The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland from the earliest Christian times to the seventeenth century; vol. 3/3MacGibbon, David
History
The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland from the earliest Christian times to the seventeenth century; vol. 3/3
MacGibbon, David
Church architecture -- Scotland
The choir and aisles were roofed with fine groined vaulting. That of the
side aisles was simple, but the vault of the choir was ornamented with
ridge ribs and several intermediate ribs, or tiercerons, springing from
vaulting shafts, supported on corbels and provided with carved caps, and
all the vaults were studded with carved bosses. The effect of the
vaulting of the apse was specially beautiful. Each bay of the choir had
clustered piers (Fig. 1017), with finely carved capitals. Above these
was a string course, then a piece of plain wall in the space usually
occupied by the triforium, and the whole was crowned with the traceried
clerestory
[Illustration: FIG. 1017.--Trinity College Church.
Piers of Choir.]
windows. A good general view of the interior, taken a short time before
its destruction, is given by Billings.[52]
Owing to the removal of the building, it has been impossible to make
original illustrations for this work, but we are fortunate in being able
to publish copies of a series of sketches made by the late James
Drummond, R.S.A., in 1845. These picturesque sketches give a good idea
of the nature of the structure, both internally and externally. Fig.
1018 is a view of the exterior of the south side of the choir, showing
the three bays into which the aisle was divided by buttresses, from
which flying arches extended to the upper part of the choir. The
buttresses had simple set-offs, and were crowned with pinnacles, which,
for the most part, seem to have been greatly decayed. In the depth of
the buttresses next the south transept a porch was formed, which was
roofed with fine groined vaulting. This porch is also well shown in Fig.
1018. The arch is moulded, and dies against the buttresses, and is
crowned with a reversed curve and a flowered finial. There were
carefully carved canopies and corbels for statues on the face of the
buttresses on each side of the porch, and the other buttresses seem to
have had similar niches. A round-headed doorway in the porch gave access
to the choir, and had a square-headed window over it.
The aisle windows had double splayed jambs and arches (Fig. 1019) both
in the exterior and interior of the wall openings, but the original
tracery had been broken, and its place was supplied with one upright
mullion in the centre and a transome (Fig. 1020). This sketch also shows
the south end of the south transept, which preserved its four mullions,
of varied thickness, and its tracery. The latter is of a kind not
uncommon in late Scottish churches.
Fig. 1021 shows the exterior of the north transept, and the north side
of the choir and the sacristy. The north end wall of the transept
corresponds
[Illustration: FIG. 1018.--Trinity College Church. South Side of
Choir.]
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