OS1/25/66/53B

Continued entries/extra info

The Blackfriars Monastery. -- "X.Y.Z.," in your
number of Monday the 10th, write that "the site of
the great Blackfriars Monastery could only be vaguely
and conjecturally fixed by the antiquarian member of the
Ordnance Survey." Allow me to state that the Black-
friars Monastery was situated at the corner of Kinnoull
Street and Carpenter Street and part of the ruins
could be seen before the building of Mr Lowe's Dancing
Academy. When the drainage was being cut in that
locality, the situation of the Blackfriars burying ground
could be traced, confirming the site of the Monastery.
The north boundary ran along the Dunkeld Road, com-
mencing at the west of the centre entrance to Athole
Crescent, but going not so far west as Mr Jamieson's
works. The east boundary was to the west of No. 4
Athole Crescent, running S.S.E. [South South East], and finishing opposite
No. 1 Union Street, taking in the west division of Carp-
enter Street. The south and west boundaries could
not be ascertained, as they are covered with houses;
but Kinnoull Street was without the boundary. The
well of the monastery is in the garden of No. 6 Athole
Crescent; and in No. 7 can be seen a very fine old
thorn; the only remaining tree which belonged to the
monastery grounds. How the individual who took
charge of the antiquarian part of the trigonometrical
survey of Perth could have made such a glaring mistake
as to put down on the Ordnance Survey map the monastery
somewhere about or behind Athole Place, is a surprise
to many, as he was often informed where it originally
stood. Could he have confounded it with the site of
the Castle of Perth, which stood on the west side of
Curfew Lane, between the houses and Messrs Pullar's
works,--part of the ruins remaining till within the last
20 years,--or was he misled by the modern name given
to Blackfriars House?--W. B.