Chapter VI: Scottish Monasticism (3)

On the floor of this chapel there now stands an ornamental altar
tomb, which was found lying in fragments near the Abbey by the Rev.
Dr. Boog, one of the Abbey ministers, and who in 1817 had it brought
within the chapel and erected again. It supports a recumbent figure,
believed to be the effigy of Marjory Bruce, the daughter of Robert
I. and the mother of Robert II. "The head of the figure is
surmounted by a large cusped canopy, placed in a horizontal
position, on the end of which is carved a crucifixion. The pedestal
is carved with a series of Gothic compartments, in each of which
there is carved a shield, enriched with heraldic blazons and figures
of ecclesiastics. The panels at the west end contain--the first the
_fess chequé_ of the Stewarts between three roses; the third the
_fess chequé_, surmounted of a lion rampant, and the central one,
two keys saltierwise, between two crosiers in pale."[401] The chapel
is famed for an echo, described by Pennant in his _Tour Through
Scotland_,[402] but Dr. Lees regards the description of the
far-famed traveller as either much exaggerated, or the strength of
the echo has become diminished since his time. "When any number of
persons are within the building, an echo is scarcely audible at all.
It is amusing sometimes to see a group of people expending the
strength of their lungs in vain by attempting to evoke it."[403]

Crosses seem to have been placed at intervals on the roads leading
to the church. One of the south piers of the nave is called the
Cathcart pillar, and has carved upon it a shield bearing the
Cathcart arms. This is believed to be a memorial of Sir Allan
Cathcart, who has thus been described by Barbour:--

A knycht, that their wis in hys rout,
Worthy and wycht, stalwart and stout,
Curtaiss and fayr, and off gud fame,
Schyr Allane of Catkert by name.

King Robert the Bruce died in 1329, and Sir Allan of Cathcart and
Sir James of Douglass sailed in 1330 for the Holy Land with the
King's heart. Sir James was killed in Spain in conflict with the
Moors, and Sir Allan came back with the heart of the King, which was
buried in Melrose Abbey. The pillar commemorates his safe return.

On the west buttress of the north transept, at 21 feet in height, is
the shield of the Stewarts, with a pastoral staff, and the word
"Stewart."

The first central tower erected over the crossing seems to have been
of inferior workmanship and to have given way. Another is believed
to have been erected by Abbot Tervas, which probably fell during the
siege by Lennox and Glencairn, and may have destroyed much of the
choir and transept in its fall. Western towers appear to have been
contemplated.

"We are only able," says Dr. Cameron Lees, "to conjecture what was
the position of the conventual buildings. But after comparing the
plan of Wenlock, from which the monks originally came, with that of
Crosraguel, which they afterwards erected, we think it is probable
that the chapter-house, with Saint Mirin's Chapel, occupied the east
side of the cloister court, the refectory the south side, and the
dormitory the west. The Abbot's house probably stood at the south
end of what is called Cotton Street. There were buildings also
between the Abbey and the river Cart attached to the monastery,
portions of the foundations of which are occasionally
uncovered."[404] "The shape of the cloister court has been partially
retained. The conventual buildings were almost all converted after
the Reformation into dwelling-houses, and though fragments of the
old houses, such as an occasional pillar or arch, are to be found,
there is little to remind one of dormitory, parlour, or
refectory."[405]

The nave is still used as the parish church. About 1782 it was in a dreadful condition. The roof was full of holes, through which the birds obtained free access, "distracting the attention of the worshippers in time of sermon." They built their nests and reared their young under the arches of the clerestory. A few of the gentry had "lofts" or galleries, but the bulk of the worshippers brought their seats to church with them, while the poorest sat upon stones on the earthen floor.[406] Things had become so bad that the heritors thought of pulling down the abbey, and building a "commodious kirk" with the stones.[407] This insane proposal was averted from execution by the energy and wisdom of the Rev. Dr. Boog, minister of the First Charge in 1782, and to him the country owes the credit of preserving all that now remains. "He received much assistance from the Dowager Countess of Glasgow, who resided at Hawkhead, and through their joint exertions the Abbey was not only saved from destruction, but was repaired in a way which, considering the ignorance of that time on the subject of restoration, was highly creditable."[408] Dr. Lees describes the condition of the building at his induction in 1859 as dreadful: "The interior was like a vault in a churchyard."[409] But thanks to the exertions of the Rev. Mr. Wilson and Dr. Lees himself, several thousand pounds were collected and spent in remedying this state of affairs. The church was made seemly as a venerable temple for prayer ought to be. "The unsightly galleries were taken down, the floor cleared of the accumulated rubbish of centuries, the body of the church re-seated, the clerestory windows opened up, the transept walls and windows restored, and the turrets rebuilt. Men of all creeds contributed to the work, and when the Abbey, on the 27th April 1862, was re-opened for public worship, it could scarcely be recognised, so changed was it from its former condition."[410] In closing his splendid volume Dr. Lees adds, "We trust the time is not far distant when the Abbey of the first Stewart will stand forth again in all its pristine beauty--with transept, and choir, and tower, as in the days of the founder." That hope will soon pass into a reality, and Scotland will have a completely restored abbey church used as a parish church.

