Scottish Cathedrals and Abbeys - Part 12
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Part 12

When this became the parish church in the 16th century, St. Nicholas (one mile east) was abandoned. Two relics of it remain--the font, of which the basin is old, and the bell, now used in Uphall Church, and dated 1441. _Abercorn_ (Linlithgowshire). A church was founded here in 675 under St. Wilfrid, and became the see of the earliest bishopric in Scotland from 681 to 685. The monks were forced to retire to Whitby, but the site was occupied by a church, and part of the existing structure (the round-headed doorway in S. wall) is of Norman date. The tympanum is filled with stones arranged in zig-zag patterns. The church has been altered in modern times; there are good specimens in the churchyard of hog-backed tombstones, with figures of fish scale pattern arranged in rows, and scales of a squarer shape. _Kelso Abbey_ (p. 169).

_St. Martin's Church_ (Haddington) is a very ancient chapel; a simple oblong; portion of barrel vault still exists; choir formerly existed; the arch is late Norman in design. _Kirkliston Church_, Linlithgowshire, has ancient tower and Norman doorways (S. and N.E.), and belonged originally to the Knights Hospitallers of St. John. _St. Mary's, Ratho_, Mid-Lothian, has Norman work preserved in doorway in S.W. wall. _St.

Peter's, Peterhead_, Aberdeenshire, has chancel of Norman period. _St.

Mary's, Rutherglen_, Lanarkshire, had a nave with side aisles and a chancel, but of the ancient church only a fragment now remains in the E.

wall with eastern tower attached to it. The E. wall masonry indicates the Norman period, and the eastern tower, although built against, had no connection with the church, while it is of later erection by two or three centuries. _Lamington Church_ (Lanarkshire) has the old N. doorway still preserved. _St. Boswell's Church_, Roxburghshire, has been entirely rebuilt, but has some relics of carved corbels and other fragments of Norman date. _Smailholm Church_, Roxburghshire, is distinctly a Norman structure throughout its entire length, although greatly altered in the 17th century. _Linton Church_, Roxburghshire, is old, but has been restored and renewed. There is a Norman font, and a sculpture in the tympanum of the ancient church doorway may possibly represent St. George and the Dragon, or Faith overcoming Evil. It was placed in 1858 over the entrance to a new porch then erected. _Duns Church_, Berwickshire, had the chancel of the ancient structure existing until 1874, when it was removed, and not a stone now remains. Its masonry, judged from a photograph, looks very like Norman work. _St.

Lawrence Church, Lundie_, Forfarshire, was a Norman structure, of which little remains except the ashlar walls, a narrow window, and outside check for a shutter. The chancel arch was built up in 1786, when the apse appears to have been taken down; the top of a sacrament house of late date survives. _Kirkmaiden Church_, Wigtownshire, has a nave that appears to be of Norman date, and there is an apparent chancel at the east end, but its dimensions and origin are not distinct. _Herdmanston Font_, Haddingtonshire, is a relic of the Norman period, and stands in the burial vault of the Sinclairs of Herdmanston.

_The Transition Style._--_Dundrennan Abbey_ (Cistercian), Kirkcudbrightshire, was founded by David I. about 1142. Portions of N.

and S. transepts, choir, chapter-house, some cellar walls and other walls, with a few carved caps now remain. Queen Mary was welcomed at the abbey after her flight from Langside, and embarked for England from Port Mary, at the mouth of the Abbey Burn. _Jedburgh Abbey_ (p. 129).

_Kinloss Abbey_ (Cistercian), Morayshire, was founded by David I. in 1150, and colonised from Melrose. The enlightened Robert Reid, founder of the College of Edinburgh, was its abbot in 1528. Till 1650 the buildings were tolerably entire, and were then used to construct Cromwell's citadel at Inverness. The remains are now mere fragments.

_The Nunnery_, Iona (p. 68). _St. Nicholas Church, Aberdeen_ (p. 78).

_Coldingham Priory_ (Benedictine), Berwickshire, was founded or refounded in 1098 by Edgar, son of Queen Margaret, and dedicated to St.

