83 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



•' No useless coffin enclosed liis breast, 



Nor in sheet nor in shroud we bound him i 

 But he lay like a warrior taking his rest, 

 With his martial cloak around him." 



The founder of this chapel, according to the authority abready quoted, lived 

 in great state at his castle of Roslyn: he kept a good court, and was royally 

 served at his own table in vessels of gold and silver. The Lords Dirleton, 

 Borthwick, and Fleming, were officers of his household, and in their absence 

 served by deputies. The halls of the castle were hung with richly embroidered 

 silk, and every other apartment furnished in a corresponding style of costly 

 magnificence. His consort, Elizabeth Douglas, was served by seventy-five 

 gentlewomen, fifty-three of whom were daughters of noblemen, " all clothed 

 in velvets and silks." In all her journeys she was attended by two hundred 

 oentlemen on horseback; and if it happened to be dark when she entered 

 Edinburgh, eighty lighted torches were carried before her, to " her lodgings, 

 at the foot of Black Friars' Wjmd." This nobleman flourished in the reigns of 

 James the First and Second ; and in addition to his other titles, enjoyed that 

 of duke of Oldenburg, with a princely revenue and territory. 



The vicinity of Roslyn is famous as the scene of three engagements, of which 

 the annexed may serve as a brief outline. Ralph Confrey, treasurer to Edward I., 

 having, in violation of the existing truce, entered Scotland at the head of thirty 

 thousand men, divided them into three distinct bodies, and took up the same 

 number of positions in the neighbourhood of Roslyn. Informed of this sudden 

 and unexpected invasion, the Scottish generals. Eraser and Cuming, assembled 

 with what haste they could a body of troops, amounting, at the highest estimate, 

 to ten thousand men, with whom they encountered and routed the first division of 

 the enemy, near Biggar, In the midst of their victory, however, and while divi- 

 ding the spoil, the Scotch were again summoned to arms ; and after a severe conflict 

 with the second division, were a second time victorious. But they had scarcely 

 time to congratulate themselves, when a third army bore down upon them, as if 

 to annihilate their wasted strength and diminished numbers. But the previous 

 fate of the day had acted in the two-fold capacity of discouraging the invaders, 

 in the same proportion as it animated the Scotch ; and the latter, flushed with 

 the hope of a final victory, and forgetting their fatigue, opposed once more the 

 fresh battalion of the enemy ; and after an obstinate and sanguinary conflict, 

 remained masters of the field.* 



• A circumstance so extraordinary is only to be accounted for by viewing it as the result of bad general- 

 ship on the part of the English leader, who committed the unpardonable error of dividing his forces in 



