fife-kinross-clackmannan-1933/03-008

Transcription

HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION.

In the present volume three counties are treated together in consideration of
their occupying a peninsular area, which results in their having much local history
in common. The district under survey has been greatly affected by the extensive
reclamation of land from the wild within late historic time, and also by develop-
ment of the mining industry. These operations have necessarily involved the
destruction of much prehistoric material, the previous existence whereof is vouched
for, in a number of cases, by printed records. Nevertheless, enough material remains
to illustrate the earliest occupation of the area, some of it indeed of special value.

In common with the rest of Scotland this district has suffered grievously in the
destruction of ancient ecclesiastical buildings. In Fife alone there were eleven
monastic establishments, including houses of friars, among the more important being
the Augustinian Priory of the metropolitan see of St. Andrews and the Benedictine
Abbey of Dunfermline with its early and late association with Royalty. Fortunately,
part of the house of Grey Friars at Inverkeithing has escaped the ruthless ruin that
has obliterated so many noble buildings
As regards secular architecture Fife, since the sixteenth century, has been
remarkable for the number and distinction of its baronial residences, whereof a con-
siderable number still remain and are duly recorded in the Inventory.
Noteworthy, also, are the structural survivals in the ancient royal burghs in
Fife, of which so many once flourished on the southern coast as to give it a distinctive
pre-eminence.
Your Commissioners wish to record their sense of the loss sustained through the
death of Dr. Thomas Ross, an original member of the Commission, upon whose
counsel as an erudite architect they had frequent occasion to rely. They welcome
the appointment of Mr. James Archibald Morris, R.S.A., F.R.I.B.A., to fill the
vacancy.
Your Commissioners have further to deplore the loss of an esteemed colleague in
the person of Professor Gerald Baldwin Brown who, after taking a full share
in preparing the present Report, died on 12th July 1932. He had served on
the Commission since its original appointment in 1908, and, as Professor of Fine Art
in the University of Edinburgh, was specially qualified to take a useful part
in its work.

HERBERT MAXWELL, Chairman.
THOMAS H. BRYCE.
ALEXR. O. CURLE.
GEO. MACDONALD.
NOVAR.
JAMES CURLE.
JAMES A. MORRIS.
W. MACKAY MACKENZIE, Secretary.

EDINBURGH, 11th October 1932.

-- vi