DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61904#0164
152
ROSLIN CHAPEL AND CASTLE.
Beneath this chapel was the burial-place of the barons of
Rollin; “fo dry,” fays Slezer in 1693, “that the bodies at the
end of eighty years were found in it entire.” Ten barons had
been buried there before the revolution; and of old, fays Hay,
“ they were buried in their armour without any coffin. The firft
baron who was buried in a coffin was when the Duke of York,
afterwards James II., was in Scotland. He and feveral
antiquaries were oppofed to his having a coffin, but the
widow infilled on it, declaring it to be beggarly to be buried
without. The chapel,” continues Hay, “ of which any nation
may be proud, was defaced by the fame ungoverned mob
which pillaged the cattle of Rollin, on the night of the nth of
December, 1688.” The cattle, after Handing the fhocks of
the reformation and the revolution, was at length refigned to
time and chance. The chapel was repaired in the laft century
by General St. Clair; and has fince been renovated by his
fucceflbrs.
We may rejoice that, notwithttanding the aflaults and perils
through which this beautiful chapel has patted, in common
with almoft every ecclefiaftical building in Scotland, it remains
fo entire as it does. It is a fpecimen of the ecclefiaftical
architecture of Scotland that is without peer. Outfide and
infide it is a truly beautiful object. Its aides on each fide are
fupported by rows of pointed arches, of which the pillars are
not more than eight feet high, with cluttered fhafts of a
maffivenefs equalling the Saxon; and the arches themfelves
richly ornamented in fucceffive corded bands, or fpandrels.
The capitals of the pillars are alfo elaborately carved in foliage
intermingled with figures. One pillar has a renown of its own.
It is called the ’prentice pillar, the legend being that the
apprentice of the architect executed this in his matter’s
abfence, and when he returned and faw its furpaffing beauty,
ROSLIN CHAPEL AND CASTLE.
Beneath this chapel was the burial-place of the barons of
Rollin; “fo dry,” fays Slezer in 1693, “that the bodies at the
end of eighty years were found in it entire.” Ten barons had
been buried there before the revolution; and of old, fays Hay,
“ they were buried in their armour without any coffin. The firft
baron who was buried in a coffin was when the Duke of York,
afterwards James II., was in Scotland. He and feveral
antiquaries were oppofed to his having a coffin, but the
widow infilled on it, declaring it to be beggarly to be buried
without. The chapel,” continues Hay, “ of which any nation
may be proud, was defaced by the fame ungoverned mob
which pillaged the cattle of Rollin, on the night of the nth of
December, 1688.” The cattle, after Handing the fhocks of
the reformation and the revolution, was at length refigned to
time and chance. The chapel was repaired in the laft century
by General St. Clair; and has fince been renovated by his
fucceflbrs.
We may rejoice that, notwithttanding the aflaults and perils
through which this beautiful chapel has patted, in common
with almoft every ecclefiaftical building in Scotland, it remains
fo entire as it does. It is a fpecimen of the ecclefiaftical
architecture of Scotland that is without peer. Outfide and
infide it is a truly beautiful object. Its aides on each fide are
fupported by rows of pointed arches, of which the pillars are
not more than eight feet high, with cluttered fhafts of a
maffivenefs equalling the Saxon; and the arches themfelves
richly ornamented in fucceffive corded bands, or fpandrels.
The capitals of the pillars are alfo elaborately carved in foliage
intermingled with figures. One pillar has a renown of its own.
It is called the ’prentice pillar, the legend being that the
apprentice of the architect executed this in his matter’s
abfence, and when he returned and faw its furpaffing beauty,