History of the abbey and palace of Holyrood

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HISTORY

OF THE

ABBEY AND PALACE

OF

HOLYROOD.

EDINBURGH:

PUBLISHED BY DUNCAN ANDERSON,

KEEPER OF THE CHAPEL-ROYAL.

CONTENTS.

Twsn
Chapter I. The Foundation and Endowment of the

Abbey, ...... 3

II. The Abbots of Holjrood, and Early His-
tory of the Abbey, . . . .17

III. Marriage of James IV. with ^Margaret of

England, ... . . 25

IV. James V. at Holyrood, . • . . 33
V. Queen Mary at Holyrood, ... 37

VI. Queen Mary's Progress to and from Hol}--

rood, &c. 42

VII. Marriage of Queen Mary and Lord Darnley

at Holyrood, 52

VIII. Murder of Riccio in Holyrood, . . 59

IX. Murder of Darnley and Rise of Bothwell, 71

X. Mary and Bothwell, .... 77

XI. Holyrood in the Reign of James VI. . 85

XII. Coronation of Charles I. at Holyrood, . 99

XIII. Holyrood up to the Revolution of 1688, . 108

XIV. The Fabric of the Palace and its Recent

History, 121

XV. The Royal Apartments, . . . .133
XVI. Environs of Hoiyi-ood — Royal Park— Burgh

of Canongate, and Sanctuary, . .137

XVII. Guide to the Palace and Chapel Koyal, . 156

Notes, , . . . , .187

THE

ABBEY AND PALACE

OP

HOLYROOD.

CHAPTER I.

TEE FOUNDATION AND ENDOWMENT OF
THE ABBEY.

^^PS^HE Abbey of Hol}TOod was founded by King Dayid

r^A

1 1

for the reception of Canons Regular of the order
of St. Augustine. Malcolm and Margaret, his royal
parents, had set before him an example of liberality toward
the church ; but the munificence of their son far transcended
that of his predecessors, and was never equalled by any
prince that succeeded him on the Scottish throne. Tho
majestic ruins of Melrose, Kelso, Dryburgh, and Hol}TOod,
not to speak of other shattered piles, that hallow with
their venerable shadows so many green corners of tho
land, bear solemn testimony to his pious zeal and bound-
less liberality. The Roman Church canonized her bene-

331267

4 raSTORY OF nOLYROOD.

factor, and the monastic chroniclers, as might be expected,
are enthusiastic in their praises of St. David. The sar-
castic witticism, which his successor James I. uttered at
his grave, that " he was ane soir sanct for the Crown,"
implied of course a censure on him for alienating so much
of the royal property. But posterity, whose eyes are
clear, appreciates the policy of David's line of conduct —
perceiving that in Scotland, in those stormy and unlettered
times, gifts to the church were to a great extent contri-
butions also toward the maintenance of the old learning,
the civiHzation of a fierce commonalty, the advancemeni;
of the arts, and the agricultural melioration of the soil.
Buchanan, the historian, whose tendencies, of course, were
all in an opposite direction, has recorded his conviction,
that " a more perfect exemplar of a good king is to be
found in the reign of David I. than in all the theories of
the learned and ingenious." *

Such a prince required no special intimation from
heaven to prompt him to found a religious house under
the shadow of a fortress where he himself frequently re-
sided. A miraculous interposition, however, on behalf of
the king himself, when prostrate under the antlers of a
" wyld hart," has been assigned as the immediate cause
of the foundation of the Abbey. Bellenden, the transla-
tor of Boece, tells us that the event happened in the
" vail that lyis to the Eist fra the said castell, quhare now
lyis the Cannogait," and which at that time was part of
" ane gret forest full of hartis, hyndis, toddis, and siclike
manor of beistis." The day of the occurrence was a holy
one — the festival of the Exaltation of the Cross, or " Rudo
day," as it was commonly called ; and the king had gone
a hunting in spite of the remonstrances of Alwin or
♦ Hist. Rcr. Scot. lib. vii.

FOUNDATION OP THE ABBEY. 6

Alcuin, his confessor, "ane man of singular and devoit
life," and who was destined to be the first Abbot of Holy-
rood. When the king, in the ardour of the chase, had
ridden to " the fute of the Crag," there suddenly rushed
upon him from the woods the " farest hart that ever was
Bene," and dashed both him and his horse to the ground
with great violence. David threw back his hands between
the antlers of the stag, to save himself, if possible, from
the blow ; and " the haly Croce slaid incontinent in (into)
his hands." The wild deer fled in dismay at the sight of
the sacred emblem, to which it seemed about to do vio-
lence ; and the king, being afterwards admonished in a
dream, resolved to dedicate a house to the " Holy Rude,"
the Virgin, and All Saints, on the very spot where " he
gat the Croce."

Such is the legend of the " miraculous foundation,"
which, in all probability, was devised by an over-zealous
Brother of St. Austin some two centuries after the demise
of the saintly king, with the intention of throwing a super-
natural lustre round the annals of his house. It is evident,
for several important reasons, that the legend was unheard
of for ages after the death of David. If it had been simply
a superstitious exaggeration of an accident which had be-
fallen the king, it must have appeared in some shape or
other in the pages of the earlier annalists. There is no
trace of it in the original text of Boece, that great collec-
tor, and even fabricator of legendary marvels, whose ear
took in every whisper of a miracle from Berwick to the
Pentland Frith. The best MSS. of Bellenden's transla-
tion itself are without it. The emblematic antlers and
cross are not found on any seal of the Abbey prior to the
reign of James I; and, moreover, the tale is quite at
variance with the well-known ]Jious character of David

6 HISTORV OF HOLYROOD.

from his youth up ; for, besides the conmirring testunony
of all history, it appears from the statement of a contem-
porary annalist, Aildred of Eievaux, that he was even
finically observant of all the ordinances of the church.*
The same chronicler also tells us that he has seen the king
dismount from his horse, and cibstamfrom the chase, when
only the meanest of his subjects requested an audience, f
In this instance, besides, we find in authentic history
a satisfactory reason why one of the first religious houses
founded by this king should have been dedicated to the
Holy Cross. The chroniclers inform us that Margaret, the
grand-niece of Edward the Confessor, and mother of
David, brought with her to Scotland a cross of pure gold,
which opened and shut like a casket, ornamented with an
image of the Saviour formed of the densest ebony, and
which contained within it what was then believed to be a
portion of that "Rude" on which Christ had suffered.
This holy relic, the same Aikcd informs us, " the pious
Queen Margaret . . . transmitted as a heredi-
tary gift to her sons.''''% This sacred legacy, thus be-
queathed by a p^ncess who, as Lord Hailes says, " was
canonized by the voice of a grateful though superstitious
people," § could not be lightly esteemed by the pious and
filial-hearted David. It seems, therefore, to be almost a
certainty, as has been already maintained by a distin-
guished antiquarian, || that it was the inheritance of this
highly- valued relic, which caused the king to dedicate tho
Abbey to the "Holy Rude;" and tliis supposition is
strengthened by the fact, that David himself presented it

• Ailredus Revallen. in Twisden's Scriptores Decern.

t Ibid. X Ibid. p. 350.

§ Hailes' Annals, 8vo. i. 46.

II Vide Courant newspaper, 31st August 1850.

FOUNDATION OP THE ABBEY. 7

to the religious house which he had founded.* It seems
not improbable that, being given by David to the canons,
while yet resident in the castle, they continued to keep it,
for greater security, in their chapel in that fortress, since
it appears among the other regalia found in the treasury
of the castlo in 1291, in which year it was surrendered
to Edward I., with all the other emblems of Scottish na-
tionahty, but was restored, according to the stipulations
of the treaty of Northampton, in 1328. Under the name
of " The black rude," this relic was for ages regarded as
the palladium of Scotland and her kings, f Unfortunately,
however, David II. carried it with him to the fatal field
of Neville's Cross, where, on the 17th of October 1346, it
fell into the hands of the conquerors, and for centuries
thereafter was exhibited as an object of superstitious
veneration, in the " Sowth Alley" of the cathedral church
of Durham. To the Scottish people it must, indeed, have
seemed a terrible corroboration of the awful potency of
the Cross of St Margaret that, on the very day when it
passed from the hands of her youthful descendant, he
himself, and the flower of his nobility, either perished on
the field, or became the captives of the English.

According to the chronicles of Melrose and Holyrood,
the Abbey was founded in the year 1128; but the writ
which is commonly styled the Foundation Charter bears

* Holingshcd. Hist. Scot., p. 177.

t St. Cutlibert would appear to have taken the field on this
occasion against St. Margaret, for the Mimiments of Durham
state that the battle waa won by John Fosser, the prior, taking the
"h'jly corporax cloth" wherewith St. Cuthbert covered the chalice
when he said mass, putting it in a banner cloth on a spear, and
repairing, with this sacred standard unfurled, to the acene of
action. Lib* Caxt. S. Crucis pref., p. xxvii.

8 HISTORY OF nOLYROOD.

date somewhere between 1143 and 1147. It is highly
probable that some earlier grant to the Monastery, which
was afterwards superseded, has been lost ; and this sup-
position is corroborated by the fact, that in the existing
charter the Abbey is spoken of as being already founded.
Before proceeding further, it may be expedient to pre-
sent to the reader a literal translation of this curious and
important document.

" In the name of our Lord Jesus Clirist, and in honor
of the Holy Eood, the blessed Virgin Mary and All Saints,
I, David, by the grace of God, King of the Scots, by my
royal authority, with the consent of Henry, my son, and
the bishops of my kingdom, with the confirmation and
attestation also of the Earls and Barons, the clergy, more-
over, and the people assenting, by divine guidance grant
and confirm in peaceable possession to the Church of the
Holy Rood of Edwinesburg [Edinburgh] as follows — that
is to say, I grant to the church foresaid, and to the
Canons Regular serving God in the same, in free and
perpetual alms, the Church of the Castle, with the appur-
tenances and rights thereof; trial by duel, water, and
fire ordeal, so far as pertains to ecclesiastical dignity ;
with Salectuna [Saughton] and its legal bounds ; and the
Church of St. Cuthbert and the parish and all things per-
taining to the said church, and with the kirktown and
its bounds, and the land on which the church stands;
and with the other land lying under the castle, namely
from the spring which rises near the comer of my garden,
by the way which leads to the Church of St. Cuthbert,
and on the other side, under the castle, as far as a crag
beneath the said castle towards the east; with two
chapels which belong to the said Church of St. Cuthbert,
namely Crostorphin, with two oxgangs and six acres of

FOUNDATION OP THE ABBEY. 9

land, and the Chapel of Libbertune with two oxgangs of
land, and with all the tithes and rights both of the living
and the dead of Legbernard, which Macbetber gave to
the said church and I have confirmed ; the Church of
Hereth [Airth] with the land which pertains to the said
church, and with all the land which I have added and
granted to it, as my ofBcers and good men have per-
ambulated and delivered the same to Alwin the abbot,
with a saltpan in Hereth and twenty-six acres of land,
which church and land before named I will that the
Canons of the Holy Rood shall hold and possess freely and
peaceably for ever, and I strictly prohibit any one from
unjustly oppressing or disturbing the Canons or their men
[homines] who dwell on the said lands, or unjustly ex-
acting from them any works, or aids, or secular customs,
I will also that the said Canons shall have Hberty to erect
a mill on the said land, and that they shall have all the
customs and rights and easements in Hereth — namely, in
waters, in fishings, in meadows, in pastures, and in all things
necessary, as amply as when they wore in my own posses-
sion ; and Broctuna [Broughton] with its legal bounds, and
Inverlet, which is near the harbour, with its legal bounds,
and the harbour itself and half of the fishing, and with the
whole tithe of all the fishing which pertains to the church
of St. Cuthbert; and Petendreia [Pittendrich], with its
legal bounds, and Hamere [Whitekirk], and Fordam, with
their bounds, and the Hospital, with a ploughgate of land;
and an annuity of forty shillings from my burgh of Ed wines-
burg, and an annual rent of one hundred shillings for the
apparel of the Canons out of my kain of Pert [Perth],
from the first merchant ships that come to Pert ; and, if
by chance such should not come, I grant to the said church,
out of my revenue of Edwinesbuig, forty shillings; and of

10 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

Striueline [Stirling] twenty shillings, and of Pert forty
shillings, and a toft in Striueline and the draught of a
fishing net, and a toft in my burgh of Edwineshurg free
and quit of all custom and exaction, and a toft in Berewic,
and the draught of two nets in Scypwel, and a toft in
Reinfry [Renfrew] of five roods, and the draught of a net
for salmon, and liberty to fish there for herring ; and I
prohibit any one from exacting any customs from you or
your men ; I grant also to the foresaid Canons from my
owTi Chamber ten pounds annually for lighting and re-
pairing the church in perpetuity ; I command also all my
servitors and foresters of Striuelinshire and Clacmanant
to give the abbot and convent full liberty to take out of
all my woods and forests as much wood as they please
and desire for the building of their church and houses and
other purposes ; and I command that their men who take
wood from the said forests for their use shall have my
firm peace, and that they shall not be in any way dis-
turbed ; and I grant also that the lordship swine [porcos
dominios] of the said church feeding in my woods, shall
be free of pannage. * I also grant to the said Canons one-
half of the tallow, lard, and hides of the beasts slaughtered
in Edwinesburg, and the tithe of all whales and marine
animals due to me from the Avin, as far as Colbrandespade
[Cockbumspath], and the tithe of all my pleas and profits
from the Avin to Colbrandespade, and the half of the tithe
of my kain, and of my pleas and profits of Kentyr and
Errogeil [Argyle] ; and the skins of all the rams, sheep,
and lambs of my lordship of the castle, and of Linlitcu
[Linlithgow], which die naturally, and eight chaiders of
malt, and eight of meal, and thirty cartloads of the brush-
wood of Libbertune, and one of my mills of Dene, and the
* Dues levied on swine feeding in the royal woods.

FOUNDATION OP THE ABBEY. 11

tenths of my mill of Libbertune and of Dene, and of the
new mill of Edwinesburg, and Craggenmarf, as much as
is in my lordship, and as much of the said crag as Vineth
Wliite gave to them in free gift. I moreover grant liberty
to them to found a burgh between the said church and
my burgh, and that their burgesses have liberty to sell
and buy in my market freely and without blame or dues,
like my own burgesses ; and I prohibit any one in my
burgh from taking by force, or without consent of the
burgesses, their bread, ale, cloth, or other vendible com-
modity. I also grant that the Canons be free of all toll
and custom in all my burghs and in all my lands for every-
thing they buy and sell ; and I prohibit every one from
executing a poinding on the lands of the Holy Rood,
except the Abbot of that place shall have refused to do
right and justice. I will likewise that they hold all the
before-written subjects as freely and quietly as I possess
my own lands, and I will that the Abbot shall hold his
court as freely, and with as ample powers, as the Bishop
of St. Andrews, the Abbot of Dunfermlin, and the Abbot
of Kelcou [Kelso], hold their courts. Before these wit-
nesses, Robert, Bishop of St. Andrews ; John, Bishop of
Glasgow ; Henry, my son ; William, my nephew ; Edward
the chancellor; Herbert the chamberlain; Gillemichael
the Earl ; Gospatric, brother of Dolphin ; Robert de Mon-
tacute ; Robert de Bumeuile ; Peter de Brus ; Norman the
sheriff; Oggu; Leising; Gillise; William de Graham;
Turstan de Crectune ; Blein the archdeacon ; ^Ifric the
chaplain; Waleran the chaplain."*

Fordun styles the Abbey " The Monastery of the Crag
of the Holy Rood," and Joannes Hagustaldensis, the con-
tinuator of Simeon of Durham, calls it simply the " Monas-
* Translated from the original in the Lib, Cart. Sancte Cruc. p. 3.

1 2 inSTORY OF HOLYROOD.

tery of the Crag." David appears, in the first instance,
to liave located his Canons, whom he brought from tho
Augustinian monastery of St. Andrews, upon, or at the
base of, the Castle rock of Edinburgh,* and it is difficult
to determine the precise period when they settled on the
meadow below Arthur Seat. We have already stated
that the terms of the charter of 1143-7 would seem to
imply that they were by that time established in their
own house ; but Father Hay, Canon of St. Genevieve at
Paris, in the reign of James VIL, who made an attempt
to ascertain the early history of the Abbey, confines them
to the rock till the reign of William the Lion, and, in con-
firmation of this, speaks of the numerous charters of
]\Ialcolm IV., which are dated " At the Monastery of tho
Holy Eude in the Castle of Maidens."

David n. in 1343 presented to the Abbot and Convent
the chaplainry of his own chapel, f constituting the Abbot
his principal chaplain, with liberty to substitute one of tlie
Canons in his room, who should enjoy all the dues and
oblations pertaining to the said royal chapel — a grant
which was confirmed by Robert IH. and other kings.
David n. also erected the whole lands in the possession
of the Abbey into a free regality; and his successor
Robert H. granted to the Canons a site for a house on tho
Castle rock, to which they and their dependents might
betake themselves in time of peril. |

Many important grants were conferred upon the Abbey
besides those contained in the charter of its founder.
Robert, Bishop of St. Andrews, granted the Church of
Karreden, with two ploughgates of land ; Turstan, the son
of Leving, granted or confirmed to the Church of the Holy

• Vide Note A. f Lib. Cart. Sanct Crucis, p. 90. J Ibid. p. 99.

FOUNDATION OP THE ABBEY. 1 3

Rood of the Castle of Maidens and its Canons the Church
of Levingstone [ecclesia de Villa Leving] ; Thor, the sod
of Swanus, bestowed on them all right he had in the
Church of Trevement [Tranent], its lands, pastures, and
tithes. Willelmus de Veteri Ponte bestowed the whole
land of Ogelfas [Ogilface]. At a very early period the
monks of Holyrood obtained the Church of Kinnel, with
a ploughgate of land, by the gift of Herbert, the chamber-
lain of Scotland; and the Church of Paxtun, and the
Church of Bathchet [Bathgate], with a ploughgate of land
pertaining to it ; but this latter church they afterwards
made over to the monks of Neubotle in exchange for cer-
tain lands in the Carse of Falkirk.

In the twelfth century, Fergus, Lord of Galloway, who
afterwards became a monk of Holyrood, and his son,
Uchtred, were munificent benefactors of the Abbey. They
presented to it, among other valuable grants, the Church
of St. Mary and St. Bruok of Dunroden, in later t>es an-
nexed to the parish of Erkcudbright ; the island of Trahil
[now St. Mary's Isle,] on which was erected the Priory
of St. Mary of Ti'ail, a cell of Holyrood; the Church of
Galtweid ; the Church of St. Bridget of Blakhet, elsewhere
styled Lochblacket,* [Kirkbride ?] the Church of St. Cuth-
bert of Desnesmor [the present Kirkcudbright] ; the Church
of Tuncgeland ; the Church of Twenhame ; the Church of
St. Constantino of Colmanele, alias Kircostintyn, with the
Chapel of St. Constantino of Egingham ; the Church of
St. Andrew or Kirkandrew Balemakethe [Balmaghie] ;
tlie Church of Keletun, alias Locheletun, and the Church
of K}Tkecormac, with the Chapel of Balnecros. The
four last mentioned churches or chapels had previously

♦ Eegist. Episcopat Glasguen. p. 122,

14 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

belonged to the monks of lona.* David, the son of Terr,
contributed to the House the Church of Anewith [Amvoth]
with the Chapel of Culenes. The Church of Eglysbryth
[Falkirk] was an early acquisition, as also the Church of
Mount Lothian, a parish annexed to Penycuik ; the Church
of Melginche, with the land called Abthen ; the Chapel
of Penteland ; the Church of Boulton [a gift of the family
of De Veteriponte or Vipont ;] the Church of Eistir Kyn-
gorne ; the Church of Ur ; the Church of St. Constantino
of Crawfurd, with the Chapel of the Castle ; the Church
of Baru [Barra united to Garvald,] and the Church of St.
Michael of Dalgarenoc. In the ancient taxation of the
ecclesiastical benefices in the Archdeaconry of Lothian,
found in the Treasury of Durham, and written in the
reign of Edward I., there appears among the churches
belonging to Holyrood, "Ecclesia Sanctas Marise in
Campis."f This was, doubtless, what was at a later
period the Collegiate Church of St. Mary-in-the-Fields,
on the site of which the College now stands, and which,
under the popular name of " Kirk-of-Field, '' was destined
to be so tragically associated with the history of some
future occupants of Holyrood. When erected into a
collegiate church, certain rights appear to have been
reserved to the Canons to whom it originally belonged,
for in 1546, we find Robert, commendator of Holyrood,
presenting George Ker to a prebend in it, " according to
the force and form of the foundation."

In 1570, as appears from the articles presented in that
year, in the General Assembly, against Adam Bothwcll,
Bishop of Orkney, then in possession of the revenues of

* Lib. Cart. Sanct. Crucis, p. 4L
+ Priory of Coldingham (Surtees Volume) Append. cxiL

FOUNDATION OF THE ABBEY. 15

the Abbey, twenty-seven churclies still belonged to the
great Monastery of St. David.

The cells or priories dependent on the Abbey wero
St. Mary's Isle, in Galloway, whose prior was a lord of
Parliament — Blantyre in Clydesdale, which must have
existed before 1296, since "Frere William, priour de
Blauntyr," swore allegiance to Edward I. in that year — *
RowadiU, in the Isle of Herries, said by Spottiswood to
have been founded by one of the M'Leods of Harries —
Colunsay, planted, according to the same authority, by
the Lord of the Isles, with canons from Hol3TOod — and
Crusay and Oransay, beheved to have been originally two
of those Island lamps, lit by the hand of St. Columba, to
shed a holy light across the Western waters.

In the Abbey Church there were various chapels and
altars dedicated to different saints. The Lady Chapel
was, as usual, in the choir at the back of the high altar ;f
and we read of another called " The Abbot's Chapel," to
which two silver candelabra belonged. J There was an
altar dedicated to the Holy Cross, § which is specially dis-
tinguished from the High Altar, and another called " the
Parish Altar." |{ " In the southern chapel adjoining to the
High Altar" % were those of St. Andrew and St. Catherine,
founded by George Creichton, Bishop of Dunkeld, who by

* Eagman Rolls, p. 1G6.

t Father Hay. Lib. Cart. Sahct. Crucis, p. xxiv. In the Re-
cords of the Burgh of the Canongate in 15G8, however, we read
of "Our Ladye altar, sumtyme situat within the Abbey Kirk
of Halierudhous within the Perroche lie therof, to which the ' Ladie
land' belonged." Miscellany of Maitland Club, vol. ii. p. 318.

J BannatjTie Miscellany, vol. ii. p. 24. This may have been
attached to the abbot's house beyond the cloister.

§ Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. ii. p. 24. || Thlci

% Original charter as given in Maitland's EEist. p. 154.

1 6 HISTORY OF nOLYROOD.

the same deed erected an almshouse — that of St. Tliomas,
near the Watergate, for the reception of seven poor men,
who were to be under the control of the chaplains of the
said two altars, and who upon Sundays and festivals were
to put on " their red gowns, and, at High Mass, sit before
the altar of the chapel in the said conventual church, and
there say fifty Ave Marias, five Pater Nosters, and one
Credo." Before 1387 there was an altar dedicated to
St. Stephen, "on the north side of the Parish altar."*
There was also an altar dedicated to St. Anne by the
tailors of Edinburgh, and another to Saints Crispin and
Crispinian by the cordwainers or shoemakers of the city.
We are told, but upon very doubtful authority, that
these altars were erected by the trades on the return of
ceitain of their members, who had performed prodigies of
valour in the Holy Land, where, we are informed, the
famous " Blue Blanket," the standard of the bold crafts-
men of Edinburgh, had waved, conspicuous in the van of
battle, before being suspended over the altar of St. Eloi
in the Church of St. Giles.

As to the revenues of this noble Abbey, all that our
space will permit us to state is, that in the taxation of
ecclesiastical benefices, of Edward the First's time, before
alluded to, it is rated at £775: 14: 5i;t and that its
revenue at the Reformation amounted, in victual, to 26
chalders 10 bolls of wheat, 40 chalders 9 bolls of bear, 34
chalders 15 bolls 3 firlots 3^ pecks of oats, and 4 chal-
ders of meal, while the revenue in money payments was
£2926 : 8 : 6. Considering the vast possessions of the
monastery in land and tithes, the latter valuation seems
to be singularly small.

* Indenture in the City Archives,
t Priory of Coldingham. Append., p. cxi.

CEAPTEE XL

THE ABBOTS OF HOLYROOD, AND EARLY
HISTORY OF THE ABBEY.

)HE first Abbot of Hol}TOod was the founder's
confessor Alwm, who resigned the Abbey in
i^ 1150, and is said to have died in 1155. He was
succeeded by Osbert, whose death occurred in the year of
his promotion, but his name is not in the list of abbots in
the old Ritual Book. William was Abbot in 1152, and is
a frequent ^vitness to charters during the reigns of Malcolm
IV. and William the Lion. He surrounded the Abbey with
a strong wall of squared stone to secure it against predatory
assaults.* During Abbot William's rule, Fergus, then
Lord of Galloway, became a Canon of the Abbey, and both
he and his son Uchtred were benefactors of the House.
The successor of William was Robert, who lived also in the
reign of WilHam the Lion ; and this Abbot granted to the
inliabitants of the newly projected burgh of the Canon-
gate various privileges, which were confirmed with ad-
ditional benefactions, by David H., Robert HI., James H.,
and James IH. Those sovereigns granted to the bailies
and community under the Abbots the annuities payable
by the burgh, and also the common muir between the

• Father Hay. Lib. Cart. Sanct. Cruc. pref. ZJC*
B

18 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

lands of Brougliton on the west and the lands of Pilrig
on the east, on the north side of the road from Edin-
burgh to Leith.

The fifth Abbot of Holyrood was John, who presided
over the monastery in 1173. A.D. 1180, Alexius, a
Bub-deacon of the Romish Church, held a council in the
Church of the Holy Cross, near Edinburgh. The princi-
pal business of this council was the long disputed con-
secration of John Scott, Bishop of St. Andrews.* In
1189, the first year of the reign of Bichard I. of England,
an assembly of the Scottish Bishops, rectors of churches,
nobility, and barons, was held in the monastery of Holy-
rood. Bichard, who had invited William the Lion to his
court at Canterbury, had recognised the complete in-
dependence of Scotland, fixed the boundaries of the two
kingdoms as they were before the captivity of the Scottish
l^ng, and granted him full possession of all his fees in the
earldom of Huntingdon and elsewhere on the same con-
ditions as formerly. It was agreed in this national con-
vention that William the Lion was to pay 10,000 merks
for this restitution — a sum supposed to be equivalent to
L. 100,000 sterling of the present day. Father Hay,
however, states that the stipulated sum was only 5000
merks. f

The successor of John, as Abbot of Holyrood, was
William, and during his time, in 1206, John, Bishop of
Galloway, relinquished his episcopal function, and became
one of the Canons. He was interred in the chapter house,
and a stone recording his name and dignity was placed
over his grave. The next abbot was Walter, Prior of
Incbcolm, who was appointed in 1210, and died in 1217.

* Lord Hailes. Edit. 1819, vol. iii. p. 229.
f Liber Cartarum Sancte Crucis, Preface, p. xxiL

THE ABBOTS OP HOLYROOD. 19

He was a man distinguished both for learning and piety.
His successor was William, whose retirement is alone
recorded. He was succeeded by another "William, who,
in 1227, on account of old age, resigned the Abbacy and
retired to the island of Inchkeith, resolving to lead the
life of a hermit ; but after a residence of nine weeks he
returned to the monastery as a private monk. The next
Abbot was Hellas, or Elias, described as the son of
Nicolas a priest — pleasant, devout, and affable, and who,
according to Father Hay, was interred in St. Mary's
Chapel, behind the great altar. He drained the marshes
in the vicinity of the monastery, by which the locality was
rendered more salubrious, and surrounded the cemetery
with a brick wall. Helias was succeeded by Henry, who
was nominated Bishop of Galloway in 1253, though he was
not consecrated till 1255. Ealf, or Eadulph, was appointed
Abbot on the removal of Henry to the see of Galloway.
On the 14th of January 1255, in the reign of Alexander
IH., an assembly was held at HoljTOod, in which the
King, with advice of his magnates, settled a dispute be-
tween David de Leuchars, Sherifif of Perth, and the Abbey
of DunfermHne.*

Towards the close of the thu-teenth century, when
the wars of the succession spread terror and confusion
over the whole land, the Abbot of Holyrood was Adam,
an adherent of the English party. He did homage to
Edward I. on the 8th of July 1291, and was one of the
commissioners appointed by the English King in his letter
to Eadulphus Basset de Drayton, Governor of Edinburgh
Castle, for examuiing the Scottish records preserved in
that fortress. In August 1296 he again did homage to
Edward I., and it was apparently in his favour that the
• Acts of lUe Parhament of Scotland. Fol. 1844^ vol. L p. 61,

20 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

English monarch granted an order for the restoration of
the abbey lands on the 2d of September following.

The successor of Abbot Adam was another Helias,
or Ehas, who is mentioned in a transaction connected
with William Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrews, and
Gervase, Abbot of Newbattle, in 1316. Six years after-
wards the Abbey of Holyrood, in common with those of
Melrose and Dryburgh, was dilapidated and plundered
by the army of Edward IE., who had advanced to the
vicinity of Edinburgh without opposition, anticipating the
easy conquest of a kingdom, from which famine compelled
him to retreat with dishonour.

The Abbot in 1326 was Symon, supposed to have
been Symon de Wedale. On the 8th of March that year
King Kobert Bruce, who had then gloriously achieved
tWguoii'ependence of Scotland, held a Parliament in the
*iing, a, in which was ratified a concord between Eandolph,
earld of Moray, afterwards Regent, and Sir William Oli-
ditioit, in connexion w>^ the forfeiture of the lands of
William de Monte Alto, and it is probable that the Par-
liaments of the 28th of February and the 17th of March
1327 assembled also in the Abbey. A Parhament was held
at Holyrood on the 10th of February 1333-4, when
Edward BaUol rendered homage to King Edward HI.
of England as Superior Lord of Scotland. On the 12th
the kingdom was dismembered, and the national liberties
surrendered, by the ratification of a treaty between Bahol
and Edward, by which the former became bound to serve
with his forces in the English wars.

The successor of Abbot Symon was John, whoso
name occurs as a witness to three charters in 1338 ; and
Bartholomew was Abbot in 1342.

Abbot Bartholomew was succeeded by Thomas, who

THE ABBOTS OF HOLYROOD. 21

was Abbot in 1347. On the 8th of May 1366, a council
was held at llolyrood, in which the Scottish nobles indig-
nantly disclaimed all the pretensions of the English King
to the sovereignty of Scotland, and sanctioned an assess-
ment for the annual payments of the ransom of David II.
Nothing important occurs in the history of the Monastery
till 1371, when David II. died in the Castle of Edinburgli,
and was buried near the high altar in the Abbey Church.
In 1372 Edward III. granted a safe conduct to certain
persons who went from Scotland to Flanders to provide a
stone for the tomb of David II.* John was Abbot in
1372. John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster, the fourth
8on of Edward III. by Lady Blanch, younger daughter
and heiress of Henry Plantagenet, Duke of Lancaster,
grandson of Edmund, second son of Henry IH., was
hospitably entertained in Holyrood in 1381, when cora^
pelled to flee from his enemies in England. The nex^, ^
Abbot was David. The Abbey was bunio-Hch opens into
Richard 11. when he invaded Scotland, and
at Restalrig ; but it appears to have been soon Abbey ; and
and inhabited. Henry IV. spared the Monas'^rgaret of
1400, on account of the kindness of the Abbo. he him-
Canons to John of Gaunt, his father, declaring thai .
would allow no violence to be inflicted on an ediiicught
which his feelings as a son enjoined him to respect, 4,
Dean John of Leith was Abbot in 1386, and he must
have been in possession a number of years, as he was a
party to the indenture of the lease of the Canonmills to
the burgh of Edinburgh on the 12th of September 1423.
In 1429, a singular spectacle was witnessed in the Abbey
Church of Holyrood. Alexander, Earl of Ross and Lord

• Rymer's Feed, vi 721.

22 mSTORY OF HOLYROOD.

of the Isles, who had enraged James I. by ravaging the
crown lands near Inverness, and burning that town, and
whom the King had issued stringent orders to appre-
hend, suddenly appeared in the church, on the eve of a
Bolemn festival, in presence of the King, Queen, and
Court. He was dressed only in his shirt and drawers ;
and holding a naked sword by the point in his hand, ho
fell on his knees and implored the royal clemency. His
life was spared, and he was committed prisoner to Tan-
tallon Castle, under the charge of the Earl of Angus.

On 16th October 1430 the Queen of James I. was
delivered of twin princes in the Abbey, the elder of
whom, Alexander, died in infancy. The younger was
James, who succeeded his father.

Patrick was Abbot of Holyrood in September 1435.

On the 25th of March 1436-7, James IE., who had been

Ju.:'^ in the Abbey, and was then little more than six

earld of Mora7a£ conveyed from Edinburgh Castle to tlie

ditioit, in c Holyrood, and crowned with great magnifi-

William d Another high ceremony was performed in the

liamentslace in July 1449, when Mary, daughter of the

1327 a^of Gueldres, and Queen of James H., was crowned.

at Te Queen was attended by the Lord de Vere of Holland,

EfVho was appointed by Philip the Good of Burgundy to

conduct his kinswoman to Scotland ; and when she landed

at Leith she was received by many of the nobility, and

by a large concourse of all ranks, who seemed almost

barbarians to the polished Burgundians. The Queen,

mounted on horseback behind the Lord de Vere, rode to

Edinburgh, and was lodged in the Convent of the Grey

Friars. In the course of a week after her arrival, her

nuptials and coronation were celebrated in the Abbey

Church, with all the pomp and ceremony which the rude

THE ABBOTS OF HOLYROOt). 23

taste and circumscribed means of the country would per-
mit.

On the 26th of April 1450, the Abbot of Holyrood
was James, of whom nothing is known. Ten years
afterwards the body of James II., who was killed by the
bursting of one of the rudely constructed cannon of tho
time, at the siege of Koxburgh Castle; was interred within
the precincts of the Abbey. Two or three years before
this event, Archibald Crawfurd, son of Sir William Craw-
furd of Haining, and who had been Prior of Holyrood,
succeeded to the Abbacy. He was a distinguished diplo-
matist, and was employed in many important negociations
between the sovereigns of England and Scotland. In
1474, he was appointed Lord High Treasurer; and died
in 1483. About 1460 Abbot Crawfurd repaired the
fabric of the Abbey Church, adding to it the buttresses
on the walls of the north and south aisles, and, in all pro-
bability also, building the rich doorway which opens into
the northern aisle.

James HI. passed much of his time at the A.bbey ; and
on the 13th July 1469, his nuptials with Mrgaret of
Denmark were celebrated in the Abbey Church, he him-
self " being of the aige of twcntie ycires
and the gentle voman being bot twelfF." Margaret brought
with her as her dowry the Islands of Orkney and Shetland,
which had formerly pertained to the Danish Crown.

The successor of Crawfurd was Robert BcUenden, an
ecclesiastic distinguished by his humanity to the poor, and
his Hberality to the Abbey. Among his munificent gifts
were the " great bells," the " great brass font," * and a
chalice of fine gold, — and he covered the church with lead.

* This is probably the font, which Sir Richard Lea, captain of
pioneers in the Hertford invasion, carried off " in the tumult of

24 mSTOKY OF HOLYROOD.

In his time, probably, the Abbey Church was the scene
of a high ceremonial, when the Papal Legate and the
Abbot of Dunfermline, amid a crowd of Scottish nobles,
in name of Pope Julius II., presented King James IV.
with a purple crown ornamented with golden flowers, and
a sword, of which the hilt and sheath were rich with gold
and precious stones, and wliich, under the name of the
" Sword of State," is still preserved among the Regalia of
Scotland in the Castle of Edinburgh.

In 1515 George Crichtoun was Abbot, and continued
60 till 1522, when he was made Bishop of Dunkeld.
William Douglas, Prior of Coldingham, succeeded ; and on
his death, in 1528, Robert Caimcross, Provost of the Col-
legiate Church of Corstorphin, and chaplain to King James,
was selected for the office. He was the last ecclesiastic
of the ancient hierarchy who held the abbacy of Holy-
rood, being the twenty-eighth in succession from Alwin,
the confessor of David I. He vacated the office in 1538 or
1539, when postulated to the see of Ross, and Robert, the
natural son of James V. by Eupham Elphinstone, obtained
a grant of the Abbey, while still an infant. He embraced
the tenets of the Reformed Church in 1559, and subse-
quently exchanged the commendatorship of Holyrood for
the temporalities of the Bishopric of Orkney.

the conflagration," and which he presented to the Church of St.
Albans, with the magniloquent inscription engraved on it, wliich
Camden has preserved. The Scottish font is made most unpatriot-
ically to say [luckily in Latin] — " In gratitude to hira for hia
kindness, I, who hitherto served only at the baptism of the chil-
dren of kings, do now most willingly offer the same service even
to the meanest of the English nation. Lea, the Conqueror, hath
to commanded." This font was afterwards conquered by the
Roundheads, and sold as old metaL

CHAPTER III.

