TRINITY COLLEGE CHURCH,Edinburgh.

Fig. 1004.—St. Machar’s Cathedral. Plan.

refined in character than the succeeding work, most of which is constructed in granite. Bishop Kinninmond may possibly have built the bay of the nave adjoining for a buttress to the central tower. Freestone mouldings similar to those of the tower still remain at the springing, as if they had continued across to the first pillar; but the arch must have been taken down, as the existing bays are all of granite, and the granite mouldings—which are of quite a different section—are seen to butt against those of Kinninmond’s time.

The nave may be said to be all of one period, and appears to have been principally built, including the two western towers, by Bishop Henry Leighton between 1422 and 1440. It was roofed in by his successor, Bishop Lindsay, and in theView of the Dioceseit is said to have been leaded over by the Bishops Elphinston and Dunbar, and “ceiled by this last,”A.D.1518-1531. The flat ceiling of oak erected by Bishop Dunbar still remains (Fig.1005), having been constructed by him at his own “pains and expenses.” “James Winter, an Angus man, was architect of the timber work and ceiling of said church; which was well done, and may make his name famous to after ages.”[43]It is ornamented with heraldic decorations, containing the arms of various European kings, Pope LeoX., the Scottish nobility, and Churchmen. These have been drawn and illustrated in colour by the New Spalding Club. Bishop Dunbar also finished Leighton’s towers by adding the spires (Fig.1006) in grey freestone. The general colour of the granite work is of a reddish yellow tint.

The edifice as it now stands measures on the outside as follows, viz.—length of nave about 143 feet, width 77 feet. The transept is about 121 feet long by 37 feet 6 inches wide. The centre alley of the nave is 30 feet 6 inches wide. The towers are about 23 feet 6 inches square, and about 111 feet high.

The west front of St. Machar’s (see Fig.1006) is entirely built with granite, except the spires, and is one of the most impressive and imposing structures in Scotland. It is extremely plain, not a single scrap of carving being visible anywhere, and most of the openings are of the simplest kind. This front is a veritable piece of Doric work, depending for its effect on its just proportion and the mass of its granite masonry. The towers and spires are of equal height, and almost identical in design. The great corbels and machicolations of the parapet are clearly derived from castellated forms, and the embrasured bands round the spires and their numerous lucarnes are distinct signs of the late date of their construction. The entrance doorway (Fig.1007) is remarkable, the jambs being mere rounds and hollows, with a flat stone laid along at the springing of the round arch, marking where the capitals usually stand, while the arch mouldings are of the most elementary kind, all being designed to suit thehard granite of which they are constructed. Above this doorway is one of the most striking features of the composition, viz.—the seven lofty narrow windows (see Fig.1006), about 26 feet in height, and each crowned

Fig. 1005.—St. Machar’s Cathedral. The Nave, looking West.

Fig. 1006.—St. Machar’s Cathedral. West Front.

Fig. 1007.—St. Machar’s Cathedral. West Doorway.

with a round and cusped arch (Fig.1009). The ground story of both towers is barrel vaulted; the apartment in the south tower has had a rude door knocked through the front wall, and is now used as a place for keeping spades and shovels in.

Fig. 1008.—St. Machar’s Cathedral. View from South-West.

The south elevation (Fig.1008) is marked by the same simplicity as the west front, being designed to suit the intractable material of which it is built. The clerestory is an absolutely plain wall, pierced by narrow round arched windows, without a moulding of any kind, while the windows of the side aisles are filled with the simplest tracery. The effect of this part of the building is much marred by the removal of the parapet which formerly ran along the top of the wall. The south porch is a dignified structure. It was evidently meant to have a room over the entrance, for which a window is provided; but there is no indicationof there ever having been an upper floor or an access stair, and the considerable height, as viewed from the inside, has an unmeaning appearance. The resemblance between this porch and the south porch of St. Michael’s, Linlithgow, is striking, both having the inner crow-stepped gable built on the aisle wall. In the latter porch the upper room has been completed.

Fig. 1009.St. Machar’s Cathedral.Top of West Windows.

Fig. 1009.

St. Machar’s Cathedral.

Top of West Windows.

