The buildings, it is believed, were destroyed by the excited multitude who wrecked the religious houses at Perth and neighbourhood in 1559, and a portion of the buildings seems to have been occupied as a residence by Leonard Leslie, the first lay commendator, who died in 1605. In 1606 James VI., desirous to “suppress and extinguish the memorie of the abbacie,” converted the lands and baronies into a temporal lordship in favour of James Elphinstone, second son of the first Lord Balmerino, with the title of Baron Coupar. This lord appears to have made the abbey his residence, as in 1645 it was assailed by 200 soldiers belonging to the army of Montrose, in revenge for the support given to the Covenanters by Elphinstone. Probably this was the finishing blow given to the buildings, as in 1682 the place is described as “nothing but rubbish.” In the Rental Book, from 1480 and onwards, there are several notices of the Porters, who, from their office, assumed that name as their family designation, the office having become hereditary. When the last of them demitted office it is stated in a charter that they had been hereditary porters from time immemorial, and in the Chamberlain’s Accounts Robert Porter received a commuted allowance, consequent on the secularisation of the abbey. At the west end of the present church there are the remains of some of the main piers of the nave. As shown by Fig. 1448 these indicate work of the first pointed period, probably of the thirteenth century. A broken slab, measuring about 3 feet 3 inches high by 3 feet in breadth (Fig. 1449), is lying in the churchyard. In the Rental Book it is referred to as being built into the wall of the church which preceded the present one (erected about thirty years ago), and as bearing “the effigies of a priest,” with the inscription on the margin--_Monachus de Cupro qui obiit anno dni. Millesimo quadringentesimo quqgesio_.[200] From the present state of the fragment it is evident that little respect is paid in Coupar to the remains of the ancient abbey. The two sculptured slabs (Figs. 1450 and 1451) which are at present lying in a tool-house in all likelihood adorned the base of a mural tomb. They are evidently works of the end of the fourteenth century or of the fifteenth century. They are supposed to be remains of a monument to the Hays of Errol. Fig. 1451 appears to represent a pair who have been guilty, and are suffering under the prospect of finding themselves in the hands of the headsman. [Illustration: FIG. 1448.--Coupar Abbey. Main Piers of Nave.] On a house opposite the abbey occur the royal arms, shown by Fig. 1452, and throughout the village there are numerous carved and moulded stones to be seen, showing that the whole place has been built out of the ruins of the monastery.