Dunfermline

“ Dunfermline is a center of great coal fields, and center of the Scotch linen making. So the town is modern, looks modern, and the people move briskly. If they know you are a tourist on ancient errand bent, they look curiously. You come from so far to recapture ancient life, when you might have so much modern life in your own country.
They know what America means. For Andrew Carnegie is their fellow citizen, or would be had he not become an American. Seventy years ago he was born in a cottage toward [Pg 179] which the Dunfermline folk look with the attention we show the Abbey. ”

“ Again a candidate for the speakership in the new parliament of 1835, Abercromby was elected to this office after an exceptionally keen contest by a majority of ten votes. As speaker he was not very successful in quelling disorder, but he introduced several important reforms in the management of private bills. Resigning his office in May 1839 he was created Baron Dunfermline of Dunfermline, and granted a pension of £4000 a year. He continued his interest in the affairs of Edinburgh, and was one of the founders of the United Industrial school. ”

“ It may do good too to that "muckle ne'er-do-weel," Human Nature, who is still enjoying his grin at the schoolmaster, the philanthropist, and the bible.
In that manufacturing town which has lately risen to considerable eminence, called Dunfermline, there lived, some time ago, a person of the name of Duncan Schulebred, by trade a weaver—or, as he chose rather to be called, a manufacturer, a term which the inhabitants love to apply to every man who can boast the property of a loom and its restless appendage. ”

“ The first monarch to reside at Dunfermline was Malcolm Canmore, who built a castle on Tower Hill, a little distance away from the later palace. Its site is still to be seen, though the slight remains of the walls are probably those of its Norman successor. Queen Margaret lived the greater part of her reign there, spending her days in pious devotion, giving food and garments to the poor, or sitting with her maidens working at rich embroideries to adorn the abbey which she had founded. ”

“ Dunfermline was also again sent to the king early in 1640, and, on account of the discovery of the letter of the Scots to the king of France, was, with the Earl of Loudoun and the other commissioners, detained for a time in custody. He was colonel in the Scots army which, under Lesley, crossed the Tweed in August. In the following October he was appointed one of the eight commissioners for the treaty of Ripon, and he was also one of the subcommittee appointed for the final conclusion of the treaty in London. ”

“ Alexander Seaton acquired Fyvie, it is said, in 1596, and in 1606 was created Earl of Dunfermline. Castle and title were forfeited in 1689, and the property was purchased of the crown in 1726 by the Earl of Aberdeen. Dunfermline had no horses for Dugald or Donald to take after 1689. The whole story of Lizie Menzie, Baroness of Seaton, seems to be a fiction as sheer as it is vulgar. ”

“ The town is governed by a provost, bailies and council, and, with Stirling, Culross, Inverkeithing and Queensferry (the Stirling group) , combines in returning a member to parliament.
Dunfermline Abbey is one of the most important remains in Scotland. Excepting Iona it has received more of Caledonia’s royal dead than any other place in the kingdom. Within its precincts were buried Queen Margaret and Malcolm Canmore ”

“ The history of Dunfermline goes back to a remote period, for the early Celtic monks known as Culdees had an establishment here; but its fame and prosperity date from the marriage of Malcolm Canmore and his queen Margaret, which was solemnized in the town in 1070. The king then lived in a tower on a mound surrounded on three sides by the glen. A fragment of this castle still exists in Pittencrieff Park, a little west of the later palace. ”

“ The Scottish officers who had long served under him had in vain entreated that, when they were formed into a company, he might still be their commander. His religion had been thought a fatal disqualification. A worthless adventurer, whose only recommendation was that he was a Papist, was preferred. Dunfermline continued, during a short time, to make his appearance in the circle which surrounded the Prince whom he had served too well; but it was to no purpose. The bigots who ruled the Court refused to the ruined and expatriated Protestant Lord the means of subsistence ”

