of the nave. The windows of the aisles are all modern. The piers are round and bear simple caps (see Fig. 1184), and these and the clerestory windows are plainly of a very late date, although the cap mouldings (see Fig. 1184) have been copied from old forms.

To the east of the nave was the choir, now converted into a vestry 20 feet 6 inches long by 17 feet wide. The chancel arch springs from two responds, the shafts of which have an ancient appearance, but they have probably been reconstructed in imitation of ancient work. One of the small original windows is preserved in the north wall of the chancel. It is about 18 inches in width, and has a plain pointed arch with chamfer on edge.

There has been an arch at the west end of the church with similar shafts to those of the chancel arch. This arch opened into the tower which rises against the centre of the west wall of the church, and is divided into several floors, and provided with a newell stair leading to them.

The tower (see Fig. 1185) is a picturesque object, though perfectly plain. It rises with square angles, without buttresses or other breaks from the base to the parapet. Its short spire, together with the projection containing the turret stair, form a pleasing group. The whole presents a characteristic specimen of our simple Scottish church steeples.

Although it has been thought that some of the features (above referred to) belong to the first pointed period, it is much more likely that the whole structure, except the recent work, dates from the beginning of the sixteenth century, when the collegiate establishment was instituted, and when the old parish church appears to have been reconstructed. Several similar towers of late date in the locality will be illustrated.

The church has apparently been renovated, internally, after the Reformation, when a good deal of carved oak work has been introduced. This oak work (Fig. 1186) is now employed as a lining of the walls along the south and east sides of the church, and is obscured by a number of pews which abut against it. It is excellent work of the period, and it is

unfortunate that it should be so completely lost to sight. One of the panels contains a shield with a coat of arms, apparently that of Cunningham of Barns, with the initials A. C. and the date 1605. When the church was handed over to the town the rights of Cunningham of Barns were reserved. He had thus some interest in the church or lands. This carved work seems to have been the gift of Alexander Cunningham, who at the above date was Laird of Barns. The arms of his wife, Helen, daughter of Thomas Myrton of Cambo, are seen, with her initials, on the smaller panel to the right. Another shield bears the coat and initials of Katherine Lindsay, wife of Thomas Myrton of Cambo, with the date 1598. Other shields (not shown in the illustration) bear the arms of Learmonth of Balcomie (1594).

ST. MARY’S, WHITEKIRK, Haddingtonshire.

This charming old building is one of the few rural parish churches of mediæval times still used for divine service. The church seems to have had its origin in a neighbouring holy well. The following extract from documents in the Vatican gives some account of its origin and history:—[116]

Whitekirk was a dependency of Holyrood, as mentioned in the above extract. It was a great place of pilgrimage, and was visited, amongst others, by Pope Pius II. (Æneas Sylvius), who came to render thanks to the Virgin for his safe landing in Scotland.

In the seventeenth century the east end was used as a church and the west end as a school. In 1760 the Parish of Tynningham was added to Whitekirk, and some of the fittings of the former were brought to the latter. Thus the Haddington gallery in the north transept was adorned with the front of the gallery from Tynningham. During this century some attempts have been made to improve the structure. In 1832 a “pseudo south transept” was built, and the Seacliffe gallery (which resembles a large Dutch cabinet) was introduced.

This church, like many others erected in the fifteenth century, is on

the plan of a cross without aisles (Fig. 1187). The choir is vaulted with a pointed barrel vault, and the outer roof is slated. Over the crossing (Fig. 1188) rises a square tower, finished with a plain parapet. The east

end is square, and there is a fine entrance porch at the south-west angle. The church is built with red freestone, which is toned with age, and the whole building is one of the most picturesque and pleasing of our old parish churches.

The nave and choir measure internally 103 feet in length by about 22 feet in width. The choir is divided by bold buttresses into two bays,

in each of which is a traceried window, the cusping of which is peculiar. The forms of the buttresses and tracery are shown in Fig. 1189. The east end has a small circular quatrefoiled window set high in the wall (Fig. 1190), over which is a panel containing a shield bearing a fessé with a crozier behind it, probably the arms of Abbot Crawford of Holyrood (1460-1483).

