lie Mr John Rattray on the 



the south and Autonine on the north ; others say the Danish 

 invaders called the isle Mo ("The Maid"), which is pronounced 

 like "May." In the reign of King Constantine (864-882) 

 various missionaries arrived in Scotland for the purpose of 

 introducing Christianity into its pagan domains ; St Adrian — 

 who was popularly believed to have come from Hungary/^but 

 who may not improbably have been of Irish extraction — was 

 one of their chiefs, and selected the island of May as a place 

 for retirement and private devotion. During the Danish in- 

 vasion he was cruelly slaughtered in the year 872, and was 

 buried on the island, where his stone coffin is still to be seen. 



About the middle of the twelfth century, David I., influ- 

 enced, it would seem, chiefly by the memory and sufferings 

 of St Adrian, founded a monastery on this island, and handed 

 it over to the care of the Abbey of Reading, Besides local 

 power of taxing, the monks received grants of lands in Fife- 

 shire, Clackmannan, Perthshire, and Berwick from several 

 successive Scottish monarchs and from many nobles. It may 

 be asked. Did the necessary interchange of visitors influence 

 the introduction of plants then and afterwards ? In the year 

 1269 this Priory was sold by Ptobert de Burghgate, who was 

 then Abbot of Reading, to \Yilliam Wishart, Bishop of St 

 Andrews, for a sum of 1100 merks. After several years of 

 international disquietude, from 1292 onwards, the monastery 

 was fully transferred, in the year 1318, to the Canons of St 

 Andrews. Subsequent to this, no historical reference of im- 

 portance is made to the ^May until the summer of 1449, when 

 a vessel conveying Mary of Gueldres, who was about to become 

 queen of James II., anchored near the island, on which Mary 

 is reported to have landed, and to have paid her devotions 

 before proceeding to Leith. During the years 1503, 1505, 

 1506, 1507, and 1508, repeated visits were made by James to 

 the same spot, not only for purposes of devotion, but also, as 

 old records have it, " to schut fowlis with the culveryn." 



During the first half of the sixteenth century many of the 

 lands that had been presented to the monks by the Scottish 

 kings and nobles became alienated, and in 1549 the island of 

 May itself was feued to Patrick Learmonth of Dairsay, Provost 

 of St Andrews, on account of its insular situation, its liability to 

 seizure by an enemy in times of hostilities, and the devastated 

 condition in which it had been recently left by English in- 



