William Nelson A Memoir 25

William Nelson A Memoir 25

Again, in a postscript to one of his letters to the Rev. Charles Shaw,

in the early part of the same year, he says: “My restorations at the

Castle are getting on briskly. The Argyle Tower is far advanced, and as

a piece of architecture it will be a great success. The hospital

building has been made over to me, and operations for the restoration

and conversion of it into what will be almost a facsimile of the old

Parliament Hall have been already begun. It will be a very interesting

building in its reformed condition.” In another letter to the same

correspondent, who was an active member of the local committee for the

erection of the memorial cross at Kinghorn, he thus writes:--“I send you

a letter that I received a few days ago from Lord Napier. I asked him if

he would come to the unveiling of the memorial to Alexander III., and

let his voice be heard on the occasion as one of the speakers; but this,

he says, he will be unable to do. The first part of the letter is of

special interest to you, as it refers to some discoveries that have been

made at the clearing out of the old Parliament Hall in the Castle. They

have been so important that an almost perfect facsimile can be made of

the hall as it was in the days of its glory: all except in the matter of

the tapestry with which the walls were either wholly or partly covered;

and it would be too much to hope for that any part of this should be to

the fore at this time of day. Everything else is known. The roof exists

in its entirety; parts of the floor have been found. It was of Arbroath

pavement; and the account for the freight of the stones from Dundee to

Leith has been recovered in the Rolls of the Exchequer in the Register

Office. The ancient windows have also been discovered, and they just

require to be cleared of the masonry with which they have been built up,

and have fresh mullions inserted; and it is known how the original

mullions would be from specimens that exist in other buildings of the

period. The doorway that formed the ancient main entrance to the

building has been found. The doorway and stair that led to the kitchen,

which was below the hall, have also been discovered; and the kitchen

exists in its entirety, it being made use of as a store for clothing for

the troops. From the great size of it and that of the fireplace, it is

clear that creature comforts were not overlooked in days of yore by our

old Scottish legislators.”

 

Public interest grew apace as the work of restoration in the Castle

progressed. The Argyle Tower, as it approached completion, presented an

attractive feature, harmonizing admirably with the older remains of the

fortress, and attracting the notice of all, as seen from Princes Street.

As the rumour of one after another of the discoveries of original

portions of the great hall, furnishing valuable guidance for its

restoration, gained currency, fresh zest was given to public curiosity.

Paragraphs, such as the one quoted below, made their appearance from

time to time in the daily press, until a general interest was revived,

and a renewed anxiety expressed, not only for completing the restoration

of the ancient buildings, but for making such modifications of the

huge, unsightly pile of barracks and other modern structures within the

Castle as should make them harmonize in some degree with its ancient

features.

 

“Yesterday afternoon the Marquis of Lothian, along with Mr. William

Nelson, drove up to Edinburgh Castle and examined the alterations which

are being carried out there at the expense of the latter. The work of

clearing out the old Parliament Hall is proceeding apace. Finely-carved,

and in most cases well-preserved, freestone corbels have been uncovered

underneath the plaster. In no two cases are the designs on these corbels

alike. In one it is a lion’s head, in another a thistle, in a third a

rose, a fourth is a female head, while others bear the letters I.R., and

I.H.S., the former evidently meant for ‘James Rex.’ At the north-eastern

corner of the hall, the top of a staircase which apparently must have

led from ‘the Queen Mary’ apartments in the Palace to the balcony

outside the Parliament Hall, has been discovered; but it is not yet

known at what point in the royal apartments the lower end of the

staircase came out. The restoration of the Argyle Tower is rapidly

approaching completion, and the masons are now engaged in building the

hewn stones on the roof.”

 

One result of all this was that Mr. Nelson responded to the intelligent

interest manifested in the work now in progress by arranging for a

succession of Saturday visits to the Castle. I am indebted to an old

friend, who shared in the pleasure of those informal gatherings, for the

following account of them: “They were attended by artists and

antiquaries, professors from the University, and literary men; to whom

were added occasionally some distinguished stranger, as well as officers

of rank who felt a professional interest in the work. Along with those

were always to be seen some of the clerks and workmen from Parkside; and

it was very pleasant to notice the kind way in which he made them feel

at their ease, and indeed seemed totally unconscious of anything

unusual, as he turned from some learned professor or officer of rank to

address himself with marked respect to one of his own employés, and

explain to him the significance of some recently disclosed portions of

the original building.”

