roxburgh-1956-vol-2/-05_030

Transcription

No. 567 -- MELROSE PARISH -- No. 567

planes. These flanking niches rise from the level of
the hood-mould stops ; they are surmounted by the
lowest of a series of panels with cinquefoiled heads
which flank the central niche and are immediately
below the moulded and decorated course, inclined
like a raking cornice, that defines the gable-top.
Certain of these panels formed a backing for effigies,
most of which have disappeared. The second panel
on either side of the central niche contains an angel
censing, while the panel next the dexter angel bears
the effigy of an ecclesiastic wearing chasuble, stole,
and mitre. The privilege of wearing the mitre was
given to the abbots of Melrose in 1391,¹ and this
effigy is almost certainly a representation of Abbot
Binning. Above the panels and the moulded course
the gable-top finished in an inclined parapet pierced
with circular and quatrefoiled perforations. When
complete this pierced parapet must have been a most
decorative element seen against the open sky.
At both corners of the E. gable there are buttresses
in three stages, bearing small figures, grotesque or
fabulous, on their lowest intake-courses. The niches
higher up contain image-brackets protected by
elaborate canopies, the soffits of which are carved to
represent rib-vaulting. The panelled-and-foiled
buttress-tops end in crocketed pinnacles, those of
the two eastern buttresses being lower than those at
either side. To combine the neighbouring pair of
pinnacles effectively, a third and higher pinnacle has
been introduced, resting on the wall behind - an
expedient sufficient to show the skill and experience
of the designer.
The adjoining bay on each side of the presbytery
has a single, pointed, transomed window of four
lights, moulded like the E. window, but lower in
height. The N. window has flowing tracery ; the
tracery of the S. window, although of rectilinear type,
has most of its subordinate members curved. In
neither case is the hood-mould enriched. The S.
hood-mould rises from boldly carved stops, one a
male head, the other a female one. Above these
windows the wall-head is defined by a cavettoed
eaves-course enriched with foliaceous paterae.
In their outward appearance the two presbytery
chapels were originally almost identical. The one
to the N. is now fragmentary, but the other one is
still fairly entire. Each chapel had a two-light
transomed window looking E., and another one in
the side wall ; the jamb-sections differ in the two
chapels. The tracery is rectilinear and the hood-
moulds of all four windows rise from stops in the
form of human heads. The chapel wall-heads have
a cavettoed eaves-course enriched with foliaceous
paterae, and when complete were surmounted by
parapets pierced with cinquefoils. The roofs were of
the lean-to variety and were covered with lead. On
the N. side of the church can be seen a single clear-
storey-window of a usual English rectilinear type, the
survivor of two which lit the inner end of the presby-
tery from the N. This window, contained within
an almost semicircular outer arch, is divided by a
main central mullion ; both divisions are subdivided
by subordinate mullions into three compartments,
cuspated at the springing-level, and are enclosed by
sub-arches filled in with a grid of tracery. The hood-
mould rises from boldly carved stops, the one on the
E. side representing a man's head and the one on the
W. that of a woman with a head-dress showing a
wimple over horns, a fashion current towards the
beginning of the second quarter of the 15th century.
From the W. side of this window one of the few
surviving flying buttresses, moulded on the soffit and
crocketed on top, extends across the N. chapel-roof
to a pinnacle set over the angle formed by the chapel
and the N. transept-aisle.
On the outside of the transept-aisles the junction
of the work done in the first and second stages (p. 270)
is clearly marked. In the N. aisle the earlier work
halted when the southernmost window reached the
springing-level ; northwards it extends as far as the
first intermediate buttress upon the aisle wall, the
buttress itself with the remainder of the aisle having
been constructed in the second stage. In the S. aisle
the earlier masonry can be traced as far as the centre
of the S. window; the N. jamb of this window was
built in the first stage and the rest of it, with a slight
departure from the original design, in the second
In both transepts each bay is defined externally by a
buttress, surmounted when entire by a crocketed
pinnacle from which a flying buttress, rather later in
detail than those of the presbytery, sprang across the
aisle roofs to the high E. wall of the transept beyond.
Each bay contains a window, the S. bay of the S.
transept having an additional window in the side.
All five windows are of two lights and have pointed
heads, but the southernmost window facing E. has
been made narrower than the others, apparently as
the result of an afterthought ; in this last the carved
stops of the hood-mould, which take the form of
angels playing on musical instruments, are specially
noteworthy. The N. window of the transept aisle,
the only one in the series completed in the first stage,
has a transom and its head is filled in with rectilinear
tracery ; in these respects it differs from the other
windows in this series, which are without transoms
and have their heads filled with tracery of a native
pattern which differs in character from the curvi-
linear tracery seen on the N. side of the presbytery.
Of the high E. wall of the transepts only the two
outer bays are left. Each of them contains a pointed
clearstorey light corresponding with one division of
the surviving clearstorey-window on the N. side of
the presbytery. At the NE. corner of the N. transept
there is an access to the aisle roof. The gable of the
N. transept, being mutual to the church and the
cloister buildings, may be regarded as an internal wall
and is described on p. 278 ; it may be noted here,
however, that neither the string-course nor the upper

1 Lawrie, Annals of the Reigns of Malcolm and William, 100 n.
VOL. II. - A a

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