LIBRARY OF PRINCE 
 
 ON 
 
 THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY 
 
 0A875 .A22 1901 
 Cathedrals and abbeys of 
 Presbyterian Scotland / by 
 Leicester Addis. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 https://archive.org/details/cathedralsabbeysOOaddi 
 
SCOTTISH CATHEDRALS AND ABBEYS 
 
The 
 
 Cathedrals and Abbeys 
 
 of 
 
 Presbyterian Scotland 
 
 - / 
 
 M. E. LEICESTER ADDIS 
 
 THE 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 WESTMINSTER 
 190 1 
 
 PRESS 
 
Co 
 
 GEORGE W. CHILDS UK EX EL, Esq. 
 
PREFACE 
 
 " It is impossible for the short life of a preface to travel after and 
 overtake far-off antiquity and to judge of it." — Raleigh. 
 
 FOR several years past a series of articles, relating to 
 Scottish History and Literature, has appeared in the 
 columns of the Public Ledger of Philadelphia, U.S.A. 
 The interest created and expressed in those dealing with 
 our Abbeys and Cathedrals (too often believed to be all 
 in ruins) by its readers suggested the expansion of these 
 sketches into a more detailed and consecutive form. 
 Thus each chapter in the present volume contains in 
 narrative the leading points of interest associated with each 
 building, the treatment throughout being historical rather 
 than architectural. 
 
 There are several popular works treating of the Cathedrals 
 and Abbeys of England, but, so far as known, there is 
 no comprehensive edition of our Scottish Abbeys and 
 Cathedrals, in which the main historical facts, culled from 
 recognised authorities, are presented in a popular form 
 which will appeal to the educated reader who makes no 
 claim to be a specialist. 
 
 We owe so much to the Past ; we have recovered from 
 the fright of the Reformation ; we are now as eager to 
 preserve and restore as were our forefathers to destroy those 
 fine buildings, the heritages of earlier days when simple 
 craftsmen and scholarly churchmen alike laboured with 
 their hands for " The Glory of God." 
 
 It seems, therefore, specially fitting that the links of the 
 
X 
 
 PREFACE 
 
 chain binding the Celtic Church, its Saints, and its tradi- 
 tions, to the Latin Church — founder and foster-mother of 
 three of our Universities — should be understood and appre- 
 ciated by all members of the Scottish Church, which, born 
 of much tribulation, has none the less benefited from the 
 piety, the zeal, and the learning of those who preached 
 "The Faith of our Fathers." 
 
 This also seems a fitting opportunity to most gratefully 
 acknowledge the invaluable assistance so freely given by the 
 Librarian of the Drexel Institute, and by the Staff of the 
 Franklin Library, Philadelphia ; also by the Provost and 
 Staff of the Peabody Library in Baltimore, this last con- 
 taining a collection of Scottish Histories, Chartularies, 
 Registers and special publications not excelled by any in 
 our own country. 
 
 The author is also indebted for much information as to 
 Celtic life and traditions to A. C. Cameron, LL.U. ; for 
 the reading of proof to Mr. B. R. Wills, B.A., Cantab. ; and 
 to Messrs. Valentine for permission to use their photographs 
 in illustrating the work. 
 
 M. E. L. A. 
 
 London, 1901. 
 
I OX A - 
 
 GLASGOW 
 
 BRECHIN" 
 
 ST. MACHAR - 
 
 DUNBLANE - 
 
 DUN'KELD 
 
 ST. GILES 
 
 ST. MAGNUS - 
 
 DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 PAISLEY ABBEY 
 
 CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE 
 I 
 
 - - ... 9 
 
 3o 
 
 42 
 
 - 64 
 
 77 
 
 93 
 
 - "5 
 
 - 138 
 
 i59 
 
 xi 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 FACING 
 PAGE 
 
 Glasgow cathedral, showixg thk xecropolis - Frontispiece 
 
 IONA FROM THE SOUTH-EAST ----- I 
 
 ST. ORAX'S CHAPEL AND TOMBS OK THE KINGS - - - 3 
 
 ST. MARTIN'S CROSS ------- 4 
 
 THE INTERIOR 6 
 GLASGOW CATHEDRAL - - - - "9 
 
 THE CHOIR --------17 
 
 THE NAVE -------- 23 
 
 THE IRVING WINDOW, LOWER CHURCH - - - Page 28 
 
 BRECHIN CATHEDRAL AND ROUND TOWER - - - 30 
 
 ST. MACHAR'S CATHEDRAL - - - - - "42 
 
 THE NAVE .-.---.-52 
 QUEEN MARGARET'S COAT OF ARMS - - - - - 6l 
 
 DUNBLANE CATHEDRAL - - - - - - 64 
 
 THE NAVE -------- 72 
 
 DUNKELD CATHEDRAL - - - - "77 
 
 ST. GILES' CATHEDRAL - - 93 
 
 THE MONTROSE MONUMENT - - - - - 98 
 
 THE ALBANY AISLE - - - - - - 104 
 
 THE NAVE -------- no 
 
 ST. MAGNUS - - - - - ... - US 
 
 THE NAVE - - - - - - - - 132 
 
 DUNFERMLINE ABBEY, WEST FRONT - - - - 138 
 
 THE BRUCE'S TOMB ------- 148 
 
 PAISLEY ABBEY (BEFORE PRESENT RESTORATION') - - - 159 
 
 MARJORY BRUCE'S TOMB ------ 167 
 
 THE WEST WINDOW - - - - - - "174 
 
 xiii 
 
LIST OF 
 
 AUTHORITIES COX 
 QUOTED. 
 
 SULTED AND 
 
 Essays ox Abbeys and Cathedrals Joseph Robertson. 
 
 Celtic Scotland Skene. 
 
 History of Scotland Hill Burton. 
 
 History of Scotland Tytlcr. 
 
 Chartularies and Registers Cosmo Innes. 
 
 Legal Antiquities Cosmo Innes. 
 
 Social Life in Early Scotland Roger. 
 
 Early Kings of Norway Carlyle. 
 
 Past and Present Carlyle. 
 
 Early Daxish Settlers Worscee. 
 
 Dark Ages ■ Maitland. 
 
 Celtic Saints (Forbes). 
 
 Pinkekton's Saints (Metcalf). 
 
 Books ok Paisley and St. Giles Dr. Cameron Lees. 
 
 Early Days of William Wallace Lord Bute. 
 
 Ecclesiastical Architecture in Scotland MacGibbon and Ross. 
 
 Scoto-Monasticox Walcott. 
 
 Ioxa Duke of Argylc. 
 
 Monks of the West Montalembert. 
 
 Book of Deir, Orkneyinga Saga, Chronicox Clugxiense. 
 Books of the Spaldixg, New Spalding, Maitland, Baxantynk, 
 and Spottiswoode Clubs. 
 
 XV 
 
IONA 
 
 St. Columba. 
 521-597 A.D. 
 
 St. Orax's Chapel. 
 1070. 
 
 "There is one problem in the way of travel which has always for 
 some years past suggested itself as a thing that ought to be done : 
 A deliberate sight of the Island of Iona, Icolmkill or whatever they call 
 it, one of the remarkablest spots to one in all her Majesty's dominions." 
 
 UCH are the words of Thomas Carlyle, and no one 
 
 can possibly accuse him of sentimental expressions. 
 
 His opinions were well matured before expressed ; 
 his judgments ever calm and weighty ; and that "ought to 
 be done " comes to us as a message of deliberate commen- 
 dation from one of the greatest teachers of modern times. 
 
 The story of this lonely islet, washed by the full sweep of 
 the mighty Atlantic, is in reality the story of the civilisation 
 and progress — their growth in grace — of our early fore- 
 fathers. 
 
 Iona has been called " The cradle of Western Christianity," 
 and should therefore occupy, in the hearts of all English- 
 speaking people, a place second only to Bethlehem, 
 Jerusalem, and the sacred scenes of Palestine. By Scots, 
 it has ever been regarded as the birthplace of that spirit of 
 religious freedom and -liberty of conscience which, over- 
 powered for a time, was restored to the Churches at the 
 Reformation, and which, again threatened, led to the 
 Puritan exodus Westward. St. Columba came to Iona 
 from Ireland in 563 a.d. and at once founded a 
 monastery and set himself with mighty zeal to the work 
 
 - 
 
IOXA 
 
 of converting the Northern Picts. How thoroughly he 
 accomplished his life's task needs no proof here ; the results 
 of Columba's efforts, the memories of his influence and 
 strong faith, are over us all and are still a power in the 
 land. 
 
 The Family of Iona or Brethren of the Monastery were 
 of three ranks : the preachers, teachers, and scribes 
 (workers in the fields and in the mill), also the pupils who 
 assisted in all necessary labours. A simple community too, 
 leading such lives as did the fishermen of Galilee ; in 
 compulsory ignorance of gorgeous robes or ritualistic cere- 
 mony because of the very poverty of their environment. 
 The chanting of the Psalms, the repetition of the Lord's 
 Prayer and of Heavenly promises from inspired Scripture, 
 such were fully sufficient for them to interpret to their needs 
 the Story of the Cross in their cells and in the little church 
 built of wood, wattles and clay, all roofed with thatch. 
 
 The ruins we now see of Cathedral, Nunnery, St. Oran's 
 Chapel, St. Martin's Cross, and the Reilig Odhrain, stand like 
 finger-posts pointing backward, as sentries guarding hallowed 
 ground. When Columba died in 597 A.D., "the whole 
 church resounded with loud lamentations of grief." The 
 monastery he had founded had come to be acknowledged 
 as the head of all the various monasteries or churches 
 throughout Scotland and Northern England, and had 
 even extended its influence over older foundations in 
 Ireland. 
 
 Then the marauding Norsemen — Pagans who " feared 
 neither God nor man," ever showing special aversion to 
 all forms of mental intelligence — swept down the west 
 coast, burning and slaying, and Iona suffered keenly. In 
 rapid succession we have records of fire and sword in the 
 years 795, 798, and 802 a.d. ; then in 806 A.D., sixty-eight of 
 the family of Iona were killed. The precious relics of 
 Columba were carried off to Ireland for safety in 807 A.D., 
 and remained at Kells till 818 A.D., at which date the build- 
 ings in Iona were replaced in stone. The irrepressible 
 
10XA 
 
 3 
 
 Dane returned in 878 A.D. ; the relics were again moved 
 for safety to Dunkeld, to Abernethy, finally to Ireland, and 
 until 1074 the story is of repeated plunder and ruin. 
 
 Oran was the first of Columba's monks to die on Iona. 
 To Oran's memory Queen Margaret dedicated a chapel over 
 the site of Columba's original church, and so St. Oran's ruins 
 take precedence over all others, even though they date five 
 hundred years later than St. Columba's day. So sacred was 
 this spot, that tradition tells that even the terrible Magnus 
 of Norway started back from its low doorway and spared 
 it in his raid. Tradition, not always reliable, may be 
 fully trusted in this instance, because of the Reilig Odhrain 
 or royal burial place. " Among the tenacious affections of 
 the Celt, there is none more tenacious than that which 
 clings to the place which is consecrated to the Dead." Even 
 when Columba landed, this place was believed to be the 
 centre of Druidic worship. Fergus II., ally of Alaric the 
 Goth who sacked Rome, was buried here a century before 
 Columba's landing, and between him and good Prince 
 Conal, who gave the island to the Saint, were five kings 
 — so much for mythical history. Here, too, a year after 
 Conal's death, was ordained Aidan warrior Christian who 
 carried the Gospel message into Northern England and sent 
 the spoils, seized from Pagan Saxons and Picts, back to 
 Iona. From 404 A.D. to 1040 — or from Fergus II. to the 
 Great Macbeth — forty-eight kings of Scotland, eight kings of 
 Norway, four of Ireland, and one of France, were believed 
 to be buried here with abbots and monks, chiefs and chief- 
 tains, most notable of whom we recall the "gentle Duncan " 
 at peace in 
 
 " The sacred storehouse of his predecessors 
 And guardian of their bones." 
 
 The "Chief of Ulva's Isle" and the "Lord of the Isles" 
 also lie here. Close by is the broken cross of Abbot 
 McKinnen, its interlaced carving a wonderful proof of 
 the freedom of execution and intricacy of design displayed 
 
4 
 
 IONA 
 
 by these craftsmen of bygone days. The fashion of erecting 
 a cross over every spot of interest left over 360 crosses on 
 Iona, but all have disappeared save Maclean's Cross and 
 St. Martin's Cross, with several others more or less entire. 
 St. Martin's or the Cross of Christendom is the most perfect 
 stone cross in existence — a solid slab of mica schist, 14 feet 
 high, 18 inches broad, and 10 inches thick — fixed in a 
 massive block of red granite three feet above the ground. 
 Nothing in Christian art so indelibly impresses one as this 
 grand and lonely cross, sentinel over the mouldering dust 
 of the long dead past, a memory of St. Martin of the fourth 
 century, himself a friend of the good St. Ninian, and both 
 alike revered by St. Columba. Between this cross and the 
 Cathedral doorway are two stone coffins, said to belong to 
 Columba and his faithful Diarmid, and near these is a solid 
 granite basin, used for washing the feet before entering the 
 sanctuary. A stone, marked with a cross, is also pointed 
 out as Columba's pillow. 
 
 The Cathedral, of the usual cruciform shape, dates from 
 the twelfth to the late fifteenth century. Its tower of "four 
 sides to every wind that blows " has two particularly fine 
 windows, one a perforated quatrefoil, the other a marigold 
 or Catherine-wheel window. The carvings on the capitals 
 of the pillars are wonderfully fine, even though sadly 
 defaced by the heavy hand of Time. 
 
 In ecclesiastical polity the Church here has recognised 
 many changes. Abbot Duncan, last of the Columban order, 
 died in 1099 ; then the Bishop of Drontheim held supre- 
 macy over the Diocese of Man and the Isles' till 1156. In 
 1 164, Skene tells us, the Culdees were in possession, be- 
 cause the " mighty Somerled " had restored the Monastery 
 to the Abbot of Derry ; and then in 1208, Reginald, his heir, 
 established the Benedictine Monks and also placed his sister 
 Beatrice as Prioress in the newly built Nunnery. The 
 Bishop of Man and the Isles again held supremacy till 143 1 ; 
 then lona came under the sway of Dunkeld, and afterwards 
 under that of St. Andrews, and in 1506, when James IV. sat 
 
By permission of] [Mew: Valentine, Dundee. 
 
 67. Martin's Cross. 
 
 To /ait fagf 4. 
 
IOXA 
 
 5 
 
 upon the throne, Iona was finally restored to the Diocese of 
 the Isles, and its church made the Cathedral of the Diocese. 
 Charles I. granted the island to the Marquis of Argyll in 
 1648, and his descendant, the late Duke of Argyll, returned 
 it to the care of the Church in 1899, encouraged to do so by 
 the public worship and services held on the occasion of 
 Saint Columba's thirteenth centenary in 1897. 
 
 Scotland has recovered from the fright which produced 
 the Reformation ; she no longer considers that a beautiful 
 church, a reverent ritual, must of necessity be the symbols 
 of Popery ; so that everywhere throughout her borders 
 churches are being restored, and a love for worship, con- 
 ducted reverently and in order, inculcated. But until 
 1897 no public recognition of the blessings inherited from 
 the Saints of the early Church had been accorded. It was a 
 happy thought that led to the celebration of Columba's 
 centenary on Iona during the Session of the General 
 Assembly. Simple but most effective were the preparations 
 for this national gathering of representative clergy and lay- 
 men. A canvas roof was stretched over the Cathedral, the 
 rank grass was cut, and chairs for over three hundred 
 worshippers were placed on Nature's carpet of soft turf ; a 
 pulpit was erected where formerly stood the High Altar of 
 the good Queen Margaret's dedication, and by its side, in 
 central position, stood the Communion Table with fair 
 white cloth. Everything seemed so appropriate, so church- 
 like, that a general feeling prevailed that very little need be 
 done to make those hallowed walls fit for permanent worship. 
 In the opening services, Gaelic was used by those dignitaries 
 of the Scottish Church who are familiar with the Celtic 
 tongue. Thus, over the dust of those warrior Macleods and 
 Macleans of fierce memory, was preached the gospel of love 
 and goodwill by their peace-abiding descendants. Yet in 
 spite of their simplicity, nowhere else in Britain, in that 
 momentous year, were heard more impressive services. The 
 commemorators of St. Augustine's landing did not excel, 
 even in their magnificent Gregorian strains, the singing of 
 
6 
 
 IOXA 
 
 the eighty-fourth Psalm — the greeting between St. Columba 
 and St. Kentigern. Its wailing minor tones, the very un- 
 familiarity of its language — " soft as the speech of streams 
 from rugged mountains, wild as that of the winds in the tops 
 of fir-trees, the language at once of bards and of fighting 
 men " — all helped to swell the effect upon the Lowland or 
 English visitor as he gazed through open doorway and 
 unglazed window, and also heard the voices of the birds as 
 they filled up every gap in the melody created by this gather- 
 ing which disturbed their abiding place around the ancient 
 altars. How liquid and smooth-flowing sounded that story 
 of the birds : " Fhuair eadhon an ghealbhoun tigh, agus an 
 gobhlan-gaoithe nead dhi fein, annsan cuireadh i a h-alach ; 
 t'altairean-sa, a Thighearna nan slogh, mo Dhia, agus mo 
 Righ." The swallow and the sparrow and many another 
 feathered singer of the heavens had kept up the worship of 
 praise for centuries and ours was but an interlude ; let us 
 have faith that it may yet prove to have been a prelude. St. 
 Columba's last act was to copy out the thirty-fourth Psalm, 
 and it appropriately formed the subject of the anthem. 
 Then the sermon, from' the text, " Put off thy shoes from 
 off thy feet, for the place whereon thou standest is holy 
 ground," gave rapid sketch of Columba's life with incisive 
 application to the story of our modern conditions. The 
 preacher pointed out that not the Christianity of Scotland 
 alone, but that of England, owns the influence of this first 
 great Irish missionary, whose name is known and loved to 
 this day in lonely islets, in wild Highland glens, in cities 
 and in villages, as the founder of churches, the apostle of 
 nations, the bringer of light and love and the gospel to the 
 wild tribes of the north, and whose disciples and successors 
 made so deep an impression on the heathen Saxons and 
 Angles of Northumbria, that under the power of their intense 
 spiritual zeal, it became in its turn a centre of Christian 
 missions for the rest of England. 
 
 We cannot roll back the years, yet no need to scout 
 the idea that the twentieth century can learn aught from 
 
IOXA 
 
 the sixth century. No need either to discount the im- 
 portance of Augustine's mission, which founded the Latin 
 Church as Columba's life closed. Augustine's mission rose 
 above the level of ecclesiasticism ; it brought into a great 
 commonwealth the Western peoples and gave to them an 
 organised authority which, if imperfect, was none the less 
 the greatest civilising power of barbarous and brutal times. 
 " The loss of the old Celtic independence in religion which 
 eventually followed was the first necessary step in the 
 advance from Celtic barbarism." From that day to this, 
 devoted men, inheritors of the great Columba's zeal, have 
 preached " the faith of our fathers." They and they only 
 speak his language, they labour in the same field, they 
 carry to his own people his message of love and of life's 
 duty nobly done, and with such an inheritance they need 
 not to trouble over the doctrine of Apostolic succession. 
 
 As before said, the ruins have been gifted to the Church 
 of Scotland, and ere long may be restored for service and 
 worship. Would that some generous member of the kirk 
 might feel impelled to start the good work ! The donor, who 
 in life proved how close the story of the Island was to his 
 heart, writes of it : " Its history touches an immense 
 variety of interests, the migration of races, the rise of nations, 
 the conquests of Christianity, the developments of belief." 
 
 Another and less partial critic, Samuel Johnson, severe 
 judge of many things Scottish, says : "That man is little to 
 be envied whose piety would not grow warmer among the 
 ruins of Iona." 
 
 The attraction is irresistible, the impression never to be for- 
 gotten, and one finds it very hard indeed to say even An revoir 
 to Iona. Standing on the grassy mound close by the simple 
 pier one can look across to the softened beauty of Mull and 
 picture vividly a scene from the past — the rough boats and 
 the galleys coming up the rocky sound, " their dark freight 
 a vanished life" — whilst a solemn procession of monks, 
 chanting dirges, winds down the route marked by crosses to 
 meet those bearers of the dead. On this very mound the 
 
8 
 
 IOXA 
 
 body was laid, whilst psalms were sung and prayers chanted 
 over it for three days and nights, before the last rites were 
 performed in the Reilig Odhrain. The ruins are venerable, 
 yet yield in interest to these graves, the everlasting token to 
 us of the reverence felt for Iona by successive generations 
 of our forefathers. A proof, too, that bloody chief and cruel 
 warrior, who in life practised that " might was right," hoped 
 in death to expiate their sins by being buried in the soil 
 which the saintly Columba had trod. May the Saint's 
 prophecy be fulfilled in our day ! 
 
 An I mo chridhe, I mo graidh 
 An aite guth manaich bid gheum ba ; 
 Ach mun tig an saoghal gu crich 
 Bithidh I mar a bha." 
 
 In Iona of my heart, Iona of my love, 
 Instead of monk's voice shall be lowing of kine ; 
 But ere the world comes to an end 
 Shall be Iona as it was." 
 
GLASGOW 
 
 St. Muxgo. 
 
 St. Kextigerx. Refouxded 
 
 543A.D. HI5 A.D. 
 
 " Here the Cross was planted, and here was ground blessed for 
 Christian burial by a Christian bishop, while Iona was yet an unknown 
 island among the Western waves, while the promontory of St. Andrews 
 was the haunt of the wild boar and the sea-mew, and only the smoke of 
 a few heathen wigwams ascended from the rock of Edinburgh. The 
 ground which St. Xinian hallowed and St. Kentigern chose for the seat 
 of his religion was honoured also by the footsteps of St. Columba, who 
 came hither in pilgrimage from his island monastery, singing hymns in 
 honour of the Apostle of Strathclyde." 
 
 SO writes Dr. Joseph Robertson of the beginnings of 
 Christian life and work in Glasgow whose Cathedral 
 of St. Mungo stands by far the fairest and finest of 
 Scotland's churches, admired alike by native Briton 
 and foreign tourist. 
 
 The devastations of the Reformation period left no 
 permanent injury on its architecture, and in this respect 
 its record is unique on the Mainland. St. Magnus, its sister 
 in similar good fortune, points for us the story of warriors 
 and statesmen in the making of the nation. In excellent 
 contrast, we turn to find in Glasgow the influence of the 
 churchman and the ecclesiastic as founders of the city and 
 advisers of our Scottish kings. 
 
 No need therefore for prolonged detail of Nave, Choir, 
 Transepts, Lady Chapel, Chapter House, and the beautiful 
 Lower Church, commonly called the Crypts ; we see them 
 9 
 
GLASGOW 
 
 now as they have ever been — a beautiful house of worship 
 to the glory of God — the very source and centre of Glasgow, 
 from which she derives City Seal and Arms and her now 
 curtailed motto, " Let Glasgow flourish " (by the preaching 
 of the Word). 
 
 St. Mungo is in one sense a misnomer. St. Kentigern 
 were more correct title ; and yet, after a period of thirteen 
 centuries, is it not as wisdom for us to realise the vitality of 
 good deeds — a more enduring monument than hewn marble? 
 Every time our lips frame the name of Mungo we perpetuate 
 the beauty of Kentigern's character and life as "well-beloved" 
 saint. In his story we have the story of early Glasgow, and 
 as briefly as possible we should recall a few facts concerning 
 him before descending into the Lower Church to visit his 
 shrine, from which radiating centre the Cathedral has been 
 developed. 
 
 What a gap in English literature, what a blow to national 
 standards of idealism would befall us, were the Arthurian 
 Legends to be spirited out of our mental vision ! Though 
 vague in definition and shadowy in facts, neither materialism 
 nor realism can ever satisfy us as do these tales of the hero 
 of heroes who lived during " the two lost centuries " of 
 History. To that same period Kentigern belonged, and 
 beautiful exceedingly are the traditions of his life. Like 
 St. David of Wales, he was of princely birth ; his reputed 
 father, Eugenius III., was the forty-sixth king of Scots, 
 better known as Ewen of Cambria, and his mother, Thenaw, 
 a daughter of Loth, King of the Picts, a worshipper of 
 Woden and Thor, whose name is perpetuated in our 
 Lothians. His wife was Ann, a daughter of Uter Pendragon, 
 and therefore aunt of the famous King Arthur. All this we 
 learn from Fordun and a Paris Chronicle of 1579. 
 
 We may here recall that Cambria, or Strathclyde, included 
 all the country lying south of the Firths of Forth and Clyde, 
 and part of Northern England ; also that " the gentle 
 Duncan " excited Macbeth's ire by naming his son Malcolm 
 " Prince of Cumbria." 
 
GLASGOW 
 
 1 1 
 
 Thenavv became a Christian, and in the enthusiasm born 
 of her new faith believed herself to be honoured as was the 
 Virgin Mary. Her father, according to the law of his time, 
 was compelled to put her to death, so she was thrown from 
 a precipice, but miraculously escaped unhurt. Then, cast 
 adrift in a boat outside the Isle of May, a shoal of fishes 
 bore the skiff up the Forth to Culross, where St. Serf, or 
 Servanus, lived and laboured. There her child was born, 
 and when a shepherd took mother and child to the cell of 
 the aged hermit, he, with prophetic vision, greeted the 
 infant — " Blessed art thou that comest in the Name of the 
 Lord," and he baptised the child and named him Kentigern. 
 
 Then we have a story resembling in many points that of 
 the youthful Samuel and aged Eli. The boy grew in favour 
 and grace, and soon Munghu, or "dear one," became as 
 a second name. St. Serf had a favourite robin redbreast, 
 mischievous boys pulled its head off, but Munghu put body 
 and head together and it flew joyously to the aged Saint. 
 The " Monastery " lamp before the altar was maliciously 
 extinguished at midnight ; Munghu pulled a frozen branch 
 off a hazel tree and blew on it so that it leaped into flame. 
 Many other miracles are recorded ; these two are necessary 
 to knowledge in connection with the city's coat of arms. 
 
 This monastery was situated on an island in Loch Leven. 
 It afterwards became a great centre of the Culdees, and one 
 of the few early records extant tells of a gift of land to this 
 monastery of St. Servanus from Macbeth and his wife, the 
 Lady Gruoch — although Dr. Skene disputes by chronology 
 that Mungo's St. Serf and the later Hermit of Loch Leven 
 were one and the same. 
 
 Kentigern was twenty-five years old when the call came 
 for him to go forth to preach. He reached the shores of 
 the Forth which like the Red Sea was opened up for his 
 passage, crossed to the southern bank, invoking the blessing 
 of Heaven on his aged guardian who in vain begged him 
 to return. He journeyed on and reached Kernach (possibly 
 Carnwath), and there met the aged hermit Fergus who, as 
 
GLASGOW 
 
 if inspired, recited the Nunc Dimittis and then immediately 
 died. Kentigern spent the night in prayer, and in the 
 morning yoked two wild bulls to a cart, on which he placed 
 the old man's body, resolving to follow wherever they should 
 lead. No details are given of this journey which ultimately 
 ended at Deschu or Cathures (for both names appear) on the 
 banks of the Molendinar (now a covered sewer). Here he 
 found a primitive church built by St. Ninian, also a cemetery 
 in which was buried the body of Fergus. 
 
 On a stone over the entrance to the Blackadder Crypt we 
 may see in Saxon lettering, "This is ye ile of Car Fergus," 
 so we naturally infer that the Crypt now covers the place of 
 Ninian's Cemetery. 
 
 Kentigern was now back in his father's land of Cambria 
 or Strathclyde, and by request of its king and people he 
 remained with them, and was consecrated as a bishop by 
 one who came specially from Ireland for this purpose. We 
 next read of his incurring the hatred of King Marken. In 
 primitive communities there seems to have existed between 
 the Saint and the Wizard that same intangible line which 
 we now recognise as dividing genius from insanity. When 
 the King died from acute gout in the same foot which had 
 on occasion kicked St. Mungo, his queen and courtiers 
 pronounced the Saint a wizard and clamoured for his life. 
 He fled to Wales, and with St. David (his relative) found 
 shelter and communion for a time. 
 
 Again a wild beast served as guide to new abiding place, 
 where he founded "a college" and gathered around him 
 many followers. Chief of these was Asaph, who succeeded 
 him in its directorate — the St. Asaph's of North Wales. Our 
 Scottish St. Mungo is therefore Kindeyrn Garthwys to the 
 Welsh. 
 
 The new king of Strathclyde, Rhydderch or Roderick, 
 having been baptised by St. Patrick, sent messengers 
 imploring Mungo to return to Glasgow. Then' we have the 
 second series of miracles now commemorated in the City 
 Arms. Queen Langueth had given the King's ring to a 
 
13 
 
 soldier lover. He one day fell asleep, and as the King passed 
 by, he recognised -his own ring, pulled it off, and threw it 
 into the river. Then, sending for the Queen, he demanded 
 the return of his pledge, and she in great distress appealed to 
 St. Mungo. He ordered a fishing-line to be cast into the 
 Clyde ; a salmon was hooked and caught, and in its stomach 
 the veritable ring was found. The Queen's life was saved, 
 and Mungo's power thus established in the royal house. 
 
 Tradition tells that St. Mungo visited Rome seven times, 
 and on one of these occasions brought back a consecrated 
 bell — square, as were all Celtic bells— and that it hung on a 
 tree. This bell was in use as a death bell till 1661, when it 
 disappeared. The bird, the branch, the ring, the fish, the 
 bell, the motto — all are attributed to St. Kentigern ! although 
 in Genoa we find a very similar rhyme to — 
 
 " The bird that never flew, 
 The fish that never swam, 
 The tree that never grew. 
 The bell that never rang." 
 
 Most important in Church history was St. Columba's visit 
 to Kentigern, their affectionate greeting, their chanting of 
 the psalms and at final parting their exchange of staves. 
 For many centuries one of the treasures of St. Wilfrid's 
 Church in Ripon was Mungo's staff, carried into Northern 
 England by one of the family of Iona. 
 
 Columba returned to Iona and died in 597 A.D. Mungo 
 lived on to 603 A.D., and in his old age " visited Orkney, 
 Norway, and Iceland." St. Thenaw, his mother, lived near 
 him, and in St. Enoch we commemorate her name. 
 
 In a vision on his death-bed, an angel directed that 
 Mungo's body be placed in a warm bath so that his spirit 
 might thereby depart easily. Those of his followers who 
 wished to join him were also advised to place themselves in 
 the bath after the removal of the Saint's body, and, as many 
 availed themselves thereof, this may in part explain the 
 tradition " that 665 Saints were laid to rest around him." 
 
14 
 
 GLASGOW 
 
 " Diligently and most devoutly, as the custom of the Church 
 at that time required, they celebrated his obsequies, and on 
 the right side of the Altar they laid beneath a stone with 
 as much becoming reverence as they could, that home of 
 the virtues, that precious stone by whose merit, as it was a 
 time for collecting stones for the edifice of the Heavenly 
 Temple, many elect and lovely stones, along with that pearl, 
 were taken up and laid in the treasury of the great King." 
 Then around his tomb the miracles of his life were per- 
 petuated — the blind, the deaf, the halt, the maimed, the leper, 
 and the lunatic found health and healing, whilst the pro- 
 faner, the impious, and the sacrilegious were unmasked and 
 punished. 
 
 We may believe as much or as little as we please of 
 Kentigern's miraculous powers, but certainly their similarity 
 to those recorded in Scripture is both striking and sug- 
 gestive, and as we stand by the place of his tomb in the 
 Crypt, we must feel that Mungo was a pure and bright light 
 in a far-off age of darkness. In the mediaeval Church his 
 name was specially revered, his festival joyously observed. 
 Many hymns were composed in his honour, and from the 
 Aberdeen Breviary, and famed Arbuthnot Missal (now in 
 Paisley Museum) we select two couplets indicative of the 
 position accorded to him — 
 
 " Through thee, great prelate, son of royal line, 
 Lothian and Cambria with new honours shine." 
 
 " And Scotia is converted to the faith divine 
 Through thee, Glory, through thee." 
 
 Scotland never forgets how much she owes to her early 
 Celtic saints, to their " Colleges and Monasteries," to their 
 simplicity of doctrine and ritual. Glasgow, second city of 
 the Empire, first in progress, owes everything to Mungo's 
 sweet memory, which inspired Prince David to found her 
 cathedral and diocese five centuries after the Saint's death. 
 To his successors of the Latin Church she owes her special 
 
GLASGOW 
 
 municipal privileges and her University, so that the words 
 of the ancient hymn have been actually fulfilled — 
 
 "In him be joyful, Glasgow chiefly 
 Thy fortunes he'll raise high briefly." 
 
 PR E-RE FORMATION CHURCH. 
 
 St. Mungo was said to have been succeeded by St. Baldred, 
 a name familiar in North Berwick, and then there is a long 
 suggestive silence, denoting without doubt a relapse into 
 paganism. 
 
 David, Prince of Cambria, the worthy " Sair Sanct," is 
 next upon the scene ; and he, recalling Mungo's work and 
 the " savour of that sweet smelling tree out of filthy 
 ground," appealed, on behalf of his favourite tutor — John 
 Achaius — to Pope Paschall II. John was consecrated in 
 Rome about 1 1 15, and sent home to Scotland to found a 
 diocese. His sojourn was but short however since he fled 
 a pilgrim to the Holy Land, in actual terror of his life from 
 the wild men of Strathclyde, and only by compulsion did 
 he return. 
 
 The cemetery — ever most sacred of all sacred places in 
 Celtic sentiment — with a tall cross and a few old trees were 
 all that remained of St. Mungo's relics. 
 
 About 1 1 24, Bishop John commenced his new cathedral ; 
 in 1 136 it was consecrated in the presence of King David 
 and his court, and in 1192 we read of its being burned to 
 the ground. In the interim, however, there was much 
 making of history : lands had been given to the see ; King 
 David had been succeeded by Malcolm IV., who in a charter 
 greeting "Normans, Saxons, Scots, Welsh, and Picts," 
 commands these same to pay full tithes of produce and 
 cattle. Glasgow was rising into such note that the Arch- 
 bishop of York claimed its allegiance, but was successfully 
 resisted ; and in 1174, Joceline, the fourth bishop, was con- 
 secrated. His is a name to be remembered and honoured. 
 As prime favourite of William the Lion, he obtained from 
 
1 6 
 
 GLASGOW 
 
 this king, in 1180, a charter which transformed the village 
 into the burgh of Glasgow, with power to hold a weekly 
 market every Thursday. A second charter granted absolute 
 protection to all who attended these markets ; and still a 
 third makes us clearly realise social life and conditions in 
 Scotland during the twelfth century — the King gave to his 
 Bishop " Gillemachoy de Conglud, with his children and 
 all their descendants as serfs." 
 
 In return for these and other favours, Joceline went in 
 1 182 to Rome and obtained from Pope Lucius III. exemp- 
 tion from all censure for his royal master. Joceline was 
 essentially a man of energy. In 1197 a new church was 
 consecrated, that beautiful crypt now bearing his name, in 
 which a tomb and high altar were erected to St. Kentigern. 
 One of the earliest votive offerings on record is " a stone 
 of wax yearly to make candles for the daily mass on this 
 Altar." 
 
 Most interesting is the story of the Guild or Fraternity, 
 sanctioned by royal letters, to collect money for this new 
 church, which the King described as follows : " Though it 
 be poor and lowly in temporal state, is the spiritual mother 
 of many tribes." We regard successful biography as one 
 of the later developments in literature. In order to raise 
 money, Bishop Joceline engaged Brother Joceline of 
 Furness to write of The Life and Miracles of St. Kentigern, 
 and he did his work so well that we might fitly rank him 
 as Boswell's peer. He certainly stops short at nothing 
 likely to advance the importance of Mungo and his church. 
 The story of miracles and other details already referred to, 
 in connection with the Saint, are culled from this book 
 (still extant), although we know that the facts may have 
 been enlarged upon from an older MS. life, now lost. 
 
 During the octave of Peter and Paul in 1197 a great 
 Dedication Feast took place, with a fair of eight days' 
 duration. Not a working man or woman in Glasgow now 
 but looks forward to "the Fair Holiday" in July, though 
 comparatively few may know how and when its privileges 
 
GLASGOW 
 
 17 
 
 were first granted. Two years later, the good Bishop 
 Joceline died, and not until 1220 have we another record 
 of note. 
 
 Bishop Walter then obtained exemption from toll and 
 custom, levied on his people, by the towns of Rutherglen 
 and Dumbarton — mere villages now in comparison with the 
 second city in the Empire. Bishop Bondington succeeded 
 in 1233, and in 1242, the Council of clergy, at Perth, 
 granted indulgences for all who gave or raised money 
 towards the building of Glasgow Cathedral. From these 
 moneys, the fine Choir was built and finished in 1258. 
 This Bishop also introduced the Ritual of Sarum. The 
 next dignitary of note earned national fame — Robert 
 Wishart, "well-beloved bishop" of Robert the Bruce. 
 When King Alexander III. died in 1286, Wishart was 
 appointed one of the Lords of Regency, and at Xorham 
 Castle dared to remind Edward I. of England that, as a 
 prince of wisdom and integrity, the Scots had desired his 
 advice, but they also denied his right to dictate terms to 
 them as "Overlord." 
 
 The Central Tower and the Transepts were presumably 
 built about this time, as in 1277, record tells of the Chapter's 
 privileges to cut timber on the banks of Luss " for the 
 fabric of their steeple and treasury." In 1291 also, "the 
 warlike " Bishop begged timber for the spire of his Cathe- 
 dral from English Edward, and he, as a good churchman 
 who had bowed before its altar, granted one hundred oaks, 
 and also twenty stags for the Bishop's own use. Alas ! the 
 prelate ate the venison and made " catapults and engines " 
 from the wood to besiege the garrisons of the royal donor — 
 truly "a pestilent priest." In vain Pope Boniface reproved 
 his contumacy and ordered him to seek repentance and 
 forgiveness. He was a Scot first, a son of Rome second, 
 and preached that it were better far to fight with Robert 
 Bruce for the independence of Scotland than to go as a 
 crusader to meet a Saracen foe. We Scots all feel proud 
 that Scotland was never a conquered country ; let us 
 3 
 
[8 
 
 GLASGOW 
 
 gratefully acknowledge Bishop Wishart's share in this 
 honourable achievement. He not only absolved his hero 
 for the murder of Comyn, but from his own wardrobe 
 of vestments prepared robes for Bruce's coronation at 
 Scone in 1306. In that same year he was taken prisoner 
 by the English, became blind during his captivity, and 
 not until prisoners were exchanged after Bannockburn 
 was fought and won in 13 14, was Bruce able to greet 
 his loyal friend. Only two years more of life and liberty 
 were granted him, and in these years he was associated 
 with Fordun in the compilation of the national Chronicles. 
 One looks in vain around the building for some visible 
 memorial to this patriotic Scot. Many a man of less 
 glorious record has lived on to fame — his deeds per- 
 petuated to later generations in bronze or marble tablet. 
 
 In 1400, the Steeple, whether finished or unfinished, was 
 struck by lightning but Bishop Lauder (1408-25) replaced 
 it in stone, and set his arms on its parapet. Lauder's Crypt, 
 below the Chapter House, was also his work, left unfinished 
 for Bishop Cameron's advent at the very zenith of Church 
 glory. The " Magnificent Bishop " built the Chapter House, 
 and on the central pillar, supporting its beautiful groined 
 roof, carved his arms as a scion of Lochiel's ancient 
 clan. In his day, pomp and punctiliousness marked every 
 ceremony, the great Church festivals were gorgeously 
 observed, the streets were filled with processions of 
 choristers and priests carrying crucifixes, banners, and 
 candles to the chanting of Te Dennis, while flowers, in- 
 cense, and vestments added to the unwonted brilliancy of 
 the scene. Money was freely spent on his episcopal palace, 
 and the lists of costly treasures and relics under his care 
 tell of Bishop Cameron's love for ceremonious display. 
 
 Although in the Cathedral itself, we can only attribute the 
 roof of the north aisle to Bishop Turnbull, to him we owe 
 the foundation of a mighty monument not made with hands, 
 and for this his name is revered beyond all others. In 1450 
 he obtained from Pope Nicholas II. a Bull authorising a 
 
GLASGOW 
 
 19 
 
 Studium Generate to be opened, the beginning of the 
 University, whose ninth jubilee has so recently been 
 celebrated. For many years the clergy of the Cathedral 
 were its chief supporters, and its handful of students met 
 to be taught in the Lower Church. James II. truly wished 
 that his Alma Universitas might prosper, but King James 
 was but a little less impecunious than were the great 
 majority of his subjects. He, however, granted a charter 
 to the good Bishop, erecting the burgh into a burgh of 
 regality with its special privileges. 
 
 Bishop Blackadder is the next of note. He built the fine 
 rood screen with its quaintly grotesque carvings, also the 
 altarages in front thereof. The great stair leading to the 
 Lower Church was also his work, and we may claim that 
 the whole effect is but rarely equalled and not surpassed 
 elsewhere in Britain. Archaeologist and architect alike find 
 much to admire in its detail. He also wished to extend the 
 South Transept, but only its undercroft was finished — that 
 which we Call Blackadder's crypt. It formed a beautiful 
 and appropriate close to the building, which, begun in 11 24, 
 was carried on until his death in 1508, and which gave rise 
 to the saying — 
 
 " Like St. Mungo's work it will never be finished." 
 
 During Blackadder's rule, the Diocese was converted into 
 the See of an Archbishop, and was declared independent of 
 St. Andrews by Pope Innocent VIII. in 1491-92. 
 
 King James IV. who was a Canon of Glasgow and 
 therefore attended its Chapters as an active member, urged 
 the Pope for this favour because " it surpasses the other 
 cathedral churches of my realm by its structure, its learned 
 men, its foundation, its ornaments, and other very noble 
 prerogatives." The King also sent its Archbishop to take 
 part in the negotiations for his marriage with Margaret 
 Tudor, one of the notable events of Scottish national 
 history. 
 
 James Beaton, afterwards the famous Cardinal, came next 
 
20 
 
 GLASGOW 
 
 in succession, and after his translation to St. Andrews, 
 Gavin Dunbar ruled. Lollardism had reached Scotland, 
 the infallibility of Rome was openly questioned, and the 
 smoke from two heretics, burned beside the church, 
 darkened the Eastern windows, forecast of more gloomy 
 days yet to come. 
 
