[Illustration: FIG. 924.--St. Bride’s Collegiate Church. Plan.]
This very interesting church was founded by Archibald the Grim, Earl of
Douglas, in 1398. He was proprietor of the great Castle of Bothwell in
the vicinity, and he dedicated the church to St. Bride, his patron
saint. The establishment was to consist of a provost and eight
[Illustration: FIG. 925.--St. Bride’s Collegiate Church. View from
South-East.]
prebendaries. In order to provide suitable accommodation, he added a
choir to the existing parish church, and granted to the establishment
sufficient resources. In this church the unfortunate Duke of Rothesay
was married to the Earl’s daughter Marjory, in the year 1400. The old
College Church is now attached to a new and larger modern parish church
which adjoins it on the west, but the College Church is not now used for
service. The structure is a simple oblong chamber (Fig. 924), 55 feet in
length by 22 feet in width internally, with a sacristy on the north side
14 feet long by 10 feet wide. The church, externally divided by
buttresses, has four bays (Fig. 925), with a series of pointed windows
in the south wall and three windows in the north wall. The east end is
square, and has one large pointed window with drop arch. The entrance
doorway (Fig. 926) is in the south wall in the second bay from the west
end, under a window. The arch of the doorway is remarkable from being
elliptic in form. The mouldings of the arch are bold, but they are
destroyed on the jambs. A label mitring into a string course at top runs
round the arch. The windows are deeply splayed both inside and out, but
the tracery with which they were doubtless filled is now wanting. The
arch of the east window springs
[Illustration: FIG. 926.--St. Bride’s Collegiate Church. Entrance
Doorway.]
[Illustration: FIG. 927.--St. Bride’s Collegiate Church. Interior of
Choir.]
[Illustration: FIG. 928.--St. Bride’s Collegiate Church. Doorway to
Sacristy.]
from a point considerably below the junction with the jambs, which gives
it a broken appearance. An inner moulding, finished with well wrought
bases, runs round the exterior of the windows. The roof of this church,
like that of so many erected at a somewhat later period, is covered with
overlapping stone slabs, which rest on a pointed barrel vault (Fig.
927), for the purpose of supporting it. This is the earliest example we
have met with of this form of vault, which became very common in the
churches of the following period. That at Lincluden, already referred
to, is similar, but had a groined vault beneath it. The vault is
ornamented with moulded ribs at intervals, springing from small moulded
corbels. There is also a ridge rib, and bosses occur at the junction
with the curved side ribs. The buttresses are simple in outline, and
have a deep series of set offs at top, and those next the doorway have
small cusped niches in the face of each. The stone work of the roof is
very carefully executed, every stone being curved so as to throw the
water away from the joints. The cornice is rather more prominent than
usual.
[Illustration: FIG. 929.--St. Bride’s Collegiate Church. Sedilia.]
[Illustration: FIG. 930.--St. Bride’s Collegiate Church. Tombstone, with
Shield and Douglas Arms.]
The entrance to the sacristy is by an unusually handsome doorway (Fig.
928), having two orders of shafts and mouldings. The carving of the caps
has been very fine, but is sadly damaged. In the sacristy there are a
piscina and a locker, and in the south wall of the choir the remains of
a triple beautifully carved sedilia (Fig. 929) and a piscina. The
sacristy is roofed with overlapping stone flags, supported on a vault.
Some elaborate monuments have been erected in the church (see Fig. 927)
in memory of the two Archibald Douglases, Earls of Forfar, one of whom
was mortally wounded at Sheriffmuir (1715).
Some ancient carved stones are also preserved at the east end, one of
them being a tombstone containing a shield, with the original three
stars of the Douglas arms (Fig. 930).