“Ya callit ye Abbot Georg of Schawe
About yis Abbay gart make yis wav
A thousande four hundereth zheyr
Auchty ande fywe the date but veir
[Pray for his saulis salvacioun]
Yat made thys nobil fundacioun.”[8]
Mr. Chalmers[9] is of opinion that this inscription was designed by John Morow, whose name appears on a tablet at Melrose Abbey.[10] “The character of the lettering in design and workmanship is the same as at Melrose. The references to the building operations, the poetical form of the compositions, the manner in which the names are introduced—‘Callit was I,’ and ‘ye Callit’—and the devout expressions with which they close, make it clear that the inscriptions are the work of the same author.” Whether that is so, or whether the inscriptions simply reflect the style, both literary and artistic, of the period is questionable. In any case, the idea is ingenious. Mr. Chalmers points out that the fifth line, which is erased, was probably cut out by the Reformers, as being out of keeping with their religious views, while the remainder indicates the care with which the historically valuable part was preserved.
The days of Abbot John Hamilton (1525-1544), who became Bishop of Dunkeld, and was afterwards promoted to be Archbishop of St. Andrews, were evil for the monastery of Paisley, as for all other similar institutions in the country. When driven from St. Andrews, the archbishop sought safety at Paisley; but that house being sacked and burnt by the Reformers, he had to take refuge at Dumbarton Castle, where he was made prisoner, and afterwards executed at Stirling.
The Master of Sempill had been appointed bailie of the monastery, and, at the dissolution, the whole of the church property was handed over to Lord Sempill. The property finally came into the possession of Lord Claud Hamilton, nephew of the archbishop, and the monastic buildings were converted into the “Place of Paisley,” the residence of the Abercorn family.[11]
Before the Reformation the monastery consisted of the church, the cloister, and the conventual buildings. The church (Fig. [953]) comprised a long aisleless choir, a nave with aisles, a north transept, a south transept, with St. Mirin’s Chapel attached to the south of it, and a tower and spire over the crossing.
The choir can still be traced, as the walls remain standing to the height of 9 feet, and contain an elegant sedilia and piscina. The choir measures, internally, about 124 feet in length by 22 feet in width. It may be questioned whether the choir was ever finished during the restoration. The walls present rather the appearance of having been abandoned at a certain stage in the progress of their erection than of a building which had fallen into ruin. They stand at a uniform level, marked by a string course all round, and have not the irregular heights generally found in ruins. The building is of fifteenth century work, and doubtless occupies the place of an earlier choir, which had been demolished.
The wall at the east end of the nave, which separates it from the transept, is of a substantial kind, and may have been erected when the structure was restored in the fifteenth century, with the intention of rendering the nave a complete church, until the transept and choir were restored. The latter seems never to have been carried into effect, but to have been in progress when all work was interrupted by the Reformation.
There are no indications at the junction of the choir and transept of the large piers which would naturally be built so as to correspond with those at the west side of the crossing (Fig. [954]). The fine sedilia, although greatly mutilated (Fig. [955]), is the principal feature in the eastern part of the edifice. It is 11 feet 2 inches long, and contains four seats, contrary to the usual practice, which is to have three seats. The design is elegant, and resembles that of the sedilia at St. Monan’s, Fifeshire. Adjoining the sedilia is the piscina, the basin of which is broken, but the aperture is still visible. The recess, which has an angled head, slopes backwards.
Fig. 953.—Paisley Abbey. Plan.[12]