THE CASTLE. 127
of Scotland is kept. The apartment is a massive bombproof vault, and contains, along
with these national treasures, the old, iron-bound oak chest in which they were found in
the year 1817. The remarkably elegant crown is referred, with every probability, to the
era of Bruce, although it was not adorned with the graceful concentric arches of gold till
the r e i p of James V. It was further completed by the substitution of the present cap of
crimson velvet by James VIL for the former purple one, which had suffered during its
concealment in the civil wars. Next in interest to the crown is the beautiful sword of
state, presented by Pope Julius 11. to James IV. The scabbard is richly wrought with
filigree work of silver, representing oak boughs adorned with leaves and acorns,-an oak
tree being the heraldic device of that warlike Pontiff. In addition to the finely proportioned
sceptre, surmounted with statues of the Virgin, St Andrew, and St James, which
was made for James V., these interesting national relics are accompanied by the royal jewels,
bequeathed by Cardinal York, the last of the Stuarts, to George IV., including the George
and collar of the Order of the Garter, presented by Queen Elizabeth to James VI.-the badge
of .the Thistle of the same Monarch, containing a portrait of Anne of Denmark,-and the
coronation ring of Charles I.
The north side of this quadrangle now consists of a plain and uninteresting ra.nge of
barracks, erected about the middle of last century, previous to which time the site was
occupied by a church of large dimensions and great antiquity. It is described by Maitland
as “ a very long and large ancient church, which,” says he, “ from its spacious dimensions,
I imagine that it was not only built for the use of the small garrison, but for the service of
the neighbouring inhabitants, before St Giles’s Church was erected for their accommodation.”
Unfortunately, that laborious and painstaking historian, having little taste for
ecclesiastical remains, has furnished no account of the style of architecture by which to
judge of its probable date, though his idea of its having existed before the earliest church
of St Giles, shows his conviction of its very great antiquity, and would carry its foundation
back to a much earlier period than can be assigned to it. This most probabIy was a church
that appears to have been built shortly after the death of the pious Queen of Malcolm Canmore,
and dedicated to her.
‘‘ the Church of the Castle of Edinburgh,” a and is again confirmed to the Abbey of the
Holy Rood in that of Alexander III., as well as in successive Papal bulls.’ Robert II.
granted to St Margaret’s Chapel, within the Castle of Edinburgh, an yearly rent of eight
pounds sterling, out of the customs of Edinburgh; and this donation is confirmed by
Robert IIL’
In the bird’seye
view in Cordon’s map, the south elevation is shown ; it also forms a prominent object
in Sandby’s view of the Castle from the east, already referred to, and would seem to have
been a comparatively plain edifice, with crow-step gables and small windows, and was, in
d1 probability, an erection in the Norman style that prevailed at the period. From the
latter view, it would also appear to have been roofed with stone flags, and ornamented along
the ridge with carved pinnacles, auch as may still be seen on St MaFy’s Church at Leith.
This church seems to have been applied to secular purposes soon%fter the Reformation
It is mentioned by David I. in his charter of Holyrood,
Some idea of the form of the church may be gathered from old views.
1 Maitland, p. 145.
a Liber Cartarurn, pp. 64, 169, 186.
Liber Cartarurn, pp. 3-7.
* Caledonia, vol. ii. p. 693.
