Scottish ecclesiastical buildings
are generally far inferior to those in England. Few date before the 19th
century and religion in Scotland became very fragmented; there is no great
wealthy institution comparable to the established Church of England to cherish
and maintain the finest buildings. No doubt this statement of fact offends the
currently tender and sore nationalistic feelings of some Scots. Yet there are
some gems hidden away and I celebrate two in this piece.
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| St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Edinburgh |
St Mary’s Cathedral,
Edinburgh, is situated by Palmerston Place plumb in the middle of the elegant
terraces of the West End of the New Town. It is the largest Cathedral in
Scotland and yet it is the centre of a very small Christian sect, the Scottish
Episcopal Church, with barely 1% of the Scottish population as adherents. The
Scottish Episcopalians (i.e. those accepting the leadership of bishops) are
part of the Anglican Communion but have a distinctive history of grandeur and
of persecution. Their intellectual reach and vibrant influence belie their
modest numbers.
The fortunes of the Scottish Episcopalians were transformed
by the munificent gift in 1873 of the Drumsheugh Estate in central Edinburgh by
two spinster sisters, Barbara and Mary Walker, members of a distinguished
Edinburgh family. The Episcopalians had been without a cathedral since St Giles
on the High Street of Old Edinburgh reverted to the Presbyterian Church of
Scotland in 1689; this gap was specifically to be plugged by the Walker gift
and the two ladies also made generous endowments. The foundation stone was laid
by the long-supportive and happily wealthy Duke of Buccleuch in 1874 and the
appointed architect was the Gothic Revival leader Sir George Gilbert Scott,
veteran of some hundreds of church commissions, completing his work in 1879.
The West Front of St Mary’s displaying the three commanding
spires is one of Scott’s most impressively designed vistas (although the two
West spires were not actually built until 1917 by his grandson Charles Oldrid
Scott); the whole cathedral is a Victorian triumph with anachronistic features
transformed for modern purposes, with a majestic nave, stained glass windows
and a fine reredos (designed by son John Oldrid Scott) adding to the aura of
reverence.
St Mary’s Cathedral West Front
.JPG) |
| St Mary's Cathedral interior |
George Gilbert Scott surpassed himself with this masterpiece.
St Mary’s is the only Scottish cathedral with a choir school and since 1879 it
has kept up a tradition of a choral service every day. The music of St Mary’s
is a feature of Edinburgh’s cultural life and the choir is much admired. It
rehearses in the Song School where there are cherished murals by the
Pre-Raphaelite artist Phoebe Traquair.
While St Giles may be the most famous great church in
Scotland, the considerable merits of St Mary’s should also be duly honoured.
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| Music at St Mary's |
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The stones of St
Machar’s, Aberdeen, are much older than St Mary’s but this Kirk has been
knocked about during the turbulent history of Scotland, especially in the 16th
and 17th centuries. It is still referred to as “St Machar’s
Cathedral” but this is a misnomer. It has not contained the cathedra (throne) of a bishop since 1689
and it is the property of the firmly Presbyterian Church of Scotland.
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| West Front of St Machar's with its twin spires |
St Machar was a companion of St Columba and he is said to have
erected a church here in 580. A later Norman edifice survived until 1160 when
extensive renovation was required first under Bishop Cheyne and in later years
under Bishop Elphinstone, by which time the cathedral was a fortified church
with a central tower, transepts and a choir. In 1305 the left quarter of
cruelly executed William Wallace was supposedly buried in the wall of St
Machar’s. The twin towers were added by Bishop Dunbar in the early 16th
century together with the splendid painted wooden heraldic ceiling. St Machar’s
was a large establishment with almost 30 canons and its full glory can be seen
in the etching below before its fortunes were engulfed in the 1560 Scottish
Reformation and in the 1630s Civil wars.
The Cathedral was seized by the reformers, then restored to
the Anglican Church until the fall of James II. Thereafter it was a
Presbyterian “High Kirk”. With no canons it fell into disrepair; in the civil
war the Parliamentary Army weakened the edifice by removing stones from the
Choir. A great storm in 1689 caused the collapse of the central tower, the
remains of the choir and the transepts. They were never rebuilt and, after much
Victorian attention, the church now consists of the old Nave and the west Front
with its towers, a sadly truncated place.
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| St Machar's in its earlier glory |
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| St Machar's: The Nave and Heraldic Ceiling |
The cathedral enjoys a site near the University campus in
Old Aberdeen, not far from the River Don. It is rather hemmed in by its crowded
churchyard and gravestone clearance on the model of Salisbury Cathedral would
be aesthetically improving if legally daunting.
St Machar’s is full of interest yet I sometimes feel it is
unloved; Presbyterian Aberdonians are undemonstrative folk but perhaps inside
they burn with that pride proclaimed by the medieval epic poet John Barbour,
buried at St Machar’s, in his great work The Brus (The Bruce);
A! Fredome is a noble thing!
SMD
23.09.14
Text
Copyright © Sidney Donald 2014
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