THE CA S TL E. 125
the initials H. and M. inwrought, for HENRaYid MARY,a nd the date 1566,' commemorates
the birth of James VI., on the 19th June of that year. The small room, which was
the scene of this important event, forms the south-east angle of the building. It is singularly
irregular in form and circumscribed in its dimensions, its greatest length being little
more than eigh't feet. The room was formerly neatly panelled with wainscot, but, after
being abandoned for years aiit a drinking-room to the -canteen, much of this has been
renewed in a very rude and inelegant fashion. The original ceiling, however, is preserved,
wrought in ornamental wooden panels, with the initials I. R. and M. R surmounted
with the royd crown, in alternate compartments ; and, on the wall, the commemorative
inscription, in black letter, mentioned by Maitland, still remains, with the Scottish arms
over it :-
Z o t t ~fn edu &brg& tbat crounit mad mitb 6IOornde,
pree'elzle tbe girth, qubais Dabgie heir i$'b orne,
Xnb $en& @ip aonee Bucrelilione, to meignr $tin,
Xaug in tbig Iliealme, if tbat it be mbg miH
Et$ Grant, 0 Porb, qubat eber of @It profleeb
%e to @Ibp @oner Rnb VraiB, pobieb.
19th IFNII, 1566.
At the back of the fireplace was formerly shown a hole, said to have served as the
communication'fhrough which a wire was conveyed to a house in the Grassmarket, and
there attached to a bell, to advise the Queen's Catholic friends of the birth of her son.
The use of bells, however, except in church steeples, is of a much more modern date; and
'-equally apocryphal is another story of the infant Prince having been secretly let down over
the rock in a basket, into the hands of these same'adherents of the Queen, to be educated
in the Catholic religion.
A considerable part of the east and north fronts of the ancient Royal Palace seem,
from the dates on them, as well as from the general style of the building, to have been
erected in the year 1616. The appearance, however, of many portions of the interior
leave no room to doubt that tlie works of that date were only a partial remodelling of a
more ancient fabric. Some of the stone panels on the east front are wrought in remarkably
beautiful Eliaabethan.ornaments, and on one of them the regalia have been sculptured
in high relief, though some chance shot, in one of the later sieges of the Castle, has
broken away the larger portion of the figures. The turrets at the angles of the building,
as well as the clock tower in the quadrangle, were originally covered with ogee lead roofs,
similar ta that still remaining on the turret staircase at the north end.
Immediately below the grand hall, are two tiers of large and strongly-vaulted bombproof
vaults, extending below the paved court of the quadrangle, communicating with a
wide arched passage, entered from the west side. The small loop-hole that admits light
into each of these huge vaults is strongly secured by three ranges of iron bars, and a
massive iron gate closes the entrance to the steep flight of steps that give admission to
the dreary dungeons. Within these gloomy abodes the French prisoners were confined
during the late war, above forty of them sleeping in a single vault. We furnish a view
Ante. p. 77. From the style of ornament, it appears to have been put up at 8 later period, probably by James VI.
on his visit to Scotlaud in 1617.
I 26 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
of one of them as it still exists, with the wooden frame-work that sustained the hammocks
of the prisoners.
Immediately below Queen May’s Room, there is another c~iously-vaulted dungeon,
partly excavated out of the solid rock, and retaining the staple of an iron chain, doubtlesS
used for securing the limbs of some wretched captive in ancient times. No date can with
any certainty be assigned to these massive foundations of the Castle, though they undoubtedly
belong to a remote period of its history.
In making some repairs on the west front of the royal apartments in the year 1830, a
remarkably curious and interesting discovery was made. Nearly in a line with the Crown
Room, and about six feet from the pavement of the quadrangle, the wall was observed,
when struck, to sound hollow, as though a cavity existed at that place. It was accordingly
opened from the outside, when a recess was discovered? measuring about two feet
six inches by one foot, and containing the remains of a child, enclosed in an oak coffin,
evidently of great antiquity, and very much decayed. The remains were wrapped in a
cloth, believed to be woollen, very thickly wove, so as to resemble leather, and within this
’ were the decayed fra-pents of a richly-embroidered silk covering, with two initials wrought
upon it, one of them distinctly marked I. This interesting discovery was ieported at the
time to Major General Thackery, then commanding the Royal Engineers, by whose orders
they were again restored to their strange place of sepulture, where they still remain. It
were vain now to attempt a solution of this mysterious discovery, though it may furnish
the novelist with mat.eria1 on which to found a thrilling romance.
Within this portion of the old Palace is the Crown Room, where the ancient Regalia
VIoNmTE--French Prisoners’ Vault in the Caatle.
