74 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Holyroob
chateau of Chantilly, from plans by the royal
architect, Sir William Bruce of Balcaskie and
Kinross, the palace as we find it now was built by
Charles 11. and James VII., with a zeal that has
been supposed to imply forethought of having a
fit retreat in their ancient capital if driven from
that of England. The inscription in large Roman
letters-
FVN . BE. RO . MYLNE . MM . IVL . 1671-
marks the site of the foundation of the modern
additions ; it is in a pier of the north-west piazza.
Before the Antiquarian Society in 1858 was
read a statement of the ? Accounts of Sir William
Bruce of Balcaskie, General Surveyor of H.M.
Works, 1674-9.?? The re?ckoning between these
years was it;160,000 Scots, of which sum four-fifths
were spent on Holyrood, the new works on which
had been begun, in 1671, and so vigorously carried
on, that by January, 1674, the mason-work had been
nekly completed. The Dutch artist, Jacob de
Urt, was employed to paint ? One piece of historia
in the king?s bed-chamber? for A120 Scots. The
coats-of-arms which are above the great entrance
and in the quadrangle were cut from his designs.
Holyrood Palace is an imposing quadrangular
edifice, enclosing a piazza-bounded Palladian
court, ninety-four feet square. Its front faces the
west, and consists of battlemented double towers
on each flank. In the centre is the grand entrance,
having double Doric columns, above which
are the royal arms of Scotland, and over them an
octagonal clock-tower, terminating in an imperial
crown.
The Gallery of the Kings, the largest apartment
in the palace, is 150 feet long by 27 feet broad,
and is decorated by a hundred fanciful portraits
of the Scottish kings, from Fergus 1. to James VII.,
by Jacob de Urt, and there is an interesting
portrait of Mary and of the latter monarch, and at
the end of the gallery are four remarkable paintings,
taken from Scotland by James VI., and sent
back from Hampton Court in 1857. They represent
James 111. and his queen Margaret of Denmark
(about 1484), at devotion; on the reverses
are Sir Edward Boncle, Provost of Trinity College
; the figure of St. Cecilia at the organ represents
Mary of Gueldres, and the whole, which are by
an artist of the delicate Van Eck school, are
supposed to have formed a portion of the altarpiece
of the old Trinity College Church. In this
gallery the elections of the Scottish peers take place.
Beyond it are Lord Darnley?s rooms ; among the
portraits there are those of Darnley and his
brother, and from thence a stair leads to Queen
Mary?s apartments above. The Tapestry Room
contains two large pieces of arras, and among
several valuable portraits one of James Duke of
Hamilton, beheaded in 1649.
The Audience Chamber-the scene of Mary?s
stormy interviews with Knox-is panelled and
embellished with various royal initials and coatsarmorial
; the furniture is richly embroidered, and
includes a venerable state-bed, used by Charles I.,
by Prince Charles Edward, and by Cumberland on
the night of the 30th January, 1746. Mary?s bedchamber
measures only 22 feet by 18 feet, and at
its south-west corner is her dressing-room, The
ancient furniture, the faded embroideries and
tapestries, and general aspect of this wing, which
is consigned peculiarly to memories of the past
are all in unison with the place ; but the royal
nursery, with its blue-starred dome, the Secretary
of State?s room, with the royal private apartments
generally now in use, are all in the south and
eastern sides of the palace, and are reached by a
grand staircase from the south-east angle of the court.
CHAPTER XI.
HOLYROOD PALACE (concZdaf).
The King?s Birthday in 1665-James Duke of Albany-The Duchess of York and G e n d Daltell-Funeral of the Duke of Rothes - A
Gladiatorial Exhibition-Departure of the Scottish Household Troops-The Hunters? Company?s Balls-Fmt and Second Viis
of the Royal Family of France-Recent Improvements-St. h e ? s Yard removed-The Ornamental Fountain built.
IN the IntelZ&zce for the 1st of June, 1665, we
have a description. of the exuberant loyalty that
followed the downfall of the Commonwealth.
