HE abbey and palace of Holyrood, though connected and long alike used for royal purposes, are of very different dates and in very different conditions. The abbey is ancient, and is now reduced to the mere ruins of the nave of the church, which, as you face the palace, is joined to the posterior angle of that building on the left hand. The palace is ftill complete, yet it is of two very diftinct dates. It is built round a quadrangle, the back and fides of which are comparatively modern, for in 1544 the palace was burnt down by the English. The front alone would seem to have escaped; or, rather, only the double towers at each corner of the front. These have an antique look, being round, projecting, machicolated, battlemented, and furmounted by smaller lantern towers. The façade betwixt these is a plain Grecian fcreen of one ftory, having a central gateway furmounted by a dome. The other three fides of the quadrangle are of plain building, of two stories, and an attic, shown by its dormer-windows, all round.

These royal buildings are fituated at the south-east of Edinburgh, and therefore, contrary to London, do not constitute a Weft-End. In fact, they are very much crowded upon by the worst part of the city, though surrounded by fine hills; as Calton Hill on one fide and Arthur's Seat in the old park on

the other. The abbey having been anciently a sanctuary, the vicinity of the palace has continued to this time a fanctuary for debtors, who are secure from the law within a certain circuit.

The abbey was founded by David I., who was famous for his piety, and, having been a refident at the court of Henry I. of England, had seen how much was there doing for the church by fuch foundations. It was built early in the twelfth century, and David fent to St. Andrew's for a number of canons regular to inhabit it. It foon became rich by fucceffive endowments of lands and churches in different counties. In the ancient Taxatio the lands of this abbey, which was called Holycross or Holyrood, were valued at £88. The abbot and canons posfeffed equal privileges with the bishop of St. Andrews, or the abbots of Dunfermline or Kelfo. They were authorized to build a suburb adjoining Edinburgh, and hence arose the ancient Canongate, and the Girth-Cross at the foot of the Canongate marked the limits of the fanctuary.

The following are the leading events connected with this religious house. It was plundered by Edward II.'s army when it retired from Lothian in August, 1332. Edward Baliol held his parliament in the abbey in February, 1333-4. The Duke of Lancaster in 1381 was hospitably entertained in the abbey while seeking refuge in Scotland. Richard II. in his furious inroad in Scotland in 1385, burnt it down. Henry IV. spared the abbey during his invafion in 1400, because his father had found refuge in it. The different Scottish kings, though refiding chiefly in the castle perched on its noble rock at the other extremity of Edinburgh, frequently paffed much time in the abbey. The queen of James I. of Scotland was delivered of twins in the abbey; and James II., one of these twins, was crowned in it in 1427. He was married in it in 1449 to Mary of Guelder, and he was buried in it in 1460. Thus James II.

was born, crowned, married, and buried in the abbey of Holyrood. James III., whenever he refided in Edinburgh, took up his quarters in the abbey. James IV. was the builder of the palace, for the Scottish monarchs feem greatly to have preferred its sheltered situation to the exposed one of the castle. This must have been not later than 1500, for here in 1503, he received

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HOLYROOD ABBEY; INTERIOR.

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Margaret of England, and here they were married. 1544, the abbey and palace were burnt by the English army: this, however, must have been with exception of the towers in front. From this time the abbey church seems to have become the chapel of the palace-a chaplain being maintained

by the king to officiate for the royal family. After the battle of Pinkie, September, 1547, Protector Somerset sent two commiffioners, Boham and Chamberlayne, to fupprefs the monastery of Holyrood. They found the monks already fled, but they stripped the abbey of the lead, and carried off the two bells; one of which was afterwards hung in the chapel of the Cowgate, built for the English communion in 1771. The reformers in June 1559 further spoiled the abbey, and damaged the palace alfo. The unfortunate Queen Mary was married in the abbey church to Lord Darnley on the 29th of July, 1566; and on the 15th of May, 1567, she was again married to the Earl of Bothwell in the hall of the palace. Again, on the imprisonment of Mary in 1567, that is, in the same year as her second marriage, the Earl of Glencairn ranfacked the chapel of Holyrood House. At the fuppreffion of the abbey it enjoyed a greater revenue than any other religious house of the southern fhires of Scotland. This revenue was in money £2,926 8s. 6d., befides one paid annually in kind, of thirtyfix chalders ten bolls of wheat, forty chalders nine bolls of barley, thirty-four chalders fixteen bolls of oats, four chalders of meal, five hundred and one capons, twenty-four hens, twenty-four falmon, three fwine, and ten loads of falt: a moft magnificent revenue in Scotland at that period.

After the fuppreffion of the monaftery, the abbey church was used as the parish church of the Cowgate; but James the Sixth of Scotland and First of England,—the British Solomon,-sent workmen from London to repair and beautify it, but unfortunately he ordered the portraits of the apostles to be painted on the walls. At this the Genevan spirit of the Scotch reformers took fire; they declared that no "graven images" should be set up there, and James was advised by the dean of the chapel, the Bishop of Galloway, as he valued his peace to defift, which he

did, only lamenting that prejudice could not diftinguish betwixt ornament and image. Charles II., after his restoration, appropriated the church of the abbey as the chapel royal; and had it handsomely fitted up for the sovereign and the knights of the Order of the Thistle, to whom the key of the church was configned. He also erected an organ in it. The chapel was finally ruined at the revolution, by attempting to put a stone roof on it, which proved too heavy for the walls, and it fell, demolishing the whole interior. Since then it has remained a ruin. Charles II. alfo had the palace rebuilt by Sir William Bruce, and this is the date of the main portion of the building.

The chief events connected with the palace, besides those enumerated, belong to the reign of the unfortunate Mary. In her time the building of the palace was modern, and she occupied it during her short and troubled reign with much splendour. In it fhe witnessed fome most dreadful and most miferable transfactions, and the intereft and romance of her forrowful life are those which still more than all others envelope it.

For many ages the monarchs of England had been determined on the annexation of Scotland by arms, as they had annexed Wales and Ireland. But, disappointed in this, no fooner was James V. dead, leaving only a daughter, a week old, to succeed him, than Henry VIII. determined on securing the union of this kingdom by the marriage of this daughter with his fon Edward. Events defeated his defign; Mary was married to the French dauphin, and became Queen of France by her husband's acceffion to the crown as Francis II. During her abode in France, Scotland was governed by her mother, Mary of Guife, as queen-regent. But she had a terrible time of it; Scotland being repeatedly invaded by the