In the description of Rothesay Castle[181] the plan of the ground floor of the chapel is shown standing within the courtyard, and at right angles to the east wall of enceinte. The chapel itself, however, was on the upper floor of this building, which is two stories in height. The chapel (Fig. 911)
is 30 feet in length by 20 feet in width internally. The west wall is now much broken down, so that in the view from the north-west (Fig. 912) there is seen the exterior of the north side and the interior of the south side. The chapel has been lighted by two windows in the north and two windows in the south wall, all towards the east end. About the middle of the structure there is a small window in each of the north and south walls, and further westwards the entrance doorway occurs in the south wall. The doorway is still pretty complete, and has a round arch and splayed jambs. Being at the height of one story from the ground, it must have been approached by an outside staircase, probably somewhat in the manner shown by dotted lines on Plan.
There is no window in the east wall, as a window in that position would have been blocked by the staircase leading to the battlements on the outer wall of the fortress. The eastern part of the church, however, is amply lighted by the two large windows on each side. These windows (Fig. 913) are pointed, and each had a central mullion and simple branching tracery. The mouldings consist of simple splays. There is a piscina in the south wall of the chancel to the east of the eastern window.
The small windows in the side walls are pointed, and may have lit altars at the rood screen. The western portion of the chapel had probably a window in the west wall.
The whole structure is simple, but massive. There are few features by which the date may be fixed, but it seems most probable that it was erected towards the end of the fourteenth century, when the castle was enlarged and frequently occupied by Kings Robert II. and III.
The town of Douglas, in the parish of the same name, stands in the Upper Ward of Lanarkshire, about 3½ miles south from Douglas Station, on the Lesmahagow branch of the Caledonian Railway. The town and castle are closely connected with the great Douglas family, several members of which are buried in the church, and have sumptuous monuments erected therein to their memory.
The church of Douglas existed in the twelfth century, but the present structure is of considerably later date. Douglas Church belonged to Kelso Abbey. In the end of the fourteenth century it was made a prebend of Glasgow Cathedral. The ancient church here, in 1307, played an important part in one of the bold feats of the Good Sir James Douglas in the time of Bruce. The English garrison of Douglas Castle, being assembled in the church, were attacked by Sir James, and were all killed.
The church, of which some fragments are still preserved, was doubtless destroyed during the troublous times of the War of Independence. The present structure, of which little but the choir remains, appears to have been built about the end of the fourteenth century. Its architecture is very simple, all the rybats and mullions having plain splays instead of mouldings.
The choir (Fig. 914) measures, internally, 40 feet in length by 17 feet 4 inches in width, and has no aisles. There has at one time been a nave, the large arch to which, though built up, is visible in the wall between the nave and choir.
The central part of the nave has entirely disappeared, and its space now forms part of the churchyard. There remains, however, what has apparently been the south aisle of the nave. It has been connected with the central aisle by two arches, the central pillar and west respond of which still survive, though built up with modern masonry. This aisle is about 38 feet in length by 20 feet in width over the walls. In the north-east angle of the aisle a square turret, about 10 feet over the walls, has been erected.
The choir contains a large three-light window in the east end (Fig. 915), having two mullions, which form three smaller pointed arches within the large arch-head. In the south side there are three similar windows, but smaller, the central one having the sill kept very high, and being thus of a stunted appearance.
The monument in the south side, which contains the effigies of James, seventh Earl of Douglas, and his wife, has required a break to be formed in the wall on the exterior, so as to allow breadth for the two figures under the canopy.
The entrance to the choir is by a modernised doorway in the north wall, close to the west end. On entering one is struck by the fine appearance of the large monuments (Fig. 916), especially those on the left or north side. These monuments, as well as the whole building, have evidently been considerably repaired within recent years. Until about fifteen years ago the church was in a miserable condition, the windows being built up, so that the monuments could only be seen by lamp light. The building stood open, and the school children (the schoolhouse being
near) used it as a place to play in. It is, therefore, no wonder that the fine monuments and effigies suffered damage. The whole have been
repaired by Lord Home, and are now in excellent condition, and a new roof has been placed on the building.
