Page:The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland ( Volume 3).djvu/63

 stand in the unsymmetrical position it occupies (see Fig. 977). This supposed alteration may also, perhaps, explain the peculiar way in which the ogee canopy of the window is twisted to one side at the top (see Fig. 976), which Mr. Billings has difficulty in accounting for. The small circle in the gable being right over the entrance door (as the original window in the west end doubtless also was), it was found, when the window came to be enlarged, that there was no room to carry the canopy and its fleur-de-lys finial straight up without removing the small circular opening, and so the canopy and finial had to be pushed to one side.

The side aisles are 12 feet in width, and the south one has been vaulted. The tracery in many of the windows still survives, and is varied and generally good in design. A restoration of the tracery in the west window may be seen in Mr. Billings' work. The tracery is of the kind common in the Scottish architecture of the fifteenth century.

Attention has already been drawn to the peculiar flat-headed windows at the west end of the north aisle of Dunblane Cathedral. At Dunkeld, the corresponding window is flat arched (Fig. 979), and at St. John's Church, in Perth, the window in the same position is either flat arched or has a lintel. It is singular and interesting to find this similarity of treatment, as regards the north-west window, in these three churches, which are all situated in one part of the country. Over the north-west window at Dunkeld are the arms of Bishop Brown (a chevron between three fleur-de-lys), surmounted by a mitre. There is an inscription on a ribbon round the arms, but it would require a very minute inspection to make it out. George Brown was consecrated Bishop of Dunkeld by Pope Sixtus IV. in 1484, and died 14th January 1514-1515, aged seventy-six years.

The ruins of a large porch still exist on the south side of the nave (see Fig. 976). From the forms of the finials and other details it has evidently been a somewhat late addition. This was, doubtless, the portico which Canon Myln states was erected by Bishop Lauder at the south entrance to the church.

The upper part of the stair turret of the west front, the broken angle pinnacle at the base of the gable, and the corbelled octagonal finial on the south-west angle of the south aisle are all late additions. The corbelled turret at the angle resembles the angle turrets of the castles. A similar turret exists at the angle of the north transept of Paisley Abbey.

The north-west tower is simple and good in design. According to Abbot Myln's account, it was not founded till 1469, and in style is good for the period. The windows of the ground floor and top story are well designed, and quite equal to the rest of the church. The ground floor is vaulted, and has been painted in a handsome manner, part of the painting being still preserved.

The monument of Bishop Cardeny in the south aisle of the nave, with