G8 Tnuisadions- 



It is therefore impossible to tell whether or not the stair 

 was continued down to tlie vaults. In any case there 

 must have been another opening, probably before the High 

 Altar, and on this means of access must be based any 

 hope of exploration of the supposed subterranean passage 

 between the Abbey vaults and the Castle of Dumfries. 

 Instances of such secret passages are by no means un- 

 frequent in mediaeval buildings, but in many cases they 

 have been lost sight of or forgotten. From their nature there 

 is of course never any documentary evidence regarding them ; 

 but tradition, as in this instance, often speaks remarkably 

 strong on the subject. Such being the case, it would be 

 worth while to make a trial at least to open the vaults, and, 

 if possible, set the question at rest. 



The only portion of the building remaining to be noticed 

 are the Transept and Nave, neither of which call for any 

 lengthened description. It may be mentioned, however, that 

 the former has l)een used as a side chapel, the remains of a 

 Piscina being still in existence in the south wall, and what 

 has probably been a credence bracket on the north side. 

 The Collegiate Church of Lincluden, although it may not be 

 associated like Dundreiman with any great historical event, 

 has still a history at once interesting and locally important, 

 and can boast of having received within its walls not a few 

 royal visitors, and to have been once at least the meeting 

 place of the lawgivers of the Western Border. Founded, as 

 has been already mentioned, about the year 1400, the Church 

 was the seat of the local Parliament which met in Dec, 

 1448, under the presidency of William, Earl of Douglas, to 

 draw up a code of laws for the regulation of Border affairs, 

 and twenty years later it formed a refuge for one of the 

 ablest of England's Queens, Margaret of Anjou, who with 

 her husband, King Henry VI., tlieir infant sou, and the 

 Dukes of Somerset and Exeter visited Lincluden after the 

 defeat of their forces at Towton on March 28th, 1461, being 

 probably attracted by the fact that the then Provost (Lindsay) 

 had been Scottish Ambassador to their court in the halcyon 

 days when all England acknowledged their sway. 



