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Art. XII. Exhumation and He-interment of 

 Robert Bruce. 



To the Editor of " The Journal of Science and the Arts." 



Dear Sir, 

 Tlie enclosed extract of a private letter, which 1 received a few days ago 

 from Edinburgh, may, I think, prove acceptable to two classes of your 

 readers : first, to the lovers of autiquariau research, (and Ivanhoe will 

 make us all antiquaries) ; and, secondly, to the natives of " the land 

 of brown heath," who imbibe with their earliest breath an enthusiasm 

 for the name of Bruce, of which, in these latitudes, we cannot be expected 

 to form any adequate idea. It may add to the interest with which it is 

 read, to be told, that it is from the pen of the Professor of the Practice 

 of Physic in the University of Edinburgh. 



Believe me, my dear Sir, very faithfully your's, 



G. 



London, March 1, 1820. 



Edinburgh, Thursdmj, Feb. 10, 1820. 



I HAD lately in my hands (Nov. 5, 1819) the scull of a great 

 king, and a great hero, Roberti Brussii Scotorum Regis, ini- 

 mortalis memoria. If you met with a Scotch newspaper soon 

 after that time, you would know that I had been at his 

 resurrection and re-interment. His grave was paved and 

 lined, both sides, and head and foot, with heivn squared stones ; 

 and was covered with three large square stones, each having a 

 large iron ring in it. It was necessary to take down and re- 

 move all that mason-work in order to enlarge the grave, so 

 that it might receive the huge new leaden coffin, in which his 

 remains — bonus, bona, bonum — for nothing else remained of him, 

 were put. For that purpose, and to give room to the workmen 

 who were to build up a new grave for him of brick, the walls 

 of which are made nine inches thick, with an arch of the same 

 thickness over it, a deep trench, full three feet wide was dug 

 all round the original stone grave. Into that trench I descended. 

 and having got hold of his scull, held it up to the view of the 

 spectators, (who were very numerous), telling them, " This is 

 the head of King Robert." His scull was, 490 years after his 

 death, as entire as yours or mine are at present. So were al- 



