Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1878-09-19
The earth builds on the earth
Castles and towers;
The earth says to the earth

in thousand who is able to take Sill
Walter SCOTS advice to visit Melrose
by "thc pale moonlight" and indeed
1t is stated that he never made such q
visit himself, but it can be readily
seen that under the favoring light of a
mid summer moon the ruins would
have peculiar beauty, and call forth
all the romantic and poetical in a
mans nature. Melrose Abbey is one
of those places where one would like
to spend days instead of a few hours
and drink the inspiration which comes
from its contemplation. Examine il
often as You please or return to it af.
ter an absence of years ana you will
always find some new beauty in it.
II do love these ancient ruins
We never tread upol them but we set
Our foot upon some reverend history:
And questlonless here in these open courts,
Which now lie naked TO the injuries
OF stormy weather, some lie uttered
Who loved the Church so we'll and gave largely
to it,
That they thought it should have canopied theii
bones
Forever; but all things have an end,
Churches and cities that have diseases like to
Must have like death that We have
1t is customary fol. us to look upon
the time from the 9Th to the 18th GEN.
fury as the "dark ages," and we think
OF the people of that time as but half
civilized and engaged only in war and
plumber, but when we see the ruins OF
the grand cathedrals and castles scat.
tered all over Europe, we can but re-
spect the rude energy of those ages
which spent itself partly in building
and decorating these wonderful mon
uments of their industry. The more
we see of the world and what has
been done by those who lived before
us the less conceit we have for our
time, and the more respect for those
who have lived hundreds of years be-
fore us.
From Me!rose a drive of three or
four miles along a pleasant English
road bordered with hedges, brings us
to Abbotsford. the home of Sir Wal
ter Scott. It's castle-like towers do
not come in sight until we are close to
it, as the building is situated on low
ground. The structure is curious
compound of castle and residence and
was built, or at least, rebuilt, to its
owners wishes. There are four or
five rooms to which the public are ad.
mitted at twenty five cents per per-
son. Indeed it is as bad in Europe
as at Niagara Falls-you cannot get
sight of anything worth seeing
without first paying some one fee
We were FIRST shown the library, a
room at least fifty feet long which
contains books on all sides, from floor
to ceiling, some 10000 volumes in all.
Here is the large leather covered arm
chair in which Sir Walter sat and the
plain table at which he wrote. join
ing this is little study,with one small
window, just large enough to com
fortably hold a char and table. In
this room the great novelist did much
of his hardest work. Connected with
the library is reception room which
contains many portraits and curiosi
ties presented to him. Next to this is
a room used as an armory, which
contains a fine collection of weapons.
Among the notable things in the ar
mory we noticed Rob Roy's gun
marked with his initials; Roman
spears, Montrose's sword pair of
pistols taken from Napoleon's car
riage at Waterloo; the armor of one
of the kings of Scotland; the rusty
KEYS Of the cd Tolbooth at Edin-
burgh, and a fine collection of mod
ern and middle age arms from all
over the world.
The entrance hall is also filled with
curiosities. Here are several full
suits of armor, with spears in their
iron hands, as if only waiting for the
spirits OF their former occupants to
return. Here are also battle axes,
maces, huge two handed swords,
spears, cross bows, and mementoes
from many of the fierce and bloody
battles with which Scotland's history
is filed. One of the rooms has a
case containing the suit of clothes he
wore at his death, the plaid trowsers,
sBrother Jonathan" striped vest, the
large shoes, the broad skirted, green
coat and his stout walking stick.
Among the pictures in the various
rooms are s'Beardie" one Sir Walters
ancestors, who let rs beard grow for
years untrimmed to show his sympa-
thy for the dethroned Stuarts; head
of Mary, Queen of Scotland, said to
have been sketched few hours after
her death by an artist who gained adj
mission to the chamber where the
body was in the assumed character of
an embalmer's assistant, grim and
stern Cromwell, and many others, the
greater part family portraits. One
room of curiosities consists almost en-
tirely of presents made him by distin-
guished people. Among these silver
cup given him by Lord Byron is of
special interest. The views from
tn rooms, particularly the
library are fine but not extended.
The exterior of the house is deco
rated with several memorial slabs
from places of historic interest. The
grounds are prettily laid out and are
ornamented with statuary. A fine ef
figy of SCOTS favorite dog Mazda, is
PARTICULARLY noticeable. In front of
the old part of the house is the stone
foundation of the old cross
at Edinburg, which in former
times on festal occasions flowed wine
instead Of water.
Language can hardly portray our
thoughts as we fingered in these
rooms so familiar to the great novel;
list whom we all admire. When we
can see the books he read, the place
where he studied and wrote, the me-
mentoes aud weapons which he SEEM
ed to weave into his wonderful stories
it seemed as If we had been INTO the
workshop of Vulcan and had seen the
materials of which Jove's thunder
bolts were forged. 1t brought home
to us with more force than ever that
the true genius to which the world
owes so much is not the spasmodic
offcastings of some inspired mind, but
what Dickens claimed as the sum of
he r,an;uc-tba rrnuins for hard wartr