ding the
strength of their lungs in vain by attempting to evoke it."[403]

Crosses seem to have been placed at intervals on the roads leading
to the church. One of the south piers of the nave is called the
Cathcart pillar, and has carved upon it a shield bearing the
Cathcart arms. This is believed to be a memorial of Sir Allan
Cathcart, who has thus been described by Barbour:--

A knycht, that their wis in hys rout,
Worthy and wycht, stalwart and stout,
Curtaiss and fayr, and off gud fame,
Schyr Allane of Catkert by name.

King Robert the Bruce died in 1329, and Sir Allan of Cathcart and
Sir James of Douglass sailed in 1330 for the Holy Land with the
King's heart. Sir James was killed in Spain in conflict with the
Moors, and Sir Allan came back with the heart of the King, which was
buried in Melrose Abbey. The pillar commemorates his safe return.

On the west buttress of the north transept, at 21 feet in height, is
the shield of the Stewarts, with a pastoral staff, and the word
"Stewart."

The first central tower erected over the crossing seems to have been
of inferior workmanship and to have given way. Another is believed
to have been erected by Abbot Tervas, which probably fell during the
siege by Lennox and Glencairn, and may have destroyed much of the
choir and transept in its fall. Western towers appear to have been
contemplated.

"We are only able," says Dr. Cameron Lees, "to conjecture what was
the position of the conventual buildings. But after comparing the
plan of Wenlock, from which the monks originally came, with that of
Crosraguel, which they afterwards erected, we think it is probable
that the chapter-house, with Saint Mirin's Chapel, occupied the east
side of the cloister court, the refectory the south side, and the
dormitory the west. The Abbot's house probably stood at the south
end of what is called Cotton Street. There were buildings also
between the Abbey and the river Cart attached to the monastery,
portions of the foundations of which are occasionally
uncovered."[404] "The shape of the cloister court has been partially
retained. The conventual buildings were almost all converted after
the Reformation into dwelling-houses, and though fragments of the
old houses, such as an occasional pillar or arch, are to be found,
there is little to rem