HATE OF .MKI.I'.OnRNK PARISH CHURCH. 83 



Externally, the remains of the original flat buttresses of the 

 chancel and the nave aisles, and the early character of the 

 transepts and their northward and southward windows, of the 

 shafted outer stage of the central tower, of the northern clerestory, 

 of the angles of the western towers, of the chancel north and 

 south windows, of the arcading at the west end of the (destroyed) 

 over chancel, and the traces of high roofs of equal pitch against 

 all four sides of the central tower, are evidences of simultaneous 

 design and continuous construction. 



That roofs rising to the height of the traces now visible on the 

 four external faces of the central tower belonged to the original 

 structure may be inferred from the following considerations, 

 viz. : — 



(i) Steep roofs of equal height over all four limbs of an early 

 Romanesque church are characteristic of the style. {See " Eccle- 

 siastical Art in Germany di/rin^^ the Middle Ages," by Lubke, 

 pages 22 and 24.)* 



(2) The western side walls and the end walls of the two 

 transepts remain unaltered, and are of considerable thickness, 

 well adapted for carrying roofs of the steep pitch indicated on 

 the Romanesque stage of the central tower. 



(3) Over the nave of Melbourne Church an outer roof would 

 be necessary to preserve the masonry vaulting, of the employment 

 of which there are indications. That outer roof would reach 

 the lines now seen on the western outer face of the central 

 tower. 



(4) The absence of windows and of external embellishment 

 on the four sides of the Romanesque stage of the central tower 

 points to the design that high roofs should abut against that 

 stage of the central tower. 



(5) The second or upper arcading — now seen on the outer 

 eastern face of the central tower — must have always been an 

 internal (not an external) embellishment of the Church, and 



* The Cathedral of St. Magnus (Romanesque) in Kirkwall has, or lately 

 ha<l, four steeply pitched roofs of equal height, abutting against the central 

 tower. — Lewis's "Topographical Dictionary of .Scotland: Kirkwall." 