_Kelso Abbey (Roxburghshire)._--In 1113 David, Earl of Huntingdon, and heir-presumptive to the Scottish throne, introduced a colony of thirteen Reformed Benedictine monks from the newly founded abbey of Tiron in Picardy, and planted it near his forest castle of Selkirk. He endowed it with large possessions in Scotland, and a valuable territory in his southern earldom of Huntingdon, but the French monks were dissatisfied with their position on the banks of the Ettrick, and on David's accession to the throne of his brother he removed them from Selkirk--"a place unsuitable for an abbey"--and established the monastery "at the Church of the Blessed Virgin on the bank of the Tweed, beside Roxburgh, in the place called Calkow."[411] The abbey was dedicated to the Virgin and St. John the Baptist. Its first abbot was Ralph, one of the French monks, and the Scotch chronicles state that he succeeded St. Bernard, the reformer of the order, in his abbacy at Tiron, on his death in 1116, but Dr. Cosmo Innes thinks this can scarcely be reconciled with the succession of abbots as given by the French writers.[412] The monastery soon became the richest and most powerful in Scotland, and in 1165 the Pope granted permission to the abbot to wear the mitre, and the abbot claimed precedence of all the superiors of monasteries in Scotland. In 1420 this precedence was decided by James I. in favour of the prior of St. Andrews.[413] Many of the abbots were distinguished men, who were employed in the affairs of the kingdom, and several were promoted to bishoprics.[414] Foremost in rank and power, the monks of Kelso also vindicated their place by the practice of the monastic virtues, and a copy of Wyntoun's _Chronicle_ is supposed to have been written at Kelso.[415] They seem to have recalled the saying, claustrum sine lîteratura vivi hominis est sepultura ("the cloister without literature is the grave of a living man"), and Dr. Cosmo Innes remarks

"That the arts were cultivated within the Abbey walls we may
conclude without much extrinsic evidence. The beautiful and somewhat
singular architecture of the ruined church itself still gives proof
of taste and skill and some science in the builders, at a period
which the confidence of modern times has proclaimed dark and
degraded; and if we could call up to the fancy the magnificent Abbey
and its interior decorations, to correspond with what remains of
that ruined pile, we should find works of art that might well
exercise the talents of high masters. The erection of such a
structure often extended over several hundred years. Kelso bears
mark of having been a full century in building; and during all that
time at least, perhaps for long afterwards, the carver of wood, the
sculptor in stone and marble, the tile-maker and the lead and
iron-worker, the painter, whether of scripture stories or of
heraldic blazonings, the designer and the worker in stained glass
for those gorgeous windows which we now vainly try to imitate--must
each have been in requisition, and each, in the exercise of his art,
contributed to raise the taste and cultivate the minds of the
inmates of the cloister. Of many of these works the monks themselves
were the artists and artisans, and it would be a grievous mistake to
suppose that the effect was merely that of living and working in an
artist's shop. The interest and honour of the convent, the honest
rivalry with neighbouring houses and other orders; above all, the
zeal for religion which was honoured by their efforts, the strong
desire to render its rites magnificent, and to set forth in a worthy
manner the worship of the Deity--all these gave to the works of the
old monks a principle and a feeling above what modern art must ever
hope to reach."[416]

Situated as it was near the Border, the abbey suffered severely during the War of Independence. The monastery was laid waste and the monks were supported by contributions from the other houses of their own order. In 1344 the abbey buildings were destroyed by fire, and David II. granted permission to the monks to cut wood in Selkirk and Jedwart Forest to enable them to carry out the necessary repairs.

In 1511 the Bishop of Caithness was appointed commendator, and decline of the abbey soon followed. After the battle of Flodden in 1513, David Ker of Cessford took possession of the abbey, and his brother was appointed abbot. In 1522 and 1523 invasion and havoc spread over Teviotdale; Lords Ross and Dacre pillaged the town, sparing the abbey; but in 1523 Lord Dacre sacked and burned it. The abbot's house and buildings surrounding it, the chapel of the Virgin, and the cells of the dormitory were all reduced to ashes; the lead was stripped from the roof, and the abbey rendered uninhabitable. All religious services were stopped, and the monks had to retire in want and poverty to a village near. From 1536 to 1538 James Stewart, natural son of James V., was abbot, and drew the revenues. In 1542 the Duke of Norfolk, and in 1545 the Earl of Hertford, again attacked and further destroyed the abbey. On the latter occasion the garrison of the abbey--numbering 100, of whom 12 were monks--refused the summons of the Herald to surrender, and succeeded in repulsing the Spanish mercenaries, who were the first to attack the building. It was then bombarded and the monastery captured; but the garrison still held out in the strong square tower of the church, whence some of them, though strictly watched, escaped by means of ropes during the night. The next day the assault was resumed, the tower carried, and the defenders were put to the sword. The buildings were then sacked and destroyed, the order being given to "breik them" and "thake of the leied, and outer myen the towres and strong places, and to owaier trowe all." By the following Sunday this had been strictly carried out; the abbey was razed, and "all put to royen, howsses, and towres, and stypeles." The removal of the lead to Wark alone occupied the carts of the army for several days. After this the abbeys of Melrose, Dryburgh, and Jedburgh shared in the fate of Kelso,[417] but, unlike it, they did not resist. Kelso Abbey was still further reduced by Lord Eure in 1546; and finally in 1560, when a few monks still remained, the buildings were attacked by the mob, and all the remaining fittings and furnishings destroyed. In 1559 the revenues and property of the abbey were taken possession of by the Lords of the Congregation in the name of the Crown. The temporalities were afterwards distributed amongst the favourites of James VI., and were finally conferred on Sir Robert Ker of Cessford, who was created Lord Roxburgh in 1599. The abbey still belongs to his successor, the Duke of Roxburgh, and the remains of the late duke are buried in the south transept.[418] In 1649 a vault was thrown over the transept so as to convert it into a parish church, and above this another vault served as a prison! This is seen in Grose's view, made about a century ago.

