Page:A Companion and Useful Guide to the Beauties of Scotland.djvu/138

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120
A DESCRIPTION OF

it, must have been in the highest style of Gothic architecture, and the most beautiful in Scotland, except the chapel at Roslin. The chapel at Holyroodhouse was certainly at first in the exact form of a cross; but by the erection of that vile north side of the quadrangle, one part of the cross, and half the grand door, are entirely taken away. Without doubt, originally, that fine door must have been perfect and entire; and to complete the front, a projecting square, similar to the one which now stands to the north of the door, must also have existed on the south of it, forming, on the whole, the exact shape of a cross. The out-building now called Mary's Kitchen, must also have been erected long since the chapel; and all the outlets belonging to the apartments of Duke Hamilton and Lord Dunmore, with the ground on which Queen Mary's Kitchen stands, must have been, in David the First's time, an area before the grand entrance into the chapel. The outside of the fine ruin is at present better worth looking at, than the inside; though a stranger may as well see both. Poor Darnley's bones (if they be his) are often disturbed by the rude hand of the shewer of them. The beautiful roof of this chapel fell down in the year 1768.