EARLIEST TRA DITZONS. 3
sess himself of Edgar, the youthful heir to the crown, then lodged within its walls. In
that year, also, Queen Margaret (the widow of Malcolm Canmore, and the mother of
Edgar), to whose wisdom and sagacity he entrusted implicitly the internal polity of his
kingdom, died in the Castle, of grief, on learning of his death, with that of Edward, their
eldest son, both slain at the siege of Alnwick castle ; and while the usurper, relying on
the general steepness of the rocky cliff, was urgent only to secure the regular accesses,
the body of the Queen was conveyed through a postern gate, and down the steep declivity
on the western side, to the Abbey Church of Dunfermline, where it lies interred; while
the young Prince, escaping by the same egress, found protection in England, at the hand
of his uncle, Edgar Atheling. In commemoration of the death of Queen Margaret, a
church was afterwards erected, and endowed with revenues, by successive monarchs ; all
trace of which has long since disappeared, the site of it being now occupied by the barracks
forming the north side of the great square.
In the reign of Alexander I., at the beginning of the twelfth century, the first
distinct notices of the town as 8 royal residence are found ; while in that of his successor
David, we discover the origin of many of the most important features still surviving. He
founded the Abbey of Holyrood, styled by Fordun “ Monasterium Sanctae Crucis de Crag,”
which was begun to be built in its present situation in the year 1128. The convent, the
precursor of St David‘s Abbey, is said to have been placed at first within the Castle ; and
some of the earliest gifts of its saintly founder to his new monastery, were the churches of
the Castle and of St Cuthbert’s, immediately adjacent, with all their dependencies ; among
which, one plot of land belonging to the latter is meted by ‘‘ the fountain which rises near
the corner of the King’s garden, on the road leading to St Cuthbert’s church.” e
According to Father Hay, the Nuns, from whom the Castle derived the name
of Castrum Puellarum, were thrust out by St David, and in their place the Canons introduced
by the Pope’s dispense, as fitter to live among souldiers. They continued in the
Castle dureing Malcolm the Fourth his reign ; upon which account we have several1 charters
of that king granted, apud Monasterium Sanctae Crucis de Castello Puellarum. Under
Icing William [the Lion], who was a great benefactor to Holyrood-house, I fancie the
Canons retired to the place which is now called the Abbay.” ’ King David built also for
them, and for the use of the inhabitants, a mill, the nucleus of the village of Canonmills,
which still retains many tokens of its early origin, though now rapidly being surrounded
by the extending modern improvements.
The charter of foundation of the Abbey of the HoIyrood, besides conferring valuable
revenues, derivable from the general resources of the royal burgh of Edinburgh, gives them
€1 107.1
[ll?S.]
Lord Hailes recorda a monkish tradition, which may be received a~ a proof of the popular belief, in the strong attachment
of the Queen to her husband. “ The hody of Margaret, Queen of Scotland, waa removed from its place of sepulture
at Dunfermline, and deposited in L costly shrine. While the monks were employed in this service, they approached the
tomb of her husband Malcolm. Still,
as more hands were employed in raising it, the body became heavier. The spectators stood amazed ; and the humble
monka imputed this phenomenon to their own unworthiness ; when a bystander cried out, ‘The Queen will not stir till
equal honours are performed to her husband’ This having been done, the body of the Queen wa8 removed with ease,’’
-Annals, vol. i. p. 303. ’ Liber Cartarum Sancta Crucis, p. xi.
* Father Hay, Ibid. xxii. Richard Augustin Hay, canon of St Genevieve, at PSrig and prospcclivc Abbot of Holpod
at the Revolution, though an iudustrioue antiquary, aeemn to have had no better authority for this nunnery than the
disputed name C&mm Puellarclm
The body became on a sudden so heavy, that they were obliged to set it down.
4 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
a right to dues to nearly the same amount from the royal revenues at the port of Perth,
the more ancient capital of Scotland; justifying the quaint eulogy of his royal descendant,
that “he was an soir sanct for the crown.’”
By another important grant of this charter, liberty is given to the Canons to erect a burgh
between the Abbey and the town of Edinburgh, over which they are vested with supreme
rule, with right of trial by duel, and by fire and water ordeal. Hence the origin of the
burgh of Canongate, afterwards the seat of royalty, and the residence of the Scottish
nobility, as long as Scotland retained either to herself. In the same charter also, the first
authentic notice of the parish church of St Cuthbert’s, and the chapelries of Corstorphine
and Libberton are found, by which we learn that that of St Cuthbert’s had already, at this
early date, been endowed with very valuable revenues ; while it confirms to its dependency
at Libberton, certain donations which had been made to it by ‘( Macbeth of Libberton,”
in the rei@ of David I., erroneously stated by Arnot a as Macbeth the Usurper.
The well-known legend of the White Hart most probably had its origin in some real
occurrence, magnified by the superstition of a rude and illiterate age. More recent observations
at least suffice to show that it existed at a much earlier date than Lord Hailes
referred it to.’ According to the relation of an ancient service-book of the monastery, in
which it is preserved, King David, in the fourth year of his reign, was residing at the
Castle of Edinburgh, then surrounded with ‘( ane gret forest, full of hartis, hyndis, toddis,
and sic like manner of beistis ; ” and on the Rood Day, after the celebration of mass, he
yielded to the solicitations of the young nobles in his train, and set forth to hunt, notwithstanding
the earnest dissuasions of a holy canon, named Alkwine. “ At last, quhen
he we; cumyn throw the vail that lyis to the eist fra the said Castell, quhare now lyis the
Cannongait, the staill past throw the wod with sic noyis and dyn of bugillis, that all the
bestis wer raisit fra thair dennis.” The King, separated from his train, was thrown from
his horse, and about to be gored by a hart with auful and braid tyndis,” when a cross
slipt into his hands, at sight of which the hart fled away. And the King was thereafter
admonished, in a vision, to build the Abbey on the spot.’ The account is curious, as
affording a glimpse of the city at that early period, contracted within its narrow limits,
and encircled by a wild forest, the abode alone of the fox and the hind, where now for
centuries the busy scenes of a royal burgh have been enacted.
David I. seems to have been the earliest monarch who permanently occupied the Castle
as a royal residence-an example which was followed by his successors, down to the disastrous
period when it was surrendered into the hands of Edward I. ; so that with the reigu
of this monarch, in reality begins the history of Edinburgh, as still indicated to the historian
in the vestiges that survive at the present day. After the death of David I., we find
the Castle successively the royal residence of his immediate successor, Malcolm IT., of
Alexander II., and of William, surnamed the Lion, until after his defeat and capture by
Henry IL of England, when it was surrendered with other principal fortresses of the kingdom,
in ransom for the King’s liberty. Fortunately, however, that which was thus lost
with the fortunes of war, was speedily restored by more peaceful means ; for an alliance
Sir D. Lindsay’s Satyre of the Estaitis.
Vide Liber Cart. Sancts Crucis, pp, 8 and 9.
Ed. 1806, vol. ii. p. 67.
Macbeth the Usurper waa slain 1056.
’ Amot, p. 5. Macbeth of Libberton’s name occurs aa a witness to several royal charters of David I. [1124-53.1
* Annals, David I. Liber Cart. Sancta, Crucis, p. xii.
