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
About a century ago they became the property of the family of Buccleuch,
in which they remain. The Douglas built himself a house out of the
ruins, which may still be seen about fifty yards to the north of the
church. The ruins are preserved with great care, and are shown by a
family which is at once intelligent and courteous. The person going
round, most generally, points out the shattered remains of thirteen
figures at the great eastern window, in their niches, said to have been
those of our Savior and his Apostles. They were broken to pieces by a
fanatic weaver of Gattonside. A head is also pointed out, said to be
that of Michael Scott, the magician, who exerted his power so
wonderfully, according to tradition, in this neighborhood, as to split,
the Eildon hill into three parts....
The name of Melrose is clearly derived from the Ancient British,
Melross, the projection of the meadow. Moel in Welsh and Maol in Irish
signify something bald, naked, bare. Thus Moal-Ross, in the language of
the Irish monks who first built the church here, would signify the naked
promontory. Moel in Welsh is now usually applied to a smooth mountain,
as Moel-Siabod; and we find Ross continually showing its Celtic origin
where there is a promontory, as Ross on the Moray-frith, and Ross in
Herefordshire from a winding of the Wye. But some old sculptor, on a
stone still preserved in the village, has made a punning derivation for
it, by carving a mell, or mallet, and a rose over it. This stone was
part of a wall of the old prison, long since pulled down.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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