Between the Ochils and the Forth

Leading features of the "city"—Its ancient history—Malcolm Canmore and Queen Margaret—The monastery and its church— Dunfermline as a. royal residence— Remains of the Abbey and Palace—Relations of Edward I. with Dunfermline—King Robert Bruce interred there —Its first Protestant minister, David Ferguson—The Earls of Dunfermline—Visits of Charles I. and II.— Events during insurrection of 1715—Introduction of the damask manufacture — Dunfermline the cradle of the Secession movement—History of the Erskine family— Churches and public buildings.

DUNFERMLINE (Hotels: City Arms; Royal) is the principal town in the western district of Fife, and throughout the whole county the only one that can compete with it as a business centre is Kirkcaldy. It stands 300 feet above the sea, on a rising ground sloping to the south, and presents an imposing as well as picturesque aspect when viewed from the latter direction. It ;s 6 miles nearly due north from Queensferry, 23 from Stirling by Torryburn, and 13 from Kirkcaldy.

For more than 150 years it has been the principal place in the British Islands for the manufacture of table-linen, which constitutes it leading industry. It had a population in 1881 of 17,085, and it is grouped with South Queensferry, Inverkeithing, Culross, and Stirling in returning a member to Parliament. About twenty-five years ago the researches of Dr Ebenezer Henderson, a native of the place, led him to the conclusion that Dunfermline was entitled to the rank and designation of a "city" (whatever this denomination may be held to imply); and having submitted his view to the public authorities supposed competent to decide the question, the verdict was given that his contention had in their opinion been established. It was mainly founded on the circumstance of the town being designed as a "civitas" in several royal rescripts and charters, and Dr Henderson reaped considerable eclat with the townspeople from having thus, in their estimation, vindicated the dignity of the "auld grey toun." It still remains a moot point, however, as to what meaning our word "city" really bears, and what special dignity it carries with it. According to some, "city " denotes a cathedral town or the seat of a bishop's see; with others it implies a royal residence; and with others it denotes merely a community of any kind, or an assemblage of streets and houses which exceeds in extent the dimensions ordinarily understood by the term "town." However this may be, the burgesses and townspeople claim for themselves the privilege of belonging to the "city of Dunfermline."

Originally Dunfermline lay wholly on the east side of Pittencrieff Glen, the romantic gorge through which the Tower burn flows from north to south, and at its termination joins almost at right angles the Lyne or Spittal burn, flowing from east to west through the level ground at the foot of the slope on which the town is built. About a hundred y ears ago, however, a bridge was thrown across the Tower Glen at the head of the Kirk-gate, and a large and populous suburb has grown up on its western side. At present the town consists of one broad and leading street, which, crossing the ridge of the hill from east to west, receives at its eastern extremity the designation of East Port Street, which again, in proceeding westwards, merges ii the High Street and afterwards passes into Bridge Street. At right angles to the latter, running north and south, is Chalmers Street, which is continued into Woodhead Street, and at the point where this j unction takes place, Pittencrieff Street branches off to the west and forms the main entrance to the town from that direction. The High Street proper, or original nucleus of the town, is a steep incline leading upwards from the corporation buildings at the head of the Kirkgate and corner of Bridge Street to the Cross; and the broad level portion lying beyond, between the Cross and East Port Street, used to be known as the Horse Market. On the north and south sides respectively of this line of road from East Port to Bridge Street, a series of cross streets diverge, and these are again crossed by lines running parallel with the High Street, of which the principal are Queen Anne Street on the north, and the Maygate, Canmore Street, and the Netherton on the south. The New Row is a steep street running due south from the east extremity of the Horse Market, and leading out of the town to Queensferry. Canmore Street and Netherton Broad Street open into it, and Douglas Street, a little east of the Cross, passing into Bath and Pilmuir Streets, forms the main outlet to the north. The Kirkgate, now greatly widened from what <t used to be, leads down, as its name denotes, from the corporation buildings to the Abbey Church, and the Maygate branches off from it on the left. The road then continues in a south-east direction, through an ancient archway, belonging to the Abbey and known as "The Pends," the Abbey Church and ruins of the monastery being on the left, whilst on the right are the Palace ruins and Pittencrieff Glen. Continuing in an easterly direction along Monasteiy Street, the latter is joined by Margaret Street, and the roadway then turns to the south down a steep descent and abuts on the wide space which at the foot of the hill extends eastwards to the New Row and Queensferry Road, and bears the name of Netherton Broad Street. At the western extremity of the latter a road turns off to the south by Ladysmill to Limekilns, and at this point also is an old road, now a byway, which joins at the farm of Urquhart the west highway from Pittencrieff Street, leading to Torryburn and Alloa.

Such, generally, are the main features of Dunfermline as displayed in i+s leading streets. The etymology of the name has been variously explained, though the only question has been regarding the middle syllable "ferm." "Dun " signifies in Gaelic "hill or fortress," and "linne " is a pool, stream, or waterfall. But what does "ferm" stand for? Some make it out to be "faire" (watch-tower); others "fiar" (crooked); and others "fearann" (farm or grass land). Dunfermline would thus signify alternately the castle-hill, hill-watch-tower, or hill-fortress by the stream; the hill or castle by the winding stream; or the castle-land by the stream. I am disposed myself to adopt the last of these etymologies. The word "fearann" certainly enters in local nomenclature into Pitfirrane, an estate in the neighbourhood, and there are also a Castieland in the parish of Beath, and a Castle-landhhill near North Queensferry. The "dun," tower or castle, as represented in the first syllable, and the Lyne as the name of the stream which bounds Dunfermline on the south, seem, as parts of the appellation, to be beyond all dispute; whilst "ferm " appears to resemble very closely the Gae'ic "fearann," the French "ferme," and the English "farm." The rendering of Dunfermline in medieval Latin by "FermelodunumI' is another testimony of the explanation of the term being, "the castle-land or castle farm beside the stream."

Dunfermline first appears in history as the residence of Malcolm III., King of Scotland, generally known as Malcolm Canmore or "The Great Head." Fordun speaks of it as "a place, naturally very strongly fortified, surrounded by a dense forest, and guarded by steep rocks." He tells us, moreover, that there was in the midst of it a beautiful level tract, likewise guarded by rocks and streams, so that it might well be said of it, that, whilst difficult of access to men, it was almost unapproachable by wild beasts. Here, according to Fordun, Malcolm's marriage with Margaret, sister of Edgar Atheling, took place in 1070, though Mr Skene inclines to the belief that the true date of this event is 1068.