MARRIAGE OF JAMES IV. WITH MARGARET
OF ENGLAND.

r^r|rra)HE chivalrous but ill-fated James the Fourth ^as
^ilF^ the first of our kings who built a palace adjacent
^^^^ to the Abbey of Holyrood. No sooner was the
royal dwelling fit for habitation, than the bride of its
founder stepped across the thresliold — that English Prin-
cess from w^hom were to descend the sovereigns of the
great British empire. On the 7th of August 1503, ]\Iar-
garet, with her train of English nobles, entered the me-
tropolis of her adopted country, and was received with
the respect due to the daughter of Henry VII. The
" Fyancells" of tlie Princess in the royal manor of Rich-
mond on St. Paul's Day, the 25th of January 1502, her
departure from England, her journey into Scotland, her
reception and marriage, are narrated with the garrulous
minuteness of his profession, by John Younge, Somerset
Herald, who attended her during her progress. The Prin-
cess began her journey northwards on the 27th of June
1503, and travelled by easy stages, chiefly on horseback,
though she had a "rych lytere borne by two faire
coursers varey nobly drest," and also a char or coach for
her use. On her approach to the Scottish Border she was
escorted and entertained with the respect due to her

^6 HISTORY OF HOLYKOOD.

exalted rank. She was met at Lamberton cliurcli, near
tlie English Border, by the Scottish nobility, " a thousand
persons in company," five hundred of whom were on
horseback. Her stages in Scotland were Fast Castle,
Haddington, and Dalkeith, the Earl of Morton's Castle,
where James IV. first met her, accompanied by " a train
of lords to the number of sixty horses." The King re-
turned to Edinburgh that evening, and the Princess re-
mained four days, partly in the Castle of Dalkeith, and
partly in the adjoining Abbey of Newbattle, where she
was daily visited by her royal bridegroom. On the morn-
ing of the 7th of August, the Princess set out for Edin-
burgh in her litter, and the King met her half-way, splen-
didly arrayed, *' upon a bay horse, renn}Tige as he wolde
renne after the hajTe," and followed by Archbishop
Blackadder of Glasgow, Bishop Foreman of Moray, and
a numerous cavalcade. Finding that his own courser
would not carry double, the King dismounted and
leaped gallantly into the saddle of the palfrey of the
Princess, placing her close behind him, and in this man-
ner they entered Edinburgh, amid rejoicings and fan-
tastic pageants ; a fountain of wine, which was free to
all, playing at the Cross, and the windows of the houses
being gorgeously ornamented with tapestry. The alle-
gorical figui'es displayed were " Paris and the three
Deessys" or goddesses, which were oddly blended with
the Salutation of the Angel Gabriel to the Virgin, and the
four Virtues. When the King and his bride passed St.
Giles's church, the provost and prebendaries appeared in
their vestments, and presented the reputed arm of the
tutelary saint of the city, which the King kissed, and then
began to sing Te Deum Laudamus. Before arriving at
this locality the King had to encounter the Grey Friara at

MARRIAGE OF JAMES IV. 27

the foot of the West Bow, who issued from their monas-
tery also armed with rehcs.

The royal pair proceeded through the city on horse-
back to the Church of Holyrood, and the proceedings
when they entered within its walls are duly chronicled by
the loyal Somerset Herald. They were met at the church
by the Archbishop of St. Andrews,* attended by the
Bishop of Aberdeen, Lord Privy Seal,t the Bishops of
Orkney, Caithness, Eoss, Dunblane, and Dunl^eld, a num-
ber of abbots in their pontificals, and the Abbot and
Canons of Holyrood in gorgeous vestments, preceded by
their cross.

The whole cavalcade dismounted, and entered the
Abbey Church in procession. The King took the hand
of the Princess, and after an humble reverence led her to
the high altar, where two cushions covered with cloth of
gold were placed, and the King and his bride knelt
together, while Te Deum was sung by the choir. Having
performed their devotions, the King in a most loving
manner conducted the Princess out of the church " through
the cloister" to her apartments in the adjoining Palace.
After a brief space the Princess was brought by the King
into the great hall, where she was introduced to a nume-
rous company of Scottish ladies of rank, each of whom
she kissed, the Bishop of Moray attending her and telling
her their names ; after which ceremony the Kmg again
saluted her, and with low courtesy, and uncovered, he
conducted her to her apartments. He supped in his
private chamber with the Archbishop of York, the Bishop

* James, Duke of Rosa, brother of the King, who died thi«
same year.

t The aiustrious WUUam Elphinestone, founder of King's

28 HISTORY OF HOLYEOOD.

of Durham, the Earl of Surrey [lie who afterwards mot
liim on the fatal field of Flodden] and other attendants of
the Princess. The King then retired, after Lidding tho
Princess " jo3^ously good night."

On the 8th the royal nuptials were celebrated at
Hol}TOod. Between eight and nine in the morning, tho
nobility, convened on the occasion, were arrayed in
rich apparel, and duly prepared for the important cere-
monial. The precincts of Holyrood were crowded with
spectators, who displayed the utmost animation and
excitement. The Bishop of Moray waited on the Arch-
bishop of York and the Bishop of Durham. Tlie Earl
of Surrey, Lords Grey, Latimer, Dacres, and Scroope,
Sir Kichard Poole, Ivnight of the Garter, Sir Davis
Owen, Sir William Conyers, Sir Thomas D'Arcy, Sir
John Huse, and other noblemen and knights, appeared
in splendid dresses, wearing their collars and chains of
gold, and were presented by the Bishop of Moray to the
King, who received them, standing, in his great chamber.
After the usual salutations, the King ordered them to bo
seated, and to cover their heads, placing the Archbishop
of York on his right hand, and the Earl of Surrey on his
left. The King himself occupied a chair of crimson
velvet, the panels of which were gilt, under a superb
cloth of estate, of blue velvet figured with gold. Dr.
Raulins delivered an oration, which was briefly answered
by Dr. Muirhead, Dean of Glasgow, the King's Secretary;
and at the conclusion every person present rendered
homage or reverence to the King, who then withdrew to his
OAvn apartments in the Palace. The Archbishop of St.
Andrews and the Bishop of Aberdeen then conducted the
ladies, noblemen, and knights to the bride's chambers ;
and soon afterwards the Princess entered the Abbey

MARRIAGE OF JAME3 tV. 29

Churcli in bridal array, wearing a golden crown set with
pearls and other jewels of great price, siii)ported on the
right by the Archbishop of York, and on the left by the
Earl of Surrey, her train borne by the Countess of Surrey
assisted by a gentleman-usher, and attended by numerous
ladies.

The Princess was placed near the font, her attend-
ants occupying the north side of the church ; and the
Archbishop of Glasgow, accompanied by other prelates
and ecclesiastical dignitaries, stationed himself at the
high altar. The King next appeared, with the Officers of
State, and a large assemblage of nobility. Lord Hamilton
carrying the sword. The Archbishop of York read the
papal bulls, and the marriage ceremony was performed by
the Archbishop of Glasgow. The King then led tlie
Queen to the high altar, and divine service was performed
with all the pomp of the Roman ritual. At the reading
of the Gospel the royal pair made their offering, the Queen
was anointed, and the sceptre was placed in her hand by
the I^ng. The hymn Te Deum was then sung, and
during the celebration of mass, the cloth of estate was
held over the now wedded pair by two of the Bishops.

A banquet was given in the Palace, at which the
Queen was first served, and the Archbishop of Glasgow
had the honour of an invitation to her table. A " lar-
gesse" was then proclaimed three times by Marchmont
Herald in the King's chamber, the great hall, and the hall
of audience, " in name of the high and mighty Princess
Margaret, by the grace of God Queen of Scotland, and first
daughter engendered of the very high and mighty Prince
Henry VII., by that self-same grace King of England."
Some details follow of the internal decorations and furni-
ture of Holyrood, and of the amusements of the marriage

30 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

party, such as games, dances, and the musical efforts of
" Johannes and his company," after which the King went
to vespers in the Abbey Church attended both by the
Scottish and English nobility, the Queen remaining in the
Palace. This was succeeded by a supper, which con-
cluded the festivities of the day, while the citizens of
Edinburgh evinced their loyalty by numerous bonfires and
other demonstrations. In the evening, probably, the King's
person had been the object of the ceremonial indicated by
an entry of the following day's date, in the Treasurer's
accounts, of £330 paid " for xv. elne claith of gold to the
Comites (countess) of Surry, of Ingland, quhen scho and
her dochter Lady Gray clippit the Kingis berde, ilk elne
xxii. Kb."

On the 9th a numerous assemblage of ladies, noblemen,
and knights, convened at Holyrood. At ten in the morn-
ing the King went to mass in the Abbey Church in pro-
cession. The subsequent amusements of this day are not
recorded, "with the exception that the royal dinner was
" brought and served in silver vessels by the officers and
personages in such manner as the day before." " After
dinner a young man, an Italian," continues the worthy
Somerset Herald, " played before the King on a cord very
well." The ladies were at the windows towards the
Queen's quarters, and after the game was done they began
to dance. " Touching the Queen, I say nothing, for that
same day I saw her not, but I understand she was in
good health and mere [more]." A supper followed, the
profusion of which was by no means in accordance with a
day enjoined by the church to be observed in abstinence.

On the 10th, which was St. Laurence's Day, the King,
in compliment to the Queen, created forty-one knights,
and after the ceremony he presented them to his consort,

MARRIAGE OF JAMES IV. 31

saying — "Lady, these are your knights." After dinner
a tilting match was held in the conrt-yard of the Palace,
which the King witnessed from the richly decorated
windows, and the Queen and her ladies were also spec-
tators. The challengers were Lords Kilmaurs and Crei-
toun, assisted by Sir Alexander Seton, the Master of
Montgomery, Sir Patrick Hamilton, and Sir John of Crey-
toun. Their opponents were Lords Hamilton and Ross,
the former the King's cousin, attended by Sir David
Home, William Cockburn of Langton, Patrick Sinclair,
and Henry Bruce. After the tournament the King and
Queen retired to supper, and the festivities of the day
concluded with dancing.

On the 11th the King again went to the Abbey
Church. The Queen remained in her apartment till the
hour of dinner, after which she danced with the King,
and a tilting match was performed by six persons, the
royal pair beholding the rencontre from the windows of
the Palace. After supper " John Inglish and hys com-
panyons" played in the Queen's principal apartment
before the royal pair. Tlie 12th was spent in a similar
manner, the King as usual attending the Abbey Church ;
and on the 13th, which was Sunday, the Queen was led
to mass by the Bishops, the Earl of Surrey, the Lord
Chamberlain, and her ladies, the train of the Countess of
Surrey borne by Sir John Home. The King followed,
and after mass the Marchmont Herald presented Lord
Hamilton, who was created Earl of An-an ; and honours
were conferred on William, Earl of Montrose, and Cuth-
bert. Earl of Glencairn. The King and the Queen then
returned into the Palace, and the Earl of Surrey and
others of the nobihty dined at the royal table. After
dinner " a moralitie was played by the said Master

32 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

Inglishe and his companyons in the presence of the Kyng
and Quene, and their daunces were daunced." At the
customary hour the King went to vespers, after which it
was intended to create twenty-six knights, but on account
of the absence of the Queen this was delayed till the
following day for the " luflfe of hyr." After vespers the
King entered his apartments in the Palace, and sat down
to supper, and, " that done, every man went his way."

Such was the royal marriage at Holyrood in 1503,
which is celebrated by the Scottish poet Dunbar in his
fine allegory entitled the " Thistle and the Rose."

Some of the internal decorations of the Palace of
HoljTOod are casually mentioned by the English Herald.
The hangings, or tapestry, of the " great chamber " re-
presented the "hystory of Troy toune," and "in the
glassyn windowes were the armes of Scotland and England
byparted, with the difference beforesayd, to which a
chardon, and a rose interlassed through a croune, was
added." In the Eng's " great chamber " were displayed
the "story of Hercules togider with other hystorys."
The hall in which the Queen's attendants and company
were assembled also contained the history of Hercules on
tapestry; and in both the apartments were " grett syergcs
of wax for to lyght at even."

Holyrood was the chief residence of James IV., on the
erection and embellishment of which he expended con-
siderable sums up to the period of his death at Floddcn
in 1513. In 1515, John, Duke of Albany, Governor of
the kingdom during the minority of James V., resided in
Holyrood after his arrival from France, and continued
tlie deceased King's enlargement of the edifice.

CHAPTEE IV.

JAMES V. AT HOLYROOD.

?N tliG 2Cth of July 1524, James V., then in his
thirteenth year, and his mother, the Queen-
Dowager, suddenly left Stirling, accompanied
by a few attendants, and entered Edinburgh, where they
were received with great acclamations by the citizens,
and went in procession to the Palace of Holyrood,
"where," says Pitscottie, "he tuik up hous, with all
office men requisite for his estate, and changed all the
old officeris, both tresaurer, comptroller, secreitar, Mr.
Maissar, Mr. Household, Mr. Stableris, copperis, car-
veris, and all the rest." Proclamations were issued
announcing that the King had assumed the govern-
ment; but his actual and independent authority was
not exercised till four years afterwards, when he was
in his seventeenth year; and during that interval the
Queen-Dowager, Archbishop Beaton of St. Andrews, who
had filled the high office of Lord Chancellor, and the
Earl of Angus, the successor of the Archbishop, were
actually, though not in name, the Regents. After the
display at Holyrood, the Queen-Dowager retamed the
young monarch in the Castle of Edinburgh without any
personal restraint ; the Archbishop and Angus conduct-
ing public affairs. The latter marked the first com*
G

84 HISTORY OP nOLYROOD.

mencement of his authority by assigning the Abbey of
Holyrood, in 1524, to his brother William Douglas, who
was already the intruding possessor of Coldingham, and
who retained both till his death in 1528, the year in
which James V. began to reign in person. In 1534, the
future Cardinal David Beaton, then Abbot of Arbroath,
and the administrator of the affairs of the primacy for
his uncle ^Yllom he succeeded, was a second time sent to
France on a mission to renew the alliance with Scotland,
and to adjust the preliminaries of the marriage of James
V. Before his departure he secured the appointment of
an ecclesiastical commission for the cognizance of heretics
— which was by no means difficult, for the King had pub-
licly declared his resolution to punish all innovators of
religion, and not to spare even his owm relatives. In the
month of August 1534 a meeting of this ecclesiastical
court was held in the Abbey of Holyrood, at which
James V. was present, clothed in scarlet. James Hay,
Bishop of Ross, in the absence of the Abbot of Arbroath,
sat as commissioner for the Archbishop of St. Andrews.
Several persons were cited before this court, some of
whom recanted, and performed the ceremony of burning
their faggots. The brother and sister of Patrick Hamil-
ton, who had been incremated for heresy at St. Andrews,
were summoned; but the King advised the former to
leave Scotland for a time, as he could not save him — the
Bishops, he alleged, having proved to him tliat heresy
was not within his prerogative. The lody, however,
appeared, and a long theological discussion ensued be-
tween her and Spens of Condie, afterwards Lord Advo-
cate, on the subject of good works. The King laughed
aloud at the zeal of the fair disputant, who was his near
relative, and his influence saved her from farther trouble.

JAMES V. AT IIOLYROOD. 85

Nevertheless, two convictions were pronounced on this
occasion in the Abbey of Ilolyrood. The unfortunate
persons were David Straiton, tlie brother of the Laird of
Lauriston in Forfarshire, and a priest named Normail
Gourlay, or Galloway. They were led to the stake on
the 27th of August, at the rood or cross of Greonside, on
the north side of the Calton Hill, where they met their
fate with wonderful resolution.

On the 29th of October 153G it was determined that
James V. should marry the youthful Princess Magdalene,
daughter of Francis I. of France ; and on the 2Gth of No-
vember the perpetual alliance between France and Scotland
was renewed. James had previously thought of marrying
the daughter of the Duke do Vondome, and went over to
France, as Pitscottio says, "to spy her pulchritud" before
making up his mind. The King of France, however, re-
ceived James with extraordinaiy kindness, and his eldest
daughter Magdalene, although she was " seiklio," yet,
" frae the tyme shoe saw the King of Scotland, and spak
with him, shoe became so enamoured with him, and loved
him BO Weill, that she wold have no man alive to hir
husband bot he allanerlie."

On the 1st of January 1536-7, James accordingly was
married to this Princess in the church of Notre Dame at
Paris, in the presence of the Kings of France and Na-
varre, several Cardinals, and a brilliant assemblage of
rank and beauty. On the., 19th of May, the eve of \Vliit-
sunday, James V. and Magdalene aiTived at Leith ; " and
when the Queeno was cum upoun Scottish eard [earth],
she bowed her doun to the same, and kissed the mould
thairof;" and then the royal pair proceeded to the Palace
of Holyroo.l, amid the acclamations of an enthusiastic
multitude. But disease had undermined the constitution

36 mSTORY OF HOLYROOD.

of the young Queen; and within forty days she was
carried a lifeless corpse to the Abbey Church of Holy-
rood, and buried close to the spot where the remains of
James himself were afterwards deposited. So intense
was the national grief at the untimely death of the young
Queen, that it appears the mourning dress was generally
adopted, the first instance, according to Buchanan, of its
being worn in Scotland.

The second Queen of James V. was Mary of Guise,
the mother of Mary, Queen of Scots. She was married
to the King in the Cathedral Church of St. Andrews, in
June 1538, but she was cro\vned in the Abbey Church.
She appears to have resided but seldom in Holyrood, the
Palace of Linlithgow, her jointure house, being her fa-
vourite abode. She bore two sons to the King, both of
whom died in infancy, and were interred in the royal
vault of Holyrood.

After the shameful flight of his army on the shore of
the Solway Frith, James V. avoiding Holyrood Palace,
proceeded to Falkland, where he expired on the 14th of
December 1542, seven days after the birth of his only
surviving child and successor, Queen Mary — an event
which afforded him no consolation, but rather increased
the anguish of his last momente.

CHAPTER T.

i

QUEEN MARY AT HOLYROOD

HE Palace became the ordinary residence ol Queen
^vIFS Mary after her return to her native country in
^ 1561, and then occurred those events which in-
eeparably connect Holyrood with the life of the beautiful
" Queen of Scots," and invest its venerable apartments
with a thrilling interest. Here Mary first reposed after
her arrival from the gay land of France, which she so
loved and regretted; here she was married to Lord
Damley ; here Riccio was murdered, almost at her feet ;
here was the scene of her fatal nuptials with Both well ;
here she laid down her troubled head, the captive of her
own subjects, on the eventful night before she was com-
mitted to the Castle of Lochleven; in these halls, at
many a royal entertainment, she enchanted all that be-
held her by the loveHness of her person, and the graces
of her manner ; and here, too, bom in overtrying times,
she had to endure those memorable and distressing inter-
views with the fiery and uncompromising leaders of the
Scottish Reformation. This is not the place to canvass
the character of the Queen — to weigh her virtues and her
errors nicely in the balance. The " genius loci" forbids
Buch an inquisition. A describer of Holyrood beholds
Mary Stuart only as that lovely, suffering, intensely in-

38 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

teresting woman, whose personal charms and tragical
death have drawn eloquence from the pens of so many
illustrious historians, and whose beautiful countenance haj
peered through the day-dreams of so many of Europe's
mightiest poets.

Queen Mary landed at Leith as Sovereign of Scotland
in her own right, and youthful Dowager of France, on
the morning of the 19th of August 1561. The Queen
had successfully eluded Elizabeth's projects to intercept
her at sea, but her early arrival on the 19tli was unex-
pected, and the weather was so dark and stormy that the
ships when they anchored in Leith Roads were not seen
from the land. Mary was accompanied by her three
uncles, the Duke d'Aumale, the Marquis d'Elbeuf, and
the Grand Prior of France, as far as Calais, and to
Scotland by the Seigneur de Damville, heir of the Con-
Btable Montmorency, and several French gentlemen of
inferior note. Among the number was Peter de Bour-
deille, well known as the Sieur de Brantome, of which
he was Abbot. The Queen arrived in the roads at six
in the morning, and at ten o'clock "hir Hienes landit
upoun the schoir of Leith, and remanit in Andro Lambia
hous be the space of ane hour, and thairefter was con-
voyit up to hir palice of Halyrudhous." * The Queen's
"honourable reception" at Leith by the Earl of Argyll,
Lord Erskine, Lord James Stuart, and others, who con-
veyed her to Holyrood, is mentioned by contemporary
writers, and I^ox records the "fires of joy set furth all
night," and a serenade with which she was regaled under
her " chalmer window." The "melodic," she said, " lyked
her Weill, and she willed the same to be continued somo
nychts efter with grit diligence." Pitscottie says, " The
* Diiirnal of Occiurenta in Scotland, p. 66,

QUEEN MARY AT HOLYROOD. 39

Qneine maid hir entres in Edinburgh as the lyk was not
Beino befoir, shoe was so gorgeouslie and magnificentlio
received."* One of Mary's attendants thought very dif-
ferently of the display, and more especially of the music
of the Scottish minstrels. The Queen, he says, rode on
horseback from Leith to Edinburgh, and " the lords and
ladies who accompanied her upon the little wretched
hackneys of the country as wretchedly caparisoned, at
sight of which the Queen began to weep, and to compare
them with the pomp and superb palfreys of France.
There was no remedy but patience. Wliat was worst of
all, when arrived at Edinburgh, and retired to rest in the
Abbey, which is really a fine building, and not at all par-
taking of the rudeness of that country, there came under
her window a crew of five or six hundred scoundrels from
the city, who gave her a serenade with wretched violins
and little rebecks, of which there are enough in that
country, and began to sing psalms so miserably mistimed
and mistuned, that nothing could be worse. Alas ! what
music, and what a night's rest 1 "

When Queen Mary arrived at Holyrood from Leith
on the 19th of August, the only person of distinction
waiting to receive her was Lord Robert Stuart, one of her
illegitimate brothers, whose residence, as Lay-Abbot or
Commendator, was within the precincts of the Palace.
The Queen went to his house, and issued orders to as-
semble the nobility, who had been previously summoned
to meet on the last day of that month. Probably Lord
Robert's house was the only one suitable for her tem-
porary reception, for, though the Queen brought her
jewels with her, her tapestry and other furniture for the
Palace did not arrive till some days afterwards, and her
* Pitscottie, vol. ii. p. 559.

40 HISTORY OF IlOLYllOOD.

horses were detained at Berwick. The trials and morti-
fications which Mary was doomed to suffer on account of
her adherence to the Romish Cliurch were made manifest
so early as the first Sunday after her arrival, which was
St. Bartholomew's Day, the 24th of August. Preparations
were made to celebrate mass in the Chapel-Royal, at
which the Queen was to be present, and no sooner was
this known than a mob rushed towards the edifice, ex-
claiming— " Shall the idol be again erected in the land?"
Men of rank encouraged this riot, and Lord Lindsay,
along with some gentlemen of Fife, pressed into the court
of the Palace, shouting — " The idolatrous priests shall dio
the death!" The Queen, astonished and trembling, re-
quested her illegitimate brother Lord James Stuart, then
Prior of St. Andrews, who was in attendance, to allay the
tumult. With the utmost difficulty, notwithstanding his
popularity as a leading Reformer, he restrained the fury
of the mob, and though the service was continued in
quietness, at its conclusion new disorders were excited.

On the 31st of August a banquet was given to Mary
and her relatives by the city of Edinburgh, and on the 2d
of September the Queen made her public entry, and dined
in the Castle " at Twelf houris." On the same day John
Knox had an audience of Mary, who had been informed
of a furious sermon he had preached against the mass on
the preceding Sunday in St. Giles's church, and who
eeems to have supposed that a personal conference would
mitigate his sternness. It appears, however, from Knox's
o^vn admission, that his sermon w^as not relished by tho
majority of his audience, who maintained that he had
" departed from his subject," and that it was a " very un-
timely admonition." I^ox presented himself at Holy-
rood, and, when admitted into the presence of Mary, he

QUEEN MARY AT HOLYROOD. 4i

found only Lord Jcames Stuart in attendance. The inter-
view commenced with the Queen accusing him for his
book entitled " The First Blast of the Trumpet against the
monstrous Regimen of Women," and his intolerance
towards every one who differed from him in opinion ; and
she requested him to obey the precepts of the Scriptures,
a copy of which she perceived in his possession, desiring
him to "use more meekness in his sermons." Knox,
in reply, " knocked so hastily upon her heart, that he
made her weep." So great was the agitation of the
Queen, that Lord James Stuart attempted to soothe her
feelings, and to soften the language she had heard. Amid
tears of anguish and indignation, she said to Knox —
" My subjects, it would appear, must obey you, and not
me ; I must be subject to them, not they to me." After
some farther altercation, Knox was dismissed from the
royal presence, and he left Ilolyrood, convinced that
Mary's soul was lost for ever — that her conversion was
hopeless, because she continued "in her massing, and
despised and quicldy mocked all exhortation."

CHAPTER VI

QUEEN MARY'S PROGRESSES TO AND FROM
HOLYROOD, &c.

pARY made her first royal progress on the 11th of
September, when she left Holyrood on horseback
»^ after dinner, and proceeded successively by Lin-
lithgow, Stirling, Alloa, Ciilross, to Perth, Dundee, St.
Andrews, and Falkland, returning to Holyrood on the 29th.
Early in the spring of 1562 the Queen again left Holy-
rood to enjoy the pleasure of hawking and other amuse-
ments at Falkland and St. Andrews. In the beginning of
May the Queen returned to the Palace, where in July she
received Sir Henry Sydney, an accomplished statesman
sent by Elizabeth. On one occasion, while conversing
with Sydney in the garden of HoljTOod, and attended by
her Court, one Captain Heibome approached, and de-
livered to her a packet, which Mary handed to Lord
James Stuart, recently created Earl of Mar. The Earl,
who at first took no particular notice of it, at last opened
the packet, which he found to contain some ribald versea
and an insulting picture. The Queen was informed of the
odious contents on the following day, and felt so severely
this insult before the English ambassador that she became
sick while at mass. Meanwhile, the perpetrator of the
cutrage escaped, and though Randolph wrote to the Gover-

QUEEN MARY'S PROGRESSES. 43

nor of Berwick to apprehend him, we find no subsequent
notice of his capture or punishment.

The avocations and amusements of Mary at Holyrood
about this period are prominently noticed. After dinner
she generally read Livy and other ancient historians with
George Buchanan. She was a chess-player, and she de-
lighted also in hawking and shooting at the butts. In
her household were minstrels and singers, and the first
introduction of Riccio to the Scottish court was to supply
a vacancy among the latter, a bass having been required
to sing in concert with the others. In 1561 and 1562
the Queen had five players on the viol, and three players
on the lute. In the chapel of Holyrood were a " pair of
organs," for which, in February 1561-2, the sum of £10
was paid, by the Queen's command, to William Macdowal,
Master of Works, who had recovered and carefully pre-
served them, after the sum of £36 had been paid, in
February 1557-8, by the Treasurer to David Melville of
Leith. Mary was sedulously employed at Holyrood with
her needle, and tradition speaks of several elegant pro-
ductions of her industry. She was attended in her pri-
vate apartments by her four Marys, young ladies of noble
birth, of the same age with herself, who had attended
her during her residence in France — viz., Mary Fleming,
Mary Bethune, Mary Livingstone, and Mary Seton, but
Mademoiselle de Pinguillon is noticed as her chief lady.

On the 11th of August 1562 the Queen and her re-
tinue left Hol}Tood on a progress as far north as Inver-
ness. This journey occasioned the temporary ruin of the
Earl of Huntly and his family. Huntly himself fell in the
insurrectionary conflict in the vale of Corrichie, nearly
twenty miles west of Aberdeen. His dead body was
brought to Edinburgh by sea, and deposited in a vault in

44: HISTORY OF nOLYROOD.

the Chapel of Holyrood, whence it was removed to the
Monastery of the Black Friars in Edinburgh, where it
continued till it was conveyed to the family sepulchre at
Elgin; and his son Sir John Gordon perished on the
scaffold in Aberdeen, in presence of Mary, who was a re-
luctant spectator of a fate which was one day to be her
own. The Queen returned to Hol3Tood on the evening
of the 21st of November, after an absence of nearly four
months, and she was immediately seized with an illness,
called the " New acquaintance," apparently a sort of in-
fluenza, which confined her to her couch six days. On
the 10th of January 1562-3 the Queen again left Holy-
rood for Castle-Campbell near the base of the Ochills, in
order to be present at the marriage of Lady Margaret
Campbell, sister of the Earl of Argj^ll, to Sir James
Stewart of Doune, then Commendator of St. Colm, and
who in 1581 was created Lord Doune. On the 14th the
Qr.een returned to Holyrood, where she remained till the
13th of February, having recovered from another illness
which seized her after her arrival.

About this time occurred an incident which proves
that the Scottish nobility w^ere altogether unscrupu-
lous in their efforts to ruin those with whom they
were at feud. George, fifth Earl of Huntly, had fled,
after his father's defeat and death at Corrichie, to his
father-in-law the Duke of Chatclherault, who was obliged
to surrender him ; and he was committed a prisoner to tho
Castle of Dunbar. The Earl v/as tried and convicted of
high treason on the 8th of February 1562-3, condemned
to be executed, and sent back to Dunbar in the meanwhile,
till the Queen's pleasure should be known. Preston of
Craigmillar, the governor of Dunbar Castle, received a
warrant, ordering him to behead the young nobleman.

QUEEN MARY'S PROGRESSES. 45

This was intimated by Preston to the Earl, who was not
surprised at the announcement, and declared that he
" knew well enough by whose means and after what man-
ner such an order had been obtained, but that the Queen
had doubtless been imposed on, since he was very well
assured of her Majesty's favour, and that she would never
deliver him up to the rage of his enemies ; and therefore
he begged that he would do him the favour to go to the
Queen, and receive the order from her own mouth before
he would proceed farther." Preston immediately rode to
Edinburgh, and arrived at Holyrood late in the evening.
Notwithstanding the unseasonable hour, he demanded an
audience of the Queen, as he had a matter of the utmost
importance to communicate. He was admitted into the
royal bed-chamber, and Mary inquired the cause of this
unexpected visit. Preston told her that he was anxious
to inform her that he had obeyed her commands. " What
commands from me ?" asked the Queen. "The behead-
ing of the Earl of Huntly," was the reply. When Mary
heard this she manifested the greatest distress, weeping
and solemnly protesting that she had "never given nor
known of any such order." Preston quieted her apprehen-
sions by telling her that " it was very lucky he had not
executed the order — that the Earl was ahv-e and well, and
begged to have her Majesty's commands as to how he
should behave for the future towards his prisoner." Mary
thanked Preston for his prudent conduct, acknowledging
that nothing could be more acceptable to her, and that as
she had now full confidence in his fidehty, he was neither
to deliver up the Earl, nor execute any sentence on him,
unless she personally commanded him.

It has been already stated that when Mary arrived
from France she was accompanied, among others, by

^^ HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

Monsieur de Damville, in whose train was Chastelard, a
gentleman of Daupliinc. Brantomo says that Chastelard
was grand-nephew of the Chevalier Bayard, and that ho
bore a resemblance to his illustrious relative, was of the
middle height, very handsome, and of a spare figure, and
that he was clever, and had a turn both for music and
poetry. After residing some time at Holyrood he returned
to France with Damville, by whom he was again sent to
Scotland with a letter, which he delivered to the Queen
at Montrose, while on her progress to Edinburgh from the
north. Mary subsequently often entered into conversa-
tion with Chastelard, whose manners were agreeable, and
who could talk to her of France, the country of her youth-
ful affections. Encouraged by the Queen's condescension,
this young man, in an evil hour, aspired to her love,
and in a fit of amorous frenzy concealed himself in her
bed-chamber at Holyrood, in which he was discovered by
her female attendants some minutes before she retired for
the night. This was on the 12th of February 1562-3,
and it appears that he had armed himself with a sword
and dagger. He was of course expelled by the Queen's
domestics, who, not wishing that their royal mistress
should be annoyed by this extraordinary and daring cir-
cumstance, concealed it till the morning. When Mary
was informed of Chastelard's conduct, she ordered him
instantly to leave the Palace, and never again to appear
in her presence. This lenity, however, failed to exercise
a proper effect on tlie infatuated man. On the 13th of
February the Queen left Holyrood for Fife, and Chastelard
had the presumption to repeat his offence at Burntisland
on the night of the 14th, while Mary was in the act of
stepping into bed, and was surrounded by her ladies.
The royal household was soon alarmed, and the offender

QUEEN MARY'S PK0GKESSE3. 47

was secured by the Earl of Moray. On the second day
after this outrage he was tried aud condemned at St.
Andrews, where he was executed on the 22d of February
1562-3.

On the ICth of May 15G3 the Queen returned to
Holyrood after an absence of upwards of three months
in Fife and the neighbouring counties of Ivinross and
Perth. This was preparatory to the meeting of the
Parliament, which assembled on the 26th of May, and
sat only till the 4th of June. Mary rode to the Par-
liament from Hol^Tood, accompanied by her ladies, the
Duke of Chatelherault carrying the crown, the Earl of
Argyll the sceptre, and the Earl of Moray the sword.
The address delivered by her on this, the first occasion
on which she ever saw a Parliament, was written in
French, and translated and spoken by her in English.
Her beauty and grace excited the loyal feelings of the
citizens, who exclaimed, as she passed to and from the
Parhament — " God save that sweet face ! " On that same
day she gave a great banquet in Holyrood.

During the sitting of this Parliament a sermon was
preached by Knox in St. Giles's church before several of
the nobihty, in which he argued that they ought to de-
mand from the Queen " that quhilk by God's Word they
may justly require, and if she would not agree with them
in God, they were not bound to agree with her in the
devil." He concluded \vith some observations respecting
the Queen's rumoured marriage, and declared — " When-
ever ye consent that an infidel, and all Papists are infi-
dels, shall be our head to our soverane, ye do so far as in
you lieth to banisch Christ Jesus from this realme ; ye
bring God's vengeance upon this country, a plague upon
yourselves, and perchance ye sail do no small discomfort

48 HISTOHY OF nOLYROOD.

to your soverane." This furious attack on the Queen
was soon communicated to her, and Knox was again
Fummoned to her presence in HoljTOod by Douglas of
Drumlanrig, lay provost of Lincludcn. It is not to be
wondered at that Mary was indignant at the invectives of
Knox, for he himself confesses that " Papists and Protes-
tants were both offended; yea, his most familiaris dis-
dained him for that speaking."* Lord Ochiltree, and
other leaders of the " faithful," accompanied Knox to the
Palace ; but John Erskine of Dun, the " Superintendent
of Angus and Mearns" under the new system, was the
only person admitted with him into the Queen's cabinet.
As soon as Mary saw Knox she exclaimed, under great
excitement — " Never was prince handled as I am. I
have borne with you, " she said to Knox, " in all your
rigorous manner of speaking both against myself and
against my uncles ; yea, I have sought your favour by all
possible means. I offered unto you presence and audi-
ence whenever it pleased you to admonish me, and yet I
cannot be quit of you. I vow to God I shall be once
avenged." The Queen wept, and often requested her
page for handkerchiefs to dry her tears. Kiiox answered
— " True it is. Madam, your Grace and I have been at
divers controversies, into the which I never perceived
your Grace to be offended at me ; but when it shall please
God to deliver you from that bondage of darkness and
error in the which ye have been nourished for the lack of
true doctrine, your majesty will find the liberty of my tongue
nothing offensive. Without the preaching place. Madam,
I am not master of myself, for I must obey Him who com-
mands me to speak plain, and flatter no flesh upon the face
of the earth." This reply was not likely to subdue the
♦ Hist, of Reformation, vol. u. p. 386. Edit Edinb. 1848.

QUEEN MAKY'S progresses. 49

Queen's anger, and she indignantly asked — " What have
you to do with my maniage?" This elicited a definition
from Knox of his vocation to preach faith and repentance,
and the imperative necessity of teaching the nobility and
commonwealth their duty. The Queen again asked him
— " What have ye to do with my marriage, or what are
ye in this commonwealth?" — "A subject born within
the same, Madam," was the stem reply; "and albeit
I be neither Earl, Lord, nor Baron within it, yet has
God made me, how abject soever I may be in your eyes,
a profitable member within the same." Knox then re-
peated the words he had uttered in the pulpit, at which,
he himself says, " howling was heard, and tears might
have been seen in greater abundance than the matter
required." Erskine of Dun here attempted to soothe the
Queen by some complimentary allusions to her personal
beauty, the excellence of her disposition, and the admira-
tion expressed for her by all the princes of Europe, who
were rivals to gain her favour. Knox stood unmoved,
and his coolness increased Mary's anger. He volunteered
a defence of himself, and urged his conscientious motives,
which still further ofi'ended the Queen, who ordered him
to leave the cabinet, and remain in the ante-chamber till
her pleasure should be intimated. Lord John Stuart,
the Commendator of Coldingham, joined the Queen and
Erskine of Dun in the cabinet, in which they remained
nearly an hour. During this space, Knox, who was
attended by Lord Ochiltree, commenced a kind of reli-
gious admonition to the Queen's Marys and other ladiea
present. " 0 fair ladies ! " he said, " how pleasing is this
life of yours if it would ever abide, and then in the end
that ye pass to Heaven with all this gay gear ! But fie
upon the knave Death, that will come whether we will or

D

50 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

not, and when he has laid on his arrest, the foul worras
will be busy with this flesh, be it never so fair and tender ;
and the silly soul, I fear, shall be so feeble, that it can
neither carry with it gold, garnishing, targatting, pearl,
nor precious stones." After similar exhortations, not
often heard within the walls of a palace, Ersldne of Dun
appeared, and they both walked from Holyi'ood to the
house of Knox at the Nether Bow.

