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LORETTO

The original Loretto – or, as it should more correctly be spelt, Loreto – is an Italian town situated in the province of Ancona, and only a few miles from the shores of the Adriatic. Its four to five thousand inhabitants consist mainly of dealers in objects of piety and in beggars, and its only importance lies in the fame of its shrine, to which many thousands of pilgrims resort yearly.

The cult of Our Lady of Loreto is based on one of the most marvellous, not to say the most daring, of medieval legends. According to the traditional account, St. Helena, the mother of Constantine, had caused a church to be built at Nazareth, over the cottage which the Blessed Virgin had once inhabited. That church the Saracens overthrew. They were preparing to destroy the Santa Casa itself when, on the night of May 12, 1291, angels, anticipating and surpassing the feats of modern engineering, transported it into Dalmatia. For various reasons it was again removed three successive times from one locality to another, until it finally took its stand on the high road between Recanati and the sea. There is a divergence of opinions as to the origin of the name by which the magnificent shrine which shelters the Santa Casa has become known through the whole world. Some authorities attribute it to the fact that the Holy House was deposited in a field belonging to a widow called Lauretta, whilst others connect it with the existence of a laurel grove on the site chosen by the carrier angels. In addition to the cottage, and within it, there is a statue of the Madonna. It is attributed to St. Luke, whom medieval legends commonly regarded as portraitist-in-ordinary to the Virgin Mary. Another relic consists of the dish out of which the Virgin ate. The popularity which the shrine of Loreto acquired through the ages may be estimated from the fact that towards the end of the eighteenth century its wealth was valued at more than a million sterling. In 1797 Pius VI was obliged to draw on its treasury in order to fulfil the conditions imposed on him by the Treaty of Tolentino. War having again broken out, the French occupied Loreto and took possession of the miraculous statue, which was relegated to a shelf beneath that occupied by a mummy in the Cabinet des Médailles of the Bibliothéque Nationale. Napoleon restored it to the Pope in 1802.

The fame acquired by the Italian Loreto led to the establishment, in other countries, of similar shrines – branch establishments for the granting of indulgences and the performance of miracles. Of such Scotland possessed at least two. One of them, which does not seem to have acquired more than a local reputation, was in Perth. The other stood "beyond the eastern gate of Musselburgh and on the margin of the links". The date and circumstances of its foundation are set forth by the Diurnal of Remarkable Occurrents, which, amongst the entries for 1533, has the following: – "In this mene tyme thair came ane heremeit, callit Thomas Douchtie, in Scotland, quha haid bein lang capitane (?captive) before the Turk, as was allegit, and brocht ane ymage of our Lady with him, and foundit the Chappel of Laureit, besyid Musselburgh". In addition to this evidence there is a charter of James V, dated July 29, 1534, and confirming the grant by the Bailies, of a "petra" of land in the territory of Musselburgh, to Thomas Duthy, of the Order of St. Paul, first hermit of Mount Sinai, for the erection of a chapel in honour of Almighty God and of Blessed Mary of Laureto.¹⁹²

Beside sanctioning the foundation of the shrine, James gave it a tangible proof of his patronage. In August, 1534, as is shown by the Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer, he spent £22, 13s. 2d. in purchasing the materials and paying for the making and ornamenting of albs, amices, stoles, chasubles, and altar towels.¹⁹³ We learn from John Lesley, Bishop of Ross, that, in 1536, before setting out on his voyage to France for the purpose of bringing home the Lady Magdalene as his bride, the King, being in Stirling, "passit thairfra on his feitt, in pilgrimag to the Chappell of Lorrett, besid Mussilburgh". This statement is borne out by an entry in the Liber Emptorum: "Hodie (9th August), soluto disjunio, rex pedestre peregrinavit de Stirling versus Sanctam Mariam de Laureit et pernoctabat in Edinburgh".¹⁹⁴ The Accounts supply the further information that on this occasion he made a gift of four altar towels, two of "Dornik", that is, of the diapered linen cloth manufactured at Tournay, and two of bleached Breton canvas. Including twenty shillings "for sewing of XX crocis upoun the saidis towellis", the expense incurred amounted to £6, 11s. 6d. The sum of fourteen shillings was left with the "chapellanis of Lawrete to pray for the Kingis Grace"; and a further offering of two crowns was made after the actual embarkation at Newhaven.¹⁹⁵