Cuthbert, S.S. Mary and Ebba. The canons of Durham controlled it until 1504, and in 1509 it was placed under the rule of Dunfermline. It suffered both from fire and its nearness to the Border; it was also damaged by Cromwell, and was afterwards used as a quarry. Little of the monastery now remains, and of the church only the N. and E. walls of the choir and fragments of the S. transept. In 1662 the W. and S. walls of the choir were rebuilt to make that part of the edifice suitable for worship, and in 1854-55 the choir was restored, its W. and S. walls being again partly rebuilt, S. porch added, and the corner turrets carried up to their present height. Stones are preserved of an earlier church than the existing one. _Dryburgh Abbey_ (p. 134). _Airth Church_ (Stirlingshire) dates from the period about the beginning of the 13th century, but only a small part of the early structure remains--a bay of what has been a nave arcade, opening into a north aisle. _La.s.swade Church_, Mid-Lothian, had an old church, consisting of oblong chamber and tower. The S. wall doorway and tower reveal Transition work about first half of 13th century. _Bathgate Church_, Linlithgowshire, is now a ruin, being abandoned in 1739 for a new church. The doorway is almost the only feature of its architecture left, and its details are of transitional period. In the church is a rec.u.mbent statue.

_First Pointed Period._--_St. Andrews Cathedral and Priory_ (pp. 13, 123); _St. Mary's, Kirkheugh, St. Andrews_ (p. 102); _Arbroath Abbey_ (p. 177); _Holyrood Abbey_ (p. 124). _Kilwinning Abbey_ (Tironensian), Ayrshire, was erected on a site occupied in the 8th century by an Irish monk called St. Winnan, who is believed to be the same as St. Finnan of Moville. On the spot sanctified by his cell the monastery was erected in the 12th century by Richard or Hugh Moville, who came from England, was created by the Scottish king Great Constable of the Kingdom and presented with the lordships of Cuninghame, Largs, and Lauderdale. The church was erected early in 13th century. The buildings were destroyed shortly after the Reformation, and the parish church was erected on the site of the choir about 1775. The ruins consist of S. wall and gable of S. transept, one pier with respond and arch between S. transept and E.

aisle; handsome door which led from nave to cloisters; entrance to the chapter-house from cloisters; long ancient wall which formed the wall of S. aisle of nave; some portions of W. end of nave and S.W. tower. The N.

tower remained complete till this century, and a new tower has in recent times been erected on its site. _Dunblane Cathedral_ (p. 47).

_Inchmahome Priory_ (Augustinian), Stirlingshire, was founded and endowed by Walter Comyn, fourth Earl of Menteith, and the church, which has striking resemblances in detail to the neighbouring cathedral of Dunblane, evidently dates about 1250. Inchmahome means Isle of Rest, and the church is fairly well preserved. In 1543 Queen Mary, as a child, found refuge here along with her mother after the battle of Pinkie, and stayed for some months. Dr. John Brown has charmingly written about the young queen's miniature or child's garden--a small flower plot, the boxwood edging of which has grown up into a thick shrubbery. _Elgin Cathedral_ (p. 40). _Pluscarden Priory_ (Valliscaulian), Morayshire, was, along with Beauly and Ardchattan, founded by Alexander II. for the Order of Vallis Caulium. Pluscarden is situated in a long, well-sheltered valley. About 1460, when the monks had become corrupt, they were superseded by the Black Benedictine monks from Dunfermline, and the priory became dependent on that house. The last prior was Alexander Dunbar, and the first lay prior Lord Seton. The existing buildings consist chiefly of the remains of the church--an aisleless choir N. and S. transepts with eastern aisles, and square tower. There is no nave. The monastic buildings consist of the sacristy, or St. Mary's aisle, the chapter-house, the slype, and monks' hall--the whole forming the E. side of the cloisters. To the S.E. of cloister garth is probably the prior's house. The oldest parts are transepts with eastern aisles, built doubtless soon after the foundation. _Glasgow Cathedral_ (p. 22). _Brechin Cathedral_ (p. 44). _Lindores Abbey_ (Tironensian), Fifeshire, was founded in 1178 by David, Earl of Huntingdon, grandson of David I., and brother of King William the Lion.

