a building whose roof had covered the head of King
Alexander I., though it covered it for three days only; for that very
circumstance would at the same time go far to establish another fact,
namely, that any such building might claim to be now the oldest roofed
stone habitation in Scotland.[127]

[Illustration: Fig. 13. Oratory on Inchcolm, as lately repaired by the
Earl of Moray.]

FOOTNOTES:

[Footnote 16: From the _Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of
Scotland_, vol. ii. part iii.]

[Footnote 17: These contributions by the "Abbas Aemoniae Insulae" are
alluded to by Boece, who wrote nearly a century afterwards, as one of
the works upon which he founded his own _Scotorum Historiae_.--(See his
_Praefatio_, p. 2; and Innes' _Critical Essay on the Ancient Inhabitants
of Scotland_, vol. i., pp. 218 and 228.) Bower, in a versified colophon,
claims the merit of having completed eleven out of the sixteen books
composing the _Scotichronicon_ lib. xvi. cap. 39:--

"Quinque libros Fordun, undenos auctor arabat,
Sic tibi clarescit sunt sedecim numero,
Ergo pro precibus, petimus te, lector eorum," etc.]

[Footnote 18: See _Scotichronicon_, lib. xiii. cap. 34 and 37; lib. xiv.
cap. 38, etc. In 1547 the Duke of Somerset, after the battle of Pinkie,
seized upon Inchcolm as a post commanding "vtterly ye whole vse of the
Fryth it self, with all the hauens uppon it," and sent as "elect Abbot,
by God's sufferance, of the monastery of Sainct Coomes Ins, Sir Jhon
Luttrell, knight, with C. hakbutters and l. pioners, to kepe his house
and land thear, and ii. rowe barkes, well furnished with municion, and
lxx. mariners to kepe his waters, whereby (naively remarks Patten) it is
thought he shall soon becum a prelate of great power. The perfytnes of
his religion is not alwaies to tarry at home, but sumetime to rowe out
abrode a visitacion; and when he goithe, I haue hard say he taketh
alweyes his sumners in barke with hym, which ar very open mouthed, and
neuer talk but they are harde a mile of, so that either for loove of his
blessynges, or feare of his cursinges, he is lyke to be soouveraigne
ouer most of his neighbours."--(See Patten's _Account of the late
Expedition in Scotlande_, dating "out of the parsonage of S. Mary Hill,
London," in Sir John Dalyell's _Fragments of Scottish History_, pp. 79
and 81.) In Abbot Bower's time, the island seems to have been provided
with some means of defence against these English attac