roxburgh-1956-vol-2/-05_031

Transcription

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

member of the base-course mentioned on p. 272
extends beyond the gable of the N. transept-aisle.
The gable of the S. transept (Fig. 332) is one of the
major features of the church, and, if it does not quite
achieve the unity of the E. gable it is an outstanding
composition none the less, grouping most happily
with the adjacent parts. Unlike the E. gable it had
to accommodate two openings, the lower one being
the doorway to the monastic cemetery, the upper one
a great five-light window, kept low in order to allow
a more effective display of image-work than had been
possible at the E. end. Moreover, the transept being
wider than the presbytery, its angle buttresses had
to be arranged differently if a corresponding verti-
cality of façade was to be maintained. Thus, instead
of the transept buttresses being placed simply as
extensions of the walls, as at the E. end, each pair is
separated by a corner of the building and this corner
is treated as a minor buttress and enriched with a
single niche. The main buttresses each have two
niches set one above the other, skilfully placed so as
to emphasise the vertical lines of the composition ;
each buttress of the pair is united to its neighbour,
as on the E. façade, by a single pinnacle, canopied on
all four sides, which rises higher than the subordinate
pinnacles above the buttresses themselves. The
image-bracket of the lower niche of the main E.
buttress is carved to represent a crouching figure
holding a scroll inscribed in Gothic letters PASSUS
E (ST) Q (UIA) IP (S) E VOLUIT (" He suffered because He
Himself willed it "). The corresponding figure on
the bracket of the W. buttress holds a scroll inscribed
CU (M) VEN (IT) JES (US) SEQ (UAX ?) CESSABIT (U) MBRA
(" When Jesus comes the shadow will yield and
depart "). A figure on the buttress projecting S. from
the transept similarly bears a scroll inscribed TIMET (E)
DEU (M) (" Fear God "). The last of these texts
corresponds 1 Peter, ii, 17, but neither of the
others corresponds exactly with any passage in Holy
Writ. This transept or at least the major part of it
may be attributed to John Morow, whose honorific
inscription it bears inside (pp. 279 f.).
The fine doorway (Fig. 348) in the lower part of
the gable was apparently hewn at the bench and
then built into an aperture left to receive it - a
procedure which would account for the manipulation
of the walling which borders it outside - or alter-
natively it may have replaced an earlier doorway. It
has a pointed-arched head, the multi-membered
mouldings of the arch returning down the jambs,
uninterrupted by an impost, to rest on high, stilted
bases rather coarsely contoured. It is bordered by
two pilaster-like buttresses, panelled on the front and
surmounted by the remains of gableted and crocketed
pinnacles. From these buttresses a hood-mould,
crocketed on its upper surface, rises and sweeps
upwards in an ogival curve towards the apex, where
it terminates in a finial in the form of a bearded
figure, probably intended for St. John, holding a
scroll inscribed ECCE FILIUS DEI (" Behold the Son of
God "). The finial must therefore have supported
an effigy of our Lord. Below the apex of the hood-
mould there is a shield surmounted by the Royal
crest, a crowned lion sitting front-face ; but the paws
and the sword and sceptre that they held are de-
stroyed. The shield bears the Royal Arms: Within
a double tressure flory-counter-flory a lion rampant;
and it is interesting to note that the lion here " re-
spects the altar", that is, it faces sinister to avoid
turning its back on the altars inside. The shield is
supported on the dexter side by a lion and on the
sinister side by a unicorn. If the arms are those of
James I (1406-36), as they seem to be, this is a very
early instance of the use of supporters - the Royal
Arms do not appear with even a single supporter
until this reign, when a single supporter, a unicorn
sejant, is placed with the king's seal upon a coin,
and on his privy seal his arms are supported by two
lions. ¹
Rising from the hood-mould of this doorway there
are eight little bays of trefoiled arcading. The two
bays in the middle contain sprays of foliage and those
next to them kneeling figures, one having his hands
clasped and the other holding a book. In the outer
niches on the dexter side appear SS. Andrew and
Peter, balanced by SS. Paul and Thomas in the
corresponding ones on the sinister. The arcade is
surmounted by a cornice enriched with foliaceous
paterae ; this runs at the level of the sill of the great
S. window, which has been altered to suit it. The
doorway may have been introduced to commemorate
the release of James I, in March 1424, from his
eighteen years' captivity in England. James and his
Queen, Joan Beaufort, were at Melrose on 5 April
1424, and were crowned at Scone on the 21st of
May following. ²
The S. window has an obtusely pointed arch-head
rising from a foliaceous impost and filled in with
curvilinear tracery. It contains five main lights with-
out transoms. The hood-mould, crocketed on its
upper surface and enriched with paterae on its under
one, springs from boldly carved stops, the dexter
one representing a male head in a roundlet cap
covered with pleated drapery and the sinister one a
female head wearing a chaplet and wimple. As it
sweeps upwards it assumes an ogival curve, encloses
a richly treated niche with a canopy, and terminates
in a finial in the form of a bearded head set at the
apex of the raking cornice, a moulded and enriched
course which defines the top of the gable. Flanking
the central niche and outside the hood-mould there
are two quatrefoiled openings, provided to ventilate
the space between the transept vault and its wooden
roof. The area between these openings and the S.
buttresses of the gable is occupied by a series of
niche-panels, four on either side of the window,
which have richly treated canopies, curved in two
planes. The gable-head has been surmounted by a

1 Stevenson, Heraldry in Scotland, ii, 397.
2 Dunbar, Scottish Kings, 187.

-- 274