Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-09-28
AFOOT IN SCOTLAND.
MelroSe Abbey, Its Environments and
History Always Full of Interest.
Dryburgh Abbay Ruin Merged Into Elysium
Hallowed by One Humble Grave, That
Of scott-scpns OF Decay.
Copyright 1901

copyright 1901
Special correspondence of the G azette.
ST. BoswELLs, SCOTLAND, Aug 23, 1890
When you stand among the runs of the great
temples of the past, whether those temples
were tine outgrowth of hero worship, of pure pa
triotism, of religious alteration and zeal, your
enti re consciousness is swept by overwhelming
though almost indefnable emotion. From the
harmonies or discords of these effects there Is
something caught and chrystalized from
thrill of feeling and emphatic perception and
conviction. Melrose abbey roofess to the sky,
and Dryburgh abbey. SO nearly leveied that
great trees spread strong arms from its crumb
ilng walls, above all else tell You this: That
which art tears from natures arms with which
to vainiy typify endlessless, nature ine1oraby
demands again. The ideal, the sp ritual, in art
and all else, alone survives.
You will have this flashed upon you at Melrose
the moment you see the ola clock in its tower
and hear its sadly-solemn bell measuring off the
hours OF lrrevocable decadence; and you will
know it al Dry burgh when you contemplate the
fact that so little remain, of the vast and magnj
hcent pile that the very tomb of Scott must soon
be oDhtsrated through the march of surrounding
decay. Both of these once tremendous structures
are at the threshold of humiliation Only the
spiritual aspiration, in kind, that created them
remains. Scott's dust mingles with Dryburgh's
verdure-covered heaps OF crumbled sandstone.
But the Intellectual, the spiritual, legacy he left
to the world is immortal And this Is not preach
ing, unless you wish to call by that name that
which flashes in upon you from out the very
shadows of these
There is no doubt that Melrose abbey is yearly
visited by more strangers and pilgrims from for
eign lands than any other great abbey, castle or
palace in Scotland, not excepting Hollywood
palace, in Edinburgh; and briefly recalling its
environment and history will have interest to
many. he vsie OF Melrose, lying in the very
heart OF the valley OF the Tweed. Just below the
confluence Of Gala Water, the Yarrow, Etrick
Water and the river Tweed, is perhaps seven
miles long. The Tweed gently curves around it
from AbLotsford on the west, to the vicinity of
Drygrange on the east, bordering and intersect-
ing central spaces of about mile in breadth,
ssurpassingy rich in pasture groves, orchards,
tected by heights picturesquely diver
sided with tender recesses and wooded braes.
south, rise those weird Mons Tremontium of
the Rom-n ms, the Eildou hills. Tradition has it
that they once formed q ingle cone, which was
colt in three, during an ecstacy of rage on the
character of flesh and blood and authenticated
black art poEer-Sir Michael Scott. They are
banners of mist are forever floating, as if still
signaling the olden Roman hosts. the wizards,
the Picts and the Druids they once knew Six
teen grand terraces rib their lofty sides, recall
ing those marvellous nature-riddles OF the
north and the weird and wond rous parallel roads
of lone and far Glenroy,
mass OF curious old houses on the ancient high
way between Edinburgh and Jedburgh. The
latter is the waspish old border town once called
JedharL where in border days, they hung all
grade of strangers falling into their hands be-
fore they tried them; from which genial custom
the expression ''Jedhart" or Scotch Justice
had its origin. Here and there an occasional
modern eoihce contrasts strangely with the
bald, blackened and crazy structures about
them; and the latter squat in shrinking groups,
patched with glorious carvings stolen from the
old abbey Ike q lot of bedraggled meudicants
clad in the finery of a ruined patron.
One quaint, pretty street runs away from the
hamlet towards the manufacturing town of
Galashiels, to the west, as II ashamed of the
squalor OF its company; blank, drear. de-
serted triangular open SPACE In the center Of the
village renders 1t impossible for you to get into
or out of it without suffering espionage and
levies; market cross as old as the abbey itself
rears its gray and grizzled column in a dreary
corner OF the town; three or four thoroughfares
shut in by ramshackle houses merge into one
which leads across the Tweed into near Cation
side, the oldest and sleepiest housing Of
ODD AND SLEEPY FOLK
in all Scotland; and perched above all, not Q