HOLYROOD ABBEY

Foundation of the Abbey-Text of King David's Charter-Original Extent of the Abbey Church-The so-called Miraculous Cross;-The Patronages of the Canons-its Thirty-one Abbots-Its Relics and Revenues.

WE now enter on the precincts of time-hallowed Holyrood, the scene of many brilliant gatherings, many a solemn and sad event; There the actors of long-departed historical dramas seem to rise to the mind's eye, from the days of David to those of Charles Edward, and to glide past like Banquo's shadowy line. Could these old Gothic walls speak, what secrets might they not reveal ! There generations have assembled in devotion ere they went down to darkness and to " dusty death ; " there have mitred prelates preached and blessed, while kings knelt and listened, ere they rode forth to fight for Scotland, and in more than one instance to die, with a faith, valour, and patriotism unsurpassed by any regal race in Europe.

"There sleeps the sovereign in his shroud, the warrior in his mail,
The saint to holy vigils vowed, the faithful and the frail!
There, though the weeds have warped the shrine, the Rose of Gueldres prayed ;

There, daughter of St. Louis' Line, thy bridal couch was made ! "
In our history of the Castle we have already related the pious old legend of the white hart in the wood of Drumsheugh-the alleged miracle which led to the foundation of Holyrood Abbey by David 1. The charter granted by this monarch to the abbey is without date. The original is in the archives of the city, but is only known, from the names of those by whom it is witnessed, to have been granted between the years 1143 and 1147. It is beautifully written on vellum, and runs thus:-

"In the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, and in honour of the Holy Rood, of St. Mary the Virgin, and of all the saints, I, David, by the grace of God, King of Scots, of my royal authority, with the assent of Henry, my son, and the Bishops of my kingdom, with the confirmation and testimony of the earls and barons, the clergy and people also assenting, of divine prompting, grant all the things under written to the church of the Holy Rood of Edinburgh, and in perpetual peace confirm them. These are what we grant to the aforesaid church and to the canons serving God therein in free and perpetual alms.

"To wit, the church of the Castle, with all its appendages and rights, and the trial of battle, water, and hot iron, as far as belongs to ecclesiastical dignity; and with Saughton by its right marches, and the church of St. Cuthbert, with the parish and all things that pertain to that church ; and with Kyrchetun by its right marches, and with the land in which that church is situate, and with the other land that lies under the Castle : to wit, from the spring that rises near the corner of my garden, by the road that leads to the church of St. Cuthbert, and, on the other side, under the castle until you come to a crag which is under the same castle towards the east; and with the two chapels which pertain to the same church of St. Cuthbert : to wit, Corstorphine, with two oxgates and six acres of land; and that chapel of Liberton, with two oxgates of land, and all tithes and the rights, as well of the living as of the dead, which Macbeth gave to that church, and which I have granted; and the church of Hereth [Airth?],with the land that belongs to that church, and with all the land that I have given to it, as my servants and good men walked its bounds, and give it over to Alwin the Abbot, with one salt work in Hereth and twenty-six acres of land.

" Which church and land aforenamed I will that the canons of the Holy Cross hold and possess for ever, freely and quietly ; and I strictly forbid that any one unjustly oppress or trouble the canons or their men who live in that land, or unjustly exact from them any works or aids or secular customs. I will, moreover, that the same canons have liberty of making a mill in that land, and that they have in Hereth all those customs, and rights, and easements, to wit, in waters, fishings, meadows, pastures, and in all other necessary things, as they best held them on the day in which I had it in my domain; and Broughton, with its right marches ; and that Inverleith which is nearest the harbour, with its right marches, and with that harbour, with the half of the fishing, and with a whole tythe of all the fishing which belongs to the church of St. Cuthbert ; and Pittendreich, Hamar, and Ford, with their right marches; and the hospital, with one plough of land, and forty shillings from my Burgh of Edinburgh yearly; and a rent of a hundred shillings yearly to the clothing of the canons from my cane [kind ?] of Perth, and this from the first ships that come to Perth for the sake of trade ; and if it happen that they do not come, I grant the aforesaid church from my rent of Edinburgh forty shillings, from Stirling twenty shillings, and from Perth forty shillings; and one toft in Stirling, and the drought of one net for fishing and one toft in my Burgh of Edinburgh, free and quit of all custom and exaction ; and one toft in Berwick, and the draught of two nets in Scypwell; one toft in Renfrew of five perches, the draught of one net for salmon, and to fish there for herrings freely; and I forbid any one to exact from you or your men any customs therefor.

"I moreover grant to the aforesaid canons from my exchequer yearly ten pounds for the lights of the church, for the works of that church, and repairing these works for ever. I charge, moreover, all my servants and foresters of Stirlingshire and Clackmannan, that the abbot and convent that their men who take timber for their use in the said woods have my firm peace, and so that ye do not permit them to be disturbed in any way; and the swine, the property of the aforesaid church, I grant in all my woods to be quit of pannage [food].

