© DESIGNED B5f K.. W. B1LLIHG9. ENGRAVED BY R. E. BHASSTOK. ^ahlajlrit for tfre Mjwr, faf Mlwra fMnmrit xrnit Inns, 45, dfiwrgi Itrttt, tffohttargjr, Bui 37, $rtrannbr Eum, Mm T^xjHt 0»7 €§t Ikrntrid atrit € u\tmu\xn\ Stotiqiritfea flf $nta&. CONTENTS OP VOLUME IV. Plates. No. 1.2. 3. 4. 5.6.7.8.9. 10.11.12. Pages of Description. 13.14.15.16.17.18. 19. 20. 21. 22.23. 24.25. 26.27.28. 29. 30. 31. Lincluden College, Dumfries. — Sonth Side, with the "Window Tracery restored „ ... ... Interior, looking East . Maybole Towee, Ayr, — External View „ ... Back View, and View of the Tolbooth Melbose Abbey, Roxburgh. — South West View South Transept, Exterior . East End, Exterior Part of the Cloisters, and Entrance to the Church Interior— View across the Nave „ The South Transept „ The North. Transept „ The Chancel, looking East Woodcuts : 1. South Aisle of the Nave „ 2. The Tower Parapet Michael Kibk, Elgin. — External View Mibmab Castle, Aberdeen. — External View The Court Yard St, Mohance Chuech, Fife. — Exterior, South East „ Interior, looking East Muchalls House, Kincardine. — With its old Court Xard Wall New Abbey, Dumfries. — North West View „ ... ... Interior of the Nave, looking West „ „ North Transept, internally „ „ The East End, internally „ Woodcut: Aisle of South Transept Newaek Castle, Port Glasgow (Renfrew). — View „ ... ... ... The Court Yard Noltlakd Castle, Westray, Orkney. — View . „ ... ... Woodcut: The Staircase Oekmy. — See Kiekwall, and Noltlanb. Paisley Abbey, Renfrew. — West Front „ ... North Side, externally „ Interior — The Nave, looking West „ „ South Aisle of the Nave „ Woodcut: Seditlise in the Ruins of the Choir -The Court Yard . Two Gables Pinkie House, Edinburgh.- }} 2 y } } y 2 2 2 > 6 } Plates. No. 32.33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38.39.40. 41.42. 43. 44. 45. 46. 47. 48.49.50. 51. 52.53.54. 55.56. 57.58. 59. 60. antipittM nf gintlssit. CONTENTS OP VOLUME IV.— (continued.) Plusoaeben Peioey, Elgin.- Eosslyn Chapel, Edinburgh. West Side of the Transept . East End Interior — The North Transept „ The Chapter House Woodcut : Doorway to the Cloisters ,— The West Pront The South Side Decorated Window Head from the East End Plying Buttresses, North Side Interior— The North Aisle, looking East „ South Side, with Vaulted Ceiling ,, View across the East End Woodcuts: 1. The Lower Chapel . „ 2. North East View . ower, near Perth Kuthven1 Castle, or Seton Chapel, Haddington. — Exterior View, the South Side „ Interior, looking East Spynie Palace, Elgin — The Entrance Gateway and Keep Tower Stewaet Castle, Inverness. — North West View „ ... ... South East- View „ ... ... Woodcut : South West View Stibling. — The Court Yard of the Castle ... „ ... East End of the Church, internally ... „ ... The Earl of Mar's Lodging' ... „ ... Argyle's House— The Court Yard . ....... „ Woodcut: Entrance to the Court Yard Tantallon Castle, Haddington. — External View „ ... ... The Court Yard Tolquhon Castle, Aberdeen. — 1. The Entrance Towers . 2v Tower in the Court Yard Towie by Tubbee, Aberdeen.— Interior of' the. Castle Hall » Woodcut: Groined Window Head in the Hall TJbny Castle, Aberdeen. —External View Wintoun House, Haddington. — External View » Interior — The Drawing Room n „ King Charles's Room » Woodcut: Ornamental Window Head Pages of Description. V 5 } V 6 4 I 2 22 V 2 LINCLUDEN COLLEGE. The peaceful spot where the gentle stream of the Cluden meets the Nith, was well adapted as a retreat for religious recluses, not of the sterner or more ascetic character. Flat spreading meadows, a few old oaks, and a sluggish stream fringed with alder, give the landscape, enriched by this small but remarkable and beautiful ruin, a tone rather English than Scottish. The character of the edifice, so far as it remains, is very peculiar. Though of small dimensions, it has, like Michael Angelo's statues, a colossal effect from the size of its details. This is conspicuous in the bold and massive corbels and capitals of the vaulting shafts from which the groined arches, now fallen, had sprung. In the plate of the interior this largeness of feature may be observed in the moulding round the priests' door — itself but a small object — and in the broken tracery of the window above it. Over the interior of the small square door by which this part of the ruin is entered, there is a moulding of oak wreath, or, perhaps, more correctly speaking, a series of crockets, so grotesquely large, as to appear as if they had been intended to be raised to a great height, so as to be diminished by distance. Heraldic forms predominate, probably owing to circumstances which the history of the institution will readily suggest. Many of the large brackets are shields, but they are massed in with the other decorations with more freedom and picturesqueness than this species of ornament is generally found to admit of. Of the tracery of the windows, enough only remains to show how rich, beautiful, and varied it had been. The patterns, with a tendency to the French flamboyant character, are strictly geometrical, and have afforded an excellent opportunity for Mr Billings to adapt his system of geometric proportion to their restoration. The main portion of the church now existing, consists of the choir and a fragment of a transept. On the right-hand side, opposite to the tomb and door in