“And
twenty ghosts, in winding-sheets as white
As snow, sat cocking on St Monan’s steeple.”
This small fishing town is a mile and a
half further west than Pittenweem.
The old Name was
Inverin, Invery, Inverie, Finvirie, or, as Sibbald calls it,
Inweerie; and the little stream which rushes past the church to meet
the billows, was long known as Inweary Burn. The present name, St
Monans, or Monance, was derived from one of the reputed associates
of St Adrian, and whose
Cave, or rather a
small remnant of it, is still pointed out, a stone-cast to the
eastward of the church. The front part of the rock has gone, and a
byre has been built on the site of “St Monan’s Stedd.” Even this
modern humble edifice reminds the pilgrim that he lives in a world
of change, for, instead of being inhabited by a sedate cow, it is
now partly used as a coal-cellar, and partly as a shelter for
democratic ducks.
St Monan.—Wyntoun,
in his narrative about Adrian and his company, says :—
“In Invery Saynct
Monane,
That off that cumpany wes ane,
Chesyd hym sa nere the se
Till lede hys lyff: thare endyt he.”
But, Skene, in his
remarks on the legend of St Adrian, in his Celtic Scotland, while
acknowledging that Wyntoun possessed sources of information as to
church legends now lost to us, and that this, like all such legends,
has some features which may be considered historical, yet strips it
of many of its prominent points. He utterly rejects those statements
of the Aberdeen Breviary, which hold forth that Adrian and Monanus
were born in Pannonia, a province of Hungary; that there were 6006
of these Hungarian Christian invaders; and that “blessed Monanus
preached the Gospel to the people on the mainland and in a place
called Inverry in Fyf.” In Monan’s name he finds a clue to their
native land. “Monanus,” he says, “is simply the Irish Moinenn with a
Latin termination. His relics are preserved at Inverry, now St
Monance, and he is venerated on the 1st of March; but this is the
day of St Moinenn in the Irish Calendar, who was first Bishop of
Clonfert Brenain, on the Shannon, and whose death is recorded by
Irish annalists in 571. This leads us at once to Ireland as the
country from whence they came; and, so far from being accompanied by
a living St Monan, who lived at Inverry, they had probably brought
with them the relics of the dead St Moinenn, Bishop of Clonfert, of
the sixth century, in whose honour the church, afterwards called St
Monans, was founded.” Skene’s conjecture is rendered the more
probable by what he points out, to wit, that Turgesius, the Dane,
who had placed himself at the head of all the foreigners in Ireland,
sacked Armagh thrice in one month, in 832; that, in 841, he banished
the Bishop and clergy, and. usurped the Abbacy of Armagh; that he
seems to have attempted to establish his national heathenism, in
place of the Christianity he found in the country; that, in 845, he
burned and plundered the monastery of Clonfert Brenain, and many
others; and that at this very time Kenneth MacAlpin was
establishing his Scottish kingdom in Pictland, and reclaiming for
the Scottish clerics their old ecclesiastical foundations. “It
seems, therefore,” he says, “a reasonable conclusion that the two
events were connected, and that it was probably owing to the state
into which the Church in Ireland had been brought by the Danes, and
to the co-incident establishment of a Scottish dynasty on the throne
of the Picts, that we find….the arrival of so large a body of Scots
in Fife is intimately connected with the revolution, which placed
these Pictish districts under the rule of a Scottish king.” The
Church is the only building of antiquarian interest in the town.
