80 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



picturesque ruins in Scotland. It is supposed to have been built early in the 

 twelfth century ; but neither the name of its founder, nor the immediate purpose 

 of its erection, have survived the long and prolific interval which separates its 

 first and last proprietors. In the reign of James the Second it is mentioned, 

 for the first time in history, as the fortress where Sir William Hamilton was 

 imprisoned for the part he had taken in the Douglas conspiracy against that 

 monarch. It was long the family seat of the St. Clairs, earls of Caithness and 

 Orkney, who shone so conspicuous in the history of the country, and on whom 

 the Sovereign conferred the honorary distinction of patrons and grand masters 

 of masonry in Scotland. During the invasion of 1554, it shared the fate of 

 Craigmillar, and several others, which the troops of Henry VIII. burnt in 

 their march towards the capital. Since that period, it has continued a graceful 

 and " haunted ruin," to which every succeeding year, while it saps its strength, 

 adds more romantic beauty, and renders it a still fitter subject for the painter, 

 and every lover of the picturesque. 



Weeds fringe its ramparts : o'er the crumbling walls 

 In gay festoon the clustering wild flower falls : 

 The creviced arch conceals the falcon's nest — 

 The bristling thorn waves o'er its stately crest : 

 The owl at midnight, and the merle at morn — 

 The chiding stream — the hunter's early horn — 

 Are all that stir those slumbering echoes, where 

 Strength sat in state, and Beauty flourished fair! 



On the rising ground to the north of the castle, is the beautiful Gothic chapel, 

 so long the subject of general admiration, and particularly so to those who are 

 best qualified to pronounce upon its merits as a precious relic of ecclesiastical 

 architecture. The period of its erection is stated at 1446; an age at which 

 the arts were cultivated with such success as to rival some of the finest models 

 of Greece and Rome ; and when several of these venerable monuments, of 

 which England and the nations of the continent are now so justly proud, were 

 receiving the last finishing strokes from the great masters of the day. The 

 dimensions of this chapel are sixty-nine feet in length, by thirty-four feet in 

 breadth, and forty feet in height ; with an arched roof, supported by two rows 

 of pillars, elaborately carved. Among the sepulchral monuments which attract 

 the attention of strangers, are those of George, earl of Caithness, and another 

 carved in stone, supposed to be designed for Alexander, earl of Sutherland, 

 grandson of king Robert Bruce. The design for this chapel, according to 

 tradition, was from the hand of a Roman architect ; and to ensure its being 



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