Leaving the west wing of Holyrood House, of which we gave our readers a view in No. 17 of the ILLUSTRATED LONDON NEWS, the visitor is conveyed to the opposite or east wing of the palace, where he is shown the ruins of the old Abbey Chapel. The abbey was founded by David I. of Scotland; and, to this day, affords shelter to those debtors who seek its safety as a “house of refuge,” by confining the hunted corpus within the limits of this sanctuary, which extend from the foot of Canongate to the eastern extremity of the royal grounds. Tradition asserts, that Scottish King David “having been out hunting, the royal person was placed in the utmost danger by the attack of a stag. When defending himself from his rude assailant, a cross miraculously slipped from heaven into his hand, upon seeing which the uncourteous stag fled!” The sequel is more credible: “In a dream which visited the monarch in his slumbers, the King was commanded to erect an abbey on the spot now rendered sacred in being the scene of his remarkable preservation; and, in obedience to the mandate, King David founded the Abbey of Holyrood House.” Whether such is the real origin of its institution is matter of less moment to the poor insolvent, than the fact of the asylum being still effective in keeping back hungry creditors, wrathful with the spirit of vengeance, and the law myrmidons who show but little mercy to their crouching victims. According to the authority of a late writer, the chapel “was fitted up by Charles I. as a chapel royal, that it might serve as a model of the English form of worship, which he was anxious to introduce into Scotland. He was himself crowned in it in 1633. James VII. (II. of England) afterwards rendered it a model for Catholic worship, to equally little purpose.” It has also been rendered sacred by being made a receptacle for the bodies of sundry Scottish kings and queens, and other illustrious persons. In the preserved list of names whose mortal remains have been consigned to the earth in the old chapel of Holyrood Abbey the following names occur—David II., James II., James V., with Magdalen his queen, and Henry Lord Darnley. Visitors are admitted within the sacred precincts of the palace, and, on payment of a trifling douceur, admittance may be readily obtained to view the crumbling ruins of this last remnant of the old abbey.
The Illustrated London News, London, England, Week Ending October 15, 1842