the engraving, there are three fine sedilia partially destroyed. They consist of undepressed ribbed pointed arches, each with a canopy and crocket above, and cusps in the interior — an arrangement that unites' the richness of the decorated with the dignity of the earliest pointed style. Beyond the sedilia is a beautiful piscina of the same character. The arch is within a square frame-work, along the upper margin of which there runs a tiny arcade of very beautiful structure and propor tion. Opposite to these remains, is the tomb of Margaret Countess of Douglas, and daughter of King Eobert III., represented in the engraving. Of the recumbent effigy which the monument had contained, there is not a vestige, and the sarcophagus is uncovered and empty. Pennant, in 1772, says — " Her effigy in full length lay on the stone, her head resting on two cushions: but the figure is now mutilated ; and her bones till lately were scattered about in a most indecent manner by some wretches who broke open the repository in search of treasure."* The history of this establishment has been curious. According to the ordinary authorities, it was founded as a Priory of Benedictine nuns, in the reign of Malcolm IV, by Uchthred, father to Eolland, lord of Galloway, who endowed it with considerable territorial possessions in the neigh bourhood.! The founder, who was assassinated in 1174, is said to have been buried in the original * Tour, ii. 119. + Grose's Antiquities, 171. Spottiswoode's Religious Houses. Hutton's MSS. Chalmers' Caledonia, ii. 307. Lincluden College, 1—2. 2 LINCLUDEN COLLEGE. church. In 1296, Alianore, the prioress, swore fealty to Edward I. at Berwick, and was con firmed in her dignity* This is almost the sole incident on record, during the existence of the nunnery. It appears that Archibald the Grim, Earl of Bothwell, abolished it, and devoted the building to the purposes of an ecclesiastical college. The chroniclers who mention this event, seem at a loss to account for it. The earl receives from them the character of being pious, and a great friend of the church; and while in one the "insolence" of the female devotees is mentioned as the cause of their dismissal, t Major volunteers to speculate that they must have been conspicuous for their incontinence, otherwise the good earl never would have expelled them. Hume of Godscroft, the historian of the family, speaks of his " having an eye for religion, and a special, care of the pure and sincere worship of God as his only end and intention ;" while in the same paragraph the worthy annalist says, " it appeareth that he did gre'atly increase his revenues and enlarge his dominions."! Archibald the Grim died in the year 1400, so that the foundation of the college would corre spond pretty closely to the architectural period indicated by the present remains. The institution, consisting at first of a provost and twelve canons, was so far varied from time to time, that at the Beformation it maintained a provost, eight prebendaries, twenty-four bedemen, and a chaplain.§ The chaplainry appears to have been founded by the Countess Margaret, who made several grants to the. college in 1429, confirmed by her brother, James I.|j The Douglases were lord-wardens of the Scottish marches, and in this capacity acted as a sort of monarchs, at the head of a parlia ment, in enacting the Border laws. It appears that these. assemblages were held in Lincluden ; and we find in the preamble to one of these collections of ordinances, that, on the 18th day of December 1468, Earl William Douglas assembled there, " the whole lords, freeholders, and eldest borderers that 'best, knowledge had," '.' and there he caused those lords and borderers bodily to be sworn, the holy ;gospel touched, that they, bodily and truly, after their cunning, should decrete, decern, deliver, and .put in order and writing, the statutes, ordinances, and uses of March, that were ordained in Black Archibald of Douglas's days, and Archibald his son's days, in time of warfare," &c.^f The revenues of the college were probably extensive, as the provostry was held by many eminent men. -Notiees of the successive provosts, Collected -with great industry, will be found both in Grose and Chalmers. In 1565 the college was converted into a temporal barony, and it became subse quently the. property, of the Nithesdale family. The person who held the provostry at this period, however, a natural son of Douglas of Drumlanrig, subsequently legitimated, continued to hold the temporalities of his benefice, and the reversion of- them was granted and confirmed to his grand- nephew, afterwards created Viscount Drumlanrig.