In the year 1174, William I. of Scotland, surnamed the Lion, was a prisoner in England, and the intimate and bosom friend of the celebrated and impervious Thomas de Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, and on his return to Scotland he founded, 1178, the Abbey of Arbroath, and dedicated it to this powerful ecclesiastic. When completed, the royal founder peopled it with a colony of the Tyronensian class of Benedictine Monks from the Abbey of Kelso, who were placed under the government of Reginald, fellow monk, as the first abbot, in the year 1178. The Abbot of Kelso declared them free from his jurisdiction. This magnificent monastery, when completed, was enclosed by a stone wall, the area forming an oblong square, the length of which, from north to south, was 190 geometrical paces, and the breadth, from east to west, 113 of these paces. A small tower stood on the south-west angle, which was used until 1832 as the parish church; it is now removed, and a handsome spire has been erected on its site. At the south-east corner, there was a private postern called the Darn Gate, or secret gate, above which was an apartment where the gatekeeper resided. On the north side of the area, and stretching from the east towards the middle, stood the Abbey Church; it was built in the form of a cross. It was 269½ feet long and 68 feet wide; the length of the nave was 149 feet, and of the chancel 76½ feet; the whole transept, from north to south, was 132 feet, and the breadth of it 45½ feet; the height the side walls was 67 feet. These dimensions were furnished to Maitland, the historian, by a townsman, about the year 1748. There were originally two large square towers, about 100 feet in height, which stood on each side of the grand entrance, which is now the principal entrance to the public cemetery. A side of the south tower was blown down by a violent wind in January, 1739; one side of the other in 1772; and in 1779 about 25 feet of the other side of the latter tumbled down. Near the grand entrance, and close upon the High Street of Arbroath, there is a large square tower, still standing, which, in the palmy days of Papal power, was used as the castle and prison of the Abbey regality, from which the adjoining district of the town has the colloquial appellation of the " Tower Nook." Within the Abbey gate, the abbot's house or lodging still remains in tolerable repair. It use to contain some curious ancient carvings in oak and other ornaments, of a strong heavy kind, characteristic of the age in which they were made. On the east, fronting the grand entrance to the Abbey Church, are the ruins of the high altar; and on the left, the Chapter House in excellent preservation. Near the Abbey gate is a spot known by the name of "Humbly Green," a corruption of "Hamilton Green," so called in honour of the ducal family of that name, a member of which was the first lay or secular Lord of the Abbey.
The Abbots of Arbroath, from time to time, received especial favours from the reigning Pontiff. They were entitled to wear the ring, mitre, crosier, and other episcopal ornaments and insignia -- to exercise episcopal authority within their Abbey -- and were exempted from attending and assisting at yearly synods. As a Lord Spiritual, the Abbot sat and voted in Parliament; but this privilege resulted from the temporalities, the territorial properties of the Abbey being feudal fiefs. Frequently the Abbots were the first and most eminent Churchmen in the kingdom, and were rewarded with this rich Monastery as the reward of great, public services. Gavine Douglas, the learned and unfortunate Bishop of Dunkeld, who died in 1522, was Abbot of Arbroath before his elevation to that see. This Prelate was third son of the celebrated Earl known in history by the soubriquet of "Bell the Cat."
At the erection of the Abbey, the royal founder conferred upon it half of all the tithes belonging to the Culdee Monastery of Abernethy, with the College at the same place belonging to them, and all their chapels, lands, offerings, and revenues of every kind. About the same time, Lawrence, second Lord of Abernethy, ancestor of the Lords Abernethy of Salton, and of the present noble family of Salton, granted the parish church of Abernethy, with its emoluments, to the Abbey of Arbroath, which grant was confirmed by the founder, William I. In the year 1179, Fergus, Earl of Buchan, erected the Benedictine Priory of Fyvie, Aberdeenshire; and the same year, with the approbation of the King, annexed it as a dependent cail to the Abbey of Arbroath. Some vestiges of Fyvie Priory still remain within a short distance of Fyvie parish church. About the year 1188, Richard Melville granted to the Abbey ten acres of the lands of Kinblethmont, near Arbroath. About the same date, Walter de Berkely, Lord of Red Castle, granted the church of Inverkeillor or Ethie, which was dedicated to the memory of St Murdoch. A small fragment of the church still remains. Also, about the same time, Thomas Lundie, ancestor of the family of Durward, keeper of the palace to William I., granted the church of Kinernie, in the district of Mar, Aberdeenshire, and likewise the forest of Orphack, lying between the river Don and Cannie Water, in the same county. The gift of this forest was ratified and confirmed by Alexander II., on the 17th October, 1231. About the year 12OO, David, Earl of Huntingdon, a short time after his return from the crusade, granted to the Abbey a toft of land in his burgh of Dundee, which King William I., his brother, had a short time before bestowed on him. In 1214, Sir Allan Durward, son of Thomas de Lundie, granted the parish church of Kingoldrum and the lands of Balfour, which were very extensive. About the year 1207, the famous Gilchrist, third Earl of Angus, granted to the Abbey the churches of Kirriemuir, Monifieth, Murroes, and Mains. In the year 1225, Malcolm, fourth Earl of Angus, granted some lands in Kirriemuir; and Matilda, his daughter, and Countess of Angus in her own right, granted the whole of the lands lying on the south side of the church of Monifieth, which, previous to the grant, were the property of the Culdees, to whom also the church belonged. A dispute having arisen with the Monks respecting the lands of Inverpeffer, now part of the parish of St Vigeans, the rents of which the steward of the Abbey had been in the custom of collecting, unchallenged, by virtue of a grant of them to the convent, the disputants appealed to the King, Alexander II., who, in a court, held in the castle of Forfar, on the 17th February, 1250, after hearing the claims ot both parties, decided in favour of the Abbey. In the year 1254, Sir Patrick Maule of Panmure granted the lands of Brax, in the barony of Panmure; and in the year 1359, his descendant, Sir Walter Maule of Panmure, granted annuity of two merks out of these lands, and the chapel of Boath, or Carncorthy, to the Cathedral of Brechin.