Thomas Duthie's foundation throve under the influence of royal favour, and from all parts of the country, pilgrimages to the shrine were performed, as Sir David Lyndsay testifies:

 
"I have seen pass ane marvellous multitude
Young men and women flingand on thair feit,
Under the forme of feinzeit sanctitude,
For till adore ane image in Laureit."¹⁹⁶
 

The satirist taxes the pilgrims with licentiousness, and alleges that

 
"Mony came with thair marrowis for to meit".¹⁹⁷
 

Against the "Heremeit of Lawreit" himself he brings the charge that

 
"He pat the common peple in beleve
That blynd gat seycht and crukit gat their feit,
The quhilk that palyard no way can appreve".¹⁹⁸
 

According to Row's History of the Kirk of Scotland, the popularity of the Musselburgh shrine was enhanced by the claim that it possessed, in addition to its general healing powers, a special obstetrical virtue, of which women secured the benefits by sending handsome presents to the priest and friars.¹⁹⁹

That Duthie was a personage of some importance in his day may be gathered from the fact that the Earl of Glencairn wrote a "pasquinal" which Knox and Calderwood have preserved and which was entitled "Ane Epistill direct frae the halie Hermeit of Alareit to his Brethren the Gray Friars". But the success of his venture engendered envy, and Calderwood tells, with many caustic comments, how John Scott, "a landed man", having failed to get himself accepted as a partner in the Loretto concern, set up in competition with it. This John Scott had had a strange career, of which the sketch given by the historian, in his quaint language, is interesting enough to be reproduced. "Before his departure out of this country, he had succumbed in an action of law, and because he was not able to pay the sum which the other party had evicted, he took sanctuary at Holyroodhouse. There he abstained from meat and drink certain days. The bruit of his abstinence coming to the King's ears, the King caused put him into David's tower, in the Castle of Edinburgh, and bread and water to be set beside him. He abstained from eating and drinking thirty-two days. When he was let forth, the people came flocking to him. He uttered many idle speeches, and among the rest, that by the help of the Blessed Virgin, he could fast suppose never so long time. He went to Rome, where he was committed to prison, by Pope Clement, till trial was taken of his abstinence. He is set at liberty, and a sealed testimonial granted to him, with a seal of lead, and some mass clothes. After he had given the like proof at Venice, he got fifty ducats to supply his charges to Jerusalem. He brought with him from Jerusalem some date-tree leaves, and a pocke full of stones, which he fained were taken out of the pillar to which Christ was bound when he was scourged. By the way, when he was at London, he made an harangue against King Henry's divorce, and shaking off the Pope's authority, at Paul's Cross. He was thereupon committed to prison, but was set at liberty, after he had been keeped fifty days, all which space he abstained from meat and drink." It was on his return to Scotland, shortly after this, that Scott tried to get himself associated to Duthie. His overtures having been rejected, he "erected an altar in a chamber near Edinburgh, whereon he set his daughter, a young maid, and wax candles about her burning, to be worshipped in place of the Virgin Mary".²⁰⁰ But the fame of Loretto was proof against such competition, and Scott had to retire from the unequal contest with Duthie.

In 1544, the Chapel of Our Lady of Lauret, together with a part of Musselburgh, was "brennt and desolated" by the English army under the Earl of Hertford. The shrine was rebuilt, however, and continued to attract devotees till the Restoration closed it. Very shortly before this, its prestige is said to have suffered greatly from the alleged discovery of a fraud practised by its priests in pretending to have restored the sight of a boy whom they falsely affirmed to have been born blind.

The whole incident is set forth at great length in Row's History. The hero of the story is Robert Colvill, Laird of Cleishe, who was commonly known as Squire Meldrum, and who, on that account, has sometimes been mistaken for the character celebrated by Lyndsay. He is described as "a gentleman of good understanding and knowledge, sound in the Reformed religion, and most zealous and stoute for the Reformation". But his wife, one of the Colquhouns of Luss, was a Catholic, and finding herself in need of such help as "the Ladie and Saints of Allarite" were supposed to have it in their power to give, she posted off her servant "with ane offering of gold, with her sarke (according to the custome), that shee might get easie delyverie". Her husband learning this, also hurried off, with the intention of hindering such a superstitious use of his money. He rode all the way to Loretto, however, without overtaking the messenger; and, on his arrival at the shrine, he was no less scandalized than surprised to find "the whole adjacent countrey of Mers, Tweedale, East, Middle, and West Lothians, convened to see ane miracle", the performance of which had been announced for that very day. "For the Papists, perceiving the Reformation to goe on quicklie, and fearing that their religion should be abandoned, the kirkmen, the Archbishops, Bishops, Preists, Freires, &c., consulted and advysed, and, after deliberation, resolved, that the best wayes to maintaine and uphold their Religion, wes to worke some miracle to confirme the people, (as they thought) that Poperie wes the true religion; and, therefore, they caused proclame in Edinburgh that on such a day there wes a great miracle to be wrought at St. Allerite's Chapell, for a man that wes borne blind, and had begged all his dayes, being a blind man, wes to be cured and receive his sight."

