Restoration of Jedburgh Abbey. By Jas. Watson. 136 



an attached arcade of pointed arches, but nearly all the support- 

 ing shafts are gone. At the top is a beautiful St Catherine's 

 wheel of a later date. The north aisle of the nave had been 

 lighted by windows similar to those at the sides of the west 

 doorway ; while the south aisle had dormer windows. As dor- 

 mers are understood not to have been known until about the 

 middle of the 14th century, this would suggest that the present 

 was not the original south wall, but one built probably about the 

 time of the restoration of the conventual buildings, alluded to at 

 the beginning of this paper. There is evidently a break in the 

 masonry near the old cloister doorway which would go so far in 

 support of this supposition. Some writers have held that the 

 clerestory of the nave and the pointed part of the chancel belong 

 to the Early English style of architecture, but this opinion has 

 been arrived at without taking the details sufSlciently into 

 account. The pointed part of the chancel seems to be the 

 nearest approach to it, the windows and buttresses partaking 

 largely of the character ; but the capitals are undoubtedly Transi- 

 tion Norman, and the abacus is square, which, according to 

 Eickman — no mean authority — is the best mark. The stilted 

 arch, never a very graceful nor pleasing feature, is seen here. 

 It is greatly to be regretted that this part of the building is so 

 much dilapidated, the whole of the eastern gable and portions of 

 the side walls being gone. 



The north transept, part of the south chapel of the choir, and 

 nearly the whole of the tower, belong to the Decorated period. 

 The transept, which appears to be the earliest, is supported with 

 shelving buttresses, and has three windows, two in the west wall 

 and one facing north. The former have plain chamfered jambs, 

 and are divided by one muUion each, with a quatref oil at the top ; 

 and the great north window, which measures twenty-eight feet 

 in height, and over nine feet and a half in breadth, has moulded 

 jambs, and is divided by three mullions, with somewhat flowing 

 tracery. A window similar in design, but much smaller in 

 dimensions, is seen in Melrose Abbey, in the chapel, fifth from 

 the tower on the south side of the nave. The only difference in 

 the tracery is that at the top of the lower lights of the Melrose 

 window there are double cusps, while in Jedburgh they are 

 single. We incline to think that the Jedburgh window is the 

 earliest of the two. The tower is of massive proportions, nearly 

 ninety feet high, and gives an imposing effect to the whole 



