Rosslyn: Country of Painter and Poet

The picturesque and romantic locality of Rosslyn lies near the Pentland Hills, seven miles from the City of Edinburgh. The mystique of Rosslyn Chapel as the presumed repository of the lost scrolls of Solomon’s Temple and the Holy Grail, and its association with the Knights Templar and the origins of Scottish Freemasonry have attracted countless artists, writers and antiquaries for over two hundred years. By the mid-nineteenth century, Rosslyn Chapel, Castle and Glen were firmly established upon the popular tourist itinerary of Scotland, and in 1842 the controversial preservation of the exquisite fifteenth-century Chapel drew the attention of Queen Victoria and the Scottish painter, David Roberts. It is remarkable then, that this book should be the first to explore the architectural, pictorial and literary traditions of Rosslyn.