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

CUPAR-FIFE.
289
hall bill, these objects attract our attention in every
direction. In the distant west, at the bottom of the
Lomond hills, we see all that remains of the royal
palace of Falkland, where so many of Scotland's
sovereigns of the Stewart race sought pleasant re-
tirement from the cares of governing a turbulent
kingdom, or of attempting to reconcile the differ-
ences of a still more turbulent nobility. How often
have these grey walls resounded with music and
dancing ! How often been the scene of hospitable
feast, and long protracted, yet merry wassail! Over
these fields which skirt the Eden — then a royal for-
est — our ancient kings followed the chase with hound
arid horn, or flew the hawk at its winged prey. At
one time the only sound heard throughout these for-
est-glades was the wild buck's bell, or the call of the
various birds which then frequented them to their
mates ; at another they were the scene of mirth and
sport. There the proudest names in Scotland's his-
tory followed their prince in peaceful and animating
sport. There beauty took the field, hawk on arm,
and knightly valour bowed subservient to its influ-
ence. But, alas! Falkland palace was not always a
scene of joy ; we think on James IV., James V., and
the beautiful Mary ; and we think of crime, of folly,
of misery, captivity, and early death ! Nearer us, in
the same direction, appears the manse of Cults.
There the great painter of our age, the poetic yet
graphic AVilkie, was born and spent his early years.
Amid these gently sloping bills and sweet valleys,
he studied nature, and imbibed that love of truth
and simplicity which he has since, so beautifully in
some instances and so grandly in others, developed.
Still nearer us in the same direction is the ancient
tower of Scotstarvet. There resided Sir John Scott
of Scotstarvet, one of the directors of the Chancery
in the reign of Charles I., ' who was,' says Nisbet,
' a bountiful patron of men of learning, who came to
him from all quarters, so that his house became a
Kind of college.' Among others, he encouraged
Pont in his survey of the whole kingdom, gave him
great literary assistance, and was at the expense of
the publication ; and in yonder old tower he wrote
his curious work, — ' Sir John Scott of Scotstarvet's
Staggering State of Scots Statesmen.' Along the
slope of this hill, under the duke of Cbatelherault
and M. D'Oysel, lay at one time the army which
was intended by Mary of Guise to crush the efforts
of the reformers. On the opposite bank were sta-
tioned those who had determined to die rather than
that popery should longer lord it over the con-
sciences of men ; and on this hill, where we now
stand, the treaty was subscribed, which, though soon
broken through by the queen-regent, gave time to
the reformers, and ultimately led to the establishment
of the Presbyterian religion in Scotland. To the
north rises the Mount, the patrimonial possession of
' Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, Lord Lyon, king-
at-arms,' during the reign of James V. ; and there
he wrote those bitter biting satires which delighted
the people, and paved the way for the Reformation.
The house in which he lived has now disappeared,
but the place is still interesting, and the hill is now
crowned with a monument erected to the memory of
the late Earl of Hopetoun, one of the deliverers of
Europe from the all-grasping power of the late em-
peror of the French. Almost immediately below
us is the school-hill of Cupar, a portion of which
formed the play-field of the burgh, and there the
dramas of Sir David Lindsay were exhibited so early
as 1535. At a far earlier period, however, when
the castle of Cupar was the residence of Macduff,
the lord or Maormore of Fife, it was the scene of
that horrid tragedy, the murder of his wife and chil-
dren by Macbeth, which led to the inveterate hatred
1.
of Macduff, and finally to the establishment of Mal-
colm Ceanmore on the throne ; and of which the
poet has made such a beautiful use in his play of
Macbeth. To the east upon the sea-coast is the
venerable city of St. Andrews, the seat of an ancient
bishopric, and the earliest seat of learning in Scot-
land. With how many great names of Scotland are
these hallowed rums associated! and how intimately
connected is its history with the early civilization
and improvement of our country ! To the south
beyond the vale of Ceres is Craighall, the seat of
Sir Thomas Hope, king's advocate to Charles I.,
and one of the greatest lawyers of his time. In
Ceres churchyard repose in peaceful silence many of
the proud race of Lindsay of the Byres, and some of
the kindred race of Crawford. There is the grave —
although the spot is now unmarked — where rests
that rude lord, who, when the unfortunate Mary
hesitated to sign her abdication, did not scruple to
crush her gentle hand with his iron glove, nor to
force her by rude speech and still ruder threats, un-
willingly to execute the deed which deprived her of
a crown, and consigned her for the rest of her life
to a prison ; and a little to the east in the same val-
ley lies Pitscottie, the residence of Lindsay the
homely yet picturesque relater of a portion of Scot-
land's history. In a word, we know no place more
capable of calling up more varied recollections, or of
elevating the mind and exciting the fancy, than the
top of Tarvit hill." [Vol. ii. pp. 4, 5.]
This parish is in the synod of Fife, and the seat of
a presbytery. The district of Cupar formed a parisJ"
in early times, when the great parochial divisions o*
Crail, Kilrenny, Kilconquhar, St. Andrews, Leuch
ars, and a few others, comprehended all the eastern
part of the county of Fife. The small parish of St.
Michael's of Tarvet, lying on the south of the Eden,
was joined to that of Cupar in 1617. The church
belonging to St. Michael's parish stood on that
beautiful spot now known by the name of St. Mi-
chael's hill. Human bones are still occasionally dis-
covered here when the operations of husbandry are
going forward.. — The ruins of a small chapel, situ-
ated near the eastern boundary of the lands of Kil-
maron, were to be seen near the close of last cen-
tury The parochial church of Cupar, in early times,
stood at a considerable distance from the town to-
wards the north, on a rising ground, now known by
the name of the Old Kirk-yard. The foundations of
this ancient building were removed in 1 759 ; and
many human bones, turned up in the adjoining field
by the plough, were then collected and buried in the
earth. In 1415 this structure bad become ruinous,
or incapable of accommodating the numbers who
resorted to it. In the course of that year the prior
of St. Andrews, for the better accommodation of the
inhabitants of the town of Cupar, and that the rites
of religion might be celebrated with a pomp gratify-
ing to the taste of the age, erected within the royalty
a spacious and magnificent church. This church was
built in the best style of the times, of polished free-
stone, in length 133 feet, by 54 in breadth. The
roof was supported by two rows of arches extending
the whole length of the church. The oak couples
were of a circular form, lined with wood, and painted
in the taste of the times. In 1785, this extensive
building being found to be in a state of total decay,
the heritors of the parish resolved to pull down the
old fabric, and to erect on the same site a church on
a more convenient plan. This they carried into
execution at a considerable expense, in 1785. It is
to be regretted that the new building was not joined
to the spire of the old church which still stands.
The vestry or session-house, by intervening between
the church and spire, gives a detached appearance to
T