roxburgh-1956-vol-2/-05_047

Transcription

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

Beside the name is cut a mason's mark. The second
inscription is cut on a horizontal panel which may be
an insertion of later date than the first. This panel,
which bears scroll-work on its margin, rests on a
string-course which runs between the aisle archway
and the SW. corner of the transept and there returns
upwards to join the cornice above the S. door. The
inscription (Fig. 390) is greatly wasted, but the follow-
ing reading has been supplied from the replica in the
Abbey Museum:

[IOHN MOROW SVM TY] M CALLIT / [WAS I
AND BORN] IN PARYSSE / [CERTANLY
AND HAD] IN KEPYNG / [AL MASON WERK]
OF SANTAN / [DROYS YE HYE K] YRK
OF GLAS / [GW MELROS AND ] PASLAY
OF / [NYDDYSDAYLL AND OF] GALWAY
[I PRAY TO GOD AND MAR] I BATHE
[& SWETE SANCT IOHNE TO KEPE THIS HALY KYRK
FRA SKATHE]

There is no uniformity in the arrangement of the
vaulting shafts upon the W. wall of the transept. For
example, the shaft in the SW. corner descends to the
floor, where it ends in a keel-shaped base. The
adjoining shaft is corbelled out from the string-
course that runs below the second inscribed panel
mentioned above. The corbel represents a crouching
figure. Above it there is another corbel, carved
apparently with two lions, which served the purpose
of an image-bracket. Higher up still the shaft is
banded, the moulded band having sufficient pro-
jection to support a second but smaller image. The
shafts farther N. rise from the capitals of the aisle
archway, the piers of the archway having a special
member on which the shafts are received. This was
the arrangement proposed for the corresponding bay
of the N. transept, which could not be carried out,
however, owing to the difference in the width of the
two aisles. The W. clearstorey only appears in the
N. and central bays, the S. bay having to accom-
modate the turret-stair; the opening in the central
bay is identical with those on the E. sides of this and
the other transept, while in the N. bay the opening
balances the corresponding opening of the N. transept.
The central and S. bays on the E. side of this
transept are entire. Both bays have accommodated
chapels separated, as in the other transept-aisle, by
low screen-walls. Each chapel was provided with
an ornate piscina and a plain locker. The one on the
S. alone shows traces of an altar, above which an
image-braket has been inserted. The tierceron vault
above these chapels is still almost entire ; two keel-
shaped vaulting-shafts for its support are provided
within the S. corners of the aisle, but the one on the
N., which rests on the sill-course of the S. window,
has not been made use of. When this vault came to
be constructed it was extended beyond this shaft to
the capital of the pier respond, the arch of the pier
arcade having to be cut into for its reception.
The crossing is represented today by its two W.
piers and the arch (Fig. 352) that they support. The
piers are composed of cylindrical members flanking
a pointed bowtel ; they rise from high bases, rather
coarsely moulded, to well-carved foliaceous capitals.
The arch is built in three orders. The crossing was
originally designed to be covered with a tierceron
vault with level ridges; when the vault came to be
built, however, some adjustment was found to be
necessary, and the crossing-arches were cut into in
order to receive the vault ribs. Above the vault there
were two storeys, the lower one giving access to the
roof spaces and parapets of the high roofs while the
upper one, which was reached from a staircase at the
SW. corner of the tower, was the bell-chamber.
The structural nave, as represented by the three
surviving bays between crossing and pulpitum, was
set out on a three-bay system, of which three further
bays survived as late as 1742. ¹ If the system was
continuous throughout a nave of ten bays, as sug-
gested on p. 270, it would follow that one bay was
devoted to the retro-choir, a space bounded on the
E. by the pulpitum and on the W. by the rood-screen;
but the system need not have been continuous and
there is no evidence for a rood-screen of stone. The
pier arcade on either side of the nave was closed in by
solid stone walls about 9 ft. high, which are integral
with the piers and not built against them as is usually
the case. These screen-walls are still traceable in
the bays E. of the pulpitum, which marks the lower
end of the monastic choir, and there is evidence that
they also extended W. of it. The piers at the
pulpitum, like the crossing-piers to which they corre-
spond, are bold in outline, while the intermediate
piers differ from them and show, towards the nave,
a double-membered shaft such as was noted in the
transepts and presbytery. All the piers have moulded
bases, while their capitals are finely carved with
spirited foliage (Figs. 353-356). The obtusely-
pointed arches of the pier arcade, rising almost to
the string-course that defines the clearstorey, are
built in three orders. Between each pair and at the
pulpitum there is a triple-membered vaulting-shaft,
those between the arches being corbelled out on the
piers, while those at the pulpitum rise from the
capitals. Above the pulpitum these shafts support a
stout transverse arch corresponding to the W. arch
of the crossing. The space between these two arches
has been covered in with three bays of tierceron
vaulting, and it is obvious that the abutment system
was inadequate as the vault has thrust the lateral walls
outward, the deformation extending upwards from
the capitals of the pier arcade. Immediately below
the vault came the clearstorey with two openings in
each bay. As mentioned above, these openings were
reduced in height in the 17th century and given
segmental heads considerably below the level of the
original pointed rear-arches. Like those of the other
parts, these openings have had pierced balustrades.

1 Glenriddel MS. preserved in the National Library of Scotland, vi, 25.

-- 280