Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys Part 7

CHAPTER VI

SCOTTISH MONASTICISM

The old Celtic monastic system, with Iona as its centre, was superseded by the monastic system of the Roman Church in the eleventh century, and the old Culdee monks were either driven from their ancient settlements or compelled to become Augustinian canons or Benedictine monks. The life of Queen Margaret marks the period of transition in Scotland from the old system to that of the Church of Rome both in building and in every other department, and what Queen Margaret began, her sons, Edgar, Alexander and David completed. St. Margaret had a monk of Durham for her chaplain; Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury, was her chosen counsellor.

She introduced Benedictines from Canterbury into her foundation at Dunfermline. Edgar and Alexander took for their adviser St.

Anselm--Lanfranc's successor, preferred English priests, and peopled the monasteries with English monks. David was even more earnest in the pursuit of this policy, and the kings who followed him found little to "Anglicise." Saxon refugees were followed into Scotland by Norman knights; these were received by David and presented with lands, and the extent of their possessions is apparent in the names of the proprietors settled in every part of the country. The policy is apparent: their settlement helped to keep the country in order, and defend it from the attacks of the unsubdued tribes in the north and west. It also helped to facilitate the spread of the Roman Catholic system throughout the country. "The new colonists," says Dr. Cosmo Innes, "were of the 'upper cla.s.ses' of Anglican families long settled in Northumbria, and Normans of the highest blood and name. They were men of the sword, above all service and mechanical employment. They were fit for the society of court, and many became the chosen companions of our princes. The old native people gave way before them, or took service under the strong-handed strangers, who held lands by the written gift of the sovereign."[307] ... "The new settlers were of the progressive party, friends of civilisation and the Church. They had found churches on their manors, or if not already there, had founded them. To each of these manorial churches the lord of the manor now made a grant of the t.i.thes of his estate; his right to do so does not seem to have been questioned, and forthwith the manor--t.i.thed to its church--became what we now call a parish."[308] Examples of these parish churches have already been considered, and the two-fold movement of a cathedral system with parochial benefices was continued for a time. It was the most effective way of superseding the old Celtic church, and the policy was throughout inspired by the aim of subst.i.tuting the parochial system with a diocesan episcopacy for the old tribal churches with monastic jurisdiction and functional episcopacy. But this was accompanied by a third movement, which to a very great extent paralysed it, and became a source of weakness to religion. The parochial system was shipwrecked when scarcely formed by the introduction of monasticism, which was then in the ascendant throughout Europe. "The new monks," says Dr. Cosmo Innes, "of the reformed rule of St. Benedict or canons of St. Augustine, pushing aside the poor lapsarian Culdees, won the veneration of the people by their zealous teaching and asceticism.... The church, too, with all its dues and pertinents, was bestowed on the monastery and its patron saint for ever, reserving only a pittance for a poor priest to serve the cure, or sometimes allowing the monks to serve it by one of their own brethren. William the Lion gave thirty-three parishes to the new monastery of Arbroath, dedicated to the latest and most fashionable High Church saint, Thomas a Becket."[309]

The Church thus became territorial instead of tribal; episcopal instead of abbatial, and the new abbeys began to acquire large territory in the country. By the end of the thirteenth century the old line of Celtic kings closed in Alexander, and the movement was complete; the Church had ceased to be Celtic in usage and character, and had become Roman. This stream of tendency came from the south, and cathedrals with abbeys were const.i.tuted after English models. "Of the Scottish sees, all," says Dr.

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

David, and their cathedral const.i.tutions were formally copied from English models. Thus the chapter of Glasgow took that of Salisbury for its guide. Dunkeld copied from the same type, venerable in its a.s.sociations with the name of St. Osmund, whose "Use of Sarum" obtained generally throughout Scotland. Elgin or Moray sent to Lincoln for its pattern, and transmitted it, with certain modifications, to Aberdeen and to Caithness. So it was also with the monasteries. Canterbury was the mother of Dunfermline; Durham, of Coldingham; St. Oswald's at Nosthill, near Pontefract, was the parent of Scone, and through that house, of St.