The church of Dundee belonged to the monks of Lindores, and the name Lindores is believed to mean "church by the water." Alexander III., Wallace, Edward I., David II. visited the abbey, and the Duke of Rothesay was buried in the church. James, Earl of Douglas, pa.s.sed the last years of his life here. Two small coffins, found buried in the choir, are believed to have contained the remains of two children of Earl David, the founder. The buildings, entering from the E. side of the cloister, are the best preserved, and of the church little but the foundations and some portions of the wall survive. Adjoining S. transept is the vaulted slype, and the room over it may have been the scriptorium or library. The night pa.s.sage of the monks led through that apartment, as the stair was in S.W. angle of transept, and could only be thus reached. _Cambuskenneth Abbey_ (Augustinian), Stirlingshire, was founded by David I. about 1147. James III. and his queen, Margaret of Denmark, were interred before the high altar, and a stone altar monument has been erected over their remains by Queen Victoria. The detached tower at the W. is almost the only part remaining in a completed state; the W.

doorway is nearly entire, as is also portion of gable wall and side walls at S.E. corner of the buildings. _Culross Abbey_ (Cistercian) and _Parish Church_, Perthshire. The abbey was founded in 1217 by Malcolm, Earl of Fife, and considerable remains of that period, and some walls of what might be of earlier date, still survive, but princ.i.p.al parts of existing church are of later date. A few fragments of the monastic structure survive. The tower divides the E. from the W. church. The aisleless choir serves as parish church. The old parish church is a ruinous structure, about one mile N.W. from the abbey; plain oblong; in 1633 the abbey became the parish church. _Beauly Priory_ (Valliscaulian), Inverness-shire, was founded in 1230 and endowed by Sir John Bisset of Lovat. The ruined church survives, but has been sadly abused. Monastic buildings have nearly disappeared. First Pointed was later here than elsewhere. _Newbattle or Newbotle Abbey_ (Cistercian), Mid-Lothian, was founded by David I. in 1140 for monks brought from Melrose. It was a great house, and about 1350 its annual income could maintain eighty monks and seventy lay brethren, with the corresponding establishment. The last abbot was Mark Ker, and the lordship of Newbotle was conferred on his son. The abbey appears to have been almost abolished shortly after the Reformation, the only parts of the monastic buildings allowed to remain being the fratery and portions of the chapter-house, which were incorporated with the mansion-house. The nave of the church contained 10 bays; the choir and presbytery comprised 1-1/2 bay. The piers supported a tower over the crossing, and the architecture of the transepts was ma.s.sive. _Lismore Cathedral_ (p. 59).

_St. Kentigern's_, Lanark, was ancient parish church; abandoned for new one about 1777. It consisted of two six-bayed aisles, each with a chancel, but without a nave; there remain the lofty pointed arches dividing the two aisles, the wall of the S. one, and a fragment of the chancels. In the S. wall is a beautiful doorway. _Burntisland Church_, Fifeshire, _Prestonkirk_, Haddingtonshire, _Cowie_, Aberdeenshire, also ill.u.s.trate in whole or part this period. _Deer Abbey_ (Cistercian), Aberdeenshire, was founded in 1218, and succeeded a church founded in 580 by St. Columba and his nephew Drostan. The conventual buildings now existing are subsequent in date to the founding of the abbey church (completed first), and this may account for the abbot demitting office in 1267, "choosing rather to live in the sweet converse of his brethren at Melrose than to govern an unworthy flock under the lowly roofs of Deir." _Luffness Monastery, Redfriars_, Haddingtonshire, was founded by Patrick, Earl of Dunbar, in 1286. The church consisted of nave and choir, without aisles; the choir has arched recess and much-worn effigy.

The remains consist mostly of foundations. _Tungland Abbey_ (Premonstratensian), Kirkcudbrightshire, was founded by Fergus, first lord of Galloway, in 12th century, and is now represented by only one doorway. _Inchcolm Abbey_ (Augustinian), Fifeshire, was founded in 1123 by Alexander I., who had been driven ash.o.r.e on the island by a storm, and was maintained with his followers for three days by a hermit who made Inchcolm his retreat. There is still a small cell covered with a pointed barrel vault, which may have been his abode. The island was the cradle of religion in E. Scotland, and may have been visited by St.

Columba himself. Like Inchkeith, the Ba.s.s, Isle of May, and Fidra, it possesses early ecclesiastical remains. The island, like Iona, was celebrated as a place of burial. The monastic buildings date from 1216 chiefly; Walter Bower continued the Scotichronicon in the abbey. The ruins consist of the cloister court with church on N. side, and chapter-house beyond E. range. To the N. of the church was possibly the infirmary. The S.E. has cellars, stores, and offices. First Pointed work is also found at the churches of _Deer_; _Auchindoir_; _St. Cuthbert's, Monkton_; _St. Nicholas, Prestwick_; _Altyre_; _St. Mary's, Rattray_; _Abdie_; _St. Ninian's on the Isle_; _St. Colmanel's, Buittle_; _c.o.c.kpen_; _Pencaitland_; _Gogar Font_.

