Artist: Billings; Engraver: Smith
An
excerpt from the original description:
Crossraguel Abbey, the view of which will be new to most of our readers, is one
of those sacred relics of the olden time which recall monachism and the
mass-that gorgeous worship, which in every corner of the island has left its
stately monuments and its pious traditions; and in all, enduring proofs of the
temporal, no less than the spiritual, sway of its hierarchy. This abbey is a
fine specimen of that architecture which, within the last twenty years, has been
partially revived and imitated in some of our ecclesiastical edifices; but it
will require many years before the modern can approach the ancient in boldness
of design and delicacy of execution. This religious structure-comprising a
church, cloisters, the abbots residence, and the chapter-house-though greatly
dilapidated, is still sufficiently entire to give the stranger an accurate
notion of its original extent, style, and decoration. It was founded in the
middle of the twelfth century by Duncan, son of Gilbert, Earl of Carrick, and,
under its pious and learned abbots, who had the enjoyment of a princely revenue,
rose into considerable distinction as a religious fraternity.
The
town of Maybole is pleasantly situated on a gentle eminence, surrounded by a
screen of hills, which shelter it on the north and east, in form of an
amphitheater. It was erected by royal charter into a burgh of barony early in
the sixteenth century, in favor of the house of Cassilis.
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