The oldest monument is, doubtless, that in the north wall (Fig. 917), near the doorway. It is traditionally ascribed to the Good Sir James, the staunch adherent and companion in arms of Bruce. He died in Spain, in 1331, when on his way to the Holy Land with the heart of King Robert. The tomb contains a broken effigy, having a shield on the left side, and with hands drawing his sword, but the right arm is broken off. The legs have been crossed, but the upper limb is broken off by the knee. The head rests on a cushion and the feet against a mutilated animal, probably a lion. This monument is illustrated by Blore in his Monumental Remains, and the effigy is pronounced by him to be of a date anterior to the time of Sir James. The canopy is of a much later period, probably fifteenth century.[182] It comprises a large pointed arch with fine detached and freely cut cusping, surmounted by a crocketed label moulding of ogee form, terminating in a large finial, which reaches to the top of the wall of the church. A buttress on each side, set diagonally, encloses the monument. Each buttress has a tall crocketed pinnacle and foliaged finial. The shield in the spandril of the canopy contains the heart, an addition to the Douglas Arms, made in consequence of Sir James’s mission to the Holy Land with Bruce’s heart.
To the east of the above monument in the north wall is that of Archibald, fifth Earl of Douglas (Fig. 918), who died in 1438. He was the son of Archibald, fourth Earl, who distinguished himself in the service of Charles VII. of France, and received therefor the Duchy of Touraine, in 1423. This Earl was killed, along with most of his Scottish followers, at the battle of Verneuil, 1424. Archibald, the fifth Earl, after serving for some time in France, returned home and died of fever in 1438.
The effigy which lies within the monument is habited in robes of state, and wears a ducal coronet. In the left hand was probably a baton of office, and the right hand holds together the cord which fastens the mantle. The feet rest on a lion couchant. Round the waist is a broad ornamental belt. Round the margin of the slab was formerly an inscription, now nearly obliterated, which Godscroft gives as follows:—
HIC · JACET · ARCHIBALDUS · DE · DOUGLAS · DUX · TOURENIAE · COMES DE · DOUGLAS · ET · LONGUEVILLE · DOMINUS · GALLOVIDIAE · WIGTONIAE · ET ANNANDIAE · LOCUM · TENENS · REGIS · SCOTIE · OBIIT · XXVIº · DIE · MENSIS IUNII · ANNO · DOMINI · MILLESIMO · QUARINGENTESIMO · TRICESIMO · OCTAVO.[183]
The effigy rests on a tomb, the front of which is divided into six panels, each containing a small figure, probably representing the family of the deceased. The figures stand on small pedestals, and are surmounted with ornamental canopies. Over the tomb is a somewhat flat arch of ogee form,
with enriched mouldings, having a crocketed hood terminating in an enriched finial. At either side are two small buttresses, each containing
a small statue and covered with a crocketed pinnacle. A parapet, pierced with quatrefoils, and which has been considerably renewed, runs along the top. On the wall at the back of the arched recess a figure, kneeling at an altar, is carved. A small shield over the altar bears the Douglas arms, and the scroll carried an inscription, now obliterated.
In Blore’s time this monument was sadly destroyed, and the small figures were scattered over the floor, but they have now been replaced and the monument restored.
The base of the monument bears an ornament of sculptured foliage, very closely resembling that on the two eastern pillars of St. Giles’, Edinburgh, the work on both being probably of about the same period, about the middle of the fifteenth century.
Fig. 920.—St. Bridget’s or St. Bride’s Church.
Effigies
of James, Seventh Earl of Douglas,
and Beatrice de Sinclair.
In the south wall of the choir there is a third monument (Fig. 919), which contains recumbent figures of James, seventh Earl of Douglas, and Beatrice de Sinclair, his wife (Fig. 920). The former is in armour, but the statue is much broken. The latter wears a long robe. The heads rest on cushions, and the hands are clasped in the attitude of prayer. In the face of the tomb are ten niches containing upright figures of the sons and daughters of the Earl and Countess, and one niche containing an angel, who supports a shield blazoned with the Douglas and Sinclair arms. Above the figures was the following inscription:—“Hic jacet magnus et potens princeps Dominus Jacobus de Douglas Dux Toureniae et Comes de Douglas Dominus Annandiae Gallovidiae Liddaliae Jedburg Forestiae et Dominus de Balveniae Magnus Wardanus Regni Scotiae versus Angliam, &c., qui obiit 24 die mensis Martii anno domini 1443.”[184]
This Earl was the brother of the forementioned Archibald, sixth Earl, to whom he succeeded after the murder, in Edinburgh Castle, of Archibald’s two sons. He was called “Le Gros” on account of his corpulence, and seems to have been a “prudent and peaceable man.”