"During service on a Sunday in 1771 a panic was caused by the fall
of a fragment of cement, and the church was thereafter abandoned.
The ruins were partly disencumbered by the Duke of Roxburgh,
1805-16, and in 1823 the buildings were repaired by the noblemen and
gentlemen of the county."[419]

Referring to the modern town, Dr. Cosmo Innes says:--

"Reposing on the sunny bank of its own beautiful river, the modern
town of Kelso looks a fitting rural capital for 'pleasant
Teviotdale.' It has little of the air of an old monastic burgh, and
still less calls up any recollection of the heaps of ruins that
impeded the plans of the English engineers. There is not much
knowledge or tradition of its former state, and but few memorials of
its old inhabitants. Last year (1845) a worthy burgher, who had dug
up in his garden under the abbey walls what seemed to him a rare
coin of a Scotch king, was scarcely well pleased to learn that it
was a leaden _bulla_ of Pope Alexander III., bronzed with the
oxidising of seven centuries.

In the midst of the modern town the abbey church stands alone, like
some antique Titan predominating over the dwarfs of a later
world."[420]

Considering all the dangers and neglect of the centuries, it is astonishing that so many of the ruins still exist.

The building has consisted of choir or chancel of considerable
length, with north and south aisles, and of a transept and nave
without aisles. The north and south divisions of the transept and
nave form three arms of equal length round the three sides of the
crossing, above which rises the massive square tower.[421] The
church was originally constructed in the late Norman style of about
the end of the twelfth century, passing into the transition
style--the upper part of the tower having been rebuilt at a later
period.[422] Of the chancel only a fragment remains--two of the
south main piers with arches and two stories of arcades above, which
represent the triforium and clerestory. The chancel only had aisles.

The main piers consist of a circular column, five feet in diameter,
with smaller attached half-columns on three sides to carry the
moulded arches between the main piers and the arches between the
latter and the aisles.[423] "The piers have caps of the usual Norman
modified cushion pattern, and the arches were moulded and arranged
in several orders. The arcade immediately over the main arches has a
row of single round shafts, with spreading Norman caps, which carry
a series of moulded arches, occupying the position of the triforium.
The upper arcade, which takes the place of the clerestory, has
shafts of triple form, with wide spreading bases and caps of Norman
and transition design. On the latter rest the round boldly-moulded
arches. The arches opposite the windows in the outer wall are
slightly larger than the others. It will be observed that there is
no main vaulting shaft carried up over the main piers, as is almost
invariably the case, for the purpose of strengthening the wall. On
the contrary, the triforium arcade is continuous, and no provision
is made to support the side wall, except the single shafts of the
running arcade, which have a very weak effect. In the usual
arrangement, the triforium arches are separated by a substantial
piece of wall, including a vaulting shaft, and the triforium arch,
which is generally subdivided into several subordinate arches, is
introduced between the vaulting shafts. That is a much more
substantial form of construction, and also more satisfactory to the
eye, than the plan adopted here of a simple continuous arcade." In
the exterior of this portion of the choir the outside of the
clerestory windows is visible, being simple round-headed openings,
with flat buttresses between them. The remainder of the wall is
plain, but, judging from the level of the triforium window, the
vaulting of the aisle, which was very high and partly covered the
windows, seems to have been added at a later date. The crossing is
square; the piers are about nine feet square--that at the
south-east angle standing detached in consequence of the opening
into the south aisle, while those at the north-west and south-west
angles are incorporated with the walls. The piers are designed as a
series of shafts, set in square nooks (four on each of the complete
sides), with a large semicircular shaft at each angle. The shafts
are all built in courses with the piers, and have transition bases
and caps. From the latter spring large pointed arches, with plain
chamfered orders. The pointed arch indicates the transitional
character of this part of the building, and was probably introduced
in this position to give strength to sustain the tower. The three
arms of the cross branching to the north, south, and west from the
crossing are of equal size--an unusual arrangement, as the nave is
generally the longest division of the church. This was part of the
original design, as the western doorway is one of the most
prominently Norman portions of the edifice, and no satisfactory
explanation has yet been given of the shortness of the Kelso nave.
The upper portion of the west front has been in the transitional
style, and the Norman arcading, which runs round the interior of the
nave, was continued across the west end.

