repofitory in Europe, under the pooreft roof. But the com p arf
fails in this : Bifcop was a brute-, our country man. the reverfei I
I n c h - c o lm . T w o or three miles to the weft lies Inch-colm-, a-fmall iilandil
a little diftance from the Ihore, celebrated for the m onalr
founded about 1123, by Alexander I. .on this lingular occaiif
In paffing the firth,of Forth he was overtaken with a vio le n t ftoif
which drove him to this ifland, where he met with the mod h |
pitable reception from a poor hermit, then refiding here in thej
chapel of St. Columb, who, for the three days.that the king J
tinued there tempeft-bound, entertained him with the m ilk of lit
cow, and a few fhell-fifh. His majefty, from the fenfe of
danger he had efcaped, and in gratitude' to the faint, to whom jit
attributed his fafety, vowed fome token of refpeft; and a cco f
ingly founded here a monaftery of Augufiines, and d ed icated it fo
St. Columba*. Allan de Mortimer,, Lord of Aberdour, who ay
tended Edward III. in his Scotch expedition, b e fto w e d half «
thofe lands on the monks of this ifland, for the p rivile g e ofli
family burial place in their church.
The buildings made in confequence of the piety of Aleut _
were very confiderable. There are ftill to be feen a large fq u *
tower belonging to the church, the ruins of the church, and#-
feveral other buildings. The wealth of this place in the tin*
of Edward III. proved fo ftrong a temptation to his- fleet, thw
lying in the Forth, as to fupprefs all the horror, of facrilege, anijl
refpedt to the fan&ity of the inhabitants. ’Thc.EngliJh landed, aij|
* Boethius, lib. XII. p. Z.63.
fparen