The inscription for his lady was as follows:—“Hic jacit Domina Beatrix de Sinclair filia domini Henrici Comitis Arcadum Domini de Sinclair, &c. Comitessa de Douglas et Aveniae Domina Gallovidiae.”
On the east side of these inscriptions was a stone, on which were recorded the names and titles of the sons and daughters.
“This inscription enables us to fix the date of the erection of the monument—viz., between 1448, when Archibald was made Earl of Moray, and 1451, when James, the eldest son, was killed.”[185]
As already mentioned, the outer wall has been extended so as to give width for the tomb. The arch of the canopy is flat and low, so that the space is dark at the back. The label is enriched with crockets, which run up into a foliaged finial of late character (Fig. 921). Over this a shield, bearing the Douglas Arms, surmounted by a helmet with a peacock for crest, and covered with a small enriched string course, is inserted in the wall. In a niche in the wall on either side of the shield there have been “wild men” as supporters, but one of these has been removed.
This monument is evidently of a later date than those on the north side, and is inferior in design and execution, as might be expected from its date.
To the west of the above monument, and in the extreme south-west angle of the church, there lies an effigy (Fig. 922) of beautiful workmanship and of an early date. It is apparently a female figure, the arms and head of which are damaged. The feet rest upon a bunch of foliage of first pointed design, greatly worn away. Such a footing for the effigy of a monument is rare in Scotland.
In the east wall two circular headed recesses occur under the large window, which may have been credence niches.
In the south wall near the east end there is a double piscina in a recess, having a trefoiled head. The basins are round plain sinkings.
The nave appears to have been a structure of the same date as the choir. The pillar between it and the south aisle seems to be of the fifteenth century. At the east end of the south aisle there is a piscina in the south wall, set in a trefoil headed recess, similar to that in the choir.
The turret in the north-east angle of the nave aisle is carried to a considerable height. It is octagonal in the upper stories; and the top story, which forms the belfry, is pierced with eight small pointed windows (see Fig. 915), the mouldings round which form square frames above the arch-heads. The turret is finished with an octagonal spire of stone, and at the base of each angle of the spire there is a small stone pinnacle, now much worn away.
There still survive some fragments of carved work, which bear evidence of the former existence of an ancient church in Douglas. These fragments are portions of Norman capitals, which are piled up, as shown in the sketch, (Fig. 923), in the recess of the south aisle adjoining the turret. One cap shows a face with a fierce moustache, and others are good specimens of characteristic Norman design.
This very interesting church was founded by Archibald the Grim, Earl of Douglas, in 1398. He was proprietor of the great Castle of Bothwell in the vicinity, and he dedicated the church to St. Bride, his patron saint. The establishment was to consist of a provost and eight
prebendaries. In order to provide suitable accommodation, he added a choir to the existing parish church, and granted to the establishment sufficient resources. In this church the unfortunate Duke of Rothesay was married to the Earl’s daughter Marjory, in the year 1400. The old College Church is now attached to a new and larger modern parish church which adjoins it on the west, but the College Church is not now used for service. The structure is a simple oblong chamber (Fig. 924), 55 feet in length by 22 feet in width internally, with a sacristy on the north side 14 feet long by 10 feet wide. The church, externally divided by buttresses, has four bays (Fig. 925), with a series of pointed windows in the south wall and three windows in the north wall. The east end is square, and has one large pointed window with drop arch. The entrance doorway (Fig. 926) is in the south wall in the second bay from the west end, under a window. The arch of the doorway is remarkable from being elliptic in form. The mouldings of the arch are bold, but they are destroyed on the jambs. A label mitring into a string course at top runs round the arch. The windows are deeply splayed both inside and out, but the tracery with which they were doubtless filled is now wanting. The arch of the east window springs
from a point considerably below the junction with the jambs, which gives it a broken appearance. An inner moulding, finished with well wrought bases, runs round the exterior of the windows. The roof of this church, like that of so many erected at a somewhat later period, is covered with overlapping stone slabs, which rest on a pointed barrel vault (Fig. 927), for the purpose of supporting it. This is the earliest example we have met with of this form of vault, which became very common in the churches of the following period. That at Lincluden, already referred to, is similar, but had a groined vault beneath it. The vault is ornamented with moulded ribs at intervals, springing from small moulded corbels. There is also a ridge rib, and bosses occur at the junction with the curved side ribs. The buttresses are simple in outline, and have a deep series of set offs at top, and those next the doorway have small cusped niches in the face of each. The stone work of the roof is very carefully executed, every stone being curved so as to throw the water away from the joints. The cornice is rather more prominent than usual.
