Roslin

Roslin, a Midlothian village, near the wooded glen of the North Esk, 6½ miles S. of Edinburgh. Its castle, dating from the 14th century, was the seat of the St Clairs, Earls of Orkney from 1379 to 1471, and afterwards of Caithness, and hereditary grand-master masons of Scotland from 1455 to 1736. The exquisite 'chapel,' built about 1450, is really the choir of an intended collegiate church, and is only 70 feet long, 35 broad, and 42 high. Its beauty lies not in the outline, but in the profusion of stone-carving lavished on pinnacles, niches, vaulted roof, and clustered columns, and especially on the famous 'Prentice pillar.' The building, essentially Scottish, has often been wrongly ascribed to Spanish, at any rate to foreign, masons. Much damaged by an Edinburgh mob in 1688, it was restored by the third Earl of Rosslyn at a cost of £5000, and has served since 1862 as an Episcopal church. On Roslin Moor the Scots are said to have twice defeated the English in one day, 24th February 1303. Pop. 730. See articles by A. Kerr in Proc. Soc. Ants. Scot. for 1876-78.