 In 1545, John Knox made merry over a conflict for pre- 
 cedence between Dunbar's and Beaton's followers at the 
 Cathedral door — the beginning of the end. Dunbar died 
 in 1547, and five years later, another Beaton, nephew of 
 the Cardinal, was consecrated to be the last of that long 
 line, of whom John Achaius was the first. The fortifica- 
 tion of his palace received more of Beaton's attention than 
 the Cathedral, and to this stronghold he removed all the 
 precious relics and jewels, the vessels of gold and silver, 
 and the valuable archives and charters. In 1560, he fled 
 with these to France, depositing them in the Scots College 
 and the Chartreuse in Paris ; and as he died in 1603, he 
 bequeathed these national possessions to the same. (The 
 Maitland Club have published the Register of Glasgow.) 
 
 The Reformation was accomplished in the land, and the 
 Cathedral was saved from the iconoclasts. Only the lead 
 had been stripped from the roof; but in 1574, and again in 
 1579, the Provost and citizens taxed themselves for the 
 proper maintenance of the building — to be counted to them 
 for righteousness. When we read Andrew Fairservice's 
 graphic account of this time in the pages of Rob Roy, we 
 realise that it was verily a case of "touch and go" with 
 the fate of the Cathedral — so narrowly did it escape 
 destruction. For twelve years after the Reformation there 
 is" no record of any meeting for worship in the Cathedral, 
 it being shunned as " a monument to popery," and not 
 until 1572 was praise again heard within its walls. 
 
 In 1582, we have a sad offset to that former scene for 
 precedence which excited John Knox's ridicule. The 
 Collegians — followers of Andrew Melvil, first Principal of 
 the University, and the supporters of Montgomery, one 
 
GLASGOW 
 
 21 
 
 of the four " Tulchan " Archbishops — met in free fight, and 
 Howieson, the Presbyterian minister, was pulled out of the 
 pulpit by his beard, his teeth knocked out, and he and his 
 sympathisers cast into the Tolbooth. We now live in such 
 an age of tolerance that we can afford to smile at one of 
 the serious charges brought against Montgomery because 
 he said that " Ministers were captious and men of curious 
 brains." 
 
 Beaton, who had been allowed to retain the emoluments 
 of his office, died in 1603, and was succeeded by Spottis- 
 woode, a man of gentle birth who, as a brilliant student of 
 the University of Glasgow, graduated at the age of sixteen ; 
 succeeded to his father's pulpit and duties in 1585 ; and 
 ten years later, declared for Episcopacy and became one of 
 the King's strongest advisers. We know that he repaired 
 the roof of the Cathedral in 1606, and that in 1615 he was 
 made Primate of Scotland. His most notable act, as Arch- 
 bishop of St. Andrews, was the erection of the Collegiate 
 church of St. Giles into the Cathedral church of the Diocese 
 of Edinburgh in 1633. 
 
 Apostate, renegade, traitor — such names have been applied 
 to this first Protestant Archbishop of Glasgow (if we exclude 
 the four "Tulchans") — let us remember that he lived during 
 troublous and controversial times when critical judgments 
 (so-called) were but too often the expression of personal 
 rancour. (A record relative to the Christmas of 1593 speaks 
 volumes for us — " The Kirk and Magistrates ordered that 
 all who attempted to keep Yule should lose all the privileges 
 of Kirk including marriage.") Spottiswoode was a man 
 gifted alike with intellect and ambition, and had he lived 
 in our own times, would assuredly have earned and kept 
 his place amongst the leaders of the day. His well-known 
 work, The History of the Church of Scotland, is considered a 
 most valuable contemporary record, and so deeply has it 
 been appreciated by scholars, that the Spottiswoode Club 
 was instituted in Edinburgh about a century ago, for the 
 editing and publishing of all works on Scottish history and 
 
2 2 
 
 GLASGOW 
 
 antiquities. He died in London in 1639, an< ^ was buried 
 in Westminster Abbey. 
 
 In 1638, the General Assembly, at its meeting in Glasgow, 
 declared for Presbyterianism. 
 
 Twelve years later Cromwell entered Glasgow, and on the 
 following Sunday attended worship in the High Kirk, as it 
 was then called. For three hours he sat, a seemingly 
 patient listener to the eloquent Mr. Zachary Boyd, who, in 
 language much more plain than pleasant, revealed his 
 opinion of Cromwell's character. Thurlow, his secretary, 
 became so exasperated that he repeatedly asked permission 
 " to pistol the scoundrel." Cromwell was a great general, 
 able to make the punishment fit the crime to perfection. 
 He cordially invited Mr. Boyd to sup with him ; discussed 
 and argued with his guest on questions of theology; and 
 afterwards engaged in prayer for three long hours. Then 
 at three o'clock in the morning Mr. Boyd was dismissed 
 with the Protector's blessing. The chair in which the 
 Protector sat during service is still shown, and it was one 
 of the attractive objects of interest in the recent Exhibition. 
 
 Glasgow rejoiced at the Restoration of Charles II. in 1660, 
 at which date Episcopacy was again established, and seven 
 Archbishops followed each other in rapid succession. Of 
 these, Robert Leighton spent four years here, 1670-74, and 
 " his low sweet voice and angelic strains of eloquence and 
 devotion haunted his hearers to their dying day." The 
 story of his life and influence belongs to the Cathedral 
 of Dunblane. 
 
 In 1688, the Revolution brought in its train the final 
 declaration for Presbyterianism as the national form of 
 religion. From that day to this the record has been of 
 peace, of zeal for all that is fair and of good report, and 
 of an ever strengthening union between laymen and clergy 
 in their efforts for national righteousness. 
 
 " It is impossible for a student of ecclesiastical antiquities 
 not to look back with fond regret to the lordly and ruined 
 Church, which we have traced from its cradle to its grave, 
 
GLASGOW 
 
 23 
 
 not stopping to question its doctrines, and throwing into 
 a friendly shade its errors of practice. And yet, if we 
 consider it more deeply, we may be satisfied that the 
 gorgeous fabric fell not till it had completed its work, and 
 was no longer useful. Institutions, like mortal bodies, die 
 and are reproduced. Nations pass away, and the worthy 
 live again in their colonies. Our own proud and free 
 England may be destined to sink, and to leave only a 
 memory and those offshoots of her vigorous youth which 
 have spread civilisation over half the world. In this view, 
 it was not unworthy of that splendid hierarchy, which arose 
 out of the humble family of St. Kentigern, to have given life 
 and vigour to such a city as Glasgow, and a school of 
 learning like her University." 
 
 Thus Glasgow has truly flourished by the preaching of 
 the Word. 
 
 MODERN IMPROVEMENTS. 
 
 During the present century, several changes for the worse 
 as well as for the better have been made upon the building. 
 In 1829, public attention was called to the dilapidated con- 
 dition of the nave, and to the accumulation of rubbish in 
 the crypts. 
 
 The Nave, which in the past owned no man for its builder, 
 evidently belongs principally to the thirteenth and fourteenth 
 centuries. The Restoration Committee set to work vigorously, 
 — too much so — for the two towers of the western gable, which 
 were probably built after the completion of the nave and the 
 aisles, were cleared away; the south-west tower in 1845, and 
 its north-west companion, which had formerly been used as 
 a Consistory Court, in 1848. The great west doorway was 
 opened up, and the fine west window restored. As we stand 
 beneath this window we are impressed by the seeming length 
 of the building, although only 283 feet in all; by the loftiness 
 of nave and choir; by the perspective of massive pillars with 
 deeply carved capitals and finely pointed arches; by the 
 stately yet severely simple effect of the whole. If the altars 
 
2 4 
 
 have disappeared, the eye gains thereby in the uninterrupted 
 line of architectural development. Nowhere else in Britain 
 can one see such perfect architectural effect from pillared 
 vaults as in the Lower Church, and there are but few of the 
 greater cathedrals on the Continent which can approach the 
 same perfection. 
 
 The windows of the two churches, 159 in all, present a 
 display of stained glass unequalled in the country, and no 
 story of St. Mungo's Cathedral can be considered complete 
 without a brief sketch thereof. It has also been claimed for 
 these windows that, although modern, yet taking into con- 
 sideration their number, their beauty of colouring, of design, 
 and of workmanship, and also the assured status of the 
 schools and artists which they represent, this collection is 
 not surpassed by any other in Europe. This indeed sounds 
 high praise, but may now be strongly modified. In the 
 nave, as well as in the choir, the colouring is in several 
 instances brilliant to garish ness, and we also note with deep 
 regret that in many windows the features of saints and 
 prophets are sadly defaced, even to obliteration. Texts are 
 also faded out, and within the past five years there has been 
 marked deterioration of beauty and effect. The atmosphere 
 of the city, heavily charged with chemicals in this particular 
 neighbourhood, has been blamed as the cause thereof, but 
 one feels dubious as to the acceptance of such a statement 
 in its entirety. So far as known, stained-glass windows in 
 other manufacturing towns, with equally impure atmosphere, 
 have not suffered to the same extent. The windows in the 
 Crypts do not show so much deterioration ; the beauty and 
 perfect condition of mediaeval glass is patent to all ; and the 
 window that cannot show forth clear and good to its own 
 jubilee, surely betokens bad workmanship. One regrets, 
 too, that when this series of windows was completed, the 
 Morris and Burne-Jones school had not yet raised itself to 
 public esteem, so we have no window in this Cathedral, pro- 
 claiming by its soft and subdued tones the work of those 
 artistic master craftsmen. 
 
GLASGOW 25 
 
 In commenting upon {he decay of the glass, no charge can 
 be made as to the possible ignorance of an amateur com- 
 mittee or of any economies on the part of the donors. Facts 
 prove far otherwise. After the restoration of the building was 
 completed in 1855? Sir Andrew Orr, Lord Provost of the 
 City, called a meeting of all citizens and heritors able and 
 willing to subscribe towards the restoration of the Cathedral 
 windows. Glasgow was then in the heyday of prosperity 
 and most liberally did her merchant princes vie with public- 
 spirited noblemen in willingness to contribute towards such 
 worthy object. The acting committee very wisely decided 
 to place the responsibility of all detail as to the selection of 
 artists, &c, in the hands of Chevalier Maximilian Ainmiller, 
 inspector of the Royal Establishment of glass painting in 
 Munich, a proof that no insular prejudice prevailed. 
 Although the artists were left entirely free as to the treat- 
 ment of their subject, a general scheme of unity was carried 
 out. Beginning in the north-west corner of the Nave, 
 according to rule and practice, the subjects follow each 
 other from the Expulsion from the Garden of Eden through- 
 out the order of Bible chronology — Adam, Noah, Abraham, 
 Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Job, Aaron and Miriam, Joshua 
 and Deborah, Gideon and Ruth, Samuel and Hannah, Saul, 
 David, Elijah, Elisha, Hezekiah, Esther, Daniel — the scenes 
 and events in the life of each being grouped around the 
 respective characters. 
 
 The window over the Western Door, the work of Chevalier 
 Moritz von Schwind, depicts four national events in the 
 history of God's chosen people — the Giving of the Law, 
 the Entrance into the Promised Land, the Dedication of the 
 Temple, the Captivity into Babylon. 
 
 The South Transept Window, by the same artist, illus- 
 trates the connection between the two Testaments ; the 
 types and anti-types of the Saviour in Noah's issuing from 
 the Ark, the prototype of Christ's baptism in Jordan ; so 
 with the gathering of the manna and of the true bread from 
 heaven through Christ ; Melchizedec's offering bread and 
 
26 
 
 GLASGOW 
 
 wine with Christ's institution of the Holy Eucharist feast ; 
 Isaac's ascension of Mount Moriah carrying the faggots for 
 sacrificial fire with Christ's bearing of His cross to Calvary ; 
 the Priest offering of the first fruits with Christ's resurrection 
 as " the first fruits of them that slept." 
 
 The North Transept Window, by Heinrich von Hess — a 
 member of almost every Academy of Art in Europe — 
 depicts the Prophets Moses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, 
 Malachi, and John the Baptist proclaiming the advent of the 
 Saviour of the world. The Clerestory windows are also 
 filled in by figures of men and women prominent in Sacred 
 Writ, the work done by the Royal School in Munich. 
 
 Within the Choir, the windows illustrate the parables and 
 miracles of our Lord ; the Clerestory shows forth the figures 
 of the Blessed Virgin and women of the New Testament 
 noted for their good works; and in the Lady Chapel, the 
 Apostles, with the exception of the four Evangelists, are 
 depicted. 
 
 The Great East Window is familiarly known as the 
 Queen's window, as it was the gift of Her late Majesty, 
 Queen Victoria. The subject of the Four Evangelists has 
 been nobly treated by Johann von Schrandolph, of the Royal 
 Academy of Bavaria. In the lower divisions of the four 
 lights are seen the Royal coats of arms — England, Scotland, 
 Ireland, Wales — or the three lions (leopards) couchant, one 
 lion rampant, one demi lion erect, and the three feathers. 
 Less familiar, and therefore of greater interest, is the divi- 
 sion showing the late Queen's private coat of arms, if it be 
 not presumption to write of Queen Victoria as a private 
 individual. A cap and peacock's feather and the motto 
 " Fest und Treu " combine the Guelph and Coburg arms 
 for the Queen and Prince Consort, whilst three peacock 
 feathers and three green bars (for Prince Consort) appear 
 alongside the three lions. These three green bars (confirm- 
 ing his father's arms) again appear with the three feathers in 
 the coat of arms for the Prince of Wales, now the King. 
 The Scottish thistle and the Irish harp are also prominent. 
 
GLASGOW 
 
 27 
 
 In no other cathedral is this Coburg and Guelph coat of 
 arms to be seen, a fact which the official guide — a Scotsman 
 to the core — rarely forgets to impress upon his hearers. The 
 effect of the window is both rich and harmonious in its 
 dignified treatment of the figures, and from its conspicuous 
 position the weekly worshippers have ample opportunity for 
 studying its detail. As one looks around, one is deeply 
 impressed by "the boast of heraldry, the pomp of 
 pride," seeing in every window the blazon of its donor's 
 pedigree, his claim to recognition as a notable son of his 
 country. 
 
 Turning towards the Chapter House, we shall find its 
 windows, by Hughes of London, very effective indeed in 
 their rich colouring upon a silver ground-work. The acts 
 of Charity and Mercy — feeding the hungry, visiting the sick, 
 clothing the naked — are graphically set forth. The window 
 of special interest, however, is that showing St. Columba's 
 visit to Kentigern, and Kentigern's baptism of the heathen. 
 
 The Nave and Choir excite our admiration, though at 
 times we cannot but feel critical, and it is on making our 
 descent into the magnificent Crypts that we fully realise the 
 beauty of the glass and the power of its artificers. Here 
 each window is as a gem enhanced in lustre by the dimness 
 of the shafts of light stealing past the shadowy gray columns ; 
 here we spontaneously repeat Milton's immortal lines — 
 
 " Storied windows richly dight 
 Casting a dim religious light." 
 
 Above, we had looked on quality in quantity ; below, we 
 have the quality in all the perfection of miniature art. The 
 exquisite jewelled effect of the series of windows by j. 
 Baptiste Capronnier, of Brussels, is surely unique. How 
 wonderfully realistic is that one in Blackadder's Crypt telling 
 the story of St. Paul in Melita, the fire of logs, the adder 
 fastened on the apostle's wrist, the growing horror and terror 
 depicted on the faces of those around, and Paul's stern 
 
GLASGOW 
 
 courage as he shakes off the viper 
 with drops of blood from the wound. 
 There is a fascination in this window 
 which compels one to look, to return, 
 and finally to cany the whole scene 
 vividly in the memory for many days 
 to follow. 
 
 Xo less beautiful are the Bertini 
 windows in the great Crypt. For 
 boldness of outline, for colouring, 
 and for drapery of robes, this artist 
 of Milan is unrivalled. The golden 
 robe of our Blessed Saviour reminds 
 one of the textures of the great Spanish 
 painters, its soft folds are so truly 
 regal in their magnificence. Then, 
 in splendid contrast, stands forth John 
 the Baptist, in sombre garment of 
 camel's hair with leathern girdle, his 
 arms and legs bare and his head also 
 uncovered. Only in the hands of a 
 great artist could neutral tints pro- 
 duce such effect. We are all familiar 
 with the eyes of paintings that human- 
 like follow us about as we cross and 
 recross in front of them, but here we 
 have a figure that moves bodily. We 
 pass to the left and it follows us ; we 
 stand in front, it faces us ; we turn to 
 the right, the whole body has moved 
 also ; even the sandalled feet seem to 
 keep step with ours. An inspired 
 treatment of an inspiring subject, 
 truly the mightiest of messengers as 
 well as a very appropriate memorial 
 Tin- Irving Window, to the memory of the great Edward 
 Lower Chunk. Irving, whose words of zeal awoke 
 
GLASGOW 
 
 29 
 
 such fervour and enthusiasm a generation ago that many 
 believed in him as the Messenger of the Latter Day. 
 
 Hard by we may also see two windows of softly rich tints 
 replete with interest from a historical point of view. King 
 Roderick, St. Mungo, and St. Columba are painted in the 
 one ; Archbishops Boyd, Burnet, and Paterson in the other ; 
 whilst across the Crypt, we may also see King Roderick's 
 child baptised by the good St. Mungo. In the Lauder 
 Crypt, beneath the Chapter House, twelve small windows 
 represent angels bearing emblems of our Lord and of the 
 Evangelists. 
 
 Glasgow Cathedral is indeed worthy of attention, even 
 from those who have visited the finest churches in Europe, 
 for, as before said, its series of windows is unique in unity 
 of design and purpose. Here we have the story of sacred 
 writ from Genesis to the Revelation, a practical exposition of 
 the Word of God even to the most inattentive hearer of that 
 word as read or preached. 
 
 When, added to these attractions, we can find a simple yet 
 reverent ritual of service, an eloquent sermon, and magnifi- 
 cent singing, need we wonder that a vast congregation 
 worships here every Sunday, and that Scottish Presbyterians 
 can point with justifiable pride to this church, within whose 
 walls all things are done reverently and in order. 
 
BRECHIN 
 
 St. Niniaw 
 4th Century. 
 
 FOL'N'DED 
 990 A.D. 
 
 " There is a pleasure on the heath where Druids old have been, 
 Where mantles gray have rustled by and sweep the nettled green." 
 
 T~^OLLOWING up an assertion recently made that the 
 
 early history of Scotland must be learned more or 
 
 JL less from a study of her ecclesiastical buildings, by 
 entering into the spirit of that time when gentle hermits and 
 rude warriors alike were led to unconsciously perpetuate to 
 future generations, in place-names and traditional folk-lore, 
 their devotion to God's service, we may trace the story of 
 the ancient City and Church of Brechin. 
 
 Her Roman camps, Celtic relics, Round Tower, Cathedral, 
 Maisondieu Chapel, and Castle, all tell their tale effectively, 
 for the most valuable lessons of history are not learned from 
 books. Tradition speaks of Brechin "as the chief seat of 
 Druidism benorth the Forth, and the Pictish capital." The 
 Pictish Chronicle of date 990 A.D. says : " It was a great city." 
 
 St. Ninian, whom the venerable Bede styles " the most 
 reverent bishop and holy man of the British nation," is its 
 patron, and as we know that he travelled from " Whithorn 
 in the South to the Grampians in the North," the first 
 message of Christianity must have been heard here towards 
 the close of the fourth century. St. Ninian was the close 
 friend of St. Martin of Tours, and Martin's name was 
 revered throughout Scotland. Martinmas is still one of the 
 
BR EC HIS' 
 
 principal markets and hiring terms in Scottish farm and 
 domestic life. 
 
 The position of the Cathedral and Round Tower (for the 
 two must ever be associated together) on a sandstone rock, 
 precipitous on two sides and sloping on the other two, 
 presents a fit and highly probable site for Druidic worship, 
 and local names are strongly corroborative of the same. 
 
 The Columbites established on the mainland three hun- 
 dred mission colleges, all looking to the Mother Church at 
 Iona as their head, and we may naturally presume that 
 Brechin then became an active centre, for it was an unfail- 
 ing custom of the early Fathers to establish Christian rites 
 and ceremonies upon the sites of Druidic shrines. Its 
 origin, however, is briefly yet succinctly recorded in the 
 Pictish Chronicle, thai King Kenneth III. "gave the great City 
 of Brechin to the Lord" in 990 A.D. 
 
 Skene in his Celtic Church says : " Like the other churches 
 which belong to the period after the establishment of a 
 Scottish dynasty on the throne in the person of Kenneth 
 Mac Alpin, it emanated from the Irish Church, and was 
 assimilated in its character to the Irish monasteries ; and to 
 this we may, no doubt, attribute the well-known Round 
 Tower of Brechin." We near nothing more of this Church 
 till the reign of David I. ; but one of the witnesses to the 
 charter granted by him, in the eighth year of his reign, 
 to the church at Deer, is " Leot, Abbot of Brechin," and 
 again " Samson, Bishop of Brechin," witnesses a later 
 charter. 
 
 Boece says, however, that the Danes in 10 12, under 
 Camus, cousin of King Sweyn, came to Brechin — " then ane 
 nobill town," when they also 
 
 " Brent all in fire, 
 Except a steeple which that made defense 
 Baith kirk and quire." 
 
 Malcolm II., 1001-34, was King then, he who was slain 
 at Glamis Castle and whose grandson was the "gentle 
 
32 
 
 Duncan" ; and there is also a tradition that this King built 
 a monastery for the Culdees at Brechin in honour of his 
 victory over the Danes. (The grave of Camus, with its 
 beautifully carved and sculptured cross, may still be seen at 
 Monikie where St. Regulus built the second church of his 
 mission.) 
 
 When David, the " Sair Sanct," founded this Cathedral in 
 1 150, he dedicated it to the Holy Trinity. The Culdees, 
 however, are often alluded to in charters, notably " Bricius, 
 Prior of the Keledei of Brechin," as taking rank immediately 
 after the Bishop of St. Andrews ; and Skene says : — " Brechin 
 thus presents at this time the same features as Abernethy, 
 and shows us the Abbacy in the possession of a lay Abbot 
 and a community of Keledei under a Prior." Hereditary 
 lay Abbots they appear to have been, as records of Arbroath 
 Abbey show son succeeding father, and we can easily 
 understand this when we recall the Celtic law of Tanistry 
 which made all offices, in Church and State, hereditary to 
 the family, elective in the member. 
 
 One very interesting record in one of King David's 
 charters " grants permission to hold markets on Sabbath to 
 the Bishops and Culdees ; and his grandson, William the 
 Lion, 1 165-12 14, confirms the said charter, using the same 
 words." (To this day, the great fair of the year is held for 
 three days in July, and is known as "Trinity Market.") 
 
 After the year 1218, we find the Keledei distinguished 
 from the Chapter (of the Cathedral), and in 1248 they have 
 entirely disappeared, and we hear only of the Dean and 
 Chapter of Brechin. 
 
 Of these Culdees and their work we may truly write 
 " Gone, but not forgotten," for the College yards, the College 
 well, the College wynd, are still in the mouths of thoughtless 
 schoolboys daily, whilst their more thoughtful elders know 
 that these early Fathers were teachers filled with zeal and love 
 of learning per sc, and that the foundations of the national 
 desire for universal education, which has stamped Scotland 
 and her sons in the struggle for existence, were laid by the 
 
HRECHIX 
 
 33 
 
 early Celtic Fathers, and had their origin in the constitution 
 and practice of the Celtic Church. John Knox preached 
 vehemently and often against " Godless ignorant people," 
 and his coupling of the one attribute with the other was a 
 bign of the times. 
 
 We know that King David founded Brechin, contem- 
 poraneously with Dunblane, out of the Pictish diocese of 
 Abernethy, but we know little or nothing of the actual 
 building of the Cathedral. Not until the fourteenth cen- 
 tury is there a single record, and even that is not told by 
 ancient Chronicler nor contained in charter or chartulary 
 of College or Cathedral ; but in the session books of the 
 lonely outlying parish of Lethnot, among the hills, we find 
 this entry: "The vicar of the said parish in fulfilment of 
 his obligation delivered to Patrick, Bishop of Brechin 
 (1354-84), a large white horse, and also a cart and horse 
 to lead stones to the building of the belfry of the Church 
 of Brechin in the time of Bishop Patrick." 
 
 This belfry tower or steeple is a massive square seventy 
 feet in height, and above it the octagonal spire rises fifty-eight 
 feet, the whole being considered the finest example of its 
 kind in Scotland. The ground floor is finely vaulted, and 
 the windows in the belfry are of earlier period than those of 
 the spire which evidently belongs to what is known as the 
 third Pointed period. Although the present building forms 
 a comfortable parish church, it is by far the plainest and 
 least attractive of Scottish Cathedrals. The sum of _£i 2,000 
 for a fine restoration has been contributed in accordance 
 with the general desire, manifest throughout the land, for 
 the revival of the ancient landmarks as well as for a higher 
 development of ecclesiastical architecture. There is nothing 
 sacred in baldness or ugliness, the love of beauty is of the 
 highest, and for God*s worship everything should be done 
 reverently and in order. 
 
 The Church, as it now stands, lost its cruciform shape in 
 1806 by the removal of the transepts. The Nave, about 84 
 by 58 feet, and a small portion (30 feet) of the first choir — 
 4 
 
34 
 
 BRECH IX 
 
 originally 84 feet in length — remain, and the west window 
 and doorway belong to the thirteenth century. Mr. 
 Black, a native of the city, and of considerable repute as 
 an authority, describes the building before the so-called 
 restoration of 1806. " It was a handsome Gothic building, 
 consisting of a nave with two aisles, 'with north and south 
 transepts formed by an extension of these aisles, but without 
 any appearance of pillars or arches in these transepts. In 
 1806, new and wider aisles were added to the nave, and the 
 walls raised to such a height that one roof covered the 
 whole, thus totally eclipsing the beautiful windows in the 
 nave, and covering up the handsome carved cornice of the 
 nail-head quatrefoil description, which ran under the eaves 
 of the nave. The eight piers of the nave present peculiarities ; 
 those on the south side being octagonal and thinner than 
 those on the north side, which are also alternately clustered 
 and octagonal." 
 
 The choir has now only three lancet windows on the 
 north side, and one respond on the south side ; but, from 
 the beautiful cornice and mouldings, architects consider 
 that it must have been originally a very pure and beautiful 
 example of the first Pointed style. 
 
 The interior is still plain, even to baldness, but a fine 
 organ has been introduced. The galleries, still in existence, 
 and the pews, of the old-fashioned narrow and high-backed 
 style, are to be removed. Originally, there were no seats 
 except for the clergy, but the worshippers were permitted to 
 carry their stools to church. This custom was not local 
 only, but general, as we can recall the scene at St. Giles 
 when Jennie Geddes hurled her stool at the offending Dean's 
 head. It was Bishop Lindsay of Brechin who mounted the 
 pulpit to quell that disturbance. Between 1658-85 there 
 are various records of the Bishop and Town-Session per- 
 mitting individuals to erect pews. The trades of the city, 
 incorporated in 1600, had as early as 1608 erected "lofts" 
 or galleries, to which they marched on special occasions, 
 arrayed in the particular livery of their craft, equally full 
 
35 
 
 of self-importance and of criticism for the preachers to 
 whom they gave " a hearing." Such galleries were common 
 enough in city churches, but Brechin alone of the Scot- 
 tish Cathedrals has authentic records of such. On the front 
 or "breast " of the galleries was depicted the special coat of 
 arms of each guild, whilst beneath each escutcheon was in- 
 scribed a suitable text — we may even add, a very ingeniously 
 chosen text — proving how many and varied may be the 
 interpretations of Holy Writ. 
 
 The Town Magistrates. 
 
 The Decalogue, supported by Moses and Aaron, each 
 bearing a rod pointed towards the Tables of the Law. 
 
 The Scholars. 
 
 "The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ." 
 " Now learn of Me, for I am meek and lowly." 
 
 Glovers and Skinners. 
 
 " Present rams' skins dyed red and badgers' skins for an 
 offering." 
 
 Farmers. 
 
 "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy." 
 
 Tailors. 
 
 " The hand of the diligent maketh rich." 
 " They sewed fig leaves together and made themselves 
 aprons." 
 
 (We cannot but feel regret that their second text was not 
 appropriately selected from the Breeches edition of the 
 Bible.) 
 
 Wrights. 
 
 " The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree." 
 Weavers. 
 
 ■" My days are swifter than a weaver's shuttle." 
 
36 
 
 Bakers. 
 
 " Present a cake of your first dough an offering to the 
 Lord." 
 
 "Man shall not live by bread alone." 
 
 Smiths. 
 
 " The smith drinketh no water and is faint." 
 
 Butchers. 
 
 " Rise, slay and eat." 
 
 Shoemakers. 
 
 " And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel 
 of peace." 
 
 Believers. 
 
 One loft, not especially assigned, owing to its position 
 behind the pulpit which thus prevented the face of the 
 preacher from being seen, was known as the " Believers' 
 Loft," because faith rather than sight was the portion of 
 its occupants. 
 
 The Cathedral's story is incomplete without that of the 
 Maison-Dieu, the only one of the chapels left with one 
 stone upon another. This is the chapel of the Blessed 
 Virgin Mary, founded in 1256 by William de Brechin, for 
 the repose of the souls of the good Kings William and 
 Alexander II.; of the Earl's brother John, Earl of Chester 
 and Huntingdon ; of Henry, his father, and of Juliana, his 
 mother ; — an interesting item of history proving to us how 
 closely English and Scottish Normans were united in 
 interests as well as in lands. A small revenue, still derived 
 from the land attached thereto, is given by the Crown to 
 the Rector of the Grammar School, who gains thereby the 
 privilege of signing after his name " Pneceptor Domus 
 Dei." The structure itself is highly limited, as but forty 
 feet of south wall and a fragment of the east wall are now 
 left. Three fine lancet windows and an arched doorway 
 
BRECHIX 
 
 in the south wall prove its period, but alas ! the desecration 
 is complete. Its interior was covered with newly washed 
 clothes when the writer visited it (and yet the native 
 proverb says, "Cleanliness is next to Godliness"), and 
 through its finely moulded windows the wind made melan- 
 choly melody as if in requiem. Its name, thoroughly 
 Scotticised in pronunciation, is one more addition to the 
 list of French words incorporated into Scottish dialect. 
 
 The Bishops of Brechin were men of note and occupied 
 a leading position in the management of national as well as 
 of local affairs, and from the story of their lives we glean 
 many facts of national interest. Patrick de Leuchars was 
 Lord Chancellor in 1372 ; and John de Carnoth, also a 
 Lord Chancellor, accompanied the Princess Margaret to 
 France in 1435. (A sad-hearted story of this homesick 
 little princess who became the child-wife of the noted 
 Louis XI. is admirably told for us by Jusserand in his 
 book, The Romance of a King's Life.) Under date 1463, we 
 find that James III. issued a precept stating "that through 
 the profligacy of the Bishops and Canons, the revenue of 
 the Cathedral had been greatly reduced by frequent aliena- 
 tions of its property, and, in consequence, steps were taken 
 and some of the lands were restored, or an annual feu duty 
 paid for them." (This old French word fen is still in daily 
 use in Scotland.) Lollardism had already entered Scotland, 
 and in this northern See there were men bold enough to 
 accuse the Church dignitaries of " profligacy." 
 
 When James V. died in 1542, one of the first acts of the 
 new Parliament, called in name of the infant Mary Stuart, 
 was to ordain that : " It should be lawful to all our 
 sovereign lady's lieges to have the Holy Writ, viz., the New 
 Testament and the Old, in the vulgar tongue ; and that 
 they should incur no crime for the having and reading of 
 the same." The then Bishop of Brechin was the most 
 vehement opponent to the passing of this law. Later on, 
 we find Bishop Sinclair, President also of the Session, 
 officiating at the marriage of Queen Mary and Darnley. 
 
 37 
 
3» 
 
 BRECHIS' 
 
 Still another, Bishop Lamb, has left his memory em- 
 balmed in the minds of all the children of Angus and 
 Mearns; and every sentimental Tommie, whether of nearby 
 Thrums or elsewhere,, in time has duly been initiated into 
 the mystery, and has then in turn propounded the local 
 riddle, still fresh and ever new, though in reality nearly 
 three centuries old — 
 
 " The Minister, the Dominie, and Maister Andrew Lamb, 
 Gaed inta the gairden whar' three pears hang 
 Tho' ilka ane took ane, still twa hang?" 
 
 (He held the three offices in person.) 
 
 After the Reformation, Episcopacy prevailed, as the 
 Royalist party were both strong and influential here. 
 Bishop Drummond preached his last sermon in the 
 Cathedral in 1689 when the brothers Skinner succeeded 
 as ministers. Then in 1709 Mr. Skinner was deposed. In 
 1715, the year of the so-called Pretenders' Rebellion, Mr. 
 Wilkinson was "sorely persecuted " and retired in favour of 
 Mr. Guthrie, an advocate for the Stuarts. National politics 
 had become predominant with Church parties, and when 
 Mr. Wilkinson left " inhospitable Brechin " for Dundee, no 
 man would lend or offer horse or cart even to drive his 
 goods and chattels out of town. But those of us who at 
 our mother's knee learned the Mother's Catechism have 
 already added our tribute of esteem for the unappreciated 
 Wilkinson. The late Rev. Dr. McCosh of Princeton 
 University, a native of Brechin, no doubt knew it well, 
 and so too the great Dr. Guthrie of Ragged School fame, 
 whose dearest home associations were centred here. (The 
 Bishop of Brechin still ranks as Primate in the Scottish 
 Episcopal Church.) 
 
 Brechin is well worthy of a visit. This " ancient city," 
 the only cathedral seat of Forfarshire or ancient Angus, is 
 in the very centre of a district full of interest to antiquarian, 
 historian, and ecclesiologist. It was part of Pictland, 
 and Pagan and early Christian monuments alike abound. 
 
39 
 
 There are ancient churches and castles, standing and in 
 ruins, carved stones also — veritable treasure-trove for those 
 who love such silent tales of a dim and hoary past. Druids, 
 Picts, Celts, Romans, and Culdee Christians were here 
 before Roman Catholicism, Episcopacy, or Presbyterianism 
 were in existence as terms; and Brechin was recorded "a 
 great city " whilst Scotland was yet, not one, but many 
 small kingdoms. In the story of the Round Tower, in- 
 separable from that of the Cathedral, we shall learn anew 
 of the records of the past. 
 
 THE ROUND TOWER OF BRECHIN. 
 
 " Old landmarks change— a shadow still is cast 
 From this old tower, touched with the light of years, 
 Whose fadeless glory all the past endears." 
 
 Though Ireland possesses seventy-six round towers, 
 Scotland has only two on the mainland — Abernethy and 
 Brechin, and that of Egilsay, one of the Orkney Islands. 
 The tower of Brechin, however, was not built till long after 
 that of Abernethy, which diocese had been divided between 
 Dunblane and Brechin. There seems little doubt that 
 these towers formed part of an ecclesiastical system and 
 also that they were copies of earlier Irish towers. 
 
 The Irish towers have been classified into four orders, 
 and the style, of which Brechin Tower is an example, was 
 not in existence before the first half of the tenth century. 
 Dr. Petrie, who is still regarded as our most authentic and 
 unbiased authority, arrives at the following conclusions : — 
 "The towers in Ireland and Scotland were of Christian 
 and ecclesiastical origin, erected at various periods between 
 the fifth and thirteenth centuries. They were designed to 
 answer at least a twofold purpose — to serve as belfries, and 
 as keeps or places of strength, in which the sacred utensils, 
 books, relics, and other valuables were deposited, and into 
 which ecclesiastics could retire for security in cases of 
 
4° 
 
 BRECHIN 
 
 sudden predatory attack. They were probably also used 
 when occasion required as beacons or watch-towers." 
 
 This tower, built of hard reddish gray sandstone, is 
 86 feet 9 inches in height from ground to cornice (the 
 coping having been added about one hundred and fifty 
 years later, at date of the cathedral's foundation) ; thence to 
 the vane is 18 feet, or with odd inches, nearly 106 feet in all. 
 There are sixty regular courses of masonry, the external 
 circumference at base is 47 feet, and the thickness of the 
 wall is 3 feet 8 inches. On the west side is a doorway 
 8 feet 6 inches in height, and 6 feet from the ground. 
 This doorway is particularly interesting because of its 
 sculptured figures and emblems. The aperture is formed 
 by four stones only, one for the sill, one upstanding jamb 
 on either side inclined towards the other instead of perpen- 
 dicular, and the semi-circular arch at the top cut out of two 
 thicknesses of stone. The ornamentation is peculiarly in- 
 teresting. The whole doorway is defined by a double row 
 of pellets running round between two narrow fillets on the 
 outer and inner sides of the stones ; as may also be seen 
 on a few of the Irish towers and on a stone at Iona. 
 
 Over the centre of the arch is a rude representation of 
 the Crucifixion corresponding to that on the tower at 
 Donoughmore. In the centre of either jamb are raised 
 panels on which are carved in relief the figures of men 
 robed as ecclesiastics. One bears a book on his breast and 
 carries the cross tan or cross-headed staff, very rarely to be 
 seen in monuments extant either in this country or in the 
 East. The other bears the usual curved staff or crook so 
 familiar to modern eyes, but none the less the form of 
 pastoral staff peculiar to the Celtic Church. Below these, 
 outside the sill of the doorway, are two crouched and 
 curious creatures of the usual nondescript character seen 
 in early carvings. One appears to resemble a winged 
 griffin, of which, and its kind, we may quote from Ander- 
 son's Scotland in Early Christian Times : " Remains of 
 that school of early art that arose and flourished among 
 
4 
 
 the Celtic Scots, when art in Europe was well nigh 
 dead. Among these remains we shall meet with a series 
 of monumental sculptures of a class which exists in no 
 other country in the world, and exhibiting a system of 
 mysterious symbolism which is found in no land but our 
 own." Parallel with and on either side of the Crucifixion, 
 but also outside the archway, are blank panels evidently 
 intended for sculptures which were never executed. 
 
 The Tower is perfectly circular, tapering gradually to the 
 top, the stones being large and cut to the circle. There is 
 no stair, but access to the roof top may be gained by 
 those bold enough to climb a series of ladders, placed on 
 floors resting on corbels or abutments. It is divided into 
 seven unequal stories with "string courses" to sustain the 
 floors ; and between the third and fourth sections, on the 
 east and south sides respectively, are two flat-headed win- 
 dows, the side jambs inclining towards each other at the 
 upper end as do those of the doorway. Higher up, below 
 the coping, are four windows, facing the cardinal points, 
 and regularly built, thus showing two distinct styles, the one 
 much more primitive than the other. Dr. Petrie places 
 its date between 977 and 994 A.D. 
 
 The pious Kenneth may have watched its building, and 
 when Brechin was sacked by the Danes in 1012, it probably 
 formed a harbour of safety for Culdee refugees as well as 
 for their precious things. Or, as other authorities claim, 
 it may not have been built till after that dire event, when 
 the absolute necessity for some such protection had been 
 sternly impressed by Danish object lesson. 
 
 A living memorial, it will stand to our children's children 
 of many generations, to teach them as it has taught us, of 
 the grimness as well as of the grace of earlier men and 
 manners. 
 
OLD ABERDEEN 
 
 St. Machar. Re-founded 
 6th Century. 1136 a.d. 
 
 " I pray you let us satisfy our eyes 
 With the memorials and the things of fame 
 That do renown this City." 
 
 THE Cathedral of St. Machar, in Old Aberdeen, stands 
 apart from its Scottish sisters and is also in several 
 respects unique in European Christendom as to the 
 character of its decoration. When we travel North 
 thereto from Brechin we leave the famed old red sandstone 
 of Forfarshire behind, and as we gradually approach the 
 City of Aberdeen note the dark basaltic cliffs of the ter- 
 rible Kincardineshire coast preparing us for the granites 
 of Aberdeenshire. 
 
 " Granite City " is the familiar name of this fair, clean 
 town, ideally situated between the rivers Dee and Don 
 which tell their own story in the old couplet — 
 
 " Except it be for fish and tree, 
 Ae rood o' Don's worth twa o' Dee." 
 
 The only city, too, in the whole country that ever and 
 always looks clean, if also cold. It seems as if busy 
 commerce with its coal and grimy smoke passed it by 
 unheeded and untouched. Far otherwise, it is the 
 material of its buildings that spurns the soot and smuts, 
 so full, too, of quartz and mica that after a shower of rain 
 every lintel and pillar sparkles in the sun as if inset with 
 42 
 
43 
 
 diamonds. Freestone, sandstone, or brick houses are so 
 rarely seen as to make one feel such materials non-existent. 
 Even the streets are paved with roughened blocks of granite 
 — hard, unyielding, penitential even in their first effect upon 
 unaccustomed and weary feet. And there be reasons many 
 and varied offered one in proof that "granite-headed Aber- 
 donians" is. an equally good sobriquet. 
 
 Before crossing to the Old Town (Auldton) to St. 
 Machar's Shrine, let us learn something of the locale of 
 this ancient Church and Diocese. For Aberdeen as a 
 University and Cathedral seat, fourth of Scottish towns 
 in the annals of commerce and population, may not be 
 lightly dismissed. It possesses stronger claims to dis- 
 tinction than these ; it can claim unique records. 
 Edinburgh, as capital, has become first in historical pro- 
 minence, but Aberdeen is second and actually antedates 
 Edinburgh as a Scottish city. When Edinburgh was in 
 Lothian, most Saxon of Scotland's provinces, and Glasgow 
 was in Strathclyde, outside of Scotia, Aberdeen was Royal 
 City of Pictland — that Alban which became Scotia. It was 
 also the central point of ancient Caledonia. 
 
 When Perth and Dunfermline were royal residences of 
 the Celtic kings, before the Stewart dynasty, we read that 
 "the King kept Yule in Aberdeen," just as contemporary 
 Normans loved to keep the Christmas feast in Gloucester ; 
 and just as Gloucester ever since has enjoyed special rights 
 and privileges, so does Aberdeen bear the royal tressure on 
 its city arms and the French motto " Bon Accord." Its 
 county, rich, beautiful, and exceedingly fertile, is equally 
 interesting to the historian, antiquarian, and ecclesiologist r 
 for its ancient stone dwellings and carved stones tell, as 
 do its many fine castles in ruins and now standing, of the 
 importance of its men in early and later national life. 
 