** i Thus the territories of the college appear to. have been possessed by a lay impropriator, subject to the condition of his paying out of tbe revenue an annual sum equivalent to the income of the provost. Connected with this partition of revenue a remarkable criminal trial is on record, singularly exemplifying the rude, rapacious, and unscrupulous character of those barons who divided among themselves the rich heritage of the suppressed ecclesiastical foundations.ft * Chalmers, ii. 307. f Extracta e Chronicis, p. 207. + History of the House of Douglas, 114. § Chalmers, iii. 367. II Ibid. 308. U Introduction oh the Ancient State of the Borders, to Nicolson and Burns' History and Antiquities of Westmoreland and Cumberland. ** Chalmers, iii. 309. Act. Pari. iii. 415, 436. +t See Pitoaim's Criminal Trials, iii. 90, 95. Dtwvtl hy JLJlTBilimgs. -A Ewyravrd by J Godfrey. JLKHTdllDrEJlM ABBOT. TNTERJOB. LOOKING EAST. l.diiihimih, fnlli.di,;! ho lftl/nttn filaclcM-ood X- Sons-. MAYBOLE. Cakkick, the ancient lordship of the Bruces, was a sort of state in itself, of which Maybole, 'now a country village, was the capital. In later times, and down to the abolition of the heritable jurisdictions in Scotland, it was the chief town of the bailiewick or bailiary of Carrick. The minister of Maybole, who had at the Kevolution to resign his benefice as a nonjuror, tells us — " As to tbe civil jurisdiction of this country, it is a Bailliary, and belongs heritably to the Earl of Cassilis, who exercises his power by a depute, and has the privilege to appoint his own clerk, without dependence either upon the Secretary or Eegister. The ordinary seat of the courts of justice is at the town of Mayboll on Thursday : though the meeting of their head court be at a little hillock or know, called Knockoshin in the bounds designed for the new town of Girvan. All the inhabitants of this country answer to this court, both for civil debts and crimes." " The offices of depute or clerk," he continues to say, " are advantageous posts to any the Earl bestows them upon ; for by the plenty of wood and water in this country, which tempt men to fish, and cut stob or wattles for necessary uses, they find a way yearly to levy fines for cutting of green wood, and killing fry or fish in pro hibit time, that makes a revenue to these offices, and is a constant tax upon the people." As the bailiary of Carrick was peculiar, so was the constitution of the town of Maybole. The same writer observes, that it " is neither, a burgh royal, for it sends no commissioner to Parliament, nor is it merely a burgh of barony, such having only a power to keep markets, and a magistracy settled among them, in dependence on the baron of the place. But here it is quite otherwise, for they have a charter from the king, erecting them into a burgh, with a town council of sixteen per sons."* When its well-endowed collegiate church sent forth its sleek ecclesiastics to vie with the civil dignitaries, Maybole was a place of note and consequence. The noble bailie and his taxing depute now no longer salute the provost and rector, and the county gentry have long ceased to flock to the bailie's court ; but there were persons not long ago alive who had a faint recollection of Maybole being a " genteel town," where the descendants of some ancient families still lingered. The edifices which owe their existence to the same cause have, however, survived them. To its ancient importance this village is indebted for several baronial remains, such as one meets with but rarely even in larger towns. The Earl of Cassilis, with many of the other gentry of Carrick, had their city mansions or hotels in Maybole, as the chief nobility of the empire now have their town houses in London. The Tolbooth, of which the tower has some Gothic details — a rare feature in the baronial antiquities of Scotland — was thus the town residence of the Kennedies of Blairquhan, who had their territorial fortalice in the neighbouring parish of Straiton. The other tower, com monly called " the castle," of which two engravings have been given, was the hotel of a still more potent personage — the Earl of Cassilis, and the Bailie of Carrick — so that it possessed something like the same importance as the government house of a colony. A strange instance of the Bailie's power, and the manner in which it was used, occurred at the commencement of the seventeenth century. Having ascertained that his enemy, Kennedy of Bargany, a cadet of his own family, was to pass through Carrick, he issued forth from Maybole Castle, with two hundred armed followers, determined to intercept bim, and pay off some old score of feudal ven geance. Bargany was accompanied by Muir of Auchindrane, and a few armed followers ; but they were quite insufficient to withstand the forces of the Bailie, who carried away his enemy's bleeding body to the castle. The advice on which he acted was an instance of the savage calculating coolness * Description of Carrick, by Mr Abercrummie, minister of Minibole — Historical Account of the Families of Kennedy, p. 175. Maybole, 1 — 2. 2 MAYBOLE. of the age. He would have slain Bargany outright in cold blood. But his followers thought it would be prudent to wait, and see if the object had not been already accomplished. " But all me lordis menne thocht he was bot deid, in respect of the aboundanse of bluid that he had bled, counsellit me lord to tak him with him, and thair sie his woundis: and giff thay war nocht deidly, than to tak his lyfe by \a,w, for he wes Judge ordiner of the country. V* This stretch of magisterial power was un necessary, as the wounded man did not live many hours ; but even "the judge ordinary of the country ' ' had some reason to fear unpleasant consequences from the transaction. The Countess took horse and rode in haste to Edinburgh, to bespeak the interest of her powerful connections; and on the pay ment of a considerable fine, Cassilis; obtained an act of council justifying him, as having acted in the service of the king. But thefre