with the letters R. L. S. and A. M. S., the dexter shield bearing the Sempill arms and the sinister the Montgomerie. The square tower at the west end (Fig. 1286) is extremely simple, and has no analogy with the work at the east end.
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Fig. 1288.
Castle Semple Collegiate Church.
Slab to Gabriel Sempill.
There can be little doubt that the tower and most of the side walls are of about the date of the original foundation, while the east apse has been added in the sixteenth century, to receive the monument of John, Lord Sempill, who fell at Flodden in 1513. A few remains of the original square-*headed windows in the side walls are still traceable.
The interior has, within recent times, been divided by two solid walls into three compartments, so as to form separate private burial-*places, and this operation seems to have caused the further alteration and building up of the side windows.
In the eastern compartment stands, against the north wall, the large monument to Lord Sempill (Fig. 1287), which bears the following inscription:—
· · · John · Lord · Sempil ande · his · Laydi · D · · · Margarita
· · ·
It must have been erected after 1513, and shows the last expiring effort of the Gothic decorative spirit. The cusped half-arch half-lintel is a kind of compromise between the Gothic and Renaissance, and the exuberant foliage of the upper portion shows late Gothic forms run wild.
The architecture of the apse windows corresponds in extravagance with that of the monument.
A monumental slab in the central compartment (Fig. 1288) is erected in memory of "Gabriel Sempel," who died in 1587. This shows the style