The nave, north and south transepts, contain each four stories in
height, consisting of an interlacing arcade of Norman work in the
interior of the ground level, and three stories of windows above.
The upper arcades of the choir do not extend round the nave and
transepts, except in a portion of the south transept. The windows in
the different stories have all round arches, both inside and
outside, and the exterior is marked at each angle by broad and
shallow Norman buttresses, with nook shafts in the angles, and an
interlacing arcade round the lower story, both internally and
externally. In the façades of the west end and north transept the
windows of the different stories have been grouped so as to form
distinct designs. "In the west end, over the great west doorway,
there has been an arrangement of tall windows of apparently lancet
form, having on either side an interlacing arcade of round arches,
supported on tall, bended shafts. This is now, unfortunately,
greatly destroyed. Above the arcade there runs a horizontal flat
cornice, enriched with several rows of carved ornaments, and this
was surmounted by a large opening of quatrefoil shape, surrounded
with numerous mouldings and enrichments. The angle buttresses have
been crowned with octagonal turrets."[424]

The north wall of the north transept has a fine transitional
door-piece, occupying the two lower stories. The next two stories
have each two windows, separated by a small buttress, and the upper
story has three arches in the interior. "Above these stories is a
small circular window with a curious saving arch over it, and the
whole is crowned with a top story, containing three round-headed
openings, and a gable with a small circular aperture. The buttresses
at the angles are crowned with circular turrets, which have been
finished with a projecting parapet, the corbels for carrying which
still survive. The upper part of the gable shows signs of having
been altered."[425]

The west doorway and the north door-piece are interesting; the
former, the south half of which has perished, and which was finished
with a sloping gable and stone roof, is regarded as a rich specimen
of the elaborate carved work that characterised the late Norman
period. "The jambs contained five detached shafts set in nooks, and
having Norman bases and carved caps. Over each of these shafts there
springs a circular order, carved with rich Norman ornament, now,
however, very much decayed. The jambs of the doorway also formed
moulded shafts, supporting their order in the arch."[426] The
door-piece of the north transept wall is a prominent feature,
projects 4 feet 6 inches from the main wall, has two stories, and is
roofed with a sloping stone roof. The shafts have the usual Norman
caps and bases, and the mouldings of the arch are pronounced to be
peculiar in their profile. The outer one is enriched with small
medallions, the central with the billet, and the inner one with
rosettes. Above the archway there is an arcade of interlacing round
shafts--the shafts, which were destroyed, having Norman caps. "The
tympanum of the gable is covered with a reticulation of round beads
or rolls."[427] The south and west sides and a small portion of the
north and east sides of the tower remain. It is 35 feet square over
the walls, and "is carried up with plain masonry externally, but the
interior has immediately over the great arches of the crossing an
arcade of round moulded arches, supported on triple shafts similar
to those of the choir. Above this arcade is another story containing
simple round arched openings, which are lighted on the exterior by
circular windows containing quatrefoils. Over this tier is the upper
story, which contains three pointed and deeply-recessed windows on
each side of the tower. Broad, flat buttresses are placed at each
angle of the tower, similar to those of the main building, and these
were, no doubt, originally finished with turrets like those of the
transepts.... The upper part of the tower is later than the lower
part. This is apparent from the pointed windows of the top story and
the quatrefoiled circular windows of the story beneath. The lower
story immediately over the great arches is, without doubt, of about
the same date as the choir."[428] There were probably similar
staircases in other parts of the structure now removed, but the
approach to the upper floors is now by one staircase in the N.W.
angle of the transept. Passages between the arcades and the outer
walls went round the building on every floor, and in the angles of
the tower there are small wheel stairs leading to every floor, and
passages running round the tower on every story. These arcades and
passages have tended to weaken the structure, and it has been found
necessary to strengthen it with numerous iron tie-rods, iron beams,
etc.[429]

There was an outer door in the S.W. angle of the transept, and
another in the north wall of the nave adjoining the crossing. A tomb
recess is in the south transept wall, and in the recess beneath are
two ambries or lockers and a piscina, the only one remaining in the
building. To the south of the transept there is a vaulted chamber
that may have been the sacristy.[430]

_Arbroath Abbey (Forfarshire)._--This abbey was founded in 1178 by William the Lion, and dedicated to S.S. Mary and Thomas à Becket. Becket had been martyred at the high altar of Canterbury Cathedral only seven years before, and William the Lion had recently suffered defeat and capture by the English at Alnwick. William had been personally acquainted with Becket, and is supposed to have regarded him as a private friend.

"Was this the cause," asks Dr. Cosmo Innes, "or was it the natural
propensity to extol him who, living and dead, had humbled the crown
of England, that led William to take St. Thomas as his patron saint,
and to entreat his intercession when he was in greatest trouble? Or
may we consider the dedication of his new abbey, and his invocation
of the martyr of Canterbury, as nothing more than the signs of the
rapid spreading of the veneration for the new saint of the high
church party, from which his old opponent himself, Henry of England,
was not exempt?"

As showing the eagerness with which King William pushed on the buildings, Hollinshed mentions that

"The King came by the Abbey of Aberbrothoc to view the work of that
house, how it went forward, commanding them that were overseers and
masters of the works to spare for no cost, but to bring it up to
perfection, and that with magnificence."[431]

The abbey received great endowments from King William and from many subsequent princes and barons; acquired in 1204 a charter of privileges from King John of England and was one of the foremost and richest in Scotland. Its monks were Tyronenses, and the first were brought from Kelso Abbey.

"By the year 1178 part of the church was ready for dedication.
William the Lion died in 1214, and was buried in the east end of the
edifice, which was then finished. Shortly afterwards the south
transept was sufficiently well advanced to admit of the burial
within it, before the altar of St. Catherine, of Gilchrist, Earl of
Angus. On the 18th of March 1233, during the time of Abbot Ralph de
Lamley, the church was dedicated. The time occupied in the erection
and completion of the structure was thus a little over fifty-five
years, and when its dimensions are considered, it will be found in
comparison with other churches to have been carried on with great
rapidity."[432]

The abbots had several special privileges; they were exempted from assisting at the yearly synods; they had the custody of the Brecbennach, or consecrated banner of St. Columba; they acquired from Pope Benedict, by Bull, dated at Avignon, the right to wear a mitre, and were in some instances the foremost churchmen of the Kingdom. The abbey was toll-free, _i.e._ protected against the local impositions which of old beset all merchandise.

