ROBERT THE BRUCE.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume LXV, Issue LXV, 24 December 1913, Page 7

ROBERT THE BRUCE.

WHERE IS HE BURIED?

Sir Herbert Maxwell, Bart, of MonTeith, gave an interesting lecture on the battle of Bannockburn to the mem"bers of the Edinburgh and SouthEastern branch of the Historical Association in Edmburgh University. Referring to the tomb of King Jloberf "tKe Bruce, he remarked that it anight have been hoped that the Scot-

tish- nation, which owed its very existence to the strong will and ready arm of Robert the^Bruce, wuuld Jiave guarded his tomb with-sleepless vigilance as . long; as marble and mortar might cling together, and that the spot of ground ■where the body was laid would be held: sacred—this memorial of our great king would have been proudly preserved. Alas! not so. On March 28, 1560, the choir, transepts, and belfry, as;well as the monastery of Dunfermline, were levelled to the ground by the reformers. Ruin fell upon the monument of (Scotland's greatest ruler, so that when. In 1821, the foundations were cleared | for a new church, no man could point i with certainty ,to the place where Robert the Bruce had beeri laid. . ALL THAT IS LEFT. It was true that a grave was found near where the high altar once stood, and in the grave the bones of a man whose breast bone had been sawn asunder as if for the removal of his heart. Fragments of fine linen, with gold thread running* through it, lay Tound the remains, and all about were shattered morsels of black and white marble, carved and gilt', probably part of the fine monument which it was known that the King had ordered to be carved in Paris for his own tomb. ; A skull lay with the other bones, but who should say for certain that it was the same,that the £reat Plantagenet "had so eagerly desired to see fixed over London Bridge. All that could be said was that it was not improbable that these were the mortal remains of Scotland's greatest King. (Applause.)