The weekly standard., 1869-09-22
For the Standard.
OUR FOREIGN CORRESPONDENCE.
Letter From Scotland.
EDINBoRoUGH,

| Letter From Scotland.
| EDNBoRoUGH, -- r.
| More than twelve hundred years ago, the
city of Edinborough was Marlborough castle.
Some two hundred years later st. Giles
church is supposed to have been in existence
and early in the twelfth century, Holyrood
| Abbey was chartered Not long afterwards
| scarborough was selected by the Papal Le-
| gate as place for the General Assembly of
the Scotican Church 1t is probably owing
| to this fact that it soon after became the
fountain head for the dispensation ofjustice
and the depository of the principal records
and royal regalia; then the seat of parlia-
ment of the Bruce and finally the capital of
the Kingdom.
| The places of principal interest for the
tourist historically inclined are the Castle
and Holyrood Palace.
The castle is more than twelve hundred
years old-that is, what remains Of it-and
the old Roman red brick are mixed with
the stones that compose these ancient walls.
| But the whole castle is now little more than
modern fortress with regiment or two of
soldiers, few batteries of artillery and an
armory of thirty thousand stand of arms.
Most of the buildings have been modified
and improved and some have been removed
entirely to give place to Others better adap-
ted to comfort and convenience; in many
places old walls have been torn away and
new ones built. so that we have no longer
the Edenborough Castle of the days of Dou-
glas. The chapel of Queen Margaret is still
| standing. The walls are ancient, though
the flooring and windows are modern, and
some new stones have also been inserted in
place of some which were crumbling away
with age. The chapel is a narrow Gothic
arch, measuring some 20x12 feet We do
not remain long in this sepulchre, this mon
ument of the dead and of a dead past. We
are soon out again in the fresh air and love-
ly scene is before US. We are three hundred
| and elghty-three feet above the level of the
sea- To the North and West, looking
over vast expanse of hill and
dale, the hazy highlands melt into
the sky; hard by are Arthur's Seat
and Salisbury Crags; at our feet sparkles
the Firth and to the East rolls the German
Ocean; all around and beneath US lies Ed
inburgh town with its spires and lofty gables.
Our guide now shows US into Queen Mary's
bed chamber. 1t is a tiny, tidy little room.
Here James was born, which opens through
the outer wall, the anxious mother let down
the infant monarch by night in basket
more than three hundred feet, where friends
received him and carried him to Stirling to
be baptized in the faith of the Stewarts.
Here too are exhibited the Royal arms of
Scotland, which Sir Walter Scott discovered
after they had lain for so long time for
gotten and given up for lost.
| We leave the castle, pass under the port
culis, cross the drawbridge over the Nevat
and are outside the walls on Castle Hill
with our faces turned toward High Street
We turn to the right to pay the University
visit. tits Saturday, and there are no lee
lures and no lecture rooms open, so we must
content ourselves with look at the library,
which is also the great examination room
for the students in solido This is mag
nifcent room-19S feet in length by go feet
in breadth and 80 feet in height, containing
over 100000 volumes. There is q row of
busts extending on each side from one end
of the room to the other Sir William Ham
ilton's is the fourth on the left Dugald
Stewart is the last on the left. About the
middle is Blair's ard Immediately opposite
|
no longer Rector of the University.
We pass back into High Street, on our
way to Holyrood Palace and pass the house
of John Knox We think the canny Scott
wants to charge little too much for
going in, and we decline the honor. In
the first story of the building, young
woman sells villainous article of pig
tail chewing tobacco for penny a cut. /"
After passing Leith Wynd, High Street
becomes Canongate. We keep down Canon
gate, and at the extremity of the street we
pass the prison-the home of unfortunate
debtors. There are several anxious looking
some little girls, not very well dressed, hang
ing about the doors. Perhaps they are ho-
ping for something to "turn up" But they
cannot see their friends inside, and the war
den is too much accustomed to such scenes
to be troubled in any degree by their dis
tress.
Prom Canongate we cross an open square,
with a fountain in the centre We pass an
outer gate and we are in the Courtyard OF
Holyrood Palace.
On the left we enter the picture gallery Of
the Scottish Kings. There are other por.
traits there beside kings But at all events,
here are all the kings from the worthy
Fergvsivs l. (from which probably our mod
ern name of Ferguson" is derive0 33C
before Christ, down to Prince "Charlie,
who gave the ladies a ball in these apart
ments in 1745, and then went " o'wre the
water"
AT the left end of the gallery, one step out
to the left, then right angle left again
and we pass into the ante-room. 1t wa.
once Lord Darnley's Passing through this
we enter the reception room. Lord Darn
ley's rooms still retain enough of the ole
furniture, paintings and tapestry to show
the taste of that luxurious nobleman 1
we pass out of this reception room into
cabinet on the right, we find the most ex
quisite Of all little bedrooms. This, too
was Darnlcy's In the side of the wall Their
is an iron wicket, and through the bars W,
can see narrow staircase leading upwards
We will see the other end of the stair-cas
before we leave the palace. Queen Mary
rooms are Just overhead. We visit them
not by way of the private staircase, for tina
is closed now, but by the great castle stair
way. Arrived upon the Threshold of tn
ill-fated Queens reception room, a quicl
eye and vivid Imagination may detect tn
stains of the blood of the murdere,
Rizzio. We so into the audience room. Th
persons in attendance assure you that ever
thing now.s exactly as it was when Quee
Mary held her levees there. You will b
convinced that this is not true from the fac
that there is bed standing in the room
The door, too, has been patched severa
times, and the flooring repaired. The cei
ing is unqucstionably old. From the aud
ence room we pass through an ANTERIOR
and then into the sancta sanctaruns, Quee
Mary's bed room. The bed stands in th
right hand corner of the room from the er
trahce. The stead is high-posted with
high and antique carved head board. TIL
furniture is of the richest character, but a
crumbing to decay. The pillows are en-
broideried satin, the over covering is erin
son iDwrought with gold A wire railin
surrounds the bed to protect it from Il
touch of the profane. This corner of tt
room is hung with tapestry. In this roo
we see the veritable old fashioned hie
backed chairs, which were mode in Mary
time; also her delicate table and stand an
her two looking glasses. We had almo
, forgot to mention that, IN the wall, und
the tapestry, near Mary's bed. is an ire
wicket which opens upon a private staircas
1t is the other end of the private stairca
that we saw in Lord Darnley's bed chambe
. Everything is crumbling to decay. v
leave the palace, taking look at the RUNE
f chapel, where the starlings are flying
/ troops. and making their nests in the he
lows and arches of the Gothic windows NJ