Continued entries/extra info

[Page] 77

[Site of Our Lady's Church continued]

Church of the Blessed Virgin. - This once magnificent Structure was erected towards the close of
the twelfth century* by David Earl of Huntingdon and Garioch the favourite brother of William I. surnamed
the Lyon. It was erected in consequence of a vow according to the fashion of the age to show his gratitude for
a signal deliverance from iminent danger.
About the year 1190 the Earl with a body of his countrymen accompanied Richard I. of England and other Princes
on the Crusade for the recovery of the Holy Land from the Saracens. In this expedition he experienced many trying vi-
cissitudes of fortune not the least was the being taken prisoner and sold for a slave. After obtaining his liberty he returned
homeward and in course of his passage encountered a violent tempest in the north sea. The Crazy bark on board
of which he was being every moment in danger of foundering he vowed in the extremity of danger that if Our Lady
should bring him and his Companions safe to land he would erect and endow a church to her honour as a
monument of his gratitude. According to the legend on the aspiration of this vow the storm moderated the wind
fell and the sea became smooth and the shattered bark which carried the Prince arrived in safety in the Tay
where reaching the Harbour of Dundee he landed at the Craig or Rock of St. Nicholas and fulfilled his vow by the
erection of this church dedicating it to the honour of the most blessed Virgin. It is true that there was an altar within
the church dedicated to the memory of the national patron but as it was the work of another [an earlier] founder its erection
was at a subsequent period of time.
It appears that the Earl of Huntingdon like many others since his time forgot the obligation of his vow
for very soon after the erection of his votive church he transferred it with all the emoluments with which he
endowed it to his more favourite Abbey of Lindores near Newburgh, which he erected in the year 1178 and to which
it continued an appendage untill the reign of Charles I. who dissolved it from that establishment and from the
Crown in favour of the Constable John Scrimseoure afterward Viscount Dudhope, An act of parliament passed
[continued on page 78]

* "The particular year is uncertain or rather unknown but say about 1196 not later than 1200"