Middle Pointed or Decorated Architecture.—New Abbey or Sweetheart Abbey (Cistercian), Kirkcudbrightshire, was dedicated to the Virgin. It was called New Abbey because it was founded a considerable time after Dundrennan, which was regarded as the old abbey. The founder was Devorgilla, daughter of Allan, Lord of Galloway, wife of John Baliol of Castle Barnard in Yorkshire, and mother of King John Baliol. When her husband died in 1269, Devorgilla had his heart embalmed and placed in an ivory coffin, which she carried about with her; at her death it was buried with her in a grave in front of the abbey high altar, hence the touching name of Sweetheart Abbey. She endowed the abbey, founded Balliol College, Oxford, and built the bridge over the Nith at Dumfries, portions of which still survive. The abbey suffered much last century, but it has since been well cared for, and is in good preservation. Few of our ancient churches are so well preserved, and the ruins represent a period of Scottish Gothic of which not many examples survive. The conventual buildings have been almost entirely demolished, but the church is complete, although the roof is gone, and the walls are much damaged. It comprises a nave with two side aisles, a choir without aisles, N. and S. transepts (with eastern chapels opening off them), and a square tower over the crossing. The precinct—a level field of about 20 acres—surrounds the abbey, and is still partly enclosed with a strong wall, built with large blocks of granite. Melrose Abbey (p. [184]). Lincluden College, Kirkcudbrightshire, was founded anew about the end of the 14th century by Archibald, the Grim, who expelled the nuns. It was a frequent residence of the Earls of Douglas, and consisted of choir separated from nave and transept by stone screen with wide doorway. The choir is aisleless, consisting of three bays; the nave had three bays with a window in each, and aisle on S. side. The architecture is of great beauty. Fortrose Cathedral (p. [52]). Crossraguel Abbey (Cluniac), Ayrshire, was founded by the Earl of Carrick and dedicated to St. Mary. The last abbot, Quentin Kennedy, in 1562 held a famous dispute with John Knox at Maybole. The abbey was much associated with the Bruces. In 1570 occurred the cruel "roasting of the abbot." George Buchanan received a pension out of the abbey revenues, and King James intended to restore it as a residence for his son Henry. The abbey ruins comprise, with the remains of the church, cloisters, and usual buildings, an outer court to the S.W. with picturesque gate-house, pigeon-house, and domestic buildings. The church is a simple oblong with choir and nave, without aisles and transepts. St. Giles', Edinburgh (p. [89]). St. Michael's, Linlithgow (p. [105]). St. Monans, Fifeshire, derives its name from St. Monanus, a missionary of the 8th century, who suffered martyrdom by the Danes on the Isle of May. The original chapel was replaced about 1362 by the present edifice, which suffered much at the hands of the English, and has been altered. It consists of chancel, N. and S. transepts, with tower and spire over the crossing, and is still used as the parish church. It is picturesque and interesting. Whithorn Priory (p. [56]). St. Mary's, Haddington (p. [107]). Fearn Abbey (Premonstratensian), Ross-shire, was founded during the reign of Alexander II. Of it there now only remain a part of the church, and the ruins of some structures attached to it. The church is a simple oblong, and part of it is still used as the parish church. Balmerino Abbey (Cistercian), Fifeshire, was founded in 1229 by Ermengard, widow of William the Lion, and her son Alexander II. Ermengard was buried in the church before the high altar; she was a liberal benefactress, and her son was a frequent visitor at Balmerino. Bishop Leslie ascribes the demolition of the abbey in 1559 to "certain most worthless men of the common people," for the damage of 1547, when Admiral Wyndham "bornt the abbey with all thyngs that were in it," seems to have been much repaired. The abbey buildings are now in a ruinous state, only the chapter-house, with the erections adjoining it, being at all well preserved. To the E. of the chapter-house are the ruins of the abbot's house. The church is situated, as the mother church at Melrose, on the S. of the cloister, and consisted of nave with S. aisle, transepts with the usual eastern aisle, and short presbytery without aisles. St. Bride's College, Bothwell (p. [77]). Temple Church, Mid-Lothian; the Chapel in Rothesay Castle; St. Bride's, Douglas, Lanarkshire; St. Duthus', Tain, Ross-shire; St. Peter's, Inverkeithing, Fife; St. Devenic's, Creich, Fife; Faslane Church, Argyleshire; the Monument of Sir W. Olifurd, Aberdalgie, Perthshire, also embody architecture of this period.