Whether St Monan, or only his bones, found their way to this place
may never be quite satisfactorily ascertained; but, it is certain
that the monks of May received from David the First the lands of
Inverin, or Invery, which formerly belonged to Avernus. The building
of the church is commonly ascribed to David the Second. According to
one legend, David was wounded by two arrows at the unfortunate
battle of Neville’s Cross in 1346, and one of them could not be
extracted from the wound, until he made a pilgrimage to the shrine
of St Monan, when it leaped from the wound, as he paid his devotions
before the image of the saint. The king was so gratified, by his
instant cure, that he “replaced the humble chapel erected over the
saint’s resting-place, by the stately fane of which so fine a
remnant still exists.” Unluckily for this version of the story, the
King was taken prisoner at that battle, and was detained in England
for years. According to the other version, the King was crossing the
firth to Ardross Castle with his second wife, Margaret Logie, when a
terrible storm arose, which so frightened him, that, he vowed to
build a church to St Monan if they got safely to land, and he kept
his vow. As it was in 1363 that David married Margaret of Logie, at
Inchmurdach—now called Kenly Green, near Boarhills—and as he died in
1370, this would fix the date of erection between these years. In
the Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland, it is
stated that:- "In the Register of the Great Seal, there occurs a
charter of endowment of the chapel, by David II., in the fortieth
year of his reign, equivalent to the year 1369. It may be questioned
whether this is the charter of foundation, as it notices the chapel
as having been already refounded by its granter, and it will be seen
that the building must have then made considerable progress. The
charter does not refer to any objects of peculiar gratitude to St
Monan, but is in the usual terms—for the safety of the soul of the
endower, his progenitors and successors. The Chamberlain’s Rolls
contain various entries, running from 1362 to 1370, of payments
made to Sir William Dysschyntoun, Knyht, (of Ardross,) Sheriff of
Fife, for the erection of the edifice; and in the year 1369, Adam
the carpenter received £6, 13s. 4d. in part payment of his services
and labour in the work.” To Sibbald it appeared, “from the royal
arms and the Bruces arms on the roof, that either King Robert I. or
King David II. built it.” The chapel is said to have been given by
James the Third—1460-1488—— to the Black Friars; but it did not
continue long in their possession, and no trace of their monastic
buildings now remains. The suppression of the convent was due to the
intellectual and moral reform, through which the Dominicans or Black
Friars passed in the early part of the sixteenth century, and of
which their devoted Provincial, John Adam, or Adamson, was the
mainspring. At a chapter held at Stirling in 1516, it was resolved
to apply Bishop Elphinstone’s legacy in repairing the ruinous
monastery of the order at St Andrews. And, from the Abstract of
Writs belonging to the City of St Andrews, it appears that Adamson,
in a full provincial chapter held in Edinburgh, in 1519, granted a
charter by which the convents at Cupar and St Monans were
suppressed, and their revenues transferred to that at St Andrews,
except an annual rent of twenty merks founded by Robert, Duke of
Albany, and upliftable from his lands of North Barns, now called
Kingsbarns, which was reserved that two friars might say prayers at
the tomb of St Monan for ever. This charter was confirmed by James
the Fifth. In another charter, granted by Queen Mary and the Regent
Arran in 1543, it is said that the twenty merks were granted by
Robert, Duke of Albany, to two chaplains performing Divine service
at the kirk of St Monan of ‘Inverroy, thereafter transferred by
James the Third to the Predicant Friars, and afterwards given by
James the Fifth for maintaining the students of that order at St
Andrews University. Towards the middle of the seventeenth century,
the chapel at St Monans became the parish church of Abercrombie.
