C h u r c h fcroundTowER at B r e c h in .
- Here was likewife an hofpital, called Mafon de Dieu, founded
I b y William Je Brechin, for the repofe of the fouls of the
L iW i l L and Alexander; of John Earl of Chefter and Hrnt-
L d l his brother; of Henry his father ; and Juhancr his mother.
L ms, bilhop of Brechin, in the reign of Alexander III, was wit- L t0 the grant. By the walls, which are yet ftanding, behind
Ihe weft end of the chief ftrect, it appears to have been an elegant
little building. .
[ The cathedral is a Gothic pile, fupported by twelve pillars ; is
In length a hundred and fixty-fix feet, in breadth fixty-one ; part is
[ ru in o u s , and part ferves as the pariih church. The weft end of one
[of the ailes is entire; its door is Gothic,, and the arch confifts of
¡many moldings : the window of neat tracery : the fteeple is a hand-
Ifome tower, a hundred and twenty feet high ; the four lower wm-
Idows in form of long and narrow openings: the belfry windows
»adorned with that fpecies of opening called the quatrefoil: the top
I battlemented, out of which rifes an hexangular fpire.
At a fmall diftance from the aile ftands one of thofe Angular
I round towers, whofe ufe has fo long baffled the conjectures of an-
I tiquaries.
Thefe towers,' as far as my reading or enquiries have extended,
['appear to have been peculiar to North-Britain and Ireland: in
I the laft frequent; in the former only two at this time exift. That
[ at Brechin ftood originally, as all I have feen do, detached from
I Other buildings. It is at prefent joined near the bottom by a low
[ additional aile to the church, which takes in about a forth of its I circumference. From this aile there is an entrance into it o
[ modern date, approachable by a few fteps, for the ufe of the
C a t
R o un