The west end of the nave (Fig. 960) is also in part amongst the ancient portions of the structure. The western entrance doorway is clearly, from the style of its architecture, a work of the thirteenth century. The doorpiece
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Fig. 958.—Paisley Abbey.
South-East Doorway in Cloister.
A. Door Jamb.
B. Arch Moulding.
projects, and has a nook shaft on the projecting
angles. The doorway is a single pointed opening,
deeply recessed, with a series of free shafts in the
jambs, having rounded and moulded caps, and the
arch mouldings are arranged in square orders. The
outer order contains a dog-tooth ornament. A
sharply pointed arch flanks the doorway on each
side, and has similar shafts and mouldings to those
of the central opening. The aisle windows of the
west front also belong to the first pointed period.
The thin nook shafts, with moulded caps having
round abaci and central bands, are all in the style
of the thirteenth century.
The upper portion of the west front above the two large windows is undoubtedly of considerably later date. The design of the west front, which contains above the doorpiece two large windows, with pointed niches and small circles inserted between the arch-heads, is probably original, but the upper portion and gable, including the large traceried window, are doubtless part of the restoration of the fifteenth century. The tracery of the two central windows is peculiar, and may possibly be of the fourteenth century, but that of the large upper window is later, probably of the same period as the restoration of the interior of the nave. The tracery of the large upper window is a specimen of the late kind of design employed in Scotland in the fifteenth century. The change of style caused by the restoration of the fifteenth century is well marked in the interior at the west end of the nave. The first or western bay of the main arcade is original (Figs. 961 and 962), including the first arches (one on each side), the first pillars and the arches between them, and the aisle responds. These pillars and arches are of large dimensions and first pointed section (Fig. 963), and appear to have been designed to carry western towers, but a part of their thickness has been cut off next the choir. A portion of the triforium wall, a piece of the string course over the main arcade, and the corbelled vaulting shaft in the angle as high as the top of the triforium, are also parts of the original structure. The later work has been joined to the above old parts in a very awkward manner. The wall over the large pillars has been thinned on the side next the nave, and the different width and sections of the mouldings have not been properly adjusted, the result being that part of the older moulding is left at the springing of the second arch on the north side, and the mouldings of the later section are butted against it (see Fig. 961).
