The Express.
London, England, 1850-12-26 00:00:00

77, -

THE QUEEN MARY RELICS AT HOLYROOD.

Likr Roman catholic' relics, those of Mory Quoit
of lizAs, at U.lltood, I. ma to increase and grow every year
wits a Senility most marvellous Were Wa.ter 8:ott, maw
pois,ed hie satire st the salmis sham of this stow, to see it
sow, he would recesswies we b. liege, with difli!alty,
may an edditima stsde to it. The went Este of the
Mill is thus saissisily describedpspeits r famished to the
eiratlisii &misty Astiquaries by Nallial7, BD.

Wars :
" It will be In the recollection of many members of the
moiety, that, only two serious ago, the council took dean-
Uwe of a favoured. opportunity to =tartish% her
Majesty's Coesnewsioner. of Woody, &r., on tea dogratieful
state of the royal vault in Holyrood Virg, where the
reputed impair of Scottish Kines and Queens were ranged
ere shelves, • ith iltspelled labels; and, in definite of every
id, a of the astrodome which attaches eves to the rem tins of
the nameless dead, ware converted into a vulgar show.
Toe prominent attention which the re emovial of the
Society received, in the Ismael.% Issue of orders to
the officers of the Sontish Board of Works tor the
decent disposal of these royal remains, and the proper
claim' of the vault, showed that sorb idle displays receive
no couatessoce from higher rottoritief. Some tempt-int, I
bait.: there was from the individual whose " Hoe.'" wen
thus abet out of sight; it was, no doubt, thoueht a most
mars .sonable iofticgtineut co the liberty of the subject,
considering the decent showmanship which had been intro
duoed in the Chapel Royal, roes the time, not long gone
by. when the thigh-trues of D.mley—a ccoplete Countess
ot Roxborgb, all but one hued, and shrivelled into • hideous
black mummy—with sundry other fragments of r^ al and
noble humanity—used to be Bong out on the press, for the
special deletion of eachsocceu.so band of eighteens. Bat
there is anooor nook of old Holyrood still inneeent of such
veteran. It was my fortune, • very few weeks eines to coo•
duet aa English gentleman, from Cambridge, through
west are called 'Queen May's ApartmenUO in the
fellow'
and while 11l would have smiled in company oith any
townsman at the trumpery display, I must own that I
blushed wit!. sLams to stow an intelligent 'Tower—is a
corner of the same palace where her Majesty had been
lodged only a week or too bt.ore—a beggarly array of
spurious and tawdry relit,. such as would be %continuo],
gyred hem Madame Tuessuci's waz.work eabitition.
When we go to Ragland, we 8 .d the magnificeat Palate of
Wisdom thrown open, under certain reetrictioss, to the
pohlie, even when occupied by ,he royal family; while, a'
B .saptes
totem, a valuable coland lectioanot ooely aref works othe public
f art have
been foamed cad arroog,
fee.• to enter without any charge, but curators and • cow
pieta staff of officials are maintained by government, in order
that the public may erojoy the utmost freedom of entrance,
comprible with the aafsty of the collection. Why, then, it
easy De justly asked, is so different a settees pursued in our
thin to the only latotable Scottish palace? and bow is it
that Holyrood should lave foe its sole curator • housekeeper
and her underlings, who find an interest in converting it Into
the present contemptible eibibittoo ?
" I cannot better illustrate the Heys! Queen Mary Show
stainer, id by government in the north wing of her Die-
jetty's Palace ot liolyrood, than by describing my rent
ran. Oa entering the outer got*, we were forthwith
pounced upon by one of those officials, scoots, or jaekslls,
against whom the magiserstee have so reread, witted au
ellet minatiog and successful warfare in their own dominions
be' who still Wolfish in pristine entree within the %actuary
of the old Abbey's Girth COMB. Ushered by our wet, we
prebend) found ourselves in the Long Oellerv. when wo
were shortly marshalled along with Bunchy other visitors, by
coo of the female deputy showkeepers and compelled to listen
to an elpoittinn of the beaut.es of De Witt's 106 Scottish
me samba, painted at so much pee square toot. This, how-
ever, ie the mere vestibule. Aecending to the rat Sear,
with tar running °passerine's of oar cisme* all ths while
