Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys

by Dugald Butler

The abbey thus completed was not permitted to remain unmolested. Described by Sir Ralph Eure as "the strength of Teviotdale," and by Hertford as "a house of some strength which might be made a good fortress," it was, as already mentioned, the frequent object of attacks by the English. It was pillaged and burnt in 1544 and 1545, and never recovered from the damage done. In 1559 the monastery was suppressed. In 1587 the bailery of the abbey was continued or restored by a grant of King James VI. to Sir Andrew Ker, and in 1622 the entire property of the lands and baronies which had belonged to the canons of Jedburgh was erected into a temporal lordship, and granted to him with the title of Lord Jedburgh. Sir Alexander Kerr of Fernieherst was ancestor to the Marquess of Lothian.[326]

Dryburgh Abbey (Berwickshire).—The name Dryburgh has been derived by some from the Celtic darach-bruach, "bank of the grove of oaks," and vestiges of pagan worship have been found in the Bass Hill, a neighbouring eminence. St. Modan, a champion of the Roman party, is said to have come hither from Ireland in the eighth century, and a monastery on very scanty evidence has been attributed to him. St. Mary's Abbey was founded by Hugh de Morville, Lord of Lauderdale and Constable of Scotland, in 1150. According to the Chronicle of Melrose, Beatrix de Beauchamp, wife of de Morville, obtained a charter of confirmation for the new foundation from David I.; the cemetery was said to have been consecrated on St. Martin's Day 1150, "that no demons might haunt it"; the community, however, did not come into residence till 13th December 1152.

The monks were Premonstratenses or White Friars; called by the latter name because their garb was a coarse black cassock, covered by a white woollen cape, "in imitation of the angels in heaven, who are clothed with white garments." The monks introduced were from Alnwick. "A large part of the domestic buildings seems to have been erected within fifty or sixty years of the date of the foundation, as they are built in the transition style of the beginning of the thirteenth century. The church appears to have been in progress during the thirteenth century, as in 1242 the Bishop of St. Andrews, owing to the debts incurred in building the monastery and other expenses, gave the canons permission to enjoy the revenues of the churches under their patronage, one of their number performing the office of vicar in each parish. The canons took the oath of fidelity to Edward I. in 1296, upon which their property was restored to them. Their possessions were widely spread, and extended into several counties, as appears from letters addressed by Edward regarding them to the sheriffs in the counties of Fife, Berwick, Roxburgh, and Edinburgh."[327]

Tradition states that the English under Edward II., in their retreat in 1322, provoked by the imprudent triumph of the monks in ringing the church bells at their departure, returned and burned the abbey in revenge. Dr. Hill Burton remarks that Bower cannot be quite correct in saying that Dryburgh was entirely reduced to powder, since part of the building yet remaining is of older date than the invasion. King Robert the Bruce contributed to its repair, but it has been doubted whether it ever was fully restored to its former magnificence. Certain disorders among the monks in the latter part of the fourteenth century brought the censure of Pope Gregory XI. upon its inmates. Being within twenty miles of the border, the abbey was frequently exposed to hostile English attacks, and we hear of its burning by Richard II. in 1385, by Sir Robert Bowes and Sir Bryan Latoun in 1544, and again by the Earl of Hertford in 1545—James Stewart, the abbot commendator, having with others crossed the Tweed into Northumberland and burned the village of Horncliffe. It was annexed to the Crown in 1587, and the lands were erected into a temporal barony, with the title of Lord Cardross, in favour of the Earl of Mar, from whom they have passed by purchase through the hands of several proprietors.

