THE ABBEY OF PAISLEY. PAISLEY is a purely manufacturing town, on the banks of a tributary of the Clyde, called "The White Cart"-a name which does not naturally present itself to the visitor, who observes its inky waters, as an appropriate designation. The main portion of the town is of very recent construction. It has, in fact, been generally appealed to as the most rapid specimen of manufacturing growth in Scotland, the population having increased with unprecedented rapidity. It has thus seldom acquired distinction as a place likely to afford attractions to sight-seers, and its inns have been far more frequently visited by the commercial traveller than by the tourist or the antiquary. There are few public buildings of any note. All the edifices, public or domestic, have a raw, modern, unadorned appearance; while the black smoke by which they are coated deprives them of the cheerfulness of neat, clean, modern streets. The Abbey Church itself, the object of this notice, promises little at a distance. It is scarcely conspicuous among the other buildings, exhibiting only a steep roof, with high gray gables, which might seem at first sight to be a manufactory a little older than its neighbours. It is only in the interior, and in the smaller architectural details of the exterior, that the artistic merits of the edifice are seen. From the moment when these come under the visitor's observation, he is prepared to acknowledge the creditable state of repair and good order in which all that remains of this fine edifice is kept. The first feature that demands attention is the western doorway. It is broad and deep, with large bold mouldings, exhibiting, though the style in general is the early English, some remnants of the toothed decorations of the Norman period. On either side of the pointed arch of the doorway there is a narrower archway of the same character, faced with stone. Above the doorway there are three windows, generally speaking of the same period of architecture; but while the single window in the highest department is of a more decorated character, the two others, occupying the compartment between it and the door, are somewhat remarkable for the breadth and simplicity of the mullions. Owing to this feature, in the interior, when the sun is setting, or there happens to be otherwise a strong light from the west, the outlines of the details of these windows are conveyed to the eye by a strong contrast between the light, and the opaque masses by which it is obstructed; and the spectator is reminded, more forcibly than he usually is by ecclesiastical windows, that he is looking through the departments of a strong stone structure, which admits the light only in fragments. But there are other objects of more interest in the interior. It consists merely of the nave, and it is fitted up with galleries as a parish church: but these appendages, being low, narrow, and deeply seated within the aisles, are here less offensive to the eye than they usually are. The triforium and the clerestory rise majestically above the tops of the pillars, and are marked by peculiarities of more than usual interest.; Corresponding in breadth with each arch between the body of the church and the aisles, there is a semicircular arch in the triforium. These arches are of very unusual breadth in comparison with their height; but this effect is modified by the depth and richness of the clustered mouldings, and by each being divided by a slender column into two narrow pointed arches, richly cusped, having between them a quatrefoil in the enclosing arch. Again, above this department, and over each pillar, a large corbel or bracket projects forward, springing from the effigy of a beast, and stretching so far from the wall, in a series of segmental mouldings, as to become broad enough to contain a passage between it and the wall. Between the space occupied by each broad arch of the triforium there are two clerestory windows. A gallery passes along the clerestory, and in that division between each window, which is above the keystone of the arch below, it passes through the department, while, in passing each alternate division, above the pillars and the separations of the triforium arches, the gallery passes round the exterior, and is supported by the corbels. The object of these peculiarities is clearly to give the roof the full support of solid masonry above each pillar, without its being weakened by a perforation. As there is no balustrade on the corbels, a walk along this gallery, the nature of which probably will not be fully understood without comparing the description with the engraving, is a somewhat nervous operation. The clerestory windows have pointed arches, each divided into two departments, with trifoliate tops and a quatrefoil between them in the enclosing arch. A part of the northern transept still remains, and its extremity, showing part of the skeleton of a large window, is worthy of attention. Of the long choir, the outline only can be traced, in a wall a few feet high enclosing part of the burying-ground. It is still encrusted here and there with curious remnants of sculpture. On the south side are the graceful and highly decorated remains of sedilia, represented in the accompanying cut. Near them is a small plain piscina, which may have probably been adorned with wood-work. 66 contents. The sounding aisle," as it is called, is a chapel standing apart on the south side of the arch. The entrance towards it is through an ancient door, leading a long low-browed ribbed archway, leading to a court or cloister, surrounded, except where the chapel abuts on it, with high, venerable-looking crow-stepped gables. The "sounding aisle," has received its name from a long established reputation for the loudness with which sounds are echoed within it; and it is generally some time ere the slamming of doors, and some other noisy efforts to make the visitor duly aware of this peculiarity, can be so far suppressed as to admit of the peaceable inspection of its interesting The main object of attention is that mysterious monument, called "Queen Blearie's tomb." It is the monument of a female, whose effigy lies at full length on a large altar sarcophagus. The