were avengers of a different kind aroused, and the slaughter of Bargany was the inducement to- a series of crimes so remarkable that .they deeply interested Sir Walter Scott, and induced him. to- dramatise them in his Ayrshire Tragedy. Muir of Auchindrane, Bargany 's brother-in-law,- had, had. many conferences .with Kennedy of Culzean about reconciling the family feuds, which, ended in .Culzean being waylaid to. a solitary place, and murdered. Auch indrane was charged' with the -murder; but it could hot have been, shown that he had made an assignation with Culzean, had it not happened that, his messenger, arriving at Maybole, where Culzean was living, got a poor scholar, of the name of Dalrimple to convey the answer to his master. The existence of Dalrijnple was a spectre haunting Auchindrane's existence. Various efforts were made to keep him in. distant lands, but he ever returned ; and at last, with the assistance of an indi vidual named Bannatyne,. he was murdered. Being buried in the sand within high water mark, the waves exposed his body, and. several means devised to hide it proved ineffectual. This deed only made, a new accuser, in' Bannatyne, whose life was next sought ; and having more to fear, apparently, frohv the' vengeance pf his,fmasterJthan:the sword of justice, he- confessed-, the series .of iniquities. Maybole Castle has.been. allied, with another sad and wild incident, which, however, has no surer foundation than traditiph. ' The lovers of popular poetry will remember the ballad of Johnny Faa, commencing with — •¦¦¦.-, " The gipsies came .to our ha' door, And oh but they sang bonny — ' They sang sae sweet, and sae complete, •.,:,. 'i , .That down came -our bonny ladie." Whenever ;they, .saw her beauty, they cast the "glamour." or spell over her, and she was com pelled to, follow: .the^gipsy. leader. This ballad has been' referred to the, conduct of the. wife of John, sixth EarLof , Cassilis,, an austere man and .a resolute Covenanter. The'.tradition says that, after having been^several jjpars married, and having given birth to several children, she was visited by her formerjover in the disguise of .a gipsy, followed by some desperate characters. She agreed to'.elope with»him ; butTthe whiJle.band were;seized by her stern lord, arid'pnt to death before her eyes. The Castle of .Maybole>was.assigned her as a place :of residence or confinement ; and tra dition, which. is always. ingenious in adapting itself to existing realities, says, that the heads which so prettily deqqrate' the >, small* oriel window of the tower, are sculptural portraits of the lady's parampjir and;his*ban.d—the^ crown on the principal-head representing the royalty pf the gipsy kingy ! ,-=* :¦¦•'!:••- ' ' * History of the Kennedyis, p. SO. f See the story of the Countess of Cassilis, in Chambers's Pictures of Scotland, i. 291. Jh-aAvroby B-W.BQluxys EngrcwecL hy J Godfrey . KfflAinBOlLIE, A.TRSIBIEISIK Bdu'ibzi^yJuBXih li/hed; hy Wilfuzrn, Blachwood, & Sons. MELROSE ABBEY. In our endeavours to satisfy curiosity as to the history of many a Scottish ruin, extensive researches have often ended in the discovery of some mere shapeless scraps, of which it were hard to say whether the search for them in obscure quarters, or making any intelligible use of them when they were found, was the harder task. In Melrose Abbey, materials are proffered from the most accessible quarters, abundant and open-handed — so much so, that the whole world may be said to possess them, and it would be presumptuous to expect to offer anything with which every reader is not already familiar. All the tourists in Scotland who are put into the proper -t groove for seeing " what one should see," are as infallibly sure to find themselves at Melrose, as the traveller on a railway line to reach the first station. Not that they carry away any very distinct impression of it — they have seen it, and that is enough. Indeed, universally and unexcep- tionally as they flock thither, it is possible that many of them, were they to confess all, would admit a feeling of disappointed expectation in the nature and effect of the ruin — for it is not of the kind best calculated to satisfy vulgar curiosity. It is not a large building ; and there is somethin g in its perfect finish and proportion that makes it look smaller than it is. Nor is this external and distant effect lessened, it is rather heightened, by the fine amphitheatre in which the ruin stands — a broad glen of meadow and forest, with the Tweed winding majestically past, and the triple-topped Eildon Hills raising their graceful forms to the sky. It is the student of architecture who will, after all, appreciate the ruin ; and he will find its merits >t sufficient entirely to overcome any prejudice he may have formed against the mere tourist's favourite. He will find that the building, both in the great features of its design, and in its decorations, has a lightness and delicate symmetry quite peculiar. In some buildings the plan is massive, and the decorations, as if in contrast to it, light and rich ; in others, a. building comparatively meagre is enriched by the massiveness of the decorations ; but here the art both of the designer and the decorator — whether the same person or different — has been employed to the utmost in divesting the material of its natural