a hand projecting from the wall, and holding a bunch of flowers, which forms the solid corbel of an arch. Some of these representations are of that sarcastically grotesque and irreverent kind the appearance of which, in sacred places, and amidst objects tending to produce the highest and most refined thoughts, has puzzled the ecclesiologist. Many of them are cut with remarkable freedom, reminding one of the artistic character of some of the sculpture in the old rambling Cathedral of Mentz. One of the bosses, representing an anxious and sinister Oriental countenance, has been applied to a useful purpose by the guides. An ancient slab with a simple cross passes traditionally for the tomb of the wizard Michael Scott. The public who visit the ruin desire to have some notion of the wizard's personal appearance, and the boss mounted on some fragments of moulding, which serve pretty well for drapery, used to be pointed out by the keeper as the vera effigies of him who cleft Eildon Hills in three, and bridled the Tweed with a curb of stone.

4

HISTORICAL SKETCH.

The history of the abbey is rich in materials, were there room on the present occasion for applying them to use. The position of the earliest religious house bearing the name of Melrose was about two miles farther down the Tweed, where the river, making a fine sweep, nearly insulates a rich haugh or meadow of alluvial soil. The place is still marked by the village of Old Melrose, with its picturesque houses and numerous dial-plates. Here the first indistinct tracings of a religious house are connected with the introduction of Christianity, and the patronage, in the seventh century, of Oswald, King of Northumbria, under whose protection the celebrated Eata, a disciple of the still more celebrated Aidan, is spoken of as the first superior of a Culdee brotherhood at Melrose. The abbey, where it now stands, was founded by that great ecclesiastic patron, King David, in the year 1136, for Ciscertian monks. The second abbot was a man of great note in the Calendar St Waltheof, Walthen, or Waldeve. Many notices of this famous man will be found in Fordun's Scotichronicon. He is commemorated in the annals of the Cistertians, and Butler's Lives of the Saints; but the most complete biography, or collection of notices, will be found in the Acta Sanctorum of the Bolandists, under his day in the Calendar-the 3d of August. His history is curious in a national view. His grandfather was the son of Siward, the Saxon Count of Northumberland, a great supporter of his native race against the Norman Conqueror, by whom he was beheaded. His tomb, at Croyland, was a reliquary celebrated for its miracles, which have been fully recorded in a chronicle. His daughter, the mother of the abbot, was married to Simon, Earl of Huntingdon. On the death of his father, his mother married the young Prince, who became afterwards David I. of Scotland. Waltheof was thus doubly allied to the representatives of the old Saxon house, and could not well help being involved in the disputes which the jealousy of the Norman monarchs of England created between them and the King of Scots. Thus King Stephen opposed his elevation to the see of York, as an event likely to give a powerful influence to the rival house. The biographers of the saints say that he was not ambitious, and sought humilities and austerities; but it is hardly uncharitable to suppose that part of the asceticism may have arisen from disappointment. In the discipline of the simple Cistertians, he found the plain food, the long vigils, and the coarse raiment which he desired; and in 1148, he was transferred from Rievalle to be the head of the Abbey of Melrose. Many miracles are recorded of him, of which perhaps the most original and eccentric is this: At the administration of the Eucharist, the presiding priest was afraid to drink the consecrated wine as there was a spider in it, and he feared that the presence of the animal poisoned the liquor. Waltheof authoritatively directed him to drink. He did so, and felt no evil effects at first; but soon afterwards, when in the refectory with his brethren, he felt a titillation, and then a swelling at the point of his finger. At last it opened, and the identical spider that had been in the chalice walked forth. Some of his other miracles, if less curious, were more important, such as the continuous supply to the inhabitants of Tweeddale of grain in a season of scarcity and famine. Still greater events, however, are recorded under the head of " Incorruptio sacri corporis, et multis ægris sanitas restituta ad sepulchrum sancti." Several times his body was raised to gratify the senses of smell and sight by the diffusion of sweet odours, and the contemplation of its wonderful preservation. One of his successors, finding the throngs who frequented the tomb inconvenient, closed the mortuary chapel where his relics reposed, alleging that their miraculous attributes were a fable; but he was, not without some reason, charged with acting on motives of mere jealousy.

