stirling-1963-vol-1/05_170

Transcription

No. 131 -- ECCLESIASTICAL MONUMENTS -- No. 131
sunk, another what is probably a star, and a third five
roses set crosswise within an interlaced border; the
decoration of the fourth cannot be made out.
Further modifications of the N. aisle resulted from the
construction, in 1484, of St. Mary's Aisle. This chapel,
which measured internally 17 ft. 9 in. by 17 ft. 6 in.,
projected from the W. bay of the aisle, above which its
pitched roof-raggle can be seen cut into the wall of the
nave above the aisle roof (Pl. 21 A). Its walls were reduced
to a height of 8 ft. 6 in. above their original foundation-
level in 1818 (p. 130), while the ground outside has been
raised to this extent, so that the interior of the chapel now
appears as sunken. Its floor lay 1 ft. 6 in. above that of
the nave. The chapel was entered, presumably by steps,
through a wide doorway in the W. bay (Pl. 21 A, B),
originally a window and now once more converted to a
window. The N. side of the inner order of the arch is
wrought with a rose and a thistle, both in relief. This
window has a label finishing on stops, but the E. stop
was destroyed by the construction of a buttress in 1818.
Both this buttress and its counterpart to the W. are
founded on the reduced walls of the chapel, and the W.
one, which has a crocketed finial, shows on its outer edge
the jamb of what must have been the W. window of the
chapel. The only surviving internal features of the chapel
are a broken piscina and an ogival-headed credence,
with a small edge-roll moulding, both near the S. end
of the E. wall (Pl. 21 C). The upper part of the W. wall
of the aisle, and the small door that can be seen in it near
its junction with the tower, must date from after the
chapel's demolition and the restoration of this part of the
aisle roof to penthouse form, though the string-course
interrupted by the door is probably older.
In the bay E. of St. Mary's Aisle a small door was
closed during the restorations of 1818 (Pl. 21 D), and a
window, similar to the others in the N. aisle, was
inserted. This alteration necessitated the removal of the
door head. The outer faces of the door-jambs, below
the window-sill, show roll-and-hollow mouldings, the
outlines of which have been preserved in the jointing
of the stones of the sill, and likewise the flat faces of the
inner jambs are preserved to a height of 5 ft. 2 in. As in
the case of St. Mary's Aisle, the door-sill must have been
reached from the interior by steps, as it is seen on the
outside to have been at the same level as that of the
chapel. The benatura immediately E. of the door is
an insertion, though it is probably in the position of an
original one. Along the inner face of the wall, between the
blocked door and St. Andrew's Aisle, there was originally
a stone bench; this has been cut away, but traces of it can
be seen on the wall-face. The tracery of the aisle windows
has been renewed. The vaults of the aisle are quad-
ripartite, and it can be seen that the curvature of the ribs
was altered after the tas-de-charge had been carved. The
tas-de-charge on the wall side rest on moulded corbels;
wall-ribs are present except at the W. end of the W. bay,
and all the ribs are of the same section. The stonework
of the webbing is French in style. At each intersection
of the diagonal ribs there is a plain round boss bearing,
on a sunk centre, a slightly raised heater-shaped shield;
none of these is carved with armorial bearings, but they
may originally have been painted.
The vaulting and bosses of the S. aisle are similar to
those on the N., and the vaulting likewise shows evidence
for a change in the curvature of the ribs and provision,
in the W. bay, for a wall-rib which was never built. The
centre boss of the vaulting of the W. bay is carved with a
shield parted per pale and charged, for Adam Cosour
and his wife Katherine Fotheringham ¹: Dexter, three
coursers' heads, bridled, couped; sinister, three bars.
Adam Cosour, a prominent Stirling burgess, seems to
appear on record first in 1446 ² and was still alive in 1484,
in which year, as already mentioned (cf. p. 130), he was
responsible for the erection of St. Mary's Aisle; in 1471
and 1473 he is known to have founded altars in the S.
aisle of the church. ³ Cosour's wife, Katherine Fothering-
ham, was living in 1500 ⁴ and their marriage is therefore
unlikely to have taken place before 1450. The appearance
of their coat of arms in the S. nave-aisle thus confirms
that the nave was in course of erection during the third
quarter of the 15th century. On the wall side the
tas-de-charge rest on moulded and decorated corbels,
and on the other directly on the capitals of the arcade
piers. As in the N. aisle, a stone bench once ran along
the wall under the windows, but this has been cut away;
the tracery of the windows has been renewed.
The floor of the W. part of the nave is slightly higher
than the rest, a downward step traversing the whole
width of the church just E. of the westernmost piers of
the nave arcades (Pl. 25). There is a further descent , of
two steps, from the nave and aisles into the crossing.
Apart from the easternmost piers the nave arcades
are uniform (Pls. 23 A and 25). The columns, which are
circular in section, measure 4 ft. 1 in. in diameter and
have moulded capitals decorated with carved foliage
(Pl. 24 A, B); the plain moulded bases rest on chamfered
octagonal plinths (Pl. 24 D). The two easternmost piers,
which are of slighter proportions, are square in section,
each side measuring 2 ft. 10 in. They are composed of
clustered shafts, which rise from high bases (Pl. 24 E) to
plain moulded capitals (Pl. 24 C); the piers differ from
each other slightly in the sections both of their shafts and
of their capitals. The arches of the arcades are of two
orders, each with a broad splay, and have label mould-
ings; immediately above them there runs a string-course,
the one on the S. wall forming the sills of the clearstorey
windows (p. 134). The hood-moulds of these windows
terminate in stops, which are carved in the form of
heater-shaped shields, except in the case of the eastern-
most window where the stops are foliaceous. The shields
flanking the westernmost window are carved in relief,
and the arms, as far as can be seen, were correctly

1 Dr. Ross in T.S.N.H.A.S. (1913-4), 118. Illustrated in
one of the unnumbered plates at the end of the volume.
2 Excheq. Rolls, v (1437-54), 231.
3 T.S.N.H.A.S. (1913-4), 118.
4 Acts of the Lords of Council in Civil Causes, ii, (1496-1501),
449; she evidently remarried (ibid., (1487-95), 221).

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