The entrance to the sacristy is by an unusually handsome doorway (Fig. 928), having two orders of shafts and mouldings. The carving of the caps has been very fine, but is sadly damaged. In the sacristy there are a piscina and a locker, and in the south wall of the choir the remains of a triple beautifully carved sedilia (Fig. 929) and a piscina. The sacristy is roofed with overlapping stone flags, supported on a vault.
Some elaborate monuments have been erected in the church (see Fig. 927) in memory of the two Archibald Douglases, Earls of Forfar, one of whom was mortally wounded at Sheriffmuir (1715).
Some ancient carved stones are also preserved at the east end, one of them being a tombstone containing a shield, with the original three stars of the Douglas arms (Fig. 930).
The ancient town of Tain claims to have received its first privileges from Malcolm Canmore in the eleventh century. It was also the site of an early church, and St. Duthus, the patron saint of the town, is reputed to have been the Bishop of Ross in the eleventh century. The existing town stands at a point near the entrance to Dornoch Frith, on an ancient sea margin, which rises above a great expanse of sandy links stretching eastwards towards the sea. It possesses no less than three ancient churches, all said to have been dedicated to St. Duthus. This saint probably lived about the year 1000, and his remains are said to have been translated to his native town of Tain in 1253.[186] The most ancient church (Fig. 931) stands on a knoll which rises above the general level of the links. It is now surrounded by a well kept modern cemetery, and is at some distance from the town, but is believed to have stood in the midst of the houses of the older Tain, which occupied the low ground near the sea. This ancient fane is a simple parallelogram, 46 feet long by 16 feet 6 inches wide internally. Three of its walls (Fig. 932), which are all built with the granite boulders of the district, and the east and west gables are still almost entire, but the south wall is reduced to a state of ruin. The north, east, and west walls, which are much exposed to the storms from the sea, are without any openings, except a small pointed window in the west gable. The doorway and windows seem to have been in the south wall, which may account for its ruinous condition. The one small window remaining in that wall, and the pointed window in the west gable, indicate a date not earlier than the thirteenth century. Besides these there are no features to give a clue to the date of the structure; but the period they point to agrees with the time when the body of St. Duthus is believed to have been brought here for burial.
The shrine of St. Duthus was regarded as specially sacred, and possessed the right of sanctuary. To it the wife and daughter of King Robert I. betook themselves when compelled to flee from Kildrummy Castle, in Aberdeenshire. But the sacred nature of the sanctuary did not avail the royal fugitives, and they were delivered up to Edward by the Earl of Ross.
It is believed that this church was destroyed by fire in 1429; M‘Neill of Creich, having pursued his enemies thither, took that means of evading the right of sanctuary. He did not seize his enemies within the sacred ground, but set fire to the church in which they had taken refuge.
The second church in point of antiquity is a small quadrangular structure (Fig. 933) which stands near the principal church, and to the south-east of it, on the higher ground adjacent to the modern town. It is 32 feet long by 13 feet wide within the walls, which are now reduced to about 6 to 7 feet in height all round. The north wall appears to have been rebuilt, for Mr. Neale describes it in his Ecclesiological Notes[187] as being ruinous, but having one lancet. The east end contains a triplet enclosed in one arch, and the south side has a door and a two-light window under one arch. These features point to the date of this chapel as being early, but it is scarcely possible to fix a definite time. It is, however, apparently earlier than 1429, the date of the burning of St. Duthus’ Church on the links, and it is thought that this may have been the original parish church. The adjoining larger church is recorded as having been a rebuilding of a previous church, and it seems most probable that the building now under consideration was the earlier church.
