ECCLESIASTICAL ANTIQUITIES. 381
others. The pillars are decorated with foliated capitals, elaborately finished with sculptured
shields and angels’ heads ; the shafts are fluted according to a regular and beautiful
design, and their bases are enriched with foliated sculpture ; while the other pillars of the
choir are plain octagons, with their capitals formed by a few simple mouldings. The arching
and groining, moreover, of this extended portion of the aisles entirely differs from the
western and earlier part ; for whereas the latter are formed of concentric arches springing
from four sides and meeting in one keystone, so that the top of the windows can
reach no higher than the spring of the arch, the former is constructed on the more nsual
plan of a goined roof, running across the aisle, and admitting of the two eastmost windows
on each side rising nearly to the top of the arch. No less obvious proofs are discoverable of
the addition of the clerestory at the same period. There are flaws remaining in the
lower part of its walk, marking distinctly how far the old work has been taken down.
A slight inclination outward, in part of the wall immediately above the pillars, shows
that the roof of the choir had corresponded in height with the old nave ; and portions of
the original groining springing from the capitals of the pillars still remain, only partially
chiselled away. The extreme beauty of the clerestory groining, and its remarkably rich
variety of bosses, all furnish abdndant evidence of its being the work of a later age than
the other parts of the building. On €he centre boss, at the division of the two eastmost
compartments of the ceiling, is the monogram fQ$, boldly cut on a large shield; and on
the one next to it westward, the following legend is neatly arranged round a carved
centre in bold relief :-%be + gCil .. pbl . bnpl + teCU +-an abbreviation evidently of the
salutation of the Virgin,-Ave Maria, gratia p Zena, dominus tecum,-though from ita
height, and the contractions necessary to bring it within such circumscribed dimensions,
it is not easily deciphered. These, it is probable, stood directly over the site of the high
altar, which does not appear to have been removed from its original position at the east
end of the old choir upon its enlargement and elongation in the fifteenth century, as we
find that Walter Bertrame, burgess of Edinburgh, by a charter dated December 20, 1477,
founded a chaplainry at ‘‘ the Altar of St fiancia, situate behind the Great Altar,” and
endowed it with various annual rents from property in Edinburgh and Leith.l
Another striking feature of the additions made to St Giles’s Church in the fifteenth
century, is the numerous heraldic devices introduced among the ornaments, which afford
striking confirnation as to the period when they were executed., The north-east, or King’s
Pillar, as it is generally called, of which we have already given a view; bears on the east
and west sides the royal arms of Scotland ; on the north side those of May of Gueldersthe
Queen of James 11. and the founder of the Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinityimpaled
with the royal arms ; and on the south side the arms of France. James II. succeeded
to the throne, a mere child, in 1438, and was killed by the bursting of a cannon at
the siege of Roxburgh Castle in 1460 ; and the remaining armorial bearings afford further
proof of the erection of this addition to the church between these two periods. On the opposite
pillar there are, on the south side, the arms of the good town ; and on the west those
of Bishop Remedy, the cousin of James IL and his able and faithful councillor, who was
promoted to the metropolitan see in 1440, and died in 1466. The other arms are those
of Nicolson, and Preston of Craigmillar. On the engaged pillar, on the north side of the
Maitland, p. 271. Inventar of Pious Donations. MS. Ad. Lib. ’ Ante, p. 24.
