THE CASTLE -4ND GLEN. 34 7 Roslin.]
further repaired, as an ornate entrance seems tc
show, with its lintel, inscribed ? S.W.S., 1622.??
The same initials appear on the half-circular pedi.
ment of a dormer window. Above this door, which
is beautifully moulded and enriched, is a deep and
ornate squqre niche, the use for which it is difficult
to conceive.
From its windows it commands a view of the
richly-wooded glen, between the rocky banks and
dark shadows of which the Esk flows onward with
a ceaseless murmur among scattered boulders,
where grow an infinite variety of ferns. The
eastern bank rises almost perpendicularly from the
river?s bed, and everywhere there is presented a
diversity of outline that always delights an artistic
eye.
The entrance to the castle was originally by a
gate of vast strength, and the whole structure must
have been spacious and massive, and on its northern
face bears something of the aspect of old Moorish
fortresses in Spain. A descent of a great number of
stone stairs conducts through the existing structure
to the bottom, leading into a spacious kitchen,
from which a door opens into the once famous
gardens. The modern house of 1563 is ill-lighted
and confined, and possesses more the gloom of
a dungeon-like prison than the comforts of a residence.
Grose gives us a view of the whole as they
appeared in 1788--? haggard and utterly dilapidated-
the mere wreck of a great pile riding on a
l ~ t l e sea of forest-a rueful apology for the once
grand fabric whose name of ? Roslin Castle ? is so
intimately associated with melody and song.?
It is unknown when or by whom the original
castle was founded. It has been referred to the
year 1100, when William de St. Clair, son of
Waldern, Count of St. Clair, who came to England
with William the Conqueror, obtained from
Malcolm 111. the barony of Roslin, and was
named ?the seemly St. Clair,? in allusion to his
grace of deportment ; but singular to say, notwithstanding
its importance, the castle is not mentioned
distinctly in history till the reign of James II.,
when Sir William Hamilton was confined in it in
1455 for being in rebellion with Douglas, and again
when it was partly burned in 1447.
Father Richard Augustine Hay, Prior of St.
Piermont, in France, who wrote much about the
Roslin family, records thus :--
?About this time, 1447, Edmund Sinclair of
Dryden, coming with four greyhounds and some
rackets to hunt with the prince (meaning William
Sinclair, Earl of Orkney), met a great company of
rats, and among them an old blind lyard, with a
straw in his mouth, led by the rest, whereat he
greatly marvelled, not thinking what was to follow;
but within four days after-viz., the feast of St.
Leonard, the princess, who took great delight in
little dogs, caused one of the gentlewomen to go
under a bed with a lighted candle to bring forth one
of them that had young whelps, which she was
doing, and not being very attentive, set on fire the
bed, whereat the fire rose and burnt the bed, and
then rose to the ceiling of the great chamber in
which the princess was, whereat she and all that
were in the dungeon (keep?) were compelled to fly.
? The prince?s chaplain seeing this, and remembering
his master?s writings, passed to the head of
the dungeon, where they were, and threw out four
great trunks. The news of this fire coming to the
prince?s ears through the lamentable cries of the
ladies and gentlemen, and the sight thereof coming
to his view in the place where he stood-namely,
upon the College (Chapel?) Hill-he was in sorrow
for nothing but the loss of his charters and other
writings; but when the chaplain, who had saved
himself by coming down the bell-rope tied to a
beam, declared how they were saved, he became
cheerful, and went to re-comfort his princess and
the ladies, desiring them to put away all sorrow,
and rewarded his chaplain very richly.? The
i? princess ? was the Elizabeth Countess of Roslin,
referred to in page 3 of Vol. I.
In 1544 the castle was fired by the English
under Hertford, and demolished. The house of
1563, erected amid its ruins nineteen years after,
was pillaged and battered by the troops of Cromwellin
1650.
+4t the revolution in 1688, it was pillaged again
by a lawless mob from the city, and from thenceforward
it passes out of history.
Of the powerful family to whom it belonged we
can only give a sketch.
The descendants of the Norman William de St.
Clair, called ihdifferently by that name and Sinclair,
received from successive kings of Scotland
accessions, which made them lords of Cousland,
Pentland, Cardoine, and other lands, and they lived
in their castle, surrounded by all the splendour of a
rude age, and personal importancegiven by the
acquisition of possessions by methods that would
be little understood in modern times.
There were three successive William Sinclairs
barons of Roslin (one of whom made a great
figure in the reign of William the Lion, and gave
a yearly gift to Newbattle,pro saZufe mime we)
before the accession of Henry, who, by one account,
is said to have mamed a daughter of the
Earl of Mar, and by auother a daughter of the Earl
of Strathearn, the Rosabelle of Scott?s beautiful
ballad, which tells us-
? There are twenty of Roslin?s barons bold,
Lie buried in that proud chapelle,
But the sea holds lovely Rosabelle.
With candle, with book, and with bell ;
The dirge of lovely Rosabelle.?
Each one the holy vault doth hold,
And each St. Clair is buried there,
But the sea caves sung, and the wild waves rung,
In 1264, Sir William, sixth of Roslin, was
Sheriff of Edinburgh, Linlithgow, and Haddington
( r r Chamberlain Rolls ?7, and it was his son and successor,
Sir Henry, who obtained from Robert I.,
for his good and faithful services, a charter of
Pentland Muir, and to whom (and not to a Sir William)
the well-known tradition of the famous huntingmatch
thereon, which led to the founding of
the chapel of St. Katherine in the Hope, must
refer. With that muir he obtained other lands,
whjch were ?all erected into a free forestry, for
payment of a tenth part of one soldier yearly, in
His son, Sir William, was one of the chosen
companions of the good Sir James Douglas, whom
he accompanied in the mission to convey Bruce?s
1317.?
heart to Jerusalem, and with whom he perished in
battle with the Moors at Teba, in 1331, He left
an infant son, who, in 1350, was ambassador at the
Court of England, whither he repaired with a train
of sixty armed horse. He married Isabella,
daughter of Malise, Earl of Strathearn, and was
succeeded by his son, Sir Henry Sinclair of Roslin,
who was created Earl of Orkney by Haco, King of
Norway, in 1379-a title confirmed by Robert 11.
According to Douglas, he married Florentina, a
daughter of the King of Denmark. Nisbet adds
that he was made Lord of Shetland and Duke of
Oldenburg (which is considered doubtful), and
that he was Knight of the Thistle, Cockle, and
Golden Fleece.
William, third earl, resigned his earldom of
Orkney in favour of King James IIL, and adopted
that of Caithness, which he resigned in 1476 to
his son TVilliam, who became distinguished by the
baronial grandeur of his household, and was the
founder of the chapel. It is of him that Father
Hay writes as ?a prince,? who maintained at the
Castle of Roslin royal state, and was served at his
table in vessels of gold and silver. Lord Dirleton
was the master of his household, Lord Borthwick
