accompanies the pointed barrel vaults, has been in this case lightened
by the introduction of a false parapet (see Fig. 1166), with enrichments
of square shaped flowers, both in the main cornice and in the upper
cornice, which represents the cope of the parapet. But here there is no
parapet wall, the eaves of the roof being placed where the parapet cope
would be in ordinary circumstances. This is a plan often adopted in
domestic buildings, from which the idea was, no doubt, borrowed in this
instance. The transepts are without buttresses and have a bare
appearance. Adjoining the south entrance doorway there are what appear
to be the remains of a sedilia (Fig. 1168). The lower portion is
entirely concealed, and the eastern shaft and recess are almost blocked.
In the north wall opposite the original entrance there can be seen on
the inside the indications of a round arched doorway, now built up,
which probably led to the sacristy or a chapel, now destroyed, as
already mentioned. Five feet east from this blocked doorway there are
slight remains of a sixteenth or seventeenth century monument (see
Plan), now cut away to permit of the erection of the gallery over, and
it seems probable that from this monument was taken the coat of arms
(Fig. 1169) now built into the wall which closes up the west archway of
the tower. The shield bears the Nicolson arms, and are probably those of
Agnes Nicolson, third wife of Patrick, first Lord Elibank, who possessed
the ecclesiastical lands of the Collegiate Church of Crichton about the
beginning of the seventeenth century. Mr. Billings shows another coat of
arms on the outside of the turret stair, but this part of the building
is now a dense mass of ivy. The turret stair is in the north wall of the
nave, and is placed at some distance from the tower. Fig. 1170 shows the
piscina in the south transept. Across this
[Illustration: FIG. 1170.
The Collegiate Church of Crichton.