I. ROYAE E TOME SEARCNOTETH TH TH F BF LR O S O H FOUNDRESFO S OF THE COLLEGIATE CHUEOH OF THE HOLY TRINITY AT EDIN- BURGH. BY PEOFESSOB DANIEL WILSON, LL.D., HON. MEM. S.A. SCOT., TOEONTO. The receipt of a copy of the " Historical Notices" accompanying the Registrum Eccles. Coll. S. Trin. prope Edinburg, etc., from my old friend Authore th , tempt resumo t e sm subjecea t which formerly engagee dth ANTIQUARIE5 55 SCOTLANDF SO . t havattentioevew no no ney los l interesma f both e no al td th an r , fo t members of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. Exactly four centurie thie sar s year completed sinc e foundinth e f go e Collegiatth e Churce Holth yf o hTrinit t Edinburgya Mary b h f yo G-ueldres widowee th , d quee f Jameno s II. 1462e n e deati , th Th f .ho Queen-Dowager took place on the 16th November of the following year; and although the work appears to have been carried on with great energy during the interval, under the directions of Sir Edward Bonkill, the first provost, and of the architect, John Halkerstone, nevertheless the church was not sufficiently advanced to admit of the obsequies of the royal foundress being performed there s appearA . s fro e accounmth costf o t s Exchequee inth r Eolls, these were celebrated, -with becoming pompn i , Cathedrae th l Churc f Brechinho t therreasoo n Bu s .edoubi o n t t that e royath l remains were finally deposite somn di e beautifu th par f o t l church founded by Mary of G-ueldres, and expressly indicated in the foundation charter destinehe s a r d plac f sepultureo e . Major, whose History was written within less than half a century after the queen's death, thus records the fact:—" Anno 1463, Eegina Scotiaa Edinburgi obiit, et in. Collegio Sanctse Trinitatis, quod quid em ipsa fundaverat, inhumata est." Bishop Lesly and Lindsay of Pitscottie repeat the state- mennothind an ; t g recovered froe contemporarmth y Exchequer Eolls tends to awaken any doubt on the subject. When, ino!848 t becami , e apparent tha l furtheal t r exertion preo st - ven demolitioe th t e venerablth f no e structure were vain, attentios nwa directed to a search for the tomb of the royal foundress, and in this the member e Societth f so f Antiquarie yo f Scotlanso d too activn ka e part; but as the printing of the Society's Transactions had been interrupted for a considerable time, no account of the operations then carried out was preserved in an accessible form. The result, as is well known, was the discovery, and transfer to the royal vault of Holyrood Chapel, of a female skeleton supposee th , d remain royae th f lso foundress t whicbu ; h subsequent event mand sle believo yt therebd eha y usurpe obsequiee dth s due to later discovered human remains. Now that an interval of fourteen year s sufficesha effaco t dslighy an e t irritation which eve suspicioe nth n of blundering in so grave a matter as the identity of royalty may have excited, and that some of the chief actors in the proceedings are gone, 556 PBOCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF -.—far removed fro e scenemth f sucso h friendly contention r themselveo , s among those whose names only remain for us who survive;—it may not be out of place to put on record some slight sketch of the facts connected with the search for the remains of the old Scottish queen, of which I have preserved my notes made at the time. On Sunday, May 14th, 1848, the last religious services were solemnised in the ancient church, prior to its abandonment to the spoilers, with who e Nortmth h British Eailway Compan d alreadyha y contracter fo d demolitions it e magistrateTh . e citth y f attendeso thein di r roben o s this final service; and as I scanned with unavailing regret the richly carved e bossegroineth f o se substantiadth roofd an , l masonre th f yo beautiful interior,—then exhibiting little more indication of decay than When the remains of the foundress were laid beneath its flooring,—I still remember feeling tha e somewhath t t incongruous ostentatio civie th f cno dignitaries, by whom it had been abandoned to destruction, rather sug- gested their presenc executionn a t ea , tha renderine nth g fitting honour to a singularly interesting historical monument. The late Bev. Dr Steven, the incumbent of the parish, entered into the feelings which the occasion was calculated to awaken, and preached his