Castle Hill.
well-known in his time as a man of taste, and the
patron of Runciman the artist.
mond, of Megginch, who jilted him for the Duke
of Athol.
doors and panels that are still preserved. Over
one of the former are the heads of King James V.,
? For lack of gold she left me, O!
And of all that?s dear bereft me, 0 I
For Athol?s Duke
She me forsook,
And to endless care has left me, 0 I ?
The Doctor died in 1774, in his house at the northwest
corner of Brown Square; but his widow
survived him nearly twenty years. Her brother
John, twelfth Lord Semple, in 1755 sold the
An ancient pile of buildings, now swept away,
but which were accessible by Blyth?s, Tod?s, and
Nairne?s Closes, formed once the residence of
Mary of Lorraine and Guise, widow of James V.,
and Regent of Scotland from 1554 to 1560. It
iS conjectured that this palace and oratory were
erected immediately after the burning of Holyrood
and the city by the English in 1544, when the
I up her residence for a few days after the murder
of Rizzio, as she feared to trust herself within
the blood-stained precincts of the palace. Over
its main doorway there was cut in old Gothic
letters the legend &us Aonor Deo, with I. R.,
the initials of King James V., and at each end
were shields having the monograms of the Saviour
and the Virgin. The mansion, though it had been
sorely changed and misused, still exhibited some
large and handsome fireplaces, with beautifully
clustered pillars, and seven elaborately sculptured
with his usual slouched bonnet, and of his queen,
whose well-known beauty certainly cannot be traced
in this instance.
A portion of this building, accessible by a stair
near the head of the close, contained a hall, with
other apartments, all remarkable for the great
height and beauty of their ceilings, on all of which
In the de- I were coats armorial in fine stucco.
widowed queen would naturally seek a more secure
habitation within the walls of the city, and close
to the Castle guns. In this edifice it is supposed
that Mary, her daughter, after succeeding in detaching
the imbecile Dmley from his party, took
corated chimney of the former were the remains
of one of those chains to which, in Scotland, the
poker and tongs were usually attached, to prevent
their being used as weapons in case of any sudden
quarrel, One chamber was long known as the
THE GUISE PALACE. 93 The Castle Hill.]
queen?s Deid-room, where the individuals of the
royal establishment were kept between their death
and burial. In 1828 there was found walled up
in the oratory an infantine head and hand in wax,
being all that remained of a bambina, or figure of
the child Jesus, and now preserved by the Society
of Antiquaries. The edifice had many windows
on the northern side, and from these a fine view
spent her youth in the proud halls of the Guises
in Picardy, and had beell the spouse of a Longueville,
was here content to live-in a close in
Edinburgh! In these obscurities, too, was a
government conducted, which had to struggle with
Knox, Glencairn, James Stewart, Morton, and
many other powerfd men, backed by a popular
sentiment which never fails to triumph. It was
DUKE OF GORDO~?S HOUSE, BLAIR?S CLOSE, CASTLE HILL.
must have been commanded of the gardens in
the immediate foreground, sloping downward to
the loch, the opposite bank, with its farm-houses,
the Firth of Forth, and Fifeshire. ?? It was interesting,?
says the author of ? Traditions of Edinburgh,?
?to wander through the dusky mazes of
this ancient building, and reflect that they had
been occupied three centuries. ago by a sovereign
princess, and of the most illustrious lineage. Here
was a substantial monument of the connection
between Scotland and France. She, whose ancestors
owned Lorraine as a sovereignty, who had
the misfortune of Mary (of Guise) to be placed in
a position to resist the Reformation. Her own
character deserved that she should have stood in
a more agreeable relation to what Scotland now
venerates, for she was mild and just, and sincerely
anxious for the welfare of her adopted country. It
is also proper to remember on the present occasion,
that in her Court she maintained a decent gravity,
nor would she tolerate any licentious practices
therein. Her maids of honour were always busied
in commendable exercises, she herself being an
examplc to them in virtue, piety, and modesty,
