THE EARLY CHURCH. I39 St. Giles?s Church.]
of that hospital used to present a bowl of ale to away. The first stone church was probably of
every felon as he passed their gate to Newgate.
Among the places enumerated by Simon Dunelmensis,
of Durham, as belonging to the see
.of Lindkfarn in 854, when Earnulph, who removed
it to Chester-le-Street, was bishop, he includes
that of Edinburgh. From this it must
be distinctly inferred that a church of some
kind existed on the long slope that led to Dun
Edin, but no authentic record of it occurs till the
reign of King Alexander II., when Baldred deacon
of Lothian, and John perpetual vicar of the
church of St. Giles at Edinburgh, attached their
seals to copies of certain Papal bulls and charters
of the church of Megginche, a dependency of the
church of Holyrood ; and (according to the Liber
Cartaruni Sanctae Crucis) on the Sunday before the
feast of St. Thomas, in the year 1293, Donoca,
daughter of John, son of Herveus, resigned certain
Iands to the monastery of Holyrood, in full consis-,
Norman architecture. A beautiful Norman dborway,
which stood below the third window from the
west, was wantonly destroyed towards the end of
the eighteenth century. ?? This fragment,? says
Wilson, ?sufficiently enables us to picture the
little parish church of St. Giles in the reign of
David I. Built in the massive style of the early
Norman period, it would consist simply of a nave
and chancel, united by a rich Norman chancel
arch, altogether occupying only a portion of the
centre of the present nave. Small circular-headed
windows, decorated with zig-zag mouldings, would
admit the light to its sombre interior; while its
west front was in all probability surmounted by
a simple belfry, from whence the bell would summon
the natives of the hamlet to matins and
vespers, and with slow measured sounds toll their
knell, as they were laid in the neighbouring churchyard.
This ancient church was never entire4 detory,
held in the church of St. Giles. Its solid masonry was probably very
is again mentioned, when William the bishop of St. forces of Edward 11. in 1322, when Holyrood was
,%ndrews confirmed numerous gifts bestowed upon spoiled, or by those of his son in 1335, when
the abbey and its dependencies. In 1359 King the whole country was wasted with fire and sword.
David II., by a charter under his great seal, con- The town was again subjected to the like violence,
Catharine in the church of St. Giles all the lands I conflagration of 1385, when the English army
.of Upper Merchiston, the gift of Roger Hog, under Richard 11. occupied the town for five days,
burgess of Edinburgh. It is more than probable and then laid it and the abbey of Holyrood in
961, and built up again within the year. Of what ? the original fabric by the piety of private donors,
must the materials have been? asks Maitland. I or by the zeal of its own clergy to adapt it to
Burned again in 1187, it was rebuilt on arches of, the wants of the rising town. In all the changes
.stone--? a wonderful work,? say the authors of the that it underwent for above seven centuries, the
day. I original north door, with its beautifully recessed
A portion of the church of St. Giles was arched ? Norman arches and grotesque decorations, always
I with stone in 1380, as would appear from a con- commanded the veneration of the innovators, and I tract noted by Maitland, who has also preserved remained as a precious relic of the past, until the
the terms of another contract, made in 1387, be- tasteless improvers of the eighteenth century de-.
tween the provost and community of Edinburgh I molished it without a cause, and probably for no
on one hand, an? two masons on the other, for the better reason than to evade the cost of its repair !?
construction of five separate vaulted chapels along I In the year 1462 great additions and repairs.
the south side of the church, the architectural appear to have been in progress, for the Town.
features of which prove its existence at a period Council then passed a law that all persons selling
I long before any of these dates, and when Edin- corn before it was entered should forfeit one chal-
I der to church work. In the year 1466 it was I burgh was merely a cluster of thatched huts.
The edifice, as it now stands, is a building erected into a collegiate church by James III.,.
including the work of many different and remote the foundation consisting (according to Keitli and
I periods. By all men of taste and letters in Edin- others) of a provost, curate, sixteen prebendaries,.
burgh it has been a general subject of regret that sacristan, beadle, minister of the choir, and four
the restoration in 1829 was conducted in a man- choristers. - Various sums of money, lands, tithes,
ner so barbarous and irreverent, that many of its &c., were appropriated for the support of the new
In an Act ? molished.
passed in 1319, in the reign of Robert I., the church I partially affected by the ravages of the invading
firmed to the chaplain officiating at the altar of St. i probably with results little more lasting, by the
that the first church on the site was of wood. St. i ashes. The Norman architecture disappeared
Paul?s Cathedral, at London, was burned down in I piecemeal, as chapels and aisles were added to
