Topographical, statistical, and historical gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

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to industry. " Towards the outward door of this
apartment, there are," says Arnot, "in the floor, large
dusky spots, said to have been occasioned by Riccio's
blood staining the floor, which washing of the boards
has not been able to take out." Pennant, after parti-
cularizing "some good portraits," in the other rooms,
remarks that "the gallery of the palace," which
" takes up one side, is filled with colossal portraits
of the kings of Scotland." These, indeed, except a
very few, afford a far better proof of the fertility of
the painter's fancy, than of the correctness of his taste.
The gallery itself is 145 feet in length, by 25 in
breadth.
The apartments possessed by the Duke of Hamil-
ton as hereditary keeper of the palace, are all that
remain of the old structure. In these lodged the
young Chevalier during his residence in Edinburgh ;
and, a few weeks after, the Duke of Cumberland oc-
cupied the very same apartment, and the very same
bed, which is still standing. After the defeat of the
royal army at Falkirk, General Hawley thought pro-
per to quarter his troops in the gallery of the palace ;
and these well-disciplined troops, as Arnot has re-
marked, thought they could not better manifest their
loyalty to King George, than by defacing and hewing
iu pieces every representation of royalty ; but the
paintings have since been repaired, and are now
inserted into the panels of the wainscot. Since
that time these apartments afforded an asylum
to Charles X. of France, then Monsieur, with a
few of the emigrant nobles, betwixt 1795 and 1799,
when there was no safety for them in their own
country ; and the same royal personage, when a se-
cond time driven from his indignant country, found
refuge with his family here. In the year 1S22, his
Majesty, George IV., graced and gladdened the long-
deserted halls of Holyrood with his royal presence.
Here he held his courts, although he resided at Dal-
keith, under the roof of the Duke of Buccleuch.
Government has recently laid out a considerable sum
of money in repairing and renovating this venerable
structure, and enclosing it on two sides with a mag-
nificent iron palisade.
The precincts of the palace, including the ground
which was first enclosed by James V., to the extent
of about 3 miles, afford a sanctuary for debtors. This,
it would appear, has the same bounds with the an-
cient sanctuary belonging to the monastery, for the
refuge and protection of criminals. This privilege
is, perhaps, founded on the following clause in David's
charter : — " I strictly forbid all persons from taking
a poind [distraint] or making a seizure, in or upon
the lands of the said Holy Cross, unless the Abbot
refuse to do justice to the person injured." The per-
son who fled to the abbey was thus secure, if the ab-
bot chose to protect him: for what temporal judge
would dare to accuse the holy abbot of injustice?
Expressive of the modern indemnity, one who finds
it necessary to take the benefit of the girth afforded
by the environs of Holyrood-house, is ludicrously
denominated an Abbey-laird.*
HOLYTOWN, a considerable village in the par-
ish of Bothwell, Lanarkshire ; on the line of post-
* This designation seems not to he of yesterday ; tor it oc-
I'urs iu a pretty old comic song called 'the Cock-laird. 1 In
this, when our Scottish yeoman malce9 love to his sweetheart,
her demands are rather high for hira ; as he informs her that,
although he possesses a3 much land as would supply them with
meal and barley, having bo tenant?, he has not money to throw
away on vanities. She replie6> —
The Borrotvstonn merchants
Will sell you on licit ;
For we maun hae Draw things.
Albeit they sou < break.
When broken, froe care
The tools are set free.
When we mak them lairds
In the Abbey, quoth she.
Herd's Cohi.Ecno.N, ii. 30.
road to Edinburgh, by Whitburn and Mid-Calder.
The population is chiefly engaged in mining or weav-
ing. An extension church has recently been built
here : see Bothwell.
HOLYWOOD, a parish in Nithsdale, Dumfries-
shire, bounded on the north-west and north by Dun-
score ; on the north-east by Kirkmahoe ; on the south
by Dumfries in Dumfries-shire; and Terregles and
Irongray in Kirkcudbrightshire ; and on the south-
west by Irongray. Its form — though, in a general
sense, a stripe stretching from east to west — is very
irregular, and of very various breadth. From a bend
of the Kith below Lincluden on the east, to an angle
nearly a mile beyond Speddocb-hill on the west, the
parish measures, in extreme length, 9| miles ; but its
breadth, at both extremities, is contracted nearly or
altogether to an acute angle ; from the eastern extre-
mity, over 3| miles of its length, it gradually ex-
pands to 2J miles ; over 3.J- miles more, it averages
i| mile; and it now gradually contracts till it is
only J- of a mile, and again expands considerably, and
contracts before reaching the western termination.
The superficial area is about 14 square miles. All
the parish, except some soft-featured and inconsider-
able hills on the west, is level, and forms part of the
beautifully dressed and richly encinctured vale of
lower Kithsdale. About 300 acres of moorland, and
350 of moss, embrown the gentle and limited up-
lands; and 120 of meadow, and about 550 of wood,
variegate and beautify the fine stretch of lowlands ;
and all the rest of the surface, amounting to upwards
of 7,500 imperial acres, is arable. So spirited and
successful have been the labours of improvement,
that though the parish, 30 years ago, was generally
enclosed and under culture, its annual productiveness
since that period has doubled in amount. Two rivers
enrich the parish with their alluvial deposits, their
fertilizing waters, and their fishy treasures; and are
aided by several tributary rills, in finely embellishing
its lovely landscape. The Kith comes down from the
north, forms a tiny islet, which lies like a gem on its
bosom at the point of its first touching the parish ; runs
2 of a mile eastward, 4 miles south-eastward, and J of a
mile westward, tracing the boundary-line over nearly
the whole distance ; and, during its progress, it forms
another islet, — runs, in one place, so sinuously as to
bound away from the parish, and then career a little
into it, and then return to its post of "riding the
marches," — and makes a bend of exquisite beauty
round the extreme point of the parish, opposite Lin-
cluden, adorning that celebrated and lovely spot with
a glittering crescent of waters. Though fordable at
three different places, and tranquil in its current
during summer, it sometimes comes down during
winter with such speed and bulk as nearly defy the
opposition of embankments in the more exposed
grounds. The Cairn — or, as it is here usually called,
the Cluden- — approaches, in a considerable body of
waters, from the north ; runs, for upwards of a mile,
along the north-east boundary ; intersects the parish
at the most contracted point of its breadth ; and then,
over a distance of 7 miles, flows onward to join the
Kith, at the point of its debouching southward to
leave the district. Within J of a mile of the conflu-
ence, it makes serpentine folds, so as three times to
enter the body of the parish and return to the boun-
dary; and a considerable way farther up, it makes a
detour, for a mile, into Kirkcudbrightshire; but, over
all the rest of the last 7 miles of its course, it traces
the southern boundary-line. Glengabber burn rises
in the uplands of the parish, flows 1^ mile through it,
north-eastward ; passes away, for ^ of a mile, beyond
its limits; and re-entering it on a south-easterly
course, flows 2J miles bendingly through it, and falls
into the Cluden nearly opposite to Irongray church.