The north aisle wall of the cathedral, which is fortunately not so well seen as the south wall, is quite modern, and has a mean and paltry appearance.

The pillars in the nave (see Fig.1005) are all round on Plan, with round moulded caps and very simple bases. These are shown in section in Fig.1005, and also on a larger scale in Fig.1010, which contains Scougal’s monument (afterwards referred to), and where there is also a view of part of the interior of the large west window. Beside the sketch of this monument will be seen a stone containing the arms, surmounted by a mitre, probably of Bishop Stewart, who died in 1565 (a fesse chequé debruised by a bend engrailed).

In the view of the interior (see Fig.1005) it may be observed that the full thickness of the clerestory walls does not come down to the caps of the pillars, but stops short a few feet above. This arrangement has an unpleasing effect in perspective, leaving a portion of the cap projecting and bearing nothing. The two piers at the crossing, as already mentioned, are of freestone and are of clustered form, and have richly carved capitals. These capitals are necessarily concealed by the building up of the arches, which lead from the nave to the crossing. Fig.1011shows a part of one of these capitals, which can be seen from the transept.

Regarding the choir nothing can be now said from observation, as it was destroyed in 1560, and the ruins have since been entirely removed. Alluding to this, Orme says (p. 104)—“The glorious structure of said Cathedral Church being near nine score years in building, did not remain twenty entire, when it was almost ruined by a crew of sacrilegious church robbers.”

There was an old choir standing in Bishop Elphinston’s time, early in the sixteenth century, which, as Boece tells us in his life of that prelate,[44]was considered by the bishop to be in a style unworthy such a church, and he began to rebuild it on a plan corresponding with the western part of the building; “but lest he should die before it was completed, he would not take down the old choir till everything was in readiness to begin the new one, so that a considerable part was finished before his death.” The work was continued by his successors, but it seems doubtful if it ever was entirely completed before the Reformation burst on the country.

The building of the central steeple, which had been partly carried outby Bishop Leighton, was finally completed by Bishop Elphinston about 1511. The tower was supported by the four pillars of the crossing. “It

Fig. 1010.—St. Machar’s Cathedral. Monument of Bishop Scougal in South-West Angle of Aisle.

was four storey high, and square, and had two battlements, and seems to have been about 150 foot high.”[45]

Bishop Leighton also built, in 1424, the north transept, or, as it was called, St. John’s Aisle, where the beautiful sculpture of that bishop’s effigy now lies inglorious beneath a rough brick arch (Fig.1012). His tomb appears to have been entire when Orme (who died about 1725) wrote his description of the cathedral.[46]He describes it as an effigyin pontificalibus, on an altar tomb with a canopy, under which is this inscription: “Hic jacet bone memorie Henricus de Lichtoun,” &c. Huddled in behind the figure there is a large stone slab with an inscription, which can hardly be seen on account of the rubbish and ivy.

The south transept was built by Bishop Dunbar in 1522. And so recently as the time of Orme large portions of it, which have now disappeared,

Fig. 1011.—St. Machar’s Cathedral. Part of East Pier from Transept.

were standing, if, indeed, it was not almost entire at that date. Orme speaks of the “top of this aisle” as having then been taken down for the miserable purpose of furnishing stones for new buildings at the college; and he also mentions large windows as then existing, all of which have vanished. Indeed, almost nothing of this transept now remains except the tomb of the founder, Bishop Gavin Dunbar (Fig.1013), and an empty tomb to the left of it, which were complete when Orme wrote. The latter contained the effigy of a bishop, “a lion at his feet, and under his head a pointed helmet for a cushion; arms, a lion rampantqueue fourchedebruised by a bend charged with three escallops.”[47]This wasprobably a tomb of the end of the sixteenth century. The foliage round the arch, modelled from seaweed, is carved with great spirit. Dunbar’s tomb is perhaps the finest of the minor pieces of work now remaining here. It is remarkable how it escaped destruction on various occasions, and especially in 1693, when a gang of religious fanatics broke his effigy in pieces, defaced the inscription, smashed the hanging cusped tracery round

Fig. 1012.—St. Machar’s Cathedral.Monument of Bishop Leighton.

Fig. 1012.—St. Machar’s Cathedral.

