according to Bellenden, was now standing boldly
at bay, and, with its branching antlers, put the life
of the pious monarch in imminent jeopardy, as he
and his horse were both borne to the ground.
With a short hunting-sword, while fruitlessly endeavouring
to defend himself against the infuriated
animal, there appeared-continues the legend-a
silver cloud, from the centre of which there came
forth a hand, which placed in that of David a
sparkling cross of miraculous construction, in so far
that the material of which it was composed could
never be discovered. Scared by this interposition,
the white stag fled down the hollow way between
the hills, but was afterwards slain by Sir Gregan
Crawford, whose crest, a stag?s head erased with
a cross-crosslet between the antlers, is still borne
by his descendants, the Crawfords of Kilbirnie,
in memory of that eventful day in the forest of
Drurnsheugh.
Thoughtful, and oppressed with great awe, the
king slowly wended his way through the forest to
the Castle ; but the wonder did not end there, for
when, after a long vigil, the king slept, there appeared
by his couch St. Andrew, the apostle of
Scotland, surrounded by rays of glory, instructing
him to found, upon the exact spot where he had
been miraculously saved, a fwegfh monastery for
the canons regular of St. Augustine ; and, in obedience
to this vision, he built the noble abbey
of Holyrood, ?in the little valley between two
mountains ?-i.e., the Craigs and the Calton.
Therein the marvellous cross was preserved till
it was lost at a long subsequent period; but, in
memory of St. David?s adventure on Rood-day, a
stag?s head with a cross between the antlers is still
boqe as the arms of the Canongate. Alfwin was
appointed first abbot, and left a glorious memory
for many virtues.*
Though nobly endowed, this famous edifice was
not built for several years, during which the
monks were received into the Castle, and occupied
buildings which had been previously the abode
of a community of nuns, who, by permission of
Pope Alexander III., were removed, the monks,
as Father Hay tells us, being deemed ?as fitter
to live among soldiers.? Abbot M7illiard appears,
in 1152, as second superior of the monks in the
Castrum Puellarum, where they resided till I I 76.
A vehement dispute respecting the payment of
tithes having occurred between Robert bishop of
St. Andrews and Gaufrid abbot of Dunfermline,
it was decided by the king, apud Casielum
PueZZamm, m presence of a great convention, con-
? ? Memorials of Ediiburgh Castle.?
sisting of the abbots of Holyrood and Stirling,
Gregory bishop of Dunkeld, the Earls of Fife and
March, Hugo de Morville the Lord High Constable,
William Lord of Carnwath, David de
Oliphant a knight of Lothian, Henry the son of
Swan, and many others, and the matter in debate
was adjudicated on satisfactorily.
David--?< sair sanct for the crown ? though King
James I. is said to have styled him-was one of
the best of the early kings of Scotland. ?I have
seen him,? remarks Aldred, ?quit his horse and
dismiss his hunting equipage when any, even the
humblest of his subjects, desired an audience ; he
sometimes employed his leisure hours in the culture
of his garden, and in the philosophical amusement
of budding and engrafting trees.?
In the priory of Hexham, which was then in
Scottish territory, he was found dead, in a posture
of devotion, on the 24th of May, 1153, and was
succeeded by his grandson Malcolm IV. who,
though he frequently resided in the Castle, considered
Scone his capital rather than Edinburgh.
In 1153 he appointed Galfrid de Melville, of
Melville in Lothian, to be sheriff of the fortress,
and became a great benefactor to the monks
within it.
In 1160, Fergus, Lord of Galloway, a turbulent
thane, husband of the Princess Elizabeth daughter
of Henry I. of England, having taken arms against
the Crown, was defeated in three desperate battles
by Gilbert de Umfraville ; after which he gave his
son Uchtred as a hostage, and assumed the cowl
as an Augustine friar in the Castle of Edinburgh,
where-after bestowing the priory of St. Marie de
Tray11 as a dependant on Holyrood-he died, full
of grief and mortification, in IIGI.
Malcolm died in 1165, and was succeeded by
William the Lion, who generally resided at Haddington;
but many of his public documents are dated
?Ajud Monasienicnt San& Crzmi de CasteZZo.?
In 1174 the Castle fell, for the first time,
into the hands of the English. William the Lion
having demanded the restitution of Northumberland,
Henry of England affected to comply, but
afterwards invaded Scotland, and was repulsed.
In turn William entered England at the head of
80,ooo men, who sorely I ravaged the northern
counties, but being captured by treachery near
Alnwick, and treated with wanton barbarity and
indecency, his vast force dispersed. A ransom of
AIoo,ooo-an enormous sum in those dayswas
demanded, and the Castle was given, with
some others, as a hostage for the king. Fortunately,
however, that which was lost by the chances of
war was quickly restored by more pleasant means,