“ In October of the following year he acted as the king's commissioner at the parliament of Edinburgh, in which the act of 1592, establishing presbyterianism, was rescinded. He died at his seat of Pinkie House, near Musselburgh, on 16 June 1622, in the sixty-seventh year of his age.
Dunfermline was thrice married. By his first wife, Lilias, second daughter of Patrick, third lord Drummond, and sister of James, first earl of Perth, he had five daughters: Anne, married to Alexander, viscount Fenton, only son of Thomas, first earl of Kellie; Isabel, married to John, first earl of Lauderdale ”

“ Drinking the blude-red wine;" but when you come near Dunfermline and see the hill where Malcolm Canmore built his castle in the eleventh century, and when you are told that it was from this very town that Sir Patrick Spens and the Scots lords set out for "Norroway o'er the faem," everything comes nearer to you. ”

“ After completing his arts course, he was engaged as tutor in the family of Colonel Erskine of Carnok, Fifeshire. Pursuing his theological studies, he was licensed on 18 June 1709 by Dunfermline presbytery. He is said to have early shown ability as a preacher, but did not at once obtain a call. His views were strongly evangelical, at a time when those of his brother Ebenezer [q. v.] were still undecided.
On 1 May 1711 he was called to the second charge at Dunfermline, and on 14 June to the parish of Tulliallan, Perthshire. He chose Dunfermline, where he was ordained on 7 Aug. ”

“ The Corporation buildings, a blend of the Scots Baronial and French Gothic styles, contain busts of several Scottish sovereigns a statue of Robert Burns, and Sir Noel Paton’s painting of the “Spirit of Religion.” Other structures are the County buildings, the Public, St Margaret’s, Music and Carnegie halls, the last in the Tudor style, Carnegie public baths, high school (founded in 1560) , school of science and art, and two hospitals. Several distinguished men have been associated with Dunfermline. Robert Henryson (1430-1506) , the poet, was long one of its schoolmasters. ”

“ John Dunbar, sheriff of Moray, who succeeded his brother Alexander, and his brother, Robert Dunbar of Burgy, endeavoured to bring the murderers of his brother to justice; but they failed in consequence of Alexander Dunbar being, at the time of his death, a rebel to the king, having been denounced at the horn for a civil cause. By negotiation, however, this deadly feud was stayed, and a sort of reconciliation effected by the friendly mediation of the Earl of Dunfermline, then Lord Chancellor of Scotland. ”

“ At Dunfermline, on this day, while a wappinshaw was going on, ‘William Anderson, son till John Anderson, bailiff of the said town, and Charles Richeson, his servant, being shooting a shot with some of their friends in a certain place of the town, [a little piece of the lunt flieth upon a thack-house, which easily kindled. The fire increased with the violency of the wind412] , and did flie from house to house, and sometimes wald flie over ane house without doing it any harm, but wald burn the next house, till the great admiration of all men ”

“ The principal British centres for fine damasks are Belfast and Dunfermline, while the medium qualities are made in several places in Ireland, in a few places in England, and in the counties of Fife, Forfar and Perth in Scotland. ”

“ Day after day Lady Dunfern pined like a prisoner in her boudoir, and scarcely ever shared a word with the great and good Sir John, who many times wished in former days that she had occupied his home and all its joys. She formed an inward resolution that if prohibited from enjoying life, to which she was accustomed at Dilworth Castle, she would make her husband, whom she knew too well made her his idol, feel the smart, by keeping herself aloof from his caresses as much as possible. ”

“ Reverently asking to have an interview with Sir John Dunfern, how the death-like glare fell over the eyes of the disappointed as the footman informed her of his demise! “Madam, if you cast your eyes thence— [here the sturdy footman pointed to the family graveyard, lying quite adjacent, and in which the offcast of effrontery had oftentimes trodden] —you can with ease behold the rising symbol of death which the young nobleman, Sir Hugh Dunfern, has lavishly and unscrupulously erected to his fond memory.” ”

“ When almost a year of Lady Dunfern’s private imprisonment was about drawing to a close, she was beginning to partly believe the truth of her husband’s dogmatic remarks. She had strongly been endeavouring during this time to arrive at some possible means of communication with Marjory Mason, 93 her much-loved maid, whose services Sir John still retained; but every endeavour she yet formed proved absolutely vain. She often thought had she been attended by any of the household staff, only her on whom she never could dream to rely, she might have made good her escape long since ”