On the 29th of June 1563 Queen Mary left HoljTOod
on another progress to the west and south-west of Scot-
land as far as Inverary, which occupied the two subse-
quent months of July and August. While the Queen was
at Stirling, and was so far on her return to Edinburgh, a
riot occurred at Holyrood in which Knox was deeply im-
plicated. On Sunday the 15th of August, when the " Kirk
at Edinburgh," says Knox, " had the ministration of tlie
Lord's table, the Papists in grit numbers resorted to

the Abbey to their abominations at the

head of whom was a certain Madame Eaylie" [wife of
Mons. Eaullet or Roullet, the Queen's private secretary.] *
Divine service was to be celebrated for their benefit,
according to the ritual of the Church of Rome. This
was known in the neighbourhood, and several persons
" burst" into the church, among whom was a " zealous
brother," named Patrick Cranston, who exclaimed, as a
priest was preparing to commence mass — " The Queen's
Majesty is not here ; how dare you, then, be so malapert
as openly to do against the laws ?" The Queen's house-
hold were so much alarmed that they sent to Wishart of
Pitarrow, the Comptroller, who happened to be in St.
Giles's church, requesting him to proceed to Holjn'ood to
Bftve the life of Madame Raylie and protect the Palace.
* Note to Knoxii Works, vol. ii. p. 393. Edit. 1848.

QUEEN MARY'S PROGRESSES. 61

Wishart proceeded thither, accompanied by Archibald
Douglas of Kilspindy, Provost of the city, the Magistrates,
and a numerous party ; but the disturbance had ceased
before their arrival, and the result of the prosecution of
Cranston, and his coadjutor Andrew Armstrong, whom
Knox intended to rescue, is not known. Knox was sum-
moned before the Queen and Privy Council for his inter
ference in this unseemly and intolerant disturbance, and
especially for presuming to set at defiance a recent Act of
the Parliament for the suppression of tumults within
burgh, which declared all assemblages of the people in
towns without the Queen's consent illegal. He denied
that he was guilty of seditious or rebellious practices, and
entreated the Queen to " forsake her idolatrous religion,"
upon which the Earl of Morton, then Lord Chancellor, told
him to " hold his peace and go away."

Queen Mary returned to Holyrood on the 30ih of Sep-
tember, and seems to have constantly resided in the
Palace during the ensuing winter. In January and Feb»
niary 1563-4, she is mentioned as giving banquets to the
nobility, who in their turn invited her to be their guest.
Mary's health was evidently very indifferent while at
Holyrood, but her other chief annoyance was Knox, whom
she unsuccessfully attempted to banish from the city. On
the 6th of March 1563-4 the Queen left Holyrood, and
after alternately residing at Perth, Falkland, and St.
AndrewSj'^he returned to Holyrood about the middle of
May. She again left Holyrood on the 22d of July 1564,
and, after a brief sojourn at Linlithgow and Stirling, she
went to Perth, whence she resorted to a huntmg expedi-
tion in Atholl, and crossing into Inverness-shire, she
returned along the east coast by Aberdeen and Dunnottar
to Dundee and St. Andrews, and arrived at Holyrood on
the 25th or 26th of September.

CHAPTEE VII,

MARRIAGE OF QUEEN MARY AND LORD
DARNLEY AT HOLYROOD.

TURING Mary's absence in this latter progress
li^l an event occurred -which had a serious e£fcct
on her future destiny. This was the return of
her relative Matthew, Earl of Lennox, the father of Lord
Darnley, from his twenty-two years' exile in England.
The Earl arrived in Edinburgh on the 8th of September,
and was informed that the Queen was then the guest of
the Earl of Atholl in Perthshire. He resolved to pro-
ceed thither, and went to St. Andrews, where he heard
of the Queen's return southward. In obedience to Mary's
invitation, the Earl presented himself at Holyrood on the
27th of September, riding to the Palace preceded by
twelve gentlemen splendidly mounted and clothed in black
velvet, and followed by thirty attendants bearing his arms
and livery. His reception at Holyrood was flattering and
cordial. Either at this or a subsequent interview Lennox
gave the Queen " a marvellous fair and rich jewel, a clock,
a dial curiously wrought and set with stones, and a look-
ing glass very richly set with stones in the four metals ;
also to each of the Marys such pretty things as he thought
fittest for them." Lord Darnley was with his mother the
Countess of Lennox in England, but Marj' intimated that

MARRIAGE OF MARY AND DARNLEY. 53

Blie had heard with satisfaction most favourable reportg
of his personal appearance ; and common rmnour had
already selected him as the Queen's husband. A series
of festivities was now held in Holyrood, and a grand en-
tertainment given by the Queen on the 12th of November
is specially mentioned. On the 3d of December, which
was the second day of the meeting of the ParHament,
Mary recommended the reversal of the forfeiture of Len-
nox, who on the same day was restored to his estate and
honours ; but as an antidote to this compliance with tho
royal desire, the attendance on mass, except in the Queen's
chapel, was ordered to be punished with the loss of goodo
and of life.

Mary left HoljTood for Fife on the 19th of January
1564-5, and she remained in quiet retirement at St. An-
drews till the 11th of February, when she crossed the
county to Lundie near Leven, where she arrived on the
12th, and on the 13th she rode to Wemyss Castle, then
inhabited by the Earl of Moray. " She was magnifi-
cently banquetted everywhere, so that such superfluity
was never seen before within this realme ; which caused
the wilde fowl to be so dear, that partridges were sold
for a cro^vn a-piece."* At that very time Lord Damley
had left London for Scotland, bringing with him Queen
Elizabeth's letters of recommendation, and a diamond
ring from his mother to Mary, her niece. Damley arrived
in Edinburgh on the day Mary rode to Wemyss Castle,
whither he proceeded on the 16th of February, and there
had his first interview with the Queen, by whom he was
well received. Sir James Melville, who was present in
Wemyss Castle, states that Mary " took very well" with
her visitor, and jocularly said to him (Melville) that Dam-
♦ Knox's Works, u. 471,

54 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

ley was tho " properest and best proportioned long maa
that ever she had seen, for," adds he, " ho was long and
small, even and straight.* Darnley was then only nine-
teen years of age, and four years younger then Mary.
The Queen returned to Edinburgh on the 24th of Fe-
bruary 1564-5, Darnley having previously left Wemysa
Castle to visit his father, who was then with the Earl
of AthoU at Dunkeld, but hastening so rapidly thence to
Edinburgh as to reach the city before the return of the
Queen.

Darnley was now a regular visitor at Holyrood, and
took part in all the amusements of the Court. On the
26th of February he was entertained at supper by Moray
in his house in Croft-an-Righ behind the Palace, where
he met the Queen, with whom he danced. Darnley was
at this time popular with the citizens of Edinburgh, who
considered Kim to be good-natured, and affable in his
behaviour. Although he was suspected of " Popery," he
seems to have placed himself under the guidance of Moray,
and he occasionally resorted to the preaching of Knox in
St. Giles's Church. At length he proposed marriage to
the Queen, which she at first pretended to decline, and
even refused a ring which he wished her to accept. The
courtship, however, continued, and it is certain that in the
beginning of March 1564-5 Mary had fixed her affections
on Darnley, for shortly afterwards she sent Secretary
Maitland to London, to inform Elizabeth of her reso-
lution, which the English Queen knew before his ar-
rival. She stated as a principal inducement to this con-
nexion, that Darnley was so near of blood to both Queens,
he being her cousin-german, and his mother standing
in the same relationship to Elizabeth. Meanwhile
Mary left Holyrood for Linlithgow and Stirling on

MARRIAGE OP MARY AND DARNLEY. 65

the 26tli of March 1565, wliither she was followed by
Darnley, and the marriage was at last arranged at
Stirhng in a meeting of the Privy Council on the 1 5th
of May 1565, at which the Queen was present, and
on that day Darnley was created a knight, Earl of
Ross, and Lord of Ardmanach, his elevation to the Duke-
dom of Albany being merely delayed. About this period
a formidable party, led by the Earls of Moray and Argyll,
repeatedly attempted to overawe Mary, and actually de-
bated whether Darnley ought to be murdered, or seized,
along with his father, and delivered to Elizabeth. Various
plots were concerted, and powerful confederacies formed.
One was to carry the Queen to St. Andrews, and Darnley
to Castle-Campbell ; but the ultimate agreement was, that
Moray should murder Darnley, assume the government,
and imprison Mary for life in Lochleven Castle.

The Queen returned to Holyrood on the 4th of July,
on the 20th of which month Darnley was created Duke of
Rothesay, the Queen having previously received the con-
sent of her uncle the Cardinal of Lorraine to the marriage,
and also the dispensation of the Pope. On the following
Sunday the banns were proclaimed " in the paroche kirk of
St. Geill, in Halyrudlious, and in the Chepell Royall."*
Sunday the 29th was the day of this ill-fated union, and
the place was the same Chapel-Royal of Holyrood. John
Sinclair, Bishop of Brechin, and Dean of Restalrig, per-
formed the ceremonial according to the ritual of the
Church of Rome between the hours of five and six in the
morning. It has been invariably recorded that Mary on
this eventful occasion was attired in mourning, and that
the dress was that which she wore on the day of her first
husband's funeral. Randolph, though not an eyewitness,
• Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 79.

56 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

informed the Earl of Leicester, that the Queen was con-
veyed to the Chapel dressed in "the great mourning
gowne of blacke, with the great wide mourning hoode, not
unlykc that which she wore the dolefull day of the buriall
of her husbande." Mary was attended by the Earls of
Lennox and Atholl, who left her in the Chapel, and re-
turned into the Palace for Darnley. The Dean of Eestal-
rig and a priest received the royal pair, the banns were
asked a third time, and a protest was taken by a notary
that no opposition was alleged against the marriage. The
service then proceeded. Three rings, one of them a rich
diamond, were placed by Darnley on the Queen's finger,
and they knelt together during the prayers. When the
ceremony was concluded, Darnley kissed the Queen, and
proceeded to her apartments in the Palace, leaving her in
the Chapel to attend mass, which he seems to liave pur-
posely avoided. A splendid banquet was given in the
Palace in the afternoon, and Knox carefully records that
the entertainments and rejoicings continued three or four
days. At the marriage dinner the Queen was served by
the Earl of Atholl as sewer, the Earl of Morton as carver,
and the Earl of Crawford as cupbearer, the Earls of
Eglinton, Cassillis, and Glencairn waiting on Darnley.
The trumpets sounded a largesse, and money was distri-
buted in the Palace to the domestics. A baU succeeded
the banquet, after which the Queen and her consort re-
tired till the hour of supper, which repast was a repetition
of the dinner. Dancing was resumed, and the royal pair
then betook themselves to their own chamber. Randolph
states — " I was sent for to have been at the supper, but
like a churlish or uncourteous carle I refused to be there."*
On the following day the Queen subscribed a proclama-
♦ Wright's "Queen Elizabeth and her Times," vol. i. p. 201.

MARRIAGE OP MARY AND DARNLEY. 57

Hon in the Palace, which -was published at the Cross of
Edinburgh, ordaining Darnley to be styled King, though
this by no means associated him with her in the govern-
ment. She had soon cause, however, to regret this impru-
dent act, which excited the strongest dissatisfaction
among the nobility, while Damley's conduct after his
marriage made him numerous enemies. On the 19 th of
August, when he attended St. Giles's Church, Knox edified
him by a sermon against the government of boys and
women, meaning him and the Queen. A serious coalition
was now formed, and a rebellion ensued, in which the
Earl of Moray was particularly conspicuous, but the active
movements of the Queen and the royal forces completely
disconcerted the insurgents. On the 25th of August the
Queen and Darnley left Holyrood in order to disperse the
disaffected in the neighbourhood of Glasgow, and in
September Ihe royal pair were in Stirling, Dunfermhne,
Dundee, and Perth, returning to Holyrood on the 19th of
that month. They resided in the Palace till the 8th of
October, when the movements of the insurgents in Dum-
fries-shire again drew them from Holyrood, but the sup-
pression of the insurrection brought them to the Palace on
the 18th, and they remained in it till the end of the year,
unconscious of the confederacies forming against them.

The Earl of Moray, the principal leader in this rebel-
lion, was compelled to retire into England as an exile,
and at this crisis the Earl of Bothwell, profiting by
Moray's disgrace, returned from France, accompanied by
David Chalmers of Ormond, v/ho was soon appointed one
of the Ordinary Lords of Session. Bothwell, who had
been expelled from Scotland by the power of Moray, was
received with marked distinction by the Queen, and this
daring and profligate man was present at a meeting of

58

mSTORY OP HOLYROOD.

the Privy Council on the 5th of November. The Queen
and Darnley continued to reside in Holyrood during tho
winter, and about the beginning of February 1565-6, tho
Seigneur de Rembouillet, with a deputation from the
King of France, an-ived at the Palace, to present Darnley
with the order of St. Michael, known as the Scallop or
Cockle-shell Order, so called from the escallop shells of
which the collar was composed. The investiture was per-
formed after the celebration of mass in the Chapel-Boyal,
and, on the 11th of February, the French ambassador was
invited to a banquet or entertainment in the Palace, and
in the evening there was a masquerade, at which the
Queen, her four Marys, and all her ladies appeared in
male attire, and presented each of the strangers with a
" whinger" embroidered with gold. The French ambas-
sador was lodged near the Palace, and his expenses were
defrayed by the Queen.

CHAPTER VIII.

MUBDER OF RICCIO IN HOLYHOOD.

j)T this time two conspiracies were in active pro-
gress— ^the dethronement of Mary and the mur-
der of David Kiccio, which latter plot was origi-
nally formed by no less a personage than Damley him-
Belf, in conjunction with his father Lennox. Damley,
whose enemies were now numerous, and whose insolence
was unbounded, was induced to believe that Riccio was
the sole instigator of those measures which deprived him
of the crown-matrimonial and his share of the govern-
ment, for which it was too obvious he was utterly inca-
pacitated by his habits and mental imbecility, Mary had
pamfully discovered that she had thrown away her affec-
tions on one whom it was impossible to treat with confi-
dence or regard; and an unhappy quarrel was the re-
sult, which the conduct of Damley rendered every day
the more irreconcileable. The first victim connected with
this alienation of Mary's affections and her husband's
violence was Eiccio, of whom Damley became jealous,
actually labouring under the delusion that the Italian had
supplanted him in the Queen's esteem. The agent of
Cosmo I., Grand Duke of Tuscany, mentions that one at-
tempt to murder Riccio was frustrated by Lord Seton. It
Was afterwards proposed to assassinate him while playing

60 HISTORY OP HOLYPvOoD.

a game of rackets with Damley, who was to invite him
for that pm-pose. Randolph wrote to Leicester, that
Darnley and his father had resolved to murder Kiccio —
that it would be done in ten days — that the crown would
be torn from the Queen — and that still darker designs
were meditated against her person which he durst not
record in his correspondence.

Such was the dreadful condition of the royal inmatep
of the Palace of Holyrood at this crisis. Mary's refusal
to confer the crown-matrimonial soon led to coldness, re-
proaches, and an absolute estrangement, on the part of
Damley, who publicly treated her with haughtiness, for-
sook her company, and intrigued with her enemies. In
addition to this, he indulged in low habits, and was leading
a most dissipated and profligate life. Sir William Drury
informed Cecil of two instances of Darnley's drunkenness ;
the one in a merchant's house in Edinburgh, at which the
Queen was present, when he conducted himself towards
her so insolently that she left the place in tears — and the
other a shameful carousal on the Island of Inchkeith in
company with Lord Robert Stuart, the "Abbot" or Com-
mendator of Holyrood, Lord Fleming, and other per-
sonages. The disgust in which the Queen, then far
advanced in pregnancy, hold her husband, was well known
throughout the kingdom, yet Darnley was altogether re-
gardless of what she thought or felt

Riccio, the immediate victim of the tragedy in Holy-
rood, was a constant attendant on the Queen in his capa-
city of French secretary, and resided in the Palace. This
unfortunate foreigner, who is described by Sir James Mel-
ville as a " merry fellow and a good musician," was bom
Rt Turin in Piedmont, where his father earned a preca-
rious subsistence as a musician. Riccio followed tho

MURDER OF EICCIO. 61

Piedmonteso ambassador into Scotland, and having at-
tracted the notice of Mary, he was in 1561 appointed a
valet of her chamber. He is described by some contem
porary writers as being a man up in years, of unpleasant
features, and somewhat deformed in person; but in a
despatch from the Duke of Tuscany, dated 8th October
1566, published in the work of Prince Labanoff, he is said
to have been only Twenty-eight in 1562. On the 8th of
January 1561-2 the sum of £89 was paid to him ; on the
15th of April 1562 he received £15 as "chalmer chield ;"
and in 1564 four quarterly payments were made to him
at the rate of £80 per annum, as " valet of the Queen's
chalmer." Mary was fond of vocal music, and having
three valets who sung three parts, Riccio was recom-
mended to her as competent to sing the fourth or bass
part in concert. He continued as valet till the dismissal
of Raulet, the Queen's secretary, whom she had brought
from France, when Riccio was appointed his succes-
sor. He appears to have been unpopular from the first,
and his officious interferences soon rendered him an
object of bitter hatred. He was, moreover, suspected oi
being a pensioner of the Pope, which by no means lessened
the odium against him. He interfered with the adminis-
tration of justice in the Court of Session, and, by the
presents he received to secure his influence, he soon became
rich. His situation necessarily led him much into the
private parties given by the Queen, who hked him for his
polite and obsequious manners, his amusing talents, and
his fidelity. Sir James Melville relates a conversation he
had with Riccio, who, he says, was not without his fear^c'.
He was advised by Melville to conduct himself with the
humility becoming his station, not to intermeddle with
Btate afiairs, always to give place to the nobilitVj and when

62 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

they were present to retire from the Queen. Eiccio
admitted the prudence of those suggestions, and said he
would follow the advice recommended ; but he afterwards
told Melville that " the Queen would not suffer him, and
he would needs carry himself as formerly." Sir James also
relates a conversation he had with Mary respecting Eiccio,
advising her to be cautious as to the favour she evinced
to one who was suspected to be a pensioner of the Pope,
and to " alter her carriage" towards him. Darnley, soon
after his arrival in Scotland, formed a remarkable intimacy
with the favoured secretary, and the latter was a power-
ful advocate with Mary in favour of the young lord's pre-
tensions to her hand. After the marriage, Eiccio increased
in affluence. On the 1st and 24th of August 1565 he re-
ceived some presents and money, and about the end of
the same year he seems to have acted as keeper of the
privy purse to Mary and Darnley, especially in February
1565-6, when he was paid by the Queen's precept £2000
in part of 10,000 merks owing to her from the " comp-
toir " of the coinage for the previous two years.

Such was the individual of whom Darnley became
seriously jealous, and Eiccio's enemies embraced the op-
portunity of exciting the imbecile mind of the former to
such a degree, that he sent his relative George Douglas,
on the 10th of February, to implore Lord Euthven, in
whom he had the greatest confidence, to assist him againsl
the " villain David." Euthven was then so unwell, that
he " was scarcely able to walk the length of his chamber,"
yet he consented to engage in the murder ; but though
Darnley was sworn to keep the design secret, Eandolph
was informed of the project, and revealed it in a letter,
which is still preserved, to the Earl of Leicester nearly
R month before the crmae was perpetrated. In reality,

MURDER OF RICCIO. 63

however, the first conspirators against the unfortunate
Kiccio were the Earl of Morton, Lords Euthven and
Lindsay, and Maitland of Lethington, the last ingeniously
contriving to make Darnley the patron of the plot, and
the dupe of his associates. Morton's grand projects were
to break up the approaching Parliament, imprison the
Queen, place Darnley in the nominal sovereignty, and
constitute the Earl of Moray the head of the govern-
ment, and this was to be achieved by the murder of
Eiccio.

It is impossible to detail all the minute particulars, the
concocting of two bonds or covenants, and other events,
connected with this plot, which belong rather to general
history, and strikingly illustrate the unscrupulous crimin-
ality of the age. Some hints of impending danger were
conveyed to Mary, who, however, disregarded them.
Even Eiccio received a significant caution from a person
named Damiot, a reputed astrologer, who advised him to
settle his afiau-s and leave Scotland.

The Parliament was opened by the Queen in person,
who rode from Holyrood to the Tolbooth near St. Giles's
Church, arrayed in " wondrous gorgeous apparel," early
in March 1565-6. Mary requested Darnley to accom-
pany her on the first day to the Parliament, but he pre-
ferred riding to Leith with " seven or aucht horse " to
amuse himself The Lords of the Articles were chosen,
and the forfeiture against Moray and the banished Nobility
was discussed for two days, with great diversity of opinion.
The influence of the Queen eventually prevailed, and the
attainder of Moray and his friends was to have been passed
on Tuesday the 12th March.

On the evening of Saturday the 9th of March, about
five hundred persons surrounded the Palace of Holyrood

64 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

The Earl of Morton and Lord Lindsay kept guard without,
and a hundred and sixty men occupied the court. Mary
was in that portion of the Palace which was built by her
father, consisting of the north-west towers, the second
storey of which contains the apartments now mournfully
associated with her name, consisting of an ante-chamber
called the " Chamber of presence," which leads into a room
having one window on the south and another on the west
side, which was Queen Mary's bed-chamber, off which, in
each of the projecting circular towers at the angles, is a
small apartment, the one in the north-west tower known
as Queen Mary's supping-room, and that in the south-west
tower as her dressing-room. These are reached by the
staircase which opens on the piazzas on the north side of
the quadrangle, and also by a narrow private stair on the
north side of the Palace near the west door of the Chapel-
Royal. By this private stair the conspirators were, in
the first instance, admitted to Darnley's apartments on tho
first storey.

About seven in the evening Mary was seated in tho
little room in the north-west tuiTet, at one of those small
supper parties, in the easy cheerfulness of which she took
especial pleasure. At table with her were the Countess
of Argyll, and the Commendator of Holyroodhouse, her
illegitimate sister and brother, Beaton of Criech, Master
of the Household, Arthur Erskine, captain of the guard,
and Riccio. Suddenly the arras which covered the private
entrance into the bed-chamber from Darnley's apartments
was lifted, and the King immediately entered the closet
in which Mary was seated, and, placing himself by her
side, threw his arm, in an affectionate manner, round her
waist. In another instant the arras in the adjacent room was
ftgain lifted abruptly, and Lord Ruthven stalked into the

MURDER OP RICCIO. (55

apartment, his tall figure clad in armour, and his face ghastly
with the pallor of recent sickness, and the ferocity of un-
bridled rage. Alarmed at the intrusion of so singular and
menacing an apparition, the Queen sprung to her feet, and
with that dignity which she could assume when necessary,
commanded Ruthven to leave the royal apartments. At
this moment the noise of persons rushing up the private
stairs was heard — then the tramp of heavy feet in the
adjoining room — and in the next instant, amid the glare
of brandished torches, Ker of Faldonside, George Douglas,
postulate of Arbroath, and several others, rushed into the
little apartment, with swords and daggers gleaming in
their hands ; " so rudely and irreverently," says a contem-
porary, that the table, with the candles and dishes on it,
were dashed upon the floor. The table fell upon the
Queen, then in the sixth month of her pregnancy, where-
upon Ruthven, brandishing his dagger, cried out, " No
harm is intended to you. Madam, but only to that villain."
The unfortunate Riccio, who saw that his life was aimed
at, sprung behind Mary, and, clutching her gown with tho
firm grasp of despair, cried out " Justice ! save my life,
Madam, save my Hfe!" The conspirators pressed for-
ward, and, while Darnley strove to unfasten Riccio's hold
of the Queen's person, Ker of Faldonside, a brutal bor-
derer, presented a pistol to her bosom, threatening to fire
if she made unnecessary resistance. While Darnley used
his strength to detain the Queen, George Douglas snatched
the King's dagger from its sheath, and, stabbing Riccio
with it over Mary's shoulder, left it sticking in his body.
The conspirators then dragged the wretched secretary
furiously through the bedroom and ante-chamber, stabbing
him as they went, till he fell at the head of the staircase,
outside the door of the ante-chamber, pierced by fifty-six

66 HISTORY OP HOLYEOOD.

desperate wounds. Mary, in the meanwhile, sat trembling
in the turret room, till one of her ladies brought her intel-
ligence that Riccio was slain, when, drying her tears, she
exclaimed, " Is it so ? — then I shall study revenge."

The brutal, repulsive Ruthven, with his dagger reeking
from the slaughter, now staggered into the royal closet,
exhausted by fatigue, and demanded a cup of wine, a re-
quest which was complied with ; but the Queen said, in a
determined tone of voice, " It shall be dear blude to some
of you." The mangled body of Riccio was dragged to
the porter's lodge, stripped naked, and treated with every
mark of indignity. It is alleged, however, that his corpse
was afterwards deposited for a time in the royal vault,
by the Queen's express orders, a circumstance afterwards
remembered to her disadvantage.

After the murder was consummated the assassins kept
the Queen a close prisoner in her own apartments, Dam-
ley assumed the regal power, dissolved the Parliament,
commanding the estates to leave Edinburgh within three
hours on pain of treason, and orders were sent to the
Magistrates enjoining them to be vigilant. To the Earl
of Morton and his armed retainers were entrusted the
gates of the Palace, with injunctions that none should
escape; nevertheless, the Earls of Atholl and Bothwell
contrived to elude the guards by leaping out of a win-
dow. On the following morning, which was Sunday, Sir
James Melville was " let fortb" at the gate. The Queen
saw him passing through the court-yard, and, throwing
np the window sash, she implored him to alarm the
lieges, that she might be delivered out of the hands of
traitors. The master of Lennox's household was sent
with a party to stop him, but Sir James was allowed
to proceed on declaring that he was merely " going to

MUEDEB OP RICCIO. 67

sermon in St. Giles's Church." " And then,*' says a con-
temporary, " the cry and noise rais throu the Cannogait
. . . whereupon the common tell rang in sic sort, that
everie man past to armour, and ruschit doun with Simon
Prestoun of Craigmillar, thair provest, to Haljrrudhous,
willing to have deliverit the Quenis grace and revengit
the cans forsaid."* Mary in vain entreated the assas-
sins to permit her to address the people from the window,
" to whom," she says, " we was not permitted to give an-
swer, being extremely hosted [threatened] by thir Lords,
who, in our face, declared, if we desired to have spoken
them, they should cut us in coUops and cast us over the
walls." t Damley appeared for her, assured the Provost
and his party that the Queen was safe, and commanded
them to disperse, an injunction which they instantly
obeyed.

On the evening of that Sunday the Earls of Moray
and Eothes, Lord Ochiltree, and others of the exiled
nobility, arrived in Edinburgh, according to their con-
certed plan, and instantly rode to Holyrood. They were
welcomed by Damley, and so unconscious was the Queen
of Moray's foreknowledge of the murder, that she sent
for him, threw herself into his arms, and in an agony of
tears exclaimed — "If my brother had been here, he
never would have suffered me to have been thus cruelly
handled." This incident overcame Moray, who is re-
ported to have wept. Yet, whatever might have been
the feelings of the Queen, and though a rigorous prosecu-
tion was instituted against the assassins, they were aH re-
ceived into the royal favour before the end of the year,
with the exception of Lord Ruthven, who died at New-

* Diurnal of Occorrents, p. 91.
t Mary's Letter to the Archbishop of Glasgow, ut svpra.

68 mSTORY OF HOLYROOD.

castle on the 13tli of June, and also of George Douglas,
the man who inflicted the first blow, and Ker of Faldon-
Bide, the ruffian who put a pistol to Mary's breast, who
were excepted from the general pardon. Only two per-
sons were executed for the murder of Riccio. Those
were Thomas Scott of Cambusmichael, then sherifl'-deputo
of Perth, and Henry Yair, formerly a priest, and con-
nected with the Chapel-Royal of Holyrood, who were tried
on the 1st of April, and sentenced to be hanged, drawn,
and quartered. Scott's head was spiked on a tower of
the Palace, and that of Yair on the Nether-bow. Wil-
liam Harlaw and John Mowbray, both burgesses of Edin-
burgh, who were tried and found guilty on the same day
with the two others, were brought to the place of execu-
tion, and pardoned at the intercession of the Earl of
Bothwell.

Mary soon succeeded in detaching Darnley from the
party of the assassins, and he had the hardihood to deny
having had any connection with the conspiracy. Ruth-
\en and his associates withdrew from the Palace to the
Earl of Morton's house, the guards were removed, and
the domestics of the Queen resumed their household du-
ties. This appears to have been on Monday, and at
midnight the Queen suddenly left Holyrood for the royal
castle of Dunbar, of which Bothwell was keeper, accom-
panied by Darnley, Arthur Erskine, the captain of the
guard, and one female attendant. Mary, accompanied
by her husband, and escorted by two thousand horsemen,
came to Edinburgh on the 18th, but, instead of taking up
her abode in Holyrood, occupied " my Lord Home's lodg-
ing, callit the auld bishope of Dunkell his lodeging anent
the Salt trone."* A few days afterwards she removed to
♦ Diurnal of Occurrents, p. 91.

anJKDER OP RICCIO. 69

another tenement nearer the Castle, probably the former
domicile of her mother, the Queen Eegent, on the Castle-
hill.

The Queen does not appear to have been often resident
in the Palace till after the birth of her son James "VI. in
Edinburgh Castle, on the 19th of June 1566. After her
recovery Mary indulged in excursions to Alloa House,
hunting expeditions into Peeblesshire and Perthshire, and
visits to Stirling and Drummond Castles, returning to
Edinburgh occasionally when her presence was required
for the public business. Though Damley, who had been
apparently reconciled to her at Alloa House by the in-
fluence of the French ambassador Mauvissiere, either fol-
lowed the Queen or accompanied her in those excursions,
he latterly chose to remain at Stirling, displaying that way-
ward recklessness peculiar to him, and annoying Mary by
threatening to leave the kingdom. The Queen was occa-
sionally at Holyrood in August and September 1656, dm'-
ing which months the excursions took place, and on the
29th of the latter month Damley arrived at the Palaco
about ten in the evening. The Queen on the morning of
that day received a letter from Lennox, announcing his
inability to dissuade his son from his intention of retiring
to the Continent, which she laid before the Privy Council.
Damley peremptorily refused to enter the Palace unless
the Earls of Moray, Argyll, and Rothes, the Secretary
Maitland of Lethington, and some of the Officers of State
who were within, should leave it ; and the Queen conde-
scended to wait on him at the entrance, and conducted
him to her own apartments, where he remained with her
during the night. She questioned him about his design
to leave Scotland, and requested to know his reasons for
60 extraordinary a project. These he refused to assign,

70 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

though he acknowledged that he had no cause of discon-
tent. On the following day the Privy Council met in the
Queen's apartments, and argued with Darnley respecting
the folly of the design which he had formed, either of his
own accord or at the instigation of others for some sinister
purpose ; and the Queen took him by the hand, entreating
hun to say whether she had ever offended him, and freely
to make known his sentiments. He thought proper to
deny that he had any intention of leaving the kingdom ;
he admitted that he had no cause of complaint ; and he
confessed that the Queen had ever been to him indulgent
and affectionate. He then abruptly retu-ed from the
Privy Council, saying to Mary^" Adieu, Madam, you
Bhall not see me for a long space;" and to the Privy
Council — " Adieu, gentlemen." This was apparently the
last time Darnley was within the Palace, from which he
immediately proceeded to his father at Glasgow.

CHAPTEB IX.

MURDER OF DARNLEY AND RISE 0¥
BOTHWELL.

[(^ARNLEY'S temper had now Lecomo so capricious,
and his carriage so unbearable to all about the
'^M*^ Court, that the dreadful fate, which soon befel
him, is not to be wondered at, when we remember the
fierce and bloodthirsty character of the times. The
Queen had discovered his falsehood and duplicity in
relation to the murder of her secretary, and, before
her accouchement, she was meditating a divorce, and
had actually sent a confidential messenger to Rome for
that purpose. She was in truth so miserable, that she
also entertained an intention of returning to France,
and of entrusting the Government of the kingdom to
a Regency composed of the Earls of Moray, Huntly,
Mar, Atholl, and Bothwell. After the birth of James
VI., however, her heart, influenced by the feelings of
a young mother, relented towards Damley, and a per-
fect reconcihation was prevented solely by his own head-
strong and capricious conduct. His behaviour in the
Palace, when he abruptly left the Privy Council, sealed
his fate, and it was now determined that his career should
be brief. The whole details of the plot against Damley
seem to have been finally arranged in CraigmiUar Castle,

7^ HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

in November, two months after the attempt was originally

resolved on.

Bothwell was now rising in the Queen's favour, and
as his residence was within the precincts of Holyrood, he
had frequent opportunities of evincing his devotedness to
her interests. Her partiality for him, though he was ten
years her senior, and had married Lady Jane Gordon a
few months before the birth of James VI., had been early
detected by Moray, Maitland, and their associates, who
artfully flattered his vanity, and encouraged an ambition,
daring enough at any time, to aspire to a height which he
had never before contemplated. On the 6th of October,
after attending a meeting of the Privy Council, Bothwell
left Edinburgh to quell some disturbances on the Borders,
and to prepare the frontier districts to receive the Queen.
It is alleged by Sir James Melville, from personal observa-
tion, that Bothwell's project, for the murder of Darnley
and the possession of the Queen's person, should be dated
from the time that he was sent to the Border ; but this
was his own private scheme, and Moray, Morton, Mait-
land, and others, were in a plot of their own, which, as
already stated, was formed about the end of September.

Mary, accompanied by the Officers of State, and the
whole Court, left Holyrood, on the 8th of October, for Jed-
burgh, to hold justice-ayres, the very day on which Both-
well, who had set out on the 6th, was severely wounded
in the hand in an encounter with a Border leader, named
Elliot of Park, at Hermitage Castle. Darnley was resi-
ding at the time with his father at Glasgow. It would be
irrelevant to this narrative to detail the Queen's proceed-
ings during this expedition — ^her fatiguing ride, from
Jedburgh to Hermitage Castle and back, in one day, to
visit Bothwell, when she was informed that he was

MURDER OF DARNLEV. 73

wounded — ^her dangerous illness on her return to Jed-
burgh— ^Darnley's hasty visit to her after her recovery —
and her progress to Edinburgh by Kelso, Coldingham, and
Dunbar. On the 20th of November the Queen arrived at
Craigmillar Castle, in which she continued to reside, in a
very debilitated state, till the 5th December, when she
removed to Holyrood. During Mary's sojourn in Craig-
millar she was visited by Darnley on the 26th, and he
remained with her a week. On the 11th of December tho
Queen left Holyrood for Stirling Castle, to be present at
the baptism of her son, and returned to Holyrood on the
14th of January 1566-7. On the 20th she had become
reconciled to Darnley, who had exhibited some of his
vagaries at Stirling on occasion of the royal baptism,
which he either refused or was not allowed to witness,
and who also had been seized with smallpox while on
his way from StirHng to Glasgow. On the 24th of Janu-
ary the Queen left Holyrood to bring Darnley from
Glasgow to Edinburgh, he having partially recovered from
his sickness. He had received some private intelligence
of the plots against him ; he was aware of the return from
exile of the Earl of Morton, who regarded him as tlio
cause of all his sufferings ; and he knew that among his
mortal enemies, who had never forgiven him for his
desertion of them after the murder of Eiccio, were some
of the most powerful nobility, who now enjoyed the confi-
dence of the Queen. At his interview with Mary in
Glasgow he expressed great contrition for his errors,
pleaded his youth, the few friends on whom he could now
rely, and declared his unalterable affection to herself.
The Queen told him, that as he was scarcely able to travel
on horseback, she had brought a litter to carry him to
Craigmillar, where she intended to give him the bath, and

74 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

added that the air of that place would be more salubrious
for a convalescent than that of Holyrood.

The Queen arrived at Edinburgh in company with
Darnley upon the 31st of January ; but the house of the
Provost of the Church of St. Mary-in-the Fields, commonly
called the Kirk-of-Field, on the site of the present Uni-
versity, was selected for his residence, in preference to
Craigmillar Castle.

It is impossible within our narrow limits to enter into
the details of the dreadful murd^er of Darnley in the Kirk-
of-Field House, early in the morning of the 10th of
February. The Queen had passed the greater part of
Sunday the 9th with him, on the most affectionate terms ;
and she, at first, had resolved to remain all night in the
house. She, however, recollected an engagement to honour
with her presence an entertainment at Holyrood, given
on occasion of the marriage of Sebastian, or Sebastiani,
a foreign domestic of the Palace, with Margaret Carwood,
one of her favourite women. When Mary left Darnley
she kissed him, put a ring on his finger as a mark of affec-
tion, and bade him adieu for the night. In the mean-
while, a large quantity of gunpowder had been deposited
in the "laiche and dame [low and concealed] pairts" of
the house ; and one of the parties who assisted in convey-
ing it to " Kirk-of-Field" says, that as they were returning
towards the Abbay "up the Black Frier Wind, the
Queues grace was gangand before thame with licht
torches." * Bothwell, also, left the Kirk-of-Field House at
the same time by a different entrance, and joined in the
festivities at the Palace, from which, however, he stole
away about midnight.

* Declaration of William Powrie. Pitc&im's Criminal Trialsi
vol. i. p. *49a

BIURDER OP DARNLEY. 75

Early in the morning many of the citizens of Edin-
burgh were awakened by a loud explosion, and, on pro-
ceeding to the spot, they found that the house had been
blown up with gunpowder. The bodies of Damley and a
page who slept in the same apartment with him were dis-
covered lying in the garden adjoining ; and of the house
of Kirk-of-Field " ther remainit not ano stone upon ane
other undestroyit."

The general voice of the public accused the Earl of
Both well of being the perpetrator, or at all events, the in-
stigator, of this abominable murder ; and the confessions
of his guilty associates, who afterwards suffered for their
crimes, established his criminality beyond a doubt. At
first, it appears, he had some hesitation as to the best mode
of accompUshing his horrid purpose ; but at last, as one
of the conspirators confessed, " he showed them how it
might be best done by powder." Bothwell superintended
the conveyance of the powder to the " Kingis house" in
person — at the time agreed on the match was Ut by John
Hepburn, commonly called " John of Bowtoun," a cousin-
german of the Earl's, and Bothwell himself returning to
the spot, " tarried in the yaird a lang time, and, when he
saw that the matter came not hastily to pass, he was
angry, and would have gone into the house himself.
Within a short space, however, it fyrit . . . and
when they saw the house rising [riseand], and heard the
crack, they ran their way."

