386 
R O S L I N. 
ROSINAR, a small town of Transylvania, in the province 
of Hermannstadt, and the see of a Walachian bishop. 
RO'SINESS, s. State or quality of being rosy.—Some 
may delight themselves in a black skin, and others in a 
white; some in a gentle natural rosincss of complexion. 
Spence. 
ROSINGTON, a village of England, West Riding of 
Yorkshire, near Doncaster. 
RO'SINY, adj. Resembling rosin.—The best soil is that 
on a sandy gravel or rosiny sand. Temple. 
ROSITO, a cape of Italy, on the east coast of Calabria. 
Lat. 40. 5. N. long. 16. 40. E. 
ROSLA, a small town of Prussian Saxony, on the river 
Helm. Population 1400; 36 miles west of Halle, and 10 
south-south-east of Stolberg. 
RO'SLAND, s. Heathy land ; also watery, moorish 
land. Bailey. — Rhus, Welsh, is a moist large plain ; ros, 
Cornish, moss. 
ROSLAVI, a town in the interior of European Russia, in 
the government of Smolensko, on the river called the Bach 
Ostra. It is the chief place of a circle, has 4000 inhabi¬ 
tants, and is 60 miles south-south-east of Smolensk. 
ROSLEY, a village of England, in Cumberland; 5§ 
miles east-south-east of Wigton. 
ROSLIN, or Roselyn, or Roskelyn, a village in the 
parish of Laswade, and county of Midlothian, Scotland ; is 
about 6 miles south-south-west from Edinburgh. This place is 
much celebrated on account of its castle and chapel, and for the 
romantic character of the scenery in its immediate vicinity. 
An excursion to Roslyn is one of the favourite summer re¬ 
creations of the inhabitants of the northern metropolis; and 
no traveller of taste leaves that part of the kingdom without 
contemplating its beauties. The castle is seated on a bold 
and lofty rock, overhanging the river North-Esk, which 
dashes over a rugged channel at the base in a semi-circular 
sweep; and the precipitous banks are covered with a pro¬ 
fusion of wood. Only a very small portion of the ancient 
building is now standing, but a modern mansion has been 
erected on part of the old walls. It is uncertain when this 
castle was built; but that event most probably occurred 
about the commencement of the 12th century, when William 
de Sancto-Clere (son to Waldernus de St. Clere, who came 
to England with William the Conqueror) obtained a grant 
of the barony of Roslyn from the Scottish king, Malcolm 
Canmore. No mention of it is made in history, however, 
till the reign of James II. of Scotland, when Sir William Ha¬ 
milton is stated to have been confined here, for joining the 
rebellious standard of Earl Douglas. In 1554 it was set fire 
to, and in great part demolished, by the forces of king Henry 
VIII. The St. Clere family, or, as the name is now spelt, 
St. Clair, was anciently of great note in Scotland. Their 
possessions were very extensive, and their titles numerous, 
being Earls of Caithness and Orkney, lords ot Nilhsdale, and 
barons of Pentland, Couslande, Cardain, St. Clair, Herbert- 
shire, Hertfoord, Grahamshaw, Kirkton, Cavers, Newbo- 
rough, and Roxburgh. Their affluence and power exceeded 
that of most contemporary nobles, either in England or Scot¬ 
land ; and they lived in a style of magnificence and splen¬ 
dour, which even the Scottish.monarchs were scarcely able to 
rival. James II. conferred upon them the honour of being he¬ 
reditary patrons and grand masters of masonry in Scotland ; 
privileges which they continued to enjoy for several genera¬ 
tions. 
