, which was
burnt, nothing now remains. The present edifice consists of two
divisions, the nave and the choir, which were built at two different
periods. The nave, which is the oldest part, is referred to in the
Chamberlain's Accounts from July 1413 to June 1414, and the date of the
choir is known to be between 1507 and 1520.
The church contains a central nave with north and south aisles (the
aisles being vaulted in stone), an eastern apse, and a western tower.
The nave has five bays, the choir three bays, and they are separated by
a wide bay which may be termed the crossing. The crossing now serves as
an entrance hall to the two churches, into which the building is now
divided. Walls are built across each side of the crossing, so as to
enclose the choir as one church and the nave as the other. The west
tower, which is vaulted, opens into the nave through a lofty pointed
arch, springing from moulded responds. The original entrance to the
church was through the western tower, but the western doorway was
destroyed in 1818, and part of a window now occupies its place. The
tower is pronounced to be one of the best specimens of the Scottish
architecture of the sixteenth century, as applied to ecclesiastical
structures,[298] and the situation of the church on the Castle Hill
gives it an imposing and picturesque effect.
The piers of the nave (with the exception of two) are round and massive
cylinders, and the east and west responds are semi-cylinders. The
general appearance of these pillars has been taken to illustrate what is
so often found in Scotland (both in ecclesiastic and domestic work)
during the fifteenth century and onwards--viz. a tendency to imitate
Norman and Early Pointed details.
"This tendency is also seen in the nave piers of Dunkeld Cathedral,
in the piers and arches of the naves of Aberdour Church and Dysart
Church, in the imitation of First Pointed work in the late cloisters
of Melrose, and many other examples which might be cited. But the
later counterfeit is never perfect, there being always some touch of
contemporary design which reveals the imitation.[299]"
Over the crossing was an upper room, known as the King's room, from
which the service could be seen, but it was destroyed about the middle
of this century. At the north-west corner of the church was a chapel
(now removed) with a wide opening into the church. It was called Queen
Margaret's, and is supposed to have been
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