[51] This window seems very ancient, and no mistake! Compare it with the window of the oratory near Kilmalkedar, in my Towers, p. 184. First edition.—P.
[52] This fact is, I think, very interesting and important as an evidence of the great antiquity of the building. Such built-passages are often found in Ireland connected with small churches and oratories of the sixth and seventh centuries, but never, to my knowledge, with any of a later age. They may, in fact, be considered as characteristic appendages, or accompanying features, to the ecclesiastical structures of those times. There is one at Rathmichael, near Dublin, where there is the butt of a round tower. I have seen many of them in various states of preservation, and I think all were about 4 feet both in breadth and height. They were, however, never arched, but roofed with large flags, laid horizontally, and their upper surface level with the surrounding ground.—P.
[53] After this sentence Dr. Petrie adds, "Good—very good."
[54] This is a strong evidence in favour of the antiquity of the structure.—P.
[55] See other similar notices of the visit of Alexander I. to Inchcolm in Buchanan's Rerum Scoticarum Historia, lib. vii. cap. 27; Leslæus de Rebus Gestis Scotorum, lib. vi. p. 219, etc.
[56] Joannis de Fordun Scotichronicon, cum Supplementis et Continuatione Walteri Boweri Insulæ St. Columbæ Abbatis; cura Walteri Goodall (1759), vol. i. p. 286.
[57] My friend Mr. David Laing, with his usual kindness, has examined, with a view to this point, several manuscripts of the Scotichronicon, and has found that the account in that work of King Alexander's visit to Inchcolm is from the pen of Bower, and, as Mr. Laing adds in his note to me, "not the less curious and interesting on that account." In his original portion of the History, Fordun himself merely refers to the foundation of the Monastery of Inchcolm by Alexander.
[58] Extracta e Cronicis Scocie, p. 66.
[59] History of Scotland, vol. iii. p. 336.
[60] See Mr. Turnbull's Introductory Notice to the Abbotsford Club edition of the Extracta, p. xiv.