The village of Rosslyn is picturesquely situated on the high north bank
of the river North Esk, about seven miles south from Edinburgh; and the
ancient castle of the St. Clairs[82] stands on an isolated promontory
called the College Hill, which, adjoining the village of Rosslyn, juts
out
[Illustration: FIG. 1070.--The Collegiate Church of Rosslyn. Plan.]
into the deep valley of the Esk. The celebrated Church of Rosslyn,
erected by the proprietors of the castle, stands on the brow of the
steep bank of the river above the castle, and commands a splendid view
of the valley. The church, so far as erected, is in perfect
preservation, and is a charming portion of an incomplete design. It is,
in some respects, the most remarkable piece of architecture in Scotland;
and had the church been finished in the same spirit as that in which it
has been so far carried out, it would have gone far to have realised a
poet’s dream in stone. When looked at from a strictly architectural
point of view, the design may be considered faulty in many respects,
much of the detail being extremely rude and debased, while as regards
construction many of the principles wrought out during the development
of Gothic architecture are ignored. But notwithstanding these faults,
the profusion of design so abundantly shown everywhere, and the
exuberant fancy of the architect, strike the visitor who sees Rosslyn
for the first time with an astonishment which no familiarity ever
effaces.
The principal authority regarding the history of the church and the
family of the St. Clairs of Rosslyn is Father Richard Augustin Hay,
prior of St. Pieremont, whose mother, by a second marriage, became wife
of Sir James St. Clair of Rosslyn. About the year 1700, Father Hay made
copious extracts from the family documents, which have been since lost,
and these extracts, together with his comments, have been published
under the title of the _Genealogie of the Sainteclaires of Rosslyn,
including the chartulary of Rosslyn_.
The edifice was erected by Sir William St. Clair, third Earl of Orkney,
who succeeded to the estates about 1417. About thirty years afterwards
he founded the Collegiate Church of Rosslyn. Certain letters which occur
on shields along the cornice of the north wall have been ingeniously
deciphered by Dr. Thomas Dickson, of the Register House, Edinburgh, as
the initial letters of the following words,[83] viz.:--WILZAME · LORDE ·
SINCLARE · FUNDIT · YIS · COLLEGE · YE · ZEIR · OF · GOD · MJJJJL. The
structure appears, however, to have been begun a few years earlier,
about 1446, as in the year 1447 the continuator of the _Scotichronicon_
says, “Dominus Willelmus de Sancto Claro Comes Orcadiæ _est in
fabricando sumptuosam structuram apud Roslyn_;”[84] and probably the
foregoing inscription refers to some ceremonial event connected with the
building. Sir William died in 1484, and he appears to have left the
building very much in the condition in which we now find it. In that
case its erection would be the labour of about forty years.
The church was a collegiate foundation, for a provost, six prebendaries,
and two singing boys or choristers, and was dedicated to St. Matthew. It
consists (Fig. 1070) of a choir with north and south aisles, connected
[Illustration: FIG. 1071.--The Collegiate Church of Rosslyn. View from
South-East.]
by an aisle which runs across the east end, and gives access to a series
of four chapels beyond it to the east. The dimensions of the building
are as follow, viz.:--interior--length of choir, 48 feet 4 inches; width
of central aisle, 17 feet 10½ inches; width over aisles, 35 feet; total
exterior length, 69 feet 8 inches; height to the apex of the roof, 41
feet 9 inches. The original intention was to have completed the building
as a cross church, with choir, nave, and transepts, but the choir only
has been completed. The transepts have been partly erected, the east
wall being carried up to a considerable height, but the nave has not
been erected. The length across the transepts, as founded, is about 72
feet. Mr Thomson, the custodier of the chapel, who saw the west walls of
the transept exposed, states that the transepts were intended to be 18
feet wide, as drawn on Plan. The Rev. Mr. Thompson, Rosslyn, in his
guide to the chapel, says that the foundations for the entire building
had been laid, and that those of the nave, which extended to about 91
feet to the west, were dug up and exposed at the beginning of the
present century. This exactly corresponds with the length which the
nature of the ground would permit.
The choir, both internally and externally, is remarkably symmetrical,
the bays being all of the same dimensions, with only slight differences
in the carving, which do not affect the general design. Thus (Fig. 1071)
all the buttresses rise unbroken by set-offs to the wall head of the
aisles, where the cornice continues round them, and they have all on the
face canopies of the same size and style. Above the cornice on the ten
buttresses on the north and south sides of the choir there rise on each
two massive pinnacles, connected by a small flying buttress between them
(Fig. 1072). The outer pinnacles, which are flush with the face of the
buttresses, are square on Plan, and are decorated according to two
alternate patterns (Fig. 1073), viz., canopied niches in the one, and
large rosettes set in hollows in the other. The inner pinnacles (Fig.
1074), which rest on the thickness of the wall, are all practically
alike. They are oblong on Plan, and are so placed as to offer most
resistance to the flying buttresses, which are thrown across the aisles
and rest upon them. The pinnacles are ornamented with rosettes on the
angles, and crockets on the sloping top. The back of these pinnacles and
the lower parts, where not seen from below, are left plain, without any
ornament. The flying arches abutting against the pinnacles are carved
with a revived Norman-like chevron.
The pinnacles (Fig. 1075) on the buttresses of the east chapels are
naturally somewhat different, as they have no thrusts from flying
buttresses to counteract. There is only one pinnacle on each of these
buttresses, and although they are all of different design, their effect
corresponds with that of the outer pinnacles of the aisles of the choir.
The back of these pinnacles is left unfinished (Fig. 1076), like those
at the sides, but the portions visible are very elaborately carved.