Such was the performance for which Squire Meldrum had arrived in time. And, indeed, he saw how an apparently blind beggar was brought forward on to a platform, and how, after certain ceremonies had been gone through, he seemed to recover the use of his eyes, and came down rejoicing amongst the people, who gave him money. But the Squire was not to be so easily convinced. On the contrary, he determined "to doe his best to find out the lurking deceit whereby the people were miserablie deceived". With this object in view, when the beggar, in whose way he contrived to put himself, asked him for a dole, he gave him not only an exceptionally large sum of money, but sympathetic words as well. "You are a verie remarkable man," he said, "on whom such a miracle has been wrought, I will have you to goe with me to be my servant." The beggar readily agreed, and mounting on horseback behind the Squire's attendant, rode off with his new master to Edinburgh. When the party reached Meldrum's lodgings, matters took a new turn. Locking the door upon himself and his new servant, drawing his sword, and assuming "a fierce countenance", the Squire said to the man: "Thou villane and deceiver of the people of God, either tell me the treuth of these things that I am to aske of you now presentlie, or els I will take upon me, with my sword, to cutt off thy head; for I am ane magistrate appointed by God to doe justice; and I am assured that all the preists and freirs, all the saints, nor the Pope himselfe, cannot work a miracle such as they pretend to do, namely, to cure a blind man. Therefor thou and they are but deceivers of the people; and either tell me the veritie, or els with this sword I will presentlie – as ane magistrate in this case – put ye to death." The poor wretch, thus taken unawares and terrified out of all thought of resistance, consented to do and to say whatever might be required of him. And the remarkable story which he told is reported in what professes to be his own language: —

"When I wes a young lad I wes a herd, and keeped the Sisters of the Sheines's sheep, and in my wantonness and pastime I used often to flype up the lids of my eyes, so that any bodie wold have trewed that I wes blind. I using often to play this pavie, the nunnes, the Sisters of the Sheines (so they were commonly called), did sometymes see me doe it and laugh at me. Then the Sisters send in word to Edinburgh that their sheppeard lad could play such a pavie. The kirkmen in Edinburgh hearing of such a thing, came out to the Sheines, and desired to see that sheppeard lad. I being brought and playing this pavie befor them, walking up and doune with my eyelids up, and the whyte of my eyes turned up as if I had been blind. The kirkmen that conveened there to see me, advised the Sisters, the Nunnes of the Sheines, to get another lad to keep their sheep, and to keep me hid in one of their volts or cellars for some years, ay till they thought meet to bring me out, and to make use of me as they pleased, and so, Sir, I wes keeped and fed in one of the volts, no bodie knowing that I wes there but the kirkmen and the Nunnes of the Sheines, for the space of seven or eight years. Then, Sir, they conveened me againe, and brought me befor them, and caused me sweare a great oath that I sould faine my selfe to be a blind man, and they put one to lead me through the countrey that I might beg as a blind man in the day tyme; but in the night, and also when I pleased, I put doune my eyelids and saw well enough, and I to this houre never revealed this to any; yea, my leader knew not but I wes blind indeed."

Next morning Squire Meldrum and the detected impostor, in accordance with a plan carefully devised by the former, betook themselves to the Mercat Crosse. There, after having attracted the attention of the public by thrice repeating the accustomed cry of "O yes!" the erstwhile blind beggar recited a speech which Meldrum had prepared for him, and in which he gave those who had seen the miraculous cure of the day before all the details of the fraud which he had helped to practise on them. Then, springing on to horses that were held in readiness for them, Meldrum and he galloped away towards Queensferry, on their way to Fifeshire, where they could depend on the protection of the Lords of the Congregation, and where they might defy "the preists, freiers, and the rest of that deceiving rabble".²⁰¹ And with this incident there is an end to the story of Loretto as a wonder-working shrine.