Andrews and Holyrood. Melrose and Dundrennan were daughters of Rievaux, in the North Riding. Dryburgh was the offspring of Alnwick; Paisley, of Wenlock."[310]

Roman monasticism thus became an important factor in Scottish life, and it is true to say that for a very considerable period the history both of piety and civilisation in Scotland was the history of its monasticism. It was a stage in the national development, a movement in religious progress, and it was only abolished when the salt had lost its savour, when monasticism had ceased to be spiritual and had become worldly and corrupt. The system had served its day in helping to educate the nation, and when its purpose was achieved it pa.s.sed away.

Mediaeval architecture was, too, the outcome of the leisure in the cloister, and the men who designed and built those venerable temples must have been men to whom their work was their religion, and who regarded it as the way of honouring G.o.d. One cannot look at their architecture without realising how true are Ruskin's definitions of Art:--"Art has for its business to praise G.o.d."[311] "Great Art is the expression of a G.o.d-made great man."[312] "Art is the expression of delight in G.o.d's work."[313] "All great art is praise." "Art is the exponent of ethical life."[314] One cannot look at their ruins and not recall that by their destruction a beauty has pa.s.sed away from the earth; one cannot read of the rude forces that destroyed them, and not see that the judgment on things is always on character, and that the last testing principle is, "See--not what manner of stones, _but what manner of men_." While we deplore the forces that destroyed, we have also to deplore the indefensible lives of the monks which at their last stage stirred such forces to their depths.

There were four princ.i.p.al rules, under which might be cla.s.sed all the religious orders. (1) _That of St. Basil_, which prevailed by degrees over all the others in the East, and which is retained by all the Oriental monks; (2) _That of St. Augustine_, which was adopted by the regular canons, the order of Premontre, the order of the Preaching Brothers or Dominicans, and several military orders. (3) _That of St.

Benedict_, which, adopted successively by all the monks of the West, still remained the common rule of the monastic order, properly so called, up to the thirteenth century; the orders of the Camaldules of Vallombrosa, of the Carthusians, and of Citeaux recognised this rule as the basis of their special const.i.tutions, although the name of monk of St. Benedict or Benedictine monk may still be specially a.s.signed to others. (4) _The Rule of St. Francis_ signalised the advent of the Mendicant orders in the thirteenth century. It is to be noted that the denomination of monks is not generally attributed to the religious who follow the rule of St. Augustine, nor to the Mendicant orders.[315]

The canonical hours at which the monastic bell regularly summoned the monks were seven in number:--(1) Prime, about 6 A.M.; (2) Tierce, about 9 A.M.; (3) s.e.xt, about noon; (4) Nones, from 2 to 3 P.M.; (5) Vespers, about 4 P.M. or later; (6) Compline, 7 P.M.; (7) Matins and Lauds, about midnight.

Scottish monasticism exhibited the expansion of the two main streams--the Augustinian and the Benedictine, and each subsequent order is to be regarded as an endeavour towards reform. s.p.a.ce will only permit us to deal with the Augustinian establishments at St. Andrews, Holyrood, and Jedburgh; with the Premonstratensian abbey of Dryburgh; with the Benedictine abbey of Dunfermline; with the Cluniacensian abbey of Paisley; with the Tyronensian abbeys of Kelso and Arbroath; with the Cistercian abbey of Melrose. The Premonstratensian order was a reform on the Augustinian, and the Cluniacensian, Tyronensian, and Cistercian orders, reforms on the Benedictine order. A study of their history and architecture in representative forms will introduce us to the piety and beauty of former days, as well as to an order of things very different from our own.[316]

_St. Andrew's Priory._--The priory or Augustinian monastery was situated to the south of the cathedral (_q.v._), and was founded by Bishop Robert in 1144. The structure has now almost disappeared. It comprised about twenty acres, and was enclosed about 1516 by Prior John Hepburn with a magnificent wall, which, starting at the north-east corner of the cathedral, pa.s.sed round by the harbour and along behind the houses, till it joined the walls of St. Leonard's College on the south-west.

