stirling-1963-vol-1/05_180

Transcription

No. 137 -- ECCLESIASTICAL MONUMENTS -- No. 137
surround , in which lies a mutilated female effigy (infra).
The outside of the aisle gable is provided with a
splayed plinth, cut off square with the two side-walls
and also interrupted, just W. of the equilateral window,
by an inserted doorway, now blocked up. A recess for
the door in its opened position can be seen in the inner
face of the W. wall of the aisle. The equilateral window
retains its external hood mould, with carved, foliated
stops, and on the E. jamb-stone of its contracted opening

[Diagram Inserted]
Fig. 56. Old Parish Church, Airth (No. 137); capitals in
12th-century arcade

is incised an early form of sun-dial or mass-clock.
Beneath the gable coping there occurs a series of carved
flowers, very irregular in their size and disposition, and
at the apex a wasted finial. The skewputs bear shields
charged for Bruce; A saltire and chief. On the exterior
of the E. wall there is a niche for a statue, typical of the
period, with an ornamental canopy and bracket (Pl. 33 C).
The bracket is carved with a shield charged, for Bruce:
A saltire, on a chief two mullets. At two points near the
S. end of the E. wall there can be seen, respectively, the
initials RB and a crudely scratched cross; both are very
indistinct as the result of weathering. Beneath the floor
there is known to be a burial vault, formerly reached by
a flight of stone steps ¹; but it became dangerous in the
later 19th century and was filled in. The initials of Sir
Richard Elphinstone and his wife Jean Bruce, with the
date 1682, are said to be carved at the entrance to this
vault. ² The NE. corner of the aisle embodies, on the
face towards the nave, part of a mediaeval tombstone
measuring 2 ft. by 10 in. and crudely incised with a
cross-hilted sword; at the head there is half a circle
containing a small cross-patty, or possibly rays, and
traces of a simple cross beside it.

THE ELPHINSTONE AISLE. Just W. of the Airth Aisle
is the burial aisle of the Elphinstone family, which is
separated from the nave by a semicircular arch of two
orders, the inner one being chamfered. The aisle con-
tains several fine tombstones (infra), the earliest of
which is dated 1593, which also appears to be the date
when the aisle was built (infra). The only other internal
feature of interest is a fragment (1 ft. 9 in. by 8 in.) of a
mediaeval tombstone (Pl. 42 C) having a shaft with a
haloed head, flanked by a cross-hilted sword with a round
pommel. Beside the head of the cross are two small
rayed circles. The gable of the aisle is crow-stepped and
has cavetto-moulded skewputs; the side walls are finished
with a moulded eaves-course of similar section. Centrally
placed in the gable wall is a plain square-headed window
with round arrises, which has been contracted on its
E. side by the insertion of a chamfered jamb. The
lintelled doorway, situated in the W. wall at the SE.
corner, also has rounded arrises. An armorial panel set
in the gable above the window is now virtually illegible
through weathering, but a drawing published in 1896 ³
shows it to have been parted per pale and charged for
Elphinstone and Livingstone: Dexter, a chevron between
three boars' heads erased; sinister, quarterly, 1st and
4th, three gillyflowers, 2nd and 3rd a bend between six
billets. It is flanked by the initials M / AE for Master
Alexander Elphinstone, who became the 4th Lord
Elphinstone in 1602, and IL /ME for his wife Jane
Livingstone, Mistress Elphinstone, daughter of William,
6th Lord Livingstone. The date 1593, which appears
below the shield, is presumably the building-date of the
aisle.

THE BRUCE AISLE. This addition has been made on the
N. side of the church opposite the Airth Aisle (supra).
It backs on the E. bay of the early N. nave-arcade,
through which entry was formerly made from the
nave (Pl. 33 A). It is a plain structure with a crow-
stepped N. gable. A splayed base-course extends along
the gable wall and part of the E. wall. It ends at the
NE. re-entrant angle, where it overlaps the splayed base
of the early buttress previously mentioned. On the lintel
of the door in the N. gable wall are the initials S / IB
and D / MR for Sir James Bruce of Powfoulis (cf. No.
304) and his wife, Dame Margaret Rollox of Duncrub,

1 Eccles. Arch., i, 467.
2 P.S.A.S., xiii (1878-9), 167.
3 Eccles Arch., i, 470.

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