There is a charter which shows that, in 1569, Gavin Walker, "Chapline of the Chaplainerie of Loretto",²⁰² restored to the town the ground originally granted by it to Thomas Duthie. According to the brief notice contributed by "Jupiter" Carlyle to the old Statistical Account, the Chapel was demolished in 1590, and the materials were utilized for the building of a new tolbooth. He states that "this is said to have been the first religious house in Scotland whose ruins were applied to an unhallowed use". That is not improbable. But when "Jupiter" goes on to record that for this act "the good people of Musselburgh are said to have been annually excommunicated, till very lately, at Rome", he helps to perpetuate a tradition of which his own common sense might have shown him the improbability – not to use a harsher term.

THE ISLE OF MAY

I

The May, situated at the entrance to the Firth of Forth, is the largest of the islets that stud the waters of the estuary between the coast of Fife and that of the Lothians. It lies ten miles to the north-east of Dunbar, and five to the south-west of Fifeness. Its greatest length is from east to west, and measures about a mile. Its width is greatest at the western extremity, and may be estimated at rather more than half a mile. The shape of the island is exceedingly irregular. At the south-western point a mass of precipitous rock gives it an imposing and picturesque appearance, but to the east and to the north the cliffs terminate abruptly, and are flanked by stretches of comparatively low-lying coast. Between their respective extremities the seaboard, which faces the north-east, is rugged and difficult of access, but does not otherwise present a striking outline.

In former days there were four landing-places, known as Tarpithol, Altarstanes, Pilgrims-haven, and Kirk-haven. At present there are but two. One of them is on the western side, where a gully, forming a kind of natural harbour, has been provided with a ladder, which is not, however, always available to large boats, and at certain states of the tide access to the island involves a considerable amount of clambering over the rocks. The other is situated on the north-east shore. It consists of a wharf, or rather slip, built at the head of one of the many coves. Its depth of water is less than that of the western harbour, but it has the advantage of being more sheltered.

The surface of May Island is uneven, but covered in most parts with excellent turf; and, according to Sibbald, its name, "which in the ancient Gothic signifieth a green island", was given to it "because of its commodiousness for pasture, for it is all green grass". According to the same writer, it was supposed to afford ample sustenance for a hundred sheep and some twenty cows, and was let as a grazing ground for £26 per annum. In the Statistical Account of Scotland, published in 1792, the Reverend James Forrester states, on the authority of a "very intelligent farmer", who had dealt in sheep for above thirty years, and who had had them from all the different corners of Scotland, that there is no place so well adapted for improving wool as the Island of May; that the fleeces of the coarsest-woolled sheep that ever came from the worst pasture in Scotland, when put on the island, became as fine as satin in the course of one season; that their flesh had also a superior flavour; and that rabbits bred on the May had a finer fur than those which were reared on the mainland.²⁰³ The waters in the neighbourhood of the isle were long famous for their abundance of fish; and an old writer states that, in his time, many seals were slain on the east side of it.²⁰⁴ At the present day the seals have wholly disappeared, and the fishing grounds are practically deserted. In a few of the more sheltered spots some attempt at cultivation has been made, but the result hardly seems to repay the labour. One feature which has always been considered of special importance is the possession of fresh water. The names of five wells are given – the Lady's Well, the Pilgrim's Well, St. John's Well, St. Andrew's Well, and the Sheep Well; but the water is not equally good in all. The most accessible is not far from the western landing-place, and by the side of the cart road that runs through the length of the island. A small lake mentioned by Sibbald is still to be seen, and is utilized.

Ecclesiastically the Isle of May belongs to the parish of Anstruther-Wester; and in the days when it was inhabited by fourteen or fifteen families, the minister of the mother church was supposed to visit them once every year.

The earliest description of the Isle of May is given by Jean de Beaugué, a French gentleman who came to Scotland in 1548 in the company of Monsieur de Dessé, the leader of the forces sent over by Henry II in support of the party that opposed the aggressive policy of England. His account represents the island as possessing coal mines, stone quarries, excellent pasturage, and abundant springs of fresh water, and as being admirably suited to afford safe anchorage to thirty or forty ships. If it were fortified and inhabited, he says, the Scotch and those foreigners who traded with them might navigate freely, without being reduced to the necessity of waiting for favourable winds to enable them to sail from Leith or Burntisland. By this means the whole country would derive immediate benefit from the proximity of an island that had hitherto served no better purpose than that of affording a convenient retreat to all the pirates who infested the coast, and who not only interfered with the fisheries and with the trade, but also harassed the armaments of the Scotch and of their allies.²⁰⁵

