The Washington herald., 1911-08-09
THE PALACE OF HOLLYWOOD

The ancient palace Of Holyrood. in an
ticipation of the recent visit of King
George and Queen Mary to Scotland, had
been entirely renovated mad invested with
all the accessories of modern comfort.
Right after the visit of the late King
Edward in 1903 a determined effort was
made to place the castle in a sanitary
condition, for owing to the low site the
damage had remained imperfect since
the big pile was erected in the thirteenth
century.
For centuries Holyrood has enjoyed
only the glory of its romantic associa-
tions. 1t had been divested almost en-
tirely of the glories of a regal court.
In the heyday of the Stuarts' its walls
rang with revelry and were the scenes of
splendid pageants, of which memorials
remain in the oldest part OF the building
still untouched by the restoring hand.
After England had absorbed Scotland
and the descendants Of unfortunate Queen
Mary none of her descendants visited the
scene of her joys and sorrows until
Charles the Second conceived a fancy to
chase the deer in the Lothians. In the
latter part of his reign substantial addi-
tions were made to the venerable pile.
But when the merry monarch" was
sovereign seemed to care about setting
foot in the place, until George w made
his journey to Scotland.
Queen Victoria resided several times at
Holyrood. but she never consented TO
hold a court levee in the palace, and the
only relic Of her residence there was a
series of lath and plaster partitions
erected across three spacious state rooms
to secure greater privacy for the royal
haa
affording an uninterrupted outlook from
those splendid rooms upon the quad
rangle in front
Renovation of the northern wing of the
palace was completed as soon as the
drainage had been improved. The grand
staircase at the southwestern angle,
which was in a state of decay, has been
rebuilt. and the beauties OF an ornate
plaster ceiling have been brought out
with ivory paint. No structural altera-
ton has been necessary in the three great
state apartments, the throne room and
the two state drawing rooms; but in each
apartment electric light has been intro
duced. From the gilt pendants of the
ceiling in the throne room handsome
eleCtroliers. with inCandescent lamps
have been suspended. and in all the rooms
lines above the tapestries and pictures
that they may be more clearly seen at
night. The west drawing room has been
completely rearranged. The walls, for
merly covered with plaster, have been
lined to the roof with oak. ornately
carved. and many historical Scottish por-
traits will be hung here. A new floor of
solid oak has also been laid down, and
all this timber was procured from a sin
Sr.a -
dale's estate at Yester, in East Lothian.
The e!eCtrolier hung from the center of
the roof is a reproduction of an eight
eenth century candelabra at Hampton
Court.
The royal dining-room has been re-
decorated in the Adams style, and all
the woodwork and the fluted columns at
one end have been painted white. while
the walls were tinted u delicate green
The private apartments of the King and
Queen command beautiful views of
Arthur's Seat and the Salisbury Crags,
and the Queen has taken much interest
in their decoration. and has herself
chosen the various wall papers. A COM
pete system of telephones has been in
stalled, and the corridors and rooms will
he heated by an entirely new service
of hot-water radiators. while the stables. |
which provide ample accommodation for
over. a postal and telegraph office, fully
equipped, has been established in a
piazza at one corner of the quadrangle. !
Thus has HolyrOod been redeemed from
the state of neglect into which il had
fallen and converted into one of the most
convenient and well-appOinted of modern
palaces. Coincidently with this work
progress has been made with the scheme |
for the preservation from further decay
,F !, ,if.h
was founded by David I early in
the thirteenth century as a thanks-offer |
ing for his escape from the attack of an
stag, which turned on him |
while hunting The adjoining buildings
were on a meager scale, and the older |
part OF the present building was erected
by James " as fitting home
for his bride. Margaret Tudor. the
daughter of Henry VII of England-a
union from which the union |
OF the two Kingdoms sprang.
In the course of the excavations made |
in the palace gardens. which are laid out
on the site of former monastic buildings, !
interesting discoveries have been made |
The foundations of the choir and the |
north transept have been laid bare, and |
beneath the choir the foundations of a |
small early Saxon church were found |
1t had been put together with unhewn !
stones and powders gathered in the vi
cinity, and to one side of this edifice
number of graves were exposed, indicat-
ing that this was an early Christian
burial place. The dead were laid to rest |
there long before the abbey was built,
for the foundations of David's church lay
across some Of the graves. Most remark
able of all is the fact that many of the
skeletons were well preserved, although
they had lain uncoffined in the earth for
at least thousand years. On one grave
stone the name "Sibilla de Stratum" was
deciphered, and it seems to show that
Sibilla, the Queen of the first Alexander,
King OF Scotland. was buried there, al
though tradition assigns an islet in Loeb
Tay as her resting place.
Among other discoveries was that of
part of an old stone causeway, which
appeared to have been part of a road
leading from the abbey to the sea. The
palace gardens now have been completely
an incised cross in the grass de-
noting the ancient burial place: and in
one corner-such is the irony of fate-a
boiler house. carefully concealed, has
been built TO feed the radiator system for
heating the palace.
From the charter which King David
granted about 1143 to the abbey of Holy