the heart of Robert Bruce, and to the south of it
is a dark-coloured polished slab of encrinital limestone said to
mark the grave of Alexander II., who was buried near the high altar
in 1249. Others maintain, however, that it marks the burial-place of
St. Waltheof or Waldeve, who was the second abbot of the monastery
founded by King David, and that it is the slab placed here by
Ingram, Bishop of Glasgow (1164-1174).
The chancel was also the burial-place of the Douglases. The Douglas
tombs were all defaced by Sir Ralph Evers in 1544. At the northern
end of the north transept a small doorway leads into the sacristy,
in which is the tombstone of Johanna, Queen of Alexander II., with
the inscription "Hic jacet Johanna d. Ross." Melrose is the
Kennaquhair of the _Abbot_ and the _Monastery_.