As regards the third church (see Fig. 933), which was undoubtedly dedicated to St. Duthus, chronicles declare it to have been built by William, Earl of Ross, who died in 1371. In 1487 James III. procured from the Bishop of Ross and the Pope sanction for converting it into a collegiate establishment for a provost, five canons, two deacons, a sacrist, with an assistant clerk, and three singing boys. This institution was liberally endowed out of the crown lands, and, after the death of James III., an annual sum was paid out of the royal treasury.[188]
In the Treasurer’s Accounts for 1504 there are entries which seem to point to all three churches as being then still in existence. These entries show that on 23rd October of that year the king made an offering of 14s. “in Sanct Duchois Chapell quhair he was borne” (no doubt meaning the place where the saint was born, or the old church on the links); also, “in Sanct Duchois Chapell in the Kirk-yard of Tayne” (referring, probably, to the second, or original, parish church); and also, “in Sanct Duchoils Kirk” (which may be the College Kirk as distinguished from the Parish Church).
The Collegiate Church stands in a pleasant situation overlooking the sea, on the raised beach to the north of the town, and is surrounded by a burying-ground.
St. Duthus’ was an ancient and favourite place of pilgrimage, and the old church having been consumed, this new one would, after its erection, be doubtless the celebrated shrine to which James IV. and V. made their pilgrimages.
The former king is believed to have gone there every season for at least twenty years, as part of the penance he performed in connection with his father’s death. He visited St. Duthus’ in 1513, before his last fatal expedition, which closed with the Battle of Flodden. In 1527 James V. made the pilgrimage of St. Duthus’ barefoot, a memento of which event is preserved in the name of the “King’s Causeway,” by which a road near the town is known.
The Collegiate Church (Fig. 933) is 70 feet long by 22 feet 6 inches wide internally. It contains four bays, distinguished externally by buttresses of good form (Fig. 934). Each bay contains one window, those of the south or sheltered side being large and filled with tracery; while those in the north wall, which is exposed to the sea, are small plain lancets, with hood moulding. The windows in the east and west walls are large and filled with tracery, having five and four lights respectively, divided by mullions. The tracery of the east window, which has been renewed, is of geometric form, while that of the west window consists of simple intersecting mullions. The tracery of the south side windows is of similar design. The west gable contains two niches, one on each side of the arch of the window. The statue of a bishop (possibly St. Duthus) still exists in the north niche. There is a doorway in the westmost bay on each side. They are similar and of good design. A small benitier projects from the wall on the outside close to the north door. The south door has had a large porch, the mark of the water table being still visible.
The interior contains a triple sedilia and a piscina in the south wall of good pointed and trefoiled pattern, and there is a small ambry in the north wall.
In Neal’s Ecclesiological Notes the church is termed an example of middle pointed architecture, although its date, as generally happens in the North, is considerably later than any work of that period in England.
From the Reformation till 1815 this edifice was used as the parish church. A new church being then erected, the old one was abandoned and suffered neglect. When Mr. Neal visited it in 1848, he found it in the following condition[189]:—“It has been fitted up as a place of Presbyterian worship; galleries, gaudily painted, run round it; pews of every size and shape and colour pollute it; but it is now deserted. The smell of decaying wood, the exhalations from the vaults, the dampness, the rottenness, the horrible filth, the green mould, the decaying baize, the deserted appearance of the whole render this a shocking place.”
This disgraceful condition of the church attracted public attention,
and, by the exertions of the late Provost M‘Leod and other gentlemen in the district, its cleansing and restoration were undertaken and completed in 1877, and the building is now set apart for monumental and memorial purposes. The old stonework has been preserved and slightly restored where necessary, and the roof has been renewed. The windows are filled with memorial stained glass, and the whole is kept in excellent order.
A pulpit is said to have been presented to Tain by the Regent Murray, as a mark of his appreciation of the zeal of the town in the cause of the Reformation. Mr. Taylor informs us[190] that this valuable relic was “suffered to be broken, and its ornamentation carried away piecemeal by wanton hands;” but it has now been restored, so far as the fragments again brought together have enabled this to be done, and forms an ornamental feature in the restored church.
This abbey is one of the monastic establishments founded in the far North during the reign of Alexander II. It was originally settled, in 1221, by Farquhard, Earl of Ross, at Edderton, on the Dornoch Frith, and its first abbot was brought from the priory of Whithorn, in Wigtonshire. The occupants were therefore of the Premonstratensian Order of Canons Regular, being the order of the parent house.
