roxburgh-1956-vol-2/-05_045

Transcription

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

The ruinous clearstorey on the opposite side of the
choir shows how the high roof was reached from a
small newel-stair. Within the presbytery lie four
mediaeval grave-slabs, one of which has been identi-
fied as coming from Frosterley Quarry, Co. Durham.
It is probably the coffin-slab of a bishop, since until
the 14th century abbots had not a right to the honours
of the choir ; but it looks too late to be that of William
de Bondington, bishop of Glasgow, who is known to
have been buried beside the high alter in 1258. ¹
The outer walls of the N. presbytery-chapel,
though very incomplete, show that there was a
window in each with a locker below the sill. Origin-
ally this chapel had no piscina, but at some later time
one was provided on the respond of the choir arcade,
where its drain can still be traced. The arch on its
W. side has thin voussoirs more like those of a
vaulting-arch than of a main structural one. Its
respond has a base-section intermediate in develop-
ment between that of the choir-arcade respond and
the corresponding pier, yet there can be little differ-
ence of date, if any, between the three. A noteworthy
feature of this chapel has been its vaulted ceiling,
now unfortunately fragmentary. In contrast to the
domical vault of the presbytery, the tierceron-vault
of this chapel was almost flat, and this evidently for
appearance and not from structural necessity. It
rose from a cornice enriched with paterae. The two
W. groups of ribs are received on foliated corbels,
and the two E. groups on circular wall-shafts which
rise from the floor level. The ridge-rib running N.
and S. is supported by two intermediate tierceron-
ribs. The webs are thin and close-jointed. This,
the earliest of the vaults, was something of a tour de
force - so much so that, when the vault of the S.
chapel came to be constructed, it was made much less
flat while two additional tiercerons were introduced
on N. and S. for further safety. The S. chapel was
otherwise structurally identical with the N. chapel,
although from the beginning its S. wall had contained
a double piscina with an ogival trefoiled head as well
as a locker with a pointed head.
The gable of the N. transept includes, at floor level,
a central doorway with a semicircular arched head.
This opened into the sacristy, the southernmost
compartment in the undercroft of the E. range of the
cloister (p. 283). A similar doorway higher up and
farther W. led from the choir-monks' dorter to the
church by way of the night-stair, traces of which are
still to be seen on the W. wall of the transept. At the
foot of the stair there is a benatura with a slightly
ogival head. About half-way up the gable there is a
central horizontal panel, its border having vine-scroll
enrichment at the sides and top. This panel contains
fourteen small bases, alternating with a similar
number of larger ones, which were evidently meant
to support images of saints flanking a central crucifix
- an arrangement directly contravening the Carta
Caritatis, which laid down that only an image of the
Saviour could be exhibited in a Cistercian church.
The clearstorey in the upper part of the gable is
defined by a string-course, and its passage opens to
the transept by three lancets which have had a
pierced quatrefoiled balustrade in the lower part of
the embrasure. The W. end of the passage, where a
stair rises to the high roof, shows a minor departure
from the original design. Between the lancets and
the apex of the transept vault there is a small circular
window filled in with a cuspated pentacle of tracery.
But for their vaults the two N. bays of the N.
transept are almost entire (Fig. 344). The bay system
is well proportioned and shows a fine sense of design.
The pier arcade on the E. side rises nearly as high as
the clearstorey, which is here at the same level as on
the gable. The piers, set on moulded bases identical
with that of the surviving pier in the presbytery, have
large circular members at the cardinal points and
between them smaller ones with fillets; the W.
member is developed into twin vaulting-shafts which
are joined, about two courses above the arch-springing,
by a third shaft corbelled out in advance of them.
This construction, less common in Britain than on
the Continent, was adopted here and in the nave for
aesthetic reasons, as structurally the shafts on the
piers are not needed ; other shafts which have a
definite structural function are corbelled out above.
The outer member of the arcade arch is finished off
on the nearer twin-shafts, a corbel being set out at the
junction; against the under-surface of this corbel
the outer or third vaulting-shaft stops, while from the
upper surface rises another series of triple vaulting-
shafts, a little in advance of those below, and it is
this upper series which receives the vault-ribs and
transmits their load downwards.
The southernmost of the two surviving piers of the
arcade has a moulded capital enriched with small
paterae, but the adjoining pier and its respond both
have foliated capitals. The arcade arches are obtusely
pointed and are built in three orders. The clear-
storey above, which is defined by a horizontal string-
course, has finely arcaded double openings towards
the transept, delicately moulded on the mid-shaft
and jambs, and having foiled heads. Over all rise
the wall-ribs of the high vault. This vault was of
the tierceron variety, built in oblong severies approxi-
mating in shape to a double square.
The clearstorey with its passage and string-course
are at a lower level on the W. wall of the transept
than elsewhere, this low setting of the windows giving
more equal illumination. The two N. clearstorey-
lights indicate clearly the difference between the
window heads already referred to. At the foot of the
windows can be seen the remains of the quatre-
foiled balustrade that fenced in the lower part of the
embrasure. Between each pair of windows rises a
corbelled shaft, ending in a foliated capital sur-
mounted by a corbelled canopy. Each capital sup-
ports an image. The N. one (Fig. 361) represents St.

1 Melrose Chronicle, 116.

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