, 1890-10-02
pering sweetly through the silent
lips of chiscled stone.
DRyQtrtt,,yr ARpEy

hhPo W ShtHNttu 6tOIit.
DRYBURaH ABBEY.
IL Melrose Abbey furnishes ex-
amples Of art almost as bewitching
rs the most delicate expressions of
nature itself, Dryburgh Abbey. but
four miles distant down the Tweed,
holds aud fasninates the wanderer
with a far more sobtlo charm. The
founding of Dryburgh Is Of remoter
antiquity than even that OF the
original Culdce house of Old Mel.
rose. Before the advent of Christian
missionaries the place was resorted
to by the Druids for tho celebration
of their mystic rites-aa> Darach-
bruach, orburgh, "the bank -cluster
of sacred oaks" Dryburgh's Celtic
name, implies. Modan, u Culdee
presbyter, set up the first Christian
establishment of Dryburgh
In 522. For 62S years
thereafter its history Is insig-
nificant. Then monks from Ain.
wick, under the patronage of Sir
Hugh de Morville, constable Of
Scotland under King David L.,
founded here n entian
abbey of splendid dimensions. This
was burned along with Melrose
abbey by Edward H., and restored
by aid granted by King Robert
Bruce. Twice, In 1885 and i'm 1854
1t was pillaged and devastated by
the English. The reformation of
doughty John Knox, sixteen years
later, did the rest, The ruins of
Dryburgh abbey show that the walls
of the completed edifice stood on diff
ferent levels, and that the structure
illustrated at least four different
styles of architecture. This is seen
In the massive Roman arch with Its
ample, square sides, the deep-splayed
and always impressive Saxon arch,
the pillared and intersected Nor
man arch, and tho early Eng
lish pointed arch. The church
was originally In the form of II
cross with short transepts, and q
small but exquisitely decorated
choir, while the In terror was divided
by light and graceful colonnades into
central space and side aisles. OF
the transepts u portion OF but one,
the north, called st. Mary's aisle, is
still standing; but there Is no more
beautiful specimen of the early
gothic to he found In Scotland than
Is this, the solemn and secluded
burial place of Scotia's greatest
minstrel, the noble author of
"Waverly" The chapter-house, n
tiny chapel of st. Modan, n Nor
man arch which formed the western
doorway, are yet standing. A
stately yew, over 800 years old, still
stands upon the lawn, opposite
where once the abbots sat at their
parlor easements, to mock the huge
pile of stone AS IL crulnbles into the
earth.
You feel more than you can see at
Dryburgh The whole place is in
stinct with repose. The horizon II
! close, not half mile away In any
direction. 1t Is fringed with the
boughs and verdure of sheltering
trees, save where, far to the south,
the Eildons peer down from above
their cloud-mists into the sunny
copse. The Tweed, moving in
silence for miles above, here sweeps
wide and grandly over cleaning
shadows, and sings its endless song
iust at the edge of the abbey. You
come to the place through "A hushed
and silent avenue, ankle.deep I'm the
springtime with hawthorne bios
SONS white as snow. In these
graylng days their place Is
filled by the browns and puces
of rustllng drift from the beach, elm
and sycamore. Only the lodge
keepers habitation reminds of earth
ly activities. Nature alone holds
sway. Bloom and birds, grasses
and vines, .odor and song, russet
walls and emerald masses of moss,
oriels of ivy, tillets of vines, pointed
arches of roses, towers of trees leap
ing from the old walls themselves,
reach the eye and SENSE tenderly,
slulnberously, pulsing with hush
and balm. Melrose exalts. Dry
burgh soothes. The entire spot is
ruin merged into ElysIum, hullowed
by one humble grave. And so
sweet and hushed is all, that even
your reverence for the ever-silent
disappears; for you feel that your
mighty friend lies here as on the
bosom of the land he 80 loved and
immortalized, and, that Scott only
sleeps while sweetly all nature
songs to him are sung.
EDGAR l.. WAKEMAN.
CALIFORNIA prunes are said to be so
popular in the Eastern market that
! I.n