the founder and his wife. The kitchen is roofless. The library is entirely gone, and also the chapel, a fragment of the walls only being left. We were shown the cells in which the refractory monks were confined, under ground. There is an old stone font, now overgrown with moss, standing within the bounds of the chapel; also a stone coffin, which was dug up in the neighborhood. This Abbey was founded by Hugh de Moreville, lord of Lauderdale, 1150, during the reign of David I., on what was formerly the site of a Druidical temple. The ruin is for the most part in the Saxon style of architecture.

The following legend respecting Dryburgh is told by Sir Walter Scott, in his Minstrelsy of the Scottish border.

Soon after the rebellion in 1745, an unfortunate female wanderer took up her residence in a dark vault among the ruins of Dryburgh Abbey, which, during the day, she never quitted. When night fell, she issued from this miserable habitation, and went to the house of the Halyburtons, of Newmains, or to that of the Erskines, of Shieldfield, two gentlemen of the neighborhood. From their charity she obtained such necessaries as she could

be prevailed on to accept. At twelve each night she lighted her candle, and returned to her vault, assuring her friendly neighbors that, during her absence, her habitation was arranged by a spirit, to whom she gave the uncouth name of Fatlips; describing him as a little man, wearing heavy iron shoes, with which he trampled the clay floor of the vault to dispel the damp. This circumstance caused her to be regarded with compassion, as deranged in her understanding, and, by the vulgar, with some degree of terror. The cause of her adopting this extraordinary mode of life she would never explain. It was, however, believed to have been occasioned by a vow, that, during the absence of a man to whom she was attached, she would not look upon the sun. Her lover never returned. He fell during the civil wars of 1745– 6, and she, faithful to her vow, spent the remainder of her life withdrawn from the light of day. The vault, or rather dungeon, in which this unfortunate woman lived and died, passes still by the name of the supernatural being with which its gloom was tenanted by her disturbed imagination.

From Dryburgh I rode to Melrose, fording the

Tweed in the way, as the waters of that river were low, and as the road by the nearest bridge was nearly two miles further.

Leaving the conveyance at the inn, I directed my steps to the abbey. At the entrance I met the man who has charge of it, and who is familiar with all the quaint inscriptions, and with every part of the venerable ruin. This abbey, though not so beautifully situated, is much more extensive, and in a less decayed state, than that of Dryburgh.

Near the present entrance are eight cells, in which persons were wont to confess, with stone fonts in each for holy water; they have since been used as places of sepulture.

Upon the walls and the monumental stones are some very singular inscriptions, such as "Here lies an honorable man, Thomas Pringle, by faith in Christ, praise God, 1589." And another, without date, though no doubt much older, "Pray for our brother Peter, the Treasurer." In the middle of the church is the grave of Michael Scott, the wizard, mentioned in the Lay of the Last Minstrel, Canto II.

"The wondrous Michael Scott;
A wizard of such dreaded fame,
That when, in Salamanca's cave,
Him listed his magic wand to wave,

The bells would ring in Notre Dame !"

The readers of that poem will recollect that it was opened by William of Deloraine, and from

the grasp of the

corpse was taken the book of magic

with the iron clasps.

"Then Deloraine in terror took

From the cold hand the mighty book,

With iron clasped, and with iron bound;

He thought, as he took it, the dead man frowned;
But the glare of the sepulchral light,

Perchance, had dazzled the warrior's sight."

A large cross is cut in the stone that covers his grave.

The choir, which is built in the form of half a Greek cross, is very magnificent; the eastern window is particularly so. Scott says of it :

"The moon on the east oriel shone,

Through slender shafts of shapeless stone,
By foliaged tracery combined:

Thou wouldst have thought some fairy hand,
"Twixt poplars straight, the ozier wand

In many a freakish note had twined;

Then framed a spell when the work was done,
And changed the willow wreaths to stone."

Under the spot where the high altar stood is the grave of Alexander II., of Scotland. Here also is interred the heart of King Robert the Bruce, which Douglas, agreeably to a promise exacted from him by the king while on his death-bed, was carrying to Palestine, when he was killed bravely fighting the Moors of Spain. The followers of Douglas brought back the monarch's heart with the body of their lord, and they were here laid together in their last resting place.

On the key-stone of the arch over the altar is sculptured our Saviour on the cross, surrounded by the Roman soldiers. The carving in every direction is exquisite, and as perfect as though newly cut. Statues of the founder, King David I., and his consort, surmount the window by the altar. Pedestals still remain on which statues of Christ and his twelve apostles stood, but the statues have been destroyed. Of these sculptured figures there is a vast number; the subjects of the greater part are taken from Sacred History, but there are also representations of flowers and fruit, of various kinds. Originally every key-stone had its statue or sculptured ornament; and as the arches seem almost interminable, the richness of the abbey in