_Middle Pointed or Decorated Architecture._--_New Abbey_ or _Sweetheart Abbey_ (Cistercian), Kirkcudbrightshire, was dedicated to the Virgin. It was called New Abbey because it was founded a considerable time after Dundrennan, which was regarded as the old abbey. The founder was Devorgilla, daughter of Allan, Lord of Galloway, wife of John Baliol of Castle Barnard in Yorkshire, and mother of King John Baliol. When her husband died in 1269, Devorgilla had his heart embalmed and placed in an ivory coffin, which she carried about with her; at her death it was buried with her in a grave in front of the abbey high altar, hence the touching name of Sweetheart Abbey. She endowed the abbey, founded Balliol College, Oxford, and built the bridge over the Nith at Dumfries, portions of which still survive. The abbey suffered much last century, but it has since been well cared for, and is in good preservation. Few of our ancient churches are so well preserved, and the ruins represent a period of Scottish Gothic of which not many examples survive. The conventual buildings have been almost entirely demolished, but the church is complete, although the roof is gone, and the walls are much damaged. It comprises a nave with two side aisles, a choir without aisles, N. and S. transepts (with eastern chapels opening off them), and a square tower over the crossing. The precinct--a level field of about 20 acres--surrounds the abbey, and is still partly enclosed with a strong wall, built with large blocks of granite. _Melrose Abbey_ (p.

184). _Lincluden College_, Kirkcudbrightshire, was founded anew about the end of the 14th century by Archibald, the Grim, who expelled the nuns. It was a frequent residence of the Earls of Douglas, and consisted of choir separated from nave and transept by stone screen with wide doorway. The choir is aisleless, consisting of three bays; the nave had three bays with a window in each, and aisle on S. side. The architecture is of great beauty. _Fortrose Cathedral_ (p. 52). _Crossraguel Abbey_ (Cluniac), Ayrshire, was founded by the Earl of Carrick and dedicated to St. Mary. The last abbot, Quentin Kennedy, in 1562 held a famous dispute with John Knox at Maybole. The abbey was much a.s.sociated with the Bruces. In 1570 occurred the cruel "roasting of the abbot." George Buchanan received a pension out of the abbey revenues, and King James intended to restore it as a residence for his son Henry. The abbey ruins comprise, with the remains of the church, cloisters, and usual buildings, an outer court to the S.W. with picturesque gate-house, pigeon-house, and domestic buildings. The church is a simple oblong with choir and nave, without aisles and transepts. _St. Giles'_, Edinburgh (p. 89). _St. Michael's_, Linlithgow (p. 105). _St. Monans_, Fifeshire, derives its name from St. Mona.n.u.s, a missionary of the 8th century, who suffered martyrdom by the Danes on the Isle of May. The original chapel was replaced about 1362 by the present edifice, which suffered much at the hands of the English, and has been altered. It consists of chancel, N. and S. transepts, with tower and spire over the crossing, and is still used as the parish church. It is picturesque and interesting.

_Whithorn Priory_ (p. 56). _St. Mary's_, Haddington (p. 107). _Fearn Abbey_ (Premonstratensian), Ross-shire, was founded during the reign of Alexander II. Of it there now only remain a part of the church, and the ruins of some structures attached to it. The church is a simple oblong, and part of it is still used as the parish church. _Balmerino Abbey_ (Cistercian), Fifeshire, was founded in 1229 by Ermengard, widow of William the Lion, and her son Alexander II. Ermengard was buried in the church before the high altar; she was a liberal benefactress, and her son was a frequent visitor at Balmerino. Bishop Leslie ascribes the demolition of the abbey in 1559 to "certain most worthless men of the common people," for the damage of 1547, when Admiral Wyndham "bornt the abbey with all thyngs that were in it," seems to have been much repaired. The abbey buildings are now in a ruinous state, only the chapter-house, with the erections adjoining it, being at all well preserved. To the E. of the chapter-house are the ruins of the abbot's house. The church is situated, as the mother church at Melrose, on the S. of the cloister, and consisted of nave with S. aisle, transepts with the usual eastern aisle, and short presbytery without aisles. _St.

Bride's College_, Bothwell (p. 77). _Temple Church_, Mid-Lothian; _the Chapel in Rothesay Castle_; _St. Bride's_, Douglas, Lanarkshire; _St.

Duthus'_, Tain, Ross-shire; _St. Peter's_, Inverkeithing, Fife; _St.