The west end (Fig. 1191) and the south transept have been rebuilt.

The south-west porch (Fig. 1192) is one of the most striking features

of the structure. It measures 13 feet wide by 9 feet deep internally, and has a stone bench on each side. The entrance is by an open archway, with clustered shafts, having enriched caps from which spring the bold mouldings of the arch. At each of the outer angles of the porch is a diagonal buttress having a niche on the inner face, and finished on the top with crocketed pinnacles. Over the doorway there is a panel with small buttresses at the jambs, and canopied head with scroll ornament over.

The interior of the porch is roofed with pointed barrel vaulting, having ribs springing from carved corbels. The door to the church is square headed and is surmounted by a niche, which formerly contained a statue of the Blessed Virgin.

The interior of the church (Fig. 1193) is very plain. The tower is supported on arches at the crossing, which spring from attached piers with moulded caps. The space over the crossing is vaulted with groins, having a circular boss in the centre. The tower (see Fig. 1188) is carried up with plain walls to two stories above the roof, and has in the upper

part or belfry a window on each side, with central mullion, now much decayed by the weather. A stair turret (Fig. 1194) is attached to the north-west angle of the tower, and enters from the exterior. The north wall of the nave has been altered at the point adjoining the tower.

At a distance of about 100 yards north from the church stands a plain

building (Fig. 1195), which is believed to have been the tithe barn of the parish. It is situated on the edge of a rocky ridge which slopes steeply

downwards on the north side. In the view (Fig. 1196) taken from the low ground on the north side the top of the church spire is seen. The barn measures about 65 feet 4 inches in length from east to west, by about 20 feet in breadth over the walls. It has been built at two periods. The western portion, measuring on the outside about 21 feet 3 inches by 20

feet, has originally been a pele tower, with walls about 5 feet in thickness, and was altered at a later period, when it was extended into a barn. The present entrance to the keep is in the south wall, which appears to have been rebuilt of the same reduced thickness (2 feet 4 inches) as the barn walls. This doorway leads into a vaulted ground floor, from which a door

to a small lobby gives access to a narrow straight stair leading to the first floor, contained in the thickness of the north wall. The stair is lighted

with narrow slits, and the door at the top leading into what was originally the hall is finished in the way usual in such structures, with well wrought splays round the stone jambs and lintel. On the first floor the east wall of the pele tower has been taken down. The junction of the tower with the barn is plainly visible from the rough face of the masonry in the interior of the north wall, where the east wall of the tower has been cut away. The upper part of the tower being thus thrown into the barn, a few steps, as shown on the Plan, lead up to the latter. There is an upper floor in

the roof of the barn supported on the ties of the roof and reached by a wooden stair. The windows of this floor are shown in the gables. When the barn was built the upper part of the north wall of the keep (Fig. 1197) was lowered sufficiently to allow of the eaves of the roof of the new and narrower building being continued straight along over the wider building of the tower. The barn proper is entered from the south side by a doorway 7 feet 7 inches wide, and is lighted by two windows in the south side and one in the gable. There is also a narrow doorway on the north side, which can only have been for occasional use, the ground being steep on that side, with only a narrow footing along the wall, which is kept back from the line of the tower in order to obtain this footing. At the west

end of the barn and in the old wall of the keep there is a fireplace 8 feet 6 inches wide, with a stone division. The fireplace, which is 5 feet high, has an oaken lintel with a well wrought relieving arch over it. This fireplace must have been used before the wall above was taken down, and indicated that the tower had probably been first enlarged as a residence and the whole afterwards converted into a barn. In the north wall near the fireplace there is a flat recess with a pointed arch 13 inches deep, the sill being about 3 feet above the floor. There are indications (see Plan) that the barn walls once extended further eastwards.

Near the west corner of the south wall is a panel (Fig. 1198) with an effaced coat of arms.

