Scotland has been regarded as deficient in the small antique rural churches, which so beautifully harmonise with the landscape scenery in England. But we have a good many of such venerable gems as Duddingstone, Corstorphine, St. Monance, Dalmeny, &c. Of Dalmeny it is said:

"Dalmeny Church is in the purest Norman style,—it is a simple quadrangular edifice without tower, aisles, or transepts, although an unadorned projection on the north side may possibly have been added as the commencement of the transept. The windows have all the Norman arch with toothed mouldings. A horizontal moulding runs along either side, near the roof, which appears to have consisted of a series of entertwined curves like the letter S laid longitudinally, but which seems to have been supposed by the architect, who has restored part of it, to be a succession of crescents lying with their concave sides alternately upwards and downwards. Above this is a row of carved heads, presenting the variety characteristic of such buildings. The main entrance door is in a porch projecting to the south, the archway of which is supported on two plain pillars with Norman capitals. There are over this door the remains of a line, concentric with the arch, of sculptured figures and animals, many of which are fabulous, and have a considerable resemblance to those which appear on the ancient sculptured stones scattered throughout Scotland, by which the acuteness of antiquarians has been so effectually baffled. On either side of the arch are the remains of a statue, and, from a curved mark on the masonry connecting the two together, it may be inferred that some moulding, probably in the form of a cord, united them together. Over this doorway is an arcade of interlaced Norman arches highly ornamented. In front of the porch lies one of those old stone coffins frequently found in Scotland, of which the interior was cut out in such a shape as to fit accurately to a body swathed in bandages like an Egyptian mummy, there being a circular cavity for the head, a channel shallower and narrower to contain the neck, and a larger excavation for the rest of the body, broadest and deepest at the place where the shoulders are to lie, and becoming narrower and shallower towards the extremity corresponding with the feet. Archæology has not yet thrown any light on the period when the narrow house first assumed this substantial character; but it is observable that stone coffins of this description are generally found near the places where the most ancient existing churches stand, or where such edifices have existed, but are no longer standing. The interior of this small church has a fine, massive, simple effect. The chancel is in the form usually called an apex, and consists of a semicircle with the arc outwards, under a groined arch, the ribs of which are deeply moulded, and ornamented with tooth work. The small chancel is, according to a common arrangement, lower than the rest of the church, and the difference in height has been very skilfully adjusted in such a manner as to enhance the effect of the perspective from the western end. The arching of the chancel appears to be in its original condition. The two departments into which the rest of the church is divided, appear to have been in some measure restored on the pattern of the chancel. The church has been fitted up with pews and a gallery, and it is much to be regretted that portions of the shafts of the pillars, and some other parts of the internal stone-work, have been cut away for the purpose of economising the space, and facilitating the transit through the church. The fabric was repaired, and, in so far as restoration seemed necessary, put in its present position in 1816."*

The Abbey of Aberbrothock, known to many by name, in connection

* New Stat. Account, Linlithgowshire, p. 102.

with Southey's beautiful legendary poem, cominemorative of the removal of the warning bell from an adjoining rock or small island (the Bell Rock) by a sea rover, and the retribution which befel the criminal, was oddly enough dedicated by its founder, William the Lion, to the memory of St. Thomas of Canterbury, (Thomas-à-Becket,) the last person, one would suppose, who would have had such attention at the hands of a sovereign. The following account of this great foundation is given in the work :

"The historical circumstances connected with the foundation of this monastic institution are remarkable. It was founded and endowed by William the Lion, King of Scots, in the year 1178, and dedicated to St. Thomas-àBecket, the martyr of the principle of ecclesiastical supremacy, whose slaughter at the high altar of Canterbury Cathedral occurred in 1170, and who was canonised in 1173. This great establishment, richly endowed, was thus a magnificent piece of homage by the Scottish king to a principle which, especially under the bold and uncompromising guidance of its great advocate, had sorely perplexed and baffled his royal neighbour on the English throne, and boded future trouble and humiliation to all thrones and temporal dignities.

Much antiquarian speculation has been exerted, but without any obvious success, to fathom the motives for this act of munificence. William had invaded those parts of the north of England which were previously held in a species of feudality by the kings of Scotland, and was disgracefully defeated at Alnwick, and committed to captivity just at the time when the English monarch, whose forces accomplished the victory and capture, was enduring his humiliating penance at the tomb of the canonised archbishop. Lord Hailes, who says that William was personally acquainted with Becket, when there was little probability of his ever becoming a confessor, martyr, and saint,' endeavouring to discover a motive for the munificence of the Scottish king, continues to say perhaps it was meant as a public declaration that he did not ascribe his disaster at Alnwick to the ill-will of his old friend. He may, perhaps, have been hurried by the torrent of popular prejudices into the belief that his disaster proceeded from the partiality of Becket towards the penitent Henry; and he might imagine that if equal honours were done in Scotland to the new saint as in England, he might, on fature occasions, observe a neutrality.' It is remarkable that several of the early chroniclers allude to this friendship between the Scottish monarch, who was a resolute champion of temporal authority, and the representative of ecclesiastical supremacy. On this subject the learned editor of the muniments of the Abbey says:

"Was this the cause, or was it the natural propensity to extol him who, living and dead, had humbled the crown of England, that led William to take Saint Thomas as his patron saint, and to entreat his intercession when he was in greatest trouble? Or may we consider the dedication of his new abbey, and his invocation of the martyr of Canterbury, as nothing more than signs of the rapid spreading of the veneration for the new saint of the high church party, from which his old opponent himself was not exempt.'