figure is graceful and simple, and the drapery well developed. Over the head there is a large canopy of the richest pendant Gothic work. But the large sarcophagus is itself both the most remarkable and the most beautiful portion of the monument. It is divided into compartments, characteristically enriched with quatrefoils and raised mouldings, profusely decorated. It exhibits many ornamental devices, partly of an ecclesiastical, partly of an heraldic character. The character of the whole of this work of art, as well as of the edifice in which it lies, is solemn and impressive, and this tone is somewhat heightened by the deep mystery in which its history is involved. Although it did not originally belong to the chapel, which indeed is evidently of a somewhat later date, yet its present position is chosen happily--at least for effect-as, from the great size of the monument, the chapel stands so proportioned to it as if it were a niche suited to contain it. On a close inspection, it becomes pretty clear that many parts of the sculpture have been repaired; and, indeed, from the picture in the Transactions of the Scottish Antiquarian Society, it appears to have been in a very fragmentary state in 1820. The whole being covered with a thick coat of stone-coloured paint, it would now be difficult to distinguish the parts which have been supplied. On the top of the canopy there is a sculptured effort to represent the crucifixion, which, both from the character of the work and the method in which the letters I N R I are formed, appears to have been a compa ratively late effort. Along a portion of the upper end of the sounding aisle there is a series of sculptured groups, in compartments. They are the work of an ancient and rude age-probably they existed before the chapel itself, and were fragments of an earlier edifice. The ingenuity of antiquaries has failed to discover the subjects they represent. A piscina, and some of the other adjuncts of the chapel as a place of worship, still remain. The windows, belonging to the decorated period, and not without merit, are blocked up, and but a partial light is admitted to the interior through the door. HISTORICAL SKETCH. The early history of this religious house is interesting, from its connexion with that of the origin of the royal house of Stuart. Walter, the son of Alan, a knight of Anglo-Norman descent, obtained from King David I., in the twelfth century, a charter of the burgh and lands of Renfrew and the lands of Paisley. The charter was confirmed by Malcolm IV., who made the office of Steward of Scotland, which had been conferred on Walter, hereditary in the family. Besides many other acts of ecclesiastical munificence, Walter, soon after the middle of the twelfth century, founded the Abbey of Paisley. The foundation-charter is undated, but a minute criticism of the internal evidence conveyed by it, fortified by external evidence relating to the witnesses, has led the Editor of the Cartulary to the conclusion, that the date must have been "about the year 1163."* The foundation was for monks of the Cluniac order of Reformed Benedictines. This order derived its local name from the Abbey of Cluni in Burgundy, celebrated for its riches, its power, and its munificent hospitalities. A priory of this order, La Charité, was situated on the banks of the Loire. Thence one of the colonies which the great monastic institutions so frequently threw off was established at Wenlock, in Shropshire, which there are strong grounds for supposing to be the native county of the ancestors of the Stuarts. "It has been said," observes the Editor of the Cartulary, "that the great exploit of Walter the first Steward was founding the Abbey of Paisley—perhaps it might be more correctly called the one of his acts of which the record has been best preserved; and in an investigation founded on so small a body of facts, the most minute circumstance is not to be overlooked. It may be remarked that the English origin of that family is supported by an exchange which took place between the family of Wenloc and the first Steward. He had originally covenanted to give the house of Wenloc, in consideration of his obtaining certain privileges for his new foundation, a tenement in his burgh of Renfrew, with extensive rights of fishing. This grant was probably found inconveniently distant from the monastery, and the parties agreed to an excambion [an exchange] of the possessions in Renfrew for property in Menewde, a name which has no affinity to any place in Scotland," but which the learned Editor conjectures, on very probable grounds, to have been Menevia, or St David's. The first locality of the monks appears to have been close to Renfrew, the head burgh of the county in which Paisley is situated; for in the Cartulary there is first a confirmation of a charter of Walter to the monks of St Milburga of Wenlock * Registrum Monasterii de Passelet-Cartas, Privilegia, Conventiones, aliaque Munimenta complectens ; a domo fundatâ, A.D. MCLXIII. usque ad A.D. MDXXIX. Printed for the Maitland Club. Preface by Professor Innes. + Ibid. xii. of a grant on the inch or isle near Renfrew, and by a charter from the same Walter, the monks of Paisley receive a grant of the territory in Renfrew which they formerly inhabited. Milburga, grand-daughter of Penda, King of Mercia, was the patron saint of the Priory of Wenlock. The colony transferred to Scotland adopted the same patroness, uniting with her St James, and Mirinus a bishop and saint, whose name was subsequently more intimately associated with the establishment. A few miracles are recorded of this saint, one of which is somewhat peculiar and original. Journeying on a religious mission, he reached the castle of the King of Ireland, where he demanded hospitality. It happened that he arrived at the very inopportune moment when a royal infant was expected to be added to his Majesty's family, and was therefore denied admission. Incensed by this disrespectful usage, he solemnly prayed that such sufferings as are borne on the occasion might be laid on the monarch himself. The virtuous prayer was, of course, immediately fulfilled, and for three days and three nights, until he had appeased