Field Meetings. 215 



is the most ornamental portion of the ruin. The approach is by 

 a narrow lane, entered from the street by a quaint archway or 

 "pend," surmounted by a rudely sculptured shield bearing the 

 lion rampant and unicorn supporters ; and shields on the imposts 

 of the arch display arms which are believed to be those of George 

 Vans, Bishop of Galloway, who died in 1508. The only con- 

 siderable remains of the Priory buildings above ground are the 

 walls of the nave of the church. The site of the transepts is 

 occupied by the roadway leading to the parish church. The 

 choir chancel also has disappeared, but the shell at least of the 

 crypts beneath it has been saved, and these are now a storehouse 

 of sculptured stones discovered in course of excavations which 

 were carried on chiefly by the late Marquis of Bute. The door- 

 way at the south-east corner of the nave is practically intact, 

 except that a depression has been cut in the arch to suit the 

 exigencies of the modern building that was formerly erected 

 against it; and it is a very ornate piece of workmanship. Within 

 the nave, on the south side, are several tombs set into the west 

 wall. Two in particular, enriched with dog-tooth moulding, have 

 obviously been the graves of persons of note. Two skeletons were 

 taken from them a good many years ago. One was that of a man 

 of large frame, and it excited speculation as to whether it could 

 be that of Archibald the Grim, Lord of Galloway — the same who 

 expelled the nuns from Lincluden Abbey, installed in their stead 

 a male colony, consisting of a Provost and twelve bedesmen, and 

 erected most of the buildings at Lincluden which we now know 

 as ruins. That doughty Earl is known to have been buried in 

 the Priory; as no doubt also would be Archibald, " Bell the Cat," 

 fifth Earl of Angus, who, after the heartbreak of Flodden, retired 

 here to spend his last days, and died in 1514. In the nave are 

 preserved the baptismal font, a massive sandstone bowl retaining 

 traces of elaborate ornamentation, and a small post-Reformation 

 bell, bearing the date 1610 and an inscription shewing that it was 

 cast at Bruges. Of the touer which stood at the south-west 

 angle, and of which a considerable remnant was in position within 

 the last century, only the foundations now remain. One of the 

 apartments of the crypts has been turned into a veritable museum 

 of sculptured and monumental stones. One of these is a 

 sepulchral slab which mav be anterior to the age even of St. 



