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 soffit cusping so common in the arches at Rosslyn is a decoration of
the most frequent occurrence throughout Scotland; at this period,
indeed, there is hardly an arched tomb recess in the country which is
not so decorated. Carved rosettes set in hollows, which abound
everywhere at Rosslyn, are likewise the common decoration of the
period, both in churches and castles. Similar decorative enrichments are
also very common in Tudor buildings in England, as, for example, in
Henry VII.’s Chapel at Westminster, where also the small figures so
frequent at Rosslyn above the caps and on buttresses, &c., find their
counterpart, thus showing an association of ideas with English rather
than foreign work.
[Illustration: FIG. 1091. The Collegiate Church of Rosslyn. Base
Mouldings and Lower String Course, with Peculiar Moulding above the
latter.]
The doorways at Rosslyn, with the porches formed in front of them by
arches thrown between the buttresses, are paralleled by the doorways at
Glasgow Cathedral; Trinity College, Edinburgh; and St. Salvator’s, St.
Andrews. The engrailed cross which enters so largely into the decoration
of Rosslyn, being employed all along the arched roof of the aisles and
of the lower chapel, and forming the motive for the tracery of some of
the windows at the east end, is peculiarly local, being the distinctive
feature of the St. Clair arms, while the loop tracery in many of the
windows is of common occurrence in Scotland. A number of details
illustrated in Fig. 1092, being chiefly the corbels of niches, have a
very marked resemblance to the similar carvings at Trinity College,
Edinburgh. Those containing the fox preaching to the geese and the
dromedary are specially interesting. Other examples (such as Fig. 1093)
show that the character of the foliage is the same as that of many of
our Scottish churches. Much of the carving at Rosslyn has considerable
affinity with the late wood work in English churches (see Fig. 1082).
These comparisons are probably enough to prove that Rosslyn Church was
built after the manner and style of its age and country, and only
differs from other Scottish churches of the same period in possessing a
superabundance of rich detail and carving in excess of what is usually
found.[86]
The transepts, which project two bays to the north and south, were
obviously intended to be two stories high, and probably of the same
height as the clerestory walls of the choir. Indeed, a part of the east
wall of the north transept exists of this height. The walls of the
transept are well buttressed, as if to maintain a vault, and there are
no windows in the existing lower part of the transepts, the intention
probably being to light them with large traceried windows at each end,
as in Trinity College.
The portions of the transepts and crossing which have been completed are
too small to enable it to be clearly determined how these parts of the
structure were intended to be carried out and vaulted. The west gable
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