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
covered with a temporary slated roof, which cut off one half of the
clerestory windows. The mark of this roof is still visible in the walls.
When we examine smaller details, we find the same methods adopted by the
Rosslyn builders as were familiar to the other builders of the country,
thus all the lintels or straight arches connecting the main pillars with
the side walls, which are such striking features at Rosslyn, are
composed of small stones, having radiating joints in the same manner as
is frequent in the lintels of the wide fireplaces in the halls of the
castles. It may also be noted that the jambs of these fireplaces often
terminate in curious moulded caps, often very clumsy, and not unlike the
caps of the responds at the east wall of Rosslyn. The plans of the
castles sometimes show a series of small parallel apartments, with
barrel vaults abutting at right angles upon a passage or wider hall,
which may have suggested the parallel barrel vaults of the aisles of
Rosslyn. But, indeed, the form of the main arcade itself suggests such
an arrangement. The carved canopies and corbels placed on the face of
the buttresses and window jambs (see Fig. 1090) are thoroughly
characteristic of the Scottish churches of this period, and when their
general design is considered, these features at Rosslyn will be found
not to differ materially from those of the churches of Melrose,
Linlithgow, Seton, Trinity College, and other buildings. Compare the
disposition of small canopied niches round some central feature, such as
the buttress niche (Fig. 778) at Melrose, and the pinnacles (see Figs.
1075 and 1076) at Rosslyn.
On the sides of each buttress at Rosslyn (see Figs. 1072, 1073, and
1091) there is a splayed moulding, a kind of set-off which runs from the
front of the buttress back to the wall, on the top of the base string
course. A somewhat similar set-off occurs on some of the buttresses of
the chapter house of Glasgow Cathedral, built a few years before
Rosslyn.
A large number of details from Melrose have a very decided resemblance
to those found at Rosslyn. Thus the staircase turret (Fig. 773)
[Illustration: FIG. 1090.--The Collegiate Church of Rosslyn. Corbels on
Window Jambs and Buttresses.]
at the west side of the south transept of Melrose is in spirit so very
like the work at Rosslyn that, had it been included in the illustrations
of the latter, only those who have local knowledge would have detected
it. The same remark applies to the south doorway from Dalkeith Church,
given further on. A striking resemblance also occurs between the
mouldings of the sacristy doors at Lincluden and Bothwell and the
details of the clerestory windows at Rosslyn. In all these examples the
mouldings consist of an outer and inner shaft, separated by a large
hollow, containing carved work; and the shafts have, in every case, caps
and bases treated in a similar manner.
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