there was a residence here, and the chapel may have served both as sacristy and private chapel.
This chapel or sacristy is supposed to have been built in the lifetime of Sir William St. Clair’s first wife, Lady Elizabeth or Margaret Douglas, daughter of Archibald, fourth Earl of Douglass, and first Duke of Touraine, from the circumstance that her arms (Fig. [1088]) are sculptured on the east wall. The shield has two coats impaled: Dexter, a coat quarterly, dimidiated, viz.—First a galley within a double tressure, flory counter
Fig. 1085.—The Collegiate Church of Rosslyn. Caps of Openings to Choir.
flory, for Orkney; 3rd a cross engrailed for St. Clair, being the 1st and 3rd quarters of the arms of the Earl of Orkney; Sinister, in base a heart, and on a chief three mullets, for Douglas, the shield being surmounted of a fess charged with three fleurs-de-lys (2 and 1) for Touraine. Lady Elizabeth died in 1452.
The barrel vault of the sacristy (see Fig. [1087]) is semicircular, and supports a flat roof formed with overlapping stones. The vault is strengthened with transverse ribs carved with the engrailed cross, which spring from corbels sculptured with figures of angels and saints (Fig. [1089]).
In considering the history of Rosslyn Church many of the statements of Father Hay regarding the St. Clairs and Rosslyn require to be received with considerable caution. He was a hero worshipper, and Sir William was his hero. The latter is represented by the Father as living in more than royal magnificence at Rosslyn, with many of the nobles of Scotland waiting upon him as servants. That is a very incredible statement, as is also the assertion that under the fostering care of Sir William, Rosslyn became the “chiefest town in all Lothian, except
Fig. 1086.—The Collegiate Church of Rosslyn. Section through East End of Church and Lower Chapel.
Edinburgh and Haddington.” But few who visit this chapel will be inclined seriously to quarrel with the Father on account of his enthusiasm for the Rosslyn family. To the purest in Gothic architecture Rosslyn may seem barbarous and debased, but it must be allowed to be splendid barbarism, meted out with the most liberal hand. Sir William is further represented by Father Hay as bringing artificers from foreign lands, and setting them to work on Rosslyn College, and on this unsupported statement many writers have found the prototype of this building abroad, some in France and some in Spain, and even Rome is hinted at in the well known story of the ’Prentice Pillar. The unusual richness of the ornamentation of the edifice, so different from most of the structures