406 MEMORIALS OF EDINBURGH.
below, on the oak beam of the great doorway. Between the windows an ornamental tablet
of the same date, and decorated in the style of the period, bears the inscription :-BASILICAN
HANG, CARO~VS REX, OPTINVS INSTAVRAVIT, 1633; with the further addition in
English ;-HE SHALL BUILD A H O UF~OR MY NAME, AND I WILL ESTABLISH THE THRONE OF
HIS KINGDOM FOR EVER ; a motto of strange significance, when we consider the events that
so speedily befell its inscriber, and the ruin that overwhelmed the royal race of the Stuarts,
as with the inevitable stroke of destiny. The chief portions of the west front, however,
are in the most beautiful style of early English, which succeeded that of the Norman.
The details on the west front of the tower, in particular, with its elaborately sculptured
arcade, and boldly cut heads between the arches, and the singularly rich variety of ornament
in the great doorway, altogether unite to form a specimen of early ecclesiastical
architecture unsurpassed by any building of similar dimensions in the kingdom. A
beautiful doorway on the north side, in a much later style, is evidently the work of Abbot
Crawfurd, by whom the buttresses of the north side were rebuilt as they now remain, in
the ornate style of the fifteenth century. He succeeded to the abbacy in 1457, and
according to his namesake, in the “Lives of Officers of State,” he rebuilt the Abbey
Cburch from the ground. Abundant evidence still exists in the ruins that remain to
disprove so sweeping a slateruent, but the repetition of his arms on various parts of the
building prove the extensive alterations that were effected under his directions. He was
succeeded by Abbot Ballantyne, equally celebrated as a builder, who appears to have
completed the work which his predecessor had projected. Father Hay records, that “ he
brocht hame the gret bellis, the gret brasin fownt, twintie fowr
capis of gold and silk; he maid ane chalice of fine gold, ane
eucharist, with sindry chalicis of silver ; he theikkit the kirk with
leid; he biggit ane brig of Leith, ane othir ouir Clide; with
mony othir gude workis, qwilkis ware ouir prolixt to schaw.”
The brazen font here mentioned was carried off by Sir Richard
Lee, captain of the English pioneers in the Earl of Hertford’s
army, and presented to the Abbey Church of St Alban’s, with a
gasconading Latin inscription engraved on it, which may be thus
rendered:--“When Leith, a town of some celebrity in Scotland,
and Edinburgh, the chief city of that nation, were on fire,
Sir Richard Lee, Knight of the Garter, snatched me from the
flames, and brought me to England. In gratitude for such kindness,
I who heretofore served only to baptize the children of Kings, now offer the same
service to the meanest of the English nation. Farewell.
A.D. 1543-4. 36 Hen. VIII.” This font a second time experienced the fate of war,
during the commotions of Charles I.’s reign, when the ungrateful Southron, heedless of
its condescending professions, sold it as a lump of useless metal.’ Seacome, in his History
of the House of Stanley, refers to an old but somewhat confused tradition of an
ancestor of the family of Norris of Speke Hall, Lancashire, who commanded a company, as
would appear from other sources, at the Battle of Pinkie, “in token whereof, he brought
Lee, the conqueror, so wills it.
1 Liber Cartsrum, p. xxxii. ’ Camden’a Britannia, by Cfough, vol. i p. 338, where the original Latin inscription ia given.