“ Dunholm was the possession of a man who stood for all that was first and highest in the land, dignity, learning, exalted character, generosity, honour. He and the late Lord Mount Dunstan had been born in the same year, and had succeeded to their titles almost at the same time. There had arrived a period when they had ceased to know each other. All that the one man intrinsically was, the other man was not. All that the one estate, its castle, its village, its tenantry, represented, was the antipodes of that which the other stood for. ”

“ Wotherspoon measured the table with his fingers.
"It seems that the countryside was searching for her. It was the laird of Glenfernie who, alone and coming upon some trace, entered the Kelpie's Pool and found her there. They say that he carried her, dead, in his arms through the glen to White Farm."
Some proclamation or other was being made at the Cross of Edinburgh. A trumpet blew and the street was filled with footsteps.
"The laird of Glenfernie," said the lawyer, "has joined, I hear, Sir John Cope at Dunbar. It is not impossible that you may have speech together from opposing battle-lines." ”

“ He rode slowly up the steep village street and over the bare waste bit of hill until here was the manse, with the kirk beyond it. Coming out of the manse gate was the minister. Glenfernie checked his mare. All around spread a bare and lonely hilltop. The manse and the kirk and the minister's figure buttressed each the others with a grim strength. The wind swept around them and around Glenfernie.
Mr. M'Nab, standing beside the laird, spoke earnestly. "We rejoice, Glenfernie, that you are about once more! There is the making in you of a grand man, like your father. ”

“ The oldest settlement is that of S. Fillan, at Dundurn. His day in the Kalendar is June 22, and he died about 520 A.D. Dundurn=Dun d'Earn. In the martyrology of Donegal (for he was a pure Irish Celt) he is called of Rath Erann—i.e., the fort on the Earn. Besides the old chapel and burial-ground, a memorial of the Saint is in Dunfillan, where are his chair and well. A fine eye for the picturesque the good man must have had to select a hill of so striking aspect and commanding so charming a landscape as Dunfillan. A little later Dunfillan became a king's seat or fort. ”

“ Bride’s to Dunraven Castle. The young man was in his usual buoyant and cheerful mood, happy and joyous, but his companion was pensive and sad. From childhood John ap William and Myfanwy Gwenllian had been companions. In childhood they had pledged themselves to be true to each other. In childhood they had walked together, day after day, either on the rocky headland below the village of Southerndown, or on the sands of Dunraven Bay, picking off the rocks flowers of various tints and hues, or gathering in the little haven or bay beautiful stones or pebbles, or seaweeds and shells. ”

“ Fermilodum (Vol. iv., p. 345) .
—I suspect H. E. has not read his seal quite correctly. I surmise it is Fermelioduni. However, no doubt Dunferline is meant; and the literal translation of the legend is, "Seal of the city of Dunferline." This place was a royal burgh, with a palace; and the word civitas was not then confined to towns which were Bishop's sees.
W. S. W.
Middle Temple.
Finger Stocks (Vol. iv., p. 315.) .
—In Littlecote Hall, the fine old seat of the Pophams, in Wiltshire, one of these machines was preserved, and I doubt not but that it is still to be seen there. ”

“ But, for a short time, Lord Dunholm remained to converse with Mount Dunstan. In a way the situation was delicate. To encounter by chance a neighbour whom one—for reasons—has not seen since his childhood, and to be equal to passing over and gracefully obliterating the intervening years, makes demand even upon finished tact. Lord Dunholm's world had been a large one, and he had acquired experience tending to the development of the most perfect methods. ”

“ The term Donnerdale (now usually spelt Dunnerdale) is strictly applied to the district on the east bank of the Duddon from Broughton up to Ulpha Bridge, and extending thence parallel to Seathwaite, from which it is divided by fells. Guide-books sometimes apply the term to the whole valley of the Duddon, but this is entirely wrong; the term is never applied by the inhabitants to the upper or confined part of the valley, and is correctly used by Wordsworth to indicate the open plain of the lower stream. ”