MID-CALDER CHURCH, Mid-Lothian.

The church was begun in the sixteenth century by Master Peter Sandilands, Rector of Mid-Calder, a younger son of the sixth Knight of Calder. Having raised the walls of the vestry or revestry and laid the foundations of the choir, and being then an old man, he provided the money for the entire completion of the church, including the nave, tower, &c., and paid a sum over to Sir James Sandilands of Calder (his nephew) and his son John, who bound themselves to complete the structure according to a bond engrossed in the public records. This bond is to the following effect:—[117]

The actual building (Fig. 1199) consists of a choir with tripartite apse having a sacristy or vestry to the east, and it has been carried out, so far as completed, very much in terms of the foregoing bond.

The vestry, which projects from the east end of the choir, seems to have been erected before the bond was executed, and the foundations of the choir seem to have been laid at that time. The remainder of the choir was apparently carried out afterwards, but the nave, which was carefully specified in the bond, was never erected.

The vestry contains two stories, the lower one being a burial vault, which is “pendit” or vaulted, while the upper floor forms the vestry. The

small stair leading to both floors is placed in the north-east angle of the apse. The east wall of the choir (Fig. 1200) is raised above the roof of the vestry, and is provided with a traceried window to the east; but there is no window in the north-east side of the apse, which is occupied by the wheel stair (Fig. 1201). The buttresses are erected as required by the

bond, and the three south windows are introduced between them. The north wall is carried up with rough masonry, and without any windows or openings, and has the water table and corbels prescribed as suitable for the roof of a cloister walk along that side (see Fig. 1201). The choir roof has been intended to be vaulted and the lower courses of the springing are built, but the vault was never completed. The springings show that the vault was intended to be groined. It is specified to have a “cross brace and rinruif,” like a chapel in St. Giles’ Church, but the meaning of these terms is not definite.

At the west end of the choir a very thick wall is built on each side, with a pointed arch between (described as a brace) to support the belfry,

which is minutely specified. The latter, however, was not executed till recently. The lower part, however, above the roof was built, and the modern belfry has been carried up upon it. In the north pier is a “turngreis” or wheel stair described as leading to the rood loft, but in reality it now leads to the family gallery and to the lower part of the belfry (see Fig. 1201). A proposed nave is also minutely described. It was to be 80 feet in length and 28 feet in width, to have four buttresses on each side of ashlar work, and four windows in the south wall, 10 feet

wide, and square lintels. Also an “honest dur,” and a porch on the south side with stone seats and stone roof, and another “honest dur” in the west gable, with a large window over it. The windows were to be glazed and the roof provided with gargoyles.

The altar was to be built with ashlar, and the floor paved and steps placed before the altar. The above instructions have, so far as the structure is executed, been carefully complied with, and the edifice presents a favourable example of the work of the early part of the sixteenth century. Ornament has not been spared, and is specially exhibited in the heraldic carving on the shields, with which the weather mouldings terminate. These shields generally contain the arms of the Sandilands family and their connections the Douglases, of which several examples are given below.

The following is a short notice of the arms on the different parts of the building. On the angles of the projecting sacristy (the lower story of which contained the family burial vault) there are two pinnacles, with very late crocketing, and finials (Fig. 1202). The south pinnacle contains the Sandilands arms and the initials of J. Sandilands, and other lettering,

much decayed. The north pinnacle exhibits the Sandilands arms quartered with Douglas, and having two angels as supporters, the arms surmounted by a helmet, with a lion’s head for crest.

In the interior of the church the same arms occur on corbels as in the one supporting the rood loft, now the family gallery (Fig. 1204).

There in also a remarkable carved panel in oak (Fig. 1205), which combines the above arms reversed, with the initials J. S. and J. L., and the date 1595, together with certain Scripture texts.

