formed into dambrods, or mosaick work, where the vestige of them remains about the Silverless aisle. Also was found square pieces about two inches in thickness, all glazed, that had been applied for the building up of their small altars. The stone that the abbey is built with comes from Dryburgh, Bemerside, Newton, and Lessudden, all within three and four miles of Melrose. And it is said, that the workmen wrought for one penny per day. In the interior of the building there aretwentyseven ornamental windows in the galleries, twenty one pillars, and eight half pillars, or pilasters, in the solid wall. The height of the two grand pillars from the top of the capitals to the ground, is thirty-six feet, circumference round the shafts, eighteen feet. The breadth from one grand pillar to the other, which is the breadth of the great alley of the church, twenty-six feet four inches. The north small aisle, or alley, is seven feet in breadth. The south small aisle, or alley, is ten and a half feet in breadth. The general height of the common pillars, nineteen feet two inches; circumference round their shafts, fourteen feet; breadth from pillar to pillar, fifteen feet. Height of the grand arches, from top to bottom, fifty-three feet. Height of the small arches, twenty-nine feet. Length from the north to the south trancepts, one hundred and seventeen feet.-Breadth of trancepts, by taking in their small aisles, forty-four feet. Length from the chancel to the end of the cross, two hundred and fifty-six feet. The outside length and breadth of the building is mentioned in page 30. of this work. I have now finished my description of the ruin, to which the following lines, of the pathetic poet Bruce, are not inapplicable : Here naked stand the melancholy walls, Lash'd by the wint'ry tempests cold and bleak, A row of moss-grown trees around it stand; Upon an old tomb-stone in Melrose church yard is the following inscription: THE EARTH GOETH GLISTRING LIKE GOLD; THE EARTH GOES TO THE EARTH SOONER. THEN IT WOLD; THE EARTH BUILDS ON THE EARTH CAST LES AND TOWERS; THE EARTH SAYS TO THE EARTH. ALL SHALL BE OURS. ABBOTS OF MELROSE. King David I. the founder of several abbeys, introduced all kinds of mechanics into the monasteries he built, in order to banish idleness, the mother of vice, and procure at an easy rate the necessaries of life. Accordingly, in the abbey of Melrose there were painters, carvers, joiners, smiths, masons, vine-dressers, and husbandmen, who were all under the superintendance of an elder; their earnings were put into the common stock for the maintenance of the religious men. The first abbot elected by David to Melrose was Richard, in the year 1136, being the same year in which it was founded. To him succeeded Ridpath's Hist. in his notes p. 77. Waldevus, son of David's Queen, Maud, in the year 1148. Fordun says he performed many mithe Stuarts racles, and is now ranked among the saints of the Symson's p. 61. Scotia Milne's his. Romish church; many offerings were made at the tomb of the said Waldevus. Joceline of Furnes succeeded him in the year 1168, and wrote an account of Waldevus's life; he was interred here, and was a great benefactor to the abbey. Joceline was succeded by Laurientius, an abbot of great meekness, and a learned divine. Ralph succeeded him in the year 1194. In the year 1201, John of Salerno, a cardinal and legate from Pope Innocent III., held a council at Perth, at which cannons were appointed. In the same year the legate went to Ireland. accompanied by Ralph the abbot of Melrose, who made him bishop of Down. The legate being hospitably entertained at Melrose, remained there more than fifty nights, but left the monastery without settling a dispute that had taken place betwixt the monks of Melrose and Kelso. In the year 1268, the abbot and a number of the monks of Melrose were excommunicated, in a council held at Perth, for killing a clergyman at the Stow, and wounding several other persons, in a dispute re specting their marches. William, the ninth ab Mail. 56, bot of Melrose, died in the year 1206. Mat- Chron. thew, abbot of Melrose, in the year 1256. Patrick, another abbot of Melrose, in the year 1296. William de Peebles was prior in the year Ford. 1322. Robert Kildalach, formerly a monk and abbot of Dunfermline, and Chancellor of Scot- Milne's his. land, was likewise abbot of Melrose. John Fogo, another abbot, was confessor to King James I. Spottis. p. and much taken notice of for his learning; he disputed with great force against Friar Harding, and confuted Paul Craw, the Bohemian. Andrew Hunter, abbot of this place, was confessor to King James II., and Lord High Treasurer in the year 1449. Michael Balfour, Se- ing State. cretary to King James IV., was abbot of Melrose in the year 1495. After him was Andrew Durie, abbot about the year 1527; he was one of the witnesses to the agreement made at Ancrum, the 16th of March 1529, betwixt the Kers of Cessford and Kers of Fairniehirst, against the Scots of Buccleugh, for killing Ker, the laird of Cessford, at the battle of Melrose, which was the foundation of the deadly feuds that took place betwixt the Kers and Scots. Sir J. Scots The inden ture is in Milne's his tory of Mel rose parisb, P. 51. |