Scotland > 1882-1915 - Slater's Royal National Commercial Directory of Scotland > 1903, Part 2 - Slater's Royal National Commercial Directory of Scotland ... (Royal National Directory of Scotland.) With ... map, etc

DIRECTORY.]
EDINBUEGH.
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marriage of Mary to Bothwell (whom she created a duke
two days earlier) on the isth May, 1567, in the council
room of the palace, followed by her surrender at Carberry
Hill, and on 16 June, 1567, she left Holyrood never to
return. In September, 1579, James VI. came for the first
time to this palace and left it for his new kingdom of
England on the 5 April, 1603, and in 1617 he had the
Chapel Royal repaired and fitted for service. Conventions
of Estates were held at Holyrood m 1631-2-3, and in the
latter year King Charles was crowned in the Chapel Royal. In
1650, Cromwell quartered his troops in the palace, and in
November of that year a great part of the building was
destroj'ed by fire. In 1679, the Uuke of York came to
Holyrood and had a private chapel fitted up on the north
side of the quadrangle, and when king in 1687 he revived
the ancient Order of the Thistle, assigning the chapel of
HoljTOod as the place for their stalls with banners &c. to be
placed, but in 1689 a mob destroyed the chapel and much
damaged the palace. The next Royal occupant of the palace
was Prince Charles Edward in 1745, who held levees and
balls in the State apartments and left it to march to
London in October of that year. Charles X. of France
(then Count D'Artois) occupied it from 1795 to 1799. I1
1822 George IV. visited ^it, and in 1842 Her late Majesty
Queen Victoria held a levee and drawing-room there. His
present Majesty King Edward VII., with Queen Alexandra,
on their visit to Edinburgh in 1903, also held a Court at the
palace, which is still maintained as a Royal residence, the
Duke of Hamilton being hereditary custodian.
The Abbey of Holy Rood, founded by David I. in 1128, in
memory of his protection from an accident whilst hunting,
was served by canons of the Augustinian Order, and was re-
puted to contain a relic in the form of a gold and ebony rood,
in which was set a piece of the true cross, said to have been
lost in 1346 at the battle of Nevills Cross ; the first charter was
dated 1147. It had priories at St. Mary's Isle, Gallowaj'.Blan-
tyre, Clydesdale, Rowadil m the Isle of Herries and the Isle of
Colonsay. In 1322 it was plundered by Edward II. and in 1326
Bruce held a parliament in the abbey, and in 1366 a council
of nobles was held to protest against the pretensions of the
kings of England to the over lordship of Scotland ; in 1381
John of Gaunt, duke of Lancaster, was entertained in the
abbey when compelled to flee from England, and in 1385
Richard II. partly burnt it. In 1430 the twin sons of
James I. were born in the abbey ; six years later the survivor
of these, James II., was crowned in the Abbey Church.
James III. married Margaret of Denmark here and received
as her dowry the Isles of Orknej^ and Shetland. James IV.
in 1503, married another Margaret, daughter of Henry VII.
of England, and took her to the new palace he had built
adjoining. the abbey, and apparently occupying its front
courtyard. In July, 1524, James V. (then thirteen years of
age), came and assumed the charge of the kingdom with
Angus for regent. Of the abbey church there now remains
only the nave of eight bays, rootless since 1768 : the existing
work displays a variety of styles, from Norman to Decorated,
and includes the west front with a very fine Early English
doorway, two nondescript windows above it and a north-west
tower ; the walls of the nave aisles, which have interlaced
arcading with single light-pointed windows ; the south
arcade of the nave, consisting of six pointed arches spring-
ing from clustered columns and supporting a clerestory of
double arches, and the present east end, built across the
western end of the intersection and containing three modern
Decorated windows : the pavement is composed of numerous
tombstones, besides which are some larger monuments, and
on the exterior of the south aisle wall are the remains of the
cloister. The dimensions of the church are : length of nave,
127 feet ; breadth, 29 feet 6 inches, and breadth of each aisle,
14 feet 9 inches ; height of east end, 70 feet ; height of north-
west tower, 52 feet by 23 feet square.
Moray House, on the south side of Canongate, was erected
in 1618 by Mary, Countess of Home, eldest daughter of
Lord Dudley, and remained in the Earl of Moray's family
until 1835. It was the residence of OUver CromweU whilst
he was in Edinburgh in 1648. At the time of the Union it
was occupied by the Earl of Seafield, the Chancellor of Scot-
land, and many meetings for deliberation on the question of
the Union were held in it. A popular legend represents the
Treaty of Union as having been signed in a summer-house
in the garden. The house is now occupied as a normal
school in connection with the Free Church.
On the opposite side of the street is the old Canongate
Tolbooth, a relic of antiq'.i'ty. It is a gloomy but pictur-
esque building, of the end of t!ie i6th century, with corner
turrets, a small spire, a clock fixed in a wooden projection
and an outside stair, and on its front is the inscription,
" Sic itur ad Astra ; " up to 1847 it was in use as a prison
and is now occupied as a police and fire station.
Grassmarket. In the centre of the wide street called the
Grassmarket the paving stones are arranged in the form of
a small St. Andrew's cross, to mark the spot on which stood
until 1785 the notorious "gallows tree, " during the period
when Charles II. and James II. attempted to enforce prelacy
upon the people of Scotland.
John Knox's House, an ancient house at the junction of
High street with the Canongate, projects at the terminating
corner of the former, narrowing the street several feet at
the point called Netherbow. The building was repaired in
1850, and has since become, by legacy, the property of the
United Free Church of Scotland.
An old house in Lady Stair's close, off the Lawnmarket,
erected in 1622, was the residence about 1706 of Viscountess
Primrose, subsequently Countess of Stair and an ancestor
of the present Earl of Rosebery.
Arthur's Seat, a hill above Holyrood palace on the east of
the city, rises to the height of 822 feet above the sea, with
a conical summit, and presents on the west a precipitous
angle towards the town, forming a line of cliff called Salis-
bury Crags, behind which lies the valley known as
Hunters Bog, now a shooting range, but in 1745 f^^ site of
Prince Charles's Camp. From the summit twelve counties
are visible. To the north are the ruins of St. Anthony's
chapel and Hermitage, and near the foot is St. Anthony's
well ; west of Salisbury Crags is the lower hill of St. Leonard,
where existed in former days a religious establishment and
a cemetery. The Queen's Drive, a carriage way made in
1844-47, winds round Arthur's Seat. At the opposite or
south-western extremity is the village of Duddingston, with
its loch, much frequented by anglers in summer and for
skating in winter.
St. Bernard's Well is a medicinal spring near Stock-
bridge, to the north of the city on the Water of Leith. The
water is sulphurous. Lord Gardenstone purchased the
property and erected over the well a small Doric temple,
ivith a circle of columns supporting a dome, and having in
the centre a figure of Hygeia, the goddess of health.
Restalrig, or Restalric, is about a mile east of the Old
Town, between the sea shore and Holyrood House. It was
formerly an independent parish, with a collegiate church,
the fragments of which are still remainmg. Close to Res-
talrig are the Piershill Barracks for cavalry, inclosing a large
parade ground,
EDIN. B