Devenic's_, Creich, Fife; _Faslane Church_, Argyleshire; _the Monument of Sir W. Olifurd_, Aberdalgie, Perthshire, also embody architecture of this period.

_Third or Late Pointed Period._--_Paisley Abbey_ (p. 148). _Dunkeld Cathedral_ (p. 35). _Iona Cathedral_ (p. 60). _St. Machar's Cathedral_ (p. 37). _Trinity College Church_, Edinburgh, was situated on the W.

side of Leith Wynd, and founded by Mary of Gueldres, Queen of James II., in 1462. It was a very fine specimen of Scottish Gothic architecture of the 15th century, and consisted of a choir with N. and S. aisles, a five-sided apse, N. and S. transepts, with the commencement of a tower over the crossing and N. sacristy. The nave was never erected--the arch having a circular window inserted in it. It was the church of Trinity College Parish till 1848, when it was removed to make way for the railway station. The new church is in many details an exact reproduction of the corresponding features of the original building. _St. John's, Perth_ (p. 108). _Dundee Church_ (p. 113). _Glenluce Abbey_ (Cistercian), Wigtownshire, was founded in 1190 by Roland, Lord of Galloway; the chapter-house is the only portion of the abbey in good preservation. _Torphichen Church_, Linlithgowshire, represents the hospital or preceptory of Torphichen, from 1153 the princ.i.p.al Scottish residence of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Of the cruciform church, the chancel and nave are entirely gone, and there is only left a portion of the transept or "quier." The modern church is on the site of the nave. _St. Anthony's Chapel, Edinburgh_--"Sanct Antonis in the crag"--stands conspicuous from the Firth of Forth, and was perhaps chosen with the intention of attracting the notice of seamen coming up the Firth, who, in cases of danger, might be induced to make vows to its tutelary saint. There is a fine spring of clear water close to the site, which may have led to the establishment of the hermitage there. Wall remains survive. _Rosslyn Church_ (p. 85). _Dungla.s.s Collegiate Church_, Haddingtonshire, is cruciform, and a deserted but complete edifice. The choir and tower may have been built in 1403, the nave after 1450. It was founded by Sir Alexander Home of Home. _Foulis-Easter Church_, Perthshire, is a simple, oblong structure without b.u.t.tresses or projections of any kind; is well preserved and most interesting. It was built by Andrew, second Lord Gray. _St. Salvador's, St. Andrews_ (p.

102). _Dalkeith Church_ (Mid-Lothian) was const.i.tuted collegiate in the 15th century, and consists of a nave of three bays with aisles, N. and S. transepts, a W. tower, and aisleless choir of three bays with E.

apse. Part is used as the parish church. _St. Mungo's, Borthwick_ (Mid-Lothian) has been rebuilt, with the exception of the S. aisle or chapel, and the structure has originally been a Norman one, with aisleless nave, choir, and round E. apse. _Ladykirk, Berwickshire_, is very complete and almost unaltered. It is situated on the high N. bank of the Tweed, and is said to have been built in 1500, and dedicated to St. Mary by James IV. in grat.i.tude for his delivery from drowning by a sudden flood of the Tweed. It is a triapsidal cross church, without aisles, with an apsidal termination at the E. end of the chancel and at the N. and S. ends of the transept. The body of the church and transepts are covered with pointed barrel vaults, with ribs at intervals springing from small corbels, and the whole is roofed with overlapping stone flags. The upper part of the tower has been rebuilt, the lower part being of the same date as the church, which is still the parish church.