Monument of Bishop Leighton.

the arch (apparently firing guns at it), and threw down the top of the monument. The existing cornice, with its two rows of corbels, was erected afterwards; and it must be allowed that it harmonises well with the earlier work, although it has more of the spirit of domestic than of ecclesiastical architecture. A similar kind of battlement is introduced over the centre panel of the Amond Monument, at Ellon, in the same county

Fig. 1013.—St. Machar’s Cathedral. Tomb of Bishop Dunbar in South Transept.

(see Fig.1014), erected just about the time that this monument was repaired. In the spandrils of the arch of the bishop’s tomb are the royal arms of Scotland and those of Dunbar (three cushions pendant at the corners in a bordure). The label terminals near the head and feet of the effigy are designed as angels bearing shields. Orme states that, in 1640, under the direction of the Earl of Seaforth and others, “A mason struck out

Fig. 1014.—Monument at Ellon, Aberdeenshire.

Christ’s arms in hewn work, on each end of Bishop Dunbar’s tomb,” “and likewise chesel’d out the name of Jesus” from another part of the building.[48]Both of the above tombs are of freestone.

A very interesting monument, also in freestone, is built into the south wall of the nave (Fig.1015). It is in bas relief, the depth of the recess above the effigy being only two inches from the projection of the archmoulding, yet within this slight recess the sculptor has obtained a wonderful effect in the beautiful figure, supposed to represent Archdeacon Barbour, the poet, who died in 1396. If this is Barbour’s monument, it must have been erected a considerable time after his death, as the nave was not built till after that event. There is a long inscription beneath the monument, which, so far as we know, has never been decyphered. The length of the recess in which the figure lies is 3 feet 11½ inches.

Fig. 1015.—St. Machar’s Cathedral. Monument in South Wall of Nave.

The whole breadth of the monument is 4 feet 4 inches, and the height, including the inscription and base course (exclusive of the lower inscription), to the top of the horizontal cornice is 2 feet 6 inches. It stands at a height of 6 feet 6 inches from the floor to the bed of the figure.

At the west end of the south aisle is the monument (see Fig.1010) of Bishop Patrick Scougal, who, as his epitaph says, “enriched the Cathedral of St. Machar,” and other places in Aberdeen, “with considerable tokens of his great bounty.” The monument was erected in 1685, the year of his death.

This church stood in the hollow between the Old and New Towns of Edinburgh, on the west side of Leith Wynd. It was founded by Mary of Gueldres, Queen of JamesII., shortly after that king’s death in 1460, the charter of erection being dated 1462. The edifice was dedicated to the “honour and praise of the Holy Trinity, to the ever blessed and glorious Virgin Mary, to Saint Ninian the Confessor, and to all the saints and elect people of God.”[49]

The foundation was established for a provost, eight prebendaries, and two clerks, and in 1502 there were added a dean and sub-dean. Lands and benefices sufficient were bestowed on the establishment for its maintenance.

Connected with the college was “Trinity Hospital,” also founded by Queen Mary of Gueldres. After the Reformation the endowments passed into the hands of the Town Council, who maintained the Hospital as a city charity for decayed burgesses and their families.

The church became the place of worship of a new parochial division called “Trinity College Parish,” and so continued till 1848, when it was removed to make way for the station of the North British Railway Company.

Trinity College Church was a very fine specimen of the Scottish Gothic architecture of the fifteenth century. It showed (as has been pointed out in the Introduction) that much of the middle pointed or decorated style continued to be used in this country long after it had been given up in England. This view is supported by Richman, who says of this church: “The interior is a very beautiful decorated composition, with the capitals of the piers enriched with foliage, not exceeded in design or execution in any English cathedral”; and he also adds, “This building is all of good decorated character, and deserving of minute examination and study.” During the erection of the church “the master of works” was John Halkerston, who, in recent books, is frequently referred to as the architect; but, as has been pointed out elsewhere,[50]he seems to have acted as paymaster, not as designer.

