Borthwick his cupbearer, and Lord Fleming his carver. And in their absence, their functions were performed by knightly personages not less noble than themselves, viz., Stewart of Drumlanrig, Tweedie of Drumelzear, and Sandilands of Calder.

This Princess, Elizabeth Douglas, grand-daughter to King Robert III., was waited on by seventy fine gentlewomen, of whom fifty-three were daughters of noblemen, clothed in velvet and silk, with chains of gold. She was attended in all her journies by two hundred gentlemen on horseback; and when she happened to arrive in the dark at her lodgings, at the foot of the Blackfriars Wynd, in Edinburgh, eighty lighted torches were carried before her.

The last Earl of Orkney, of the great house of St. Clair, had three sons, and a daughter who married the turbulent Duke of Albany, brother of King James III. He disinherited his eldest son, William, the ancestor of the Lords Sinclair. He left the bulk of his possessions to Sir Oliver St. Clair, the eldest son of his second marriage, who became Lord of Rosslyn, and whose male line became extinct nearly a century ago, when Rosslyn Castle and Chapel devolved on the heir of the eldest brother, the Lord Sinclair, while he bequeathed the earldom of Caithness to his youngest son, also named William, from whom are descended

the Earls of Caithness, who are now the undoubted heirs male of the lofty race of St. Clair; the Lords Sinclair and the Barons of Rosslyn being both extinct in the male line.

While Lord Caithness is heir male of the house of St. Clair, the heir general and representative of the Scandinavian Counts of Orkney, as well as of the Earls of the family of St. Clair, and of the Lords Sinclair, is Mr. Anstruther Thomson, of Charleton, in right of his great-grandmother, Grizel, eldest daughter of Henry, eighth Lord Sinclair; while the proprietor of the Ravensheugh, Dysart, and Rosslyn estates is the Earl of Rosslyn, to whom they were left by a special entail. His great-grandmother, Catherine, was second daughter of Henry, eighth Lord Sinclair. The present Lord Sinclair is not, in the most remote degree, connected with the Earls of Orkney or the old Lords Sinclair; but claimed the peerage in consequence of a special remainder in a new patent.

Before we conclude, we must say a few words of Rosslyn Castle and Chapel. The ruins of the castle are situated on a lofty peninsula, overhanging the river Esk, and they are separated from the adjacent country by a deep ravine, over which the only access is by anoble stone-bridge. The situation is extremely romantic, on a steep rock rising out of the bed of the river, with precipitous

banks covered with natural wood. The ruins are on a scale of princely grandeur. It is uncertain how early they were commenced, probably in the twelfth century. But the castle was completed in the fifteenth century, by William, third Earl of Orkney, the founder of the chapel.

This most beautiful structure crowns the hill above the castle. It was originally founded for a Provost and six Prebendaries. Its design, which is singularly rich and beautiful, is said to have been drawn at Rome, and it was not completed until towards the end of the fifteenth century. The architecture is of the most rich and florid style, and the carvings are in the greatest profusion and of the most delicate beauty.

There is a superstition connected with this chapel. It is said to be brilliantly illuminated immediately before the death of a member of the Sinclair family. To this, Sir Walter Scott alludes in his beautiful ballad of Rosabelle:

"Seemed all on fire that chapel proud,
Where Rosslyn's chiefs uncoffined lie,
Each baron for a sable shroud,
Sheathed in his iron panoply.

"Blazed battlement and summit high,
Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair,
So still they blaze when fate is nigh
The lordly line of high St. Clair."

At the south-east corner of the chapel there is

a descent, by twenty steps, into a crypt, partly subterranean. The whole chapel, within and without, is decorated with sculpture. The interior is divided into a middle and two side aisles, by seven columns on each side, supporting arches. The roof, capitals, key-stones, and architraves are all covered with sculptures. There are several curious monuments: one is said to mark the tomb of Sir William St. Clair, the huntsman and better. He is sculptured in armour, with one of his greyhounds at his feet. At the front of the third and fourth pillars, there is a large flagstone, covering the opening into the family vault, where the Barons of Rosslyn, descendants of Sir Oliver, of the younger race (now extinct in the male line), are laid. This vault is so dry, that their bodies have been found entire, after eighty years, and as fresh as when first buried. These barons were anciently interred in their armour, without any coffin. The last corpse deposited in Rosslyn Chapel was that of Lord Loughborough, the eldest son of the present Earl of Rosslyn.

241

BESS HARDWICK.

ON the borders of the ancient Forest of Sherwood, on the south of the road leading from Mansfield to Chesterfield, stands a mansion of imposing aspect and elevated site. It is Hardwick Hall, and thereon hangs many a tale, some of which have been beautifully told, some very badly told, and some that have never been told at all. Here was born, Anno 1519, the remarkable lady who is about to form the subject of our romance-we were going to say, but it were wrong to say so, for what we have to state of her is sober truth, though stranger, perhaps, than romance itself. She was one of the many daughters of John Hardwick of Hardwick, and was famous in her girlhood for great personal beauty, and for the indications of a spirit somewhat unusual in her

VOL. II.

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