261 
PAISLEY. 
town clerk, and other inferior magiftrates. The bailies 
are inverted with the powers of jurtices of the peace ; and 
take cognizance, in the firft inltance, of all offences com¬ 
mitted within their jurifdiftion. 
At the_commencement of the laft century, Paifley is 
defcrihed as confiding only of one principal ftreef, about 
half a mile in length, with a few narrow lanes branching 
out on either fide. Now, however, it is an extenlive and 
well-built town, and contains many excellent public and 
private edifices, efpecially in that part called the New 
Town, which ftands on the eaftern bank of the river Cart, 
and is laid-out with great regularity. The ftreets are in 
general well paved and lighted, and exhibit all the marks 
of opulence and indurtry, fome of them being crowded 
with warehoufes and manufaftories, occupied by the mer¬ 
chants and tradefmen. The whole town is built of ftone ; 
and, in all the modern ftreets, the houfes have fquared and 
fmooth free-ftone fronts, in the fame manner as thole of 
Edinburgh and Glafgow. 
A particular account of the abbey of Paifley would fill 
many pages; but the fubjeft is very curious, fince it is 
the molt important remain of antiquity, not only in 
Paifley, but perhaps in the whole county of Renfrew, as 
having probably been the nucleus which determined the 
origin of the town. It was firft founded as a priory for 
monks of the order of Clugni about the year 1160, by 
Walter, great-fteward of Scotland. It was afterwards 
raifed to the rank of an abbacy; and the lands belonging 
to it were by Robert II. ere&ed into a regality, under the 
jurifdiftion of the abbot. After the reformation, the 
abbacy was fecularized by the pope in favour of lord 
Claude Hamilton, third fon ofthedukeof Chatelherault, 
in reward of his fteady adherence to the caufe of queen 
Mary ; and, in 1588, it was by the king and parliament 
erefiled into a temporal lordfhip, and Claude was created 
Lord Paifley. The revenues of the abbacy were very con- 
fiderable : they confided of the tythes of twenty-eight 
different parifltes, with the property of the lordfhips of 
Paifley, of Kilpatrick in Dumbartonlhire, and of Monk- 
ton in Ayrfliire, extending each to a hundred merk land ; 
and the forty-pound land of Glen in Lochwinnoch ; with 
the lands of Achengown, Grange, &c. and a confiderable 
detached property indifferent parts of the kingdom. All 
this property, with the patronage of the feveral churches, 
fell to lord Claude Hamilton, laft abbot of Paifley. It 
continued in that family till 1563, when his grandfon, 
James earl of Aberccrn, fold the lordfhip of Paifley to the 
earl of Angus, who next year fold it to William lord 
Cochrane ; he fold alfa Kilpatrick to fir John Hamiltoun 
of Orbiftoun, Monktoun to lord Bargenny, and Glen to 
lord Semple and others. Great part of the lordfhip of 
Paifley was at different times fold off by the family of 
Dundonald ; and what remained of it was in 1764 re-pur- 
chafed by the eighth earl of Abercorn. The fabric of 
the abbey owed much of its magnificence to abbot George 
Shaw, who about 1484 enlarged and beautified the build¬ 
ing, furrounding the church, the precinfls of theconvenr, 
the gardens, artd a fmall deer-park, with a noble wall of 
hewn freeftone. The abbey was, after the reformation, 
fucce/Iively the feat of the earls of Abercorn and Dundo¬ 
nald. The late earl of Dundonald demolifhed the an¬ 
cient gateway; and, by feuing-off the immediately-ad¬ 
joining grounds for building, entirely changed the ap¬ 
pearance of the place. As it was thus rendered totally 
unfit for a family-refidence, it has fince that time been 
let out into feparate dwellings, and is now in a very 
mean and almoft-ruinous ftate. The wall flood almoft 
entire till 1781 ; when, the garden being feued-off for 
building upon by the late earl of Abercorn, the w'all 
was fold to the feuers, and the ftones of it employed in 
their houfes. 
