THE CASTLE. 129
Mait.land’s time, and is divided into two stories by a floor which conceals the upper portion
of the chancel arch.
This chapel is, without doubt, the most ancient building now existing in Edinburgh,
and may, with every probability, be regarded as having been the place of worship of
the pious Queen Margaret, during her residence in the Castle, till her death in 1093. It
is in the same style, though of a plainer character, as the earliest portions of Holyrood
Abbey, begun in the year 1128; and it is worthy of remark, that the era of Norman
architecture is one in which many of the most interesting ecclesiastical edifices in the
neighbourhood of Edinburgh were founded, including Holyrood Abbey, St Giles’s Church,
and the parish churches of Duddingston, Ratho, Kirkliston, and Dalmeny, all of which,
with the exception of St Giles’s Church, still contain interesting remains of that era.l
The present garrison chapel is almost entirely a modern building, though including in its
walls portions of a former edifice of considerable antiquity. Immediately north of this is
the King’s Bastion, or mortar battery, upon which is placed the famous old cannon, MONS
MEG. This ancient national relic, which is curiously constructed of iron staves and hoops,
was removed to the Tower of London in 1754, in consequence of an order from the Board
of Ordnance to the governor to send thither all unserviceable cannon in the Castle. It lay
there for seventy years, until it was restored to Scotland by George IV., in 1829, mainly
in consequence of the intercessions of Sir Walter Scott. The form of its ancient wooden
carriage is represented on the sculptured stone, already described, over the entrance of the
Ordnance Office, but that having broken down shortly after its return to Scotland, it has
since been mounted on an elegant modern carriage of cast-iron. On this a series of inscriptions
have been introduced, embodying the usually received traditions as to its history,
which derive the name from its supposed construction at Mons, in Flanders. There is good
reason, however, for believing that local repute has erred on this point, and that this
famous piece of artillery is a native of the land to which all its traditions belong. The evidence
for*this interesting fact was first communicated in a letter from that diligent antiquary,
Mr Train, to Sir Walter Scott, and affords proof, from the local traditions of Galloway, that
this huge piece of ordnance was presented to James 11. in 1455, by the M‘Lellans, when he
arrived with an army at Carlingwark, to besiege William Earl of Douglas, in the Castle
of Threave. We have compressed into a note the main facts of this interesting communication
respecting the pedigree of Mons Meg, which Sir Walter thus unhesitatingly attests
in his reply : “ You have traced her propinquity so clearly, as henceforth to set all conjecture
aside.” a
Our attention waa first directed to this chapel by being told, in answer to our inquiries after the antiquities of the
Castle, that a font still existed in a cellar to the west of the garrison chapel ; it proved, on inspection, to be the socket
of one of the chancel pillara. In further confirmation of the early date we are disposed to aasign to this chapel, we may
remark that the building gifted by David I. to his new Abbey, is styled in all the earlier charters, EccZesiu-‘‘ concedimus
ecclesiam, scilicet Caatelli cum omnibus appendiciis,”-a deacription we can hardly conceive referable to so small a
chapel, while thoae of Corstorphine and Libberton are merely C‘apeZZo,4ependencies of the Church of St Cuthbedand
neither the style of this building, nor the probability derived from the practice of the period, admit of the idea that
so small a chapel would be erected apart from the church after its completion.
In “ The inventare of golden and silver werk being in the Castell of Edinburgh,” 8th Nov. 1543, the following items
occur :-“The Chapell geir of silver ouregilt, ane croce of silver with our Lady and Sanct John,-Tua chandleris,-ane
chalice and ane patine,4ne halie watter fatt,” &c., &c., all “of silver ouregilt. Ane croce of
dver,-tua chandleris of silver,-ane bell of silver,-ane halie watter fatt, with the stick of silver,4ne mise of silver
for the mess breid, with the cover,” &c.-Inventory of Royal Wardrobe, &c., 4t0, Edinburgh, 1815, p. 112.
Joseph Train, p. 200.-The Earl of Douglas having seized Sir Patrick M‘Lellan,
’
Chapell geir ungiltc
’ Contemporaries of Burns.
B
