stirling-1963-vol-1/05_076

Transcription

INTRODUCTION : THE MIDDLE AGES AND LATER
has concave sides. In contrast to the simplicity and conservatism of design exemplified at Airth
and Bothkennar, the elegant steeple at St. Ninians (No. 133), with its ashlar cupola and urn
finials, reflects the demands of Classical taste.
The oldest graveyard-monuments found in the county are the hog-backed stones - one
complete and one fragmentary - at Logie (p. 119). They are not of the earliest type, and may
date from the 11th or 12th century. Coped stones in a later stage of development, with
longitudinal mouldings and/or other decoration, occur at Inchcailleach (No. 163), a single
example, and at Cambuskenneth Abbey (No. 130), a series. These last probably come down
to the 14th century. Other mediaeval pieces, apart from the effigies (infra), are a wheel-cross
headstone at St. Ninians (p. 141) and a fragment of a Norman cross-head at Falkirk (p. 151),
both probably of the 12th century; recumbent cross-slabs at Inchcailleach (p. 167) and
Cambuskenneth (pp. 126 ff.); and slabs at Airth (p. 145), Balfron (p. 168), Cambuskenneth
(p. 128), and Fintry (p. 169) bearing crude representations of cross-hilted swords, in
some cases fragmentary. Effigies occur at Airth, where there is a female figure, probably
of 14th-century date (pp. 146 f.), and at Falkirk, where the one now incorporated in Sir
John de Graham's tomb is too much wasted for its character or date to be determined;
while the others, two pairs, have been allocated dates in the 15th and 16th centuries respectively.
There is also a fragment of a 15th-century effigy at Cambuskenneth (p. 126). After the
Reformation there begins a series of large, well-carved slabs which continues until the early
18th century; the inscriptions, which are often marginal, may be in Latin or Scots, and in
relief or incised lettering, and many bear shields, often flanked or enclosed by initials and dates.
Fine examples of such heraldic slabs are to be seen at Airth (pp. 147 f.), Campsie (p. 162),
Inchcailleach (p. 167), Larbert (pp. 156f.), Stirling (pp. 138 f.), Strathblane (p. 162) and Falkirk
(pp. 151 f.) ; among the Falkirk examples are the later elements in the composite tomb of Sir
John de Graham (pp. 152 f.). Another kind of memorial particularly fashionable in the 17th
century is the large wall-monument; the Sconce monument at Stirling (p. 139) belongs to this
class, as probably did also the original structure now rebuilt as the Logan monument at
Airth (p. 148). A habit very prevalent in Stirlingshire at the end of the 17th century was that of
identifying tombstones by initials only, not by names in full; at Logie (pp. 119 f.), in particular,
very large numbers of stones have been treated in this way.
Tombstones of later date than 1707 have not, as a general rule, been included in this
survey, but a few such later monuments have been recorded when they possessed some
feature of more than usual interest. Thus, for example, there were noted at Falkirk (p. 154)
and Strathblane (p. 163) particularly large and fine Classical structures; again at Falkirk
(p. 153) the Murehead wall monument; at Bothkennar (p. 150) and at Larbert (p. 157)
headstones showing ships under sail, which commemorate seamen sailing from the local ports
(cf. p. 4); and at Larbert (pp. 157 f.) some monuments made of cast iron, of the late
18th and early 19th centuries, evidently representing experiments in the use of a new
material.

MOTTES

Three types of structure occur in the county which, though differing in outward appearance,
can all be described as mottes. Round or oval works consisting of steep-sided mounds, partly

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