This, about a mile in extent, is all that now remains, but it is thought at one time to have pa.s.sed back from the college to the cathedral. The wall has thirteen turrets, and each has a canopied niche for an image. The portion towards the sh.o.r.e has a parapet on each side, as if designed for a walk. There were three gateways, the chief of which, on the S.W., is known as the Pends, and of which considerable ruins still remain. Another gateway is near the harbour, and the third was on the S. side. Martine in his _Reliquiae Divi Andreae_ mentions that in his time fourteen buildings were discernible besides the cathedral and St. Rule's Chapel. Among these were the Prior's House or the old inn to the S.E. of the cathedral, of which only a few vaults now remain; the cloisters, W. of this house, and now the garden of a private house, in the quadrangle of which the Senzie Fair used to be held, beginning in the second week of Easter, and continuing for fifteen days; the Senzie House, or house of the sub-prior, subsequently used as an inn, but now pulled down and the site occupied by a private house. The refectory was on the S. side of the cloister, and has now disappeared, as well as the dormitory between the Prior's House and the cloister, and from which Edward I. carried off all the lead to supply his battering machines at the siege of Stirling. The Guests' Hall was within the precincts of St. Leonard's College, S.W. of Pend's Lane; the Teinds' Barn, Abbey Mill, and Granary were all to the S.W. The new inn, the latest of all the buildings, was erected for the reception of Magdalene, the first wife of James V. The young queen, of delicate const.i.tution, was advised by her physicians to reside here; she did not live to occupy the house, as she died on 7th July 1537, six weeks after her arrival in Scotland. It was for a short time the residence of Mary of Guise when she first arrived in Scotland, and after the priory was annexed to the archbishopric in 1635 the building became the residence of the later archbishops. Several of its canons had sympathies with the Scottish Reformation. The prior of St. Andrews had superiority over the priories of Pittenweem, Lochleven, Monymusk, and the Isle of May, and was also a lord of regality. In Parliament he took precedence of all priors, and he, his sub-prior, and canons formed the cathedral chapter. The priory possessed in all thirty-two churches or their great t.i.thes. From 1144 to 1535 there were twenty-five priors; from 1535 to 1586 the lands were in the possession of the Earl of Murray and Robert Stewart, as lay commendators; from 1586 to 1606 they were held by the Crown; from 1606 to 1635 by the Duke of Lennox; from 1635 to 1639 by the Archbishop of St. Andrews; from 1639 to 1661 by the University; from 1661 to 1688 by the archbishop again; from 1688 by the Crown. The part within the abbey wall was sold by the Commissioners of Woods and Forests to the United Colleges.[317]

_Holyrood Abbey (Midlothian)._--The abbey of Holyrood was founded by King David I. in 1128 for the canons regular of the order of St.

Augustine, and was dedicated in honour of the holy cross or rood brought to Scotland by his mother, Queen Margaret. This cross, called the Black Rood of Scotland, fell into the hands of the English at the battle of Neville's Cross in 1346. The abbey was several times burned by the English, and the nave on the last of these occasions, 1547, was repaired with the ruins of the choir and transepts. This was used as the parish church till 1672, when it was converted into the chapel royal. In 1687 it was set apart by King James VII. for the service of the Roman Catholic Church, but was plundered and again burned at the Revolution in the following year. It remained neglected until 1758, when it was repaired and roofed; the new roof, proving too heavy for the walls, fell with a crash in 1768, destroying all the new work. It suffered neglect again till 1816, when it was repaired, and in 1857 it was still further improved.

The abbey early became the occasional abode of the kings of Scotland, and James II. was born, crowned, married, and buried in it. The foundations of a palace apart from the abbey were laid in the time of James IV., Edinburgh having then become the acknowledged capital of the country. Holyrood Palace was henceforth the chief seat of the Scottish sovereigns. In it the nuptials of James IV. were celebrated; here also Mary Queen of Scots took up her abode in 1561 on her return from France, and here James VI. dwelt much before his accession to the throne of England in 1603.

The abbey church was beautiful in its architecture and of great size. It consisted of nave, choir, transepts with aisles, and probably lady chapel to the east, two western towers, and a tower over the crossing; but of all that splendid structure there now only remain the ruins of the nave and one western tower.