King Malcolm, celebrated as the son of Duncan, and slayer of the usurper Macbeth, seems to have first contracted a marriage with Ingebiorg, widow of Thorfinn, Earl of Orkney, who bore him a son named Duncan, and died after a few years. It was as a widower that, as already mentioned, he received the intelligence of the arrival in St Margaret's Hope of Edgar Atheling, and his mother and sisters, who, as representatives of the ancient Saxon royal family in England, had taken flight after the establishment on the throne of William the Conqueror, but on their voyage to the Continent had been driven by stress of weather into the Firth of Forth. The Scottish monarch hastened to receive these unexpected guests, and was so much struck by the beauty and amiable character of the Princess Margaret, that he forthwith offered her his hand—a proffer which, though accepted by Margaret, seems to have been more in accord with the wishes of her relatives than her own inclinations, which tended all to a life of celibacy and devotion. She was conducted by him to Dunfermline, and on her way thither is traditionally said to have rested on a large stone, which still exists on the Queensferry road, about two miles south from the town, and has had recently an inscription engraved on it to that effect.

Sir James Balfour, in his 'Annals of Scotland,' refers to the wedding of the Princess Margaret with Malcolm III. as having been accomplished " with grate solemnity at his village and castell of Dunfermeling in the Woodes, in the 14 yeire of his rainge, in AD1070." Malcolm had been crowned at Scone in 1057. Margaret made him an excellent and most devoted wife, and her influence with her husband was employed to the noblest ends— the exercise of charity and benevolence, and the promotion of religion and morality throughout their dominions. She bore him a numerous family of sons, three of whom —Edgar, Alexander, and David—ascended the throne in succession. A daughter also—Matilda or Maud— became the wife of Henry I. of England.

The dun or fortress which Malcolm and Margaret occupied, and which is known as Malcolm Canmore's Tower, is still in existence, on a peninsular eminence on the east side of Pittencrieff Glen, though little more than the foundations can now be traced. It occupies a very strong position, being virtually inaccessible on three sides, as the hill on which it stands is there either exceedingly steep, or descends in a sheer precipice to the stream. The only convenient mode of approach in ancient times could have been from the east. What remains of the walls shows that they must have been of extreme thickness and strength; and to preserve them from further injury, the present proprietor of Pittencrieff has surrounded them with a low wall.

King Malcolm, with two of his sons, was killed in besieging the castle of Alnwick in 1093, and Queen Margaret, who was already on her deathbed in Edinburgh Castle, survived very shortly the intelligence of the event. Not long before, the monastery and church erected mainly at her instigation at Dunfermline by her husband, had been completed and dedicated to the Holy Trinity. The* establishment thus founded was in great measure superseded by a later structure, of which the ruins still remain. But the original monastery church, in which Queen Margaret and her husband, their three sons and grandson, were interred, is still in existence, and exhibits a remarkably fine specimen of the Early Norman style towards the end of the eleventh century. The west doorway and north porch are especially admired by connoisseurs in ancient ecclesiastical architecture. Attached to it at its north-west extremity is a tower and spire, from the bartizan of which a magnificent view is commanded, taking in the whole basin of the Forth from Ben Lomond to the Bass. Another tower at the south-west corner is a modem structure, having been erected to supply the place of an older tower which fell down with a terrible crash in 1807, but did no further damage than killing some horses in an adjoining stable.

The interior of the old monastery church is not of great dimensions, but with its ancient rounded pillars and semicircular arches, surmounted by a trifonum and clerestory, has an air of great majesty, in recent years the lower windows have been filled in with stained glass—the memorial benefactions of various individuals—and the great west window has been supplied in like fashion with a national and historical delineation designed by Sir Noel Paton, and presented by Mr Carnegie, a native of Dunfermline. Till 1818 this edifice served as the parish church of Dunfermline, the ancient choir, along with a central tower, though erected subsequently to the nave, having fallen and been reduced to a ruin by the middle of the seventeenth century. In the year just mentioned the foundations of a new church, to which Malcolm Canmore's structure now forms a majestic approach, were laid on the east, on the site of the choir, or what used to be known as the "Psalter Churchyard." In the course of this work the tomb was discovered of King Robert the Bruce, who had been buried in front of the high altar. The remains, thus disinterred, and fully ascertained to be those of the victor at Bannockburn, were inspected with great interest by crowds of visitors from all parts of the country. They were reinterred with great ceremony, and the spot is marked by a slab immediately in front of the pulpit.

The New Abbey Church is not without a certain stateliness and grandeur, though it is in many respects a mere sham, the Gothic pillars being only posts of rubble masonry, encrusted with a fluting of Roman cement. There is also an overpowering glare of light, arising from the absence of stained glass, which has been introduced with such effect into the windows of the ancient nave. In a side aisle there is a fine sculptured monument by Foley, in memory of General Bruce, uncle of the present Lord Elgin, who accompanied the Prince of Wales on his tour to the Holy Land, and died in returning, at Marseilles. There are also here a stained-glass window erected by the Dowager-Countess of Elgin to the memory of her husband, the Governor-General of India; a monument to Lady Augusta Stanley, wife of the late Dean of "Westminster; and one or two other memorials of the Elgin family. The eastern or new is, like the western or old division of the church, surmounted by a tower, on the bartizan of which there appears in questionable taste the words " King Robert the Bruce" encircling the battlements in great Roman letters.

The monastery founded by Malcolm III. was at first only a priory, and was not raised to the dignity of an abbey till the reign of David I., who altered the terms of the foundation, and in 1130 settled it with a colony of Benedictine monks from Canterbury. This "sair sanct for the Croun," as James I. called him, endowed Dunfermline Abbey with a tenth of the gold which shall emerge to me from Fife and Fothrif." From this it has been inferred that in those days gold was obtained from the hills and streams in the peninsula lying between the Forth and Tay. The term "Fothrif" has already been discussed. The Abbey of Dunfermline is spoken of as being situated in Patrick Muir, a designation which is said to have been the ancient one of Calais Muir, lying to the east of Dunfermhne, and between that town and the Great North Road.

