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
now entirely destroyed; a transept, of which part of the southern arm
with its eastern aisle or chapels remains; and an aisleless choir, of
which only a fragment of the south wall survives. From Symson’s
statement, above quoted, there was also a steeple, but whether over the
crossing or not does not now appear. To the south of the nave lay the
cloisters, the walls of which (partly old and partly reconstructed) now
subsist, and enclose a space measuring 89 feet from north to south by 86
feet from east to west. The north, west, and south sides are enclosed
with a stone wall, and on the east side there is a row of structures
comprising the chapter house in the centre, a ruined heap on the north
side of the chapter house, and two cellars with plain barrel vaults on
the south side.
The chapter house (Fig. 1055) is the only portion of the abbey in good
preservation. It consists of an apartment about 24 feet square, with a
central pillar, from which spring the ribs of the groined vaulting. At
the side walls the ribs rest on corbels. The apartment is lighted with
two traceried windows (Fig. 1056), the tracery of which has been renewed
within recent years, after the pattern of the old tracery. The door
enters from the cloister on the west. It is of semicircular form (Fig.
1057), and exhibits in its capitals some peculiar and striking
sculpture. The leaves of the foliage are large and the design is
remarkable, some of the leaves, which are probably intended to represent
sun flowers, having very much the appearance of starfish. The interior
of the chapter house doorway (Fig. 1058) has also some peculiar
sculpture, and the manner in which the ribs of the vaults descend on the
round arch-head is well managed.
[Illustration: FIG. 1059.--Glenluce Abbey.
Corbel in Chapter House.]
The stone benches which surrounded the chapter house, including the
abbot’s chair between the two windows (see Fig. 1055), are much
destroyed, but the central pillar and the vaulting are well preserved.
The capital of the pillar is carved with foliage of a late character,
and the corbels supporting the ribs of the vaults at the wall show
similar work. One of these corbels is quaintly carved, in imitation of a
figure clothed in the costume of the fifteenth or sixteenth centuries
(Fig. 1059), thus giving an indication of the date of the building. From
this and the work on the doorway above referred to, as well as the
character of the work generally, we have no hesitation in fixing the
date of this part of the abbey about the end of the fifteenth century.
The bosses of the vaults are carved with various devices, one of them
bearing a lion rampant, which is probably meant to represent the arms of
the founder, the Lord of Galloway.
The design of the tracery in the windows (see Fig. 1056) is good for the
period. It is remarkably like that of the chapter house at Crosraguel
Abbey, which was also fifteenth century work.
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