Rosslyn Chapel - A Treasure in Stone

Over the weekend I was reminded of a fabulous trip I made a few years ago - I was delivering a Birdbath in Edinburgh and afterwards met my mother who took me to see the amazing Rosslyn Chapel.  It was all brought back by the programme on Sunday evening - telling the story of the building and its significance.

I loved that the story was told by the BBC Four's Rosslyn Chapel: A Treasure in Stone with plenty emphasis on the masons and craftsmen who actually did the carving, and research done into who they were and what being a stone carver was at that time.

The Chapel was founded in 1446 by Sir William St Clair and took forty years to complete.  Sir William wanted the very best artisans and craftsmen and the masons were responsible for building their own village - a house and land for each carver.  His workers were highly valued,  master masons earned £40 yearly (equivalent to £50,000 today), and all other masons £10 each year.  But there was a lot of work to do.   Within the Chapel there is an abundance of sculpture and decoration - carving on carving - a great deal of which is given to plants and animals and the green man image (over 100), it is bursting with plant images and beds of foliage intricately carved onto its ten thousand stones.  The exquisite Rosslyn Chapel is a masterpiece in stone.

Of course extracting stone in medieval times was no mean feat, it took dozens of men and many months to excavate from a nearby quarry.   Each block would be squared and shaped and then the designs carved - each finished piece matching the next in a masterful flow of twists and scrolls.  Throughout there are the 'mason's marks' in the stone, simple shapes carved to signify who was responsible for that particular work, and evidence of completion so they could be paid.

 

Image from Rosslyn Chapel

This pillar provides one of the most dramatic stories locked into the history of Rosslyn’s carvings. It is said that an apprentice mason carved the pillar in his master’s absence. The master mason had gone to research the original pillar on which this was to be based, before attempting his masterpiece. But when he returned to see that his young apprentice had already carved what he himself had not managed to, he flew into a jealous rage and struck the apprentice over the head, killing him outright.

The faces of the mason, the apprentice, and his grieving mother are carved into the corners of the Chapel opposite the pillar. But the Apprentice Pillar is also significant because of the eight carved dragons winding around its base. In Scandinavian mythology eight dragons live at the roots of the Yggdrasil tree, an ash tree which bound together heaven, earth and hell with its branches.

There is an angel playing pipes, and the most beautiful nativity scene too, which I must show you as we're at Christmas time.

Star of Bethlehem and the Nativity

This hanging boss encompasses the eight-pointed Star of Bethlehem carved with figures of the nativity. Clockwise around its sides are the Virgin and child; the manger; the three wise men; and three shepherds.

Oh, please allow me one more - this is a farmer's wife saving her goose from the jaws of a fox!

Christmas Cactus

I love these succulent plants, they're quite different in appearance from their desert dwelling cousins, and come from the south eastern coastal mountains of Brazil.  They grow on trees or rocks in habitats which are generally shady with high humidity.

Their stems resemble leaf-like pads joined together and flowers appear at the joints and tips of these stems in white, pink, yellow, orange, red or purple. A vivid scarlet is most commonly grown for Christmas time.

I'm trying to grow lots of plants for my small pots and this Cactus is easily propagated by talking short Y-shaped cuttings of the stem tips.  If you remove a single segment and plant it a quarter of its length deep in a pot filled with slightly sandy soil, it should begin showing signs of growth after two or three weeks.  The pot needs to be in a well lit area and the soil kept moist.  I didn't get mine planted soon enough for this year, but I have one or two cacti substitutes.

Feeling Festive

It is beginning to feel quite festive here in the stone shed - I'm working hard with orders for Christmas presents - some are surprises and rather special individual gifts - it is really lovely to be part of the giving process.  Hush, I don't want to give too much away.

To add to the cheer I've been putting up one or two decorations - outside as well as in.

Luckily my stone hanging decorations survive the weather and look amazing when touched with the morning frost.  I'm hanging them from the Sycamore tree, and one or two on the Apple.  The birds think they're food balls, perching on them and pecking! I love to make the garden feel Christmassy  too.   Others will stand or hang in the workshop.

Standing Stones

These are a few more images of local stones - these are my comfort stones, the ones I see daily that reassure and give pleasure - I greet them and wonder about them.

They are strong stones.  These two are close-by on opposite sides of the road, the holed one reminds me of the Men-an-Tol stone circle in Cornwall.

Only because of the hole, and of course it is a standing stone!  There were many traditional rituals at the Men-an-Tol, distinguished by its strangely pierced central stone (the name means stone with a hole in Cornish).  Holed stones are found in many parts of the British Isles as well as in other countries of the world; together with holy wells they have retained the ideas and customs associated with them more tenaciously than any other type of ancient sites.

Image from Stones of England

Traditional rituals at Mên-an-Tol (centuries ago known also as Devil's Eye) involved passing naked children three times through the holed stone and then drawing them along the grass three times in an easterly direction. This was thought to cure scrofula (a form of tuberculosis) and rickets. Adults seeking relief from rheumatism, spine troubles or ague were advised to crawl through the hole nine times against the sun. The holed stone also had prophetic qualities.

Perhaps my local stone is not a Devil's Eye, or at least if it is, not many youngsters have been squeezed through and perhaps other cures were used for rheumatism!

Small Stone Birds

These little birds are perching and nesting on the edge of a block of stone.  They were fascinating to carve, as the piece of stone they are worked in was brought to me by the customer, a beautiful old, weathered and mossy crag of a lump - an unknown quantity.  I couldn't tell what the stone was like 'inside', how it would work, or whether indeed it would respond to carving.

It revealed lots of surprises!  Sections were pale yellow and buff coloured and easy to work, whilst others were flinty or running into hollows and shale - then it also revealed some lovely swirly dark grey colouring, which makes the birds look feathered and patterned.  Quite an adventure.  I think the irregularities in the stone give the birds an ancient, weathered and almost primitive look, which I love.