The chapel of Roslyn occupies the summit of a hill above 
the castle. It was founded in the year 1446, by William 
St. Clair, Earl of Caithness and Orkney, for a provost, six 
prebendaries, and two singing boys; and was endowed by 
him with considerable landed possessions. He did not, 
however, live to complete his undertaking, notwithstanding 
he spared neither trouble nor expense to effect this purpose 
before his death, which happened in 1479. From a manu¬ 
script memoir of the house of Douglas, deposited in the li¬ 
brary of the Faculty of Advocates at Edinburgh, we learn 
many curious particulars relative to the building of this cha¬ 
pel. It is there said, that the founder “ caused artificers to 
be brought from other regions and forraigne kingdomes, and 
caused dayly to be abundance of all kinde of workemen pre¬ 
sent;” and it is subsequently added, “and to the end the 
worke might be more rare, he caused the draughts to be drawn 
upon Eastland boords, and made the carpenters to carve 
them according to the draughts, and then gave them for 
patterns to the masons, that they might thereby cut the like 
in stone.” The present building is generally supposed to 
have been intended only for the choir of a large collegiate 
church, which, according to tradition and probability, it was 
the desire of the founder to have erected. Though in a mu¬ 
tilated state, its architecture is unique, and combines, accord¬ 
ing to Mr. Gandy, “ the Egyptian, Grecian, Roman, and 
Saracenic styles;” and exhibits the arch “ in all its possible 
forms and principles.” This structure measures in the inte¬ 
rior 68 feet in length, and 35 in breadth. The exterior is 
supported by 21 buttresses, surmounted by pinnacles, each 
differing from the others in its ornaments. Two of these 
buttresses have double pinnacles, the outer shafts of whioh 
are smaller than the inner, with which they are connected by 
flying abutments. Similar members also unite the larger 
pinnacles with the upper part of the chapel. The eastern 
end displays five buttresses, with four pointed windows in¬ 
tervening, all of uniform size and style, though varying 
somewhat in the tracery-work with which they are orna¬ 
mented. Each window is divided by a stone mullion, faced, 
both internally and externally, with double columns; and 
the transom of the arch is decorated with half-figures of per¬ 
sons in the attitude of supplication, and with different kinds 
of foliage. On the north and south sides of the chapel, in 
the lower compartment, are five windows of a similar kind, 
also a pointed arched doorway, recessed under a large semi¬ 
circular arch, above which is an irregular triangular window, 
highly ornamented. Another tier of windows, on each side, 
gives light to the upper part of the building; but these are 
now much mutilated, having lost their mullions, tracery, &e; 
Between every two windows are two canopied niches, and a 
bracket, which appear to have been designed for statues. 
This portion of the building is supported by two opposite 
ranges of five arches each, separating the body of the chape] 
from the side aisles, beyond which, at the east end, there are 
two columns, and two more in the centre between them, all 
of them supporting stone beams, exhibiting a great variety 
of sculptural ornaments. One of the centre pillars is wreathed, 
and is popularly called the apprentice’s pillar, from a tradi¬ 
tion respecting its execution by an apprentice of the master 
mason of the structure, who, it is said, finding himself un¬ 
able to understand the model furnished to him, went abroad 
for instructions, during which time the work was accom¬ 
plished by the apprentice. It is singular that a similar story 
is told of some of the best sculptures in Melrose abbey; and 
we believe, also, of a much later production of art, the statue 
of king Charles II. in the Parliament-square at Edinburgh. 
Two heads in the chapel are said to represent the master and 
the apprentice. The former is shewn as frowning, and the 
latter with a scar, or indention, on the forehead, to denote 
that he was murdered by his master, through envy of his su¬ 
perior genius. At the east end of the chapel are four altars,’ 
dedicated to different saints. “ Of arches,” says Mr. Britton, 
in his Architectural Antiquities, “ there are more than thir¬ 
teen varieties to be found in this building. A flat, or seg¬ 
ment, beueath the roof of the aisles, and over the door to the 
sub-chapel 5 semicircular in the vault of the roof, and over 
the entrance doors; groined, acutely pointed over the west¬ 
ern aisle; flat-pointed between the centre and side aisles; 
sharp-pointed in the lower windows; ogee to the piscinas; 
flattened, and latest of the pointed style, inside of the door¬ 
way, south side; half segment in the flying buttresses; 
counter arch in the triangular windows; flat arch and seg¬ 
ment joined in a door in the vault; several arches of various 
forms in the windows, niches, and canopies: also in the 
battlements.” The vault above-mentioned is the burying- 
place of the family of the Sinclairs. The soil of it is so dry, 
that 