 

Meanwhile the grand scheme of a tour by the Volga to Astrakhan, and by

the Caspian Sea and the overland route to Batoum on the Black Sea, and

so to Greece, had been first delayed, and then greatly modified. In the

midst of all this preoccupation with mediæval restorations in his own

romantic town, he turned anew to the favourite classical studies of

early years; and his letters in the spring and summer of 1886 show that

Hellenic history, and the associations that linger around every cape and

mountain, river and vale of Greece, had quickened into an intense

longing to explore their storied scenery. In the month of August 1887,

I was off on a holiday ramble in the White Mountains--the Highlands of

New England--where a letter followed me, the last I was ever to receive

from my oldest surviving friend. “I intend,” he wrote, “to set out on a

trip to Greece about the middle of next month, taking with me a party

which will consist of Mrs. Nelson, Meta, Alice, and Dr. Walter Smith,

who will act as chaplain. We will go direct to Trieste from London,

_via_ Dover, Calais, Basle, and Venice; and will sail for Athens by the

Austrian Lloyd’s steamer which leaves on Saturday, the 24th, for the

Piræus; a voyage which will occupy about three and a half days. After

spending a fortnight there, we will likely, if all is well, push on for

Constantinople; and after being there for about a week, will return home

as rapidly as possible. Such at least is my present intention, and I

trust that nothing will occur to prevent my carrying out the programme.”

He then gives an account of the successful completion of the work at St.

Bernard’s Well, and thus proceeds: “As to the Castle, the Argyle Tower

is finished, and it forms a striking object viewed from Princes Street,

and is a great improvement to the outline of the north side of the

Castle. The architect deserves great praise for having done his part so

well in the restoration of this building. The room that is above what

was the old state prison is a very fine one, and the feeling of the

architecture of the period that he has aimed at--which is, if I remember

right, about the year 1500--is admirably carried out. The room, when I

get it hung round with engravings of the Castle at different periods

from 1573 downwards, and also get it decorated in various parts with

trophies of arms and armour, which I am to have permission to select

from the armoury in the Castle, will be one of the most interesting

rooms there. My collection of views of the Castle will be largely taken

advantage of for the decoration of this room. The view from the top of

the tower is, I need not say, one of the finest in Europe; and there is

a path right round, so that the view can be seen from all points.

 

“The old Parliament Hall has been at a stand-still for some time; but

Mr. Blanc has drawings for the windows and doors completed, and

estimates for them are now being taken. Here is a point on which I would

like to be enlightened. You say in your ‘Memorials of Edinburgh:’ ‘From

the occasional assembling of the Parliament here, while the Scottish

monarchs continued to reside in the Castle, it still retains the name of

the Parliament House.’ Now at a gathering of eminent men of Edinburgh

that I had at the Castle some time ago, Mr. Dickson of the antiquarian

department of the Register Office took it upon him to give an address to

the party when they were in the said hall; and he said in the course of

it that it was quite a misnomer to connect the word parliament with the

building, as the old Scottish Parliament met in the Tolbooth, and there

does not exist any evidence to show that any of its meetings were ever

held in the old Parliament Hall. What do you say to this, my dear old

fellow? A few lines about the matter by return of mail from you will be

a favour. By the way, a discovery has been made lately in regard to the

building which will interest you. It is that the walls are much older

than the corbels, the latter having been found to have been stuck into

them: Mr. Blanc is of opinion about two hundred years after they were

built. What do you say to this discovery?”

 

I was out of the reach of mails, as well as of books; and so August had

passed into September ere an answer could be penned to the above

queries. “The hall,” as I wrote in reply, “was undoubtedly the great

banquet-hall of the Castle, where, when the king resided there, he

occupied the daïs, along with the nobles in attendance, while inferior

guests and retainers sat at the table below. But such halls were

available for any large assembly; and in truth Scotland had no regular

Parliament House till the reign of Charles I. Old Parliaments for the

most part followed the Court, and found a place for meeting as they best

could--in the hall of some great abbey or royal castle; or failing

either, in a church or town hall. When, for example, Philip IV. of

France quarrelled with the Pope in 1302, the only place of meeting that

Paris could furnish for the States General was the church of Notre Dame.

When the English Court was at Westminster, the Parliament turned St.

Stephen’s Chapel to like account; and the Blackfriars’ Monastery at

Perth, in all probability, afforded the usual place of meeting for the

Scottish Parliament, till the assassination of James I. in 1437 led to

the transference of the Court to Edinburgh, with a view doubtless to

safe royal residence within the Castle. Only one Parliament, the

thirteenth of his reign, met at Edinburgh, in what hall is not

specified. But, immediately after the death of the poet-king, the first

Parliament of the new reign assembled there; and the record for once

leaves no doubt. It runs thus: ‘Quo die comparentibus tribus regni

statibus apud Edinburgh, omnes comites, nobiles, et barones, ac

liberi-tenentes dicti regni, venientes ad Castrum de Edinburgh.’ From

that memorable date may possibly have originated the tradition which

survived when, in the middle of last century, Maitland described the

hall as ‘a large ancient edifice, formerly the Parliament House, now

converted into a barrack.’ As to the Tolbooth, the one we know of was

only erected in the reign of James V., and while it was building the

council met in the Holy Blood aisle of St. Giles’s Church.”

 

This and much more, in response to the welcome letter from beyond the

sea, was all fully set forth; for the subject gave occasion for frequent

correspondence between us, as one in which his sympathies were largely

enlisted, and which engaged his latest thoughts; and so it claims a