When Bothwell entered his house on the morning of the
murder, he called for something to drink, undressed, and
went to bed, in vcliich he was scarcely hrT an hour when
a domestic rushed into his apartment, announcing in the
greatest consternation that " the King's house was blown
up, and the King was slain." " Fie, treason I" exclaimed

76 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

Bothwell in feigned astonishment, and instantly rose and
attired himself. He was immediately joined by the Earl
of Huntly, his brother-in-law, who was in the plot, and
they both proceeded to the Queen's apartments in the
Palace, accompanied by several persons connected with
the Court.

When Mary was informed of Darnley's fate she
evinced the utmost horror, and secluded herself in her
chamber, overwhelmed with sorrow. Early in the day
she removed to the Castle for security, and shut herself
up in a close apartment, apparently absorbed in grief at
the awful crime which had made her a second time a
widow. Meanwhile, at daybreak, multitudes of the citi-
zens crowded to the Kirk-of-Field. Bothwell soon ap-
peared with a guard, to prevent any minute examination
of Darnley's body, which was removed to a house in the
vicinity, where it lay till it was inspected by the Privy
Council. It was then earned to Holyrood, where it lay
in state for five days after the murder.* On the evening
of the 15th of February, it was privately deposited by
torchlight in the royal vault in the Chapel-Royal, in pre-
sence of the Lord Justice-Clerk Bellenden, and of Sir
John Stewart of Traquair, whom the Queen had recently
appointed Captain of her Guard. On the 23d of March
a "solemn saule mass, with a dergie" was sung in the
chapel of Holyroodhouse for the soul of the departed, by
the express command of the Queen.f

♦ In the Lord Treasurer's Accounts, there is an entry of £40
paid to " Martin Pitcanit, ypothegar," for embalming " the King's
Grace's Majestie's umquhill bodie."

t Birrel's Diary, p. 7.

CHAPTEK X

MARY AND BOTHWELL.

l^ARY avoided Holyrood, and remained in the
Ja Castle. Her physicians, alarmed for her health,
sent a statement to the Privy Council, who ad-
vised her to try a change of air for a short period, and on
the 16th of February, the day after Darnley's funeral, she
rode to Seton House, accompanied by the Earls of Both-
well, Huntly, and Argyll, Archbishop Hamilton of St.
Andrews, Lords Fleming and Livingstone, and Maitland
of Lethington, the whole of whom were implicated in the
plot, and about one hundred attendants. The Queen
continued at Seton House till the 7th of March, and it
was remarked that Bothwell advanced in her favour, and
enjoyed the most famihar intercourse with her. On the
7th of March she returned to Edinburgh Castle, and
again rode to Seton House on the 9 th, remaining only one
night.

Bothwell and others continued to be publicly accused
of Darnley's murder, yet no prosecution of the alleged
delinquents was instituted. An affected zeal was at
length displayed to bring the murderers to justice, never-
theless Httle was really done in the matter. On the mock
trial and acquittal of Bothwell on the 12th of April at
Edinburgh, it is unnecessary to enlarge. On the day of

7 b HISTORY OF EOLYROOD.

the trial Sir William Drury arrived in Edinburgh with a
letter from Elizabeth, and found the city in possession of
Bothwell's friends and followers, to the number of four
thousand men and two hundred hackbutters. His re-
tainers surrounded the Palace, and perambulated the
streets of the city; while the Castle, of which he had been
appointed governor on the 19th of March, was at his
command. The Queen was then in the Palace, and when
Drury presented himself to deliver the letter, the purport
of which was suspected, he was rudely designated an
" Enghsh villain," who had come to stop the trial, and
was informed that the Queen was too busy with other
aftairs of the day. At that moment Both well and Mait-
land of Lethington came out of the Palace, and Drury
gave Elizabeth's epistle to the latter, who retm-ned with
Bothwell and delivered it to Mary. They soon appeared
and mounted their horses, and Drury was informed by
Maitland that the Queen was asleep, and could not be
disturbed. This was immediately discovered to be a
falsehood ; for a servant of the French ambassador Le
Croc, who was standing near Drury, looking up towards
the Palace, saw and pointed out the Queen and Mary
Fleming, Maitland's wife, standing at a window. It was
also observed that the Queen gave Bothwell a friendly
salute as he rode out of the court-yard of the Palace to
his pretended trial. He was acquitted, and two days
afterwards he increased the excitement against him by
carrying some part of the Eegalia at the opening of the
Parliament. The Queen on this occasion declined the
ancient custom of a civic guard from Holyrood formed
under the auspices of the Magistrates, preferring a com-
pany of hackbutters.

The degi'adation of Mary was now about to be accom-

MARY AND BOTHWELL. 75

plished. On tlie 21st of April she left Holyrood to visit
the infant Prince at Stirling Castle, and when returning
on the 24th, Bothwell, at the head of eight hundi'ed horse-
men, seized her person near Almond Bridge, about six
miles from Edinburgh, and eleven from Linhthgow. He
conveyed the Queen to his castle of Dunbar, and two
days afterwards he commenced a process of divorce from
his Countess in the Archbishop of St. Andrew's Court,
and in the Commissary Court, recently instituted by the
Queen. In the former, his plea was founded on consan-
guinity, though Lady Jane Gordon, whom he had married
only a few months before the birth of James VI., was
merely his cousin in the fourth degree of relationship. In
the latter Court it was for adultery committed by him, at
the instance of his Countess. The marriage was declared
null in the Archbishop's Court on the 7th of May, four
days after the Consistorial Court had pronounced a similar
decision.

After a brief residence in Dunbar Castle with the man
universally accused of the murder of her husband, Mary
rode with him to Edinburgh. As it was then believed
that Bothwell by violence gained possession of the
Queen, the gates were ordered to be shut, the citizena
ran to arms, and the artillery of the Castle was fired. On
the 6th of May, the third day after the divorce had been
pronounced in the Consistorial Court at the instance of
Lady Jane Gordon for adultery, and on the day before it
was declared in the Court of the Archbishop of St,
Andrews, on the pretence of consanguinity, the Queen
entered the city by the West Port, and rode through the
Grassmarket, and up the West Bow to the Castle, Both-
well, on foot, leading her horse by the bridle — a sight wit-
nessed by her friends with the deepest sorrow, and by her

80 mSTORY OP HOLYROOD.

enemies with exultation and derision. On the 8th of May,
the day after the divorce was declared in the Archbishop's
Court, a proclamation was issued at Holyrood, announcing
that the Queen had resolved to marry Bothwell, and ou
the 11th she removed with him to the Palace. The pro-
clamation of the banns of marriage was reluctantly per-
formed by John Craig, the colleague of Knox, for which
he was afterwards vehemently assailed in the General
Assembly.

On the 12th of May, the Queen created Bothwell Duko
of Orkney and Marquis of Fife, placing the ducal coronet
on his head with her own hands in the Palace. The
marriage-contract was signed on the 13th, and on Thurs-
day the 15th, the unhappy nuptials were celebrated,
according to the new form, by Adam Bothwell, ex-Bishop
of Orkney, in the council-hall of the Palace, at the early
hour of four in the morning. The ceremony was prefaced
by a sermon by ex-Bishop Bothwell from the second
chapter of the Book of Genesis, in which he enlarged on
the bridegroom's penitence for his former life, and his re-
solution to amend and conform to the discipline of the
Protestant preachers. The event was not attended by
the pageants and rejoicings usual on such occasions, and
few of the leading nobility were in attendance.

Although Mary, after the marriage, assumed a gay attire
in Holyrood, and frequently rode out with Bothwell, and
although he appeared anxious to treat her with respect,
refusing to be covered in her presence, a species of
homage which she occasionally resented in a sportive
manner by snatching his bonnet, and putting it on his
head, yet at times the passionate temper of the man
violated all decorum, and those who saw the Queen in
private soon perceived that she was unhappy. It was

MARY AND BOTHWELL. 81

too evident, indeed, that she was suffering intense mental
agony, and her feelings of discomfort, on the very evening
of the day of her marriage to Bothwell, are described by
the French ambassador Le Croc, who visited her in the
Palace at her own request. Ho says that a strange
formality was apparent between the Queen and Bothwell,
which she entreated Le Croc to excuse, saying that, if
he ever saw her sad, it was because she had no wish to
be happy, which she never could be, as she wished only
for death. Le Croc also mentions that on a certain day,
when alone with Bothwell in a closet, she called aloud
for a knife to kill herself, which was heard by some of
the household in an adjoining room. Sir James Melville
states that the Queen was so " disdainfully handlit," and
with such " reproachful language," that in the presence of
himself and Arthur Erskine she demanded a knife to
"stick herself" — "or else," she said, "I shall drowm
myself." Mary had many warnings not to marry Both-
well, and she was now rapidly approaching the crisis of
her fate in Scotland.

For a short period after their marriage the Queen and
Bothwell publicly conducted themselves as if they had
no enemies ; and when informed of the private meetings
of their opponents, Mary spoke of them with contempt,
observing on one occasion — " Atholl is feeble ; for Argyll,
I know well how to stop his mouth ; as for Morton, his
boots are new pulled off, and still soiled; he shall be
sent back to his old quarters" — alluding to his recent
return from banishment to England ; but an alarum was
soon to be sounded to the nation, calling on all true sub-
jects to rescue the Queen from the power of the man to
whom she had so fatally allied herself. A formidable
confederacy was organized for seizing her and Bothwell

82 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

within the walls of Holyrood— for there they both re-
sided, the latter being too cautious to leave Mary at
liberty, and appearing, indeed, to think it necessary tQ
watch her with the greatest strictness. The Earl of
Argyll sent private information to the Queen of the medi-
tated assault on the Palace, and, in consequence, she and
her vile husband removed to Borthwick Castle on the 6th
of June. From this place she fled, in the disguise of a
page, to Dunbar Castle on the 11th of June, and on the
12th a proclamation, following on an act of the Privy
Council, summoned the lieges to convene from all the
principal towns to liberate the Queen from the thraldom
of the detested Bothwell. Finding that her army, though
well disposed to fight in her own cause, was reluctant to
support her husband, Mary surrendered herself to the
confederated nobility at Oaiberry hill, near Musselburgh,
on the 15th of June 1567 She never again saw Both-
well, for he fled with precipitation before the Queen sur-
rendered herself; and, sailmg to the north, became a
corsair among the Orkney islands, till, having been seized
by a Danish vessel, he was immured in a dungeon, where
he terminated his guilty life ; solemnly declaring before
his death that the Queen was innocent of complicity in
the murder of Darnley.

Mary, now the captive of her own subjects, was
brought to Edinburgh, where the lower classes re-
ceived her with insult and cries of indignation. Almost
naked, and disfigured with dust and tears, she rode be-
tween the Earls of Morton and AthoU, through the pres-
sure of the infuriated multitude, and was lodged in a
house in the High Street, known by the nama of the
Black Turnpike. She was afterwards removed to Holy-
rood, and tie citizens who had apparently relented to-

MABY AND BOTHW£LL. 83

wards her in her now defenceless position, were assured
by the insurgent lords that she should speedily be libe-
rated. Her confinement had, however, been determined
on, and, accordingly, on the night of the 16th of June she
was hastily conveyed to Lochleven Castle, under the
charge of Lords Ruthven and Lindsay. Before issuing
from the Palace she was compelled to relinquish the ap-
parel suited to her rank and disguise herself, so as not to
be recognized, and was not permitted even to carry a
change of dress along with her.

Thus did Mary Stuart bid adieu to Holyrood, the
Palace of her fathers, whose halls were never again to be
brightened with the lustre of her presence, though des-
tined, in after ages, to be lit by the twilight of her
memory, and visited by pilgrims from every clime, the
votaries of her beauty and her sufferings. Her subsequent
career may be told in a few words. In the rude tower of
Lochleven, on an islet where she could scarce walk fifty
yards in one direction, she was detained for nearly a
year. While in this miserable abode, the Lords of the
Secret Council despatched Lord Lindsay, the sternest of
the insurgent nobles, to compel her to renounce the crown
in favour of her infant son. Mary, it would appear, though
desolate and depressed, displayed considerable reluctance
to acquiesce in this extreme measure ; and Lindsay, with
a brutal unmanliness, that ill became the chivalry of his
house, squeezed the arm of the lovely Queen in his iron
glove, to compel her to subscribe the deed of renuncia-
tion. On the 2d of May 1568 she escaped from her
prison-house, and was received on the opposite shore by
a powerful band of the Hamiltons, her faithful followers,
who escorted her to a place of safety. Multitudes rushed
to arms at the news of her deliverance. Her beauty, and

84 HISTORY OF flOLYROOD.

the gentleness of her manners, were fresh in the memory
of all, and her errors were almost obliterated by the severity
of the punishment by which they had been followed. Her
army, however, was defeated chiefly by its own rashness,
on the field of Langside, on the 13th of May, and she
was compelled to be a fugitive. At this moment of peril
she might have escaped to France, the country of her
happiest hours and fondest recollections, where she was
assured of a cordial reception. Unhappily, however, she
preferred throwing herself on the generosity of Queen
Elizabeth, and fled into England, against the entreaties of
her kneeling followers — there to be the victim of one long
train of dissimulation and vindictiveness ; and, at length,
after a weary imprisonment of more than eighteen years,
to perish on the block, by the cruel and unjustifiable man*-

date of that

false woman,

Ber sister and her fae.

CHAPTER XI.

HOLYllOOD IN THE REIGN OF JAMES VL

^HE minority of James VI. was passed in Stirling
Castle. About the end of September 1579, the
King, then in his fourteenth year, made his first
public entry into Edinburgh, and proceeded direct to
Ilolyrood. On this occasion the office of Lord High
Chamberlain was revived, and conferred on Esme Stuart,
Lord D'Aubigny, the King's cousin, who had recently
arrived from France, and was soon afterwards created
Duke of Lennox. James VI., however, was not often a
resident in Holyrood till some years afterwards. Tho
seizure of his person in the Eaid of Ruthven, in August
1582, enabled the parties connected with that affair to
bring him to Edinburgh ; and in a convention held in the
Palace, it was proposed to raise two hundred horse and
two hundred foot, nominally for his protection, though
the real object was to secure his detention. The King
contrived to escape from his keepers in the following
year in Fifeshire, and the next notice which occurs of
him in connection with Holyrood is on the 13th May
1586, when he convened in the Palace all the Nobility
who were at feud, and, after a banquet, caused them to
" shake hands togidder, and to drink ane to ane ither."
He then caused them to form a procession to the Cress in
the High Street, walking hand in hand, he himself ac-

86 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

companying them, that the citizens might witness the
apparent reconciliation he had eJBfected. The Town-
Council were as usual compelled to be parties to this
exhibition, by providing copious libations of wine at the
Cross.

On the 6th of May 1590, James VI. brought his Queen,
Anne of Denmark, to Holyrood, and on the 17th of that
month she was crowned in the Chapel-Royal. On the
19 th they publicly entered Edinburgh by the West Port,
and proceeded through the city to the Palace, amid great
rejoicings. It is recorded of the pageant by an eye-
witness, that " young boys, with artificial wings, at her
entrey did flee towards her, and presented her two silver
keys of the city ; the Castell shot off all its ordnance fivo
several times, and at night the towne was put full of
bonefyres." * On this occasion the Magistrates proceeded
to the Palace, and presented the Queen with a rich jewel,
which James had deposited with them as security for a
conbiderable sum of money he had borrowed from them ;
and they were compelled to take his verbal promise as a
pledge of payment, which, however, he never found it
convenient to recollect. James had rather a defective
memory in regard to such matters.

The feastings and rejoicings continued at Holyrood
and in the city for a month, when the Danish attendants
of the Queen departed, amply stored with presents.
Nevertheless the King's pecuniary raids against the
Magistrates continued ; and, summoning them one day to
the Palace, he obliged them to borrow from him £40,000
Scots, a part of the Queen's marriage-portion recently
paid him, exacting from them double the rate of interest
for which they could have borrowed the money elsewhere.
* Birrel's Diary, p. 25.

»EIGN OF JAMES VI* 87

In all his Epeculations with the Town-Council, the King
was zealously supported by the Incorporated Trades, the
deacons of which he had contrived to attach to his
interest.

The violent conduct of Francis, Earl otf Bothwell, was
at this time conspicuous. One of his projects was to se-
cure the King's person. On the 22d of June 1591, he
escaped from Edinburgh Castle, and, after a brief sojourn
in Caithness, he repaired to the English Border, where he
endeavoured to raise a force to overawe the Eng. Under
the pretence of expelling his enemy, the Sub-Chancellor
Maitland, from the royal councils, and favoured, also, by
some of the King's attendants, Bothwell appeared in Edin-
burgh on the 27th of December 1591, and was admitted,
late in the evening, into the court-yard of Holyrood. His
adherents immediately raised the cry — " Justice 1 justice !
a Bothwell I a Bothwell 1" The forfeited Earl then has-
tened to the King's apartments, the doors of which he
found carefully secured — notice of his intended assault
having been received by Sir James MelviUe, and his
brother Sir Robert two days previously, and the King also
having received sufiBcient warning, which he thought
proper to disregard. Bothwell called for fire to bum the
doors, which resisted his weapons, and the Queen's apart-
ments were also attacked, on the supposition that the
King would be found in one of them. The door of a
gallery was successfully defended by Henry Lindsay,
Master of the Queen's Household, and the King was con-
veyed to a turret of the Palace, which he reached oppor-
tunely while the invaders were still assailing the doora
with hammers, and calling for fire to consume them.
During this tumult, the brother of Scot of Balwearie was
shot in the thigh, and two of the King's domestics were

88 mSTOKY OP HOLYROOD

killed on the south side of the Palace. Bothwell was at
length compelled to retire, leaving nine of his followers in
custody, who were hanged without trial next day betwixt
the Girth Cross and the porch of the Palace.

The King went on the day after this attempt to St.
Giles's Church, and made a speech to the congregation in
reference to his deliverance. The outrage revived the
prosecutions against Bothwell and his accomphces, among
whom are enumerated his Countess, James Douglas of
Spott, Archibald Wauchope, younger of Niddry, and
several other persons. On the 5th of June 1592, the
Parliament ratified the forfeiture of Bothwell and several
others, for " invading his Majesty's maist noble person by
fyre and sword, breaking up his chamber-doors with
fore-hammers, and cruelly slaying his highness' servants.'*

Bothwell either cared little for those proceedings
against him, or he was rendered desperate by being out-
lawed and attainted. Although he escaped with difiiculty
from the outrage in Holyrood, he made a second unsuc-
cessful attempt to secure the King's person on the 17th
of July 1592 in Falkland Palace, where James usually
resided during the summer and autumn months. So nu-
merous are the denouncings of Bothwell, his partisans, and
" resetters," that one would almost think the Government
did nothing else than level anathemas against them. Yet
he had many powerful friends, and he formed a party in hia
favour among the Presbyterian ministers, whose influence
was so considerable, that whenever they were pleased to
annoy the King they could defy the Government. It is said
that Queen EHzabeth interceded for him, and that he was
invited from exile by the Duke of Lennox, the Earl of Atholl,
and Lord Ochiltree. The repeated proclamations against
him had apparently excited a sympathy in his favour, es-

REIGN OP JAMES VI. 89

pecially among the secret eucmies of the court favourites.
Bothwell soon returned to Edinburgh, and it was arranged
that he should present himself before the King in Holy-
rood on the 24th of July 1593, some weeks after his at-
tainder in the High Court of Justiciary. It is stated that
Bothwell seized the gates of the Palace, and was followed
by a number of armed retainers into the royal apartments.
He had lodged the preceding night in Lady Gowrie's
house behind the Palace. He found the King coming
from the back stair in the utmost consternation, carrying
his " breeks in his hand ;" and James, without attendants,
and unable to resist a band of armed men, called on him
to consummate his treason by piercing his sovereign to
the heart. Bothwell, however, laid down his sword, fell
on his knees, and implored pardon. James yielded from
necessity to his entreaties, and a few days afterwards ac-
tually signed a capitulation with this rebellious and out-
lawed peer, to whom he was now in reality a prisoner, in
which he pledged himself to remit all his past offences,
Bothwell on his part promising to withdraw from the
court, and live peaceably on his own estate. This state
of things was of short duration, and it was evidently im-
possible for him to remain in quietude. He eventually
fled to England, from which Elizabeth expelled him in
compliance with the urgent request of James VI., who
had adjusted his quarrels with the preachers, and induced
them to excommunicate the fugitive. Bothwell retired
to the Continent, and lived several years in obscurity and
indigence, plunging into the lowest and most infamous
debauchery, in which condition he died, the King refus-
ing to listen to any intercession on his behalf, or to be
influenced by offers of submission.

James VI. continued to reside in Holyrood, at timea

90 mSTORY OF HOLYROOD.

varying the scene by resorting to Linlithgow, Stirling,
Falkland, and to Dunfermline, which was his Queen^a
jointure palace, and the birth-place of some of his chil-
dren. The birth of his son Prince Henry, in 1594, in-
duced the Magistrates of Edinburgh to send ten tuns of
wine to Holyrood, and they commissioned a hundred of
the citizens to be present at the baptism. As the gift
was unexpected and peculiarly acceptable, James invited
the Magistrates to the baptism of the Princess EHzabeth
in Holyrood, on the 28th of November 1596. This was
considered so complementary an act by the civic func-
tionaries, that they engaged to give the Princess 10,000
merks on her marriage-day, which they honourably ful-
filled, adding 5000 to the sum.

On the 17th of December 1596 occurred the seriou3
riot, in which the mob attacked the King, who was trans-
acting some state business in the Tolbooth. This dis-
order was occasioned by the Presbyterian ministers, be-
tween whom and the King a mortal feud had existed for
some time, and who were then assembled in St. Giles's
Church. It was announced to the King that they were
coming to murder him, and the utmost excitement pre-
vailed, some exclaiming — "For God and the King!"
and others— "For God and the Kirkl" The room in
which the King sat was thronged with a tumultuous as-
semblage, and the building surrounded by an infuriated
mob, and James's person might have been endangered,
" had not his Majesty's standard-bearer, John Wat, dea-
con-conveener of the trades, drawn up his lads, the soul-
diers of the Blue Blanket, and kept the rabble back till
their fever cooled, and the Earl of Mar, from the Castell,
sent a company of musquiteers to guard the King."*
* Pennecuik's Historical Account of the Blue Blanket

REIGN OP JAMES VI. 91

Early on the following morning, however, James and his
Privy Council departed to Linlithgow, and a proclamation
was issued, declaring Edinburgh to be a dangerous resi-
dence for the court, and for the administration of justice,
and ordering the judges, the nobihty, and others, to retire
from the city, and not to return without the royal permis-
sion. On the 20th the Magistrates were ordered to ap-
prehend and commit to the Castle ten of the leading
Presbyterian preachers, who were summoned to appear
before the Privy Council on the 23d, to answer for their
seditious conduct, and on the 25th they and some of the
citizens were denounced as rebels. Edward Johnncs-
toune, merchant, burgess of Edinburgh, was tried for
being art and part with the " seditious raskallis," and was
fined 3500 merks.* Those proceedings were followed by
several stringent measures against the city; and the in-
habitants were in a state of despair at the threat to
deprive Edinburgh of its advantages as the seat of the
court and of the Supreme Judicature. On the last day
of December the King returned to Holyrood, and ap-
pointed several noblemen to take possession of the city
gates, whUe he proceeded to St. Giles's Church to hear a
sermon by Mr. David Lindsay of Leith ; after which he
rose and addressed the congregation, denouncing the
seditious ministers. The interposition of Queen Elizabeth
afforded James, who was actuated more by policy than
incHnation, a pretext for abating his resentment; and a
reconciliation was effected on certain conditions, one of
which was that the city should pay a fine of 20,000, or,
according to Birrel, 30,000 merks. This was willingly
done, although the coffers were in a deplorably low con-
dition, and the quarrel ended in a carousal of the Town-
* Pitcaira's Trials, vol ii. p. 29.

92 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

Council, at which the King was present, drinking wiUi
the "Bailies and Deacons," while the bells of St. Giles's
sounded their peals, and bands of music paraded tho
streets.

In 1598 Holyrood received a royal visitor in the per-
son of Philip, Duke of Holstein, the brother of Queen
Anne, who arrived in Edinburgh on the 14th of March.
Tlie Town-Council invited him to a banquet in "Mac-
morran's lodging" on the 2d of May, at which the King
and Queen were present, and on the 3d of June the Duke
embarked at Leith for Denmark.

The death of Queen Elizabeth, on the 24th day of
March 1603, obtained for James VI. the great object of
his ambition, the crown of England. Sir Robert Carey,
unknown to the English Privy Council, instantly left
London for Edinburgh, and arrived at Holyrood with re*
markable celerity, considering the state of the roads in
those times. Carey was well known to James VI., into
whose good graces he had insinuated himself, when
he came to Scotland with Secretary Walsingham. The
King had retired before Carey appeared at Holyrood, but
he was quickly admitted, and conveyed to the royal bed ■
chamber, where he knelt, and saluted James as King of
England. He was thus the first person to announce to
James VI. his accession. The King gave him his hand
to kiss, and bade him welcome. Carey, after narrating
the particulars of Elizabeth's decease, told the King,
that, instead of bringing letters from the English Privy
Council, he had purposely avoided them ; but he could
produce an undoubted evidence of his veracity, and
thereupon he presented a sapphire ring. This ring
was from Lady Scroope, Carey's sister, a lady con-
nected with Elizabeth's Court, with whom James had

REIGN OP JAMES VI. 93

maintained a constant correspondence for some years, and
it had been sent to her by the King, with positive in-
structions to return it to him by a special messenger, as
soon as the Queen expired. Lady Scroope had no op-
portunity of delivering it to her brother while he was in
the Palace of Richmond, but, waiting at the window till
she saw him outside of the gate, she threw it to him, and
he well knew what it intimated. James, still in bed,
took the ring, carefully examined it, and said — " It is
enough; I know by this you are a true messenger."
Carey was entrusted to the charge of Alexander, sixth
Lord Home, who was ordered to treat him hospitably.
The King sent his own surgeons to assist in curing a
wound, which he had received by a fall and a stroke
from his horse after he left Norham, and when he kissed
the hand of James at retiring for the night he was told —
" I know yon have lost a near kinswoman and a loving
mistress ; but, take here my hand, I will be as good a
master to you, and will requite this service with honour
and reward." A few days afterwards Carey was sworn
one of the gentlemen of the King's bed-chamber ; but,
notwithstanding the above royal pledge, he himself ob-
serves— " I only relied on God and the King. The ono
never left me : the other, shortly after his coming to
London, deceived my expectations, and adhered to those
who sought my ruin."

Three days after Elizabeth's death, the keys of Ber-
wick were presented to James VI. in HoljTood, and, on
the 28th, John Bothwell, Commendator of Holyrood, took
possession of that town. On the same day James sent a
letter to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen of London, dated
from Holyroodhouse, thanking them tor their activity in
proclaiming him King. Ho now made arrangements for

94 fflSTORY OP HOLYEOOD.

a speedy departure to London. On Sunday the 3d of
April he went to St. Giles's Church, and after the sermon,
which he is said to have taken in " good part," [which of
course intimates that the preacher had indulged in some
liberties], he rose and addressed the congregation, who are
said to have been deeply affected, and to have expressed
their grief by sobs and tears. The vast accession of
dignity and wealth which had fallen to the lot of James,
in which all hoped, to some extent, to participate, seems
to have had a strong effect upon the tender feelings of his
Presbyterian auditors. On the 5th of April the King left
Holyrood fbr England, attended by a numerous cavalcade
of Scottish nobility and gentry, and several English
knights. He was followed on the 1st of June by the
Queen and Prince Charles, who on the 28th of May came
to Holyrood from Stirling, and on the 30th, took leave of
the citizens in St. Giles's Church, to which the local chro-
nicler says, her Majesty was " weiU convoyit with coaches,
herself and the Prince in her awn coache, quhilk came
home with her out of Denmark, and the English gentle-
women in the rest of the coaches. They heard ane guid
sermone in the kirk, and thereafter raid hame to Halyrud-
house."*

The promise of James, in St. Giles's Church, to visit
Holyrood every third year, was not realized, and it was
not till 1617 that he was enabled to revisit his native
kingdom.

His intention to proceed to his ancient capital had been
officially announced to the Scottish Privy Council in
1616, and on the 24th of December, a " Direction " was
issued, ordering the Magistrates to procure a list of all
the lodgings and stables within Edinburgh, the Canon-
• Birrel's Diary, pp. 5i), Wt

REIGN OF JAMES VI. 95

gate, and suburbs, to " foresee and provide that there be
good ludgeings withm the saidis boundis for fyve thou-
sand men, and stables for fyve thousand horse ; " and, if
accommodation to that extent could not be obtained,
commanding temporary stables to bo erected. The
King entered Edinburgh on the 16th of May, and was
received with the utmost enthusiasm. Drummond of
Hawthomden had composed a speech, which he intended
to recite at the West Port ; but by some means or other
he was prevented from dehvering his laboured oration.
The king proceeded to Holyrood by the Grassmarket,
the West Bow, the High Street, and the Canongate, after
hearing a sermon by Archbishop Spottiswoode in St.
Giles's Church, and knighting William Nisbet of Dean,
the Provost. Mr. John Hay, Clerk Register-Depute, wel-
comed the King at the Palace, in an address containing
the grossest adulation, and James then repaired to the
Chapel-Royal to hear another sermon preached by Arch-
bishop Spottiswoode. Returning to the Palace, the King
was presented, at the gate of the inner court, with a book
of Latin poems, which is preserved in the Library of the
British Museum, beautifully bound in crimson velvet and
superbly gilt. The authors of these laudatory effusions
were the Professors in the University of Edinburgh, and
a Latin speech was delivered in their name by Mr. Patrick
Nisbet. The Magistrates afterwards entertained the King
and his retinue at a sumptuous banquet.

Having already compelled the Presbyterians to adopt
the Episcopal form of church government, the King was
resolved to assimilate, as far as lay in his power, the
Scottish Kirk to her English sister ; and the Church of
the Abbey was the chief scene of his bold experiment.
This edifice, since the period of the Reformation, had been

96 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

used as the parish church of the Canongate, a district to
which, of course, its ministrations had been partially
devoted, while in the hands of the Canons Regular.

As early as 1559 the service of Common Prayer, which
was at first approved of by the leaders of the Presbyterian
party, was performed within its walls. In that year,
Spottiswoode informs us* that the officers of the French
troops, whom the Queen Regent had brought over, made
a practice of going into the reformed churches, and inter-
rupting the service by laughing and talking " so loud all
the time, as the preacher could not be heard" ....
" the like they did in the Abbey Church, forcibly abolish-
ing the service of Common Prayers, which there was
ordinarily used." In 1562 Mr. John Craig appears, from
the records of the Church of Scotland, f to have been
" minister at Halierudehouse," and in the same year he
was conjoined with Knox "in the ministry of Edin-
burgh." J In 1573 we read of the " parochiners of Haly-
rudhouse ;" and in the year following we find that Mr.
Johne Brand was minister, and that there was also an
Alexander Thomsoun, " Reidare at Halyrudhous," whose
salary was to be paid by the " Cannogait."§ The Church
in Scotland for several years exhibited a strange medley
of Episcopalian and Presbyterian elements : the services
partaking principally of Presbyterian forms, but the clergy
themselves being frequently invested even with Episcopal
dignity. Such appears to have been the condition of the
Church of Holyrood in the beginning of the seventeenth
century. From the end of the year 1615 till the com-

* Vol. i. p. 2S7. Spottiswoode Society's Edit,
t The Booke of the Universall Kirk, i. p. 13.

X Idem. p. 17.
§ Miscellany of Wodrow S«ciety, vol. 1. p. 3CS.

REIGN OF JAMES VI, 97

mencement of 1619, when he died, William Coiipar, Bishop
of Galloway, whom the General Assembly had recom-
mended to the King for elevation to the Episcopal ofQco,*
officiated as Dean of the Chapel-Royal.

Before the King's arrival in Edinburgh, in 1617, ho
sent workmen from London to repair the Chm'ch of Holy-
rood, and ornament its interior. Among other decorations
there was certain carved and gilt woodwork, consisting of
figures of the Apostles, which was " to be set in the pewa
or stalls ;" and an organ also was ordered to be erected in
a gallery, above the grand western entrance. These
measures threatening to excite a popular commotion, a
letter of remonstrance was written by the Dean, and
signed by Archbishop Spottiswoode and several of the
Bishops, and the decorations objected to appear not to
have been introduced into the Chapel. The organ, how-
ever, was erected in a short time. We learn the state of
the Chapel in June 1617, in a letter from Secretary Lake,
written at Edinburgh, to Sir Dudley Carleton : — " His
Majesty," he says, " hath set up his chapel here in like
manner of service as it is in England, which is well fre-
quented by the people of this country." The Earl of
Dunfermline, writing in December of the same year to
King James, speaks of his Majesty's " Chappell in Haly-
rudhous, builded up of new, with all ornaments, and due
furnitour [which] might be required in ane royal chappell,
and maist magnificklie deckt and set furth." f Calderwood
informs us that " upon Saturday, the 17th of May, the
EngUsh service, singing of choristers, playing on organs,
and surplices were first heard and seen in the Chapel-
Royal." Row, speaking of James's alterations on the

* Keith, p. 280.

t Melrose Fapers, printed for Abbotsford Club, vol. i. p. 298,

G

98 HISTORY OF EOLYEOOD

Chapel, says " quherin wis a glorious altar sett up, with
two closed bybles, two unlightened candles, and two
basins, without water, sett thereon."* On Whitsunday,
the 8th of June, when Bishop Andrewes, a learned English
prelate, preached before the Kmgin the Chapel-Royal, the
communion was taken in a kneeling posture ; and this, it
is said by some writers, was the first time since the Eefor-
mation that it had been so administered within this
church. Bishop Coupar, the Dean, at first opposed the
innovation, but was at length persuaded to acquiesce
in it.

It would be out of place to enumerate the progresses
of James during this visit to Scotland, with all the ful-
some adulation of the addresses, and the self-satisfied
pedantry of the replies. On the 11th of June the King
went to the Castle of Dalkeith, then the seat of William,
seventh Earl of Morton. The Parliament had met on the
27th of May, in the " Over Tolbooth," and, from the 17th
to the 28th of June, the king attended daily, riding
thither the first day in great state. He left Holyrood im-
mediately after the rising of the Parliament, on the 28th
of June, and entered Stirling on the 30th, and then re-
turned to England by Glasgow, Paisley, Hamilton, and
Dumfries.

»•* Row's History, vol i. p. 113.

CHAPTER XII.

CORONATION OF CHAELES I. AT HOLYROOD.

^^(^N the 15th of Juno 1630, Sir James Balfour, who hag
^'k »l ^^^* behind him a minute description of tho Coro-
^^^^ nation of Charles I. at Holyrood, was solemnly
inaugurated Lord Lyon-King-at-Arms in the Chapel-
Royal by the Lord Chancellor Dupplin, the King's Com-
missioner; and the Lord Lyon, after the ceremony,
banqueted the Commissioner, the Privy Council, and the
Judges of the Court of Session, in the Earl of Linlithgow's
house adjoining to the Palace. Conventions of the
Estates were held at Holyrood on the 28th of July, the
3d of November 1630, the 31st of March, the 20th of
April, the 26th of July 1631, and the 7th of September
1632, but nothing of importance occurs in the history of
the Palace and its Chapel-Royal till 1633, when they
were the scene of the coronation of Charles L, and the
subsequent festivities. On Saturday, the 15th of June,
the King, accompanied by Laud, then Bishop of London,
White, Bishop of Ely, and a number of the English nobi-
lity and gentry, entered Edinburgh on horseback, with
the greatest pomp and magnificence,* and arrived at Holy-
rood by the same route through the city which his father
had traversed in 1617. On Sunday he attended divine
* Aunales of Scotland, vol. ii. pp. 196, 7, 8; vol. iv. p. 354.

100 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

service in the Chapel-Royal, which was performed by his
chaplain, Bishop Bellenden of Dunblane. On Monday
the 17th, William, Earl of Angus, was created Marquis of
Douglas, and George, Viscount Dupplin, was created Earl
of KinnouU, in the drawing-room of the Palace, and
eleven gentlemen were knighted; after which the lung
went privately in his coach to the Castle, in which ho
passed the night, and on the following day the coronation
took place.

On the occasion of that ceremonial, a stage, or plat-
form was erected in the centre of the Chapel-Royal, four
*'oet above the floor, and twenty-four feet in length and
breadth, and fastened to the four centre pillars of the
church. This platform was surrounded by a railing, and
covered with carpets. In the centre, looking towards
the west, and fronting the organ gallery, was an entrance
to the platform with three steps, and there was the same
egress towards the east, fronting the altar or communion
table, which was of course under the east window. On
this platform was another elevation two feet in height,
which was reached by two steps, richly decorated, and
on it the throne was placed. A chair, covered with
crimson velvet, embroidered with gold, was placed on
the right, between the platform and the communion
table, with a footstool and cushions, and before this chair
was a small table covered with crimson velvet, fringed
and laced with gold, on which lay a riclily ortiamented
bible.

