Transactions. 35 



croun, obtained the name of founder though another than 

 he was the actual founder, 



Dundrennan Abbey was founded in the year 1142. This 

 was four years after Fergus first appears in history as Lord 

 of Galloway, and two years after his great neighbour De 

 Morville, Lord of Cunninghame, in Ayrshire, founded his 

 stately Abbey of Kilwinning. Fergus appears to have be- 

 come Lord of Galloway on the fall of Ulgeric and Dovenald, 

 the previous Lords of Galloway at the battle of the Standard 

 in 1138. Two years after this the Abbey of Kilwinning was 

 founded, and two years thereafter Dundrennan Abbey. 



The circumstances thus seem to point to Fergus Lord of 

 Galloway as the foxmder of the Abbey. He was the acknow- 

 ledged founder of other Abbeys in the district, and the 

 ancestor of a line of founders of Abbeys. 



His son, Uchtred, Lord of Galloway, founded at Lincluden 

 a priory of Benedictine Nuns — apparently the only nunnery 

 in the district. And among the monuments at Dundrennan 

 Abbey still remaining is an old mutilated eflSgy in the north 

 transept, supposed to represent TJchtred's grandson, Alan, 

 Lord of Galloway, who was buried here. 



These preliminary remarks have their bearing on the 

 view here taken of the Nun Slab. 



This Slab lies in the eastern aisle of the south transept. 

 It is an incised slab, now in fragments, and according to the 

 Kev. Mr Hutchison, in his Memorials of the Abbey of Dun- 

 drennan, the length is 5 feet 6 in., and the breadth 2 feet 

 10 in. 



It has on it an incised figure, full length, in the dress or 

 habit of a nun, the feet resting on two lambs, Avith a Latin 

 inscription in old English characters, without capitals, round 

 the margin of the stone. 



The Slab being broken and mutilated, the legend is in 

 some parts defaced and incomplete ; the want of capitals 

 adds to the difficulty of deciphering it, and while in some 

 parts there are unnecessary blanks, in another the words are 

 huddled together so as to require abbreviation, contraction. 