Until that time, the town and lands of St Monans were in the parish
of Kilconquhar; but, an arrangement having been made between the
proprietor, Sir James Sandilands, and Robert Wilkie, the minister of
Abercrombie, they were joined to that parish. According to Hew
Scott, the annexation was carried out by the Synod on the 21st of
October 1646, and because the greatest number of the parishioners
dwelt nearest to St Monans kirk, and for other reasons, the worship
was ordained to be in it, and so the congregation met there after
the 27th of December in that year. But in the Parliamentary
Ratification passed on the 26th of June 1649, it is stated that the
dis-membering and adjoining were performed by the Presbytery of St
Andrews in July 1647. In this Ratification, Parliament also
ordained that St Monaus should be the place of meeting, and that it
should be called the Kirk of Abercrombie in all time coming. How
vain are the ordinances of men ! Gillies, in the old Statistical
Account, says that in the records of the Presbytery, the parish was
afterwards called “Abercrombie with St Monance”; but, that, long
before his time, it had acquired, though improperly, the name of St
Monance. Soon after the induction of Swan, as his successor, in
1804, it was attempted to revive Abercrombie as the name of the
parish, but in the Ordnance Survey and elsewhere it stands simply as
St Monans. In 1772 the church was so ruinous that Gillies raised a
process of reparation before the Presbytery, and obtained decree
against the heritors. This led to a process between the heritors and
feuars before the Lords of Session, in which the feuars were found
liable to uphold the fabric. “During the process,” says Gillies, “it
received a partial reparation, but nothing equal to what was granted
by Presbytery; and nothing more has yet (1793) been done, either by
the heritors, to enforce the decree of the Lords upon the feuars, or
by them, to testify their compliance with it; and if they continue
long so to do, this venerable pile must sink into ruins.” And then
he exclaims, “What a pity is it, that such a beautiful monument of
antiquity, and which perhaps has not its fellow in Scotland, should
be suffered to go to desolation!" At that time, and for at least 80
years before, the transepts were unroofed, and the congregation
worshipped in the chancel. Until 1826, it continued in this state,
being “most uncomfortable as a place of worship: damp, cold, its
walls covered with green mould, and presenting altogether an aspect
of chilling desolation.” Early in Feb. of that year, Swan invoked
the aid of his Presbytery, a visitation ensued, the heritors
consulted Burn—the architect who bungled St Giles—and he, “with
strong professional enthusiasm, deprecated the idea of its being
abandoned to ruin, and gave his decided opinion as to its capability
of being repaired into a beautiful specimen of ecclesiastical
architecture, and a place of worship singularly well adapted for
seeing and hearing.” Swan goes on to say that:- "After all the
tedious forms connected with so great a work, we were, in June 1828,
put into occupation of one of the most beautiful places of worship
of which the country can boast. There was a lofty communication
opened under a splendid arch betwixt the main building and the area
of the steeple. The side-wings to the north and south, forming the
transept, were raised to the height of the principal building, and
finished in the same style with the original roof. The pulpit was
removed to the west end, immediately in front of a magnificent
Gothic window. There were opened four similar windows in the south
wall, and two in the north, and we were provided with a commodious
vestry behind the church.” Several bodies were found in the north
transept, and one of these, from the insignia, was believed to be
the great David Leslie. Before these alterations, the church
“exhibited, in a state of perfect preservation, a complete suit of
church furniture, which, neither in the pulpit, nor in the
galleries, nor in the ground pews, had experienced for nearly two
hundred years the least repair, or even been once touched by the
brush of the painter.” The calling of most of the worshippers was
fitly represented by “a small old-fashioned model of a ship, in full
rigging, hung from the roof like a chandelier.” And the gallery,
which had been made for Leslie’s use, remained entire, with a number
of “pious inscriptions” on its seats and canopies. In the olden
time, the church-bell hang on a tree in the burying-ground, but was
regularly removed during the herring-season, lest its tones should
frighten the fish away. The new bell, which is dated 1822, is fixed
on the top of the steeple, within the parapet, but in the open air.
Sibbald, Gillies, and Swan all state that the church was built in
the form of a cross with a steeple in the centre. But, as Billings
has said, “there are no appearances to indicate that the edifice was
ever more complete than it is at present, or that it ever possessed
a nave.” That eminent architect, after remarking that some public
edifices raise their heads conspicuously in the coast burghs, says,
that:- "The most remarkable of all these is the gray chapel of St
Monance, with its steep-roofed chancel, its transept, and its stumpy
square tower, surmounted by a petty octagonal steeple. . . . On
entering it, one is struck, not only with the lofty effect of the
ribbed roof, but with the general air of good keeping and
architectural consistency, so uncommon in a Scottish village church.