_Seton Collegiate Church_, Haddingtonshire, probably rebuilt about the close of the 15th century, was added to by the second Lord Seton when he made the church collegiate in 1493, and was completed by the third Lord Seton. The transepts, tower, and spire would appear to have been erected by the Dowager Lady Seton in the 16th century, after her husband's death at Flodden. _Arbuthnott Church_, Kincardineshire, is an interesting and picturesque structure, containing work of three distinct periods. The chancel was dedicated in 1242, and the nave may be in part of the same period. The S. wing or aisle was built by Sir Robert Arbuthnott in the end of the 15th century. The quaint W. end represents a combination of the ecclesiastical and domestic architecture of Scotland. The church has been well restored; the Arbuthnott Missal with the Psalter and office were written for the use of this church by the vicar, James Sybbald, about 1491. _King's College, Aberdeen_ (p. 80). _Church of the Holy Rood, Stirling_ (p. 114). _St. Mary's Parish Church, Whitekirk_, Haddingtonshire, was a great place of pilgrimage, and was visited among others by Pope Pius II. (aeneas Sylvius), who came to render thanks to the Virgin for his safe landing in Scotland. The church is on the plan of a cross without aisles; the choir is vaulted with a pointed barrel vault, and the roof is slated. Over the crossing is a square tower, finished with a plain parapet; the E. end is square, and there is a fine porch at the S.W. angle. The S.W. porch is one of the most striking features of the structure, and its interior is roofed with pointed barrel vaulting, having ribs springing from carved corbels. Third or late Pointed architecture is also found at _Crichton Collegiate Church_, Mid-Lothian; _Corstorphine Collegiate Church_, Mid-Lothian; _Crail Collegiate Church_, Fife; _Mid-Calder Church_, Mid-Lothian; _St. Mary's Church of the Carmelite Friars_, South Queensferry, Linlithgowshire; _Yester Collegiate Church_, Haddingtonshire; _Tullibardine Collegiate Church_, Perthshire; _Maybole Collegiate Church_, Ayrshire; _Biggar Collegiate Church_ (p. 77); _Carnwath Collegiate Church_, Lanarkshire; _St. Mary's Collegiate Church, Castle Semple_, Renfrewshire; _Church of the Franciscans or Greyfriars, Elgin_, Morayshire, and at _Aberdeen_; _Rowdil Priory_ (Augustinian), Harri, Inverness-shire; _Oronsay Priory_ (Augustinian), Argyleshire.

Examples of Scottish mediaeval architecture are also to be found in the following churches, arranged alphabetically by counties.

_Aberdeenshire_:--Kinkell, Kintore, Leask. _Argyleshire_:--Ardchattan and St. Mund's Collegiate Church, Kilmun. _Ayrshire_:--Alloway, Old Dailly, and Straiton. _Banffshire_:--Cullen Collegiate Church, Deskford, and Mortlach. _Berwickshire_:--Church of Abbey St. Bathans (Cistercian Nuns), Ba.s.sendean, c.o.c.kburnspath (an ancient structure), Preston.

_Buteshire_:--Church of St. Mary's Abbey, Rothesay.

_Dumbartonshire_:--Dumbarton Collegiate Church and Chapel at Kirkton of Kilmahew. _Dumfriesshire_:--Canonby Priory (Augustinian), Kirkbryde, St.

Cuthbert's, Moffat; Sanquhar. _Fifeshire_:--Carnock, Dysart, Kilconquhar, Kilrenny, Rosyth, Dominican Church, St. Leonard's (p. 116), Holy Trinity (p. 117), St. Andrews. _Forfarshire_:--Airlie, Invergowrie, Mains, Maryton, Pert, St. Vigean's. _Haddingtonshire_:--Church of Trinity Friars, Dunbar, and Keith. _Kincardineshire_:--St. Palladius'

Church, Fordoun. _Kirkcudbrightshire_:--Old Girthon.

_Lanarkshire_:--Blantyre Priory (Augustinian), and Covington.

_Linlithgowshire_:--Auldcathie. _Mid-Lothian_:--St. Triduan's Collegiate Church, Restalrig. _Peeblesshire_:--Newlands, Churches of Holy Cross and St. Andrew, Peebles. _Perthshire_:--Aberuthven; St. Moloc, Alyth; St.

Mechessoc, Auchterarder; Cambusmichael; Abbey of Coupar (Cistercian); Dron Church, Longforgan; Ecclesiamagirdle or Exmagirdle, Glenearn; Forgandenny; Abbey of Inchaffray (Augustinian); Innerpeffray (Collegiate); Kinfauns; Methven (Collegiate); Moncrieff Chapel; Wast-town (near Errol). _Renfrewshire_:--Houston, St. Fillan's, and Kilmalcolm. _Selkirkshire_:--Selkirk. _Wigtownshire_:--St. Machutus'

Church, Wigtown.

