The old church of Deskford is situated in its ancient churchyard, about four miles south from Cullen. The church is now a roofless ruin, a new church having been erected in the vicinity. The building is a plain parallelogram, and has no features of note, except the large sacrament house in the north wall near the east end. It seems to have been the fashion in the sixteenth century in this part of the country to make these features very ornamental. Such are the ambries or sacrament houses at Kinkell, Auchendoir, and Cullen. The last was erected by the same individual to whom that at Deskford is attributed, viz., Alexander Ogilvie of Deskford and Findlater, whose splendid monument exists in Cullen Church (see Fig. 1334).
The sacrament house at Deskford (Fig. 1340) is very large, being 8 feet in height by 3 feet 6 inches wide. The design is somewhat similar in all the above sacrament houses, consisting of two angels above the ambry supporting a monstrance, with a quasi-buttress on each side, and several inscriptions and enrichments. At Deskford the side buttresses are a good deal broken and their pinnacles removed. The whole design is surrounded with a scroll ornament of grapes, and there are several inscriptions on various parts of the design. The first is on two scrolls immediately over the ambry, "Os meum es et cara mea"—"Thou art my bone and my flesh;" and another occurs on the broad sill of the ambry, "Ego sum panis vivus qui de celo descendi quis manducaverit ex hoc pane vivet in æternum"—from sixth chapter of John's Gospel. Beneath the latter are two shields, the first containing the arms of Ogilvie of Deskford and Findlater, viz., 1st and 4th a lion passant gardant gules for Ogilvie, 2nd and 3rd argent a cross engrailed sable for Sinclair of Deskford, with motto Tout jour. The initials A. O. occur at the sides of this shield. The second shield contains, impaled with the above, the arms of Gordon, for Alexander Ogilvie's second wife, Elizabeth Gordon, and the motto Laus Deo.
Under the coats of arms there is a long inscription, which is remarkable as being the only one in English on any of the above sacrament houses. It also authorises the name of sacrament house for these ornamental ambries. It is as follows:—
THIS · PN̄T (present) LOVEBLE · VARK · OF · SACRAMĒT · HOVS · MAID · TO YE · HONOR [M] LOVĪG · OF · GOD · BE · ANE · NOBLE · MAN · ALEXANDER OGILVY · OF · YAT · ILK [M] ELEZABET · GORDON · HIS · SPOVS · THE · ZEIR OF · GOD · 1551.[1]
The date would lead one to expect the very debased Gothic work which is found here, the influence of the approaching Renaissance being very apparent in the style of the ornamentation.
- ↑ See Aberdeen Ecclesiological Society's Transactions, 1893, p. 95.
