DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.61904#0170
15&
R0SL1N CHAPEL AND CASTLE.
“ Several detached curiofities are fliown to ftrangers in the
infide of Hawthornden Houfe : as, for inftance, the walking-
cane of the celebrated Duchefs of Lauderdale, a ftately old
piece of timber with a pike at one end and a crook at the
other, communicating—unlefs fancy has ftrangely deceived the
prefent writer—a ftriking idea of the perfonal bearing of that
moft fingular lady. There are alfo a number of family portraits,
including a fine queen Mary.
“ In the face of the precipice upon which Hawthornden is
reared, the ftranger, in traverfing the glen, fees a number of
holes. Thefe are the orifices of a fingular fuite of caverns
which penetrate the rock beneath the houfe. No ftranger
omits feeing this fingular curiofity. In the court-yard he is
firft fliown a well of prodigious depth, which communicates
with the caves. He then defcends a narrow ftair to a long
fubterranean paflage, on each fide of which there are fmall
apartments, much after the fafliion of a fuite of bed-rooms in
an old houfe. Below this there is what may be called a lower
ftory, which alfo contains rooms, and, the paflage of which
looks out upon the glen at one of the holes mentioned. The
fliaft of the well communicates with another end of this
paflage; fo that the inmates of thefe caves could not only draw
up their own water when they pleafed, but alfo be fupplied with
food by their friends above, by means of a bucket.
“ Without adverting to the circumftance that thefe caverns
muft have been originally formed by the early Britons, whofe
molelike preference of darknefs to light in their fortified refi-
dences is a fad! very well known to antiquaries ; it may be
mentioned that, by the invariable tradition of the country, they
afforded (belter to the diftreffed friends of Bruce, if not to that
hero himfelf, at a time when they dared not (how their faces
above-ground. In one of the apartments a recefs is fliown,
which is faid to have contained the bed ufed by the heroic
R0SL1N CHAPEL AND CASTLE.
“ Several detached curiofities are fliown to ftrangers in the
infide of Hawthornden Houfe : as, for inftance, the walking-
cane of the celebrated Duchefs of Lauderdale, a ftately old
piece of timber with a pike at one end and a crook at the
other, communicating—unlefs fancy has ftrangely deceived the
prefent writer—a ftriking idea of the perfonal bearing of that
moft fingular lady. There are alfo a number of family portraits,
including a fine queen Mary.
“ In the face of the precipice upon which Hawthornden is
reared, the ftranger, in traverfing the glen, fees a number of
holes. Thefe are the orifices of a fingular fuite of caverns
which penetrate the rock beneath the houfe. No ftranger
omits feeing this fingular curiofity. In the court-yard he is
firft fliown a well of prodigious depth, which communicates
with the caves. He then defcends a narrow ftair to a long
fubterranean paflage, on each fide of which there are fmall
apartments, much after the fafliion of a fuite of bed-rooms in
an old houfe. Below this there is what may be called a lower
ftory, which alfo contains rooms, and, the paflage of which
looks out upon the glen at one of the holes mentioned. The
fliaft of the well communicates with another end of this
paflage; fo that the inmates of thefe caves could not only draw
up their own water when they pleafed, but alfo be fupplied with
food by their friends above, by means of a bucket.
“ Without adverting to the circumftance that thefe caverns
muft have been originally formed by the early Britons, whofe
molelike preference of darknefs to light in their fortified refi-
dences is a fad! very well known to antiquaries ; it may be
mentioned that, by the invariable tradition of the country, they
afforded (belter to the diftreffed friends of Bruce, if not to that
hero himfelf, at a time when they dared not (how their faces
above-ground. In one of the apartments a recefs is fliown,
which is faid to have contained the bed ufed by the heroic