Page:The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland ( Volume 3).djvu/512

 about 50 acres of land, and also gifted it with the King's Chase and a portion of waste land. In 1233 the church was dedicated, under the invocation of the Blessed Virgin, during the time of Alexander, the eighth abbot. King Alexander was a generous benefactor to the abbey, and amongst the nobles the Hays of Errol and the Earls of Athole were conspicuous in their gifts, the latter presenting, amongst other things, timber for the construction of the buildings. At the Reformation the value of the estates of the abbey are estimated by Dr. Rogers "as equal to at least £8000 of present money."

The buildings, it is believed, were destroyed by the excited multitude who wrecked the religious houses at Perth and neighbourhood in 1559, and a portion of the buildings seems to have been occupied as a residence by Leonard Leslie, the first lay commendator, who died in 1605. In 1606 James, desirous to "suppress and extinguish the memorie of the abbacie," converted the lands and baronies into a temporal lordship in favour of James Elphinstone, second son of the first Lord Balmerino, with the title of Baron Coupar. This lord appears to have made the abbey his residence, as in 1645 it was assailed by 200 soldiers belonging to the army of Montrose, in revenge for the support given to the Covenanters by Elphinstone. Probably this was the finishing blow given to the buildings, as in 1682 the place is described as "nothing but rubbish."

In the Rental Book, from 1480 and onwards, there are several notices of the Porters, who, from their office, assumed that name as their family designation, the office having become hereditary. When the last of them demitted office it is stated in a charter that they had been hereditary porters from time immemorial, and in the Chamberlain's Accounts Robert Porter received a commuted allowance, consequent on the secularisation of the abbey.

At the west end of the present church there are the remains of some of the main piers of the nave. As shown by Fig. 1448 these indicate work of the first pointed period, probably of the thirteenth century.

A broken slab, measuring about 3 feet 3 inches high by 3 feet in breadth (Fig. 1449), is lying in the churchyard. In the Rental Book it is referred to as being built into the wall of the church which preceded the present one (erected about thirty years ago), and as bearing "the effigies of a priest," with the inscription on the margin—''Monachus de Cupro qui obiit anno dni. Millesimo quadringentesimo quqgesio''. From the present state of the fragment it is evident that little respect is paid in Coupar to the remains of the ancient abbey.

The two sculptured slabs (Figs. 1450 and 1451) which are at present lying in a tool-house in all likelihood adorned the base of a mural tomb. They are evidently works of the end of the fourteenth century or of the fifteenth century. They are supposed to be remains of a monument to