The bays sometimes follow the ordinary arrangement in England, having a triforium arcade over the main arcade, surmounted by the clerestory. In some of our largest churches, viz., St. Andrews and Glasgow Cathedrals, and Kilwinning, Holyrood, Arbroath, and Pluscardine Abbeys, this arrangement is followed; but it is notable that in several churches, as at Elgin and Dunblane Cathedrals, the triforium is dispensed with, and the clerestory is placed immediately over the main arcade. In other examples, as at Dryburgh Abbey, the triforium is reduced to a minimum, and the gallery represented only by a round cusped opening. The absence of the triforium is an arrangement which was much adhered to in the later epochs of our Gothic architecture.
The relative lengths of the nave and choir have already been referred to;[12] but attention may be drawn to the remarkable fact that in the monastic churches, which were constructed chiefly for the use of the monks, the choir, or portion set apart for the ecclesiastics, is small, and the nave is large; while in the cathedrals, which were intended for the use of the community, the choir is large as compared with the nave.
During the first pointed period attention seems to have been chiefly directed to the erection of large cathedrals and monastic churches—the number of parish churches constructed at this period being comparatively small.
This, no doubt, partly arose from the large number of parish churches built during the Norman period. Several examples of small churches of the first pointed period, however, are illustrated, which show that the style extended to all departments of ecclesiastical structures.
ST. ANDREWS CATHEDRAL, Fifeshire.
The ancient city of St. Andrews, formerly the ecclesiastical metropolis of Scotland, is now reduced to a small, but interesting, town, full of the remains of its former grandeur.
Situated at the eastern point of Fifeshire, on level ground, raised a considerable height above the sea, and surrounded with a rocky coast, there is little in the nature of the site to impress the beholder; but as seen in approaching from the west, the remains of the ancient edifices, with their ruined towers standing out against the sky, produce an impression of departed greatness which accords well with the venerable and stirring history of the place.
There are vague traditions of the site having been occupied by an ancient hermit at a very early period;[13] but St. Andrews was not recognised as the see of a bishop till about 950, when Cellach, the first bishop, was appointed. After him there followed ten Culdee bishops, the last being Fothad, by whom the marriage of Malcolm Canmore and Queen Margaret was celebrated.
The dedication of the cathedral to St. Andrew is involved in fable; but Dr. Skene[14] thinks that the church was founded between 736 and 761, and that portions of the relics of St. Andrew were brought to the place at that time, probably, as tradition has it, by Acca, Bishop of Northumbria, who was banished from that country in 732, and is believed to have founded a church amongst the Picts. The author of Celtic Scotland points to the similarity of the events which succeeded one another in Northumbria and in Southern Pictland in the eighth century. In the former country the Columban Church was expelled and secular clergy introduced; the Church of Hexham was dedicated to St. Andrew, and his relics were received there. In the latter country, sixty years later, the Picts expelled the Columbans and introduced the secular clergy, while at the same time they received part of the relics of St. Andrew, and founded a church in his honour, St. Andrew afterwards becoming the national patron saint.
After the death of Fothad, the last Bishop of Alban, in 1093, the see of St. Andrews remained vacant till 1107, when Turgot, Queen Margaret’s chaplain and biographer, was appointed to the bishopric.