Domestic Annals of Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution, Volume 1 (of 2)Chambers, Robert
History
Domestic Annals of Scotland from the Reformation to the Revolution, Volume 1 (of 2)
Chambers, Robert
Scotland -- History -- 16th century; Scotland -- History -- 17th century
The reader will be amused at the difficulty which Randolph seems to
have felt in visiting a spot scarcely six miles from Edinburgh. He
will, however, be equally gratified to know that the queen herself
became interested in the preservation of the remains found on this
occasion. Her treasurer’s accounts contain an entry of twelvepence,
paid to ‘ane boy passand of Edinburgh, with ane charge of the queen’s
grace, direct to the bailies of Musselburgh, charging them to tak
diligent heed and attendance, that the monument of grit antiquity, new
fundin, be nocht demolishit nor broken down.’
The monument here spoken of was, in reality, an altar dedicated to
Apollo Grannicus, the Long-haired Apollo, by Sabinianus, proconsul
of Augustus, while the cave with pillars was the hypocaust or
heating-chamber of a bath, connected with a villa, of which further
remains were discovered in January 1783. The spot where the
antiquities were discovered in 1565 is occupied by the lawn in front
of Inveresk House. Camden reports the following as an accurate copy
of the inscription, made by Sir Peter Young, preceptor to King James
VI.--‘APPOLLINI GRANNO Q. LUSIUS SABINIANUS PROC. AUG. VSSLVM.’--which
is thus extended and translated by the ingenious Robert Stuart in
his _Caledonia Romana_ (1845): ‘Appollini Grannico Quintus Lusius
Sabinianus Proconsul Augusti, votum susceptum solvit lubens volens
merito;’ that is, ‘To Appollo Granicus, Quintus Lusius Sabinianus, the
Proconsul of Augustus [dedicates this], a self-imposed vow, cheerfully
performed.’
Napier alludes to the Inveresk altar in his Commentary on the
Apocalypse, and it appears to have attracted the attention of Ben
Jonson, when he was in Scotland in 1618. We last hear of it from Sir
Robert Sibbald, who died in 1711. In Gordon’s _Itinerarium_, published
a few years later, it is not noticed; wherefore it may be conjectured
that this interesting relic of antiquity was lost sight of or destroyed
about the beginning of the eighteenth century.
REIGN OF MARY: 1565-1567.
In July 1565, Mary married her youthful cousin, Henry Lord Darnley,
son of the Earl of Lennox. This was a match not without its politic
aspect, as things stood at that time, for, by accepting Darnley as her
husband, the Scottish queen took a rival out of her way to the English
throne, and added his pretensions to her own. As Darnley, however, was
a Catholic, the union was disrelished by Queen Elizabeth, as well as by
all the leaders of the Protestant interest in Scotland. A still greater
objection to it lay in the weak and childish character of the young
king.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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