Roslin.1 THE sr. CLAIRS. 349
Lords Sinclair of Herdmanston. The second son,
also called William, continued the line of the Earls
of Caithness ; while the thud son, Oliver, founded
the more modern family, and connected it with the
ancient one of St. Clair of Roslin. In 1583,
Thomas Vans and Archibald Hoppringall, burgesses
of Edinburgh, became caution for Edward Sinclair,
eldest son of Sir William of Roslin, that his spouse,
Christian Douglas, should have peaceable access to
him in his father?s Place of Roslin, and that he
should duly appear before the Lords of Council to
underlie the law with reference to a family dispute.
(? Reg. of Council.?)
Their descendant, William, last heir in the direct
male line, died in 17;s. A collateral branch was
his cupbearer, Lord Fleming his carver, and
these had as deputies, in their absence, the Lairds
of Drummelzier, Sandilands, and Calder. His
halls and apartments were richly adorned with
embroidered hanging, and to the state adopted by
his ? princess Elizabeth ? we have already referred.
The three sons of William, the third earl, conveyed
the concentrated honours of the house in
their respective lines. William, the eldest, inherited
the title of Bpron Sinclair, and was ancestor of the
Roslin, which was founded in the j-ear 1446 by the
then lord, and dedicated to St. Matthew. Only
the chancel of the edifice was completed, but
a cruciform structure must have been contemplated.
Though certainly squat in outline, all the
rare beauties of the chapel are concentrated in the
design and wonderfully varied character of its
mouldings, buttresses, and incrustations. It bids
defiance to all the theories of Gothic architecture.
Britton calls it ? curious, elaborate, and singularly
interesting; ? and, in comparing it with other
edifices of the same period, he adds, ?These styles
display a gradual advancement in lightness and
profusion of ornament, but the chapel of Roslin
combines the solidity of the Norman with the
-
raised in the year 1801 to the title of Earls of Rosslyn,
in the peerage of the United Kingdom. James,
second earl, succeeded in the year 1837, and now
the Scottish seat of the family is at Dysart House,
Fifeshire.
The St. Clairs of Roslin, from the time of James
11. till they resigned the office in the last century,
were the Grand Masters of Masonry in Scotland.
It may seem almost superfluous to describe an
edifice so well known as the exquisite chapel of
ROSLIN CHAPEL :- NORTH FRONT.
350 OLD AND NEW EDINBURGH. [Roslin
minute decorations of the latest species of the
Tudor age. It is impossible to designate the architecture
of this building by any given or familiar
term, for the variety and eccentricity of its parts
are not to be defined by any words of common
acceptation.?
Though generally spoken of as if it were the chapel
of the adjacent castle, this most costly edifice was
erected as a collegiate church, to be ministered to
by a provost, six prebendaries, and two choristers.
Captain Slezer states that ? there goes a tradition
that, before the death of any of the family of
Roslin this chapel appears to be all on fire ; ? and it
was this brief line of that most prosaic writer which
suggested the noble ballad of Scott: The legend
is supposed to be of Norse origin, imported by the
Earls of Orkney to Roslin, as the tomb-fires of
the North are mentioned in most of the Sagas. The
chapel was desecrated by a mob in I 688, anQ though
partially repaired by General St. Clair about 1720,
for more than a century and a half it remained
windowless and mouldy. On Easter Tuesday, 1862,
it was repaired, and opened for service by the clergy
of the Scottish Episcopal communion.
In this building we have the common stock legend
of one of the finest pieces of workmanship beingcompletedbyanapprentice
duringtheabsence of the master,
who in rage and mortification puts him to death.
The famous Apprentice?s Pillar is called by Slezer
the ? Prince?s Pillar,? as the founder had the title
of Prince of Orkney, This pillar is the wreathed
one, so markedly distinct from all the others, and
was most probably the ?? Master?s Pillar ; ? but
among the grotesque heads, it was not difficult for
old Annie Wilson, the guide, who figures in the
Gentleman?s Magazi?zc for 1817, to find those of
the irate master, the terrified apprentice, and his
sorrowing mother.
It was from the MSS. of Father Hay, in the
Advocates? Library, that the striking legend of the
Sinclairs being buried in their armour was taken
by Sir Walter. Scott. He wrote at the commencement
of the eighteenth century, and was present at
the opening of the tomb, wherein lay Sir Wdliam
Sinclair, who, he says, was interred in 1650, on
the day the battle of Dunbar was fought ; and he
thus describes the body :-
? He was lying in his armour, with a red velvet
cap on his head, on a flat stone. Nothing was
spoiIed except a piece of the white furring that
uyent round the cap, and answered to the hinder
part of the head. All his predecessors were buried
in the same manner in their armour. Late Roslin,
my gud father, was the first that was buried in a
coffin, against the sentiments of King James VII.,
who was then in Scotland, and several other
persons well versed in antiquity, to whom my
mother would not hearken, thinking it beggarly to
be buried after that manner, The great expense
she was at in burying her husband occasioned the
sumptuary Acts which were made in the next Parliament.?
This refers to the Act ? restraining the
exorbitant expense of marriages, baptisms, and
burials,? passed in 1681 at Edinburgh.
In a vault near the north wall, there lie, under
a flag-stone, ten barons of Roslin, buried before
1690, according to the ? New Statistical Account.?
In the west wall of the north aisle is the tomb
of George, fourth Earl of Caithness, one of the
peers who sat on the trial of Bothwell, and who
died at an advanced age. It bears the following
inscription :-
? H I ~ JACET NOBILE AC POTIS DOMINUS GEORGIUS,
QUONDAM COMES CATHANENSIS, DOMINUS SINCLAR,
OBIIT EDINBURCI g DIE MENSIS SEPTEMBRIS, ANNO
DOMINI 1582.?
It is supposed that an authentic history of th;s
family-one of the most remarkable in the three
Lothians-might throw much light on the history
of masonry in Scotland. Among the MSS. in
Father Hay?s collection there is one which acknowledges
in remarkable terms the prerogatives
of the Roslm family in reference to the Maso&
craft.
?The deacons, masters, and freemen of the
masons and hammermen within the Kingdom of
Scotland ? assert ?? that for as mickle as from adage
to adage it has been observed amongst us and our
predecessors that the Lauds of Roslin have ever
bein patrons and protectors of us and our privileges,
like as our predecessors has obeyed, reverenced,
and acknowledged them as patrons and protectors,
whereof they had letters of protection and other
rights granted by his majesty?s most noble progenitors.?
The MS. then proceeds to record that
the documents referred to had perished with the
family muniments in some conflagration ; but that
they acknowledge the continuance of the Masonic
Patronage in the House of Sinclair. The MS. is
dated 1630, and signed thus :-? The Lodge of
Dundee - Robert Strachane, master - Andrew
Wast and DaI-id Whit, masters in Dundee; with
our hands att the pen, led be the Notar, undersubscrivand
at our commands, because we cannot
writ.?
At least twenty-two special masons? marks are
visible on the stones at Roslin.
The edifice has attached to it what is said to
have been an under chapel, although it is on the
JUSTICIARIUS HEREDITORIUS DIOCESIS CATHANENSIS QUI
