gallery were much defaced by the English soldiers quartered there in the year 1745. They seem to have thought that by destroying the inanimate effigies of the house of Stuart, they eminently displayed their loyalty to the House of Hanover. Prince Charles Stuart, the young pretender, in that year also, took up his residence for some time in this mansion of his fathers; and thither the inhabitants of Edinburgh repaired to him, to pay the assessment laid on the city. Of this palace, which is now almost the only entire regal residence which remains in Scotland, the duke of Hamilton is heritable keeper. He has a fine lodging within it, as have also several others of the Scottish nobility. Notwithstanding this, a great part of the building remained uninhabited, and was hastening to decay, till of late years apartments were fitted up for the residence of the unfortunate princes of the house of Bourbon. Adjacent to the palace stands the ruined abbey of Holyrood-house. Though this building comes not properly under the present head of arrangement, yet, as the church of the abbey was afterwards the royal chapel, and as the abbey itself gave name to the palace, it is thought proper to insert the account of it in this place. The abbey of Holyrood-house was founded by David I., in 1128. The traditionary accounts which occasioned its erection, are thus related :-King David I., its founder, being on a hunting match in the forest of Drumselch, near Edinburgh, on a rood " ་ pay, was attacked by a large hart, and his life was in the utmost danger. While he was endeavouring to defend himself with his hands against the furious assaults of the animal, a miraculous cross from heaven slipped into his hand, which so frightened the stag, that he retreated immediately. This wonderful circumstance having of course put an end to the chase, David repaired to the castle of Edinburgh, where, in a dream, he was instructed to erect an abbey or house for canons regular, on the place where the celestial cross was put into his hands. In obedience to this visionary command, the king erected an abbey for the said canons, dedicated it to the honour of the holy cross, and deposited the same therein, where it is said to have remained till the reign of David II. That prince, whom the cross seems not to have protected as it did his predecessor, was taken prisoner by the English at the battle of Durham, and with him the cross fell into the hands of the enemy. It remained in that city for several ages, where it is said to have been held in great veneration: Such is the fabulous account given of the circumstances which occasioned the erection of this abbey. It is a miracle near a kin to many of those which popery has often since imposed on the credulity of mankind. David I. who was a pious prince, seems to have been much under the guidance of his spiritual instructors; and it is not to be wondered at, when their interest was so nearly concerned, that they should procure the sanction of a miracle to a work of such a nature as the endowment and founda tion of an abbey. However this may be, the abbey was founded by a charter, in the year 1128; the original of which is in the archieves of the city. It was bestowed on the canons regular of St. Augustine, who were brought thither from the priory of St. Andrew's, in the county of Fife. They had granted to them the church of Edinburgh castle, with those of St. Cuthbert's, Corstophir, and Liberton, in the county of Mid-Lothian, and of Airth, in Stirlingshire; the priories of St. Mary's Isle in Galloway, or Blantyre in Clydesdale, of Rowadill in Ross, and three others in the Western Isles. To them David also granted the privilege of erecting a borough between the town of Edinburgh and the church of Holyrood-house. From these canons the street which they erected had the name of Canongate, which it still retains. In this new borough they had a right to hold markets. They had also portions of land assigned them in different parts, with a most extensive jurisdiction, and right of trial by duel, and fire and water ordeal. They had also certain revenues payable out of the exchequer and other funds, with fishing, and the privilege of erecting mills on the water of Leith, which still retain the name of Canon-mills. Other grants and privileges were bestowed upon this monastery by succeeding sovereigns, so that it was deemed the richest religious foundation in Scotland. At the reformation its annual revenues were 442 boles of wheat, 640 boles of beer, 560 boles of oats, 500 capons, 24 hens, as many salmon, 12 loads of salt, besides a great number of swine, and almost 2501. sterling in money. This stately abbey, with the choir and cross of its church, were destroyed by the English about the middle of the fifteenth century, and nothing left standing but the body of the church. A large brazen font was carried away at this time by Sir Richard Lea, captain of the English pioneers, who presented it to the church of St. Alban's in Hertfordshire, after he had caused the following inscription to be engraven on it :-" Cum Læthia oppidum apud Scotos non incelebre et Edinburgus, primaria apud eos civitas, incendio conflagrent, Ricardus Leus, eques auratus, me flammis ereptum, ad Anglos perduxit. Hujus ego tanti beneficii memor, non nisi regum liberos lavare solitus, nunc meam operam etiam in fines Anglorum libenter condixi. Leus victor sic voluit. Vale. Anno Domini, MDXLIII. et anno Henrici Octavi XXXVI." This font, during the civil war in the reign of Charles I, was melted and converted into money. Along with the other religious houses, the buildings of the abbey suffered much at the reformation; the ornaments were despoiled by the populace, and nothing was left but the bare walls. At the memorable æra of the restoration, king Charles II. ordered the church to be set apart as a chapel-royal, and prohibited its use as a common parish church for future. It was at this time fitted up in a very elegant manner. A throne was erected for the sovereign, and twelve stalls for knights of the order of the Thistle. In addition to this, James VII. (or II. of England) fitted it still farther up with a beautiful organ, and paved it with marble. At the revolution, however, the populace, whose hatred of popery and antipathy to episcopacy, often carried them to extremes in their resentment, once more despoiled the ancient edifice, tore down its ornaments, and even carried off many of the marble stones of the pavement, which had been so lately laid. THE MINSTREL OF PROVENCE. Or su-e tempo, Che tu t'en vada e troppo lungamenti, Hai demora ancona Partite. Like blooming Eve In nature's young simplicity, and blushing GUARINI. WAI POLE. THE lady Magdelaine had not returned from matins five minutes, when the minstrel (the morning after his arrival) was summoned to receive his audience of leave. Ambrose conducted him to the entrance of the great gallery: the lady Magdelaine was standing at a distant window, in earnest conversation with her |