Page:The ecclesiastical architecture of Scotland ( Volume 3).djvu/649

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eastern part of the edifice seems, from its style, to have been carried out towards the middle of the fifteenth century' (p. 372). The further statement is made that 'the design of the choir appears to have been borrowed from that of the transept' (p. 370). These statements are contradictory. The south transept was not erected until after the middle of the fifteenth century, by Abbot Andrew Hunter. His arms are to be found carved on it, and also in the nave chapel, where the work is unmistakeably from the hand of the same designer. It is indubitable that the 'perpendicular' work was inserted in the older transept. It has never occurred to you to endeavour to explain the presence in Scotland

Fig. 2.—Carved Boss in Vaulting of Aisle of Car Fergus.

of so marked a type of English art in the middle of the fifteenth century, and you have thought it wise to ignore my interpretation that this style was adopted as an expression of the international good feeling arising from the marriage of James IV. with Margaret of England. Perpendicular work is also present at Linlithgow and Stirling, and there also it is associated with Queen Margaret.

"I described the statues at the apex of the east gable at Melrose as those of James IV. and Margaret (p. 53). You say 'this is an entire assumption' (p. 381), and then you immediately assume that they illustrate the coronation of the Blessed Virgin. If your interpretation is correct, the act of coronation must be indicated, and the two figures must be correlated, Christ being turned towards the Blessed