The pulpit, which was covered with crimson velvet,
was placed near the communion table, on the north side
of the Chapel-Royal, and on the west of the pulpit were
placed two seats for the Lord Archbishop of St. Andrews
end the other officiating prelates. Immediately in front

COSONAtlON OF CHARLES I. 101

of the communion table was placed, what Sir James Bal-
four calls, a little desk, covered with a rich embroidery of
gold and green silk, and before it were cushions on which
the King knelt during divine service.

On the mpming of the 18th a splendid procession of
the Nobility, Officers of State, and public functionaries,
preceded the King from the Castle to Holyrood. Six
trumpeters first issued from the Castle gate, two and two,
clothed in scarlet and gold lace ; and then came the Barons
in scarlet robes, followed by the Bishops in their robes.
Next were the Viscounts and Earls, followed by Dr. Pa-
trick Lindsay, Archbishop of Glasgow, unattended. The
Great Officers of State succeeded, who were followed by
six pursuivants, two and two ; York Herald of England,
alone ; then six heralds, two and two, preceding Norroy,
King of Arms of England. The Master of Kequesta
came next, attended by the celebrated Dr. John Guthry,
Bishop of Moray, who acted as Almoner for that day.
Sir James Balfour, the Lord Lyon-King-at- Arms, followed,
supported by two gentlemen ushers, after whom came in
order the Earl of Eghnton bearing the spurs, the Earl of
Buchan bearing the sword, and the Earl of Rothes bear-
ing the sceptre. The crown was carried by the Earl of
Arran, supported on his right hand by the Earl of Errol,
Lord High Constable, and on his left by the Duke of
Lennox and the Earl Marisehal. All these noblemen
were on horseback, the Earls, Viscounts, and Lyon-King-
at- Arms, says Sir James Balfour, having " ther crounes
and capes carried by gentlemen on the left syde of ther
horses, hard by the stirupe." Then appeared the King,
dressed in crimson velvet, his train carried by several
noblemen and gentlemen. After the King came the
Marquis of Hamilton, Master of his Majesty's Horse j

102 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

next the Earl of Suffolk, Captain of the Gentlemen Pen-
sioners ; and last of all the Earl of Holland, Captain of
the Yeomen of the Guard, followed by the yeomen.

The pavement of the great court of the Palace was
covered with blue cloth, on which the King walked till ha
reached the grand western, door of the Chapel-Royal. A
canopy of crimson velvet, laced and fringed with gold,
was carried over the King, by the eldest sons of six Earls
and a Viscount, supported by six Barons. At the door
of the Chapel-Royal the King was received by Dr. John
Spottiswoode, Archbishop of St. Andrews, Lord Primate
of Scotland. When he entered the sacred edifice, the
King knelt down in a devotional manner for a short space,
and, then rising, a procession was formed towards the
elevated platform in the middle of the church, composed
of the Archbishop, the Dean of the Chapel-Royal, several
bishops, preceded by the choristers of the Royal Chapel,
and followed by the King, supported by the Nobility and
great Officers of State. His Majesty was then conducted
to a chair placed against the western pillar of the church
on the north side, where he sat down, and was addressed
in a short speech by the Rev. James Hannay, preacher of
the Chapel-Royal. The King then rose, and moved for-
ward along the church, the choir receiving him with tho
anthem on the organ — "Behold, 0 Lord, our Protector,
and look upon the face of thine Anointed ; because one
day in thy court is better than a thousand." The King
ascended the elevated platform in the middle of the
church, and seated himself in the royal chair.

The crown, sceptre, sword, and spurs were delivered
by their respective noble bearers to the chief gentleman
usher, who laid these insignia of royalty on a small table,
covered with green velvet, laced and fringed with gold,

CORONATION OF CHARLES I. 103

which was placed on the south side of the communion
table. Sir James Balfour, as Lord Lyon, then appeared
carrying a gold ampulla, or vessel contaming the anoint-
ing oil, which he had received from the Dean of the
Chapel-Royal at the great western door. This he deli-
vered to Archbishop Spottiswoode, who deposited it on
the communion table.

The King, after reclining a short tune in the chair on
the platform, now left it, and moved to the chair of state
opposite the pulpit. The ceremony commenced with a
sermon, preached by Dr. David Lindsay, Bishop of
Brechin, from the First Book of Kings, i. 39. Wlien
this was concluded the King returned to his chair on the
platform. The Archbishop of St. Andrews, accompanied
by the Lord High Constable, the Earl Marischal, and the
Lord Lyon, who went before the Primate, addressed the
people from each comer of the platform : — " Sirs, I pre-
sent unto you King Charles, the rightful heir of the crown
and dignity of this realm. This day is by the peers ol
the kingdom appointed for the coronation of his Majesty.
Are you willing to acknowledge him as your sovereign,
and to be dutiful and obedient subjects?" The people
responded with loud acclamations — "God save King
Charles 1" During the Archbishop's announcement to
the assemblage, the King stood, and turned himself in
the direction of the Primate at every comer. The
choir then commenced the anthem, — " Let thy hand be
Btren^-ihened," and the 80th Psalm, concluding as usual
with the " Gloria PatrV When the anthem was sung,
the Ajchbishop returned to the communion table.

The King now approached the communion table,
supported by Dr. Adam Bellenden, Bishop of Dunblane
and Dean of the Chapel -Royal, on the right, and bj

104 HISTORY OS? nOLYKOOD.

Bishop Guthry of Moray on the left, where ho made his
oblation, which was received in a gold cup by the
Primate. His Majesty then knelt at the desk already
mentioned, during which time the Archbishop said a
prayer. He then sat down in his chair, and the Arch-
bishop approached him from the communion table, and
asked if he were ready to take the oaths appointed to be
put on such occasions. An answer was returned in the
affirmative, and the Archbishop proceeded — "Sir, will
you promise to serve Almighty God to the uttermost of
your power, as He hath required in His most holy Word,
and according to the same Word, maintain the true
reUgion of Christ now preached and possessed within this
realm, aboHshing and withstanding whatsoever is contrary
to the same ; and will you diligently oppose all heretics
and enemies of the true worship of God who shall bo so
convicted by the true Church of God ? "

The King answered—" I promise faithfully so to do."
The Archbishop again demanded — "Sir, will you
promise to rule the people subject to you according to
the laws and constitution of this realm, causing justice
and equity to be administered impartially ; and to pro-
cure peace to the uttermost of your power to the Church
of God, and amongst all Christian people ? "

The King answered — " I grant and promise so to do."
The Archbishop next demanded—" Sir, will you like-
wise promise to preserve and keep inviolate the privi-
leges, rights, and revenues of the crown of Scotland, and
not to transfer and alienate them in any way ? "
The King answered — " I promise so to do."
Tlie Archbishop finally said—" We also beseech you
to grant and preserve unto us of the clergy, and to the
churches committed to our charge, all canonical privi-

CORONATION OF CHARLEB L 105

Iege3, and that you will defend and protect us, as every
Christian and pious King ought in his kingdom to defend
his bishops and the churches under their government."

The Kng answered — " With a willing heart I grant
the same, and promise to maintain you all and indi-
vidually, with all the churches committed to your charge,
in your whole rights and privileges, according to law and
justice."

His Majesty, rising Irom his chair, now approached
the communion table, and laying his hand on the Bible,
he said with an audible voice — " All the things which I
have now promised I shall observe and keep, so help me
God, and by the contents of this book." He returned to
the chair of state, and the hymn Veni Creator was sung
by the choir. The King then knelt, while the Arch-
bishop said a prayer appropriate for the occasion; and
the Litany was read and chanted by Bishop Guthry of
Moray and Dr. John Maxwell, Bishop of Eoss, afterwards
Archbishop of Tuam in Ireland. The service of the
Church of England was used throughout, with the addi-
tion of some prayers adapted to the occasion, which were
composed by the Archbishop.

After a short repose, during which the choir sung
another anthem, the King again approached the com-
munion table, standing with his back towards it, where
he was prepared for the anointing by the Duke of Len-
nox. He then sat down in his chair of state near the
pulpit, and the ceremony of anointing him was per-
formed by Archbishop Spottiswoode, during which there
was a canopy supported over the King's head. The
choir here commenced the anthem — " Zadok the priest
and Nathan the prophet anointed King Solomon, and all
tl\o people rejoiced, and said, God save the King for

106 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

ever." Tho Archbishop first anointed the palm of the
King's hands in the name of the Holy Trinity, repeating
suitable passages from Scripture. Another prayer for
the divine blessing on the King was here introduced,
and the Archbishop then proceeded with tho rest of the
ceremonial. "When it was concluded, the Lord Cham-
berlain adjusted the King's dress, and the Archbishop
pronounced a fervid benediction.

The special act of coronation now commenced, and
was conducted by Archbishop Spottiswoode, assisted by
Bishop Bellenden of Dunblane, Bishop Alexander Lind-
say of Dunkeld, Bishop Lindsay of Brechin, Bishop
Guthry of Moray, and Dr. Maxwell, Bishop-elect of Ross,
in their episcopal robes. After several preliminaries and
devotional exercises, the Archbishop crowned the l^ng,
the oath of allegiance was administered, and the usual
homage was rendered by the nobility. The sword and
sceptre were placed in the King's hands, with an appro-
priate address and invocation, and the archbishop and
the other bishops were kissed by the King, who then as-
cended the platform, where he was solemnly enthroned.
The Earl of Kinnoull, Lord Chancellor, now proclaimed
at each corner of the platform the royal pardon under
the Great Seal to all who required it, and the Arch-
bishops and Bishops knelt and did homage, repeating the
words after the Earl Marischal, and kissing the King's left
cheek. At the conclusion, the King entered the Palace
bearing the crown, sceptre, and sword, amid the sound of
trumpets and the discharge of the Castle artillery.

On the day of the coronation one gentleman was
knighted at Holyrood, on the 20th, another, on the 22d,
five, in the private gallery of the Palace, and two on the
23d. On the 12th of July four others were knighted r.t

CORONATION OP CHARLES I. 107

Holyrood. Numbers of the Barona were created Earla
on the occasion. Those so elevated at Holyrood wero
the Earls of Kinnoull, Elgm, Southesk, Traquair, Ancrum,
Wemyss, and Dalhousie ; Lord Gordon of Lochinvar was
created Viscount Kenmure, Lord Douglas of Spott was
created Viscount Belhaven, and eight gentlemen wero
created Barons.

On the 18th, 19th, or 20th of June, the Parliament
met in the Tolbooth. The ceremonial of the "Riding"
from Holyrood was a grand procession, in which the King
appeared, and on the 19th a sermon was preached by
Archbishop Spottiswoode. On the 24th, which was St.
John the Baptist's Day, the King attended divine service
in the Chapel-Royal, preceded by the nobility. On this
occasion the ceremony of touching, to cure the disease
known as the King's evil, was performed on about a hun-
dred persons. Charles again attended divine service in
the Chapel-Royal on the 25th, when Dr. William Forbes
preached. The Liturgy of the Church of England was
read, and Bishop Bellenden of Dunblane appeared in hia
episcopal robes, the other bishops present wearing gowns.
On the 28th all the Acts of the Parliament, many of them
most important, were ratified ; and on Sunday the 30th
Archbishop Laud preached before the King in the Chapel-
Royal, which " scarce any Englishman," says Clarendon,
" had done before him." On the 1st of July the King
proceeded from Holyrood on a progress to Linlithgow,
Stirling, Dunfcrmhne, Falkland, and Perth, returning to
the Palace on the 10th, and narrowly escaping death in a
fearful storm, when crossing the Frith of Forth from
Burntisland to Leith — a boat, with some of his plate and
money, and eight of his servants, being lost. On the ISth
of July the King left Holyrood for England.

CHAPTEK XIII.

HOLYROOD UP TO THE REVOLUTION OF 1688.

f^JJ\gY a charter dated 29th September 1633, Charles
«$%! I. erected Edinburgh into a bishopric. Tho
^^^ parish of Holyroodhouse, and a great portion of
the old Abbey lands, were conveyed to the new see ; and
the minister of Holjrroodhouso was created one of the
Prebendaries of the Cathedral of St. Giles.

After tho King's visit to Scotland, those ecclesiastical
measures, connected with the introduction of the Book of
Canons and the Scottish Liturgy, were concerted, which
caused the great rebellion in the lowland counties. The
mode of conducting divine service in the Chapel-Royal,
and the conduct of Bishop Bellenden the dean, were the
subjects of special correspondence. On the 8th of Oc-
tober 1633 the King wrote to Bishop Bellenden, ordaining
that divine service should be performed twice daily ac-
cording to the form of the English Liturgy, till " some
course be taken for making one that may fit the custom
and constitution of that Church" [of Scotland] — ^that the
communion should be received kneeling, and administered
on the first Sunday of every month — ^that the Dean
ehould preach in his " whites" on Sundays and the Festi-
vals, and be as seldom absent as possible ; and that the
Privy Council, Officers of State, Judges, and members of

THE CIVIL WAR. 109

tLo College of Justice, should communicate in the Chapel-
Royal once every year, or be reported to the King by tho
Dean in case of refusal. This was followed by a letter to
the Lords of Session, dated at Greenwich, 13th May 1634.
Bishop Bellcnden, however, was refractory, or perceived
that it was impossible to fulfil the King's orders, and soon
fell into disgrace with the Court. The correspondence
with him on the subject was chiefly carried on by Arch-
bishop Laud, and became at last conciliatory in its terms
in reference to those whom the English Primate describes
as having " disobeyed his Majesty's commands in receiv-
ing the communion in the Chapel-Royal."

In 1635 Bishop Bellenden was translated to Aberdeen,
and was succeeded by Dr. James Wedderburn, Preben-
dary of Wells. When the Scottish Liturgy was announced
in 1636, the Chapel-Royal was among the first of the
churches suppHed with it, for which Robert Bryson, book-
Bcller, and Evan Tyler, printer, granted a receipt on the
15th of April for the sum of £144 Scots.

In May 1638, James, tliird Marquis of Hamilton,
created in 1643 Duke of Hamilton, whose fate was as
disastrous as that of his sovereign, was appointed Lord
High Commissioner to Scotland by Charles I., to allay the
religious and political distractions excited by the attempt
to introduce tiie Scottish Liturgy. The nomination of the
Marquis was by no means popular among the Covenanters,
though some have doubted his smcerity, and accused him
of secretly favouring the movement. His mother. Lady
Anne Cunningham, daughter of James, seventh Earl of
Glencairn, was a most zealous adherent of the insurgents;
and in 1639, when he arrived in the Frith of Forth with
a force to overawe them, she appeared on horseback at
the head of a body of mounted troopers on the shore, drew

110 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

a pistol from her saddle-bow, and declared that she would
be the first to shoot her son, if he landed and attacked his
countrymen.

The Marquis reached Berwick on the 3d of June, and
he soon arrived in Dalkeith Castle, whither he summoned
the Privy Council. A deputation from the Corporation
of Edinburgh had an audience, and entreated him to reside
in Holyroodhouse, which would be more convenient for
the public. The Marquis at first refused to enter EdiU'
burgh, because the city was in the hands of open resistors
of the King's authority ; but he at length consented, on
condition that the peaceable conduct of the multitudes
then in the capital was guaranteed, and the guards at the
gates and the Castle withdrawn. To this they agreed,
and Friday the 9th of June was appointed for his arrival
in Holyrood, when the Covenanters resolved to display
their great numerical force. For some reasons of his own,
instead of proceeding direct from Dalkeith to Edinburgh,
the Marquis diverged by Inveresk to Musselburgh, four
miles from the former town, and six miles from Edinburgh.
From Musselburgh he and his cortege rode along the shore,
passing over the ground on which the town of Portobello
is now built, and the heath called the Figgate Whins,
to the common of Leith Links. When approaching the
Links he was met by thirty of the Covenanting nobility ;
and the gentry of the same party marshalled themselves
in a line along the seaside, extending to nearly two miles.
Passing through this array, and attended by upwards of
20,000 men and women, he perceived on an eminence,
near the east end of the Links, several hundreds of their
preachers dressed in their black Geneva cloaks. It was
intended that he should listen to an address by Mr. Wil-
liam Livingstone, then a preacher at Lanark, and brother

THE CIVIL WAR. Ill

of the noted Mr. John Livingstone; but the Marquis
avoided this, by advice of Dr. Walter Balcanqual, Dean
of Rochester, who attended him as chaplain, and who
whispered to him that Livingstone, whom he described as
" one of the most seditious of the whole pack," would
deliver a very offensive invective. The Marquis, there-
fore, merely bowed to the minister, observing that " ha-
rangues on the field were for princes, and above hia
place," and what he had to say he should hear gladly in
private. The crowd on the Links and the road to Edin-
burgh was now immense, and followed the Marquis to the
Watergate of the Canongate, close to Holyroodhouse,
where he was received by the Magistrates of the city.
Under such circumstances, and greatly afifected, the Com-
missioner entered the Palace.

The Marquis had resolved to attend divine service in
the Chapel-Royal, where Dr. Balcanqual was to officiate,
who was particularly obnoxious to the Covenanters ; and
to prevent this, or to shew their animosity, some of them
secretly entered the edifice, nailed up the organ, and an-
nounced to the Marquis, that if the " English Service
Book " was again used, the person who did so would rim
the hazard of his life. The residence of the Marquis at
Holyrood failed to influence the Covenanters, and the
Civil War ensued, which was preluded by the Glasgow
General Assembly.

The next occupant of Holjrrood, during this unhappy
contest, was the King himself, who arrived in Edin-
burgh accompanied by his nephew the Elector Palatine,
on Saturday the 14th of August 1641. His reception
was very different from that of 1633. The prerogatives
of the Crown were now usurped by the Estates, and
Charles was compelled to enter the Palace, under the

112 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

banner of the Solemn League and Covenant. No public
procession greeted his arrival, no demonstrations of joy
were exhibited, and at six in the evening he approached
Holyrood rather as a private individual than as the
sovereign of Scotland. On the following day the King
heard a sermon preached by Alexander Henderson in the
Chapel-Royal, and was obliged to conform himself to the
service of the Presbyterian Church. On Monday it was
debated before the King at a meeting of the Privy Council,
whether or not the Parliament ought to " ride " anew ;
and it was arranged that the King, after a sermon in the
Chapel-Royal, should proceed to the Parliament in his
coach, alight at the Lady's Steps on the north-east corner
of St. Giles's Church, where he was to be met by the Re-
gaUa, the Marquis of Hamilton carrying the crown, the
Earl of Argyll the sceptre, and the Earl of Sutherland the
sword, and thence walk to the Parliament House, which
had been erected by the citizens in 1636. The King ad-
dressed the Parliament in a conciHatory speech, and re-
turned to the Palace. On Sunday the 29th, Mr. Andrew
Cant from Aberdeen preached before the King in the
Chapel-Royal in the afternoon, and on the following
Sunday afternoon Mr. Andrew Fairfoull from North Leith.
As the proceedings of Parliament appeared interminable,
and the affairs of Lreland were alarming, the King, on
Monday the 15th, announced that the first thing he would
do was to sign the warrant for the " Riding of the Parlia-
ment." This concluding pageant was held on Wednesday
the 17th November. A sermon by Alexander Hender-
son, on whom had been conferred the revenues of the
Chapel-Royal, closed the proceedings, though the Parlia-
ment virtually continued its sittings till June 1644. The
King gave a supper to the nobility in the great hall of

THE CIVIL WAR. 113

the Palace, when he solemnly took leave of them, and
left Edinburgh on the following day for England, where
he was soon involved in the fearful struggle of the great
Civil War.

Scotland was now under the rule of a Parliamentary
Committee of the Estates, controlled by the Covenanters ;
and the war which ensued left Holyrood unnoticed and
deserted. After the execution of Charles I., the Cove-
nanters induced Charles II. to appear in Scotland, pro-
claimed him King, and brought him to Edinburgh ; but
the English army under Cromwell prevented him from
residing in Holyrood. After the battle of Dunbar, on the
3d of September 1650, Cromwell quartered a part of his
forces in the Palace. While thus occupied, the edifice
was, on the 13th of November that year, either by ac-
cident or design, set on fire, and the greater part of it
consumed. On the 7th of February 1652, the royal arms
were removed from Holyrood and other public buildings
in Edinburgh, and destroyed by order of the Commis-
sioners of the English Parliament, then sitting at Dal-
keith. Cromwell, ordered the Palace to be restored in
1658, and certain buildings were erected, which, however,
were afterwards removed.

The Restoration now took place, and on the 31st of
December 1660, John, Earl of Middleton, the Lord High
Commissioner to the Scottish Parliament, arrived at
Holyrood, where he resided during the meeting of the
Estates, which assembled on the 1st of January 1661.
A few days afterwards, the mangled remains of the great
Marquis of Montrose were disinterred from the Borough-
muir, his head removed from the Tolbooth, his limbs
brought from the towns to which they had been sent, and
the whole deposited in a sumptuous coffin, which lay in
a

I H HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

Btate in Holyrood, preparatory to a splendid funeral in
St. Giles's Church. On the 23d of April 1661, the coro-
nation of Charles II. in London was celebrated by a ban-
quet, given by the Earl of Middleton in the Palace.

On Wednesday the 7th of May 1662, George Haly-
burton, Bishop of Dunkeld, David Strachan, Bishop of
Brechin, John Paterson of Ross, Murdoch Mackenzie of
Moray, Patrick Forbes of Caithness, Robert Wallace of
the Isles, and David Fletcher of Argyll, were consecrated
in the Chapel-Royal by Archbishops Sharpe of St. An-
drews and Fairfoull of Glasgow, and Bishop Hamilton of
Galloway. A great number of the nobility, gentry, and
others, were then in Edinburgh to attend the approach-
ing meeting of the Parhament, and the Lord Provost,
Magistrates, and Town-Council attended in their robes.
The two Archbishops and the Bishop of Galloway en-
tered the church from the Palace, wearing, says the local
diarist, their " white surplices under their black gowns,
except their sleeves, which were all of them white, or
delicate cambric and lawn." The sermon was preached
by Mr. James Gordon of Drumblade in Aberdeenshire.
The Archbishop of St. Andrews sat " covered with his
episcopal cap, or four-nooked bonnet ; all that was said
by the Bishop was read off a book, and their prayers
likewise were read."*

Another grand riding of the Parliament from Holy-
rood occurred on the 9th of October, when the Earl of
Rothes, afterwards created a Duke, was Lord High Com-
missioner. A fortnight previous Sir Charles Erskine of
Cambo had been inaugurated Lord Lyon-King-at-Arms
by the Earl of Rothes, in the Palace. The Duke of
Rothes died at Plolyrood on the 27th of July 1681, and
* Nicoll'3 Diary, pp. 3G5-0.

THE CIVIL WAW. 115

Lis body was conveyed to St. Giles's Church on the 23d
of August, from which it was brought in state to tho
Chapel-Royal, attended by numbers of the nobility and
gentry. On the following day the body was conveyed to
Leith, and shipped for Burntisland, to be interred in the
family vault at Leslie.

After the Restoration it was determined to erect a
new Palace, and Sir William Bruce of Kinross, an archi-
tect of considerable celebrity in his day, designed tho
present quadrangular edifice, which he connected with
the original north-west tower. In 1672 the Lord Com-
missioner and Lords of his Majesty's Privy Council,
considering that it was "necessary and suteing to his
Majesty's [Charles the Second's I] pious and religious dis-
position, that some convenient place be designed and sett
apairt, wherem his Majesty and those of his family at hia
Palace of Halirudhous may worship God," set apart
and appropriate the said church for the use of the Royal
Family ; and declare the same to be his Majesty's Chapel-
Royal in all time coming, discharging the Magistrates of
Edinburgh or the Canongate from usmg it as a parish
church, and that, notwithstanding "any former tollera-
tion or possession they may pretend in and to the said
church."

The pari^ioners were enjoined to attend Lady
Tester's Church till the existing parish church of tho
Canongate was erected. In 1649 Thomas Moodie, mer-
chant, bequeathed 20,000 merks for building a church in
or near the Grassmarket. This sum had been allowed to
accumulate, and, in 1681, the Parhament placed it at tho
disposal of Charles 11. The whole was ordered to bo
appropriated according to Moodie's intentions ; and, from
this fund, the present parish church of the Canongate was

116 HISTORY OP HOLYKOOD.

erected after the Revolution. A number of years pro<
viously— namely, in 1609, North Leith had been disjoined
from the parish of Holyroodhouse.

In 1679 the Duke of York, afterwards James IL,
visited Edinburgh, and occupied the Palace. While at
Holyrood, the Duke became unpopular by his encourage-
ment of tho drama and other amusements to which the
citizens were generally opposed. The Duke again took
up his abode in the Palace in 1680 as a kind of exile from
the English court, on account of his religious opinions,
accompanied by his Duchess, and his daughter, the Prin-
cess Anne, afterwards Queen. The Duke's Walk, the
general designation of one of the royal parks at the base
of Arthur's Seat east of the Palace, was so called because
it was the ordinary promenade of the Duke of York and
his family.

The large room originally designed for a Council
Chamber, and now called the Picture Gallery, in which the
election of the sixteen Representative Peers of Scotland is
held, was fitted up by the Duke of York as his private
chapel, in conformity with the ritual of the Roman Catholic
Church — a purpose to which it was again appropriated up-
wards of a century afterwards, during the first residence at
Holyrood of Charles X., when Count D'Artois. On the
27th of July 1681, the Duke of York inaugurated Sir
Alexander Erskine of Cambo, Bart., as Lord Lyon, in tho
Palace, and on this occasion the usual sermon preached
by the Dean in the Chapel-Royal, before the King or his
Commissioner and the nobility, was omitted. On the 25th
of September 1686, the Duke of York, then James II.,
issued his warrant to the Lords Commissioners of tho
Treasury to continue this room as a private chapel ; and
on the 19th of May 1687 he signed another warrant

THE CIVIL WAR. 117

authorising the payment of £100 sterling anntially to the
persons employed for the service of the music.

At last he directed that the Chapel-Royal should bo
fitted up exclusively for the Roman Catholic ritual, and
as the chapel of the Knights of the Thistle. This was on
the 3d of December 1687 ; and the King intimated that
he expected the church to be repaired and altered accord-
ing to his directions before the 1st of May 1688, under
pain of his severe displeasure.

The "Most Ancient Order of the Thistle," whose
knights were thus to be installed in the Chapel-Royal, is
undoubtedly one of considerable antiquity. It, like the
old Abbey on whose church it intruded, is said to have
had a " miraculous foundation." Achaius, who, it seems,
was the sixty-fifth King of Scotland, when about to join
battle with Athelstane, an English King, in the year 819,
m the neighbourhood of Haddington, beheld a bright cross
in the heavens, like that on which St. Andrew was said
to have suSered martjn-dom, and heard the voice of the
Apostle announcing that the Scots would be victorious
in the conflict. The issue of the fight was, of course,
such as the Saint had predicted, and Achaius, repairing
forthwith to the well-known church dedicated to him in
Fife, vowed, in the name of himself and his royal suc-
cessors, that the cross of St. Andrew should be blazoned
on the flag of Scotland for ever. Such is one legend ;
and there is another, only a little less improbable, which
tells us that the order derived its origin from certain inter-
changes of friendship between the same Achaius and the
great Emperor Charlemagne.

Whoever was the founder of the order, it would
appear that James V. was its restorer, about the year
1540. In his time it seems this chivalric society was

118 mSTORY OF HOLYROOD.

intended to consist of the sovereign and twelve knights ;
and one historian conjectures that the companions, origi-
nally, were all of kingly rank. It would appear that
James had been incited to this act, by having been him-
self invested with the Order of the Garter by his uncle,
Henry VIII., that of the golden Fleece by the Emperor,
and that of St. Michael by the King of France ; and ho
caused the badges of these foreign orders, along with that
of St. Andrew, to be sculptured over the Palace Gates of
Linhthgow. The collar of the order was of gold, with
thistles and sprigs of rue linked together, "the two
ancient emblems of the Scots and Picts," and from it
was suspended the badge, on which was portrayed St,
Andrew with his cross. On the star and jewel was en-
graved the famous motto "Nemo me impune laccssit."
James, however, was soon carried to the vault of his
fathers in the Abbey Church of Holjnrood, and his knightly
institution was forgotten.

James Vn. anxious to conciliate the leading nobility
of Scotland by every means in his power, revived the
Order in 1687, and created the follo\ving eight knights : —

George Gordon, Duke of Gordon.
John Murray, Marquis of Atholl.
James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, afterwards Duko

of Hamilton. Killed in a duel in 1712.
Alexander Stuart, Earl of Moray.
James Drummond, Earl of Perth. Attainted.
Kenneth Mackenzie, Earl of Seaforth. Attainted.
George Douglas, Earl of Dumbarton.
John Drummond, Earl of Melford. Attainted.*

• Queen Anne re-established the order in 1703. George rV.,
In 1827, increased the number of knights to sixteen.

I'fiE CIVIL WAR. 119

The Chapcl-Eoyal was entirely repaired, and deco-
rated with a splendour suitable to its new destination.
At the east end, under the great window, a throne was
erected for the sovereign, and near it were ranged richly
carved stalls, over which were suspended the banners
and armorial bearings of the several knights.

These costly preparations were nearly completed,
when the events of the Revolution deprived James of his
throne. Much excitement had been caused in Edinburgh
by the King's evident determination to overthrow the
Protestant religion. The attendance of the Officers of
State at mass caused a tumult; and the Countess of
Perth, and other persons of distinction, were insulted
while returning from church. When the landing of the
Prince of Orange was announced in Edinburgh, the Earl
of Perth retired from the city, and the first strong intima-
tion of public feeling was the assembling of a numerous
mob on the 10th of December, for the purpose of burning
down the Chapel-Royal, and destroying the King's private
chapel in the Palace, which was still kept open for the
celebration of the Romish service. The rage of the mul-
titude against Holyrood and its chapels was exacerbated
by the facts, that a College of Jesuits was known to be
lodged in the Chancellor's apartments, on the north side
of the Abbey Porch, for purposes of proselytism; and,
that a printing-press, from which issued polemical tracts
in defence of Catholicism, existed within the walls. At
this time Ho.yrood was garrisoned by a party of about
sixty regular troops, under the command of a Captain
Wallace, a person of considerable personal courage.
When the multitude advanced to their work of destruc-
tion, Wallace ordered his men to fire upon them from the
windows of the Palace, and a few of the assailants were

120 HISTORY OP HOLYEOOD.

killed and wounded. The alarm spread througli the
city — the better classes were moved by the intelligence—
a quorum of the Privy Council issued orders to Wallace
to surrender the Palace, but these he refused to obey ;
and the Magistrates ordered the city guard and the
trained bands to march to Holyrood. Wallace drew out
his men in front of the Palace gate, and fired upon the
assailants ; but the commandant of the city guard, enter-
ing by a back way into the Palace, attacked him in the
rear, and compelled him to surrender. The populace, in-
furiated more than ever by the fall of several of their
companions, now rushed into the Palace, plundered,
burned, and destroyed the Chapel-Royal, and the King's
Chapel, till nothing remained but the bare walls; and,
violating even the sepulchre of the Kings, wrenched
open the leaden coffins, and scattered the bones of James
the Fifth and Magdalene of France, with those of other
Royal personages, over the paved aisles of the Abbey
Church.

CHAPTER XIV.

THE FABRIC OF THE PALACE AND ITS
RECENT HISTORY.

[E have already stated, on the authority of For-
i<m^\ dun and the chronicles of Melrose and HoljTood,
that the Abbey was founded in the year 1128.
Wliat may have been the precise period of the settlement
of the Canons in the valley below Arthur's seat is, how-
ever, a question of very considerable difficulty. It has
been conjectured by Father Hay that they did not remove
thither tiU the reign of William the Lion ;* and he is un-
doubtedly correct in this supposition; for in one of
Malcolm the Fourth's charters, f which cannot be of
earher date than 1164, the year before William's acces-
sion, the Canons are still designated as being "of the
castle of Edinburgh;" and in a charter by William de Vi-
pont, in which a confirmation of King William's is specially
mentioned, they are likewise so designed, if We have
stated in the first chapter that it is generally believed
that, in the meanwhile, they occupied some building on
the summit of the castle rock. We, however, venture,
with diffidence, to conjecture that the first Abbey of
Holyrood stood at the base of the fortress, and that its

* Father Hay's MS. Notes quoted in Lib. Cart. Sanct. Cruc.
p xxii.

t Lib. Cart. Sanct. Cruc. p. 18. J Ibid, p. 28.

122 raSTORY OP HOLYROOD.

ruins were discernible centuries after its pious occupants
nad left it.*

Without dwelling, however, on this point, we now
proceed to speak of the small portion that remains of the
great structure in which they were eventually placed. In
the first instance, we must remark, that, of the entire
range of conventual buildings devoted to the domestic uses
of the Canons, not a vestige has been left. "We have evi-
dence, however, on the wall of the south aisle of the nave
of the chfurch, that it and the west wall of the adjoining
transept, formed, as was not uncommon in monastic edi-
fices, two sides of the Great Cloister, leaving the others
to the chapterhouse, refectory, and other principal apart-
ments of the establishment. Doorways led into the
Cloister from the eastern and western extremities of the
south aisle, to allow continuous egress and ingress to
solemn processions issuing from the church ; and one of
these entrances, as will be afterwards seen, is still in ex-
cellent preservation. The existing Royal Palace un-
doubtedly covers to a considerable extent the site of tlic
domestic buildings of the Abbey ; but a large portion of
these extended further toward the east than any part
of the present great quadrangle.

The choir and transepts of the Abbey Church have
also disappeared, and the nave, as it now stands, ruined
and roofless, is itself almost the sole record of that which
is gone. We are told, however, by various authorities,
that the sacred edifice, when entire, was an august and
magnificent building. We are also informed that it was
divided longitudinally into three portions — the " Sacra-
rinm," elevated some steps above the level of the rest of
the edifice, in the centre of which stood the high altar [sacra
• Vide Note A.

THE FABRIC OF THE PALACfi. 123

mensa] — the Choir, and the Nave. A screen or grating
(clathri) divided the nave from the rest of the church,
and in the side aisles were numerous small chapels. In
the nave a large ring or crown, elegantly worked in brass,
was suspended from the roof by a massy chain, and filled
with tapers on the greater festivals ; and before the altar
stood a tree of brass, of elaborate workmanship, adorned
with precious gems, the lustre of which was brilliantly
displayed by numerous lamps pendent from the branches.
In Scotland, as in all European countries, during
the middle ages, Kings and Princes very frequently
Bojourned within monastic walls. When travelling over
the country, these building were almost the only ones
of sufficient extent to accommodate them and their
retinues. The strong walls, and sacred character of
these great edifices afforded also a certain amount of
protection to the royal person. Doubtless the conven-
tual kitchen and cellars, too, though not stored with
such refined luxuries as in richer lands became the bane
of the religious orders, would yet be sufficiently pro-
vided with the means of good cheer to cause a King of
Scots, who had been riding from dawn, up hill, through
river, and over muirland, to hasten briskly forward,
about meal-time,

*' Unto the saintly convent, with the good monks to dine,
And quaflf to organ music the pleasant cloister wine."

The Prince, at his departure, was expected, probably,
to present an oblation to the patron saint of the house,
to compensate for the great outlay caused by his recep-
tion. Accordingly we find Jocelin of Brakeland com-

124 HISTORY Of HOLYROOD.

plaining of King John of England's shabbiness in this re-
spect, he having availed himself of the hospitality of the
monks of St. Edmund's Bury, and given nothing " save
thirteen easterling pence, which he offered at his mass
on the day of his departure," while Jocelin and his worthy
brethren were confidently expecting " some great matter."
The Abbey of Holyrood was very frequently thus
honoured, with the presence of its Kings. At last, in
later times, when Edinburgh became the acknowledged
capital, James HE. resided almost constantly within its
walls ; and to his chivalrous but ill-fated son, James IV.,
is to be ascribed the foundation of the first Palace of
Holyrood. Several years of the Lord High Treasurer's
accounts during his reign have unfortunately been lost,
but, in those which remain, we have distinct evidence
that a building of importance was in progress for a con-
siderable time, both before and after his marriage with
Margaret of England. We read in them in 1502-3 of the
construction of a "new hall," "the gallery, and boss
windoes," and " the turatis of the for-yet." This last was
probably the vaulted gateway, which, till the middle of the
eighteenth century, formed the entrance from the Canon-
gate to the great area in front of the Palace. The keeper
had formerly his residence over this porch, but when it
was removed in 1755, a suite of apartments was assigned
him in the edifice itself. The remains of the arches
of the porch are still distinctly visible on the wall of the
small building used as the Abbey court-room and gaol.
In 1504 and 1505 there are entries of payments made for
"aiding and topping of the chimmais," and for "com-
pleting of the toure in Halyrudhous," and in the former of
these years a precept is "made to Maister Leonardo
Logy," granting him £40 yearly for his diligence and

THE FABRIC OF THE PALACE. 125

labour " in the bigging of the Palace beside the Abbey
of the Haly Cross." Mention is also made in these ac-
counts of " the Queen's great chamber," of the " King's
Oratory," and of the "Queen's Oratory," the latter of
which was glazed with a hundred feet of common glass,
and with seven pieces of glass painted with chaplets.*

During the minority of James V., the Regent, Duke of
Albany, resided at Holyrood, and appears to have made
additions to the Palace buildings. There are notices of
certain sums expended by his orders in the construction
of " ane tumpek in the PaHs." An annalist,t cited in the
preface to the " Liber Cartarum Sancte Crucis," speaks
of the Duke of Albany committing the " Lord Houme" in
1515 to the ^^auld touer of Holyrudhouss, which wes
foundit by the said Ducke." From its name this would
appear to be the tower built by James IV., to which,
perhaps, Albany had made some additions.