The monks here are fuppofed to have been the authors 
of the Chronicon Clugnienfe, or Black Book of Paifley, as 
it is ufually called, from the colour of its boards. This 
curious monument of antiquity is a chronicle of the pub- 
Vol. XVIII. No. 1240. 
lie affairs of Scotland during feveral centuries, and is 
'frequently quoted by Buchanan. It was long in the pof- 
fertion of the prefident Spottifwood; after his death, it 
was carried into England by general Lambert, and was 
fubfequently depofited in the king’s library at St. James’s. 
The abbey-church, the only one « hich Paifley formerly 
required, was, when entire, a moft noble building, and 
confided of fever 1 diftin 61 and feparate places of w'orfhip. 
What now remains of this magnificent Gothic ftrudture, 
is not yet unworthy the notice of the curious in antiqui¬ 
ties. Mr. Pennant fays, the great north window is a no¬ 
ble ruin, the arch very lofty, the middle pillar wonder¬ 
fully light, and ftil! entire ; only the chancel now re¬ 
mains, which is divided into a middle and two fide a : fles, 
by very lofty pillars with Gothic arches; above thefe is 
another range of pillars much larger, being the fegment 
of a circle; and furmounted by a row of arched niches 
from end to end, over which the roof ends in a (harp 
point. The outfide of the building is decorated with a 
profufion of ornaments, efpecially the great w'eft and 
north doors, than which fcarcely any thing lighter or 
richer can be imagined. 
Clofe by this church is the marquis of Abercorn’s bu¬ 
rial-place, the greateft curiolity in Paifley. It is a vaulted 
Gothic chapel, without pulpit, pew, or any other orna¬ 
ment ; but has the fineft echo perhaps in the world. When 
the end-door (the only one it has) is (hut, the noife is 
equal to a loud and not very diftant clap of thunder. 'If 
you ftrike a Angle note of mufic, you have the found gra¬ 
dually afeending, with a great number of repetitions, 
till it dies away as if at an immenfe diftance, and all the 
while diffufing itfelf through the circumambient air. If 
a good voice lings, or a mufical inftrument is well played 
upon, the effect is inexpreflibly agreeable. The deepeft 
as well as the moft acute tones are diftinfitly reverberated, 
and thefe in regular intervals of time. When a mufical 
inftrument is founded, it has the effect of a number of 
inftruments of a like fize and kind playing in concert. 
When a number of different inftruments in unifon found 
the fame note, a good-ear is able to diftinguifti the variety 
of found produced by each. A (ingle inftrument found¬ 
ing a particular note, and then inftantly its fifth, or any 
other concordant note, the two founds can be heard as 
it were running into and uniting with each other in a 
manner peculiarly agreeable. But the effe< 5 t of a variety 
of inftruments playing in concert is particularly charming, 
and muff: excite fuch emotions in the foul as it is impofli- 
ble to deferibe. In this chapel is the monument of Mar¬ 
jory Bruce, daughter of Robert Bruce, and mother of 
Robert II. Her ftory is Angular : In the year 1317, when 
(he was big with child, (lie broke her neck in hunting 
near this place : the Caefarian operation was inftantly 
performed, and the child taken out alive ; but the ope¬ 
rator chancing to hurt one eye with his inftrument, occa- 
fioned the blemifti that gave this king afterwards the epi¬ 
thet of Blcar-cyc ; and the monument is alfo ftyled that 
of Queen Bleary. 
The town of Paifley continued a part of the original 
or abbey-parifti of Paifley till the year 1738 ; when, the 
magiftrates and council having purchafed the right of pa¬ 
tronage from the then earl of Dundonald, a new church 
was built, and the town w'as erefted into a feparate pa- 
rift). This is called the Laigh Church, is built in the form 
of a Greek crofs, very W'ell laid-out, and capable of con¬ 
taining a great number of people. In 1756 another 
church was built, upon a very extended plan, to accom¬ 
modate its multiplied inhabitants ; in which, though it 
is one of the largeft in Scotland, yet the moft diftant of 
the congregation can hear with eafe and diftin&nefs ; and, 
as it ftands upon the higheft part of the town, it was af¬ 
terwards ornamented with a lofty and well-proportioned 
fpire, vifible at a great diftance. This is called the High 
Church, and is a very fine building : it is an oblong fquare 
of 82 feet by 62 within the walls, built of free-ftone well 
fmoothed, having ruftic corners, and an elegant ftone cor- 
3 X nice 