character of ponderosity, and rearing high overhead a fane, such as aerial beings might be supposed to create with the most ductile and delicate materials. The stone, skilfully chosen for the artist's purpose, is capable of remarkable delicacy of cutting, and preserves its sharpness against even the mouldering winds of Scotland. In this it much resembles the stone of which Strasburg Cathedral is built ; and there is a similarity of style in the two, and especially in the masses of masonry being disguised by light open decorations, which seem to hang over them like lace. There are some features in which it is not unlike Antwerp Cathedral — as, for instance, in the tiny turrets or machicolations at the corner of the tower, which Scott adapted • to his mansion at Abbotsford. Eickman and other architectural critics treat Melrose as a mixture of the early English and the < , perpendicular, while some features from the intermediate period, and even from the earlier Norman, somewhat disturb the amalgamation. But this is treating by rules derived from English analysis a building which was free of all English principles. It has been necessary to notice repeatedly in this work, that, after the War of Independence, the ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland rather Meleose Abbey, 1—4. 2 MELROSE ABBEY. followed Continental than English models. The style which Mr Eickman classes as perpendicular was peculiarly of English growth. It was never adopted in Scotland, though certainly the style of Melrose makes a nearer approach to it than that of any other northern building. It is believed that in no ecclesiastical building in Scotland will the depressed or four-centred arch, which predominates in Henry VII.'s Chapel, Christ Church, and Windsor, be found. The ogee-shaped canopy or hood, its counterpart, is however to be found in Melrose ; while the arch it surmounts is the purely pointed. So it is in the door and the beautiful window of the south transept. The former has the. arch within a square encasement, very closely resembling the shafts and spandrils which are a notable characteristic of the English perpendicular. A recess in the cloisters, in the accompanying engraving, is still more strikingly like the perpendicular, and would probably, were it not for the more ancient character of the superincumbent architecture, be assigned to the same late period. On the other hand, the door beside it — probably in reality of the same period, and planned by the same architect — has been set down by those who have not noticed the later character of its decorations as a work of the Norman period. In the windows, the arrangements of the tracery will be seen to partake more of the flamboyant Continental style than of the more diagrammatic and less rich and flexible forms of the English perpendicular. Still, in the celebrated east window, the slender shafts passing straight to the arch have been held to be a feature of the perpendicular style. Of this piece of tracery, the description by Scott (who calls it what it is not — an oriel) is so accurate that, often as it has been quoted, it will serve better on this occasion than dull prose — " The moon on the east oriel shone Through slender shafts of stately stone, By foliaged tracery combined : Thou wouldst have thought some fairy's hand 'Twist poplars straight the osier wand In many a freakish knot had twined, Then framed a spell when the work was done, And changed the willow wreathes to stone." The absence of distant effect or display in the disposal of the architecture, when contrasted with the extreme beauty discoverable on a close examination of the decorations, might be adduced as an illustration of that spirit of devotion which criticism has been fond of assigning as the true ruling spirit of medieval ecclesiastical architecture. The building was not, according to the views of these critics, an object of human observation, but an offering by devotion of the produce of human skill and industry to their Almighty Giver. Hence, as we find in Strasburg that the mouldings reared four hundred feet up in the air are as exquisitely finished as if they had been to stand on the floor of the " Crystal Palace," so in the obscure corners and crypts of the Scottish abbey, and on the bastions of the tower — whether patent to the everyday visitor, or approachable only with peril, and perceptible by artificial lights — the perfection of the chiselling is the same. The guides are in tbe habit of sticking a straw through the openings of the floral carving, and passing it out at another opening, to show that the work is genuineyfinished within as without. It would almost satisfy the demands of Mr Euskin, who appears to consider that leaving the invisible unfinished is about as serious a crime as forging. The abbey had been properly decorated with statues, which of course suffered so severely from the iconoclastic zeal of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries that one wonders to find some vestiges of them still existing. The bases of the grand arches, the gurgoils, brackets, and finials are full of sculptural decorations — some graceful, some grotesque. Of the former may be mentioned MELROSE ABBEY. 