In Hector Boece's account of Scotland there is but a brief reference to the Isle of May "amang mony uther ilis" in the Firth of Forth. He mentions, as a natural curiosity, that, "in the middis of this Ile there springis ane fontane of fresche and purifyit water outhrow ane roche crag, to the gret admiratioun of peple, considerin it lyis in the middis of the seis". But its chief distinction, in his eyes, is that it was "decorit with the blude and martirdome of Sanct Adriane and his fallowis".²⁰⁶

The history, or, as it is perhaps more correct to call it, the legend of Adrian the Martyr of the May, is to be found in the Breviary of Aberdeen. It is there stated that he was born in the parts of Hungary and in the province of Pannonia, that he was of royal descent and of episcopal rank, and that his diligence in the sacred order was testified by the many clerics and seculars who were his companions. Desiring to benefit other nations, and inflamed with zeal for the Christian religion, Adrian betook himself to the eastern parts of Scotia, then occupied by the Picts, having along with him six thousand six hundred and six companions, among whom the most noteworthy were Glodiarus, who was crowned with martyrdom; Gayus and Monarus, white-robed confessors; Stobrandus, and other bishops adorned with the mitre. The names of the rest are written in purple blood in the Book of Life.

These holy men wrought many signs and wonders in the midst of the Picts; but at length, desiring a habitation of their own, they expelled the demons and wild beasts from the Island of May, and there made a place of prayer. They gave themselves up to devotion until the Danes, after devastating all Britannia, which is now called Anglia, landed on the island, when the holy confessors of God opposed them with the spiritual weapons of heavenly warfare. The enemy, not brooking their zealous preaching and their increasing confession of the most glorious name of Christ, rushed with their swords on the Blessed Adrian, the victim of the Lord, and crowned him with a glorious martyrdom. And in order that, concerning them, the words of the prophet should be verified anew, where the disconsolate Rachel is said to have bewailed her children, those most cruel executioners fell upon the holy and heavenly multitude who persevered in confessing Christ, and who, like sheep, fell under their swords in the Isle of May, where the martyrs of God, who, in this life, loved to serve him together, in death were not separated. There was one spirit in them and one faith. In that Isle of May there was anciently erected a monastery of well-hewn stone, which was destroyed by the Angles. But the church remains to this day, much visited for its miracles by the people, and women who go thither in the hope of offspring are not disappointed. There is also a famous cemetery, where the bodies of the martyrs repose. Such is the account of the Breviary.²⁰⁷ The date ascribed to the event narrated in it is the fourth day of March, in the year 875.

In his Cronykil of Scotland Andrew Wyntoun sums up the legend in the following lines:

 
"This Constantyne than regnand,
Oure the Scottis in Scotland,
Saynt Adriane wyth hys cumpany
Came off the land off Hyrkany,
And arrywyd in to Fyffe,
Quhare that thai chesyd to led thar lyff.
At the Kyng than askyd thai
Leve to preche the Crystyn fay.
That he granted wyth gud will,
And thaire lykyng to fulfille,
And [leif] to dwell in to his land,
Quhare thai couth ches it mayst plesand.
Than Adriane wyth hys cumpany
Togydder come tyl Caplaweby.
Thare sum in to the Ile off May
Chesyd to byde to thare euday.
 

—

 
Hwb, Haldane, and Hyngare
Off Denmark this tyme cummyn ware
In Scotland wyth gret multitude,
And wyth thare powere it oure-yhude (over-ran).
In hethynes all levyd thai;
And in dispyte off Crystyn fay
In to the land thai slwe mony,
And put to dede by martyry.
And upon Haly Thurysday
Saynt Adriane thai slwe in May
Wyth mony off hys cumpany;
In to that haly Ile thai ly."²⁰⁸
 

It may be incidentally mentioned that another saint, Mungo, the patron of Glasgow, is slightly and indirectly connected with the May. According to legend, St. Thenaw's father ordered her to be stoned and cast in a chariot from the top of Taprain Law, in punishment of her supposed sin. Having been miraculously preserved from destruction, she was then accused of witchcraft, and the father was urged by his heathen subjects to expose her in a boat made of twigs and pitch and covered with leather. In this coracle she was carried out to the Ile of May, whence, attended by a company of fishes, she was wafted to Culross, where she gave birth to St. Mungo.²⁰⁹ There may not impossibly be some connection between this legend and the efficacity subsequently attributed to pilgrimages to the May when performed by women; and it is said to be from St. Thenaw that various spots in the island – the Lady's Well, the Lady's Bed, the Maiden Rocks, and the Maiden's Hair – are called.

