4

THE CATHEDRAL OF ST MACHAR, ABERDEEN.

served from utter ruine by the Earle of Huntly, and in 1607 repaired and covered with slate at the charge of the parish."*

It would appear probable, that the bare effect of the undecorated stonework of the interior had been formerly relieved by profuse decorations in wood. A finely carved pulpit, representing some curious heads, not unlike those found at Stirling, is, with the roof, the only relic of this old magnificence. The carved work is said to have stood out the Reformation, and to have suffered in the civil wars of the seventeenth century. An author, not generally very animated in style or felicitous in narrative, has given, on what authority we are not aware, the following rather vigorous account of the destruction of a portion of the carved work: "The high altar, a piece of the finest workmanship of anything of the kind in Europe, had to that time remained inviolate, but in the year 1649 was hewed to pieces, by order and with the aid of the parish minister. The carpenter employed for this infamous purpose, awed by the sanctity of the place, and struck with the noble workmanship, refused to lay a tool on it, till the more than Gothic priest took the hatchet from his hand and struck the first blow. The wainscotting was richly carved and ornamented with different kinds of crowns at top, admirably cut; one of these, large, and of superior workmanship, even staggered the zeal of the furious priest; he wished to save it, perhaps, as a trophy over a fallen enemy. Whatever his motives may have been, his hopes were disappointed; while the carpenter rudely hewed down the supporting timbers, the crown fell from a great height, ploughed up the pavement of the church, and flew in a thousand pieces."†

* Registrum, &c., lxvi.

+ Douglas's Account of the East Coast of Scotland, 185-6.