In connection with the rebuilding Spalding mentions two names. First, under the year 1640 he says:—"Dr. Gordon, medicinar, and one of the founded members of the College of Old Aberdeen, and common procurator thereof, departed this life upon the 10th of March, in his own house in Old Aberdeen; a godly, grave, and learned man; singular in publick works about the college, and putting up on the steeple thereof the stately and glorious crown, which you see thereon, which was thrown down by the wind." Second, under the year 1642 he says:—"Saturday the 10th September, George Thomson, Master Mason, new come frae Strathboggie to Aberdeen, suddenly fell over Thomas Thomson's stair, and with the fall became speechless and senseless, and departed this life upon the Thursday thereafter. An excellent mason, of singular device; he builded sundry brave buildings; among the rest, he re-edified the steeple of the College Kirk of Old Aberdeen." It has been supposed[1] that Dr. Gordon was the architect who designed the lantern, but the same claim might be put forward for the then Bishop, for in Gordon's description of Aberdeen (p. 23) we are told—"Bot the crown was quicklie afterwards restored in a better forme and condition, by the direction of Patrick Forbes of Corse, then Bishop of Aberdeen." It is quite as likely that Thomson was both the architect and builder, and that the bishop and Dr. Gordon were the men of affairs.
The old lantern, which had stood for upwards of a century, appears to have been neglected and to have fallen into a state of disrepair, as in 1620 the authorities ordained "that the heid of the gryt stepill sould be mendit in steane leid and tymer as the samen was abefoir;"[2] but evidently nothing was done, and so it yielded to the storm.
Most of the windows on the west front of the tower appear to be modern.
This tower, with its crown and most of the chapel, is built of sandstone.
THE CHURCH OF THE MONASTERY OF THE CARMELITE
FRIARS, South Queensferry.
Queensferry is a town on the south side of the Frith of Forth,
at the point where the water narrows and is spanned by the Forth
Bridge.
At the time the drawings of this church were made, about thirty years ago, it was entire, as shown on the Plan (Fig. 1214), the nave only being roofless; but a few years afterwards the nave was ruthlessly cast down, and the materials were entirely destroyed. The transept and
