SPACIOUS KITCHEN.
One of the most spacious kitchens in England is that of Raby Castle, the magnificent seat of the Duke of Cleveland. It is a square of thirty feet, having three chimneys, one for the grate, a second for stoves, and the third, (now stopped up,) for the great cauldron. The roof is arched, with a small cupola in the centre: it has likewise five windows, from each of which steps descend, but only in one instance to the floor; and a gallery runs round the whole interior of the building. The ancient oven is said to have allowed a tall person to stand upright in it, its diameter being fifteen feet. It has since been converted into a wine cellar, the sides being divided into ten parts, and each holding a hogshead of wine in bottles. Vast as is this kitchen, it must have been but suitable to the hospitality of former ages: for, in one of the apartments of Raby Castle, seven hundred knights are stated to have been entertained at one time.
THE HAWTHORNDEN CAVES.
In almost every country on the earth there are natural or artificial caves, which have supplied hiding-places, retreats for anchorites, and even permanent native dwellings. Such caves abound in Scotland, and especially along the coast, but in general their interest arises rather from the associations of popular traditions, than from any intrinsic peculiarity of character pertaining to them. Few such retreats are more remarkable, either for constructive art, or historic associations, than the well-known caves beneath the old tower of Hawthornden, near Edinburgh. They have been hewn, with great labour and ingenuity, in the rocky cliff which overhangs the river Esk. No tradition preserves the history or date of their execution, but concealment was evidently the chief design of the excavators. The original entrance is most ingeniously made in the shaft of a very deep draw-well, sunk in the court-yard of the castle, and from its manifest utility as the ordinary and indispensable appendage of the fortress, it most effectually conceals its adaptation as a means of ingress and communication with the rock chambers beneath. These are of various forms and sizes, and one in particular is pierced with a series of square recesses, somewhat resembling the columbaria of a Roman tomb, but assigned by popular tradition as the library of its later owner, Drummond, the Scottish poet. Whatever was the purpose for which these were thus laboriously cut, the example is not singular. A large cave in Roxburghshire, hewn out in the lofty cliff which overhangs the Teviot, has in its sides similar recesses, and from their supposed resemblance to the interior of a pigeon-house, the cavern has received the name of the Doo-cave. Authentic notices of the Hawthornden caves occur so early as the reign of David II., when a daring band of Scottish adventurers made good their head-quarters there, while Edward held the newly-fortified castle of Edinburgh, and the whole surrounding district. In the glen of the little river Ale, which falls into the Teviot at Ancrum, extensive groups of caves occur, all indicating, more or less, artificial adaptation as human dwellings; and in many other districts similar evidences may be seen of temporary or permanent habitation, at some remote period, in these rude recesses. Along the coast of Arran there are several caves of various dimensions, one of which, at Drumandruin, or Drumidoon, is noted in the older traditions of the island as the lodging of Fin M'Coul, the Fingal of Ossian, during his residence in Arran. Though low in the roof, it is sufficiently capacious for a hundred men to sit or lie in it. In this, as in other examples, we find evidences of artificial operations, proving its connexion with races long posterior to those with whose works we have chiefly to do in this section of archaeological inquiry. In the further end a large detached column of rock has a two-handed sword engraved on it, surmounted by a deer, and on the southern side of the cave a lunar figure is cut, similar in character to those frequently found on the sculptured pillars and crosses which abound in Scotland. It is now more frequently styled the king's cave, and described as the retreat of Robert the Bruce, while he lurked as a fugitive in the Western Isles; but, like many other traditions of the Bruce, this seems to be of very recent origin. Other caves in the same island are also of large dimensions, and variously associated with popular traditions, as, indeed, is generally the case where subterranean retreats of any considerable extent occur. Some are the supposed dwellings of old mythic chiefs, whose names still live in the traditional songs of the Gael. Others are the retreats which the primitive confessors of Scotland excavated or enlarged for their oratories or cells. Of the latter class are the caves of St. Molio, on the little island of Lamlash, or the Holy Isle, on the east coast of Arran; of St. Columba and St. Cormac, on the Argyleshire coast; of St. Ninian, in Wigtonshire; of St. Serf, at Dysart, on the Fifeshire coast; and the celebrated "ocean cave of St. Rule, in Saint Andrew's Bay." This last oratory consists of two chambers hewn out of the sandstone cliffs of that exposed coast. The inner apartment is a plain cell, entered from the supposed oratory of the Greek saint. The latter is nearly circular, measuring about ten feet in diameter, and has a stone altar hewn in the solid rock on its eastern side.
MONKISH PRAYERS.
The Monks used to pray heartily, or rather say their prayers no less than seven times in the twenty-four hours. We will give their names:—
1st.—Nocturnal, at cock-crowing, or two o'clock in the morning.
2nd.—Matins, at six o'clock in the morning.
3rd.—Tierce, at nine o'clock in the morning.
4th.—Sext, at twelve o'clock at noon.
5th.—None, at three o'clock in the afternoon.
6th.—Vespers, at six o'clock in the afternoon.
7th.—Compline, soon after seven.
Quarles has a neat epigram on the subject:—
For all our prayers th' Almighty does regard
The judgment of the balance, not the yard;