The surviving nave is in a ruinous state and consists of eight bays, the main piers of which are complete on the south side, but only represented by two fragments on the north side.[318] The vaulting of the south aisle still survives, but that of the north aisle is gone.

The north wall of the aisle still stands, and the east and west ends of the nave are restored. The N.W. tower is still preserved, but the companion tower at the S.W. angle was demolished when the palace was rebuilt in the seventeenth century. Some remains of the cloister are still observable on the S. side of the nave.

The chief part of the architecture is p.r.o.nounced to be first pointed, but the doorway at the S.E. angle, which led from the cloister into the nave is p.r.o.nounced to be of genuine though late Norman architecture. There was a nook shaft on either side, the divided cushion caps of which survive. The arch is round and contains two orders, both ornamented with zigzags. These orders are enclosed with a label, containing a double row of square facets and sinkings.

Some alterations have taken place adjoining the doorway, and two of the windows, that over the doorway and that to the west of it, are circular-headed and have a Norman character in their nook shafts and cushion caps. These windows were probably constructed in imitation of Norman windows which existed there originally. It is not improbable that the choir was built before the nave, and was of Norman work, and this supposition is regarded as accounting for the Norman work found at the first bay of the nave, and which may have been erected in connection with the choir and crossing.

The oldest part of the nave after the S.E. doorway is the wall of the north aisle. The windows above the arcade are single lancets, one in each bay. The south wall of the south aisle is similarly designed, but the details are different and of a rather later character. The lower story contains a wall arcade having single pointed arches, with first pointed mouldings. The windows over the arcade correspond generally to those in the north wall, and are all pointed except the two east bays already mentioned. The lower part of the exterior of the south wall, running westward from the Norman doorway, is arcaded with a series of large pointed arches, each enclosing five smaller pointed arches, and with a plain wall s.p.a.ce between the large and small arches. The above large arches were the wall arches for a groined roof over the cloister walk, but whether that vault was ever built it is now regarded as impossible to say.

The vaulting of both aisles has apparently been similar, but the south aisle alone retains it, which is of a simple character, consisting of transverse and diagonal ribs.

The main arcade of the nave has consisted of eight bays; the triforium is divided into two arches in each bay by a single central shaft, springing from a corbel over the apex of each arch of the main arcade, and running up to the string-course beneath the clerestory. This would suggest the view that the vaulting was s.e.x-part.i.te. Each arch of the triforium is acutely pointed, and contains two smaller pointed arches within it, each of which has an inner trefoiled arch. The tympanum of the large arch is pierced with a quatrefoil or trefoil. To counteract the weakening tendency of the triforium pa.s.sage, saving arches, as may be seen from the south, have been introduced to carry the chief pressure across from main pier to main pier. A similar strengthening arch exists in the outer wall of the triforium gallery at Amiens. The west end is p.r.o.nounced to have contained the finest work of the building, and the west door with the two towers must have presented a lovely and imposing front. The S.W. tower was removed to make way for the palace being erected, and even the W. doorway is encroached on by the palace wall. A portion of the S.W. tower is still visible in the interior, and contains a doorway. The upper part of the W. end was reconstructed by Charles I. in 1633, and contains two nondescript windows of seventeenth century Gothic with an inscription between them. The tympanum of the doorway has also been altered at this time, and an oaken lintel introduced containing a shield with the initials of Charles I. The western doorway has been a beautiful specimen of first pointed work, and the W. side of the N.W. tower is ornamented with two tiers of arcades. "The lower arcade contains five pointed arches, with a trefoiled arch within each. These rest on triple shafts, with carved caps and rounded abaci. Over each shaft and between the arches there is a circle containing a boldly carved Norman head. The feature is unique and its effect is fine.

The upper arcade consists of three larger arches, each containing two smaller arches, and all resting on shafts with carved and rounded caps. The shields in the larger arches are pierced with bold quatrefoils. Two circles occur in the spandrils over the arches, but they do not now contain heads."[319] The same design is continued round the S. side of the tower, and along the W. wall of the nave as far as the main doorway, but the N. and E. sides of the tower are plain. Above the two arcades the tower contains a large two-light window on the N.E. and W. sides. Each window is divided into two openings by a single central shaft, having a carved cap and broad square abacus, on which rest the two plain pointed arches of the inner openings. The shield above is pierced with a bold quatre-foil.