"But," says Dr. Cosmo Innes, "the privilege the abbot most valued
(and intrinsically the most valuable) was the tenure of all his
lands, 'in free regality,' _i.e._ with sovereign power over his
people, and the unlimited emoluments of criminal jurisdiction....
Even after the Reformation had passed over abbot and monk, the lord
of regality had still the same power, and the Commendator of
Arbroath was able to rescue from the King's Justiciar and to
'repledge' into his own court four men accused of the slaughter of
William Sibbald of Cair--as dwelling within his bounds (quasi infra
bondas ejusdem commorantes). The officer who administered this
formidable jurisdiction was the Bailie of the Regality, or
'Justiciar Chamberlain and Bailie'--the Bailiary had become
virtually hereditary in the family of Airlie.[433] ... The mair and
the coroner of the abbey were the executors of the law within the
bounds of the regality, and the best thought it no degradation to
hold their lands as vassals of the great abbey."[434]

The monks made a harbour and fixed a bell on the Inchcape Rock as a warning to sailors; the abbey was burnt in 1272 and 1380.

Referring to its chartulary as a record of the names of the old Scottish families Dr. Cosmo Innes says:--

"Many of our ancient families went down in the War of Independence,
and few of our present aristocracy trace back beyond the revolution
of families and property which took place under Bruce. The Earls of
Angus, Fife, and Strathearn are little more than mythological
personages to the modern genealogist.... It is the common case all
over Scotland."[435]

In connection with the monks he has the following interesting note:--

"It is to be remarked that in Scotland, as in other countries, while
the secular or parochial clergy were often the younger sons of good
families, the convents of monk and friars were recruited wholly
from the lower classes; and yet--not to speak of the daily bread,
the freedom from daily care, all the vulgar temptations of such a
life in hard times--the career of a monk opened no mean path to the
ambitious spirit. The offices of the monastery alone might well seem
prizes to be contended for by the son of the peasant or burgess, and
the highest of these placed its holder on a level with the greatest
of the nobility."[436]

The last abbot was Cardinal Beaton, at the same time Archbishop of St. Andrews. The abbey suffered after the Reformation from the revenues having become the property of the Hamiltons, and as they were appropriated to the private use of that family, there were no funds to keep up the buildings, which fell gradually into decay, and were freely used by the magistrates and townspeople as a quarry. The property was converted into a temporal lordship in favour of Lord Claude Hamilton, third son of the Duke of Chatelherault.

In sketching the history of this famous abbey, the "Aberbrothock Manifesto" of 1320 must be recalled, in which it becomes manifest that the Scottish Church was never a complaisant vassal of Rome.[437] There breathes in it a spirit of freedom and natural independence, and a refusal to accept the interference of Rome in the affairs of the State. The Scottish nobles protest against the papal countenance given to the English aggressions, and distinctly tell Pope John XXII. that "not for glory, riches, or honour we fight, but for _liberty alone_, which no good man loses but with his life."[438]

The abbey church consisted of a choir of three bays, with side
aisles and an aisleless presbytery; a nave of nine bays, with aisles
and north and south transepts with eastern aisles; two western
towers and one large central tower. Considerable portions of these
divisions still remain, but the greater part of the north side of
the choir, the north transept and nave, and almost all the piers and
pillars have been swept away. Beginning at the east end, the eastern
wall is entire for nearly half its height, having an arcade below
and three lancet windows above, with the lower portions of an upper
row of similar windows. Somewhat less of the return wall of the
south side of the presbytery, comprising two bays, remains, and
adjoining it is the sacristy, a late building fairly well preserved.
The end wall of the south transept is almost complete, along with a
considerable portion of the west wall of the transept, which gives a
good idea of the grandeur of the church. The whole of the nave south
wall remains, showing a row of windows and indications of the
groining of the aisle. The central aisle was not vaulted, but
covered with a wooden roof. Most of the bases of the nave pillars
are in position, as are also the foundations of the north transept.
The west end fragment and the two towers left standing, are striking
and impressive in their vigorous work.[439] Bold, vigorous work,
with refinement of detail, is seen in the western doorway. It is
round arched, and its outer order, if it may be so called, extends
inwards for about five feet, unadorned as a bold and plain tunnel
arch, having a pointed arch in each ingoing. It then becomes shafted
and richly moulded, after the transition manner. This arrangement,
while it gives a fine shadow under the arch, has a feeling of
rudeness, which, to a considerable extent, characterises the whole
west front. "There is a remarkable resemblance in the decoration of
this doorway to that of the doorway in the porch of Lerida
Cathedral, Spain, supposing the tunnel arch of Arbroath away, and
the moulded part brought forward to the face of the wall, as is the
case at Lerida.... A similar ring ornament, on a large scale, is
also to be seen in a doorway at Lamington, Lanarkshire, where it is
likewise used along with the zig-zag, but there the ringed order is
the outer enrichment."[440]

