The wars had rendered the country backward in every respect, and it is only natural to find it backward in architecture also.
As already mentioned, King Robert’s work at Melrose had been grievously damaged by Richard II.; but some of it remains, and in this, as well as other structures of the period, are exhibited beautiful examples of decorated work.
A considerable number of churches and monastic buildings executed about the end of the fourteenth and first half of the fifteenth centuries are fair representatives of the decorated period. Although not so pure in style, nor so important in point of size as the corresponding edifices in England, they yet exhibit, on a scale commensurate with the reduced state of the country, a worthy effort to sustain the character of its architecture and give expression to its devotional feelings. Some of these structures were erected in the fourteenth century and others in the first half of the fifteenth century, and although differing somewhat in detail from both English and foreign examples, they possess a sufficiently close relation to decorated work to ally them with that style and to distinguish them from the structures of the later or third pointed period. The buildings of the latter period, as above mentioned, have in some respects connection both with the English perpendicular and the French Flamboyant.
It is therefore proposed to divide the Church Architecture of Scotland during the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries into two periods, under the titles of the Middle Pointed or Decorated Period and the Third or Late Pointed Period. The middle pointed or decorated style corresponds to the decorated period in England and the fully developed Gothic of France, and extends in Scotland from the middle of the fourteenth century till about the middle of the fifteenth century. The third or late pointed period extends from about the middle of the fifteenth century till the Reformation in 1560, and corresponds with the perpendicular or third pointed period in England and the Flamboyant in France. The second pointed period includes a few fine structures, such as the nave of Glasgow Cathedral, part of Melrose Abbey, Lincluden College, Linlithgow Church, Crosraguel Abbey, &c., which contain good decorated work, and are in every respect superior to the later structures of the succeeding period, with which it seems to us erroneous to class them.
MIDDLE POINTED OR DECORATED STYLE.
Towards the close of the thirteenth century a considerable change occurred in the features of Gothic architecture throughout Europe. The development of the pointed style had progressed steadily, and all the details had become lighter and more ornate. The tracery of the windows especially marks the decorated period. This feature, as we have seen, was invented in the previous epoch, but now became fully developed, especially in France. In the design of the tracery the eye, which at first had been fixed on the form of the aperture, gradually came to dwell on the outline of the bars of the tracery, which thereafter became the leading feature. ([Fig. 23.]) The early simple circular forms of the bar tracery by degrees assumed other geometric patterns, consisting of triangles, squares, and similar figures, skilfully combined and diversified with cusping or feathering. Towards the close of the period these figures assumed a more flowing character, but without entirely losing their distinctive geometric forms.
In England the vaulting grew lighter, and became distinguished by the introduction of subordinate ribs or liernes, which divided the plain surface into a greater number of panels, and ridge ribs were almost always introduced. The points of support were also lightened, and the buttresses were made thinner and with greater projection, and ornamented with numerous niches and crocheted canopies and pinnacles. The clerestory windows under the vaults were enlarged, as it was discovered that
Fig. 23.—Beverley Minster, Yorkshire. Compartment of Nave, Exterior and Interior. (From Britton’s Antiquities.)