disaed tato one an, to the utter @Retries of any possible
thoseht of the actual historical associatioos of the scene, we
are marshalled through Made, MOSS where we are shown
portraits of Lauderdale, NCB Oyu, Moll Davies, John
Enos, Jane Shore, tic. doe.—the none. proving to be Imot
mutable, aroordiog to the chance terbium of the peetico.ar
show-woman; so that we hid the pleasure of bear"' a
Queen Ant of our own erred get 4e presented to the next
party, befogs we bad left the oom, as of Ports-
mouth; and a King James pees muster for the g rod Reoent
Murray.
" Bet the Presence Chamber, with Its oljacent closets, is
Ho grand soma of the show. Here we were 'horn the first
fire gra.* ever kaolin in ficerlani, otought hi'her, of Count,
by %sees Mary, and mervelleuoy like varier others is &d-
-isc tag sputtering, whkh are, no doubr, the other first grates
of the sistettica, though the r rodent Jenne% sale owning
about tarn. Here, too, is the double chair, or throne, et-
re wily lase.) for the marriage of Queen Mary and burley;
°omit' by • singular, and no dribt economical foresight,
the royal uphoo wen have o relight on eke Quota*.
therm she cipher of bee grandson Charlie and of
hi. Qoces 11,einetta Pisria. Round this remarkable
eintrepiete • pleasset 'oriel of rickety old furniture is
reaped, see as one may tem •siosally see at • Mohr's
4 _e in U.. Colmar. Some of teem. also have the aatitips-
tory telpher, while the uninitiated would be apt to awoke
ottoce to the frost of the Otorgeo He must be sward of
bush as error, torrent Three are all moire and 'rhea.
tie led Quern Many relic'. Prints in little slip, of black,
some with broken gl.uea, more with no gloom at all, hut
bogrimod and wormeaten, end ?von is totters, help to carry
out the Id, aof • Cetera% beck- r's shop. On a side table in
on. of the ',teeter recesses aro tein4ry hits of china sod dat-
er*, abeploceleres, rid the like, including • very nuking
model of a prise pig 1-441 doubt/4es genuine Queen Mary
relies.
"From this we par into Queen Diary's bedchamber.
re is shown, the Qiusn's bed; a basket, shaped like •
store platter, bat which we were gravely assured wee King
Jenee's baby bstket; a hoe, ertoth, of course was Queen
Mary's workbox, though it is well known to have been intro-
duced within the memory of moth ermine pee pl. than that
ezetellesit authority, " The *idiot initehitant. is the south
tuirst is given Mary's deeming-room; and among other of
its .ises is the first mirror entendueed ioto S of:Oland—brought,
of MOM, by the widowed Queen from Prase,. Tbe ratter
we old be apt to hag it neitber Mort tee tele than the bock
of in old s :nor, weeps of the Seemed Oeorge's reign. The
vs ry holes are there in which it street to us the candlestick
ha-t keen inserted, till our cicerone *slighter/4 us by its true
(Olean Merl history.
Tb n corn the Rini* spertment, of some twirl.' feet
moue—the secret door, the trig) stair, and all the Ine inci
t. which our guide uttered with the air of • tregedy
Tient. Here we were shown the back a'.d breast.pi• ce of a
mumps trooper of the seventh century, • Cromwell pot,
toot • pair of jack.booes of Charles 11.'s reign, which are the
undoubted armour of the grim Lord %Wrn. A react
Ile .bland tarot', much the wise for damp and moths, roe
1.. doubt roomed Item some mouldy g a where it Lad lain
no tee the ' 4i,' is the favourite shield of Lord Darnley. Bat
it i needier. to go into further details.
t• We saw Queeo'e Mary's private altar, • rort of modern
/to j ff, tr Iteisetetool, ens earth she knelt when she was
snarled to Beesley ; her primer alter piece, her portrait oh
Lula, her own private witnieture, ht. •
"Ono eroanine boo, however, was reserved as a finishing
touch. Os 'uterine, we bad pew', untlookieg, toreugh
a Oak I ebby or 'trance,' to which we were co et core
tut is our egress; and here, in a solemn nice, we were
hot pause, *bile the show.woortn opened the door, that
by- its borrowed light we might see the bl toely stains
which not even the celebrated scouring-deep+ of Mr. errs
at gry—' the infallible detergent chair, prepared sod sold by
B eyes. Saubb and Rub'—have been able to awe. This
bit of the K gal Queen Mary Show fairly spec my Cam-
