The abbey was founded by David I. Such a prince required no special intimation from heaven to prompt him to found a religious house under the shadow of a fortress where he himself resided. A miraculous interposition, however, on behalf of the king himself, when prostrate under the antlers of a “wild hart,” has been assigned as the immediate cause of the foundation of the abbey. Bellenden, the translator of Bone, relates that the event happened in the “vail that lyes to the Eist fra the said castell, quhare now lyes the Cannogait,” and which at that time was part of “Ane gred forest full of hartis, hyndis, toddis, and siclike manner of beistis.” As David was pursuing the hunt with ardour, a hart rushed at him, dashing both him and his horse to the ground with great violence. David threw both hands between the antlers of the stag to save himself from the blow when “the holy croce slaid incontinant in (into) his hands.” The wild deer fled in dismay at the sight of the sacred emblem to which it seemed about to do violence; and the king, being afterwards admonished in a dream, resolved to dedicate a house to the “Holy Rude,” the Virgin and All Saints on the very spot where “he gat the croce.” A far more likely reason for the founding of the abbey is that David built it as a repository for the fragment of the true cross brought by his mother, St Margaret, from Waltham Abbey. As in the case of many another foundation, kings and princes frequently claimed hospitality from their religious brothers; and though the monastic cellars and larders may not have boasted the delicacy and sumptuousness of a royal kitchen, their illustrious visitors would doubtless be quite content with the homely fare and good cheer offered them. This was repeatedly the case at the monastery at Holyrood, and the custom being that each visitor should present an oblation to the patron saint of the house, the monks had always the wherewithal to compensate themselves for the necessary outlay.