Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 15, NIC-PAR

P A I [ 697 ] PA I
Paisley, burial place, the greatest curiosity in Paisley. It is a
-‘'v ' vaulted Gothic chapel, without pulpit, pew, or any other
ornament, hut has the finest echo perhaps in the world.
When the end door (the only one it has) is shut, the
noise is equal to a loud and not very distant clap of
thunder. If you strike a single note of music, you have
the sound gradually ascending, with a great number of
repetitions,till it dies away as if at an immense distance,
and all the while diffusing itself through the circum¬
ambient air. If a good voice sings, or a musical instru¬
ment is well played upon, the effect is inexpressibly agree¬
able. The deepest, as well as the most acute tones, are
distinctly reverberated, and these in regular intervals of
time. When a musical instrument is sounded, it has the
effect of a number of instruments of a like size and
kind playing in concert. When a number of different
instruments in unison sound the same note, a good ear
is able to distinguish the variety of sound produced by
each. A single instrument sounding a particular note,
and then instantly its fifth, or any other concordant note,
the two sounds can be heard, as it were, running into
and uniting with each other in a manner peculiarly
agreeable. But the ^effect of a variety of instruments
playing in concert is particularly charming, and must
excite such emotions in the soul as it is impossible
to describe. In this chapel is the monument of Mar¬
jory Bruce (a) -, she was daughter of Robert Bruce,
and wife of Walter, great steward of Scotland, and
mother of Robert II. In this same chapel were inter¬
red Elizabeth Muir and Euphemia Ross, both consorts
to Robert II.
A particular account of the abbey of Paisley would
fill many pages. It was founded as a priory for monks
of the order of Clugni about the year 1160 by Walter,
great steward of Scotland. It was afterwards raised to
the rank of an abbacy ; and the lands belonging to it
were by Robert II. erected into a regality, under the
jurisdiction of the abbot. After the Reformation, the
abbacy was secularized by the pope in favour of Lord
Claud Hamilton, third son of the duke of Chatelherault,
in reward of his steady adherence to the cause of Queen
Mary $ and, in 1588, it was by the king and parlia¬
ment erected into a temporal lordship, and Lord Claud
was created Lord Paisley. The revenues of the abbacy
were very considerable : They consisted of the tythes of
28 different parishes, with the property of the lordships of
Paisley, of Kilpatrick in Dumbartonshire, and of Monk-
ton in Ayrshire, extending each to a hundred merk-
land •, and the forty pound land of Glen in Lochvvin-
noch ; with the lands of Achengown, Grange, &c. and
a considerable detached property in different parts of the
kingdom. All this property, with the patronage of the
several churches, fell to Lord Claud Hamilton, last ab¬
bot of Paisley. It continued in that family till 1565,
Vol. XV. Part II.
when his grandson James earl of Abercorn sold the lord- pa^ivv.
ship of Paisley to the earl of Angus, who next year sold \~--
it to William Lord Cochran, Kilpatrick to Sir John Ha-
miltoun of Orbistoun, Monktoun to Lord Bargenny, and
Glen to Lord Semple and others. Great part of the
lordship of Paisley was at different times sold off by the
family of Dundonald j and what remained of it was in
1764 repurchased by the late earl of Abercorn. The
fabric of the abbey owed much of its magnificence to
Abbot George Schaw, who about 1484 enlarged and
beautified the building, surrounding the church, the
precincts of the convent, the gardens, and a small deer
park, with a noble wall of hewn freestone. The abbey
was, after the Reformation, successively the seat of the
earls of Abercorn and Dundonald. The late earl of
Dundonald demolished the ancient gateway ; and, by
feuing oil’the immediately adjoining grounds for build¬
ing, entirely changed the appearance of the place. As
it was thus rendered totally unfit for a family residence,
it has since that time been let out into separate dwel¬
lings, and is now in a very mean and almost ruinous
state. The wall stood almost entire till 1781, when the
garden being feued off for building upon by the late
earl of Abercorn, the wall was sold to the feuers, and
the stones of it employed in their houses.
The vestiges of the Roman camp and praetor him, at
the west end of the town, are at present almost annihi¬
lated. It was supposed to be vaulted underneath.
The number of inhabitants in the town of Paisley
amounted in 1695 to 2200 j in 1755 they were 4290 j
in 1782, 11,100; and in 1792, 13,800. la 1801,
17,026; in 1811, 19,937; but including the abbey
parish, the whole population was 36,722.
Paisley is now the first manufacturing town in Scot¬
land, and is greatly celebrated on account of some of its
branches. The manufactory of silk gauze, in this re¬
spect, first claims our notice. This branch is brought
here to the utmost perfection, and is wrought to an ama¬
zing variety of patterns. It has been computed, that
there have been no less than 5000 weavers employed in
Paisley and in the country adjacent; and the number of
winders, warpers, clippers, and others necessary in other
parts of the silk manufacture, has been likewise comput¬
ed to be no less than 5000. Each loom will produce
in an average value 70I. yearly; the whole will then be
350,000k
It appears, from the best calculation that could be
made, that in the year 1784 the manufactures of Paisley
in silk gauze, lawn and linen gauze, and white sewing
thread (b), amounted to the value of 579,185k 16s. 6d.
and that no fewer than 26,484 persons were employed
in carrying them on. It is difficult to give an exact ac¬
count of the state of its manufactures at present. The
silk branch has evidently declined, but the muslin has so
+ 4 T far
(a) Her story is singular : In the year 1317, when she was big with child, she broke her neck in hun\ing
near this place; the Csesarean operation was instantly performed, and the child taken out alive ; but the opera¬
tor chancing to hurt one eye with his instrument, occasioned the blemish that gave him afterwards the epithet
of Blear-eye ; and the monument is also styled that of Queen Bleary, Elizabeth Muir died before the accession
of her husband Robert.
(b) This was introduced into this town about 60 or 70 years ago. The method of making what is called
gla%ed white thread, has been discovered and brought to as great perfection as that made by Mr Leland and Son,
Loudon. The value of this branch is computed at about 60,000k annually.