Third or Late Pointed Period.—Paisley Abbey (p. [148]). Dunkeld Cathedral (p. [35]). Iona Cathedral (p. [60]). St. Machar's Cathedral (p. [37]). Trinity College Church, Edinburgh, was situated on the W. side of Leith Wynd, and founded by Mary of Gueldres, Queen of James II., in 1462. It was a very fine specimen of Scottish Gothic architecture of the 15th century, and consisted of a choir with N. and S. aisles, a five-sided apse, N. and S. transepts, with the commencement of a tower over the crossing and N. sacristy. The nave was never erected—the arch having a circular window inserted in it. It was the church of Trinity College Parish till 1848, when it was removed to make way for the railway station. The new church is in many details an exact reproduction of the corresponding features of the original building. St. John's, Perth (p. [108]). Dundee Church (p. [113]). Glenluce Abbey (Cistercian), Wigtownshire, was founded in 1190 by Roland, Lord of Galloway; the chapter-house is the only portion of the abbey in good preservation. Torphichen Church, Linlithgowshire, represents the hospital or preceptory of Torphichen, from 1153 the principal Scottish residence of the Knights of St. John of Jerusalem. Of the cruciform church, the chancel and nave are entirely gone, and there is only left a portion of the transept or "quier." The modern church is on the site of the nave. St. Anthony's Chapel, Edinburgh—"Sanct Antonis in the crag"—stands conspicuous from the Firth of Forth, and was perhaps chosen with the intention of attracting the notice of seamen coming up the Firth, who, in cases of danger, might be induced to make vows to its tutelary saint. There is a fine spring of clear water close to the site, which may have led to the establishment of the hermitage there. Wall remains survive. Rosslyn Church (p. [85]). Dunglass Collegiate Church, Haddingtonshire, is cruciform, and a deserted but complete edifice. The choir and tower may have been built in 1403, the nave after 1450. It was founded by Sir Alexander Home of Home. Foulis-Easter Church, Perthshire, is a simple, oblong structure without buttresses or projections of any kind; is well preserved and most interesting. It was built by Andrew, second Lord Gray. St. Salvador's, St. Andrews (p. [102]). Dalkeith Church (Mid-Lothian) was constituted collegiate in the 15th century, and consists of a nave of three bays with aisles, N. and S. transepts, a W. tower, and aisleless choir of three bays with E. apse. Part is used as the parish church. St. Mungo's, Borthwick (Mid-Lothian) has been rebuilt, with the exception of the S. aisle or chapel, and the structure has originally been a Norman one, with aisleless nave, choir, and round E. apse. Ladykirk, Berwickshire, is very complete and almost unaltered. It is situated on the high N. bank of the Tweed, and is said to have been built in 1500, and dedicated to St. Mary by James IV. in gratitude for his delivery from drowning by a sudden flood of the Tweed. It is a triapsidal cross church, without aisles, with an apsidal termination at the E. end of the chancel and at the N. and S. ends of the transept. The body of the church and transepts are covered with pointed barrel vaults, with ribs at intervals springing from small corbels, and the whole is roofed with overlapping stone flags. The upper part of the tower has been rebuilt, the lower part being of the same date as the church, which is still the parish church. Seton Collegiate Church, Haddingtonshire, probably rebuilt about the close of the 15th century, was added to by the second Lord Seton when he made the church collegiate in 1493, and was completed by the third Lord Seton. The transepts, tower, and spire would appear to have been erected by the Dowager Lady Seton in