Re: Rosslyn or Roslin Castle?

["John S. Quarterman" <jsq@mids.org>]

>At 21:29 12/07/99 -0400, Ward Ginn wrote:
>>Dear Niven,
>>    I was in process of mailing copies of the castle print to Bradley
>>Sinclair Barker when I discovered that the Clan Sinclair web site uses the
>>spelling "Roslin" for the castle while in Robert Brydon's book it is spelled
>>"Rosslyn."  I may be splitting hairs, but I would like to be as accurate as
>>possible.

I've been going by a story I heard that the castle name was originally
spelled Roslin and the Rosslyn spelling was introduced later as a
conscious Gaelification of the name.  I have no source to cite on
that, and I'll be happy to be corrected if I'm misremembering.

>>...

>Niven wrote:
>
>Dear Ward,
>
>Thank you for your interesting e-mail.
>
>Firstly, let me deal with the spelling of Rosslyn/Roslin.
>
>The earldom, the castle and the chapel are spelled Rosslyn whilst the
>village is spelt Roslin.

That seems to straighten it out.

>...

>I would be delighted to read your friend's article which he wrote to
>accompany the 17th century print of the Chapel.  What 
>he saw was captured by Sir Walter Scott in the following verses from "The
>Dirge of Rosabelle":

Which is quoted on the web pages for Rosslyn Chapel and Roslin Castle.

>...

>Here Sir Walter Scott uses the Roslin spelling throughout.

Which reopens the question.

>For those who are not familiar with the story of lovely Rosabelle, it
>should be explained that she lived at Dysart,

I'll add that explanation to the web page.

John S. Quarterman <jsq@mids.org>
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