Fig. 147.—Restennet Priory. Archway in East Wall of Tower. [140]
three lancet windows, which had banded nook shafts in the interior, and a simple splay externally. At the east end, on the south side, there is a piscina ([Fig. 151]), a sedilia recess, a locker, and a tomb of late work. On the north side there has been a similar recessed tomb, now built up. The font shown in [Fig. 152] is lying inside the choir, but its base is gone. It measures 2 feet 4 inches in external width by 1 foot 9 inches inside, and 18 inches high, with a square hole in the centre. It appears to be of late date.
The east wall has angle pilaster buttresses, with scarcely any projection to the east, but having a few inches projection to the north and
Fig. 148.—Restennet Priory. View from North-East.
south respectively. The south wall of the church appears, from a return and tuskings at the east end, to have continued further eastwards. In the south wall, adjoining the tower, there is a plain, round, arched doorway. As will be seen from the plan, the present choir is not in the line of the centre of the tower. Probably the existence of earlier monastic buildings on the south side may have prevented extension in that direction; and so, in order to get the width required for the new choir, it was necessary to extend the building northwards. From the presence of the sloping skew recess on the west face of the tower, it is obvious that the nave, which now no longer exists, and is only indicated by this roof mark, was built nearly in continuation of the walls of the choir. In Dr. Jamieson’s time, when the foundations of the nave existed, it was so, and is shown in his drawings running westwards to the west wall of the cloister, a distance of about 59 feet. The plan shows that the west enclosing wall is broken off just at the point where the west wall of the nave joined it.