The church (Fig.1016)[51]consisted of a choir, with north and south aisles, and a five-sided eastern apse, north and south transepts, with thecommencement of a tower over the crossing, and a north sacristy. The nave was never erected, the arch leading to the west from the transept being built up, and having a circular window inserted therein. It is supposed that the progress of the structure was arrested by the death of the foundress, which occurred in 1463. The choir, including the apse, was 69 feet in length by 25 feet in width internally. The north and south aisles extended along the three bays of the choir, the north aisle

Fig. 1016.—Trinity College Church. Plan.

being 13 feet wide and the south aisle 9 feet wide. The apse was the full width and height of the central choir, and had a lofty window in each of its three central divisions. The transepts had small projections; the whole internal length of the transept, including the crossing, being 74 feet and the width 24 feet.

The choir and aisles were roofed with fine groined vaulting. That of the side aisles was simple, but the vault of the choir was ornamented with ridge ribs and several intermediate ribs, or tiercerons, springing fromvaulting shafts, supported on corbels and provided with carved caps, and all the vaults were studded with carved bosses. The effect of the vaulting of the apse was specially beautiful. Each bay of the choir had clustered piers (Fig.1017), with finely carved capitals. Above these was a string course, then a piece of plain wall in the space usually occupied by the triforium, and the whole was crowned with the traceried clerestory

Fig. 1017.—Trinity College Church.Piers of Choir.

Fig. 1017.—Trinity College Church.

Piers of Choir.

windows. A good general view of the interior, taken a short time before its destruction, is given by Billings.[52]

Owing to the removal of the building, it has been impossible to make original illustrations for this work, but we are fortunate in being able to publish copies of a series of sketches made by the late James Drummond, R.S.A., in 1845. These picturesque sketches give a good idea of the nature of the structure, both internally and externally. Fig.1018is a view of the exterior of the south side of the choir, showing the three bays into which the aisle was divided by buttresses, from which flying arches extended to the upper part of the choir. The buttresses had simple set-offs, and were crowned with pinnacles, which, for the most part, seem to have been greatly decayed. In the depth of the buttresses next the south transept a porch was formed, which was roofed with fine groined vaulting. This porch is also well shown in Fig.1018. The arch is moulded, and dies against the buttresses, and is crowned with a reversed curve and a flowered finial. There were carefully carved canopies and corbels for statues on the face of the buttresses on each side of the porch, and the other buttresses seem to have had similar niches. A round-headed doorway in the porch gave access to the choir, and had a square-headed window over it.

The aisle windows had double splayed jambs and arches (Fig.1019) both in the exterior and interior of the wall openings, but the original tracery had been broken, and its place was supplied with one upright mullion in the centre and a transome (Fig.1020). This sketch also shows the south end of the south transept, which preserved its four mullions, of varied thickness, and its tracery. The latter is of a kind not uncommon in late Scottish churches.

Fig.1021shows the exterior of the north transept, and the north side of the choir and the sacristy. The north end wall of the transept corresponds

Fig. 1018.—Trinity College Church. South Side of Choir.

with that of the south transept—the great window having double splays on the outer ingoing, and tracery, mullions, and transome similar to those of the south window. The angle buttresses and pinnacles, and parapet with corbel course, enriched with rosettes and gargoyles, all correspond at both ends of the transepts.

The upper part of the north side of the choir is also seen in this sketch. It had a plain parapet with bold gargoyles, and in each bay

Fig. 1019.—Trinity College Church.Window Jamb.

Fig. 1019.—Trinity College Church.

Window Jamb.

a moulded window in which the original tracery was preserved. This showed a central mullion with quatrefoil in the arch-head, and the smaller arches foiled or cusped. The buttress at the sacristy was well preserved. The pinnacle was apparently original and of good design. On the front of the buttress a small additional pinnacle was introduced, which would give considerable character to the design. Fig.1018shows that the same arrangement was evidently adopted in the corresponding buttress on the south side. The arches of the flying buttresses are also visible in the sketches of both sides of the church. The roof of the north aisle seems to have been covered with stone slabs.[53]

A building 17 feet in length by 16 feet in width internally projected from the north wall. It is sometimes called the chapter house, but was more likely the sacristy. It had a round-headed doorway opening into the north aisle (Fig.1022), a good window to the east, and a smaller square-headed window to the west. There are two ambries in the west and north walls, a fireplace in the north wall, and a squint window in the south-east angle commanding a view of the high altar. At the north-east angle there was a buttress with a pinnacle, and at the north-west angle (see Fig.1021) an octagonal projection, which, doubtless, contained a wheel stair to an upper floor, the window of which is seen in the sketch. The roof was covered with stone slabs, and a chimney with battlement ornament crowned the north gable. The fireplace of the sacristy is said to have comprised a fine specimen of a Gothic chimney.