The Douglas descent is throughout prominently displayed, and the heart and stars sometimes occupy the chief part of the shield. One coat, from centre window (see Fig. 1203, D, exhibits the bearings of a fess chequé of four tracts, with a St. George’s cross in chief, being the arms of the distinguished predecessor of Sir James Sandilands, Lord of Torphichen, and St. John, viz., Sir Walter Lindsay, head of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem in Scotland, the cross having reference to the badge of the order.

The tracery in the large windows is well preserved, and is of a kind usual in late work in Scotland, having curved bars without cusping (Figs. 1200 and 1206). The round-headed doorway to the choir is introduced in the central bay under the window, the lower part of which is stepped up to allow of its introduction.

KING’S COLLEGE CHAPEL, Aberdeen.

The west end of this fine chapel, with its extremely picturesque tower (Fig. 1207), fronts the main street of Old Aberdeen, and forms the north-west corner of the college quadrangle.

The chapel (Fig. 1208) is a long narrow building, with a three-sided apsidal east end, measuring inside the walls about 122 feet 6 inches in length by about 28 feet in width. It is divided into six bays by projecting buttresses, and has a large window filled with mullions and tracery in each bay on the north side, except the second one from the

west, which contains a doorway. Similar large windows are continued round the apse (but the centre one is built up), and there is also one in the east bay of the south side. Over the west doorway there is a large west window (see Fig. 1207) of four lights, with solid built mullions and loop tracery enclosed within a round arch. All the other large windows just referred to have pointed arches (except the second from the east end on the north side), the tracery in those of the apse and in each adjoining window being modern. The other four north windows have, like the large west window, a solid built central mullion going right up to the apex of the arch, and having each half filled with the usual loop tracery. This mode of division of the tracery of a window by a large central built mullion into two distinct portions, each filled with its own tracery, is not uncommon in Scotland, as, for instance, at Seton College, where, however, the mullion divides into two arches and forms two pointed divisions in the arch-head. Besides the north doorway

already mentioned, there are two to the quadrangle and one in the west end, all having elliptic arched tops. The mouldings of the west doorway have bases, but no caps. The south side of the chapel (Fig. 1209) forms a complete contrast to the north side. Instead of large windows occupying each bay, small clerestory windows, with flat arch-heads, occur at intervals along the top of the wall, while the lower part of the wall is left plain, being doubtless intended as a provision for a covered cloister walk. This, however, was never carried out, but instead of it Bishop Stewart (1532-1545) erected a building against this side of the chapel, consisting of two floors, and containing a library, a jewel house, vestry, and class-rooms. These were taken down and re-erected on the same site about 1725, and about fifty years afterwards were destroyed by fire, when the south side of the chapel assumed its present appearance, being “cased and buttressed with granite as we now see it.”[118] Dr. Macpherson further tells us that the coats of arms which now adorn this side of the chapel had been nearly all on the walls of the library, and, having escaped the fire, were, along with some others, inserted in the new granite work. These arms, along with many other coats throughout the building and the college, have been minutely described.[119] We need only mention here the arms of the founder of the college, Bishop William Elphinston, which occur at the west end of the south side of the chapel, viz., a chevron between three boars’ heads

erased, surmounted by a mitre between the initials W. E. and “at sides O. B. A. D. MDXIV. Æ.S. LX (XX) IV.” The royal arms occur on the northmost buttress of the west front of the tower, dated 1504, while those of Margaret Tudor, wife of James IV., appear on another shield in the west front. Adjoining the west doorway an inscription informs us that the chapel was begun by James IV. in 1500. It apparently occupied about

six years in building, as the contract for covering it with lead is dated 1506.

The interior is divided by a wooden screen of very rich carved work, the central portion of which (Fig. 1210) is about 9 feet 7 inches wide, with

double folding doors about 5 feet 9 inches wide by 7 feet 3 inches high. The side portions of the screen within the choir form a continuation of the canopied stalls occupying each side of the choir. Owing to the circumstance of the nave having been fitted up as a library, the ancient arrangement of the screen with its rood loft, ambone, and altars on the nave side were destroyed. Dr. Macpherson, in the paper already referred to, has by illustrations and description traced its original construction, and to this the reader is referred.

