The garden wall, a very noble and extenlive one of cut flow
conveys fome idea of the antient grandeur of the place : by a rudi
infcription, ftill extant, on the N. Weft corner, it appears to han I
been built by George Shaw, the abbot, in the year 1484, the (a®
gentleman who four years after procured a charter for the townd
Paijley. The infcription is too Angular to be omitted:
Th y callit the abbot George o f $ba*ujr
About my abby gart make this waw
An hundred four hundredth zear
Eighty-four the date but weir.
Pray for his falvation
That laid this noble fundation.-
As the Great Stewards o f Scotland were their patrons and fc I
nefaftors, they enjoyed ample privileges, and very confideraill
revenues; they were the patrons of no fewer than thirty-oneptI
rifhes, in different parts of the kingdom. The monks of 'hi
abby wrote a chronicle of Scots affairs, called the black book til
Paijley, an authentic copy o f which is faid to have been burntiil
the abby of Holyroodhoufe, during Cromwel’s uiurpation: anoil
copy taken from Mr. Robert Spottifwood’s library, was carried nI
England by General Lambert. The chartulary o f the monafe|l
is faid to be ftill extant; the account of the charters, bulls * I
confirmation, donations, &c. is brought down to the year 154* I
John Hamilton, the laft abbot, was natural brother to the Do» I
o f Hamilton, and, upon his promotion to the fee of St. Anlt& I
in 1546, refigned the abbacy of Paijley in favor o f Lord u*l
Hamilton,, third fon of that Duke ; which refignation wasaftr |
vra»|
fcards confirmed by Pope Julius III, in the year 1553. This Lord
|'laud Hamilton, titular abbot of Paijley, upon the diffolution of
the monafteries obtained from King James the Vlth, a charter,
Hefting the lands belonging to the abbacy into a temporal lord-,
fliip: this charter is dated at Edinburgh, July 29, 1587. He
was, by the fame prince, created a peer, in 1591, by the title o f
fcord Paijley, and died in 1621. In 1604 his eldeft fon had been
Created Lord Abercom, and in 1606 was raifed to the dignity of
an earl. The family is now reprefented by the Right Hon. James
Earl of Abercom, Baron Hamilton of Straban, in Ireland, &c. The
lordihip of Paijley was difpofed o f to the Earl of Angus, in the year
1(652, and by him to William Lord Cochran, afterwards Earl o f
K tmdonald, in 1653, in which family it continued till the year
1L64, when the prefent Earl of Abercom re-purchafed the paternal
inheritance of his family. The abby-church, when entire,
has been a grand building, in form o f a crofs; the great North
Window is a noble ruin, the arch very lofty, the middle pillar
wonderfully light, and ftill entire : only the chancel now remains,
which is divided into a middle and two fide-ifles ; all very lofty
pillars, with gothic arches; above thefe is another range of pil-
jp , much larger, being the fegment of a circle, and above a
few of arched niches, from end to end; over which the roof
qnds in a iharp point. The outfide of the building is decorated
with a profufion of ornaments, . efpecially the great Weft and
North doors, than which fcarce any thing lighter or richer can be
Bnagined.
J But notwithftanding popery and epifcopacy were expelled this
country, yet fuperftition and credulity kept full poffeifion in thefe
Z 2 parts.