There can be little doubt that the tower and most of the side walls are
of about the date of the original foundation, while the east apse has
been added in the sixteenth century, to receive the monument of John,
Lord Sempill, who fell at Flodden in 1513. A few remains of the original
square-headed windows in the side walls are still traceable.
The interior has, within recent times, been divided by two solid walls
into three compartments, so as to form separate private burial-places,
and this operation seems to have caused the further alteration and
building up of the side windows.
In the eastern compartment stands, against the north wall, the large
monument to Lord Sempill (Fig. 1287), which bears the following
inscription:--
· · · JOHN · LORD · SEMPIL ANDE · HIS · LAYDI · D · · · MARGARITA · · ·
It must have been erected after 1513, and shows the last expiring effort
of the Gothic decorative spirit. The cusped half-arch half-lintel is a
kind of compromise between the Gothic and Renaissance, and the exuberant
foliage of the upper portion shows late Gothic forms run wild.
The architecture of the apse windows corresponds in extravagance with
that of the monument.
A monumental slab in the central compartment (Fig. 1288) is erected in
memory of “Gabriel Sempel,” who died in 1587. This shows the style
[Illustration: FIG. 1289.--Castle Semple Collegiate Church.