the saint, the king lay howling on a bed of torture. The time when Mirinus flourished is not known; but, according to the breviary of Aberdeen, he was interred at Paisley. The chapel called the "sounding aisle" was specially dedicated to him. The haughty brotherhood of Cluni appears to have been remarkable for the jealousy with which it preserved its subordinate houses in strict dependence. "Though munificently endowed by its founder, who also purchased, by a grant of lands, its independence of the mother house of Wenlock, and the right of appointing a superior, which he reserved to himself, Paisley continued for more than eighty years after its institution in the secondary rank of monastic societies, being denied by the head of the order the privileges of an abbot's government, to the great detriment of the monks, who were thus debarred of the means of making regular profession and receiving canonical benediction." In the year 1245—that of the great Council of Lyons, where several of the Scottish bishops were present-the house of Cluny consented to the election of an abbot by the monks of Paisley. About ninety years later, the superior became a mitred abbot and a lord of Parliament, Pope Benedict XII. conferring on him the insignia of the mitre and ring, with episcopal jurisdiction over all churches and other places subject to the monastery. The possessions of the house were extensive and valuable, making it one of the richest ecclesiastical establishments in Scotland; and the records of Parliament, so far back as they mention the persons assembled, record the presence of the Abbot of Paisley. Walter, the founder, died a monk in the Abbey of Melrose, in 1177, and was buried in Paisley. His monastery became the burial-place of his race, until their accession to the throne. quently held the remains of King Robert III. It subse Of the present fabric of the church, only a fragment of what it must have been in the sixteenth century, some portions, such as the western porch and lower windows, might be attributed to a date not much later than that of the foundation of the establishment. It is recorded by Fordun and others, that the abbey was burned by the English army in 1307. There is no specific description of the event, and the extent of the injury is not mentioned. There is the following reference to it in a charter of confirmation to the abbey of a church and chapel in Cunningham by the Bishop of Glasgow, which is given "habitâ consideratione ad magna dampna quæ monasterium de Passelet, nostræ diocesis, ordinis Cluniacensis, propter diram guerram inter regna Angliæ et Scotiæ diutius habitam, sustinuit, et ad juvamen fabricæ ecclesiæ suæ per dictam guerram combustæ." From this it might be inferred that the * Registrum, Pref. v. + Ramsay's Views in Renfrewshire. Registrum, &c., p. 238. edifice was rather injured than utterly destroyed. It is probable that a large portion of the richly decorated architecture which still remains, as well as much of that which has been destroyed, was built in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. We have a record of the benefactions and services of the Abbot Thomas Tarvas, who died in 1459. "He did mony notable thingis, and held ane noble hous, and wes ay wele purvait. He fand the place all out of gud rewle, and destitut of leving, and all the kirkis in lordis handis, and the kirk unbiggit. The body of the kirk fra the bricht stair up he biggit, and put on the ruf, and theckit it with sclait, and riggit it with stane, and biggit ane great porcioun of the steple, and ane statelie yet-hous, and brocht hame mony gud jowellis, and clathes of gold, silver, and silk, and mony gud bukis, and maid staitlie stallis, and glassynit mekle of all the kirk, and brocht hame the staitliest tabernackle that was in all Scotland, and the maist costlie. And schortlie he brocht all the place to fredom, and fra nocht to ane mychti place, and left it out of all kynd of det, and at all fredome till dispone, as thayme lykit: and left ane of the best myteris that was in Scotland, and chandillaris of silver, and ane lettern of bras, with mony other gud jowillis."* Before its dilapidation, the church seems to have consisted of a nave and choir with aisles, a tower and steeple rising from the intersection of the cross, and a northern transept. The chapel of St Mirren occupies part of the ground on which a southern transept, of the same length as the northern one, would have abutted. Round this noble edifice were clustered the various conventual buildings, suited to the state and hospitality of so affluent an establishment. The whole was surrounded by a wall, upwards of a mile in circumference, inclosing a considerable portion of the ground now occupied by the busy streets of Paisley. On the lintel of a house there remains an inscription, formerly attached to this wall, which shows that it was built by the Abbot Shaw in 1485. "Tha callit the abbot Georg of Schawe, That made thus nobil foundacioun." The line within brackets was obliterated early in the eighteenth century, probably as savouring of Popery, but the inscription in its complete state had been preserved by topographical writers.† The tower, which is said to have fallen from the insufficiency of the masonry, was re-erected by the last abbot, John Hamilton. It is doubted whether its subsequent destruction is to be attributed to a similar circumstance, or was occasioned by the tumults of the Reformation. This last Abbot of Paisley was likewise the last Roman Catholic Bishop of St Andrews. He was an illegitimate. connexion of the ducal house whose name he bore, and is unpleasantly associated in Scottish history with violence and cruelty of which he was the perpetrator in the early part of his career, and under which he fell at its close. He was a great pluralist. It is said that on his elevation to the archiepiscopate he resigned the abbacy to his relative Lord Claud Hamilton, son of the Earl of Arran, and that the resignation was confirmed by the Pope in 1553; yet a document has been adduced in which he grants a charter as Abbot of Paisley in 1558.§ Lord Claud Hamilton subsequently * Memoriale of the Scottis Croniklis. Views in Renfrewshire, 33. |