Fig.1023shows the interior of the south transept. The transept had no aisles or chapels. The main arches of the crossing spring from clustered responds against the walls with carved caps, and the groined vaulting of the transept—which was similar to that of the choir—with its numerous moulded ribs enriched with bosses, is seen springing from wall shafts and corbels. The south window, with its mullions and

Fig. 1020.—Trinity College Church. South Porch and South Transept.

Fig. 1021.—Trinity College Church. North Transept and North Side of Choir.

tracery, is also well shown. A small circular window, with eight bold cusps, was inserted within the western wall arch.

Fig.1024is taken from the parapet walk of the south transept, and shows the upper part of the south side of the choir, the top of the stair turret, and the angle pinnacle of the transept. Of the choir there are

Fig. 1022.—Trinity College Church. North Aisle.

visible the parapet, with enriched corbel course, and the bold gargoyles and pinnacles of the east end buttresses. The south clerestory windows had lost their tracery, and a plain mullion and transome had been substituted. The cape house of the stair turret is plain, but picturesque, and the pinnacle of the angle buttress is of good, though late, design. Those of the apse are evidently similar.

Fig. 1023.—Trinity College Church. South Transept.

Fig. 1024.—Trinity College Church. Choir, from Parapet of South Transept.

Fig.1025shows a view from the parapet of the choir looking south across the south transept. We here see the construction of the parapet and its corbel course, and an example of one of the gargoyles carved in the form of an animal. The monkey was a favourite subject of the carvers in this church, and it as well as other figures were used in great profusion. The cape house and angle pinnacle are also again visible.

Fig. 1025.—Trinity College Church. Looking South from Parapet of Choir.

To the right is the roof of the south transept, terminated with a foliated cross. A small ridge ornament of stone may also be observed on the top of the stone ridge of the roof.

In Fig.1022a small credence table or piscina is visible, which is illustrated on a larger scale in Fig.1026. Fig.1027is a piscina which was probably in the choir. The carving has apparently been of a good style, but late. Fig.1022further shows that there was a doorway atthe east end of the north aisle, which appears to have nearly blocked up the traceried window, the head of which is visible above. The Plan shows that there was a similar doorway at the east end of the south aisle.

Fig. 1026.—Trinity College Church.Credence Table in North Aisle.Fig. 1027.—Trinity College Church. Piscina.

Fig. 1026.—Trinity College Church.

Credence Table in North Aisle.

Fig. 1027.—Trinity College Church. Piscina.

Fig.1028shows the interior of the south aisle looking westwards. These sketches in the north and south aisles show that the central aisle was shut off from the side aisles by solid partitions at the time the sketches were made.

In Figs.1029and1030are shown a great variety of the picturesque carvings with which the corbels, caps, &c. were enriched. These sculptures are all of a very grotesque and some of a debased character, and point to the late style of much of the work.

In Fig.1031is preserved a view of part of the exterior of the apse and of some old-fashioned structures adjoining. Although the building of Trinity Hospital is removed, the charity still exists and adds to the comfort of a number of old men and women.

When the church was demolished, a careful search was made to discover the remains of the royal foundress; and a skeleton, in an antique-shapedleaden coffin, was found in the apse, near the place where the high altar must have stood. This was probably the remains of the queen dowager.[54]

A very interesting memorial of Trinity College Church has been preserved in a painting, which is believed to have been the altar-piece. It is

Fig. 1028.—Trinity College Church. South Aisle, looking West.

a Diptych, painted on both sides, and contains portraits of King JamesIII.and his queen, Margaret of Denmark. It was executed in 1484, and has

Fig. 1029.—Trinity College Church. Carved Corbels, &c.

been restored to this country from Hampton Court by the gracious permission of Her Majesty, and is now exhibited in the Picture Gallery of

Fig. 1030.—Trinity College Church. Corbels, Gargoyles, &c.

