Historical memoir of the family of Eglinton and Winton

NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS. 143
hereditary in the family of St. Clair of Rosslin, and
so continued with the successive barons therof until
the year 1 736 that the then incumbent hereditary
grand-master formally resigned into the hands of
the "craft" his hereditary right, that the present
Grand Lodge of Scotland might be organised and
established. " This usurpation," however, it is
stated, " was resisted for a time by the Kilwinning
brethren, who continued to hold independent meet-
ings, and to grant charters as formerly till the year
1807, when the dispute was amicably settled; and
thus the mother lodge relinquished her ancient pri-
vileges and joined the general association along
with the lodges which held of her." — Stat. Account.
Even so, it is obvious, all human affairs must ever
accommodate themselves to the imperative circum-
stances of revolving time. How the matter stood
betwixt the "hereditary" barons of Rosslin and
Schaw, who appears here as " Warden Generall,"
it certainly seems difficult to understand.
The venerable" topographer Pont, who has pre-
served some slight notices of the abbey and monas-
tery of Kilwinning, states that De Morville, the
founder of that magnificent structure and institution,
was interred here, and that he lies " under a tombe
of lymestone, framed coffin wayes, of old pollished
work, with this coat on the stone, without any
euperscriptione or epitaphe," — a drawing of the
arms thus alluded to accompanies the description,
being simply a shield charged with a fret That
the author was shown such a tomb-stone here, as