 From the Celtic Monastery at Deer, founded by Drostan, 
 nephew of St. Columba, do we still inherit the Book of Dcir, 
 the oldest existing literary document, "standing at the 
 head of the National Manuscripts of Scotland," but now an 
 
44 
 
 OLD ABERDEEN 
 
 honoured treasure in the University Library of Cambridge, 
 and not, as one could wish it, within the walls of King's 
 College. At Lumphanan, Macbeth was ultimately over- 
 thrown and killed, though Shakespere notes it not ; at 
 Inverurie, the patriot Bruce gained the first victory leading 
 up to Bannockburn ; a century later, came that terrible 
 struggle between Highlanders and Lowlanders which 
 broke up for ever the power of " The Lord of the Isles," 
 a title so poetic in fancy, so fierce in reality. What with 
 the " Red Harlaw " and the many glowing deeds of the 
 Gordons, second only to the Douglas family in fame, our 
 Scottish balladists found Aberdeenshire a field of rich lore, 
 and mid " the wild flowers of literature " there are few more 
 pathetic than the story of Edom o' Gordon or the love tale 
 of Miller o' Tiftie's Annie. Fit birthplace, then, for Barbour, 
 "our Scottish Homer," who according to Earle, the well- 
 known authority on Anglo-Saxon philology, " in his poem 
 of The Bruce determined the character of modern Scottish 
 and cast it in a permanent mould, just as his contemporary 
 Chaucer did for our English people." There are other 
 incidents and names — notably Boece's, of whom more 
 anon — but the one of which Aberdonians of city and 
 country alike are extremely proud is that our and their 
 beloved Queen Victoria, descendant of Pictish, Celtic, 
 Bruce, and Stewart Kings, voluntarily chose for her home 
 Balmoral on the banks of the Dee, and there, midst its 
 silvery birches, twice a year she came and went from his- 
 toric, ceremonious Windsor, and going in and out among 
 her people, worshipped with them in the parish church, 
 rejoiced and wept with them as a queenly woman and a 
 womanly Queen. If patriotism and loyalty be a marked 
 characteristic of the Scots as a people, one may claim that 
 Aberdeen is the central pivot of its movement. 
 
 In the city itself, the market cross, with rich carvings, 
 coats of arms, &c, is now by far the finest of its kind 
 in Scotland, a true relic of those bygone days, when round 
 the Mercat Croce gathered eager crowds for news of war, or 
 
45 
 
 to listen to royal proclamation, or maybe to jeer at some 
 poor unfortunate, chained to the jougs. The city records 
 are the oldest and fullest extant in Scotland. 
 
 To Princes Street, Edinburgh, one yields the palm as 
 finest of British streets. In the long line of Union Street, 
 Aberdeen, we have the finest example of Doric style ; its 
 stateliness of line and massiveness of buildings give an 
 imposing and impressive effect. A handsome street of 
 columns, perennially clean, severely classic, as if the vul- 
 garity of trade and the strife of the market-place never 
 existed within its precincts. 
 
 When we reach Old Aberdeen, we find St. Machar's 
 granite building equally severe and stately in its massive 
 proportions ; but the effect of coldness from gray granite 
 gives place here to a rich reddish-yellow warmth, as the 
 red granite — locally known as Peterhead stone — is used. 
 But granite, whether gray or red, forbids exuberance of 
 carved line or flower-bedecked capital and pillar, as we 
 see it in the Gothic beauty of Glasgow or Rosslyn. 
 
 It is small, too, as are all our Scottish cathedrals in com- 
 parison with those of England, for it was only 200 feet 
 long, and therefore the same size as St. Asaph's. Its choir 
 was never finished, and only 10 feet of the foundations of 
 its transepts are now visible, although Orme, in his history 
 of the See, written a century ago, speaks of seeing the 
 south transept, which was built by Gavin Dunbar in 1522, 
 partially destroyed. For the tourist nowadays, the nave 
 is all, and it forms the parish church. But such a nave ! 
 Such a ceiling ! Here and nowhere else in all Europe 
 have we "the pomp of heraldry" as a real living page 
 out of the book of Time set before us, and for this ceiling 
 alone has Aberdeen been visited by archaeologists and 
 churchmen from many countries. Its story will form a 
 chapter of its own. But though this Cathedral be shorn 
 of what makes the cruciform development of Gothic 
 architecture so suggestive and familiar to us, we shall 
 
4* 
 
 OLD ABERDEEN 
 
 none the less find many interesting points in the detail 
 of the building. 
 
 First, however, a brief allusion to the reputed founder 
 of its earlier Celtic Church, who still lives for us in its 
 name. 
 
 St. Mochonna, Mauritius, or Machar, an Irishman of 
 noble birth, followed Columba to Iona, where by his piety 
 and learning he rapidly gained esteem, was consecrated a 
 Bishop, and with twelve followers was sent by Columba to 
 preach the gospel to the Northern Picts. These early 
 pioneers of our civilisation and culture literally followed out 
 the injunction of the great Master — take neither two coats 
 nor staff, nor scrip. But tradition tells of one prophetic 
 injunction given to St. Machar, "To build a church upon 
 the bank of a river where he should find by its windings it 
 formed the figure of a Bishop's Crozier," and this tradition 
 is duly recorded in the Breviary of Aberdeen. In reality we 
 know nothing authentic of the life or death of St. Machar, 
 though tradition also tells that he was buried in the church 
 of St. Martin of Tours ; a plausible supposition, since we 
 all know how strongly St. Martin has impressed Scottish 
 nomenclature and custom. Granting, however, that St. 
 Machar chose this spot on the banks of the winding Don 
 for his church of wattles and clay, its foundation must 
 have been as early at least as 597 A.D., the date of Columba's 
 death. 
 
 From the invaluable Book of Deir, we learn that Nechtan, 
 Bishop of Aberdeen, 1123-54, witnessed a charter in which 
 Cormac, Bishop of Dunkeld, is mentioned ; and Fordun, 
 the Chronicler, states that the See of Mortlach was transferred 
 to Aberdeen. Some maintain that this See of Mortlach was 
 founded by Malcolm Caenmore as a thank-offering for the 
 overthrow of Macbeth and consequent restoration of his 
 father's (Duncan's) kingdom. Historically, however, we 
 consider Aberdeen as endowed in the thirteenth year of 
 David I., taking rank as fourth in the precedence of Scottish 
 Sees and also on the Parliamentary Rolls of the country 
 
OLD ABERDEES 47 
 
 This Xechtan was translated in 1136, and was the "last 
 bishop of Mortlack and the first of Aberdeen." 
 
 From the records edited for the Spalding Club we learn 
 "The third Bishop, Matthew Kinninmond, began to build a 
 Cathedral between 1 183 and 1189 to supersede the primi- 
 tive church then existing, which new church, because it was 
 not glorious enough, Bishop Cheyne threw down." Before 
 this prelate's plans, begun in 1282, were nearly completed, 
 Edward I., "The Hammer of Scotland," had appeared on 
 the scene. Cheyne's work remained unfinished, and Robert 
 Bruce, good churchman, after his accession to the throne, 
 ordered the church to be built from the Bishop's revenues 
 (for Cheyne was of theComyn family and therefore absented 
 himself for a time). 
 
 This church was also short-lived, for on the appointment 
 of Alexander Kinninmond as Bishop in 1355, he, emulous of 
 his namesake and predecessor's example, began a new and 
 large building in 1370. The walls of the nave rose a few 
 feet and there remained. Only in the days of Bishop Henry 
 Leighton, 1422-40, was the nave completed, the northern 
 transept and the western towers erected. His successor, 
 Bishop Lindsay, paved and roofed the Cathedral, and the 
 glass for the windows was added by powerful Bishop Spens, 
 Keeper of the Privy Seal, full forty years after Leighton's 
 nominal completion. Think of forty years' experience of 
 unglazed windows ! How one wishes that Boece, whose 
 chronicles are so delightfully gossipy at times, had told us 
 something of those open-air windows. (As a Canon of the 
 Cathedral then, he must have had many opportunities for 
 testing the endurance and faith of worshippers on stormv 
 Sundays, when the wind off the sea whistled and soughed 
 through the exposed building. Nowadays an Aberdonian 
 would not willingly sit with open door when a storm off 
 Donmouth proves the fury of its blast.) All we have left of 
 this third church are two piers of red sandstone. For this 
 third effort, the Dean and Chapter (John BarbOur being an 
 Archdeacon) taxed themselves'sixty pounds annually for ten 
 
4» 
 
 years ; the Bishop surrendered several important revenues ; 
 and Pope Gregory XI. granted indulgences to all who would 
 help in the good work ; and yet the laity seem to have 
 remained very indifferent. 
 
 Then comes the pathetic story of pious Bishop Elphin- 
 stone, "who came too late for canonising." He finished 
 the central tower and wooden spire, about 150 feet in 
 height (begun in Leighton's days), a famed mark at sea, 
 provided fourteen bells for this four -story tower and 
 covered the roof with lead. The son "of a burgess," 
 this good man rose to greatest eminence. To be a Chan- 
 cellor and Keeper of the Privy Seal, Envoy to Louis 
 XI. and the Emperor Maximilian were record enough ; but 
 Aberdeen knows him better as the founder of King's College 
 in 1498, and hundreds of poor Scots boys have risen to 
 eminence in every succeeding century and called him 
 blessed for his gift. In its chapel, the carved screen and 
 woodwork are the finest in Scotland. Boece praises the 
 tine Latin taught in the Grammar School, and the good 
 Bishop advanced the scholars' work. The Crown Charter 
 erecting Old Aberdeen into a City and University and 
 Burgh of Barony was obtained through his efforts. He 
 also built the bridge of seven arches over the Uee and left 
 a sum of ten thousand pounds for the same. Scotland 
 owed her first printing press to his energy. It was said of 
 the Norman Henry I. that "he never smiled again" after 
 the sinking of the White Ship and death of his only son ; 
 so, too, of Bishop Elphinstone, who was never seen to 
 smile after the disaster at Flodden. Of him it has been 
 beautifully said : " One of those prelates, who in their 
 munificent acts and their laborious and saintly lives showed 
 to the Scottish Church in her corruption and decay the 
 glorious image of her youth," and the writer, Cosmo Innes, 
 is a most impartial historian. 
 
 Passing over the story of Gavin Dunbar, which fittingly 
 belongs to that of the magnificent ceiling, we find that 
 the choir, begun by Elphinstone, was never finished. The 
 
OLD ABERDEEN 
 
 49 
 
 south porch was known as the marriage door ; and the 
 western doorway, opened only on Palm "Sunday, on the 
 coming of the Bishop, or for great occasions, was called the 
 procession door. Water for the cleansing of the sacred vessels 
 was carried through the north door, rather interesting points 
 for reflection as to ecclesiastic ceremony. 
 
 Before entering into the story of its destruction, it seems 
 wise just to recall several names of Church dignitaries 
 who were truly good men and earnest Christians. In the 
 thirteenth century we have Bishop Ralph, who walked 
 barefoot throughout his diocese preaching the gospel elo- 
 quently, and who died in 1247 with his lips murmuring 
 " I was glad when they said unto me, I will go into the 
 house of the Lord." William de Deyn, too, who succeeded 
 the second Bishop Kinninmond, completed his buildings, 
 endowed the vicarage "and reformed his clergy who run 
 wild during the long civil war." Good Adam of Tyning- 
 hame angered a prince of the blood, a base-born son of 
 Robert II. (the first Stewart King), and this young man 
 vowed that he would murder the prelate. But the good 
 Bishop disarmed his enemy by baring his head, saying 
 calmly : " If this be what you seek, take it, life and all ; see, 
 I have brought it to thee." Truly, it was the soft answer 
 that turned away wrath. Bishop Adam was one of the 
 good pilgrims to the Holy Sepulchre. 
 
 Then literature blesses Aberdeen for Barbour and Boece, 
 who were members of its Chapter, and here was written the 
 immortal line — 
 
 "O Freedom is a noble thing," 
 a line which has well served the orators and patriots of 
 the world. Boece, excellent Latin scholar and friend of 
 Erasmus, was the first Principal of King's College, and his 
 Lives of the Bishops of the Diocese and History of the Scots 
 were distinctly fine efforts in prose literature. There were 
 saintly men, earnest workers for the progress of mankind, 
 good scholars, and zealous teachers, in the Latin Church, 
 and educated Scots should never forget this. 
 
 5 
 
50 OLD ABERDEEN 
 
 In 1534, during the English invasion which devastated so 
 many abbeys, Bishop Stewart, who built the Chapter House, 
 was robbed of the sacred vessels of the altar, and by 1559, 
 the troublous times had come to stay. Indeed, after many 
 attempts and seemingly great struggle for existence, this 
 church of St. Machar came to its full heritage of dignity 
 and beauty "only twenty years" ahead of the Reformation, 
 when its newly filled cup was dashed to the ground. The 
 spire, like human life, fulfilled the allotted span of three 
 score and ten years ; the lead was stripped from the roof 
 to make bullets ; the bells and other furnishings were 
 shipped to Holland, " but that wicked ship " sank with all 
 on board within sight of land. Eight years later the Privy 
 Council ordered the remainder of the lead " to be publicly 
 sold for the support of the army." Cromwell's soldiers 
 built a fort from the stones of the choir in 1652, and so 
 weakened the supports of the great tower, that in 1688 it fell 
 and ruined the transepts. So now we see only the nave of 
 five bays with pointed arches, rounded pillars, and with 
 single clerestory windows. There is no triforium. A fine 
 massive west front, "... entirely built with granite except 
 the spires, one of the most impressive and imposing struc- 
 tures in Scotland. It is extremely plain, not a single scrap of 
 carving visible anywhere — a veritable piece of Doric work 
 depending for its effects on its just proportion and the mass 
 of its granite masonry. Above this doorway is one of the 
 most striking features of the composition — the seven lofty 
 narrow windows, about 26 feet in height and each crowned 
 with a round and cusped arch." The two towers, although 
 113 feet in height, look stunted owing to their spiked 
 octagonal shape. 
 
 As we stand outside, we realise how beautiful, how quiet, 
 and how quaint is our environment. St. Andrews may be 
 the " Oxford of Scotland," but not there can we now feel 
 the mediaeval air and tone that here seem to enwrap us. 
 Again, in no other Scottish city do we hear in daily use so 
 many familiar words and names to recall for us Franco- 
 
OLD ABERDEF.X 
 
 Scottish sympathies in earlier days, as well as our " Scoto- 
 Franco " form of culture. 
 
 Here there is no Cathedral Close as in England, but the 
 student in his bright red gown of frieze with velvet collar 
 crosses the Chanonry (Fr. "Chanoine" and not "Canon") 
 towards King's College, whose fine stone crown bears out 
 its name in form of architecture confined to Scotland with 
 one exception at Newcastle-on-Tyne. Here and there we 
 have a peep of the winding river Don, and near by, as it 
 narrows into a deep dark channel, it is crossed by the Auld 
 Brig o' Balgownie, so famed in the prophecy of Thomas 
 the Rhymer : — 
 
 " Brig o' Balgownie, black's yer wa' 
 Wi' a wife's ae son and a mare's ae foal, 
 Down ye'll fa'." 
 
 A prophecy set to defiance, spoiled as the country-folks say, 
 by the reckless Lord Byron, one of the many " mad 
 Gordons " Aberdeen has known so well. Many footsteps, 
 sacred and profane, have crossed the old bridge to and from 
 the Cathedral. From the river banks we may recall 
 Ramsay's enthusiastic impression : " Viewed as it now 
 stands, although sadly shorn of its original glory, the 
 Cathedral is a highly picturesque and interesting object. 
 The aspect of its western end with its noble window of 
 seven lights, flanked by lofty towers capped by those quaint 
 old steeples, is singularly beautiful and striking — more 
 especially when glowing in the mellowed ray of the western 
 sun, and partly shaded by the venerable ti J ees, which so 
 beautify and solemnise the scene, redeeming the dreariness 
 of the graveyard, and, by their obedience to the law of the 
 seasons, instructive by symbolising the change from mortal 
 to immortal life. None but the veriest clod of the valley 
 can be uninfluenced by the spell which binds one in the rapt 
 contemplation of so fair a scene, of which the fascination is 
 crowned by the swelling music of the Don." We cannot 
 leave its precincts without recalling that here, indeed, is 
 one of — 
 
 "The shrines where art and genius high 
 Have laboured for eternity." 
 
52 
 
 OLD ABERDEEN 
 
 HERALDIC CEILING OF ST. MACHAR'S 
 
 " What booteth it to have been rich alive ? 
 What to be great ? What to be gracious ? 
 When after death no token doth survive 
 Of former beeing in this mortall houss, 
 But sleepes in dust dead and inglorious, 
 Like beast, whose breath but in his nostrils is 
 And hath no hope of happiness or blis. 
 How manie great ones may remembered be 
 Which in their daies most famouslie did flourish 
 Of whom no worde we heare nor signe now see, 
 But as things wipt out with a sponge do perishe 
 Because they living cared not to -cherishe 
 No gentle wits, through pride or covestise, 
 Which might their names forever memorise." 
 
 Spexser's Ruins of Time. 
 
 The Latin Church can claim in Bishops Elphinstone and 
 Gavin Dunbar two of the best and wisest of men ; and 
 Protestants and Protestantism have benefited to the full 
 from their legacies and life-work. 
 
 Had Dunbar not suffered from propinquity to Elphin- 
 stone, we would to-day grant him highest honours, for he 
 fulfilled to the letter his own avowal "that the prelates of 
 the Church were not the Masters of the patrimony of the 
 Cross, but its guardians and administrators." Hence his 
 endowment of a Hospital for the shelter and support of 
 twelve poor folk, and his persistent demands that the 
 moneys bequeathed for charitable purposes should be so 
 spent. He had compiled the magnificent copy of the 
 Epistles, now preserved in the University, and written at 
 Antwerp at his own expense ; " he did perfite the two 
 lesser steeples, ceiled the church and built the South aisle 
 in 1522." This church ceiling will keep his memory ever 
 green ; it was his glory, it is his monument, and Spenser's 
 lines find emphasis in his exemplary life. 
 
 With granite as a material, the difficulties of constructing 
 an overarched roof of stone were insurmountable, and yet 
 such an open timber roof as is that in King's College Chapel 
 
OLD ABERDEEN 
 
 53 
 
 was not deemed expansive or effective enough. The roof, 
 treated in conception as "the sky," had become popular, so 
 Gavin Dunbar introduced the flat oak panelled ceiling, and, 
 to relieve its heaviness, emblazoned thereon " forty-eight 
 shields, glittering with the heraldries of the Pope, the 
 Emperor, St. Margaret, the Kings and Princes of Christen- 
 dom, the Bishops and Earls of Scotland"; in Hamlet's 
 words — 
 
 " This brave o'erhanging firmament, 
 This majestical roof, fretted with golden stars." 
 
 A national monument, too, of which every Scot is and 
 may well be proud, for it represents Scotland as an 
 independent nation taking her heraldic place by right, 
 not by sufferance. Here the lion, rampant in his own 
 domain, is placed under the arched or imperial crown, in 
 line with the arms of Pope and Emperor, " the two great 
 lights," as, saith the chronicler Wyntoun, recalling Dunbar's 
 lines in "The Thistle and the Rose" : — 
 
 " Reid of his cullour as is the ruby glance. 
 On field of gold he stude full mychtely, 
 With ' flour delvcis ' sirculit (encircled) lustely." 
 
 In three lines of sixteen are the shields arranged, that of 
 Pope Leo X. in the centre at the east end, followed by the 
 various Church dignitaries, ably supported on the right by 
 the Emperor, as leader of the various foreign kings and 
 princes ; while on the left is James V., as leader of Scottish 
 princes and nobles. Although Mrs. Oliphant has made us 
 familiar with the Medici family in her Makers of Florence, it 
 is hard to realise that in Aberdeen, and nowhere else in 
 Britain, may we see the Medici arms of Leo. X. emblazoned 
 on the ceiling of a Presbyterian church — a church, too, 
 which by the irony of fate was only completed for the 
 Reformers ; as Milton expresses it so finely in — 
 
 " Celestial armoring, shields, helms and spears 
 Hung high, with diamond flaming and with gold." 
 
54 OLD ABERDEEN 
 
 It is also most interesting that Leo's arms depict the 
 special privileges granted by Louis XI. of France, in 1465, 
 to Piero de Medici, grandfather of Leo X. The golden 
 shield, surmounted by the triple crown on red cushion, is 
 crossed by a gold and silver key. The five red balls flank 
 a blue one in chief, charged with the three golden lilies of 
 France, " in recognisance of the league and fidelity wherein 
 he promised to stand bound to serve the King at his own 
 charges." But on his pontifical seal, the Medici arms are 
 given without the French lilies. As it was from Leo X. 
 that Gavin Dunbar received his promotion to the See of 
 Aberdeen, we can readily account for the central promi- 
 nence of the Papal arms. 
 
 Immediately following it is the shield of Archbishop 
 Andrew Forman, of St. Andrews, of whom Pitscottie 
 records an absurd anecdote which, better than history, 
 illustrates the scholarship of the time. Having to entertain 
 at dinner the Pope and Cardinals, on saying grace, the 
 Bishop, " who was not ane guid schollar, nor had not 
 guid Latine," was perplexed and put out by the responses 
 of the Italians. Losing patience, as well as presence of 
 mind, " he wist not weill how to proceed fordward, bot 
 happened in guid Scottis, in this manner, sayand quhilk 
 they understuid not: 'The divil I give yow, all false 
 cardinallis, to in nomine Patris, Filii et Spiritus Sancti.' 
 Amen, quoth they. Then the Bishop and his men leugh 
 (laughed) and all the cardinallis themselffis." 
 
 Beaton, Archbishop of Glasgow, and afterwards of St. 
 Andrews, comes third. We honour him as the founder 
 of St. Mary's College at St. Andrews, and we recall 
 that he officiated at the marriage of James V. with 
 Mary of Lorraine. He was also the uncle of the brilliant 
 Cardinal Beaton. Alas ! the facetious Pitscottie had no 
 reverence for dignitaries. He tells that in wordy war 
 with Gawain Douglas, Beaton's corselet shook, and Gavin 
 said, " My Lord, your conscience is not guid, for I hear 
 it clattering." 
 
OLD ABERDEEX 
 
 Sir David Lindsay, too, sharpened his pen over this 
 worthy churchman in — 
 
 " The Archbishop of Sanct Androus, James Betoun, 
 Chancellare and Primate in power pastorall, 
 Clam, nyxt the kyng, moste heych in this regioun, 
 The ledder schuke, he lap, and gat ane fall." 
 
 Dunkeld ranks next in order, and Douglas, " ane richt, 
 nobill and worshipful clerk," represents it with the ever 
 popular and familiar red heart on a white field. 
 
 The arms of Aberdeen, Moray, Ross, Brechin, Caithness 
 (showing the /esse cheque of the Royal Stewarts), Galloway, 
 Dunblane, Lismore or Arygle, Orkney, The Isles, The Prior 
 of St. Andrews, follow in order ; and bringing up the rear 
 is that of the University and King's College — "a shield 
 azure, an open book proper within an orle argent" — 
 seemingly suggested by those of the University of Paris. 
 An interesting array, as to-day we have only eight cathedral 
 churches in existence. 
 
 The trio at the west end corresponds in style to that of the 
 east end ; for the Pope's line of spiritual power fittingly ter- 
 minates in the University, representing intellectual power, 
 and it again is flanked by Aberdeen and Old Aberdeen, cor- 
 porate bodies endowed with temporal power. The Church 
 shields are slightly in advance of the royal and noble 
 shields ; all alike are carved in low relief, and on an escrol 
 or ribbon of lighter tone than the ceiling is the official title 
 in Latin, in black lettering with initial letter in red. 
 
 The Royal Line is led by the Emperor Charles V. as the 
 leading secular power in Christendom, " the greatest monarch 
 of the memorable sixteenth century, and the most famous of 
 the successors of Charlemagne." He presides with double- 
 headed eagle, sable armed gules on a gold shield, above 
 which is the Imperial crown. The German Emperors 
 assumed the eagle as a device because of their claims to 
 be successors to the Romans, and also because the eagle 
 was Pagan as well as Christian. In The Talisman we may 
 
SC- 
 
 OLD ABERDEEN 
 
 recall Sir Walter's interesting chapter on the struggle for 
 precedence between the eagle and the lion. The eagle was, 
 as Dante says — 
 
 "The ensign of the world." 
 
 And Ariosto expresses history as well as beauty in his 
 lines — 
 
 " The bird that once in air could Jove sustain." 
 
 Ranking second to the Emperor, and, we may safely 
 presume, yielding precedence to him with very bad grace, 
 is the unfortunate yet chivalrous Francis I. of France, 
 who, as " King of the Franks," also claimed descent from 
 Charlemagne, and who "lost all but honour" at Pavia. 
 On his azure shield are the three golden lilies, reduced to 
 that number by Charles VI., and called by Ariosto "i Gigli 
 d' oro." Planche tells us that Louis VII. was the first to 
 use them on a seal, and Voltaire ironically called them 
 spear-heads, although "testimony in favour of the iris is 
 so strong as almost to set this question at rest." Shakespeare 
 and Spenser call them Flower-de-Luces. Among the re- 
 cently published National MSS. of Scotland an autograph 
 letter of Francis to James V. is expressive of warmest friend- 
 ship, for Francis, however mistrustful of Henry VIII., could 
 always rely on his Scottish ally. 
 
 The Emperor again appears as King of Spain, or rather 
 of Leon and Castile, and the shield shows the red lions on 
 white fields and castles argent with the crown surmounting 
 all. Ford tells us in his history that "Charles was a Fleming 
 by birth, an Austrian at heart, and wasted on German 
 politics the blood and gold of Spain, in which country he 
 was called foreigner." 
 
 Although Margaret Tudor, daughter of Henry VII., was 
 Queen-mother when this ceiling was decorated (about 1521), 
 Flodden disaster was still far too fresh in Scottish hearts to 
 grant Henry VIII. ought but barest, baldest courtesies. So 
 he follows the King of France. In his newly acquired title 
 of Defender of the Faith," granted him by Leo X. shortly 
 
OLD ABERDEEN 
 
 57 
 
 before the Pope's death in 1521, we most truly realise the 
 mutability of all things human, and also that in Henry's 
 case Papal decrees were decidedly fallible. Here are their 
 coats of arms, within a few feet of each other — the defier 
 and the defied — the one quite as arrogant as the other, so 
 far as liberty of conscience in religion was concerned. 
 How little could Leo dream that in honouring Henry he 
 was honouring 
 
 " The Majestic lord 
 That broke the bonds of Rome," 
 
 for Henry VIII. is the first King to take the title of 
 "Majesty," his predecessors being "Sovereign Lord" or 
 " Highness," and even 1 His Grace." How true, too, that 
 "A straw shows how the wind blows," for Franco-Scottish 
 sympathy was too strong to grant Henry the fleur-de-lis on 
 his shield, first quartered on the English arms by Edward 
 III., and retained thereon down to the union of Ireland 
 with Great Britain in 1801. So the three leopards or 
 lions passant— for the lions' attitude here is that of the 
 leopard, argent on a red shield with crown — represent 
 Henry. In early heraldry the attitude rampant belongs 
 always to the lions, passant to the leopards ; and until 
 the fifteenth century, both in France and England, lions 
 passant were often called leopards. More interesting still 
 is the fact, not generally known, that the leopards were 
 personal to the Plantagenet kings, who inherited them as 
 Dukes of Normandy and Guienne. So, by England's 
 adoption of the same, she ranks herself as an appanage 
 to Normandy, and therefore, the lilies, from Edward III. 
 to George III., should have taken precedence of the leo- 
 pards. The first appearance of the three is on a shield of 
 Richard Cceur de Lion, but an earlier shield shows only 
 one, and some authorities claim it to be the Lion of Judah, 
 acquired by him as a crusader. Be that as it may, the 
 family arms of the Plantagenets have become national to 
 the exclusion of Tudor, Stewart, and Guelph arms. Scot- 
 land is ahead of England in this respect, her one lion 
 
58 
 
 OLD ABERDEEN 
 
 rampant being national from the Celtic dynasty in the 
 reign of William the Lion, and neither Bruce's nor the 
 Stewarts' bearings effected any change whatever. 
 
 Christian II., "the hero of the North," follows Henry. 
 Since James V. was grandson of Margaret, a Danish 
 princess, we can easily appreciate his desire to honour 
 Christian. This Margaret, Queen of James III., is believed 
 by many to be the lady for whom Sir Patrick Spens sailed 
 " to Norroway o'er the faim." If Christian's arms could be 
 held as representative of his character they are singularly 
 appropriate, for the lion, rampant and crowned, holds in his 
 forepaws a most cruel-looking battle-axe, and there is also 
 a curiously twisted effect about his tail that seems to inspire 
 respect. 
 
 Now we come to a change in titles. Hitherto the kings 
 have been of peoples. Louis II. of Hungary — not of the 
 Hungarians — leads off the territories found in South-eastern 
 Europe, whilst the peoples are in the North and West — 
 a curiously fine distinction, and one not of apparently great 
 importance to us. 
 
 The Magyars of Hungary are the only non-Aryans in the 
 lists, and at Louis' death, in 1526, the Turks took and kept 
 possession for 160 years. The red and argent barred shield 
 represents the four rivers of Hungary that "thwart" the 
 country, according to fable. Most interesting, as well as 
 beautiful, are the shields of Emmanuel, King of Portugal, 
 and John his son. In Manoel's reign, Vasco da Gama, the 
 great navigator, made Portugal renowned, and it was John 
 who substituted for Cape of Storms that happier title, Cape 
 of Good Hope, so precious a jewel in the English crown 
 to-day. Camoens, in epic verse, has celebrated for all time 
 his three great countrymen ; and so we look upon this 
 shield in blue and white with heightened feelings of 
 respect. 
 
 On a white field, enclosed in embattled bordure, is a cross 
 of the Maltese shape, formed of five blue shields, pierced 
 again cross-wise by five small circles, significant of the five 
 
59 
 
 wounds of our Blessed Saviour, and adopted by Alphonso I., 
 in 1 139, after his defeat of five Moorish Kings. 
 
 Arragon follows Portugal, the Emperor making his 
 bow for the third time, under the title of Carlos I., and its 
 effective quartered shield shows the eagles twice with two 
 quarters of red and white stripes, " or, argent and gules," 
 in the language of heraldry. A legend tells that in 873, 
 Geoffrey, Count of Barcelona, " returning all bloody from 
 battle," the King of Spain dipped his fingers in the Count's 
 blood and drew red lines upon his shield. Another version 
 is that " Wilfred of the Hairy Feet " did so after his bloody 
 contest with the Normans. 
 
 Cyprus, Navarre, and Sicily follow in line ; but Poland — 
 brave, dismembered Poland — deserves notice, for Sigis- 
 mund I., who here represents it, had only one successor, 
 and then came disastrous events which led up to complete 
 dismemberment. After such a bewildering array of heraldic, 
 but none the less "queer looking beasts" — rampant, passant, 
 gules, embattled, or, argent, azure, bars, paly, &c, no sooner 
 learned in one case than confused in the next — we welcome 
 as a dear useful old friend, a horse, steady on his four feet, 
 and harnessed with saddle, bridle, stirrups, and all the usual 
 commonplace buckles and necessary straps thereof. A 
 quiet, sober-looking beast, with his head and tail peaceful 
 as ever were those of cob or cab-horse. There were 
 originally an armed knight on the horse's back and an 
 eagle over its head, with a patriarchal cross for Lithuania ; 
 but the white horse alone, on his red shield, is restful to the 
 eye — and peace be with him. 
 
 Bohemia is represented by Louis 1., whom we have 
 already treated as Louis II., of Hungary. 
 
 Another compliment to France comes in the arms of 
 Charles, Duke of Bourbon and Vendome, grandfather of 
 Henry IV. Mary, his daughter, was then spoken of as a 
 likely consort lor the young King James V., and although 
 the match was never made, we can appreciate the courtesy. 
 
 Still another courtesy to a ducal house. Mary, Queen 
 
6o 
 
 OLD ABERDEEN 
 
 of James II., was daughter of the Duke of Gueldres, so his 
 arms rank as fifteenth. Last of all is placed the shield of 
 old Aberdeen — a golden pot of white lilies, one in bud, 
 one full bloom and one half bloom, "stalked and leaved 
 proper, argent." On the pot are seen three salmon, arranged 
 as in a net. The town being under the patronage of the 
 Blessed Virgin, accounts for her arms — the lilies ; and the 
 fish represent the product of the river Don, although in 
 this it was behind its sister stream, the Dee. 
 
 Heading the third line we see Regis Celsitudinis, or 
 " Highness," the title taken by James V., with his scutcheon 
 of "The Ruddy Lion ramped in gold" ; and although lions 
 as a family could never be ranked as meek in looks, surely 
 the Scottish lion rampant, with prolonged clawlike feet, 
 highly twisted and curled tail, grinning mouth, and tongue 
 improperly if not impertinently displayed, excels in fierce 
 aspect all lions rampant in other lands. Tradition tells that 
 from the days of Fergus he comes — early in the sixth 
 century — and if so, then he has certainly gathered to him- 
 self the ferocity of the ages. Alas ! his ferocity availed 
 nothing at Flodden, for since that fatal field the Howards 
 of Norfolk, as descendants of Surrey, the English leader, 
 have added to their arms "a demi-lion rampant pierced 
 with an arrow." Or, as Surrey himself says — 
 
 " That Lyon placed on our silver bend 
 Which as a trophy beautifies our shield." 
 
 King James was still a minor when his shield was so 
 placed on high, but already he gave promise of great 
 scholarship. In Spanish archives are letters telling of his 
 wonderful linguistic talents — Latin, French, German, 
 Flemish, Italian, Spanish — and he was also the last king 
 to speak and encourage the use of Gaelic, the language of 
 " Albyn." In 1537, Paul III. bestowed on him the title of 
 4t Defender of the Faith," a chaplet fallen from Henry's 
 head. Few kings have been so beloved by poets of Euro- 
 pean fame as was James V. Ariosto again and again refers 
 
Queen Margarets Coat of Anns. 
 
 7V /ace fafjl L> i . 
 
OLD ABERDEEX 
 
 61 
 
 to him as Zerlino, and one line sufficiently expresses his 
 terms of praise — 
 
 " For Nature made him and then broke the mould." 
 
 Ronsard was his page, and in after life sang of him as 
 the 
 
 " Flower of his Eye," 
 
 whilst Sir David Lindsay had no satire for his royal 
 master — 
 
 " I, when thou wes young, I bure thee in my arms, 
 Full tenderly, till thou begowth to gaing ; 
 And in thy bed oft happit thee full warme, 
 With lute in hand, syne sweetly to thee sang." 
 
 Following those of the King, one naturally expects to see 
 the arms of the Queen-mother, for there was no Queen 
 Consort till 1537 ; but Margaret Tudor was not popular in 
 Scotland, notwithstanding Scott's pathetic picture of her 
 in " Linlithgow Bower." She offended Gavin Dunbar by 
 putting him in ward in 1524, so he would not favour her 
 cause ; and her husbands almost matched in number her 
 brother Henry's wives. We seldom realise that by her 
 marriage with Douglas, Earl of Angus, she became the 
 mother of a daughter, who married Lennox, and their son 
 was Darnley, her grandson, just as was the beautiful Queen 
 Mary, his wife, her granddaughter, so that James VI. 
 ascended the English throne by right of both father and 
 mother. 
 
 Her place by right was given to another Margaret, better 
 and fairer as are all agreed, the good queen of Malcolm 
 Caenmore who overthrew Macbeth — Sanctissime Margarete, 
 canonised in 1249 by Pope Innocent IV'., and sharer with 
 St. Andrew of the patronage of the kingdom. To this day 
 there are few Scottish families without a Margaret. Her 
 shield is the only one chosen from a sentimental point of 
 view, for as she was grandniece of Edward the Confessor, 
 his arms are given to her. On a rich blue shield is a 
 
62 OLD ABERDEEN 
 
 golden-flowered cross with five birds (doves) ; or, in 
 heraldic language, "Azure a cross floretty, between five 
 martlets or." No need to repeat here her story which 
 belongs to that of Dunfermline Abbey. 
 
 The royal Duke of Albany follows with gorgeous 
 quartered shield, showing " three-legged " arms of the Isle 
 of Man ; then Dunbar, Earl of March, with white lion 
 rampant, surrounded by thirteen red roses (a very improb- 
 able situation) ; Randolph, Earl of Moray, comes next, with 
 three-tasselled cushions within a royal tressure (not warlike 
 in significance surely) ; and Douglas, Earl of Douglas, with 
 that bloody heart and three white stars recalling — 
 
 "The blodye harte in the Dovvglas arms, 
 Hys standerde stode on hye, 
 That every man myght full well knowe, 
 By side stode starres thre." 
 
 Then follows Angus (grandson of " Bell-the-Cat "), who 
 married Queen Margaret Tudor, showing an effective white 
 cinque foil on scarlet shield ; next the beautiful blue shield 
 of Mar, with six gold cross crosslets. Lord Crawford says 
 of Mar, "It is the only survivor of the ancient, I may say 
 prehistoric, marmaerships of Scotland, and can distinctly be 
 traced to early Celtic and Pictish times." 
 
 Sutherland, showing three gold stars on red shield; and 
 Crawford, with lions rampant in two quarters and fess 
 cheque of the Royal Stewarts, produces a fine combination 
 of red and blue and white. The Gordons of Huntly, with 
 boars' heads, lions' heads, and crescents in three ; and 
 Campbell of Argyle, who, as Baron of Arran and Lorn, 
 was obliged to provide a ship for the king in time of war, 
 has a very effective shield in black and white, showing 
 galleys and gyronnys (crosses). 
 
 Of great historic interest is the Errol shield ; white, with 
 three red shields thereon, recalling the story of Luncarty, 
 when the father and two sons threshed the Danes with flails 
 and were granted arms thus showing on the shield how they 
 had saved the country. 
 
63 
 
 Keith, Earl Marischal, whose fine old castle of Dunnottar 
 was the scene of the Covenanters' imprisonment as described 
 in Old Mortality, has arms like those of Aragon, only King 
 Malcolm II., grandfather of King Duncan, dipped his fingers 
 in the blood to mark the warrior's shield ! Marischal College 
 was founded by the family. 
 
 Hepburn, Earl of Bothwell, grandfather of the notorious 
 Bothwell, closes the nobles' line, and is followed by Aber- 
 deen, with its three towers, argent, windows and ports, 
 sable, within double tressure counter flowered argent. 
 
 The frieze around the nave is carved in Saxon black letter 
 with initial letters in red of the names of the Bishops of 
 Aberdeen and the Kings of Scotland in succession — 
 another proof, if needed, of how very dear to Scottish 
 hearts is history in every form. Robert the Bruce's reign 
 is dated from 1296, and John Balliol is entirely ignored. 
 He was "Toom tabard" (empty coat) in his lifetime, so 
 why keep an empty record ? 
 
 There are hundreds of tourists who annually visit Aber- 
 deen en route for Balmoral and Braemar, and who pass bv 
 in ignorance of the existence of this cathedral and heraldic 
 ceiling, with its story of glorious heraldry ere yet "villainous 
 salt petre " had robbed warfare of the picturesque. Ere we 
 leave its walls we shall be impressed anew with Shakespere's 
 wonderful insight into men's hearts and feelings as expressed 
 in Bolinbroke's indignant protest — 
 
 " From my own windows torn my household coat, 
 Razed out my impress, leaving me no sign 
 To show the world I am a gentleman." 
 
DUNBLANE 
 
 St. Blaxe. Refouxded 
 7th Century. 1150 a.d. 
 
 " He was no common man who designed the Cathedral of Dunblane. 
 I know nothing so perfect in its simplicity, and so beautiful, so far as 
 it reaches, in all the Gothic with which I am acquainted. And just in 
 proportion to his power of mind, that man was content to work under 
 nature's teaching, and, instead cf putting merely formal dog-tooth, 
 as everybody else did at that time, he went down to the woody 
 banks of the sweet river, beneath the rocks of which he was building, 
 and took up a few of the fallen leaves that lay by it, and he set them 
 on his arch, side by side for ever." 
 
 SUCH was the testimony of John Ruskin in his lectures 
 on Architecture and Painting, delivered in Edin- 
 burgh, and no one can gainsay Ruskin's position as 
 an apostle of the beautiful or impugn his standard 
 of the ideally artistic in architecture. 
 
 Of Dunblane Cathedral, too, we may quote truly, " Beauti- 
 ful for situation," ranking it first in this respect over all 
 Scottish cathedrals. Its wooded heights "on the banks of 
 Allan Water," and the rocky bed of the tumbling river, form 
 fit setting to a noble building. For Dunblane held un- 
 challenged place as one of " the brave kirks o' braid 
 Scotland " during the Middle Ages ; and since the perfect 
 restoration of its Nave, 1888-93, it again holds first rank. 
 Men of many minds and manners — architects, artists, anti- 
 quarians, churchmen — have time and again throughout the 
 centuries declared their deep interest in the form and age 
 64 
 
DUX B LAX E 
 
 65 
 
 of its Tower, the beauty of its Nave and Choir, the fine lines 
 of its bays, and the exquisite carvings of its stalls. Nor is 
 its story, whether traditional or historical, of lesser interest. 
 
 It is the church on Blane's Hill, another living record of 
 and testimony to the power of that early Celtic Church, 
 invisible rather than visible to men's minds nowadays, and 
 yet, as with the things unseen but felt, an ever present 
 influence in the land, reminding us through its name that 
 there were Scottish Saints in the early days ; men of simple 
 faith, single-minded zeal, self-denying life ; men who were 
 teachers and guides rather than churchmen to our earliest 
 fathers, ere Scotland had received the name by which it 
 was to become familiar to the nations. After twelve hun- 
 dred years, we, their descendants, can but add our testimony 
 to theirs, that the name of this man of God, living in the 
 seventh century, is still honoured, and that to this day his 
 works do follow him. In our Bible we read much and 
 often of Holy Places, and as we believe still in the "Church 
 not made with hands" equally with "the fretted aisle and 
 stately fane," so verily does Dunblane combine all ; and, 
 after twelve centuries of prayer and praise the place is 
 indeed sacred in its associations, and in its precincts the 
 name of Blane is reverently spoken. 
 
 On Skene's authority, we know more of Blane than of 
 many of his Celtic brethren whose names are but little more 
 than empty tradition. "The Church of Dunblane dates back 
 to the seventh century, and seems to have been an offshoot 
 of the Church of Kingarth, in Bute, for its founder was St. 
 Blane. He was of the race of the Irish Picts, and nephew 
 of that Bishop Cathan who founded Kingarth ; and was 
 himself bishop of that church, and his mother was a 
 daughter of King Aidan, of Dalriada." (In the Felire of 
 Angus he is named as ' Blann, the mild, of Kingarth,' and 
 in a gloss is added ' Dumbaan is his principal city'.) 
 " The Church of Dunblane was situated in the vale of the 
 river Allan, not far from its juncture with the Forth, and 
 is mentioned in the Pictish Chronicle under the reign of 
 6 
 
66 
 
 DUN B LAX E 
 
 Kenneth MacAlpin, when it was burnt by the neighbouring 
 Britons of Strathclyde. We hear no more of this church 
 until the foundation of the bishopric of King David." For 
 it was towards the close of his reign that he added Brechin 
 and Dunblane to the seven bishoprics already established. 
 Again on Skene's authority, we learn " They were probably 
 from the remains of the old Pictish bishopric of Abernethy, 
 in so far as the churches which had been subject to it had 
 not been absorbed by the growing bishopric of St. Andrews, 
 which immediately succeeded it. . . . Abernethy, too, was 
 the last of the bishoprics which existed while the kingdom 
 ruled over by the Scottish dynasty was still called the 
 Kingdom of the Picts, while that of St. Andrews was more 
 peculiarly associated with the Scots, and it was in Stratherne, 
 and in the northern parts of Angus, and in the Mearns, 
 that the Pictish population lingered longest distinct from 
 the Scots." 
 
