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Old and New Edinburgh Vol. V

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Restalrig.] ST. MARGARET?S WELL. 129 By the south side of what was once an old forest path when the oaks of Drumsheugh were in all their glory, there stood St. Margaret?s Well, the entire edifice of which was removed to the Royal Park, near Holyrood ; but the pure spring, deemed so holy as to be the object of pilgrimages in the days of old, still oozes into the fetid marsh close by. It was no doubt the source of supply to the ancient ecclesiastics of the village, and the path alluded to had become in after times a means of The structure-for elsewhere it still remains intact -is octagonal, and entered by a pointed Gothic doorway, and rises to the height of 4 ft. 6 in. It is of plain ashlar work, with a stone ledge or seat running round seven of the sides. From the centre of the water, which fills the entire floor of the building, rises a decorated pillar to the same height as the walls, with grotesque gargoyles, from which the liquid flows. Above this springs a richly groined roof, ? presenting, with the ribs that rise RESTALRIG. communication between the church there and the Abbey of Holyrood. No authentic traces can be found of the history of this consecrated fountain ; ? but from its name,? says Billings, ?? it appears to have been dedicated to the Scottish queen and saint, Margaret, wife of Malcolm 111.? In the legend which we have already referred to in our account of Holyrood, which represents David I. as being miraculously preserved from the infuriated white hart, Bellenden records that it ?fled away with gret violence, and evanist in the same place quhere now springs the Rude Well.? From its vicinity to the abbey, St. Margaret?s has been conjectured to be the well referred to. 113 from the corresponding corbels at each of the eight angles of the building, a singularly rich effect when illuminated by the reflected light from the water below.? When this most picturesque fountain stood in an unchanged condition by the side of the old winding path to Restalrig, an ancient elder-tree, With furrowed and gnarled branches, covered all its grassgrown top, and a tiny but aged thatched cottage stood in front of it. Then, too, a mossy bank, rising out of pleasant meadow land, protected the little pillared cell; but the inexorable march of modem improvement came, the old tree and the rustic cottage were swept away, and the well itselfwas buried under (See Vol. II., page 311.) . a hideous station of the North British Railway.
Volume 5 Page 129
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