Page:The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland ( Volume 3).djvu/173

 by an aisle which runs across the east end, and gives access to a series of four chapels beyond it to the east. The dimensions of the building are as follow, viz.:—interior—length of choir, 48 feet 4 inches; width of central aisle, 17 feet 10-1/2 inches; width over aisles, 35 feet; total exterior length, 69 feet 8 inches; height to the apex of the roof, 41 feet 9 inches. The original intention was to have completed the building as a cross church, with choir, nave, and transepts, but the choir only has been completed. The transepts have been partly erected, the east wall being carried up to a considerable height, but the nave has not been erected. The length across the transepts, as founded, is about 72 feet. Mr Thomson, the custodier of the chapel, who saw the west walls of the transept exposed, states that the transepts were intended to be 18 feet wide, as drawn on Plan. The Rev. Mr. Thompson, Rosslyn, in his guide to the chapel, says that the foundations for the entire building had been laid, and that those of the nave, which extended to about 91 feet to the west, were dug up and exposed at the beginning of the present century. This exactly corresponds with the length which the nature of the ground would permit.

The choir, both internally and externally, is remarkably symmetrical, the bays being all of the same dimensions, with only slight differences in the carving, which do not affect the general design. Thus (Fig. 1071) all the buttresses rise unbroken by set-offs to the wall head of the aisles, where the cornice continues round them, and they have all on the face canopies of the same size and style. Above the cornice on the ten buttresses on the north and south sides of the choir there rise on each two massive pinnacles, connected by a small flying buttress between them (Fig. 1072). The outer pinnacles, which are flush with the face of the buttresses, are square on Plan, and are decorated according to two alternate patterns (Fig. 1073), viz., canopied niches in the one, and large rosettes set in hollows in the other. The inner pinnacles (Fig. 1074), which rest on the thickness of the wall, are all practically alike. They are oblong on Plan, and are so placed as to offer most resistance to the flying buttresses, which are thrown across the aisles and rest upon them. The pinnacles are ornamented with rosettes on the angles, and crockets on the sloping top. The back of these pinnacles and the lower parts, where not seen from below, are left plain, without any ornament. The flying arches abutting against the pinnacles are carved with a revived Norman-like chevron.

The pinnacles (Fig. 1075) on the buttresses of the east chapels are naturally somewhat different, as they have no thrusts from flying buttresses to counteract. There is only one pinnacle on each of these buttresses, and although they are all of different design, their effect corresponds with that of the outer pinnacles of the aisles of the choir. The back of these pinnacles is left unfinished (Fig. 1076), like those at the sides, but the portions visible are very elaborately carved.

The windows of the aisles (see Fig. 1072) are all of two lights, and