James the Fifth did not pass a great portion of his time
at Holyrood, but various sums of money were paid during
his reign for repairs on the Palace, and for " the new
werk." This latter was, in all probability, the great
towers which form the north-west quarter of the existing
Palace, and on which the legend " Jac. V. rex., Scotorum, "
was legible till a few years ago. The architect is stated
to have been that Sir James Hamilton of Finnart, who

♦ When speaking of the treasurer's accounts in James the
Fourth's time, we may mention that there are a few entries in
them which illustrate the King's smgoXax penchant for attempt-
ing surgical operations. In 1491 and succeeding years, are
entries of " 18s. to Dominico [a minstrel] to gif the King leve to
lat him blud ;" " 13s. giflSn to the blind wif that hed her eyne
shome ; " and " 13s. to ane fallow, becaus the King pullit furth his
tuith."

t Maijoreybank's Annals.

126 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

built or repaired the Palaces of Falkland and Linlithgow,
and the castles of Edinburgh, Stirling, and Rothesay, and
who was afterwards beheaded on a charge of fabricating
an engine for shooting the King from the tower of Lin-
lithgow.* James the Fifth's Palace is stated by a con-
temporary to have been very large and magnificent
[amplissimmn et superbissimumj.f We have an outline
of it on a very small scale in the sketch prepared for the
Earl of Hertford's expedition, already alluded to. It
appears to have consisted of several courts, but it is im-
possible to distinguish which belonged to the Palace, and
which to the Abbey. The north-western towers are very
conspicuous, rising like a keep above the other buildings ;
and the place or outer court is also distinctly visible witl»
its "Foirwerk" or gateway towards the Canongate. In
the rear of the north-west towers, a low building runs in
a straight line up to the base of the south-west tower of
the Abbey Church, with its eastern extremity resting ap-
parently on the west wall of that fabric.

In 1543 the Earl of Hertford's army "brent the abbey
called Holyrode House, and the pallice adjonynge to the
same ;" but their destruction could not have been com-
plete, for in the English invasion of 1547 Sir "Walter
Bonham and Edward Chamberlayne found the monks
gone ; " but the church, and much part of the house," well
covered with lead. The lead they stripped oflf, " and took
down two bells, and, according to the statute, did sum-
what hearby disgrace the hous."

By these grievous assaults, the fabric of the church
was so much shaken as to be in an insecure state ; but

* Memorie of the Somervills, vol. i. pp. 315-316.
t Edinburgi Eeg. Scot, urbis descriptic Bannatyne MisceJ.
■■. p. 137,

THE FABRIC OP THE PALACE. 127

Etill we find it in a few years occupied as r place of
worship. Of the Palace of the Jameses, all that survived
was probably the north-western towers, whose massy
strength had resisted the action of the flames, and which
the English had not thought of blowing up with gun-
powder. Not only must any internal mjuries sustained
by this portion of the building have been speedily
repaired, but a large and somewhat imposing edifice must
have been reared on the site of the demoHshed buildings ;
for, in 1561, Brantome, who came over from France with
Queen Mary, and who speaks in anything but flattering
terms of what he saw in Scotland, says, " it is a handsome
building, and not like anything else in the country." No
material alteration was made on the edifice till the great
Civil War — and, very luckily, we have a drawing of the
front elevation, taken before that period, by James Gor-
don, parson of Rothiemay. From it, therefore, and from
his map of Edinburgh, engraved in Holland by Do Witt,
we can form a correct idea of the Palace of Holyrood, as
it existed in the interesting times of Queen Mary. From
the north-western tower a range of building of no great
height extended towards the south, with four turret-like pro-
jections, filled with windows glazed in small diamond-shaped
compartments, as was also the main wall, the two projec-
tions at the extremities being three-sided, and those in the
centre, between which was the great entrance, being of a
semicircular form. These, and the north-western towers,
were ornamented with a profusion of small spires and royal
crowns ; and a row of these imperial emblems, probably
cast in iron, ran along the ridge of the sloping roof, with
the intention, probably, of giving an appearance of greater
elevation to the building. This portion of the edifice, wa
think, must have had rather a flimsy and fantastic look,

128 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

when compared with the sturdy solidity of the north-
western tower.

The Palace comprehended five courts or enclosures.
The largest of these was the place to the west of the prin-
cipal front, which formed one of its sides, the boundaries
of the three others being walls, those on the north and
south dividing it from two royal gardens, and that on tho
east from the houses of the Canongate. At the north-
west comer was the vaulted and turreted porch, to which
we have already alluded as being built in the reign of
James IV., and removed, when in a dismantled condition,
about the middle of the last century. The next court to
the east of this was surrounded by buildings, and appa-
rently occupied the space on which the inner part of the
present quadrangle stands, its northern and eastern sides
advancing up to the west and south walls of the south-
western tower of the Abbey Church, tho lower part of
which, in fact, appears in De Witt's map to have been
built into this portion of the Palace. On the south there
were two other courts also surrounded by buildings, and
the fifth court lay toward the east, immediately to the
south of the Abbey Church.

We have already stated that, from the termination of
Mary's reign to the period of the Commonwealth, no ma-
terial change took place in the structure of the Palace.
Before James the Sixth's visit to Scotland, however, in
1617, we learn from a " Warrant for repairing his Ma-
jestie's Houssis," issued by the Scottish Privy Council,
that certain renovations, of no great importance, were ef-
fected. A commission was granted to the King's Master
of Works to take down the roof of the lodging above the
detached outer porch, called the Chancellor's Lodging^
and as much of the stone wall as was necessary, and to

THE FABRIC OP THE PALACE. 129

rebuild the same in a substantial manner. The apart-
ment within the Palace known as the Steward's Chalmer
was also to be taken down, and not to be rebuilt, on ac-
count of the " deformitie and disproportioun that it has
with the rest of the building thair ;" the apartment called
Sir Roger AshtorCs Chalmer was to be taken down and
rebuilt in a " convenient forme," as was also Chancellor
Maitland's Kitchen, at the end of the Duke's Transe ; and
the "too-falls" and " dykes," in an enclosure at the back
ealled the Bahe-home Yard, were to be removed, so that
"of the yard ane perfyte cloise may be made."

John Taylor, the Water Poet, was in Scotland in
1618, and, in his "Pennylesse Pilgrimage," he relates the
impressions which the country had left on his mind. He
says that, when in Edinburgh, he went down the " streete
which they call the Kenny-hate," and then, he says, " I
was at his Majesty's Palace, a stately and princely seate,
wherein I saw a sumptuous chapell, most richly adorned
with all appurtenances belonging to so sacred a place, or
so Royall an owner. In the inner court I saw the King's
Armes cunningly carved in stone, and fixed over a doore
aloft on the wall, the red Lyon being the crest, over which
was written this inscripton in Latme : — Nobis ncBC invicla
miserunt 106 Proavi. I enquired what the English of it
was? It was told me as followeth, which I thought
worthy to be recorded : — 106 forefathers have left this to
us unconqueredy

Charles I., notwithstanding the adulatory inscription
over the west door of the church, appears only to have
caused some trivial repairs to be made upon that build-
ing; but it is highly probable that, before his Scottish
coronation, he had expended considerable sums in adorn-
ing the interior of the Palace ; and the ceiling of Queen
I

130 HISTORY OP HOLYROOD.

Mary's bed-room still bears on its ornamented roof his
initials and those of his son—" C. R." " C. P." [Carolus
Rex — Carolus Princeps.]

The next event of importance in the history of the
fabric of the Palace occurred on the 13th of November
1650, when it was set on fire by accident or design, while
occupied by the soldiery of the Commonwealth, and de-
stroyed, "except a lytill," as a contemporary diarist
says. This "lytill" comprehended undoubtedly the
great north-western tower, which has survived so many
disasters. The portion of the Palace which remained
standing must have been soon in a habitable state,
for it appears to have been used as a place of con-
finement in 1655, as is evident from a petition presented
by certain prisoners immured therein, to the clergy of
the Presbytery of St. Andrews, praying them to use
their good offices in obtaining their release.* In 1658
Cromwell ordered the edifice to be restored, but no por-
tion of the Protector's erection now remains. It would
appear from the statement of Nicoll the diarist, that the
portion of the Palace rebuilt by the Protector and his son
Richard, consisted only of the western front up to the
north-west tower. He says, in September 1659, that
the " hole foir-warTc .... quhilk was brint in Novem-
ber 1650, was compleitlie biggit up."

In 1671 King Charles 11. determined to rebuild the
palace of his forefathers, in accordance with a plan sub-
mitted for his consideration by his " surveyor," Sir Wil-
liam Bruce of Kinross, a distinguished Scottish architect ;
and before 1679 the present Royal House of Edinburgh
was completed. Charles bestowed great attention on the
designs of his new Palace, and suggested a few alterations,
some of which were happOy not adopted.
♦ MS» recoyd. cited ip the Bannatyne ^iscell^ny, voL ii. p. 40i.

TOE lAiiRIC OF THE PALACE. 131

From tlie union of the two kingdoms till 1745, Holy-
rood was entirely neglected and abandoned to a solitude
disturbed only by the occasional meetings of the Scottish
nobility, for the election of the Representative Peers, In
SejDtember of that year, however, these deserted halls
once more resounded to music and the dance, when the
beauty, rank, and chivalry of the Jacobite party thronged
in passionate devotion round the young and luckless
Prince Charles — scenes of gaiety brief, and, in the circum-
stances, almost as startling as laughter in the chamber of
death — to be followed by the bloody horrors of Culloden,
the scaffolds of Tower Hill, exile, forfeiture, want, the
extinction of kith and kin, and many a blazmg roof-tree,
and desolated valley, over the broad Highlands of Scot-
land. Pruice Charles arrived at Holyrood on the 17th of
September, and his army encamped on the south-east side
of Arthur's Seat, above the village of Wester Dudding-
stone. On the day after the battle of Prestonpans, the
Prince returned to the Palace, flushed with victory ; and
a succession of festivities ensued till the 31st of October,
when the Jacobite forces marched for the English fron-
tier. After the battle of Culloden, in the spring of
1746, the Duke of Cumberland resided in the Palace for
a few days, and is said to have slept in the same
bed which the unfortunate Pretender had previously oc-
cupied.

From this period till the end of the 18th century, no
person of exalted rank resided within the walls of Holy-
rood. In 1795, the exiled representative of that royal
family of France, which had offered an asylum to the last
king of the Stuart dynasty, himself sought refuge in the
Palace of the Stuarts,and found a St Germains in Scot-
land. The apartments on the east side of the quadrangle
were prepared for the reception of Charles X., then known

132

HISTORY OF nOLYROOD.

as the Count D' Artois ; and he continued to reside there
till 1799, occasionally holding levees, which were attended
by the higher classes of the citizens. The Duchess de
Grammont, a relation of the Bourbon family, dwelt there
till May 1803, when she died, and was buried in the royal
vault. ]Ier remains, however, were subsequently removed
to France, after the accession of Charles X. to the throne.

In 1 822 George IV. visited Edinburgh, and the whole
Scottish nation, of every class and party, throwing for the
moment all the acerbities of political feeHng to the winds,
rushed with enthusiastic loyalty to behold a King once
more throned in the halls of their ancient Palace. After
the King's visit;, the sum of £24,000 was granted for
external and internal repairs on the Palace; and the ad-
jacent grounds were surrounded by a very elegant iron
railing. In 1831 Charles X., again a fugitive, resumed
his old apartments in Holyrood, accompanied by the
Duke and Duchess D'Angouleme, the Duchess de Berri,
her son the Duke of Bourdeaux, and a numerous
suite.

In September 1842, Queen Victoria and her Consort
visited Edinburgh, but did not upon that occasion reside
within the Palace. In August 1850, however, her
Majesty once more visited her " own romantic town,"
and dwelt within her ancient Palace. On the morning
after her arrival, the Queen, accompanied by Prince
Albert and the Royal children, ascended Arthur's Seat,
and beheld, for the first time, the matchless panoramic
prospect which its summit affords. Since that period
her Majesty has annually honoured Holyrood with her
presence on her way to and from her Highland resideiico
at Balmoral

CHAPTER XV.

&s

THE ROYAL APARTMENTS.

HE principal entrance to Her INIajesty's apart-
ments is in the south-west corner of the
quadrangle, but we shall describe them in
their order, beginning at the door leading from the east
end of the Picture Gallery.

The first is that now known as the Queen's Break-
FAST-EOOM. This apartment measures twenty-four feet
by nineteen feet six inches ; the height being sixteen feet
eight inches. The ceiling is coved and deeply coffered,
having a circular panel in the centre, enriched with
wreath-like mouldings, formed of lime and fashioned by
the hand. In the spandrils are drums, axes, and other
warlike emblems, wrought in the same manner. The
walls are covered partly with oak panelling, and partly
with a green and gold flock paper. The chimney-piece
and the panel above it are fine bold specimens of carv-
ing in oak, the ornaments being of the same warlike
character as those of the roof. In this panel a painting,
representing the Finding of Moses, has been inserted
The furniture of the room is modem.

We next enter the Vestibule, a small square apart-
ment, with walls covered with oak panelling, and having a
richly ornamented roof, in the centre of which is a dome,
painted of an azure colour and studded with silver stars.

We next come to Prince Albert's Dressing-room,
which measures twenty-six feet five inches by twenty -four

134 HISTORY OF nOLYROOD.

feel, the height being (sixteen feet eight inches. The
ceiling of this room is also fine. In the centre is a rich
oval panel, containing a picture representing the Expul-
sion of Vulcan from heaven. The walls are covered with
green and gold flock paper. The doors, door-pieces, and
mantel-piece of this room are elaborately carved, and in
the panel above the last is a picture of the Infant Hercules
strangling the serpents.

The next apartment is the Queen's Bed-room, a
handsome room hung with tapestry, representing the
destruction of Niobe's Children by Apollo and Diana, and
other subjects. The ceiling has in the centre an octagonal
panel, deeply coffered and enriched with mouldings. In
the panel above the mantel-piece, is a picture of Venus
rising from the sea.

We next enter the Queen's Drawing-room, a very
fine apartment, thirty-eight feet six inches long by twenty-
nine feet eight inches broad. The height is sixteen feet
Bix inches. The ceiling is especially fine. The largo
centre panel is deeply coffered and the hand-wrought
mouldings around it, representing heavy festoons of leaves
and fruit, are admirably modelled. The ceiling within
this panel is painted of a very delicate greenish tint, with
a monogram of Victoria and Albert, roses, thistles, sham-
rocks, and fleurs-de-lis in gold. The smaller comer panels
are filled with beautifully relieved ornaments, principally
regal insignia and the monogram C. R. The entablature
and cornice have highly relieved floral ornaments. The
oak mantel-piece and panel above it are fine specimens of
elaborate carving. In the centre of the panel is inserted
a large oval mirror. There are several large pieces of
tapestry in this apartment, representing scenes in the
mythological history of Diana.

THE ROYAL APARTMENTS. 135

We next enter the Evening Drawing-room, a hand •
Bome apartment, forty feet by thirty, and seventeen feet
high. The panelled ceiling of this room is ornamented with
rich mouldings, like the others in the suite. On the walls
are hung four pieces of tapestry, recently brought from
Buckingham Palace. The remainder of the wall is covered
with crimson and gold flock paper. The windows of
this room look towards the quadrangle, whereas, all
the apartments of this suite which we have described,
look towards the pleasure ground to the east of the
Palace.

The next apartment is that commonly called the
Throne-room, which is used by her present Majesty as a
dining-room. It is fifty-six feet by twenty-nine, and six-
teen feet six inches high. The walls are covered with
crimson damask, and, at one end of it is a throne, sur-
mounted by the royal arms, which was used at the levees
of George IV. in 1822. There are several portraits in
this room — a fine one of George IV. in the Highland
costume, by Wilkie, and others of William and Mary, and
Anne and Prince George of Denmark.

Issuing from this room, you come to a vestibule, which
is the landing-place to the grand staircase. Turning to
the left, you find a door on your right hand, which is the
entrance to what is now called Prince Albert's Draw-
ing-room, a fine apartment, forty-seven feet by twenty-
seven, which occupies the south-western tower, and has
two small rooms opening off it at the external angles. It
has an ornamented ceiling in the same style as most of
the others, having a large oblong panel in the centre,
Btudded with delicate stars, and bearing the monogram of
Victoria and Albert. The walls are covered with a
crimson and gold flock paper.

136 HISTORY OF HOLTKOOD.

There are some otter plain rooms in the suite occu-
pied by the Prince of Wales and the junior members of
the Royal Family, which it is unnecessary to particu-
larise. Retracing our steps along the vestibule, we de-
scend the Grand Staircase, the ceiling of which, with
its circular panel, and beautifully elaborate ornaments,
is worthy of attention, and issue into the quadrangle at
its south-west corner.

The Duke of Hamilton, in virtue of his office of
Keeper of the Palace, has a suite of apartments on the
first and second floors of the west and north sides of the
edifice.

CHAPTER XVI,

ENVIRONS OF HOLYROOD— ROYAL PARK-13URQU

OF CANONGATE, AND SANCTUARY.

^HEN David I. founded the Abbey of Holyrood
he granted to its canons a considerable tract of
land lying between the town of Edinburgh and
the base of Arthur's Seat. He also conveyed to them, in
the foundation charter, a certain portion of the craggy
heights which overlooked their monastery ; but it is now
knpossible to indicate with precision the limits of the an-
cient conventual demesne. When King James IV. and
his son built their palace close to the Abbey walls, they
doubtless added very considerably to the extent of what
then became the Royal Park. We find in the reign of
James V. that there was a "New"* as well as an "Old"'
Park, the latter probably indicating the original demesne
of the abbots, and the former the addition made to it by
the kings. In the Lord Treasurer's accounts in 1541,
fhere is an entry, also, of £400 paid to " Schir David
Murray of Balwaird, knycht, in recompense of his landis
of Dudingstoune tane into the New Park besyde Haly-

* Accounts of Lord High Treasiu-er. Pitcaim's Trials, Ajh
pendix, p. * 321.

138 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

rudelious." This, of course, indicates that the New Park
extended toward the south-east of the royal demesne. In
James the Fifth's time the Palace appears to have been
surrounded by very extensive gardens. We are' told by
a contemporary that James's palace was very large and
magnificent, and that the gardens around it were delight-
ful, and extended as far as the " lake," or marshy ground
[lacus] at the foot of Arthur's Seat.* It appears from an
entry in the Lord High Treasurer's accounts that " the
loch beside the Abbey" had been drained in the time of
James IV., as a site for a garden. Probably a portion of
it towards the foot of the hill had been left undrained.
James V. also caused a wall to be built round the whole
park, and, probably, invested some gentleman in the
neighbourhood with the office of keeper. During his
daughter's reign we find in the Eecords of Justiciary the
trial of certain persons for "hurting and wounding of
William Ahannay, servant of the Laird of Craigemyllare,
being his deputy in keeping the Queen's Parh, near Edin-
burgh ;"t and about the same period sheep must have
pastured on a portion of the enclosure, for in the same
Record we find that, in 1556, Thomas Bullerwell was
" delaittit of the thiftuous steling of certane scheip fra the
Quenis Grace furthe of hir park."| In Queen Mary's
time there were probably in the immediate vicinity of
the Palace, not only the north and south gardens, of
which the remains still exist, but others laid out in ele-
gant designs in St. Ann's Yards, to the south-east of the
Palace. § In the reign of James VI. Fynes Moryson [in
1598] speaks of the Palace as being surrounded by " a

• Edinburgi Reg. Scot, urbis descriptio. Bannat}Tie Miscel. i. 187,

t Pitcaim's Criminal Trials, vol. i. * 381. % Ibid, vol L * 888.

§ Vide De Witt's IMap, published in 1617.

ENVIRONS OF HOLYEOOD. 139

park of hares, conies, and deare."* In 1671, when
Charles H. resolved to rebuild the Palace of his ancestors,
he issued a warrant for the purchase of the " grounds and
houses belonging to the Bishop and Dean of Edinburgh
adjacent to the said Palace." It appears that Charles
planned a new garden, probably to the north and north-
east of the Palace, for it is stated in the warrant that
" his Majestie's designe is by this purchase to have ane
access from his new garden, marked 10, into the Great
Park; and therefore it would be seen to whom the
grounds marked 16 and 17 doe belong; that, if they be
not the King's already, they may be purchased, together
with the ground on the east side betwixt the Deane'a
House and the Old Park dyke, as farr as the Clockmill, to
the end the King's passage to the Great Park may bo
uninterrupted." ^

The Royal Park, as it now exists, embraces a circuit
of about four and a half miles. Within this extensive
space are included the well-known hill called Arthur's
seat, the summit of which, bearing a striking resemblance
to a lion couchant, is 822 feet above the sea level ; and
that wild crescent of perpendicular cliffs called Salisbury
Crags, which towers so conspicuously over the city. The
close proximity of these two rugged and rocky eminences
to the busy streets of the town below, forms one of those
grand and striking features that render the aspect of
Edinburgh so romantic and beautiful in its variety. Be-
t^veen the two hills lies the valley called the Hunter's
Bog, about a mile and a half in circumference, in the
seclusion of which the stranger might imagine himself to
be wandering in some remote glen of the Highlands.
These heights are also interesting ground for the natural-
* Itineraryt p. 273.

HO HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

ist. Beautiful crystals arc occasionally found in the
rocka of Arthur's Scat, and jasper, in veins of considerable
extent, of sufficient hardness to take a fine polish. A
writer of the sixteenth century, whose description of Edin-
burgh we have already quoted, informs us that " in this
hill are found precious stones, radiant as light, especially
diamonds [adamantes]."* Four hundred plants have
been enumerated as growing on the declivities, though
not all, perhaps, strictly indigenous; and insects are
abundant, especially three different species of ants ; and
we are informed that the rare butterfly the Papilio Ar-
taxerxes is frequently seen.f

The level meadows below, which extend from the
back of the Palace eastward to the gate near Parson's
Green, are known by the names of St. Ann's Yards and the
Duke's Walk. The origin of the former of these names is
rather doubtful, but probably it had some connexion with
the "Altar of St. Ann" in the Abbey Church. The
Duke's Walk, we have already mentioned, was so named
from its green sward being the favourite place of exercise
of James VII. while resident in Holyrood, before his ac-
cession to the throne. Amot, who published his history
towards the end of the last century, states that, in the
memory of persons not long deceased, this level meadow
was still dotted with tall oaks.| In Edgar's map of Edin-
burgh, executed about the middle of last century, the
ground at the back of the Palace, and to the south of the
Abbey Church, which is now laid out as a garden, is
called " The Bowling Green." It is probable that this
spot was dedicated to the same purpose in the time of
Charles I., for he authorised the Duke of Hamilton, in the

* Bannatyne Miscellany, vol. i.
t Rhind's Excursions, p. 1-20. % Hist, of Edinburgh, p. 237.

ENVIRONS OF HOLYROOD. 141

charter which created him hereditary keeper of the
Palace, to appoint persons for cultivating and superin-
tending all the gardens and orchards, " ac parvo horto
infra idem Palatium, sphaeristerio lie howltiig-green,^'' &c.

On the north-west declivity of Arthur's Seat, on a
projecting rock overlooking the Duke's Walk, are the ru'ins
of St. Anthony's Chapel. This small builduig, when
entire, was about forty-three feet in length, eighteen feet
in breadth, and the same in height ; and had at its west
end a tower nineteen feet square, and supposed to have
been forty feet in height. Amot asserts that it was " a
beautiful Gothick building, well suited to the rugged
sublimity of the rock ;" but its remains are now too scanty
to admit of our forming a judgment as to its architectural
merits. A fragment of the tower is all that time and
reckless violence have left ; but less than a century ago
the whole buOding was in excellent preservation.* At a
few yards distance, among scattered grey rocks, once
stood a little hermitage, v/hich is said to have been inha-
bited by several recluses in soKtary succession. Of the
history of this chapel and hermitage almost nothing ia
known ; but the former is supposed to have been a cell of
the preceptory of St. Anthony in Leith. From an entry
in the Lord Treasurer's accounts, we learn that King
James IV., on the 1st April 1505, gave 143. "to St.
Antoni's Chapell of the Crag." A little below is St. An-
thony's Well, a spring of pure, cold water, which flows
from the rock into a hollow stone basin, and wldch, in
former times, doubtless served for the pious uses of the
chapel above, and the refreshment of the occupier of the
hermitage. This old foimtain has long been a favourite
haunt of the burghers of Edinburgh on Sundays and holi-
• Chambers's Gazetteer of Scotland, vol. i. p. 341«

142 HISTORY OF HOLTROOD.

days, and is alluded to in a well-known ballad of exqui-
eite pathos, founded on the desertion of Lady Barbara
Erskine by her husband James, second Marquis of
Douglas, a man of violent character, on a false charge of
conjugal infidelity.

** Now Arthur's Seat shall be my bed ;
The sheets shaU ne'er be prest by me;
St. Anton's Well shall be my drmk,
Since my fause luve 's forsaken me."

To the west and south-west of Salisbury Crags lie the
old road of the Dumbiedykes and the locahty called St.
Leonard's, both immortalized in the fictions of the great
novelist of Edinburgh ; and at the other extremity of the
Royal Park, near the east end of the Duke's Walk, and
close to the gate at Parson's Green, formerly stood the
pile of stones, called Muschet's Cairn, a place of blood
also familiar to the readers of the " Heart of Mid-Lothian."

Round Arthur's Seat and through the Parks now
sweeps the magnificent carriage drive, called " the Vic-
toria Road," which was commenced in 1844. It mounts
the hill at either end by an easy ascent, and commands a
magnificent panoramic prospect of the Firth of Forth, the
cultivated and wooded country to the south, the chain of
the Pentland hills, and the stony acclivities and declivities
of the fair metropolis of Scotland. It is no exaggeration
to assert that, probably, no other capital in Europe is
possessed of a carriage-way commanding so extensive,
varied, and magnificent a series of rural and urban pros-
pects.

In 1646, Charles I. granted a charter to Sir J. Hamil-
ton of Prestonsfield, a younger brother of the second Earl
of Haddington, conveying to him the oflBce of heritable
keeper and ranger of the " P^rk de Halyrudehouse," mi^

ENVIRONS OF nOLYROOD. 143

the 'vhole rents, privileges, and emoluments thereto be-
longing. This grant was conferred in payment of a debt
due by the King to Sir J. Hamilton. In 1690, Thomas,
Earl of Haddington, acquired right to the office, and ob-
tained a charter from William and Mary, destining it to the
heirs of entail of the honours and estates of Haddington.
This hereditary office, with its emoluments, was retained
by that noble family till the year 1843, when the Crown re-
sumed the gift, paying the sum of £30,674 to the Earl of
Haddington in name of compensation ; and the Royal
Park of Holyrood is now under the surveillance of the
office of woods and forests, like her Majesty's other de-
mesnes. In an action raised by the minister of the
Canongate in 1829, against the Earl of Haddington, the
Court of Session decided that "immemorial consuetude
has established an exemption from payment of tithe in fa-
vour of the Crown for these lands called the King's Park."
On the north-west of the ruined Abbey Church is a
large garden used in the eighteenth century as a botanic
garden, in which is the curious old horologe, commonly
denominated Queen Mary's dial, which is ascertained to
have been erected in the reign of Charles I.^ It forms
the apex of a richly ornamented pedestal, which rests on
a hexagonal base, composed of three steps. The form of
the horologe is multangular, presenting no fewer than
twenty sides, on which are placed twenty-four dials, in-
serted in circular, semicircular, and triangular cavities.
Few of the gnomons remain, although the structure itself,
which is about ten feet high, is still in a good state of pre-
servation. Between the dials are sculptured the royal
arms of Scotland, St Andrew and his cross, St Georgeand
the dragon, the rose, thistle, harp, fleur-de-lis, and port-

^ To John Mylne, "malssoune," for working and hewing the
dyell in the North Yaird, L.408, 15s. 6d. Scots-

144 niSTORY OF nOLYROOD.

cnllis crowned, with the initials " C. R."— " C. P."— and
" M. R." The two outer limbs of the M are made con-
Bpicuous, by being richly carved and in higher relief than
the centre ones, from the latter being evidently intended
to represent in a monogram " H. M." the initials of
Henrietta Maria, the Queen of Charles I. This reading is
confirmed by a shield, charged with the fleurs-de-lis of
France, being sculptured beneath the initials in question.
The original doorway, wdth the royal arms sculptm-ed on
the lintel, surmounted by a thistle in high relief, still re-
mains in the garden wall, facing the " place " or court-
yard in front of the Palace. A small irregularly-shaped
building connected with the west wall of the garden, and
abutting on the street called the Abbeyhill, is pointed out
by the finger of tradition as being the bath-house where
Mary used to indulge in her milky ablutions.

On the west side of the lane called " Croft-an-Righ,"
locally Croftangry, leadmg from the park to the Abbey-
hill, is an old edifice, which was occupied as a residence
by the Regent Moray. Tradition again alleges that a
tree in the garden behind the house was planted by the
fair hand of Mary Stuart herself.

In the precincts of the Palace, at the foot of the
Canongate, formerly stood the Tennis Court, a place, of
course, originally intended for the well-known pastime
from which it derived its name. It was burnt to the
ground in the latter part of the last century. James IV.
and his son were both passionately fond of the game of
tennis, as appears from various entries in the old recordn
in reference to " Caitchepell, caiche, kache," &c. In the
Lord Treasurer's accounts, under the date 29th Juno
1527, we find an entry of twenty shillings paid " for ballis

ENVIRONS OF HOLTROOD. 145

in Crummise* cache-puyll, quhen the Kingis Grace playt
with the Lord Glammise." On the same day there is a
curious entry of " 15s. 6d. gevin for eggis to bikkir the
Castell;" and on the 17th of July there is another of
twenty shillings " gevin at the Kingis command till puyre
wivis that come gretand apone his Grace for eggis takin
fra thaime be his servandis." From these notices, it
would appear that a foolish game had been devised for
the amusement of the young King, in a mock assault on a
fortress, raised very probably on the tennis ground, the of-
fensive weapons on both sides being eggs. Mr. Pitcaim,
in a note to these entries, observes that " it may easily
be imagined in what a plight both victors and vanquished
would be after a cessation of hostilities." The Tennis
Court was the scene of the first theatrical performances
after the Reformation in 1599, when Queen Elizabeth, at
the request of James VI., sent a company of actors to
Edinburgh, who were licensed by the King, to the great
annoyance of the city clergy, who in vain hurled their
anathemas at the votaries of Thespis. In 1680 the Duke
of York brought a part of his own company to amuse him
during his exile in Scotland ; and in Queen Anne's reign
concerts, conjoined with theatrical representations, were
^ven in the Tennis Court.

"We now come to the Burgh of the Canongate ; but
concerning it, as not necessarily forming a part of ouv
subject, our limits permit us to say only a few words.

We have seen, in the first chapter, that David I.
granted permission to the canons to found a burgh be-
tween their Abbey, or intended Abbey, and his Burgh of

♦ This was perhaps a John Crummy or Crummys, who, on
the 31st May 1544, obtamed the gift of " ye Abbot's Medow . .
wyten the park [of Halymidhouse] for all the days of his life."

K

146 HISTORY OP HOLTROOD.

Edwinsl)urg. Of this grant the monks, of course, would
not be tardy in availing themselves, since it conferred on
them not only territorial jurisdiction, but an immediate
accession of revenue. The first street built was naturally
that leading from " Edwinsburg" down to the monastery,
which was named the " Canongate," or " Street of the
Canons," and gave its appellation to the future burgh.
The little village of the monastery, thus fostered by royal
immunities, and protected by the potent arm of the
Church, speedily grew into a town, the inhabitants of
which repaired to the Abbey Chapel for religious services,
as Eoman Catholics, up to the period of the Reformation;
and, as Protestants, up to the time of James Vn., whose
intention apparently was to close the edifice to all except
the Knights of the Thistle. In the reign of James V.,
the Cowgate, now one of the most miserable streets in the
old town, the haunt of dealers in second-hand furniture
and old clothes, was the residence of the elite of the Scot-
tish nobihty; but in a short time thereafter, the main
street of the Canongate, with its numerous closes, suc-
ceeded to the honour of being the chosen abode of the
northern aristocracy. The Union of the two kingdoms,
however, inflicted a severe blow on its prosperity; and
the rise of the New Town, and the opening up of the road
along the Calton Hill in 1817, which rendered it no longer
the principal approach to Edinburgh from the east, com-
pleted the downfall of the ancient burgh of the canons, and
gave its honoured but incommodious 'dwellings to be the
habitations of penury and vice. Still, however, till the
middle of the last century, some of the Scottish nobility
clung to their old residences ; and, even at the commence-
ment of the present, a few spinster and bachelor mem-
bers of ancient but decayed families, and two or three

ENVIRONS OF HOLTROOD. 147

feeble advocates of the divine right of the Stuarts, might
be found lingering in these dingy closes, preferring the
grand old associations of the Canongate to the actual
comforts and free air of the New Town, their residences
being externally distinguished from those of their squalid
neighbours in the same '* lands" only by the brass knocker
scrupulously polished, and the white-washed landing-
place outside the door. With one such remnant of the
old times we were intimately acquainted in our boyhood,
— a humourist full of antiquated prejudices, who had hia
hair cut by an Old Town barber, and his clothes fashioned
by an Old Town tailor ; who worshipped in an Old Town
chapel ; pointed with admiration to the prospect of the
tall smoky chimneys of the same Old Town, as seen from
the small windows of his residence in Ramsaf^e Court ;
and who actually would not venture to walk abroad dur-
ing George the Fourth's visit to Edinburgh, lest his eyes
might be contaminated by looking on the descendant of
that " puir German lairdie" who had deprived the Stuarta
of their inheritance.

The burgh seal of the Canongate, an engraving of which
is appended to the present chapter, displays the stag of St.
David with the cross between its antlers, and the Abbey
and a portion of the forest of Drumselch in the back
ground, with the legend "S. coie. burgi. vicicanonicor.
monasterii. sancte. crucis." The motto of the burgh is,
" Sic itur ad astra" [thus we go to the stars], which, being
conspicuously painted on the walls of the Canongate Jail,
has been the subject of many a sarcastic jest as to the
singular pathway to heaven thus indicated by the magis-
trates of the bounds.

After the Reformation, the superiority of the Canon-
gate passed into the hands of Sir Lewis Bellenden of

148 HISTORY OF nOLYKOOD.

Broughton, by whom it was disponed in 1627 to the
Earl of Roxburgh, from whom it was acquired for
42,000 merks Scots by the city of Edinburgh in 1636,
along with the town of North Leith, that portion of the
barony of Broughton adjoining the Water of Leith, and
"that part of the toun, houses, and gardens, in St.
Leonards, called Dearenough, or the Pleasance."* The
remainder of the Abbey's Barony of Broughton was
disponed at the same time to the magistrates, council,
and ministers of Edinburgh in trust for the use and be-
hoof of Heriot's Hospital ;t and on the abolition of
hereditary jurisdictions, the trustees of that establishment
claimed £5000 as compensation, and were awarded
£486:19:84

At the foot of the Canongate, and opposite the old
Gothic archway which formerly was the entrance to the
" place " or court-yard in front of the Palace, stood at
one time the Girth Cross, the position of which is still
indicated by a cross in the causeway. This structure,
as its name imports, was the sacred boundary of the
Sanctuary of Holyrood, which, when touched by the hand
of a fugitive, declared him to be within the limits of the
city of refuge ; but at the present day the boundary is a
few yards to the eastward of this point. This sanctuary
for insolvent debtors is the only one now existing in
Scotland, and embraces the whole range of the Royal
Park, and a small portion of the Canongate, commencing
at the Watergate, a few yards to the north-east of the

• Maitland's History, p. 149. The "Pleasance" is a corrup-
tion of the name of the ancient nunnery dedicated to St. Mary of
Placentia.

i Chartulary of City of Edinburgh, vol. iv. p. 349.

J Chalmers' Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 580.

ENVIKONS OF HOLTHOOD. 149

Girth Cross, and following a line running southward
across the main street, by the strand at its foot, proceed-
ing through the centre of the Horse Wynd, and onward in
the same direction till it reaches the meadow ground at
the foot of Salisbury Crags. As the limits of the sanc-
tuary are distinctly marked out by a dotted hne in the
map prefixed to the present volimie, it is unnecessary to
give a more minute verbal description of them.

It has been a disputed point whether this sanctuary de-
rives its peculiar privileges from the ancient monastery, or
from the more recent Royal Palace. The learned editor of
the "Liber Cartarum Sancte Crucis," in the preface to that
valuable collection of charters, states it to be his opinion
that, " in spite of the arguments that have been founded
on the peculiar terms of the great charter of I^ng David,
... it will be the more admitted the more the subject
is investigated, that the sanctuary for debtors ... is
founded on the privileges attached by usage to the royal
residence, unconnected with the ancient protection, which
the Abbey, like other churches, afforded to criminals."

