"Since good king David reared thy walls."
The Abbey of Holyrood was founded by David the First, in 1128. The Scottish legend says, that while hunting and separated from his train, he was attacked and overthrown by a wild stag, and rescued from impending death by the sudden appearance of an arm from a dark cloud, holding a luminous cross, which so frightened the furious animal, that he fled away into the depths of the forest. The monarch determined to erect a religious house on the very spot of his deliverance, and to call it Holyrood, or Holy Cross. It might be proper to supply a strong reason for the selection of so obscure a site, but scarcely necessary to invent a miracle for so common an occurrence, as the erection of an ecclesiastical edifice by king David, as it is well known that fifteen owe their origin to him; among which are the fine abbeys of Melrose and Dryburgh, Kelso and Jedburgh, with the Cathedrals of Glasgow and Aberdeen. The gratitude of the monastic orders, whom he patronized, conferred on him the title of Saint; but the heavy expenses thus incurred imposed many burdens upon his realm, and caused James the Sixth, not inappositely, to style him "a saur saint to the crown."
The first view of Holyrood is in strong contrast with the splendid buildings and classic columns of the Calton-Hill. After admiring the monuments of Dugald Stewart and Nelson, and the fine edifice for
