HOLYROOD PALACE

Press, Volume LXVIII, Issue 20510, 1 April 1932, Page 16

HOLYROOD PALACE

SHRINE OF SCOTTISH HISTORY. THE HOME OF KINGS. ' (By T.C.L.) . Whether you approach Edinburgh's! Palace of Holyrood through the drab j but highly interesting streets that 1 come almost to the gaulen walls or | walk leisurely up the free and wind- ; swept slopes of Queen's Park the effect i of the place is the same. It is that of.i sadness. Holyrood is '"grey and dour i and old.'' Its glory Las been trans- • lated though its dignity is imperishable. I It has suffered, or gained—according to '■ the point of view—less than other unci- j ent Koyal palaces from the hand of the i '"improver" who sacrificed everything ! to the comfort of the moment. The I consequence is that even the royal suites | of apartments have a chilly atmosphere ' and there is an austerity about the j whole place which not even the prox- ; imity of the dwellings of common foil: j can soften. Holyrood is steeped in history. Walk i through the ruined Chapel p l0 y and you > walk over the graves of some of Scot- i land's noblest and best. Take off -your j hat there and you will bur pav respect : to the chapel in which was' founded , Scotland's noblest order of chivalry, the ' Knighthood of the Thistle. Parliaments \ and Councils have met within those [ grey walls and from their decisions his- : ton,- was made. Indeed, it is almost | impossible to visit Edinburgh without j recalling the Kings and Queens and ; chiefs and fighting me-i that trod the j "old town'" streets and made its won- i derful history. Above all Holyrood is the i shrine of that swiftest and most com- i plete historical, tragedy, the reign of ! Mary Queen of Scots. Lives and Deaths of the Great. \ You may be told all that is known ! of the history of the palace. How if j was originally a monastery to which • fighting Scottish kings sent their fami- ! lies for safety when they went forth to j war, how sometimes the monarch him- j self sought sanctuary there and how the determination came to one of them to turn the religious house into a royal I home. Eight kings, 'wo Roberts, and ' six James made Holyrood their home. ; It was there that was celebrated the ■ wedding of the English .Margaret Tudor i to the Scottish King James IV., which i was to give their great-grandson, the ! right to the British throne; All this is \ interesting, but it is not until lie is ! shown the window of the chamber in I which James V., father of Mary Queen I of Scots, died muttering that his throne ! "came wi' a lass and goes wi' a lass"! that a thrill comes to am- visitor of British blood.. ' j He will not understand all that it j means to a Scot even then, but he will ' be aware, almost in spite of himself J of the compelling, vivid personality of { Scotland's deathless Queen. The front j of the palace with its two towers and j the imposing gateway leading into the j inner court is impressive. Inside the j courtyard the present-day royal suites j lie in front and to the rigiit. They j have their interest to the oversea visi- i tor, but the soul of Holyrood lies in that old wing of the Palace reached by I a staircase on the left of the courtyard. ! Up that" staircase one gloomy day in ; August, 1561, came the lonely young Queen. In that stern building much of j the drama of her six years' reign was j enacted. Widowed before she was 19, her acceptance of her royal duty, necessitating as it did departure from the France she loved, and from nearly all else that life held for her of cheer and comfort, must at least be accounted a sacrifice of self to duty. A Secret Stairway. In the old Audience Chamber Mary held her first receptions. It is a sombre room. Its fittings are old and timeworn. The same applies to the Queen's bedroom adjoining and still more to the small "supping room." Queen} Mary's bed is shown to the visitor, and i he may ponder if he will gaze upon the ghastly vigils she kept in that grim chamber. There is the private staircase leading to her Consort's apartments up which strode the conspirators or patriots—according to one's point of view—who came to remove what they considered the baleful influence of the Queen's secretary Eizzio. They were stern days and at the top of the staircase the favourite was murdered with as little compunction as a poultryfarmer would kill a weasel that invaded the hen roost. Is it any wonder that the young Queen, not long a wife again and soon to be a mother, saw in the murder of Eizzio the cleavage between her husband and his people that was irreparable! Her vow, uttered in that same supper room to "study revenge" proved no empty resolve. Nor did even Mary's tragic fate complete the Stuart adversity. In the old Audience Chamber is shown the State bed occupied by her grandson, Charles 1., after his coronation as King of the Scots. He, like his grandmother, was to complete on the scaffold a further chapter of the Stuart drama, and, like her again, to show the world how in dying Koyalty could at least maintain its pergonal dignity and self-respect. A Gallery of Kings. In that bed. too, rested the "Young Pretender" a night or two after Prestonpans had seemed almost to open the road back to the English throne. Alas for Stuart hopes, it sheltered later the "Butcher Cumberland" after the awful vengeance of Culloden. It remained for the "Merry Monarch" to try to brighten Holyrood. It was Charles 11who had the portraits of the Kings of Scotland added to the picture gallery —and such pictures! There are 110 of them, "monarchs," said Sir Walter Scott, "if they ever flourished at all, lived several hundred years before the invention of painting in oil colours." The artist was a Dutchman, one James de Witt, who record has it. bound himself to punt and deliver within two vears from the signing of the contract, and for a salary of £l2O per annum, 110 portraits, "in large royal postures." of all the kings, mythical and actual, who had reigned over Scotland, "from King Fergus I. to King Charles il.. our gracious Soveraigne." It was also part of the contract that de Witt had to find his own paint and canvas, and inscribe each portrait with the name of the subject, "the names of the kings most famoiy; in large characters and the remanent lesser ! characters!" ! De Witt carried out his contract, j turning out Scottish monarehs at the i rate of over one a week for two years, at JOs a head \ Surelv no artist worked , harder or had a greater output in so j short a time! i But it is the spirit of the Scottisn [ Queen that dominates Holyrood. Sym- j pathise or condemn, or do both, the j poignancy of the drama she created i -tiil compels interest. The Palace ft j Hclyrood is fit setting for the stern j story. j