documents, which have happily survived the consequences of "chance and change," it would appear that the church was in a very flourishing condition during the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. In the year 1277, Richard Cementarius founded in it the chantry of St. John the Evangelist, for the celebration of masses for himself, his relatives, and friends, and all the departed faithful. During the prevalence of the Romish faith it was customary for those whose circumstances enabled them to indulge in the more costly observances of religious zeal, to dedicate chantries with shrines to favourite saints, within the venerated precincts of some distinguished church, for the purpose of securing services believed to be promotive of their eternal peace. Of such endowments, with suitable appointments, there were no fewer than thirty-one in the church which St. Nicholas was supposed to regard with peculiar favour. To this church, indeed, the zeal of our remote ancestors would seem to have paid most loving and liberal tribute. It was amply furnished with all the paraphernalia and "properties" requisite for the pomp and circumstance of the Romish ritual. Many and massive were its chalices, and censers, and crucifixes of pure silver, besides "four cruets and ane littel shippe" of the same precious metal. Then there was ample store of sacred vestments-copes, and chasubles and tunicles of fine cloth, of gold and vel

vet; and frontals for the altar of red damask, etc., etc. Nor was there wanting a goodly array of "brazen work"-eighteen brazen chandeliers; two great chandeliers of the high altar with the sacrament chandelier; "the great chandelier of brass, with the image;" a laver, a font, and holy-water vat-all of brass; with many other decorments which imparted impressiveness to the services of the church.

The nave was a stately and extensive building, 116 feet long by 66 feet wide. The roof was supported by eight piers on each side, spanned by round arches. It had thirty-three windows, great and small, and three doors. Of the latter, one was in the Marriage Porch, situated about the middle. of the south side. A rude, but not uninteresting sketch of the building may be seen in Gordon's account of Aberdeen, published by the Spalding Club. The floor and walls were covered with many monuments of the dead, most of which have shared the fate of the memories they were fondly but vainly intended to perpetuate. A few more distinguished names have triumphed over the destruction of the frail memorials of their rank or worth. It is to be observed that there were originally no seats or galleries for a congregation in the nave, or indeed in any other part of the church, which was more especially a house of prayer and praise, worshippers either standing or kneeling.

The transept is some twenty-four feet broad by nearly one hundred feet in length. The height of its originally sharp-pointed roof must have been sixty feet. In the western side of its southern limb is the oldest sepulchral monument about Aberdeen.

It is a mural tablet to the memory of Provost Leith, 1352. It is greatly decayed, the only words which may, with difficulty, be traced being honorabilis vir. On it are represented a priest, with singing boys, in the act of celebrating a post-obit at an altar, for the soul of the departed. It is curious to notice how the crucifix and altar have been erased by the zeal of some reformer, the

marks of the chisel being distinctly visible. Two fine sepulchral effigies belonging to the Drum family lie in the north-east corner; but their original place was under an arch in 'the opposite corner, where the family grave is situated. The burialplaces in the northern limb have already been noticed. When the south transept was partially removed, before being rebuilt in 1837, several square boles were discovered in the ancient wall, in all of which were greatly-decayed human bones, and, in one of them, a silver cross very much oxidised. What became of it is best known to the party by whom it seems to have been considered as lawful plunder.

The circumstances which led to the building of the choir have already been partially noticed. In correspondence with the nave, it had a centre and two side aisles, and terminated in a semi-hexagonal apse, where stood the high altar. In this, and in some other points, the influence of the French style of Gothic was plainly discernible. The piers and arches resembled those of the Cathedral in Old Aberdeen. The latter were pointed, and formed five bays. The roof was ceiled, waggonwise, and in this, as in every other respect, exactly resembled the coeval roof of the chapel of King's College. When the seats and galleries were all removed it was only then that the fabric was seen in all its harmonious proportions and impres

sive solemnity. Three wide steps, embracing the whole breadth of the central aisle, led to the entrance of the apse, the breadth of which was spanned by a pointed arch some forty feet high. The highest point of the ceiling must have been some sixty feet above the lowest part of the floor. The apse was twenty-two feet broad at the great arch, eighteen feet deep, and thirty-six feet high. The body of the choir was eighty-six feet long and sixty-four wide. Thus, when the old choir was completed, the whole length of the church was nearly 250 feet a stately and extensive building, and, as a parochial church, unmatched in the kingdom.

It has been already mentioned that, when the old East Church was taken down in 1837, the foundations of the original chancel were discovered ; the Byzantine character of its eastern extremity indicating its great antiquity. At the same time it was found that the tops of the north and south side walls were covered by a large quantity of human bones. Were those relics which had been dislodged when the foundations of the choir were dug? When that choir was taken down several stone coffins were discovered, supposed to be of the thirteenth century, and of which one ought to be in the Museum of Marischal College.

A suitable conclusion to this part of our notice is the following quaint inscription, of date 1672, which was placed on the wall of the old nave, and