ST. THOMAS'S ABBEY, AT ARBROATH.

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HIS Abbey was founded by William the Lion, in 1178, and dedicated to our celebrated primate, Thomas à Becket. The laft abbot was the famous Cardinal Beaton, at the fame time archbishop of St. Andrew's, and before his death as great and abfolute here as Wolfey was in England. It was a rich and extensive monaftery; enjoyed uncommon privileges from the crown; and had an ample revenue, which, in the most liberal manner, fupported with fplendor those virtues of hospitality for which those institutions were fo remarkably distinguished. The great as well as the poor fhared in their munificence. In 1530, the king was twice fumptuously entertained, with his retinue, in the fplendid apartments of the abbey. Its very ruins, as Mr. Pennant expreffively remarks, give an idea of its former magnificence. It lies on a rifing above the Town, and prefents an extenfive and venerable front; is moft deliciously fituated; commands a view of the sea to the east, of a fertile country to the weft, bounded by the Grampian Hills; and to the south, of the openings into the Firths of the Tay and Forth.

The Abbey was once enclosed with a strong and lofty wall, which furrounded a very confiderable tract. On the south-west corner is a tower, at present the steeple of the parish church: at the fouth-eaft corner was another tower, with a gate beneath, called the Darn Gate, which, from the word Darn, or private, appears to have been the retired way to the Abbey. The magnificent church ftands on the north fide of the fquare, and was built in form of a crofs: on the other fide are three rows of false arches, one above the other, which have a fine effect; and above them are very high windows, with a circular one above. In 1771, a part adjoining to the weft end fell fuddenly down, and destroyed much of the beauty of the place. The length of the whole church is about two hundred and twentyfive feet: the breadth of the body and fide ifles, from wall to wall, fixty-feven: the length of the tranfept, one hundred and fixty-five feet; the breadth, twentyfeven.

It seems as if there had been three towers: one in the center, and two others, one on each side of the weft end; part of which still remains. On the south side, adjoining to the church, are the ruins of the Chapter-houfe: the lower part is vaulted—is a spacious room, well lighted with Gothic windows: above is another good apartment.

The great gate to the Abbey fronts the north: above the arch had been a large gallery, with a window at each end. At the north-west corner of the monaftery stand the walls of the regality prifon, of great strength and thickness: within are two vaults; and over them some light apartments. The prifon did belong to the convent; which refigned this part of its jurifdiction to a layman, whom the religious elected to judge of criminal affairs. The family of Airly had this office before the Reformation, and continued poffeffed of it till the year 1747, when it was fold, and vested in the crown with the other heretable jurisdictions.

The Monks were of the Tyronenfian order; and were firft brought from Kelfo; whofe Abbot declared those of this place, on the first institution, to be free from his jurifdiction. On the Reformation, John Hamilton was Commandatory Abbot. In 1608, it was erected into a barony, in favour of his fon James; then was conveyed to the Earl of Dyfart; and finally bought, by Patrick Maule, of Panmure, with the patronage of thirty-four pounds.

PALM-BRANCH CORALLINE.

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HIS coral of fingular beauty, most elegant in the form and arrangement of its cells, required a very elaborate procedure in delineating the varied appearances it made, in proportion to the higher powers of the microfcope, to which its admirable structure was fubjected. The difficulty of applying high magnifiers to these subjects when alive, is very great; the little animals are fo apprehensive of impending danger, when in the least disturbed, that they keep most cautiously retired in their cells, when they find themselves in any unusual fituation. A perfect ftagnation of the water around them, foon makes them ceafe to expand, and a continuance of that is fatal to their existence. They have, in their original abodes, been ever accustomed to that perpetual movement of the ocean which the tides occafion the best method to preserve them lively and active, to disclose their wonderful beauty, is therefore to create a continual movement of the water around them, by contriving gently to pour in a perpetual fupply, and let the fuperfluous water run off: for there would seem, in their case, to be a pabulum vitæ in the sea, as neceffary to the life of fome, at least, of its inhabitants, as that of air is to animal life; and which, when exhausted, foon leaves the most active of the coral inhabitants motionless; they languish and die.

This may explain, in part, the difficulty of preferving corals alive, and confequently the cause of their having been fo feldom feen. The fpecimens here exhibited in the plate, were dredged up on a ftone from the bottom, feveral miles from the shore, in about forty fathom water; the ftone was covered with a variety of other orders of corallines, many of which were of those so accurately defcribed by Mr. Ellis.

This fpecies feemed the more fingular, as its characters would ftrike a kind of medium between corals and corallines. The cells are wreathed round, and constitute a tubular stem; but no living principle seemed to occupy the space within, nor were there any visible apertures whereby it could have communicated with the cells; but from each cell to the adjacent ones the living line could be traced ; and when they played awhile, drinking in the water, it changed the colour of the animated thread; and in some specimens on the stone, the openings of the fides of the cells, from whence the new polypes were to iffue, were highly polished, and studded round with tubercles, apparently alfo open, but too infinitely minute and fine to bear a conjecture of their use.

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