The old church of Deskford is situated in its ancient churchyard, about
four miles south from Cullen. The church is now a roofless ruin, a new
church having been erected in the vicinity. The building is a plain
parallelogram, and has no features of note, except the large sacrament
house in the north wall near the east end. It seems to have been the
fashion in the sixteenth century in this part of the country to make
these features very ornamental. Such are the ambries or sacrament houses
at Kinkell, Auchendoir, and Cullen. The last was erected by the same
individual to whom that at Deskford is attributed, viz., Alexander
Ogilvie of Deskford and Findlater, whose splendid monument exists in
Cullen Church (see Fig. 1334).
The sacrament house at Deskford (Fig. 1340) is very large, being 8 feet
in height by 3 feet 6 inches wide. The design is somewhat similar in all
the above sacrament houses, consisting of two angels above the ambry
supporting a monstrance, with a quasi-buttress on each side, and several
inscriptions and enrichments. At Deskford the side buttresses are a good
deal broken and their pinnacles removed. The whole design is surrounded
with a scroll ornament of grapes, and there are several inscriptions on
various parts of the design. The first is on two scrolls immediately
over the ambry, “Os meum es et cara mea”--“Thou art my bone and my
flesh;” and another occurs on the broad sill of the ambry, “Ego sum
panis vivus qui de celo descendi quis manducaverit ex hoc pane vivet in
æternum”--from sixth chapter of John’s Gospel. Beneath the latter are
two shields, the first containing the arms of Ogilvie of Deskford and
Findlater, viz., 1st and 4th a lion passant gardant gules for Ogilvie,
2nd and 3rd argent a cross engrailed sable for Sinclair of Deskford,
with motto Tout jour. The initials A. O. occur at the sides of this
shield. The second shield contains, impaled with the above, the arms of
Gordon, for Alexander Ogilvie’s second wife, Elizabeth Gordon, and the
motto Laus Deo.
Under the coats of arms there is a long inscription, which is remarkable
as being the only one in English on any of the above sacrament houses.
It also authorises the name of sacrament house for these ornamental
ambries. It is as follows:--
THIS · PN̄T (present) LOVEBLE · VARK · OF · SACRAMĒT · HOVS · MAID · TO
YE · HONOR [M] LOVĪG · OF · GOD · BE · ANE · NOBLE · MAN · ALEXANDER
OGILVY · OF · YAT · ILK [M] ELEZABET · GORDON · HIS · SPOVS · THE · ZEIR
OF · GOD · 1551.[154]
The date would lead one to expect the very debased Gothic work which is
found here, the influence of the approaching Renaissance being very
apparent in the style of the ornamentation.
[Illustration: FIG. 1340.--Deskford Church. Sacrament House.]