Without entering more minutely into the subject, we
may, perhaps, be permitted to add, in corroboration of
this opinion, the important fact that the actual limits of
the sanctuary are the marches of the Royal Park, not of
the demesne of the abbots. We have already seen that
in James the Fifth's time, there was a New Park as well
as an Old Park, and that the King, moreover, made certain
payments to Sir David Murray of Balwaird for a portion
of the lands of Duddingstone, to be added to the former.
Now the sanctuary embraces all these within its bounds ;
while, had it been an institution founded on the rights of
the Abbey, it could have included only the " Old Park,"
or that portion of the ground, by whatever title denomi-

150 HISTORY OF HOLTROOD.

nated, which David originally granted to his canons of
Holyrood. Besides this, if the " prohibeo no aliquis ca-
piat pandum " of David's charter had any relation to pro-
tection from personal diligence, and if the present sanc-
tuary derived its existence, as has been alleged, from that
charter, then should the whole bounds of the burgh of
Canongate also be sanctuary, because David's grant was
not a partial one, but applied as cogently to the open
space between the Abbey and the " Burgh of Edwinsburg '*
as to that between the Abbey and the neighbouring hills.
Charles I. by a charter dated 10th November 164G,
created James Duke of Hamilton hereditary keeper of the
Palace, an honorary dignity which has been possessed by
that noble family up to the present time. The Duke, in
virtue of his office, grants a commission to a judge called
the " Bailie of the Abbey," whom he empowers to hold
courts " within any place or part of the Palace of Holy-
roodhouse or pertinents thereof," and to appoint " fiscals,
sergeants, officers, and dempsters, and all other necessary
members of court, excepting the clerk, the nomination of
whom is reserved." This functionary is chief magistrate
of the sanctuary, and his court is that in which many
questions afifecting persons, who reside or take refuge
within its bounds, are, in the first instance, determined.
The elections of the Representative Peers of Scotland,
we have already mentioned, take place in the Picture
Gallery of Holyrood, — and on these occasions, it is the
duty of the Bailie to summon the inhabitants of the Abbey
to appear marshalled under their officers, and form a guard
at the Palace gates. The Baihe is, of course, always a
mcmbei of the legal profession, and, among the indivi-
duals who have successively discharged the duties of the
office, we may particulaiise James Hamilton of Pencait-

ENVIRONS OF HOLTROOD. 151

land, afterwards a Lord of Session from 1712 to 1729,
and Mr. Jeffrey a depute-clerk of the same court, the
father of the late illustrious Lord Jeffrey.

When an individual avails himself of the privilege of
sanctuary, he has twenty-four hours allowed him for the
purpose of procuring a residence and obtaining a regular
protection, or being "booked," as it is termed. Khe neglect
to procure this within the specified period, he is subject to
the ordinary operation of the law. Householders within
the Abbey bounds are required to give in a list of their
lodgers to the bailie or the clerk of court, and there
are many instances in the record of persons being fined for
having failed to obey this regulation. If a debtor absent
himself from the sanctuary for fourteen days continuously,
it would appear that he loses the benefit of the protection,
and, if he return, must obtain a renewal of it. Crown
debtors cannot avail themselves of the sanctuary, for,
as Mr. Erskine says, " that would be in effect to use a
privilege, which arises merely from the respect due to the
sovereign, against the sovereign himself." On Sundays,
the debtor is privileged to walk beyond the limits of the
sanctuary without fear of apprehension ; and we are as-
sured that at one time a clergyman resided within the
bounds, who left the Abbey late every Saturday night,
preached to his congregation on the following day, and
betook himself forthwith to his asylum, having travelled
in going and returning fully forty miles.

If the creditors of a party who has taken sanctuary
aver that he has absconded, taking with him large sums
of money, in order to defraud them of payment of their
just claims, the bailie may grant warrant to search the
person of the individual complained against. By the
i* act for declaring notour bankrupts," passed in 1696, it

152 HISTORY OF HOLYEOOD.

was declared that any debtor, liable to personal diligence,
who should " retire to the Abbay, or any other priviledged
place," should, ipso facto, bo reputed a "notour bankrupt."
The Court of Session has decided that, by this r.tatute,
if a debtor have gone to reside within the Abbey bounds,
he has thereby incurred bankruptcy, even although he
may not have been regularly " booked." In 1751, Mr.
Sommerville of Castle Sommerville disponed his estate to a
creditor, John Mitchell of Alderston, as for a price paid,
but, before the legal formulaj were entirely completed, left
his country residence and took lodgings in the Abbey.
Mr. Sommerville's other creditors objected to the validity
of this disposition, on the ground that, before it was duly
executed, he was a " notour bankrupt," in terms of the
Act of 1696 ; and the Court of Session sustained the ob-
jection, on the ground that it was not necessary, in order
to subject a debtor to the provisions of the statute, that
ie should be entered in the clerk's books.

Singularly enough, within the sanctuary stands a gaol,
and in this place of durance the protected denizens of
the Abbey may be confined, on a decree obtained in the
Abbey Court, for debts contracted to any party while
resident within the bounds. In 1810, Richard Perry
Ogilvie, an English refugee, was incarcerated in this pri-
son for a debt incurred to Richard Townley, a draper in
the Canongate. A petition was presented to the Court
of Session by Perry Ogilvie, praying for a reversal of
the baihe's judgment, on the ground, principally, that
although that official might be entitled to grant war-
rant of imprisonment for alimentary debts incurred to
the retail dealers of the precincts, he could not take cog-
nizance of actions raised against his protegees by parties
beyood the bounds of the sanctuary, especially when the

ENVIRONS OF nOLYROOD. 153

ground of debt was, as in this instance, a bill. The
judges of the Supreme Court, however, confirmed the
decision of the bailie of the Abbey. It is, of course, al-
most unnecessary to remark, that persons confined in this
gaol can, like all Scottish prisoners for debt, avail them-
selves of the provisions of the " Act of Grace," and com-
pel the incarcerating creditor to aHment them.

It has also been decided that the furniture and other
property of persons, occupying apartments in the Palace
of Holyrood, cannot be poinded by authority of any court
whatever. This point was decided in 1826, in an action
raised against the Earl and Countess of Strathmore. The
Court of Session had previously found that the furniture
of these noble persons, including several valuable paint-
ings, was liable to be attached by poinding ; but the
House of Lords reversed that decision. It will be ob-
served, however, that the plea successfully urged in this
case, was founded on the privileges, not of the sanctuary,
but of the Royal Palace.

The only other remark we think it necessary to make
in relation to this subject is, that a fraudulent debtor, being
considered as a criminal, is not protected by the " Girth"
of Holyrood, nor any one who meditates flight from the
kingdom, in order to deprive his creditors of all chance
of coercing him to discharge his just debts, for he is ex-
posed to the diligence of the law, as being, what Scottish
lawyers term, " in meditatione fugae," and may be appre-
hended within the bounds of the sanctuary even on Sunday.

The protected denizens of Holyrood appear to have
been long known by the soubriquet of " Abbey Lairds."
The term appears in an old song published in Herd's Col-
lection— *

• Vol ii. p. 36.

154 HISTORY OF nOLYEOOD.

^' The Borrowstoun merchants

■VVill sell you on tick ;
For we maun hae braw things.

Albeit they sould break.
When broken, frae care

The fools are set free,
When we mak them Lairda

In the Abbey, quoth she."

In old times many and desperate were the races be-
tween these "landed proprietors" and the lynx-eyed and
Bwift-footed officers of the law — the former rushing on,
hat in hand, panting and perspiring at every pore, to gain
the longed-for strand, the sacred limit of their " property,"
and the latter bounding forward, followed by maudlin
"concurrents," eager to intercept the fugitives. Such
tales may now be almost said to be among the myths and
traditions of the Abbey, to be related by degenerate
tongues over a glass of sanctuary ale or toddy, with all
the reverence due to grey -haired antiquity. There is a
Btory current within the bounds, that on one occasion a
fugitive, flying from a "Messenger," fell across the
" strand," with his head and shoulders in the Abbey, and
the rest of his person in the Canongate, and was there
seized by his ruthless pursuer ; and we are told that the
judge, to whom the question was referred, considering
that the nobler parts of the debtor's person were in
sanctuary, decided that his lower extremities ought, in
equity, to participate in the privilege.

The number of persons betaking themselves to the
sanctuary has recently been much reduced, especially
since the passing of the Statute 6th and 7th Will. IV.
cap. 46, in relation to the process of " Cessio Bonorum."
The Records of the Abbey Court are in existence only
from A.D. 1686. In that year seventy-five persons were

ENYIRONS OF HOLTROOD.

155

entered in the books. The Records from 1712 to 1775
are amissing; but, allowing the moderate average of
thirty-seven for the lost years [the entries in 1712 were
forty-seven ; in 1775, twenty-seven], the gross number of
persons who have taken sanctuary in Holyrood from
1686 to the present date is 7042. In 1788, the number,
which for some time had been small, began to rise, with
one or two exceptional years, till it reached the highest
point in 1816, when 118 protected persons were resident
within the bounds. The number continued high till 1823,
when (with the exception of 1826 and 1827, when the
amounts were eighty-seven and sixty-three respectively)
it commenced again to descend till it reached the lowest
recorded point, namely, thirteen in 18*^8. The number
of persons who have taken refuge in the sanctuary during
the last fourteen years is 274.

!i6 QKTOEICAL GUIDE TO THE

GUIDE

TO THE

PALACE AND CHAPEL EOYAL.

The Palace and ruined Abbey-Churcli of Holyrood are
situated at the east end of the ancient street called the Can-
ongate, or Way of the Canons-Regular of St Augustine.
How many wanderers from every region of the earth have
traversed that old thoroughfare, to visit these venerable piles !
In the words of an American poet,

Pilgrims, whose wandering feet have pressed
The Switzer's snows, the Arab's sand,

Or trod the piled leaves of the West,
My own green forest-land ;

and assuredly no student, either of history or romance,
will leave the time-honoured precints of Holyrood without
experiencing the sad yet pleasing sensations which these,
the most interesting remnants of Scottish antiquity, are
calculated to educe.

In the Place, or oj)en square in front of the Palace, is a
handsome Gothic Fountain erected in 1859 after the style of
the one formerly existing in the quadrangle of Linlithgow
Palace. The plan is octagon at the base, surrounded by a
large circular basin. It is divided into three stages in the
height. The first is enclosed by a beautifully cut rail, with
floriated pinnacles, and figures of animals at the alternate
angles, having a basin behind ; the second has eight figures
of Musicians, &c. ; while the third is surmounted by an
Imperial crown, supported by four Yeomen of the Guard.
The crown forms a cistern, from which the water flows into

PALiCB AND ABBEY OP HOLYROOD. 167

the basins in the lower stages, and is then projected from
lions' heads into the circular basin at the base.

The existing Palace consists of the north-western towers,
to the left of the spectator (the remnant of the royal dwelling
of Queen Mary), and the more recent structure erected by
Charles II. In 1671 Charles determined to rebuild the
palace of his forefathers, in accordance with a plan submit-
ted for his consideration by his " surveyor," Sir William
Bruce of Kinross, a distinguished Scottish architect, and
before 1679 the present Royal House of Edinburgh was
completed. Charles bestowed great attention on the designs
of his new Palace, and suggested a few alterations, some of
which were happily not adopted ; as, for instance, his pro-
posal to raise the curtain between the northern and southern
towers to the same height as the buildings on the other sides
of the quadrangle. Sir William Bruce had designed the in-
terior of the quadrangle to be highly decorated ; but this
part of the plan was not carried into execution, for " his
Majesty thinks the way proposed for the inner court would
be very noble, but he will not go to that charge, and there-
fore his pleasure is that it be plain ashlar, as the front is,
with table divisions for storeys." The builder of the Palace
was Robert Milne, the descendant of a family of distinguished
" masons," whose connection with the edifice is comme-
morated by an inscription in large letters on the interior
surface of the north-west pillar of the piazza of the quad-
angle—" FVN. BE. RO. MILNE. M.M. I. JVL. 1671."
The initials represent the words " Master Mason.''

The Palace thus built by command of Charles II. is a
quadrangular building, having a court in the centre 9-4 feet
square. The principal front is towards the west, and ex-
tends to the length of 215 feet. At either extremity is a
massive square tower, four storeys high, having three circu-
lar towers or turrets at its exterior angles, which rise from
the ground to the battlements of the main tower, and ter-
minate in conical roofs. A glance at the northern and
southern towers of the western front is sufficient to assure
the spectator that the former is a portion (indeed the only
remaining one) of the Palace of James V.. while the latter

158 HISTORICAL GUIDE TO THE

is merely an imitation of it, built in the time of Cliarles II.
These two great towers are connected hy a receding screen,
or range of building, of mixed architecture, which is con-
siderably lower than the interior sides of the quadrangle, so
that the pediment of the eastern side is distinctly visible to
one looking at the western elevation. In the centre of this
front is the grand entrance, composed of four Roman Doric
columns, over which are sculptured the royal arms of Scot-
land, below an open pediment, on which are two reclining
figures, the whole surmounted by a small octagonal tower,
terminating in an imperial crown. Passing through the
gateway, you enter the inner court, which is surrounded by
a piazza, having nine arches on each side. The east, north,
and south sides of the quadrangle are three storeys high, and
over the centre of the east side is a pediment, in which are
sculptured the royal arms of Britain. The eastern front of
the Palace, which looks towards the Park, consists of three
storeys, like the interior sides of the quadrangle, which we
have just described. Between the windows of these three
storeys are ranges of pilasters, the lowest Doric, the second
Ionic, and the third Corinthian, corresponding also with
those of the quadrangle. It has been remarked that this
fa§ade is not unlike the less ornamented portions of ihe
French palaces.

The visitor, on entering the Palace by the front gateway,
turns to his left hand, and the first door he comes to is that
leading to

THE PICTURE GALLERY.

This great chamber is not within the tower of James V.
and Mary, but is a portion of Charles the Second's Palace.
It measures 150 feet in length by 24 broad, and its height
is about 20 feet. It is hung round w^ith portraits of a hun-
dred reputed kings of Scotland, from the misty times of
Fergus 1. down to the end of the Stuart dynasty, which
were painted by a Fleming named James De Witt.* Several

* The contract by James de Witt with the Government in
February 1684. for the painting of these pictures^ still exists. De

PALACE AND ABBEY OF HOLYROOD. 159

of these paintings were slashed by the sabres of Hawley*s
valiant dragoons after their defeat at Falkirk, but were sub-
sequently repaired. This apartment is historically interest-
ing from having been used by the Pretender as a ball-room
during his occupation of Holyrood. It is the room in which
the great ball was given, so familiar to the admirers of
" Waverley," and to such visitors its floor will still seem to
be trod by the unfortunate Prince, the bold, devoted Fergus
M'lvor, the noble, high-minded Flora, and the gentle,
woman-like Rose Bradwardine. Since the Union, it has
been the scene of the elections of the Scottish representative
peers, and is also used for the levees of the Lord High
Commissioner to the General Assembly of the Church of
of Scotland.

Note. — The names of the Kings, and the dates of their
accession, are printed exactly as they are given on the
pictures. The figures zvithin brackets are the numbers
on the originals themselves.

1 (97) Robert Bruce, 1306. (B. of Bannockb. 1314.)

2 (47) Congallus II. 558.

3 (57) Eugenius VI. 688.

4 (56) Eugenius V. 684.

5 (100) Robert Stewart, 1371.

6 (61) Etfinus, 730.

7 (60) Mordacus, 715.

8 (64) Solvathius, 767.

9 (96) John Baliol, 1292.

"Witt became bound to paint one hundred and ten portraits in
two years, he supplying the canvass and colours ; and the Govern-
ment, on their part, agreed to pay him one hundred and twenty
pounds sterling yearly, and to supply him with the '' Originalls "
from which he was to copy.

This contract, and other documents connected with it, appeared
iu volume Third of the Bannatyne Miscellany.

IGO HISTORICAL GUIDE TO THE

10 (101) Robert III. 1390.

11 IS6) Romachus, 348.

12 (102) James I. 1424. (Murdered, 1487.)

13 (91) David I. 1124. (Founder of the Abbey.)

14 (59) Eugenius VII. 699.

15 (63) Fergus III. 764.

16 (62) Eugenius VIII. 761.

17 (103) James II. 1437. (Killed, 1460.)

18 (68) Alpinus, 831.

19 (67) Dongallus. Sive Dugallus, 824.

20 (66) Convallus III. 819.

21 (104) James III. 1460. (Murdered, 1488.)

22 (73) Gregory, 876.

23 (71) Constantinus, II. 859.

24 (70) Donald V. 854.

25 (105) James IV. 1489. (Killed at Flodden, 1513.)

26 (79) Culenas, 966.

27 (72) Etlius cognomento Alipes, 874.

28 (75) Constantine III. 904.

29 (106) James V. 1514.
80 (89) Edgar, 1098.

31 (80) Kenneth III. 970.

82 (76) Malcolm I. 943.

33 (107) Mary Stuart, 1543. (Beheaded 8th Feb. 15870

34 (95) Alexander III. 1219.

35 (94) Alexander II. 12 J 4.
86 (90) Alexander I. 1107.
37 (108) James VI. 1566.
88 (83) Malcolm 11. 1004.

39 (82) Grimus, 996.

40 (74) Donald VI. 904.

41 (109) Charles I. (Beheaded 30th Jan. 1649.)

42 (86) Malcolm III. 1057.

43 (85) Macbeath, 1040.

44 (84) Duncan I. 1034.

45 (110) Charles II.

46 (52) Ferchardus I. 621.

47 (111) James VII.

PALACE AND ABBEY Ot HOLfROOD. 161

4G* James III. of Scotland, his son afterwards James IV.,
(circa) 1484.— On the reverse,
The Holy Trinity.*
47* Margaret of Denmark, Queen of Scotland, (circa;,
1484. — On the reverse,

Sir Edward Boncle, Provost of Trinity
College Kirk, Edinburgh.*

• These highly interesting memorials of Scottish history were
in the Royal Collection at Hampton Court, but at what period
they were removed from Scotland has not been clearly ascer-
tained. In a Catalogue of Pictures belonging to James II., before
his abdication in 1688, under the head Hampton Court, they are
there enumerated ; No. 955, one of the kings of Scotland at devo-
tion, crowned by St Andrew, James IV. No. 960, one of the
queens of Scotland at devotion, a saint in armour by her. But
no mention is made of the paintings on the reverse. In a late
Catalogue of the paintings at Hampton Court they were num-
bered 509 and 510, and are said to be by Jan de Mabuse ; hni
this appears to be a mistake. In 1857, these pictures were sent
to the Art Treasures Exhibition at Manchester, and in their
Catalogue they were ascribed to Hugo Van Der Goes.

Through the enthusiastic zeal of David Laing, Esq., F.S.A., and
of W. B. Johnstone, Esq., RS.A., a Memorial, signed by the Duke
of Hamilton, the Duke of Buccleuch, the Lord Provost of Edin-
burgh, and other persons of distinction, was addressed to the
Queen at Balmoral, praying Her Majesty to allow these paintings,
at the close of the Exhibition, to be transferred to Holyrood
Palace.

On her return from Balmoral, Her Majesty, through Sir Benja-
min Hall, First Commissioner of Public Works, was graciously
pleased to comply with the prayer of this Memorial ; and, in con-
sequence of a subsequent representation to Lord John Manners,
then First Commissioner of Public Works, permission was granted
to restore their proper names. Having now reached their most
appropriate place, the Scottish people cannot but feel grateful to
Her Majesty for having restored to this countiy a work of so
much importance for illustrating the history of art in Scotland.

In a paper read to the Society of Antiquaries, at their meeting,
November 1857, and printed for private circulation (to which
we are mdebted for the following notices), Mr Laing clearly
shows that the leading portraits could not at any time repre-
sent James IV. and his Queen, nor could Mabuse have been
the artist. But the Arms of Scotland and Denmark impaled
being exactly blazoned, prove them to be portraits of James III.
and his Queen Margaret of Denmark. In the first quarter the
\atter exhibits three Crowns for the three United Kincr-doms of

48

(98)

49

(32)

50

(48)

51

(88)

52

(92)

53

(35)

54

(77

55

(98)

56

(99)

57

(2)

58

59

(5)

60

(4)

61

(3)

62

(18)

162 HISTORICAL GUIDE TO TH2

William, 1165.
Donald II. 264.
Kiunatellus, 569.
Duncan II. 1094.
Malcolm IV. 1153.
Fincormacus, 301.
Mainus, 291 B. C.
David Bruce, 1333
Edwardus Balliollus, 1332.
Feretharus, 305 B.C.
Fergus I. 330 B.C.

Nothatus, 233 B.C. ,

Dornadilla, 262 B.C.
Indulfus, 969.
Caratacus {sic) 35.

Denmark, Sweden, and Norway ; the second has the three Lions
of Denmark ; the third the Lion and Axe of Norway ; and the
fourth the Dragon for Sclavonia, with an escutcheon of pretence
surmounted by Oldenburg. The banner borne by the Saint in
Armour is the common cross of the Crusades, with the inscrip-
tion AVE MARIA.

The marriage of James III. and Margai-et of Denmark took
place in the Abbey Church of Holyrood in July 1469, and the
birth of the young Prince James, who was born in the year
1471-2, and is here represented as a youth of about twelve years
of age, serves to fix the probable date to the year 1484.

The Arms on the reverse, three Buckles and a Cheverou, were
those of the Boncle Family, and serve to prove that these portraits
were painted not later than the above date as an altar-piece for the
Collegiate Church of the Holy Trinity, Edinburgh, by an artist of
the Van Eck school, and that the ecclesiastic kneeling was Sir
Edward Boncle, the first provost of that establishment, and, as
such, the Queen's confessor. Having thus identified the eccle-
siastic, a key is furnished to the entire composition. If in the
principal figure seated at the organ, in the character of St Cecilia,
we recognise the deceased Queen Mary of Gueldres, by whom the
church was founded in the year 1462, accompanied by one of her
daughters, and the Provost as her confessor, oS'ering up his devo-
tions to the Holy Trinity, in whose honour that church was con-
secrated, the propriety of such a decoration becomes at once
apparent. The Coronet denotes her royal rank, and her age is
that of a person not less than thirty, which she had attained at
the time of her decease.

PALACE AND ABBEY OF HOLYROOD 163

63

(9)

Josina, 169 b.c.

64

(8)

Thereus, 171 B.C.

65

(f)

Rutherus, 231 b. c.

66

(27)

Donaldus I. 199.

67

(25)

Ethodius I. 165.

68

(19)

Corbredus I. 55.

69

(14)

Evenus II. 77 B. c.

70

(40)

Fergusius II. 404.

71

(15)

Ederus, 60 b. c.

72

(65)

Achaius 787. (Said to have been ally of Char
lemagne's.)

73

(11)

Durstius 10 B. c.

74

(12)

Evenus I. 98 b.c.

75

(13)

Gillus, 79 B.C.

76

(16)

Evenus III. 12 b. c.

77

(20)

Dardanus.

78

(24)

Conarus, 149.

79

(23)

Mogaldus, 113.

80

(22)

Lugtacus, 110.

81

(21)

Corbredus (Galdus) 76.

82

(31)

Findocus, 253.

83

(29)

Athirco, 231.

84

(37)

Angusianus, 321.

85

(33)

Donald III. 265.

86

(34)

Crathilinthus, 277.

87

(41;

Eugenius 11. 420.

88

(38)

Fetheimaehus, 354.

89

(39)

Eugenius I. 357.

90

(42)

Dongardus, 451.

91

(44)

Congallus I. 479.

92

(45)

Goranus, 501.

93

(46)

Eugenius III. 535.

94

(49)

Aidanus, 570.

95

(50)

Kennethus I. 605.

96

(58)

Amberkeletus, 697.

97

(54)

Ferchardus II. 646.

98

(55)

Malduinus, 664.

99

(69)

Kennethus II. 834. (Conqueror of the Pict?.)

00

(51)

Eugenius IV. 606.

164 HISTORICAL GUIDE TO THE

On leaving the Picture Gallery, you return to the great
staircase.

103 St Mark's Place, Venice.

You then advance to the door on your left hand, and
enter

LORD DARNLEY's ROOMS.

These, of course, are in the more ancient portion of the
building ; and the first apartment visited is the

AUDIEXCE CHAMBER.

This room contains three fine specimens of ancient tapes-
try. The first, on the left, represents, in the foreground,
a vineyard, with the vines entwining four oak-trees. Nude
figures of boys, like cupids, are seen sporting on the ground,
climbing among the branches, plucking the ripe clusters, and
throwing them to their companions. In the background is
an ancient hamlet, beyond which may be discerned a river
and a bridge.

The next of these tapestries also exhibits in front four
oak-stems encircled by vines. At the foot of one tree is a
basket filled with grapes, while strawberries here and there
peep from their leaves. Here, too, nude boys sport among
the branches, pluck grapes, and throw them to companions
on the ground. Through the trees may be traced, in long
perspective, an elegantly-built street, with human figures
apparently crossing each other.

The third design in this series depicts, in the background,
a lake, commanded at one extremity by a castle. The lake
contains two islets, planted with trees, reflected in the still
water. The front scene contains a large orange-tree, with
nude boys, perched upon its branches, plucking the fruit
and flinging it to a companion on the ground. At the foot
of this tree are other boys variously employed. One is per-
forming a somersault, a second is carrying a comrade on his
back, a third is manufacturing soap-bubbles, a fourth is
blowing a bubble into the air, a fifth is trying to catch it,
and a sixth is riding on a stick, while he watches the others.

105 James Stewart, when young.

106 The Admirable Crichton,

107 Charles II. in armour.

PALACE AND ABBEY OF HOLYROOD. 165

108 The Queen of James VI., by Van Somer.

109 James VI., by Van Somer.

110 The Queen of Bohemia, by C. Janssen.

111 The King of Bohemia, by C. Janssen.

112 The Children of Charles I., after Vandyke.

113 Charles IL, by EusseD.

114 James VIL, by Eussell.

115 Queen Mary.

116 Henry, Prince of Wales.

117 Female Head.

The visitor, leaving this apartment by a door on his left,
enters

A ROOM

in that portion of the Palace built by Charles II. In this
chamber there are two fine pieces of ancient tapestry. The
one on your right as you enter, represents the well-known
historical story of the appearance of the flaming cross in the
heavens to Constantino the Great some days before the battle
between him and Maxentius for the imperial crown. The
motto "^'ti hoc {signo) vinces^' is conspicuously embroidered in
one of the upper corners. The other piece of tapestry occu-
pies the wall immediately to the left, and represents the en-
gagement between these contending claimants for the empire
of the world. The miraculous cross is conspicuous on the
shields and standards of Constantine's troops. The battle
was fought below the walls of Eome, a.d. 312.

118 James, 4th Duke of Hamilton.

119 Lady Ann Spencer, Duchess of Hamilton.

120 Henry, 2d Earl of Pembroke, in armour.

121 William, 2d Duke of Hamilton.

122 King James VI.

123 King Charles II.

124 Douglas, 8th Duke of Hamilton.

125 William, 3d Duke of Hamilton.

126 King James VII.

127 James, 2d Marquis of Hamilton.

128 King Henry VI.

129 Lord John Bellasys.

The visitor now returns to Lord Darnley's rooms, and, pass-
ing through the Audience Chamber, enters by a door on his
left, what was in all probability

163 HISTORICAL GUIDE TO THE

LORD DARNLEYS BED-ROOM.

In this apartment is an elaborate piece of tapestry, re-
sembling, in design and texture, the specimens contained in
the Audience Chamber. The picture sets before us a plea-
sure-ground, an alcove, and an orangery. In the foreground
are four orange-trees, with nude boys mounted on the
branches, and plucking the fruit, while their companions are
dancing below to the music of their own pipes. This room
also contains a screen which belonged to Charles I., an inlaid
cabinet, and some ancient chairs.

130 Cardinal Beaton.

131 First Duke of Hamilton.

132 Lord Darnley and his Brother, by L. de Heere.

133 First Duke of Hamilton.

134 A Hermit at his Devotions.

135 Portrait of a Lady unknown.

136 Female Figure and Child.

137 Nymphs and Satyrs.

138 Sir William Hamilton.

139 Pastoral Scene, with Euins in the background.

140 Queen Mary, Consort of William IIL

141 The Countess of Lennox, by Sir A. More.

142 John Knox.

143 Queen Mary.

144 Countess of Cassillis.

145 King William III in armour.

LORD DARNLEY's DRESSING-ROOM.

The turret-room on the left was Lord Darnley's dressing-
room.

146 Lady Mary Fielding, first Duchess of Hamilton.

147 Lady Ann Cochrane, Duchess of Hamilton.

148 Female Figure, with a large shell at her feet.

QUEEN Mary's private stair.

This stair, which entered on the east side of James V.'s
towers, leads up from a turret-room, on the right, to Queen
Mary's apartments. By this stair the assassins of Eiccio
mounted to the apartments of Darnley, where, in concert
with him, they assembled to consummate their plan for the
murder of the unfortunate Secretary.

The walls of this room are co\ ered with tapestry, illus-

PALACE AND ABBEY OF HOLYROOD. 1G7

'rating the classic story of Meleager and Atalanta. In the
foreground Meleager presents the boar's head to Atalanta ;
on the left is a huntsman, with two hounds in the leash ;
while forest scenery and ancient architecture fill up the
background of the picture.

Returning through Lord Darnley's rooms, and leaving
them by the left-hsmd door of the Audience-Chamber, the
visitor ascends a staircase, and enter-s what historians, poets,
and novelists have combined to render perhaps the most in-
teresting suite of rooms in Europe — the Apartments of
Mary Queen of Scots.

The first is that commonly called

queen Mary's audience-chamber,

a room measuring twenty-four feet by twenty-two, and light-
ed by two windows, one of which looks towards the north, the
other towards the south. The roof is divided into panelled
compartments, adorned with the initials and armorial bear-
ings of royal personages : and the walls are hung with ancient
tapestry, the colour of which, however, have been almost
obliterated by the uncourtly hand of Time. In this apart-
ment is the bed of Charles I. when resident in Holyrood. It
has evidently been, at one time, a magnificent piece of furni-
ture ; and its curtains, now mouldering and moth-eaten, are ot
embossed velvet. On this couch Prince Charles, the unfortun-
ate descendant of its former occupant, reposed in September
1745; and, after the battle of Culloden, his conqueror, the
Duke of Cumberland, placed his head upon the same pillow.
This room contains also some richly-embroidered chairs and
other articles of furniture of the period of Charles I. But
it, of course, derives its chief interest from its fair but unfor-
tunate occupant, Mary, of whose distressing altercations with
Knox it was too frequently the scene.

149 Battle of the Boyne.

lo<) Head of a Boy.

1-51 Earl of Moray, Regent of Scotland.

152 Hortense Machini, niece of Cardinal Mazarin.

1 53 A Magdalen.

154 A Bacchic Festival.

155 A Game at Nine-pins.

156 Duke of Lauderdale.

157 Duchess of Lauderdale.

Issuing from this apartment you enter

168 HISTORICAL GUIDE TO THE

QUEEN MAP.y'S bed EOOJI.

a chamber twenty-two feet one inch, by eighteen feet six
inches, lit by two windows looking toward the south and
west. The ceiling is divided into panelled compartments, of
diamond and hexagonal form, adorned with the emblems and
initials of Scottish sovereigns ; and the walls are hung with
tapestry, illustrative of the mythological tale of the Fall of
Phaeton, who, according to the poetical belief of the Greeks,
lost his life in rashly attempting to drive the chariot of his
father, the god of the Sun. Here stands what, we are told,
was the bed of Queen Mary, the decayed hangings of which
are of crimson damask, with green silk fringes and tassels.
The historical and romantic associations connected with this
room render it, undoubtedly, the most interesting apartment
in Scotland ; and the melancholy and faded aspect of the
chamber itself is in admirable keeping with its tale of sorrow
and of crime. On the north side of the room is a small door,
half hidden by the tapestry, opening on the secret stair by
which Darnley and his infamous associates ascended to the
royal apartments to assassinate Eiccio.

158 Queen Elizabeth.

159 Henry VIII.

160 Portrait of a Lady unknown.

161 Queen Mary.

At the south-west corner of this chamber a narrow door
leads to

THE DRESSING-ROOM

of the lovely Queen, a little apartment about ten feet six
inches square, hung with decayed tapestry.

Passing to the north-east corner of the bed-chamber, close
by the door of the private staircase, is the entrance to another
room or closet, commonly called

QUEEN mart's SUPPING-ROOM,^

the little apartment so famous in Scotiish story as the scene
of the assault upon the unfortunate Italian in the presence of
the Queen. Every one whose imagination is at all vivid will

^ It may be proper to remind the visitor who may be surprised at
the smallness of this royal apartment, that the Queen received in it
only her most familiar and attached friends and attendants, the great
rooms being in the other portion of the Palace, which was burned in
the time of the Commonwealth.

PALACE AND ABBEY OF HOLYROOD. 169

here easily realise the particulars of that terrible event — the
Queen forcibly restrained by Damley — the overthrown table,
and scattered viands — the fierce and scowling conspirators,
pressing into the little room, and the dagger left sticking in
the body of Eiccio, who crouches behind Mary for protection.
From this closet the assassins dragged their victim through
the other royal apartments, stabbing him as they went, till
he fell dead at their feet at the top of the staircase, by the
door of the audience- chamber. To this room the bi^utal
Ruthven, reeking from the slaughter, returned and demanded
a cup of wine, and here it was probably that the conspirators
threatened to cut the Queen " into coUops " if she dared to
address the populace from the window.

The frames on the walls contain fragments of the figured
silk hangings which originally adorned the room.

162 Portrait of a Youth unknown.

The visitor returns, through the Bedroom and Audience-
Chamber, to the top of the principal staircase, where the
conspirators finally despatched Riccio ; and, descending to the
piazzas of the Inner Court, and turning to his left, proceeds
to the north-east corner of the quadrangle, and enters

THE CHAPEL BOYAL.

This is the sole remaining portion of the great church of
the Monastery of Holyrood. Fire and time have totally
obliterated the transepts and the choir ; and the ignorance
of a builder of the last century has rendered even that
which remains a roofless though not a tottering ruin. But
the shattered church of King David is still a deeply interest-
ing relic to every student of architectural and ecclesiastical
antiquity. The monastery was founded in the commence-
ment of the twelfth century, dilapidated by Edward II. in
1322, burned by Richard II. in 1385, renovated by Abbot
Crawfurd towai'ds the end of the fifteenth century, again
mutilated in the English invasion of 1547, when the transepts
and choir were destroyed, stripped of its ecclesiastical furni-
ture at the outbreak of the Reformation, desecrated, even to
the tomb of the kings, in 1688; and, last scene of all, when
reduced to the dimensions of its nave, crushed to the gi'ound,
in irretrievable ruin, by the folly of a self-styled architect.^

1 In 1758, the roof having become ruinous, the Barons of Ex-

170 HISTORICAL GUIDE TO THE

But many are the historical associations connected with it.
Within these walls many Icings and Queens of Scotland were
crowned — here James II. was married to Mary of Gueldres,
and James III. to Margaret of Denmark — this was the scene
of that high ceremonial, at which the Papal Legate presented
to James IV., in the name of Pope Julius II., a purple cro^vn,
and that richly ornamented sword, which, under the name of
the " Sword of State," is still preserved among the Eegalia of
Scotland — and, at the eastern extremity of the existing church,
under the great window, Mary, in an evil hour, plighted her
troth to the foolish and dissipated Darnley.

During the middle ages, conventual churches and chapter-
houses were much used as places of interment for persons of
rank and opulence ; and large bequests were frequently made
to monastic establishments, on the condition that the remains
of the donor should be buried within the sacred precincts.
The Abbey Church of Hol}TOod appears to have been the last
resting place of many of the great of former times ; but the
destruction of the choir and transepts included also the de-
molition of many of the more ancient memorials of the depart-
ed. We are informed that within this church were deposited
the remains of David 11.^ James II., and James V., Kings oi
Scotland, Magdalene of France, the Queen of the last, and
several youthful members of the blood-royal. Of the tomb ol
David, however, which was built of stone brought from
Flanders, not a vestige remains ; and the precise spot where
James II. was interred, is still a matter of considerable doubt.

In order that the visitor may form a correct idea of the
general style and details of the ruined chapel, we should advise
him, on entering, to turn to his left, and going out by the
great western door, to examine the principal features of the
western front. This consists now, it will be observed, of only
one tower to the north, and the great gateway with the two
curious windows above it. The site of the other tower is
occupied by a portion of the palace built by Charles II. The

chequer employed a builder to renew it This individual, instead
of putting a new wooden roof with slates over the building, covered it
with flagstones and a quantity of stone work. The old walls bore vtp
for a time against this monstrous infliction, but at last gave vray dur-
ing the night between the 2d and 3d of December 1768.

A1J13EY OF nOLYROOT)

WEST FRONT

PALACE AND ABBEY OF HOLYROOD. 171

surviving tower, which is dismantled, is a fine specimen of the
style of architecture belonging to the period of transition from
the Romanesque to the first pointed or early English style in
Scotland, (from about a.d. 1170 to 1175.)

It was lit by four large windows, one on each side, divided
by a single shaft. Below these, on the west and south sides,
it is adorned by two storeys of arcades, with a row of sculp-
tured heads between them, to correspond with the enrichments
of the main wall of the nave, of which that portion still re-
mains which connects the tower with the north side of the
gateway. The lower range of arcades is richly ornamented,
and is composed of trefoiled arches resting on clustered shafts.

The doorway is a noble, high arched, and deeply recessed
one, having eight shafts on either side, with capitals composed
of birds and grotesques, and mouldings rich with flowered and
toothed ornaments, and belongs to the best years of the early
English style in Scotland, namely, about 1181. The tym-
panum, or space between the lintel and the curved mouldings
above, is adorned by an arcade of five pointed arches, and
below this, by a row of cherubs, sculptured on the architrave.
The central western mndows are in a style somewhat allied
to the perpendicular, but are very peculiar in their character,
having flat, segmental arches adorned with six pendent cusps
or fleurs-de-lis, instead of tracery, and slender muUion shafts
receding from the external surface of the wall.

Above the doorway, and between the central windows, is a
tablet, inserted by Charles I., bearing the following inscrip-
tion, which, in the circumstances, is peculiarly striking.

HE SHALL BUILD ANE HOUSE

FOR MY NAME, AKD I WILL

STABLISH THE THRONE

OF HIS KINGDOM

FOR EVER.

BASILIC AM HANC 3E\n

RUTAM CAROLUS REX

OPTIMUS INSTAURAVIT

ANNO DONI

CIO. locxxxm.

