Fig. 966.—Paisley Abbey.
Piscina in St. Mirin’s Chapel.
an oblong or oval form, and one half compartment at each end. At the foot the compartments are empty. On the right side the 1st compartment contains a bishop with crosier; the 4th, a bishop at prayer, and, on a scroll, the name Robert Wyshart (Bishop of Glasgow). On the left, the 1st compartment contains a bishop celebrating, with the name Johes D. Lychtgow (Abbot of Paisley); the 4th, an abbot at prayer, with the name of Abbot Lythgow repeated. Several compartments contain monks at prayer, and others are blank. Mr. Semple thinks that the left side may be part of Abbot Lithgow’s monument, and the right side part of that of Bishop Wishart.
Of the cloisters and conventual buildings few traces remain; but the outline of the cloister court is preserved. It is surrounded (see Fig. [953]) with post-Reformation structures, occupying the site of the chapter house, refectory, &c. These were converted into the “place of Paisley,” as the residence of the Abercorn family, which has been already fully described.[16] These buildings probably contain portions of the walls of the refectory and other conventual structures erected by Abbot Shaw at the end of the fifteenth century. The western side of the cloister buildings was removed about twenty years ago, in order to widen the adjoining street. The wall, gatehouse, &c., erected by Abbot Shaw, have now almost entirely disappeared.
The cloistral buildings were much altered and added to in 1675 by the Earl of Dundonald, and fitted up as a mansion house, and they still bear traces of considerable splendour in panelled walls, with stone fireplaces and ornamental ceilings. One of the latter on the upper floor is a fine example of the plaster and painted decoration of the period.
Turning to the ground Plan, it seems highly probable that the walls are, in part at least, of pre-Reformation date, and that we have here
Fig. 967.—Paisley Abbey. End of Altar Tomb in St. Mirin’s Chapel.