Turning to the right, the outer entrance
to the palace fronts on this market-place, if such it be; and close to
it, a little on one side, is the church. A young woman, with a key in
her hand, offered to admit us into the latter; so we went in, and found
it divided by a wall across the middle into two parts. The hither
portion, being the nave, was whitewashed, and looked as bare and
uninteresting as an old Gothic church of St. David's epoch possibly could
do. The interior portion, being the former choir, is covered with pews
over the whole floor, and further defaced by galleries, that unmercifully
cut midway across the stately and beautiful arches. It is likewise
whitewashed. There were, I believe, some mural monuments of Bailies and
other such people stuck up about the walls, but nothing that much
interested me, except an ancient oaken chair, which the girl said was the
chair of St. Crispin, and it was fastened to the wall, in the holiest
part of the church. I know not why it was there; but as it had been the
chair of so distinguished a personage, we all sat down in it. It was in
this church that the apparition of St. James appeared to King James IV.,
to warn him against engaging in that war which resulted in the battle of
Flodden, where he and the flower of his nobility were slain. The young
woman showed us the spot where the apparition spake to him,--a side
chapel, with a groined roof, at the end of the choir next the nave.
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