to the terms of their infeftment the multure paid by them was the sexteind corne of quheit, and the twenty-ane corne of bere, malt, and mele.'1

Beside the payment of multure-dues there were services connected with the lord's mill to which vassals were commonly obliged. Among these was the carriage of the mill-stones, often from a considerable distance, when they had to be renewed. Another service was the repairing of the mill-lade, mill-stank, and mill-dam. To works of this kind reference is made by William Wascelyn when he grants to Lindores that the monks and their 'men' should be held quit or exempt of thework of the mill,' due from their land at Newtyle, though they were not freed of multure. And an allusion to similar obligations seems to be made in the foundation charter when Earl David granted the mill of Lindores to the monastery, ita ut homines mei faciant omnia que pertinent ad molendinum sicut solent facere tempore quo habui illud in

manu mea."

6

Sometimes in a grant of land to a monastery the mill was excluded. Thus, in the grant of the lands of Rathengothen made by Malise, brother of Gilbert, Earl of Strathern, the mill and the water of the stank of the mill are excepted; but the monks and their men' were to enjoy the privilege of having their corn ground at the mill free of multure.5

Lastly, when a grant of land was made, if the clause cum multuris appeared in the writ of infeftment, the thirlage of such land was thereby extinguished. An example of this

1 See the Decreet Arbitral by Patrick Wellis, Provost of Perth and others in the dispute between the Abbot and Convent of Lindores and the Bailies, Council, and Community of Newburgh, 6th November 1501.—Lindores Abbey, Pp. 491-495. The decreet is in the charter-chest of Newburgh.

2. Considering that there were few or no roads, the simplest arrangement was to thrust a beam or a young tree through the hole of the mill-stone and then for the whole multitude to wheel it along upon its edge-an operation of some difficulty and danger in a rough district.' Cosmo Innes, Scotch Legal Antiquities, p. 47.

3 No. XXXVII. See also XXXIX.

-

4 No. II.

6 See Erskine's Institute, Book II. tit. ix. § 38.

5 No. XXIX.

will be found in the grant to Lindores, made (in excamb.) by King Robert de Brus, of the lands of Kynmuk, etc.1

THE MS. OF THE CHARTULARY OR REGISTER OF LINDORES,

PRINTED IN THE PRESENT VOLUME

The manuscript from which the Latin text in this volume is transcribed has been long in the possession of the family of Cuninghame of Caprington. In February 1886 Mr. R. W. Cochran-Patrick, while on a visit to Caprington Castle, seems to have accidentally got sight of the little volume, and at once perceived the general character of its contents. By permission of the owner it was transmitted to Dr. Thomas Dickson, then Curator of the Historical Department of H.M. General Register House, Edinburgh, who after a few days communicated to the Society of Scottish Antiquaries of Scotland 2 an account of the volume. The high value and importance of the discovery was at once established.

"The volume,' writes Dr. Dickson, 'consists of eighty-six leaves of vellum measuring seven and a half by five inches. Its ancient binding is now so dilapidated that only a part of one of the oak boards remains attached to it, and their leather covering has disappeared with the exception of a minute fragment, only sufficient to show that its colour was red; still the stout leather bands and the strong sewing are unbroken, and the book remains firm and well-preserved. The first twenty-six leaves form five unequal gatherings, from which eight or nine leaves have been cut away, apparently because they had been written upon, suggesting either that the volume was at first devoted to a different purpose, or that the first portion had once formed part of another book. The remainder of the

1 No. CXXVI.

2 Proceedings, xx. 148, etc.

3 When lately (1902) the little book was in the custody of the editor, for the preparation of the present volume, only one of the three leather bands remained intact.

volume consists of five equal gatherings, each containing twelve leaves.' It may be added that the quality of the vellum of folios 29-88, containing the earlier script, is superior to that in the first part of the volume, lending some support to, or at least falling in with, the second suggestion of Dr. Dickson, that the first portion once formed part of another book.1

The earliest part of the manuscript, beginning at fol. 29, and running on to the middle of fol. 74 verso, is (with the exception of a few places where later scribes have utilised blank spaces) written in a beautiful and uniform hand, which Dr. Dickson assigns to the middle of the thirteenth century. The lines (twenty-five to the page) have been carefully ruled. The initial letters appear ordinarily in red and blue or red and green alternately, though in a few instances the initial letter which had been left blank for colouring has not been supplied in colour. The titles are rubricated in this part; but in the other parts of the volume they have in general been added (sometimes very carelessly and unintelligently) in the current script of a later date, and in ordinary ink of an inferior quality. After fol. 74 verso the entries are by a large variety of hands, perhaps as many as fourteen or fifteen, varying much in character. A page of the earliest handwriting, and two pages from other parts (the latter two pages selected rather for their affording good subjects for the photographic camera than as representing the script of any large part of the manuscript) have, by permission of Colonel Cuninghame, been reproduced.

