Grampian Club > Monuments and monumental inscriptions in Scotland > Volume 1

418 RENFREWSHIRE.
1306, and were not fully restored till 1451. It may properly be
designated the burial-place of the House of Stuart, It contains
the remains of Walter, the founder of the church, his son Alan,
his son Walter; his grandson James, his son Walter, and Marjory
Bruce his wife, daughter of King Eobert the Bruce, and of Eliza-
beth Mure and Euphemia Eoss, the two consorts of Eobert II. In
a charter erecting the village of Paisley into a burgh of barony on
the 19th August, 1488, James IV. refers to the monastery as the
burial-place of many of his ancestors, his words being —
" Vbi plvrima progenitorvm nostrorvm,
Corpora sepelivntvr et reqviescvnt."
St. Mirin's aisle is the burying-place of the ducal house of Aber-
corn. Before the Eeformation interments were made in the
chancel and nave, and also in the yard of St. Eoque's Chapel. In
1789, when Dr. Boog, one of the ministers of the church, made
his renovations in the nave, the tombstones lying on the floor
were put into the wall — which has fortunately preserved them.
The tombstones in the chancel are of dates subsequent to the
Eeform.ation. The present burial-ground, lying to the north of the
nave and transept, was opened about 1608, and shortly thereafter
interments in the nave and St. Eoque's Chapel were discon-
tinued.
The old stones are of a dark hard texture, and the inscriptions
are generally in bas-reliefs coiled along the margin, and in fine
specimens of Saxon and Eoman letters.
In the nave are six monuments : that of Abbot John Lithgow is
thus inscribed : —
" iol)cs • a • Igcljtgla • ab-
&a8 • ijuiug • ntonastii • ii • tsiz '
mcsfs • Jauuarg • ano • tim • jifl • cat
xxxiij ' g^lcfltt • fieri • sua • ggpultura."
This tablet, which is inserted in the north porch of the nave,
bears that John Lithgow, abbot of the monastery, on the 20th