DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61904#0166
154-
ROSLIN CHAPEL AND CASTLE.
On the pavement of the chapel is the outline of one of the
barons, lying in effigy, with a greyhound at his feet. Nothing
is more common than for fome animal, the chief cognizance
of the family, to be thus placed at the feet of knight or
baron. “ But in this cafe,” fays Robert Chambers, “ it has
given rife to a peculiar ftory, which is thus related to all
vifitors by the perfon who now fhows the chapel. The perfon
here delineated,” he fays, “ is Sir William de St. Clair. He
was one day hunting over Roflin Moor along with King Robert
Bruce, when a white deer was ftarted. Roflin wagered his
head that his excellent hounds Hold and Help would feize the
deer before it could crofs the March Burn. It was juft about
to do fo, without being feized, when Roflin’s emergency made
him at once pious and poetical. He vowed a chapel to St.
Katherine, provided fhe would take his cafe in hand, and
fhouted out to the foremoft of his dogs :—
1 Help, haud, an’ ye may,
Or Roflin will lose his head this day.’
Help, affifted by the faint, and encouraged by her mafter,
made a defperate leap forward, and pulled down the deer juft
as it was about to leap upon land. The baron, too much
terrified by the rifk to enjoy the efcape, immediately put his
foot upon the dog’s neck, and killed it, faying it fhould never
again lead him into fuch temptation.” It ufed to be a belief in
the neighbourhood that, on the night before any of the barons
died, the whole of the chapel appeared in flames. In 1805, the
Marchionefs of Stafford took fome fketches of Roflin Chapel,
which were etched in 1807, and circulated in a fmall volume
amongft her friends.
Roflin Caftle, overhanging the pidturefque glen of the Efk,
is, as we have faid, a ruin, with a modern houfe built in the
midft of it; but the three lower ftories, being below the
ROSLIN CHAPEL AND CASTLE.
On the pavement of the chapel is the outline of one of the
barons, lying in effigy, with a greyhound at his feet. Nothing
is more common than for fome animal, the chief cognizance
of the family, to be thus placed at the feet of knight or
baron. “ But in this cafe,” fays Robert Chambers, “ it has
given rife to a peculiar ftory, which is thus related to all
vifitors by the perfon who now fhows the chapel. The perfon
here delineated,” he fays, “ is Sir William de St. Clair. He
was one day hunting over Roflin Moor along with King Robert
Bruce, when a white deer was ftarted. Roflin wagered his
head that his excellent hounds Hold and Help would feize the
deer before it could crofs the March Burn. It was juft about
to do fo, without being feized, when Roflin’s emergency made
him at once pious and poetical. He vowed a chapel to St.
Katherine, provided fhe would take his cafe in hand, and
fhouted out to the foremoft of his dogs :—
1 Help, haud, an’ ye may,
Or Roflin will lose his head this day.’
Help, affifted by the faint, and encouraged by her mafter,
made a defperate leap forward, and pulled down the deer juft
as it was about to leap upon land. The baron, too much
terrified by the rifk to enjoy the efcape, immediately put his
foot upon the dog’s neck, and killed it, faying it fhould never
again lead him into fuch temptation.” It ufed to be a belief in
the neighbourhood that, on the night before any of the barons
died, the whole of the chapel appeared in flames. In 1805, the
Marchionefs of Stafford took fome fketches of Roflin Chapel,
which were etched in 1807, and circulated in a fmall volume
amongft her friends.
Roflin Caftle, overhanging the pidturefque glen of the Efk,
is, as we have faid, a ruin, with a modern houfe built in the
midft of it; but the three lower ftories, being below the