"Princes may be induced, by personal circumstances, to change their views, and, in the times when they were not controlled by responsible ministers, they gave effect to their alterations of opinion. It is quite possible that, at the time when he founded the abbey, William was partial to church ascendency, for his celebrated contest with the ecclesiastical power arose out of subsequent events. This king's disputes with the Church have a somewhat complex shape. The clergy of his own dominions had a spiritual

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war against the English hierarchy, who asserted a claim to exercise metropolitan authority over them; and it might have been supposed that William, if he sought to humble his own clergy, would have found it politic to favour the pretensions of England. But the interest of the two clerical bodies became in the end united. Thus the war, which had so long raged in England, passed towards the north, with this difference, that the king of Scots had to encounter, not only his own native hierarchy, but the victorious Church of England just elated over Henry. The chapter of St. Andrews had elected a person to be their bishop, not acceptable to William, who desired to give the chair to his own chaplain. The king seized the temporalities, and prevailed on the other bishops to countenance his favourite. The bishop elect appealed to Rome. Pope Alexander III. issued legatine powers over Scotland to the Archbishop of York, who, along with the Bishop of Durham, after an ineffectual war of minor threats and inflictions, excommunicated the king and laid the kingdom under interdict. At this point Alexander III. died, and the new Pope thought it wise to make concessions to an uncompromising adversary in a rude and distant land, who had shown himself possessed of an extent of temporal power sufficient to counteract the power of Rome, even among the ecclesiastics them. selves.

"It was before this great feud commenced that the abbey was founded, but during its continuance the institution, from whatever motives, received many tokens of royal favour, as well as precious gifts from the great barons. Among the list of benefactors we find many of those old Norman names which cease to be associated with Scottish history after the war of independence. It is a still more striking instance of the community of interest between the two kingdoms anterior to this war that, while we find a Scottish king devoting a great monastic establishment to the memory of an English prelate, we should find an English king conferring special privileges and immunities within his realm on the Scottish brotherhood. The Charter of Privileges, of which the following is a translation, was granted by king John in 1204. It will be seen that it has been drawn so as carefully to evade the vexed question of the independence of Scotland.

"John by the grace of God, King of England, Lord of Ireland, Duke of Aquitane and of Anjou, to the archbishops, bishops, abbots, earls, barons, justiciares, sheriffs, magistrates, officers of the law, and all faithful subjects in our realm-happiness. Wit ye us, by the grace of God, and on the application of the Lord William, king of Scotland, to have granted, and by this our charter to have confirmed, to the abbots, monks, and citizens of Aberbrothock, that they may sell their proper goods, and buy for their own proper uses, what they please throughout our whole territories, quit of all tax or any other custom which pertain to us, saving the privileges of the city of London. Wherefor our will is, and we strictly command that the foresaid abbots, monks, and citizens may sell their own proper goods, and buy for their own proper use what they please, through our whole territories, as aforesaid, freely and without molestation,-Given at Carlisle, the 19th day of February, and of our reign the seventh year."

The Church of Rome was never particularly favourable to local church government. In even the case of the regulars or monks, it allowed of the jurisdiction of monasteries over religious houses in other countries. The Abbey of Paisley was long subject to the monks of Cluni in Burgundy. It is observed :

"The haughty brotherhood of Cluni appears to have been remarkable for the jealousy with which it preserved its subordinate houses in strict dependence. Though munificently endowed by its founder, who also pur

chased, by a grant of lands its independence of the mother house of Wenlock, and the right of appointing a superior, which he reserved to himself, Paisley continued for more than eighty years after its institution in the secondary rank of monastic societies, being denied by the head of the order the privileges of an abbott's government, to the great detriment of the monks, who were thus debarred of the means of making regular profession and receiving canonical benediction.'* In the year 1245--that of the great Council of Lyons, where several of the Scottish bishops were present-the house of Cluni consented to the election of an abbot by the monks of Paisley. About ninety years later, the superior became a mitred abbot and a lord of Parliament, the Pope Benedict XII. conferring on him the insignia of the mitre and ring, with episcopal jurisdiction over all churches and other places subject to the monastery. The possessions of the house were extensive and valuable, making it one of the richest ecclesiastical establishments in Scotland; and the records of Parliament, so far back as they mention the persons assembled, record the presence of the abbot of Paisley."

