58 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [~dpUCd.
proper exertions been made for their repair and
preservation, particularly by the Bishop o? Orkney,
and ere it shrank to the proportions of a chapel.
But even when the Reformation was in full progress
the following entry appears in the accounts of the
Lord High Treasurer, under date the 8th February,
1557-8 :-A36 ?to David Melville, indweller in
,Leith, for ane pair of organs to the chapel in the
palace of Holyroodhouse.?
The remains of George Earl of Huntly, who
was slain at the battle of Corrichie, when he was
in rebellion against the Crown, were brought by
sea to Edinburgh in 1562, and kept all winter
unburied in the Abbey of Holyrood-most proba,
bly in the church. Then an indictment for high
treason was exhibited against him in the month
of May following, ?eftir that he was deid and departit
frae this mortal lyfe,? and the corpse was
laid before Parliament : in this instance showing
the rancour of party and the absurdity of old feudal
laws.
It was somewhere about this time that the new
royal vault was constructed in the south aisle ol
the nave, and the remains of the kings and queens
were removed from their ancient resting-place near
the high altar. It is built against the ancient
Norman doorway of the cloisters, which still remains
externally, with its slender shafts and beautiful
zigzag mouldings of the days of David I. ?The
cloisters,? says Wilson, ?? appear to have enclosed
a large court, formed in the angle of the nave and
transept. The remains of the north are clearly
traceable still, and the site of the west side is occupied
by palace buildings. Here was the ambulatory
for the old monks, when the magnificent
foundation of St. David retained its pristine splendour,
and remained probably till the burning of
the abbey after the death of James V.2 who was
buried there beside his first queen in December
1542, and his second son, Arthur Duke of Albany,
a child eight days old, who died at Stirling.
In the royal vault also lie the remains of David
11. ; Prince Arthur, third son of James IV., who
died in the castle, July 15th, 1510, aged nine
months ; Henry, Lord Darnley, murdered 1567 j
and Jane, Countess of Argyle, who was at supper
with her sister, the queen, on the night of Rizzio?s
assassination. ? Dying without issue, she was enclosed
in one of the richest coffins ever seen in
Scotland, the compartments and inscriptions being
all of solid gold.? In the same vault were de.
posited the remains of the Duchess de Grammont,
who died an exile at Holyrood in 1803 ; and, in
the days of Queen Victoria, the remains of Mary of
Gueldres, queen of James 11.
?
Among the altars in thechurchwere two dedicated
to St. Andrew and St. Catharine, a third dedicated
to St. Anne by the tailors of Edinburgh, and a
fourth by the Cordiners to St. Crispin, whose
statutes were placed upon it.
On the 18th of June, 1567, two days after the
imprisonment of Queen Mary, the Earl of Glencairn
and others, ?with a savage malignity, laid waste
this beautiful chapel,? broke in pieces its most
valuable furniture, and laid its statues and other
ornaments in ruins.
On the 18th of June, 1633, Charles I. was
crowned with great pomp in the abbey church and
amid the greatest demonstrations of loyalty, when
the silver keys of the city were delivered to him by
the Provost, after which they were never again
presented to a monarch until the time of George
IV. : but afterwards the religious services were
performed at Holyrood with great splendour, according
to the imposing ritual of the English
Church-? an innovation which the Presbyterians
beheld with indignation, as an insolent violation of
the laws of the land?
In 1687 the congregation of the Canongate were
removed from the church by order of James VII.,
and the abbey church-now named a chapelwas
richly decorated, and twelve stalls were placed
therein for the Knights of the Thistle. An old view
of the interior by Wyck and Mazell, taken prior
to the fall of the roof, represents it entire, with all
its groining and beautiful imperial crowns and
coronets on the drooping pendants of the interlaced
arches. They show the clerestory entire,
and within the nave the stalls of the knights, six
on each side. Each of these stalls had five steps,
and on each side a Corinthian column supported
an entablature of the same order, each surmounted
by two great banners and three trophies, each
composed of helmets and breastplates, making in
all twenty-four banners and thirty-six trophies over
the stalls. At the eastern end was the throne,
surmounted by an imperial crown. On each side
were two panels, having the crown, sword, and
sceptre within a wreath of laurel, and below, other
two panels, with the royal cypher, J.R., and the
crown. Wyck and Mazell show the throne placed
upon a lofty dais of seven steps, on six of which
were a unicorn and lion, making six of the former
on the right, and six of the latter on the left, all
crowned. Behind this rose a Corinthian canopy,
entablature, and garlands, all of carved oak, and
over all the royal arms as borne in Scotland ; the
crest of Scotland, the lion sejant; on the right the
ensign of St. Andrew; In defence on the left the ensign
of St. George. Amid a star of spears, swords,
Holyrood.] THE ABBEY CHURCH IN RUINS. 59
and cannon were two ship?s masts, fully rigged,
one on the right bearing the Scottish flag, another
on the left bearing the English. ?? Above all these
rose the beautiful eastem window, shedding a flood
of light along the nave, eclipsing the fourteen
windows of the clerestory. The floor was laid
with ornamental tiles, some portions of which are
yet preserved.?
