east-lothian-1924/05-150

Transcription

OLDHAMSTOCKS.] INVENTORY OF MONUMENTS IN EAST LOTHIAN. [OLDHAMSTOCKS.

The terminal in form of a pine-apple sur-
mounting the apex of the gable appears to be
of 17th century workmanship and is possibly
coeval with the entrance.
There can be no doubt that this eastern
building was erected as a burial aisle in post-
Reformation time-possibly in 1581-and not
as a chapel or chancel.
HISTORICAL NOTE.-The original church of
" Aldhampstocks " was dedicated to St. Mich-
ael.2 " Adulf priest of Aldehamstoc " was one
of the witnesses to a document of 1127.3
Thomas de Hunsingoure was " parson of the
church of Aldhamstoke " in 1296, when he
appears upon Ragman Roll.4 Patrick Sinclair
was " rector of Aldhampstocks " in 1450.5
The Thomas Hepburn referred to above was
attached to Queen Mary's court and was
forfeited for treason in having aided in her
escape from Lochleven Castle in 1568 and the
subsequent proceedings.6

1 Milne Home MSS. p. 193 ; 2 Home MSS
in Hist. MSS. xii., App. viii., p. 87 ; 3 Early
Scottish Charters, p. 60 ; 4 Cal. of Docs. ii.,
p. 212 ; 5 Home MSS. No. 124 ; 6 Acta Parl.
(19 Aug. 1568) vol. iv., pp. 49, 52.

xii. S.E. 14 June 1913.

124. Collegiate Church, Dunglass.-This
building (fig. 114), which was dedicated in
the name of B.V. Mary, stands on a grassy
plateau adjoining the mansion of Dunglass,
rather less than a mile west-north-west of
Cockburnspath village. The fabric is still
entire, notwithstanding the usage the building
received in the 18th century, at which time it
was degraded to the purpose of a stable and
agricultural store. It is now in the custody of
H.M. Office of Works.
The church is cruciform and rectangular on
plan (fig. 115), with a square tower surmounting
the crossing, while on the north there is a
sacristy opening into the choir by an
archway. The nave is wider than the choir,
and the western piers of the crossing are
attached to the lateral walls in a curiously
unstructural fashion. During the operations
conducted by H.M. Office of Works, it was
found that the north wall of the nave ran across
the space now occupied by the transept and ter-

75

minated at the division between nave and choir.
In other words, the building, as originally de-
signed, was two chambered comprising nave
and choir, but, before the building was very
far advanced, it was decided to add transepts
and a central tower. The detail throughout
the building is of the same period-the 15th
century-and the addition must have been
made before the vaulted roofs of the nave and
choir were laid.
The walls are built of ashlar of a yellow tinge,
here and there inclining to a warmer note.
The roofs of nave, transepts and choir are
overlaid with stone slabs, while the tower,
now roofless, would probably be covered with
a dumpy pyramidal wooden and slated spire.
A splayed basement course returns around the
whole building. The usual cavetto cornice at
eaves' level is enriched with paterae on the
portion lying between the north transept and
the sacristy. Buttresses, rising in two stages
from the basement course and terminating in
set-offs at eaves' level, are disposed at either
side of the gables and also on the lateral walls
of the nave. Those on the east gable bear on
the set-offs emblems of the Passion and other
symbolic carvings, which now are greatly
weathered.
There are three doorways, one a priests'
door (fig. 112), entering the choir from the
south, and one in each of the lateral walls of the
nave at its western end. These have semi-
circular heads with arch-mouldings consisting
of a filleted edge-roll with flanking hollows,
which are continued down the jambs, and ter-
minate in splayed stops. The projecting hood-
moulds terminate in stops shield-shaped and
carved with foliaceous work. Above the choir
door is a canopied niche surmounting a helmet
and mantling over a canted shield; the arms are
illegible. In addition to these, lintelled door-
ways have subsequently been formed in the
east wall of the south transept and the west
wall of the sacristy, but the latter door is now
built up.
In each gable of the divisions of the church
there is a pointed window, which has had an
infilling of tracery. The jambs are wrought
with a series of splays with small inner mould-
ings curvilinear in section. In addition to the
gable windows the nave is lit by a pointed
window in each of the lateral walls immediately

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Douglas Montgomery

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