The two western piers of the crossing are still standing, and within the arch there has been erected in modern times a large traceried window. The s.p.a.ces below the window and across the side aisles have been built up with fragments of the demolished structure, and a window is thus formed at the east end of each aisle.

The church has evidently undergone a thorough repair during the fifteenth century, probably during the period when Crawford was abbot (1460-1483). "The work executed at this time consisted of the addition of seven b.u.t.tresses on the north side and several b.u.t.tresses on the south side of the aisles. Those on the north side are large, and may either enclose the old b.u.t.tresses or have been subst.i.tuted for them. They have a set-off near the centre, above which each contains an elaborately ornamented and canopied niche.

Beneath and above the niche there are carved panels, which have contained angels and shields, with coats of arms. The arms of Abbot Crawford are said to have been carved on the panels, but they are now too much decayed to be distinguishable. Above the upper panels the b.u.t.tresses are continued with several set-offs, and finished with a small square pinnacle. The pinnacles have been crocheted and terminated with a carved finial, but they are now greatly wasted away. There were, doubtless, flying arches from the above b.u.t.tresses to the clerestory, but they must have fallen with the roof. A somewhat elaborate north doorway has been introduced, in a style similar to that of the b.u.t.tresses, in the second bay from the west tower. The arch is semicircular, and has an ogee canopy. There are small niches above the arch on each side which contained statues, now demolished. This doorway was probably constructed by Abbot Crawford at the same date as the b.u.t.tresses."[320]

"A series of b.u.t.tresses was also erected about the same time on the south side of the fabric. It is believed, however, that these b.u.t.tresses are partly old or are on old foundations. In order not to interfere with the cloister walk, which ran along next the south wall, and where it would have been inconvenient to have any projections, the b.u.t.tresses were carried in the form of flying arches over the top of the cloister roof. At the clerestory level flying arches, similar to those on the north side, rested against the upper portions of b.u.t.tresses and pinnacles introduced between the windows. On the outside of the cloister walk the flying arch ab.u.t.ted upon oblong ma.s.ses of masonry, which probably at one time were finished with pinnacles, but these no longer exist."[321]

Robert b.e.l.l.e.n.den, the twenty-fifth abbot of Holyrood, and successor to Abbot Crawford,[322] presented the abbey with bells, a great bra.s.s font, and a chalice of gold. He was also beneficent to the poor, and completed the restoration of the fabric by covering the roof with lead. This happened about 1528, and in 1539 the office of commendator was given to Robert, natural son of James V., while still an infant. The bra.s.s font was carried off by Sir Richard Lee, an officer in Hertford's army, in 1544, and was removed to St.

Alban's Abbey. It was afterwards sold for old metal. The bra.s.s lectern of the abbey was also taken by Sir Richard Lee, and presented to the Parish Church of St. Stephen's at St. Alban's, where it still is. It is in the form of an eagle with outstretched wing, and contains a shield with a lion rampant and a crozier, with the inscription, "Georgius Crichton, Episcopus Dunkeldensis."[323]

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

_Jedburgh Abbey (Roxburghshire)._--In 1118 David I., while Prince of c.u.mbria, founded a priory on the banks of the Jed, and placed it in possession of canons regular from the Abbey of St. Quentin at Beauvais in France. In 1147 the priory was raised to the dignity of an abbey and dedicated to the Virgin Mary, while the smaller buildings of the priory served as a nucleus for the larger buildings of the abbey. Its abbots were sometimes men of distinction, and in 1285, when John Morel was abbot, Alexander III. was married in the abbey with much ceremony to Iolanda, daughter of the Count de Dreux. In the wars between England and Scotland (1297-1300) the abbey suffered so severely that the monks were unable to inhabit it, and were billeted on other religious houses.