The removal of the outer part of a gallery, which existed over this
doorway, has increased the rude appearance of the west front, but
the inner part of this gallery still remains. Within the great
thickness of the wall a chamber of considerable size was obtained,
and it opens into the nave by six pointed arches, and to the outside
over the doorway by three arches. It is regarded as obvious that
three gablets projected outwards from the wall for a distance of
about four feet, supported on two intermediate shafts, and that the
gallery was closed in at each end with walls or haffits, both of
which still remain in part. We now see the west front robbed of its
most unique features; the gallery was reached by a long passage at
each end from stairs in the angle-buttresses. It probably was a
gallery for an orchestra, and may have also been used as a pulpit to
address an open-air audience.[441]

Above this gallery was an immense circular window, a portion of
which still survives. "It is probable that this part of the building
was erected at two different times, the west doorway and some of the
pillars of the gallery being in the early transition style, while
the triple windows to the front and the six-light arcade towards the
interior are in the first pointed style. When the gallery was
completed in the first pointed period, the floor space was enlarged
by extending it to the front, hence the necessity for the deep
tunnel arch over the west doorway. The pointed arches in the ingoing
also indicate this first pointed period."[442]

The western towers opened with arches into the north, south, and
central aisles, but only the north tower retains its massive pier
and arches, while of the south tower nothing but the foundation of
the pier exists. The south wall of the transept is externally plain,
the upper part being visible above the dormitory roof. The façade
has two plain lancet windows, one shorter than the other, and above
them is a large wheel window. The interior of the transept is a very
grand design in the early pointed style.[443] Beneath the splayed
lancets there is a round arched open arcade, with a passage behind
it, and beneath this, two tiers of wall arcades with pointed arches,
the central arcade being very acutely pointed, the lower one not so
decidedly, and with trefoil cusps in the arches. A staircase in the
S.E. angle of the transept gave access to the dormitory by the door,
seen built up on the outside.[444] This staircase also leads to the
various passages in the thickness of the walls, and the church
doorway leading to this stair is round arched and ranges with the
lower pointed arcade. The lower arcade of the south end is continued
along the west wall, and above this rise two widely-splayed windows.
All the lofty south transept windows have passages on two floors,
and the transepts had chapels on the east side. "The respond of the
great arcade against the south wall is beautiful in detail. Above
this there exist fragments of the responds of the triforium story
and the clerestory. All the above features of this part of the abbey
point plainly to its having some lingering remains of transition
style, retaining, as it does, some round arches along with the
general features of the design."[445]

The vestry or sacristy was built by Abbot Walter Painter between
1411 and 1433, and is a two-storied building, the ground floor
having a groined ceiling, still entire, and the upper room being
roofless. Its features are of fifteenth-century work, and the
building is in good preservation.

Only fragments of the conventual buildings remain. "An octagonal
turret marks the south-east corner of the chapter-house with the
south and east return walls, and adjoining the south transept is the
slype, the walls of which determine the other walls of the
chapter-house. On the wall of the south transept is clearly seen the
mark of the dormitory roof, with the door between the church and
dormitory now built up."[446] The north wall and a portion of the
west wall proceeding southward from it are all that remain of the
extensive enclosure of the abbey. The enclosure was said to have
been of great height and to have extended 1150 feet on the east and
west, 760 feet on the north, and 480 feet on the south. There were
great towers at the angles and entrance gateways on the north and at
the south-east angle. In the centre of the north wall is the
portcullis entrance gatehouse. The front wall is almost entire, and
the upper floor window is crossed by the corbels which carried the
movable wooden hoarding that was erected over the gateway when
required for its defence.[447] At the western extremity of the north
enclosing wall there is a large square tower, three stories in
height in the inside, and four stories on the outside, owing to the
fall of the ground. The two lower floors are round-vaulted, and the
cape-house on top is said to have been removed during this
century.[448] The building adjoining the tower to the east was
called the Regality Court-house, and had a groined ceiling. The
abbot's house is on the south side of the cloister, and is the best
preserved abbot's house in Scotland. It is three stories high, and
the two upper floors have been converted into a modern private
dwelling-house. It has been altered externally and spoiled of its
ancient internal fittings, with the exception of two fine carved
panels, one representing the Virgin, and the other a large Scotch
thistle. The kitchen has central pillars supporting a groined
roof,[449] and the other offices connected with the kitchen are all
vaulted. The abbey suffered from fire in 1272 and in 1380, while in
1350 it was injured "from the frequent assaults of the English
ships."[450] Service was up to 1590 conducted in the lady chapel
"stripped of its altars and images."

_Melrose Abbey (Roxburghshire)._--The editor of the _Liber de Melros_ has said in reference to this abbey:--

"The incidental mention of the condition of the abbey itself at
different times strongly illustrates the history of the district and
the age. At one time powerful and prosperous, accumulating property,
procuring privileges, commanding the support of the most powerful,
and proudly contending against the slightest encroachment; at
another, impoverished and ruined by continual wars, obliged to seek
protection from the foreign invader: in either situation it reflects
back faithfully the political condition of the country.

