Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 3

ELGIN
the stones used in the erection of the present garden
walls of Dunfermline Cottage. Of the newer buildings
extensive remains still exist. The walls of the church
are pretty entire, though the roof fell about the middle
of the last century, or perhaps earlier, for now an ash
tree, which measures i feet in circumference, grows
through one of the windows. Part of the monastery
walls form part of the modern mansion-house of Grey-
friars. The church was the meeting-place of the trades
from 1676 till about 1691. Still further to the E, on a
field now feued by the trustees of Anderson's Institution
as a play-field, stood the Maison Dieu, or House of God,
a foundation dating also from the time of Alexander II.,
and largely endowed by Bishop Andrew de Moravia for
the reception'of poor men and women. It was burned by
the Wolf of Badenoch at the same time as the cathedral
in 1390, and was never rebuilt. After the Reformation
the revenues belonging to it, which had reverted to the
Crown, were, by a charter dated 1620, granted to the
' Provost, Bailies, Councillors, and community of Elgin, '
to support poor and needy persons, to maintain a teacher
of music, and to increase the common revenue of the
burgh. The support of the poor and needy persons is
carried out by the Bied House, in South College Street, in
which 4 poor men reside, each of whom has a small house,
a strip of garden, and £12, 10s. a year. The original
building was erected in 1624, but this structure having
become ruinous was pulled down, and the present one
erected in 1846. The tablet from the old house, with a
representation of an old style Bied-man, and the inscrip-
tion ' Hospitalium Burgi de Elgin per idem conditum,
1624,' and the text, ' Blessed is he that considereth the
poor ; the Lord \Till deliver him in time of trouble,' has
been built into the gablet over the doorway of the new
building. There was a Leper House farther to the E,
on the opposite side of the road, but the only trace of it
remaining is the name given to the fields, viz., 'the
Leper Lands.' Still farther to the E, close to the point
where the Aberdeen road crosses the Lossiemouth rail-
way, is a pool, tiU recently of considerable depth, known
as ' the Order Pot,' a name corrupted most probably
from the Ordeal Pot, and the place where presumptive
witches underwent the ordeal by water. It may have
also been the place where criminals sentenced to be put
to death by drowning (as was sometimes the case) were
executed, and was probably the only remaining specimen
of such a ' pit. ' In Ehind's Sketches of 3Ioraij there is
a long account of the death of a supposed witch by
drowning at this place. Traditionally it was supposed
to be bottomless, but in the course of years the amount
of rubbish thrown into it materially diminished its size,
and within the last year it has been numbered with the
things that were, and it will therefore no longer be
possible that the old prophecy that
* The Order Pot and Lossie grey
Shall sweep the Chan'ry Kirk away,'
attributed to Thomas the Rhymer, can be fulfilled.
The crowning glory of old Elgin, as of the modem
city, is the Cathedral, still grand, though but a ruin and
a shadow of what once was, when the cathedral church
of the diocese of Moray was not only ' the lantern of the
north,' but also, as Bishop Bur states so plaintively in
his letter to the King, complaining of the destruction
caused by the Wolf of Badenoch, ' the ornament of the
district, the glory of the kingdom, and the admii'ation
of foreigners.' 'It is,' says Chambers in his Picture of
ScotlaTul, ' an allowed fact, which the ruins seem still
to attest, that this was by far the most splendid speci-
men of ecclesiastical architecture in Scotland, the abbey
church of Melrose not excepted. It must be acknow-
ledged that the edifice last mentioned is a wonderful
instance of symmetry and elaborate decoration ; yet in
extent, in loftiness, in impressive magnificence, and
even in minute decoration, Elgin has been manifestly
superior. Enough still remains to impress the solitary
traveller with a sense of admiration mixed with astonish-
ment. ' Shaw in his description of it does not hesitate
to say that ' the church when entire was a building of
660
ELGIN
Gothic architecture inferior to few in Europe. ' ' At a
period,' observes Mr Rhind, 'when the country was
rude and uncultivated, when the dwellings of the mass
of the people were mere temporary huts, and even the
castles of the chiefs and nobles possessed no architectural
beauty, and were devoid of taste and ornament, the
solemn grandeur of such a pile, and the sacred purposes
with which it was associated, must have inspired an awe
and a reverence of which we can form but a faint concep-
tion. The prevailing impulse of the religion of the
period led its zealous followers to concentrate their
whole energies in the erection of such magnificent
structures ; and while there was little skill or industry
manifested in the common arts of life, and no associa-
tions for promoting the temporal comforts of the people,
the grand conceptions displayed in the architecture of
the Jliddle Ages, the taste and persevering iudustry,
and the amount of wealth and labour bestowed on these
sacred edifices find no parallel in modern times. When
entire, indeed, and in its pristine glory, the magnificent
temple must have afforded a splendid spectacle. A vast
dome, extending from the western entrance to the high
altar, a length of 2S9 feet, with its richly ornamented
arches crossing and recrossing each other to lean for
support on the double rows of stately massive pillars —
the mellowed light streaming through the richly stained
windows, and flickering below amid the dark shadows
of the pointed aisles, whUe the tapers of the altars
twinkled through the rolling clouds of incense — the
paintings on the walls — the solemn tones of the chanted
mass, and the gorgeous dresses and imposing processions
of a priesthood sedulous of every adjimct to dazzle and
elevate the fancy, must have deeply impressed a people
in a remote region with nothing around them, or even
in theii' uninformed imaginations, in the slightest degree
to compare with such splendour. No wonder that the
people were proud of such a structure, or that the clergy
became attached to it. It was a fit scene for a Latin
author of the period, writing on the " tranquillity of the
soul," to select for his Temple of Peace, and under its
walls to lay the scene of his philosophical dialogues.'
It has been already noted that the early cathedral of the
diocese was at Birnie, Einneddar, or Spynie. This practice
seems to have answered for a time, for though the
bishopric of Moray was founded by Alexander I. shortly
after his accession (1107), it was not till 1203 that
' Bricius the sixth bishop made application to Pope
Innocent III. to have a fixed cathedral, and the Pope
ordered that the cathedi'al should be fixed at Spynie,'
which probably led to the foundation of what after-
wards developed into the Bishop's Palace at that place.
[See Spynie.] Bricius died in 1222, and his successor,
Bishop Andrew de Moravia, coming in the reign of
Elgin's great benefactor, Alexander II., and having
obtained from him an extensive site on the banks of the
Lossie, made in 1223 fresh application to Pope Honorius,
representing the solitary unprotected site of the cathedral,
and its distance from market, and praying that it might
be translated to Elgin as a more suitable place, and
there settled at the church of the Holy Trinity, a
little to the NE of the town, adding as an additional
reason that the change was desired, not only by the
chapter, but also by the King. The Pope readily con-
sented, and on 10 April 1224 issued a bull directed
to the Bishop of Caithness, the Abbot of Kinloss, and
the Dean of Koss, empowering them to make the desired
change if they should see fit ; and these dignitaries,
having met at Elgin on 19 July 1224, 'appointed
the said church of the Holy Trinity to be the cathedral
church of the diocese of Moray, and so to remain in all
time coming ; ' and on the same day the foundation-
stone of the cathedral was laid yniXi all due pomp and
ceremony. Bishop Andrew de Moravia lived for eighteen
years after, and therefore carried the building far towards
completion, if he did not, as is most likely, actually
finish it. Of this first building probably now Uttle, if
any, part is left, for it is recorded by Fordun under the
year 1270, that the cathedral of Elgin and the houses of
the canons were burned, whether by accident or design