They have long outlived, not only the magnificent abbey, but the system out of which it rose. Long may they continue cafting the spirit of long-past ages over a scene which combines the ever-living forms of nature so lovingly with the shattered remains of mediæval art, that together they seem rather a vision of poetry than a reality of this matter-of-fact era. It is difficult, even while these graceful piles stand before us amid the folemnity of ancient meadow, hill and wood, to conceive that they once were enfouled by a life so opposed to everything now moving around us. The world of monks walking in dim cloisters, and sending up their daily anthems amid such incensed shrines and arcades of foaring columns, and the world of railroads and busy forges and populous factories, appear impossible, as the growth of the same ground and the fame minds. We can scarcely do more than regard them as raised to embody the dreams of poets, and to give a new charm to the summer day's ramble, by such lapsing streams and through such shadowy woodlands as those of Fountain dale. Roslin Chapel and Castle. HERE is no place in Scotland which fame for beauty and poetry has excited so lively a defire in the tourist to see, as Roslin and its neighbour Hawthornden; and the wish is easily gratified on the arrival at Edinburgh, for these celebrated spots are only about seven miles to the fouth of that city. But great is the wonder of the traveller as he advances in that direction. He has not long quitted the romantic environs of the Scottish capital, and begins with eagerness to look a-head for this promised fairyland, when he beholds only a plain, bald tract of country, over which are rolling the smoke of coal-pit fires. The farther he goes the stronger becomes his amazement. The black hills of coal-refuse; carts and wagons laden with that black but useful mineral pass him, and he beholds a very ordinary country interfected by stone walls, scarred and disfigured by all the features of a coal-mining region; and with hundreds of engine-chimneys vomiting smoke. But anon he comes to the edge of a deep and narrow valley, at the bottom of which runs a rapid stream, and the steep banks of this glade are varied by every charm of rocks and woods, and dwellings of past or present generations. Here stands the far-famed chapel, worthy of all its reputation, there perched at the brink of the deep and steep glen, the ruins of the ancient castle, with a modern house erected amongst them; and there a little farther is the classic abode of the poet Drummond; but far most interesting of the whole, from its unique architecture, is the chapel. This was founded in 1446, a period of exuberant ornament in church architecture, and this has a character of its own, one in which the genius of building and carving seems to have revelled in its most original mood. The founder of Roslin Chapel was William de St. Clair, Earl of Orkney and Lord of Roflin, in the castle of which he refided. He was a great man in his day, and so far as we can judge from his acts, was a man not only held in high estimation ROSLIN CHAPEL, INTERIOR. 1 by his monarch, but one who had a mind far more liberal and judicious than his order and his rank were calculated to inspire. This is the account we find of him in Robertson's Index :"As admiral of the fleet, he conveyed the Princess Margaret to France in 1436; he was Chancellor of Scotland from 1454 to 1458; he was made Earl of Caithness in 1455. In 1470 he resigned the earldom of Orkney to the king, and obtained in return various lands in Fife. Having, in 1459, settled the barony of Newburgh, in Aberdeenshire, on William, his only fon by his first wife, Lady Margaret Douglas, he, in 1476, fettled the barony of Roslin, and his other estates in Lothian, on Oliver St. Clair, his eldest son by his second marriage; and he transferred the earldom of Caithness to William, the second son of his second marriage. The eminent founder of Roslin Chapel died soon after this settlement, which deranged his eftates, and degraded his family." What a fingular derangement of his eftates in this great Earl St. Clair, by dividing them amongst his fons, instead of heaping them, contrary to all the laws of nature and equity, on one! What a strange degradation of his family, by making them equal participants of his property! So pitiably do feudal institutions pervert the minds not only of possessors but of hiftorians. In erecting this chapel, Earl William seems to have exercised the same breadth and originality of mind; for he chose an architect of a brave and unique genius. Mr. Britton, in his "Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain," thus expresses his perception of the fine and peculiar character of the style :"This building, I believe, may be pronounced unique, and I am confident it will be found curious, elaborate, and fingularly interesting. The chapels of King's College, St. George, and Henry VIII., are all conformable to the styles of the respective ages when they were erected; and these styles display a gradual advancement in lightness and profusion of ornament; but the chapel of Roslin combines the folidity of the Norman with the minute decoration of the Tudor age. It is impoffible to designate the architecture of this building by any given or familiar term; for the variety and eccentricity of its parts are not defined by any of common acceptation. I afk some of our obstinate antiquaries, how they could apply either the term Roman, Saxon, Norman, Gothic, Saracenic, English, or Grecian, to this building." The founder intended to have erected it into a regular collegiate church, having a provost, six prebendaries, and two choristers, or finging boys, and he endowed it with lands and revenues befitting; but he died when he had only completed the nave, which is the present chapel, and it was used as the chapel to the castle. The hill on which he built it was called College Hill, and the people of the neighbourhood still call it the College. It stands on the northern bank of the Esk. "Some additions," says Chalmers in his "Account of North Britain," "were made to the endowment by succeeding Barons of Roflin. In 1523, Sir William St. Clair granted some lands in the vicinity of the chapel, for dwelling-houses and gardens, and other accommodations to the provost and prebendaries. In his charter, he mentions four altars in this chapel; one dedicated to St. Matthew, another to the Virgin, a third to St. Andrew, and a fourth to St. Peter. The commencement of the reformation by tumult, was the signal for violence and spoliation. The provost and prebendaries of Roflin felt the effects of this spirit. They were despoiled of their revenues ; and in 1572, they were compelled to relinquish their whole property, which, indeed, had been withheld from them during many revolutionary years." |