Striking a Pose.

Mrs SN expressed a desire to see the chapel, so we all trooped of down there and listened to one of the talks before Mrs TD gave us her own guided tour. She’s very good, but then she has been doing it for fifteen years. I don’t think SN Jnr was too impressed with all the wonderful stone carvings but he might have enjoyed the story about the master mason beating out the brains of his apprentice with his mallet. It’s a good story, many people actually believe it, but it is a common story that is told about many historic buildings so I doubt if any of them are true.

To cut a long story short, the legend is that the founder of the chapel wanted a wonderful carved pillar to show off the chapel, so the master mason travelled to Italy to research the project. While he was away, the apprentice had a dream and, acting upon this dream, he carved the afore-mentioned pillar. When the master returned to find the work already completed he killed the apprentice in a fit of rage. There are three carvings reputedly depicting the apprentice (with a hole in his head), the mason (facing the pillar but whose face is completely eroded) and a grieving mother. The chapel is, supposedly, modelled on the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem which has a similar pillar; it is probable that the three effigies were modified comparatively recently to enhance the story; and some sources claim that the story originated with Rabbie Burns. I guess you pays your money and takes your choice.

After a cup of coffee, not as good as those served when Bovril Johnston’s ran the cafe, we circumnavigated the castle. On the way SN Jnr mounted this hillock, his mother asked him to “strike a pose,” and this blip is the result.