It is handed down by tradition that an abbey was founded at Melrose
about the end of the sixth century. The famous St. Cuthbert was one of
the abbots in 643; he, however, left, and went to Holy Island, in
Northumberland. Many wonderful stories are related of St. Cuthbert; that
eleven years after his death in Holy Island, (in 687,) his body, on
being taken up, exhibited no marks of corruption, seeming as if asleep,
&c. &c. Ethelwold succeeded St. Cuthbert, and sometime after the
monastery was ruined by the Danes. The place where this abbey is
supposed to have stood is called Old Melrose, and is a mile and a half
from the present abbey.
Melrose Abbey was founded by king David of Scotland in 1136. It is
supposed to have been built in ten years. The church of the convent was
dedicated to St. Mary on the 28th of July, 1146. It was the mother
church of the Cistertian order in Scotland. The monks were brought from
Rievaulx Abbey, in Yorkshire. Their habit was white; and they soon
superseded the order of the Benedictines.
The abbey is built in the form of St. John's cross, of the Gothic style
of architecture, and is 258 feet in length; the breadth 137-1/2 feet;
and 943 feet in circumference. A considerable part of the principal
tower is now in ruins; its present height is 84 feet. There are many
very superb windows; the principal one at the east end (which is the top
nave of the cross,) appears to have been more recently built than the
others, and is 57 feet in extreme height, and 28 feet wide. It has been
ornamented with statues, &c. The beauty of the carved work, with which
the abbey is profusely decorated, is seldom equalled, and deservedly
celebrated:
"Spreading herbs and flow'rets bright,
Glisten'd with the dew of night;
Nor herb nor flow'ret glisten'd there,
But was carved in the cloister'd arches as fair."
There are in the external view of the building 50 windows, 4 doors, 54
niches, and above 50 buttresses. The abbey was much injured by the
English in 1322 and 1384. Richard II. made it a grant in 1389, as some
compensation for the injuries it had sustained in the retreat of his
army. It was also greatly defaced during the reformation. A stronger
proof of their infatuated and (partly) misplaced zeal cannot be adduced,
than the destruction of religious edifices by the reformers. There were
one hundred monks, without including the abbot and dignitaries. The last
abbot was James Stuart, natural son of James V., who died in 1559. The
privileges and possessions of the abbey were very extensive,.and it was
endowed by its founder, David, with the lands of Melrose, Eildon, &c.,
&c., right of fishery on the Tweed, &c.; and succeeding monarchs
increased its property. Sixty of the monks, it is said, renounced popery
at the reformation. In 1542, the revenue of the abbey was, "1758_l_.
in money, 14 chalders nine bolls of wheat, 56 chal. 5 bolls of barley,
78 chal. 13 bolls of meal, 44 chal. 10 bolls of oats, 84 capons, 620
poultry, 105 stone of butter, 8 chal. of salt, 340 loads of peats, and
500 carriages;" besides 60 bolls of corn, 300 barrels of ale, and 18
hogsheads of wine, for the service of the mass: a large quantity for the
entertainment of strangers; 4,000_l_. for the care of the sick; and
400_l_. to the barber. These were given up at the commencement of the
reformation in 1561. The lands were either seized by the crown, or
divided amongst the nobles. A large portion fell into the hands of the
Buccleugh family.
A stone coffin, supposed to be that of the famous Michael Scott, the
wizard, was found in the small aisle on the south of the chancel in
1812. It was authenticated that his remains had been laid here. There
was an altar erected to say mass for his soul. The length of the
skeleton was six feet. A stone head at the foot of the coffin bears a
very rude wizard-like appearance. Alexander II. and many of the Scottish
kings and nobles are buried here. The best view is obtained of the
building from the south east, which, indeed, commands the whole of the
ruin. The village contains 500 or 600 inhabitants, and is 35 miles
distant from Edinburgh. The remains of several Roman camps are to be
seen in its neighbourhood, and one of the hills bears the marks of
having been a volcano. Sir Walter Scott's residence at Abbotsford is
within a few miles.