Before Malcolm Canmore's time the usual bin :al-place of the Scottish kings seems to have been generally in the island of Iona, but Dunfermline became now for a long period the favourite place of royal sepulture. Among those interred here were, as already mentioned, Malcolm and Margaret; their three sons, Edgar, Alexander I., and David I.; their grandson Malcolm IV.; King Alexander III. King Robert the Bruce, with his queen Isabella; and his cousin the famous Thomas Randolph, Earl of Moray. The remains of Queen Margaret, however, were in the year 1250 removed from their resting-place in the west church or nave, and by command of Alexander III. were placed in a magnificent shrine, and deposited in the Lady Chapel at the east end of the recently erected choir. Here the tomb of the canonised queen was visited for hundreds of years by pilgrims, and received the homage of the faithful. About the same time the bodies of her husband, children, and grandson seem also to have been transported from the nave, and deposited within the choir, where most of them still remain. Their place of sepulture is the north transept of the present Abbey Church, where the leaden coffins containing them are still in existence, though the vaults are now covered with planking, and inaccessible to the general public. As regards, however, the tomb of St Margaret herself, a blue slab in the ruins of the Lady Chapel, which forms the enclosure outside and at the east end of the New Abbey Church, is pointed out as covering the remains of the queen. But the fact is indubitable that this is now merely a cenotaph. Previous to the Reformation, the remains of Queen Margaret, who had been canonised after her death, were regarded as holy relics, and her tomb attracted hosts of devotees. But on the overthrow of the old faith some zealous adherents who still clung to it, to obviate the consequences of the probable destruction of the shrine, disinterred secretly the remains, and had them conveyed first to Edinburgh, and then, it is said, to the house of Abbot Durie at Craig Luscar, where they remained for a year. They were then for further safety transported abroad to the Low Countries, and after a series of vicissitudes were taken charge of by Philip II., who deposited them in the church of the newly erected palace of the Escurial. Here, it is said, the greater part of the relics are still preserved; and at all events, two urns alleged to contain them, and bearing the names of Queen Margaret and her husband Malcolm, were till a recent period to be seen.

The head, however, of the sainted queen had been deposited, after having been solemnly authenticated at Antwerp, in the church of the Scots College at Douai in France. Up to the period of the Revolution it was preserved here as an object of veneration; but on the commotion which attended that great outbreak, it disappeared like the holy ampoule at Rheims, and all trace of it has been lost. Whilst the late Dr Gillies was Roman Catholic Bishop of Edinburgh, he made an application to the Holy See to use its influence with the Spanish Government to procure the restoration to Scotland of the relics of Queen Margaret and her husband, which were said to be still existing in the Church of the Escurial. The request was so far complied with that an inquiry was alleged to have been instituted by the Spanish authorities, who reported that the remains could not now be dentified. Whether a search was really and bona fide made is not very clear, but no more satisfactory result could be obtained. Like the body of St Cuthbert, that of St Margaret was destined to sustain a series of migrations, and even yet it is not impossible that they may find their way back to the land where they were originally deposited. '

What remains now of the ancient Abbey of Dunfermline, besides the monastery church, consists chiefly of the ruins of the Frater Hall or refectory, with vaults beneath occupying the south-west corner of the Abbey churchyard, with the site of the cloister court, now part of the bury-ing-ground, lying between it and the church. The south wall of the refectory is still almost entire, and exhibits an imposing row of lofty pointed window's in the Pearly English style, whilst at the west end is a very large and magnificent window belonging to the geometrical decorated period, the mullions of which form themselves at the summit into a crown. All the windows overlook the public road, and the terrace at the east end of the Frater Hall, in front of the churchyard, commands a fine view of the country between Dunfermline and the sea. Adjoining the churchyard on the east, and extending as far as the New Row, is the site of the ancient Abbey Park or monastery enclosure, which contained the pleasure-grounds, fish-ponds, and other amenities for the use and recreation of the monks. It is now all occupied by houses and gardens, but was in former times surrounded by a wall, fragments of which are still in existence. Canmore Street, which bounds it on the north, used to be known as "In aneath the Wa's."

At the angle of the Frater Hall, between the south wall and the great west window, is a tower, consisting of two superimposed apartments, built ove* the ancient archway, or "pend," through which the public road passes. A connection is thus formed between the monastery buildings and those of the royal Palace—the remains of which, on the other side of the way, occupy the crest of a steep bank overhanging Pittencrieff Glen. Only the south wall is preserved, with some chambers in the angle between it and the monastery ruins—one of which, a vaulted room with pillars supporting the roof, is known as " The Magazine," though it has very much the appearance of a crypt, or underground chapel. It is approached on the east by a descent of steps from the Palace ruins, and at the west end it opens into an apartment called "The King's Kitchen," between which and the monastery there was a communication through the tower over the Pends. The monks are said to have had the entree to the "kitchen," and been in the habit of receiving a contribution, or "mess," from the victuals prepared for the royal table—an intrusion which could not have been very agreeable either to the king's servants or their master. The roof of this apartment and a great portion of the walls have disappeared; but a triangular Gothic recess adjoins it, provided with a shoot or drain—a circumstance which has led to the belief of its having served as a scullery.

Viewed from below, the south wall of the Palace, with its beautiful bay-windows in the Tudor style, presents a very imposing aspect amid its romantic surroundings. When the edifice was erected, or when Malcolm Can-more's Tower, farther up the glen, was abandoned as a royal residence, cannot now be ascertained; but possibly there was an earlier palace on the same site, and, to judge from >ts style of architecture, the present budding could not have been commenced before the reign of James IV. at earliest. It possesses an abiding interest as having been the favourite residence of James VI. and Anne of Denmark, and the birthplace of several of their children—-including, more especially, the Princess Elizabeth, afterwards Queen of Bohemia, born here in 1596, and Charles I., born in 1600. The window of the room in which the latter is said, traditionally, to have first seen the light, is s^ill pointed out. It is the second from the west end of the upper storey, has a chimney-place adjoining it on the east side, and has a bush growing from the embrasure. The ceiling of the architrave of a neighbouring window has a fine representation of the Annunciation sculptured 011 the stone, which was only discovered within the present century. The windows have evidently been converted, ;n some instances, from pointed Gothic or ecclesiastical arches into Tudor casements with cross mullwins — a circumstance which, coupled with the fact that we scarcely hear of the more recent palace of Dunfermline till the re^gn of James VI., induces me to maintain that the present ruins are the remains of a building which was in the main erected by that monarch himself, or remodelled from the ancient monastery. Had it been the work of any previous sovereign, we should surely have heard of its being at least occasionally occupied by royalty. But no record of any such occupation has been preserved—that is to say, of any structure which succeeded the tower of Malcolm Canmore—till the reign of James VI., who seems to have resided here very constantly.

