Ears Of Wheat From A Cornucopia.

were involved , it at length fell a sacrifice to the church-destroying mania of reforming times .

In the demolition of this grand old religious edifice , the hand of the spoiler was less ruthless than his commission might have warranted for * while utterl y razing the cloisters and other monkish tenements , the instrument of destruction spared

the chancel of the abbey , which being subsequently repaired and fitted up as the parish church , continued so to be used till 1775 , Avhen it Avas removed and the jrresenfc church built on its site . This effected , the only entire ruins left remaining

were the steeple , and gable of the south transept-The above illustration is from a photograph of the gable in question recently taken at the instance of the Ancient Company of Kilwinning * Archers , who

having presented the uniform of the Society to His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales , had transferred to the lid of the box containing the same , a view of the Abbey ruins and ifc is through the kindness of the Provincial Grancl Master of

Ayrshire , Robert Wylie , Esq ., who is also a leading * member of the Archers' Society , that Ave are enabled to present the illustration . The gable is about 80 ft . in hei ght by 45 ffc . in Avidth ; and in the south-western portion of the wall are passages

• which are suiDposed to have led to a rood loft , or to the dormitory of the monks . There is a Saxon gateway close to the right of the gable , and leading from this mouldering arch , the ruins ( in the

shape of walls and vaulted passages ) extend about sixty yards southward . There are also two fine arches inside the gateway already referred to . Beneath the church , a corner of which is , seen to the left of the gable , are several sepulchral vaults ,

in one of which lie the remains of the late Earl of Eglinton and his two wives who predeceased him . There are numerous other cryptic ruins within the original area of the abbey , now forming part of the graveyard . The buildings were of freestone ;

and notwithstanding that the gable in its dilapidated state has weathered the blasts of three centuries , it is likely long to remain as a relic of its builders' skill in the " royal art , " and of that system of superstition and asceticism which characterised the religious establishments of mediaeval times .

Directing our steps across the green sward which Avith its significant mounds now covers what must have formed the nave of the abbey , we approach another venerable fragment , known as the great Avestern entrance , close to which

is a tower of modern erection occupying the site of an original steeple which , after having withstood the ravages of time for nearly 700 years , fell on the 2 nd of A . ugust , 1814 , and the remainder being removed , the tower shown in the

above engraving Avas erected principally through the munificence of Hew , twelfth Earl of E glinton . Its corner-stone was planted in December of the same year by the Right Worshipful Bro . William Davidson of Dramley , Master of Mother Kilwinning , in presence of the members of the E glinton family , and AA ith the assistance of the lodges in