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Description of the Abbeys of Melrose and Old Melrose,
Description of the Abbeys of Melrose and Old Melrose Author:John Bower Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Sir Walter Scott, Bart, when representing, by his poetical pencil, the beauty and grandeur of the ruins of Melrose Abbey, says : If thou wouldst view fair Mel... more »rose aright, Go visit it by the pale moon-light; For the gay beams of lightsome day Gild, but to flout, the ruins grey. When the broken arches are black in night, And each shafted oriel glimmers white ; When the cold lights uncertain shower Streams on the ruin'd central tower; When buttress and buttress, alternately, Seem framed of ebon and ivory ; When silver edges the imagery, And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die ; When distant Tweed is heard to rave, And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man's grave; Then go—but go alone the while— Then view St David's ruined pile; And, home returning, soothly swear, Was never scene so sad and fair ! Lay qftfie Last Minstrel. On a pane of glass in the Inn at Melrose. Here view the ruins of a barbarous age, Frantic with zeal, and mad with party rage; Not all thy beauties, Melrose, could prevent The impious deed, which all must now lament. Now I will proceed and point out what is worthy of notice on the outside of the ruin, which is .built in the form of St John's cross: It is one of the mostmagnificent pieces of Gothic architecture in the kingdom, and the admiration of every beholder, for the lightness and embellishment of its pillars, the variety of its sculpture, the beauty of its stones, and the symmetry of its parts. Its length is two hundfed and fifty-eight feet; its breadth one hundred and thirty-seven feet and a half; its circumference nine hundred and forty-three feet; the height of the steeple, or grand tower from its foundation, eighty- four feet; but part of it being gone, we cannot determine the original...« less