Jedburgh had to bear the brunt of many English onslaughts, and in 1410, 1416, 1464 it was damaged by repeated attacks of the English. In 1523 both town and abbey fell before the forces of the Earl of Surrey. The abbey was stripped of everything valuable and set on fire. In 1544-1545 the process of destruction was twice repeated under Sir Ralph Eure and the Earl of Hertford respectively. In 1559 the abbey was suppressed, and its resources went to the Crown. For some years it was left a roofless ruin, and a building designed for the parish church was afterwards erected within the nave, roofed over at the level of the triforium, and used as a place of worship till 1875, when a new church built in excambion by the Earl of Lothian was opened for worship, and the abbey ruin can now be viewed "clear of that incubus upon its lovely proportions."

Like most ancient buildings that have been added to from time to time, the abbey shows different styles of architecture, and the choir, which is early Norman, is undoubtedly the oldest part. The church consists of a choir with side aisles extending eastward for two bays, beyond which was an aisleless presbytery, the east end of which is demolished; a nave of nine bays, which had vaulted side aisles; a central crossing with square tower above; a north transept well preserved, and a south transept, of which the south end is destroyed.[324]

It has been suggested that the choir may have terminated with an eastern apse, but of this there is no proof. What survives consists of two bays next the crossing, the lower portions of which are in the Norman style. A unique arrangement is visible here, as far as Scotland is concerned, and resembles a somewhat similar design at Gloucester Cathedral and Romsey Church, Hampshire. The main piers have the peculiarity of being carried up as ma.s.sive cylindrical columns to the arch over the triforium. The lower story has the round arch and vaulting ribs supported on corbels, projected from the round face of the piers. The triforium arch is round and moulded, and has a well-wrought chevron ornament. "It rests on large caps of the divided cushion pattern. The main arch is formed into two openings by a central round shaft and two half round responds, with ma.s.sive cushion caps carrying plain arches."[325]

The clerestory is of Transition work, having one lofty stilted and pointed arch, and two smaller pointed arches in each bay. When the Transitional clerestory was erected, the eastern part of the choir is thought to have been built, and the remains of two lofty pointed windows are preserved to the east of the cylindrical piers. The same Norman style of architecture as in the choir is continued in the south and north transepts, and appears to have originally also extended into the nave. "This is apparent from the mode in which the string-course over the triforium runs along on the north side from the choir to the nave, where it is broken off. That the Norman nave has probably extended westwards from the crossing is further evidenced by the existence of the west end wall, with its great doorway and windows, and the south doorway to the cloister, which portions are all of characteristic Norman design." The Norman work must have preceded the Transition work in choir and nave by a considerable portion of time. There is no gradual development visible.

The nave (129 feet in length and 27-1/2 feet in breadth) "is divided into nine bays, each of which comprises a main arch resting on cl.u.s.tered piers, a triforium with one round arch containing two pointed arches, and a clerestory forming a continuous arcade, with four pointed arches in each bay. The main cl.u.s.tered piers contain four princ.i.p.al shafts at the angles, and four intermediate shafts between them. The former are brought to a point on the face, the latter are flatter. The caps are simple and of an ordinary transitional form, each with a square abacus. The bases are also simple, and stand on a ma.s.sive square plinth, a feature not uncommon in Norman work. The arches of the main arcade are somewhat acutely pointed, and the mouldings are bold, and resemble first pointed work."

The clerestory shafts are of trefoil section; the arches are all pointed, and contain first pointed mouldings. The west end of the nave and doorway are Norman in character, and Sir Gilbert Scott declared the great western doorway and south doorway to be "perfect gems of refined Norman of the highest cla.s.s and most artistic finish." The doorpiece is surrounded by three gablets, the central one still retaining a trefoiled arch. The west wall has flat b.u.t.tresses of Norman character, and "the upper portion of the wall has a central round-headed window, flanked on each side by three small pointed arch heads, the caps carrying which rested on long single free shafts, now gone. The central window has deep mouldings, but no enrichments. The west front has been finished with an octagonal turret on each side, as at Kelso Abbey, and the gable contains a central circular window, which has been filled with tracery at a late date. The west end walls of the aisles have each contained a circular-headed window of Norman design, with a chevron ornament in the arch and a nook shaft at each side."

