tion of the episcopal burgh, in virtue of a charter granted by King William the Lion to Bishop Jocelin himself. It is well known that Glasgow, straitened on one hand by the more important Royal burgh of Rutherglen, and on the other side by Dumbarton and the Clyde burghs claiming a monopoly of the river trade, continued for a long time a place of small consideration, deriving its only importance from the Bishop's see. Somewhat more than a century afterwards, we find the "communitas civitatis Glasguensis" exercising the office of a court of inquest for the service of heirs, and authenticating its writ with the seal of the community, which would seem to mark a certain degree of independent power. It was not however for more than four centuries and a half after the first charter and erection of the episcopal burgh, that the city of Glasgow obtained complete emancipation. The rapidity of its subsequent rise in wealth and splendour, and in the extent of trade and manufactures, is probably without any parallel. The incidental mention of the condition of the Abbey itself at different times, strongly illustrates the history of the district and the age. At one time powerful and prosperous, accumulating property, procuring privileges, commanding the support of the most powerful, and proudly contending against the slightest encroachment; at another, impoverished and ruined by continual wars ", obliged to seek protection from the foreign invader "; in either situation it reflects back faithfully the political condition of the country. m But the political events of a country of so narrow bounds and small resources as Scotland, are insignificant unless they are associated with the development of principles and feelings that know no limits of place or power. How rich Scotland has been in such associations is testified by the general sympathy which attends her history and her literature, and gives a pride to her children that forms not the weakest safeguard of their virtue. It is in recalling freshly the memory of times in which the proud and virtuous character of her people was formed, and which it is their delight and their duty to look back upon, that such studies as the present are most useful. Every local association, every faint illustration of antiquity, each indication of the bygone manners of a simple age, are in this view to be treasured, not only as filling a page of a meagre history, but as so many moral ties to bind us closer in affection to the country of our fathers °. o After the charter of the second Walter fitz Alan, N. 73, had been printed from a bad transcript in the British Museum Chartulary, and after the Appendix had also been completed, the original charter was announced for sale in a London bookseller's catalogue, and was purchased for this collection. It bears the signature of R. Scott, which marks all the other muniments of Melros, and is in very fine condition, with a good impression of the granter's seal, (the same which is engraved on pl. VII. N. 4.) It affords two corrections of the printed copy: Line 3, after maxime, insert q'eti: before in carta, insert qdā tenta, and the following list of witnesses: Hiis teftibuf. Wito capellano meo. Malcolmo fit comitif de leuenaus nepote meo Joħe de mundegumeri. Rog fit Glay. Witto de hauekereft Alano Watnfi. Vmf'do de Bofco. Jobe de lindefey. Hug fit Sim. fit Bertini. t cottis aliis. LIST OF THE PLATES. PLATE I. 1 Privy Seal of King Alexander III. N. 336. dei grã rex scott esto: prvdens: vt: serpens: ... :simplex: sicvt: colvmba: 2 Privy Seal of King Robert I. N. 876. s': secretvm: roħti: dei: grã: regis: scott: 4 Privy Seal of King David II. N. 438. sigill' secret: dauid: dei: gra': reğ: scottoy PLATE II. 1 Seal of William le Waleis. N. 64. sigitt witti waleysis * This precept is perhaps misplaced, and belongs to a different reign. It is difficult, however, to assign another place to the person to whom it is addressed. |