The Abbey of Holyrood Houfe was founded by King David I. in the year 1128, 
From -the endowments of David and of fucceeding fovereigns, it. became the mod opu- 
lent religious foundation in Scotland. The chapel, the only part of the building which 
can lay claim to antiquity, is above 600 years old. Through the ignorance of an archi- 
tect, it is now deprived of a roof, and in a very ruinous condition. In 175 6 , the 
church was covered with fo great a weight of ftones, that it fell in about ten years after- 
wards. It has long been defpoiled of all its valuable ornaments. Nothing now remains 
unravaged, fave a few fragments of its once royal owners. I faw in an open vault a few 
uncomplete fets of bones, the remains of forne of our ancient monarchs ; among thefe 
the oigantic arm and thigh bones of Lord Daruley ; which bear teftimony of the flupen- 
duous fize of that unfortunate man. In the bellfry is to be feen a well executed marble 
monument and ftatute reclining at full length of Robert Lord Belhaven, who died in the 
year of our Lord 1639. 
' s ev e ra l refidenters make very genteel perquifites by {hewing vifitors the curiofities of 
the Palace. Each has a feparate department, and mud, of confequence, have a dif- 
tin& compenfation. „ . ... 
The palace is one of thofe places which is vifited by every ftranger; and to the intel- 
Pment mind, it certainly affords a fubjeft of very delicate entertainment. Yet many, 
even well educated people, have lived all their lives in Edinburgh, and never entered 
within its venerable walls. 
There are two remarkable hills near to this place called Arthur’s-feat, and Salifbury- 
craigs. The name of the former is fuppofed to be derived from Arthur, the Britifh 
Prince, who, in the end of the 6th century, defeated the Saxons in that neighbourhood; 
and the latter to take their name from the Earl of Salifbury, who, in the reign of Ed- 
ward III. accompanied that Prince in an expedition againd the Scots. «• 
Arthur’s-feat, the larged of thefe hills, rifesby a deep and rugged afeent ’till it termi- 
nates in a rocky point, 700 feet high from the bafe. On the South, it is in many parts 
a perpendicular rock, compofed of natural pillars, regularly pentagonal, or hexagonal, 
about three feet in diameter, and from forty to fifty feet high. 
" Upon the wed are Salifbury Craigs, which prefent to the city an awful front of broken 
rocks and precipices, forming a fort of natural amphitheatre of folid rock, Among 
thefe rocks are rich ores, fpar, and great variety of rock plants; fo that they are an 
excellent field for the Naturalid. Sometimes, alfo, amethyds and other precious 
ftones have been found amongft them. But the rocks themfelves are far more valuable, 
affording an inexhauftible fupply of hard ftone for paving the ftreets ; and of the! C 
ftones confiderable quantities are Cent for paving the ftreets of London. , 
