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Above this infcription is his coat weftward. These marks are about of arms, furmounted with an Earl's 91 feet diftant from each other, and coronet, with a fpread eagle on the a fmall part of the north wall, about top of the coronet; field, two lions 3 feet from the west gable, is actually rampant, and two fhips; fupporters, built. two griffins; motto, in capitals, COMMIT THY VERK TO GOD' On the top of the tomb there is a pine-apple.

In the west gable there has been a very large arched window, now entirely filled up with ftone and lime. Oppofite to this window, ftraight up from the fecond pillar down from the face of the altar, is another large arched window, out of which one could look over the roof of the altar. This window is likewife filled up with flone and lime, except a small part at top. On each pilafter of this last window there are two niches for ftatues, almost as big as the life.

Straight up from the capital of each large pillar, in the middle area of the chapel, half way up to the top of the high roof, is a niche for a ftatue.

Round the whole chapel within, is a belt or line of a valt variety of wreathing-work in baffo-relievo, proceeding in an horizontal and perpendicular way, the better to humour the foles of the windows, but it is arch ed over the tops of two doors.

The infide of the high arched roof is all cut out into fquares of various figures in flower-work, particularly rofes, foliage, &c.

The welt gable is extended farther than the fide walls of the chapel 26 feet fouth, and as many north; and on the eaft fide of each extenfion there are two pillars equi-diftant from one another, and from each corner, which have been intended to run up into turrets or fpires; from all which, it plainly appears that a much larger building has been cefigned to the weft, of which the prefent chapel would have only been the choir. And indeed the marks of the west gable are very, plain, from whence the fide walls were to have been advanced, whofe foundations have been discovered in plowing up the ground, a good way

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On the outfide of this gable you fee three large doors, all filled up with ftone and lime, whofe lintels and fome of the jams are cut out into foliage and flower-work, and others of the jams are figured into pillars, with flowered capitals; the fouth pilafter of the fouth door, and the north pilaster of the north door, running up, each from its flowered capital, into small genteel pillars, equally-high in their capitals with the tops of the inner-fide wall of the chapel.

There are feveral fonts curiously ornamented, on the outfide of the weft wall; particularly two, one on the north, the other on the fouth of the three doors; each of which is inclofed within two very pretty little flowered pillars or fpires, ending in top with pieces of fculpture refembling fmall flowered vafes.

WILLIAM St CLARE, Prince of Orkney, Duke of Holdenbourg, Earl of Caithnefs, &c. Baron of Roflin, &c. the feventh of the name from the days of Malcolm Kenmore; and descended of noble parents in France, founded this curious chapel or college, for a provoft, fix prebendaries, and two finging boys, in 1445, and dedicated it to St Matthew the Apostle and Evangelift.

The facrifty or veftry was founded by his first Lady, Dame Elizabeth Douglafs, formerly Countefs of Bu chan, and daughter of Archibald, the fecond of that name.

Prince William endowed the chapel with the church lands of Pentland, four acres of meadow near that town, with the kips, and eight fowms grafs in the town of Pentland. A fucceffor of his, alfo William of Roflin, endowed it by his charter of February 5th 1523, with fome portions of land near the chapel, for dwelling-houfes, gardens, &c. to the provost and prebendaries. And yet, fuch is the staH 2

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bility of human affairs, juft forty-eight years after this last endowment, 1571, February 26th, we find the provoft and prebendaries refigning, as by force and violence, all, and every one of the feveral donations, into fe cular hands unalienably: and withal complaining, that for many years before, their revenues had been violent ly detained from them; infomuch that they had received little or no benefit from them. To this deed of refignation, or charter, as it is actually called, the feal of the chapter of this collegiate church was appended, being St Matthew in a kirk, red upon white wax; as alfo the feat of the then Sir William St Clair of Roflin being a ragged cross, red upon white wax. Hay's MS. Memoir's, vol. II. p. 350. In the charter of February 5th 1523, four altars are particularly named; first, that of St Matthew; fecond, that of the Virgin-Mother; third, that of St Andrew; and, fourth, that of St Peter: which two laft, perhaps, have been leffer altars placed at two of the pillars; or, rather, I am inclined to think, as formerly hinted, that the large altar has been divided into two or three; which, with the high altar, and that of the bleffed Virgin, which has been, I suppose, in the facrifty, though there be no veftige of it now, made four or five in all.

That this noble defign might be executed according to tafte, and with the greater fplendor, the Prince invited the most accomplished artificers, mafons, carpenters, fmiths, &c. from foreign parts: and that they might be the more conveniently lodged, for carrying on the work with the greater eafe and difpatch, he ordered them to build the village or town of Roflin, where it now is, nigh to the chapel, the old one being half a mile diftant from its prefent fituation, and he gave each of them a house and lands, in proportion to character. Befides, he gave to the mafter-mafon forty pounds, and to every other mafon

ten pounds yearly; and rewarded the other workmen with fuch wages as their labours entitled them to.

