stirling-1963-vol-1/05_186

Transcription

No. 140 -- ECCLESIASTICAL MONUMENTS -- No. 140
CARVED FRAGMENTS PRESERVED IN THE CHURCH. The
following carved fragments preserved in the Church
deserve to be noted. (i) A carved crosshead of sandstone
(Pl. 34 D) affixed to a modern base which bears the
inscription: THIS CROSSHEAD / PROBABLY ONCE
FORMED PART OF / A SANCTUARY OR BOUNDARY
CROSS / ERECTED ABOUT 1200 A.D. / IT WAS FOUND
IN THE VICINITY / OF THIS CHURCH. The cross
has expanding arms and both faces are carved with a
conventional design in low relief. It measures 1 ft. 2 in.
by 10 in. by 5 in., but the lower part of the stone has
been broken off, and originally the cross no doubt stood
upon a shaft or base. Although the inscription suggests
that the stone might originally have formed part of a
sanctuary or boundary cross, it was perhaps more
probably a headstone, like the rather earlier cross at
St. Ninians (p. 141). (ii) A panel, set above a doorway
which gives access to the main body of the church, and
bearing the incised inscription FUNDATUM / MALCOMO
III / REGE SCOTIAE / A.M. + 1057 / ("Founded in
the reign of Malcolm III, King of Scotland 1057").
The inscription is evidently bogus, and the panel may
have been cut in the early 19th century in order that
it might be used as evidence in a law-suit between the
parish minister and the laird of Callendar. ¹ (iii) A roof-
boss bearing a shield charged: Quarterly, 1st and 4th,
three gillyflowers within a double tressure flory-counter-
flory; 2nd and 3rd, a bend between six billets, being the
arms of the Livingstones of Callendar (pl. 34 E). A
serpent, part of the family crest, is twined round the
shield.

BELLS. In the belfry there hangs a chime of thirteen
bells cast at Baltimore, in 1926; and in the porch
there is preserved a large bell dated 1740, produced by
the casting into one of two earlier bells. ² A hand-bell,
presented in 1830, is in safe custody in the offices of
Messrs. Gairn & Gibson, Falkirk. A pre-Reformation
date has been suggested for it, but it is probably not
earlier than the 16th century. ³

EFFIGIES AND TOMB-SLABS IN THE PORCH. Two pairs of
effigies are preserved within the S. porch of the Church,
resting on table-bases of the 19th century. On the
easternmost base there is an inscription which states
that, in 1810, when the Church was reconstructed, the
effigies lay within the S. transept, and that thereafter
they were exposed to the weather until 1852, when steps
for their preservation were taken by William Forbes of
Callendar. The figures are now very much wasted, and
only the principal features of the costume and armour
can be discerned as all the details have disappeared.
The male figure of the westernmost pair (Pl. 46 A) is
bare-headed and wears plate-armour; the head rests on
a cushion and the feet on a lion. From the hip-belt,
which is worn horizontally, there hangs a sword having
short, straight quillons with downturned ends and a
water-guard. The head of the female figure rests on a
cushion and the feet on an animal. She wears a round-
necked undergarment, a gown and a mantle, and on the
head there appears to be a chaplet.
The male figure of the easternmost pair (Pl. 46 B)
appears to wear a helmet, a peascod breastplate and
knee-length taces, while the upper arms and shoulders
are covered with continuous laminations; the head rests
on a cushion. The sword has slightly curved quillons.
The female figure wears a gown having puffed sleeves
and a long skirt; there is a horizontal groove at the waist.
The head rests on a cushion and seems to be wearing
a cap. Even if allowance be made for the weathering of
the figures, the carving of this pair of effigies appears to
be unusually crude.
If the effigies are indeed "the memorials of the earliest
feudal lords of Callendar", as the inscription upon the
easternmost base (supra) states, the first pair may
represent either Sir Alexander Livingstone and his wife,
a daughter of James Dundas, of Dundas, or their son
James, 1st Lord Livingstone of Callendar and his wife
Marian. Sir Alexander Livingstone died in 1451 and
Lord Livingstone in 1467, and the effigies could be
ascribed to either of these dates. The other pair of
effigies dates from about the turn of the 16th and 17th
centuries and may possibly represent William 6th Lord
Livingstone, who died in 1592, and his wife Agnes
Fleming. ⁴
Between the two pairs of effigies just described, two
grave-slabs are set within the floor of the porch. The
easternmost measures 6 ft. in length by 2 ft. 2 in. in
width and bears, in relief, a shield parted per pale and
charged: Dexter, dimidiated, 1st and 4th for Livingstone,
2nd and 3rd for Callendar, the 2nd and 4th quarters
being elided by the dimidiation; sinister; a fess or chief
charged with three stars accompanied by a rose or gilly-
flower in base, a three-point label in chief. The sinister
charges are probably for Douglas, perhaps of Whittinge-
hame, or possibly for Pedefer; the label indicates that
the spouse was the daughter of a then heir apparent.
Above the shield appears what may be a clumsy
representation of an earl's coronet of early Scottish type.
The slab also bears an incised inscription, now greatly
wasted, of which the only significant fragments now
legible are ALE / [?XANDER] -- / ADOLESCENTIAM
and PROVECTAM AE / TATEM IN AVLA / REGVM
GALLIE. The second fragment plainly refers to someone
who, in later life, was present at the French Court, and
it has been plausibly suggested ⁵ that it commemorates
Alexander, 5th Lord Livingstone, who accompanied
Queen Mary to France in 1548 and died there a year or
two later. ⁶ The coat may therefore represent the arms
of Livingstone of Callendar impaled with another coat,
presumably that of one of Lord Livingstone's three
wives. He married first, Janet Stewart, second, Agnes

1 P.S.A.S., lxx (1935-6), 272 f.
2 All these bells are described in detail in P.S.A.S., lxxxiv
(1949-50), 74 ff.
3 Ibid.
4 The identification of the figures was first suggested by
Hunter, R. L., in P.S.A.S., lxx (1935-6), 275 f; cf. also
P.S.A.S., xxix (1894-5), 389 and figs. 43 to 46.
5 Hunter, R. L., P.S.A.S., lxx (1935-6), 276.
6 The Scots Peerage, v, 436.

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