The Palace ruins and grounds are Crown property, and under the charge of her Majesty's Commissioners of Woods and Forests. Immediately beyond them, to the north, stood formerly what used to be known as the "Queen's House," having, ^t is said, been originally the dower-mansion secured to Anne of Denmark. Such is the account, at least, commonly given of the "Queen's House," or "Queen Anne's House," and an edifice bearing this designation existed in this locality till within a comparatively recent period. But I have a strong impression that the whole Palace of Dunfermline had been settled as the dower-house of Queen Anne, who also received a grant of the temporalities formerly attached to the Abbey. John Taylor, the Water-poet, who visited Scotland in 1618, informs us in his 'Penniless Pilgrimage' that he travelled from Burntisland to Dunfermline, "where I was entertained and lodged at Master John Gibb his house, one of the grooms of his majesty's bedchamber, and I think the oldest servant the king hath: withal I was well entertained there by Master Crighton at his own house, who went with me and showed me the queen's palace (a delicate and princely mansion); withal I saw the ruins of an ancient and stately built abbey, with fair gardens, orchards, meadows, belonging to the palace: all which, with fair and goodly revenues, by the suppression of the abbey, were annexed to the Crown. There also I saw a very fair church, which, though it be now very large and spacious, yet it hath in former times been much larger." It is evident from this, that in speaking of the "queen's palace," Taylor means the royal abode generally at Dunfermline. Had he referred only, in this phrase, to Queen Anne's dower-house, he would certainly have added some account of the "king's palace." But as he has only mentioned one building, I conceive that I am warranted ill "inferring that the "Queen Anne's House " of later days had, as a portion of or a house formed from the Palace, retained, as a particular designation, what had been originally applied to the whole building.

The southern portion of the Abbey burying-ground was formerly the cloister-court of the monastery. The larger and more ancient part is on the north side of the church, between it and the Maygate; and in the centre, up to the middle of the last century, there stood a very ancient thom, which was said to have been the trysting-place in Roman Catholic times, when a fair was held on Sunday in the churchyard. It has now disappeared; but in 1807 the graft of the present tree, which occupies the site of the old one, was brought from Culross. Another curiosity in this part of the churchyard is frequently pointed out to visitors. It is a small upright tombstone, erected in memory of a worthy citizen of Dunfermline, who little expected that an amusing tale on the part of his representatives would have procured for him a species of immortality. The inscription runs as follows :— Here lyes the corps of Andy. Robertson, present deacon convener of weavers in this brugh, who died 18 July 1745, aged 82. An old house in the Maygate, overlooking the churchyard, and now divided into two separate dwellings, is known as the "Abbot's House," and was the residence of Robert Pitcairn, who was appointed abbot and commendator of Dunfermline at the Reformation in 1560. He became afterwards Secretary of State to James VI., under the regency of Lennox, and, as has already been stated, was arrested on the charge of being concerned in the Raid of Ruthven, conveyed a prisoner to Loch Leven, and died there in 1584. Neither politically nor morally was his course of life to be commended; and as if to protest against the voice of censure, he is said to have carved over the door of his house in the Maygate the following couplet, which is still legible there :—

''Sin word is thral and thocht is fre,
Keip weil thy tongue I counsel the."

The last Roman Catholic abbot of Dunfermline was George Durie, a cadet of the family of Durie of that Ilk, in the east of Fife. His character was of a more pronounced kind, as regards personal morality, than even that of his successor, Commendator Pitcairn, as we find a royal rescript granting letters of legitimation to two of his natural children. He was the ancestor of the Lairds of Craig Luscar, in the neighbourhood of Dunfermline. The first abbot of the monastery was Godfrey, formerly prior of Canterbury, who was nominated to this dignity in 1128 by David I., when he converted the Benedictine Priory of the Holy Trinity into an abbey and remodelled its discipline. In 1296, "Rauf, abbot of Dunfermelyn," appears as one of the subscribers of the Ragman Roll, or Act of submission to Edward I.

In 1593, after the death of Pitcairn, the temporaries of the Abbey were formed into a lordship and bestowed on Anne of Denmark, queen of James VI., and after remaining in the hands of the Crown for a number of years, they were granted in a long lease in 1641 by Charles I. to Charles Seton, second Earl of Dunfermline. The Marquis of Tweeddale acquired right to this lease in satisfaction of an obligation incurred to him by the Earl, and had it afterwards renewed in his own name. It expired in 1780, and a tack of the teinds therein included was then acquired by the heritors of Dunfermline under condition of the yearly payment of ,£100.

It is in connection with Dunfermline Abbey that we find one of the earliest references to the working of coal in Scotland. In 1291, William de Obervill, then proprietor of the estate of Pittencrieff, grants a charter to the abbot and convent of Dunfermline empowering them to work one coal-pit on any part of his property except arable ground, and when one was exhausted to open another. This was to be, however, exclusively for their own use, and they were on no account to sell or supply coals to others.

In 1296, after Edward II's capture of Berwick and reduction for a while of Scotland to an apparent submission, he made a progress through the country, and in course of it visited Dunfermline. This was on Monday, 13th August, the king having journeyed thither from Markinch on his return from Perth by Lindores Abbey and St Andrews. He remained at Dunfermline all night, and proceeded next day to Stirling, from which he travelled to Linlithgow and Edinburgh, and thence by Haddington to Berwick. We hear next of his spending the winter of 1300 at Dunfermline, and the succeeding Lent at St Andrews, from the abbey of which he carred off the lead, to be used at the siege of Stirling, which was surrendered to him three months afterwards. Such is the time assigned to the latter event ;n one of the ' Cronica Scotire,' edited by Mr W. B. I). Turnbull for the Abbotsford Club; but there is some discrepancy between the dates stated in these Chronicles and those deduced from the letters of Edward I. and other documents preserved in the Record Office, London. From the latter we derive the information that Stirling was besieged by the English king and his forces in the spring and summer of 1304, and that it was surrendered to them on 20th July of that year. We are also informed from the same source that fifty-three waggons of lead were stripped off by Edward from the roof of the church and abbey buildings of Dunfermline at this time for the purpose of being used in the operations of the siege of Stirling, but that compensation was ultimately made to the abbot and convent. A similar recompense for a similar spoliation was made to the prior and convent of St Andrews.

The Prince of Wales (afterwards Edward II.) seems also to have spent the winter of 1303-4 at Dunfermline, or at least was often passing and repassing between that town and Perth. Occasionally he halted at Kinross ; and we learn that, while in Scotland, he had frequently nobles and knights to dinner, and entertained them royally from the king's stores.

The Exchequer accounts show that Edward I. was at Dunfermline in January 1304, and received there a New Year's gift, forwarded to him from England by Queen Margaret, daughter of Philip II. of France, whom he had married as his second wife in 1299. This token of affection consisted of a gold cup with stand and cover, and also a golden pitcher. In the same month of January the queen joined the king at Dunfermline, having travelled from England by Tynemouth and Berwick-on-Tweed, and then proceeded by way of Dunbar and Dirleton. At the last-named place she was met by an escort, sent by her dutiful husband, and was conducted into Fife with all proper state.

