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,
