The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-07-18
THE PALACE or HOLYR00D.

This ancient palace stands at the east ex-
tremity of the city of Edinburgh. IL is fine
oastelated edifce, of a quadrangular form,
with an open area in the centre, "a feet
square. The most ancient parts of the present
palace were built by James V in 1923. II was
partially burned by the English during the
minerity of Queen Mary and again by the
soldiers of Oliver Cromwell; but after the
Restoration it was repaired and altered to its
present form by Charles H. The Pretender
took up his residence here in 1745. George
Nv, on his visit to Scotland in 1922, though
he resided at Dalkeith Palace held levees and
drawiDg-rooms in this ancient abode of his
ancestors. Meetings Of Privy Council were
also held here. The Count d'Artois, after
wards Charles X of France, and other royal
and noble French refugees, obtained a refuge
here in 1898; and in 1881 the same apartments
served a second time as an asylum for nearly
the same individuals. II has a peculiar in
terest from the circumstance of the apart
ments occupied by Queen Mary having been
carefully preserved in the state in which she
left them.
Her bed is an object of interest to strangers:
and many relics of her Majesty's needlework
exist in the rooms. The spot where Darnley
and his accomplices assassinated her favOrite
David Rizzio, and other interesting localities,
are carefully marked. The closet in which
Mary was at supper, with the Countess of
Argyle, RizziO, and others, when this tragical
scene was acted, is only twelve feet square
In what is called the picture gallery, a hall
$50 feet in length, and 27k in breadth, are
hung the portraits (most of them fanoiful) of
one hundred and eleven Scottish monarchs,
painted towards the latter part of the seven
teenth century by De Watt, an artist of the
Flemish school, by order of James II of Eng
land, when Duke of York. In this hall the
election of the sixteen Scottish representative
peers takes place.
In immediate connection with the palace on
the north are the ruins of the Abbey of Holy
rood, founded by David l in 112S. The King
conferred large endowment and other privi-
leges on the monks (of the order of st. Angus
tine) whom he established here; among these,
the privilege of erecting burgh between the
abbey and the town of Edinburgh. Hence the
origin of the Canongate, the superiority of
which at the Reformation passed from the
hands of the monks to the Earl of Roxburgh,
from whom it was purchased in 1886 by the
city of Edinburgh, which still retains it. At
the Reformation, the buildings connected with
this abbey suffered much; and it is now in
state of ruin, the roof having fallen in so long
ago as 1773. The area of the royal chapel,
which formed the nave of the Abbey Church,
has long been used as burial place by several
of the Scotch nobility. In the southeast cor
ner of the chapel is the royal vault, in which
are deposited the remains of several of the
Scotch sovereigns, and branches of their
families.
A visitor to the place thus describes his i'm
preston on visiting the room:-"We were in
troduced into an ill-lghted room, with one
deep window looking upon the court, and a
fireplace like that of country inn-the state
chamber of the unfortunate Mary. Here was
chair she embroidered-there was a seat of
tarnished velvet, where she sat in state with
Darnley-the very CRATE in the chimney that
she had sat before-the mirror in which her
fairest face had been imaged-the table at
which she had worked-the walls on which
her eyes had rested in her gay and her melan-
choly hours-all, save the touch and mould of
time, as she lived in it and left it.
"We entered another room-her chamber.
A small, low bed, with tattered hangings of
red and figured silk, tall, ill-shapen posts, and
altogether a paltry look, stood in a room of
irregular shape; and here, in all her peerless
beauty, she had slept. A small cabinet, a
closet merely, opened on the right, and in this
she was supping with Rizzio when he was
plucked from her and murdered. We went
back to the audience chamber to see the stain
of his blood on the floor. She partitioned it
off after his death, not daring to look upon it.
Again-'poor MaryI'
"On the opposite side was similar closet,
which served her as her dressing-room, and
the mirror, scarce larger than your hand,
which she used at her toilet. Oh, for magic
wand, to wave back on that senseless surface
the visions of beauty it has reflected v'-Rey
nolds' MiSce llGny.