Fig. 1181.—The Collegiate Church of Corstorphine. Window and Arms in South Transept.
most interesting part of the building. It measures internally 25 feet 6 inches in length by 21 feet in width, and is covered with a pointed barrel vault, having a roof of overlapping stone flags. It contains an
Fig. 1182.—The Collegiate Church of Corstorphine. View from South-West.
east window of three lights (Fig. [1174]), having perpendicular tracery, the lower part of which has been altered, as above pointed out.
There are two small windows in the south side of the chancel, and between them, in the interior, is a fine sedilia, somewhat mutilated (Fig. [1175]). Beside it is a piscina (Fig. [1176]), with the basin, as usually happens, cut away. In the niche of the piscina there is a stone shelf used as a credence table, and over the niche a projecting round canopy. A very similar canopy exists over the upper small niche on the exterior of the east gable.
In the north wall of the chancel are two recessed tombs (Figs. [1177] and [1178]). These monuments, judging from the disturbed appearance of the surrounding masonry and from the different character of the two designs, were apparently not original parts of the chapel, but were subsequently inserted as the occasion arose. The arch stones of the westmost tomb (see Fig. [1177]), that of Sir John Forrester (the eldest son of Sir Adam) and his wife, are cut away or concealed by the west wall of the chapel, an arrangement not likely to have been adopted had the tomb been erected when the chapel was built. This monument is usually called the Founder’s Tomb, from the circumstance that Sir John founded the collegiate church. He was twice married: first, to Jean Sinclair, daughter of Henry, first Earl of Orkney; and, second, to Dame Marion Stewart, Lady Dalswinton, widow of Sir John Stewart.[112] His effigy rests on the tomb, along with that of one of his wives. Sir John died after the year 1444.
The eastmost tomb (see Fig. [1178]) is that of the son of the foregoing, also Sir John, who died before 1454. It contains his effigy and that of his wife. It does not appear to be known to what family the lady belonged; but from the heraldic blazons (to be afterwards described) she seems to have been a member of the Wigmer family.