The tower at the south-west corner (Fig. 1211) is not quite square, measuring over the walls about 29 feet from north to south, and about 4 feet less from east to west. It has massive corner buttresses, with numerous stepped intakes towards the top, similar to the buttresses of the chapel, being a style of buttress of very frequent occurrence in Scottish late churches, as, for example, at Stirling Church. The tower is finished with one of the few crown steeples remaining in Scotland, being, with that of St. Giles’, Edinburgh, and the Tolbooth, Glasgow, the only three surviving of those which we could at one time boast. The general style of the structure is very similar to that of St. Giles’, but in this case there are only four arches thrown from the angles of the tower to the central lantern (Fig. 1213), while in the case of St. Giles’ there are eight, which produce a fuller and richer effect. The tower (see Fig. 1211) is about 63 feet in height to the top of the battlements. From that point to the base of the lantern pillars (Fig. 1212) is about 15 feet 9 inches, from whence to the top of the cross is about 20 feet. The total height is thus about 99 feet.[120]

The upper part of the steeple was blown down in a violent storm on 7th February 1633. Spalding, under that date,[121] says:—“This hideous winds was marked to be such, as the like had never been seen here in these parts, for it would overturn countrymen’s houses to the ground, and some persons suddenly smo’red within, without relief. It also threw down the stately crown bigged of curious eslar work, off the steeple of King’s College of Old Aberdeen, whilk was thereafter re-edified and built up, little inferior to the first.” The part blown down was probably only the lantern on the top of the four arches, the details of this part having a decidedly Renaissance character, and being different from the other parts of the tower. Doubtless the arches themselves would suffer in the crash, and would require repairing and rebuilding in part, which was evidently done, as the date 1634 is carved on the soffit of the crossing. This difference of detail is interesting, as showing how persistently these old designers wrought in the style of their time. Although it is evident that the present lantern is not quite the same as the original one, it must be admitted to be an extremely happy and picturesque composition.

In connection with the rebuilding Spalding mentions two names. First, under the year 1640 he says:—“Dr. Gordon, medicinar, and one of the founded members of the College of Old Aberdeen, and common procurator thereof, departed this life upon the 10th of March, in his own house in Old Aberdeen; a godly, grave, and learned man; singular in publick works about the college, and putting up on the steeple thereof the stately and glorious crown, which you see thereon, which was thrown down by the wind.” Second, under the year 1642 he says:—“Saturday the 10th September, George Thomson, Master Mason, new come frae Strathboggie to Aberdeen, suddenly fell over Thomas Thomson’s stair, and with the fall became speechless and senseless, and departed this life upon the Thursday thereafter. An excellent mason, of singular device; he builded sundry brave buildings; among the rest, he re-edified the steeple of the College Kirk of Old Aberdeen.” It has been supposed[122] that Dr. Gordon was the architect who designed the lantern, but the same claim might be put forward for the then Bishop, for in Gordon’s description of Aberdeen (p. 23) we are told—“Bot the crown was quicklie afterwards restored in a better forme and condition, by the direction of Patrick Forbes of Corse, then Bishop of Aberdeen.” It is quite as likely that Thomson was both the architect and builder, and that the bishop and Dr. Gordon were the men of affairs.

The old lantern, which had stood for upwards of a century, appears to have been neglected and to have fallen into a state of disrepair, as in 1620 the authorities ordained “that the heid of the gryt stepill sould be mendit in steane leid and tymer as the samen was abefoir;”[123] but evidently nothing was done, and so it yielded to the storm.

Most of the windows on the west front of the tower appear to be modern.

This tower, with its crown and most of the chapel, is built of sandstone.

THE CHURCH OF THE MONASTERY OF THE CARMELITE FRIARS, South Queensferry.

At the time the drawings of this church were made, about thirty years ago, it was entire, as shown on the Plan (Fig. 1214), the nave only being roofless; but a few years afterwards the nave was ruthlessly cast down, and the materials were entirely destroyed. The transept and