ARBROATH ABBEY, Forfarshire.
The ancient town of Arbroath stands on the east coast of Forfarshire, and the massive ruins of its great abbey, as seen from the sea, rising above the houses of the town, present an image of decay and desolation.
The abbey was founded by King William the Lion towards the end of the twelfth century. It was richly endowed, and soon became one of the wealthiest and most powerful monasteries in the kingdom. The inmates were of the Tironensian order, and the first monks were brought to Arbroath from Kelso Abbey.
King William, having been taken prisoner at Alnwick in 1174, was confined at Falaise, in Normandy, but regained his liberty, and returned to Scotland, in 1176. Immediately on his return he proceeded to found the Abbey of Arbroath, which he dedicated to Saint Mary and St. Thomas à Becket. The latter had been murdered at Canterbury only four years before, and it is doubtful whether King William was attached to his memory by personal friendship or by sympathy with the saint in his opposition to the King of England.
By the year 1178 part of the church was ready for dedication. William the Lion died in 1214, and was buried in the east end of the edifice, which was then finished. Shortly afterwards the south transept was sufficiently well advanced to admit of the burial within it, before the altar of St. Catherine, of Gilchrist, Earl of Angus. On the 18th of March 1233, during the time of Abbot Ralph de Lamley, the church was dedicated. The time occupied in the erection and completion of the structure was thus a little over fifty-five years, and when its dimensions are considered, it will be found in comparison with other churches to have been carried on with great rapidity.
The above dates are useful as indicating the progress of the transition and pointed styles in Scotland. The choir and transept, although still retaining a few reminiscences of the transition in the round arches interspersed among the pointed arches, are essentially first pointed in style. The retention of the round arch here, as elsewhere in Scotland, is a common feature throughout the whole course of Gothic art. In the west doorway, and also in the gallery over it, there are distinct elements of transition work; but the external and internal windows of the gallery, and the main features of the towers, are decidedly first pointed in style. Possibly the west doorway and gallery were begun at an early stage of the building, and the west end, after being stopped for a time, was completed at a later date.
As showing the eagerness with which King William pushed on the buildings, Hollinshed mentions[25] that “the king came by the Abbey of Aberbrothoc to view the work of that house, how it went forward, commanding them that were overseers and masters of the works to spare for no cost, but to bring it up to perfection, and that with magnificence.”
The abbey church ([Fig. 461]) consisted of a choir of three bays, with side aisles and an aisleless presbytery; a nave of nine bays, with aisles and north and south transepts, with eastern aisles. There were two western towers, and one large tower over the crossing.
The following are the principal dimensions of the edifice:—
Length (external measurement from east to west, not including buttresses), 293 feet.