dumfries-1920/04-070

Transcription

HISTORICAL MONUMENTS (SCOTLAND) COMMISSION.

with curtains edged with heavy silk fringes and lace, each having its proper bed-
clothes "with chairs and stools ansuerabillie," and each bed with its furniture and
"bedsteid of timber" valued at £110 sterling; ¹ ten lesser beds with furnishings
each at £15 "owerheid"; and twenty other beds for servants with equipment at
£7 each. There were also taken two dozen chairs and stools covered with red velvet
fringed with crimson silk and studded with gilt nails, the whole estimated at £60;
and five dozen of Turkey, i.e. tapestry work, each chair worth fifteen shillings and
each stool nine shillings. Added to these was a large spoil of napery of all kinds,
tablecloths, napkins, towels, sheets - part of damask, part "cowrse," - and eight
suits of apparel in a trunk, some of velvet, some of satin and some of cloth.
The furniture of "ane drawing rowme" was in cloth of silver and included
"ane cutche bed" (i.e. a bed without canopy or tester), a great chair with a cushion
and footstool, six other chairs with backs and six stools, all garnished with silk and
silver fringe. In the New Hall were a "leid" and "a maskin fatt," both being large
vats or vessels for brewing; in the Long Hall six cases of windows, 22 pikes and
13 lances; and in my Lord's Hall two "burds" or tables and six tapestry stools.
Special articles were a painted board "in the round chamber without my Lords
chamber," "my lord and my lady's pictures" in another room with various articles
of convenience, a table cloth valued at £20, two red window curtains, a pair of
virginals, ² a long cushion of black and white stuff, some chairs and stools covered with
brown cloth embroidered in yellow (passementet "yealow") or red cloth with black
embroidery, five suits of hangings (i.e. for the walls of rooms) of eight pieces each,
and each suit worth £60, forty carpets (table-covers or bed-covers) ³ large and small,
averaged at forty shillings each, 22 curtain rods, and a library of books which had
cost £200.
It is evident from the general character of the furnishing - the number of chairs,
cupboards, and of beds per room, and the abundance and richness of coverings and
drapery of all sorts, which were taking the place of the earlier elaborate carving -
that it was of comparatively recent origin, probably contemporaneous with the
building of the new wing before 1620. The richer stuffs, such as damasks, velvets,
etc., must have come from either Italy or England, more probably the former.

III. ECCLESIASTICAL REMAINS.
Dumfries, as part of the old Strathclyde kingdom, was included in the diocese
of Glasgow on its re-constitution by King David, while still Prince of Cumbria, in the
first quarter of the 12th century. The earlier connection with St Kentigern has been
noticed above (p. xxi.). A later ecclesiastical link with Yorkshire was established
by the grants to the Augustinian Priory of Gyseburn (Guisbrough) of Annandale
churches by the Bruces, who had been founders of the priory (c. 1124). Thus, in
the late 12th century, and down to the final breach caused by the War of Independ-
ence, we find Gyseburn in possession of the churches of Annan, Lochmaben, Kirk-
patrick with Logan Chapel, Cummertrees, Rainpatrick, and Gretna. Of regular
foundations there were three within the county: Canonbie in Eskdale as a cell of

1 All values are in sterling money.
2 A keyed musical instrument of the pianoforte type. There was only one instrument, "pair"
being descriptive, not numeral.
3 Some may have been used as "foot-carpets," but the exclusive use of the word in this sense is not
established before the middle of the next century.

-- lxvi

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