roxburgh-1956-vol-2/-05_033

Transcription

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

with fillets, which rise from depressed bell-shaped
bases to delicately carved capitals. The cloister
seating on either side is described below in the section
dealing with the claustral arrangement (pp. 282 ff.).
Each bay of the N. aisle contains a single two-light
window, high-set in order to clear the pent-house
roof of the cloister-walk; these windows have
pointed-arched heads with late geometrical tracery.
It is interesting to note that, in this church, the evolu-
tion of window tracery - which normally runs from
the geometrical type through the curvilinear into the
rectilinear - has been reversed, the rectilinear tracery
being here the earliest in date. The N. aisle wall-
head originally had a moulded eaves-course enriched
with foliaceous paterae, but today only a few sections
of it are to be seen below the counterforts. These
bear grotesque heads pierced for rain-water con-
ductors of lead, which appear to have been carried
through the counterforts to drain the gutter behind
them. The modern roof of this aisle is at the original
level. At some time, however, probably in 1618, a
secondary roof was constructed higher up which
must have covered the N. clearstorey lights.
The S. chapel-aisle of the nave has a modern roof
rather higher than the original one and with a plain
wall-head. The whole of the E. bay and the nearer
half of the one adjoining it, as well as the buttress
common to both, were built at one time as an abuttal
section to the S. transept. In each of these bays
there is a pointed-arched window; the one to the
E. is smaller than the other, on account of the pro-
jection of the adjoining stair-turret, and has only
three lights while the other window has four. The
mouldings of both are, however, identical and their
tracery is geometrical in pattern, the tracery of the
W. window being a little later than that of the E.
window. The work of the third stage can be seen
extending from beneath this W. window over two
complete bays, where it ends below the window of
the fifth bay from the transept. In each of these two
bays there is a four-light window of a different jamb-
section to those farther E. The tracery is curvilinear,
and includes a circular compartment at the top sub-
divided into a triquetra of three vesica-shaped lights.
The aisle roof extends no farther W. than the
buttress between these windows.
The fourth stage saw the window of the fifth bay
completed, the adjoining buttress built, and the outer
wall of the aisle carried W. below the window of the
sixth bay. On the image-bracket of this buttress
there is a shield (Fig. 377) upheld by angels and
charged: Two crosiers saltire-wise between three
hunting-horns stringed and garnished, in chief a rose
and in base a mason's " mell ". The hunting-horns
were borne by Abbot Andrew Hunter (1444-71), the
crosiers indicate his office, and the " mell " and the
rose together form a rebus giving the place-name of the
abbey. This abbot's initials A H, with the H carved
upside-down, appear below the two upper hunting-
horns. The window in the fifth bay (Fig. 336),
completed by Hunter, shows a different pattern of
tracery from those on either side. Hunter must also
have completed the system of flying buttresses which
still stand W. of the S. transept, since his coat of
arms, as described above, was carved on the image-
bracket of the intermediate buttress next to the transept;
the top of the shield, bearing the tops of two crosiers
in saltire with a rose between their heads, can
still be seen on this bracket and the lower part is
preserved in the Abbey Museum (p. 289).
During the fifth stage the work was continued
westwards from the point at which Hunter had left
off in the fourth stage, the sixth bay being completed,
and the seventh and eighth bays built. This work is
by no means of the same high order as the remainder
of the fabric, the carving in particular being crude
though not without vitality. The windows of the
sixth and seventh bays are copied from the curvi-
linear windows of the third and fourth bays. The
window of the eighth bay also has curvilinear
tracery, but the vesica-shaped compartments formed
by it differ in pattern from those of the other windows.
The image-bracket of the sixth buttress W. of the
transept has a shield on which the " mell " and rose
have been carved in the chief, but the abbot's coat of
arms has not even been begun. The westernmost
buttress of this chapel-aisle has a shield on the image-
bracket inscribed with the sacred monogram I H S.
An armorial panel lower down exhibits the Royal
Arms of Scotland on a shield, supported by two
unicorns gorged with crowns having chains attached,
and surmounted by an open crown of four crosses-
patty and four fleurs. Flanking the crown there are
the initials I Q, for Jacobus Quartus (1488-1513),
and above it there is a scroll with a motto, now
illegible but almost certainly IN DEFENS. At the foot
of the panel, the date ANNO D (OMI) NI 1505 is carved
above a vine-scroll. Between the date and the Royal
Arms there is a second shield, upheld by angels and
flanked by a " mell " and a rose. The coat of arms
is no longer legible but presumably it was a bull's
head erased, as given on p. 302, for Abbot William
Turnbull (1503-7). At the SW. corner of the church
the facework of the outer walls has been torn out
leaving a core of masonry no more than 3 ft. 8 in.
high at the W. gable, the part best preserved. The
foundations, which were exposed in 1949, are of red
sandstone and Quarryhill stone, most of the stones
showing evidence of having previously been used
elsewhere ; oyster shells and slates are used for
pinning up stones to a level bed. These foundations
may not have been laid until the time of Abbot
Hunter (1444-71). The westernmost chapel at the
corner opened to the nave by an archway, but the
one to the E. of it was intended to be entered through
a doorway.
INTERIOR OF CHURCH. As in most Cistercian
churches, the internal arrangement here is two-
storeyed, comprising pier arcade and clearstorey, the
triforium stage being omitted. The presbytery is

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