stirling-1963-vol-1/05_220

Transcription

No. 192 -- CASTLES AND TOWER-HOUSES -- No. 192
of Scotland, was born in Edinburgh Castle, but he was
baptised in the Chapel Royal at Stirling on 17th
December 1566, and after the ceremony the company
"past to the greit hall to the supper". ¹ In January 1567
the Queen was at Stirling again and, while there,
complained that the house where the prince was nursed
was "incommodious, because, the situation being damp
and cold, he was in danger of catching rheumatism". ²
The child became King, on his mother's abdication, on
24th July 1567, being crowned in the parish church of
Stirling five days later; and it was in Stirling Castle that
he grew up with George Buchanan and Peter Young as
his instructors. ³ There Mr. James Melvill saw him at the
age of eight, in the autumn of 1574 - "the sweitest sight
in Europe that day, for strange and extraordinar gifts
of Ingyne, iudgment, memorie and langage". ⁴
Much light is thrown on the contemporary condition
of the various buildings in the Castle by an estimate for
repairs which was drawn up in May 1583. ⁵ From this we
learn that the roof of the Great Hall was in poor con-
dition, and that water was also penetrating the wall-
heads. The roofs of the gatehouse of the Forework and
of the W. quarter of the Palace were in no better case,
while the Chapel Royal leaked so badly that "the kingis
hienes may nocht weill remane within the same in tyme
off weitt or rane". Moreover, part of the N. long wall,
close to the kitchen tower, had collapsed, seriously
affecting the security of the Castle at this point ⁶; the
reference is probably to the wall that separates the cen-
tral part of the Castle from the Nether Bailey, the
kitchen tower being the building now known as the
Mint. ⁷ Important proposals were made with regard to
the W. range of the Palace block, which, it was suggested,
should be pulled down and rebuilt, "quhilk qwarter off
the said paleys is the best and maist plesand sitwatioune
off ony of his hienes palayes be ressone it will have the
maist plesand sycht of all the foure airthis, in speciall
perk and gairdin, deir thairin, up the rawerais of Forth,
Teyth, Allone, and Gwddy [Goodie] to Lochlomwnd,
ane sycht rownd about in all pairtis and downe the
rewear of Forthe quhair thair standis many greit stane
howssis provyding thair be ane fair gallery beildit on
the ane syd of the said work withe ane tarras on the
uther syde of the said work, and this foirsaid gallerie
and tarras to be beildit and bigit upone the heich pairtis
off the foirsaid work". It was suggested that the King's
suite should then be transferred to the rebuilt W.
quarter. It was further proposed that "in cais the west-
qwarter off the foirsaid palays were beildit and bigit as
is foirsaid thane it wer necessar for the owtsett off the
said paleys and making of the cowrt and clois large and
mair to ane better fassioun to tak away the cheppell and
to big the same neirby the northe bak wall in ane uther
sort of biging, to the pwrpois that oure Queyne withe
hir tryne off ladyis may pas fwrthe off this new dewyssit
work into the said cheppell loft, and the king grace saitt
to be bigit direclie annent the pwppeit thairof". This
account shows that the Chapel Royal, as restored by
James III, stood until 1594 in what is now the Upper
Square (cf. p. 182). The scheme envisaged would
seem to have entailed not only the rebuilding of the W.
quarter, but also its extension northwards ⁸ to form the
W. side of the Upper Square ⁹; the chapel would have
been moved northwards to form the N. side of the
Square and "this being done the close and cowrt will
stand neirby upone sqware in all pairtis". The proposal
was plainly an ambitious one, and in the event nothing
seems to have been done to carry it out at the time. The
suggestion for the siting of a new chapel was followed
up eleven years later, however, when the Chapel Royal
came to be rebuilt (cf. p. 186).
On 6th May 1584 an inventory was made of the
furnishings and munitions of the Castle, and this
document ¹⁰ throws an interesting light on the permanent
furniture of the apartments that had been used by
James VI. It is too long to reproduce in full, but some
extracts will give a general idea of its contents. Thus it
mentions, in the Queen's Presence Chamber, a dining-
table with its trestles, two long forms and a shorter one,
two large shelved stands for the display of plate ("cope
buirdis"), and two trestles for another table; in the
Queen's Bed Chamber a room table; in the Queen's
Guard Hall a large shelved stand; in the re-vestry of
the chapel "ane manemill" and a pair of bellows for
organs; in the chamber of a former maid-of-honour a
"four quarterit buird" with two forms and some fir
boards; in another chamber a box-bed of Baltic pine,
with a room table; in the chamber beside the King's
Wardrobe a little table; in the fiddlers' chamber beside
the Great Hall two short tables, a seat fastened to the
wall, two little forms, three four-poster beds, and an old
chest, with an old table in an adjoining room; in the
Great Hall a large old dining-table, with a long form, a
great high dais of fir boards, a great ladder, and a large
locked chest for clothing; in the minister's chamber a
fir bed, an oak chair, and an empty barrel; in the loft at
the end of the Great Hall two ladders; in the outer
portion of the armoury a bucket for the draw-well, with
an iron chain, etc., three iron lanterns, some torches "for

1 A Diurnal of Remarkable Occurrents, etc., Bannatyne Club,
104.
2 Buchanan, The History of Scotland, ed. Aikman (1827),
ii, 487.
3 Hist. MSS. Comm., Report on the Manuscripts of the Earl
of Mar and Kellie (1904), 30; R.P.C., ii (1569-78), 688 f.
4 Diary of Mr. James Melvill, Bannatyne Club, 38.
5 M. of W. Accts., i, 310-1.
6 Army and Navy Records, Inventories of Artillery in various
Royal Castles, 1556-93, H.M. General Register House.
7 This still contains a large kitchen-fireplace on the first
floor (cf. p. 215).
8 The axis of the W. quarter is alined slightly, and that of the
King's Old Building considerably, W. of N.; but the cardinal
points are used, for convenience, in references to the Palace,
Upper Square are associated buildings.
9 No mention is made of the King's Old Building, however,
which probably occupied the W. side of the Square at this time
(cf. p. 216). If the W. quarter had been extended northwards to
meet the S. end of the King's Old Building, internal access
could then have been obtained from the Palace to a chapel
occupying the N. side of the Square.
10 Hist. MSS. Comm., Ninth Report, Part II (2nd Appendix),
pp. 192 f., No. 52.

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