the 16th century, after her husband's death at Flodden. Arbuthnott Church, Kincardineshire, is an interesting and picturesque structure, containing work of three distinct periods. The chancel was dedicated in 1242, and the nave may be in part of the same period. The S. wing or aisle was built by Sir Robert Arbuthnott in the end of the 15th century. The quaint W. end represents a combination of the ecclesiastical and domestic architecture of Scotland. The church has been well restored; the Arbuthnott Missal with the Psalter and office were written for the use of this church by the vicar, James Sybbald, about 1491. King's College, Aberdeen (p. [80]). Church of the Holy Rood, Stirling (p. [114]). St. Mary's Parish Church, Whitekirk, Haddingtonshire, was a great place of pilgrimage, and was visited among others by Pope Pius II. (Æneas Sylvius), who came to render thanks to the Virgin for his safe landing in Scotland. The church is on the plan of a cross without aisles; the choir is vaulted with a pointed barrel vault, and the roof is slated. Over the crossing is a square tower, finished with a plain parapet; the E. end is square, and there is a fine porch at the S.W. angle. The S.W. porch is one of the most striking features of the structure, and its interior is roofed with pointed barrel vaulting, having ribs springing from carved corbels. Third or late Pointed architecture is also found at Crichton Collegiate Church, Mid-Lothian; Corstorphine Collegiate Church, Mid-Lothian; Crail Collegiate Church, Fife; Mid-Calder Church, Mid-Lothian; St. Mary's Church of the Carmelite Friars, South Queensferry, Linlithgowshire; Yester Collegiate Church, Haddingtonshire; Tullibardine Collegiate Church, Perthshire; Maybole Collegiate Church, Ayrshire; Biggar Collegiate Church (p. [77]); Carnwath Collegiate Church, Lanarkshire; St. Mary's Collegiate Church, Castle Semple, Renfrewshire; Church of the Franciscans or Greyfriars, Elgin, Morayshire, and at Aberdeen; Rowdil Priory (Augustinian), Harri, Inverness-shire; Oronsay Priory (Augustinian), Argyleshire.
Examples of Scottish mediæval architecture are also to be found in the following churches, arranged alphabetically by counties. Aberdeenshire:—Kinkell, Kintore, Leask. Argyleshire:—Ardchattan and St. Mund's Collegiate Church, Kilmun. Ayrshire:—Alloway, Old Dailly, and Straiton. Banffshire:—Cullen Collegiate Church, Deskford, and Mortlach. Berwickshire:—Church of Abbey St. Bathans (Cistercian Nuns), Bassendean, Cockburnspath (an ancient structure), Preston. Buteshire:—Church of St. Mary's Abbey, Rothesay. Dumbartonshire:—Dumbarton Collegiate Church and Chapel at Kirkton of Kilmahew. Dumfriesshire:—Canonby Priory (Augustinian), Kirkbryde, St. Cuthbert's, Moffat; Sanquhar. Fifeshire:—Carnock, Dysart, Kilconquhar, Kilrenny, Rosyth, Dominican Church, St. Leonard's (p. [116]), Holy Trinity (p. [117]), St. Andrews. Forfarshire:—Airlie, Invergowrie, Mains, Maryton, Pert, St. Vigean's. Haddingtonshire:—Church of Trinity Friars, Dunbar, and Keith. Kincardineshire:—St. Palladius' Church, Fordoun. Kirkcudbrightshire:—Old Girthon. Lanarkshire:—Blantyre Priory (Augustinian), and Covington. Linlithgowshire:—Auldcathie. Mid-Lothian:—St. Triduan's Collegiate Church, Restalrig. Peeblesshire:—Newlands, Churches of Holy Cross and St. Andrew, Peebles. Perthshire:—Aberuthven; St. Moloc, Alyth; St. Mechessoc, Auchterarder; Cambusmichael; Abbey of Coupar (Cistercian); Dron Church, Longforgan; Ecclesiamagirdle or Exmagirdle, Glenearn; Forgandenny; Abbey of Inchaffray (Augustinian); Innerpeffray (Collegiate); Kinfauns; Methven (Collegiate); Moncrieff Chapel; Wast-town (near Errol). Renfrewshire:—Houston, St. Fillan's, and Kilmalcolm. Selkirkshire:—Selkirk. Wigtownshire:—St. Machutus' Church, Wigtown.