 Although King David re-established Blane's church in 
 1 150, there is undoubted evidence that the Keledei, or as 
 we know them under the more familiar name of Culdees, 
 had been settled there as a Convent or House. This appears 
 natural enough when we recall the importance of the 
 Culdee settlement in Abernethy and King David's frequent 
 allusion to them in his Charters, and we have also authentic 
 facts as to their presence in Dunkeld, Brechin, and St. 
 Andrews, three Sees closely contemporaneous with Dun- 
 blane. Skene, however, claims that their house was at 
 Muthil, one of the seats of the Earls of Stratherne, whilst 
 Cosmo Innes says: "The Church of Dunblane was in a 
 different situation from the other bishoprics of Scotland. 
 That diocese was dependent upon the great Earls of 
 Stratherne, and among other indications, some of which 
 we have already seen, that Malis, Earl of Stratherne, did not 
 come willingly into the new notions of David I. ; and it 
 may, perhaps, be counted on that the Culdees continued to 
 act as the chapter of that cathedral for a century after they 
 had been ousted at St. Andrews and Dunkeld." 
 
DUNBLANE 
 
 67 
 
 Although architects and antiquarians alike agree that the 
 Tower dates from the twelfth century, we hear little or 
 nothing of the building until 1233, when the learned 
 Clement, a Dominican friar, was appointed to the See. 
 He came but to return to Rome with a pitiless tale of 
 roofless church, of no pastor, of lay influence in the 
 Columban monastery ; and the sequel is read in a Papal 
 letter of date 1237: "Whereas, the Church of Dunblane 
 once lay vacant one hundred years or more, nearly all its 
 goods being occupied .by laymen ; and though, in process 
 of time, many bishops were appointed, yet, owing to their 
 folly and want of care, the scanty residue which had 
 escaped the spoilers was spent, so that now there had been 
 no one for ten years last past who would undertake the See, 
 the revenues would not maintain a bishop for two years, 
 and it stands bare and roofless, with a single rustic 
 chaplain." 
 
 The bishops of Glasgow and Dunkeld, to whom appeal 
 was made, seem to have succeeded in again interesting 
 the great Earl in the fortunes or misfortunes of Dunblane 
 Church, for soon we read of Bishop Clement's stately 
 edifice. What a contrast for us between the honoured 
 memory of the humble Blane, and the forgotten grandeur 
 of the great earls, whose smile carried favour and whose 
 word was law. Belonging as they did to the ancient race, 
 they yet conformed to all the fashions of the times, and 
 were courted and deemed equals by the highest Norman 
 families. In style surpassing royalty itself they lived and 
 ruled over what has been termed the only Palatinate in 
 Scotland during the twelfth century. Their princely en- 
 dowment of Inchaffray Abbey makes their claim to have 
 the bishopric transferred thereto the more interesting, 
 because Blane's church triumphed ; then we hear of them 
 for centuries as patrons and superiors of the cathedral 
 bearing his name. The great earldom exists no more, only 
 the descendants of the many branches of its family survive 
 in the aristocratic houses of Athole, Drummond, and others. 
 
68 
 
 DL'S'BLAXE 
 
 Men of power they were in Scotland's golden age of church 
 building, the period which covered the reigns of William 
 the Lion and of the second and third Alexanders — 
 rulers worthy of their name and race — all Celtic kings. 
 Under them peace and plenty, law and justice flourished — 
 a last golden gleam of sunny prosperity ,ere the dark 
 days that followed closed down on Scottish national life. 
 With the full pocket, visible piety, as revealed in carved 
 stone and column, attested the faith as well as the liberality 
 of all who would be considered as. Christians then. " To 
 the glory of God " was no empty titular claim but rather 
 a prick to soiled and bruised consciences, from whose 
 cravings for expiation we inherit finely carved pillars and 
 exquisitely traced mouldings, storied windows and canopied 
 tombs, a perfect glory of stone and glass, from which we 
 can, if we will, read the history of the men and manners 
 who formed the national life through this their accepted 
 medium of ecclesiastical art and architecture. 
 
 Dunblane and Dunkeld still remain rural villages, un- 
 affected to any marked extent by the so-called progress of 
 the nineteenth century, for the bustle attendant on manu- 
 facturing development has practically passed them by, and 
 nowhere else in England or Scotland do we find better 
 examples of the hermit's wish to seek religious peace in 
 sequestered spot. They stand as living exceptions, proving 
 the rule that around our abbeys and cathedrals commerce 
 and wealth have been fostered and cities have sprung up to 
 influence and to develop the nation's prosperity. 
 
 As we look upon the fabric of this building we can 
 easily trace its different periods of erection. The Tower, 
 a Romanesque tower as before said, is oldest, and its 
 position is also worthy of notice. Its walls are over 
 five feet in thickness and form a square of twenty-two 
 and a-half feet, but are not .parallel with the walls of the 
 nave, so that the projection into the graveyard is deeper at 
 the south-west corner, by several feet, than at the south-east 
 corner. This again naturally shows the same variance 
 
DUX BLASE 
 
 69 
 
 within the building, where the tower projects into the south 
 aisle. Then too, though square and not round, as are 
 the towers of Abernethy and Brechin and the many Irish 
 towers of contemporary date, there is strong internal 
 evidence to show that like these it served as a place of 
 refuge and safety. The doorway, which is placed in the 
 north wall and consequently within the south aisle, 
 appears from its general design to have been originally 
 built for external rather than internal means of ingress, 
 and, as in the case of Brechin, this door is also several 
 feet above the surface of the ground. No trace of walls 
 or foundations attached to those of the Tower have been 
 discovered ; it bears distinct evidence of having primarily 
 been a detached building. 
 
 As Dunblane was several times pillaged by the ruthless 
 Danes, who feared " neither the wrath of God nor the face 
 of man," we may logically presume that in this tower, as in 
 others, men guarded their treasures and from its height of 
 four stories were also able to watch for the approach of a 
 possible or probable enemy. As it now stands there are 
 six stories, the two uppermost having evidently been added 
 at a later date, as their corbelled turrets and parapetted 
 battlements belong to the Decorated rather than to the 
 Norman period. On this parapet the arms of Bishop 
 Chisholm of the early sixteenth century may be seen. 
 The ground floor is vaulted, and by a narrow winding 
 stairway in the south-west corner one can reach the 
 battlements and therefrom " view the realm of fair Men- 
 teith," Stirling Castle, the far-famed field of Bannockburn, 
 and the rich carse land of Stirling and Falkirk, recalling the 
 pithy old couplet — 
 
 " Ae link o' the Forth 
 'S worth an earldom i' the North." 
 
 From the experience of modern days, we know what a 
 veritable Golconda has that richly wooded realm of Men- 
 teith proved for Scotland and her people. As we stand 
 
DUNBLANE 
 
 looking toward the golden west, we recall that Dunblane 
 is the starting-point for the journey through the kingdom 
 of Faerie and Romance, comprised for us in the one witch- 
 ing word " Trossachs," which Sir Walter the wizard has be- 
 queathed to all the world by the sweep of a veritable 
 magician's wand. Not even the revenues of the great 
 Earls in their palmiest days, nor the added endowments 
 of Dunblane, Inchaffrey, and Cambuskenneth, could count 
 up to that wonderful pile of gold which "little Scotland" 
 proudly gathers in each year from the four corners of the 
 earth. 
 
 Descending the Tower, on crossing the nave at an angle 
 towards the Lady Chapel or north aisle of the choir, we 
 enter that portion of the old church ranking next in age 
 to the Tower. Its vaulted roof and low pointed arches 
 bespeak its early date, before profuse ornament had marked 
 the early Pointed style. A wheel stair in the wall, between 
 the chapel and the north aisle of the nave, leads to a little 
 upper room with small double-light windows, which, how- 
 ever, do not admit light into the choir, and so in this 
 respect differ from those of Dunfermline. Possibly it was 
 used as a scriptorium. The memory travels to stately 
 Gloucester with its magnificent cloisters within which 
 monks transcribed their daily tasks on illuminated missals ; 
 but the absence of cloisters in our Scottish cathedrals 
 rendered a writing-room necessary, however small and ill- 
 lighted it might be. Since the restoration, this upper 
 chamber has been formed into an organ loft, and light 
 also admitted into the choir. Some authorities consider 
 that this Lady Chapel may possibly be all that is left of 
 the first church, used by Bishop Clement during the earlier 
 period of his fifteen years' pontificate, whilst "his stately 
 sanctuary, rich in lands and heritage," was being built. 
 
 Regarding the chequered history of the cathedral during 
 the Reformation period, we find record in the Book of Perth 
 that in June, 1559, the Duke of Argyle and Lord James- 
 Stewart, Prior of St. Andrews and half-brother of hapless 
 
DUNBLANE 
 
 Queen Mary, destroyed the eight altars, two of which were 
 named for Celtic saints (the patron St. Blane,and St. Blais). 
 " The muckle candlesticks of silver in Dunblane kirk," so 
 often referred to admiringly by chroniclers, disappeared 
 at this time as well as other ornaments and sacred vessels. 
 The nave was unroofed, and it is marvellous that for three 
 centuries the western gable and pillars survived the winter 
 storms in such exposed position ; even the fine mouldings 
 of the western doorway suffered but little from the ravages 
 of wind and weather. 
 
 It is a popular belief, but none the less a fallacy, that the 
 destruction and ruined condition of Scotland's churches 
 and abbeys is entirely due to over-zealous reformers. Not 
 so! Edward I., Richard II., Henry VIII., Kings of Eng- 
 land, as well as the hotly zealous anger of Highland chief 
 against brother chief and neighbouring clan, are equally, 
 even more responsible for desolation and decay than were 
 the Reformers. Edward I. ordered all the lead at Perth 
 and Dunblane to be taken for his engines at the siege of 
 Stirling Castle, "provided the churches were not uncovered 
 over the altars," a record telling its own tale. Yet Edward 
 was a good churchman in his own country and his recon- 
 ciliation of conscience with practice is very finely drawn 
 by leaving the roof over the altars. We can thus imagine 
 that a spirit of righteous anger, even of probable revenge, 
 actuated Bishop Maurice, who was also Abbot of Inchaf- 
 fray, when he rode with Robert the Bruce to Bannockburn 
 where he inspired the soldiers to fight for their country, 
 encouraged the King, and uttered fervent prayers for all. 
 A fine character in a noble picture was Abbot Maurice, as 
 we read the other side of the story from the English 
 Chronicle, and learn therefrom that the haughty barons 
 jeered and laughed at the kneeling army and shouted 
 that forgiveness from Heaven they might well seek, for 
 from their English foes they need expect no quarter. 
 
 In carrying out the restoration of the "goodly nave" 
 great care has been taken to follow out the original design, 
 
7 2 
 
 DUNBLANE 
 
 and as little as possible of new material has been intro- 
 duced. This Nave, 130 feet in length by 58 feet in breadth, 
 consists of eight bays, and its clerestory shows two lancet 
 windows to each bay. It belongs to the Early Decorated 
 period. The walls and pillars remain, but the new rodf is 
 to a certain extent a copy of the heraldic ceiling of St. 
 Machar's. On its finely coloured shields are emblazoned 
 the arms of our Kings and reigning Queens from the days 
 of James III. to William IV. — fifteen in all — beginning at 
 the west end on the centre of the roof, and culminating 
 with the arms of Queen Victoria, placed over the chancel 
 arch. On either side is a row of seven shields ; those to the 
 north, the insignia of the great Earls of Strathearn ; those 
 to the south, three more Earls, Euphemia an heiress, and 
 the Kings Robert II., James I., and James II. — all patrons 
 of the Cathedral. 
 
 One of the most attractive of the new objects is the 
 pulpit, carved after the designs of the seventeenth century. 
 Round the front are seven panels and seven statuettes, alter- 
 nating. On the former are carved the emblems of Christ's 
 crucifixion, and in niches stand the statuettes of St. Blane, 
 David I., Bishop Clement, Malise, John Knox, Bishop 
 Leighton, and Principal Carstairs. Around the handsome 
 canopy is cut in bold lettering, " Jesus Christ, the same 
 yesterday, to-day, and for ever." 
 
 Between Nave and Choir is a very beautifully carved 
 screen, in the style of the Italian Renaissance, on which 
 are placed the statuettes of Moses, David, Isaiah, and 
 Jeremiah facing towards the west, whilst turned towards 
 the east are those of John the Baptist and St. Paul. 
 
 The aisleless Choir, 81 feet in length by 28 feet in 
 breadth, has been re-roofed and the floor laid with marble 
 and tiles. The plaster has been scraped from its walls and 
 a facing of stone substituted. It is lighted by six lancet 
 windows, and the east window, consisting of a central 
 light with small lancets on either side, has been hand- 
 somely restored by Sir John Stirling Maxwell. The chief 
 
DUNE LAKE 
 
 attraction is in the stalls, sixteen in all, beautifully carved 
 in the style of the early sixteenth century. Of these, six 
 still retain their canopies, and the carving thereon in 
 beauty of design, clearness of cutting, and rich intricacy 
 of pattern is unequalled in Scotland (with the exception 
 of the screen in King's College Chapel, Old Aberdeen). 
 There were three bishops of the famous Chisholm family — 
 a family so proud that it is still said in the North, " The 
 Chisholms had a boat of their own at the Flood " — and these 
 Chisholms, two half-brothers and a nephew, succeeded each 
 other. On some stalls are carved the boar's head, the crest 
 of their family, surmounted by a mitre. Other stalls show 
 the sacred monogram, "Gratia Dei," a flying griffin, a vam- 
 pire, a sleeping fox, a monkey on an ass, vine leaves, clusters 
 of grapes, and everywhere the intertwining of the national 
 thistle and leaves. The stalls had evidently been provided 
 by the Chisholms; and the carving, in all probability, was 
 done in Flanders or by Flemish workers, as we can trace in 
 it strong similarity to like work in the wonderfully carved 
 pulpits in Belgium, notably that of St. Gudule's in Brussels. 
 This choir served as parish church until the restoration. 
 
 The west front is very fine ; the deeply recessed doorway, 
 with sharply pointed arch on either side, shows perfect work 
 in its shafts and mouldings. Above it is a fine window of 
 three arches, "each with two lights with cinque foils above 
 — a splendid example of lancet windows." In the centre of 
 the gable, above this western window, we see the famed 
 Leaf window which inspired Ruskin to utter such tribute of 
 praise. A triumph indeed of the mason's skill is " this 
 exquisite carving of two leaves crossed," and so the fine 
 Rose window of Carlisle Cathedral finds its sister in the 
 Leaf window of Dunblane. 
 
 There are still a few relics of interest to be seen. On the 
 east gable is an old and partly mutilated cross, said to have 
 been shot at by a soldier of the Duke of Cumberland's army. 
 In the Nave, a fine Celtic cross and several effigies in stone — 
 notably that of the good Bishop Michael Ochiltree, who 
 
74 
 
 DUNBLANE 
 
 loved his church well, and who was chosen to crown 
 James II. at Holyrood after the tragedy at Perth — tell their 
 silent story of the past ; and three plain blue slabs in the 
 floor of the Choir still excite curiosity. They mark the 
 resting-places of Margaret, Euphemia, and Sybilla, daughters 
 of Lord John Drummond, victims of that grim tragedy in 
 Drummond Castle which ranks as one of the mysteries of 
 Scottish history. Margaret was generally believed to be the 
 wife of James IV., and when, for reasons of State, that other 
 Margaret came from England to be his acknowledged bride 
 and queen, the king's courtiers and advisers are accused of 
 poisoning the Ladies Drummond whilst at breakfast in their 
 own home. An ugly story as well as a sad one ; another 
 deep shadow on him who has come to be regarded as the 
 gayest of Scottish monarchs, the hero, too, of much of her 
 romantic literature. 
 
 A most interesting relic is the " Dead Bell," the most 
 perfect of its kind in Scotland, and rung by the beadle before 
 a funeral. The bell is about five inches deep, the handle 
 being of equal length. On it is engraved a cross with the 
 letters S B, thus— 
 
 The hour-glass, no longer used to mark the length of the 
 sermon, may also be seen. 
 
 In the churchyard many old and quaint tombstones show 
 the figure "4 " cut thereon. This figure stands for the four 
 crosses of Dunblane, in former days — Kippencross, White- 
 cross, Anchorscross, and Crosscaplie. 
 
 A plain and sadly weather-beaten stone in one corner 
 bears the name of Jessie Duncan and the date 1788. 
 Nothing to attract the eye, yet beneath it lies all that was 
 mortal of that "charming young Jessie, the flower o' Dun- 
 blane," heroine of Tannahill's imperishable lyric which 
 
 S 
 
 B 
 
 1615 
 
DUNBLANE 
 
 75 
 
 has carried the name of Dunblane to the four corners of 
 the earth. 
 
 The Cathedral, as we now see it, has been restored at a 
 cost of ^"27,000, towards which the Heritors of the Parish 
 contributed £3,500. The remainder was the munificent 
 gift of Mrs. Wallace, of Glassingall, to whom the Church of 
 Scotland owes a deep debt of gratitude. 
 
 Since the Reformation, no Churchman has been more 
 closely associated with Dunblane than Archbishop Leighton 
 whose name is perpetuated in the " Bishop's Walk " and in 
 the Bishop's Library. This latter consists of his most 
 valuable collection of 1,200 books, principally theological 
 and classical, which he bequeathed "for the use of the 
 clergy of the Diocese of Dunblane." It is housed at the 
 Cross, and one notes the mitre carved on the east wall of 
 the building. Few men have lived in such sweet memory ; 
 a short extract from the story of his life by the late Very 
 Reverend Principal Tulloch, of St. Andrew's University, 
 speaks volumes : — 
 
 "There is no name in Scottish Church history that com- 
 bines so many attractions as that of Leighton. He is of all 
 our ecclesiastical men the one whom all parties acknowledge 
 as a saint ; and there is no feature so rare in the heroic but 
 rugged and turbulent religious life of Scotland as that of 
 saintliness. 
 
 " There is something lacking — an element of sweetness, 
 of suavity — in the best names that otherwise claim our 
 reverence. This is the prominent feature in Leighton's 
 character, and in him it is perfect, sweetness mingled with 
 sincerity ; the pure expression of a free, and gentle, and 
 honest heart, without any of that subtle tincture of over- 
 sweetness and craft which colour it in some other saintly 
 characters, like St. Francis de Sales. 
 
 " I know no character more pure. There are many stronger 
 and, perhaps, wiser (although I am also inclined to estimate 
 Leighton's wisdom of the highest order, baffled as he was), 
 but none more transparently and perfectly good. His name 
 
7 6 
 
 DUNBLANE 
 
 is a jewel in the crown of the Scottish Church, which shines 
 refulgent with so many glories of a different order ; and it is, 
 and has long been, to me a fact singularly touching that our 
 Church — accounted by many, and rightly accounted, the 
 nurse of the sterner and more heroic Christian virtues- 
 should have produced a character of such light and sweet- 
 ness as is rarely to be found. Presbyterianism, we shall see, 
 had its share, and, indeed, the chief share, in the formation 
 of such a character. 
 
 " Leighton was a Presbyterian for by far the greater period 
 of his life, and it is now ascertained that almost all his 
 writings belong to the Presbyterian portion of his career." 
 
 One other tribute to his memory by the Rev. Dr. Walter 
 C. Smith strongly corroborates such testimony : — 
 
 " . . . . Leighton stood 
 Alone 'mong men of wrath and blood 
 In the dim twilight of the day 
 That dawned, uncertain, on his way. 
 Nor might he comprehend 
 Whither its strifes would end. 
 He comprehended not; but tried 
 To quiet now the wrath and pride, 
 To heal where there was hope, to pray 
 When hope of healing died away." 
 
 Before leaving this interesting historic scene — the succes- 
 sive shrine of Culdee, Catholic, Episcopalian, and Presby- 
 terian saints— it is pleasant to record that at the opening 
 service in 1893 the ceremonies were both reverent and 
 impressive. The sermon preached had also a most suitable 
 text : " But will God, indeed, dwell on the earth ? Beloved 
 the heaven and the heaven of heavens cannot contain 
 Thee : how much less this house that I have builded ?" 
 
 The restoration of this ancient historical sanctuary is 
 accomplished. Blane's church on the hill has again become 
 one of the people's landmarks, and as a suitable conclusion we 
 may once more quote from Ruskin : " Without the elaborate 
 decoration of Melrose or of Roslin, Dunblane immeasurably 
 excels them both in beauty of proportion, and depth, and 
 orce of moulding." 
 
DUNKELD 
 
 COXSTAXTIX. REFOUXDED 
 810-820 A.D. 1 107. 
 
 " In the antique age of bow and s>pear, 
 And feudal rapine clothed with iron mail, 
 Came ministers of peace intent to rear 
 The Mother Church in yon sequestered vale." 
 
 WE may claim Wordsworth's lines as more applic- 
 able to Dunkeld Cathedral than to any other 
 Scottish church, for it is situated in the very 
 heart of the mainland and yet far apart from 
 the ways of men. Rural England is dotted with the ruins 
 of abbey, priory, and convent, ever present memorials for 
 us of mediaeval monks and nuns who lived out their quiet 
 and peaceful though generally uneventful lives, far from 
 busy haunts. But in Scotland it was ever otherwise. 
 Hard to believe as it may at first appear, the power of the 
 Church in its truest and purest sense has, since Columba's 
 days, been greater than feudalism or the power of royalty. 
 If we would perfectly understand the trend of Scottish 
 history or the development of Scottish character— with its 
 strong self-assertion, its fierce independence of action, its 
 marked individuality even to brusque uncouthness, its 
 stern love for whatever it believes to be truth, and its 
 peculiar and contradictory expansion and repression of 
 sentiment — then we must first study the story of its early 
 Celtic Church, with its wonderful educational system and 
 intellectual development. 
 
 77 
 
DUNKELD 
 
 COXSTAXTIX. ReFOUXDED 
 8IO-820 A.D. I IO7. 
 
 " In the antique age of bow and spear, 
 And feudal rapine clothed with iron mail, 
 Came ministers of peace intent to rear 
 The Mother Church in yon sequestered vale." 
 
 WE may claim Wordsworth's lines as more applic- 
 able to Dunkeld Cathedral than to any other 
 Scottish church, for it is situated in the very 
 heart of the mainland and yet far apart from 
 the ways of men. Rural England is dotted with the ruins 
 of abbey, priory, and convent, ever present memorials for 
 us of mediaeval monks and nuns who lived out their quiet 
 and peaceful though generally uneventful lives, far from 
 busy haunts. But in Scotland it was ever otherwise. 
 Hard to believe as it may at first appear, the power of the 
 Church in its truest and purest sense has, since Columba's 
 days, been greater than feudalism or the power of royalty. 
 If we would perfectly understand the trend of Scottish 
 history or the development of Scottish character — with its 
 strong self-assertion, its fierce independence of action, its 
 marked individuality even to brusque uncouthness, its 
 stern love for whatever it believes to be truth, and its 
 peculiar and contradictory expansion and repression of 
 sentiment — then we must first study the story of its early 
 Celtic Church, with its wonderful educational system and 
 intellectual development. 
 
 7- 
 
7» 
 
 DUXKELD 
 
 Skene — than whom we have no higher authority — and 
 other historians equally trustworthy, boldly claim that to 
 St. Columba is largely and justly due the development of 
 Scotland and the Scottish nation, and of many extracts and 
 quotations available as proof but one short extract from 
 Celtic Scotland must here suffice : — 
 
 " One of the most striking features of the organisation 
 of the early Monastic Church in Ireland and Scotland was 
 its provision for the cultivation of learning and for the 
 training of its members in sacred and profane literature, so 
 that it soon acquired a high reputation for the cultivation of 
 letters, and drew to it students from all quarters, as the best 
 school for the prosecution of all, and especially theological, 
 studies." Is not the average Scot a theologian to this clay, 
 ever ready and willing to discuss doctrine with all comers ? 
 
 At a period when "might was right" we find the Columban 
 Church exercising the strongest influence over wild chiefs 
 and petty kings — barbarous savages if you will — whilst 
 Saxon England was yet almost wholly pagan. Our familiar 
 historical phrase, " The power of the Church," differs 
 greatly in effect in the sister countries. At the time when 
 the haughty churchman Dunstan was making and unmak- 
 ing Saxon kings, we find that Constantin and Kenneth 
 MacAlpin were upholding the Columban Church and 
 dedicating Dunkeld, Abernethy, and Brechin "to the Lord." 
 Even of the Pictish King Giric, whose name is little more 
 than a shadow to us, the Book of Deir records that " he 
 exempted all church lands from exaction, victuals, and 
 hospitality at the hands of kings, mormaers, and toiseachs." 
 
 From earliest days, these Northern warriors, both Picts 
 and Scots, seemed to have recognised that theirs was but 
 physical force and power ; the moral or intellectual form of 
 government, as we might term it, was left by them in more 
 peaceful hands, a union of forces which seems to have 
 worked excellently well, and which made Scotland's sturdy 
 race, in spite of her poor soil, ungenial climate, and seeming 
 lack of commercial prosperity, a power to be reckoned with 
 
DUNK ELD 
 
 79 
 
 by wealthier England in later mediaeval days. The Church 
 in England became a mighty temporal power, too oft curb- 
 ing the wills and rights of men, a rival to the throne itself in 
 Dunstan's and Becket's days. Who that has read his 
 Tennyson can forget " King's men " — " Becket's men " ? 
 
 The Church in Scotland courted and worked with the 
 temporal powers, guiding rather than ruling or repressing 
 the wills of its people. A subtle indefinable difference, yet 
 a distinction not too fine for us to grasp. The Latin 
 Church, its successor, freely imbibed the spirit abroad in 
 the land. Scottish records are full of the tales of struggle 
 between King and nobles, but never once of King against 
 Church, or Church against nobles. The unbiased student 
 of history can never assert that the Roman Catholic Church 
 showed arrogance until in the throes of the final struggle 
 for existence ; yet she fell, and all that belonged to her 
 of the beauty of holiness was forgotten, because of her 
 temporal power in other lands. Then the greed of gude 
 Scots lords and rival factions coveted, as did Henry VIII., 
 the Church lands, the fertile farms, and busy, peaceful mills, 
 and the commercial enterprises which abbots and monks 
 had fostered for the country's welfare. But the living 
 power of education was not totally forgotten, and Scot- 
 land gained over England in having at least one portion 
 of her Church revenues again devoted to the pursuit of 
 learning. John Knox's establishment of schools in every 
 parish was a fitting legacy bequeathed in a spirit inherited 
 from the Columban Church. 
 
 The story of the Church of Dunkeld belongs to a period 
 when Northern Picts, Southern Picts, the Celts of Galloway 
 and Strathclyde, the Saxons of Bernicia, and the Scots of 
 Dalriada were each and all rivals of the other, and "Alban " 
 versus " Scotia " was the battle cry. Dunkeld was then in 
 Albany. Ere the Celtic story of the Kirk of Dunkeld had 
 ended, Albany had become Scotia, and Scotia had become 
 Scotland. 
 
 The Cathedral as it now stands is ideally situated. In 
 
8o 
 
 DUNK ELD 
 
 front sweeps the "lordly" Tay, whilst behind and around 
 rise crag after crag, so richly wooded that the church 
 seems veritably nestling midst the trees. Behind all is the 
 magnificent heather-clad Grampian range ; Birnam Wood 
 is here, and from the heights above, Dunsinane marks 
 the horizon. Even the light-hearted tourist, who is either 
 ignorant of or indifferent to all historic associations, is 
 deeply impressed as he stands on the old stone bridge and 
 looks up the river with its varied and ever varying effects of 
 light and shade. For the artist, it forms a true picture with 
 architectural foreground and a wealth of natural scenery 
 behind and around. On closer inspection, regret over- 
 powers one that so much of the building is gone, so very 
 little left of this ancient seat of the Primate or High Bishop 
 of Fortrenn, taking precedence of the See of St. Andrews. 
 
 Iona had fallen upon evil days. The ruthless Danes had 
 pillaged and burned — not even Columba's bones might rest 
 in peace. A safer locality for the Annoid or Mother Church 
 must be chosen, inland too, so that the ravagers of the 
 coast might not easily penetrate thither. So as Skene 
 says: "The position selected was at the pass where the 
 Tay makes its way through the barrier of the Grampians ; 
 and here, while Constantin ruled over both Dalriada and 
 the Picts, he founded the Church at Dunkeld, in which he 
 may possibly have put the brethren from Lindisfarne who 
 took refuge with him in 796 A.D." (Oswald the Patrician 
 and his followers, expelled by the Norwegian and Danish 
 pirates). Again, in Bellenden's translation of Boece we 
 read : "At this time Sanct Mungo heir and Sanct Colme 
 preiche afore Brudeus, was ravist in spreit be his devine 
 wourdes, and followit him to Dunkeld, quhare Conwallus 
 beildit ane riche abbay afore ; bot now be magnificence of 
 princis, it is maid ane bischoppis seit, craftely biggit with 
 square and polist stanes. Quhen thir two holy men had 
 remanit VI monethis in Dunkeld, they departit hame. 
 Sanct Mungo returnit to Glasguew and Sanct Colme to 
 Ireland." 
 
DUNK ELD 
 
 In the Pictish Chronicle we may learn that this Constantin, 
 son of Fergus, established Dunkeld about 810-20 A.u. 
 Wyntoun's allusion to this fact is quaintly told — 
 
 "The King off Peychtis Constantyne 
 Be Tai than foundyd Dunkeldyne, 
 A place solempne cathedrale 
 Dowyd well in temporalle." 
 
 "The bys-chope and chanownys thare 
 Serwys God and Saynct Colme, Seculare." 
 
 These "secular canons" were the Culdees, Keledei, 
 Colidei, or Deicolae, and their new home at Fortrenn 
 was made strong and secure, and soon changed its name 
 to Dunkeld — strong home of the Keledei. 
 
 Constantin was succeeded by Kenneth MacAlpin the 
 Scot, and again we may learn of the power and influence 
 exercised by these early fathers over the minds of the 
 rudest of warriors. The Columban clergy had been 
 dispossessed and driven out of the country of the 
 Southern Picts by Nectan, 717 A.D., because they would 
 not conform to Roman usages, and the Pictish Chronicle 
 clearly indicates this as one of the causes of Kenneth's 
 supremacy : " For God thought them worthy to be made 
 aliens from and stript of their hereditary possessions as 
 their perverseness deserved, because they not only spurned 
 the rites and precepts of the Lord, but also refused to allow 
 themselves to be placed on an equal footing with others." 
 In 850 a.d. Kenneth dedicated the church to St. Columba 
 and transferred the Saints' relics to Dunkeld, and in the 
 annals of Ulster, 865 A.D., we find reference to its Abbot as 
 Primate of the Pictish Church. Eight years later, "Superior 
 of Dunkeld" was the title given. In the next century, 
 Duncan, Abbot of Dunkeld, was a leader in one of the 
 wars of succession. His power over the wide lands with 
 which the Church was " dowyd well " no doubt made 
 him an important character. 
 
 7 
 
'82 
 
 DUNKELD 
 
 Then comes the story of Abbot Crinan, so powerful that 
 he might aspire to the hand of the king's daughter. This 
 King, Malcolm II., lived in Glamis Castle in Forfarshire or 
 Angus, and his grave and very wonderfully carved cross 
 thereon may still be seen in the Manse garden at Glamis. 
 The son of Abbot Crinan's marriage was Duncan, Shakes- 
 pere's "gentle Duncan," who ascended the throne on the 
 death of his maternal grandfather in 1034. By his accession, 
 Scotland thus received from the hereditary lay abbots of 
 Dunkeld its dynasty of Celtic kings which held the throne 
 until the days of Robert Bruce. The Abbey's endowments 
 became royal revenue, and by strange irony of fate its 
 Columban Church was to be overthrown and replaced by 
 one of its own royal house. 
 
 When Malcolm Caenmore, son of the murdered Duncan 
 (whose bones had been carried to sacred Iona), dethroned 
 the usurper Macbeth and married Margaret the Saxon, 
 Dunkeld again comes into prominence. Ethelred, their 
 youngest son, was made Abbot, and when Queen Margaret 
 held her great council to confute and refute the doctrines 
 and ritual of the Celtic Church, it is rather interesting to 
 find that she brings against the clergy, lay abbots, and 
 " secular canons " thereof, no accusation as to marriage. 
 How could she consistently do so when Abbot Crinan was 
 her husband's grandfather ? 
 
 At Ethelred's death the Abbey again reverted to the Crown, 
 and King Edgar, an elder brother, appointed Cormac as 
 Bishop. Then Alexander, another brother, changed its con- 
 stitution in 1 107, and erected it into a cathedral church, with 
 Bishops and Canons of the order of St. Augustine and a 
 secular college. Its great possessions and privileges were 
 reserved to it until Turgot, Bishop of St. Andrews, claimed 
 jurisdiction over all Culdee houses; and later still, we read 
 of the Archbishop of York's claim " that all Scottish Bishops 
 were his suffragans." In 1188, Pope Clement III. granted a 
 Bull to William the Lion recognising the independence of 
 the Scottish Church ; but long ere this time, Dunkeld had 
 
DUNKELD 
 
 83 
 
 been curtailed of much of her lands by David the " Sair 
 Sanct who found three Bishoprics, and left nine." In 
 1200, its western district was entirely cut off to form the 
 Diocese of Argyle or Lismore. About 1239, the "use of 
 Sarum " was introduced. 
 
 Its Celtic ritual was now gone, so too was its Celtic 
 influence over men. A new pomp and panoply strangely 
 unsuitable was assumed, but peace having departed from its 
 Zion it became a very centre of feud and bloody strife ; its 
 bishops had their trains of armed followers, and in the 
 rivalry of clan and churchmen, battle cries mingled with 
 and too often drowned the voices of the singers of the 
 .Psalms. The shade of the good Columba surely lingered 
 still over its precincts, and we may recall the lofty theme of 
 his favourite eighty-fourth Psalm and realise how sadly had 
 the goodly places fallen. We shall learn in the story of the 
 Celtic Church how very little power its Latin successors ever 
 gained over the Celts themselves. 
 
 As the building now stands its architecture is "perplexing," 
 and yet Alexander Myln, a canon of Dunkeld in 1505, and 
 afterwards Abbot of Cambuskenneth and first President of 
 the College of Justice, has fortunately left a history of the 
 lives of the Bishops of Dunkeld, which professes to give a 
 more minute account of the dates of the different parts of 
 the structure of the Cathedral than we have of any similar 
 building in the country. From this account it would appear 
 that the existing structure is chiefly of the fifteenth century. 
 
 The first choir, 1220-50, was built in the Early English 
 style, and there are traces of the same still in existence. In 
 1312, "A Master of Works" is mentioned, and in 1320 the 
 choir is said to have been founded by William St. Clair, 
 " Robert Bruce's own Bishop," and the thirteenth in order 
 from Bishop Cormac of King Edgar's time. This Church 
 dignitary, at the head of sixty followers, rallied a retreating 
 body of five hundred Scots attacked by the English, and re- 
 pulsed the enemy shouting, "All you that love Scotland's 
 honour follow me ! " He was of the Rosslyn family, and 
 
8 4 
 
 DUNKELD 
 
 thus his family arms — the Cross engrailed — so impressively 
 carved again and again in Rosslyn Chapel, are also to be 
 seen here on the East gable. In June, 1380, the English 
 invaders burned the Cathedral, but Bishop John of Peebles, 
 1377-96, repaired it and filled the great East window with 
 coloured glass. 
 
 The Choir as now seen is used as the Parish Church. 
 There are no aisles, and its dimensions are 103 feet long by 
 29 feet wide. On the north stands the Chapter House, two- 
 stories in height, and 27 feet long by 20 feet wide. This 
 Chapter House now forms the mausoleum for the Ducal 
 family of Athol, and several of its monuments are charac- 
 teristic of the Renaissance period. One on the north wall 
 shows the familiar fess cheque of the Stewarts, quartered with 
 arms of Athol, and bears the quaint sounding motto, " Furth 
 Fortoon et fil ye Feteris," not yet entirely obsolete in. 
 spelling and usage, as " Furth the Country " is still a recog- 
 nised phrase. Almost opposite, stands another monument 
 resplendent in panoply and pride, for thirty-two coats of 
 arms, arranged in double rows of eight adorning its sides,, 
 are but part of its armorial bearings. It tells of the pomp of 
 dust forgotten, and yet close by us stands the roofless ruined 
 Nave of St. Columba's Church ! 
 
 On the floor above are small windows partly built up, and 
 on the outside wall may be seen the arms of Bishop Lauder, 
 who finished the Nave, built the South Porch with its statues, 
 and added glazing and carved woodwork within the church, 
 which he dedicated in 1465. He laid the foundations of the 
 Bell Tower in 1469, and those of the Chapter House in 1457. 
 Bearing this in mind, we may gaze respectfully on his chosen 
 griffin, which in the mediaeval language of the Bestiary 
 period, "signifies the Devil who carries off the soul of the 
 wicked man to the deserts of hell " (Griffins also carried the 
 good to heaven). This same good Bishop was a noted 
 preacher, and as he had been tutor to James II., and also 
 instructor of the eloquent Soltre, his influence was very 
 great. The old bridge too, over the Tay, was his bequest,. 
 
DUNKELD 
 
 and in early Scottish records we find that next to legacies for 
 the Church ranked legacies for bridges. For precedent of 
 Kipling's title of " Bridge builders " as applied to English- 
 men in the Colonies, we have, after all, but to go back to 
 mediaeval times, whereof we may read for ourselves in 
 Jusserand's English Wayfaring Life in the Fourteenth Century. 
 Good, generous, eloquent, earnest, all these and more was 
 Bishop Lauder, and yet after reading an extract from 
 Myln's history as to his gifts and work for his beloved 
 church the story which follows is but the more emphatic in 
 its lesson. 
 
 Bishop Lauder gave to Dunkeld, in 1461, six standard 
 candlesticks, one chalice, three cruets, two vials, a silver pyx 
 for chrism, a solid pyx of silver for the Eucharist, a holy-water 
 vat, two sprinklers, and two censers of silver. At the high 
 altar he painted the reredos or " antemurale " with the 
 twenty-four miracles of St. Columba, and two images, two 
 pillars, and two angels above it, and added fifteen chandlers 
 in fair fashion bearing tapers of wax in honour of our 
 Saviour, according to the description in the Apocalypse, 
 " two frontals of silk and a pillar for the pascal." Surely 
 such generosity deserved and still deserves fullest recogni- 
 tion, yet the facts go to prove that what had been a specially 
 chosen situation for the peaceful welfare of the Church in 
 the eighth century had become a very centre of strife and 
 discord in the fifteenth century. This good Bishop had 
 dared to imprison a Robertson (and we may safely presume 
 the Bishop was in the right), but a Highland Chief had 
 become greater in his own estimation than a mere Sassenach 
 Bishop, be he benefactor, adviser of the King, or no, and 
 one of his clansmen became for the nonce of supreme 
 importance to Alexander the Chief of this Clan Donnoquhy 
 of Athol. So on Whit Sunday, of all days, whilst the good 
 Bishop was saying mass, the Robertsons burst unexpectedly 
 into the choir, "this great and worthy High Priest" was 
 compelled to fly precipitately from the altar, and alas ! for 
 the dignity of the prelate and the reverence of the sanctuary, 
 
86 
 
 DUNKELD 
 
 was actually obliged to climb to the rafters of the choir so 
 as to save himself from the swords and flights of arrows 
 of the avenging Catheran. What a story is here, a fitting 
 prelude to Gavin Douglas's attempted entrance in the 
 following century, a reminiscence in part of that scene in 
 Canterbury between King and greater dignitary. Elgin and 
 Dunkeld, in spite of gorgeousness of array and stately 
 ceremonial, had long ere this lost the peace and influence 
 for good over Celtic hearts, possessed to the full by St. 
 Columba and his Family of Iona. 
 
 Poor Bishop Lauder, harassed and worn out, resigned in 
 1476, for during these closing years the records and all 
 diocesan papers had been kept in the Church of the Friars 
 of Mount Carmel at Tullilum, under the walls of Perth, and 
 there too the clergy had met their bishop and dignitaries 
 because of their terror of the raiding Highlanders. Yet 
 these Highlanders one and all nowadays are noted in the 
 Church for simplest ritual and exceeding zeal in God's 
 worship. To be absent from Church service on Sunday is 
 to be ill or unavoidably detained. " Full of years and good 
 works," Bishop Lauder died in 1481, and the Cathedral 
 lands, under the name of the Baronies of Dunkeld and 
 Abernethy, were legacies too of his business capabilities 
 and zeal for his Church. 
 
 But to return to the story of the now roofless Nave 
 (120 feet long by 60 feet wide) which he finished. On its 
 south wall stands a finely arched and crocketed tomb with 
 effigy, coats of arms, and much carving. It is that of Bishop 
 Cardeny, who, according to Myln, founded it in 1406 and 
 carried it up to the second arches " commonly called the 
 blind story." He also decorated the windows of the choir 
 with glass and founded and adorned an altar to St. Ninian. 
 Many lands for church revenue were also acquired by this 
 hard-working cleric. (Ingratitude or utter lack of apprecia- 
 tion seem to have been the special characteristic of the 
 natives, presumably under Church control in the Diocese of 
 Dunkeld ; for having narrowly escaped with his life in an 
 
DUSKELD 
 
 87 
 
 attack on his house, Bishop Cardeny perforce had a strong 
 tower added to his episcopal palace.) Although the massive 
 piers, each four feet six inches in diameter, of the seven 
 bays of the nave appear Norman, they belong to a later 
 period, as we know from the dates and from the fact that 
 "the triforium is poor and the clerestory insignificant." 
 The great western window is plainly unsymmetrical in posi- 
 tion, and indicates that there have been changes and addi- 
 tions to the original plan. The aisles are twelve feet wide 
 and the south one has been vaulted. The south porch is in 
 ruins. The tower, 96 feet high and 24 feet square, is con- 
 sidered a very good example of the style of its period. Two 
 of its bells were dedicated to St. Colme and St. George, and 
 the music once used in the Cathedral is said to be preserved 
 in the library of Edinburgh University. 
 