In the wars with the English invaders the monastery suffered many casualties and reverses. Fealty was exacted from its superiors, and letters of protection were granted in return; but living so close to the Border, the tide of conflict swept repeatedly over them, leaving devastation behind. The Order seem to have had the interest of Scotland warmly at heart-a feeling not always prevalent among the rich churchmen, many of whom were of Norman origin. A very decided front was made by the brotherhood on Edward II.'s invasion in 1322. In his retreat he intended to rest at Melrose. Douglas was then at the head of his guerilla band in the neighbouring forest, and resolved to molest the English army. The brotherhood warmly seconded him, and he was secretly admitted, with a following of picked men, within the precinct of the abbey. According to Barbour, there was sent to reconnoitre the enemy "a richt sturdy freer," "that wes all stout, derft, and hardy."

'Upon a stalwart horss he rad,

And in his hand he had a sper:

And abaid upon that maner

Quhil that he saw them cummand near,

And quhen the fermost passit wer

The coynge-he cryit, 'Douglas, Douglas!'
Than till them all a course he mass,

And bar ane down delyverly.

And Douglas and his company
Ischyt upon them with a shout."

The advanced party, thus repulsed, fell back upon the main body; and Fordun and the other chroniclers inform us that the incensed monarch took vengeance on the abbey, wrecking the buildings, slaying the brethren, and profanely carrying off the silver pix for holding the sacramental wafer.

Richly endowed, and close to the Border, the monastery suffered from the subsidiary invasions of the English. A curious circumstance is recorded of Richard II. Having slept a night at Melrose in the year 1385, it appears that the building was burned next day by his troops. This devastation seems to have touched his conscience, for he granted to the monks, in compensation for it, "a deduction of 2d. on each of 1000 sacks of wool exported by them from Berwick." The privilege was speedily withdrawn, on the plea that the monks tried to take undue advantage of it.* Meanwhile the brotherhood had lost a good friend in the heroic King Robert the Bruce. Among the muniments of the foundation there is a very curious document, in which King Robert commends the brotherhood, with great affection and warmth, to the pious charge of his son and successor David, stating that he intends the monastery to be the depositary of his heart.† The subsequent history of that heart in the adventurous custody of Douglas is well known. It was brought back from Spain, and, according to tradition, ultimately deposited within the abbey. The present buildings are all of a date posterior to these events, and no portion of them appears to be older than the fifteenth century. In their revival, after the War of Independence, the humble Cistertians waxed proud and powerful, and became noted for a pomp and luxury well attested by the architectural remains of their church and cloister. Their indulgence in the grosser propensities was ridiculed by the ribald wits of the Reformation, in verses of which the cleverness is more conspicuous than the delicacy. In the wars of Henry VIII. this brotherhood had suffered the wreck of their beautiful building, and the Reformation, speedily following, swept their establishment before it. Connected with the prevalence of the French forms of architecture Origines Parochiales, i. 224. + Munimenta de Melros, 329.

*

in this and the other Scottish ecclesiastical buildings of a late date, there is a curious inscription within the walls of Melrose which deserves the notice of the architectural antiquary. It is on a tablet near a small door leading to a gallery on the west side of the south transept. It contains the following inscription :

"John Murdo sometime callit was I,

And born in Parysse certainly,
And had in keping al mason werk
Of Sant-Androys, ye hye kirk

Of Glasgu, Melros, and Paslay,
Of Nyddysdayll and of Galway.
Pray to God and Mary baith,

And sweet Sanct John, to keep this haly Kirk fra scaith."

The stone-cutter has packed the words where he could find room for them, without respect for the rhyming form in which they are here copied. The inscription cannot well be older than the sixteenth century; and it is not likely that Murdo, whose name would indicate a Scottish origin, performed any functions beyond repairs and restorations.