Chaucer was held to have visited the abbey, but the claim has been demolished by Dr. Hill Burton in Billings' Antiquities. Among the distinguished men, however, connected with the abbey was Ralph Strode, "the Philosophicall Strode," to whom and the "moral Gower" Chaucer inscribed his Troilus and Cresseide. He was a friend both of Chaucer and John Wiclif.[328] Andrew Forman was superior of Dryburgh, and was much occupied with affairs of Church and State under James IV. and James V. He was appointed in 1501 to the bishopric of Moray, holding at the same time the priories of Coldingham and Pittenweem, with the commendatorship of Dryburgh. He became afterwards Archbishop of Brouges, and finally Archbishop of St. Andrews. He is said to have written (1) Contra Lutherum, (2) De Stoica Philosophia, (3) Collectanea Decretalium.[329]

The monastery had the usual buildings around the cloister; the church was on the north side, and stood about ten steps above the level of the cloister garth. The sacristy, chapter-house, fratery, and other apartments stretch from the transept southwards along the east side; above these, on the upper floor, were the dormitories, entering by an open staircase from the south transept. Along the south side of the cloisters lay the refectory, which, on account of the slope of the ground, was raised on a basement floor of vaulted cellars. On the west side of the cloister garth are now only a few vaulted cellars. A small stream runs along the S.W. side of the monastic buildings, and beyond the stream are the remains of what seems to have been a detached chapel.

The oldest portions of the structure are those forming the eastern range; they are of Transitional date or about the beginning of the thirteenth century.[330] The sacristy has a stone bench round the walls and three steps in the floor. It has a door from the transept and an outer semicircular-headed doorway of Transition character from the cloister. Access is also obtained by a small door in the north side to a wheel-stair leading to the upper floors, and visible as a projecting turret at the S.E. angle of the transept. The east window of the sacristy is pronounced remarkable, having two round-headed windows surmounted by a visica-formed aperture. It has a piscina in the south wall near the east end. The apartment next the sacristy may originally have been a parlour, but is now appropriated as a mausoleum. There is an ambry in the south wall near the east end, and the doorway is semicircular and of Norman character. The floor of the chapter-house is several feet below the level of the cloister walk; the ordinary central doorway and side windows opening from the cloister are placed in their usual position on the level of the cloister walk. The side openings were unglazed, and were used for seeing and hearing what was proceeding in the chapter-house below. The doorway is large and deeply recessed; the outer arches of the windows on each side of the doorway are plain semicircles, filled in with two pointed lights having a central shaft.

The chapter-house retains its round barrel vault, and has three pointed windows in the east end and two similar ones in the side walls, where the chapter-house projects beyond the general line of the buildings. In the interior a round arched arcade runs along the east side, supported on single shafts, and there are traces of a similar arcade running round the side walls. There is an entrance doorway in the south wall; the east gable wall over the chapter-house still exists, possessing flat buttresses of a Norman type at the angles and between the windows, but the pointed arches indicate Transition work. There is a lovely fragment of carved work still preserved in the chapter-house, representing the pascal lamb slain and surrounded by a wreath of foliage, above which are the letters I.H.S. The vine leaves flowing from the lamb may symbolise the branches springing from the true vine.

South of the chapter-house was probably the fratery or monks' day room. It has been vaulted at a late period—probably third pointed. There is a fire-place in the centre of the west wall, and an outer doorway at the south end of the same wall. The apartment was lighted by three plain round arched windows in the east wall, one of which has had tracery inserted in after times. At the N.W. angle, opening from the level of the cloister, is a round-headed doorway, and traces of a staircase which served as the day access to the dormitory. South of the fratery is the slype or passage, with arched openings to the east and west. It has also a doorway to the fratery, and another to the apartment on the south side, the latter of which now only exists in part, the south end of the range having been destroyed. The range of these buildings still retains its eastern wall to the full height of two stories—the upper story being doubtless the dormitory.

On the south side of the cloister, where the refectory once stood, there are now only the ruins of the vaulted basement on which it stood. At the east end of this range there is a doorway from the cloister giving access to a staircase which led down to the lower level of the fratery, and the remainder of the south side was probably all occupied by the refectory. The west wall is almost all that survives; it is now ivy-clad, and contains a picturesque circular window, with radiating tracery. Adjoining this wall in the S.W. angle of the cloister there is an arched recess, apparently intended for a tomb and monument, but now empty. Over the doorway in this angle is a large shield, containing the arms of John Stewart, who was commendator in 1555. On the shield are the initials J.S., with the crozier in the centre. He was brother to the Earl of Lennox, and uncle to Lord Darnley, who married Queen Mary. The arms are those of the Stewarts of Lennox.