In the Chamberlain’s Accounts for 1563 he describes the chapel “as being so completely wrecked, that with a view to preserve the timber, he had built up both doors; also the undermost door of the steeple. In the cloister he had collected the slates which had been removed from the roof. He had also repaired the broken windows, providing them with iron framework. The abbot’s apartments he had partially [Illustration: FIG. 1449.--Coupar Abbey. Broken Slab.] restored, and with proper fastenings made secure the granaries and store-houses. From having, in August 1562, accommodated the royal stud (during a passing visit of Queen Mary), the stables of the monastery are in the Account styled the ‘quenes stables.’”[201] We have already referred to the Earls of Errol as benefactors to the abbey, and amongst the Errol Papers[202] there occurs a “Copy of the Tabill Quhilk ves at Cowper of all the Erles of Erroll quhilk ver Buryd in the Abbey Kirk thair,” from which it appears that sixteen Earls were buried in the monastery. Of these we suppose no memorial now remains; but we may take this opportunity of introducing a sketch (Fig. 1453) of a recumbent figure, now built into the churchyard wall of [Illustration: FIG. 1450.--Coupar Abbey. Sculptured Slab.] [Illustration: FIG. 1451.--Coupar Abbey. Sculptured Slab.] Errol (Carse of Gowrie), which, from the following inscription, probably represents the eighth Earl referred to in the above “tabill”--“Item penultimo die mensis Ianuarij, Anno Domini M.D.LX(X)III. obijt bone memorie Georgius comes De Errol. apud Pertham et sepultus est Errolie.” There are few notices of the buildings of the abbey. A plan of it was made about 1820 by William Mitchell, a mason, who corresponded with [Illustration: FIG. 1452.--Coupar Abbey. Royal Arms.] General Hutton regarding it; but they evidently could not come to terms, and it is not in his collection in the Advocates’ Library. Mitchell calls it “a true and just plan of the outlines of that pile of building.” Dr. Marshall, in his _Historic Scenes in Forfarshire_, p. 144, had this plan before him when he wrote, and he characterises it as being unreliable. After a good deal of correspondence we obtained a sight of it, and have no hesitation in saying that it is a pure work of imagination, and is not a plan of the abbey at all; and, judging from the correspondence with General Hutton, we suspect the author intended to play a hoax on him, and yet was afraid to go the full length, and this is probably the reason why the General never got the plan. In 1492 and following years there are references to Thomas Mowtray, mason. He was sworn to be “leyl and trew,” during the term of his life, to the abbot and chapter, and he is obliged to “wyrk leilly and profitably the masonwerk of our forsaid abbay, and to be the master of the werk, in al thingis that langis hys craft of masonry in our abbay or in our qwarellis [Illustration: FIG. 1453.--Coupar Abbey. Recumbent Figure.]