E-text prepared by Jonathan Ingram, David Garcia,
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team
THE MIRROR
OF
LITERATURE, AMUSEMENT, AND INSTRUCTION.
| VOL. XVII, NO. 479.] | SATURDAY, MARCH 5, 1831. | [PRICE 2d. |
ANCIENT PALACE OF HOLYROOD, AT EDINBURGH.
Here is another of the resting-places of fallen royalty; and a happyhaven has it proved to many a crowned head; a retreat where the plainreproof of flattery—
How can you say to me,—I am a king?
would sound with melancholy sadness and truth.
The reader of "the age and body of the time" need not be told that thetenancy of Holyrood by the Ex-King of France has suggested its presentintroduction, although the Engraving represents the Palace about theyear 1640. The structure, in connexion with the Chapel,1 is thusdescribed in Chambers's Picture of Scotland, vol. ii. p. 61.
The Chapel and Palace of Holyrood are situated at the extremity of thesuburb called the Cannongate. The ordinary phrase "the Abbey," stillpopularly applied to both buildings, indicates that the former is themore ancient of the two. Like so many other religious establishments,it owns David I. for its founder. Erected in the twelfth century, andmagnificently endowed by that monarch, it continued for about fourcenturies to flourish as an abbey, and to be, at least during thelatter part of that time, the residence of the sovereign. In the year1528, James V. added a palace to the conventual buildings. During thesubsequent reign of Mary, this was the principal seat of the court; andso it continued in a great measure to be, till the departure of KingJames VI. for England. Previously to this period, the Abbey and Palacehad suffered from fire, and they have since undergone such revolutions,that, as in the celebrated case of Sir John Cutler's stockings, which,in the course of darning, changed nearly their whole substance, it isnow scarcely possible to distinguish what is really ancient from themodern additions.
As they at present stand, the Palace is a handsome edifice, built inthe form of a quadrangle, with a front flanked by double towers, whilethe Abbey is reduced from its originally extensive dimensions to themere ruin of the chapel, one corner of which adjoins to a posterior[pg 162]angle of the Palace. Of the palatial structure, the north-west towersalone are old. The walls were certainly erected in the time of James V.They contain the apartments in which Queen Mary resided, and where herminion, Rizzio, fell a sacrifice to the revenge of her brutal husband.A certain portion of the furniture is of the time, and a still smallerportion is said to be the handiwork of that princess. The remainingparts of the structure were erected in the time of Charles II. and haveat no time been occupied by any royal personages, other than the Duke ofYork, Prince Charles Stuart, the Du