DUNKELD CATHEDRAL. BISHOPS. 19 



The town is situate in a plain on the east bank of the river, embosomed in 

 richly wooded hills, to which the rugged face of Craigie-barns, on the north, 

 presents an ample and majestic screen. To the west, Cragvinean rears his 

 pine-clad shoulders ; and on the south rise detached circular hills, at the 

 base of which 



" Across the shire of valleys and of hills, 



Braklalbane, and great Athol's dread domain, 

 Swoln by the tribute from a thousand rills, 

 The Scottish Tiber thunders to the plain." 



Of the two principal streets, one opens on a handsome bridge of five arches 

 over the Tay, and at the west end of the other, stands the ancient cathedral, four- 

 score paces in length, in all its compartments of corresponding dimensions, and on 

 a noble scale. Its architecture consists of the Norman, with that of every other 

 variety introduced into ecclesiastical structures, during the three subsequent 

 periods of the Gothic style.* " Wanting only the roof, it wants nothing as a 

 ruin." The choir, now converted into the parish church, was restored on the 

 original model, and at a great expense, by the duke of Athol. Thus, while certain 

 preservation has been gained to the whole structure, nothing has been lost of 

 the original design ; and the cathedral will now continue a venerable monument 

 of ancestral piety, and of times when Dunkeld was the seat of primacy in Scotland, 

 and " capital of ancient Caledonia." Among the episcopal worthies, the name 

 of Gavin Douglas throws a hallowing lustre over the darker features of his 

 day. William Sinclair, of a different temperament, was as much the champion 

 of his country's liberty as the former was of its literature. His spirit was 

 worthy of the age of Wallace, and formed to be the companion of the best patriots 

 of his country. On one occasion, when a party of Edward the Second's troops 

 had made a hostile inroad upon the coast of Fife, Sinclair like the famous 

 Matthew Schimmir, the warlike bishop of Sion overtook the invaders in the 

 midst of their plundering expedition, near Aberdour, and, with the assistance of 

 only threescore retainers, expelled the intruders at the point of the sword. 



Among the few sepulchral antiquities, the most remarkable is a statue in 

 armour, with a lion's head at the feet, representing the ferocious " Wolf of 

 Badenoch," Alister, son of Robert II. who burnt Elgin cathedral, and became 

 otherwise notorious by his sanguinary disposition, f 



* Here, it is said, while the site of the cathedral was consecrated as a cell of Culdtes, Kenneth Macalpin 

 deposited the bones of St. Columba. As a consecrated spot antiquaries trace its history to the remote 

 reign of Constantine, in the early part of the eighth century. 



f Hie jacet Alex r . Seneschallus . films U^berti regis Sector: ct Elizabeths? More . Dominus de . 

 Buchan . et Baclenocli . qui obiit A.D. 1391. 



