|
This mid 19th century print of Dunblane Cathedral is over 100 years old. The original artist was G. Cattermole. The print is approximately 6 x 8 1/2 inches, printed on heavy parchment paper. If you look closely you can see the Cathedral roof is missing, the roof was not repaired until the late 1890's. 
An excerpt from the original description of the print: THE cnrioug, old, decayed, and "dirty" town of Dunblane, in Perthshire, situated on the eastern bank of the Allan Water, seven miles from Stirling, and nearly four from the Bridge of Allan, deriving its name from St. Blane, is celebrated for its Cathedral, and was anciently a seat of the Culdees,the earliest Christian clergy of Scotland. The bishoprick of Dunblane, of limited extent, was founded by David I., in 1142. The half-ruinous Cathedral, with its lofty square tower and long line of arched windows, a view of which is given in an accompanying plate, stands on an eminence overlooking the town. It is not known who built the first church but dement. Bishop of Dunblane, restored, or rather rebuilt, the Cathedral about 1240. The western doorway ia surmounted by a magnificent lanceolated window of three compartments. Two rows of stupendous columns, still entire, extend along the interior, affording a promenade on the top of arches, surmounted by others. The figures of Michael Ochiltree and Finlay Dennott, Bishops of Dunblane of the fifteenth century, lie recumbent under window arches. The latter built the narrow bridge of one arch, by which the town is entered by the Stirling road. Full-length figures of Malise, Earl of Strathearn, and his Countess (1271), are cut in alto relievo on a gritstone block in the lobby of the vestry. he choir is kept in repair, and used as the parish church. Its magnificent oriel window is the finest object of the ruin. The length of the building is two hundred and sixteen feet, by seventy-six; the wall fifty feet high; and the tower, probably built at three successive periods, is one hundred and twenty-eight feet in height. Thirty-six seats were appropriated to the choir; and those of the bishop and dean, with thirty-two others, displaying curious oak-carvings, still remain, while in the nave most of the prebendal stalls are entire. Three blue marble slabs in the choir cover . the graves of Lady Margaret Drummond, a mistress of James IV., and her sisters Euphemia and Sybilla, daughters of the first Lord Drummond, who were poisoned at breakfast in Drummond Castle, in 1501—it was thought by design of some of the courtiers, to prevent the marriage of the eldest with the King. The Cathedral sustained great damage from the mistaken zeal of the Reformers in 1559. The grand entrance, above which is a splendid window, now repaired, has suffered Tittle injury. At least twenty-six prelates occupied the see before the Reformation, and seven Protestant bishops from that era to the Revolution. The bishop's palace, now only distinguishable by some vaults and part of its western wall, stood immediately south of the church, and overlooked the river. Its remains served as materials for building a house in the main street, near the Cathedral, for the valuable library, about one thousand four hundred volumes, bequeathed to the clergy of the diocese by "the good Bishop," Robert Leighton, Bishop ofDunblane, from 1662 to 1670, and afterwards Archbishop of Glasgow. The library has been considerably augmented by various additions.
|
