Series 1 > Tours in Scotland 1747, 1750, 1760

50
TOUR THROUGH SCOTLAND, 1760.
of that church, as the contriver both of this and Paisley.1 There
is an old church under the east end, probably the remains of
the first cathedral. The Gothick arches seem to have been
turned on the old Saxon pillars. Bishop James Bethune2 went
abroad on the approach of the Reformation with the archives
of the church, which he deposited at Paris in the Scotch
College, and at the Carthusians. He was the last Archbishop.
Before him Archbishop James Bethune of 1508, being turned
out of the Chancellorship (after he had moved in relation to
reading of the Scriptures in English that it should be referred
to a National Synod) improved his house, and built that fine
gateway in the front of it. The whole is encompassed with a
high well built wall. The revenues of the Bishoprick chiefly
consisting of tythes and duties, which latter, I suppose are
chiefries were granted to the College. At the Reformation, in
these chiefries, it was valued at JP987, 8s. 7d. They have an
agent who pays the stipends to the ministers, and I was told
they do not make above <£1000 a year clear of it. The new
Church is on the design of St. Martin’s-in-the-Fields, but I was
told not above half as big. The freestone is yellow, and it has
turned of different colours, which takes off greatly from the
beauty of it. They have some churches of Seceders, and a
small non] uring Episcopal congregation. The English Licenced
Episcopal congregation have built a very handsome oblong
square church near the Green,3 on the model of the churches
in London, for galleries which are not yet built. It cost about
£1100. The minister has about £60 a year from the collec-
1 The inscription is on a tablet to the south side of the transept door of the
Abbey of Melrose, and has been rendered thus:—
‘Of Glasgu, Metros, and Paslay,
Of Nyddsdall, and of Galway :
I pray to God and Mary bath,
And sweet St. John kep this haly Kirk fra
skaith.’
‘ John Murdo, sum tym callyt w
And born in Parysse certainly,
And had in keping all mason werk
Of Santandrays, ye hye Kirk
2 For a detailed inventory of the relics and valuables removed by Archbishop
Beaton, or Bethune second, in 1560, see Registrum Rpiscopatus Glasguensis.
3 St. Andrew’s Willow Acre, Low Green Street, the oldest Episcopal Chapel
in Scotland. It was built in 1750. The Mason engaged in its construction was
excommunicated by the religious body of Anti-Burghers to which he belonged,
for the ‘ sinful and scandalous work of building the Episcopal Meeting House,’
an eloquent commentary on the religious tolerance of the times. The Rev; Dr.
J. F. S. Gordon, the present Incumbent, has not succeeded in finding any refer¬
ence to Bishop Pococke’s visitation in the books of the Church.