A broken slab, measuring about 3 feet 3 inches high by 3 feet in breadth (Fig. [1449]), is lying in the churchyard. In the Rental Book it is referred to as being built into the wall of the church which preceded the present one (erected about thirty years ago), and as bearing “the effigies of a priest,” with the inscription on the margin—Monachus de Cupro qui obiit anno dni. Millesimo quadringentesimo quqgesio.[200] From the present state of the fragment it is evident that little respect is paid in Coupar to the remains of the ancient abbey.
The two sculptured slabs (Figs. [1450] and [1451]) which are at present lying in a tool-house in all likelihood adorned the base of a mural tomb. They are evidently works of the end of the fourteenth century or of the fifteenth century. They are supposed to be remains of a monument to the Hays of Errol. Fig. [1451] appears to represent a pair who have been guilty, and are suffering under the prospect of finding themselves in the hands of the headsman.
Fig. 1448.—Coupar Abbey.
Main Piers of Nave.
On a house opposite the abbey occur the royal arms, shown by Fig. [1452], and throughout the village there are numerous carved and moulded stones to be seen, showing that the whole place has been built out of the ruins of the monastery.
In the Chamberlain’s Accounts for 1563 he describes the chapel “as being so completely wrecked, that with a view to preserve the timber, he had built up both doors; also the undermost door of the steeple. In the cloister he had collected the slates which had been removed from the roof. He had also repaired the broken windows, providing them with iron framework. The abbot’s apartments he had partially
