Page:The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland ( Volume 3).djvu/169

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him, and for further information on this subject we beg to refer readers to this valuable paper.

Grose states that hermitages were frequently erected on the sea coast, and at dangerous places, and that the patron or tutelary saint of these hermitages was St. Anthony the hermit, and suggests that the situation of St. Anthony's on the crag which stands conspicuous from the Firth of Forth

Fig. 1069.—St. Anthony's Chapel. View from South-East.

was perhaps chosen with the intention of attracting the notice of seamen coming up the Firth, who, in cases of danger, might be induced to make vows to its tutelar saint. There is a fine spring of clear water close to the site, which may have led to the establishment of the hermitage there. The building contains almost no features by which its date can be ascertained, but it is here classed along with the buildings of the third period, to some of which it bears in certain respects an analogy.



THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF ROSSLYN, Mid-Lothian.


The village of Rosslyn is picturesquely situated on the high north bank of the river North Esk, about seven miles south from Edinburgh; and the ancient castle of the St. Clairs[1] stands on an isolated promontory called the College Hill, which, adjoining the village of Rosslyn, juts out

  1. See The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland, Vol. I. p. 366.