Mediaeval architecture terminated with the Reformation in 1560. In closing this necessarily brief record of our ancient Scottish churches, a word must be added on the Scottish Reformation. It was the aim of Knox to cleanse, not to destroy the temple, and the iconoclasm that followed was the work of the "rascal mult.i.tude," while many of the churches and abbeys were ruined by the attacks of the English before the Reformation, as the previous pages indicate. The old builders, too, did a great deal of what is now known as "scamped work," although it was partly counteracted by the excellence of their lime and the thickness of their walls. The real cause of the subsequent destruction was _neglect_, not violence, while the secularising of the old endowments alienated into other channels the means that were necessary to undo the effects of wind and weather. As Carlyle said, "Knox wanted no pulling down of stone edifices; he wanted leprosy and darkness to be thrown out of the lives of men," and it is known that he exerted himself to save the Abbey of Scone from destruction. In the case of Dunkeld Cathedral, the order makes it quite clear that neither desks, windows, nor doors, gla.s.s work nor iron work, was to be destroyed (pp. 36, 37). The aim of the reformers was at heart an endeavour to make the old temples fit symbols of the reformed faith, and the iconoclasm of the mult.i.tude is not to be attributed to them, but to the ignorance and savagery of the time, for which the Church of Rome was primarily to blame. It was this that lessened church feeling and separated the power of truth from the beauty of holiness. It is our privilege to-day to seek the unity of truth and goodness with beauty, to maintain the faith of the Reformation along with that beauty of church architecture which, in its brighter days, the old church witnessed to. It is a one-sided view which sees in Gothic nothing but the development of utility or the endeavour to attain greater height; it is the true view which beholds in it the ideality, piety, and faith that possessed the hearts of our forefathers. The architect's design could never have been realised apart from their offerings of devotion to the Christian religion. When Emerson visited Carlyle at Craigenputtock, the latter, pointing to the parish church, said to his American friend, "Christ's death built Dunscore Church yonder." It is a deep, true utterance, for Christ's death has built every church in Christendom, and these embodiments of beauty not least of all. In this light we see what is at the heart of these ancient Scottish churches, and what has created the affection that treasures them. The ruined walls of so many of them ought to have been the home of the reformed faith, life, and work, linking the present to the past by natural piety, and visibly reminding the worshippers of the church that endureth throughout all generations. The present revival of interest in them is like a new-discovered sense, and is undoing the spoliation and neglect of an age subsequent to the Reformation, and for which the Scottish Reformers are not to blame. Theirs was no easy work, and history has vindicated its results in the progressive genius of the Scottish people. The Reformation saved religion, but the alienation of the religious endowments to secular purposes, often by unworthy hands, is the chief cause of the ruins which tell of a beauty that has left the earth, and it has deprived the Church of so many of its venerable heirlooms. Otherwise there might have been said of the Scottish as was said of the English Reformation that but for it there would have been little Norman or Early English left in the cathedrals, for it just came at a time when the early styles were being pulled fast down to make room for the later.[479] It was the Scottish Reformers' aim to make all the churches parish churches, and each church the centre of the life and work of each parish. Their grievance against monasticism arose from the corrupt lives of the monks and from its intrusion on the parochial system with the alienation of the parish teinds to the use of the monastery. But the idea of _a church in the centre of a residence_, is one not without suggestiveness to the life of to-day, with its many activities, as a training home for workers; as a temporary retreat for rest, meditation, and prayer to the hard-wrought ministers in the city parishes; as a place for conference on the religious problems; as a theological hall and settlement for divinity students, like that at Locc.u.m near Hanover, where a reformed mediaeval monastery, free from vows, and in the full vigour of its life, is used as a college and residence for the students of the Reformed Church, and where the old monastic church is used as the parish church for the people around. To visit Locc.u.m and see it presided over by the venerable Protestant theologian, Dr. Ullhorn, with its garden, grounds, and farm, its church and cloisters, its great library and residence for professors and students, is to be persuaded of the rich possibilities that lie within the reach of the Scottish Church in the restoration of some of its ruined abbeys. The saintly Leighton felt the need of this, and thought "the great and fatal error of the Reformation was, that more of these houses and of that course of life, _free from the entanglements of vows and other mixtures_, was not preserved; so that the Protestant churches had neither places of education nor retreat for men of mortified tempers."[480] The Reformed Church would thereby purify a great idea, and if it be true, as the late Master of Balliol a.s.serted, that it is the great misfortune of Protestantism never to have had an art or architecture,[481] it can restore and adopt the old architecture that was the creation of the Christian spirit, amid the leisure of the cloister and in times more restful than our own.