 On close inspection we may note the smallness of many 
 of the stones in the walls of the aisles, and thanks to our 
 records we also learn the cause thereof. John of Ralstoun, 
 the King's secretary, was appointed Bishop in 1447 as 
 successor to Bishop Cardeny, and during the three years of 
 his life he lived up to his predecessor's traditions, and to 
 the best of his ability, carried out his plans. An extract 
 will tell its tale for us eloquently : " Bishop Ralstoun, with 
 the neighbouring nobles, carried fardels of stones from Bur- 
 bane quarry to complete the aisles. The mortar was carried 
 in baskets and the stones were conveyed on horseback when 
 roads and carts did not exist. Labour was paid daily at the 
 rate of 2d. or 3d. Scots." There were other equally good 
 and zealous churchmen, notably Bishop Brown, who sent 
 out missionary preachers to teach in Gaelic those High- 
 landers who did not understand English. He also added 
 the fine brass lectern with its statues of the four Evangelists, 
 and also the full-size brass statue of Moses holding up the 
 Books of the Law on outstretched arms. All men of 
 whom we might applicably quote — 
 
 " De mortuis nil nisi bonum." 
 
88 
 
 DUSK ELD 
 
 But the times were out of joint, their earnest devotion and 
 daily toil unappreciated because of such, and to the present- 
 day visitor even their names are unknown. Sir Walter 
 Scott has saved from oblivion one who, as a bishop, served 
 only his own interests, and in comparison with Bishop 
 Lauder was not to be worthy of mention as a faithful son of 
 the Church. Yet it is Gavin Douglas who is glibly quoted 
 as " The Bishop of Dunkeld." 
 
 When he came to take possession of the See in 15 16, his 
 rival, Andrew Stewart, greeted him with a fusilade of stones 
 and arrows ; and being in possession of the steeple and 
 palace, did not hesitate to shoot therefrom. A Douglas 
 would not yield even to a Stewart, and so the prelate sum- 
 moned to his aid the Douglas followers of Angus and Fife, 
 and himself carefully provided the stores of food and 
 ammunition necessary for the coming force, for Gavin knew 
 well the power of " forewarned, forearmed." Having thus 
 brought men and guns to the position, he soon forced 
 admittance to the cathedral, and then, with that profession 
 of Christian faith, not altogether obsolete in present times, 
 he acknowledged his success in " thanks to the intercession 
 of St. Columba without loss of limb." Dunkeld was still 
 sticking to her acquired reputation as a field for Christian 
 warriors. 
 
 Gavin, though deeply learned in classic lore, need have 
 expected little courtesy, for whilst there raged such fierce 
 enmity between factions of nobles and Highlander and 
 Lowlander — Celt and Sassenach — as we have learned to 
 picturesquely describe them, there was little to boast of in 
 the way of true religion or culture on either side. Gavin's 
 father, the fiery old " Bell the Cat," reputedly gave 
 
 "Thanks to St. Bothan Son O' mine 
 Save Gawain, ne'er could pen a line," 
 
 and in these words, literally interpreted, we have the key 
 to many a similar situation. In reality it was Marmion's 
 treacherous use of letters that aroused the old Douglas's 
 
DUNKELD 
 
 89 
 
 contempt, and we find that the renowned Gavin had his 
 popular audience and admirers as well as his critical and 
 scholarly compeers. He himself tells us plainly that he 
 wishes to be known to the folk in his lines — 
 
 " I set my bissy pane 
 As that I couth to mak it braid and plane, 
 Kep-and na Southron bot our awn langage." 
 
 A born leader of men was Gavin, and as a Douglas, he 
 could but live up to his traditions, and we can, if we will, 
 find such adjectives as intriguing and its kind, applicable 
 as well as applied to the scholarly Bishop. They were 
 troublous times then, and he was a man born to rule also to 
 intrigue, proud of his race, but take him all in all, a good 
 Scot. Sir Walter may cast his glamour of romantic interest 
 over our clear seeing, but the glamour is better than the 
 crude sight which so often reads the past judging it by the 
 standard of the present. So here in Dunkeld it is pleasant 
 to recall that this warrior-statesman-priest was the first of 
 all scholars to translate Virgil into the Saxon tongue, and 
 that nowhere in our literature exists a more pleasant picture 
 of mediaeval scene and dignitary than that in the chapel of 
 Tantallon Castle, at the restoration of Ralph de Wilton to 
 his love, his honour, and his arms. 
 
 '■A bishop by the altar stood, 
 A noble lord of Douglas blood, 
 With mitre sheen and rocquet white, 
 
 Yet showed his meek and thoughtful eye, 
 But little pride of prelacy. 
 More pleased that in a barbarous age 
 He gave rude Scotland Virgil's page, 
 Than that beneath his rule he held 
 The bishopric of fair Dunkeld." 
 
 A meek-eyed Douglas appears to us an anachronism after 
 that Dunkeld siege, and in the story of St. Giles we must 
 perforce learn somewhat of priest Gavin's methods. Having 
 
90 
 
 DUSKELD 
 
 learned all, the ideal must still prevail, and we will ever 
 remember that as Gavin Dunbar dominates the Cathedral 
 of Old Aberdeen, so Gavin Douglas is par excellence the 
 Bishop of Dunkeld. 
 
 Bishops Cardeny, Ralstoun, Lauder, and Brown are dead 
 and forgotten, or but of faint memory. After such scenes 
 between rival factions, alike equally regardless of the fabric 
 of the church as a sacred sanctuary, we may the better 
 realise that the oft-quoted " cakes and ale " and merry lazy 
 lives of monks and clergy were, at times, pure fiction. The 
 thorns in their bed of roses were many and sharp-pointed. 
 There seems to have been no dolce far niente life in those 
 days ; " Men of ability were all obliged to take part in the 
 stirring times." 
 
 Reverence for the fabric of the consecrated sanctuary lies 
 at the very root of the ritual of the Latin Church. She had 
 never for any period of time been able to impress this on 
 Scotland or on her very own children, whether prince 
 or peasant, and as we turn to look at one of the monuments 
 here, we find a strangely suitable object lesson. The " Wolf 
 of Badenoch " burned down Elgin Cathedral, " the pride 
 of the land, the glory of the realm, the delight of way- 
 farers and strangers, a praise and boast among foreign 
 nations, lofty in its towers without, splendid in its appoint- 
 ments within, its countless jewels and rich vestments and 
 the multitude of its priests, serving God in righteousness." 
 Such are the words of wailing uttered by its Bishop in his 
 letters to the King, Robert III., in 1390, the year of the 
 disaster. And this " Wolf of Badenoch " of appropriate 
 sobriquet — who was he ? No less a potentate than a 
 Stewart of that notable Norman Fitz-Alan family, who 
 built and endowed Paisley Abbey and many another 
 fair church and shrine, and who gave a royal dynasty 
 to the country. No wild lawless Celt in any sense what- 
 ever was this Earl of Buchan, but actually a royal Prince 
 himself, even brother to the King. And the outrage 
 was accentuated by its being done on the feast day of St. 
 
9' 
 
 Botolph, and to his bonfire in honour of the Saint he added 
 " the Parish Church, the Maison Dieu, eighteen manses of 
 canons and the whole City of Elgin." And why ? Because 
 the Bishop and he had quarrelled furiously. The church- 
 man had brought against the rebellious member the power 
 of the Church's arm, and excommunication was thundered 
 forth against him. Such decree had humbled the Plan- 
 tagenet King John, but a Scottish Stewart cared nought 
 and retaliated quickly after his own manner. In due time 
 he was led to do penance and to give compensation, but the 
 lesson was and still is burned in on every mind. Having 
 made his peace with the Church, he now lies under a tomb 
 here " an earl and lord of happy memory." A fine altar tomb 
 on the east side of the choir was no mean recompense for 
 the penance done in palliation of his flagrant offence, and 
 as we gaze on this monument, dating from 1394, with its 
 grim warrior's effigy in full armour, his feet resting on a 
 lion, we may read deeply between the lines. 
 
 The Reformation was at hand, and Bishop Paton was 
 deposed in 1571 for simony. But John Knox cannot be 
 associated with the ruin of the building. In a letter 
 addressed to our trusty friends the Lairds of Amtuby and 
 Kinwayd, and signed by "Argyll," "James Stewart" and 
 " Ruthven " in 1560, the said Lairds have fully detailed 
 orders to destroy all except — " Fail not but ye take good 
 heed that neither the desks, windows, nor doors be any- 
 ways hurt or broken . . . either glass work or iron work." 
 
 A century passed, but not yet had abiding peace settled 
 over Dunkeld. In i68g, the troops of " Bonnie Dundee," 
 after his death at Killiecrankie, met 1200 Cameronians within 
 the shadow of the venerable, if not venerated walls. The 
 Cathedral and three houses, occupied by the troops, nar- 
 rowly escaped being burned outright. From seven o'clock 
 in the morning until eleven o'clock of that August night, 
 the villagers sheltered within its walls and formed barricade 
 of defence with the seats. So the ruin was completed. In 
 its roofless nave and aisles the prophecy of St. Columba's- 
 
DUNk'ELD 
 
 favourite psalm has come to pass : around its ancient altars, 
 in its triforium and clerestory, the swallow and the sparrow 
 have generation after generation hatched and sheltered their 
 young; and the ivy, the wallflower and the quicken-tree 
 (rowan) find root and sustenance in its ruined walls. Yet 
 the worship of God in peace, perfect peace, is now main- 
 tained, and hope is strong that ere long this ancient and 
 very historically interesting Cathedral will rise again from 
 its ruins to be another monument to St. Columba's memory. 
 
 Church building as a form of expiation belongs to the 
 Norman and the Middle Ages, but surely the nineteenth 
 century is not entirely lacking in good works. Those who 
 still profit by the Church lands and revenues, seized at the 
 Reformation, and those who would nowadays in heart 
 repudiate the fierce aggressiveness of early ancestors, may 
 well add their influence or their mite to such a noble cause. 
 Dunblane is again a pride to the land, Brechin will be so 
 ere long, but Dunkeld, which antedates both, remains 
 undisturbed. 
 
 The gnarled yews and the huge spreading beeches 
 proclaim their antiquity, and seated in the stillness of 
 their shade, broken only by the murmur of the beautiful 
 Tay, one can truly say of this Church of St. Columba — 
 
 " Once ye were holy ! Ye are holy still ; 
 Your spirit freely let me drink and live." 
 
EDINBURGH 
 
 St. Giles. 
 640-726 A.D. 
 
 Consecrated 
 1243- 
 
 " The past is so mighty an element in a nation's greatness, that all 
 wise men seek to preserve it. They teach history to their children ; 
 they observe anniversaries ; they preserve carefully ancient monu- 
 ments. And when our kinsmen from America visit us — if they envy 
 us in anything — it is the inspiring and solemnising influence of such 
 great historic buildings as this." — The Book of St. Giles. 
 
 T. GILES takes last place as most recent foundation 
 
 in the list of Scottish Cathedrals. Its building has 
 
 neither spire nor tower, the place of the latter being 
 filled by a very graceful and effective crown of stonework, 
 a feature of architecture comparatively popular in Scotland 
 but, with one exception, unknown in England. As seen 
 from Princes Street, the Cathedral stands out conspicuously 
 against the sky-line formed by the ridge of the Old Town, 
 and, together with the more dominant Castle, shares to the 
 full in public attention and estimation. There is indeed 
 a very close connection between Cathedral and Castle. 
 St. Giles is the Soldiers' Church, and no more impressive 
 service can be heard anywhere than the one held every 
 Sunday morning for the regiment from the Castle. So 
 widely known has this service become, that the tourist 
 considers it as one of the sights of the city. 
 
 This military spectacle is enhanced by its- environment 
 within the venerable building. Its pillars and their capitals 
 are but stands for many torn and tattered banners from 
 
 93 
 
<>4 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 the battlefields of the nation ; its walls are marked by 
 the bronze records of heroes and of patriotic sons of the 
 country ; its chapels take their names from warrior states- 
 men and benefactors rather than from Saints ; its windows 
 are in prominent instances commemorative of fighters for 
 Church and State. The tout ensemble, in a word, materialises 
 in stone for us the well-worn phrase "The Church Militant," 
 for, if ecclesiastic in form, it is truly historic in detail — an 
 interesting combination when we recall its story. 
 
 Its sister cathedrals, now restored, lay claim to the tradi- 
 tions of Celtic saints with their wattle and clay churches, 
 on whose ancient sites early royal founders and mediaeval 
 bishops built and enlarged their stately Norman and Gothic 
 temples. St. Giles had no such inheritance, if we except 
 the secondary Celtic influence from Lindisfarne. A church 
 certainly existed within Edwin's burgh in the ninth century, 
 but her small parish church of St. Giles was not consecrated 
 until the thirteenth century, and this church was only 
 elevated to the rank of a Collegiate Church two centuries 
 later at a time when Lollardism had become a power to be 
 reckoned with. When Edinburgh was Royal Edinburgh 
 and the Court was gay at Holyrood, the Jameses and their 
 Queens worshipped in public in this collegiate church. It 
 was not until Charles I. sat on the throne of the United 
 Kingdom that St. Giles was erected into the Cathedral of 
 the Diocese of Edinburgh. Our capital city can thus point 
 to her Protestant Cathedral and Protestant University as 
 unique records in national annals. 
 
 If in one sense we cannot say here " Every stone we tread 
 on has its history," we can none the less give it precedence 
 as the most historically interesting of the Scottish Cathedrals 
 to the world at home and abroad. 
 
 Entering by the doorway from High Street we find our- 
 selves within the North Transept, the oldest portion of the 
 original structure now standing. We note the massive 
 octagonal pillars, supports of the tower, and the expert can 
 also mark the indications of the disastrous fire of 1385. We 
 
EDIX BURGH 
 
 also note that the many chapels have crowded out the 
 cruciform plan. The finely carved pulpit, though of modern 
 date, perforce recalls the comment of a north country 
 beadle who, when reproved on a cold morning for neglect- 
 ing the stove which heated his church, replied, "There'll be 
 fire in the pulpit the day." It has been the fire in the pulpit 
 which has made for St. Giles a place in the history of the 
 world. 
 
 Facing eastward, the Chambers Memorial Chapel naturally 
 demands our first attention and tells its own story on the 
 brass plate inscribed thus : " This Chapel is in memory of 
 William Chambers of Glenmoriston, LL.D., publisher, Lord 
 Provost of Edinburgh, 1865-69, to whose munificence 
 Scotland is indebted for the complete restoration of this 
 ancient Cathedral, 1883." The large window, which so 
 appropriately represents Solomon's dedication of the 
 Temple and Zerubbabel's superintendence of the building 
 of the Second Temple, is a memorial to the brothers 
 William and Robert Chambers ; and another beautiful 
 window, dedicated to Robert Chambers second, is also 
 placed here. The name of Chambers has become a house- 
 hold word throughout the English-speaking world, and for 
 this munificent restoration of the national Zion his name is 
 also held in grateful memory. 
 
 The cause of Scottish religion and of Scottish education 
 owes far more to the rich and successful men who began 
 life as poor boys than to her nobles who are, in too 
 many instances, inheritors of lands despoiled from the 
 pre-Reformation Church. 
 
 Entering the Choir, we note how much its architectural 
 effect is heightened by the soft light from the stained-glass 
 windows. One of these, to the left, was erected by the 
 Stevenson family, and memories of Robert Louis Stevenson 
 crowd upon us as we stand on this spot, well known and oft 
 recalled by him when exiled perforce on the shores of far-off 
 sunny seas. These windows, designed and executed by 
 Edinburgh artists, far excel in beauty and richness of effect 
 
g6 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 the majority of those in Glasgow Cathedral, even though 
 these latter were executed " furth the country." One also 
 notes that all are the gifts of generous Commoners. The 
 windows in the Clerestory represent the craftsmen of the 
 Ancient Capital. 
 
 In the Preston Aisle which forms an extension to the 
 choir, on the right, the Royal Pew is a prominent feature. 
 When the General Assembly meets in Edinburgh annually 
 in the month of May, the Lord High Commissioner, as 
 Representative of Royalty, sits therein. 
 
 Next to the Preston Aisle we may see the Chapman Aisle, 
 with two carvings of interest which tell their own tale. The 
 one represents an eagle, the emblem of St. John the Evange- 
 list, and close to it is the scroll legend in black letter 
 In Principle. The other bears on a shield, supported by a 
 winged angel, the coat of arms of Walter Chapman, founder 
 of this chapel. Dr. William Chambers entered with great 
 zeal into the cleaning and restoring thereof, and to him we 
 owe the brass tablet, the suitably inscribed encaustic tiles and 
 the grille of hammered ironwork, as special tributes from 
 a publisher of the enlightened nineteenth century to one 
 who was in Scotland the " Father of Printing." On the 
 brass tablet we read : "To the memory of Walter Chapman, 
 designated the Scottish Caxton, who, under the auspices of 
 James IV. and his Queen Margaret, introduced the art of 
 Printing into Scotland 1507 ; founded this aisle in honour 
 of the King and Queen and their family 1513 ; and died 
 in 1532 : this tablet is gratefully inscribed by William 
 Chambers, LL.D., 1879." 
 
 To the west of the southern transept we come on the 
 Moray Aisle, and in its much admired window also see its 
 story pictured ; the assassination of the " Good Regent " 
 in Linlithgow, and the scene in St. Giles when John Knox 
 preached his funeral sermon to an audience of 3,000, "who 
 had not a dry eye among them." In this aisle, too, was 
 placed the fine window to the memory of General Wauchope 
 of the Highland Brigade, who died in South Africa in 1899, 
 
ED IS BURGH 
 
 97 
 
 and who is still deeply mourned as one of Scotland's 
 noblest Christian soldiers. Facing westward we see the 
 fine oriel of three lights — another object lesson from history. 
 In the centre are the Royal Arms, copied from a stone slab 
 in Holyrood Abbey of the time of James V. ; to the right, 
 are the arms and crest of the Duke of Hamilton, Hereditary 
 Keeper of Holyrood; and to the left, the legend of its Abbey 
 is depicted in the escape of David I. of blessed memory, 
 who was miraculously saved from a stag by a luminous 
 cross which shone between the infuriated animal and his 
 prey. 
 
 The great West Window, of which the Prophets form the 
 subject, is specially noticeable. In this same western gable, 
 near to High Street, we shall also see a very striking window 
 by William Morris and his coadjutor, Burne Jones. The 
 principal subject is Joshua, treated in cerulean blue and 
 flame colour. As the sun streams through this window 
 the figure looks as if on fire, and equally impressive is the 
 effect of brilliant light given forth on any of the many 
 dark and dreary days of this foggy winter climate. 
 
 Of the many fine monuments, two deserve special attention, 
 to Argyll and to Montrose, both makers of history, both 
 martyrs for conscience and faith. 
 
 If Puritan and Covenanting in sympathy we shall 
 approach St. Elois Chapel, and there gaze upon the heavily 
 gilded marble and alabaster monument and possibly also 
 regret, in utilitarian vein, that so much money has been 
 spent upon such execrable style in Art. Above it, however, 
 the window, filled with the arms of the great Marquis and 
 his prominent Covenanter friends, brings us back to calmer 
 judgment, and memories of that last wonderful sleep of 
 Argyll throw insight upon the character of one whose 
 conscience needed not to make him afraid. Every Scot 
 worthy of the name should value this window as a record 
 of those who in large measure contributed to the formation 
 of that high moral standard in speech and action which 
 have come to be recognised as characteristic of Scotland 
 8 
 
98 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 throughout the world, and which inspired philosophic 
 Wordsworth to pen the lines — 
 
 "A stately speech 
 Such as grave Livers do in Scotland use ; 
 Religious men, who give to God and man their dues." 
 
 If Cavalier and Jacobite in sentiment, we shall seek out 
 the monument, erected by the clan Graham, in 1888, to the 
 memory of their great hero the Marquis of Montrose, in 
 the Chapman Aisle, and, standing before it, repeat the 
 many trenchant lines of Aytoun's wonderfully graphic 
 ballad, notably — 
 
 "Of him who sold his king for gold, 
 The Master thief Argyll," 
 
 and live over again that execution scene which convulsed 
 the city and shook the kirk to her foundations. The fine 
 window here shows the armorial bearings of Cavaliers, and 
 we note that of Spotswood of that ilk. 
 
 Time hallows all things, the rivals lie almost side by side 
 in honoured dust, and hard by their respective monuments 
 the descendants of Covenanter and Cavalier sit side by side 
 in St. Giles, placid listeners to a service and sermon suffi- 
 ciently ritualistic and gravely decorous enough to have 
 pleased a zealot in either cause. The younger generation, 
 trained to regard tolerance as one of the highest attributes 
 of the Christian faith, may possibly, in the arrogance of 
 youth, occasionally wonder " what was the trouble all 
 about" — so great is the difference between the sowing 
 and the reaping. For, as the late and revered Dean 
 Stanley so aptly said of our Scottish Churches and their 
 services : " It is quite possible to appropriate all that is 
 ancient and beautiful in the past without ministering to 
 those modern fancies and superstitions to which other 
 churches afford a more ready access ; " and we admire 
 that catholicity of spirit which placed a bronze bas-relief 
 of the Dean's bust on the cathedral walls. 
 
EDINBURGH 
 
 99 
 
 Having thus walked round the building and seen of the 
 present, we shall be better able to enter into the spirit of the 
 past which here speaks to us of national life and struggle, 
 of churchman's zeal and of layman's generosity, productive 
 of a true relationship between beauty, religion, and worship. 
 What more appropriate quotation can be given than the 
 following extract from the sermon, preached by the minister 
 of St. Giles, on the occasion of the opening service after the 
 Restoration in 1883 : — 
 
 " Every form of faith and worship that Scotland has seen 
 has probably been here. . . . Here certainly, throughout 
 centuries, the Church of Rome celebrated her ritual. . . . 
 Then came the changes which we all know. First, the 
 Prayer Book of King Edward VI. ; then the Book of Common 
 Order ; then for a brief moment the foreign enforced Service 
 Book ; then the worship of the Westminster Directory ; then 
 English Independents took possession, and soldiers preach 
 with pistols by their side ; then came the forms which are 
 being gradually modified ; and so we come to the service of 
 the present hour — Roman prelate, Priest, Presbyter, Angli- 
 can Bishop, Covenanter, Independent, Sectary, Minister — 
 they have all been here. These arches have echoed to their 
 changing voices " — 
 
 '• Age to age succeeds, 
 Blowing a noise of tongues and deeds, 
 A dust of systems and of creeds." 
 
 With such thoughts in our hearts we can better understand 
 the story of the Retrospect. 
 
 RETROSPECT. 
 
 The story of St. Giles differs considerably from that of 
 other patron Saints of Scottish Cathedrals, in that he was 
 Greek and not Celt. St. Giles, or the Holy ^Egidius, was a 
 native of Athens, born in 640 A.D. His parents were of 
 
IOO 
 
 EDIX BURGH 
 
 gentle even of royal blood, and were as distinguished for 
 piety as was their son for learning, charity, and faith. This 
 Greek Christian is commemorated only in three places in 
 Scotland — Elgin, Ormiston, and Edinburgh — but in England 
 he has earned no less than 146 dedications ; while in France 
 also he was exceedingly popular. To that country he set 
 sail in his twenty-fifth year, and as his fame and power to 
 work miracles had preceded him, on reaching Aries he was 
 warmly welcomed as an honoured member of the Greek 
 Colony. One of his miracles recalls for us that of St. 
 Martin of Tours, to whose close connection with Scotland 
 we owe our notable Martinmas term day. St. Giles cast his 
 cloak over a sick beggar, who was immediately healed of 
 his disease. 
 
 From Aries he removed to Nismes, and whilst there the 
 hind which is ever depicted as his companion took shelter 
 with him, and was miraculously hidden from its pursuers — 
 Flavins Wamba, king of the Visigoths, and his hunters — 
 who discharged their arrows into the thicket, then entered 
 and found the Hermit wounded, the hind unhurt. Wamba 
 was converted, and over the spot the Flavian Monastery was 
 founded. We next read of the Saint as fleeing from the 
 invasion of Roderick the Goth to the Court of Charles 
 Martel at Orleans ; then of his death, not later than 726 
 a.d. Later on his body was transferred to Toulouse, and 
 an arm bone of St. Giles is still one of the special treasures 
 of Bruges — fellow to that much-prized relic which Preston 
 obtained for Edinburgh at great expense and personal 
 enterprise, and which was thrown out and lost as "rub- 
 bish " at the Reformation. From the Breviary of Aberdeen 
 we know that his feast day was the 1st of September. 
 
 French influence, so paramount in Scotland at a later date, 
 did not exist when St. Giles was chosen a patron Saint ; so 
 no clear explanation as to the cause of his selection is possi- 
 ble, except that, as already stated, he had many dedications 
 in England. 
 
 Edinburgh bears its Saxon origin in its name, and in 
 
ED IK BURGH 
 
 101 
 
 854 A.D. the church of " Edwinsburch " belonged to the 
 Bishopric of Lindisfarne or the Holy Isle, off the coast 
 of Northumberland. Just as Strathclyde included Northern 
 England and much that is now the Diocese of Carlisle, so 
 did North umbria carry its northern boundary to the Forth, 
 until in 1020 its king Eadwulf ceded part thereof to 
 Malcolm II., maternal grandfather of the "gentle Duncan," 
 whose wife again was a sister of that Siward of Northum- 
 bria who figures in the play of Macbeth. 
 
 Although we know from records of 1 150 that a Monastery 
 and Grange of St. Giles existed in Edinburgh, not till 1241 
 do we find allusion to the Vicar of St. Giles, and only in 
 1243 was the Church of St. Giles consecrated by the Bishop 
 of St. Andrews. The service book he then used, with notes 
 on its fly-leaf as to this ceremony, is still extant in Paris. Of 
 this early church little or nothing remains. A fine Norman 
 doorway was destroyed during the repairs made about a 
 century ago, but most fortunately a picture of the same 
 exists. We know, however, that the church must have 
 been a very small one, as in Monastery records of the 
 thirteenth century its value for taxation is entered at 
 twenty-six merks only. 
 
 Border Lands and " Debatable " Lands have ever been 
 subject to fire and sword, and this, too, was the fate of 
 Edinburgh during the War of Independence. Although 
 there is no distinct record of the burning of St. Giles, yet 
 an extract from the Chartulary speaks for itself. "The 
 ravages of war " which had devastated the church and 
 alienated its revenues are referred to under date 1368. 
 
 Froissart, the charmingly ubiquitous chronicler of the 
 fourteenth century, is our next source of information. He 
 tells that Scottish barons, encouraged by thirty distinguished 
 Frenchmen, met together in St. Giles and planned an inva- 
 sion of Northern England in 1384. The King of Scots 
 wisely frowned upon this proposal, but a king's will and 
 word were but light when a Douglas felt ambitious ; so 
 the adventurous raiders, headed " by Erie Douglas and 
 
102 
 
 EDISBURGH 
 
 Erie Moref," set out to plunder and to burn on the English 
 side of the border. For this raid Richard II. of England 
 took full revenge and interest as well in the following year 
 by burning the Abbeys of Melrose and Dryburgh, and by 
 giving to the flames utterly the town of Edinburgh, of which 
 nought was spared but Holyrood Abbey. 
 Wyntoun is very explicit in — 
 
 " Of Edinburgh the kirk brint thai, 
 And wald have dune sua that Abbay ; 
 But the Duke, for his curtasy 
 Gert it that time sawfyd be." 
 
 During the recent restoration it was found that several 
 pillars in the choir showed signs of this fire. Another relic 
 of this time was also brought to light in the groined vault- 
 ing of the Tower base, on a boss of which is carved the 
 arms of the Fentons of that ilk. Sir William Fenton was 
 one of the auditors at Berwick in 1292, in connection with 
 the Bruce and Baliol controversy, and on the Ragman's Roll 
 of 1296 his name also appears as having sworn allegiance to 
 Edward I. He was therefore undoubtedly a benefactor to 
 the church that was burned in 1385. 
 
 In 1387, the Provost of the Burgh contracted to build five 
 vaulted chapels to the south of the Nave, after the style of 
 the Chapel of St. Stephen in Holyrood. Very minute details 
 were referred to in the Mason's orders and instructions. 
 They were to be "theykt with Stane" and made water-tight. 
 So often do injunctions as to " water-tight" appear, that one 
 learns perforce of the climate five centuries ago. It is evi- 
 dent that then as now the wind from the east and the Haar 
 from the Forth bore penetrating moisture. These five 
 chapels remained in existence until 1829, when unfortu- 
 nately here, as elsewhere in Scotland, the necessity for 
 repairs produced in the hands of a misguided architect 
 devastating alterations and " improvements," and so the 
 present South Aisle stands in place of two of these 
 chapels. 
 
EDINBURGH 
 
 Robert II., first of the Stewart kings, died in 1390, and was 
 buried at Scone, and in connection with his funeral we have 
 a most interesting record relative to St. Giles. So many 
 people gathered to the Perthshire Abbey from all parts of 
 the country, that the hospitality and resources of the Abbot 
 and his monks were sorely taxed. The funeral was followed 
 by the coronation of Robert III., and as the harvest was then 
 ripe, the visitors made much too free with the crops in the 
 fields. Tytler tells us that the new king was awakened early 
 one morning by a medley company, led by one of the 
 monks, and all beating drums and blowing pipes. The 
 monk was unceremoniously dragged before the royal pre- 
 sence to explain the cause or occasion for the din, and thus 
 slyly made good his opportunity, " Please your Majesty, you 
 have just heard our rural carols in which we indulge when 
 our crops are brought in, and as you and your nobles have 
 spared us the trouble and expense of cutting them down 
 this season, we thought it grateful to give you a specimen of 
 our harvest jubilee." The King enjoyed the joke better than 
 did his nobles, and promised to look into the matter and 
 recompense the Abbot. 
 
 He took three years to think over his promised reward, 
 and after this genuinely mature deliberation, he granted the 
 Church of St. Giles to the Abbey of Scone. (Dunfermline 
 Abbey had previous to this time claimed St. Giles.) The 
 Bishop of St. Andrews ratified the deed of gift, but stipulated 
 that the monks pay forty-five merks to the Vicar of St. Giles, 
 and the sequel soon followed. The monks considered this 
 tax such a grievance that Pope Benedict granted them the 
 right to appoint the vicar from their own number, so that it 
 became a case of " Peter paying Paul." 
 
 Robert III., both good and gentle, was far too weak a king 
 to govern firmly, and his brother, the Duke of Albany, sup- 
 planted his authority. The Fair Maid of Perth tells the sad 
 story of David, Duke of Rothesay, the King's eldest son, 
 starved to death by his cruel uncle Albany and his accom- 
 plice the Douglas. It has ever been a notable fact in Church 
 
04 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 history that the usurper who plundered, robbed, and mur- 
 dered, also expiated his crimes, either by a visit to the Holy 
 Land, or by building a Norman or Gothic chapel. Here in 
 St. Giles we have the beautiful Albany Aisle, built to recon- 
 cile and obtain forgiveness from the Church for that cruel 
 tragedy which ended in the dungeons of Falkland Palace. 
 The broken-hearted King sent his son James to France for 
 safety ; he was captured en routeby the English, and lingered 
 a prisoner in Windsor Castle, even whilst masons were 
 sculpturing the arms of Albany and Douglas on the pillar 
 we now see. 
 
 Work upon the building seems to have been carried on 
 till 1416, at which date we have a record of great interest. 
 Storks came and built their nests on the roof. The storks 
 as seen from the tower of Strassburg Cathedral lend such a 
 picturesque effect to the high-peaked roofs of that city, that 
 one longs to see them on the many gables of the High Street, 
 in lofty isolation, safe from the street below. They remained 
 only for one year, and " whither they flew no man knoweth." 
 Probably they were harried and insulted as were those of 
 quaint Rothenburg, which now cherishes a pair, returned 
 after many years of absence — a flight and a return sugges- 
 tive of a higher instinct than we would give birds credit for 
 possessing. 
 
 James had returned from English exile, a comparative 
 stranger to the rough and rude nobles who thwarted his 
 every effort for good. His was a lawless time, for Albany 
 the usurper, like Stephen of England, was powerless to curb 
 or keep in check the men by whose sanction he nominally 
 ruled. The fearless James exercised his authority as sovereign 
 and paid for his courage with his life. His murder at Perth 
 was the indirect cause of Edinburgh being recognised hence- 
 forward as the chief seat of the Court. It was therefore 
 both meet and proper that a solemn mass should be sung 
 for the soul of the poet-King in St. Giles, so that its echoes 
 might resound throughout the Albany Chapel as the tragic 
 aftermath of that earlier barbarous tragedy which had driven 
 
By permission of] [Messrs . Valentine. Dund,- 
 
 The Albany Aisle. 
 
 Tajaccfa^ 104 
 
EDIS BURGH 105 
 
 him away from his father's court. Sadder even than Mary 
 Stuart's life was that of the poet-King, and though from one 
 point of view it may appear extraneous to the subject in 
 hand to enlarge upon his death, yet not so from another. 
 
 There are three books which should be read. These are 
 Scott's Fair Maid of Perth, Jusserand's Romance of a King's 
 Life, and D. G. Rossetti's poem of The King's Tragedy ; and 
 the reader should then make pilgrimage to St. Giles to 
 realise these stories, embodied in stone, within the Albany 
 Aisle. 
 
 James' youthful son next became a prey to rival factions, 
 and the old church appears in better light when Crichton 
 and Livingston agreed within its walls to keep the peace and 
 to work together for the young King's welfare. When he 
 had grown to manhood, the Vicar of St. Giles, one Nicholas 
 Otterburn, was sent in 1448 as the King's deputy, to find 
 a suitable consort at the Court of France. The pious Mary 
 of Gueldres was the chosen one, and then a later record tells 
 of the Vicar being again sent to demand from Philip, Duke 
 of Burgundy, the bride's promised dowry. 
 
 It was during this reign that William Preston visited 
 France, by royal encouragement, and there obtained the 
 arm bone of the patron Saint, which, enclosed in a fine 
 shrine of gold and with a diamond ring on one of its fingers, 
 soon came to be regarded as the most precious possession of 
 the church. When Preston died, the town council built the 
 Preston Aisle to his honoured memory, and in it was placed 
 an embossed tomb, an altar, and a fine silver chalice, all of 
 which have disappeared, and now we see only his coat of 
 arms — the three unicorns' heads — carved upon the roof. 
 
 The year 1460 was one of dule and woe again. James of 
 the Fiery Face was killed by the bursting of a cannon at the 
 siege of Roxburgh Castle, and three years later his widowed 
 Queen died also. The lengthening of the Choir, heighten- 
 ing of the roof, and addition of the clerestory windows, were 
 accomplished about this time ; and as we proceed towards 
 the East window we shall see two pillars bearing device and 
 
io6 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 sculptured tale for our perusal. The King's pillar is easily 
 recognisable from its four shields with royal arms — that to 
 the east, the lion rampant within double tressure with three 
 points, the sign for an infant prince ; that to the north, the 
 lion impaled, the sign of Queen Mary ; that to the west, 
 the King's royal shield ; and that to the south, the fleur-de- 
 lis of France, in compliment to the Queen. The second 
 pillar bears the City arms, and those of Cranstoun, Otter- 
 burn, and Preston ; whilst that showing crossletts and 
 tressure belongs to Bishop Kennedy of St. Andrews, 
 cousin of the murdered poet-King, and the founder of 
 St. Salvator's College. The shield bearing cross saltire 
 and four rosettes is that of Napier of Merchiston, the 
 loyal champion and friend of Queen Jane, widow of James I. 
 From these books in stone, the inference is drawn that 
 these men, contemporaries of James II. and his Queen, aided 
 in the extension of the Church. 
 
 In 1466-7 the parish church of Edinburgh became, by 
 Papal sanction, the Collegiate Church of St. Giles, and 
 Pope Paul II., in 1470, exempted it from the jurisdiction 
 of St. Andrews, freed it from taxation, and declared it 
 responsible directly to the Holy See, a position unique in 
 Scottish annals. 
 
 In 1488 James III. was stabbed at Milton Mill, and masses 
 were sung for the repose of his soul, as he had been a 
 diligent worshipper in St. Giles. 
 
 Then in 1496 the Hammermen received the privilege of 
 supporting the Altar of St. Elois Chapel (founded about the 
 same time as the Albany Chapel), and before its altar they 
 hung up the noted Blue Blanket, bearing on its folds, in 
 Latin, this verse from the fifty-first Psalm, " In thy good 
 pleasure build thou the Walls of Jerusalem." 
 
 Tradition associated it as the banner carried by the Scots 
 Mechanics to the Crusades, but more probably it was the 
 one presented by James III. to the craftsmen in 1482, so 
 that, in case of emergency, they might rally round it for the 
 defence of their city. We find repeated allusions to this 
 
EDINBURGH 107 
 
 banner during the successive reigns. (A Blue Blanket, 
 belonging to the Incorporated Trades of Perth, was 
 shown in the Glasgow International Exhibition of the 
 present year.) 
 
 James IV., he of the iron belt, never ceased to do penance 
 for his unfilial conduct which indirectly led to his father's 
 death. St. Giles, with many another church, received his 
 moneys, and when, in 1503, Margaret Tudor came to 
 Edinburgh as a bride in that most notable of all Scottish 
 marriages, the clergy of St. Giles were most prominent in 
 the procession which wended its way up the High Street to 
 the Collegiate Church. The precious relic of St. Giles was 
 presented to the King, and he, in religious enthusiasm, not 
 only fervently kissed it, but sang aloud a glorious Te Deum, 
 to the delight of his people, 
 
 Gavin Douglas was at this time the Provost of St. Giles, 
 but as his story is included in that of Dunkeld, there need 
 be no repetition of it here. As a poet and author, nought 
 but praise can be said of him ; as the Superior of St. Giles, his 
 lax discipline and frequent absences led to many scandals. 
 Mass and services were neglected, and the Chapter had to 
 call him to account in 1510. 
 
 Another royal favourite was Walter Chapman, oft entrusted 
 with the royal signet, and who has already been referred to 
 as the founder of the chapel bearing his name. One month 
 after its dedication to his royal patron that kingly soul had 
 passed away on the dark field of Flodden. A trio of poems 
 which may well be read in connection with this church's 
 story at that woeful time, are Marmion, Edinburgh after 
 Flodden, and The Flowers of the Forest. For many a day 
 thereafter the only cry was, "Our King is dead !" without 
 its echoing sentiment, " Long live the King ! " — for Scotland 
 knew from the bitterness of experience what it was to have 
 an infant child as nominal king. In Marmion we read of the 
 King's vision in St. Michael's Church in Linlithgow, and of 
 the signs in the sky over Edinburgh ; but another legend 
 belongs wholly to St. Giles. Provost Gavin Douglas, unable 
 
EDIX BURGH 
 
 to sleep, had risen to pray before the altar as he had so 
 desired others to do " for our Soveraine Lord and his 
 army and neichbouris being thereat." The glimmering 
 light of the Virgin's lamp served but to make the dark- 
 ness more eerie, and soon — 
 
 "The boom of the mid mirk hour 
 Rang out with clang and main, 
 Clang after clang from St. Giles' tower, 
 Where the fretted ribs like a box-tree bower 
 Make a royal crown of stane. 
 Ere the Sight was lost — 'fore mortal eye 
 Ne'er saw such sight, I trow. 
 Shimmering with light each canopy, 
 Pillar and ribbed arch and fretted key, 
 With a wild unearthly low" (flame). 
 
 Then Douglas in a trance saw a strange "kent throng" — 
 his kin of Angus and their neighbours the Crawfords ; 
 Huntly, and Home, and Lennox, and bold Argyll ; and last 
 of all, King James himself seeking absolution. A ghostly 
 mass was sung by Inchaffray's priest, and as Douglas 
 groped his way out of the church he knew that Flodden 
 was fought and lost. Very soon thereafter, for ill news 
 flies apace, the Great Bell of St. Giles tolled for the dead 
 and also summoned the living to the probable defence of 
 their city. Dunbar refers to this same bell in the expression 
 of his wish to remain within hearing of its sound — 
 
 " I came among you hier to dwell ; 
 Fra sound of Saint Giles bell 
 Never think I to flie." 
 
 James V. had come to his manhood and kingdom, and 
 though we have no definite records relative to the coming 
 storm of the Reformation, signs of the times were not lack- 
 ing, as under the widowed Queen Regent — Mary of Guise — 
 freedom of speech against Church and Clergy became more 
 and more popular. In 1555, John Knox visited a friend 
 and preached so boldly and convincingly on the necessity 
 
EDINBURGH ' 
 
 109 
 
 of " cleansing the kirk," that many of his hearers absented 
 themselves henceforth from Mass. 
 
 A year later, the Image of the Virgin, with others, was 
 stolen, and again that of St. Giles, so that when his Festival 
 Day arrived, a substitute image had to be borrowed for use in 
 the procession. Queen Mary, to show her loyalty to the 
 Church, walked with other dignitaries in this last appear- 
 ance in public of the patron Saint. We can follow it in 
 fancy from the High Altar to the great West Door, down 
 the High Street, through the Canongate, and homeward to 
 Sanctuary by the Nether and the West Bow. There the 
 Queen retired, for though the crowds seemed less reverential 
 in bearing than heretofore, there had been no open hostility. 
 Alas ! the smouldering fire immediately broke out, the 
 " idol " was pulled from its platform, priests and friars were 
 jostled and jeered at, and at last " incontinently fled." 
 
 In 1559, news from Perth, where the monasteries had 
 been suppressed, alarmed the clergy of St. Giles, and their 
 treasures were dispersed and hidden. By Midsummer the 
 army of the Lords of the Congregation had entered the 
 city, and on the 29th of June John Knox preached from 
 the pulpit of St. Giles, and then the work of clearing the 
 relics of popery began. There was, however, a transition 
 period between Roman Catholicism and Presbyterianism. 
 One record, available from many, tells that " The parish 
 churches they deliver of altars and images, and have 
 received the service of the Church of England according to 
 King Edward's book." The Queen Regent was still power- 
 ful enough to overcome Knox's influence and he had to 
 flee for a time ; but in August of that same eventful year, his 
 friend Willock " administered the sacrament in St. Giles 
 according to the Protestant form." These were troublous 
 times, in which reverence and decorum appear conspicuous 
 by their absence. Though the Reformers succeeded in 
 keeping the upper hand in the precincts of St. Giles, they 
 were not supreme, for we read that the Queen's French 
 soldiers strolled in and out during service, ridiculed and 
 
i ro 
 
 EDINBURGH 
 
 made audible comments during Mr. Willock's prayers, 
 and also loudly interrupted his discourses. On the arrival 
 of the Bishop of Amiens in September, Mass was again 
 heard after the purification of the building had been ac- 
 complished with great ceremony. This state of things 
 lasted for five months only, however ; on the 31st of 
 March, 1560, the last Mass was heard in St. Giles — then 
 exit Roman Catholicism finally. 
 