3 a hand projecting from the wall, and holding a bunch of flowers, which forms the solid corbel of an arch. Some of these representations are of that sarcastically grotesque and irreverent kind the appearance of which, in sacred places, and amidst objects tending to produce the highest and most refined thoughts, has puzzled the ecclesiologist. Many of them are cut with remarkable freedom, reminding one of the artistic character of some of the sculpture in the old rambling Cathedral of Mentz. One of the bosses, representing an anxious and sinister Oriental coun tenance, has been applied to a useful purpose by the guides. An ancient slab with a simple cross passes traditionally for the tomb of the wizard Michael Scott. The public who visit the ruin desire to have some notion of the wizard's personal appearance, and the boss mounted on some fragments of moulding, which serve pretty well for drapery, used to be pointed out by the keeper as the vera effigies of him who cleft Eildon Hills in three, and bridled the Tweed with a curb of stone. HISTOEICAL SKETCH. The history of the abbey is rich in materials, were there room on the present occasion for apply ing them to use. The position of the earliest religious house bearing the name of Melrose was about two miles farther down the Tweed, where the river, making a fine sweep, nearly insulates a rich haugh or meadow of alluvial soil. The place is still marked by the village of Old Melrose, with its picturesque houses and numerous dial-plates. Here the first indistinct tracings of a religious house are connected with the introduction of Christianity, and the patronage, in the seventh century, of Oswald, King of Northumbria, under whose protection the celebrated Eata, a disciple of the still more celebrated Aidan, is spoken of as the first superior of a Culdee brother hood at Melrose. The abbey, where it now stands, was founded by that great ecclesiastic patron, King David, in the year 1136, for Ciscertian monks. The second abbot was a man of great note in the Calendar — St Waltheof, Walthen, or Waldeve. Many notices of this famous man will be found in Fordun's Scotichronicon. He is commemorated in the annals of the Cistertians, and Butler's Lives of the Saints ; but the most complete biography, or collection of notices, will be found in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bolandists, under his day in the Calendar — the 3d of August. His history is curious in a national view. His grandfather was the son of Siward, the Saxon Count of Northumberland, a great supporter of his native race against the Norman Conqueror, by whom he was beheaded. His tomb, at Croyland, was a reliquary celebrated for its miracles, which have been fully recorded in a chronicle. His daughter, the mother of the abbot, was married to Simon, Earl of Huntingdon. On the death of his father, his mother married the young Prince, who became afterwards David I. of Scotland. Waltheof was thus doubly allied to the representatives of the old Saxon house, and could not well help being involved in the disputes which the jealousy of the Norman monarchs of England created between them and the King of Scots. Thus King Stephen opposed his elevation to the see of York, as an event likely to give a powerful influence to the rival house. The biographers of the saints say that he was not ambitious, and sought humilities and austerities ; but it is hardly uncharitable to suppose that part of the asceticism may have arisen from disappointment. In the discipline of the simple Cistertians, he found the plain food, the long vigils, and the coarse raiment which he desired ; and in 1148, he was transferred from Eievalle to be the head of the Abbey of Melrose. Many miracles are recorded of him, of which perhaps the most original and eccentric is this : At the administration of the Eucharist, the presiding priest was afraid to drink the consecrated wine as there was a spider in it, and he feared that the presence of the animal poisoned the liquor. Waltheof authoritatively directed him to drink. He did so, and felt no evil effects at first ; but soon afterwards, when in the refectory with his brethren, he felt a titillation, and then a swelling at the point of his finger. At last it opened, and the identical spider that had been in the chalice walked forth. Some of his other miracles, if less curious, were more important, such as the continuous supply to the inhabitants of Tweeddale of grain in a season of scarcity and famine. Still greater events, however, are recorded under the head of " Incorruptio sacri corporis, et multis cegris sanitas restituta ad sepulchrum sancti." Several times his body was raised to gratify the senses of smell and sight by the diffusion of sweet odours, and the contemplation of its wonderful preservation. One of his successors, finding the throngs who frequented the tomb inconvenient, closed the mortuary chapel where his relics reposed, alleging that their miraculous attributes were a fable; but he was, not without some reason, charged with acting on motives of mere jealousy. MELROSE ABBEY. 5 In the wars with the English invaders the monastery suffered many casualties and reverses. Fealty was exacted from its superiors, and letters of protection were granted in return ; but living so close to the Border, the tide of conflict swept repeatedly over them, leaving devastation behind. The Order seem to have had the interest of Scotland warmly at heart — a feeling not always prevalent among the rich churchmen, many of whom were of Norman origin. A very decided front was made by the brotherhood on Edward II. 