part of the work of Abbot Shaw, who erected a refectory and other buildings at the end of the fifteenth century. It will be observed that the main wall of the south range, running east and west, is very thick (4 feet to 5 feet), while the outside wall, forming the south side of the cloister, is only about 2 feet thick. The latter was probably erected when the place became a mansion house, in order to form a passage, and thus obviate the necessity of passing through the rooms, while the thick wall was the original outside wall of the refectory or of cellars below it. The south wall of this building also probably consists in part of the south wall of the refectory, but the large windows in it are, doubtless, insertions.
The building marked as chapter house on the Plan occupies the position in which that chamber would likely be. It is now divided into two, and has lost all traces of its ecclesiastical purpose—one side being used as a bottling store and the other as a stable. There is a large fireplace in the north wall, of distinctly Gothic design. That is not a usual feature in a chapter house; but in the sacristy over the chapter house of Glasgow Cathedral there is a large fireplace. At Paisley, the arrangement may have been reversed. The vestry may have been on the ground floor and the chapter house above. This building is at present some five stories in height, the upper floors being reached by the wheel stair shown on the Plan. It is from this high building that the chamber over St. Mirin’s is reached, which is a fair indication that this chapter house tower, as it may be called, is as old as St. Mirin’s. The same stair also accommodates the refectory range of buildings on the south side of the cloister, which are three stories in height, and have another stair at the west end.
It is thought by some that the first central tower erected over the crossing was of inferior workmanship and gave way. Another central tower is believed to have been erected by Abbot Tervas. This tower probably fell during the siege by Lennox and Glencairn, no doubt destroying much of the choir and transept in its fall. It has been mentioned above that western towers appear to have been contemplated. Possibly it may be one of these to which Martine, when speaking of John Hamilton, Archbishop of St. Andrews, refers when he says, “At which church [Paisley] he built a prettie handsome steeple, which fell before it was well finished.”[17]
It is thought that the body of Archbishop Hamilton was buried in the abbey, and a tablet in the church looks as if it marked his grave. It contains his arms and initials, J. H., and “the motto he assumed, which contrasts strangely with his troubled life, ‘Misericordia et pax.’”
Several monuments with inscriptions of sixteenth century date exist in the building. On the west buttress of the north transept, at 21 feet in height, is the shield of the Stewarts, with a pastoral staff and the word “Stewart.”
One of the south piers of the nave is called the Cathcart pillar, having carved upon it a shield with the Cathcart arms (see Fig. [964]). This is believed to be a memorial of Sir Allan Cathcart, one of the knights who sailed for the Holy Land with Bruce’s heart. The heart was brought back by Sir Allan, and buried at Melrose.
DUNKELD CATHEDRAL, Perthshire.
Situated in the beautiful, though rugged, glen which forms the pass to the Highlands from the fertile lowlands of Perthshire, this grey and venerable ruin adds an unexpected and charming interest to the lovely scenery of the locality. The mountain range through which the pass penetrates long formed a barrier to the access of the Scottish kings to the Celtic provinces further north, and the nearness of the Highland clans was a constant source of menace to the Church. For that reason the bishop’s palace had to be constructed as a fortified stronghold; hence, perhaps, the name of Dunkeld, the fort of the Keledei or Culdees.
After the destruction of Iona by the Norsemen in the beginning of the ninth century, Dunkeld was selected by the King of the Picts as a secure place, remote from the sea, and comparatively safe from the attacks of the Vikings, in which a mother church in lieu of Iona might be established. To this retreat a portion of the relics of Columba were brought by King Kenneth Macalpine in 850, and here he resolved to place the abbot of his new monastery as bishop over the Church in the territories of the Southern Picts, with a view to the ready reorganisation of the Scottish monasteries, so that they should form one diocese under one bishop.[18]
But the primacy of the Pictish Church did not remain long at Dunkeld, being transferred in the end of the ninth century to Abernethy, on the south side of the Frith of Tay.