From this rapid sketch of a few of the principal grants made at various times by distinguished persons to this Abbey, it will be evident that its wealth most haye been enormous; and history records that the Black Earl of Douglas, with 1000 followers, feasted and sojourned in it for twelve months, without trenching on the usual comforts of the inhabitants. When it is stated that in the year 1530, in addition to the rent in kind paid by the Abbey tenants, that there were purchased for the establishment 8 wedders, nine score of oxen, eleven barrels of salmon, 1500 dried cod fish, eighty-two chalders of malt, thirty of wheat, and forty of meal, some faint idea may be formed of its wealth and unbounded hospitality.
In the winter of the year 1272, the Abbey Church was fired by lightning, by which it was materially damaged. In the year 1314, Bernard de Linton*, the Abbot, disposed the Abbey lands of Ethie to David de Maxwell. It was this intrepid Churchman who alone, of all the Magnates of Scotland, lay and clerical, had the courage to deliver to Edward I. of England, the renunciation of King John Baliol's allegiance to him as his superior lord. He was afterwards Chancellor of the kingdom, in which capacity, along with Sir Alexander Fraser, the Chamberlain, he was appointed by Robert I. to hold a court to inquire into the privileges of Dundee, with a view to a confirmation of them. In the year 1328 Robert I. promoted him to the see of the Isles, along with which he held both this Abbey and that of Icolmkill at the seat his episcopate. On the 6th April, 1320, a Parliament or Council was held in this Abbey by Robert I., at which the famous letter was drawn up, addressed to the Pope, on account of the hardships which Scotland laboured under from the anathemas of his Holiness and the invasion of the English. This letter, considering the time it was written, is unequalled for the dignified remonstrance it contains and the spirit of liberality which it breathes, and does infinite honour to the Hero of Bannockburn. A copy of the letter will be found in Lord Hailes' Annals and in a few Histories of Scotland.
After the Reformation, the unalienated revenues of the Abbey were bestowed upon Lord Claude Hamilton, who was created Lord Aberbrothock, which title is still one of the House of Hamilton. The lands and revenues subsequently became the property of the Earl of Dysart, from whom Patrick first Earl of Panmure purchased them, on the 26th November 1642. The venerable pile was long allowed to lie in a state of utter ruin, and for many years served as a common quarry to all and sundry; but, as we have now arrived at times when more respect is paid to the gorgeous architectural remains of former ages, its surviving remnants are now scrupulously preserved, and several improvements and repairs have been made on them in the present century. In 1815 a grant was made by the Exchequer for this purpose; and while removing some rubbish from the foundations of the church, the lid or cover of a stone coffin was discovered, which bore the figure of a man in an attitude of devotion. The figure had been originally gilded, as some particles of gold remained in the deep folds of the flowing drapery. It was considered by some as the representative of the royal founder, who died 12th December, 1214, and was interred before the high altar. From the appearance of the drapery, it is more probable that it was the effigy of some of the clerical dignitaries of the Abbey, very probably the famous Bernard of Linton, the lion hearted Churchman referred to. In the year 1835 some further exertions were made to clear out the ruins; but beyond heaps of human bones, and some exquisite specimens of ancient architectural skill, little or anything gratifying to the lover of antiquities was discovered. However, on the 7th September same year, a small skeleton, wrapt in leather, and in good preservation, was dug up, and was carefully deposited, along with other relics, in the Chapter House. This skeleton was judged to be that a female; and, as a thing of course, the local savans concluded that it was the skeleton of the founder's Queen, and it is yet shown to visiters as such; but there can be little doubt that Queen Emergarde, consort of William I., at her death in 1233, was buried before the high altar in the church of the Abbey of Balmerino, which, in conjunction with her son, Alexander II., she had erected in 1229. Tradition avers that Ouchterlony of Kelly burned and helped to destroy the Abbey. How far this can be depended on I cannot determine. At present its ruins are strikingly picturesque and grand. It is impossible to view its towers, splendid windows, and ruined walls, without mingled feelings of admiration, awe, and delight. They speak of glory departed, and tell a mournful tale the effects of party fury and religious fanaticism, while they remind us of the dawn of a new and a better era, wherein religious and political liberty have been fostered and have flourished, and the soul of man emancipated from the thraldom of a debasing superstition.
With this article, in the meantime, I close the "Wanderings," which I have continued for twenty-nine weeks, and in so doing, it is but justice to state that if I have succeeded in affording the readers of the Courier either amusement or instruction by their perusal, that I have only been enabled to do so by the assistance of an antiquarian whose knowledge of musty records and reverend histories is not surpassed by one I know of -- I allude to James Thomson, Dundee. I have been largely indebted to his capacious fund of ancient lore, and thus publicly acknowledge it. In conclusion, reader, I think I may, without violation of modesty, in bidding you farewell, doff my initialed cognomen, and, instead of signing the oft-repeated S. S., subscribe my bona fide name. James Myles.
* It was not Bernard de Linton but a different Bernard who was abbot of Arbroath and chancellor of Scotland.