In the floor of the choir a large slab shows the remains of brass work, and against the east wall rests the carved figure of a knight, with shield and spear, said to be the monument of a M'Lean (see Fig. 983).
ST. MACHAR'S CATHEDRAL, Old Aberdeen.
Old Aberdeen is situated on the river Don, about two miles north
from the town of Aberdeen on the Dee. The cathedral, which is
dedicated to St. Machar, is built in granite, and is now considerably
reduced in size from its original dimensions. The nave (Fig. 1004) is
entire and is used as the parish church. The walls of the transepts
exist only to the height of about 10 feet. The choir has been entirely
destroyed. The bishop's palace, which stood at the east end of the
cathedral, has also disappeared. It was a large building, and "had a
fine court, having a high tower at each of its four corners; an outer
and inner gate; with a deep well in the middle of the court; and an
iron gate by which the bishop passed from his palace into the choir."[1]
The cathedral stands on the north side of an extensive churchyard, and the situation is pleasant, having the houses of the chanonry—some of them quaint-looking and interesting—approaching it on the south. On the north it is skirted by high trees, which grow on a steep bank sloping down from the cathedral towards the Don.
The seat of the bishop was translated from Murthlack or Mortlack, in Banffshire, to Aberdeen by King David I. in the year 1136, St. Nectan being the last bishop of Mortlack and the first of Aberdeen. The third bishop, Matthew Kinninmond, began to build a cathedral between 1183 and 1199 to supersede the primitive church then existing, "which [new building], because it was not glorious enough, Bishop Cheyne threw down."[2]
A second edifice was begun by Bishop Cheyne shortly after 1282, and the work went on till the time when the country was involved in the war with Edward I. After Bruce was seated on the throne, Cheyne was temporarily banished, and "during his absence the king, seeing the new cathedral he had begun, made the church to be built with the revenues of the bishoprick."[3]
The cathedral thus erected was in its turn thrown down by Bishop Alexander Kinninmond, who succeeded in 1355, and he began a new building on a still larger scale about the year 1370. Of his operations there remain two large piers for the support of the central tower, which form the earliest portion of the structure of St. Machar's now remaining. These piers are built of red freestone, and are much more graceful and
