Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland

EOSLIN
features of Roslin Chapel are derived from the prevail-
ing models of the period [when it was erected], though
■carried to an exuberant excess. The circular doorway
and segmental porch, the dark vaulted roof, and much
of the window tracery are all common to the style.
Even the singular arrangement of its retro-choir, with a
clustered pillar terminating the vista of the central
aisle, is nearly a repetition of that of the Cathedral of
St Mungo at Glasgow. Various portions of other
■edifices will also be found to furnish examples of
arrangement and details corresponding with those of
Roslin, as in the doorway of the south porch and other
features of St Michael's, Linlithgow, and also in some
parts of the beautiful ruined church of St Bridget,
Douglas. It is altogether a mistake to regard the
singularly interesting church at Roslin, which even the
critic enjoys while he condemns, as an exotic produced
by foreign skill. Its counterparts will be more easily
found in Scotland than in any other part of Europe. '
Both in tracery and arches, forms abandoned more than
100 years before re-appear, and where contemporary
forms are found, the architect seems to have preferred
the baronial to the ordinary ecclesiastical .style. ' Its
squat stumpy outline, ' says Dr Hill Burton, ' is a great
contrast to the slender gracefulness of its rival at
Melrose. All the beauties of Rosslyn are superinduced
on the design in the shape of mouldings and incrusta-
tions, and there is little to gratify the eye in its purely
structural feature, unless it be the effect of aerial lofti-
ness imparted to the central vaulting — a character to
which its rich clusters of starry incrustations so well
adapt themselves.' Another contrast to Melrose is the
character of the workmanship, which has here no refer-
ence to the unseen, all fine works being in conspicuous
positions, and the ornament stopping whenever it turns
into an out-of-the-way corner. Dorothy Wordsworth
had, for a wonder, no fault to find with Roslin, and even
thought the architecture ' exquisitely beautiful, ' while
her brother has recorded his feelings in the sonnet,
Composed in Roslin Chapel. On each side there are five
aisle and clerestory windows, with seven buttresses,
surmounted by crocketed pinnacles, and having niches
for statues, but whether these were ever filled is doubt-
ful — probably not, in spite of the many images shown
in the views of Slezer and Father Hay. From the
buttresses graceful and richly carved flying arches
pass up to the clerestory wall, and there is a door on
each side near the W end. In the interior the centre
aisle is cut off from the side aisles by fourteen clustered
pillars disposed in two rows, and though only 8 feet
high, exquisitely rich in workmanship, and with
capitals adorned with foliage and curiously wrought
figures, among which may be mentioned thirteen figures
of angels playing various musical instruments, including
the bagpipes (!), Samson slaying the lion, the prodigal
son feeding swine, and the crucifixion. The carvings
on many of the brackets are also highly interesting.
Notwithstanding the number of figure sculptures, they
are far surpassed by the many representations of plants,
including the harts-tongue fern, the curly-kail, oak
leaves, etc., and almost the only ornament which is
repeated more than once is the rose, probably with
some idea of connection with the name of the place.
The vaulted roof of the centre aisle is divided into five
compartments, each with different flowers sculptured on
them in check fashion. From the pillars flat arches —
to use a very absurd expression — pass to the side walls,
and these some delight to point out as marvels of
strength, from their ability to support the weight of
the roof above. The truth is, however, that there is a
low-crowned arch over each, and that all the level part
has to support is its own weight. All these are richly
carved, one of the designs being a fox carrying off a
goose, which a pursuing farmer endeavours to rescue:
another, Samson pulling down the house of the Philis-
tines; another, the Dance of Death, with figures of a
king, a courtier, a cardinal, a bishop, a lady looking
into a mirror, an abbess, an abbot, a farmer, a husband
and wife, a child, a sportsman, a gardener, a carpenter,
ROSLIN
I and a ploughman; another, a bishop in full pontificals;
another, the seven deadly sins, represented by the proud
Pharisee, the drunkard, the careless shepherd, the rich
fool, the miser, and the sinful lovers, while the devil in
the dragon's mouth stretches out his claws for his prey ;
another, the cardinal virtues — clothing the naked, lead-
ing the blind, visiting 1 the sick, feeding the hungry,
comforting the fatherless, visiting the prisoner, and
burying the dead; another, the inscription in Lom-
bardic letters, 'Forte est vinum, fortior est rex,
fortiores sunt mulieres; super omnia vincet Veritas,' a
quotation from Esdras. Letters on the N clerestory
wall give the initial letters of ' William Lord Sinclair,
fundit yis College ye zeir of God mooccl.' The decora-
tion of the Lady chapel is very rich ; the roof is
groined, and from the keystones of the arches prominent
and beautifully carved bosses project. In the SE
corner is the finely sculptured Prentice Pillar. The
ornaments upon the capital are Abraham offering up
Isaac and a figure playing a bagpipe. From the top
four spirals of flowers and foliage wind down the
clustered shaft, while on the base are a number of
dragons twisted together and cut in very high relief.
The story whence the pillar takes its name is the well-
known myth of the apprentice who proved a better
workman than his master. The latter being unable to
execute the design of this pillar from the plans furnished
to him, had to go to Rome to examine a similar one
there, and on his return found that his apprentice had,
in his absence, overcome all difficulties and finished the
work. Instead of being delighted at having trained
such a workman, he was so overcome by jealousy, that
he immediately killed the apprentice with a blow of
his hammer and thereafter paid the penalty of his own
misdeed. Three heads, supposed to represent those of
the apprentice, his weeping mother, and his wicked
master, were long pointed out in the SW part of the
chapel; and, to emphasise matters, the wound in the
head of the first was marked with red paint. In connec-
tion with the story, and perhaps even its recent origin, it
is noteworthy that Slezer, writing about 1693, calls it the
Prince's pillar, as if named in honour of the founder of
the chapel; and Defoe, writing in 1723, terms it the
Princess's pillar. The western wall of the chapel is
disfigured by a recently erected baptistry and organ
gallery, such a method of dealing with an old building
being in very bad taste. Some of the windows are filled
with stained glass.
The burial-place of the St Clair family is in a vault
underneath the chapel, the entrance being under a large
flagstone between the N wall and the third and fourth
pillars. Here ten barons of the line were buried in
full armour, that being always the mode of interment
prior to 1650, when the Sir William St Clair of the
time was, on his death, buried in a coffin 'against the
sentiments of the Duke of York, ' afterwards James VII.,
' who was then in Scotland, and several other persons
well versed in antiquity, to whom, ' however, his wife,
' Jean Spottiswoode, grandniece of Archbishop Spottis-
woode, would not hearken, thinking it beggarly to be
buried in that manner.' The vastness of the sum of
money which she threw away upon the obsequies of her
husband was the cause of the sumptuary act for 're-
straining the exorbitant expenses of marriages, baptisms,
and burials ' which was passed by the following parlia-
ment in 1681. The burial of the barons in full armour,
and the belief that on the night before the death of any
of them the chapel has the appearance of being in
flames, have been finely used by Sir Walter Scott in his
ballad of Mosaielle; and in Billings' Baronial and Eccle-
siastical Antiquities of Scotland Dr Hill Burton gives
a graphic account of such a phenomenon as once seen
here by himself. A monument of early date is said to
be that of the founder, or, according to others, that of
the Sir William who was contemporary with Bruce, and
whose hunting exploit has been already noticed. If the
latter be the case, it must have been brought here from
some older burying-ground, but it is more probable
that it is the memorial of the Earl of Caithness who
1387