The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland from the earliest Christian times to the seventeenth century; vol. 2/3MacGibbon, David
History
The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland from the earliest Christian times to the seventeenth century; vol. 2/3
MacGibbon, David
Church architecture -- Scotland
The tower over the crossing (see Fig. 894) is one of the most effective
parts of the structure. It is about 30 feet square, and rises above the
church as a square-angled structure, without buttresses or breaks. It
has a lofty triple window in each face, each opening being crowned with
a semicircular arch, and divided in the centre by an ornamental transom.
On each side of the tower two niches, with carved canopies and corbels
(but now without statues), occupy the plain space between the windows
and the corners of the structure.
Originally the tower was crowned with a canopy or spire of open work,
similar to those which still exist at St. Giles’, Edinburgh, and King’s
College, Aberdeen, and also that which formerly crowned the tower of
Linlithgow Church. A slight corbelled break in the centre of each face
of the tower indicates that a rib sprang from the centre of each face,
as well as the angles of the tower, thus producing the effect of an
octagonal crown, as at St. Giles’. Large picturesque gargoyles still
break the line of the cornice on top.
The whole church seems to have been designed and constructed at the same
period--probably about the middle of the fifteenth century. The choir
and nave were almost identical in their general features as originally
executed; and the details of the piers, mouldings, bases, caps, &c., are
very similar in both divisions. The style of the carved foliage is also
similar in each, and bears the stamp of Scottish decorated work, but
rather late in the style.
As an indication that the building was completed about the middle of the
fifteenth century, there occur in the “Buke of Auld Register of
Haidinton”[174] many entries of gifts of chalices and other furnishings
made to the various altars in the church, extending from 1423 to 1463,
showing that “more than ordinary interest had been taken in the ‘Paroche
Kirk.’”
The altars were the following:--
1. Our Lady Altar.
2. Haly Blude Altar.
3. St. Blaise’s Altar.
4. St. John’s Altar.
5. The Three Kings of Cologne.
6. St. Salvator’s Altar.
7. St. Katrine’s Altar.
8. St. Mychael’s Altar.
9. St. Towbart’s Altar.
10. Crispin and Crispianus.
11. Trinity Altar.[175]
At the Reformation the possessions of the church and chapel dependent on
it fell to Queen Mary’s brother, the Earl of Moray, who was Prior of
St. Andrews. They were afterwards seized by the Earl of Morton, and, at
his forfeiture, passed to the Crown. They were next presented by James
VI. to his favourite, Esmé, Duke of Lennox, as a temporal lordship; and
ultimately came into the hands of the Earl of Hopetoun.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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