Although we have accounts of many religious houses in Edinburgh which have fallen into decay, yet, as far as regards the architecture, excepting the abbey of Holy rood-house, there is no vestige deserving of much notice. This, as has already been observed, was founded by Da vid I. in 1128, and endowed with extensive privileges and jurisdiction. It suffered much when the English burnt the palace in 1544, but was speedily repaired. At the Restoration, King Charles gave it a complete repair, and ordered that it should be set apart as a chapel royal ; a throne was erected for the sovereign, and twelve stalls for Knights of the Thistle ; but its splendour was of short duration, in consequence of a mass having been celebrated in it, in the time of James VII. the populace sacked the inside. In 1758, the roof was injudiciously covered with heavy stone slate, in consequence of which it fell down in 1768 ; since that time, no attempts have been made to repair it. This edifice is of the finest style of Gothic architecture; part of the arches arc highly pointed; on the south side are flying buttresses ; on the other side they are solid, but of an elegant form, and ornamented with canopied niches and pinnacles on the top; the windows of this side are but slightly pointed. This variation of style arose, no doubt, from its having been repaired at sundry times. Dallaway, in his .anec dotes of the Arts in England, p. 30. says, " Of Gothic architecture in Scotland, the most beautiful pieces which remain entire, have their date in the prior part of the 15th century. They are the chapel at Roslin, and that to the palace of Holyrood-house, the last mentioned of was finished about 1440, by King James II. of that realm. Their sides arc flanked with flying buttresses, like those at King's College and Westminster, but with happier effect, because in a purer style.
The Parliament House was begun in 1631, and corn pieta about 1640, at the expence of 11,600/. The style is similar, in many respects, to that of criot's Ilospital; and therefore, probably a design of Inigo Jones. Its front to the square was plain, but respectable; it had hanging square turrets at the extreme angles, with a round tower at the interior angle of the square. Some of the windows had pointed pediments; others flat cornices, with sculp tured ornaments over them. The principal entrance had pilasters, and a flat entablature. There were statues over the pilasters, and a tablet, with a pediment over it, in the middle between the pilasters. The parapet, along the front, was a sort of fret work. The great hall is 122 by 49 feet, with a statue of Lord President Forbes, by Roubilliac. This edifice is now considerably changed, to receive the new courts of justice.
Heriot's Hospital is known to be a design of Inigo Jones. It teas begun in July 1628; it was interrupted by the national disturbances in 1639 ; was again proceed ed with in 1642, and completed in 1650, at an expence of about 30,0001. It consists of one square court, encom passed with buildings; it has projecting turrets at the external angles, and a square tower over the entrance, which is carried up to double the height of the rest of the building, and finished with a cupola. Belts or string courses divide the several stories. The windows have pediments over them; some of these are pointed, some circular, and open in the middle. The entrance arch way has coupled Doric columns with fully enriched en tablature; but this is broken by heavy trusses, having grotesque Gothic ornaments. The mouldings round the arch terminates in a scroll; and there are pinnacles over the coupled columns. Immediately above the archway
are twisted Corinthian columns: the whole frontispiece is crowned and surrounded by minute sculptures. The interior of the square, which is about 32 yards by 30, has arcades on two sides, and towers at the four angles, in which are stairs. The windows of three sides have pilasters and regular sculptured ornaments over them. In the upper row, on the north or entrance side, in the middle of the sculpture over the windows, there are small niches, with busts in them ;---this produces a fine effect. On the south side is the chapel, with very large Gothic windows; but the entrance door has small coupled Corinthian columns, with a circular pediment over each pair, and both these surmounted by a strange sort of cir cular open pediment.
We know of no other instance, in the works of a man of acknowledged talents, where the operation of changing styles is so evident. In the chapel windows, although the general outlines are fine Gothic, the mouldings are Roman. in the entrance archways, although the princi pal members are Roman, the pinnacles, trusses, and mi nute sculptures partake of the Gothic. The outlines of the whole design have evidently been modelled on the latter style, of the baronial castellated dwelling. It forms one of the most magnificent features of this singular city, and is a splendid monument of the munificence of one of its citizens, George Ileriot, a goldsmith in the reign of James the V I.
We have no direct evidence at what period the palace of Holyrood-house was first built. The north-west towers were erected by James V. The palace was burnt by the English, in the minority of Queen Mary, but speedily repaired. It then consisted of five separate courts. Some small alterations were, it is said, made by Inigo Jones, at the time he returned from Denmark with the queen of James I. Great part of this palace wSs burnt by Cromwell's soldiers. The present edifice was designed by Sir William Bruce, a celebrated archi tect in the time of Charles II. and executed by Alexan der Mylne, a mason, to whom a monument has been erected near the Old Abbey. It consists of one square, three sides of which have three stories, composed of the Doric, Ionic, and Corinthian orders. Round the interior of the square, there is an arcade. The west side, in which is the entrance, is only two stories high. Its ex ternal façade is a mixed architecture, having a round castellated tower at each extremity. The entrance is ornamented by a fully enriched Roman Doric, with a whimsical shaped open pediment, over the centre of which there is a cupola, with very small Corinthian co lumns, having its covering or roof in the shape of an imperial crown. Had the whole of the entrance front corresponded with the towers at the extremities, it would have been expressive of strength and protection; as it is, we can hardly wish them exchanged for features of Roman architecture. The external front eastward has a distinct order to each of its three stories; the entabla ture, being continued along the whole front without a break, has a fine effect; the roof is after the French fashion, very high and concave. Though the inside of the square, by the introduction of three orders, has the parts rendered minutely small, yet the outlines being free of unnecessary projections and recesses, and the two upper rows of windows being large and plain, the whole exhibits a correctness and simplicity not frequently met with.