"The lower part of the walls of the choir and the western wall and doorway and south doorway being all of Norman work, it seems probable that the whole building was set out and partially executed in Norman times, and that the work was either stopped for a considerable period and then resumed, or that the structure, after being completed, was destroyed, and had to be restored in the late Transition style. The Transition work is well advanced in style, and may be regarded as being of the date of the end of the twelfth century or beginning of the thirteenth century."

"The Norman north transept is fairly well preserved, but both the north and south transepts have undergone great repairs about the end of the fifteenth century. The crossing appears to have been so greatly damaged by the a.s.saults of the fifteenth century that it was found necessary to rebuild it. The restoration is distinctly visible in the south-east pier of the crossing, the style of which is quite different from that of the Norman work adjoining in the choir and south transept, and the junction of the new work with the old is very apparent. This pier has clearly been rebuilt. It is plain next the crossing, but next the aisle it consists of a series of shafts with a moulded cap of late date. The upper mouldings of the cap form a continuous straight line, while the bells of the caps are broken round the shafts--a style of cap common in Scotland at the end of the fifteenth century."

"This pier and the south aisle of the choir beside it appear to have been restored by Abbot John Hall (appointed 1478), whose name occurs on the pier and on one of the bosses. The south-west pier of the crossing has also been rebuilt. This work was carried out by Abbot Thomas Cranston (appointed 1482). On a shield on this pier are carved the arms and initials of Abbot Cranston--three cranes and two pastoral staves--saltierwise. The same abbot's initials are placed on the north side of the west arch of the crossing, where the chamfer begins, and on the lower part of the north-west pier. The south-west pier, the north-west pier, and the arch between them would thus appear to have been rebuilt by Abbot Cranston. The base inserted by him is different from the old Norman base.

"About half-way up the south-east pier, rebuilt by Abbot Hall, the springer of an arch may be seen projecting to the west. Abbot Hall had evidently intended to throw an arch across the transept at this point, but Abbot Cranston changed his plan and the arch was not carried out. The mouldings of the portions executed by the two abbots differ in their respective parts of the structure.

"To the north of the original Norman north transept an addition to the transept has been erected. It is cut off from the old transept by a wall, and thus forms a separate chapel, measuring 27 feet in length by 22 feet in width internally. This chapel is vaulted with the pointed barrel vault usual in Scotland in the fifteenth century, and, consequently, the side windows are low, their pointed arch being kept below the springing of the vault. The window in the north end wall, however, is of large dimensions. The windows are all filled with good fifteenth century tracery, similar to that in the restored south aisle of the choir. This part of the edifice is now used as a mortuary chapel for the family of the Marquess of Lothian.

The tower over the crossing is 33 feet square and 86 feet in height.

It contains three pointed and cusped lancets on each side, and is without b.u.t.tresses. It appears to have been erected about 1500. At the top, near the north-west corner, are engraved the arms and initials of Abbot Robert Blackadder, who was afterwards promoted to the offices of Bishop and Archbishop of Glasgow. He was appointed to that see in 1484, and died 1508. His arms are a chevron between three roses."

The abbey thus completed was not permitted to remain unmolested.

Described by Sir Ralph Eure as "the strength of Teviotdale," and by Hertford as "a house of some strength which might be made a good fortress," it was, as already mentioned, the frequent object of attacks by the English. It was pillaged and burnt in 1544 and 1545, and never recovered from the damage done. In 1559 the monastery was suppressed. In 1587 the bailery of the abbey was continued or restored by a grant of King James VI. to Sir Andrew Ker, and in 1622 the entire property of the lands and baronies which had belonged to the canons of Jedburgh was erected into a temporal lordship, and granted to him with the t.i.tle of Lord Jedburgh. Sir Alexander Kerr of Fernieherst was ancestor to the Marquess of Lothian.[326]

_Dryburgh Abbey (Berwickshire)._--The name Dryburgh has been derived by some from the Celtic darach-bruach, "bank of the grove of oaks," and vestiges of pagan worship have been found in the Ba.s.s Hill, a neighbouring eminence. St. Modan, a champion of the Roman party, is said to have come hither from Ireland in the eighth century, and a monastery on very scanty evidence has been attributed to him. St. Mary's Abbey was founded by Hugh de Morville, Lord of Lauderdale and Constable of Scotland, in 1150. According to the Chronicle of Melrose, Beatrix de Beauchamp, wife of de Morville, obtained a charter of confirmation for the new foundation from David I.; the cemetery was said to have been consecrated on St. Martin's Day 1150, "that no demons might haunt it"; the community, however, did not come into residence till 13th December 1152.

