The north aisle wall of the cathedral, which is fortunately not so well
seen as the south wall, is quite modern, and has a mean and paltry
appearance.
The pillars in the nave (see Fig. 1005) are all round on Plan, with
round moulded caps and very simple bases. These are shown in section in
Fig. 1005, and also on a larger scale in Fig. 1010, which contains
Scougal’s monument (afterwards referred to), and where there is also a
view of part of the interior of the large west window. Beside the sketch
of this monument will be seen a stone containing the arms, surmounted by
a mitre, probably of Bishop Stewart, who died in 1565 (a fesse chequé
debruised by a bend engrailed).
In the view of the interior (see Fig. 1005) it may be observed that the
full thickness of the clerestory walls does not come down to the caps of
the pillars, but stops short a few feet above. This arrangement has an
unpleasing effect in perspective, leaving a portion of the cap
projecting and bearing nothing. The two piers at the crossing, as
already mentioned, are of freestone and are of clustered form, and have
richly carved capitals. These capitals are necessarily concealed by the
building up of the arches, which lead from the nave to the crossing.
Fig. 1011 shows a part of one of these capitals, which can be seen from
the transept.
Regarding the choir nothing can be now said from observation, as it was
destroyed in 1560, and the ruins have since been entirely removed.
Alluding to this, Orme says (p. 104)--“The glorious structure of said
Cathedral Church being near nine score years in building, did not remain
twenty entire, when it was almost ruined by a crew of sacrilegious
church robbers.”
There was an old choir standing in Bishop Elphinston’s time, early in
the sixteenth century, which, as Boece tells us in his life of that
prelate,[44] was considered by the bishop to be in a style unworthy such
a church, and he began to rebuild it on a plan corresponding with the
western part of the building; “but lest he should die before it was
completed, he would not take down the old choir till everything was in
readiness to begin the new one, so that a considerable part was finished
before his death.” The work was continued by his successors, but it
seems doubtful if it ever was entirely completed before the Reformation
burst on the country.
The building of the central steeple, which had been partly carried out
by Bishop Leighton, was finally completed by Bishop Elphinston about
1511. The tower was supported by the four pillars of the crossing. “It
[Illustration: FIG. 1010.--St. Machar’s Cathedral. Monument of Bishop
Scougal in South-West Angle of Aisle.]
was four storey high, and square, and had two battlements, and seems to
have been about 150 foot high.”[45]
Bishop Leighton also built, in 1424, the north transept, or, as it was
called, St. John’s Aisle, where the beautiful sculpture of that bishop’s
effigy now lies inglorious beneath a rough brick arch (Fig. 1012). His
tomb appears to have been entire when Orme (who died about 1725) wrote
his description of the cathedral.[46] He describes it as an effigy _in
pontificalibus_, on an altar tomb with a canopy, under which is this
inscription: “_Hic jacet bone memorie Henricus de Lichtoun_,” &c.
Huddled in behind the figure there is a large stone slab with an
inscription, which can hardly be seen on account of the rubbish and ivy.
The south transept was built by Bishop Dunbar in 1522. And so recently
as the time of Orme large portions of it, which have now disappeared,
[Illustration: FIG. 1011.--St. Machar’s Cathedral. Part of East Pier
from Transept.]
were standing, if, indeed, it was not almost entire at that date. Orme
speaks of the “top of this aisle” as having then been taken down for the
miserable purpose of furnishing stones for new buildings at the college;
and he also mentions large windows as then existing, all of which have
vanished. Indeed, almost nothing of this transept now remains except the
tomb of the founder, Bishop Gavin Dunbar (Fig. 1013), and an empty tomb
to the left of it, which were complete when Orme wrote. The latter
contained the effigy of a bishop, “a lion at his feet, and under his
head a pointed helmet for a cushion; arms, a lion rampant _queue
fourche_ debruised by a bend charged with three escallops.”[47] This
was probably a tomb of the end of the sixteenth century. The foliage
round the arch, modelled from seaweed, is carved with great spirit.
Dunbar’s tomb is perhaps the finest of the minor pieces of work now
remaining here. It is remarkable how it escaped destruction on various
occasions, and especially in 1693, when a gang of religious fanatics
broke his effigy in pieces, defaced the inscription, smashed the hanging
cusped tracery round
[Illustration: FIG. 1012.--St. Machar’s Cathedral.