Edward's career was, however, now fast approaching a close, and his son's mismanagement was soon to destroy the last chance of the English nation making good its claim to supremacy over Scotland. Little is recorded of Dunfermline in connection with these final struggles, but we do hear something of her in relation to the hero who ultimately achieved Scottish independence. Robert the Bruce, as is well known, was interred in Dunfermline Abbey, and the Rolls of the Scottish Exchequer, as edited by Dr Stuart and Mr Burnett, have been made to educe some interesting details in connection with the obsequies of the great king. We learn from these that the corpse of King Robert, who had died at the castle of Cardross in Dumbartonshire in 1329, was conveyed to Dunfermline by way of Dunipace and Cambuskenneth. A marble monument made in Paris was erected over his grave in front of the high altar of the Abbey Church of Dunfermline. Part of our information on this subject is derived from the History of Archdeacon Barbour:—

"With great far and solemnite
They hef him had to Dunfermelyn,
And him solemnly erdit syne
In ane far tumb within the quer."

We are told that £30, 12s. was in all paid for the tomb, the monumental part of which was constructed in Paris, and brought over from thence through Belgium. When the grave was opened in 18x9, the body was discovered surrounded with fragments of fine linen cloth interspersed with gold threads, and the breast-bone had evidently been sawn through in order to remove the heart, which, as is well known, had been carried by the Good Sir James Douglas, at the dying request of the king, on his expedition to the Holy Land. The valorous knight, however, fell in Spain in an engagement with the Moors; and the Bruce's heart, found on his person after death on the field of battle, was reconveyed to Scotland and deposited in the monastery church at Melrose. The Dunfermline monument had consisted of black marble, fragments of which were discovered near the grave. Over the latter, on the occasion of the funeral, a mortuary chapel had been erected of planks of Baltic timber, and a charge is entered in the Exchequer accounts of the day for the expenses of its gilding and decoration. The Abbot of Dunfermline received £66, 13s. 4d., and his servants prepared the candles used for the obsequies, in which upwards of 562 stones of wax were employed. There are charges for vestments for the altar, for horses, and for the gilding of the hearse, also for large quantities of lawn, crape, and black cloth.

We do not hear much of Dunfermline as a royal residence during the reigns of the earlier Stuart kings, who seem generally to have preferred Holyrood or Linlithgow, Stirling or Falkland. Under the abbots the town was only a burgh of regality, having been erected into this in 1363 ; and it was first created a royal burgh by James VI. in 1588, the same year in which he bestowed that dignity on the monastery town of Culross, seven miles higher up the Forth. James resided very constantly at Dunfermline, and the absence of the Court on his removal to England must have seriously affected •the prosperity of the place. It was not till long afterwards that if became noted for its manufacturing industry ; and at the beginning of the last century all that Sir Robert Sibbald has to say on the subject in his History .of Fife and Kinross is, that " the town has a manufactory of Dornick-cloath."

It is recorded by Lindsay of Pitscottie that in March 1560 "the lords and gentlemen by north Forth having cast down the Abbey of Dunfermling, came to Stirling, but could not enter into it because of the Frenchmen, and therefore returned back to Castle Campbell." Thus, in the year that the Reformation was established in Scotland, we learn that Dunfermline Abbey was subjected to contumelious treatment, and probably seriously damaged, whatever meaning we may attach to the phrase "cast down." There is no doubt that a good deal of mischief was done at this time by furious mobs and over-zealous reformers to the ancient ecclesiastical buildings in Scotland; but it seems at least equally certain that much of the damage with which our Scottish Protestants have been credited on this account is to be ascribed to other agents and causes. Most of the abbeys in the southern Lowlands, such as Melrose, Kelso, and Jedburgh, were reduced to their present condition during the Earl of Hertford's invasion of Scotland, and at all times the religious houses in this quarter had suffered on the occasion of hostile incursions from England. It was not, however, till the reigns of Henry VIII. and Edward VI. that artillery was brought to bear with such fatal effect on these edifices, which never afterwards recovered from the infliction. And with regard both to them and the religious establishments farther north, Little account has been taken of another factor equally potent as English invaders and Protestant zealots—the agency of natural decay, accelerated by the neglect of the custodian parishioners, both lay and clerical. Thus we find an order of the Scottish Privy Council issued at Stirling on 13th September 1563, and directed against Robert Pitcairn, commendator; Alan Coutts, chamberlain; and William Lumsden, sacristan of the Abbey of Dunfermline, by which these are commanded forthwith to put in proper repair the parish church, which had become both ruinous and unsafe through their neglect and refusal to effect any amelioration. The order proceeds on the application of the inhabitants of the town and parish, and mention is specially made of rents in the walls and vaulted roof, rafters requiring renewal, and windows wanting glass. All this damage could hardly have been effected by the Protestant army three years before. From another Act, too, of the Privy Council, immediately following the above, and of the same date, it would appear that the parish churches generally throughout the kingdom had fallen into a state of dilapidation and ruin. These are ordered "to be reparit and upbiggit, and quhair thai ar ruynous and faltie, to be mendit; and eftir that thai be sufficientlie mendit in windowis, thak, and uther neces-saris, to be intertenyt and uphaldin upoun the ex-penssis of the parochinaris and Persone, in maner following : That is to say, the twa part of the expenssis thairof to be maid be the parochinaris, and thred part be the Persone." This state of things is said to be occasioned " partlie be sleuch and negligence of the parochinaris, and partlie be oursycht of the Personis."

There can be no doubt that immediately previous to the Reformation many of the religious buildings had been allowed to fall into a condition of decay and disrepair through the neglect of the abbots, vicars, and others whose duty it was to see to these being properly maintained. And no doubt the lay commendators and impropriators of the tithes and spoils of the Church, after the overthrow of the ancient faith, would frequently exhibit equal remissness in attending to these requirements.

The first Protestant minister appointed to Dunfermline was David Ferguson, who was nominated to the charge in 1560, and was a member of the first General Assembly held at Edinburgh in December of that year. He continued minister of the parish till his death in 159S; and in a Minute of a Commission of the General Assembly held in the previous year, he is spoken of as "the auldest minister that tyme in Scotland," and is represented as urging his brethren to resist the establishment of bishops in the Church, illustrating his argument by the quotation, "Equo ne credite Teucri." Ferguson was indeed a staunch Presbyterian, and by no means courtly in the exposition of his views. lie is said, however, to have been a great favourite with James VI., who relished his conversation, though the monarch received on one occasion from the clergyman a severe rebuke for "banning" (swearing). It is also recorded of him that he "uttered many quicke and wise sentences which were taken much notice of;" and in the year that he died he made a collection of Scottish proverbs, which do not seem, however, to have been published till 1642, when an edition of them was printed at Edinburgh. Some of these are very curious, both for their piquancy and antiquarian interest, and the collection will well repay a perusal.

