Wonders Of Operative Masonry.

sculptured arcade and rich doorway , is in au exquisite style of early English architecture . Charles I . used it as a royal chapel , and Avas himself crowned in it in 1633 . Its roof fell in 1768 , since which time it has been a ruin . Many of the Scottish nobility haA'e tombs in itancl in

, the Royal Vault are the remains of several of the Kings anil other illustrious personages . The Abbey is adjacent to Holyrood Palace , the ancient residence of Scottish Royalty . At tho Dissolution its rei'enues were . £ 2926 in money , besides

, payments in kind King James IV . was married to Margaret of England , daughter of King Henry VII ., in Holyrood , in A . D . 1503 ; Mary Queen of Scots mads her residence at Holyrood House , adjacent to the Abbey , where she married Lord

Darnley , and saw Rizzio murdered , and here , also , was the scene of her fatal nuptials with Bothwell . Once Kings hastened , after a weary clay ' s ride ,

" Unto the saintly convent , Avith the good monks to dine , And quaff , to organ music , the pleasant cloister wine . " Now the naA'e stands alone , ruined and rooflessbut having a front and tower

, noble in their proportions and elegant in details . The doorway is deeply recessed , with eight shafts on either side , having capitals of birds ancl grotesques , from Avhich springs an arcade of live pointed arches . Each of the clustered columns

of the interior has a distinct capital , and there is a double tier above of five Gothic arches . Tho following are the dimensions of Holyrood Abbey : length inside , 127 feet ; breadth , 59 feet ; ancl height of east front , 70 feet .

MUCKROSS ABBEY , 4 miles from Killarney , Ireland , on the banks of the largest of the Lakes of Killarney , is a picturesque and beautiful structure , Avhose " gray but leafy walls , Avhere ruin greenly dwells , " yet continue excellently

preserved . The present Abbey was erected in 13-10 , by McCarthy More , Prince of Desmond . The entrance is by a handsomely pointed doorway , of decorated Gothic architecture , and deeply moulded . The monastery bell was found , in 1750 , in the neighbouring Lake of Killarney , and its circumference was said to be " as big as

a table that would hold eight people to dine at . " Portions of the Abbey are crowded with tombs , of tho McCarthys , O'Donoghue .., and McFinins ; and melancholy emblems of mortality—skulls and naked boneslie in cA'cry direction in

, this Abbey . The great fireplace of the refectory is quite a curiosity , from its ample and hospititable dimensions . The cloisters are the most elaborate find well

preserved part of this edifice , consisting of a handsome arcade of tweuty-tivo arches . In the centre of the area is a magnificent yew-tree , so largo as to cover the entire cloisters . Its trunk measures thirteen feet in circumferenceand it is

, regarded as a singular and ornamental adjunct to the Abbey . Its spreading branches are like a great umbrella , overshadoAving the ruin , and forming a more solemn covering than originally belonged to it .

INNISFALLEN ABBEY , on an island of the same name in the largest of the Lakes of Killarney , three miles from Killarney , Ireland , was founded in A . D . 600 , by St . Finian . In this Abbey tho celebrated "Annals , of Innisfallen" AY ere composed , over six hundred years agoby its monks

, , then among the most learned in the world . The original is on parchment , and now in the Bodleian Library of the British Museum . The remains of this

Abbey are far gone to decay . A small ivied orator , by a strange metamorphosis , is converted into and called the " banqueting house . " It has a handsome Romanesque . doorway , ancl its antiquity is believed to be of the seventh century . Among noticeable objects near the Abbey is the " Bed of honor . " It owes its

name to this romantic occurence : A certain Limerick heiress flow thither with a favoured lover , to escape the proposals of a baronet , whom her father wished her to marry . After spending a night there , with honour untarnished , the tAvo were discovered by the lady ' s father and her

titled lover . He with whom she had fled thinking that he might safely make the offer , proposed to abandon his claim to her in favour of his rival , provided the latter , after Avhat had passed , would accept her . This the baronet unexpectedly agreed to do , saying , that he hacl too much confidence in his rival ' s honour to