ECCLESIA S TICAL ANTIQUITIES.
themselves to the restoration of the ancient palace of their fathers, would almost seem
to imply the forethought of securing a fit retreat for them in the ancient capital of the
Stuarts, in case of their being again driven from the English throne. On the north-west
pier of the piazza, within the quadrangle of the Palace, the following inscription, in large
Roman characters, marks the site of the foundation-stone of the modern works :--FVN
BE RO MYLNE MM * IVL * 1671
The chief popular interest which attaches to the Palace arises from its associations
with the eventful reign of Queen Mary, and the romance that clings to the name of her
unfortunate descendant Prince Charles, though there is a nameless charm about the grey
ruins of the Abbey, and the deserted halls of the Palace of our old kings, which no Scotsman
can resist. A noble and a doomed race have passed away for ever from these scenes
of many a dark iragedy in which they acted or suffered, yet not without leaving memories
to haunt the place, and all the more vividly that no fortunate rival intrudes to break the
spell. In the accompanying engraving of thk interior of the Chapel, a point of view has
been chosen which shows the royal vault, the cloister door behind it, the Roxburgh vault,
and the monument of Adam, Bishop of Orkney, attached to one of the pillars-a group
including some of the most interesting features of the ruined nave. The royal vault was
broken into by the revolutionary mob that spoiled the Chapel Royal in 1688, and it was
again raed after the fall of the roof in 1768, in consequence of the folly of those employed
to repair it, who loaded it with a covering of huge flagstones, of a weight altogether disproportioned
to the strength and age of the walls. On the latter occasion, the head of
Queen Magdalene-which, when seen by Arnot in 1766, was entire, and even beautiful
-and the skull of Darnley were carried off. The latter having come into the possession
of Mr James Cummyng of the Lyon Office, the eccentric secretary of the Society of the
Antiquaries of Scotland, his life was rendered miserable thereafter by the persecutions
of the shrewdish cicerone of the Chapel, who haunted him like the ghost of the murdered
Darnley, and lived on his terrors by constant threats of exposure to the Barons of
Exchequer. After his death the skull was traced to the collection of a statuary in Edinburgh,
but all clue to it seems now lost.
A few old portraits, with sundry relics of the various noble occupants of the Palace in
earlier times, form the only other objects of attraction to the curious visitor. Among the
pictures in the Duke of Hamilton’s apartments is one of the many questionable portraits
of Queen Nary. It claims to be an original, in the dress in which she was executed,
though, if the latter statement be true, it goes far to discredit its originality. Another fair
lady, dressed as a shepherdess, and described as the work of Vandyke, though probably only
a copy, is 8 portrait of Dorothy, Countess of Sutherland-Waller’s SacAurissa. Here,
too, are the portraits of two celebrated royal favourites, Jane Shore and Ne11 Gwynne, as
the ciceroni of the Palace invariably persist in styling the latter, though in reality a portrait
of her frail rival Moll Davies, and bearing a striking resemblance to her engraved portrait.
It corresponds also to the latter in having black hair, whereas that of Ne11 was fair; but
it is usual to confer the name of Ne11 Gwpne on all portraits of such frail beauties.’
From Ne11 Cfwynne’s will, dated Oct. 18,1687, and preserved at Doctors Commons, it appears that her red name
was Margaret Symoott ; EO that the story of her decent from an ancient Welsh family is a spurious invention of courtly
peerage writers, for the gratification of her illwtriouS descendadb.
3F
