The Westerly echo, & Pawcatuck advertiser. [volume] (Westerly, R.I.) 1854-1858, 1855-07-26

NIT to you some account of that citv.
and more especially of the noted Holy
rood Palace, and its environs, which he
has furnished me. As one letter will
probably be too long for one weeks is
sue, you can divide them. Al. b.
EDINBURa, SCOTLAND, May Is, 1865.
DEAR FRIEND AS 1 have spent
some considerable time in visiting this
ancient city, and more particularly,
: perhaps l may say, its principal feature
the Holyroad Palace, once the residence
of the Scottish kings and queens, I pro-
ceed to furnish you with an account +;
which will be, perhaps, not much to the
purpose. But l will do the best can
to give you something of historal
sketch OF the Palace, and some of its
past occupants. Further, I would say,
having engaged the services of guide
who claimed to be well informed in these
matters, 1 can only give you as my au-
thority his statement, wherever the ac-
count shall give you may not be back
ed up by history, and the chronicles of
the Abbey, on which I shall draw some
what largely.
The Abbey of Holyrood was founded
in ll2s, by King David l., of Scotland,
for the reception of Canons Regular of
the order of St. Augustine. The Ro-
man Church, as a reward to her bene-
factor, of course, canonized him, and
the nonastic chronicles arc enthusiastic
in their praises of St. David. The feel
ings which his successors entertained
towards him, for this expenditure for
the benefit of the church, may be very
fully expressed in the sarcastic witicsm
uttered by James l., at his grave, that
he was ane soir sanct fer the, Crown.
But posterity, whose eyes are clearer,
appreciate the policy Of David's line Of
conduct-perceiving that in Scotland
in those stormy and unsettled times,
gifts to the church we're, to a great ex-
tent, contributions also towards the
maintenance of the old learning, the
civilization of fierce community, the
advancement Of the arts, and the agri-
cultural melioration of the soil.
A miraculous interposition, on behalf
of the king, when prostrato under the
antlers of a 'wyld hart,' has been as
signed as the immediate cause of the
foundation of the Abbey. Bellenden, an
old writer, says, that the event happen
ed in the vail that lyis to tho Fist fra
the said castell, quhare now lyis the
Cannogaist,' and at that time was part
of 'ano gret forest full of hartis, hyndis,
toddis, and siclke maner of bsistis.
The day of the occurrence was holy
oue-the festival of the Exaltation OF
the Cross, or Rude day. as it was COM
monty called and the king had gone
out hunting in spite of the rcmonstran-
ces of Alvin or Alcuin, his confessor,
ane man of singular and dsvoit life,
who was subsequently the first Abbot Of
Holyrood. When the king, in the ar
der of the chase, had ridden to the
fute of the Crag,' there suddenly rushed
upon him from the woods the farest
hart that ever was sene,' and dashed
both him and his horse to the ground
, with great violence. David threw back
his hands between the antlers Of the
) stag, to save himself, if possible, from
the blow and the haly Croce slaid
: incontinent in (into) his hands, The
wild deer fed in dismay at the sight Of
the sacred emblem, to which it seemed
, about to do violence and the king bc-
> ing afterwards admonished in dream,
resolved to dedicate house to the Ho-
ly Rude the Virgin, and All Saints,
on the very spot where 'he gat the
: Croce.'
I, Such is the legend of the miracu-
lous foundation, which, in all probabili-
, ty, was devised by an ovsr-zealous
) brother of st. Austin some considerable
3 time after the demise Of the sanity
king, with the intention Of throwing a
supernatural lustre around the annals Of
his home.
The writ, which is commonly styled