A structure partly old and partly new, which stands beside the mansion
house of Yester, the seat of the Marquis of Tweeddale. Its position is
very fine, situated as it is by the side of a clear flowing stream, and
surrounded by splendidly wooded braes.
The construction of the old part of the building, as seen in the
interior, is very massive and, considering its small dimensions,
imposing, and it remains in a good state of preservation.
The edifice (Fig. 1232) consists of a choir and transepts. Of the nave
hardly anything exists, and there is nothing to indicate that it ever
was built. The present west wall is modern, probably of this century.
The choir measures, internally, 13 feet from east to west by 18 feet 6
inches wide. The total length across the transepts is about 53 feet 6
inches from north to south by 13 feet in width, all inside dimensions.
It will be observed that the nave and choir are not quite in the same
line.
The crossing (Fig. 1233) is covered with a pointed barrel vault in
continuation of that of the choir, and is supported at the springing by
very massive low round arches, which span the entrance to each transept.
The choir vault is separated from the crossing by a late arch, supported
on pillasters of a Renaissance form, and it has been emphasised by
having ribs on the surface of the vault, as shown on the Plan by dotted
lines, but these do not now exist. The transepts are also vaulted with
plain pointed vaults carried to a considerable height, but cut off from
the crossing, as at Ladykirk and Queensferry, by the arches introduced
to carry the central vault of the crossing. As the church was without
buttresses, the walls are of considerable thickness (not less than 4
feet) in order to resist the pressure of the arches. In the north wall
of the south transept, near the apex of the roof (see Fig. 1233), there
is a small door, now built up, which probably gave access to a small
chamber in the haunch of the vault over the crossing.
[Illustration: FIG. 1232.--St. Bothan’s Collegiate Church. Plan.]
In the east wall of the north transept there is a piscina (Fig. 1234),
enriched with carved crockets round the ogee arch. The basin is, as
usual, broken away. On one side of the arch is a shield, having a
smaller shield on the dexter side, bearing three inescutcheons, and on
the sinister side three cinquefoils, being the arms of Hay of Tweeddale.
The piscina is 22½ inches wide, measuring over the enrichments, by 26
inches high, and 3 feet 3 inches from the floor up to the level of the
basin.
[Illustration: FIG. 1233.--St. Bothan’s Collegiate Church. From South
Transept.]
[Illustration: FIG. 1234.--St. Bothan’s Collegiate Church. Piscina.]
There is an end window in each of the three limbs of the cross, and none
in the side walls. The windows in the transepts (Figs. 1235 and 1236),
although not entirely alike in their details, have a general resemblance
to each other. They are flat arched, and have mullions with a plain
space above, occupying the centre of the thickness of the wall. The
windows are of three lights, with circular tops fitted with cusping. The
space above the lights, usually occupied
[Illustration: FIG. 1235.--St. Bothan’s Collegiate Church. Transept
Window (Exterior).]
by tracery, is filled with solid masonry. The window in the east end
(Fig. 1237) is pointed, and is filled with tracery which has been
renewed, and is dated over the centre arch 1635. In the south transept
there is a simple monument of Renaissance character (see Fig. 1236),
which contains a fine shield with the Hay and Cockburn arms impaled--the
first a mullet between three inescutcheons and the initials W. H., and
the second a crescent between three cocks with the initials H. C. This
shield contains traces of colour, and on the frieze there are five
pateræ also in colour.
[Illustration: FIG. 1236.--St. Bothan’s Collegiate Church. Monument in
South Transept.]
An earlier church than that just described existed here, and was
dedicated to St. Bothan, after whom also the parish was named, until, on
the erection of the present mansion house, the baronial name of the
extensive domains of Yester superseded the old parochial name.
In the ancient _Taxatio_ (1176) the Ecclesia de Bothani was rated at 30
marks, and it is again referred to in Bagimont’s Roll (1275) as the
[Illustration: FIG. 1237.--St. Bothan’s Collegiate Church. East End.]
Præpositura de Bothans, and is rated at £40. The territory of Yester was
from the twelfth century in the possession of the family of Gifford, and
in 1418 it passed, by marriage, into the possession of Sir William Hay
of Locherwart, with whose descendants it still remains.[124]
In 1421 Sir William founded the Collegiate Church of St. Bothan for a
provost, six prebendaries, and two singing boys. And he and his
successors endowed it with sufficient revenues. After the Reformation it
continued to be the parish church till 1708, when a new church was built
in the neighbouring village of Gifford.