Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

DUNFERMLINE.
389
gether 49 feet, 8 inches of coal, which can be worked
in 13 separate divisions, by this pit Immediately
to the east of the Elgin is the Well wood colliery.
It is situated about a mile north of Dunfermline.
The coal from this work is extensively used in the
town of Dunfermline and neighbourhood, and a large
quantity of it is also exported, principally to France.
The steam-boats plying between Paris and Rouen
are almost entirely supplied with it. The quantity
of coals raised at this work, in 1839, was about
48,000 tons. The number of persons employed at
the work is 252 To the east of this colliery are
the Townhill and Appin collieries The next large
and old colliery, still farther to, the east, and 2A
miles from the town of Dunfermline, is that of Hall-
beath. The output at this work, in 1837, was
18,437 tons, a great proportion of which was ex-
ported. The coals exported are shipped at Inver-
keithing, whither they are carried by a railroad
A little way to the east a small colliery has been
lately begiui at Nether-beath, called the Cuttle-
hill colliery. About 2,000 tons have been sold an-
nually since the coal- work began; but they are
expected to increase. — Limestone is found and
wrought for sale on the lands of Broom-hall, Rosco-
bie, Lathalmond, and Dunduff. Those at Charles-
ton on Broomland lands, are the most extensive :
see that article. There are several whinstone and
freestone quarries in the parish. Iron-stone pervades
the whole coal-field of the Earl of Elgin, in thin
hands and balls, and was once wrought to the extent
of 4,000 to 5,000 tons per annum. Copper pyrites,
in small quantities, is found imbedded in the clay
iron-stone, with carbonate of lime, at the Elgin col-
liery.
Among the most eminent Scotsmen of the 15th
century was ' Maister Robert Henryson, scholmais-
ter of Dunfermling.' He was a poet of consider-
able fancy, and successfully attempted various styles
of composition. His longest poem, — ' The Testa-
ment of the Fair Cresseide,' — " contains," says Dr.
Irving, "many strokes of poetical description, which
a writer of more than ordinary genius could only
have produced." He wrote a number of fables in
verse, which convey useful lessons, but are rather
prolix. Of these, probably the best is ' The Bor-
rowstoun Mous, and the Land wart Mous.' His pas-
toral ' Robin and Makyne' displays a love of nature
and great sweetness of versification ; and his 'Abbey
Walk' is full of serious reflections. The learned
civilian, Edward Henryson, LL.D., seems to have
been the grandson of the poet. George Durie, abbot
of Dunfermline, was made an extraordinary lord of
session in July, 1541, and keeper of the privy-seal
in 1554. He died in 1561. Robert Pitcairn, abbot
of Dunfermline, was seeretary-of-state in 1570, which
office he held during the regencies of Lennox, Mar,
and Morton, and afterwards under James VI. Two
of the family of Seaton, Earls of Dunfermline, were
extraordinary lords-of-session ; and three of the ab-
bots of Dunfermline held the office of lord-high-
chancellor of Scotland. In 1839, the Right Hon.
Mr. Abercrombie, late speaker of the house of com-
mons, was called to the house of peers, by the title
of Baron Dunfermline of Dunfermline.
Malcolm III., surnamed Cean-mhor, or 'Great-
head,' resided chiefly, after his accession to the Crown,
at the tower which still bears his name, in the glen
of Pittencrieff, in the immediate neighbourhood of
the modern town of Dunfermline, and here he mar-
ried Margaret, a Saxon princess, who had, with her
brother Edgar, the heir of the English throne, fled
to Scotland for refuge from the Norman conqueror.
Margaret was the daughter of Edward, son of Ed-
mund Ironside, king of England. Upon William the
Conqueror ascending the English throne, Edgar, son
of Edward, with his mother Agatha, and two sisters,
Margaret and Christian, retired into Scotland. Some
authors say, that being on a voyage to Hungary, they
were accidentally driven thither by a storm. The
place in the frith where the ship anchored is a small
bay, about a mile north-west of North Queensferry,
near the present toll-bar. This bay is called St.
Margaret's Hope.* On the side of the present road,
near Pitreavie, about 2 miles from Dunfermline, is a
large stone called St. Margaret's stone. Here she
is said to have rested, leaning on this stone. North
and South Queensferry derive their name from St.
Margaret. " The site of Malcolm's tower," says
Mercer, in his excellent 'History of Dunfermline,'
" was strikingly adapted for a stronghold, and could
not fail of attracting a rude engineer of the 11th
century. Fordun says, it was a place extremely
strong by natural situation, and fortified by steep
rocks; in the middle of which there was a pleasant
level, likewise defended by rock and water, so that
it might be imagined that the following words were
descriptive of this place; — Non homini facilis, vix
adeunda feris. ' It is difficult to men, scarcely ac-
cessible by wild beasts.' The venusta planities, — or
' pleasant level ' on which the tower was built, — forms
the summit of a very steep eminence . that rises
abruptly out of the glen, and causes the rivulet to
wind round its base, forming a peninsula. The whole
substructure of the glen on both sides is formed of
freestone, which projects in many places from the
surface ; and these rugged declivities must have been
clothed with thick impervious woods, rendering the
summit extremely difficult of access on three sides."
At the request of his pious queen, and of her confessor,
Turgot, Malcolm founded and endowed a monastery
for 13 Culdees in the vicinity of his own residence,
which, with its chapel, was dedicated to the Holy
Trinity. The date of Malcolm's foundation must
have been between 1070, when he was married, and
1086, w-hen he and his queen made extensive grants
to the church of the Holy Trinity. Besides the
donations' from Malcolm to the church, his sons
Ethelred and Edgar, both bestowed lands upon it.
Alexander I. granted various lands to it, and is said
to have finished the church ; and his queen, Sibilla,
also conferred lands upon it. He died at Stirling,
but was interred at Dunfermline. David I., who
ascended the throne in 1124, in accordance with his
policy in other parts of the kingdom,. not only added
greatly to the wealth of the monastery, but intro-
duced into it a colony of the Benedictines, or Black
monks, from Canterbury in England; and for the
purpose of making the change of rides under which
they were brought more agreeable to the Culdees,
he raised it to the dignity of; an abbey, having a
mitred abbot for its head, and ^a prior and sub-prior
under him. From the style pjj the architecture, Mi-.
Leighton is.inelined to think that it was dining the
reign of David I. that the church — the nave of which
still remains — was .' erected', f." Gotfrid or Gaufrid,
who had been prior., of .'Canterbury, was the first
abbot. He died in 1 L54, and was succeeded by his
nephew, Gaufrid. From a statement made to the
Pope in 1231, it appears that the number of monks
had then been increased to 50. About the period of
the death of Alexander III., it had become one of
the most extensive and magnificent monastic estab-
* On a staircase in the house of Pennycuik, in Mid-Lothian,
there is a painting- which represents tile landing of Margaret at
the Hope, — the procession from thence to Dunfermline, — and
the king aud queen, the day after their marriage, entertaining
a number of mendicants. The procession is said to have been
on foot.
f In the library of the faculty of Advocates, in Edinburgh,
there is preserved a copy of St. Jerome's Latin Bible, in manu-
script, beautifully illuminated. This Bible — according to an
annexed note— is said to have been used iu the church of Dun-
fermline in the reign ui' David I.