Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 2: Great Britain and Ireland, Part 2
General
Seeing Europe with Famous Authors, Volume 2: Great Britain and Ireland, Part 2
Great Britain -- Description and travel; Ireland -- Description and travel
Having found a guide to the ruins, at a cottage near the river, I was
led across a young orchard toward them, the two old gables and the fine
circular window showing themselves above the foliage. I found the
interior of the ruins carpeted by soft turf, and two rows of cedars
growing in the church, marking where the aisle formerly ran. The
cloisters and south transept were still entire, and displayed much fine
workmanship. The great circular window is especially lovely, formed of
five stars cut in stone, so that the open center between them forms a
rose. The light seen through this charming window produced a fine
effect. The chapter-house was also entire, the floor being now only of
earth; and a circle was drawn in the center, where the remains of the
founder and his lady lie. Here, again, however, the fantastic old Lord
Buchan had interfered, and a statue of Locke, reading an open book, and
pointing to his own forehead; one of Inigo Jones, and one of Newton,
made you wonder what they were doing there. So totally without regard to
fitness did this half-crazy nobleman put down his ornaments. The wonder
is that his successor had not removed these, and some statues or busts
which had as little business on the spot.
But the charm of the place in every sense was the grave of Scott. It was
in the Lady aisle, and occupies two arches of it; and the adjoining
space under the next arch is the burial place of the Erskines, as
Scott's burial-place was that of his ancestors, the Halliburtons. The
whole, with the tier of small sectional Norman arches above, forms a
glorious tomb much resembling one of the chapel tombs in Winchester
Cathedral. Taken in connection with the fine ruins, and the finer
natural scenery around, no spot can be supposed more suitable for the
resting-place of the remains of the great minstrel and romancer, who so
delighted in the natural, historic, and legendary charms of the
neighborhood, and who added still greater ones to them himself.
Since my visit, a massive tomb, of Aberdeen granite, has been placed
over the remains of Sir Walter and Lady Scott, and those of their eldest
son. A railway also now makes the place much more accessible, the
station for Dryburgh being at the village of Newtown, on the other side
of the river. Near St. Boswell's, opposite to Dryburgh, has also been
lately erected a bridge over the Tweed, opening up the communication
betwixt the north and south side of the river, and thus enabling the
tourist to explore at great convenience the scenes of ancient loves and
feuds, and the haunts of Scott. Here his dust lies amid the objects
redolent of his fame; and within a few miles, near Makerstoun, a view
may he obtained, from a hill, of Smailholme Tower, where the poet passed
some of the years of his boyhood, and the memory of which he has
perpetuated in one of the epistles which introduce each Canto
of Marmion.
MELROSE ABBEY [Footnote: From "The Ruined Abbeys of the Border."]
BY WILLIAM HOWITT.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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