It is mentioned at p. 202 of the first volume that Abbot Patrick Gray was sent ambassador to England in 1586, in order to intercede with Elizabeth for Queen Mary. The following is Calderwood's notice of this incident: "About the seventh of December a conventioun of the nobilitie was holden at Edinburgh. Patrik, Maister of Gray, Abbot of Dunfermline, and Sir Robert Melvill of Mordecarnie, Knight, were directed in ambassadge to England, to procure the releefe of Queene Marie, alreadie convicted. At this conventioun it was granted that a voluntarie subsidie sould be lifted for furnishing ambassaders to be directed to Spaine, France, Denmarke, for her releefe; or for aid, in cace of anie executioun, which was feared."*

"Upon the seventh of Februar (1587), Patrik, Maister of Gray, and Sir Robert Melvill, returned to the countrie. They declared they had no assurance of the Queene's life; and that there was an English ambassader following them, to perswade the King that the executioun of his mother was for his owne weale and preservatioun." +

XXXIX. In 1587, George III. (Gordon), the sixth Earl of Huntly, was the last of the Dunfermline Abbots, the Abbacy being, in 1593, perpetually annexed to the Crown. He succeeded to the Abbacy on the banishment of the Master of Gray.

On the 6th February of that year, it is related, "The Earl of Huntly, being then in Dunfermline, sent in his uncle, Mr James Gordon, the Jesuit, to the King's majesty, who having remained five or six days in the Canongate, his majesty took purpose to conveen some of the ministry of Edinburgh within his own chamber in Holyroodhouse, and to send for the said Mr James, who coming before his majesty, his highness declared the cause for which he had sent for him, which was, that he understood him to be a learned man, come into this country on purpose to persuade the people to embrace the Popish religion; he would therefore show him that his majesty was himself disposed to use some reasoning with him on religion. Whereunto the said Mr James objected, and said that he desired not to reason with his majesty, but would reason with any other. The King's majesty answering, offered and promised to lay his crown and

*

Hist. of Kirk of Scotland, vol. iv. p. 605.

Р

+ Ibid., p. 607.

the bounds of the lands of Cocklaw and Lassodie. In consequence of this, "Lord Burghly pursued John Sime, heritor of Losodie, for declaring his right to win coal in Losodie. The Lords of Session found the pursuer successor to the Abbots, by his infeftments of the said privilege of winning coal in Losodie for his own use only."

12. Hailes. The church thus named, like the town and parish to which it belongs, is now called Colinton, situated in Mid-Lothian; signifying, as already explained at p. 214, the tun or town of Colin, the original proprietor.

13. Inveresk.-Dalrymple says, " I shall give an instance of a charter of King David of the Church of Inveresk, 'Post obitum Nicolai Sacerdotis,' who has been a Culdean Presbyter at Inveresk, and the paroch church to be suppressed; and so become a part of the Romish Abbacie of Dumfermline after the death of Nicolaus."+

14, 15. Inverkeithing Church and Chapel.-In the account of Inverkeithing Church, p. 225-6, mention is made of the fine old sandstone baptismal font, at present in the porch of the parish church, but unfortunately without any date. A woodcut of a somewhat similar baptismal font in design and shape was engraved for Bagot's Book of Common Prayer, the main difference between which and the Inverkeithing one is, that the stalk of the latter is taller than that of the former, and the armorial shields are in the centre of each side. The Inverkeithing font is perhaps the only remaining one of the kind in the county of Fife which has survived the effects of the Reformation in 1560 till the present time. There is a purpose to transfer it to the interior of the church, near the pulpit, to be used for its original intention. The large east window of the edifice has recently been filled with stained glass, after a very simple and elegant design, at a cost of about £80, executed by Mr Watson, glazier, Dunfermline.

The roof was almost entirely burnt in 1825, in consequence of the plumbers, during a short absence, having left a chaffer with burning coals upon the lead, when some of the coals fell out, melted the lead, and set the roof on fire. The roof of the southern aisle (the whole roof consisting of three angular + Historical Collections, pp. 248-9.

* STAIR'S Decisions, fol., i. 146.

portions) was entirely consumed, but little else suffered from the flames. The people, in their dread lest the fire should extend to the interior, drove out the windows, and forcibly tore down the galleries and pews, to prevent them being burned. The church being low in the roof, and some of the walls off the perpendicular, it was almost wholly rebuilt, at an expense of about £2000. The square tower, and its small leaden spire, were uninjured, which last has been lately renewed, and both have a very interesting appearance, as seen from the High Street of the burgh to the south.

In regard to the gift of Inverkeithing Chapel by King Malcolm IV. (No. XV.), being stated to be between 1153 and 1165, the nearer date would be 1159-1163. For Ernald, one of the witnesses to the charter of Malcolm IV. confirming the gift, and who had been Abbot of Kelso, succeeded Robert, bishop of St Andrews, at his death in 1159; and after becoming papal legate, founding the cathedral, and bestowing liberal donations on the priory, died in A.D. 1163.

