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. The
Covenanters seem to have shown some respect to this one chapel, by
refraining from drawing the gallery across its height; so that, except
for the whitewash, and the loss of the painted glass in the window, and
probably of a good deal of rich architectural detail, it looks as it did
when the ghostly saint entered beneath its arch, while the king was
kneeling there.
We stayed but a little while in the church, and then proceeded to the
palace, which, as I said, is close at hand. On entering the outer
enclosure through an ancient gateway, we were surprised to find how
entire the walls seemed to be; but the reason is, I suppose, that the
ruins have not been used as a stone-quarry, as has almost always been the
case with old abbeys and castles.
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