About that time the town of Roflin, being next to Edinburgh and Haddington in all Lothian, became very populous, by the great concourfe of all ranks and degrees of vifitors, that reforted to this Prince, at his palace, or caftle of Roflin, for he kept a great court, and was royally served at his own table, in veffels of gold and filver; Lord Dirleton being his masterhoufhold, Lord Borthwick his cup bearer, and Lord Fleming his carver; in abfence they had deputies to attend, viz. Stewart, Laird of Drumlanrig, Twedie, Laird of Drumerlane, and Sandilands, Laird of Calder. He had his halls, and other apartments, richly adorned with embroidered hangings. He flourished in the reigns of James I. and II.

His Princefs, Elizabeth Douglafs, already mentioned, was ferved by feventy-five gentlewomen, whereof fiftythree were daughters of noblemen, all cloathed in velvet and filks, with their chains of gold, and other ornaments; and was attended by two-hundred riding gentlemen in all her journeys; And if it happened to be dark when the went to Edinburgh, where her lodgings were, at the foot of Blackfriars-wynd, eighty lighted torches were carried before her. In dignity fhe was next to the Queen.

The village of Rollin was erected into a burgh of barony by King James II. at Stirling, June 13th 1456, with a weekly market on Saturday, a yearly fair on the feast of St Simon and Jude, a market crofs, &c. The fame is confirmed by King James VI. January 16th 1622, and by King Charles I. May 6th 1640.

The Princely Founder and Endower of this Chapel died about 1484, before the Chapel was finished; which was done by his eldest son of the fecond marriage, Sir Oliver St Clare of Roflin, whofe mother was Lady Mar

jory

jory Sutherland, defcended of the blood-royal, her great grand mother Jean Bruce being younger daughter of King Robert Bruce. So that the building of this glorious edifice, worthy of a crowned head, though the work of a fubject has employed at leaft forty years; and it is a pity we

cannot now come to the knowledge of the total expence, which must have been a very great fum in thofe days. The father was alive for certain in 1476, as we find him granting charters on September the 9th of that year, to his fon the forefaid Sir Oli

ver.

Review of Bofwell's Life of Dr Johnfon: (Concluded from our laft.) N our laft we endeavoured to give Magazine. There is fomething curi

character and talents of Dr Johnfon, and of this hiftory of his life by Mr Bofwell. We proceed now to give fome account of both, a little more in detail.

The prefent work does not feem materially different from thofe formerly published on the fame fubject, in its narrative of Johnfon's birth, childhood, education, or introduction into life. We may except the important circumftance of the prefent Biographer's fetting the world right as to the Epitaph on the Duck, one of a brood of eleven, which he trod to death when a child of about three years old;

Here lies good mafter duck,

That Samuel Johnfon trod on;
If it had liv'd 'twould been good luck,
For then there had been an odd one.

which Sir John Hawkins and Mr
Piozzi had attributed to the child
himfelf; but which Mr Bofwell, with
a fneer at the Lady's fagacity, gives
to its true author, the father.

Mr Bofwell is a good deal more

early authorship; whoever recollects the avidity with which, in the latter days of his celebrity, his company was fought, will read with a very peculiar feeling the fubfcription to one of his letters to Cave.

"Your's, impranfus,

SAM. JOHNSON."

There is, we believe, fcarce a great or a rich man fo unfeeling as not to wish that Johnfon had found at his table the dinner which he was that day obliged to go without.

Johnfon, however, looked for no patron but the bookfellers, whofe intereft was equally concerned with his own, in the production and fuccefs of his works; and amidst the difficulties and diftreffes of his fituation, he preferved a degree of patience, fortitude, and independence which men of genius and of letters have too often failed to poffefs. His letter to Lord Chesterfield, on the fubject of his Dictionary, now first published, affords an example equally of the manlimefs of his feelings, and of his power of expreffing them.

particular than his predeceffors, in his To the Right Hon. the Earl of CHES

account of Johnson's life and employments after his arrival in London, where he earned a fcanty and precarious fubfiftence, by writing chiefly for Cave, the Editor of the Gentleman's

TERFIELD.

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recommended to the public, were written by your Lordship. To be fo diftinguished, is an honour which, being very little accuftomed to faYours from the great, I know not well how to receive, or in what terms to acknowledge.

When, upon fome flight encouragement, I firft vifited your LordThip, I was overpowered, like the reft of mankind, by the inchantment of your addrefs; and could not forbear to with that I might boast myself Le vainqueur du vainqueur de la terre; that I might obtain that regard for which, I faw the world contending; but I found my attendance fo little encouraged, that neither pride nor modefty would fuffer me to continue it. When I had once addreffed your Lordship in public, I had exhaufted all the art of pleafing which a retired and uncourtly fcholar can poff.fs. I bad done all that I could; and no man is well pleafed to have his all neglect ed, be it ever fo little.