20. Kinghorn.-The ancient parish church of Western Kinghorn, now Burntisland, was a donation by David I. Its ruins still exist, surrounded by its old cemetery, a little to the north of the town. The present parish church stands on a high rocky elevation, on the south side of the town, square and Dutch-like, bearing the date 1592 above its west door.

22. Kinglassie is noticed as having been in the "schire of Gaitmilk" (goat-milk). The word schire occurs in the first volume on pp. 170, 189; and in the Register of Dunfermline, pp. 427, 429, spelled also schir and schyre, attached as an adjunct to the designation of a property dail or daill. It is a Saxon term, unknown in the Scottish or Celtic period, during which Scotland proper was subdivided into ten districts, possessing separate and independent rights, and scarcely acknowledging a united royal superintendence. From it comes the name Sheriff. Gaitmilk is the name of a village, and of several lands around it, above the strath of Lochtie, in Kinglassie parish. "The tiends of Kinglassie were, anno 1234, mortified by William, bishop of St Andrews, 'Deo, S. Margarete, et monachis de Dunfermling.'"

23. Melville (Maleville, Mailvyn), in which the church of the same name was situated, is about a mile westward from Dalkeith

in the county of Edinburgh; and so called by and after a Baron Melville, who came from England into Scotland in the reign of David I., and settled there. It has already been noticed in connection with his gift of a "perpetual light to be burned before the tombs of Kings David I. and Malcolm IV." The barony is now chiefly in the parish of Lasswade, but a portion of it, named Lugton, on the north of the bank of the river North Esk, is in that of Dalkeith.

26 and 37.-Newton and Wymet (or Wowmet) churches, with their respective lands, once belonged to the Abbacy of Dunfermline; but after the Reformation, 1560, the parish of Wymet was suppressed, and included chiefly within the parish of Newton, situated about four miles south-east from Edinburgh, not far from Dalkeith.

27. Newburn (Newbirne, Nithbren) is frequently mentioned in the Register of Dunfermline in connection with the gift of its church to the Abbacy of Dunfermline, with the exception of the rights which the Culdees ought to have out of it, without specifying where the Culdees referred to resided. It is noticed at times along with Balchristie, a village understood to have been near Largo Bay, and where the first Christian church, according to tradition, was founded.

28. North Queensferry Chapel.-In addition to the particulars given in the first volume, p. 192, of a grant by Henry Creichton, abbot of Dunfermline, in 1479, of the ancient chapel of North Queensferry, and statement of the duties to be performed at it, as well as of the money allowed for the due discharge of them, an account of the application of which was to be rendered to the Abbot, it is added very properly-" The chaplain, in consideration of these things, shall, inter alia, continually reside at, and dwell in the manse of the chapel; and if he undertakes any other cure, or resides elsewhere, by which the service may be neglected, the chaplainry shall become vacant, and fall into the Abbot's hands."*

30-32. Church of Perth (St Johnston's, named after St John the Baptist).-In consequence of the donation by King

* In reference to the Queensferry Passage, there is the following item of very kind and indulgent consideration on the part of royalty, in a charter of King William at St Andrews, confirming previous charters of his ancestors down to

Malcolm III., with numerous confirmations by his son David I., and others of the church of Perth, a mansion pertaining to it, a dwelling-house in the burgh of Perth, and the whole tithes of his domain there, recorded in the Register of Dunfermline, the Abbot and monks of Dunfermline continued till the period of the Reformation proprietors of the parish church there, and its dependencies, drew the rectory tithes, and allowed the vicarage tithes to a vicar who officiated in Perth.*

(P. 231.)-Before proceeding to give some additional account of the priory of Pluscardine, once a dependency of the Abbacy of Dunfermline, and also of Coldingham, some of whose priors were abbots of Dunfermline, the following explanatory statements relative to conventual establishments generally may be appropriate, and to some useful; and I shall make them nearly in the words of Brown, in his Introduction to his History of Glasgow, 1795, pp. 15-17.

The regular clergy were so called, because they were bound to live according to the rule of St Augustine, or St Bennet, or to some private statutes approved by the pope. The members of each fraternity lived, messed, and slept under one roof. There are several distinct societies of the regular clergy.

Convents of Monks, Friars, and Nuns.-The monks and friars differed in this respect, that the former were seldom allowed to go out of their cloisters; but the friars, who were generally predicants or mendicants, travelled about and preached in the neighbourhood. Monks, at first, lived by their industry and by private alms, and came to the parish church. But a recluse life. was not so serviceable to the Romish Church, and therefore David I., relative to the passage and ship of Inverkeithing, that it was to be held on the condition that strangers and ambassadors coming to and returning from him, and men of his court, should pass in the same ship free of charge. And should it happen that any of these cannot pass without payment, and the Abbot shall then have heard an outcry, and not have corrected it, he (the king) will remedy it without trouble to the church of the abbot and brethren.-Reg. de Dunf., p. 29.

The following note is appended by a commentator to the Collect for St John Baptist's Day in the Episcopal Church : "Whereas other festivals are celebrated on the supposed day of the saint's death, this is calculated for the nativity of St John; the only nativity, except that of Christ, which the Church commemorates, probably on account of the words of the angel in Luke i. 14, 'Many shall rejoice at his birth.""