" I grant, moreover, to the aforesaid canons the half of the fat, tallow, and hides of the slaughter of Edinburgh; and a tithe of all the whales and seabeasts which fall to me from Avon to Coldbrandspath ; and a tithe of all my pleas and gains from Avon to Coldbrandspath; and the half of my tithe of cane, and of my pleas and gains of Cantyre and Argyll - and all the skins of rams, ewes, and lambs of the castle and of Linlithgow which die of my flock; and eight chalders of malt and eight of meal, with thirty cart-loads of bush from Liberton ; and one of my mills of Dean; and a tithe of the mill of Liberton, and of Dean, and of the new mill of Edinburgh, and of Craggenemarf, as much as I have for the same in my domain, and as much as Vuieth the White gave them of alms of the same Crag.

" I grant likewise to them leave to establish a burgh between that church and my burgh. And I grant that the burgesses have common right of selling their wares and of buying in my market, freely and quit of claim and custom, in like manner as my, own burgesses; and I forbid that any one take in this burgb, bread, ale, or cloth, or any ware by force, or without consent of the burgesses. grant, moreover, that the canons be quit of toll and of all custom in all my burghs and throughout all my land: to wit, all things that they buy and sell.

And I forbid anyone to take pledge on the land of the Holy Rood, unless the abbot of that place shall have refused to do right and Justice. will, moreover, that they hold all that is above written as freely and quietly as I hold my own lands ; and I will that the abbot hold his court as freely, fully, and honourably as the Bishop of St. Andrews and the Abbots of Dunfermline and Kelso hold their courts.

" Witnesses :-Robert Bishop of St. Andrews, John Bishop of Glasgow, Henry my son, William my grandson, Edward the Chancellor, Herbert the Chamberlain, Gillemichael the Earl, Gospatrick the brother of Dolphin, Robert of Montague, Robert of Burneville, Peter of Brus, Norman the Sheriff, Oggu, Leising, Gillise, William of Graham, Turston of Crechtune, Blein the Archdeacon, Aelfric the Chaplain, Walerain the Chaplain."
This document is interesting from its simplicity, and curious as mentioning many places still known under the same names.
The canons regular of the order of St. Augustine were brought there from St. Andrews in Fifeshire. The order was first established in Scotland by Alexander 1. in 1114, and ere long possessed twenty-eight monasteries or foundations in the kingdom.

So, in process of time, " in the hollow between two hills " where King David was saved from the white hart, there rose the great abbey house, with its stately cruciform church, having three towers, of which but a fragment now remains a melancholy ruin. Till its completion the canons were housed in the Castle, where they resided till about 1176, occupying an edifice which had previously been a nunnery.

The southern aisle of the nave is the only part of the church on which a roof remains, and of the whole range of beautifully clustered pillars on the north side but two fragments alone survive. The entire ruin retains numerous traces of the original work of the twelfth century, though enriched by the additions of subsequent ages. With reference to the view of it in the old print which has been copied in these pages, it has been observed that therein " the abbey church appears with a second square tower, uniform with the one still standing at the north of the great doorway. The transepts are about the usual proportions, but the choir is much shorter than it is proved from other evidence to have originally been, the greater part of it having perhaps been reduced to ruins before the view was taken. During the levelling of the ground around the palace, and digging a foundation for the substantial railing with which it was recently enclosed, the workmen came upon the bases of two pillars in a direct line with the nave, proving, that the ancient choir had been of unusual length. A mound of earth which extends still farther to the east no doubt marks the foundation of other early buildings [perhaps the abbey house?], and from their being in the direct line of the building it is not improbable that a Lady chapel or other addition to the abbey church may have stood to the east of the choir. . . . A curious relic of the ancient tenants of the monastery was found by the workmen, consisting of a skull, which had no doubt formed the solitary companion of one of the monks. It had a hole in the top of the cranium, which served, most probably, for securing a crucifix, and over the brow was traced in antique characters, Memento mori .This solitary relic of the furniture of the abbey was procured by the late Sir Patrick Walker, and is still in possession of his family."

The railing referred to was replaced in 1857 by the present rampart wall, when near the same site two stone coffins of the twelfth century, now in the nave, were found. Each is six feet four inches in length, inside measurement.

In the abbey was preserved, enshrined in silver, the alleged miraculous cross which was placed in King David's hand when his horse fell before the stag. It remained on the high altar till the fatal battle of Durham in 1346, whither it was taken by David II,, and where all virtue seemed to have deserted it (mirabile dictu !) as it fell into the hands of the enemy by whom it was long preserved with zealous veneration in the great cathedral near the field. The texture of this remarkable cross was said to have been of such a nature that no mortal artificer could tell whether it was of wood, horn, or metal.

Besides the provisions and privileges contained in the charter of David I., the abbey was liberally endowed by many other persons from time to time, till it became so opulent as to excite both admiration and envy. In the canons were vested the patronages of several churches in different parts of the realm, and eventually the following were among these ecclesiastical foundations :-The Priory of St. Mary's lsle, in Galloway, gifted by Fergus, Lord of Galloway, who died a rnonk of Holyrood in 1161 ; the Priory of Blantyre, secluded on a rock above the Clyde; Rowadill, in Herries, gifted by MacLeod of Herries; Oransay and Colonsay-in the former still stands their priory, built by a Lord of the Isles, one of the finest relics of religious antiquity in the Hebrides ; the church of Melgynch, granted to them by Matthew, Abbot of Dunkeld, in 1289 ; the church of Dalgarnock, granted to them by John, Bishop of Glasgow, in 1322 ; and the church and vicarage of Kirkcudbright, by Henry, Bishop of Galloway, in 1334.