?Edinburgh, May 29, being His Majesty?s birthday,
was most solemnly kept by all ranks in this
city. My Lord Commissioner, in his state, With
his life-guard on horseback, and Sir Andrew
Ramsay, Lord Provost, Bailies, and Council in their
robes, accompanied by all the Trained Bands in
arms, went to church and heard the Bishop of
Edinburgh upon a text well applied for the work
of the day. Thereafter thirty-five aged men in
Holyrood.1 THE HOUSEHOLD TROOPS. . 75
? blew gowns, each having got thirty-five shillings in
a purse, came up from the abbey to the great
church, praying all along for His Majesty. Sermon
being ended, His Grace entertained all the nobles
and gentlemen with a magnificent feast and open
table. After dinner the Lord Provost and Council
went to the Cross, where was a green arbour
loaded with oranges and lemons, wine running
liberally for divers hours at eight conduits, to the
great solace of the indigent commons there. Having
drunk all the royal healths, which were seconded
by great guns from the castle, sound of trumpets
and drums, volleys from the Trained Bands, and
joyful acclamations from the people, they plenti-
? fully entertained the multitude. After which, my
Lord Commissioner, Provost, and Bailies went to
the castle, where they were entertained with all
sorts of wine and sweatmeats ; and returning, the
Provost countenancing all neighbours that had put
up bonfires by appearing at their fires, which
jovialness continhed, with ringing of bells and
shooting of great guns, till 12 o?clock at night.? .
In October, 1679, the Duke of Albany and
York, with his family, including the future queens,
Mary and Anne, took up his residence at Hdyrood,
where the gaiety and brilliance of his court
gave great satisfaction. The princesses were easy
and affable, and the duke left little undone to win
the love of the people, but the time was an unpropitious
one, for they were at issue with him on
matters of fxith ; yet it is clearly admitted by
Fountainhall that his birthday was observed more
cordially than that of the king. The duke golfed
frequently at Leith. ? I remember in my youth,?
wrote Mr. William Tytler, ? to have conversed with
an old man named Andrew Dickson, a golf-club
maker, who said that when a boy he used to carry
the duke?s golf-clubs, and run before him to announce
where the balls fell.?
The sixteen companies of the Trained Bands
attended the duke?s amval in the city, and sixty
selected men from each company were ordered ? to
attend their royal highnesses, apparelled in the
best manner,?? and the latter were banqueted in
the Parliament House, at the cost of A5231 13s.
sterling. The brilliance of the little court wa:
long remembered after the royal race were in
hopeless exile. One of the most celebrated
beauties of its circle was the wife of Preston oi
Denbrae, who survived till the middle of the lasl
century. In the Cupar burial register this entr)
occurs concerning her :-? Buried a I st December,
1757, Lady Denbrae, aged 107 years.?
The duke and duchess are said to have beer
early warned of the haughty punctilio of thf
Scottish noblesse by a speech of General Dalzell
of Binns, whom the former had invited to
line at the palace, when Nary d?Este, as a
laughter of the ducal-prince of Modena, declined
to take her place at table with a subject.
r?Madam,?? said the grim veteran, ?I have
lined at a table, where your father must have stood
at my back !? In this instance it is supposed
:hat he alluded to the table of the Emperor of
Zermany, whom the Duke of Modena, if summoned,
must have attended as an officer of the
lousehold.
The same commander having ordered a guardsman
who had been found asleep on his post at the
?alace to be shot, he was forgiven by order of
;he duke.
In August, 1681, one of the grandest funerals
:ver seen in Scotland left Holyrood-that of the
High ChanceIlor, the Duke of Rothes, who died
:here on the 26th July. The account of the pro-
:ession fills six quarto pages of Amot?s ?? History,?
md enumerates among the troops present the
Scots Foot Guards, a train of Artillery, the Scots
Fusiliers, and Horse Guards of the Scottish army.
1$ April, 1705, John, the great Duke of Argyle,
took up his residence at the palace as Commissioner
to the Parliament, on which occasion he was
received by a double salvo from the castle batteries,
by the great guns in the Artillery Park, ? and from
111 the men-of-war, both Dutch and Scottish, then
lying in the road of Leith.?
the Life and Horse Guards, Horse Grenadier
Guards, and the two battalions of the Foot Guards,
ceased to do duty at Holyrood, being all removed
permanently to London, though a detachment of
the last named corps garrisoned the Bass Rock
till the middle of the last century.
A strange gladiatorial exhibition is recorded as
taking place on a stage at the back of the palace on
the 23rd of June, 1726, when one of those public
combats then so popular at the Bear Garden in
London, ensued between a powerful young Inshman
named Andrew Bryan (who had sent a drum
through the city defying all men) and a veteran of
Killiecrankie, named Donald Bane, then in his
sixty-second year.
They fought with various weapons, in presence
of many noblemen, gentlemen, and military officers,
for several hours, and Bryan was totally vanquished,
after receiving some severe wounds from
his unscathed antagonist.
The annual ball of the Honourable Company
of Hunters at Holyrood, begins to be regularly
chronicled in the Edinburgh papers about this
In 1711 the Scottish Household troops, viz., -
