Thomas of Canterbury. It is added that he painted, but in the lighter style now so fashionable throughout Scotland ("sed pictura leviore quæ nunc est per Scotiam receptissima"), the chamber and oratory of the abbot, as well as another large room adjoining.2

There can be little doubt that the style of art thus indicated was that of fresco-painting, but so complete has been the destruction of our old ecclesiastical buildings in Scotland, that the figure of St. Ninian at Turriff is almost the only example of which we can speak with certainty.

As an interesting relic of Scottish art, and as associated with the church of St. Congan, I have thought it permissible to introduce a drawing of the fresco, from sketches made by Mr. Gibb at the time of the discovery.

In the north wall of the choir, and near to the east end, there is inserted an ambry of decorated work, and from the letters a L, which appear at the bottom, we may infer that it was erected by Alexander Lyon, the builder of the choir."

In its gable there is built an ornamented stone which has

1 Hist. Abbat. Monasterii de Kynlos, p. 51 (Ban. Club.)

2 From the same author we derive an account of the ornaments with which Abbot Thomas Crystall of Kinloss enriched the parish church of Ellon a few years earlier. Of him he writes-" Nec minus accuratus fuit in ornanda ecclesia sua de Ellone, cui parem tabulam pictoria et statuaria arte deauratam cum illa Beatae Matris et Virginis apud Kynloss de qua paulo ante sumus locuti, contulit. Resti

tuit quoque illic majus altare tabulato ubi et divae Annae statuam erexit; paravitque nova in choro subsellia; et vestes ad rem sacram faciendam tres, casulam videlicet ex bysso palmata, duas dalmaticas, cum albis, et id genus reliquis, liberalissime coemptas, tradidit."-(Idem, p. 76.)

3 Similar ambries of the same period occur in the ruined churches of Kinkell and Auchindoir, and a third, which was placed in the old church of Kintore, is now built into the west gable of the parish kirk.

formed part of a structure of earlier date, besides other sculptured fragments, which have been used for building materials in the church which succeeded the monastery of St. Congan. Of these, and the ambry just described, drawings by Mr. Gibb are given in a separate plate.