It is not very clear who held the office of heritable baron of the regality of Dunfermline under the abbots previous to the Reformation, but in all probability it was exercised by the Sat cm family, whom we find after that date in possession of the office. One of them. Alexander Seton, who exercised that function, was raised by James VI. in 1605 to the dignity of Earl of Dunfermiine. He was the third surviving son of George, seventh Lord Seton, the celebrated champion of Queen Mary, and was born in 1555. He was sent to Rome to study for the Church, but abandoned this pursuit for that of law, and after a residence of several years in France, returned to Scotland, where he seems to have been called to the Bar about 1577. In 1583 he accomparied his father, Lord Seton, on an embassy to Henry III. of France, and in 1586 he became, with the title of Prior of Pluscarden, an Extraordinary Lord of Session, as successor to James Stewart, Lord Doune, father of the "Bonnie Earl of Moray." In 1588 he was made an ordinary Lord of Session, with the title of Lord Urquhart; in 1593 was elected President of the College of Justice; and in 1605, as already mentioned, was created first Earl of Dunfermline. He seems to have enjoyed great favour at Court, but was always strongly suspected of tendencies towards the Roman Catholic faith. In the same year that he was appointed Lord President, he acquired, as already stated, the estate of Dalgety, which adjoins and is now incorporated with that of Donibristle, belonging to the Earl of Moray, on the shore of the Firth of Forth, between Inverkeithing and Aberdour. He and his family held this property for several generations, and a portion of the old mansion which they occupied is still in existence. But their chief residence was Pinkie House, on the estate of that name near Musselburgh, which also belonged to this branch of the Seton family.

The first Earl of Dunfermline died at Pinkie in 1622, and was succeeded by his son Charles, who distinguished himself for a time as a zealous Covenanter, but on the death of Charles I. retired to Holland, and returned from thence to Scotland in 1650 with Charles II. Thenceforward he is to be identified with the Royalist party, and at the Restoration became a member of the Privy Council. Like his contemporary, however, the Earl of Kincardine, he seems to have exerted his influence at Court in smoothing matters for the Presbyterians —at least it was through his exertions that a royal warrant was obtained reponing for a time in the incumbency of Dalgety church the celebrated Andrew Donaldson, who had been ejected from thence for nonconformity. The second Lord Dunfermline died in 1672, and his son Charles, the third Earl, died shortly after him at the early age of thirty-three. James, a younger brother of the latter, succeeded him as fourth and last Earl of Dunfermline. He commanded a troop of horse under Viscount Dundee at the battle of Killiecrankie, incurred forfeiture as a rebel against William III.'s Government, went abroad to James VII., and died at St Germains a few years after the Revolution.

By his first marriage the first Lord Dunfermline had a daughter, Lady Isabella, who married John, first Earl of Lauderdale (only son of Chancellor Maitland, Lord Thirlstane), by whom she was the mother of John, Duke of Lauderdale, the famous or infamous President of the Scottish Privy Council in the reign of Charles II. By his second marriage he had a daughter, Lady J ean, married to John, eighth Lord Yester, and afterwards Earl of Tweeddale. Their son was raised to the dignity of Marquis of Tweeddale, and, in consequence of money advanced by him to his uncle, the second Lord Dunfermline, got transferred to him by the latter the heritable jurisdiction of the bailiary of the regality of Dunfermline, and also the temporalities of Dunfermline Abbey, which, as Crown property, and formerly the dowry of his mother, Queen Anne, Charles I. had made over to Seton in 1641. In consequence of this transfer the Tweeddale family became vested n all those rights and privileges connected with Dunfermline which were formerly held by the Earls bearing that t'tle. To the present day they hold the feudal superiority of the lands of North Queensferry, the patronage of the office of Master of the Song in the Abbey Church of Dunfermline, and also the patronage of St Leonard's Hospital on the south side of the town. Of course the bailiary disappeared with the abolition of hertable jurisdictions; but the appointment of rector of the Grammar School was, till a comparatively recent period, held by Lord Tweeddale. The same family, on the forfeiture incurred by the fourth Earl of Dunfermline in 1690, acquired for a time the estate of Pinkie, which, however, was, about 1788, disposed of by them to Sir Archibald Hope of Craighall, grandfather of the present proprietor.

In August 1614, Theophilus Howard, Lord Howard de Walden, afterwards Earl of Suffolk, visited Scotland, and an account of his " progress " is printed in the ' Banna-tyne Miscellany.' He was received at Edinburgh with great honour by Lord Binning, Secretary of State, was shown over the castle, " and efter denner, raid from Edinburghe with my Lord Chancelare, who, efter the Secretare had taken his lieve of thame neir Craumond, convoyed thame to Dunfermeling, and interteined him thair with all kyndnes and respect till Monnonday the 16, that he went towards Culross to sie Sir George Bruce's coill-workes, whair, having ressaved the best intertainement they could mak him, my Lord Chancellare tuke lieve of him, and left him to be convoyed to Stirling be my Lord Erskine, whair he could not be persuaded to stay above one night."

In 1624 Dunfermline was almost wholly consumed by fire—a calamity, however, which, though a terrible one, was not so appalling an occurrence in those days, when houses were often in great part constructed of wood, and could be more easily restored than they would be at the present time. Yet with all the experience of such disasters there was something very dreadful in the suddenness and violence with which this was accomplished. One hundred and twenty tenements were destroyed and 287 families rendered houseless in the space of four hours, whilst, in addition, a number of granaries, containing five hundred bolls of grain, were destroyed. The town-people had the privilege of cutting timber in the wood of Garvock, a little to the east of the town, and this they availed themselves of to such an extent in rebuilding their habitations, that the wood itself disappeared, and now exists only in memory. The adjoining lands still bear the name, and such places as "Woodmill" and "Transylvania," or "Transy," attest the existence of the ancient forest.

On the occasion of Charles I.'s visit to Scotland in 1633, he passed through Dunfermline on his way from Edinburgh and Stirling to Falkland and Perth, but seems to have made no lengthened stay. One would have thought he might have given some more attention to the place of his birth, but he does not appear to have remained even for a night there, though he had bestowed this honour both on Linlithgow and Stirling. In journeying from the latter place, he had doubtless passed through Clackmannan, Culross, and Torryburn. After remaining three days at Falkland, he continued his progress to Perth, and was there royally entertained by the Earl of Kinnoull, Lord Chancellor of Scotland. He then returned to Falkland, where he stayed for two nights, and early on the morning of 10th July started for Burntisland, from which he crossed the Forth the same day on his return to Leith and Edinburgh. He incurred no small jeopardy, however, from a violent tempest which suddenly arose, and in less than half an hour as suddenly subsided. The king's vessel weathered the gale, but a boat in which were eight of the royal attendants, besides a quantity of the royal plate and money, was lost. This seems to have been the first and last time that Charles visited Fife after leaving Dunfermline as an infant of three years old in 1603.

