s carried on two piers substituted. These piers and
arches correspond with the work of the same period at the east end of
the choir. One of the caps contains a shield bearing the three unicorns'
heads of the Prestons. The structure extends into the choir the great
width of the four aisles of the church previously formed in the nave,
and adds greatly both to spaciousness and grandeur. The church was now
complete in all its parts, as, internally, it still remains, with a few
exceptions, to the present day.[265]
Several additional chapels were afterwards thrown out. In 1513 an aisle
of two arches was formed by Alexander Lauder of Blyth, Provost of the
city; in 1518 the altar of the Holy Blood was erected in this aisle,
which lay on the south of the nave, and to the east of the south porch,
immediately adjoining the south transept. It opened into the south
chapels of the nave with two arches, and had two windows to the south.
There was within it a handsome monument containing a recumbent statue,
or forming, as some suppose, part of the altar canopy. The monument is
still preserved, but one half of the chapel was obliterated in 1829.
In 1466 the parish church of St. Giles was erected by charter of James
III. into a collegiate establishment, but it is not called collegiate
till 1475. The chapter consisted of a provost or dean, sixteen
prebendaries, a master of the choir, four choristers, a sacristan, and a
beadle with chaplains. The revenues of the altars and chaplainries in
the church were appropriated for the support of the several officers in
the new establishment. The King reserved the nomination of the dean or
provost, who enjoyed the tithes and other revenues of St. Giles' Church,
with the adjacent manse; the provost had the right of choosing a curate,
who had a yearly allowance of 25 marks with a house adjoining.[266] In
subsequent charters the church is called the College Kirk of St. Geill
of Edinburgh.
About this period a few additions were made. A small chapel, called the
Chapman Aisle, was thrown out from the Preston Aisle close to the south
transept. It was dedicated to St. John the Evangelist by Walter Chapman,
called the Scottish Caxton, from his having introduced into Scotland in
1507 the art of printing. The chapel was dedicated within a month of
King James' death at Flodden. The south transept seems to have been
extended southward during the erection. The chapel to the east of the
north transept containe
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