placing everything in the reverse way; so that what in the original is on the dexter side of the shield is here on the sinister, a bend is converted into a bend sinister, and so throughout.
The two shields on the porch are—1st, Forrester; 2nd, Forrester impaling Wigmer.
The sacristy, on the north side of the chancel, enters by a plain lintelled door between the two tombs (see Fig. 1172). It has a rough pointed barrel vault, and looks, from there being windows at two levels, as if it had contained two stories. The sill of the east window projects about 11 inches; and Mr. Muir considers it, without doubt, to have been an altar.[1] Adjoining this window is a piscina, with the orifice of its drain wrought on the base mouldings outside.
As regards the architecture of the church, it accords well with the other collegiate structures of the latter half of the fifteenth century. The perpendicular tracery in the east window of the chancel and the south window of the transept (see Figs. 1173 and 1181) is remarkable, such tracery being very uncommon in Scotland. These two large windows are recessed in the wall, the outer jambs having two or three broad splays. The side windows have the tracery flush with the outer face of the wall.
The buttresses have the usual numerous set-offs. They have now finials, consisting of cubic stones carved as sundials; but, as Mr. T. S. Muir states, these are modern additions, the buttresses having doubtless been originally pinnacled above the eaves.
The tower to the west of the transept (Fig. 1182) is one of the most characteristic features of the structure. It measures externally about 18 feet 6 inches from north to south by 17 feet 3 inches from east to west. The tower has a door to the church, and also a west doorway. It thus formed an entrance porch to the building; but another porch has been added to the west, which is vaulted and covered with a stone roof.
The tower is built with ashlar, and rises, without buttresses, to the eaves. A two-light window is introduced on each face under the cornice. Above the tower there is a stone spire of the stunted description usual at the period. Four pinnacles give some relief to the angles at the base of the spire. The latter is divided by battlemented string courses into three stories, and has lucarnes in the middle story.
After the Reformation the collegiate church became the church of the parish in 1593, and has so continued ever since.
THE COLLEGIATE CHURCH OF CRAIL, Fifeshire.
The quaint old seaport of Crail lies near the eastern point of the
north side of the Frith of Forth. It is one of the earliest places in
Scotland which are known to have carried on commerce with the
- ↑ Ancient Parochial and Collegiate Churches of Scotland, p. 53.
