Note 776 — PREFATIO.

The Charter-House, or, as it was called, "Monasterium Vallis Virtutis," at Perth, was a splendid edifice, founded and richly endowed by King James the First, in the year 1429. It was the only religious establishment of any extent in Scotland of the Order of Carthusians, or White Friars. Holinshed says it "was not as yet throughly finished" at the time of that Monarch's barbarous murder, in 1437-8; but he was buried there with great solemnity. James the Second, in the General Council held at Perth, 12th May 1450, granted a charter of several lands in Perthshire to the Prior and Convent of the Carthusian Monastery of the Valley of Virtue, near Perth.—(Reg. Magni Sigilli: Acta Parl. Scot. vol. ii. p. 65.) A century later, in November 1541, Margaret, the mother of James the Fifth, having died at Methven, in the vicinity of Perth, was also "buried in the Charterhouse Church of Saint Johns Towne, by [beside] the tombe of King James the First. The King himself and many Nobles of the Realme were present at the funeralles, which were kept in most solemne and pompous maner."—(Holinshed's Chronicles, Scotland, p. 445; Chronicle of Perth, p. 2. Edinb. 1830.)