varying its appearance with every change of the spectator's position. Old Melrose is now in the possession of Colonel Elliot Lockhart, who has a neat house there. About a mile to the west, near the Tweed, stands Newstead, a place formerly noted for masons ; but more remarkable for another Abbey on the east side of it, called the Red Abbey-stead.Whether it got this name from the colour of the stones with which it was built, or because it was a house belonging to the Templars, who wore a red cross as their distinguishing badge, I cannot determine; but it is certain, that when the ground there is dug, the foundations of houses are discovered, and a considerable quantity of lead, seals, and coins, have been found. author has a brass coin in his possession, found in the year 1812, which appears to be Roman, having a Roman head on one side, and an upright person holding the horn of plenty on the other; but the inscription is obliterated. I saw a gold coin, which was found in 1821, with a perfect head on one side, and an incription on the other, Augustus Nero, The Milne's History. I must now bend my course towards the present Melrose Abbey, and follow the foot-path that leads from Newstead to the ruin, where there was formerly a great wood of oaks, called the Prior Wood, which began at a place called to this day Oakdean, and reached to the Abbey. There are now no remains of this wood, the whole being turned into arable land; but still the scenery is fine, particularly about the distance of five or six hundred yards from the Abbey, where, from the rising ground over which the footpath passes, the Eildon Hills appear on one side, and the Gattonside ridge on the other, with the Tweed gliding through the fertile vale in a serpentine manner, and the proud ruin towering out from amongst the trees: Whose mangled spires aloud to heaven complain DESCRIPTION OF THE Present Abbey of Melrose. MELROSE Abbey, situated in the shire of Roxburgh, and parish of Melrose, is surrounded with mountains, as Jerusalem of old, and appears to be in the centre of a vale, with the hills rising in every direction around it. It is 35 miles distant from Edinburgh, 15 from Kelso, 12 from Jedburgh, 20 from Hawick, and 7 from Selkirk. David I., who was the founder of the Abbey, on civilizing and adorning that part of his dominions, (where he seems usually to have resided) founded the Monastery of Melrose in the 1136 year of our Lord, acccording to these old monkish rhymes Anno milleno centeno ter quoque deno, Et sexto Christi Melros fundata fuisti. FORD, b. 5. c. 43. Melrose Chron.of He chose a situation about a mile and a half farther up the river Tweed than that of the ancient one, which had been in a great measure deserted and desolute for a long period of time. He built this new fabric with great magnificence, enriched it with many possessions, and planted it with the monks of the Cistertian Order, whom he brought from Rievalle*, an Abbey of those monks in Yorkshire, (who came originally from Burgundy, in France) that had been founded only four years before Melrose. This order was at that time of about forty years standing in France, and was raised to high reputation by the great talents and zeal of Bernard, Abbot of Clairvaux, who was David's cotemporary, and is said to have founded 160 houses of the Cistertian monks. The habit of the Cistertian monks was white; they honoured the blessed Virgin as their peculiar patroness, and soon overcame the order of the Benedictines, who for a long period of time were much respected. Ridpath's Border History, p. 79. * The Abbey of Rievalle stood near Helmsley, almost north of York, of which the ruins still remain. Melrose. Father In nes' Apps No. 4. The church of the convent of Melrose was Chron. of dedicated to St Mary on the 28th of July 1146. It was the Abbey chiefly resorted to by David, who was fonder of the church of Melrose than any other he erected, taking it under his particular protection, and enlarging it with many possessions and privileges. He is called a sore saint to the crown, because he contributed so much money for erecting these splendid fabrics, and was too lavish to churchmen in his religious endowments: but we are to consider, that these were the only means by which he could civilize his kingdom; and his laws, which do him im- Guthrie's mortal honour, are said to have been compiled under his inspection by learned men, whom he assembled from all parts of Europe, in his magnificent Abbey of Melrose. Geo. Gra: 3 This monastery was a mother church to all the order of Cistertians in Scotland, such as Glenluce in Galloway, (the monks of that monastery being from Melrose, and keeping up a close correspondence with the abbot and monks there): A. Milne's Newbottle, in Mid-Lothian; Kinross, in Moray shire; Cupar, in Augus-shire; and Balmerinoch, in Fifeshire; with many others, C History. |