Fig. 827.—St. Giles’ Collegiate Church. North Piers of Crossing.
Fig 828.—St. Giles’ Collegiate Church. The Albany Aisle.
with two arches, which rest on a central pillar, and the roof is covered with groined vaulting in two bays. The central pillar and the two responds are moulded, and have caps and bases, all in the same style as those of the south chapels. The cap of the central pillar contains two shields, the arms on which not only give a clue to the date of the chapel, but also recall a dark passage in Scottish history. One of these shields (that on the south) bears the arms of Robert, Duke of Albany, the second son of Robert II. (the Scottish lion quartered with the fesse chequé for Stewart); the other, or north shield, bears the well-known Douglas arms, being those of Archibald, Fourth Earl of Douglas. These two noblemen were both implicated in the death of David, Duke of Rothesay, who, in 1401, was starved to death at Falkland Palace; and it is believed that this chapel was erected by them as a good work in expiation of their horrid crime, or, at least, in order to propitiate the clergy. The architecture of the chapel is light and elegant, and the vaulting is enriched with bosses, one of which contains the monogram of the Blessed Virgin.
Two other chapels were added on the north side of the nave, to the east of the Norman doorway, probably about this period. The eastern of these chapels was dedicated to St. Eloi.
The vaulting of the north aisle of the nave was almost necessarily rebuilt at the time when the north chapels were erected.