Mediæval architecture terminated with the Reformation in 1560. In closing this necessarily brief record of our ancient Scottish churches, a word must be added on the Scottish Reformation. It was the aim of Knox to cleanse, not to destroy the temple, and the iconoclasm that followed was the work of the "rascal multitude," while many of the churches and abbeys were ruined by the attacks of the English before the Reformation, as the previous pages indicate. The old builders, too, did a great deal of what is now known as "scamped work," although it was partly counteracted by the excellence of their lime and the thickness of their walls. The real cause of the subsequent destruction was neglect, not violence, while the secularising of the old endowments alienated into other channels the means that were necessary to undo the effects of wind and weather. As Carlyle said, "Knox wanted no pulling down of stone edifices; he wanted leprosy and darkness to be thrown out of the lives of men," and it is known that he exerted himself to save the Abbey of Scone from destruction. In the case of Dunkeld Cathedral, the order makes it quite clear that neither desks, windows, nor doors, glass work nor iron work, was to be destroyed (pp. [36], [37]). The aim of the reformers was at heart an endeavour to make the old temples fit symbols of the reformed faith, and the iconoclasm of the multitude is not to be attributed to them, but to the ignorance and savagery of the time, for which the Church of Rome was primarily to blame. It was this that lessened church feeling and separated the power of truth from the beauty of holiness. It is our privilege to-day to seek the unity of truth and goodness with beauty, to maintain the faith of the Reformation along with that beauty of church architecture which, in its brighter days, the old church witnessed to. It is a one-sided view which sees in Gothic nothing but the development of utility or the endeavour to attain greater height; it is the true view which beholds in it the ideality, piety, and faith that possessed the hearts of our forefathers. The architect's design could never have been realised apart from their offerings of devotion to the Christian religion. When Emerson visited Carlyle at Craigenputtock, the latter, pointing to the parish church, said to his American friend, "Christ's death built Dunscore Church yonder." It is a deep, true utterance, for Christ's death has built every church in Christendom, and these embodiments of beauty not least of all. In this light we see what is at the heart of these ancient Scottish churches, and what has created the affection that treasures them. The ruined walls of so many of them ought to have been the home of the reformed faith, life, and work, linking the present to the past by natural piety, and visibly reminding the worshippers of the church that endureth throughout all generations. The present revival of interest in them is like a new-discovered sense, and is undoing the spoliation and neglect of an age subsequent to the Reformation, and for which the Scottish Reformers are not to blame. Theirs was no easy work, and history has vindicated its results in the progressive genius of the Scottish people. The Reformation saved religion, but the alienation of the religious endowments to secular purposes, often by unworthy hands, is the chief cause of the ruins which tell of a beauty that has left the earth, and it has deprived the Church of so many of its venerable heirlooms. Otherwise there might have been said of the Scottish as was said of the English Reformation that but for it there would have been little Norman or Early English left in the cathedrals, for it just came at a time when the early styles were being pulled fast down to make room for the later.[479] It was the Scottish Reformers' aim to make all the churches parish churches, and each church the centre of the life and work of each parish. Their grievance against monasticism arose from the corrupt lives of the monks and from its intrusion on the parochial system with the alienation of the parish teinds to the use of the monastery. But the idea of a church in the centre of a residence, is one not without suggestiveness to the life of to-day, with its many activities, as a training home for workers; as a temporary retreat for rest, meditation, and prayer to the hard-wrought ministers in the city parishes; as a place for conference on the religious problems; as a theological hall and settlement for divinity students, like that at Loccum near Hanover, where a reformed mediæval monastery, free from vows, and in the full vigour of its life, is used as a college and residence for the students of the Reformed Church, and where the old monastic church is used as the parish church for the people around. To visit Loccum and see it presided over by the venerable Protestant theologian, Dr. Ullhorn, with its garden, grounds, and farm, its church and cloisters, its great library and residence for professors and students, is to be persuaded of the rich possibilities that lie within the reach of the Scottish Church in the restoration of some of its ruined abbeys. The saintly Leighton felt the need of this, and thought "the great and fatal error of the Reformation was, that more of these houses and of that course of life, free from the entanglements of vows and other mixtures, was not preserved; so that the Protestant churches had neither places of education nor retreat for men of mortified tempers."[480] The Reformed Church would thereby purify a great idea, and if it be true, as the late Master of Balliol asserted, that it is the great misfortune of Protestantism never to have had an art or architecture,[481] it can restore and adopt the old architecture that was the creation of the Christian spirit, amid the leisure of the cloister and in times more restful than our own.