But the political events of a country of so narrow bounds and small
resources as Scotland are insignificant unless they are associated
with the development of principles and feelings that know no limits
of place or power. How rich Scotland has been in such associations
is testified by the general sympathy which attends her history and
her literature, and gives a pride to her children that forms not the
weakest safeguard of their virtue. It is in recalling freshly the
memory of times in which the proud and virtuous character of her
people was formed, and which it is their delight and their duty to
look back upon, that such studies as the present are most useful.
Every local association, every faint illustration of antiquity, each
indication of the bygone manners of a simple age, are in this view
to be treasured, not only as filling a page of a meagre history, but
as so many moral ties to bind us closer in affection to the country
of our fathers."[451]

This abbey has a charming site in the hill-girt hollow known as the vale of Melrose, occupying one of those peaceful situations near a river which the Cistercians delighted to choose and colonise. An ancient monastery of Melrose had existed since the seventh century, on a broad meadow nearly surrounded by a "loop" of the Tweed, about 2-1/2 miles lower down the river. It was established about 650 by St. Aidan, the missionary from Iona, who preached in Northumbria, and founded the abbey of Lindisfarne. Eata was the first abbot we hear of, and he was a disciple of St. Aidan. St. Cuthbert spent much of his early life at this monastery of old Melrose, and afterwards chose as the scene of his labours Hexham and Lindisfarne. The monks of Lindisfarne, when expelled by the Danes, took refuge at Melrose, and brought with them St. Cuthbert's body, which afterwards found its resting-place at Durham. In the eleventh century this old monastery of Melrose had become a ruined and desolate place. It afterwards became the retreat of a few monks, amongst whom was the celebrated Turgot, the confessor of Queen Margaret. A chapel was erected and dedicated to St. Cuthbert, which at first belonged to Coldingham, but was gifted finally by David I. to the new abbey of Melrose.

This abbey was founded in 1136 at a place then called Fordell, and was endowed by David I. and his nobles with extensive lands. The monks were of the Cistercian order, and were brought from Rievalle in Yorkshire. The original buildings were not finished till 1146, and on the 28th of July in that year the church was solemnly consecrated and dedicated to the Virgin Mary. It is thought that such buildings with an oratory were probably the residence of the monks, and their period would suggest the Norman style, like that of the abbeys of Kelso, Jedburgh, and Dryburgh. Every trace of these early buildings has disappeared, and, situated as it was on the border-country, Melrose Abbey was exposed to danger, and frequently suffered in the wars between the two countries. It was in the chapter-house at Melrose that the Yorkshire barons united against King John and swore fealty to Alexander II. in 1215. In 1295 Edward I. gave formal protection to its monks, and in 1296 he issued a writ ordering a restitution to them of all the property they had lost in the preceding struggle. In 1321 or 1322 the original structure was destroyed by the English under Edward II., and the abbot, with a number of the monks, was killed. In 1326 Robert I. gave a grant of £2000 to be applied to the rebuilding of the church, and in 1329, a few months before his death, he wrote a letter to his son David, requesting that his heart should be buried at Melrose and commending the monastery and the church to his successor's favour. His wish was granted, and so late as 1369 we hear of King David II. renewing his father's gift, and it is to this grant we owe a considerable part of the present building. In 1328 Edward III. ordered the restoration to the abbey of pensions and lands which it had held in England, and which had been seized by Edward II. In 1334 the same king granted a protection to Melrose in common with the other Border abbeys, and in 1341 he came to Melrose to spend Christmas. In 1385 Richard II., exasperated by his fruitless expedition into Scotland, spent a night in the abbey and caused it to be burned. Notwithstanding these disasters, the abbey increased in wealth and architectural splendour, and it was not till more severe damage and dilapidations befell it during the reigns of Henry VIII., Edward VI. and Elizabeth, that ruin began finally to impend. The approach of the Reformation influenced its downfall, and though donations for rebuilding were given by various individuals, the abbey never recovered the damage then suffered. In 1541 James V. obtained from the Pope the abbeys of Melrose and Kelso, to be held _in commendam_ by his illegitimate son James, who died in 1558. In 1560 all the "abbacie" was annexed to the Crown, and in 1566 Mary granted the lands to James, Earl of Bothwell, with the title of Commendator. After passing through the hands of Douglas of Lochleven and Sir John Ramsay, the estates were ultimately acquired by the Scotts of Buccleuch. The abbey gradually fell into decay through neglect. The materials were used for the erection of other structures, and Douglas built from the ruins a house which still stands to the north of the cloisters and bears the date 1590. The masonry also formed a quarry for the neighbourhood, and in 1618 the remaining portion of the structure was fitted up as the parish church, "and in order to render it secure, a plain pointed barrel vault was thrown across the nave, and was supported by plain square piers built against the old piers on the north side. The original vaulting seems to have been previously demolished."[452] A great number of the stone images of saints which filled the numerous wall niches were left untouched till 1649, when they were almost all cast down and destroyed, but by whose order is unknown. Of the abbey there now only remain the ruins of the church, and of it the most competent authorities say:--

"No building in Scotland affords such an extensive and almost
inexhaustible field for minute investigation and enjoyment of detail
such as this. Whether we consider the great variety of the
beautifully sculptured figures of monks and angels playing on
musical instruments, or displaying 'the scrolls which teach us to
live and die,' or turn to the elaborate canopies and beautiful
pinnacles of the buttresses, or examine the rich variety of foliage
and other sculptures on the capitals of the nave and the doorway and
arches of the cloisters; or if, again, we take a more general view
of the different parts of the edifice from the numerous fine
standpoints from which it can be so advantageously contemplated, we
know of no Scottish building which surpasses Melrose either in the
picturesqueness of its general aspect or in the profusion or value
of its details. It occupies an important position also historically,
and it in part supplies an admirable example of that decorated
architecture, the existence of which in this country has been so
often denied, but of which, we trust, a sufficient number of
examples are now provided to render that reproach to Scottish
architecture no longer justifiable. We have to thank the fine red
sandstone of the district, of which the church is built, for the
perfect preservation of all the details of the structure. These
remain, even in the minutest carving, as perfect and complete as the
day they were executed."[453]

The cloister and domestic buildings, including the hall of Abbot
Matthew, were situated on the _north_ side of the church. They have
now entirely disappeared, leaving only a portion of the cloister
which indicates their position. The church is cruciform, and the
choir is unusually short and the nave unusually long. The aisled
choir extends only two bays eastwards from the crossing, beyond
which point the presbytery is carried one bay farther, without
aisles, and is lighted by large north and south windows as well as
by the great eastern window.

