Fig. 1133.—The Collegiate Church of Dalkeith. Monument in Choir.
The monument is in a very dilapidated condition, the base and lower half of the pedestal being buried in earth and rubbish, the accumulation of centuries. The arms on the pedestal (see Fig. [1133]) are the same as those already referred to as carved at the heads of the figures. They are repeated on the opposite side of the pedestal, but in inverse order. The canopied work along the top of the pedestal is similar to what is seen surmounting a fragment of royal arms at Dunfermline (see Fig. 218), which fragment may also have been part of a tomb.
The precise date of the founding of the Chapel of St. Nicholas does not appear to be known, but since 1372, when Robert II. granted a licence to James of Douglas to endow a chaplainry therein, frequent notices of it appear.[100]
In 1390 Sir James Douglas, first Lord of Dalkeith (already referred to), “bequeathed, besides a cup and a missal, a sum of money for the reparation and roofing of the Chapel of St. Nicholas at Dalkeith;” and by another
Fig. 1134.—The Collegiate Church of Dalkeith. Effigies on Monument in Choir.
deed two years later, “he assigns the residue of his goods to the fabric and ornament of the said chapel,”[101] and for other purposes. Before his death, in 1420, he raised the chapel to the rank of a Collegiate Church, and is supposed to have finished the building, endowing it with “stipends and manses for a provest and five prebendaries, as perpetual chaplains.” [102]
In 1467 St. Nicholas was disjoined from Lasswade, and Dalkeith was made a separate parish, and in 1477 the church was enlarged by the