In the royal yacht there came to Leith from
London an altar, vestments, and images, to complete
the restoration of the church to its ancient uses.
As if to hasten on the destruction of his house,
James VII., not content with securing to his
Catholic subjects within the precincts of Holyrood
that degree of religious toleration now enjoyed
by every British subject, had mass celebrated there,
and established a college of priests, whose rules
were published on the zznd of March, 1688, inviting
people to send their children there, to be
educated gratis, as Fountainhall records. He also
appointed a Catholic printer, named Watson (who
availed himself of the protection afforded by the
sanctuary) to be ? King?s printer in Holyrood ;?
and obtained a right from the Privy Council
to print all the ? prognostications at Edinburgh,?
an interesting fact which accounts for the number
of old books bearing Holyrood on their
title-pages. Prior to all this, on St. Andrew?s
Day, 30th November, the whole church was
sprinkled with holy water, re-consecrated, and a
sermon was preached in it by a priest named
Widerington.
Tidings of the landing of William of Orange
roused the Presbyterian mobs to take summary vengeance,
and on being joined by the students of the
University, they assailed the palace and chapel royal.
The guard, IOO strong-? the brats of Belia1?-
under Captain Wallace, opened a fire upon them,
killing twelve and wounding many more, but they
were ultimately compelled to give way, and the
chapel doors were burst open. The whole interior
was instantly gutted and destroyed, and
the magnificent throne, stalls, and orgab, were
ruthlessly tom down, conveyed to the Cross, and
there consigned to the flames, amid the frantic
shrieks and yells of thousands. Not content with
all this, in a spirit of mad sacrilege, the mob, now
grown lawless, burst into the royal vault, tore some
of the leaden coffins asunder, and, according to
Amot, camed off the lids.
By the middle of the eighteenth century the rooG
which had become ruinous, was restored with flagstones
in a manner too ponderous for the ancient
arches, which gave way beneath the superincumbent
weight on the 2nd of December, 1768; and again
the people of Edinburgh became seized by a spirit
of the foullest desecration, and from thenceforward,
until a comparafively recent period, the ruined
church remained open to all, and was appropriated ?
tu the vilest uses. Grose thus describes what he
saw when the rubbish had been partly cleared
away :-? When we lately visited it we saw in the
middle of the chapel the columns which had been
borne down by the weight of the roof. Upon
looking into the vaults which were open, we found
that what had escaped the fury of the mob at the
Revolution became a prey to the mobwho ransacked
it after it fell. In A.D. 1776 we had seen the body
of James V. and others in their leaden coffins;
the coffins are now stolen. The head of Queen
Margaret (Magdalene?), which was then entire, and
even beautiful, and the skull of Damley, were also
stolen, and were last traced to the collection of a
statuary in Edinburgh.?
In 1795 the great east window was blown out
in a violent storm, but in 1816 was restored from
its own remains, which lay scattered about on the
ground. In the latter year the north-west tower,
latterly used as a vestry, was still covered by an
ogee leaden roof.
The west front of what remains, though the W0i-k
perhaps of different periods, is in the most beautiful
style of Early English, and the boldly-cut heads
in its sculptured arcade and rich variety of ornament
in the doorway are universally admired.
The windows above it were additions made so
latelyas the time of Charles I., and the inscriptions
which that upfortunate king had carved on the
Ornamental tablet between them is a striking illustration
of the vanity of human hopes. One runs :-
Ultimately this also fell.
?Basiluam ham, Carolus Rex, @firnus imtaxravit, 1633.?
The other :-
?HE SHALL ESTABLISH ANE HOUSE FOR MY NAME, AND I
WILL ESTABLISH THE THRONE OF HIS KINGDOM FOR
EVER.?
In the north-west tower is amarble monument to
Robert, Viscount Belhaven, who was interred there
in January, 1639. His nephews, Sir Archibald and
Sir Robert Douglas, placed there that splendid
memorial to perpetuate hisvirtues as a man and
steadiness as a patriot. A row of tombs of Scottish
nobility and others lie in the north aisle. The
Roxburgh aisle adjoins the royal vault in the
south aisle, and in front of it lies the tomb of the
Countess of Errol, who died in 1808. Close by.
it is that of the Bishop of Orkney, already referred
to. ? A flattering inscription enumerates the.
bishop?s titles, and represents this worldly hypocrite
