vultures nidificant. Harum avium nidos depredantur juvenes audaciores, ex arce in fportis demiffi. Hæc arx vocatur Castrum Puellarum, clauditque urbem ab occidente. Cæterum ad orientem urbis eft auguftiffimum monafterium Sanctæ Crucis,' habens annexum palatium regis et amoeniffimos hortos, quos claudit lacus ad fundum montis Cathedræ Arthuri. In hoc monte inveniuntur prætiofi lapides, clara die radiantes, adamantes præcipue. In urbe funt duæ magnæ viæ ab Arce Puellarum ufque ad monafterium et regium palatium, lapidibus quadris stratæ, præfertim Regia Via. Eft suburbium ad occidentem, dimidio miliario longum, vocaturque Via Sancti Cuthberti. Sunt in urbe multa monafteria et templa, præfertim Francifcani, Dominicaftri, ecclefia Mariæ de Campo, collegium facerdotum, et aliud Collegium Trinitatis, Hospitale S. Thomæ.10 Urbs ipfa non

7 The Abbey of the Holy Cross, or Holyrood, founded and richly endowed by King David I. in 1128, and by some of his successors. During the English expedition of September 1547, the Abbey was ransacked, and in part destroyed. Patten, in his Narrative of the Expedition, says, "Thear stode southwestward, about a quar"ter of a mile from our campe a Monasterie, thei call it Holly roode abbey. Sir "Walter Bonham and Edward Chamberlayne gat lycence to suppresse it; whear"upon these commisioners makyng first theyr visitacion thear, they found the moonks "all gone but the church and mooch part of the house well coouerd with leade. "Soon after, thei pluct off the leade, and had doun the bels (which wear but ii.); "and, according to the statute, did sumwhat hearby disgrace the hous. As touching "the moonkes, bicaus thei wear gone, thei put them to their pencions at large."

* The gardens surrounding the Palace of Holyrood appear to have been very extensive, and may have given rise to the tradition, that Arthur's Seat and its environs were once covered with wood.

The street of St Cuthbert, now called Portsburgh. The port or gate of which was built in 1514, and was long the principal entrance into Edinburgh, on the west. 10 St Thomas' Hospital in the Canongate, was founded by Geo. Creighton, Bishop of Dunkeld, in the reign of James V. rebuilt in 1617, and finally pulled down in 1778.

12

eft constructa ex coctis, fed naturalibus et quadris lapidibus," ut etiam fingulæ ædes poffent magnis palatiis comparari. In medio urbis eft capitolium,12 et ecclefia collegiata Sancti Egidii.. Habent epifcopi, duces, comites, barones, et proceres totius regni, in ipfa urbe fua palatia, quando vocantur ad comitia." Eft palatium regis pofitum. fupra monasterium, ampliffimum, et fuperbiffimum," et extenditur

11 Not built of brick, but of unhewn and square stones.

12 This is rather a doubtful expression, as no town-house (unless the Provost of St Giles's house be considered as such,) or tolbooth is known to have stood in the vicinity of the church, earlier than the year 1561. The Cross is not taken notice of, nor does it appear in the old plan; but, at that period, it may have been a less prominent and handsome building than the octagon which was taken down in March 1756.

13 The meetings of Parliament, and of Council and Session, were usually held in the upper rooms of the Tolbooth; which, being ruinous, was pulled down in 1561, and a new Tolbooth erected at the expense of the inhabitants. In 1593, an Act of Parliament was passed for repairing "the Hous of Justice, utherwayis callit the Tolbuith of the burgh of Edinburgh." The building at the west end of St Giles's Church (pulled down in 1817,) continued till about the year 1640, when the present Parliament House was completed, to serve the joint purpose of the high council house and a jail.

14 The view of the old Palace of Holyroodhouse, here introduced, is an accurate copy of a print, supposed to be engraved about the year 1650, by F. De Witt, a Dutch artist, from a design by James Gordon, parson of Rothiemay. He was the son of Sir Robert Gordon of Straloch; and fortunately had turned his attention to delineating the public buildings, and drawing plans of the principal cities in Scotland. He executed a large and accurate survey of Edinburgh, (also engraved by De Witt, in Holland,) for which the Magistrates, 2d April 1647, granted him 500 merks; while, for a similar survey of Aberdeen, the Council of that city, in 1661, ordered a silver cup, weighing 20 ounces, to be made and presented to him, with a silk hat, and also a silk gown to his wife.

The Palace of Holyrood appears to have been built by James IV., and additions made to it by James V.; the Abbey having served as the occasional residence of some of our former sovereigns. It was plundered and burnt by the English in 1544; but probably soon recovered from the effects of this disaster; for, (as Sir Walter Scott

ab eo ufque ad Arcem Puellarum una perpetua platea, dicta Vicus Regius, fed quæ prope Arcem Puellarum latior, et prope monafterium anguftior eft: atque hæc Regia Via ex utraque parte habet infignes remarks) "before gunpowder was much employed, the Gothic edifices suffered little from fire, save the demolition of the roofs." (Provincial Antiquities, pp. 119, 120.)

After the accession of James VI. to the English throne, the Palace had been allowed to fall into decay, and at that time seems, from the following inventory drawn up by order of the Privy Council of Scotland, to have been very completely stripped of all its moveables :

"On the 9th of Junii, The Lords of Secreit Counsall thinkis meitt, That the Lord "Chancelar and Clerk of Register visite the Palaice of Halyrudhouse, and make in"ventar of the insicht and plenissing being thairin, and to delyver the dowbell of the "same to John Fenton, comptroller clerk, and Thomas Fentoun, keeper of the said "Palace.

"10th Junii, 1603.

"Inventar of the movables of Halyruidhous.

"The quhilk day the Erle of Montroise, Chancellair, and Mr John Skeine, Clerk " of his Hienes Register, haveing visit the Paleic of Haliruidhous, and everie particuler "hous of the same, exceptand the gairdrobe, fand na uther thingis by the particulers "underwritten, except sum buirdes, furmes and stuillis, nocht worthie to be inrollit. “In the first, in the counsal hous ane knok: In the over chalmer abone the Quenis "cabinet, twa peicis of tapestrie: In the Master of Warkis outwith chalmar, ane fair "wrocht pend for a bed, wantand the heid, and bak pend with courtingis for the "frontell and the fut; ane chair coverit with purpill velvott, ane coverlet of ane "buird of reid velvot upoun quhyt saiting; ane auld covering of ane bed of chainging "taffatie. Item, lyand in the transe, be the quhilk thai gang to the wyld bestiall, "twa peices of talpestrie, quhilkis ar deliverit to the keiping of Thomas Fentoun, " and he to be answerable thairfor. The saidis Lordis ordanis the key of the chal"mer duir to be delyverit to the said Thomas Fentoun, quhairintill the bell is hing" and, with the haill buirdis and daskis that war standing thairintill of befoir.”—(Lord Haddington's extracts from the Privy Council Records. MS. Advocates' Library.)

The Palace of Holyroodhouse was eventually destroyed, either by wilfull or accidental fire, on the 13th of October 1650, at a time when a body of Cromwell's soldiers were