roxburgh-1956-vol-2/-05_048

Transcription

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

The pulpitum or E. screen (Fig. 351) rose about
11 ft. above the church floor and supported a loft
from which some central feature, probably an image
of the Saviour, once projected. On the E. side the
screen was unadorned, being covered by the return
stalls of the choir, but the W. side has a moulded
cornice enriched with scroll-work. The character-
istic feature of a pulpitum is the central doorway, and
this one has shafted jambs and a depressed arch-head,
the outer order of the arch being foliaceously en-
riched. On its S. side there is a locker. This doorway
opens into a little lobby in the thickness of the screen.
The lobby is ceiled with a mock tierceron-vault on
which the central boss represents the Deity and the
others are foliaceous. A staircase on its N. side led
to the loft above.
On examination of the 17th-century alterations on
the structural nave it will be found that the W. arch-
way of the crossing must already have been shut off
before the parish church was formed in 1618, as the
E. of the four massive piers then added on the S.
side of the N. pier-arcade obviously abutted on a
pre-existing wall. These piers rest on high chamfered
bases and have simple imposts from which spring
arches, slightly pointed, and chamfered at the arris.
Above these later arches ran a gallery, entered from
two doorways above each arch. The two middle
doorways have segmental heads, the others are
lintelled. All were approached from the original
clearstorey-passage which runs behind them. Higher
up, an enriched 15th-century cornice, re-used, runs
along both side-walls and serves as an impost for the
barrel-vault that has replaced the monastic rib-vault.
Evidence that the rib-vault had already fallen before
the parish church was formed is supplied by two of
its bosses, which have been rebuilt into the later
masonry on the N. side; one is foliaceous and
the other represents a man's head, bearded and
moustached, enclosed within a circular foliated
border.
For a church of the first rank, the N. aisle of the
structural nave is quite exceptionally narrow, a
circumstance for which the explanation is given on
p. 270. In each bay it has a high-set window, while
the E. bay includes the processional doorway as well.
All these openings have segmental rear-arches. In
connexion with the doorway it may be noted that
the screen-wall of the choir had a hatch-like opening
directly opposite, as if for the purpose of overlooking
the choir; alternatively, the E. alley of the cloister
came under observation from the choir if the door
was open. On the W. of the doorway the 17th-
century memorial numbered 1 on p. 289 has been
inserted in the wall of the N. aisle. The aisle itself
is covered with a quadripartite vault with level ridges.
The tas-de-charge on the N. spring from corbels,
those on the S. from the capitals of the pier arcade.
The vaulting bosses are foliaceous.
The S. aisle of the nave, normal in breadth, gives
access to the chapels in the parallel aisle on its S. side.
It is covered with a tierceron vault with level ridges.
Before this vault was constructed provision had been
made for it upon the arch opening to the S. transept,
and a tierceron vault must thus have been contem-
plated from the outset; but as the arches of the pier
arcade had eventually to be dressed back to accom-
modate the vault members and all the diagonal ribs
of the vault itself had to be backed up in order to
avoid distorted webs, it is clear that the details had
not been fully worked out. The northernmost boss
of the W. surviving bay of this vault shows a shield
charged with three fleurs-de-lys, ¹ the other bosses
are foliaceous.
The original W. gable (p. 265) is of rubble, rough-
axed and still showing traces of thin plaster or lime-
wash on both sides. The S. end is incomplete; the
N. end has been renewed and spliced up to the later
N. wall of the church. On its outer side a Roman-
esque buttress projects in alinement with the N.
pier-arcade, and on the inside, where a respond might
be expected, the masonry has been disturbed. The
central doorway has plain jambs with ashlar ingoings.
Along the front of this gable ran the vaulted Galilee,
two bays wide and five in length. On the evidence
of the single surviving base of its arcade the Galilee
can be dated to the early 13th century. The base is
of water-holding type and has supported a four-lobed
shaft.
In the S. chapel-aisle of this church, as in some of
the greater secular churches on the Continent, each
bay other than the second one from the W. is a
separate cell opening to the nave-aisle proper through
an archway. The progress of this side of the fabric
is clearly indicated internally by differences in the
base sections of the piers of the archways. Thus, one
type of base extends from the transept over the pier
between the first and second bays and a second from
the pier between the second and third bays to that
between the fifth and sixth bays, while a third type is
found on the three piers farther W. The arches that
these W. piers support have been built at one time,
and they are later in date than the five farther E.
Although the chapels were built piece-meal, they
have an identical arrangement - a window and piscina
to the S., an altar and altar-pace against the E. wall,
and a locker in the W. wall.
The easternmost chapel has a string-course at the
level of the window sill. This ran round all three
walls, but the E. section has been removed to accom-
modate a high reredos of wood (p. 279). In the W.
wall, three courses above the springing-level of the
entrance archway, there has been inserted an in-

1 This charge, which corresponds with the arms of
" France modern " introduced about 1365 by Charles V in
place of the semée-de-lys, may here stand for the Duchy
of Touraine. Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas, a notable
benefactor to the abbey, was created Duke of Touraine in
1424, and on being slain at Verneuil later in the same year
was succeeded in the earldom and duchy by his son
Archibald, who carried the fleurs-de-lys in the first quarter
of his shield in virtue of his duchy.

VOL. II. - B

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