The limited
accommodation required by the thin population of the parish, has, in
some measure, protected the architecture from being overlaid by the
modern adjuncts of comfort; while a square recess, with ogee-headed
compartments for sedilia, and a lavatory niche, have been allowed
to remain. There is, however, a certain freshness in the tone of the
interior that imperfectly responds to the gray walls and roof and it
becomes evident, on examination, that the building had, at one time,
been permitted to make considerable progress towards decay, and that
many of the mouldings and other decorations are plaister
restorations.” Nearly forty years have passed since Billings wrote,
and the church now looks damp and comfortless, although a new
hot-water apparatus has just been iuserted. The ugly fire-clay
pipes, which formed the rude chimney of the previous stove, are
still allowed to disfigure the roof. Swan had to complain, in 1837,
that when he tried to increase the attendance by “clerical means,”
the coldness of the church, especially in winter, was thrown in his
teeth, “artificial heat, by means of stoves or otherwise, never
having been introduced.” So far as the appearance of the church is
concerned, it is a pity that this is not still the case. The
coloured bands on the bases and capitals of the clustered columns
are truly execrable. The chancel is long and broad compared with the
narrow transepts; this feature and the absence of a nave are
probably due to the fact that the building was not designed as a
parish church, so that the worshippers were chiefly, if not solely,
those who were entitled to have a place in the chancel. In the end
of the north transept there is a mural monument in memory of
Lieutenant Henry Anstruther, a gallant youth of eighteen, who fell
in the battle of the Alma while carrying the colours of his
regiment.
“His bosom with one death-shot riven,
The warrior boy lay low;
His face was turned unto the heaven,
His feet unto the foe.”
Burgh.—On the
1st of April 1611, Archbishop Gladstane of St Andrews, with consent
of his chapter, granted a charter to William Sandilands of St
Monans, erecting his lands into a haill and free tenandry and
lordship, and the town of St Monans into a free burgh of barony,
with a free port and harbour, which was ratified by Parliament in
1621. On the 7th of December 1611, the same Archbishop made a
contract with the city of St Andrews, in which it was agreed that he
should receive ten shillings Scots yearly for the duties of the
markets of St Monans and Kilconquhar, and apparently this was not a
new arrangement at that thne. Indeed, in 1592, Parliament ordained
that an Act, against killing geese on the Bass, should be published
at the market-cross of “Sant monanis.” So that it may have been a
burgh of barony long before Gladstane’s time. It was enacted in 1705
that the weekly market should be changed from Friday to Tuesday, and
that two yearly fairs should be held in July and September, of which
Sir Alexander Anstruther of Newark was to receive all the tolls and
customs. But no markets or fairs are held here now. Writing in 1837,
Swan says:- "There are two prisons in St Monans, under one roof, one
on the upper floor of the town-house, the other on the ground floor.
They are equally well secured; the lower, by much the more dismal of
the two. Prisoners are committed to the one or the other according
to their pre-eminence in delinquency.” And he adds:- "So far as I
have occasion to hear, imprisonment is a rare occurrence.” It would
have been wonderful if it had been otherwise, for the population of
884 persons rejoiced in the oversight of three bailies, a treasurer,
fifteen councillors, and twelve constables
Repulse of the
English.—When the English held Haddington in 1548, “they came to
Aberlady,” says Pitscottie, “and shipped in some of their ablest
gentlemen to pass over and spoil the coast of Fife. They came first
to Anstruther and Pittenweem, but fearing to land there, these towns
being so populous, they came west against St Ninians, where they
landed, thinking to march on foot to Pittenweem, and fortify the
same with men and victuals, and to spoil the country. As they were
coming to St Ninians-Muir in arrayed battle, with some artillery,
brought from their ships, Lord James, Commendator of St Andrews, the
Lairds of Weemyss and Largo, with sundry others of the country, when
they saw the fires arising, came posting thither, and, joyning with
the common people who had convened to stop their landing, skirmished
so hotely with them, that they chased them back to their ships, and
slew a great number of them, beside many that were drowned and taken
captives. There died to the number of six hundred and twelve, and an
hundred prisoners taken.” Calderwood’s reference to this event is
much shorter even than Pitscottie’s. He simply says:- "The English
fleets went about to land their souldiours at Sanct Minnans, in
Fife, but the Queen’s brother, James Stewart, encountered them with
speed, and compelled them to retire, after they had landed about
twelve hundreth. Three hundreth were slaine, an hundreth takin,
manie drowned.” Sir James Balfour is not quite so brief as
Calderwood; but in several important respects he differs from both
him and Pitscottie. He says, that Lord Clinton, who was riding at
anchor with his ships, landed some 5000 men on the coast of Fife, to
spoil the country; but that before they did much harm they were
encountered by the Laird of Wemyss, and the Barons of Fife, all well
horsed, who rode them “flat doune” with their horses, and, having
killed above 700 of them, forced the remnant to save themselves by
wading into the sea to their necks to gain their boats. If Sir James
has not unduly magnified the number of the enemy, the Fife Barons
must have done nobly. He finishes his account of the matter, by
stating, that the English procured no better booty than their “back
full of strokes and watt skins,” and that this good entertainment
saved Fife from all further trouble in the progress of that war.
