Artist : James Ballantyne (FSA Scot.)
James Ballantyne was born in 1808 in Edinburgh. He began his career as a domestic painter and decorator. During his apprenticeship and early working life he moved around and at some point during those years gained knowledge of glass staining. In 1845 he was sufficiently established in business to write and publish a small book on painted glass. Owing to his previous work in the domestic scene he strongly recommended the use of stained glass in domestic situations in his book. Up to this point in his career he had gained some degree of success. However his break came when he had a successful entry in a national competition for stained glass in the House of Lords. This success provided him with much work in England and elsewhere. Some years later he became involved with Church of Scotland projects and gained enough commissions from them to employ more staff and apprentices. One of these apprentices was Stephen Adam.
James Ballantyne died in 1877 and was succeeded by his son Alexander.

Technical Detail
This is a high quality two-light window, with circular tracery, located in the north wall of the gallery. This window is made of mouth-blown glasses and has lots of gold and pinks in it. The glass is also well painted. This is a very expensive window and the subject matter is very well proportioned. This window is correctly designed for its north location in the Church due to the use of lighter glass and rays of bright light at the top becoming darker with more dense colouring as you move towards the bottom. There are lots of detail at the bottom of the window in terms of colour and vegetation.

Subject Matter
The subject of this window is “The Ascension”. In Greek stories, various heroes ascended to heaven, on death or by becoming gods. For Luke, however, the ascension is only a confirmation of Jesus’ status at the resurrection, a coronation of the King who was both human and divine in one entity. Jesus’ ascension leaves believers, as his successors, responsible for the job of world evangelism until his return in the same glorified body. The Ascension is found in the Bible in Luke’s Gospel Ch.24 v. 50 and in The Acts of the Apostles Ch.1 v. 9-11. It is portrayed in a very reverent and colourful manner. Over the window is inscribed the Angels’ Announcement, “This same Jesus shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into Heaven”. At the bottom of the window is the following dedicatory inscription:

“To the Glory of God and in Loving Memory of Tom Eglinton, born 17^th May 1861, died 31′ January 1923, and of Margaret Stewart, his wife, born 18^th August 1868, died 23″¹ December 1924. Erected by their family in 1925.”