[We are indebted for the foregoing interesting paper to Mr Train, Castle Douglas, who copied it from a manuscript in the possession of Dr Thomson of Appin. Part of the MS. was communicated by Mr Train to the late Sir Walter Scott, who supplied from it the story of “Donald the Hammerer,” printed in the Introduction to Jamieson’s edition of Burt’s “Letters from a Gentleman in the North of Scotland to his Friend in London,” published in 1822. Sir Walter made various alterations on the MS., in the narrative as well as in the style; but, the object of our _Journal_ being the preservation of what is original, rare, or curious, rather than the cultivation of fine writing, we have preferred adhering to the copy, which is more complete than when in the hands of the _Author of Waverley_, several additions having been made to it by Mr Stewart, Excise Officer, Kirkcudbright, who claims kindred with the Stewarts of Appin. It will be interesting to the reader to compare our pages with the story as related by the “Great Magician.”] ---------------------------- HOLY ISLAND PRIORY. BY HENRY CLARKE, M.D.[15] I have been induced to draw up the following sketch of the Priory of Holy Island, from its being the most beautiful fragment of antiquity in the district to which our researches are confined, as well as from its presenting one of the most remarkable architectural remains of the period to which it belongs in the kingdom. It need scarcely be mentioned that, in the earlier periods of Christian history, the choice of so unattractive a site was in obedience to the idea which indicated the remote and scarcely accessible island, and the lone and unfrequented desert, as spots peculiarly fitted for that contemplative life, and withdrawal from the world, in which the perfection of religion was supposed to consist. When the monastic system was introduced into the West, this was its leading and characteristic feature, and the same spirit which had selected the inhospitable island of Iona, induced the monk who issued thence for the conversion of Northumberland, to prefer the bleak sands of Lindesfarne to the present valleys of the adjacent continent.