Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 5

MELBOSE
The chancel was also the burial-place of the Douglases,
and tombs are pointed out said to be those of William
Douglas, the Dark Knight of Liddesdale — whose murder
of Sir Alexander Ramsay (see Hermitage) and subse-
quent death in Ettrick Forest at the hands of his own
chief, William, Earl of Douglas, are well known — and of
James, second Earl of Douglas, theheroofOtterburn. The
Douglas tombs were all defaced by Sir Kalph, afterwards
Lord, Evers in 1544, and after the battle of Ancrum,
Evers himself was buried here, his tomb being pointed
out in the corner chapel just outside the chancel. Here
also is a slab covering the grave pointed out by John
Bower the elder as the place that Scott had in mind
when describing the burial-place of the 'wondrous
Michael Scott. ' It is doubtful, however, whether Scott
had any particular grave in view, and it is of course un-
necessary to point out that the tomb here can have no
connection whatever with the real Sir Michael, whose
introduction into the Lay at that date is merely a piece
of poetical licence (see Balwearie). At the northern
end of the N transept a small doorway leads into the
sacristy in which is the tombstone of Johanna, Queen
of Alexander 11., with the \ns,a:v^iioTi Hie jacet Johanna
d. Soss. Higher up is a door which has been reached
by a flight of steps, and which has probably led to the
dormitory. The threshold of this doorway is formed
by a part of a very old tombstone : the steps were
removed in 1730. Higher up in the wall still is a small
circular window, said to represent a crown of thorns.
The arches here seem to be those from which the
description in the Lay has been taken : —
' Tlie darken'd roof rose high aloof
On pillars lofty, and light and small ;
The key-stone that locked each ribbed aisle
Was a fleur-de-lys, or a quatre-feuille ;
The corbells were carved grotesque and grim.
And the pillars, with clustered shafts so trim,
With base and capital flourish'd around,
Seem'd bundles of lances which garlands had bound.*
On the W side, in elevated niches, are statues repre-
senting St Peter wdth his book and keys, and St Paul
with a sword. In the S transept part of the groined
roof still remains. In the W wall is a small door giving
access to the triforium passages. Over the centre is a
shield bearing a pair of compasses and fleurs-de-lis in
reference to the profession and native country of the
designer. Beside it is the inscription in old English
letter : —
' Sa gays ye corapas evyil about
sa truth and laute do, but doute,
behaulde to ye hende q Johne Morvo.'
Higher up to the left is also the following in similar
characters : —
* John Morow sum tym callit
was I and born in Parysse
certainly and had in kepyng
al mason werk of Santan-
drays ye bye kirk of Glas-
g\v Melros and Paslay of
Nyddsdayll and of Galway.
I pray to God and Marl bath
and sweet Sanct John keep this halj- kirk
fra skaith.'
This is the division of lines as given on the stone. A
slight alteration converts the inscription into the rude
rhyme Avhich no doubt it was meant to be. The upper
part of the S wall is occupied by a very fine window,
24 feet high and 16 wide, with five lights and ela-
borate wheel tracery over ; beneath the window is a
doorway. On the outside the window is surmounted by
nine niches, of which the centre one, which is highly
wrought, is said to have contained an image of Christ.
The eight others and four more on the side buttresses
held figures of the Apostles. Over the doorway is a
figure supposed to be that of John the Baptist, so placed
that the eye is directed upwards as if to the figure of
Christ above, and bearing a scroll with the inscription,
Eccefilius Dr.i. Beneath this is a shield with the royal
arms of Scotland. The pedestals and canopies of the
niches on the buttresses are richly carved. One of the
pedestals on the W is supported by a monk bearing a
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scroll with the inscription. En venit Jes. seq. cessabit
umbra, and one on the E by a monk having a scroll in-
scribed Passus e. q. ipse voluit. Over the E window there
are also niches, some of which contain broken statuettes.
That over the centre of the window has two sitting
figures with open cro^vns, said to represent David I. and
his queen Matilda. There are many more of these
niches on the S side, and in connection with a fine one,
containing a statue of the Virgin holding the infant
Jesus in her arms, Milne relates a tradition, how, when
the person employed to destroy the statues in 1649
struck at this one his first blow knocked off the head of
the infant, which, in its fall, struck his arm and per-
manently disabled him, so that neither he nor any one
else cared to recommence the work of destruction.*
Some of the gargoyles are curious, and one — a pig.
playing on the bagpipe, close to the niche just men-
tioned — has acquired some celebrity.
Of the eight chapels to the S of the south aisle the five
farthest to the E are roofed ; the others are now open.
Each of them is lit by a finely traceried window, and in.
the wall of each is a piscina. In the one next the transept
is a stone inscribed ' Orate pro anima frat. Petre aerarii.'
In the third is a monument to David Fletcher, minister
of Melrose, who, on the establishment of Episcopacy,
was made ]3ishop of Argyll. The others have long been,
used as the burial-places of the Pringles of Whitebank
and Galashiels. Another branch of the Pringle family
had their burying-place, near the cloister door, marked
by the simple inscription ' Heir lyis the race of the hous-
of Zair.' Few of the stones in the churchyard round
the church call for particular notice. That of John,
Knox, minister of Melrose, has been already noticed.
Sir David Brewster (1781-1868), who died at Allerly, in
the parish of Melrose, is buried under the fifth window
counting from the W end of the nave. Near the SE
corner of the churchyard is the stone erected by Scott —
with an inscription written by himself — over the grave
of Tom Purdie, long his forester, favourite, and general
manager at Abbotsford. On a small red tombstone in.
the SE, mthout date but evidently more than 200 years-
old, is the inscription : —
' The earth goeth
on the earth
glistring like
gold;
The earth goes to
the earth sooner
then it wold ;
The earth builds
on the earth cast-
leg and towers :
The earth says to
the earth all shall
be ours.
This was, in 1853, published in Notes and Queries as an
epigram by Sir Walter Scott, but this was soon contra-
dicted. Inscriptions differing but little from it are.
found in several English churchyards, and the original,
lines probably date from the time of Edward III. (see-
Wheler's History and Antiquities of Slratford-tiimn-
Avon).
The ruins were repaired in 1822 at the expense of the-
Duke of Buccleuch, and under the superintendence of
Sir Walter Scott. Washington Irving has charged the
latter with having carried off ' morsels from the ruins
of Melrose Abbey ' to be incorporated in Abbotsford ;.
but in reality what Irving saw was probably a number
of the plaster casts of various ornaments that were made
at this time. The proprietor cares diligently for the
ruins, and makes repairs whenever necessary. The
abbey has been painted or drawn by almost every
eminent British landscape painter from Turner down-
wards, and has been and is every year visited by a-
very large number of visitors. Burns, who came here.
* This * miracle ' is said to have been talked of at Rome, with the-
additional marvel that the man — known as ' Stumpy Thomson ' —
was dragged ignoniiniously to bis grave at a horse's heels. This>
last circumstance is so far true that, the individual in questioa
having died during a severe snowstorm, his coffin was dragged to
the churchyard on a horse sledge.