That These Edifices Are Of Different Ages Seems Evident.
The arch
of the first church is Roman, being part of a circle; that of the
additional building is pointed, and therefore Gothick, or
Saracenical; the tower is firm, and wants only to be floored and
covered.
Of the chambers or cells belonging to the monks, there are some
walls remaining, but nothing approaching to a complete apartment.
The bottom of the church is so incumbered with mud and rubbish,
that we could make no discoveries of curious inscriptions, and what
there are have been already published. The place is said to be
known where the black stones lie concealed, on which the old
Highland Chiefs, when they made contracts and alliances, used to
take the oath, which was considered as more sacred than any other
obligation, and which could not be violated without the blackest
infamy. In those days of violence and rapine, it was of great
importance to impress upon savage minds the sanctity of an oath, by
some particular and extraordinary circumstances. They would not
have recourse to the black stones, upon small or common occasions,
and when they had established their faith by this tremendous
sanction, inconstancy and treachery were no longer feared.
The chapel of the nunnery is now used by the inhabitants as a kind
of general cow-house, and the bottom is consequently too miry for
examination. Some of the stones which covered the later abbesses
have inscriptions, which might yet be read, if the chapel were
cleansed.
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