60 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. LHol~lrood.
and intriguing apostbte as one of the greatest and
best men of his time.?
In the churchyard, now all turned into flowerbeds
and garden ground, there long remained a
, .few plain gravestones, the inscriptions on some of
range is of a very singular nature to be in the
vicinity of a populous city, being little else than
an assemblage of hills, rocks, precipices, morasses,
and lakes.? It includes Arthur?s Seat and Salisbury
Craigs, and, of course, as a refuge, originated in
which are preserved by Menlteith
in his ?Theatre of Mortality,?
and by Maitland in
his C?History.?l One alone remains
now, that of Mylne
(the builder of the palace),
which was removed from its
ald site (the north-east angle
-of the ancient choir) in 1857,
and placed against the eastern
,wall of the church.
The extent of the ruin as it
now remains is 127 feet in
tlength by 39 feet in breadth,
within the walls; and there
.still exist nominally six deans
.and seven chaplains of the
Chapel Royal, all, of course,
clergymen of the Church of
.Scotland.
The whole ruin has an air
.of intense gloom and damp
THE BELHAVEN MOAUMENT, HOLYROOD
CHURCH.
desolation ; the breeze waves the grass and rank
weeds between the lettered grave-stones, the ivy
rustles on the wall, and by night the owl hoots
in the royal vault and the roofless tower where
.stands the altar-tomb of Belhaven.
For a considerable space around the church and
palace of Holyrood-embracing a circuit of four
miles and a quarter-the open ground has been,
since the days of David I., a sanctuary, and is so
mow, from arrest on civil process. This spacious
the old ecclesiastical privilege
of sanctuary, with the exemptions
of those attached to a
monarch?s court. When the
law of debtor and creditor
was more stringent than it
is now, this peculiarity brought
many far from respectable
visitors to a cluster of houses
round the palace-a cluster
nearly entirely swept away
about I 85 7-as varied in their
appearance as the chequered
fortunes of their bankrupt
inmates j and it is believed
to have been in a great measure
owing to some private
claims, likely to press heavily
upon him, that Charles X.
in his second exile sought
a residence in deserted Holyrood.
The House of Inchmurry, formerly called Kirkland,
in the parish of St. Martin?s, was a country
residence of the abbots of Holyrood.
One of the bells that hung in the remaining tower
was placed in the Tron church steeple, another
in St. Cuthbert?s chapel of ease, and the third in
St. Paul?s, York Place, the congregation of which
had it in their former church in the Canongate,
which was built 1771-4. This last is sniall, and
poor in? sound.
CHAPTER IX.
HOLYROOD PALACE.
F i ~ t Notice of its History-Marriage of James 1V.-The Scots of the Days of Flodden-A Brawl in the Palace-Jams V.?s. Tower-The Gudeman
of Ballengeich-His Marriage-Death of Queen MagdalentThe Council of November, 1-A Standing Army Proposed-The Muscovite
Ambassadors Entertained by the Queen Regent,
THE occasional residence of so many of his kingly
ancestors at the abbey of Holyrood, and its then
sequestered and rural locality, doubtless suggested
to James IV. the expediency of having a royal
dwelling near it ; thus, we find from the Records of
the Privy Seal the earliest mention of a palace at
Holyrood occurs on the 10th of September, 1504,
when ?( to Maister Leonard Log, for his gude and
thankful service, done and to be done, to the kingis
hienis, and speciallie for his diligent and grete
laboure made be him in the building of the palace
beside the Abbey of the Holy Croce,? of (( the soume
of forty pounds.? This is the first genuine notice
of the grand old Palace of Holyrood.
In 1503 the then new edifice witnessed the
marriage festival of James IV. and Mzgaret Tudor,
Holyrood.? JAMES IV. 61
whose contract is still preserved in the city archives.
A minute account of her reception at Edinburgh
has been preserved by one of her attendants,
John Young, the Somerset Herald, who records in
a pleasing light the wealth, refinement, and chivalry
of the court of Scotland. The king met his fair
bride, who was then in her fourteenth year, at
Dalkeith, where she was entertained by John
Earl of Morton. She had scarcely taken possession
af her chamber when the tramp of horses was
heard in the quadrangle, and among the English
using a stirrup, and spurred on at full gallop, leaving
who might to follow ; but hearing that the Earl of
Surley-his future foe-and other nobles were be
hind, he returned and saluted them bareheaded.
At their next meeting Margaret played also on the
lute and clavichord, while the monarch listened
with bended knee and head uncovered. Who,
then, could have foreseen- the disastrous day of
Flodden !
When she left Newbattle to proceed to the capital,
James, attired in a splendid costume, met her on
t 6
ISOMETRIC PROJECTION CIF THE ROYAL PALACE OF HOLYROOD HOUSE.
(Fmnz am Engraaifig in Maitkwds ?Hntory of Edinburglr.?)
attendants the cry rang through the castle, (? The
,king ! The King of Scotland has arrived !?
The whole interview between the royal pair, as
rdescribed by the Somerset Herald, presents a
?curious picture of the times. (( James was dressed
.simply in a velvet jacket, with his hawking lure
.flung over his shoulder ; his hair and beard curled
naturally, and were rather long. . . . . . .
He took her hand and kissed her, and saluted all
her ladies by kissing them. Then the king took
the queen aside, and they communed together for
a long space.? He then returned to Holyrood.
Next night he visited her at Newbattle, when he
found her playing cards ; and James, who is said
to have composed the air of ?Here?s a health
to my true love,? entertained her by a performance
on the clavichord and lute ; add on taking leave he
sprang on his horse, ? a right fair courser,? without
a bay horse trapped with gold. Before him rode
Bothwell, bearing the sword of state, with the
leading nobles. He took the queen from ?her
litre,? and placing her behind him on a pillion,
they rode onward to the city. On the way they
were entertained by a scene of chivalry-a knight
errant in full armour rescuing a distressed lady
from a rival. The royal pair were met at their
entrance by the Grey Friars, whose monastery they
had to pass, bearing, in solemn procession, banner
and cross and their most valued relics, which were
presented to receive the kiss of Margaret and
James ; and thereafter they had to tarry at an embattled
barrier, at the windows of which were
(( angells syning joyously,? one of whom presented
to her the keys of the? city.
Descending the crowded streets, they were met
by the whole Chapter of St. Giles?s in their richest
