Royal Edinburgh - Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets

Mrs. (Margaret) Oliphant

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• Publié par: shoim
• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
• Nombre de lectures: 59
• Langue: English

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The Project Gutenberg EBook of Royal Edinburgh, by Margaret Oliphant This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org Title: Royal Edinburgh Her Saints, Kings, Prophets and Poets Author: Margaret Oliphant Illustrator: George Reid Release Date: June 5, 2008 [EBook #25701] Language: English *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ROYAL EDINBURGH *** Produced by Susan Skinner and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net ROYAL EDINBURGHHER SAINTS, KINGS, PROPHETS AND POETS 'Mine own romantic town.' Marmion BY MRS. OLIPHANT AUTHOR OF 'MAKERS OF FLORENCE,' 'MAKERS OF VENICE,' ETC. WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY GEORGE REID, R.S.A. LONDON MACMILLAN AND CO. AND NEW YORK 1891 All rights reserved ST. GILES'S FROM THE LAWNMARKET ST. GILES'S FROM THE LAWNMARKET First Edition (Medium 8vo) 1890 Second Edition (Crown 8vo) 1891 TO MY OLD FRIEND ALEXANDER MACMILLANCONTENTS PART I PAGE MARGARET OF SCOTLAND, ATHELING—QUEEN AND SAINT 1 PART II THE STEWARDS OF SCOTLAND CHAPTER I James I. Poet and Legislator 38 CHAPTER II James II: with the Fiery Face 80 CHAPTER III James III: the Man of Peace 126 CHAPTER IV James IV: the Knight-Errant 155 CHAPTER V James V: the last of the Heroic Age 200 PART III THE TIME OF THE PROPHETS CHAPTER I Under the Queen Regent 258 CHAPTER II Under Queen Mary 310 CHAPTER III The Triumph and End 350 CHAPTER IV The Scholar of the Reformation 374 PART IV THE MODERN CITY CHAPTER I A Burgher Poet 435 CHAPTER II The Guest of Edinburgh 471 CHAPTER III The Shakspeare of Scotland 491LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS PAGE St. Giles's from the Lawnmarket Frontispiece Royal Edinburgh xiv Queen Margaret's Chapel, Edinburgh Castle 1 Pillar in Nave, Dunfermline Abbey 5 Dunfermline Abbey 7 West Tower, Dunfermline Abbey 11 The Nave, Dunfermline Abbey—looking West 13 Queen Margaret's Cave 15 West Doorway, Dunfermline Abbey 17 Interior of Queen Margaret's Chapel, Edinburgh Castle 25 Arms of Queen Margaret of Scotland 37 The Bass Rock 53 Holyrood 77 Edinburgh Castle from the South-west 81 Inner Barrier, Edinburgh Castle 87 Edinburgh Castle from the Vennel 97 St. Anthony's Chapel and St. Margaret's Loch 115 Mons Meg 123 The Canongate Tolbooth 127 Arms of James IV of Scotland 155 Old House in Lawnmarket 161 St. Anthony's Chapel 165 Old Houses at Head of West Bow 171 Bakehouse Close 183 White Horse Close 195 Salisbury Crags 201 Reid's Close, Canongate 211 Doorway, Sir A. Aitcheson's House 217 Linlithgow Palace 227 Falkland Palace 253 St. Andrews 287 Knox's House, High Street 307 Holyrood Palace and Arthur's Seat 311 Lochleven 331 Queen Mary's Bath 335 West Doorway, Holyrood Chapel 341 Doorway, Holyrood Palace 349 Moray House, Canongate 359 The Pends, St. Andrews 365 Interior of St. Giles's 369 Knox's Pulpit 372 North Doorway, Heriot's Hospital 381 Stirling Castle 417 Greyfriars Churchyard 433 Edinburgh: General View 437 Allan Ramsay's Shop 439 Crown of St. Giles's 445 Smollett's House 453 Allan Ramsay's House 461 Allan Ramsay's Monument 469 Doorway, Lady Stair's Close 471 Lady Stair's Close 477 Dugald Stewart's Monument 483Burns's Monument 489 St. Giles's from Princes Street 493 The University of Edinburgh 497 Playfair's Monument, Calton Hill 503 Sir Walter Scott's House 515 George Street, Edinburgh 519 Sir Walter Scott 520 Royal Edinburgh ROYAL EDINBURGH QUEEN MARGARET'S CHAPEL, EDINBURGH CASTLE. QUEEN MARGARET'S CHAPEL, EDINBURGH CASTLE.PART I MARGARET OF SCOTLAND, ATHELING—QUEEN AND SAINT It is strange yet scarcely difficult to the imagination to realise the first embodiment of what is now Edinburgh in the far distance of the early ages. Neither Pict nor Scot has left any record of what was going on so far south in the days when the king's daughters, primitive princesses with their rude surroundings, were placed for safety in the castrum puellarum, the maiden castle, a title in after days proudly (but perhaps not very justly) adapted to the supposed invulnerability of the fortress perched upon its rock. Very nearly invulnerable, however, it must have been in the days before artillery; too much so at least for one shut-up princess, who complained of her lofty prison as a place without verdure. If we may believe, notwithstanding the protest of that much-deceived antiquary the Laird of Monkbarns, that these fair and forlorn ladies were the first royal inhabitants of the Castle of Edinburgh, we may imagine that they watched from their battlements more wistfully than fearfully, over all the wide plain, what dust might rise or spears might gleam, or whether any galley might be visible of reiver or rescuer from the north. A little collection of huts or rude forts here and there would be all that broke the sweeping line of Lothian to the east or west, and all that width of landscape would lie under the eyes of the watchers, giving long notice of the approach of any enemies. "Out over the Forth I look to the north," the maidens might sing, looking across to Dunfermline, where already there was some royal state, or towards the faint lines of mountains in the distance, over the soft swelling heights of the Lomonds. No doubt Edinburgh, Edwinesburgh, or whatever the antiquaries imagine it to have been, must have been sadly dull if safe, suspended high upon the rock, nearer heaven than earth. It is curious to hear that it was "without verdure"; but perhaps the young ladies took no account of the trees that clothed the precipices below them, or the greenness that edged the Nor' Loch deep at their feet, but sighed for the gardens and luxuriance of Dunfermline, where all was green about their windows and the winding pathways of the dell of Pittendreich would be pleasant to wander in. This first romantic aspect of the Castle of Edinburgh is, however, merely traditional, and the first real and authentic appearance of the old fortress and city in history is in the record, at once a sacred legend and a valuable historical chronicle, of the life of Margaret the Atheling, the first of several Queen Margarets, the woman saint and blessed patroness of Scotland, who has bequeathed not only many benefits and foundations of after good to her adopted country, but her name—perhaps among Scotswomen still the most common of all Christian names. No more moving and delightful story was ever written or invented than the history of this saint and Queen. She was the daughter of Edward, called the Outlaw, and of his wife a princess of Hungary, of the race which afterwards produced St. Elizabeth: and the sister of Edgar Atheling, the feeble but rightful heir of the Saxon line, and consequently of the English throne. The family, however, was more foreign than English, having been brought up at the Court of their grandfather, the King of Hungary, one of the most pious and one of the richest Courts in Christendom; and it was not unnatural that when convinced of the fact that the most legitimate of aspirants had no chance against the force of William, they should prefer to return to the country of their education and birth. It was no doubt a somewhat forlorn party that set out upon this journey, for to lose a throne is seldom a misfortune accepted with equanimity, and several of the beaten and despondent Saxons had joined the royal exiles. Their voyage, however, was an unprosperous one, and after much beating about by winds and storms they were at last driven up the Firth of Forth, where their