 John Knox returned immediately and was appointed 
 minister, and after a public thanksgiving service in July, a 
 scheme for the government of the Reformed Church was 
 discussed. King Edward's Prayer Book gave place to the 
 Book of Common Order, and extempore prayers were also 
 encouraged. (In a glass case, near the Western Doorway, 
 we may now see the various books of service which have 
 been used in St. Giles at different periods.) No need here to 
 enlarge upon the controversies between Mary Queen of 
 Scots and John Knox, as lack of space forbids us to deal 
 with events not directly connected with St. Giles. 
 
 A great occasion was that of the marriage of the Regent 
 Moray to the Lady Agnes Keith, daughter of the Earl 
 Marischal, a brave show which might vie with the most 
 fashionably aristocratic wedding of our time. John Knox 
 availed himself well of his opportunity, and addressed the 
 bridegroom very emphatically as to his duty towards the 
 Protestant cause in a discourse to which Queen Mary and 
 many of her courtiers could not have listened with appre- 
 ciative ears. 
 
 In July 1565, Darnley and the Queen were " proclaimed" 
 in St. Giles, and a fortnight after their marriage, Darnlev 
 appeared in the royal pew. Were King Edward VII., in 
 similar circumstances, treated to such tirade — decidedly 
 personal and almost abusive — as was meted out to Darnley 
 on this occasion, John Knox would have found himself on 
 Monday morning the best despised man in the kingdom, 
 and the public press of the country vehement in its 
 denunciations of his peculiar interpretation of the term 
 
EDINBURGH 
 
 1 1 1 
 
 " free speech." We can hardly blame even weak Darnley 
 for never appearing again in St. Giles. When the child, 
 afterwards King James VI., was born, "the lords and people 
 came to the great kirk of Edinburgh to give thanks to God 
 and to pray for great gifts and grace to him," and that " he 
 might be endowed with the fear of the Lord." Then after 
 Darnley's murder the doors of St. Giles were marked with 
 the accusation against Earl Bothwell as his murderer, and 
 again Earl Bothwell placed over the same his denial of 
 knowledge thereof. 
 
 Another proclamation of royal marriage was made in 1567, 
 and we can honour the protest from the pulpit that followed 
 this announcement of Bothwell and Mary. 
 
 Then came, in 1570, that saddest sequence to the Regent's 
 fine wedding, his funeral in the same kirk, where his 
 memory is perpetuated in the Moray Aisle and on the brass 
 tablet with its classic inscription by George Buchanan : 
 
 " To James Stewart, Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland, a 
 man by far the noblest of his time, barbarously slain by 
 enemies, the vilest in history; his country mourning has 
 raised this monument as to a common father." 
 
 John Knox's grief was sincere, and his friend's death 
 hastened his own, for in 1572, he appeared again a feeble 
 old man, with quavering -voice, who blessed his devoted 
 hearers and went home to die. 
 
 James VI. was the next royal hearer, and at his public 
 entry into Edinburgh we find him in St. Giles. With greater 
 authority than his father, he could argue back, and soon 
 such free speech was interdicted, the King declared 
 " supreme in all causes," and persons and Bishops preferred 
 to rule in Church. Then, in 1586, we have a scene between 
 preacher and King, the former as denouncer of Bishops, 
 the latter rising in his pew to rebuke the minister and dispute 
 with him. When, as was most natural, James desired prayers 
 to be said for his royal mother, then condemned by Queen 
 Elizabeth, his request was refused, and on the King's 
 ordering the Bishop of St. Andrews to appear in the pulpit, 
 
I 12 
 
 EDIXBURGH 
 
 the congregation shouted in defiance and departed. Sturdy, 
 arrogant fighters were these early Protestant fathers, fearing 
 neither King nor commoner, to whom lese majeste, as we 
 interpret it, was utterly unknown. 
 
 St. Giles looked gay, in a glory of thirty shillings' worth of 
 flowers in 1590, when Anne of Denmark came as royal 
 bride to church, and in his new found happiness the 
 Scottish Solomon dropped for a time his end of the struggle. 
 Personal invective can never make converts to a cause, 
 and James began to hate Presbyterianism because of its 
 exponents. A lull again came when a baby prince was 
 born ; but in December 1596, a false alarm was raised as to 
 the King's safety, a panic ensued, and James, thoroughly 
 frightened, reached Holyrood and then retired to Linlith- 
 gow. A few days later, he returned to a rejoicing city and 
 penitent people, and the ministers were banished. 
 
 In 1598, a total eclipse of the sun produced such darkness 
 and terror, that soon the church was crowded to the door 
 by men and women sure that the last day had come. 
 
 A greater occasion followed in 1603, when the King and 
 Court came to say farewell to the people, and after the ser- 
 mon, the King promised to visit his native land every three 
 years, declaring to all that there would be no difference for 
 him between London and Edinburgh. 
 
 Six years later, the Bishops were given the right to preach 
 in churches, and when, in 1617, James returned for his first 
 visit, it was a bishop who welcomed him to St. Giles. 
 Then arose continuous controversy over the point of 
 kneeling at the Communion service ; King James was as 
 obstinate as his opponents, and in 1625 he died — or as 
 piously recorded, " The Lord removed him out of the way." 
 
 For many years the building had been divided up for 
 three congregations, and it was the Great Kirk that King 
 Charles attended in 1633. In September of that year, the 
 Diocese of Edinburgh was created, with St. Giles as its 
 Cathedral Church. Its partition walls were ordered to be 
 taken down, and a year later the Great and Little Kirk were 
 
EDI S BURGH 
 
 "3 
 
 one, but under plea of " no money " for repairs the wall, 
 shutting off the Tolbooth, was left untouched. 
 
 Forbes, the first Bishop, was a man of gentle, even saintly, 
 character, and his death, in 1635, was deeply regretted. 
 
 Then King Charles, determined that his Service Book 
 should be used daily, provoked a storm through the 
 medium of the notorious Jenny Geddes. The tumult which 
 followed has become historic, and from smallest cause 
 followed greatest result — exit Episcopacy. 
 
 After the battle of Dunbar, Cromwell and his inde- 
 pendents ruled in St. Giles, and then "great numbers of 
 that damnable sect the Quakers " were also seen in congre- 
 gation. The more we read of this period of struggle 
 between Episcopalians, Covenanter?, Independents, and 
 " damnable sects," the more one feels saddened that such 
 things were said and done under guise of religious zeal. 
 Better far is the charity that produces extreme tolerance. 
 
 The King had come to his own again in 1660, the 
 Bishops returned also, and one year later Montrose's funeral 
 was one of the great occasions of St. Giles. Christmas Day 
 was joyfully kept ; the Covenanters were persecuted ; and 
 in 1682 Argyll was executed and his head placed on a spike 
 on the East gable. 
 
 In 1685 James VII. succeeded Charles, and toleration for 
 Roman Catholic produced the same for Presbyterian — again 
 a sturdy fighter in thanking the King with a rider — "that 
 he would rather want toleration than let Papists have it too." 
 The struggle between Episcopacy and Presbyterianism 
 was renewed, each reviling the other ; and to the execra- 
 tion of " damnable sects " was now added a fear of witch- 
 craft. When King William's Commissioner sat in St. 
 Giles, a black cat appeared and walked across his cushion, 
 and every one said it was Lady Stair, well known to be a 
 wicked witch. (When we read The Bride of Lammermoor, 
 let us recall that this lady was the original of Lucy Ashton's 
 mother.) A solemn religious service next commemorated 
 the Union of the Parliaments in 1707 ; Whitfield preached 
 9 
 
"4 
 
 EDIXBURGH 
 
 on the occasion of his visit to Edinburgh ; and in 1736 
 occurred that stirring scene of the escape of Robertson 
 and the consequent Porteous Riots, so graphically told in 
 The Heart of Midlothian. 
 
 Then came a notable and silent Sunday for St. Giles. 
 Bonnie Prince Charlie presided at Holyrood, and the 
 ministers, not so boldly defiant as were their predecessors, 
 on this occasion found discretion to be the better part of 
 valour, and so stayed at home. For who was King ? 
 Charles or George ? Culloden settled that point, and the 
 bells of St. Giles made merry for King George. 
 
 From that day until the so-called restoration of 1829, all 
 regard for the ancient building was lacking. Dirt, disorder, 
 everything opposed to one's sense of decency prevailed 
 until Dr. Chambers took up his herculean task, now so 
 beautifully completed that one must dive into minute details 
 in order to comprehend the perfection of his work which 
 ended only with his life. 
 
 After such record, who would deny to St. Giles its place 
 and precedence in the History of Scottish Churches ? 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 St. Magnus. Kali or Earl Rogxvald. 
 
 i 137 A.D. 
 
 " Ye holy walls that still sublime 
 Resist the crumbling touch of time, 
 How strongly still your form displays 
 The piety of ancient days." 
 
 THE story of Kirkwall, the Church on the Bay — and 
 of Magnus, Earl and Saint, to whose honoured 
 memory that church was built by his irate yet grate- 
 ful kinsman — belongs in reality more to secular than 
 to ecclesiastic history. The layman rather than the church- 
 man predominates therein, just as in our own day the 
 layman's enthusiasm makes the living Church. For as we 
 gaze on this, "the most majestic Romanesque church in 
 Scotland," knowing its story, we shall unconsciously realise 
 that life was as real as earnest to our forefathers, the North- 
 men, as to ourselves. If fighting and feeding be popularly 
 attributed as their highest ambitions, we, their descendants, 
 have not eliminated such carnal desires but rather find 
 them accentuated problems for the millions in our lower 
 social orders. 
 
 The saints of past centuries have become, under Protestant 
 tuition, more or less ethereal beings in our estimation ; but 
 standing here, we must feel that Magnus was a man, full of 
 human passions as well as of human ideals — a muscular 
 
1x6 
 
 KIRKWALL 
 
 Christian would be our modern term for him. In the story 
 of his life we shall find nothing beyond credence, nothing 
 wildly improbable, rather commonplaceness serving as dis- 
 tinctly refreshing interlude in ecclesiological record. To he 
 commonplace is to be human, with frailties and weaknesses ; 
 a love of life no less than a fearlessness of death, jealousy, 
 bickerings, popularity, enthusiasm, all these were in Magnus, 
 as they are in every good soldier of the King, the Country, 
 and the Church. So, if in one word we were required to 
 sum up what has been as keystone to the production of 
 this building, we find it in that one of myriad-meaning 
 —Life. 
 
 There is an enthusiasm, expressed by those who are com- 
 petent to judge of the architectural beauty and order of St. 
 Magnus's Church, that is distinctly inspiring. Peterkin says : 
 " It is one of the two Cathedral Churches in Scotland, 
 remaining entire, and is, therefore, a national monument, 
 interesting from its antiquity, its beauty, and the rarity of 
 such relics in this part of the empire." That strong phrase, 
 "a national monument," deserves our attention ; ignorance 
 of one's national monuments is criminal in these days of 
 popular education. Near to the Church stand the ruins of 
 the palaces of the earls and bishops ; and if we would know 
 clearly of Magnus the Saint, we must first learn of Magnus 
 the Earl and his predecessors, the Norwegian Earls in the 
 Orkneys. 
 
 Since the Reformation, this Church has been under the 
 jurisdiction of the Protestant Church of Scotland, as suc- 
 cessor to the disestablished Latin Church ; but not until 
 1472 did the Archbishop of Drontheim, in Norway, lose his 
 superiority ; and most interesting, as well as at first con- 
 fusing, shall we find the story of the Bishops from Norway 
 with their rivals (in name only) consecrated at York under 
 Canterbury ; then of the Bishops of Caithness under the 
 jurisdiction of the Archbishop of St. Andrews. Magnus, 
 without the Earls ; the Earls, without the Bishops ; the Earls 
 and Bishops, without the Kings of Norway and Scotland, is- 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 "7 
 
 each insufficient as subject ; so as briefly as possible we 
 shall unite their stories, and then approach the Church a 
 second time with clearer-seeing eye, with keener sense of 
 appreciation in its beauty. 
 
 The Orcadians are not Scots, for the islands only became 
 Crown property as part of the dowry of Margaret of Norway, 
 most pious Queen of James III. (she it is who most fittingly 
 supplies the subject for the story of Sir Patrick Spens' 
 expedition). But these islands were given in lieu of money 
 dowry to be held under redemption bond, and we must 
 admit that in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries claims 
 for said redemption, though ratified by successive kings, 
 were refused hearing in Scottish courts. With this preamble 
 we must now begin at the beginning. 
 
 The Roman historian Pomponius Mela, in 45 A.D., refers 
 to the belief that Britain was an island, and that certain 
 islands, the Orcades, lay to the north of it. Then, after the 
 battle of Mons Grampus, Agricola directed his fleet to sail 
 round the coast, and in course thereof "they took possession 
 of Orcades in name of the Roman Empire," and a peak to 
 the north, they concluded, might be the mysterious and 
 unvisited Thule. We find our next Roman reference in the 
 poet Claudian's praise of Constantine and his deeds, when he 
 tells us that the Saxons had formed their headquarters in 
 Orcades. But the many Celtic relics — crosses with and 
 without Ogham inscriptions, standing stones, Pictish houses, 
 Round Towers, &c. — prove incontestably that Pictish and 
 Celtic influence prevailed therein for centuries. We have 
 every reason to believe that St. Brendan touched at the 
 Orcades in his famous voyage. When we examine the 
 native records, we find Xennius, in his Historia Britonum of 
 date 858 A. D., speaks of the Picts in possession of the Orkneys 
 then ; and that four hundred years previous, the Saxon 
 chiefs Octlitha and Ebissa, who came over with " forty 
 keels" in 449 A.D., laid waste the islands and seized many 
 regions beyond the Frisic Sea (Firth of Forth). In 
 Adamnan's Life of St. Columba, we read of the Saint's 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 memorable visit to Brude, King of the Northern Picts, at 
 his stronghold on the river Ness, and the Saint's request 
 that Brude should use his influence on behalf of Cormac 
 and his missionaries, then on their way to Orkney (as Brude 
 held Orcadian hostages in his power, and as one of the 
 reguli of the Orkneys was also at his Court, Cormac was 
 spared from a violent death). In the annals of Ulster, under 
 date 580 A.D., Aedan, son of Gabran, seventh king of the 
 Dalriad Scots, made expedition against Orkney. For a 
 century there is silence ; and then, under date 682 A.D., 
 another Brude, of the Picts, raided the islands and evidently 
 regained their allegiance to Northern Pictland. 
 
 The Irish monk Dicuil, in his treatise Dc mensura Orbis 
 terrarum, about date 825 A.D., gives most interesting and 
 detailed particulars of Thule (Iceland) and other groups of 
 islands, at varying distances from the Pictish coast. Then, 
 in the Norwegian account of the settlement of Iceland, they 
 found Irishmen — " Papas" — who left Irish books, bells, and 
 crosiers. So, from three independent sources, we prove that 
 the Christian faith was taught in these islands before the 
 arrival of the Norwegians, and to this day, " Papa " as a 
 topographical name proclaims its Christian origin, such as 
 Papa Westray, Papa Stronsay, Papa Stour, and many more. 
 In Irish records, we shall find the name Ostmen applied to 
 Scandinavians ; and in Scandinavian records, the Irish are 
 called Westmen. 
 
 Earl Magnus, who was canonised, was a Norwegian 
 Christian, yet none the less we find that Olaf Tryggveson 
 was baptised by an Irish Abbot of a celebrated abbey on 
 the Skellig Islands, and that during his long residence with 
 his brother-in-law, King Olaf Kvaran in Dublin, he deter- 
 mined to Christianise Norway. One of Norway's saints is 
 the Irish Princess Sunneva, buried in Christ Church, 
 Bergen; and in Iceland we find a church to Saint Columba, 
 and a fiord named St. Patrick, all clearly proving the 
 Celtic origin of Orcadian Christianity. Its second intro- 
 duction by Olaf in 997 A. D. was summary, reminding one of 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 Mohammed's methods, and recalling, too, the lines from 
 Piers Plowman — 
 
 "And there shall come a King 
 And confess you religious 
 And beat you, as the Bible teacheth." 
 
 Earl Sigurd the Stout was a pagan and an enemy of 
 Malcolm II. of Scotland. As Sigurd lay under the Isle of 
 Hoy, with one ship, King Olaf seized him unawares and in 
 his new zeal offered one alternative or death. He must be 
 baptised as a Christian immediately, take oath to become 
 Olaf's man, and afterwards proclaim Christianity over the 
 Orkneys. As hostage for the observance of this treaty, Olaf 
 carried off to Norway Sigurd's son Hundi and in exile 
 Hundi died. 
 
 And now, as we touch closely at this point on contem- 
 porary events in Scotland, a brief sketch of the Earls of 
 Orkney is necessary, and how as Norwegians they came 
 there. In Anglo-Saxon Chronicle under date 787 A.D., we 
 read of the first three ships of Northmen from Haeretha- 
 Land (Norway). The Irish and Welsh Chronicles tell of 
 their arrival in Ireland in 795 A.D. ; in the Hebrides and Isle 
 of Man, 798 A.D. ; of ravages on Iona, 802 and 806 A.D., at 
 which date sixty-eight of the family were slain. A few 
 years later, Armagh became the capital of the Norsemen in 
 Ireland ; and in 852 A.D. Olaf the White conquered Dublin. 
 All these various Viking expeditions had made the Orkney 
 and Shetland Islands their rendezvous whence they swept 
 the coasts at will. Meanwhile, Harold Harfagri had made 
 himself master of Norway in 872 A.D. ; and the many 
 Odallers (freeholders), from whom he took their lands, fled 
 as malcontents to the Orcades, now to become another 
 centre of retaliating raiders on the coasts and settlements of 
 Norway. This enraged Harold, who, gathering a "mighty 
 fleet," cleared the islands, then sweeping down through the 
 Hebrides to Man claimed the whole chain as part of his 
 kingdom. The Southern Islands were then called Sudreys, 
 
120 
 
 KIRKWALL 
 
 and to this day the English Bishopric of Sodor and Man 
 tells its own tale of former Norwegian dominion. Suther- 
 land the county, and as natural sequence Sutherland the 
 surname, have similar origin. In this foray Ivar, son of 
 Rognvald, was slain, and in the Island of Sanday we still 
 see "Ivar's Knowe," which may be his burial cairn. As 
 recompense for the death of his son, according to early law, 
 Harold conferred the lands and title of Earl of the Orkneys 
 on Rognvald, who, however, soon preferred his home in 
 Norway, and so made over his new possession and title to 
 his brother Sigurd, the first Earl to figure prominently in the 
 Orkney-inga Saga. 
 
 Sigurd found an ally in Thorstein, son of King Olaf of 
 Dublin, and they, crossing the Pentland Firth, seized Caith- 
 ness and Sutherland and ravaged Ross and Moray. In 
 Cyder Hall, near Dornoch, we have modern transposition of 
 Sigurd's How or grave, for as William the Conquerer died 
 from the effects of a trivial accident, so did fierce Earl 
 Sigurd. The projecting tooth from a Scot's decapitated 
 head grazed his leg as it swung at his saddle bow, the 
 wound inflamed, and Sigurd never again saw the Orkneys. 
 Thorstein, his ally and successful ravager, made peace with 
 the King of Scots "and obtained possession of the half of 
 Scotland." Then Thorstein was slain by treachery. When 
 Rognvald heard of his brother Sigurd's death, he again 
 received from King Harald the Orkneys for his son Hallad, 
 who, as his father did before, quickly returned to Norway. 
 Then Einar, a brother, took his place, and connected with 
 his name we read of one of those terrible acts of reparation 
 and personal torture which only Christianity can expel from 
 men's actions. King Harald's cruel sons had surrounded 
 and burned Earl Rognvald and sixty of his men in his own 
 house, and then sailed west to exterminate Einar and his 
 men. But Einar was on the alert ; he captured Halfdan, 
 the chief delinquent, and "cut a blood-eagle on his back." 
 (This was done by hewing the ribs from the backbone and 
 tearing out the heart and lungs.) Sixty marks in gold was 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 I 2 I 
 
 demanded of Einar by King Harald for this offence, and 
 the Odallers pledged their lands to Einar as equivalent for 
 their share of the fine. 
 
 Einar's son Thorfinn married the granddaughter of 
 Thorstein, and so the earldoms of Orkney and Caithness 
 became united. Cruelty and bloodshed marked the succes- 
 sive Earls until Sigurd the Stout, great grandson of Einar, 
 comes to his earldom and demands our notice. As before 
 said, he was pagan until violently converted by Olaf ; he 
 was also inveterate enemy of Malcolm II. of Scotland ; and 
 though the Scots numbered as seven to one against his 
 followers, he restored to his men their odal lands taken by 
 Einar; they fought like "wild cats," and the Scots were 
 driven back. (This is important record for us who think of 
 wealth under the medium of stocks, shares, and bonds. To 
 our Saxon forefathers, "land was the only wealth, its owner- 
 ship the sole foundation of power, privilege or dignity." 
 Many an inheritor of these ancient acres is now spoken of 
 commiseratingly as "land-poor.") Reconciliation followed, 
 and Sigurd married as second wife a daughter of King 
 Malcolm, an elder sister of the wife of Crinan, Abbot of 
 Dunkeld (the son of exiled Hundi), whose son was the 
 " Gentle Duncan." So the intertwining links of the his- 
 torical chain of facts are of the Church as well as of the 
 Earldom and the Throne. This Earl Sigurd has very in- 
 teresting personality for us. He was certainly a convert in 
 name, though not in heart, for his faith in his raven banner, 
 "woven with mighty spells" by his Irish mother, was still 
 firm. Twenty years afterwards, he died in the great battle 
 of Clontarf, 1014, fighting against the Christian Brian Boru. 
 It was at Clontarf that " the old and new faiths met in the 
 lists face to face for their last struggle," and Convert Sigurd 
 shared the fate of the Pagans. He was slain by Brian's 
 son as he held up his own banner. Its destiny was thus 
 fulfilled, for the predicted spell woven therein was " Victory 
 for those behind it, death to the bearer." Twice had it 
 been dropped by dead hand; Sigurd called in vain for a 
 
122 
 
 KIRKWALL 
 
 bearer, then saying, " Tis fittest that the beggar should bear 
 the bag," he picked it up and met his fate bravely. The 
 weaving of the woof of war was sung over his death in 
 Caithness and the North by the twelve weird sisters. 
 
 " The woof y- woven 
 With entrails of men, 
 The warp hard-weighted 
 With heads of the slain." 
 
 Alas ! that such still remains, though silent, the song of 
 Christian warfare. When, in our modern love for Wagner's 
 music, we hear Valkyrie, we seldom realise that in Scottish 
 annals we can find such pagan requiem over him whose 
 grandson Duncan had Saint Margaret for his stepmother. 
 Its weird sisters and singers make us the better realise the 
 Witches— weird women — in the Macbeth tragedy. 
 
 Thorfinn, his boy of five years old, was now backed by 
 his grandfather King Malcolm, but his three half-brothers 
 fought for their rights, and when Duncan succeeded 
 Malcolm, he demanded tribute from his cousin Thorfinn 
 for his earldom of Caithness. Thorfinn refused, retaliated, 
 and ravaged Scotland "as far south as Fife." We again 
 recall Shakespere's Macbeth, who drove back the " fierce 
 Norweyans" and earned Duncan's gratitude. Thorfinn 
 had inherited his father Sigurd's personal bravery. His 
 exploits were many, and one particularly deserves notice, as 
 illustrative of ancient laws of hospitality. King Magnus of 
 Norway was his avowed enemy ; Thorfinn, wrapped in a 
 white cloak, rowed up to the King's ship, climbed to the 
 quarterdeck where Magnus sat at meat, seized a loaf, broke 
 and ate it. The King handed a cup of wine to the stranger, 
 and then learned too late that he was Earl Thorfinn, 
 who had thus earned temporary respite from royal 
 vengeance. The leaven of Christian faith was, however, 
 working within him ; he left Norway, passed through Den- 
 mark, thence through Germany, and reached Rome, seeking 
 absolution for his many sins and murders. Macbeth did 
 likewise ; how interesting for us had some Chronicler of 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 riotous imagination told of their meeting on the banks of 
 Father Tiber. Many of our " well-established errors " have 
 slighter basis of truth. Thorfinn the Reformed returned, 
 ruled his people well, built Christ's Church in Birsay, and 
 established there the first Bishop's See in the Orkneys. A 
 Norwegian reintroduction of Christianity in one sense, but 
 we must claim even it as half Celtic. His mother was Celt, 
 his grandfather and supporter Celt, his uncle by marriage 
 Abbot Crinan of the Celtic Church, and the Irish Celts had 
 converted Olaf who made his father Sigurd a Convert per- 
 force. Before saying farewell to Earl Thorfinn, we find 
 that his widow Ingibiorg afterwards married Malcolm III., 
 the son of his gentle cousin Duncan, and their son, another 
 Duncan, was rightful heir and no bastard half-brother to 
 David and the other church-building sons of Queen Mar- 
 garet, as is so often popularly asserted. 
 
 Now we link the story further afield. Thorfin's sons, 
 Paul and Erlend, were present at the battle of Stamford 
 Bridge, when Harold Harefoot (afterwards killed at 
 Hastings) defeated King Harald of Norway. They re- 
 turned therefrom to Orkney and ruled the islands in 
 peace till their sons, Hakon and Magnus, grown to man- 
 hood, brought in discord. Hakon, the son of Paul, had 
 pagan sympathies ; he consulted a spae-man in Sweden as 
 to the future (we still use the term spae-wife for a fortune- 
 teller in Scotland), thus proving hereditary tendencies from 
 Sigurd "to the third and fourth generations," and he 
 induced King Magnus to invade Scotland. Malcolm 
 Caenmore and Margaret were both dead, and Donald 
 Bane (who fled with Malcolm from Macbeth) had become 
 the proverbial "wicked uncle" to Malcolm's sons. Duncan, 
 the so-called bastard, and Margaret's sons were all claimants 
 for the throne, and King Magnus Barefoot supported 
 Donald Bane after Duncan's death in 1095. He very 
 summarily ended the disputes of the brother Earls, Paul 
 and Erlend, by carrying off both and placing his son 
 Sigurd in their stead. 
 
i*4 
 
 From Church records we learn the new story of Hakon 
 and Magnus, the cousins at discord. From the Scala Cronica 
 we know that Earl Paul had sent to Lanfranc of Canterbury 
 "a cleric whom he wished to be consecrated as Bishop" ; 
 but in Lanfranc's letter to the Bishops of Worcester and 
 Chester, ordering them to proceed to York and consecrate 
 this nameless cleric, we find no clue to his identity, 
 though in another record, Ralph, Bishop of Orkney, is 
 named. Then Anselm, Lanfranc's successor, wrote to Earl 
 Hakon " exhorting him and his people to obey the 
 Bishop whom now by the grace of God they had." So 
 we learn therefrom that Anselm, as well as the "spae- 
 man," had sway over Hakon's mind. In after years his 
 conduct proved that " worship the devil that he may do 
 you no harm" was as valuable in his sight as any text from 
 Scripture. 
 
 Earl Magnus, his cousin, meanwhile had become a man 
 of peace and an earnest Christian. When King Magnus 
 sent his father Erlend to Norway, he planned his great ex- 
 pedition (proposed by Hakon) against the Western Islands. 
 The Saga tells us that he took Hakon and Magnus with 
 him. He ravaged Lewis, Skye, Uist, Tiree, and Mull, but 
 spared Iona on account of the sanctity of St. Oran's Chapel 
 — as told in the story of Iona — Islay and Kin tyre followed 
 in line ; then the Isle of Man ; and in Bretland (Wales) he 
 fought a great battle in Anglesea Sound with the Earls of 
 Chester and Shrewsbury. When the men prepared for 
 fight, Magnus (young Earl) would not take up arms. In 
 reply to the furious King's question as to his refusal he said, 
 " Here is no man who has done me wrong." So he was 
 ordered to " Go down below, and do not lie among other 
 people's feet if you dare not fight, for I do not believe 
 that you do this from religious motives." Magnus took 
 a psalter and sang during the battle, and did not shelter 
 himself. But when all was over and the Norwegian king 
 victorious he vented his serious displeasure on Magnus the 
 Christian, who served as a waiter at his table. During the 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 125 
 
 night Magnus stole away to the woods and when morning 
 came he could not be found. He made his way to " Mal- 
 colm, King of Scots, at Dunfermline" (though dates prove it 
 must have been to King Edgar's Court he went). He also 
 went for a year to the Court of Henry Beauclerc where 
 "good Queen Maud" ruled, and then to a bishop's house 
 in Brentland, and returned not to Orkney so long as King 
 Magnus lived. 
 
 On return from this famed expedition, King Magnus 
 ordered his boat to be dragged across Kintyre (at Tarbert), 
 he himself holding the helm, and thus gained possession. 
 At last the " terrible king" died in a skirmish with the Irish 
 in Ulster in 1103, and was buried in St. Patrick's Church in 
 Down. His son Sigurd succeeded to the throne of Norway 
 and we have Earl Hakon in the Orkneys again. 
 
 Now we shall turn to the Saga for the story of Earl 
 Magnus, who several years afterwards came from Scotland 
 and wished to take possession of his patrimony. The Bamdr 
 (Odals) were very pleased ; not so Hakon, and not until the 
 King of Norway permitted would Hakon give up Magnus's 
 share. "The holy Magnus was a most excellent man. He 
 was of large stature, a man of a noble presence and intel- 
 lectual countenance. He was of blameless life, victorious 
 in battle, wise, eloquent, strong-minded, liberal, and mag- 
 nanimous, sagacious in counsels, and more beloved than 
 any other man. To wise and good he was gentle and 
 affable in conversation, but severe and unsparing with 
 robbers and vikings. Many of those who plundered the 
 landowners and the inhabitants of the land he caused to 
 be put to death. He also seized murderers and thieves, and 
 punished rich and poor impartially for robberies and thefts 
 of all kinds. He was just in his judgments and had more 
 respect to Divine justice than difference in the estates of 
 men. He gave large presents to chiefs and rich men, yet 
 the greatest share of his liberality was given to the poor. 
 In all things he strictly obeyed the Divine commands, and 
 he chastened his body in many things which in his glorious 
 
126 
 
 KIRKWALL 
 
 life were known to God but hidden from men." Enough, 
 surely, to raise him in our day to be as a king amongst 
 men, but at a time when "might was right" we can 
 realise that "to punish rich and poor impartially" was also 
 sure method of making enemies, and the natural result is 
 given in the next story of the Saga : " Hakon was very 
 jealous of the popularity and greatness of his kinsman 
 Magnus," and ever at his elbow were evil counsellors to 
 fan his flame into fierce hate. Angry words passed between 
 the cousins, then warriors were called into the field, but 
 Lent ever brings with its season goodwill and desire for 
 peace. 
 
 Treachery was but sleeping, however, for Earl Hakon 
 " with hypocrisy and fair words " invited Earl Magnus 
 to confirm their friendship in Pasch week at Egilsey 
 Church. Each one was to take two ships and an equal 
 number of men. Easter was gloriously kept, then Magnus 
 set out for Egilsey. The water was smooth, and yet as they 
 rowed across, a breaker out of the deep calm water almost 
 swamped their boat. Great surprise was expressed by his 
 men, but Earl Magnus accepted it as a sign of coming 
 death. 
 
 Meanwhile, Hakon had gathered all his men in eight 
 ships, and announced to them that this meeting was to 
 decide whether Magnus or he should be sole ruler. When 
 Magnus saw him coming he realised the treachery, but 
 calmly entered the little church to pray, answering his 
 men's offers of defence thus : " I will not put your lives 
 in danger for mine. . . . Let it be as God wills." Then 
 when he met Hakon he offered three alternatives : First, 
 " that he should sail away to Rome, Jerusalem, and the 
 Holy Places, there to pray for the souls of both, never again 
 to return to Orkney." "No," was the prompt rejoinder. 
 " My life is in your hands, send me to Scotland to mutual 
 friends ; keep me in custody there unable to escape." 
 Again refusal met his request. "There is yet one more 
 offer which I will make, and God knows that I think more 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 127 
 
 of your soul than of my own life, for it were better that you 
 should do as I shall offer you than that you should take my 
 life. Let me be maimed as you like or deprived of my 
 eyes, and throw me into a dark dungeon." To this Hakon 
 agreed. But the chiefs said, " One of you we will kill ; you 
 shall not both rule the Orkneys." "Slay him, then," quickly 
 said Hakon, "for I will rather have earldom and lands 
 than instant death." So on the 16th of April, 11 15, the 
 tragedy of Cain and Abel again took place between these 
 cousins and blood brothers. 
 
 The story of Magnus's death as told by Joseph Robert- 
 son is so beautiful that it is given in his words : "Magnus 
 had prepared himself for his fate with Christian humility, 
 by vigil and fervent prayer, by contrite tears and by 
 devout reception of the Eucharist. Yet some feeling of 
 the warrior's pride appears to have survived to mingle with 
 his latest thoughts. 'Stand before me,' he said to his 
 executioner, and 'strike with your might that your sword 
 may cleave my brain. It were unseemly that an Earl 
 should be beheaded like a thief.' " 
 
 His failings were forgotten in the emotion created by his 
 death ; his many virtues were intensified and the fragrance 
 of his memory grew ever sweeter and sweeter. So passed 
 this human son of Erlend into saintship and the reverent 
 memories of men. 
 
 When we speak of this period as the dark ages, let us also 
 think of Margaret and Magnus, bright stars redeeming its 
 grossness. Margaret, ideal wife, mother, queen, a woman 
 of ability and intellect ; Magnus, capable, manly, self- 
 sacrificing — a true hero of men. Not until the murdered 
 Earl's mother besought Hakon with tears did he grant 
 permission for the body to be buried. Then it was taken 
 to Christ's Church in Birsay, built by Earl Thorfinn, their 
 grandfather. Then we read of heavenly light around the 
 grave ; of a sweet smell which healed leprosy and other 
 diseases ; of pilgrims and sufferers flocking thereto ; also 
 that the evil advisers of Hakon all died miserable deaths. 
 
128 
 
 KIRKWALL 
 
 Hakon then went to Rome, to Jerusalem for sacred relics, 
 and to bathe in the Jordan ; and on his return ruled well, 
 gave better laws for the land, and died a popular man. He 
 left two sons ; one was accidentally poisoned, recalling the 
 story of Hercules' shirt, and Paul was left as sole ruler. Then 
 a claimant arose in Kali, the son of a sister of Earl Magnus. 
 He earned the King of Norway's permission to fight for his 
 uncle's share of the islands, and vowed by that uncle and 
 saint that, should he succeed, he would build and endow a 
 "stone minster" at Kirkwall dedicated to St. Magnus, to 
 whom the half of the earldom rightly belonged." Bishop 
 William assisted him, Earl Paul and Kali shared the islands, 
 and soon afterwards Paul was carried off a prisoner by Svvein 
 the Viking and handed over to the custody of the Earl of 
 Athole, his brother-in-law. He never returned to Orkney, 
 but his nephew and sister's son took his lands, and thus we 
 again link Dunkeld and Kirkwall Cathedrals in their early 
 history. Kali's name was changed to Rognvald, as being 
 more lucky, and so under the title of Earl Rognvald shall 
 we greet him henceforth as founder of St. Magnus's Church, 
 which most truly, as Worsaae, the Danish writer, says, " is 
 incontestably the most glorious monument of the time of the 
 Norwegian dominion to be found in Scotland." Rognvald 
 was a man of strong action as well as of fair words. In 1 136, 
 he gained his uncle's earldom; in 1137, masons' chisels 
 resounded throughout the little town under the super- 
 intendence of Kol, the Earl's father. Busier and ever 
 busier grew this hum of industry, and never did it cease 
 till the Earl's purse was empty. By the advice of Kol, 
 Jarl Rognvald summoned the Thing (Parliament) and 
 offered to readjust the land laws. Hitherto, on the death 
 of an Odal, his lands fell to the Earl and had to be 
 redeemed again by the children. Rognvald now pro- 
 posed to accept a mark for every ploughland (acre) so 
 that the erection of the church might go on. 
 
 Sir Henry Dryden, our best authority, says : " The church, 
 as designed and partly built in the time of Kol, was of the 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 120 
 
 same width as at present, but possibly one bay shorter at the 
 west end. There can be little doubt that the choir termi- 
 nated in an apse, which began about half-way along the 
 great piers, in front of the subsequent altar-steps, and 
 extended as far as the line of those steps. The builders, 
 having laid out the whole church, carried up the choir and 
 its two aisles and the transepts to the eaves, and built the 
 piers of the central tower. Though I spent eighteen weeks 
 at the Cathedral, and have thought over the thing many 
 times, I cannot make out the history of the building to my 
 own satisfaction. There is no doubt that there is a great 
 deal of copying in it (of building at one time in the style of 
 another)." Anderson, editor of the Saga, adds : " The chief 
 interest of the structure lies in the fact that it was built by a 
 Norwegian Earl, and designed and superintended by the 
 Norwegian Kol, who had the principal oversight of the 
 whole work. It is significant of their community of origin 
 that the oldest portions of St. Magnus show traces of the 
 same peculiarities of style which are found in the nearly 
 contemporary but somewhat older Norman churches in 
 Normandy, the home of the Christian descendants of the 
 Vikings who followed Hrolf the Ganger, son of Rognvald, 
 Earl of Moeri (that first Rognvald who received the islands 
 from Harald Harfagri). Sir Henry Dryden recognises the 
 following styles in the building — 1137 to 1160, 1160 to 1200, 
 1200 to 1250, 1250 to 1350, 1450 to 1500." 
 
 The Cathedral was erected as a shrine, but unlike the 
 story of Margaret in Dunfermline, we have no record of the 
 actual interment of Magnus therein. The Saga states that 
 his relics were exhumed by Bishop William, twenty years 
 after Magnus's death, and placed in Christ's Kirk ; then we 
 have the story of a dreamer who insisted that Magnus 
 appeared and demanded to be taken east to Kirkwall, but 
 Bishop William feared Earl Paul's anger thereat. In spite 
 of the same, however, they were moved to Kirkwall and 
 placed on the altar of the church that was there. This must 
 have been St. Olaf's Church, seeing that the Cathedral was 
 10 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 the result of a vow against Earl Paul, and he had not yet 
 been carried off to Athole. Now we know that St. Olaf was 
 venerated in England and Scotland as well as on the Conti- 
 nent. St. Ola is now the name of the rural district. The 
 present church of St. Olaf — if church we may still call that 
 which has been so mutable in fortune — may stand upon the 
 site of that earlier temporary sanctuary for Magnus's bones. 
 
 In 1 152, Earl Rognvald and Bishop William, after a 
 solemn Thing-meeting, sailed away for Jerusalem and to 
 bathe in the Jordan ; they returned by Constantinople, 
 Durazzo, Apulia, Rome, thence overland to Norway, and 
 home after an absence of three years. In 1158, Rognvald 
 was slain, and was buried in his own Cathedral. In 1154, 
 Pope Anastasius recognised Bishop William as one of the 
 suffragans of the newly erected Metropolitan See of Trond- 
 heim, and ten years after Rognvald, William the Old, Bishop 
 for sixty-six years, died and was buried in his Cathedral. In 
 1848, when repairs were being done, "his bones were found 
 enclosed in a stone cist thirty inches long and fifteen inches 
 wide, with a bone object, like the handle of a staff, and 
 a leaden plate inscribed in characters apparently of the 
 thirteenth century : ' Hie requiescit Williamus Senex, felicis 
 memoriae, primus Episcopus.' " From their position in the 
 choir, the presumption is natural that they had been moved 
 from their original resting place. The cist and bones dis- 
 appeared in 1856, but the plate and bone handle (?) may be 
 seen in the Antiquarian Museum in Edinburgh. 
 
 The next interment of note was that of King Hakon or 
 Haco, who, in the reign of Alexander III., was defeated in 
 the Battle of Largs, in 1263. As in the case of the Spanish 
 Armada, the elements of the deep conspired against him, and 
 the Scots finished the disaster. We recall the story of the 
 wraithes of Queen Margaret and her descendants rising from 
 Dunfermline Abbey to fight for their country. After this 
 battle, Scotland agreed to pay tribute of 100 marks annually 
 to Norway for the Western Isles and Man, and henceforth 
 they are included in Scottish jurisdiction. Broken in health 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 and spirits — one dare not apply the popular term "broken- 
 hearted " to a Viking King — Hakon reached the Orkneys, 
 and Bishop Henry, who had accompanied him on the 
 expedition, took him home to his palace, where he died. 
 He was buried in the Cathedral, but his body was afterwards 
 removed to Bergen. 
 
 Peace was established between the countries, and Margaret, 
 daughter of Alexander III. — "Tamer of the Ravens" — 
 married Eric, the " priest-hater " king of Norway. After 
 King Alexander's tragic death, his seven years old grand- 
 daughter, another Margaret, "the Maid of Norway" so 
 prominent in Scotland's then distracted condition, died here 
 of " sea-sickness " on her way to be a Queen. Tradition 
 says she was buried here, and Worsaae upholds this belief, 
 which, however, has no definite authority to support it. On 
 the contrary we can prove that she was buried beside her 
 mother in Christ's Church, Bergen. A claimant appeared 
 in 1300 in Bergen and excited the Court by her story that 
 she was Princess Margaret, and of course she gained a 
 credible following. Impostors ever did and ever will do. 
 Munch, in writing of this false Margaret, says of our little 
 Princess : "Though the King's daughter Margaret had died 
 in the presence of some of the best men of Norway, though 
 her corpse had been brought back by the Bishop and Herr 
 Thore Hakonson to King Eirik, who himself had laid it in 
 the open grave, satisfied himself of the identity of his 
 daughter's remains, and placed them in the Christ's Kirk, by 
 the side of her mother's," &c. 
 
 Just as the royal tombs of Dunfermline disappeared, so 
 too did they in Kirkwall. " The Cathedral naturally received 
 the dust of most of the Norwegian jarls, bishops, and other 
 mighty men so long as the Norwegian dynasty lasted, but 
 for their monuments we now seek in vain." Rebuilding and 
 alterations have affected the interior which is still so strikingly 
 impressive. This most majestic of all the Romanesque 
 churches of Scotland has a fine Nave of eight bays and a 
 ■Choir (screened off as Parish Church) of six bays. " The 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 long perspective of the great round pillars and arches on 
 each side of the nave, surmounted by the round arched 
 triforium and clerestory cf the lofty roof covered with simple 
 vaulting, give an impression of size and height which is 
 larger than is borne out by after measurement. The Nave 
 is only in feet, and the Choir 85 feet 6 inches in length, and 
 like the nave, is vaulted with triforium, clerestory, and side 
 aisles. The side walls are arcaded with interlacing Norman 
 arches." The Transepts, 90 feet in length by 17 feet in 
 width, impress one by their height, though unvaulted ; and 
 in place of aisles, an Eastern Chapel is attached both in 
 North and South. The great East Window, the gift of 
 Bishop Stewart in the reign of James IV., fills up all available 
 space. It is over 37 feet high and 16 feet 6 inches wide. 
 Sir Henry Dryden considers the great rose light which 
 expands over arches and mullions as " quite peculiar and 
 unique." It casts even the famed rose window of Carlisle 
 Cathedral into shade, and a second is seen in the South 
 Transept. The three western doorways are certainly un- 
 equalled in England, owing to the effective alternation of 
 red and yellow sandstone, producing a Moorish effect in 
 softer colouring and very much finer than the work in 
 Worcester and Bristol. In the interior of nave and choir, 
 the use of building stone in various shades of colour in- 
 dicates the different styles and periods of erection and 
 reconstruction. 
 
