COLERIDGE'S FIVE SIGHTS.

395

architectural homage to Him to whom the temple is reared—no sumptuous carved-work where it cannot be seen but by the closest scrutiny. Look, for example, at that ornamental band where it turns yonder corner! press yourself into that corner (you may do so with some little difficulty and squeezing), and you will perceive, that where the work is considered to be out of sight, there the decoration has ceased. Now, sir, I turn a deaf ear to your cui bono remark, and ask— Would your legitimate Gothic have done this?

Of course, remonstrance and argument with such a purist are alike superfluous and useless; and we who admire Roslin as unhesitatingly as we would admire a rose, or a landscape, or a picture, or a beautiful woman, without casting about for any strict rules wherewith to fetter our admiration, are snubbed in our ecstasies, and are told to go to Melrose. Very well! let us go to Melrose by all means: but I, for my part, was glad that I had paid a visit to Melrose before I became acquainted with Roslin. The one may be pure and legitimate, and the other may be eccentric and florid; but, beautiful as was Melrose, I preferred its smaller rival-more especially when taken in connection with the Castle and the Glen. Coleridge pronounced the five finest sights in Scotland to be Edinburgh, the Fall of Foyers, Loch Lomond, the Trosachs, and the view of the Hebrides from Argyleshire; which leads me to believe that Coleridge never visited Roslin, or he would have added. it to his list.

*

From the leads of the building on to which I mounted, there is (on a sunny summer's day) the most

* This position is so excellent for a panoramic view that it was one of the places selected by the Ordnance Surveyors from which to make their observations.

lovely view; in which respect, at any rate, everyone must allow that Roslin on the hill has the preeminence over Melrose in the plain. Hawthornden is a short distance to the left, embosomed in woods; the Glen lies beneath and before us; and the ruins of the Castle are just below us to the right. Let us pay them a visit.

CHAPTER XXXIX.

ROSLIN CASTLE.

Early History of Roslin Castle-Stormy and Palmy Days-
The Prince of Orkney's Court-The Blind Rat and the
Whelps-An Accidental Fire-Position of the Castle The
Ruins-Cardonnel's Etchings-The Courtyard-The Modern
House-Its Modern Plague-Framed and Glazed-An uncom-
plimentary Guide-Avernus—The Baron's Retainers and their
Bed-rooms-The Little-ease and Dungeons-The Garden and
Postern-View from the opposite Bank-The Past and
Present.

THE

HE origin of the building of Roslin Castle, like the authorship of the ballad of Roslin Castle,' is not known. The first fortalice may perhaps have been built by 'the seemly' St. Clair, who came over with the Conqueror, and to whom, about the year 1100, a portion of the barony of Roslin was granted by Malcolm Canmore. But history is silent concerning the Castle until the reign of James II., when (in 1455) Sir William Hamilton was confined therein for engaging in the rebellion raised by Douglas against the King, but was soon after released and taken into the royal favour. When Henry VIII. was incensed against Scotland for the rupture of the marriage treaty between his son, the Prince Edward, and that infant Queen of Scots whose chubby face still smiles upon us from the copper bawbees' struck at her coronation, he invaded the country, destroyed Leith, burnt Craigmillar, and demolished Roslin. This was in

6

1544. Rebuilt, it was once more battered down, in 1650, by General Monk, and those Cromwellian troopers who stabled their steeds in the proud chapelle;' and, on the night of December 11, 1688, the destruction of the castle and chapel was completed by the fury of a lawless mob from Roslin and Edinburgh. The triple tier of vaults, and the massive fragments of shattered walls attest the former strength of the fortress. The walls are formed of blocks of red sandstone, and have an average thickness of 9 feet. The length of the castle is 200 feet, by 90 feet in breadth. Over the vaults is a comparatively modern house, still inhabited during the summer months; S.W.S. 1662,' is inscribed above the door, being the date of its erection by Sir William St. Clair; and the ceiling of the dining-room is enriched with ornaments and the arms of the family.

6

Thus Roslin has had its stormy days of siege and battle, including that busy day of the 24th of February, 1303, when the English and Scotch met near to Roslin, and the three armies of the former were successively vanquished by the latter:

Three triumphs in a day!

Three hosts subdued by one!

Three armies scattered like the spray

Beneath one summer sun.

But Roslin has also seen its palmy days of baronial magnificence, and none grander than when the founder of the chapel, William St. Clair, Prince of Orkney, kept his court there, in the middle of the fifteenth century. Father Hay tells us how he was royally served at his own table in vessels of gold and silver; Lord Dirleton being his master-household, Lord Borthwick his cupbearer, and Lord Fleming his carver. He had his halls

A FIRE AT ROSLIN.

399

and other apartments richly adorned with embroidered hangings. His princess, Elizabeth Douglas, was served by 75 gentlewomen, whereof 53 were daughters of noblemen, all clothed in velvet and silks, with their chains of gold and other ornaments, and was attended by 200 riding gentlemen in all journies; and if it happened to be dark when she went to Edinburgh, where her lodgings were at the foot of Black Fryar's Wind, 80 lighted torches were carried before her.'

One of the gentlewomen of this magnificent Princess had well-nigh burnt down the castle in 1447. It seems that Edward Sinclair, of Dryden, was on his way to Roslin to hunt with the Prince, when he met a great company of rats, and, among the rest (says Father Hay), one old blind lyard one 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 the bed with a lighted candle, to bring forth one of them that had young whelps, which she doing, and not being very attentive, set fire on the bed, whereat the fire rose and burnt the bed, and then passed to the ceiling of the great chamber in which the Princess was, whereat she and all that were in the dungeon (donjon) were compelled to fly. The Prince's chaplain seeing this, and remembering of all his master's writings, passed to the head of the dungeon where they were. The news of this fire coming to the Prince's ears through the lamentable cries of the ladies and gentlewomen, and the sight thereof coming to his view in the place where he stood, viz. upon the College Hill, he was sorry for nothing but the loss of his charters and other writings;