The usual east and west doorways open from the nave into the cloisters,
the eastern one (Fig. 451) being of good transition design. Like all the
openings on the ground level on the cloister side, it was, till
recently, backed up with brick, so as to form a good wall for fruit
trees; but this part of the building has now been opened up under the
instructions of the Marquis of Bute.
A holy water stoup, in the angle of the transept, adjoins the eastern
door to the cloister, and the corbels which supported the projecting
upper part of the transept wall, and also carried the wall plate of the
cloister roof, are likewise disclosed. A similar stoup exists in the
corresponding position adjoining the cloister door at Melrose. Another
doorway in the south wall, outside the west end, led to the conventual
buildings. A doorway in the south transept aisle (see Plan) led to the
south.
The chapter house was a room about 26 feet square. It was vaulted with
four central pillars, and was about 15 feet high. The opening to the
chapter house, from the cloisters, consisted of a central doorway with
two side openings. These portions of the building (Fig. 452) are in the
purest style of early pointed architecture, and, happily, they are in a
fairly complete state of preservation, only the central pillars of the
side openings, which had two lights, being wanting. These are shown as
if restored in Fig. 453. The round caps and bases and the dog-tooth
ornament are distinctive of the style. The round arched doorway on the
north leads from the cloister to the slype. The chapter house appears to
have been built before the middle of the thirteenth century. About a
century later (1298-1328) Bishop Lamberton erected a new chapter house
to the east (as shown on the Plan). Of this extension only the south
wall remains, showing thirteen seats in arched recesses, the eastern
seat being apart from the others. The return of the east wall remains,
together with a portion of a continuous seat. The wall between the old
and new chapter house is very much reduced in height. It contains an
opening in the style of the entrance from the cloister, and has had a
central doorway with side openings. The old chapter house then became
the vestibule to the new one.
The size of the new chapter house was about 47 feet by 26 feet. It was
groined in two bays, and probably the vault extended from wall to wall
without central pillars.
Spottiswoode (page 34) says of Bishop Lamberton that he adorned the
chapter house with “curious seats and ceeling,” and Fordun mentions that
Joannes de Gourie, the twelfth prior, died in 1340, and was buried in
“Novo Capitulo.”[19] Winton and Martine also state that on the
completion of this addition to the chapter house, in 1318, the Cathedral
of St. Andrews was dedicated by Bishop Lamberton, assisted by seven
bishops and fifteen abbots, in presence of King Robert the Bruce and a
great assembly of gentlemen. South of the original chapter house are the
remains of what
[Illustration: FIG. 452.--St. Andrews Cathedral. Entrance to Chapter
House.]
[Illustration: FIG. 453.--St. Andrews Cathedral. Entrance to Chapter
House. Plan and Elevation.]
[Illustration: FIG. 454.--St. Andrews Cathedral. Plan showing Conventual
and other Buildings.]
was probably the fratry. On the upper floor, which formerly existed
above this building and the chapter house, was the dormitory; the wheel
stair leading to it from the south transept still exists in the
south-west angle of the south transept. This dormitory was built by John
Quhite, the seventh prior, between 1236 and 1258, being about the period
to which the building of the original chapter house would, from its
style, be assigned. This prior also built the refectory, which occupied
the south side of the cloister. It was, according to Martine (p. 187),
108 feet long by 28 feet wide, and had, at the east end, “a four square
room for copes and albs, &c., besides the common vestiarie.”
[Illustration: FIG. 455.--St. Andrews Cathedral. Doorways in West Wall
of Fratery.]
The Plan (Fig. 454)[20] shows the conventual and other buildings
attached to the cathedral. These have recently been excavated by
instructions of the Marquis of Bute, and are found to correspond with
the above figures given by Martine. Two doorways of first pointed style
in the west wall of the fratry (Fig. 455) have also been opened up.
The west side of the cloister was occupied by the sub-prior’s house,
known also as the Senzie house. To the south of it was the Senzie
chamber, which appears to have been enlarged at the beginning of the
sixteenth century into a room 80 feet by 20 feet, in order to form the
library of the adjoining College of St. Leonards. The extending of this
room blocked up the west windows of the refectory, and, doubtless, the
existing arched cellars shown on the Plan were beneath this chamber.
The building seen on the Plan to the south-east of the chapter house
seems, from Martine’s description, to be part of the remains of the
prior’s house, called also the Hospitium Vetus, or the Old Inn. It was
a large building, occupying the ground to the east of the fratry, and
was sometimes the residence of the bishop.
To the west of the cathedral are the stately remains of the entrance
gateway, called the “Pends” (Fig. 456). Only the shell of the building
now remains, with the springers of the groined vaulting. It measures
about 80 feet in length by 23 feet in width.
[Illustration: FIG. 456.--St. Andrews Cathedral. Entrance to the “Pends”
or Gatehouse.]
In continuation of the “Pends” is the enclosing wall of the priory
grounds. This is a very extensive structure (Fig. 457), still in good
preservation. It is about 22 feet high and 4 feet thick. As will be seen
from the Plan, it circles round till it reaches the north-east corner of
the cathedral, at which point it is seen in the view (see Fig. 444). The
length of the wall is about 1150 yards. In Martine’s time it contained
sixteen towers; at present thirteen are partly standing. There is a wide
gate in the wall to the south (Fig. 458) defended by towers (see =S=, Fig.
457). It is the common “entrie for carts with the teynd sheaves of the
prior aikers.” Close to it stood the “teynd barne and teynd yaird.”