APPENDIX
DEFINITION OF LEADING ARCHITECTURAL TERMS[482]
Abacus—the flat member at the top of a capital. Apse—the semicircular space at the end of a building. Arcade—a series of arches; is usually applied to the small ornamental arches only. Barrel vault—resembling the inside of a barrel. Bead—a small round moulding. Boss—a projecting ornament in a vault at the intersection of the ribs. Canopy—the head of a niche over an image; also the ornamental moulding over a door or window or tomb. Capital, cap—the head of a column, pilaster, etc. Chamfer—a sloping surface forming the bevelled edge of a square pier, moulding, or buttress, when the angle is said to be chamfered off. Chevron—an inflected moulding, also called zigzag, characteristic of Norman architecture. Clere-story or clear-story—the upper story of a church, as distinguished from the triforium or blind story below it, in which the openings, though resembling windows, are usually blank or blind, not glazed. Corbel—a projecting stone to carry a weight, usually carved. Crocket—an ornament usually resembling a leaf half opened, and projecting from the upper edge of a canopy or pyramidal covering. The term is supposed to be derived from the resemblance to a shepherd's crook. Crypt—a vault beneath a church, generally beneath the chancel only, and sometimes used for the exhibition of relics. Cusp—an ornament used in the tracery of windows, screens, etc., to form foliation. Dormer—an upright window placed on a sloping roof, giving light to the chambers next the roof. Fillet—a small square band used on the face of mouldings. Finial—the ornament which finishes the top of a pinnacle, a canopy, or a spire, usually carved into a bunch of foliage. Flying buttress—an arch carried over the roof of an aisle from the external buttress to the wall of the clerestory, to support the vault. Gargoyle—a projected water-spout, often ornamented with grotesque figures. Jambs—the sides of a window opening or doorway. Mullion—the vertical bar dividing the lights of a window. Ogee—a moulding formed by the combination of a round and hollow. Pier arches—the main arches of the nave or choir resting on piers. Pinnacle—a sort of small spire usually terminating a buttress. Piscina—a water-drain in a church placed on the right-hand side of an altar for the use of the priest. Plinth—the projecting member forming the lower part of a base or of a wall. Shaft—a small, slender pillar usually attached to a larger one, or in the sides of a doorway or window. Slype—a passage leading from the transept to the chapter-house. String-course—a horizontal moulding or course of masonry, usually applied to the one carried under the windows of the chancel, both externally and internally. Tooth ornament—an ornament resembling a row of teeth, sometimes called dog's tooth and shark's tooth. Transept—the portion of a building crossing the nave and producing a cruciform plan. Transition—the period of a change of style, during which there is frequently an overlapping of the styles. Transom—the transverse horizontal piece across the mullions of a window. Triforium or blind story—the middle story of a large church, over the pier arches and under the clerestory windows; it is usually ornamented by an arcade, and fills the space formed by the necessary slope of the aisle roofs. Tympanum—the space between the flat lintel of a doorway and the arch over it, usually filled with sculpture.
THE END.
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