's invasion in 1322. In his retreat he intended to rest at Melrose. Douglas was then at the head of his guerilla band in the neighbouring forest, and resolved to molest the English army. The brotherhood warmly seconded him, and he was secretly admitted, with a following of picked men, within the precinct of the abbey. According to Barbour, there was sent to reconnoitre the enemy " a richt sturdy freer," " that wes all stout, derft, and hardy." " Upon a stalwart horss he rad, And in his hand he had a sper : And abaid upon that manor Quhil that he saw them cummand near, And quhen the fermost passit wer The coynge — he cryit, ' Douglas, Douglas ! ' Than till them all a course he mass, And bar ane down delyverly. And Douglas and his company Ischyt upon them with a shout." The advanced party, thus repulsed, fell back upon the main body ; and Fordun and the other chroniclers inform us that the incensed monarch took vengeance on the abbey, wrecking the buildings, slaying the brethren, and profanely carrying off the silver pix for holding the sacramental wafer. Eichly endowed, and close to the Border, the monastery suffered from the subsidiary invasions of the English. A curious circumstance is recorded of Eichard II. Having slept a night at Melrose in the year 1385, it appears that the building was burned next day by his troops. This devastation seems to have touched his conscience, for he granted to the monks, in compensation for it, " a deduction of 2d. on each of 1000 sacks of wool exported by them from Berwick." The privilege was speedily withdrawn, on the plea that the monks tried to take undue advantage of it.* Meanwhile the brotherhood had lost a good friend in the heroic King Eobert the Bruce. Among the muniments of the foundation there is a very curious document, in which King Eobert commends the brotherhood, with great affection and warmth, to the pious charge of his son and successor David, stating that he intends the monastery to be the depositary of his heart.f The subsequent history of that heart in the adventurous custody of Douglas is well known. It was brought back from Spain, and, according to tradition, ultimately deposited within the abbey. The present buildings are all of a date posterior to these events, and no portion of them appears ' to be older than the fifteenth century. In their revival, after the War of Independence, the humble Cistertians waxed proud and powerful, and became noted for a pomp and luxury well attested by the architectural remains of their church and cloister. Their indulgence in the grosser propensities was ridiculed by the ribald wits of the Eeformation, in verses of which the cleverness is more conspicuous than the delicacy. In the wars of Henry VIII. this brotherhood had suffered the wreck of their beautiful building, and the Eeformation, speedily following, swept their establishment before it. Connected with the prevalence of the French forms of architecture * Origines Parochiales, i. 224. t Munimenta de Melros, 329. b MELROSE ABBEY. in this and the other Scottish ecclesiastical buildings of a late date, there is a curious inscription within the walls of Melrose which deserves the notice of the architectural antiquary. It is on a tablet near a small door leading to a gallery on thte west side of the south transept. It contains the following inscription : — " John Murdb Sometime callit was I, And born in Parysse certainly, And had in keping al mason werk, Of Sant-Androys, ye hye kirk Of Glasgu, Melros, and Paslay, Of Nyddysdayll and of Galway. , Pray to God and Mary baith, And. sweet Sanct John, to keep this haly Kirk'fra scaith." The stone-cutter has packed the words where he could find room for them, without respect for the rhyming form in which they are here copied. The inscription cannot well be older than the sixteenth century ; and it is not likely that Murdo, whose name would indicate a Scottish origin, performed any functions beyond repairs and restorations. JJrami hv lUVBtlluuK JL/z ui s JZivqrtived, hy (r £ Smitfu. S@UTH TIE Alf SHIFT ©IF MIEILm.®SIl . EdinJ.in,,!,. Pllhhslicd hv InOniin Bl.u-kuood S.- Ureumi, hy It WBilinuis £}z,irjxrd h\ G'B. Smith W@]ETIHI TH.AHSEF1 ©F MlSILll^SE . diuhnroh Pnhli.d,,,! /¦, I'iillmm Blaok n-oo.l Sc So Dnum Iv RWBiJJu Bnm.nvd iv d-li'dili tH-TERIOB OF THE F.ASTEn-I KNT>. Eihid'iu;,!,., PiMisli.-d I: ll'dh.u,, Bl,„k;ooo,l ,(¦ do MICHAEL KIRK, ELGINSHIRE. The ecclesiologist who, wandering along the lonely shore of the Moray Firth, stumbles on this grey, remote, deserted-looking edifice, may probably at first be puzzled by its appearance, — it has an air of decision and genuineness, especially in its spiral character, so different from many modern squat imitations of Gothic. Some of its details, too, are taken from genuine old specimens. The outline of the tall window and the form of its mullions correspond pretty well with the tran sition of the earliest pointed to the second period. Even its eccentricities — such as the cherubim spread across the transoms — might be not unexemplified among the caprices of the old masons. But, on a close examination, the edifice bears unmistakable marks of being a comparatively modern imitation of early Gothic ; and, indeed, engraven on the wall will be found the date 1705, when it is known to have been built. It will be interesting to compare this attempt to restore or imitate an old art, with the earlier similar effort exhibited in the parish church of Dairsie, which has a place in this collection. The comparison will tell strongly in favour of the northern specimen, as more characteristically accurate, and more admirable as a work of art, while it takes a still wider range in superiority to the cabinetmaker Gothic of Strawberry Hill. Since it has been found, in the present age, so tedious and gradual a task for our best practical architects to restore the true spirit of our ancestral ecclesiastical masonry, it is certainly a curious and an inte resting fact to find, in a remote neglected district, so remarkable an instance of obscure skill and taste. The parish of Drainy, in which Michael Kirk stands, was formed by the- union of two parishes, Kinedar and Ogstown, or Ogyston. The church of the former was the cathedral of the province before its removal, first to Spynie, and afterwards to Elgin. The remains of this ancient fane may still be traced, and beside it is some shapeless stone-work, the remnant of the bishop's stronghold. " The old church of Ogstown," it is stated in the original Statistical Account of Scotland, " is now converted into a burying-place for the family of Gordonston, and was rebuilt some time ago, with great taste, in the ancient Gothic style." Perhaps the remains of the old church may have formed, in some respects, a model for the restoration ; and at all events the Morayshire designer had around him abundant materials for study. It is quite possible that the superiority of his work, over the later imitations of Gothic by educated architects, may have arisen from his having been a simple unlearned mechanic, who, untrained in the classical forms which were then alone deemed worthy of imitation, may have entirely imbibed his notions of ornamental masonic structure from Elgin and Pluscardin. The family of Gordon of Gordonston, who had the good taste thus to select their burial- place, had a somewhat remarkable history. They were a branch of the great Sutherland family. The first baronet was the author of a work well known to investigators of the history of the northern provinces — " A Genealogical History of the Earldom of Sutherland, from its origin to the year 1630" — published from his MS., in a large folio volume, in 1812. Sir Michael Kirk, Elginshire, 1 — 2. MICHAEL KIEK, ELGINSHIRE. Eobert wrote his history in the true spirit of a. Highland feudal partisan, who would sacrifice everything — truth itself included — to his own kin and clan, and who mortally hated his feudal enemies. Sir Eobert's book had the remarkable effect, in the great Sutherland case, of supplying evidence against the title of his descendants to the peerage. He had been educated " in learning ;and virtue," as he informs ns} at St Andrews, and subsequently travelled much, occasionally in diplomatic capacities. He was a busy* -stirrer in all the troubles of the north in the early part of the seventeenth century, and was the first to receive the dignity of a Baronet of Noya .Scotia — "The order," as he, terms -it, " of Knights Baronets in Old Scotland, for the furtherance of the plantation of ;New Scotland in America — being the true mean of honor between a barone of Parliament arid a, knight^" The family were subsequently remarkable for the magnificent library collected by them, and for a devotion to literature unusual in a race .of' Scottish north country lairds. The Sir Robert Gordon whose father must haye built the family mausoleum, had, in his day, the reputation of. being a dealer.; in the black art, and was known by the name of Sir Robert the Wizard; , He was. a' < scholar, and a studious man. He collected the greater part of the family, library, and Was partial to 'the works of .those investigators ; of -the, mysteries of nature in. the sixteenth and .seventeenth centuries,,, who. mixed supernatural : and purely imaginative agency: with their meagre experimental .deductions. He had, travelled much, was of retired habits, caring, little. , to, mingle with the. neighbouring' gentry, for ; whom he had probably considerable contempt. To such elements in the foundation of' his necrbm antic reputation, there, were added a strange eccentric manner — an aspect of remarkable, and almost appalling gloom,- arid ijthe fact of his : having ; built, for his place; of residence a heavy dark mansion, gloomy as himself. Sir Robert was one of the prototypes of Peter Sehliminel,. and was currently, believed >to .have ,no shadow. The form of the legend in his case is creditable, to bis ingenuity in;ontwittingrthe'evil'one< He .had been* a,, member of. a guild, or college for the study of- the: black art, ", who iad covenanted, in re/turn for .the diabolical knowledge they received, to eorisigri one of their number, chosen by lot, annually to Satan. The .lot fell one -year on Sir! Robertj who .was bo-rindjto golast out of .their den, that Satan might have an opportunity of catching him. But, his shadow 'falling strongly on the wall, he poirited it out as the allotted victim; stupid 'Satah turned -ahd 'caught it, arid'-the substance .escaped. Many a.Morayshire peasant believed "that he; ha