Dryburgh has been associated with many men eminent in their own walk of life: Abbot Oliver, Royal ambassador to England; Canon Patrick, poet and man of letters; Ralph of Strode, Chaucer’s friend and Wycliffe’s antagonist; Chaucer himself, and then a line of commendators, the last of whom was James Strail, who tried in vain to stem the tide of simony, sacrilege, and depredation that was engulfing the Scottish Church. In 1545 the great blow fell. Henry VIII. gave to Sir Ralph Eure, Sir George Bowes, and Sir Brian Layton a feudal grant of the land they had the year before devastated and laid waste. Thereupon these chivalrous and noble gentlemen, Eure and Layton, forthwith journeyed into Scotland at the head of a formidable host eager to seize on their “lawful lands.” They swept the south of Scotland with fire, burning anew Melrose, Kelso, Dryburgh and four other abbeys, sixteen castles, five great towers and 243 villages. Retribution awaited them, however, for on Ancrum Moor they were attacked by a brave body of patriotic Scotchmen under the Earl of Angus, Norman Lesly, and Sir Walter Scott of Buccleuch, all eager to avenge their wrongs. The battle ended in a complete victory for the Scots, the entire English force being utterly routed. Eight hundred were killed, more than a thousand captured, and the villains Eure and Layton left dead on the field of battle. Dryburgh Abbey was indeed lost, but its despoilers were vanquished, and to-day the remnants of this once stately pile tower rise towards the sky in mute protest against the frenzied outrage of the favourites of a dishonoured royal house. [Illustration: MELROSE ABBEY] CHAPTER XV ROXBURGHSHIRE MELROSE: KELSO: JEDBURGH MELROSE (_Cistercian_) 635, Monastery founded--839, Destroyed by Kenneth MacAlpine--1136, Re-founded by David I.--1322, Stormed by 300 men sent by Edward II.--The prior slain--Part of the building set on fire by Richard II.--1322-1505, The abbey slowly rebuilt--1544, Sir B. Layton, Sir R. Eure, and the Earl of Hertford injure this religious house--1545, The abbey again sacked and burnt by these men--1618, Nave rudely vaulted afresh--1649, Attacked by a Presbyterian mob--1822, Restored by Duke of Buccleuch. By moonlight or starless dark, by dusk or full daylight, Melrose Abbey is a thing of beauty and romance. Built on the site of an ancient Columban monastery, the abbey, colonised by monks from Lindisfarne, flourished until the Reformers, instigated by John Knox, demolished it with many other religious houses.