Fig. 850.—St. Giles’ Collegiate Church. Details of Doorway to Royal Pew.
Fig. 851.—St. Giles’ Collegiate Church. Tower and Crown.
in the Old Town. Some of the above crown steeples have an arch thrown from each angle to a central pinnacle, an arrangement which renders them rather thin and empty looking; but that of St. Giles’ has, in addition to the arches from the angles, another arch cast from the centre of each side to the centre pinnacle ([Figs. 852] and [853]). This produces an octagonal appearance, which, together with the numerous crocketed pinnacles with which the arches are ornamented, gives a richness and fullness of effect which is wanting in some of the other steeples of this description ([Fig. 854]). The steeple of St. Giles’ was partly rebuilt in 1648.
Towards the beginning of the sixteenth century, several of the guilds had chapels assigned to them, for which they contributed to the church funds. St. Eloi’s Chapel was given to the hammermen, and the “blue blanket,” the flag to which the trades rallied, was kept there. Other chapels and altars were set apart for the other corporations and trades, and maintained by them. Many individuals famous in Scottish history were buried in St. Giles’. Amongst these was Napier, the inventor of logarithms, who died in 1617. His tomb is now inserted in the exterior of the north wall of the choir, having been removed there, in 1829, from the south side of the church. There still exist the remains of an arched tomb recessed in the interior of the north wall of the choir, nearly opposite the above, but no clue can be found to the name of the person buried there. The Regent Murray, who was assassinated at Linlithgow in 1569, was buried in the south aisle. His monument was destroyed, but the brass plate containing the inscription written in his honour by George Buchanan was fortunately rescued, and has again been inserted in a new monument erected in the Murray aisle ([Fig. 855]). The scattered members of the body of the great Montrose were collected and buried in the Chepman aisle in the south part of St. Giles’ in 1661, but all trace of his remains has now been lost, and no monument till recently marked his grave.
The Norman doorway on the north side of the church, which had been carefully preserved for upwards of five centuries, and had survived all the above alterations and reconstructions, was taken down and removed in 1798, probably, as Sir D. Wilson suggests, “for no better reason than to evade the cost of its repair.”
The disturbances of the Reformation broke out in Edinburgh at an early date, and the Church of St. Giles was one of the first to suffer. In 1556 several of the images were stolen from the church, and next year that of St. Giles was carried off by the mob, and first drowned in the North Loch, and then burned. His arm bone, regarded as so precious one hundred years before, is supposed to have been thrown out into the adjoining churchyard. The church was pillaged and the altars and images cast down. The valuables, however, were taken possession of by the authorities and sold, and the proceeds spent in the repair of the