Bishop Lesley’s account is much fuller than any of the others. Like
Balfour, he makes no mention of James Stewart, and attributes the
success almost entirely to the Laird of Wemyss, who, he says, caused
watch and ward to be kept so strictly, both day and night, that the
English Admiral could not land unperceived. Indeed, the Laird
happened to be personally on the outlook that very night the
invaders meant to land, and, seeing their light, hurried to “Sanct
Minanis,” to raise the men of that town. Alas they were “not abone
the nowmer of sax scoir,” but having put them in the neediest
places, he chose some of the most skilful, and went with them to
where he had seen the light—a distance of two miles. Being near
dawn, it grew “mirker” than it had been all night, which allowed him
to get close enough to the enemy to understand their manner as well
as he could wish. Returning to his company, he put them in order to
receive the foe, and by the break of day the English archers were
upon them. The skirmishing was so sharp that Wemyss retired with his
men within certain trenches, where they kindled a great fire of
ferns, straw, and other things, which made “ane marvelous gret reik
and fuilbik.” There they had three small cannons, and while these
were dealing death to the invaders, Wemyss rushed out upon them,
“with a gret fureous noyce, dinging thame doune on heapes.”
Meanwhile, a company, mainly composed of women and children, who had
been sent to “fetche a compas behind the back of ane hill, began to
shaw thame selffis, making sic ane hidderous noise and cry,” as
though they would have borne down all before them. At this the
English took to their heels, and fled in disorder to their ships, so
hard pressed by the natives that several of them were slain in the
water, before they could reach their boats. Lesley estimates the
number of the invaders at even less than Calderwood, putting them
down at a thousand; but, of these, he says, less than 300 returned
to their ships, the rest being either slain or drowned. The Admiral,
he adds, hardly escaped, and the English did not attempt again to
land in Fife. Buchanan speaks of St Monans as a populous village at
this time, and gives the credit of the victory to James Stewart,
who, he says, attacked the 1200 English with such impetuosity that
they were forced to flee. According to this historian, the Lord
James deserved the more praise as the rustics had been dispersed by
the invaders, but when rallied by him they carried everything before
them. With some caution he remarks that six hundred were said to be
killed and one hundred taken prisoners. One boat sank in the
confusion with all on board.
