Fig. 267.—Leuchars Church. Exterior of Choir, &c.
shafts, with a broad fillet between them. All the arches are enriched with chevron and billet mouldings, and the upper tier has an extra order of elaborate billet-work. The string course between the two arcades is carved with zig-zags ([Fig. 265]). The cornice is supported on a series of boldly-carved grotesque heads, all varying in design.
On the top of the apse vault there has been built, in the seventeenth century, an incongruous turret, which, although not of bad design, is extremely out of place. To support this belfry, a plain arch has been introduced in the interior amongst the Norman work of the apse. ([Fig. 266.])
The design of the exterior of the choir ([Fig. 267]) is similar to that of the apse, there being two arcades, one above the other, surmounted by a cornice, with corbels carved as grotesque heads. The lower arcade, however, has interlacing arches (see [Fig. 265.]), which indicate a late period of the style. The two arcades are separated by a string course, enriched with scroll floral ornament.
In the interior (see [Fig. 266.]) attention is drawn to the elaborate carving of the chancel arch, which has two orders of complex chevron ornament, and an outer order or hood mould of four rows of billets. The soffit of the arch is also enriched with chevrons, so arranged as to form a row of lozenge ornaments in the centre. The chancel arch is carried on a central attached shaft and two plain nook shafts, built in courses, with simple cushion caps and plain bases.
The chancel is vaulted with heavy moulded groins, springing from the cushion caps of short single shafts resting on grotesque heads. (See [Fig. 265.]) A small window is introduced in each of the divisions formed by the shafts, and each window has a pair of nook shafts in the interior and enriched arch above. The lower part of the apse is plain, and is separated from the upper part by a string course, enriched with faceted ornaments.
BUNKLE CHURCH, Berwickshire.
There exist in Berwickshire the remains of a number of Norman churches which, unfortunately, are very fragmentary. This is the more to be regretted, as the portions still remaining of some of them show that they must have been equal, if not superior, in richness of detail to most of the better preserved specimens in other parts of the country. The fragments at Edrom and Legerwood are of the finest Norman architecture, while the extreme simplicity of the work at Bunkle seems to indicate that it is very early in the style. At Chirnside and St. Helen’s but little is left; indeed, the latter is now almost only a memory of the past.[173]
The numerous remains of Norman parish churches scattered throughout Berwickshire point to the direction from which the Roman influence gradually spread over the country.