[Illustration: FIG. 844.--St. Giles’ Collegiate Church. Monument in Lauder’s Aisle.]
The church, in its full length and breadth, was now complete in all its parts, as it still remains internally, with a few exceptions, till the present day. It measures internally 196 feet from east to west by 125 feet from north to south across the transepts. The choir is 68 feet in width over the north and south aisles, and the Preston aisle is 45 feet 6 inches in length and 27 feet in width. The nave, including the five south chapels, is 81 feet in length by 91 feet in width within the walls.
Several additional chapels were afterwards thrown out. In 1513 an aisle of two arches was formed by Alexander Lauder, of Blyth, Provost of the city; and in 1518 the altar of the Holy Blood was erected in this aisle, which lay on the south of the nave, and to the east of the south porch, immediately adjoining the south transept. It was 29 feet long by 14 feet wide, and opened into the south chapels of the nave with two arches, and had two windows to the south. Between these windows, and recessed in the wall, has now been erected what was, doubtless, a handsome monument (Fig. 844), containing a recumbent statue, or was, as some suppose, part of the canopy of the altar.
During the alterations of 1829 one half of this chapel was obliterated; but the monument is still preserved, and its details are illustrated in Figs. 845 and 846.
[Illustration: FIG. 845.--St. Giles’ Collegiate Church. Details of Monument in Lauder’s Aisle.]
In 1466 the Church of St. Giles was erected, by charter of James III., into a collegiate establishment, but is not called collegiate till 1475. The chapter consisted of a provost, curate, sixteen prebendaries, a minister of the choir, four choristers, a sacristan, and a beadle. Besides these, there were chaplains ministering at thirty-six altars in the church. The number of clergy connected with the establishment probably reached about one hundred, who were supported by its endowments. The perpetual vicar became the first provost, and the second provost was Gavin Douglas, whose translation of Virgil’s _Æneid_ into the Scottish language was the first version of a Latin classic rendered into any British tongue.