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Yester Church from MacGibbon and Ross
Ecclesiastical Architecture of Scotland, 1897.
It
was common practice not to engage an architect for lesser buildings,
and for the design to be the work of the builder and
his employer
(though the Marquis did use William Adam for the
original manse at
Garvald).
The question of attribution is complicated by the design of the
church at Carrington, Midlothian, which without
having the beauty of proportions
of Yester is too similar to admit coincidence.
It was built at
exactly the same time; 1710 is carved on the lintel of the main
entrance.
I
suggest that it is a copy of Yester, made with the knowledge of the
Marquis and his builder, and that this is further
evidence of there being
no
architect involved in the building of Yester.
Two or three other
features will emerge in the description of the building which
further point to the lack of an architect's involvement.
Whatever the answer to the question of authorship,
the church is a
building of worth and beauty. Its site had probably
been fixed four or
five years earlier when the Town House was built
facing down
the
Avenue
and the L-shaped lay-out of the village was being formed.
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