be, Igo fileind's reedy, to the gri at scandal ot cer.aia rustic
vi .tors, with whom we had heretofore herded, and who, op
to this Past, had been drinkieg in the whole with open.
m • steed woo ler. There was nothiag ter It but to pa, our '
net you please' fee, and escape as speedily as possible to
a more vievesient localdy for tte tripe play of our somewlast
one -excite l risible faculties.
"This elude matter referred to hers, it is well known. is
or novel tout plaint. Sir Walter Stott plied it loop ago with
the rooted shafts of ridicule. Mr. Joseph Hume, M P., and
other zealous Scottish members of partials. nt, have cunt
pl .ined et least ot the feting tor admission to a national'
prow; and stem our serous civic rulers succeeded, • tow
yells ago, in getting the regalia thrown open to the pubise,
They also lei. d, but an vain, to make the palace equally Oh
ceriblet. So long however, sit remains only the r. peel
two of Josh *lying wooden,' it is much better that the
public be kept out. But sire, it is deemed compatiele with
Its thirty as a royal raidence to admit visitors to impact I
its rain, it may be maccably demanded that these be I
tat tied of whatever is notoriously spinouts and contempti-
ble The actual bletorical atenciations of the anoint wing'
of Holyrood Palace, where Queen Mary's apartments are
simatid, are of the most heart *tinier( description; ante it
wee ewy to reneer the ace movies consistent with these.
The whole array of trumpery prints and modern toll% must
sae ottooly be made • bonfire ci as a preliminary step.
Tie paintings must be weeded, and the really genuine Own
tiomfied aid arreoged. To thew we might next *spirt to
see .dad, Iron sums of the English palaces, some ot our
lietittish bistorical s, which have etrayed there in
%titer times. L Hespton Coon, for zaisi.le, is the re-
motions's tryptiek, behaved to have been origiaa lly placed
in the Hopei Compel at Stirling winch contains the p roan
of Jere" 111. of Synland, and'his Queen, Margaret of Den.
mark--erroneously described by Mrs. Jamie-on as Jam.*
IV. and Margaret of England. This mart,* ly hes no St-
eam or proprbety at Hampton Court, to which it we, only
remedy removed from Kensington Palace; but it would 8. d
P lave eppirpriate pleat in tte ancient puerto( tits eLottiels
Jamas's. It unlade' • portrait of the young Prince, &Car-
loads Jaw IV., sad is probably,witeout exception the most
tairfeetilift Scottish portesiopicture in existence °Acre
might easily be named woich would appropriately group with
nos historic portrait,end coulJ well be spared from . he crowded
puolis galleries ot Bugund, But it is manliest tray, is the
pr. rot state of the old apartments of Holyrool, such a
imosfor amid sot be deem i. Before it is made • gallery of
pa rode* motives' Metrical ;musks, we most be rtd of the
pre tent' Qatell Mary Show • sad skowetomen' and be per
tooted to pas threugh them NOM when assn remarkable
one: traospired, accompaided only elk the Billet com-
panion el a muidebook or catalogue roissoved. Whethr to in
g.etieg rid of the other lions of the show, we ehou'd eho
recommend another, aid promos mere effectual, epplicetion
of the roaring drops to the bloody floor may eie questioned.
I would 08.1 y remark, however, in further proof of the c ic-
teeoptible means that have been oceamonally resorted
to .o increase the spurious attractions of this catch's nny
show, that I am inform. 4 by a person mployed on
05..• occasion in some necessary rejoin in the ;A-
lice, that he had the curiosity to look carefully
ter the bloody steins, bat coald hardly detest any
of them • while, eu eing the suns piste aisle dope alter,
it lookeel, as he. aprescoi it, as if a sheep had hies killed
as the spat' Tutu marked, aquas Um rival bier., stain,
U 1 mistake sot, of Olammis Castle, which has witsvivell %kris
onsemelos rolowals of the &Mag.

" We are, of risme, *ware of difficulties that a in the
way of imesidistrly effeamg theme de•irable reforms. Were
the csratorstip of the Pelee* entirely in the hands of
government, or of the public hoards, nothing more would be
needed, wee,
elem.*, than to expose tae present state of things
at Holyrood Palace."

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