E CCL ESIA S TICA L A NTIQ UITIES. 379
Edinburgh, in the reign of David I. and long afterwards, was, as we have already shown,
no more than an assemblage of rude huts, constructed in full anticipation of their falling
a prey to the torch of the southern invaders. Froissart represents the Scots exclaiming
more than two centuries later, “ thoughe the Englishe brinne our houses, we care lytell
therefore; we shall make them agayne chepe ynongh! ” Nevertheless, it is to David I.
that Edinburgh owes its earliest improvement and much of its future prosperity. He was
the first monarch who made the Castle of Edinburgh his chief residence; and by his
munificent monastic foundation in its neighbourhood, he made it the centre towards which
the wealth of the adjacent country flowed, and thereby erected it into the capital of the
Lothians centuries before it assumed its position as the capital of the kingdom. It
cannot, therefore, surprise us to discover evidence of the rebuilding of the Parish Church
of Edinburgh about the period of his accession to the throne ; and we accordingly find
that some beautiful remains of the original edifice, somewhat -earlier in style than the
oldest portions of the Abbey Church of Holyrood, were only destroyed about the middle
of last century.
The annexed vignette, copied from a very rare print, represents a beautiful Norman doorway
which formed the entrance to the nave of St Giles’s Church on the north side, and was
only demolished about the year 1760. It stood immediately below the third window from
the west, within the line of the external wall.
access to it was obliterated in the alterations
of 1829. This fragment sufliciently enables us
to picture the little Parish Church of St Giles
in the reign of David I. Built in the massive
style of the early N0rma.n period, it would
consist simply .of a nave and chancel united
by a rich Norman chancel arch; altogether
occupying only a portion of the centre aisle
of the present nave. Small circular-headed
windows, decorated with zig-zag mouldings,
would admit the light to its sombre interior;
while its west front was in all probability
surmounted by a simple belfry, from whence
the bell would daily summon the natives of
the hamlet to matins and vespers, and with
slow measured sounds toll their knell as they
were lain in the neighbouring churchyard.
A plain round archway that had given
This ancient church was never entirely demolished. Its solid masonry was probably very
partially affected by the ravages of the invading forces of Edward IL, in 1322, when
Holyrood was spoiled; or by those of his son in 1335, when the whole country was wasted
with fire and sword. The town was again subjected to the like violence, probably with
results little more lasting, by the conflagration in 1385, when the English army under
Richard IL occupied the town for five days, and then laid it and the Abbey of Holyrood
in ashes. The Norman architecture disappeared piece-meal, as chapels and aisles were
added to the original fabric by the piety of private donors, or by the zeal of its own
