Fig. 212.—Dunfermline Abbey. North Aisle.
window is in good preservation ([Fig. 218]), and is one of the most favourable examples of a kind of tracery developed in Scotland during the fifteenth century. At the north-west corner of the refectory is the staircase tower (see [Fig. 217.]), which leads down to the offices below, and upwards to the refectory roof, over which access was obtained to the upper
Fig. 213.—Dunfermline Abbey. Exterior of Aisle and Clerestory Windows.
story of the “Pend Tower.” In the north wall of the refectory, near the west end, are the remains of a flue, which may have belonged to a fireplace. The “Pend Tower” is still entire, wanting only the cape house and roof. It served as a connecting passage between the abbey buildings and the royal palace beyond. A door led from the refectory (see Plan, [Fig. 219.]) by a passage into a groined chamber, and from thence into a room in the palace situated over the kitchen. The kitchen is a lofty room, now roofless, having remains of large fireplaces and some curious recesses. Below the kitchen, but entering from another part of the palace, there is a large vaulted apartment with central pillars. ([Fig. 220.]) These pillars were continued up through the kitchen, and probably to the room, now gone, which stood over the kitchen. Another arched passage led from this apartment through below St. Catherine’s Wynd and up to the monastery. The building known as the palace was, doubtless, intimately connected with the monastery, and the kitchen shown on the plan may have been used in connection with both.
Returning to the vaulted chamber in the “Pend Tower,” a long narrow vaulted passage leads from it along the refectory wall for the length of two bays. It is vaulted across from side to side for the length of the first bay, and then in the second bay one half-arch springs at right