The vicissitudes of the Palace of Linlithgow are thus described :— "In 1424, the Palace and the nave of the church were accidentally burned. Although the old south-western tower might not inconsistently be supposed to belong to the previous century, Sir Walter Scott and others think it probable that the oldest extant portions of the palace and church must date from the rebuilding of the edifices destroyed by this calamity. James IV. erected a considerable portion of the palace, and added to the interior decorations of the church. It is said, in local tradition, to have been in the southern transept that this monarch, before the fatal field of Flodden, had the encounter from a person claiming a mission from the spiritual world, which has been so characteristically described by Lindsay of Pitscottie:

"Att that time the king cam to Lithgow, quhair he was at the counsal very sad and dollourous, makand his prayers to God, to send him ane guid succes in his voyage. And thair came ane man clad in ane blew gowne, belted about him with ane roll of lining and ane pair of brothkins on his feett, and all other things conform thairto. Bot he had nothing on his head, bot syd hair to his shoulderis and bald before. He seemed to be ane man of fifty yeires, and came fast forwards, crying among the Lordis and speciallie for the king, saying that he desired to speak with him, quhill at the last he cam to the dask quhair the king was at prayeris. Bot when he saw the king he gave him no due reverence nor salutation, but leaned him down gruffingis upon the dask, and said, "Sir King, my mother has sent me to the, desiring the not to go quhair thou art purposed, whilk if thou doe, thou sall not fair well in thy jorney nor non that is with the. Farder shee forbad the, not to mell, nor use the counsell of women, quhilk if thou doe, thou wil be confounded and brought to shame." Be this man had spoken thir words to the king, the even song was neir done, and the king paused on thir wordis, studeing to give him ane answer. Bot in the mean tyme, befoir the king's eyes, and in presence of the wholl lordis that war about him for the tyme, this man evanisched away, and could be no more seine. I heard Sir David Lindsay, Lyon Herald, and John Inglis the Marchell, who war at that tyme young men, and speciall servandis to the kingis grace, thought to have taken this man, bot they could not, that they might have speired farther tydings at him, bot they could not touch him.' "Sir Walter Scott says, Buchanan confirms this strange story on the word of a spectator, Sir David Lindsay, whose testimony he describes as unimpeachable. Thus supported, we have only to choose betwixt a deception

.. Registrum Pref. v.

and a supernatural appearance.' But he seems to have forgotten that Buchanan's classical Latinity is the vehicle of no new evidence on the subject, and that he relies on one of Pitscottie's two witnesses, Sir David Lindsay. This double reference to the same individual, to attest an incident said to have occurred in the midst of a congregation, tends rather to expose the dearth of evidence, than to strengthen the original testimony. The similarity of the accounts given by the two narrators, so different from each other in mental culture and literary art, seems to indicate that they are both the repeaters of Sir David's picturesque narrative.

"On the 7th of December 1542, occurred in the Palace of Linlithgow, the birth of one, subsequently known all over the world for the tragic events of her history, Mary Queen of Scots. An apartment in the west side of the quadrangle is still shown as that in which the event took place. Her son, King James, built the northern side of the quadrangle, the date of which has been already mentioned. A view of the palace in its completed state, as it remained down to the year 1746, will be found in Slezer's Theatrum Scotia. In that year it was burned, either through accident or design, by Hawley's dragoons, who were quartered within its walls after the battle of Falkirk, and reduced to its present ruinous position. A charge against the king's troops of designedly setting on fire one of the royal palaces would require better evidence than has been adduced to prove it; but the Hanoverian troops showed so strong an inclination to treat Scotland like a hostile country, that the charge is not a perfectly improbable one; and in the same tradition which attributes the conflagration to design, it is narrated that the lady who had charge of the palace had made herself offensive to the government party, by causing the fountain in the court to flow with wine, in honour of the arrival of the Chevalier."

Hunting tower, anciently Ruthven Castle, is historically connected with the famous "Raid of Ruthven"-a rather startling incident in the early life of the Scottish Solomon, James VI. This stronghold has its tales not only of bold conspiracy, but of love and of spiritual visitations:

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"It was within the walls of this old fortress, then known by the name of Ruthven Castle, that, in August 1582, James VI., a youth of sixteen years old, was residing with Lord Ruthven, who had induced the king to visit him in his hunting-seat, and join him in his rural sports. One morning, when the young monarch arose he found the castle surrounded by a thousand men; while the Earls of Mar and Gowrie broke into his presence with the rude discourtesy offered in those wild times by the strong to the weak, whether they were princes or peasants. When he attempted to escape, the Master of Glammis fiercely interposed; and when the helpless youth, never very firm of nerve, burst into tears, the Master used the memorable expression, Better bairns greet than bearded men.' Such was the abrupt revolution, known as the Raid of Ruthven.' What other dark plots have been developed within those walls, history has in vain toiled to discover. It was the abode of those Ruthvens who fell in the Gowrie conspiracy; and now that the old house in Perth, the scene of actual violence, has been destroyed, the Hunting tower and Fast castle possess an interest, as the only remaining edifices which sheltered the organisers of this mysterious plot. It was beneath the walls of this castle that, in 1644, Montrose gained one of his most remarkable victories. His Irish army had ravaged Argyleshire, and, joined by his Highland followers, passed northwards to meet their general, whom they found disguised as a Highland gilly, with one attendant, Lord Elcho, who with his Presbyterian troops occupied Perth, marched forward with six thousand men; but being raw, untried levies, they were dispersed immediately by that impetuous rush, on which