operation. Mr Thomas Dickson, of the General Register House, has courteously extended facilities. of search, and by rendering available several unprinted documents, has added to the value of our historical details. In the transcription, the Rev. Walter Macleod has exhibited his wonted skill and unwearied diligence. 3 BRANDON STREET, EDINBURGH, December 1881. HISTORY OF THE CHAPEL ROYAL OF SCOTLAND. FATHER HAY, in remarking that at the Reformation the revenues of the Chapel Royal were valued at £5000 sterling, adds, " Comparring this with the course of money att the time of James the fourth, the rent of this Royall Chapell can be no less than five thousand merks Scots money, that is 330 pound sterling, payable out of the lands, and the soume of five thousand pound sterling payable out of the benefices, being recover'd, and reduced to ane ordinary rentall, which soume [they] would easily afford. These of greatest worth were out of the Chapell's possession in James the sixt's daye, in the Priory of Rosneth, belonging to the Canon Regulars." For a time John Duncanson, "minister of the King's House," retained the incumbency of Stirling along with the vicarage of the Chapel Royal. He *Hay's Scotia Sacra MS., Advocates Library. The date of the MS. is uncertain. Hay was born in 1601, and attained an advanced age. resigned his parochial cure subsequent to the 16th January 1571, and it is probable that not long afterwards he accompanied his royal charge to the Palace of Holyrood. Here was constituted as a new Chapel Royal an inconsiderable structure, which stood on the south side of the Palace, and which had been used for worship by the Court, both before the Reformation and subsequently. Of this erection we obtain some account by referring to Sir Robert Drummond's MS. report on the Royal Palaces. This report, which is dated 7th May 1583, contains the following entries: "THE PAYLEIS OFF HALYRWDOWS. * " Item, To repair the Cheppell of the said paleys to the Kingis Majesties honowre, ane honorabill saitt to be maid to his hienes, togidder withe ane chanchelar wall of tymmer withe ane trym powpeit and fformes and saittis encirclat rownd abowt as efféiris and without the chanchelar wall certane formis to be maid. "Item, Foure dissone of vanescott to the Kingis Majesteis saitt and powpeit; price thairof, ane hunder merkis. "Item, Ten corballis to fwrneis the said workis; price thairof, twenty pundis. Item, Half ane hunder dellis to the foirsaid work, Xxlib "Item, Twentie fyret treis to the sollis and binding of the saidis formis, price, Item, For boltis bandis of irone and iron naillis with ane lotte gleu and.. . . thairto; price thairof, xiijlib vj® viijd. Item, Ffor workmenschip to the said Cheppell, twa hunder merkis. "Item, To gett tymmer to big the heidis of the twa Rowndis * The cancellus-a perforated screen, in this instance made of timber. + Fir. abone the principall zett at the entres thairof; price of the said tymmer ane hunder pundis; and the expenssis to big the twa Rowndis ffoirsaidis, twa hunder merkis. "Item, to repair and mend the est gallerie with tymmer and sklaitt, as effeiris; price thairof, "And giff swa be to reis the principall hows that garrownis may be laid upone the principall hows thairof." Within the Chapel of Holyroodhouse mass had been performed immediately subsequent to Queen Mary's return in August 1561; and it was this fabric which became the CHAPEL ROYAL of Scotland in substitution for the deserted structure at Stirling. The building was removed in 1671, when the Palace was made to assume its present quadrangular form. The remainder of Mr John Duncanson's history may now be related. As the king's As the king's chaplain or minister he received some share of ecclesiastical honours. A reply, prepared by Duncanson to Tyrie the Jesuit's refutation of Knox's answer to a former work, was revised and issued by the General Assembly of March 1573, and of the succeeding Assembly he was chosen Moderator. In 1574, he was appointed subdean. By the Church in 1576, and again in 1578, he was authorised, with others, to prepare the Second Book of Discipline. He died on the 4th October 1601, having attained nearly his hundredth year. It appeared after his decease that while his office of subdean yielded a revenue of £200 sterling, he had not for a course of years received payment, |