[Illustration: FIG. 732.--Pencaitland Church. Plan.]
This structure, which is still in use as the parish church, lies in the
valley of the Tyne, about four miles south from Tranent. It consists
(Fig. 732) of a long narrow building measuring about 83 feet in length
by about 23 feet in width over the walls, with a western tower, not
quite square in plan. On the north side of the chancel there is a chapel
of first pointed work, and adjoining it on the west a seventeenth
century aisle. Taking the chapel on the north side first as being
architecturally the most important, it measures in the inside about 22
feet 8 inches long by about 10 feet wide. On the north side (Fig. 733)
it is divided into two bays, and had originally shallow buttresses of 18
inch projection, terminating with a gabled top. The buttresses have been
enlarged at a later date. Between the buttresses there were large
pointed windows, probably once filled with tracery, but which is now
destroyed. There is another wide window in the east end, which has met
with the same treatment. In the west end there is a high window of two
lights, with a pierced opening in the apex under the arch. The mouldings
round the windows consist of thin reed-like beads, separated by deep
narrow hollows. The labels round the outside terminate as shown in Fig.
734. Over the buttresses there is a set-off on the wall (see Fig. 733),
and above this one deep course of masonry, carrying a corbel course of
small size, decorated with human and animals’ heads. The top course and
set-off are closed in at each end with a large skew stone, on which
there is wrought the original start of the sloping gable at a slightly
lower level
[Illustration: FIG. 733.--Pencaitland Church. View from North-East.]
[Illustration: FIG. 734. Pencaitland Church. Moulding of Windows.]
than the existing gable (Fig. 735), showing that there has been some
change made here, the existing skew puts of gables not being original.
The north wall is bent outwards considerably. It is not unlikely that
the chapel was originally vaulted in stone, and, with the view of
strengthening it, the shallow buttresses have been enlarged as
indicated. The wide opening into the church shown on the Plan was
afterwards made, and the vault, thus losing its support on that side,
would be taken down. As a confirmation of the opinion that this chapel
was vaulted we find[119] that the roof was at one time covered with
flagstones. These, owing to their weight, are generally found only on
vaulted buildings, as at Borthwick and numerous other churches. From the
appearance of the flat arch of this opening it seems to be of later work
than the chapel, and on the east side of the ingoing there are the
remains of what appear to have been the jambs of a doorway. The chapel
would thus originally be separated from the church by a solid wall with
a door of communication, and what we have called a chapel may have been
the sacristy. This separating wall, it will be observed from the Plan,
is much thicker than the buttressed north wall, and, doubtless, was so
made for the purpose of resisting the thrust of the vault.
[Illustration: FIG. 735. Pencaitland Church. Skew Stone.]
Although the church adjoining appears to be mainly a building of the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, it undoubtedly occupies the site of
an earlier church, known to have existed at Pencaitland in the twelfth
century. Possibly portions of this earlier church are incorporated in
the existing walls, and it is not unlikely from the narrowing of the
east end on the north side (see Plan) that a chancel arch may have
existed. Over the tower doorway there is the date 1631, with the
initials of the incumbent, John Oswald, who probably built the tower.
About the same time the north-west aisle was built. It contains some
details resembling those to be seen at Wyntoun House, in the immediate
neighbourhood. In the _Caledonia_, Vol. II. p. 527, Chalmers mentions
that Pencaitland was possessed by Everard de Pencaithlan, and that he
probably obtained the lands from William the Lion (1165-1214), as he
granted the church of his manor of Pencaithlan to Kelso, with its tithes
and other rights, in pure alms for the salvation of his lord, King
William. After 1309 it is not mentioned among the churches belonging to
Kelso. The manor was forfeited during the War of Succession, and was
granted by King Robert the Bruce to Robert de Lawder; but soon after it
appears in the hands of Sir John Maxwell, younger brother of Sir Eustace
Maxwell of Caerlaverock, who granted to Dryburgh the advowson of the
church with an annuity from his lands of Pencaitland. This was confirmed
by William (Landal), the Bishop of St. Andrews, in 1343, and by David
II. two years later. A view of the tower and west end of the church,
with some details, will be found in _The Castellated and Domestic
Architecture of Scotland_.[120]