It is usually stated that the monastery to which the Breviary of Aberdeen makes reference was founded by King David, and that he bestowed it upon the monks of Reading, in England, as a "cell", or dependency of their great abbey. But, as Dugdale points out, there is no actual proof of this in that monarch's charters. By the first of them he merely gives to the Church of May, and to the Prior and monks of the same place, a certain toft in Berwick in perpetual alms for the sake of his soul and the souls of his ancestors and successors; and by the second he enlarges his donation by gifts in Balegallin and other places, to hold, indeed, of him and of his heirs, but without any indication that he was the founder. At the same time, it must be admitted that the silence of the charters is no convincing proof of the contrary.

King William, grandson of David, confirmed to God and the Church of All Saints of May, and to William, the Prior, and to his successors, brethren of the Cluniac order, in free and perpetual alms, the donations made by his grandfather David, of pious memory, and by his predecessor and brother, King Malcolm. The contribution of the latter sovereign to these benefactions appears to have been the grant of a toll of five marks by the year from ships arriving at Perth. King William also enjoins all persons fishing round the Island of May to pay their due tithes to God and the aforesaid church without reserve. He also commands that no one shall unjustly detain from them the tithes to which they were entitled in the time of King David, on pain of forfeiture; nor shall anyone presume to fish in their waters, to construct buildings on the Isle of May, to dig land, or to cut grass there, without their licence. He moreover grants and confirms to them one mansion, with a toft in Dunbar, and the use of a vessel for transporting the necessaries of their household, as Earl Gospatric had granted, and King Malcolm confirmed to them. By later charters he bestows upon the Priory a grant of fourpence from all ships having four hawsers, coming to the ports of Pittenweem and Anstruther for the purpose of catching or selling fish, and also from boats with fixed helms. Of the "can" or duty collected at those ports he enjoins that the tenth penny shall be paid to the monks, but reserves the bulk for himself. He also gives them the lands of Petother, and further shows his goodwill towards them by exempting the men dwelling on their lands from military service – de exercitu et expeditione – and also from the payment of can and toll, and by extending the latter privilege to all who come to fish in their waters.²¹⁰

It was not only to the liberality of their kings that the Monks of the May were indebted for the extensive and valuable lands which they owned on both sides of the firth. From Gospatric, the powerful Border Earl, they received a toft near his harbour of Bele. To this his successor, Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, added five acres of land near the same harbour. He also made over to them all the land "from Windydure to Kingissete, and so by the footpath coming down to Kingsburn, and from thence up by the high road which goes by the Rede Stane and by that road to Windydure, with common pasture". In addition to this he released them from the annual payment of a cow, which they had made till then for the lands which they held from him in Lambermor.²¹¹

Another benefactor, whose liberality is recorded in the Registry of the Priory of St. Andrews, was John Fitz-Michael. From him the monks got the lands of Mayschelis, in the Lambermor, on the south side of Calwerburne, together with an acre of meadow, and with pasture sufficient for three hundred mother sheep, thirty bearing cows, and twenty-four brood mares with their young. They were, further, to have ten sows with their brood in Fitz-Michael's pasture; and the men living on the land were allowed the privilege of taking as much peat and turf as was necessary for use in their own houses. To complete this handsome donation, it was declared free from all hosting, service, exaction, and multure.²¹² The lands of Ardarie, in Fife, consisting of a carucate and a bovate, were made over to the prior and monks of May by William of Beaueyr, in perpetual alms, for the salvation of Countess Ada, of Malcolm the King, her son, and of William, the reigning sovereign. The island community was also to have the reversion of two bovates which William had given in dowry to his wife, and of one bovate which he had granted in life tenure to his sergeant, Ralph.²¹³ From Eggou Ruffus the monks received some land adjoining his own property of Lingoch; whilst Alexander Cumyn, Earl of Buchan, made a yearly donation of a stone of wax, or forty shillings, to be received at Rossy, at the fair of St. Andrew. Finally, a part of the Moor of Barewe, extending westwards from the foot of the hill of Whitelawe, was gifted to the priory by Gilbert of Saint Martin.²¹⁴