The pillars are all moulded and provided with caps and bases, and the
arches springing from them have numerous moulded groins with large
foliaged bosses at the intersections. A substantial stone bench
surrounds the outer walls; on this rest the bases of the responds and
the sloping sills of the windows. Externally the building is plain (see
Fig. 593), and has evidently been prepared for an upper story. It has a
heavy moulded base, which is returned round the buttresses. The section
of this base (see Fig. 573) is different from those of the nave and
choir, and is doubtless later, the base of the main building being (as
above mentioned) carried through this wing, which abuts against it. The
buttresses of the main building are also carried down to the base, and
the walls and arches of the crypt abut upon them. The doorway is
evidently much older than the crypt. The windows have plain tracery, and
over each window is a small panel containing a piece of sculpture,
probably representing subjects from a mediæval bestiary, such as those
referred to in Vol. I. p. 19. They look older than the building in which
they are inserted.
[Illustration: FIG. 605.--St. Mungo’s Cathedral. Interior of
Blackadder’s Crypt.]
It is conjectured from the following inscription on the vaulting, “This
is ye ile of Car Fergus,” that this structure was begun at an early
period, and that it was completed by Archbishop Blackadder, whose arms,
surmounted by his mitre, are carved on the central buttress at the south
end, and also on the corbel of a niche at the north-west angle. It is
difficult to decide either the date or the purpose of this structure.
It
[Illustration: FIG. 606.--St. Mungo’s Cathedral. Monument to the Barons
of the House of Mynto.]
has evidently been intended to be carried higher, and probably may have
been meant to form an extension of the transept. Although the work in
the interior has considerable resemblance to that in the lower church,
it is decidedly later, and has been copied from it. The work on the
exterior is very much inferior, and the carving of the caps, which
seems also to be imitated from that of the choir, is evidently late and
debased. The groin ribs, too, are coarse, and point to about the time of
Bishop Blackadder.
[Illustration: FIG. 607.--St. Mungo’s Cathedral. Part of Monument,
enlarged.]
The western towers or adjuncts, already mentioned (see Fig. 567), were
structures of considerable importance, that on the south-west being a
very strong keep, about 34 feet by 32 feet, with walls 9 to 10 feet
thick, strengthened by great buttresses. It was about 54 feet in height
to the parapet, and 70 feet to the cape house roof. This structure is
believed to have been built about the middle of the fourteenth century.
Those who know anything of our pele towers can easily understand how
much the cathedral was marred by the loss of such a characteristic
feature.
The other structure which stood at the north-west angle was of about the
same size, but was considerably higher, being 118 feet to the parapet,
and was surmounted by a lead-covered spire. Both the above adjuncts were
taken down in 1846.
The ancient monuments in the cathedral are comparatively few, those
which survive being all of the sixteenth and later centuries. Two of
these are seen in Figs. 588 and 590, which show that the design of that
period is well represented.
Another of these sixteenth century monuments is shown in Fig. 606,
erected in memory of the barons of the House of Mynto. This monument is
noteworthy from its possessing one of the few examples of old brasses in
Scotland. The brass (Fig. 607) represents one of the barons in armour
kneeling and looking towards the sun, surrounded with rays in the upper
corners.