112

HISTORICAL GUIDE TO THE

The visitor now re-enters the Chapel, and stepping a short yiny
towards the left, takes a general survey of the interior, remem.
bering, of course, that what now remains was only the nave
of the original edifice. On the north side of the church,
all that remains are two shattered piers, o'lt of the seven

that originally di\aded the body of the nave from the aisles,
and the outward wall of the latter, which, however, is now
standing only as far up as the " table," which runs along
above the lancet-shaped windows, and belongs to the transi-
tion style above described.

On the interior surface of this wall, immediately below the

Y Of i:OLY?vOOD

VALACE AKD ABBEY OF HOLYEOOD. 173

windows, is an arcade of circular arches, intersecting each
other, and resting on single shafts, having a square abacus,
and variously ornamented capitals. This arcade is an excel-
lent specimen of that peculiar style to which has sometime?
been ascribed the original idea of the pointed arch.

Towards the western end of the north wall there is a door-
way, which appears to have been the one commonly used by
all persons who were not inmates of the Abbey.

A great part of the east end of the existing church is oc-
cupied by a window 34 feet 2 inches high, by 20 feet broad,
built, of course, since the demolition of the choir and
transepts, as is also that portion of the wall immediately
beneath^ which every observer will remark, is entirely compos-
ed of the debris of other portions of the edifice. This window,
which is, therefore, comparatively modern in date, is filled
above for about two-fifths of its height with quatrefoil tracery,
and below, it is subdivided by four mullions and a transom.
It was blown in by a violent storm in 1795, but restored fi-om
its own ruins, which still lay scattered on the gi'ound, in the
year 1816. This window, and the wall beneath it, occupy the
western arch of the great central tower of the church, which
is generally supposed to have been taken down along with the
choir and transepts, by the directions, or at the suggestion of
Adam Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, the commendator of Holy-
rood, about the year 1570 ; but we are inclined to hazard an
opinion that it had been removed by Abbot Crawfurd towards
the end of the fifteenth century, and never rebuilt.^

The eastern ends of the aisles of the nave, where they com-
municated with the transepts, have been filled up with windows,
each resting on a wall, as in the case of the great central arch,
— and that on which the window of the north aisle stands is
principally composed of screen work, taken evidently from
some other portion of the building.

1 Vide Note B,

171

HISTORICAL GUIDE TO THE

On ihe soutli side of the building the roof of the aisle aud

the piers which support-
ed the nave still remain,
together with the arches
of the triforium, and a
few small fragments of
the clerestory. On most
of the piers the com-
mencements of the ribbed
vaultings of the roof of
the nave are still visible.
The following is a re-
presentation of the ca-
pitals of one of the clus-
tered columns of the south aisle.

(3n the inner surface of the wall of the south aisle is an ar-
cade, as on the north side, but the arches which compose it
are quite in a different style, being Pointed. Each of the
shafts has a distinct capital. Two specimens are engraved
below.

The western extremity of this aisle is encroached upon
to a small extent by the wall of the Palace. Here there
is a door which communicates with the quadrangle of the royal
residence, and near it, but on the west wall, is a doorway, now

F^LACE AND ABBEY OF UOLYROUD.

175

built up, which formerly led into the south-west tower of the
church, and communicated also through the tower with those
building? of the Palace which existed prior to Charles the

Second's time. The
wall of the north aisle
is supported exter-
nally by seven upright
buttresses, adorned
with canopied niches
and pinnacles. The
ornaments of the
doorway, at the west-
end of this aisle, are
elaborate, and evi-
dently in the same
style with the but-
tresses,— being, in all
probability, built by
Abbot Crawfurd in
the fifteenth century.
At the east-end of
the south aisle, and at
tlie back of the square
mass of masonry which
surmounts the Royal
Vault is a small door-
way, now built up,
which communicated
with the old cloisters
of the Abbey. This
door and the portion
of the wall imme-
diately adjoining itarr
the most ancient por-
tion of the edifict
now existing, plainly
belonging to the last
years of the Norman or Romanesque epoch, and cannot be o/

176

HISTORICAL GUIDE TO THE

later date than 1160. The doorway is composed of a round-

headed arch,
with zigzag and
billet mould-
inn-s, resting on
twosingleshafts
with the square
abacus. On the
outside of this
aisle there re-
mains the lower
stage of five
fl^dng buttress-
es, but the}
are not very ele-
gant in their
proportions.

They spring
from piers about
] 0 feet distant
from the wall,
and, crossing
what was for-
merly the roof
of the cloister,
rest against flat
pilasters on the
waU of the aisle.
Both from these
and the upright
buttresses of the
north side there
sprung a second

stage, which, spanning the roof of the aisle and triforium,
supported the wall of the clerestory. Distinct indications
of this second stage of buttresses are visible on the south
wall. In niches cut In the lower stage, on either side of the
building, are sculptured the arms of Abbot Crawfurd.

A large portion of the north and south aisles of the Abbey
Church are paved with gravestones of that peculiar class call-
ed Incised or Engraved slabs. This specjes of sepulchral
memorial, which was exceedingly common in France and other
continental countries in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries,
is also not unfreqaently to be met with in Scotland, down to
a period comparatively recent. Besides those at HoljTOod,
there are good specimens at Ratho and Roshn, near Edin-
burgh, Seton in East Lothian, Kinkell and Foveran in Aber-
deenshire, Kildalton m the Island of Islay, and various other
places in Argj-leshire. The slabs of HoljTOod have an aver-
age breadth of about three feet, and vary from six to seven
feet in length. Many of them are broken, and the inscriptions
)n several of the more ancient have been rendered illegible by
he action of the weather. A considerable number, however,
still present inscriptions which can be deciphered in whole or
in part, with numerous engraved, devices, such as crosses.

PALACE AND ABBEY OF HOLYKOOD. 177

floriated or plain, swords, chalices, coats of arms, hammers,
squares, &c. Two or three have merely an inscription round
the border without any device whatever ; others have an in-
cised cross only, without any legend. The oldest of them
which presents a legible date is of the year 1455.

We shall now describe the more remarkable tombs, both
ancient and modern in the Chapel Royal of Holyrood, com-
mencing with those to the left of the great western entrance,
and advancing by the north aisles.

The first in order is that of

No. 1. Lord and Lady Reay.

This is a plain altar tomb, bearing the following inscrip-
tion.

Uader this stone

Are laid the remains of

The late Right Honourable George, Lord Re ay,

And Elizabeth Fairley, his wife,

In the grave thus undivided,

As in life they were united

In that Divine bond

Of Christian Faith and Love,

Which ennobled their earthly affection,

By elevating each view and desire

In one undeviating course,

Towards another and a better world,

Georoe, Lord Reay died 27th February 1768,

Aged 34.

Elizabeth, Lady Reay, died 10th November 1800,

Aged 61.

This stone is Inscribed, January 1810,

In token of grateful respect and affection,

By their Daughterji,

The Honourable Mrs H. Fcllartox,

And the Honourable Georgina M'Kay.

No. 2. The imposing mural monument of Viscount Belhaven
in the north-west tower. It was erected by his nephews, Sir
Archibald and Sir Robert Douglas. The monument, which
may be more properly called an altar tomb, is formed of

178 HISTORICAL GUIDE TO THE

Italian marble, and is on the whole a meritorious work of art.
It displays a recumbent figure of his Lordship the size of lile,
arrayed in his robes of state, and wearing his coronet, his right
arm resting on a cushion, the head raised in an attitude ol
attention, and the left arm supporting a sword in a direction
parallel with the figure. On either side of the figure rises
a fluted column supporting an open pediment, over which are
placed his Lordship's arms.

This is the nobleman of whom Bishop Burnet tells a singu-
lar story, in reference to Charles the First's revocation of the
tithes in Scotland. The Scottish nobles who had got posses-
sion of the church property, were frantic at the idea of this
resumption, and resolved to " knock out the brains " of the
Earl of Nithsdale, Charles's commissioner, if he persisted in
the matter. A meeting was appointed, at which Lord Bel-
haven, who had become blind, desired to be seated close to
one of Lord Nithsdale's adherents, of whom he said he would
'* make sure.'''' He was accordingly placed beside Viscount
Ayr, whose hand he grasped during the conference. When
the Viscount asked him the cause of his holding him so firmly,
Belhaven replied that his loss of sight always caused him to
be apprehensive of falling. In reality, however, he held in
his other hand a dagger, with which he intended stabbing the
Viscount if any discussion ensued. Within the recess, above
the figure, is engraved, on one side, an inscription in Latin,
of which the following is a translation.

" Here are interred the remains of Robert, Lord Viscount Belha-
ven, Baron of Spot, &c., Counsellor to King Charles, and most inti-
mately in favour with him, because formerly he had been most dear to
Henry, Prince of Wales, and Master of his Horse. But he being
dead, and Charles his brother now reigning, he was made chamber-
lain to the king's household, and entertained with a singular degree of
favour, and advanced to great honours and wealth. In his youth he
enjoyed the sweet society of Nicholas Murray, daughter to the Baron
of Abercairnej, his only wife ; who lived with him not above eighteen
months, and died in child-bed with her child. When grievous old
age came upon him (as weary of bad times and customs), withdraw-
ing himself from the noise of the court, he returned to his country.
He nominated Sir Archibald and Sir Robert Douglasses, baronets,
sons to his eldest brother, to be his heirs, dividing equally amongst
them all his lands and goods, except some legacies ; and they erected
this monument to hb memory, as a token of their gratitude.

PALACE AND ABBEY OF HOLYROOD. 179

Nature supplied in him by sagacity, what his mind wanted of edu-
cation. He was inferior to none in a good capacity and candour. He
would soon be angry, but was as soon calmed. This is one thing he
liad in liis life, which scarcely could be alike acceptable to all ; for
loyaity towards his prince, love to his country, kindness to his rela-
tions, and charity to the poor, he was singular. In prosperity he was
meek and moderate ; in adversity his constancy and magnanimity
prevailed to his very end. He died at Edinburgh the 12th day of
January, and from the incarnation of the Messiah 1639, and of his age
66, being the third year above his great climacteric."

No. 3. On this slab is an ornamental cross, the stalk of
which passes through an elegantly formed chalice. The base
of the stone is broken, and no portion of the inscription is
legible.

No. 4. A floriated cross with an ornamental base. The
following is the inscription round the edge of the stone : —
"Hie jacet dns. Robertus Cheyne, XII. prior hujusce
monasterij qui obiit XVII. die Sept. An. Dni. MCCCCLV."

No. 5. A plain cross and calvary, surrounded by the fol-
lowing inscription : — Hie jacet Marjoria Duncan uxor Thomo
Duncan qui obiit XVI. die me. Octob. A.D. MC***."

No. 6. In the centre is a shield between the letters M. E.,
shewing a pale charged with a cross crosslet fitchy, issuing
out of a crescent. Below the shield are a skull and a bone,
and the words " memento mori." The inscription round the
edge of the stone is " Heir lyes ane honourable woman callit
Margaret Erskin Lady Alerdes and Dame XVII. July 159*."

No. 7. On this ancient slab are engraved two large two-
handed swords, about five feet long, and surrounded by a
border of two parallel lines, without date or inscription.
There are several examples elsewhere of a single sword placed
by the side of a cross, but we are not aware of any other stone
on which two large swords appear side by side, without any
other device or inscription to explain the cause of their united
presence. It has been conjectured, not without probability,
thatthis slab indicates the resting-place of two warriors of one
house, brothers, or father and son, who have fallen on the
same field.

No. 8. A floriated cross and calvary without date or in-
scription.

ISO

lilSTORICAL GUIDE TO THE

No. 9. A stone with the Inscription '* Heii- lyis ane Honest
man Robert Votherspone, Burgis and Deacon of ye Hammer-
men in ye Canogalt, E,. V. 1520."

No. 10. An imperfect slab with a plain cross and calvary.
On the dexter side of the cross is a mallet surmounted by a
crown ; on the sinister side a peculiar and indistinct device.
The inscription is illegible, except the date, which is 1543.

No. 11. The first part of the legend on this slab, goes
round the border of the stone, and the rest runs in parallel
lines across the body of it, " Heir lyes ye noble and poton
Lord James Douglas, Lord of Cau^ell and Torthorall, wha
raarrid Daime Eliezabeth Cairlell, air and heretrix yarof : wha
was slaine in Edinburgh e, ye xiii day of July in ye zeier of
God 1608. Was slain in 48 ze." At the bottom of the slab
is a shield, but, with the exception of three mullets in chief
on the dexter side, the charges are obliterated.

This Lord Douglas, who was only a territorial baron, not
a peer, was Sir James Douglas of Parkhead, a nephew of the
Regent Morton. His lady was the only child of Wilham,
Master of Carlyle, who died in the lifetime of his father
Michael, fourth and last Lord Carlyle. In 1596 Sir James
killed Captain James Stewart, Earl of Arran and Chancellor
of Scotland, an unworthy favourite of James VI. to avenge
the wrongs sustained by his uncle, the Regent. Twelve years
afterwards he himself was run through the body on the High
Street of Edinburgh by William Stewart, the nephew of
Arran. Sir James's son was created Lord Carlyle of Tor-
thorall in 1609.

No. 12. A plain cross and calvary. On the dexter side
a pair of compasses over a device which resembles a book,
and on the sinister side a carpenter's square over a maUet.
All that is legible of the inscription is " Hie jacet honorab,
Vir Johannes . . . et . . . Anno dni 1543."

No. 13. At the top of this stone is the date 1592. Im-
mediately below is a hammer surmounted by a crown, and
having the letters B. H. on either side. Beneath, in the cen-
tre of the slab, is a shield charged with a ship and three cin-
quefoils in chief. At the bottom are the skull, bone, and
" memento mori.*' The inscription round the border is

PALACE AND ABBEY OF HOLYROOD, 181

" Heir lyis ane honest woman calet IMarget Baxter spous to
iiartel Hamelton Dakmaker Burges of ye Canengait."

No. 14. The mural monument of George AVishart, Bishop
of St Andrews, a sufferer in the cause of Charles I., and
chaplain to the gi'eat Marquis of Montrose, the history oi
whose warlike achievements he composed in Latin. The fol-
lowing is the quaint translation of the Latin inscription giver
in Menteith's '' Theater of Mortahty." —

" Another famous Doctor Wiseheart, here
Divine George Wiseheart lies, as may appear ;
Great orator, with eloquence and zeal,
Whereby on hardest hearts he did prevail.
Three Wisehearts, Bishops, so the third was he,
When Bishop of fair Ed'nburgh's diocie.
Candour in him was noble ; free of stain ;
In cases all, the same he did remain —
Above four hundred years great Wiseheart's name,
For honours, has pure and untainted fame ;
W^hile one thereof both purse and mitre bore,
Chancellor and Bishop near St Andrew's choir ;
And when brave Bnice did for his nation plead,
At Norham, vnth undaunted hand and head,
Then Robert Wisheart sat in Glasgow's chair,
With courage for his bounty singular.
To these great George was not inferior
In peace, and was elsewhere superior.
High, without pride ; — his bounty had no guile.
His charity to th' poor nought could defile,
His loyalty untainted — faith most rare,
Athenian faith, was constant every where,
And though a thousand evils did controul,
None could o'ercome his high and lofty soul —
To King and Country he was faithful still ;
Was good and just, ev'n from a constant will.
Thrice spoil'd and banish'd, for full fifteen years,
His mind unshaken, — cheerful still he bears
Deadly proscription, nor the nasty gaol
Could not disturb his great seraphic soul.
But when the nation's King, Chaei.es the second blest
On his return from sad exile to rest ;
They then received great Doctor Wiseheart — he
Was welcome made, by church and laity ;
And where he had been long in prison sore,
He nine years Bishop, did them good therefore.

182 HISTORICAL GUIDE TO THK

At length he dy'd in honour : where his head
To much hard usage was accustomed.
He liv'd 'bove seventy years — and Edinburgh town
Wish'd him old Nestor's age, in great renown ;
Yea Scotland, sad with grief, condol'd his fall,
And to his merits gave just funeral.
Montrose's acts, in Latin forth he drew ;
Of one so great, ah ! monuments so few."

No. 15. A small neat cenotaph to the memory of George,
fourteenth Earl of Sutherland. On the top are placed the
arms of this illustrious house, quartered with those of various
other noble families. On the pillars are placed the names of
several of the noble families of Scotland with which they are
connected — Gordon., Lennox., Elphinstone, Perth, and Eglin-
toune.

" To the memory of the most illustrious Lord George, Earl of
Sutherland, Lord Stiathnavar, &c. heritable Sheriff of said lands, and
lord of the regality thereof ; one of the Keepers of the Great Seal,
under the most renowned Prince King William, one of the Lords
of Privy Council, and the nineteenth Earl descended in a right line
from Allan, Thane of Sutherland, whom Macbeth, in the rage of
his usurping tyranny, about the year of Christ 1057, made away with
for endeavouring to restore the Kingdom to Malcolm IIL lawful
heir to the Crown. His mournful widow Jean Wemyss, eldest daugh-
ter to David Earl of Wemyss, erected this monument of everlasting
fame.

" To the defunct Earl she brought forth John, now Earl of Suther-
land, and Anne, Viscountess of Arbuthnot. And to her former hus-
band, Archibald, Earl of Angus, eldest son to the Marquis of Douglas,
she brought forth Archibald, Earl of Forfar, and Margaret, given in
marriage to the Viscount of Kingstoun. Five other children of the
said Lady Dowager died in their nonage. The Earl himself was
born in his own Castle of Dornoch 2d November 1633, and died at
Edinburgh, 4th March 1703."

Here are also deposited the remains of William, seventeenth Earl
of Sutherland, and his amiable Countess Mary, daughter of William
Maxwell of Preston, Kirkcudbright. His Lordship died at Bath,
June 16th, 1766, just after he had completed his 31st year ; and the
Countess, June 1st, 1766, in her 26th year, 16 days before the Earl.

The bodies of this illustrious and affectionate pair were brought to
Scotland, and interred in one grave in Holyrood Abbey, 9th August
1766.

" Beauty and birth a transient being have,
Virtue alone can triumph o'er the grave."

PALACE AND ABBEY OF HOLYROOD. Ig3

No. 16. A flat stone. At the top a viscount's coronet sur-
mounting a shield, which displays, quarterly, 1st and 4th, the
sun in splendour, 2d and 3d, three mullets on a chevron be-
tween a chief, charged with as many mascles, and a unicorn's
head erased in base. The following inscription surrounds the
shield : " Heir lyeth ane noble lady D. Isobel Ker Vieounte?
of Drumlanreg 1628." She was the fourth daughter of
Mark Ker, 1st Earl of Lothian, and wife of William Douglas,
1st Viscount Drumlanrig (afterwards Earl of Queensberry).
One of her elder sisters. Lady Margaret, whose husband was
James, seventh Lord Tester, founded in 1647 the church in
Edinburgh which still bears her name.

No. 17. The mural monument of the Countess of Eglin-
toune. The following inscription, though nearly obliterated,
is placed within an arched recess :

D T. H.

Here lyes ane Nobil and maist

vertuous Ladie, Deame Jeane

Hamilton, Countas of Egling-

toun, Dochtor to James Duke

of Schattillarot, sometyme

Governor of this Realme.

She deeeast in December

MDXCVI.

No. 18. The tomb of Sir John Sinclair of Ulbster, a man
eminent as a philanthropist, and a writer on agriciilture,
statistics, and other subjects.

No. 19. The Royal Vault, at the south east corner of the
Chapel. Its early history is involved in considerable obscurity.
We have already described the wanton destruction of its
coffins by the infuriated multitude in 1688. In the circum-
stances it Is fortunate that there is preserved in the Advocate's
Library a manuscript, containing an authentic account of a
search made in the vault by authorized persons, about five
years prior to the sacrilegious violation of its moulderuag relics
of Scottish royalty. The narrative of the inquisition is ns
follows : —

184: HISTORICAL GUIDE TO THE

" Upon ye xxiv of January MDCLXXXill. by procurement ol ye
Bischop of Duniblayne, I went into ane vault in ye south-east corner
of ye Abbey Church of Halyrudehouse, and yr. were present, ye
Lord Strathnavar and E. Forfare, Mr Robert Scott, minister of ye
Abbey, ye Bishop of Dumblayn, and some uthers. Wee viewed yo
body of King James ye Fyft of Scotland. It lyeth within ane wodden
coffin, and is coveret wyth ane lead coffin. There seemed to be haire
upon ye head still. The body was two lengths of my staf, with two
inches more, that is twae inches and mare above twae Scots elne ; for
I measured the staf with ane elnwand efterward.

'* The body was coloured black with ye balsom that preserved it,
which was lyke melted pitch. The Earl of Forfare tooke the measure
with his staf lykeways. There was plates of lead, in several long
pieces, louse upon and about the coffin, which carried the following
inscription, as I took it from before the laishop and noblemen in ye isle
of ye church : —

" ILLVSTRIS SCOTORVM REX JACOBVS EJVS NOMINIS V. ETATIS

SUE ANNO XXXI EEONI VERO XXX MORTEM OBIIT IN

PALACIO DE FALKLAND 14 DECEMBRIS ANNO DNI. MDXLII

CVJVS CORPVS HIC TEADITVM EST SEPVLTVRE.

" Next ye south wall, in a smaller arch, lay a shorter coffin, with ye
teeth in ye skull.

" To the little coffin in the narrow arch, seemeth to belong this in.
scription made out of long pieces of lead in the Saxon character : —

^rimo=gcnita IRcgina g^cotiee, Sponsa 3laco6i U.

IR^giS, A.D. MDXXXVII. OBIIT.

" There was ane piece of a lead crown, upon the syde of whilk I
saw tvfo floor de leuces gilded : and upon ye north side of ye coffin lay
two children, none of the coffins a full elne long, and one of them lying
within ane wod chest, the other only the lead coffin.

" Upon the south syde, next the King's body, lay ane gret coffin of
lead, with the body in it. The muscles of the thigh seemed to be
entire ; the body not so long as King James the Fyfth, and ye balsam
stagnating in sum quantity at ye foote of ye coffin ; there appeared no
inscription upon ye coffin.

" And at ye east syde of the vaults which was at ye feet of ye other
coffins, lay a coffin with the skull sawen in two, and ane inscription
in small letters, gilded upon a square of ye lead coffin, making it to ho,
ye bodye of Dame Jane Stewart, Countesse of Argyle^ mdlxxxv, oi
thereby, for I do not well remember ye yeare. The largest coffin, 1
suld suppose to be that of LordDarnley's,^ and the short coffin, Queene
Magdalene's."

^ It is now understood that the body of Darnley was disinterred
by command of James VI. and removed to Westminster Abbey,
tv'herp it was reburied.

tALACE AND ABBEY OF HOLYROOD. 185

In July 1848 the body of Mary of Gueldres, the Queen of
James II., was removed from its original resting-place in the
Trinity College Church, which she had founded (which was
then being taken down), and reinterred in the Royal vault.

No. 20. The vault of the Roxburgh family. In it lies
Jane, Countess of Roxburgh, daughter of Patrick, third
Lord Drummond, governess to the family of King James
VI. She died on the seventh October 1643.

No. 21. A plain tablet on the third pillar from the east
end of the South aisle, in memory of Adam Both well, Bishop
of Orkney and Shetland, and Commendator of Holy rood, who
celebrated the marriage between Mary and Bothwell. His
arms are cut within a circular tressure, beneath which are two
Latin inscriptions, of which the following are translations.

M. H. R.
Here lies interred a most noble man, Lord Adam Bothwell,
Bishop of Orkney and Zetland ; Commendator of the Monastery of
Holy Rood, Senator of the College of Justice, and one of the Lords
of his Majesty's Privy Council ; who died in the 67th year of his
age, 23d day of the month of August, in the year of our Lord 1593.

Teanslation of the Verses given in the " Theater
OP Mortality.""
Thy praise is triple sure ; thyself, thy Sire,
Thy Son, all Senators, whom men admire.
The stagg'ring state by thee was quickly stay'd,
The troubled churcb from thee got present aid.
Thou livedest at thy wish ; thy good old age
In wealth and honours took thee off the stage.
Thine aged corps interred here now lie,
Thy virtues great forbid your name to die.
Go ! happy soul, and in thy last repose,
Vanquish thou death, and all its fatal blows ;
Thy fragrant frame shall thus eternal be,
Unto thy country and posterity.

No. 22. Monument on the south wall with a Latin in-
scription, of which the following is a translation : " Here
lies Alexander Hay of Easter Kennet, Clerk Register, who
died 19th September, a.d. 1594."

No. 23. A flat slab towards the west end of the South aisle,
exhibiting a plain cross and calvary, with a simply-shaped
chalice on the sinister side. The stone has a border foniied
of two parallel lines, but bears no date or inscription.

186 HISTORICAL GUIDE, (tC.

The stone coffins were discovered towards the east end of
the Chapel Royal during the alterations in the garden in
1857. From their position, and also the broken state of the
tops or stone-covers, it was evident that these coffins had
previously been disinterred, as they contained only a few
human bones, with no other remains. There was no inscrip-
tion or other device on either of them, but it is probable they
may have originally contained the remains of some of the
Abbots or other dignitaries of the Monastery. Their dates
are probably between a.d. 1200 and a.d. 1350.

The ancient shield on the wall, bearing on it the Lion
Rampant of Scotland, is of oak, and formerly hung over
the great western entrance to the Chapel-Royal.

The Unicorn carved in stone, which leans against the
wall, was one of the supporters of the Royal Arms of
Scotland. From the initials below, it probably formed part
of the " King's Armes cunningly carved in stone," which
adorned the palace of James V. and which are described
by John Taylor, the Water Poet, as still existent in 1618.

To the east of the Chapel, on the site of the ancient choir,
stands a Monument to the memory of Alexander Milne.
A. {Motto). Tarn arte, quam marte. M.
In clarissimum virum, A lexandrum Milnum, Lapicidam
egregium, hie sepultum, Anno Dom. 1643 Febr. 20.

Siste Hospes ; clarus jacet hoc sub Marmore Milnus;
Dignus cui Pharius conderet ossa labor :
Quod vel in eere Myron fudit, vel pinsit Appelles,
Artifice hoc potuit hie lapicida manu.
Sex lustris tantum vixit, sine labe, seneetam
Prodidit, et medium clauserat ille diem.
The translation which follows is also on the stone : —
Here is buried a worthy man and an
Ingenious Mason, Alexander Milne, 20th Feb. A.D. 1643.

Stay Passenger^ here famous Milne doth rest,

Worthy to be in -^Egypt's Marble drest ;

What Myron or Appelles could have done

In brass or paintry, he could that in Stone ;

But thretty yeares hee (Blameless) lived ; old Age

He did betray, and in's Prime left this stage.

Restored by Robex-t Mylne,

Architect, MDCCLXXVI.*

* This monument was removed in 1857 to the north-east comer of
the Chapel-Royal, and in its place a flat tomb ,toue was substituted.

NOTES.

Note A-

It ii, after all, not impossible that the "IMiracle of the Holy
Rood" was founded on some accident which really befel the King,
the peril attendant on which may have appeared, to his supersti-
tious mind, to have been averted by a direct exhibition of super-
natural agency. To those who so interpret the legend, it has
appeared remarkable that David should at first have established
his Canons on the fortified rock of the castle, where the event in
question could not possibly have occurred.

It appears to the writer of these pages to be within the verge
of probability that the Canons of the Holy Rood were first settled
by David at the base of the Castle rock, and on the precise spot
where the good King encountered the *' wyld hart," according to
the legend.

Froissart, in describing the Knight of Liddesdale's capture of
the Castle by stratagem, in 1341, speaks of the Scottish ambus-
cade as being placed in " an old Abbey that was ruined and
uninhabited; near the foot of the hill on which the Castle is situ-
ated."* Now it is evident that the spot where the Scots lay con-
cealed must have been near the east end of the rock, in order that
they might rush, immediately on the signal being given, to the
gate of the Castle. The "ruined abbey" was therefore not only
near the Castle, but toward the east of it.

The legend states that the King was " at the fate of the crag"
when the stag assailed him, and that the creature vanished at the
spot " quhare springis the Rude well." Now, at the very place
where Froissart's Abbey must have stood, we find a " crag,^* and
near it also a "well.^ The former appears in David's own Charter

• Froissart's own words are " Et puis envoyerent leurs com-
paignons embusher en une Abbaie destruite et gastee, la ou nul
ne demouroit, et estoit assez pres du pie de la montagne, la ou le
chastel seoit."— T. L p. 71, Edit Lyon, 1559.

188 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

to the Monks of Holyrood as " iinam Craggam que est sub eodsm
castello versus Orientem" (a crag which is under the Castle
toward the east), and the latter is the spring which gave its name
to the Well-house or Wallace tower of the Castle, and also ap-
pears as a boundary in the same charter.

On this little eminence, then, forming the last swell of the
castle-hill, and known, perhaps, by the name of " the Crag of the
Holy Rood," we are disposed to believe that David founded his
monastery in 1128; and that the " ruined abbey " of Froissartwas
the wreck of this forsaken house of the Canons. Thus situated,
it might be designated with propriety either by Fordun's name of
" the Monastery of the Crag of the Holy Rood," or by the Charter
appellation of " Monastery of the Castle of Maidens." * This site,
however, may have been afterwards found to be inconvenient.
There was not, perhaps, sufficient space for those gardens and
orchards which recluses loved, nor for a cemetery sufficiently
removed from the cottages of " Edwinesburg ;" and, besides, the
place was necessarily exposed to violence when hostilities were
directed against the fortress above. Convinced, probably, of the
-unsuitableness of the site. King David bestowed on the Canons,
in the year 1143-7 the retired and spacious meadow below Arthur's
seat — a locality to which, after the lapse of several years, they
finally withdrew ; and, when the old tale was partially forgotten,
transferred to the rugged precipices above their new dwell-
ing the marvellous associations connected with the Crag of the
Castle. Another migration of a religious fraternity, imder similar
circumstances, occurred in David's reign. He founded a monas-
tery for Tyronensian monks at Selkirk ; but afterwards, " quia

♦ Lord Hailes, we must observe, has misquoted Fordun in re-
lation to the name of the Abbey, and later writers have adopted
his lordship's error. Lord H. says (vol. i. p. 112, note) that it
is called by Fordun 1. v. c. 48, " Monasterium Sanctce Crucis de
Crag" or " IMonasterj' of Holyrood of the Crag ; " whereas, the
proper reading is "Monasterium de Crag Sanctae Crucis," or
" Monastery ot the Crag of the Holy Rood," The difference ia
Hot unimportant, inasmuch as the true reading records the fact
that there was a " crag " known by the name of that of the
■* Holy Rood."

NOTES. 189

locus non erat conveniens abbaciae" (because the site was not
conrenient for an abbey), he removed the establishment to Kelso.

This, we think, accounts for the hitherto unexplained anomaly,
that, while the combined evidence of history and chronicle dis-
tinctly indicates the year 1128 as being the date of the foundation
of the Abbey, the writ, which has evidently always been regarded
as the Foundation Charter, appears not to have been granted for
a period of at least fifteen years afterwards. It has been main-
tained, however, that the phraseology of the charter itself is evi-
dence that the Abbey was founded where its ruins now stand,
before it was written. "We, however, are not disposed to attach
much importance to certain dubious expressions in that writ ; for
these, if interpreted as certain writers would wish, might have
been used, with equal plausibility, to persuade us that the Canons
were fairly established below Arthur's Seat at the date of the
charter ; while we have incontestible evidence that they were not
there for at least thirty years afterwards. Besides, that clause in
the charter itself, which gives a right to the Canons to take
timber from the royal woods for the erection of their church and
houses, is surely sufficient evidence that these edifices were not
yet in existence. We would suggest, however, that all difficulties
on this point may be obviated by supposing that David had, a
short time before, conveyed to the Monks of Holyrood the ground
on which their new monastery was to be erected ; and, therefore
speaks of it in the Great Charter as a fixed and understood
locality, though as yet the conventual buildings had not been ac-
tually commenced.

It may perhaps be objected that, if the first House of the
Canons had been placed on or close to the " Crag " mentioned in
David's charter, that locality would hardly have been described
by the indefinite designation of "a crag;" and that some allusion
would certainly have been made to the existing monastic building
in the narrative of that portion of the boundary. We think,
however, this objection is obviated by presuming that the " land
below the Castle" was the pious King's first gift to his Canons,
conceded probably in 1128 ; that this part of the charter, conse-
quently, is only a confirmation of a previous grant, and ttat
therefore, as usual in such a case, the ipsissima verba of tbe
origmal charter are adhered to.

/

190 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

Note B.

We have seen that Abbot Crawford, about the year 1460.
laboured with singular zeal and success in upholding the fabric
of his venerable church, which appears to have been in a very
ruinous condition when he succeeded to the Abbacy — a state of
disrepair easily accounted for by the fact of its having been
burned by Kichard II. in the invasion of 1385, and never after-
wards thoroughly repaired. It seems to us to be not improbable^
that, at this period, the central tower was of itself so ruinocis, or
its weight appeared so dangerous to the dilapidated lower parts
of the edifice, that the Abbot may have caused it to be taken
down, and satisfied with putting the choir, transepts, and nave in
a good state of repair, may have made no attempt to rebuild it. If
any confidence can be placed in the Plan of Edinburgh, prepared
for the direction of the Earl of Hartford's invading army in 1543,*
this supposition would appear not to be without foundation. In
this sketch, while the choir, transepts, nave, and western towers
are distinctly depicted, though not, perhaps, in very correct per-
spective, there is no appearance whatever of the great central
tower, the roof running in an unbroken line from east to west.
Now, this sketch was very probably done from memo'i^, but we
can hardly imagine that a person who had so distinct a recollec-
tion of the two western towers, with their short square spires,
could have quite forgotten the great central one, if it had existed
in his time. It appears also, to be a corroboration of our conjec-
ture, and of the correctness of this sketch, that when, in 1570,
articles were presented in the General Assembly,t against Adam
Bothwell, Bishop of Orkney, for allowing the church of the Abbey
to be in so dilapidated a condition, he says nothing, in his
laboured Reply,J of the injury inflicted on the weakened walls,
by the great superincumbent weight of the central tower, and,
that even when he proposes to remove the " superfluous ruinous
pairts " in order to repair the remainder sufiSciently, while he talks
of taking down the choir and transepts, he never speaks of the
removal of the tower in question — a circumstance which could

• Preserved in the British Museum (Cotton MS., Augustus L
wrf. ii.) and engraved in the Bannatyne Miscellany, v<d. i

* Booke of the Uuiversall Kirk, vol. L p. 103.
t Ibid vol i. p. 167.

NOTES. 191

hardly have occurred, if so important a part of the fabric had beei
standing in his day.

Note C.

We subjoin a portion of an epitaph on David II., taken from
the Scotichronicon of Fordun, as a curious specimen of Mediaevai
Lfttinity.

Hie rex sub lapide David inclitus est tumulatua,
Vir stirpis nitidae, per climata magnificatus.
Non vixit cupide, sed dapsilitate probatus :
Gesturae lepidae dulcedine mellificatus.
Miles mimificus, mitis moderamine, Isetus,
Pulcher, pacificus, placida probitate facetua ;
Ductor dignificus, in ee pietate quietus ;
Fragrans, fructificus, flos fertilitate repletua.

» » » *

Suis visceribus sapientia nidificavit,
Amplis muneribus adventitios recrea\'it ;
Sub verbis brevibus sapide responsa paravit
Fidis faminibus discordes miificavit,
Praelatos coluit cleri, tractando decenter
Et proceres voluit sibi circomstare potenter ;
Burgenses statuit sua commutare licenter,
Et populum studuit sub jure tenere patenter

* » * •

Anglia diligitur, et pro valido veneratur,
Verax asseritur, et pro bonitate beatur;
Scotia jam quaeritiu", quia fertilis aura fugatur,
Et timor ingeritur, ac defectus sociatur,
O dolor ! 0 gemitus ! premitur princeps pretiosuii}
O furor I 0 fremitus ! decessit dux dominosus ;
O stupor ! 0 strepitus I o miles deliciosus I
Ipse fuit penitus decor in regno rutUosus.
Ergo pater venise, qm misit aroma reorum,
Ad loca laetit:^ trahat ilium rex superorum :
In jubilo patriae, cum principe pacificorum,
Sub cultu latriae quiescat in regno polorum.*

• Seotichronicon. lib. xiv. cap. 35.

J-

192 HISTORY OF HOLYROOD.

Note D.
The dimensions of the ALbey Church are as follow :—

Feet. lu.

Length within walls 127 0

Breadth within walls 59 0

„ of the Middle Aisle .... 29 6

„ „ North Aisle .... 14 9

„ „ South Aisle .... 14 9
Height of the East End Wall, to the top of the

Fleur-de-lis 70 0

Height of the Great East Window ... 34 2

Breadth of it 20 0

Width of the original Arch in which it is placed 21 9
Height to the point of the Arch, being the original

height of the inner vaxilting, about . . 60 0

Height of Columns . . . . . 28 0

Girth of each . 16 8

Width of the Arches 10 0

Height of the Side Walls 28 0

„ ^Yest End Wall .... 59 0

„ „ Arch over West Entrance . (inside) 22 4

Width of the West Door 9 6

Height of the North- West Square Tower . . 52 0

Breadth of it outside (square) 23 0

„ „ inside (square) 15 6

Width of the Windows in the North and South

Aisles 2 11

Except the two eastmost in the south wall next

the cloister, one of which is ... . 40

And the other 4 7

Width of North Side Door 6 4

Depth of Piers of Buttresses in the Cloistoj . . 6 6

Breadth of these Piers 4 8

Width of the Walk in the Cloister ... iO I

941. 2Ed4
HS21

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