The remains of this most beautiful structure of the Scottish Middle Ages are considerable, and demonstrate the former architectural beauties of the abbey. They consist of parts of the church and cloister. Of the former three bays of the nave, eight small chapels, with elegant traceried windows to the south of the south aisle, a portion of the central tower, and the transepts of the choir remain. Many architectural styles are shown, and a curious mingling of the old with later Decorated work is a noticeable feature. The arches which divide the nave from its aisles are remarkably beautiful and many excellent windows light the church. Those in the nave are Perpendicular, while the trefoiled four-light windows in the choir and presbytery are Decorated or Early Perpendicular. Some of the vaulting still remains in the south aisle and also above the site of the high altar. This edifice was originally 215 feet long by 116 across the transepts. Joanna, wife of Alexander II.; the “wondrous Michael Scott”; and Sir David Brewster are buried here, and the heart of the hero, Robert Bruce, is interred beneath the site of the high altar. The cloister, containing some wonderfully rich carving of exquisite workmanship, was placed on the north side of the nave, and beyond, the garden extended to the river bank, a quarter of a mile distant. Of the Anglo Saxon monastery founded in Melrose in 635, comparatively little is known. St Cuthbert, then a dreamy shepherd boy, imagined he saw a vision of angels carrying a soul to heaven, and hearing subsequently that Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, had died that same night, was convinced that he had been privileged to see his saintly soul. Wishing to join a religious community St Cuthbert went to the monastic settlement at Melrose, then consisting only of a few log huts, joined the brotherhood there (A.D. 651), and in course of time became its prior. Bede says-- “Cuthbert’s skill in speaking was so great, his power of persuasion so vast, and the light of his countenance so angelic that no one in his presence concealed from him the secrets of his soul: all confessed their misdeeds, because they thought that what they had done could not escape his prescience, and atoned for them by such penance as he enjoined.”