APPENDIX

DEFINITION OF LEADING ARCHITECTURAL TERMS[482]

_Abacus_--the flat member at the top of a capital. _Apse_--the semicircular s.p.a.ce at the end of a building. _Arcade_--a series of arches; is usually applied to the small ornamental arches only. _Barrel vault_--resembling the inside of a barrel. _Bead_--a small round moulding. _Boss_--a projecting ornament in a vault at the intersection of the ribs. _Canopy_--the head of a niche over an image; also the ornamental moulding over a door or window or tomb. _Capital_, _cap_--the head of a column, pilaster, etc. _Chamfer_--a sloping surface forming the bevelled edge of a square pier, moulding, or b.u.t.tress, when the angle is said to be chamfered off. _Chevron_--an inflected moulding, also called zigzag, characteristic of Norman architecture. _Clere-story_ or _clear-story_--the upper story of a church, as distinguished from the triforium or blind story below it, in which the openings, though resembling windows, are usually blank or blind, not glazed. _Corbel_--a projecting stone to carry a weight, usually carved. _Crocket_--an ornament usually resembling a leaf half opened, and projecting from the upper edge of a canopy or pyramidal covering. The term is supposed to be derived from the resemblance to a shepherd's crook. _Crypt_--a vault beneath a church, generally beneath the chancel only, and sometimes used for the exhibition of relics. _Cusp_--an ornament used in the tracery of windows, screens, etc., to form foliation. _Dormer_--an upright window placed on a sloping roof, giving light to the chambers next the roof.

_Fillet_--a small square band used on the face of mouldings.

_Finial_--the ornament which finishes the top of a pinnacle, a canopy, or a spire, usually carved into a bunch of foliage. _Flying b.u.t.tress_--an arch carried over the roof of an aisle from the external b.u.t.tress to the wall of the clerestory, to support the vault.

_Gargoyle_--a projected water-spout, often ornamented with grotesque figures. _Jambs_--the sides of a window opening or doorway.

_Mullion_--the vertical bar dividing the lights of a window. _Ogee_--a moulding formed by the combination of a round and hollow. _Pier arches_--the main arches of the nave or choir resting on piers.

_Pinnacle_--a sort of small spire usually terminating a b.u.t.tress.

_Piscina_--a water-drain in a church placed on the right-hand side of an altar for the use of the priest. _Plinth_--the projecting member forming the lower part of a base or of a wall. _Shaft_--a small, slender pillar usually attached to a larger one, or in the sides of a doorway or window. _Slype_--a pa.s.sage leading from the transept to the chapter-house. _String-course_--a horizontal moulding or course of masonry, usually applied to the one carried under the windows of the chancel, both externally and internally. _Tooth ornament_--an ornament resembling a row of teeth, sometimes called dog's tooth and shark's tooth. _Transept_--the portion of a building crossing the nave and producing a cruciform plan. _Transition_--the period of a change of style, during which there is frequently an overlapping of the styles.

_Transom_--the transverse horizontal piece across the mullions of a window. _Triforium_ or blind story--the middle story of a large church, over the pier arches and under the clerestory windows; it is usually ornamented by an arcade, and fills the s.p.a.ce formed by the necessary slope of the aisle roofs. _Tympanum_--the s.p.a.ce between the flat lintel of a doorway and the arch over it, usually filled with sculpture.

THE END.

_Printed by_ R. & R. CLARK, LIMITED, _Edinburgh._

THE SCOTT COUNTRY

By W. S. CROCKETT

[Ill.u.s.tration]

_In One Volume. Large Crown 8vo, Cloth.

Containing about 200 Ill.u.s.trations._

_Probable price 3s. 6d. net._

Mr. W. S. Crockett's book on "The Scott Country" will tell the story of the famous Borderland and its undying a.s.sociations with Sir Walter, its greatest son. His early years at Sandyknowe and Kelso will be sketched by one who is himself a native of that very district. Scott's first Border home at Ashestiel, and the making of Abbotsford, the Ettrick and Yarrow of Scott, the memories that cl.u.s.ter round Melrose, the district of Hawick, and the country of "Marmion," will all have a place in the work. Not a spot of historic and romantic interest but will be referred to all along the line of Tweedside and its tributaries from Berwick to the Beild. The Border country of Scotland has already been the subject of a very extensive literature, but the "Scott Country" being presented upon a more compact and comprehensive plan than has yet been attempted, will, we feel sure, be a source of satisfaction to every reader, whether Border-born or not. To the Scott abroad the volume will recall many a familiar memory, and at home it should take its place as a standard work of its kind, the author being, according to Dr. Robertson Nicoll and others, perhaps the most capable living student of the Border and its literature. The "Scott Country" will have close on 200 ill.u.s.trations, many of them quite new; and the price is such as to bring it within the reach of all.

A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON.

NEW POCKET EDITION.

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