Charles II., in his ill-starred expedition to Scotland -n 1650, arrived in Dunfermline from Perth on 24th July, remained there for a night, and proceeded next day to Stirling, taking the same road through Torryburn and Culross by which his father had travelled seventeen years previously in coming from the west. Having gone from Stirling to Leith (probably by water) on 29th July, he remained there till 2d August, and then "sore against his awen mynd he wes moued by his counsell and the generall persons of the armey to reteire himselve to Dunfermlinge." His reluctance to go there is readily explained by the circumstance that a committee of Covenanting leaders and ministers of the Kirk were shortly expected at the town to make terms with their youthful monarch, on which alone they were ready to assist in restoring him to the throne. Thither they came on 9th August, headed by the Earl of Lothian, and pressed his Majesty to subscribe the "declaratione" which had been handed to him a few days before by the Marquis of Argyll. Charles endeavoured to avert the difficulty momentarily, by pleading an engagement to go out hunting,1 and that they would have their answer when he returned in the evening. But though they again presented themselves then, they received no satisfaction, as the king absolutely refused to subscribe any declaration which might cast reflections on the memory of his father.

A few days afterwards a Council of State was held in the royal bedchamber in Dunfermline Palace, there being present, along with others, the king, the Marquis of Argyll, and the Earls of Eglinton and Tweed-dale. Charles now yielded so far to the demands of the Scottish Presbyterians as to agree to transmit a letter to the Commissioners of the Kirk, intimating his readiness to comply with their wishes in all things concerning religion and the peace of the Church, but only begged that they would be as gentle as possible in their references to his father. Such a letter was accordingly sent, and a deputation of Presbyterian ministers waited on his Majesty to help to solve his scruples; but Charles still hesitated, till the receipt of a peremptory message from the Commissioners of the Kirk and the Commissioners of Estates that they could afford him no support whatever unless he subscribed forthwith the declaration demanded. Thus driven to the wall, Charles had no resource left but compliance; and accordingly, after a good deal of disputation and a few verbal amendments, he at last, on Friday x6th August, signed the document in question, and immediately afterwards rode off from Dunfermline to Perth. He never seems to have visited the town again, and it never could have possessed afterwards for him any pleasant recollections.

During the Jacobite insurrection of 1715, when Lord Mar with his forces lay encamped near Perth, a detachment of horse and foot was despatched by him under the command of Major Grahame to occupy Dunfermline, and levy supplies of money out of the taxation contributed by the town to the revenue. He proceeded by way of Dunning and Castle Campbell, and reaching Dunfermline, quartered his troops, partly in the Abbey, partly in private houses, but seems to have posted his guards in a very remiss fashion, and to have taken little or no pains to protect himself against any surprise from the Government army. One sentry only was stationed at the bridge leading from the town across the Tower burn to Torryburn and Alloa, wlnlst Grahame himself and several of his officers were carousing in a private house, and would listen to no remonstrances as to making more effectual the means of defence. The Honourable Charles, afterwards Lord Cathcart, commanding a detachment of Government troops, had meantime been making a rapid and silent advance upon the town, which, in its undefended state, they entered with little difficulty. The unfortunate sentry at the west bridge was slain, and a melee ensued between the assailants and such scattered parties of the Jacobites as they encountered about the streets. The result was a thorough stampede,—the Pretender's men flying in all directions, and making their way with all despatch out of the town back to the Earl of Mar's headquarters at Perth. Some indeed were slain or badly wounded, but the bulk of them saved themselves thus in an inglorious flight. At least such is the account of the affair given by John, Master of Sinclair, who was then serving under the banner of the Earl of Mar, to whose obstinacy and mismanagement, according to the former, the failure of the expedition and rebellion is mainly to be ascribed.

Just about the time of the first Jacobite insurrection a more prosperous epoch for Dunfermline was inaugurated by the introduction of the damask loom, effected mainly through the enterprise of a native of the town, named James Blake. He went over to Edinburgh, in the neighbourhood of which, at Drumsheugh, the weaving of damask linen was carried on, though the utmost secrecy was maintained regarding the construction and mode of working the loom. Blake assumed the part of an imbecile, wandering through the country and soliciting alms by playing on the flute. He presented himself at the weaver's house, and was allowed to enter the workshop, where he crept like a dog below the loom, and in this position managed to learn thoroughly the whole mystery of its construction and management. Returning home he set up a loom in a chamber of the tower above the Pends, and there worked till he had produced a satisfactory pattern and developed sufficiently the capabilities of his machine. How he acted with regard to the secret he had discovered, we are not informed; but damask weaving soon became, and has ever since remained, a specialty of Dunfermline.

As Dunfermline figures prominently in the history of Scottish Dissent, which may almost be said to have originated there, one of the leading actors in the movement being Ralph Firskine, the minister of the Abbey Church, some history of the Erskine family may not be unacceptable, considering how much they have been "household words " in the town from time immemorial.

Ralph Erskine was a son of the Rev. Henry Erskine of Chirnside, and was born at Monilaws, a village near Cornhill in Northumberland, in 1685. His father was the son of Ralph Erskine of Shielfield, who had, it is said, no less than thirty-three children, whilst his grandchildren were so numerous that they often failed to be recognised by the old man. Henry Erskine was one of the young members of the family. These Erskines of Shielfield were descended from David Erskine, com-mendator of Dryburgh, who was the son of Robert, Master of Erskine, killed at the battle of Pinkie in 1547. The Master of Erskine was the nephew of Regent Mar, and the leaders of the Secession had thus in their veins the blood of one of the oldest of our Scottish families.

