,
And seen from cavern'd Hawthornden.

Seemed all on fire that chapel proud,
Where Roslin's chiefs uncoffined lie,
Each baron, for a sable shroud,
Sheathed in his iron panoply.

Seemed all on fire within, around,
Deep sacristy and altar's pale;
Shone every pillar foliage-bound,
And glimmered, all the dead men's mail.

Blazed battlement and pinnet high,
Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair,
So will they blaze, when fate is nigh
The lordly line of high St. Clair.

There are twenty of Roslin's barons bold
Lie buried, within that proud chapelle;
Each one the holy vault doth hold;
But the sea holds lovely Rosabelle!

And each St. Clair was buried there,
With candle, with book, and with knell;
But the sea caves rung, and the wild winds sung,
The dirge of lovely Rosabelle."

There are many allusions in this which show Scott's minute habits of
observation; for instance, these two lines:--

"Blazed battlement and pinnet high,
Blazed every rose-carved buttress fair."

Every buttress, battlement, and projection of the exterior is incrusted
with the most elaborate floral and leafy carving, among which the rose
is often repeated, from its suggesting, by similarity of sound, Roslin.

Again, this line--

"Shone every pillar foliage-bound"--

suggests to the mind the profusion and elaborateness of the leafy
decorations in the inside. Among these, one pillar, garlanded with
spiral wreaths of carved foliage, is called the "Apprentice's Pillar;"
the tradition being, that while the master was gone to Rome to get some
further hints on executing the plan, a precocious young mason, whom he
left at home, completed it in his absence. The master builder summarily
knocked him on the head, as a warning to all progressive young men not
to grow wiser than their teachers. Tradition points out the heads of the
master and workmen among the corbels. So you see, whereas in old Greek
times people used to point out their celebrities among the stars, and
gave a defunct hero a place in the constellations, in the middle ages he
only got a place among the corbels.

I am increasingly sorry that I was beguiled out of my personal
examination of this chapel, since I have seen the plates of it in my
Baronial Sketches. It is the rival of Melrose, but more elaborate; in
fact, it is a perfect cataract of architectural vivacity and ingenuity,
as defiant of any rules of criti