Amidst the low lying hills of the vicinity, the ruins of Deer abbey still lift their shattered walls towards the sky. Founded by St Columba and his nephew, and dedicated to St Drostan, they are situated in the older portion of the parish of Deer, where the incidents related in “Sir John of the Rose” are supposed to have been laid. Of the fine building, which was formerly erected “to the glory of God,” only very little remains; but although the ruins are so scanty that they afford but little pleasure to the archæologist or the tourist, they are treasured and reverenced on account of the immense service they have rendered literature in keeping safely hidden from the ravages of time documents of great antiquity, and consequently of great value as recording the customs and mode of living of our ancestors. The manuscripts, written in Latin, were discovered in the 18th century, but little attention was directed to them until these precious fragments of monastic literature found their way to Cambridge, and in 1860 the attention of students was drawn to them by the learned librarian, Mr Bradshaw. It was then found that the small octavo of 86 pages contained St John’s Gospel, portions of the other three Gospels, the Apostle’s Creed, a fragment of an office for the visitation of the sick, and lastly, a Gælic Rubric. Some notes on the various endowments to the monastery were written on the blank sheets--evidently penmanship of the 12th century. These are of the greatest interest as being the earliest examples of Scottish Gælic known. The Gospels mentioned above were chiefly in the Vulgate version of St Jerome. The old family of Comyn, a member of whom re-founded the abbey in the 13th century, was defeated in battle at Deer by the followers of Edward Bruce. KINLOSS (_Cistercian_) 1150, Founded by David I.--1303, Edward I. makes the abbey his headquarters--After the Reformation the abbey demesne passes into the Bruce family.