The situation originally chosen was found to be too near the turbulent tribes further north, and, in 1238, leave was granted to Malcolm of Uig, the second abbot, to transfer the abbey to a new and more peaceful site. The new locality is about ten miles south-east from the first site, and had the advantage of being in more fertile soil. Being well within the domains of the Earl of Ross, the abbey received his protection, and was also richly endowed by the successive earls.
The connection with Whithorn was kept up, and many of the abbots came from the parent house. In 1321, Mark, a canon of Whithorn, and son of Sir Mark Ros, was presented to the abbacy by the Prior of Whithorn, and not chosen by the monks. He is said to have rebuilt the abbey about 1338, and the rebuilding was completed under the rule of Abbot Donald, in 1372.
Abbot Finlay M‘Faed was appointed in 1442, and his rule lasted for forty-four years. He built the cloister, and procured an organ, tabernacles, chalices, vestments, and other ornaments from Flanders, with which he enriched the abbey. He died in 1485, and was interred in St. Michael’s aisle at Fearn, in which his monument was erected, and where it still survives.
In the beginning of the sixteenth century the commendatorship of the abbey was held by a mere boy, afterwards destined to become famous in Scottish history—Patrick Hamilton, the first martyr for Reformation principles in this country. He was a natural son of the Earl of Arran, a M.A. of Paris in 1520, and also of St. Andrews. When twenty-six years of age he was burned as a heretic at the gate of St. Salvator’s College, in St. Andrews, in 1528.
The buildings of Fearn Abbey having fallen into disrepair, Robert Cairncross, Bishop of Ross (1539-45) was appointed abbot of Fearn, being recommended by the king to the Pope, on the understanding that the bishop, who was wealthy, would be able to restore the abbey. Bishop Cairncross also held several other appointments, being Provost of Corstorphine, Abbot of Holyrood, and chaplain to James V. He resigned the abbacy in 1545, and died soon after. Nicholas Ross, provost of the Collegiate Church of Tain, held the abbacy, possibly as a secular charge, seeing that, in 1560, he sat in Parliament, and voted for the abolition of the Roman Catholic religion.
The last commendator was Walter Ross of Morangy; but he was only titular, for in 1597 the lands of the abbey were erected into the temporal Barony of Geanies, and granted by James V. to his favourite, Sir Patrick Murray.
Some of the church lands were, as usual, feued off to relatives of the abbots. Abbot Walter Ross procured a grant in his own favour of Morangy and the mills thereof, which remained with his family for several generations.
The church continued to be used as the parish place of worship, and in 1742, during divine service, the vaulted roof fell, when about fifty people were killed.[191]
Of this extensive and richly-furnished abbey there now only remain a part of the church and the ruins of some structures attached to it.
The church is a simple oblong chamber (Fig. 935), 96 feet long by 26 feet wide internally. Part of it is still used as the parish church, but the eastern end is partitioned off and set apart as the burial-vault of the family of Ross of Balnagown. After the fall of the roof last century, the south wall of the church was to a great extent rebuilt, a new roof put on, and the interior plastered. The eastern portion, with the exception of the building up of some of the windows and the reconstruction of the gable, has been left intact. The chapels, or “aisles,” attached to the church have been erected against the original walls, as is evident from the remains of windows still visible, which are built up.
The features of the church are extremely simple (Fig. 936). The windows are all tall lancets. In the east gable there are four of these all of equal height, and the walls have been pierced with similar lights, in pairs, between all the buttresses round the walls. Some of these remain in the north wall (see Fig. 936), and in the south wall (which has been remodelled and partly rebuilt, with large windows inserted) some portions of the old lancets can yet be traced.
There is nothing very distinctive of any particular period in the architecture, but the features correspond fairly well with the date assigned to the rebuilding of the abbey by the abbots Mark and Donald during the fourteenth century. The lanceolate form of the windows seems at first sight to indicate an earlier period, but, on careful inspection, it will be observed that there is no hood moulding, a feature almost universally used in first pointed work. Besides, the lancet form of window was employed in the north even as late as the sixteenth century, as in the west front of Beauly Priory, built by Bishop Reid about 1550. An ambry, piscina, and sedilia are still preserved in the south wall of the chancel.
The most important of the additions made to the main building is the