Henry Erskine, Ralph and Ebenezer's father, had his full share n the troubles of the time in which it was his lot to be bom. Having completed his studies at Edinburgh University, he was appointed minister of Cornhill in Northumberland, and in 1662 was ejected from his charge for nonconformity. After some wandering to and fro, he settled with his family at Dryburgh, in the neighbourhood of the paternal estate, where his brother, the laird, treated him with great kindness. Such a retreat, however, he was not destined to enjoy unmolested, and having incurred the displeasure of the reigning powers for continuing his Presbyterial ministrations, he was apprehended in 1682, conveyed to Edinburgh, and sentenced to the payment of a fine of 5000 merks, and imprisonment in the fortress of the Bass. The latter part of the sentence was remitted on his nephew pledging himself under a bond for other 5000 merks that his uncle should quit the kingdom within fourteen days. Henry Erskine accordingly betook himself to a village in Cumberland, ten miles from Carlisle, and afterwards to Monilaws, in the parish of Brankston, two miles from his old living of Cornhill. Here his son Ralph was born in 1685, but he himself was shortly afterwards arrested, carried off, and committed to prison in Newcastle. From this detention he was liberated under the Act of Indemnity, by which James II. sought to secure the help of the hitherto persecuted nonconformists in the restoration of the Roman Catholic religion. He returned to Monilaws, and after remaining there for two years, he crossed the Border, and after exercising his ministry for a season in the parish of Whitsome, he was shortly after the Revolution appointed minister of Chirnside, a charge which he held till his death in 1696, in his seventy-second year. He was survived by his wife, Margaret Halcro, a lady of an old Orcadian family, who lived to see her two sons, Ralph and Ebenezer Erskine, distinguished pillars of the Church, and ultimately found a resting-place herself in the little burial-ground attached to the old hospital of Scotlandwell, in her son Ebenezer's parish of Portmoak. Ebenezer Erskine's history has already been traced in the account of the parish of Portmoak.

Ralph Erskine was longer than his brother in severing his connection with the Established Church, but his abilities as a leader and organiser seem to have been greater, and the movement in which they both took so prominent a part is chiefly identified, in popular estimation at all events, with the minister of the first charge of Dunfermline, who, notwithstanding his deposition by the General Assembly in 1740. continued to officiate in the Abbey Church for nearly two years subsequently. He had commenced his ministerial career about 1705, by entering as chaplain and tutor the household of Colonel John Erskine of Carnock, commonly known as the Black Colonel, and then residing at Culross. To him, as a descendant of the Earls of Mar, Ralph Erskine was distantly related. His first sermon was delivered at Culross on a week-day (Tuesday), 14th June 1709. A call was given him from Tulliallan, but, as in the case of his brother Ebenezer, it proved ineffective, and Dunfermline became the scene of his ministrations. To the second charge in its Abbey Church he was admitted on 7th August 1711, and in 1716 he was promoted to the first charge. The influence which he exercised in the town was deservedly great, and when he seceded from the Church he carried along with him almost the whole of the congregation. So strong and persistent was this feeling, that for more than half a century after his death the adherents of the Church which he founded comprised all the principal townspeople, whilst only an insignificant remnant lingered in the Abbey. He died in 1752, and the house where he lived and died still exists in the High Street of Dunfermline, and has formed the object of many a pilgrimage. In the end of the last century it was occupied by my grandfather, and my father used to tell me, as an interesting circumstance, that he himself had been born in the same room where Ralph Erskine had breathed his last.

With the exception of the Abbey and its surroundings, almost all the public edifices in Dunfermline are of modem erection. The corporation builduigs or town hall, erected m 1878 on the site of the old town-house and jail, at the head of the Kirkgate and corner of Bridge Street, is a handsome structure in the medieval Gothic or Florentine style, and is surmounted by a massive projecting tower, which forms a conspicuous object in descending the High Street, and harmonises admirably with the Abbey Church and monastic and palatial remains in the neighbourhood. The peaked clock-house which rises above the tower contains a large bell, of great vigour and mellowness of tone. In Margaret Street, near the principal entrance to the Abbey churchyard, is St Margaret's Hall, also erected in 1878, and used for public meetings, concerts, and occasionally theatrical performances. It contains a fine organ, and there is also within the building a smaller hall and a reading-room. Adjoining St Margaret's Hall, in the Maygate, is the Public Library, a handsome public building, and the result in great measure of a munificent gift of ^13,000 by Mr Carnegie, a native of Dunfermline, who has amassed a colossal fortune as an ironmaster in the United States. The same gentleman has provided the town with public baths, which are situated in the northern quarter in School End Street. A grand new school for secondary or higher instruction has recently been erected, mainly by subscription, on the slope between Canmore Street and Priory Lane, and with its lofty projecting pavilion or belfry, which surmounts the structure, stands out conspicuous in approaching the town from the south. Another prominent object is the high spire which rises above the county buildings and post-office, now formed out of the hotel and assembly rooms which used to be known collectively as the " Spire Inn."

Dunfermline has long been noted for the number of its churches and religious sects. Besides the Abbey, which was at one time its only place of worship, it has ill connection with the Establishment the district or quoad sacra churches of St Andrew's, at the head of Randolph (formerly Chapel) Street, and the North Church, situated at Golfdrum, at the north-west extremity of the town. The "Muckle Kirk," or old Burgher church, a huge barn-like editice, occupies the most elevated and prominent position in Dunfermline, and would be considerably improved in appearance by the addition of a steeple. I11 the United Presbyterian body, to which it now belongs, are amalgamated the Burgher, the Anti-burgher, and the Relief denominations, and of these the town contains four congregations, accommodated in as many churches. There are three Free churches: the Free Abbey Church, for which a large new circular building has recently been erected in Canmore Street; Free St Andrew's in Margaret Street; and the Free North Church in Bruce Street. The Congregationalists or Independents have a church in Canmore Street, adjoining the Free Abbey Church; the Baptist denomination have lately built for themselves a handsome church in East Port Street; the Episcopalians have a church in School End Street; and the Roman Catholics a church at the east end of the town, near the cattle-market and railway station. There is also a variety of smaller religious bodies, including the Catholic Apostolic Church, the Universalists, and other sects.

As might be expected, the factories of Dunfermline bulk greatly in a general survey of the public buildings. The largest of these is St Leonard's factory (Erskine Beveridge & Co.), situated at the Spital Bridge, at the southern extremity of the town. It is both a handsome and spacious building, and from its proximity to the Queensferry road, was the first large edifice that met the traveller's eye in entering Dunfermline by the coach. It employs about 1000 power-looms. The Bolhwell factory (Messrs Matthewson) is situated at a little distance in Broad Street, Netherton, alongside of the railway, and is the most extensive next to that of Messrs Beveridge. Besides these, there arc in the north quarter of the town the establishments of Messrs Alexander, of Messrs Donald, of Messrs Walker & Co., and of Messrs Hay & Robertson — all doing an extensive trade. Notwithstanding the lamentable depression which has long affected the commercial world, and in which Dunfermline has participated, this has nevertheless been less felt here than elsewhere among the working classes. The mills have always been kept going, and it has scarcely ever been found necessary on any occasion to have recourse to "short time."