 The Tower has undergone considerable changes, as 
 lightning destroyed its wooden spire in 1671 "to the great 
 astonishment and terrification of all the beholders." Its 
 large pointed windows evidently belong to the fifteenth 
 century. This tower has four fine bells, three of which were 
 the gift of Bishop Maxwell during the reign of James V. 
 The great bell, three and a half feet in diameter (less half an 
 inch) and two and three-quarter feet high, shows on a shield 
 this Bishop's coat of arms and the following inscription : 
 " Made by Master Robert Maxwell, Bishop of Orkney, the 
 year of God MDXXVIII. (1528), the year of the reign of 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 133 
 
 King James V. Robert Borthwik made me in the Castel of 
 Edinbrugh." Like too many of our modern bells, it 
 evidently required recasting, for on a medallion is added in 
 seven lines : " Taken et brought againe heir by Alexander 
 Geddus Marchant in Kirkwall and recasten at Amsterdam 
 Jully 1682 years by Claudius Fremy city bell caster. It 
 weighs 1450 P." 
 
 The second bell, three feet one inch in diameter and two 
 feet five inches high, bears in black letter inscription the 
 tale of its being made by the same caster in the Castle of 
 Edinburgh, and on it also is " Sanctus Magnus" with 
 "IHS" and the arms of Scotland and the donor. The 
 third bell, two feet nine inches across by two feet five 
 inches high, bears the same inscription and arms as afore- 
 said ; and the fourth bell, a smaller one, is unhung. Kirk- 
 wall may justly be proud of her bells, " whose booming 
 could be heard over the noise of stormy Pentland," for no 
 church on the mainland possesses such distinction. From 
 other records we learn that this "Robert Borthwik" was 
 master-gunner during the reign of James IV. This King 
 included Saint Magnus in his list of churches, for he gave ten 
 pounds Scots and victuals to thirteen vicars to sing matins 
 and masses for the soul of his murdered father, James III., 
 who was the first Scottish King of the Orkneys or Whale 
 Islands. From his reign onwards we read the record of 
 Kirkwall in the National annals, in the lives of Earls and 
 Bishops, and of these last we have yet to learn. 
 
 The story of the Bishops of Orkney is quite as necessary, 
 and also quite as confusing, as that of the Earls, owing to 
 the connection with Orkney and Caithness. The Saga 
 names William the Old as first Bishop, and the inscription 
 found in his grave bears this out. Servanus, friend and 
 teacher of Kentigern, is often called first Bishop of the 
 Orkneys. But Adam of Bremen names Thorolf, conse- 
 crated by Adalbert Archbishop of Hamburg, in the middle 
 of the eleventh century, and also says that another Adalbert 
 succeeded Thorolf. He might be the Bishop during the 
 
134 
 
 KIRKWALL 
 
 life of Earl Thorfinn, who built Christ Church. Then we 
 recall the influence of Lanfranc in Earl Paul's time, and 
 successive bishops were certainly consecrated by the Arch- 
 bishop of York. Ralph, who figured at the Battle of Northal- 
 lerton in 1 138, proves that he and William both claimed the 
 Bishopric at the same time, but Ralph's must have been 
 an empty title. It was evidently a struggle between the 
 Primates of Norway and England. 
 
 Following a second William, we have Bjarni, a famous 
 poet to whom is ascribed The Lay of the Jomsbiirg Vikings. 
 He must have been interesting as well as rich in talents, 
 lands, and money. He built a fine castle on the Island of 
 Weir, and lives in tradition under the name of " Cobbie 
 Row" (the giant or goblin). In the Chartulary of Mun- 
 kalif Monastery, near Bergen, we read that all his lands 
 in Norway, known as Holand, he gives "for the souls of 
 his father, mother, brother, relations, and friends." He 
 seems, like Earl Hakon, to have believed in the super- 
 natural as well as in the sacred. Peter, the sixth Bishop, 
 granted a forty days' indulgence in return for contributions 
 offered for the rebuilding of St. Swithin's Cathedral, 
 Stavanger, destroyed by fire. William III. was evidently 
 a fast and furious prelate who preferred hunting and 
 feasting and " boisterous pastime" to seeking out "heretics" 
 and those who practised idolatry and witchcraft. He 
 dared to imprison the Canon sent to collect Peter's pence ; 
 he refused to allow a rich woman's corpse to be carried to 
 Drontheim ; and he pocketed some special revenues for 
 fifteen years. A pestilent priest indeed ! He was sus- 
 pended, had to mortgage his dues to the Archbishop, &c. 
 But most interesting of all for us is the record of Sunnive- 
 miel, a tribute paid by the Shetlanders to the shrine of St. 
 Sunniva at Bergen. 
 
 Thomas de Tulloch, the fourteenth Bishop, pledged him- 
 self in 1420, at the Church of Vestenskov, in Laland, that he 
 would hold the Crown lands of Orkney committed to his 
 care for Eirik and his successors, promising "to give law 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 135 
 
 and justice to the people of Orkney, according to the Norsk 
 law-book and the ancient usages." In 1422, he received 
 the palace and pertinents of Kirkwall " as a fief from King 
 Eric." Then came the great change in 1472, when a Bull 
 of Pope Sixtus IV. placed the See of Orkney under the care 
 of the Archbishop of St. Andrews. The islands had become 
 the dowry of Queen Margaret in 1469. 
 
 For twenty-six years Scotland had not paid her arrears of 
 tribute, and by this marriage treaty Christian I. gave his 
 daughter a dowry of 60,000 florins, 10,000 to be paid down 
 on her departure, and the Orkneys pledged for the balance 
 of 50,000 florins. The exchequer was empty alas ! and we 
 have echo in — 
 
 " You Scottsmen spend a' our gude red gowd 
 And a' our queenis' fee." 
 
 Only 2,000 florins were forthcoming, and so the Shetlands 
 were next pledged. In return Queen Margaret received 
 certain jointure lands, the Castle of Doune, the Palace of 
 Linlithgow, and her terce of the royal possessions, if left a 
 widow. So the Orkneys and Shetlands then represented a 
 money value of 58,000 florins, which, at 100 pence each, 
 made a sum then equal to .£24,000 of our money. 
 
 As we come nearer to the Reformation we know of 
 Bishop Maxwell's gift of stalls, removed in 1671, and of 
 bells; of Bishop Reid's many improvements and restorations. 
 Buchanan tells us that the Orcadians put each new Bishop 
 to a test — abolished, however, in 1585. He must drain to the 
 bottom an ancient goblet filled with wine, long believed to 
 have belonged to St. Magnus, pledging a plentiful harvest 
 as he did so. Bishop Malvoisin should have been appointed 
 to this See. One wonders what has become of this goblet, 
 and feels glad also that the Beaker of Glamis still exists for 
 sight and touch as precious relic of ancient days and quaint 
 customs in Scotland ; just as in quaint Rothenburg, Burgo- 
 master Nusch's cup still excites admiration. 
 
 The alms dishes of very fine Dutch workmanship of the 
 
136 
 
 KIRKWALL. 
 
 seventeenth century are still in existence, precious treasures 
 in genuine brass, two and a half feet in diameter. The fine 
 woodwork, notably a canopy over the Bishop's throne, has 
 disappeared. 
 
 The Norse Earls who had ruled for three hundred and 
 fifty years became extinct in 1231, and Alexander II. granted 
 the Earldom of Caithness to the House of Angus. Then, in 
 1331, we find that Malise, Earl of Stratherne (connected with 
 Dunblane), succeeded in right of his wife ; and again in 
 1379, "the lordly line of high St. Clair" came into posses- 
 sion. In 1471, James III. gave " William, Earl of Orkney, 
 the castle and lands of Ravenscraig in Fife, in exchange for 
 all his rights to the Earldom of Orkney " ; and an Act of 
 Parliament was passed on the 20th of February, annexing 
 to the Scottish Crown " The Erledome of Orkney and 
 Lordship of Schetland nocht to be gevin away in time to 
 cum to na persain or persainis, excep alenarily to ane of the 
 king's sonnis of lauchful bed." 
 
 In i486, Kirkwall was made a royal burgh by the King, 
 and the lands of St. Ola were partly vested in the magistrates 
 and burgesses for the maintenance of St. Magnus Church. 
 In 1536, James V. lived in the Bishop's Palace, as the guest 
 of Bishop Maxwell, while on a tour through his kingdom. 
 The statue now seen in its tower is said to be that of Bishop 
 Reid who, in 1540, built additions to the original palace in 
 which King Haco died. 
 
 The Earl's Palace was built about 1600 by the notorious 
 Earl Patrick, " Scourge of Orkney and Shetland." He and 
 his son took possession of and fortified the Cathedral and 
 " went about to demolish and throw it down." His sacrilege 
 was fortunately prevented by Bishop Law and the arrival of 
 royal troops, but the new ceiling at the west end proves 
 part of his depredations. A Stewart, too, as was the Wolf of 
 Badenoch ! We might well say of them, " Abbey Builders, 
 Cathedral Destroyers I " In 1616, he and his worthy son met 
 death on the scaffold in Edinburgh, and he lives in memory 
 in Orkney as the " Wicked Earl." His palace had a fine 
 banqueting hall with peculiar horizontal-arched fireplace ; 
 
KIRKWALL 
 
 137 
 
 and in the Pirate, Sir Walter Scott makes Bunce and Cleve- 
 land meet in this room, and the latter also pace the Cathe- 
 dral soliloquising on its story, &c. 
 
 When the expedition, under the Marquis of Montrose for 
 Charles II., started from the Orkneys, Cromwell retaliated, 
 and his soldiers built Cromwell's Fort from the ruins of the 
 palace. But the Cathedral suffered nothing ; sufficient is laid 
 to Cromwell's charge throughout England without adding 
 Kirkwall to his black list. 
 
 In 1701, the Town Guard occupied it as a public place, 
 " shooting guns, drinking, fiddling, piping, swearing, and 
 cursing night and day," and thereby made it unfit for public 
 worship. 
 
 The Government, regarding it as Crown property, took 
 possession in 1848, and spent a considerable sum of money 
 on repairs. Then the magistrates and town authorities 
 proved their right of possession from the charter of James 
 III., and so they now administer its affairs. 
 
 The tourist who commands time will find great reward 
 in a visit to Kirkwall and the Orkneys, beloved of the 
 historian, the antiquarian, the ecclesiologist, and their fol- 
 lowing of humble students. After a period approaching 
 four centuries and a half, he will find the true Orcadian — in 
 appearance, nomenclature, custom, and peculiar phrase of 
 speech — of Norway rather than of Scotland. In the mar- 
 vellous uniformity of style and design, the architect finds 
 parallel for St. Magnus Church only in the Nave of West- 
 minster — the Valhalla of our United lands and kingdoms — 
 the treasure house of the traditions of Picts, Celts, North- 
 men, Saxons, Normans, Scots, and English. 
 
 As we gaze upon this noble church, built for a soldier 
 by a soldier as proof of his steadfast faith in the God of 
 all battles, and as we ponder over the tale of blood and 
 strife with which its history is interwoven, we may fittingly 
 recall the lines — 
 
 " It was both impious and unnatural 
 That such humanity and bloody strife 
 Should reign among professors of one faith." 
 
DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 1074 a.d. culdees. 
 
 1124 a.d. Austin Canons. 
 
 " And yet these grim old walls are not a dilettantism and dubiety ; 
 they are an earnest fact. It was a most real and serious purpose they 
 were built for ! Yes, another world it was, when these black ruins, white 
 with their new mortar and fresh chiselling, first saw the sun as walls 
 long ago. Gauge not, with that dilettante compasses, with that placid 
 dilettante simper, the Heavens— Watch-tower of our Fathers, the fallen 
 God's- Houses, the Golgotha of true Souls departed ! . . . Another 
 world truly : and this present poor distressed world might get some 
 profit by looking wisely into it, instead of foolishly." 
 
 THOMAS CARLYLE has told us that one of our 
 duties should be a deliberate study amidst the ruins 
 of Iona ; and possibly, even most probably, this 
 Abbey of Dunfermline led him to ponder over 
 Monasticism, its aims and ideals, its lessons and failures as 
 told so trenchantly by him, in later life, in his essays on 
 Past and Present. For we recall that the great thinker 
 lived part of his life as a schoolmaster in "the lang 
 toun " of Kirkcaldy, not far off. 
 
 In Scotland we have a saying, "All the world and a bit 
 of Fife," and one of its recent native writers asserts that 
 " Fife contains the concentrated essence of Scottish history 
 and character." Granting this, we may also add that of its 
 churches, now standing or in ruins, the Abbey of "the 
 auld gray town " of Dunfermline excels others in historic 
 interest. 
 
 138 
 
139 
 
 We somehow never forget the importance of the Revo- 
 lution in England, when William the Conqueror gained 
 ascendency over the Saxons, but we seldom or but rarely 
 realise that, with Malcolm Caenmore's accession in Northern 
 Britain, a transformation equally great in effect took place. 
 The Pict and the Celt became transfused, and henceforth 
 served in the united lands they heretofore ruled ; there were 
 not only new lords and new laws, but a new speech and 
 almost a new religion. When Malcolm, seated on the 
 Lia Fail or Stone of Destiny at Scone, was greeted and 
 acclaimed in the Gaelic tongue as " King of Alban," the 
 power was even then departing from the ancient people. 
 Henceforth fugitive Saxons, adventurous Norman knights 
 and their followers, men from Flanders and Brabant, 
 Vikings from Denmark and Norway, all settled down to add 
 their quota to the population, to be distinguished in the 
 near future as Lowland Scots. As in Wales, so too here, 
 the plough drove back to the confines of mountain, moor, 
 and loch those ancient clansmen whom we now name 
 as Highlanders. 
 
 The Nation's Star arose in a new and ascendant East. 
 Malcolm, though ever the fierce rugged warrior, had none 
 the less learned in his exile how great are the blessings of 
 peace ; so commerce was born in the land. The East coast, 
 with its rivers and firths (Norwegian fiord), offered natural 
 facilities and therefore invited intercourse with the more 
 settled and prosperous peoples of the Continent. The 
 fierce zeal of the plundering Vikings found new channels, 
 and they became eager carriers of a system of exchange 
 and barter, the primitive beginning of a great commerce 
 thereafter ; and agriculture, in which Scotland still leads the 
 van, assumed an ever growing importance. 
 
 So Malcolm built for himself, 1057-68, a Castle or 
 Tower, of which a few crumbling stones stand at Dunferm- 
 line in the heart of Fothrif, a district of South Pictland and 
 yet easily accessible by sea and land. Soon after, Dun- 
 fermline became the royal capital. 
 
140 
 
 DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 Every schoolboy knows the story of the expulsion of the 
 Saxon royal family from England after the Conqueror's 
 arrival in 1066, and of that storm which tossed their vessel 
 in our terrible North Sea — whose cruelty still endures — 
 until their hopes of ever reaching Hungary, for which 
 country they were bound, grew fainter and fainter. But 
 the Scot water (Firth of Forth) proved a safe anchorage for 
 them, when within four miles of Dunfermline. Whenever 
 we cross between North and South Queensferry, or pass by 
 St. Margaret's Hope and Queen Margaret's Stone, we witness 
 the various points of interest in the journey of these storm- 
 tossed fugitives. Grateful, no doubt, for his own asylum in 
 Northumbria, Malcolm entertained his Saxon guests most 
 hospitably ; and in 1070, married the Princess Margaret (as 
 his second wife). The name of Margaret, pure-minded wife, 
 mother, queen, and finally patron Saint of the country, must 
 ever remain closely associated with Scotland's churches, and 
 so Dunfermline takes precedence over all. 
 
 By a strange irony of fate, Lady Macbeth was succeeded 
 by this saintly woman, whom all hearts revere even as they 
 execrate her predecessor. But when, in later records of 
 Margaret's church, we read of the gifts of Kinross to the 
 Monks, let us also recall that Shakespere's Lady Macbeth 
 is not quite true to life. One of the few authentic memorials 
 of those early days is the gift of Lochleven in Kinross to the 
 Columbites by Macbeth, and his Lady — under the name of 
 the Lady Gruocli — joined with him in the grant — Macbeth 
 and Gruoch " granting the lands of Kyrkness to the Culdees 
 of Lochleven from motives of piety and for the benefit of 
 their prayers." Macbeth also granted "The land of Bolgyne 
 to the same Culdees with the utmost veneration and devo- 
 tion." In 1050, he gave silver to the poor in Rome in 
 expiation for Duncan's murder. 
 
 After the royal wedding, Malcolm, by request of his pious 
 Queen, founded a church upon the site of their nuptials, 
 and afterwards appointed it as a place of interment instead 
 of Iona the " Blessed Isle " so far away. Of Iona we may 
 
DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 141 
 
 now write Ichabod, and as Dunfermline supplanted it, 
 so too in succession was it drifted into shadowland by 
 Holyrood, and both again by Westminster. A trinity of 
 Ichabods for Scotland ! 
 
 In 1075, so much of this church was finished that it was 
 dedicated to the Holy Trinity, and partially opened for 
 worship. Thirteen monks of the Family of Iona were 
 brought thence to officiate, but here for the first time we 
 find no name or shrine of Celtic Saint. These monks were 
 but coming into closer contact with a critical patroness, for 
 the decline and fall of the Celtic Church and Culdee 
 monasteries began when Margaret brought English Canons 
 from Durham to instruct them better in their former simple 
 faith and ritual. 
 
 Turgot of Durham was her chaplain and confessor, 
 Lanfranc was her chosen counsellor and spiritual father, 
 and her children followed zealously in her footsteps. 
 Though sons and daughters of a Celtic father and Saxon 
 mother, it has been rather aptly said of them that " they 
 were Normans at heart." Queen Margaret's great aim was 
 to establish the ritual of St. Augustine in place of St. 
 Columba's simpler and less imposing form of worship 
 and service ; and the struggle between Celtic and Latin 
 Churches began when thirteen Benedictine Monks (Austin 
 Canons as they came to be known) arrived and claimed 
 " Canterbury to be the mother of Dunfermline." 
 
 In the story of Margaret and her family of six sons and 
 two daughters, we note that not one bore a Celtic name. 
 Fergus, Kenneth, and Duncan disappeared as kingly names, 
 whilst only one more Malcolm appears in regal lists. Thus 
 the domestic policy of the palace pointed the way to 
 the Court's policy in the nation's councils ; and in the story 
 of Margaret and her sons, Alexander, Edgar, David, kings 
 in succession — somehow we forget they were also Malcolm's 
 sons — we find that " The Scottish Church was not so much 
 reformed after the Southern example as gradually overgrown 
 by an English Church, transplanted to the Northern hills, 
 
M 2 
 
 DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 with its clergy, creeds, rites, and institutions, and ' The Use 
 of Sarum ' was daily heard." English Priests became 
 Scottish Bishops, and the religious houses were filled with 
 English monks. Until Margaret's accession to power, the 
 religious system of Scotland had, broadly speaking, been 
 " Monastic," for the clergy of the Family of Iona lived in 
 humble " Colleges," but from King David's time onward 
 it became parochial. 
 
 Having seen how fundamentally English in style the 
 ritual and order of the Scottish Church had become at 
 this time, we can easily account for the general sameness 
 of ecclesiastical architecture on both sides of the Tweed 
 during the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Cathedral, 
 Abbey, Monastery, Convent, Hospital, Church, and Chapel, 
 all alike are to a great extent miniature copies of Southern 
 buildings. 
 
 Queen Margaret's life-story belongs elsewhere, but there 
 is one incident of her Court life that it is pleasant for us to 
 associate with Dunfermline, a custom still so rigorously prac- 
 tised in every Scottish household that he who would omit 
 its observance is judged as lacking in the reverences of life. 
 The saying of Grace before meals was so emphasised by 
 this Queen that it became custom for all, instead of for the 
 pious and reverent only, and Grace after meals was also 
 introduced. To encourage this custom she offered a drink 
 of rich wine, from her own beautifully carved ivory and 
 silver cup, to each baron who would wait for the Blessing 
 of Thanks. When her daughter Maud, married to Henry 
 I., the Norman Beauclerc, introduced the same custom at 
 the English Court, the nobles gladly paid their tribute 
 of respect to "good Queen Maud's" wishes, and soon we 
 find the chronicler's line, " Mead in their cans and wine in 
 the Grace cup," and reading it in Norman record, one's 
 thoughts are carried back to Dunfermline. • 
 
 Coming to the story of the Church, there is very little 
 reason to believe that any part of the Abbey, as now seen, 
 was built by King Malcolm. The Celts never in any way 
 
DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 '43 
 
 excelled in architecture, so we cannot presume that Scotland 
 was ahead of England in her Norman buildings. As Cosmo 
 Innes says : "The original Church of Canmore, perhaps not 
 of stone, must have been replaced by a new edifice when it 
 was dedicated in the reign of David I." This original church 
 may have stood where the choir was afterwards built. Then 
 David I. added the Norman nave which we now see. In 
 1 1 24, this King raised the Church of the Holy Trinity to 
 the dignity of an Abbey, but there is little doubt that his 
 predecessor, Alexander I., all but finished the monastery 
 buildings occupied by the thirteen monks King David 
 brought from Canterbury, or as Wyntoun says — 
 
 " Of Canterbury in Dunfermlyne 
 Monks he browcht and put thame Syn 
 And dowt thame rycht rychely 
 With great Possessyounys and mony." 
 
 It was this monastery, " the finest in Scotland," of which 
 Matthew Paris wrote : " Three distinguished sovereigns 
 with their retinues might be accommodated with lodgings 
 at the same time without inconvenience to one another." 
 
 No one need presume to doubt the purity of King David's 
 motives or the saintliness of his life, but shortly before the 
 Reformation came it is interesting to find that Bellenden, 
 Archdeacon of that Latin Church to which David gave so 
 freely, wrote : " If King David had considered the manners 
 and nourishing of devout religion, he had neither built the 
 churches with such magnificence nor endowed them with 
 such riches. For the superfluities of churches (now as they 
 are used) are not only occasion to evil prelates to rage in 
 most insolent and corrupt life, but one sicker net to draw 
 all manner of gold and silver out of this realm to Rome by 
 their continual promotion." In that very lack of "super- 
 fluities" the Protestant Church in Scotland has founded 
 her strength ; the mind and soul, rather than the eye and 
 ear, have been her chiefest objects of solicitude. 
 
 The choir, aisles, transept, and presbytery were erected 
 
144 
 
 DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 between 1216 and 1226, and we read of appeals and pro- 
 tests to Rome over the expenses thereof. Then, in 1249, 
 there came the message that this new church need not be 
 consecrated as the nave had been so — -again a saving of 
 expenditure. Robert the Abbot had a shrewd and active 
 mind. He was Chancellor of the kingdom, the Abbey- 
 finances were low, and he knew to the full the commercial 
 value of a saint's shrine as a means of income. He urged 
 Queen Margaret's canonisation ; wonderful stories of 
 miracles wrought and of bright lights seen at her grave 
 were freely circulated ; Pope Honorius made diligent 
 inquiry- and was satisfied, and so our pious Christian and 
 model queen became a partner with St. Andrew in the 
 patronage of her adopted land. In 1250, as Cosmo Innes 
 says, "to give solemnity to the opening of the New Church," 
 her body was transferred from the old church to the new 
 Lady Chapel, built to receive her shrine, in presence of 
 all the chief men in the kingdom. "A free indulgence of 
 forty days to all the faithful who visit the shrine of St. 
 Margaret " is recorded in the Register of the Abbey. It 
 was the year of the coronation of Alexander III., and 
 Abbot Robert had succeeded so well that the mitre was 
 given to his Abbey which henceforth ranked first in 
 order of precedence in Scotland, as formally confirmed by 
 decree in 1442. My Lord Abbot, sure of his ground now, 
 proceeded to summon the Culdees, who still differed in their 
 form of worship, that their claims might be settled "accord- 
 ing to justice." He being actually both judge and jury, 
 sentence of expulsion was pronounced, and with the date of 
 the opening of Margaret's shrine, the Culdees, as a distinct 
 body of worshippers, ceased to exist. 
 
 Connected with the translation of the Queen's body we 
 have fresh stories of miracles. When the bearers were 
 carrying it, all went well until King Malcolm's tomb was 
 reached ; they could go no further, in vain did they strive, 
 the faithful wife would not leave her husband behind even 
 if celibacy were demanded of thirteenth century saints. So 
 
DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 MS 
 
 Malcolm's body was also raised and the royal burden again 
 became light, and both were laid at rest together. Then in 
 1263, at the Battle of Largs, disastrous to Norway and King 
 Haco, the wraiths of Margaret and her royal descendants 
 left their resting place to cheer and encourage the Scots to 
 victory. (The ballad of " Hardyknut," written by a native 
 of Fife, tells the story of this battle.) As Westminster in- 
 creased in riches and power round the shrine of Edward 
 the Confessor, so did Scotland's Valhalla likewise gather 
 wealth round that of Saxon Margaret, his niece. Wallace 
 prayed before it — for a monk of Dunfermline was his 
 chaplain — Bruce spent many months here in daily devo- 
 tion before his death; and we have perfectly authentic 
 accounts of the Queen's head with wealth of golden hair 
 being carried away to Douai, and of Philip of Spain's 
 strenuous efforts to obtain the bodies of Malcolm and 
 Margaret as additions to his relics of the saints in the 
 Escurial. In our own day, effort has been made to find 
 the bodies or the head, but in vain. She deserved better of 
 her country, but had her body been left in peace and not 
 made object of prayer and profit, then, like Robert Bruce's 
 now, her grave would be honoured ; for in Scotland's rude 
 dark ages she shone, a noble light, and all men of whatsoever 
 creed honour her memory. 
 
 Between 1093 and 1 165 there were buried in the 
 Abbey : — 
 
 Margaret 1093 
 
 Edward (heir apparent) 1093 
 
 Duncan II. (son of Ing-ibiorg the first wife of 
 
 Malcolm) 1094 
 
 Ethelred (Abbot of Dunkeld) 1096 ? 
 
 King Edgar 1107 
 
 Malcolm Caenmore (exhumed at Tynemouth) ... 1115 
 
 Alexander 1 1124 
 
 David 1 1 154 
 
 Malcolm IV 1165 
 
 When the new church was consecrated in 1250, as 
 11 
 
[46 
 
 DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 aforesaid, the bodies of King Malcolm and Queen Margaret 
 were reinterred, and there were also buried within its 
 walls : — 
 
 Margaret, Queen of Alexander III 
 
 ... 1250 
 
 David and Alexander (her sons) 
 
 ... 1280 
 
 Alexander III .' 
 
 ... 1284 
 
 Elizabeth (first wife of Robert Bruce) 
 
 ... 1327 
 
 King Robert the Bruce 
 
 ... 1329 
 
 Matilda (his daughter) 
 
 ••• 1356 
 
 Christian (his sister) ... ... 
 
 ... 1366 
 
 Annabella (Queen of Robert III.) 
 
 ... 1403 
 
 Robert (infant son of James VI.) 
 
 ... 1602 
 
 Thus Dunfermline is the sanctuary of nineteen royal 
 graves which receive more prominent notice nowadays 
 because of the one name Bruce, whose loyal friend 
 Randolph also lies here. 
 
 For many of the visitors to the Abbey the centre of 
 attraction lies at the tomb of Robert the Bruce. The great 
 King did not make his residence here, and after his acces- 
 sion was but at rare intervals in the East, but he observed 
 the traditions, and as he had been crowned at Scone, so 
 must he be buried in Dunfermline, as was also Elizabeth 
 his queen. So he granted the Church of Kinross and the 
 Chapel of Orwell to the monks in honour of his royal 
 ancestors' tombs and in anticipation of his own. During 
 his tedious illness from leprosy, he devoted himself to the 
 future provision of things temporal for his country, and as 
 a good churchman, set also his spiritual house in order. 
 The man nowadays who provides coffin or tomb in 
 anticipation of decease, incurs the liability of being legally 
 pronounced eccentric and erratic, but such points of conduct 
 are after all but vagaries of fashion. As death drew near, 
 Bruce made preparation for his final rest near former 
 royalties, and so a fine tomb was ordered from Paris, and 
 in all probability erected here while he still lived. It was 
 built of white marble heavily gilded, surrounded by an iron 
 railing, and its canopy was of "painted Baltic timber" — 
 
DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 147 
 
 such style of tomb as that of the Black Prince in Canterbury 
 Cathedral. 
 
 The King's death took place on the 30th of May, 1329, at 
 his hunting palace of Cardross, in Dumbartonshire, and one 
 week later he was buried in the choir of the Abbey. The 
 funeral was attended by " the grate the good and the brave 
 of the daie and the weeping of the multitudes insyde and 
 outsyde the Kyrke adid solemnitie to the rite." In the 
 destruction of the choir at the Reformation even King 
 Robert's tomb suffered with others, and for a period of two 
 hundred and fifty years the actual site of his grave was 
 unknown. When Robert Burns visited the Abbey in 1787, 
 " he knelt and kissed the flagstones, and also execrated the 
 worse than Gothic neglect of the first of Scottish heroes." 
 
 When the foundations of the present church were being 
 dug in 1818, three workmen discovered a vault in which lay 
 a large body, six feet long, wrapped in thick folds of sheet 
 lead, the fragments of fine linen and cloth of gold betoken- 
 ing it a royal tomb. When examined, the body was found 
 to have the breastbone sawn asunder, proving it to be that 
 of the great King whose request that his heart be cut out 
 and carried to the Holy Sepulchre had been truly obeyed. 
 His friend, the good Sir James Douglas, fulfilled the King's 
 desire, and the Cathcart pillar in Paisley Abbey tells the 
 close of the story, an ever popular tale because it appeals to 
 our hearts in proof of the hero's simple faith and the friend's 
 perfect obedience and devotion. The skeleton was care- 
 fully re-wrapped in its original winding-sheet and placed in 
 a lead coffin which was then filled with melted pitch to 
 preserve the bones from further decay. On the lid of the 
 coffin was cast in raised letters — 
 
 King Robert Bruce 
 1329 
 1819 
 
 This coffin was again placed in one of wood, the vault 
 
DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 was filled up, and within it were placed Barbour's Life of 
 Bruce, Lord Haile's Annals of Scotland, Kerr's History of 
 King Robert's Reign, Fernie's History of Dunfermline, and 
 the Edinburgh Almanac for 1819, together with copies 
 of the various Edinburgh newspapers of the day, and 
 divers coins of varying dates of the reign of George III.; 
 and with flat stones it was filled up to the level of 
 the church floor. Finally, in 1889, a public subscrip- 
 tion provided for his grave a very beautiful brass, 
 executed in the style of those in Westminster Abbey co- 
 relative with Bruce's period. On this is cut the life-size 
 figure of the King in royal robes over a suit of chain mail. 
 His great two-handed sword is by his side, and on his 
 shield, the Scottish lion rampant. A ribbon border bears 
 a scroll inscription in Latin, "The grave of Robert the 
 Bruce, King of Scots, happily discovered among the ruins, 
 1818, has been at length marked by this brass, in the 560th 
 year after his death." The brass is imbedded in a slab of 
 very rich red-coloured porphyry, taken from an Egyptian 
 sarcophagus by his descendant, the Earl of Elgin, of Elgin 
 Marbles fame. Over it a finely carved pulpit protects but 
 does not in any way obscure the slab. Thus every Sabbath 
 day the gospel of love and peace and good-will is preached 
 over the bones of Robert Bruce, and so the secular in 
 national history is happily blended with the sacred in 
 national aspiration. 
 
 Fortunately we may read in Ford urn's Chronicle the 
 inscription on the original tomb : — " Here lies the In- 
 vincible Robert, blessed King. Let him who reads his 
 exploits repeat how many wars he carried on. He led the 
 Kingdom of the Scots to Freedom by his uprightness ; 
 now let him live in the Citadel of the Heavens." Thus 
 " patriotism will continue to honour its heroes as religion 
 reveres its saints." Bruce and his descendants here reign 
 supreme. In the south aisle, the family of the Earls of 
 Elgin have many beautiful monuments and windows, and 
 a fine bust of the Lady Augusta Bruce, wife of Dean 
 
DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 149 
 
 Stanley, marks her youthful connection with Dunfermline 
 u which she loved so well." 
 
 Standing outside, we can see that the handsome square 
 tower, which rises above the hero's grave, has an open 
 balustrade round its summit formed of the words — 
 
 " KING ROBERT THE BRUCE," 
 
 in letters of open hewn work four feet in length. Royal 
 crowns and pinnacles surmount its corners. This inscrip- 
 tion has, rather captiously, been criticised as " in bad taste," 
 but after all, is not the point of view a vital factor in our 
 judgment ? 
 
 The new Church, built in 1818, contains in its north 
 transept the old royal gallery, bearing the initials of 
 James VI. and his Queen, Anne of Denmark — who lived 
 in the palace until Queen Elizabeth's death called them 
 South — and on its oak shields in quaint lettering are the 
 names of kings, queens, and princes whose bodies have 
 long since mingled with the Abbey dust. Few, if any, 
 of the finely sculptured stones are left. Abbotsford is 
 decorated with much of the fine old oak of the Abbey ; 
 even the pulpit entire, of date 1634, was sent thither. One 
 would not wittingly grudge aught to Sir Walter, the zealous 
 antiquarian and Protestant, but surely the old pulpit of 
 Dunfermline Abbey stands out of place in Abbotsford 
 nowadays. With our modern desire for all things to be 
 done reverently and in order, this pulpit, consecrated 
 symbol of the message it has widely preached to many 
 generations, should stand again within the walls which 
 sheltered its hearers — the quick and the dead. It might 
 fittingly mark the spot where the first royal tombs were 
 placed, as does the pulpit of the new church mark the 
 Bruce's grave. 
 
 The Abbey is a truly venerable pile, although only the 
 Romanesque nave remains of that first Holy Trinity 
 Church. Entering by the north porch, we note its 
 
DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 beautifully groined roof with ten sculptured keystones 
 and many quaint devices. The old oak door, nail studded, 
 still has its " thumb-sneck " latch and long wooden bar shot 
 into the wall, such bar as, at the scene of the murder 
 of James I., changed Catherine Douglas's name into that 
 of Barlass. The cavities in its walls were either used for 
 holy water or for the baptism of the children of strangers 
 and pilgrims who might not enter within the church. 
 
 The Nave, 166 feet long by 53 feet wide internally, 
 reminds one of Durham, and as King Malcolm was 
 present at the founding of St. Cuthbert's Church in 1093, 
 the similarity is natural enough. We have the same 
 massive circular pillars, and as we advance eastward 
 towards the steps leading into the new church, we note 
 the same form of carving in zig-zag and thwarted lines and 
 the arrow-head markings, and presume therefrom that the 
 same mason may have designed the work here. These 
 pillars, too, have a peculiar way of changing their ap- 
 pearance as we move. Seen from one point they look 
 top-heavy, the base more slender than the capital ; from an 
 opposite point of view, the order appears reversed, and they 
 seem to taper towards the capitals. This magnificent nave 
 serves but as porch to the church now used for worship, 
 and as we stand on its higher elevation, and look westward 
 towards the great window, one feels glad that the Scots have 
 at last been aroused to the necessity of restoring and treasur- 
 ing their ancient cathedrals and abbeys. 
 
 Retracing our steps through the nave, two of its fine 
 windows of stained glass specially attract us. The one 
 in the south aisle must have precedence, for it was the 
 first stained-glass window placed in the Abbey. It was 
 presented in i860 by Lady Willoughby D'Eresby, of 
 Drummond Castle, in memory of her ancestor Queen 
 Annabella Drummond, consort of Robert III. and mother 
 of James I., the poet king, born in the adjoining palace. 
 She it was who urged her husband to erect a fine tomb, and 
 his humble answer and the story of his grave is embodied 
 in that of Paisley Abbey. 
 
DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 The magnificent western window of four lights is 
 another object-lesson in history, as we see before us in 
 bold clear outline of form and lineament, the life-size 
 figures of King Malcolm and Queen Margaret, William 
 Wallace and Robert Bruce. It is the gift of the well- 
 known Andrew Carnegie, a native of the town, and it was 
 designed by Sir Xoel Paton, Her Majesty's Limner for 
 Scotland, another townsman who, with his brother and 
 sister, is well known in the galleries. {Bruce and the 
 Spider, Brnce's Tomb, Queen Margaret reading the Scrip- 
 tures, all tell of the Patons' connection with Dunfermline, 
 whilst the fine picture of The Ordination of the Elders, in the 
 National Gallery in Edinburgh, is appropriately placed there 
 as of national interest.) 
 
 Outside, we see in the western doorway one of the most 
 perfect early Xorman doorways in existence, equalling that 
 of Rochester. It is twenty feet in height and sixteen feet in 
 breadth, and its five slender columns on either side form 
 support for receding arches in dog-tooth and zig-zag of 
 different styles, surmounted by carved heads, supposed to 
 represent the Apostles. The quiet dead lie in hundreds 
 around us, and a gleam of the Forth brings back anew 
 those days of Sir Patrick Spens, the " Skeely Skipper," sent 
 " o'er the faem to Norway" by the king who 
 
 " Sat in Dunfermline toun 
 Drinking the bluid-red wine'* ; 
 
 From the Monks'Chronicles of the Abbey we can glean 
 richly of our own earlier Scottish life. This Ancient 
 Register of Dunfermline is preserved in the Advocate's 
 Library in Edinburgh. It throws most valuable light on 
 the ancient tenures and forms of conveyancing in Scot- 
 land, as it was really a nucleus around which all deeds 
 and business transactions of the monastery were centred. 
 Two centuries and a half ago, the first Earl of Haddington 
 made a valuable and methodical list of its contents as 
 follows : — Charters relating to the Kings, David to Alexander 
 
DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 III.; the Bishops of St. Andrews and of Dunkeld ; the 
 Chapter of St. Andrews; the Earls of Fife and of Athol; 
 Countesses Ada and Ela ; Charters of Laymen ; Covenants 
 and Conventions regarding disputed territories and Bulls 
 of Popes. The first form of its handwriting may be 
 generally ascribed to the early half of the thirteenth cen- 
 tury, or the reign of Alexander II. It deals with facts 
 relative to the Abbey after its remodelling by David I. 
 The second style of writing is much less careful, and the 
 rubricated titles and ornamental initial letters disappear. 
 From it we learn many interesting facts as to the gifts 
 and privileges of the Abbey. The iron and coal pits of Fife 
 are the great source of her modern wealth ; King David 
 granted one-tenth of all his gold found in Fife and Fothrif 
 to the monks in 1144 ; and the oldest coal charter in Scot- 
 land was granted to them in 1291. They evidently needed 
 the coal, for a decree is issued from Lyons permitting them 
 to wear caps and bonnets during the service, except at 
 special reverences, owing -to the "frigid region." These 
 caps were made of leather, and in the excavations for the 
 new church, in 1818, pieces of the same were found. 
 
 An organ is mentioned in connection with the service at 
 this time, and later, Henryson refers to the " orlege bell " 
 or clock — rare even in the fifteenth century. Haddington 
 Church had to supply their lights, Dunkeld Cathedral was 
 subject ; and St. John the Baptist's Church in Perth was 
 also notable in their widespread list of dependent churches. 
 The schools at Perth and Stirling were, under the fostering 
 care of the Abbey, but in return, Edward III. of England 
 ordered the monks to pay their share of the expenditure in 
 fortifying the city of Perth. Their privileges seem to have 
 been endless ; the monks might come and go free across the 
 Scot water, and excommunication was a handy weapon to 
 issue against a contesting claimant to shore and water 
 rights of fisheries. 
 
 Cardinal Wolsey is credited with an epicurean taste for 
 whale's tail. Our monks of Holy Trinity had actually a 
 
DUNFERMLINE ABBEY' 
 
 '53 
 
 charter from Malcolm IV., solemnly signed by bishops, 
 earls, and chamberlain, giving them right to the heads of 
 all Crespeis — better known as bottle-nose whales — stranded in 
 the Scot water. The King, however, claimed tribute of the 
 tongue (a titbit in the twelfth century), and he also expected 
 prayers for King David's salvation, in return. William the 
 Lion gave them bondmen and their families (Celts by their 
 names), and when, in return, these serfs assisted at the King's 
 buildings, he decreed that no precedent was thereby estab- 
 lished. The Sheriff of Fife was obliged to yield tribute of 
 the eighth of his fines. It seemed as if their hands were 
 ever open and their perpetual cry was " Give ! give ! " 
 But there was sometimes a fly in their ointment. The 
 Bishop of St. Andrews paid them an official visit, and as 
 his hosts neglected to provide him with sufficient wine for 
 his supper, he took from them two of their churches, and 
 then the abbot and monks protested that the bishop's 
 servants drank the wine. It seems a pretty little quarrel, 
 the more so because the bishop's name was Malvoisin, and 
 " Malmsey and Malvoisie " are familiar enough on ancient 
 wine lists ; and also because two of their cellarers were 
 promoted to be abbots. (The cellarer was also a business 
 manager, and there is a hard air of business all through the 
 Register as we read between the lines.) 
 
 After the murder of James I. at Perth in 1436, Dunferm- 
 line and other cities were deemed unsafe as royal resi- 
 dences, and the Castle of Edinburgh became centre of 
 Scottish Court life. It was a heavy blow for the monks ; 
 the King's ear was gone, and judgment at a distance is less 
 apt to be partial. James II. very properly called on all 
 to regard "with veneration" the church where his royal 
 ancestors lay, but he none the less annexed for Crown 
 revenue some of the lands of the said church. Had not 
 his royal father at David's grave in the church called him 
 " Sair Sainct to the Crown " ! — for James was poor, and 
 King David's excessive devotion had made these monks 
 richer than the King. These descendants of David's Bene- 
 
'54 
 
 DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 dictines from Canterbury had waxed mighty and arrogant ; 
 an Abbot was the King's son, and he, with great pomp, 
 presented his royal father, James IV., with sword of state 
 and consecrated hat from Rome — and with that father fell 
 on Flodden Field. They had outlived their usefulness, and 
 had become a jest and byword for "ribbald loons" instead 
 of an ensample to the people. 
 
