Page:The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland ( Volume 3).djvu/633

 with the newer building. The plan of the church, as it now stands (Fig. 1599), consists of an oblong 67 feet in length by 21 feet in width internally, with a wing on the south side 14 feet long by 11 feet wide within the walls.

The principal oblong chamber appears to have been constructed at two different times, there being a break in the interior of the wall at 20 feet from the east end. There is also a slight exterior projection on the outside of the north wall at the same point. The eastern addition has evidently been made so as to provide a gallery, probably a private one, at this end. The gallery was entered by a long slope or ramp on the exterior of the east wall, beneath which was a door giving access to the space below the gallery. The gallery and space below were lighted by square-headed windows in the south wall. On the jamb of the east doorway is carved the date 1799.

The arrangements at the west end have been similar to those at the east end. There was a gallery, lighted by a large traceried window (Fig. 1600) in the west wall of seventeenth century design, and the space below the gallery had two square-headed windows in the same wall, divided with mullions. A round-headed doorway in the south wall gave

Stow Church.

Mouldings of South Doorway.

access to the space under the gallery, the mouldings of which (Fig. 1601) clearly indicate a late date. Adjoining this doorway is the portion of the structure above alluded to as being of ancient date. This consists of a plain buttress built with freestone ashlar, and a small part of the south and west walls connected with it, including a base splay on the south side. These walls are built with the same kind of materials as the buttress, while the greater part of the walls are constructed with rubble work. The buttress has the broad form with small projection, and the simple water table of Norman or transition work.

The projection or "aisle" on the south side of the church has also contained a private gallery, with a fireplace in the south wall. The mouldings of the doorway indicate seventeenth or eighteenth century work.

There are no windows in the north wall, but some portions of the masonry are of ashlar work and may be of the period of the south-west angle.

The belfry, the vane of which bears the date of 1794, is a comparatively late addition. It is supported on corbels projecting from the inside of the wall.