eastern portion of the church. There is no certainty whom the recumbent figure represents, but it is in all likelihood an effigy of one of the ladies of either the family of Erth or of the Bruces of Airth. It has been stated that another effigy lies beside the one referred to, but we understand from a person who has examined the ground that nothing of the kind is to be found. This effigy, which is 6 feet 3 inches long by 1 foot 10 inches in breadth, is greatly mutilated; but the coverlet extending from the waist downwards is well preserved, and is very finely carved, and, so far as we know, is unique amongst Scottish figures.
In Airth Castle is preserved the stone shown in Fig. 431. It appears to have been taken from the church and to have formed a part of a piscina or ambry. The fragment measures about 2 feet high, with an opening about 12½ inches wide. It doubtless belonged to the Airth aisle.
Fig. 432.—Airth Church. Stone in South Gable of Elphinstone Aisle.
The Elphinstone aisle, which is separated from the nave by a semicircular arch, presents no architectural features of note; but on the exterior of the gable towards the south there is a well-preserved stone ([Fig. 432]), with shield bearing the Elphinstone arms, parted per pale with those of Livingstone and Calendar quarterly, with the motto “Cavis Cavis” (Caus Caus), the date 1593, and at either side the letters M A ♢ E and I ♢ L ME, the initials of Alexander, fourth Lord Elphinstone, and his wife Jane, eldest daughter of William, sixth Lord Livingstone.
The tower contains, on the lintel of the doorway, the inscription I V L Y + THE + 15 + 1647, doubtless the date of its erection. The other parts of the church appear to be of late seventeenth century work, and need not be further referred to.
LASSWADE CHURCH, Mid-Lothian.
Lasswade is a village on the south bank of the river Esk, about six miles south from Edinburgh. The old Parish Church stood, till 1866, in the ancient churchyard, on a height above the south side of the river. “It became a mensal church of the Bishopric of St. Andrews in the twelfth century, forming a prebend of St. Salvator’s Church; but was annexed to the Collegiate Church of Restalrig, in the reign of King James III.”[199]