last sermon within the time-honoured walls from the text Matt. xxiv. 2, " Verily I say unto you, There shall not lie left here one stone upon another, that shall not lie thrown down." . ' • • On Monday, 22d May, the officers of the Board of Works commenced their search for the remains of the Queen. The first excavation was e nortth f ho e aisleeasd madth en tt ,a e nea whico rt finelha y carved though mutilated credence table showed where one of the side altars had e arestoode leveth af Th o l.occupiew lo e church th e th y d b n i , n abrup a vallefooe Townf d th o t t Ol d tundergonya ascene ha , th o t t e such change graduae th y sb l accumulation nearlf so y four centuries, that •the floobeed ha rn repeatedly raise attemptn di counteraco st increass it t - dampnessg in , untie pillarbasee th th l f so were concealed. After dig- ging through this modern deposit excavatione th , s exposed, beneate hth original floor remaine th , stona f so e vault, wit skule othehd th an l r por- tiona skeleton—possibly f so s thewa n s a ,supposed f Bishoo , p Spence, interred there in 1480; but it had been broken into at some former period everythind an , g removed -that might have indicate rane dth f ko ANTIQUARIE7 55 SCOTLANDF SO . e deceasedth e dat th f interment o er o , . Further research sufficeo t d show that the whole north aisle had been used for sepulture ; and exca- vations in other portions of the church, including the apse, revealed similar traces, though, as afterwards appeared, the search at the east end was not carried tsufficienoa t depth. Attention was then directed to the building on the north side of the church, latterly used as the vestry, but which bore unmistakeable evi- dence of its original destination as a chapel. It was lighted by a deeply splayed windo e norte easth th thn w n i i wall walld an beautifull;a , y sculptured piscina, finer than any in the church, and the portion of a broken stone shelf credencr o , e table, indicate e altare sitth e f Th dth e.o foundation charter provide weekla r fo s y e celebratemasb o e t s th t da Altar of the Blessed Virgin ; and it entirely accords with the arrange- ments in churches of the period, to believe that this was the Lady Chapel and Chantry of the foundress, dedicated to the Virgin Mother, whose name she bore. A special clause in the foundation charter appoints and ordains, that " whenever any of the said prebendaries shall read mass, he shall, after the samesacerdotas hi n i , l habiliments, repai rtom e toth f bo the foundress with hyssop, and there devoutly read over the prayer de profundis, together with that of the faithfid, and an exhortation to excite the people to devotion." This chape s enterewa l d fro norte mth he churc aislth cira f y -eo hb cular-headed doorway finf o , e proportion workmanshid san paddition i ; n to which e remova e th plaste, th f o lr brough o light t hagioscopea t , obliquely piercin same gth e wall affordind an , e th site vief a gth e o f wo high altar fro e centre chapelmth th f eo , wher e supposeth e d roya- re l mains were found. Externally the'buttresn o , e north-easth f so t angle of the chapel, were the arms of the foundress, G-ueldres, quartered with thos f Scotlandeo . thio T s chapel special attentio directeds nwa , and digginn o ,e th n gi centrfloore th f ,eo about three feet belo modere wth n level workmee ,th n came upo remaine nth pavina f so f glazego d encaustic tile orangf so d ean purple. Below this a mass of solid concrete was found, seemingly en- closing a grave or vault, within which an oaken coffin was disclosed, in extreme decay, containin gfemala r coverino e skeletond li s e gwa Th . gone, hut the'ends were perfect, and rose from the sides in a semicircle', 558 PKOCEEDINGS OF THE SOCIETY OF showing that the coffin had been arched or "waggon-roofed" on top. t measureI lengtn di feeh5 inche1 1 sidee t th s; were straighte th d an , breadth, both at top and bottom, was eighteen inches. It appeared to have been very low at the sides, the requisite height having been obtained by the arched cover ; hut the extreme decay of the wood, arising from the soil being saturated with"moisture fro n ill-constructema d drain, pre- vented minute measurements. When the skeleton was removed, the k plankoa f 'bottoo s e s laifounb m dwa o t dlengthways , wit a singlh e transverse bar across'the centre.