62 Transactions. 



the sadly mutilated condition of the stone would probably 

 have deterred any one from making an attempt towards its 

 elucidation. The subject, however, attracted the attention 

 of Mr Starke, F.S. A., Scot., one of the presidents of the last 

 society, and he devoted a long paper to the subject with 

 the result that the characters were found to be — 



Hic JACET Here lies 



DOMINA BLANCHEA The Lady Blanclie. 



Y. SIT She was a Nun. 



DOMINA PR QUONDAM. At one time a lady prioress. 



OBIT ANNO. D. 1440. She died in the year of our Lord, 1440. 



Mr Starke, fi-ora the fact that there was no religious house 

 for Nuns in the district except Lincluden, and from the simi- 

 larity of the dates of the Abbey and the death of the Lady 

 Blanche, argued that this, in all probability, was the tomb of 

 the last Abbess of Lincluden, a conclusion which, if verified, 

 would go far to clear away tlie slur cast upon the Nuns by 

 the action of Archibald the Grim. Mr Starke does not seem 

 to have been aware, however, of the similarity and close con- 

 nection of the two Orders of Benedectines and Cistercians, 

 for he remarks that the two orders differed entirely.* This 

 being the only weak point in his argument, with the light of 

 this additional information it may be safely assumed that 

 the Lady Blanche was the last ruler of the Benedectine 

 House of Lincluden, her tomb being placed in the unusual 

 position which it occupies, as a vindication of the character 

 of the Nunnery, and a testimony against the rapacity of the 

 house of Douglas. 



However reprehensible may have been the action of 

 the Grim Earl in this matter, to him must be assigned 

 the credit of founding the Collegiate Church, with the 



*The Benedectines followed the rule of St. Benedict, whose order grew so 

 lai-ge, that in the year 1098 Robert Abbot of Mole.sine, with a few of his Monks 

 who were desirous of observiutj the Beuedicbine rules in their oiii<inal severity, 

 founded the Order of the Cistercians. The two bodies sprang thus from n. 

 common source, and followed a common code of laws. A high degree of friend- 

 ship therefore existed between them, a friendship which grew all the stronger 

 as the two bodies grew older, and the latter renounced the authority of their 

 original rule. 