 So the end came ; the Monastery, its Frater Hall, of which 
 the beautiful Gothic window is still seen, the Choir, Lady 
 Chapel, and all the shrines and imageries were utterly cast 
 down, and from this Register we may read the lessons thereof. 
 But before closing its pages we must note, under the year 
 1437, the first charter written in Scots tongue. 
 
 The palace life mingled so closely with that of the Abbey, 
 that we revise history in the pages of the Register. John 
 Baliol here ratified the agreement of marriage between his 
 son Edward and the niece of Philip IV. of France ; Edward I. 
 spent twenty-one weeks in the palace on his journey "to 
 destroy everything of antiquity in Scotland, to carry off its 
 records and men of learning;" and in the church, before the 
 high altar, he demanded and received the homage of the 
 Sheriff of Stirling and others. 
 
 In 1303, Wallace and his mother travelled, on foot and 
 disguised, from Dundee to Dunfermline, and tradition says, 
 hid in Queen Margaret's Cave, meeting his friends in the 
 forest. Here the poor weary mother died and was buried, 
 and tradition again points to a spot in the churchyard as 
 her grave, marked by a thorn tree. But this " Gospel thorn " 
 really took the place of the " weeping cross " cast down at 
 the Reformation. Wherever she lies, the Abbot and monks 
 must have given her the last rites of the Church, and paid 
 heavily for the same at tyrant Edward's hands. He spent 
 the following winter here, encouraged the Christmas buffoon- 
 eries of the Boy Bishop, gave him forty shillings in fee, and 
 then, after a ninety-seven days' residence in the monastery, 
 set fire to its "frater hall, dormitory, infirmary, lavatory, 
 kitchen, stables, charterhouse," and so revenged himself. 
 
D UNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 i55 
 
 But he "spared the Church." One better understands 
 after such recital how bitterly he was execrated in Scot- 
 land, how fervent became Scottish devotion to Robert 
 Bruce. 
 
 James IV. and his Queen spent much time here, also 
 James V. and Mary of Guise. James VI. and Queen Ann 
 (to whom he deeded the Lordship of Dunfermline) and their 
 children, Elizabeth (Queen' of Bohemia and also "Queen of 
 Hearts," from whom Queen Victoria is directly descended) 
 and Charles I. were born within the palace. Alas ! that he 
 should be the last King recorded, his cruel fate ever asso- 
 ciated with its ruined walls. 
 
 When Charles II. visited the town in 1650, the document 
 known as "The Declaration of Dunfermline" was drawn 
 up, and the King subscribed " to adhere to both Covenants," 
 but alas ! a king's word was no longer his bond. Six years 
 before, Mr. Robert Kay, minister, had been imprisoned by 
 Cromwell for praying for this same King who made so light 
 of his sacred oaths and promises. 
 
 Great men as well as royalties have lived close by its 
 precincts, notably Robert Henryson, poet, schoolmaster, 
 good man, who pondered deeply, and in his Abbey Walk 
 reveals the trend of a devout and serious mind as " he went 
 up and down in ane Abbey fair to see," and who in every 
 trial and condition of life reminds us of " Obey and thank 
 thy God of all." 
 
 The Rev. David Ferguson, first Protestant Evangel of the 
 Reformed Service in 1560, and compiler of a valuable 
 collection of Scottish proverbs, died in 1598, and of him 
 Archbishop Spottiswoode wrote thus : " Ferguson was a 
 good preacher, wise, and of a jocund and pleasant disposi- 
 tion which made him well regarded both in Court and 
 Countrey." He was followed by the Rev. John Davidson, 
 reformed monk — poet too — who in Carmen commemorates 
 Ferguson's virtues. 
 
 The year 1644 was notable. The Solemn League and 
 Covenant was bound " For the Kirke at Dunfermling " ; 
 
, S 6 
 
 DUXFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 and worshippers at the evening service were requested to 
 bring their own candles. 
 
 In the town we may see "the Abbot's House" where lived 
 Robert Pitcairn, Commendator in 1576, over whose doorway 
 is an "advice-stane" of significant message — 
 
 "Since word is thrall, and thought is free, 
 Keep well thy tongue, I counsel thee." 
 
 In the eighteenth century lived Ralph Erskine, for twenty 
 years minister then founder of the "Original Secession 
 Church," and for fifteen years its pastor here. We recall 
 Whitfield's visit to him, and recognise to the full the nobility 
 of purpose which led him to leave his Abbey charge. 
 
 There are other books of note in the Advocate's Library 
 in Edinburgh connected with our Abbey. St. Jerome's 
 Latin Bible in MS., beautifully written and illuminated, 
 was used in the Abbey from 1124 till 1560, when Dury 
 the last Abbot carried it to France with other treasures. 
 There it eventually came into the possession of the cele- 
 brated scientist, Monsieur Foucault, and at the sale of his 
 effects, was bought and presented to the said Advocate's 
 Library, to be henceforth regarded as one of its richest 
 treasures. It is clean, legible, and entire, and its vellum 
 leaves are richly ornamented with sacred and historical 
 figures, and also with many grotesques. Some claim that 
 it dates from the time of King Malcolm and Queen Mar- 
 garet ; but Gaufrid, first Abbot, was a man of singular 
 piety and learning, and so we may more safely presume 
 that he brought this copy from Canterbury. 
 
 In the Signet Library, a very beautifully written sermon 
 on the text " None but Christ " by Mr. Walter Dalgleish of 
 Dunfermline, about 1650, is often referred to. It instances 
 twenty-four objections to Scriptural doctrines and gives 
 solutions of them. 
 
 In 1708, the Palace walls fell, and eight years later, the 
 Lantern Tower, which stood at the junction of the choir 
 and the nave, followed. It was one hundred and fifty 
 
DUNFERMLINE ABBEY 
 
 ■57 
 
 feet high, thirty feet square, and in each of the sides of its 
 two stories were three tall lancet windows, twenty-four in 
 all. After the destruction of 1560, the floor of the choir 
 had been used as a graveyard, and because of the Psalms 
 sung therein in its glorious days, this resting place of the 
 dead became known as Sythar or Psalter Kirkyard. The 
 digging of graves had weakened the tower's foundations, 
 hence its fall ; and heavy were the lamentations thereat. 
 
 As we turn to climb our way through the narrow, crooked 
 streets, oblivious now of kingly pomp or ecclesiastic state, 
 we feel that it has been good for us to see and thereby the 
 better realise, how much of the nation's best life has been 
 bound up with the story of this quaint old-world town. 
 How paltry and how feeble are too many of our boasted 
 efforts in architecture and its restoration when compared 
 with the work of those wonderful builders who builded so 
 strongly and so well ; for here, after eight hundred years 
 have passed, in spite of frost from the hills and hissing rain 
 and driving wind from the sea, the old gray Abbey remains 
 massive and firm — and yet its architects are unknown to 
 fame. 
 
 Unmeet is it for any one to even seemingly deride the 
 spirit which demands an honest wage for the necessary 
 bread and butter of life ; yet as we stand within our ancient 
 churches and view their perfect beauty of moulded art, 
 carved capital, and lacy fretwork of hewn stone, we learn 
 a new and ever-deepening sense of the meaning of the term 
 — " To the glory of God." The scholarly Bishop, who dis- 
 dained not to carry stones from the quarry for the rebuild- 
 ing of his ruined church ; the Abbot who, laying aside the 
 mitre for the shovel and the trowel, acted as master mason 
 for his monks; the secular brother, of whom the only record 
 may fittingly be " Ignotus," who spent his days in hewing, 
 his nights in meditation on some floral wreath or archway 
 of saints' heads, gained full reward for the labour of a life- 
 time in having thus been privileged to share in God's service ; 
 and the Bishop and the mitred Abbot helped Ignotus mightily 
 
1 5 8 
 
 D UN PERM LINE A BBE Y 
 
 in thus fulfilling " He that is greatest among you shall be as 
 he that serves." Service has become of late years too sig- 
 nificant of menial tasks ; our forefathers better appreciated 
 the beauty of the " sweeping of a room to God's glory." 
 The late William Ewart Gladstone has expressed this idea 
 as to our ancient buildings so beautifully, that his words 
 deserve to be more widely known : — 
 
 " It has been observed as a circumstance full of meaning, 
 that no man knows the names of the architects of our 
 Cathedrals. They left no record of themselves upon the 
 fabrics, as if they would have nothing there that could 
 suggest any other idea than the glory of that God, to whom 
 the edifices were devoted for perpetual and solemn worship ; 
 nothing to mingle a meaner association with the profound 
 sense of His presence ; or as if, in the joy of having built 
 Him a house, there was no want left unfulfilled, no room 
 for the question whether it is good for a man to live in 
 posthumous renown." 
 
 Carlyle and Gladstone — men of totally different minds, 
 yet both masters — thus plead for our dead past ; and we in 
 reply need seek no fairer House of God, no more gorgeous 
 ritual nor service, than to be found here each Sabbath morn. 
 We stand on truly hallowed ground, for its walls, pillars, 
 and arches have echoed to the sound of God's glory for 
 over eight centuries; and the dust of the noble and the 
 good, builders up and keepers of our national life, wor- 
 shipped here in life and now lie peacefully in death. 
 
 In the year 1300, the monks were held in "high repute for 
 sancity, for perfection of discipline, and for great charity." 
 So we may be better able to forgive, if not to forget, the 
 abuses of the past in the ever present charity which 
 covereth the multitude of transgressions in the sight of the 
 good Christian. Within the walls of God's House, surely 
 one of the greatest gifts is charity. Such lessons does this 
 Abbey teach ! Here too, should we recall Queen Margaret's 
 " Silence of good thoughts." 
 
PAISLEY ABBEY 
 
 St. Mirin*. Founded 
 4th to 6th Century. 1163 a.d. 
 
 " I doe love these auncyent abbeys ! 
 We never tread within them but we set 
 Our foote upon some reverend historic" 
 
 THOUGH the Abbey of Paisley, founded nearly a 
 century later than that of Dunfermline, must there- 
 fore yield it precedence in age, Paisley Abbey is none 
 the less first in the actual importance of national 
 historic events which have taken place within its walls ; and 
 so its restoration, now going on, has been inspired by true 
 patriotism, and renders it a fitting object of generosity for 
 all Scots at home and abroad. This restoration of the North 
 Transept and of the Tower also brings it forward into greater 
 prominence than any of the other Cathedrals and Churches 
 at the present time (Brechin excepted). 
 
 It is a common but none the less an erroneous belief, too 
 often obtaining abroad, that Scotland's ruined Abbeys and 
 churches remain a perpetual lesson as to the power and 
 strength of the Reformation, and are therefore to be honoured 
 by all sincere Protestants. Not so, far otherwise, although 
 no one could wittingly deny the necessary zeal of the 
 Reformers. 
 
 The era marked by deliberate ruin to so many of these 
 fair Gothic Abbeys of Southern Scotland was twelve to 
 
 >59 
 
i6o 
 
 PAISLEY ABBEY 
 
 fifteen years before the Reformation. To the armies of the 
 tyrant Henry VIII., whom Thomas Carlyle names along 
 with " four-footed cattle," do we owe the partial or total 
 destruction of such abbeys as Melrose, Dryburgh, Kelso, 
 Jedburgh, and Coldingham, in 1544-45. Though the native 
 Reformers certainly expended their zeal on the internal 
 fittings of church, abbey, and monastery, rarely were they 
 the first spoilers of the buildings. The armies of the Lords 
 of the Congregation swept away cloisters and dependent 
 portions of the monasteries, and by them, in 1559, the 
 outbuildings of Paisley were destroyed. Neglect and 
 decay, the fallen roof and rain-soaked walls, completed the 
 ruin, and now only the Nave and South Aisle with St. Mirin's 
 Chapel are left. The beautiful Nave serves as Parish Church, 
 and apart from the universal desire born of a sentiment of 
 reverent patriotism that the building should be restored, the 
 North Transept will be actually required for seating accom- 
 modation. Here perforce the " half-day hearer " has been 
 rather encouraged, and many pews are twice rented — for 
 morning and for afternoon services — even the passages have 
 been utilised for seating capacity. 
 
 The wave of fanaticism, apparently necessary at judicious 
 intervals for the best welfare of the Church, has long since 
 exhausted itself. Even the defence of the iconoclastic 
 feeling, as expended on the fabric of the Church, exists no 
 longer in Scotland ; and all Presbyterians realise that many 
 of their ruined buildings were temples of national life, and 
 therefore historically (even if not ecclesiastically) are of 
 deepest interest to all patriotic Scots. 
 
 The story of Paisley Abbey is indeed an interesting one r 
 and as it develops, will prove its right of place. We 
 are intimate and familiar with modern Paisley, with 
 its world-wide reputation for cotton thread and oldtime 
 shawls, and we may also be more or less familiar with its- 
 weavers — such uncouth weavers as Thrums produces — and 
 its many poets of whom Tannahill was king. The Paisley 
 " body " is a national type — exceedingly self-important, not 
 
PAISLEY ABBEY 
 
 161 
 
 always superlatively polite or courteous — but none the less 
 a thrifty, self-reliant character, " uncommonly prood " of his 
 birthplace which has been very aptly defined as " a town of 
 noble ruins, magnificent modern architecture, and mean 
 streets." To its Abbey, wealthy Paisley, most successful of 
 all Scottish manufacturing towns, owes its very existence, 
 a perpetual reminder, when we need one, that the pre- 
 Reformation Church was far from being entirely evil, for 
 to her Paisley still owes a debt of gratitude. Wordsworth 
 might have had Paisley in his thoughts when he penned — 
 
 " Yet more around these Abbeys gathered towns, 
 Safe from the feud of Castle's haughty frowns, 
 Peaceful abodes, where Justice might uphold 
 Her scales with even hand, and Culture mould 
 Her heart of pity, train the mind in care 
 For rules of life sound as the time could bear." 
 
 Paisley claims to be the Roman Yanduaria (although 
 Skene maintains its site is elsewhere), but from the with- 
 drawal of the Romans, 409 A.D., down till the twelfth cen- 
 tury the history of the town is blank or legendary. Its 
 patron Saint, St. Mirin, settled in Strathclyde either in the 
 fourth or the sixth century, and is referred to by Fordun in 
 his Chronicle of date 1140, "The kingdom of Strathclyde 
 was the field of St. Mirin's labours, and the destruction of 
 that kingdom by Kenneth III., in 972 A.D., and the flight of 
 many of its inhabitants into Wales about 872 A.D. may 
 account for the lack of native records about the Saint. 
 Mirinus was a monk of Greece and sorry am I to say that 
 of his parentage nothing is known." But according to 
 other authorities he was an Irish Saint of the sixth century, 
 one of the three thousand pupils of Comgall, friend of 
 Columba and founder of the great Monastery of Bangor in 
 County Down. Even as late as the twelfth century we find 
 St. Bernard calling Bangor "a sacred place fertile of 
 Saints — filling Ireland and Scotland with offspring." 
 
 Legends tell of St. Mirin's eloquence and powers of heal- 
 
162 
 
 PAISLEY ABBEY 
 
 ing. On his death, a church was dedicated to him. Several 
 streets, a stream,- and an aisle of the present abbey bear his 
 name, and the Seal of the Abbey depicts St. Mirin in bishop's 
 robes with staff, and the prayer : "O Mirin ! pray to Christ 
 for the souls of thy servants." 
 
 Inchmurrin, Inchmaryn, Kirkmirren, Knockmirren, are 
 the philologists' proof of the actual existence of some such 
 saintly character. In the town's original charter he is 
 designated Saint Mirrin, the Confessor ; and he again 
 appears later on the town seal, together with the fess 
 cheque of the Stewart arms, that interesting survival and 
 representation of the counting board used by the Steward 
 in his duties. 
 
 The proverb, " Wealth makes wit waver," comes to one's 
 mind as we read of old-time Paisley. In the various books, 
 chronicles, and charters of mediaeval days, we read of 
 Paslet, Passeleth, Passelay, Passelet, Passlowe, Passeleke, 
 Pateslo, Pasle, Paslewe, Paslay, and at last Paisley — a 
 triumphant evolution, surely perfected at last, an enduring 
 example of " What's in a name ? " — as well as a big bone 
 of contention as to its origin or real meaning. 
 
 When the Cymric Celts lost power in Strathclyde, and 
 civil strife in Alban closed with the story of Macbeth, we 
 find in Malcolm Caenmore's reign a great influx of Saxon 
 settlers ; and then, during the reign of his successive 
 sons, of Norman barons with their followers. Of these, 
 most noted became " Walter, the son of Alan," who was 
 the son of Fleald, or Flathald, a Norman who obtained 
 from William the Conqueror the Castle of Oswestry, 
 in Shropshire, and from whom, too, the Fitz Alans, Earls 
 of Arundel, claimed descent. But tradition — and to every 
 Scot, living or dead, tradition has been one of the powers 
 of life — says that Alan was son of that Fleance who 
 fled to England after the murder of his father Banquo 
 by Macbeth, as told by Shakespere. This Walter Fitzalan 
 was welcomed by David I., who appointed him Seniscalus 
 (German, Seniscale, oldest of servants), and granted him 
 
PAISLEY ABBEY 
 
 great tracts of land in what is now the County of Ren- 
 frewshire. When King David died in 1153, he was suc- 
 ceeded by his grandson, Malcolm IV., who confirmed a 
 charter on Walter as to lands and stewardship. Malcolm 
 IV., being completely under the power of Henry II., 
 yielded to him all right to Cumberland and Northumber- 
 land ; hence we find that Norman barons owned estates 
 in both countries, and swore fealty to English or Scottish 
 king at will. In one of Malcolm's charters we read 
 "French, English, Scots, and the inhabitants of Galloway" 
 (Celts). It was this Norman Walter, of professedly Celtic 
 descent, who founded a church at Passelet, in 1163, and 
 from theClugniac Abbey of St. Millburga at Much Wenlock, 
 in Shropshire, brought Prior Humbald and thirteen monks 
 to colonise the buildings. 
 
 This Priory Church, richly endowed, was dedicated to 
 the Blessed Virgin, to St. James, patron Saint of the 
 Stewarts, to St. Millburga, and to St. Mirinus, founder of 
 the more ancient church on the Inch of Renfrew. These 
 Clugniac monks were of the order reformed from the 
 Benedictines by Berno, Abbot of Gigni, and completed 
 by Odo, Abbot of Clugni, about 912 a.d. At this very date 
 of Paisley's foundation, the Abbey of Clugny, in France, 
 "had attained a degree of splendour and influence un- 
 rivalled by any similar institution of the Middle Ages, 
 second to Rome only as a chief centre of the Christian 
 world " and, until the erection of St. Peter's at Rome, was 
 ranked as the largest church in Christendom. It became 
 the asylum of kings, the training school of popes ; its abbot 
 took rank above all others, issued his own coinage, and was 
 a power in the political world. William the Conqueror and 
 the Normans were devoted to Clugny and introduced the 
 Order into England — St. Millburga's being ranked as the 
 second house to that of Lewes. From its Archives, now 
 in the British Museum and in the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 of Paris, we learn much valuable information as to our early 
 Norman kings. Before the close of the fourteenth century, 
 
164 
 
 this haughty Clugniac Order had already given to the world 
 24 popes, nearly 200 cardinals, 700 archbishops, 15,000 
 bishops, 1,500 abbots, 4,000 Saints, and 37,000 monasteries ! 
 In addition, we may add of powers temporal — 20. emperors, 
 10 empresses, 47 kings, over 50 queens, princes too many 
 to enumerate, and a mighty array of eminent and learned 
 men such as Rabanus of the German School ; Alcuinus, 
 founder of the University of Paris ; Guido, inventor of the 
 musical scale ; Sylvester, inventor of the organ, and so on. 
 Such a list enables us the better to realise to what powers, 
 spiritual and temporal, this Mediaeval Church had risen ; 
 and now, as we approach Paisley, we should also be better 
 able to picture to ourselves the important position this 
 Mother Church of the Order, with her children in Cross- 
 raguel, Iona, and Feale, held in Scotland. 
 
 These early monks, too, how picturesque their dress of 
 black habit and scarlet cowl, the material of softest texture 
 over purest, finest linen — mediaeval aesthetes rather than 
 ascetics — priding themselves also on refinement in eating 
 and drinking. They used no manual labour, and their 
 ritual was both gorgeous and elaborate. Of particular 
 sweetness and richness was their music, and in the rise 
 and fall of their echoing anthems the strictest precision as 
 to time and harmony was enjoined. Not only were their 
 luxurious habits condemned by Peter of their own Order, 
 but they had also departed from the traditional form of 
 architecture ; and St. Bernard, in his Apologia, of date 1127, 
 inveighs bitterly against "the useless breadth and height, 
 the sumptuousness and empty spaces" of their churches. 
 Later still we read of severe criticisms on the grotesqueness 
 of their carvings, for the bestiary period was now developing 
 to fullest exaggeration. 
 
 Walter the Steward, faithful son of the Church, spent his 
 closing days in the Abbey of Melrose ; but at his death, in 
 1 177, he was buried, as were all his successors in the 
 Stewardship, before the high altar of his Church in Paisley. 
 Then in 1220, Pope Honarius III. elevated it to the rank of 
 
165 
 
 an Abbey, and in 1303, its abbots were raised to the Mitre, 
 with attendant privileges and powers over subject and 
 service. In a record of the reign of Alexander III., we 
 read, "Coal was dug for Paisley." 
 
 Most interesting, too, are the details of the perquisites, 
 privileges, and revenues of the Abbey, and also of the 
 many squabbles with the Cathedral Chapter of Glasgow- 
 over the rights of fishing in the Clyde and the Cart. The 
 multures and dry multures of the mills (grain fee and money), 
 the rights of lock and gowpen and knaveship (tributes of 
 meal in handfuls, and of duty), the beeswax for lights, the 
 "black stones" for fires, and above all, the crown points 
 and gallows' rites were carefully exacted. These crown 
 points conferred the court authority to punish and fine 
 for rape, rapine, murder, and fire raising, and so made 
 the Abbot supreme in power, independent of each and 
 all, even subject in name only to the king. The gallows 
 rites too were esteemed a great privilege, as the right to 
 exercise the last terror of the law emphasised power, and the 
 Clugniac Order were ever aggressive in this respect. From 
 these courts and rights of tribute, revenue became so great, 
 that we need not wonder at Bishop Leslie's eloquence in 
 after days — " on Paisley's garden's, deer park, and walls a 
 mile in circuit, its imagery, rich furniture, and buildings to 
 vie with any monastery in Europe." 
 
 We Scots are indebted to Paisley for many details of 
 earlieF national life and custom, as well as those of our 
 immigrant Norman over-lords, our Wallace, our Bruce, and 
 the Stewarts. We owe these monks a deep debt of grati- 
 tude for their invaluable records — known to the "world of 
 historians and antiquarians as the Chronicon Clugniense, or 
 the Black Book of Paisley — carried to England by General 
 Lambert, and bought by Charles II. for £200. It now rests 
 in the British Museum. From it we may learn that the 
 poor and the stranger within their gates were cared for — 
 seven chalders of meal was their weekly dole for the poor 
 — and that when Eneas Sylvius, afterwards Pope Pius II., 
 
PAISLEY ABBEY 
 
 visited Scotland in 1433, " half-naked beggars received 
 stones (coal) at "the church doors with joy." (This versatile 
 Pope painted the royal group of King James I. and family, 
 now in the Vatican, as is told by Jusserand in the Romance 
 of a King's Life.) How little could any one of these monks 
 or curious visitors realise the power and wealth coming to 
 the country from these same " black stones." 
 
 Fair and pleasant, rich and powerful, grew the Abbey and 
 its domains, and yet not altogether free from the shadows 
 of adversity, an adversity, however, to which Paisley and 
 broad Scotland may point as one of the brightest jewels in 
 her crown of life. The uncle of William Wallace, the purest 
 and most single-minded of all Scottish patriots, was a monk 
 of Paisley. From the Abbey Chartulary we know that the 
 Wallace family had been more or less closely connected with 
 it since its foundation, and among its cherished associations 
 we may join in thought the tribute accorded the patriot in 
 Early Days 0/ Sir William Wallace by the late Lord Bute, 
 himself a Stuart. "Here Malcolm Wallace and Margaret, 
 his wife, took their little boys on the great Festivals to listen 
 for hours to the solemn rise and fall of the Gregorian Chant 
 . . . and it may well have been, as the sublime composi- 
 tions of the Hebrew poets alternately thundered and wailed 
 through the Abbey of Paisley, that William W'allace con- 
 tracted that love for the Psalms, which lasted until he died, 
 with a priest holding the Psalter open at his request 
 before his darkening eyes." 
 
 No need to expatiate here on the relentless cruelty with 
 which Edward I. hunted Wallace to death ; and in the 
 National Councils the Abbot and monks of Paisley had ever 
 been loyal to Scottish Independence. Wallace's Church 
 must share her heroic«son's fate, and so in 1307, Alymer de 
 Valence, English Norman, gave to the flames the noble 
 Church of Walter the Steward, Scottish Norman. 
 
 Bruce succeeded Wallace, and though we associate his 
 name with Dunfermline, it was before the high altar of 
 Paisley that he knelt, by order from Rome, to receive abso- 
 
Marjory Bruccs Tom 
 
■ 6 7 
 
 lution after penance for the murder of the Red Comyn in 
 Holy Church at Dumfries. 
 
 Alexander, the fourth Steward in succession, had com- 
 manded the Scottish army at Largs in 1263 ; and we may 
 feel assured that poems of praise and thanksgiving rolled 
 through the Abbey on that occasion ; James, his son, aided 
 both Wallace and Bruce ; and Walter, his second son and 
 sixth Steward, fought so bravely at Bannockburn, that 
 Barbour commemorates him in the lines : — 
 
 '• Walter Stewart of Scotland fyne, 
 That then was but a beardless hyne, 
 Came with a rout of noble men 
 That might by countenance be ken." 
 
 For his bravery he was duly rewarded with the hand of 
 Marjory, the king's daughter, a real love match, and one of 
 those many marriages which have changed the dynasties 
 of Britain. 
 
 All too soon was the mutual joy and happiness of Walter 
 and Marjory turned to solitary dulc and woe, for on Shrove 
 Tuesday, 1316, Princess Marjory fell from her horse and 
 broke her neck, when riding between Paisley and Renfrew ; 
 and the motherless infant, whose life was almost miracu- 
 lously saved, brought no comfort to Walter in his terrible 
 grief. He, seeking to drown his sorrow, engaged in border 
 warfare, and after ten years, died in 1326, a broken-hearted 
 man only thirty-three years of age. Sir Walter Scott, in his 
 Tales of a Grandfather, pays just and noble tribute to the 
 Steward's bravery ; and the loyal friend as well as son-in- 
 law was deeply mourned by the great Bruce who only 
 survived him three years. 
 
 Few effigies remain in Scottish Churches now, but 
 Marjory Bruce's canopied tomb, as restored, is still to be 
 seen here in the "Sounding Aisle." Her child eventually 
 succeeded as first Stewart king ; she, therefore, was the 
 •"lass" referred to by broken-hearted James V., as the 
 mother of his ill-fated royal race. 
 
 One of the piers of the nave, known as the Cathcart 
 
PAISLEY ABBEY 
 
 pillar, carries us back to that sad year when " the good Sir 
 James Douglas," with his little company of brave knights, 
 set out with the heart of Bruce in silver casket on that 
 pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre, denied to the hero in life. 
 Then came the combat with the Moors in Andalusia, and 
 Douglas's mortal wound, received in the thickest of the fight 
 as he threw the heart forward in the field, saying, "Onward, 
 brave heart, as thou wert wont ; Douglas will follow thee 
 or die." Sir Alan Cathcart, one of Paisley's adherents, 
 survived with his followers, and in sad recessional brought 
 back the heart to rest in the precincts of Melrose. 
 
 Paisley was the cradle of the Stewarts, and as Sir Bernard 
 Burke says, " No Scotsman should ever forget the title to 
 honour and respect which the family of Stewart acquired, 
 before they began to reign, by their undeviating and 
 zealous defence of their native land against the wanton 
 aggressiveness of the English." 
 
 When Robert III., grandson of Marjory, broken-hearted 
 over one son's death and another's captivity, felt himself a 
 dying man, he declined to provide a tomb for himself 
 according to custom, but said to his Queen, " No proud 
 tomb for my miserable remains ; cheerfully would I be 
 buried in the meanest shed on earth, could I thus secure 
 rest to my soul in the day of the Lord." Here may we 
 stand by his grave in the ruined choir, and know that, 
 mingling with his dust, lie the bodies of six Stewarts, 
 Marjory his grandmother, his own mother, and his step- 
 mother. Not altogether neglected, however, for Queen 
 Victoria, justly proud of her Stewart ancestry, marked 
 their resting-place by a rich monument of Sicilian marble, 
 bearing the inscription : "To the memory of the members 
 of the Royal House of Stewart who lie buried in Paisley 
 Abbey, this stone is placed here by their descendant Queen 
 Victoria on the occasion of her visit to Paisley, 1888." 
 
 " Those ill-starred ancestors 
 Who loved the Church so well and gave so largely to it : 
 They thought it should have canopied their bones 
 Till Doomsday — but all things have an end." 
 
PAISLEY ABBEY 
 
 After the fire in 1307, and owing to the consequent 
 unsettled state of the country during the wars with England, 
 the buildings remained in a more or less ruined condition, 
 to the great distress of the monks. Aided by the Bishop of 
 Glasgow and Argyle, restoration was begun during the time 
 of Abbot Lithgow (1 384-1433) whose memorial tablet is 
 placed in the North Porch. But owing to the troublous 
 times, the middle of the fifteenth century is reached before 
 we hear of the completion of a new Abbey on a scale of 
 magnificence which excited the admiration of Christendom. 
 From 1445-59 Abbot Tervas worked unremittingly, and 
 moneys were raised by every means possible. According to 
 our modern ideas, one of the sources of revenue seems very 
 far from commendable — although ours rather than theirs are 
 the times of drunkenness. The privilege of keeping a tavern 
 for the sale of wine within the gates of the Abbey was 
 granted to the Abbot, and from the Chronicle of Auchinleck 
 we learn that he found the place in ruin and "the kirk 
 unbiggit." When, with full purse, he made his journey to 
 Rome, the same authority tells " He brocht hame mony 
 gude jewillis and claithes of gold, siller and silk and mony 
 gude bukis and the statliest tabernkle in al Skotland and the 
 maist costlie." He had also chandeliers of silver and a 
 lectern of brass. As the burial-place of the early Stewarts, 
 the Abbey had become a place of pilgrimage, and the 
 offerings of the devout added greatly to the revenue. 
 
 In Sir Walter's notes on The Lay of the Last Minstrel we 
 find that the Scots and Kerrs entered on a bond that the 
 head of each rival clan must go in pilgrimage to Paisley, 
 Melrose, Scone, and Dundee, to pray for the souls of those, 
 fallen in their feud. Before the beautiful High Altar came 
 also King James IV., in hair shirt and iron belt, to pour out 
 his soul in prayer and penitence for the tragic death of his 
 father. 
 
 By this time, Abbot Tervas, whose energies had accom- 
 plished much, had departed in peace, and his place had 
 been ably filled by Abbot Shaw, 1472-98. The troubles at 
 
i7o 
 
 PAISLEY ABBEY 
 
 home had been but shifted, not settled, for Pope Pius II. 
 had decreed that the appointment of Abbot and disposition 
 of the whole revenues should be settled from Rome, and 
 Abbot Shaw bravely resisted such encroachments on the 
 Abbey's right and privileges. Even this richly endowed 
 Abbey, specially favoured by Royal patronage, never reached 
 a haven of quiet rest, and one perforce thinks of its suppressed 
 cry as " Peace ! peace ! " where there was no peace. 
 
 Following the precedent set by his independent predeces- 
 sors, Abbot Shaw gained new privileges from James IV. in 
 1488. For the village without the walls, he obtained a 
 charter which constituted it a Burgh of Barony under the 
 fostering care of the Conventual Church. Renfrew objected 
 so strongly to these new rights that legal steps had to be 
 taken to maintain the "monastic regality"; and until 1628 
 Paisley remained the vassal of the Abbey. (The magistrates 
 purchased its superiority then, and in 1665 were granted a 
 Royal Charter; finally, by the Reform Bill of 1832, the 
 town has the right to elect a member for Parliament. So 
 the Abbey is Mother Church of Paisley in the fullest sense 
 of the term. Queen Victoria's visit in 1888 was in honour 
 of its fourth centenary.) 
 
 Abbot Shaw improved and added to the buildings, 
 surrounded gardens and grounds with a wall a mile in 
 circuit, adorned the same with statues and shields, and 
 built an imposing tower over the principal gateway. 
 Shawlands keeps his memory ever green to the children 
 of Paisley, and a tablet, now in the Coates Museum, to- 
 gether with panels of royal arms, &c, is all that remains 
 of the famed wall. On this tablet is cut — 
 
 " Ya callit ye Abbot Gcorg of Schawe 
 About yis Abbay gart make yis war 
 A thousande four hundereth zehyr 
 Auchty ande fyve the date but veir 
 (Pray for his saulis salvacioun) 
 Yet made thys nobil fundacioun." 
 
 One year after the Abbot's death, James Crawford, a 
 
PAISLEY ABBE)' 
 
 Burgess of the newly-made Burgh, built and endowed 
 St. Mirin's Chapel in the South Transept. Aytoun's 
 Edinburgh after Floddcn brings vividly before us those 
 burgesses with "hearts stout and true," who had risen to 
 national prominence and respect, and who formed the 
 backbone of the country. 
 
 The leaven of the Reformation was even then working in 
 the land, and during the time of Abbot Hamilton, 1525-44, 
 we can read deeply between the lines. A record tells that 
 " He built a prettie handsome steeple which fell before it 
 was well finished." This was in 1530. The choir was 
 ruined by the tower, and storms and decay afterwards did 
 their work. This Abbot became Bishop of Dunkeld, then 
 Archbishop of St. Andrews; and when driven from his See 
 again sought asylum in Paisley, but had to flee to the strong 
 shelter of Dunbarton Castle. Finally, his execution at 
 Stirling Castle, in 1570, brought his sore travail for life 
 to an end. His body lies in the Abbey, and the words 
 " Misericordia et Pax " with his coat-of-arms and the initials 
 "J. H." are still to be seen in the North Aisle. A popular 
 story is told of this Paisley dignitary and his devotion to 
 Queen Mary, most ill-starred of all the Stewarts. After the 
 battle of Langside — a short distance from the Abbey — he 
 followed her to Dundrennan and the shores of the Solway, 
 even wading knee deep into its waters, clutching at her boat 
 with both hands whilst entreating her not to leave her own 
 country. Little did either of them think that a scaffold 
 awaited both, and that, sixteen years later than her subject, 
 she, the Queen, would end her chequered life at that same 
 Castle of Fotheringay from which, four hundred and twenty 
 years before, Walter the first Steward had dated his charter 
 for the foundation of his Priory Church at Paisley. 
 
 To the story of the Reformation, Paisley forms no great 
 exception. John Knox was not the iconoclast of popular 
 belief, neither were the people in many of these quiet grey 
 towns dissatisfied with their ecclesiastic superiors as land- 
 lords. As a matter of fact, reform worked slowly here — 
 
172 
 
 PAISLEY ABBEY 
 
 very slowly. In 1626, Paisley was such "a nest of Papists," 
 that its Jenny Geddesses rose in tumult and drove out of the 
 town, with stones and vituperation, a most grave and noted 
 Protestant divine — Boyd of Trochrig — a man, famed not 
 only in Scotland, but amongst French Huguenots. John 
 Knox, in his first Book of Discipline, provided for the main- 
 tenance of all the cathedral, conventual, and collegiate 
 Churches and Chapels, which were at the same time Parish 
 Churches, "and the orders issued in 1560 for the burning of 
 images and removal of altars" strictly enjoined that no harm 
 should be done to the Churches "in glass work or in iron 
 work in stall, door, or window." He also most solemnly 
 denounced the vengeance of God upon "the merciless 
 devourers of the patrimony of the Kirk," and upheld a 
 colleague's assertion that "the kirks and temples were now 
 more like sheep-cots than the House of God, and that men 
 had no right religion in most part of the realm." 
 
 Alas ! Henry VIII. had set a tempting example, and the 
 spirit of grab and greed is easily acquired. Henry gave 
 Church lands freely to his less scrupulous supporters, and 
 " the Russells were residents in Woburn Abbey ere a stone 
 had been cast down in Scotland." Scots may well recall 
 this and many such facts when their English brethren flout 
 them for the fanatic destruction of their beautiful Abbeys. 
 " The Lairds coveted the Church lands," the Master of 
 Sempill was appointed bailie of this Abbey, and at the Dis- 
 solution, the Church property fell into the possession of 
 Lord Sempill. Eventually the lands were conferred on 
 Claude Hamilton (a boy of ten), founder of the Abercorn 
 family, nephew of the Archbishop, and created Lord Paisley 
 in 1587, to whom Scott refers in : — 
 
 " Stern Claud replied with dark'ning face, 
 Grey Paisley's haughty lord was he." 
 
 A mural tablet in the Abbey, describing him as " Pasleti 
 dominus," tells of the death of three infant children, and the 
 
173 
 
 " sternness" may have been assumed to mask his grief from 
 the common eye. 
 
 Then followed in succession the Earls of Angus and 
 Dundonalcl, owners by purchase ; again the lordship was 
 repurchased by the Earl of Abercorn, in 1764. The Monas- 
 tic buildings had been turned into "The Place " of Paisley 
 and used as a residence. Hither in 1597, Queen Ann, wife 
 of James VI., came on a visit to the Earl in his new "baronial 
 hall " ; and in 1617, the King himself, on his return from 
 England, made a special visit to this home of his early ances- 
 tors. This " Place" has been broken up into small dwelling 
 houses, and in the present Restoration Scheme it is proposed 
 to acquire the property as homes, " where poor widows, 
 good old Scotchwomen, might spend the evening of their 
 days in peace " as pensioners and attendant keepers of the 
 Abbey. 
 
 Before the fall of the tower, in 1530, the whole length of 
 the Abbey was 260 feet. The decorated choir was aisleless, 
 123 feet long, and very narrow — 23 feet wide ; only the out- 
 line of its walls remain, but the fine sedilia, over 11 feet long 
 and containing four seats (three is the usual number) still 
 stand, along with a water drain and credence niche. The 
 Choir forms great exception in being longer than the Nave. 
 
 The North Transept, 92 feet long by 35 feet wide, and a 
 beautiful window, 35 by 18 feet, of fine tracery work are 
 now in course of restoration at a cost of £22,000. On the 
 West Buttress we may see, at a height of 21 feet, the shield 
 of the Stewarts with an abbot's pastoral staff — the crozier 
 turned inwards — and the word " Stewart." 
 
 The South Transept is continued by St. Mirin's Chapel, 
 with ablution drain, credence niche, and finely carved panels 
 over its altar site, representative of the Seven Sacraments, or, 
 as some aver, of the events of St. Mirin's life. As before 
 said, Marjory Bruce's tomb stands here, removed from the 
 roofless Choir. This is also called the Sounding Aisle be- 
 cause of a wonderful echo when the door is banged. 
 
 The Nave, 109 feet in length by 60 feet in width, con- 
 
'74 
 
 PAISLEY ABBEY 
 
 sists of six bays, divided by circular pillars, with triforium 
 and clerestory carried round at a height of 82 feet upon 
 corbels " which may have supported lights." Each pillar 
 springs from grotesque sculptured figures of men and 
 animals, a very natural form of decoration when we recall 
 the tendencies of Clugniac monks. 
 
 On the eastern part of the South Aisle there are a doorway, 
 three bays, and three windows above, which evidently date 
 from the thirteenth century, and are therefore restored 
 remains of that earliest Church, burned in 1307. In the 
 present work on the Transept, and on the Tower walls 
 which are to be carried up as far as necessary for the sup- 
 port of the walls of the Nave — in anticipation of a restora- 
 tion of the Choir — several interesting excavations have 
 been made. Two four-sided pillars, about 5^ feet long, with 
 rounded tops, show curiously carved crosses on one face. 
 They are evidently portions of that earliest Priory Church, 
 as similar stones, found in Derbyshire, are adjudged to 
 belong to the twelfth century. 
 
 The West Front, belonging in its lower half to the 
 fourteenth century, and the upper window, with its " crown 
 window," are very effective in their subdued lights ; and the 
 Nave as it now stands is one of Scotland's fairest kirks. Its 
 windows of stained glass are exceedingly rich and mellow 
 in their tones of soft colouring, and are equal to any collection 
 from our modern English studios. 
 
 Forty years ago, this Nave was cleaned, restored, and 
 decorated by a number of earnest Churchmen, headed by 
 the Rev. Dr. Cameron Lees, now of St. Giles' Cathedral, 
 Edinburgh. His story of the Abbey is alike inspiring and 
 instructive, and no one has better claim to be recorded than 
 he in reference to the present movement. 
 
 " If our American kinsmen envy us in anything, it is the 
 inspiring and solemnising influence of such great historic 
 buildings as the Abbey of Paisley. Scotland does not 
 possess many such buildings, but the Abbey is one. It has 
 a great and remarkable history, entwined with that of our 
 
The West Winder, 
 
PAISLEY ABBEY 175 
 
 nation. Under its roof was the tomb of the first preacher 
 of Christianity at Paisley. Within its walls the earlier gene- 
 rations of the great house of Stewart, a King and Queen 
 among them, lie buried. Before its altar Sir William 
 Wallace worshipped and King Robert the Bruce knelt in 
 penitence. Great men have been there and have acted 
 their part there. Can it be creditable — is it not in some 
 degree a scandal — that any part of the historic pile, this 
 great link with olden time, should be allowed to remain in 
 ruin and desolation — its walls standing gaunt and bare 
 amid the tide of modern wealth and civilisation that surges 
 around them ? Wise men everywhere esteem such legacies 
 of the past so precious that they do anything in their power 
 for their preservation. Nor ought Paisley to forget that it 
 is to the Abbey it owes its corporate existence. Paisley 
 came into being not by mandate of the sovereign or the 
 favour of the noble. She is the child of the Abbey. Is it 
 fitting that the child should grow so rich and prosperous 
 and the mother be left bare and desolate ? Considerations 
 such as these, I confess, impress me more than the utilitarian 
 one — though I do not underrate it — of congregational 
 accommodation. There may be kirks built with compara- 
 tive ease, but there can be only one abbey." 
 
 With pealing organ and choir of rich voices, the weekly 
 service of this Abbey, now parish church of Paisley, is 
 dignified in its simplicity and hallowed by its surroundings 
 and their associations. But as before said, the membership 
 is greater than the accommodation, hence this appeal for 
 the restoration of North Transept first, then the Choir, the 
 Tower, and the Place — surely an elevating sentiment which 
 would re-people 
 
 " The- shrines where art and genius high 
 Have laboured for eternity." 
 
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