Harbour and
Fishing. - Sibbald does not mention the harbour; but says that
“the village hath usually ten fishing boats, with four men in each,”
and that, during the herring-fishing, “they send out twelve boats
and seven men in each, and sometimes more.” Gillies, however, refers
to the harbour, in 1793, as remarkable for its depth of water, there
being from 13 to 15 feet, at the entrance, in ordinary floods, and
from 18 to 20 feet in stream tides, although “the building extends,
but a very short way out to sea.” He complains that the entrance was
narrow, and the bottom rough, and, consequently, that it was
difficult of access, and also dangerous. About 1788 the fish had so
deserted the place that a single haddock had not been caught for a
year. One fisherman and his family had gone to Ayr, and others were
threatening to follow his example. Yet there were about 14 large
boats and 20 small ones belonging to the place. In each of the small
boats there were five men, while the crews of the large boats—which
were only used for the herring-fishery—varied from six to eight. The
present position of this thriving fishing town is shown by the table
quoted on page fifty-six of the other section (Part I.) of this
Guide. It must be remembered that fewer men, comparatively, are now
required for the boats than formerly, owing to the introduction of
the “iron-man,” or patent net-hauler. In the Annual Report of the
Fishery Board for Scotland, for 1883, it is stated that:- "The
fishermen of St Monance, to their great credit, unaided by any
public grant, erected a good harbour there, at a cost of about
£15,000. The increased size of the boats now engaged in the
fisheries rendered it absolutely necessary that some rock should be
excavated, and the outer entrance channel to the harbour widened,
but the fishermen were quite unable to raise the amount required for
these additional works. After having made full enquiry into the
whole circumstances of the case, we resolved that, in the event of
the fishermen paying us £500, we would expend an amount not
exceeding £2000 in all towards carrying out what was required. This
£500 was sent to us, and we had the gratification of ordering the
works to be proceeded with.” A year earlier the Board reported that
on the whole east coast of Scotland there were only four really good
harbours for fishing boats, namely, those at Aberdeen, Peterhead,
Fraserburgh, and Cluny harbour at Buckie.
Newark Castle
stands about a third of a mile to the south-west of St Monans
Church. It was long the residence of the Sandilands, a branch of the
Torphichen family; but, in 1649, the famous David Leslie bought the
lands of Abercrombie and St Monans from James Sandilands, who two
years before had been raised to the peerage, and who is described by
Lamont as “a ryotous youth, wha spent ane olde estate in the space
of 4 or 5 yeares.” David Leslie, the fifth son of Sir Patrick Leslie
of Pitcairly, early entered into the service of Gustavus Adoiphus,
and greatly distinguished himself in the German wars. Both the
Leslies, Alexander and David, uncle and nephew, returned to Scotland
when the civil war broke out. In the second invasion of England,
Alexander, the old Earl of Leven, was placed in command of the Scots
Army; “but it has to be noted,” says Hill Burton, “because it was
material to the result, that he was accompanied by his nephew, David
Leslie, a greater soldier than himself, who assisted him as
major-general.” On the 19th of January 1644, they crossed the Tweed
with an army of 20,000. The glory of the victory over Prince Rupert,
at Marston Moor, has been divided between David Leslie and
Cromwell; but there is little doubt that the former is most
entitled to it, as Cromwell had only the command of 300 horse, and
the halo of his subsequent career has magnified the laurels he won
that day. While besieging Hereford, the Scots cavalry was detached
and sent back under Leslie, to oppose Montrose in his brilliant
career. The result is well known. The battle of Philiphaugh, on the
13th of September 1645, was decisive. “All that Montrose’s
generalship could achieve was to retreat with a small portion of
his force.” When Cromwell invaded Scotland in 1650, the elder Leslie
was commander of the army, “but so far as the arm of flesh was
entitled to reliance it was on his nephew David.” The Scots army, by
the long contest, was worn thread-bare, but such as it was Leslie
handled it well, keeping his great opponent in check for months.
