Page:The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland ( Volume 3).djvu/617

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and the inner order splayed. This doorway has apparently entered into the church, which, judging from the height of the archway, must have had side walls of considerable height. They are now reduced as shown, and a roof was put upon the east portion during this century, which renders the interior very dark.

In the north wall of the chancel there is a monument of some importance (Fig. 1581), as it contains one of the few brasses which exist in Scotland. The brass consists of an engraved plate containing an inscription to the memory of Alexander Cockburn, one of the members of the family to whom the adjoining mansion house belonged. He died, as the inscription tells, at an early age. The upper part of the inscription is metrical, and was composed by the learned George Buchanan, and

Fig. 1580.—Ormiston Church. South Side.

appears in his published works. Alexander Cockburn was a pupil of John Knox, and in 1547 sought refuge in the Castle of St. Andrews. On the dexter base of the brass are engraved the Cockburn arms, and on the sinister base the arms of Sandilands, for the mother of a Cockburn, who was of the family of Sandilands of Calder. These arms are quartered with the arms of Douglas, and show the ancient relationship between that family and the Sandilands.[1]

The barony of Ormiston was the property of the Cockburns from the middle of the fourteenth century, when they acquired it by marriage.

The monument was no doubt erected not long after the death of the person commemorated, or towards the end of the sixteenth century. It corresponds in style with that of the Regent Murray, in St. Giles' Cathedral,

  1. See Mid-Calder Church.