The shortness of the choir rendered it necessary that part of the
nave should be appropriated for the monks, and the enclosing screen
wall of this portion of the "choir" extended to the fourth pier west
from the crossing, where it was carried across the nave and formed
the rood screen. The screen was wide and contained a gallery, on the
top of which stood the rood.[454] The nave extends to eight bays,
but it has been intended to be longer--the west end being
incomplete. Extending southwards, beyond the south aisle, is a
series of eight chapels, which produced externally, along with the
south aisle, the appearance of a double aisle.[455] The north aisle
is narrower than the south aisle, and the position of the cloister
may have hampered the design.

This difference may have arisen from the plan of the original abbey of the twelfth century being adhered to in the later construction.[456]

The transepts contain the usual eastern aisle only, in which are situated four chapels.

The superstructure of the church has severely suffered and the
western part is greatly demolished. The portion eastwards from the
rood screen is in better preservation. The vaulting of the aisles is
well-preserved, but that of the centre aisle is demolished--a
pointed tunnel vault having been constructed in 1618. The eight
chapels are well preserved, but some parts of the three furthest
west ones are damaged and have lost their vaulting. The tracery in
the chapel windows is lovely; the vaulting of the nave, south aisle
and chapels, is supported by a series of flying buttresses, "which
form one of the most prominent and beautiful elements of the
building. No church in Scotland retains such a striking example of
that important feature of Gothic architecture."[457]

The eastern piers of the crossing were demolished probably in Henry
VIII.'s time, and their destruction entailed that of the central
tower, of which the western wall only remains. The transepts have
suffered by the fall of the tower, but fortunately the south wall of
the transept with its finely decorated window is still preserved.
From the south transept access is obtained to the roof of the nave
aisle and to the uppermost parts of the structure by a turnpike
stair, which also forms the only mode of approach to the tower.[458]
"The choir, so far as the east is concerned, is well preserved, the
buttresses and gable, the celebrated eastern window, and the
remarkable vaulting of the presbytery being all in good order. The
remainder of the choir, however, has been greatly wrecked by the
fall of the central tower; but many of the windows of the choir and
transept with their perpendicular tracery have escaped destruction,
and afford the best example in Scotland of that form of
design."[459]

The building, as it now stands, is, generally speaking,[460] of a
date subsequent to Bruce's time, and much of it is later than the
destruction which occurred under Richard II. in 1385.[461] "The
nave, from the crossing to the rood loft, and part of the transepts
are, undoubtedly, the oldest portions of the existing edifice. The
work in these is, for the most part, of the Scottish decorated
period. The nave piers, with their beautifully carved caps, and the
mouldings of the arches are distinctly decorated work; and the
flying buttresses and pinnacles on the south side of the nave are,
without doubt, of the same period. So also is the south wall of the
transept, with its magnificent window and tracery and its
buttresses, enriched with fine canopies and quaint figures carved as
corbels.

"All these features bear a close affinity to the decorated work of
the nave of York Minster, erected about 1400. The flying buttresses,
with pinnacles enriched with crockets and foliaged finials; the
niches, with their elaborate canopies and corbels composed of
figures of monks and angels; the statues which formerly filled the
niches, of which very few now remain; the decorated tracery of the
south transept window, and the whole character of the work, both in
its general scope and in its details, is of fine decorated design,
and vividly recalls that of York, Beverley, and other English
examples. It is not improbable that some parts of the nave and
transept were erected during the period between the death of King
Robert Bruce and the invasion of Richard II. It should be mentioned
that Bruce's bequest was not all received till 1399, and the
operations also probably proceeded slowly. The doorway in the south
wall of the south transept is apparently an insertion in older
work."[462] The south chapels of the nave have apparently been added
during the repairs in the earlier part of the fifteenth century; the
buttresses were probably executed towards the middle of that
century, and the east one contains the arms of Abbot Hunter.[463]
There is a distinct change in the transept's design from that of the
nave, as if the former had been added to the latter at a later
period.[464] The east wall and the other eastern parts of the choir
are more recent than the nave, and probably this portion of the
church had been more damaged by Richard II. than the nave, and
required to be almost wholly rebuilt. The style here corresponds
closely with the "perpendicular" of England which prevailed in the
fifteenth century.[465] The great eastern window is exceptional and
unique, and has more of the character of perpendicular than any
other style. Scott, referring to it, has described the moon as
shining

Through slender shafts of shapely stone,
By foliaged tracery combined;
Thou would'st have thought some fairy's hand,
Twixt poplars straight, the osier wand,
In many a freakish knot, had twined;
Then framed a spell, when the work was done,
And changed the willow-wreaths to stone.