328 Theory as to the Origin of the Crosses 



The tidal wave of architectural activity which swept over Europe 

 in the latter half of the Middle Ages reached its high-water mark in the 

 north of France ; but the influence of its motion was felt, in diminishing 

 degrees, in every direction from that centre. Its impetus toward the 

 north was aided by the Norman conquest of England, whence it rolled 

 on to break in ripples over the furthest shores of Scotland. 



Few and meagre were the monastic edifices in Scotland at the end 

 of the eleventh century ; rude and primitive were the castles of the Scot- 

 tish chiefs until Saxon England had become Norman England, and the 

 effects of this change had revolutionized the whole of Great Britain. The 

 Conqueror himself invaded Scotland, receiving homage from Malcolm III. 

 A few years later the Norman king, Henry I., sought a Scottish bride, 

 Matilda, daughter of Malcolm. This alhance became the entering wedge 

 for Norman influence in Scotland. Matilda brought with her to the court 

 of the English king her young brother David. Growing up amid Nor- 

 man surroundings, receiving his education from a Norman bishop, David 

 returned to Scotland, to become king in course of time, more Norman 

 than Scot. Two features seem to have been infused into the character 

 of David by his education : a devout rehgious enthusiasm and the Nor- 

 man building spirit. Monumental evidence of this was given even be- 

 fore he became king. Returning from England he retired to Jedburgh, 

 then the chief town of the Middle Marches, and there, in 1118, erected 

 a beautiful and extensive abbey for the reception of an abbot with a 

 large following of Benedictine monks from Beauvais. 



What William the Norman was to the architecture of England, David I. 

 was to that of Scotland. Upon his accession to the throne, in 1124, he 

 made large grants of crown lands to the Church, founded abbeys at 

 Holyrood, Kelso, Melrose, Newbattle, Kinloss, and Cambuskenneth ; 

 elevated the ancient abbey of Dunblane to the dignity of a cathedral ; 

 drove the Culdees from their church at Dunkeld and estabUshed there 

 the seat of a bishopric. In fact, it is unusual to find an estabUshment in 

 the whole domain that David did not either found or enrich. His exces- 

 sive liberality toward the clergy, his zeal for founding churches and for 

 the spreading of rehgion, caused him to be canonized in the hearts of 

 his subjects, and under the title of St. David has he come down to us 

 in history. 



Comparatively few of the church edifices of St. David's building 

 escaped the ravages of the wars with England under the Edwards, so 

 that we are obliged to judge of the style of architecture during his reign 

 from fragments incorporated with buildings of later date. But a single 

 edifice preserves anything approaching a complete structure— the abbey 

 of Kelso. Here the style of Romanesque is so unique, so unUke anything 

 of its kind across the border or on the Continent, that we are almost 

 ready to place the style of David's reign apart, as a school of Roman- 

 esque by itself. The same general features are perceived in the earliest 

 surviving portions of the abbeys of Holyrood, Dryburgh, Kinloss, and 



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