The monks were Premonstratenses or White Friars; called by the latter name because their garb was a coa.r.s.e black ca.s.sock, covered by a white woollen cape, "in imitation of the angels in heaven, who are clothed with white garments." The monks introduced were from Alnwick. "A large part of the domestic buildings seems to have been erected within fifty or sixty years of the date of the foundation, as they are built in the transition style of the beginning of the thirteenth century. The church appears to have been in progress during the thirteenth century, as in 1242 the Bishop of St. Andrews, owing to the debts incurred in building the monastery and other expenses, gave the canons permission to enjoy the revenues of the churches under their patronage, one of their number performing the office of vicar in each parish. The canons took the oath of fidelity to Edward I. in 1296, upon which their property was restored to them. Their possessions were widely spread, and extended into several counties, as appears from letters addressed by Edward regarding them to the sheriffs in the counties of Fife, Berwick, Roxburgh, and Edinburgh."[327]

Tradition states that the English under Edward II., in their retreat in 1322, provoked by the imprudent triumph of the monks in ringing the church bells at their departure, returned and burned the abbey in revenge. Dr. Hill Burton remarks that Bower cannot be quite correct in saying that Dryburgh was entirely reduced to powder, since part of the building yet remaining is of older date than the invasion. King Robert the Bruce contributed to its repair, but it has been doubted whether it ever was fully restored to its former magnificence. Certain disorders among the monks in the latter part of the fourteenth century brought the censure of Pope Gregory XI. upon its inmates. Being within twenty miles of the border, the abbey was frequently exposed to hostile English attacks, and we hear of its burning by Richard II. in 1385, by Sir Robert Bowes and Sir Bryan Latoun in 1544, and again by the Earl of Hertford in 1545--James Stewart, the abbot commendator, having with others crossed the Tweed into Northumberland and burned the village of Horncliffe. It was annexed to the Crown in 1587, and the lands were erected into a temporal barony, with the t.i.tle of Lord Cardross, in favour of the Earl of Mar, from whom they have pa.s.sed by purchase through the hands of several proprietors.

Chaucer was held to have visited the abbey, but the claim has been demolished by Dr. Hill Burton in Billings' _Antiquities_. Among the distinguished men, however, connected with the abbey was Ralph Strode, "the Philosophicall Strode," to whom and the "moral Gower" Chaucer inscribed his Troilus and Cresseide. He was a friend both of Chaucer and John Wiclif.[328] Andrew Forman was superior of Dryburgh, and was much occupied with affairs of Church and State under James IV. and James V. He was appointed in 1501 to the bishopric of Moray, holding at the same time the priories of Coldingham and Pittenweem, with the commendatorship of Dryburgh. He became afterwards Archbishop of Brouges, and finally Archbishop of St. Andrews. He is said to have written (1) _Contra Lutherum_, (2) _De Stoica Philosophia_, (3) _Collectanea Decretalium_.[329]

The monastery had the usual buildings around the cloister; the church was on the north side, and stood about ten steps above the level of the cloister garth. The sacristy, chapter-house, fratery, and other apartments stretch from the transept southwards along the east side; above these, on the upper floor, were the dormitories, entering by an open staircase from the south transept. Along the south side of the cloisters lay the refectory, which, on account of the slope of the ground, was raised on a bas.e.m.e.nt floor of vaulted cellars. On the west side of the cloister garth are now only a few vaulted cellars. A small stream runs along the S.W. side of the monastic buildings, and beyond the stream are the remains of what seems to have been a detached chapel.