impressed itself even on the memory of a child,
and of the strange wild funeral procession, with all its associations of
grief and terror, which had stumbled down the dangerous rocks in the
mist thirty-five years before, was in David's mind, it would be vain to
inquire. The black rood of itself, besides these touching and sacred
associations, was a relic of almost unequalled sanctity, and well
warranted the erection of a holy house for its guardianship and
preservation. How far the street, which would be little more than a
collection of huts, had crept down the Castle Hill towards the new
monastery in the valley there is no evidence to show, but no doubt both
the castle and the religious house were soon surrounded by those humble
scattered dwellings, and David's charter itself makes it plain that
already the borough of Edinburgh was of some importance. Part of the
revenues of the monastery were to be derived from the dues and taxes of
the town, and it was also endowed with "one half of the tallow, lard,
and hides of the beasts slain in Edinburgh," an unsavoury but no doubt
valuable gift. The canons of the Abbey of Holyrood, or Holyrood House as
it is called from the beginning with a curious particularity, had also
permission to build another town between themselves and Edinburgh, which
would naturally cluster round the Canon's Gate--the road that led to St.
Cuthbert's, at the farther end of the North Loch, where every man could
say his mass; or more directly still to the dark little chapel upon the
castle rock, made sacred by all its memorials of the blessed Margaret.
The nucleus of the future capital is thus plainly apparent between the
two great forces of that age, the Church, the great instrument of
congregation and civilisation, and the Stronghold, in which at any
moment of danger refuge could be taken. It is curious to realise the
wild solitude of this historical ridge, with its rude houses coming into
being one by one, the low thatched roofs and wattled walls which in the
course of time were to give place to buildings so stately. The Canongate
would be but a country road leading up towards the strong and gloomy
gate which gave entrance to the _enceinte_ of the castle--itself like
some eagle's nest perched high among the clouds.

The line of Margaret went on till her sons held their Courts and dated
their charters from Holyrood House, and Parliaments were held and laws
made in the Castle of Edinburgh, and the scatte