Holyrood House. Dr. Laing has endeavoured to prove its original purpose by identifying the portraits of Edward Bonkill, the queen’s confessor, and

Fig. 1031.—Trinity College Church. Hospital and Part of Apse, from North-East.(From a Drawing by William Douglas, 1845.)

Fig. 1031.—Trinity College Church. Hospital and Part of Apse, from North-East.

(From a Drawing by William Douglas, 1845.)

probably that of Mary of Gueldres herself, in the character of an angel seated at the organ of the church, which forms the reverse of one of the panels.[55]

The ancient City of Perth, one of the favourite residences of the kings of Scotland, formerly possessed, as might be expected, many well endowed religious establishments. The principal of these was the Dominican or Blackfriars’ Monastery, founded by AlexanderII.in 1231. The buildings were extensive, and formed the residence of the Scottish kings when in the Fair City. It was here that JamesI.was staying at the time of his assassination. The Carmelites or Whitefriars had also a convent close to Perth, founded in the reign of AlexanderIII.The Charter House or Carthusian Monastery in Perth was the only house of that order in Scotland. It was founded by JamesI.and his queen in 1429. The Franciscans’ or Greyfriars’ Monastery was founded by Lord Oliphant in 1460. There were also numerous nunneries and chapels, some of very ancient date; but all these religious establishments have now entirely disappeared, the only ancient ecclesiastical structure still remaining (and it has been greatly changed) being the Parish Church of St. John theBaptist, from which the city derived the title of “St. John’s Town.” This edifice still serves its original purpose of the parish church of the town, but it has in modern times been divided by walls so as to form three places of worship.

So far as we have been able to discover, no complete history of this church has ever been written, and the circumstances connected with its original erection and subsequent reconstruction do not appear to have been definitely ascertained and described. It is certain that a church existed here in the twelfth century, and it is obvious, from an inspection of the structure, that not a single stone of that early building remains to enable its size and appearance to be determined. All knowledge in regard to the existing fabric must, therefore, be derived from the internal evidence of the building itself, with such slight aid as can be got from written records. The following are some scattered notices of St. John’s Church gathered from various sources.

The earliest mention of the church occurs in theRegistrum de Dunfermelyn[56]under the years 1124-1127, when it was granted by DavidI., with its property and tithes, to the Abbey of Dunfermline.

Between the years 1189 and 1199 William the Lion granted a charter to Henry Bald of “that land which is in the front of the street, which leads from the Church of St. John Baptist to the Castle of Perth, on the east side opposite to the house of Andrew, the son of Simon.” The same Henry Bald granted, about the year 1225, to the Abbey of Scone “these two booths which are in the front of the street which leads from the Church of St. John Baptist towards the Castle of Perth, on the east side opposite to the house of Andrew, the son of Simon; those two booths, to wit, which are towards the north.”[57]

The Church of St. John the Baptist was consecrated by David de Bernham, Bishop of St. Andrews, in 1242.[58]In Hay’sSacra Scotia(p. 323) it is stated that the heart of AlexanderIII.was buried in the Church of St. John.

In course of time the abbots of Dunfermline allowed the building to become ruinous, and endeavoured to lay on the citizens of Perth the burden of upholding the fabric. It is probable that early in the thirteenth century the Dominican Monastery was built in Perth, and about the middle of the century the Carmelite or Whitefriars’ Monastery was erected, and the interests of the citizens may thereby have been diverted somewhat from the parish church. It was perhaps in connection with the repairs required at the time that Robert the Bruce, in 1328, granted that stones might be taken from the quarries of Kyncarachi and Balcormac, belonging to the Abbey of Scone, “for the edification of the Church of Perth.”[59]

In 1335 King EdwardIII.was in Perth and slew his brother, John of Eltham, Earl of Cornwall, before the high altar of the Church of St. John, for his excesses and ravages in the western districts of Scotland.

