172 THE GANNET 



claim in question is made by the Prioress of North Berwick, 

 the ruins of whose priory are still to be seen there, against 

 Robert Lauder, of the Bass, for certain barrels of grease. 

 Probably this was an annual payment — something in the 

 nature of tithe, and may have been the origin of the 

 twelve Solan Geese which the minister of North Berwick 

 is to this day, if he choose, entitled to receive as vicar of 

 the Bass, The original of this document, which has been 

 already brought to the notice of naturalists in the " History 

 of the Berwickshire Naturahsts' Club " (VII., p. 88), and 

 again in " The Birds of Berwickshire,"* is stated by Dr. John 

 Stuart to be preserved in the General Register House a 

 Edinburgh. The actual words, I am informed by Mr. J. 

 Anderson, are, " pinguedinis auium silvestrum." As already 

 set forth, it was 177 years before this, viz., in 1316 that the 

 Bass Rock was granted to the Landers. f To go to the 

 length of invoking the aid of the Pope shows the value which 

 Gannets' grease had in Henry VIII. 's time, a value to which 

 thirty-three years later Hector Boece bears testimony in 

 " The Cosmographe," to be cited immediately. 



Sixteenth Century. — 3. The first really descriptive story 



* By George Muirhead, II., p. 37. 



t But it was not until some time subsequently that they approisriately 

 assumed a Solan Goose for their crest. See M'Crie's History of the 

 Bass; the Bass was sold by the Lauders in 1621. 



