_St. Michael's Parish Church, Linlithgow_, was the scene of the apparition that is said to have warned King James IV. against the battle of Flodden, and is one of the largest parish churches in Scotland. A church dedicated to St. Michael existed here as early as the time of David I. A new church is said to have been erected in 1242, and probably some parts of this are incorporated in the present edifice. In 1384 Robert II. contributed to the erection or repair of the church tower, and in 1424 the church was injured and considerably destroyed by the fire that reduced the town to ashes. The reconstruction of the edifice probably progressed, under the Jameses, simultaneously with that of the palace adjoining. St. Michael's consists of a choir, including two aisles and a three-sided apse at the east end; a nave, including two aisles; two chapels inserted, north and south, in the place usually occupied by the transept; a square tower at the west end, and a south porch giving access to the nave. The nave is the oldest part of the building, and appears to have been erected before the middle of the fifteenth century. The choir is of somewhat later date.[285] A broad stone bench or seat is carried round the nave, and the bases of the triple wall shafts of the vaulting rest upon it. Those of the choir, different in design, rest on the floor. In the nave there are triforium openings in each bay, and clerestory windows above them. The windows throughout the church are of large size, and filled with varied geometric tracery. The windows of the apse are large, and the tracery of two of the windows is perpendicular in character. The transepts (or north and south chapels) and the south porch have crow-stepped gables both on their outer walls and also over the inner or aisle wall which separates them from the church. Each of these contains an apartment over the vault, that over the south porch being probably a place for preserving documents. The buttresses of the nave have a simpler character than those of the apse and north transept. The canopies of the niches are ornamented somewhat similarly to those of Rosslyn. The buttress of the south-west angle of the nave, crowned with the sculptured figure of St. Michael, is a striking feature on approaching the church. The western tower was originally terminated with a crown of open stone-work, similar to that of St. Giles, Edinburgh. About 1821 it was found to be in a dangerous condition, and had to be taken down. The tower is of late design and contains a doorway, continental in style, which may possibly be the work of Thomas French, the King's master-mason, and above which there is a large perpendicular window. The upper part of the tower would contrast well with the crown on the top. The tower opens into the nave with a wide and lofty arch, carried up to the clerestory level, and the groined vault with large window below produces a good effect. In each side wall of the tower is a