Identifier: balmerinoitsabbe01camp (find matches)
Title: Balmerino and its abbey : a parish history with notices of the adjacent district
Year: 1899 (1890s)
Authors: Campbell, James. cn
Subjects: Balmerino Abbey
Publisher: Edinburgh London : William Blackwood and Sons
Contributing Library: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center
Digitizing Sponsor: Allen County Public Library Genealogy Center

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Text Appearing Before Image:
aken out of thewest foce of Balmerino Pier, into which it had long previouslybeen inserted. It is the figure of a man in armour, butwanting the head, arms, and lind)s. The hoop-like plates onthe back of the tunic, and some chain-work at the neck, maystill be discerned. Another headless figure—of an ecclesiasticaccording to some, of a woman in the opinion of most ladieswho have seen it—was recently dug up near the ruins. Thedrapery, which is Avell executed, is uninjured. These twofigures, which have been placed beside each other on thesward east of the Chapter-house, were both of them int.iuletlto stand erect — the backs being as carefully carved as thefronts. They arc nearly equal in size, and may have beenelligies of the Blessed Virgin and St. Edward the Confessor,to both of whom the Abbey was dedicated; or of QueenErmengarde and her husband King AVilliam the Lion. Sib-bald states that Ermengardes statue was at the Abbeywithin these few years—that is, about two centuries ago.
Text Appearing After Image:
A THE x\BBEY BlIILDLNGS 301 The mutilated condition of the two figures just describedsuggests to the mind a jiicture of the reforming mob in 1559tearing down the ornaments, and smashing the monumentsof idolatry * in the beautiful Abbey Church. Towards theend of last century an image of the Virgin with the HolyChild in her arms was dug out of the ruins, and given toMr. David Martin, painter and antiquarian. It was saidto have stood in a niche above two basins cut out of thestone benches near the entraiice of some apartment of theAbbey (the doorway leading from the Sacristy into the northTransept of the Church) probably for holding holy water. ^ In the year 1860, when workmen were digging a founda-tion for new farm-buildings near the Abbey, they found agood specimen of the English gold coin called an nuQ-cI,having on the obverse the figure of the archangel Michaelpiercing the dragon with a spear. On the same side was the in-scription—HENllIC . DE . GUA. HEX . AGLI. Z . Ell ANC\Transla

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