We have drawn attention to the more prominent features, but it is impossible for us here to enter fully into all the multiplicity of details which such an elaborate structure offers for observation and study. No building in Scotland affords such an extensive and almost inexhaustible field for minute investigation and enjoyment of detail as this. Whether we consider the great variety of the beautifully sculptured figures of monks and angels playing on musical instruments (Fig. 796), or displaying “the scrolls which teach us to live and die,” or turn to the elaborate canopies and beautiful pinnacles of the buttresses (see Figs. 769 and 778), 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. [Illustration: FIG. 796.--Melrose Abbey. Figures of Monks and Angels.] It occupies an important position also historically, as 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. In the south transept (see Fig. 784) are two remarkable inscriptions, which have given rise to much speculation. One of these is carved over the doorway in the west wall which gives access to the wheel stair, and part of the inscription is carried down one side for want of room. It runs as follows:-- Sa ye Cumpas gays evyn about Sua trouth and laute sall do but diute Behalde to ye hende q. Johne Morvo. The other inscription is carved on a tablet in the wall on the south side of the same door, viz.:-- John Morow sum tym callit was I and born in Parysse certainly And had in keeping al masoun werk Of Santandroys ye hye kyrk Of Glasgw Melros and Paslay Of Nyddysdayll and of Galway I pray to God and Mari bath And sweet S. John kep this haly kirk frae skaith. In the centre of the former inscription is a sunk panel containing a shield with two masons’ compasses, arranged somewhat like a saltier, and beneath a figure resembling a fleur-de-lys.