"Seven years, my Lord, have now paft, fince I waited in your outward rooms, or was repulfed from your door; during which time I have been pufhing on my work through difficulties, of which it is ufelefs to complain, and have brought it, at last, to the verge of publication, without one act of affittance, one word of encouragement, or one fmile of favour. Such treatment I did not expect, for I never had a patron before.

"The fhepherd in Virgil grew at laft acquainted with love, and found him a native of the rocks.

"Is not a patron, my Lord, one who looks with unconcern on a man truggling for life in the water, and, when he has reached ground, encumbers him with help? The notice which you have been pleased to take of my Labours, had it been early, had been kind; but it has been delayed till I am indifferent, and cannot enjoy it; till I am folitary, and cannot impart it; till I am known, and do not want

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In tracing the earlier part of Johnfon's literary life, one cannot but take notice of the ease and facility with which he wrote. He could apply his mind to any fubject which the occa fion of the moment required, and the thoughts which its confideration prompted he had always more than enough of words to exprefs. If there was not always genius or feeling in his compofitions, there was at leaft a confiderable fhare of fenfe and acutenefs, and in this business-fort of com pofition he had one advantage over those who write from the voluntary infpiration of particular moments, that

whenever he fat doggedly down to write,' as he expreffed it, he could write. The multiplicity of his performances, the extent of his manufacture (for the phrafe may well be allowed to this cafe), will furprife the reader. He wrote, like a special plead er of the Inns of Court, whatever he was fee'd to write; Sermons for Clergymen, Dedications for Authors, Prefaces and Accounts of New Works for Bookfellers. His favourite maxim always was, that none but blockheads ever wrote from any other motive than that of getting money; its abfurdity and injustice are allowed even by Mr

Bofwell;

Boswell; but his friend never gave himself the trouble to confider them. Johnfon, indeed, had in every thing the true confidence of a bigot; he determined from his own creed, and had no fcruples about its inconfiftency with reafon or with justice.

The plan of this work, when it comes down to the periods of the writer's acquaintance with the fubject of it, is to give a journal or diary of Johnfon's life, as far as Mr Bofwell had an opportunity of witneffing it. He traces him through every hour of his time, and every word of his converfation.

The following will ferve as a fpecimen of this manner which Mr Bofwell, with confiderable felf-approbation and applause (Vid. his Preface) has adopted:

"On Thursday, April 9 I called on him to beg he would go and dine with me at the Mitre tavern. He had refolved not to dine at all this day, I know not for what reafon : and I was fo unwilling to be deprived of his company, that I was content to fubmit to fuffer a want, which was at first fome. what painful, but he foon made me forget it; and a man is always pleafed with himself when he finds his intel Jectual inclinations predominant.

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He obferved, that to reafon too philofophically on the nature of prayer, was very unprofitable.

"Talking of ghofts, he faid, he knew one friend, who was an honeft man and a fenfible man, who told him he had seen a ghost, old Mr Edward Cave the printer at St John's Gate. He faid, Mr Cave did not like to talk of it, but seemed to be in great horror whenever it was mentioned. Bofwell, Pray, Sir, what did he fay was the appearance? Johnson. Why, Sir, fomething of a fhadowy being."

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doubt, Sir, a general report and belief of their having existed." Johnfon. "Sir you have not only the ge neral report and belief, but you have many voluntary folemn confeffions." He did not affirm any thing pofitively upon a fubject which it is the fafhion of the times to laugh at as a matter of abfurd credulity: He only feemed willing, as a candid inquirer after truth, however strange and inexplicable, to fhew that he understood what might be urged for it.

"On Friday, April 10, I dined with him at General Oglethorpe's, where we found Dr Goldsmith.

"Armorial bearings having been mentioned, Johnfon faid, they were as ancient as the fiege of Thebes, which he proved by a paffage in one of the tragedies of Euripides.

"The General told us, that when he was a very young man, I think only fifteen, ferving under Prince Eugene of Savoy, he was fitting in a company at table with a Prince of Wirtemberg. The Prince took up a glass of wine, and, by a fillip, made fome of it fly. in Oglethorpe's face. Here was a nice dilemma. To have challenged him inftantly, might have fixed a quarrelfome character upon the young foldier:-to have taken no notice of it might have been confidered as cowardice. Oglethorpe, therefore, keeping his eye upon the Prince, and fmiling all the time, as if he took what his Highnefs had done in jett, faid, "Mon Prince,”—(I forget the French words he ufed, the purport however was,)" That's a good joke; but we do it much better in England ;" and threw a whole glafs of wine in the Prince's face. An old General who fat by, faid, "Il a bien fait, mon Prince, vous l'avez commencé ;” and thus all ende, in good humour.

"Dr Johnfon fatd," Pray, General, give us an account of the fiege of Bender." Upon which the General,

pouring

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