In considering the history of Rosslyn Church many of the statements of Father Hay regarding the St. Clairs and Rosslyn require to be received with considerable caution. He was a hero worshipper, and Sir William was his hero. The latter is represented by the Father as living in more than royal magnificence at Rosslyn, with many of the nobles of Scotland waiting upon him as servants. That is a very incredible statement, as is also the assertion that under the fostering care of Sir William, Rosslyn became the “chiefest town in all Lothian, except [Illustration: FIG. 1086.--The Collegiate Church of Rosslyn. Section through East End of Church and Lower Chapel.] Edinburgh and Haddington.” But few who visit this chapel will be inclined seriously to quarrel with the Father on account of his enthusiasm for the Rosslyn family. To the purest in Gothic architecture Rosslyn may seem barbarous and debased, but it must be allowed to be splendid barbarism, meted out with the most liberal hand. Sir William is further represented by Father Hay as bringing artificers from foreign lands, and setting them to work on Rosslyn College, and on this unsupported statement many writers have found the prototype of this building abroad, some in France and some in Spain, and even Rome is hinted at in the well known story of the ’Prentice Pillar. The unusual richness of the ornamentation of the edifice, so different from most of the structures [Illustration: FIG. 1087.--The Collegiate Church of Rosslyn. Lower Chapel or Sacristy, looking West.] erected in this country at the time, has doubtless led to these attempts to attribute the design to a foreign architect or a foreign country, where richly decorated structures exist. [Illustration: FIG. 1088. The Collegiate Church of Rosslyn. Arms of Sir W. Sinclair’s First Wife.] But this amount of decoration, being so exceptional in Scottish edifices, seems to have proved misleading. No parallel to Rosslyn has, so far as we know, been discovered abroad, and it is unnecessary to go so far afield in search of a model. The leading principles of the design are really Scottish, and it will be found, on careful analysis, that Rosslyn Church presents a rich and finished epitome, both as regards constructive and decorative elements, of the Scottish ecclesiastical architecture of the third or late pointed period. The plan of the east end of Rosslyn Church so closely resembles that of the choir of Glasgow Cathedral, that there is hardly room to doubt that the latter was the model after which the former was designed. The disposition of the pillars in the two buildings agrees exactly, the side aisles in both being connected by an eastern [Illustration: FIG. 1089. The Collegiate Church of Rosslyn. Corbels in Lower Chapel.]