What has been said may suffice for the general reader. Mr. Maitland Thomson, Curator of the Historical Department of H. M. General Register House, has been good enough

1 The leaves have been numbered in ink in comparatively modern times, and that numbering has been followed, and is marked in the margin of the printed text.

There are three exceptions: the titles of Nos. CXXXVI., CXXXVII., CXXXVIII., are carefully rubricated.

to furnish the editor with a fuller and more detailed description of the manuscript. This will be found in Appendix II.

The question as to how the Chartulary of Lindores came into the possession of the Cuninghames of Caprington must be left to conjecture. Dr. Dickson observes, 'It is conjectured that it may have been acquired by Sir John Cuninghame when he was engaged, towards the end of the seventeenth century, in collecting the library which is still preserved at the family seat, or, with more probability perhaps, it may have come nearly a century earlier, through the marriage of John Cuninghame of Brownhill, father of the above-mentioned Sir John, with Janet, fourth daughter of Patrick Leslie, commendator of the abbey and first Lord Lindores.' It may be remarked that Sir John Cuninghame is known to have been much interested in antiquarian pursuits.

In a blank space on the verso of fol. 62 there is written in what may be sixteenth or seventeenth century hands, 'Iacobus fairful,' and beneath this, 'IHOи KILgoure.' Possibly these names may be found to afford some hint as to the story of the ownership of the book, or of the hands through which it passed.

The text of the Chartulary has been transcribed for the Scottish History Society by the competent and experienced charter-scholar, the Rev. Walter Macleod. In cases of doubt I have tested the transcript with the original, and have occasionally availed myself of the aid generously afforded by expert charter-scholars. The writ entitled Dauid Comes de Hunthyngton' (CXLIX.) presented special difficulties; and much labour has been expended by the editor in producing a transcript as exact as possible.

The punctuation is wholly editorial. To have been content with attempting to reproduce the scanty, irregular, and often highly capricious use of the medial point would have seriously embarrassed the great majority of readers. Nor could I approve of the total omission of all punctuation, as adopted

in the edition of the Chartulary of the Church of St. Nicholas, Aberdeen, recently issued by the New Spalding Club. The employment of capitals, though also to some extent capricious, will not mislead, and the use of the original has in this respect been retained. Readings which were doubtful either because of uncertainty as to the word intended by the scribe, or because of the obscurity of the sense, have been marked with an obelus (†). When any alteration of the text has been made the original is indicated in the margin, or, in the case of additions, by square brackets. The spelling of the original has been retained, except in a few cases noted in the margin.

THE ABBOTSFORD CLUB'S (SO-CALLED) Chartulary of Lindores.

In 1841 the Abbotsford Club issued to its members a volume under the editorship of Mr. W. B. D. D. Turnbull, bearing as title The Chartularies of Balmerino and Lindores, now first printed from the original MSS. in the Library of the Faculty of Advocates. Confining ourselves to the part of the volume relating to Lindores, which appears with separate pagination and a separate title-page (inscribed Liber Sancte Marie de Lundoris), it may be observed that the manuscript in the Advocates' Library from which it is transcribed has no just claim to be called the 'Chartulary of Lindores,' being merely, as Dr. Dickson has pointed out, 'a transcript, made apparently so late as the time of James Iv., of twenty-five documents relating to the abbey and its burgh, ranging in date from the end of the twelfth century to the beginning of the sixteenth, and selected without any appearance of method." Three of these documents are records of obligations to various Scottish merchants in 1502 for money transmitted abroad. Of these more will be said hereafter. As regards the others, if one may venture on conjecture, it would seem that the interests of

1 Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, xx. 149. 2 See pp. 297, 298.