I54 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
mnnicathg with some curious and intricate machinery within.”’ This interesting relic
was obtained from a relative of the discoverer by Robert-Chambers, Esq., the author of the
‘‘ Traditions of Edinburgh,” by whom it was
presented to Sir Walter Scott. It was empty
at the time of its discovery, but is supposed to
have been used for holding the smaller and
more valuable furnishings of the altar. It is
now in the collection at Abbotsford, and
has all the appearance of great antiquity.
Portions of another curious relic, found near
the same spot, and presented by the late
E. A. Drummond Hay, Esq., to the Society
of Antiquaries, are thus described in the
list of donations for 1829 :-‘‘ An infantine
head and hand, in wax, being all thatremained
of a little figure of the child Jesus,
discovered in May 1828, in a niche carefully
walled up in the chapel of the house
formerly occupied by Mary of Lorraine, in
Blyth’s Close, Castle Hill.”
Considerable fragments of very fine carvin-g
in oak remained in the chapel till within these few years. One specimen in particular,
now in the possession of C. K. Sharpe, Esq., presents a richly carved and exceedingly
beautiful design of grapes and vine leaves, surmounted by finial6 ; and other portions of
the same decorations have recently been adopted by the Duke of Sutherland, as models
for the carved work introduced by him in the interior fittings of Dunrobin Castle. The
windows of the chapel were very tall and narrow, and singularly irregular in their
height; their jams were splayed externally on the one side, as is not uncommon in the
narrow closes of the Old Town, to catch every ray of light, and exhibited the remains
of stone mullions with which they had been originally divided.
In the east wall of this building, which still stands, there is a curious staircase built in
the thickness of the wall, which afforded access from the chapel to an apartment below,
where there was a draw-well of fine clear water, with a raised parapet of stone surrounding
it. Immediately to the north of this, on the same floor, another room existed with interesting
remains-of former grandeur; the fireplace was in the same rich style of Gothic design
already described, and at the left side there was a handsome Gothic niche, with a plain one
immediately adjoining it. The entrance to this portion of the Palace was locked and
cemented with the rust of years ; the door leading to the inner staircase was also built up,
and it had remained in this deserted and desolate state during the memory of the oldest of
the neighbouring inhabitants ; excepting that ‘‘ ane sturdy beggar ” lived for some time,
rent free, in one of the smaller rooms, hia only mode of ingress or egress to which was by
Traditions, vol i. p. 85. * The genuineness of this relic. has been oalled in question, from its reaemblance to the fragments of a large doll, but
those who have viaited the Continent will readily acknowledge the groundlessnesa of such an objection. ’