“The end seemed inevitable - Cromwell must either be starved into
submission, or must force his way back, with the certainty that he
would carry with him but a fragment of his fine army.” At length the
fatal day came. Cromwell was shut in at Dunbar, with Leslie above
him on the Hill of Doon. The Usurper was almost in despair, when, to
his amazement, on the evening of the 2d of September he saw the
Scots army beginning to descend the Hill. It is commonly said that
the Committees of the Estates and the Church forced Leslie to this
against his own better judgment. Whether that be the case or not,
the movement threw them into Cromwell’s hands, for, perceiving his
opportunity, he struck the blow next morning ere they were well
formed in the plain. The battle of Dunbar threw open the south of
Scotland to Cromwell; but Leslie, with the wreck of his army, took
possession of Torwood, near Stirling. After watching them for
months, and trying in vain to draw them out, Cromwell occupied
Perth. This gave Leslie the opportunity of carrying the war into
England. Lest he should reach London and increase his army there,
Cromwell posted after him, overtook him at Worcester, and after a
stiff fight annihilated his army on the 3d of September 1651. Leslie
was captured in the retreat, and sent to the Tower of London, where
he was confined until the Restoration of Charles the Second in
1660. By that King he was created Lord Newark in 1661, and a yearly
pension of £500 was bestowed on him. Let us hope that the old
warrior spent the evening of his days in peace, within the massive
walls of Newark Castle. He survived until 1682, leaving six
daughters and a son, David, who became second Lord Newark, but he
dying, without heirs male, in 1694, and his daughter marrying Sir
Alexander Anstruther, the estate passed into that family. Now, it
belongs to Mr Baird of Elie. The castle has been a very large
building, the lower apartments being vaulted and having the rock as
a floor. The kitchen can be distinguished by its enormous
fireplace—about 12 feet by 6—and huge chimney. Sixty years ago, the
farm servants of Newark lived in the middle and upper storeys of
this goodly old pile. Doubtless, it was to suit them that a floor
was inserted into the kitchen chimney on the level of the room
above, and the recess thus formed filled by a box-bed. A small
door-way has been cut through the back of the fire-place on the
ground floor. The whole castle has been sadly cut up, patched, and
altered. It has likewise suffered much from the ravages of time and
the restless billows. In the face of the cliff under the west side,
there are traces of the lower vaulted chambers, in which smugglers
are said to have revelled. The most perfect portion of what was once
an imposing edifice is now a roofless ruin, and several of the
vaulted apartments are used for storing agricultural implements.
While the lordly castle has thus gone to decay the old round
“doo-cot” is well preserved. Truly the glory of this world passeth
away! [Note: The castle has since bean purchased by a Nola Crewe, a
lawyer of Toronto in Canada c 1996].
“Here ladies bricht were aften seen,
Here valiant warriors trod;
But a’ are gane! the guid, the great,
And naething noo remains,
But ruin sittin’ on thy wa’s,
And crumblin’ doun the stanes!"
Population,
&c.—In 1790, the population of the whole parish was only 832 ; but,
in 1851, that of the town was 1241, and in 1881 it had still further
risen to 2000. The righteous soul of Mr Gillies was vexed by “the
increase of the different sects of Seceders in this part of the
county,” whose “teachers and managers” artfully drew off “the
ignorant and unwary from the Established Church!" It is not likely
that he would have regarded the plain Congregational Chapel, or the
neat Free Church, with much more complacency—yea, he might have also
denounced their members as “sectaries,” who “are always ready to
break the public peace!" In the town there are also a post and
telegraph office, and a town-hall. Three bailies, a treasurer, and
nine councillors look after the welfare of the old burgh and the
interests of the inhabitants. It must be confessed, nevertheless,
that many parts of the town are far from cleanly. Perhaps, it is
impossible where fishing is the chief industry, and where much of
the necessary work is done in the streets, to keep a town as tidy
and trim as could be wished. Formerly, the burgh was greatly ravaged
by small-pox, especially in summer, when the air was much tainted by
the refuse of fish, 20 or 30 children at a time being periodically
swept off. That dreadful scourge, however, has been overcome by
vaccination; and the place, which was always healthy otherwise, is
now still more so. No doubt this is mainly due to the abundance of
fresh air which permeates every house, and also to the excellent
supply of water which has lately been introduced. Nowhere, are
stronger, healthier looking people to be met with, than in the
confused and dirty streets of St Monans. In September 1885 it was
resolved to form the town into a special drainage district under the
Public Health Act.
See lots of
pictures of the area through the links below