In 1379 the tomb of RobertII.was brought from Leith to Perth, and temporarily deposited in St. John’s Church before being taken to the Abbey of Scone and set up in it.[60]

In 1393-4, after the holding of a Parliament at Scone, Walter Trail, Bishop of St. Andrews, performed divine service in St. John’s Church.[61]

From 1401 till 1553-6 there is a continuous record[62]of the founding of altars in the parish church, and of endowments to already existing altars. In one of these, founded in 1402, it is stipulated that if the stipend of the chaplain of St. James the Apostle should exceed a certain sum, the excess of the endowment meant for that altar should be applied by the Provost and Town Council “for the maintenance and reparation of the windows and ornaments of the parish church.”

The chapel in which St. James’s altar was situated stood on the south side of the church, and having fallen into a state of ruin, it had been rebuilt about the year 1400, chiefly with the assistance which the magistrates received from William Whitson, a wealthy burgess of Perth.

By a notarial instrument made in 1410, containing certain obligations and confirmations, Euphame, Countess of Stratherne, “gave her bodily oath on the gospels to observe the same. Done in the Parish Church of the Burgh of Perth on St. Martin’s altar.”[63]

The foundation charter of the altar of St. John the Evangelist, founded in 1448 by Sir John de Bute, states that the altar was situated “in the new choir of the Parish Church.”

The accounts of the Lord High Treasurer contain a payment under the year 1489—“To the Kirk werk of Pertht, xviijs.”[64]And again in 1496—“Item, the xij day of March, in Sanct Johnstoun, giffin to the kirk werk on the bred (altar) xjs. vjd.”[65]Along with other offerings at this time in St. John’s there occurs the following—“Item, that samyn day giffin to Walter Merlioune, masoune, for his fee quhill Witsonday nixt tocum, quhilk is the Mertymes fee bipast, xxlib.”

This church has the unenviable notoriety of having been the centre whence issued, in 1559, the unruly mob who in a short time demolished the splendid monasteries and other numerous religious houses of Perth and the neighbourhood, and whose example was only too readily followed by other communities throughout the whole country. Such was the effect of a sermon preached here by John Knox. The fabric of St. John’s wasspared after being purged of all monuments of idolatry. Nothing was left but the bare walls and roofs, which were retained for use as the Parish Church. Before the end of the century, the building was fitted up with galleries, and in course of time it was divided into three separate places of worship by thick walls, which still exist.

In 1585 the kirk-session declared the church to be in a “ruinous, pitiful, and lamentable state,” and the minister was requested to preach a sermon and obtain a collection for the repair of the fabric,[66]but apparently not till 1598 did “the town begin to repair the new kirk in wallis and wandows.”[67]The next item in theChronicleregarding St. John’s shows that the existing lead-covered spire on the central tower is of a considerable age, for in March 1607, “Thair rais ane great extaordinarire winde, that blew the lead of the steipill, to Mr John Malcolme’s back yett.”[68]This was evidently a formidable mishap, as ten years elapsed before the session, in 1617, “appointed David Sibbald to be master of work to the reparation of the decayed parts of the steeple, and to recieve furth of an chest, containing the Hospital’s writts, the sum of £20 (Scots), left over the last collection lifted for reparation of the kirk, and help to repair the said seeple with.”[69]

As already mentioned, nothing now remains of the church of the twelfth century, referred to in the earlier of the above notes, no part of the present structure being older than the beginning of the fifteenth century. The rebuilding of the Chapel of St. James in 1400 is spoken of above, but that chapel no longer exists. In 1448 the east end of the church is referred to as the “New Choir,” and we shall see as we proceed that the other portions of the edifice are of still more recent origin.

The church (Fig.1032)[70]consists of a choir and nave, with north and south aisles, and a north and south transept without aisles. The total length of the main building within the walls is about 191 feet by about 58 feet 9 inches wide. The nave and choir are of almost equal length. The transept measures about 91 feet in length from north to south, by about 23 feet 6 inches in width. There was a chapel on the west side of the north transept, which no longer exists, but the wide arch of the opening into it is partly visible in the transept. A view of this chapel is given in theMemorabilia of Perth, of which Fig.1033is a copy. It is represented as a lean-to of two stories in height, adjoining the north transept, the upper story being evidently reached by a stair in the erection on the west side.

It will be remembered that, in 1448, the east end of the church is referred to as the “New Choir,” and it is quite evident from its style

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