The earth goeth on the earth, Glist'ring like Gold; The earth goes to the earth sooner than it wold. The earth builds on the earth castles and towers; The earth says to the earth, all shall be ours. Here the contemplative wanderer may pass many an hour, with profit and pleasure, "Mid epitaphs and tombs, Wrapt in the dreams of other days." HISTORY OF THE ABBEY. I have arranged a few particulars of the history, &c. of this relic of monkish times, which will form an appropriate conclusion to these desultory remarks. "Hail! ye bold turrets, and thou rev'rend pile, That seem in age's hoary rest to smile! All trail! for here creative fancy reads Of ages past the long-forgotten deeds. With trembling footsteps I approach thy gates, The massy door upon the hinges grates! Hark! as it opens what a hollow groan 'Cross the dark hall and down the aisles is thrown!" SIR EGERTON BAYDGES. It is handed down by tradition that an abbey was founded at Melrose about the end of the sixth century. The famous St. Cuthbert was one of the abbots in 643; he, however, left, and went to Holy Island, in Northumberland. Many wonderful stories are related of St. Cuthbert; that eleven years after his death in Holy Island, (in 687,) his body, on being taken up, exhibited no marks of corruption, seeming as if asleep, &c. &c. Ethelwold succeeded St. Cuthbert, and sometime after the monastery was ruined by the Danes. The place where this abbey is supposed to have stood is called Old Melrose, and is a mile and a half from the present abbey. Melrose Abbey was founded by king David of Scotland in 1136. It is supposed to have been built in ten years. The church of the convent was dedicated to St. Mary on the 28th of July, 1146. It was the mother church of the Cistertian order in Scotland. The monks were brought from Rievaulx Abbey, in Yorkshire. Their habit was white; and they soon superseded the order of the Benedictines. The abbey is built in the form of St. John's cross, of the Gothic style of architecture, and is 258 feet in length; the breadth 137-1/2 feet; and 943 feet in circumference. A considerable part of the principal tower is now in ruins; its present height is 84 feet. There are many very superb windows; the principal one at the east end (which is the top nave of the cross,) appears to have been more recently built than the others, and is 57 feet in extreme height, and 28 feet wide. It has been ornamented with statues, &c. The beauty of the carved work, with which the abbey is profusely decorated, is seldom equalled, and deservedly celebrated: "Spreading herbs and flow'rets bright, Glisten'd with the dew of night; Nor herb nor flow'ret glisten'd there, But was carved in the cloister'd arches as fair."