ROSLYN. 



members alfo unite the larger pinnacles with the upper part 

 of the chapel. The eailern end difplays five buttrefles, 

 with four pointed windows intervening, all of uniform fize 

 and ftyle, though varying fomewhat in the tracery work 

 with which they are ornamented. Each window is divided 

 by a ftone mullion, faced, both internally and externally, 

 with double columns ; and the tranfom of the arch is de- 

 corated with half figures of perfons in the attitude of fup- 

 plication, and with different kinds of foliage. On the north 

 and fouth fides of the chapel, in the lower compartment, 

 are five windows of a fimilar kind ; alfo a pointed arched 

 door-way, receflfed under a larger femicircular arch, above 

 which is an irregular triangular window, highly ornamented. 

 Another tier of windows, on each fide, gives light to the 

 upper part of the building ; but thefe are now much mu- 

 tilated, having loll their mullions, tracery, &c. Between 

 every two windows are two canopied niches, and a bracket, 

 which appear to have been defigned for ilatues. This por- 

 tion of the building is fupported by two oppofite ranges of 

 five arches each, feparating the body of the chapel from the 

 fide aifles ; beyond which, at the eaft end, there are two 

 columns, and two more in the centre between them, all of 

 them fupporting Hone beams, exhibiting a great variety of 

 fculptural ornaments. One of the centre pillars is wreathed, 

 and is popularly called the apprentice's pillar, from a tradi- 

 tion refpefting its execution by an apprentice of the malter 

 mafon of the liruchire ; who, it is faid, finding himfelf un- 

 able to underftand the model furnifhed to him, went abroad 

 for inftru&ions, during which time the work was accom- 

 plifhed by the apprentice. It is Angular that a fimilar ftory 

 is told of fome of the bed fculptures in Melrofe abbey ; 

 and we believe, alfo, of a much later production of art, 

 the ftatue of king Charles II. in the Parliament-fquare at 

 Edinburgh. Two heads in the chapel are faid to reprefent 

 the mafter and the apprentice. The former is fhewn 

 as frowning, and the latter with a fear or indention on the 

 forehead, to denote that he was murdered by his mafter, 

 through envy of his fuperior genius. At the eaft end of 

 the chapel are four altars, dedicated to different faints. 

 " Of arches," fays Mr. Britton, in his Architectural An- 

 tiquities, " there are more than thirteen varieties to be 

 found in this building. A flat or fegment beneath the roof 

 of the aifles, and over the door to the fub-chapel ; femi- 

 circular in the vault of the roof, and over the entrance 

 doors ; groined, acutely pointed over the weftern aifle ; flat 

 pointed between the centre and fide aifles ; (harp pointed in 

 the lower windows ; ogee to the pifcinas ; flattened, and 

 lateft of the pointed ftyle, infide of the door-way, fouth 

 fide ; half fegment in the flying buttrefles ; counter arch in 

 the triangular windows ; flat arch and fegment joined in a 

 door in the vault ; feveral arches of various forms in the 

 windows, niches, and canopies, alfo in the battlements." 

 The vault above-mentioned is the burying-place of the fa- 

 mily of the Sinclairs. The foil of it is fo dry, that bodies 

 have beea found entire 80 years after their interment. They 

 were formerly buried in armour, and without a coffin. 

 " The late Roflin," fays father Hay, in his MS. memoirs, 

 " was the firft that was buried in a coffine, contrary to the 

 fentiments of James VII., who was then in Scotland ;" 

 and he adds, " that the great expence my mother was at in 

 burying her hufband, occafioned the fumptuary afts that 

 were made in the next parliament." There was formerly 

 a fuperftitious ftory relative to this chapel current among 

 the common people in the neighbourhood. They believed 

 that, previeus to the death of any member of the Saint Clair 

 family, the chapel was to be feen in flames, without fuftain- 

 iflg any injury. This fuperitition is alluded to by Mr. 



Scott, in his " Lay of the Minftrel," in the following 

 beautiful lines : 



" Seem'd all on fire that chapel proud, 

 Where Rodin's chiefs uncoffin'd lie, 

 Each baron, for his fable fhroud, 

 Sheath'd in his iron panoply. 

 Seem'd all on fire, within, around, 

 Deep facrifly, and altar's pale ; 

 Shone every pillar foliage bound, 

 And glimmer'd all the dead men's mail. 

 Blaz'd battlement and pinnet high, 

 Blaz'd every rofe-carv'd buttrefs fair, 

 So ft ill the blaze, when fate is nisrh, 

 The lordly line of high St. Clair." 



The village of Roflyn was anciently a place of confi- 

 dcrable importance. King James II. conftituted it a burgh 

 of barony in the year 1456, and granted to the inhabitants 

 a weekly market and a fair ; but thefe privileges are now 

 abandoned. The fields immediately contiguous are cele- 

 brated in hiftory as the fcene «f three fanguinary engage- 

 ments betwixt the Englifh and Scotch ; all fought on the 

 fame day, the 24th of February, ;3C>3. The particulars 

 are thus narrated by the Scottifh hiilorians. During a 

 truce, Ralph Confroy, treafurer to Edward I., invaded 

 Scotland at the head of thirty thoufand men. With a view 

 to plunder, he divided his forces into three bodies ; and 

 having reached the vicinity of Roflyn, encamped them in 

 three diftant ftations. On being apprifed of this invafion, 

 fir John Cumming and fir Simon Frazer marched with 

 10,000 men to watch the motions of the enemy ; and finding 

 the firft divifion unprepared, attacked and routed it with 

 great flaughter. The fecond divifion coming up immediately 

 after the battle, fhared the fame fate ; as did likewife the 

 third divifion, which appeared in a fimilar manner at the 

 clofe of the fecond action. This engagement excited much 

 intereft both at home and abroad ; and is ranked among the 

 nobleft; efforts of Scottilh bravery. About half a mile 

 lower down the Efk, is fituated the houfe of Hawthornden, 

 remarkable not only for its having belonged to Drummond, 

 the celebrated poet and hiftorian, but alfo for the caves under 

 it. There are various conje&ures as to the original inten- 

 tion of thefe fubterraneous cavities. Stukeley has given cre- 

 dit to a fabulous tradition, that they were ftrong holds of 

 the Piftifh kings ; and accordingly one cave is called the 

 king's gallery, another the king's bed-chamber, and a third 

 the guard-room. Setting afide this groundlefs tradition, the 

 moft probable opinion is, that they were reforted to as places 

 of refuge during the deftruclive wars between the Englifh 

 and Scotch. Detached from the principal caves is a 

 fmaller one, called the C^prefs grove, where Drummond 

 is faid to have compofed many of his poems. It was in 

 thefe caverns that the famous fir Alexander Ramfay, one 

 of the anceftors of the Dalhoufie family, who performed 

 fuch exploits of valour in the conteft for the crown between 

 Bruce and Baliol, ufed to conceal himfelf. Here he was 

 reforted to by the young warriors of his day, who confi- 

 dered it as a neceflary part of military education to have 

 been of his band. From thence he fallied forth, as occafion 

 prefented itfelf, and attacked the Englifh, then in pofleflion 

 of Edinburgh. The Statiftical Account of Scotland, by 

 fir John Sinclair. Architectural Antiquities of Great Bri- 

 tain, vol. iii. 4to. by John Britton, F.S.A. A Companion 

 and ufeful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland and the He- 

 brides, &c. by the Hon. Mrs. Murray Auft, of Kenfing- 

 ton, 2 vols. 8vo. Lond. 18 10. 



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