The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-09-28
wondrous parallel roads of lone and far

GlenrOy.
The village of Melrose itself is compact
ancient highway between Edinburgh and
Jedburgh. The latter is the waspish old
border town once called Jedhart, where in
border days, they hung all grade of stran-
gers falling into their hands before they
expression "Jedhart'' or ''Scotch JUSTICE
had its origin. Here and there an OCCASION
al modern edifice contrasts strangely with
the bald, blackened and crazy structures
about them; and the latter squat in shrink
ings stolen from the old abbey, like lot
of bedraggled mendicanta clad in the fin
cry of a ruined patron. One quaint, pretty
street runs away from the ham
let towards the manufacturing town
as if ashamed of the squalor of its COM
pany; blank, drear, triangular open space
In the center of the village renders it i'm
| possible for you to get in or out OF 1t with
out suffering espionage or levies; market
rears its gray and Rrizzled columns in
dreary corner of the town; three or four
thorouRhfares shut in by ramshackle
houses merge into one which leads across
the Tweed into near Gattonside, the oldest
/ and sleepiest housing of odd snd sleepy
folk in all Scotland; and perche above all,
| not a thousand feet from the abbey itself, is
a smart railway station looking contemptu-
ously down upon the huddled dreariness
and decay below. From this. or better
rose Vale by the Tweed, like brown and
ragged wind-whipped Gypsy tent, embo-
somed in meadow grasses where quiyers
like silver thread hesitant, vaGrant
stream.
But this surprising ruin to which you
have come was not the first Melrose Abbey.
Three miles below the Melrose of to-day,
the Tweed almost forms an island in the
valley. This peninsula is gentle emf.
nence. Its Gaelic appellation was Mea!i-
ros,'' and finally Melrose. The locality ii
now known as Old Melrose. The strong
natural defences with the seclusion ane
righteousness of the vale, attracted a colon,
of missionary ecclesiastics from the Guides
Monastery of Iona. in the Hebrides. wht
here founded u rude chapter house in thu
seventh century. Its first abbot WAS Eata
Old Melrose became renowned, but 1T
brethren were banished in 1915 on thel
{ refusal to acknowledge Malcolm III. a
) their sovereign. A chapel dedicated Il
! st. Cuthbert alone survived the destruc
ton which followed. Nearly centur.
| later, in 1885, magnificent monastery o
. abbey was founded by the Scottish Kim
David I. for Cistertian monks at the thel
hamlet of Fordel, now Melrose, the precis
!. site Of the Melrose Abbey Of to-day. l. we
= consecrated in TAG, and aboat two centu
"a ries later, i'll 1922, was nearly destroyed b
Y Edward H., of England, during one of hi
u last forays north of the border. The reste
Is ration, or rather reconstruction, of the Me
rose Abbey founded in 1136 gave Scotlan
IS this surprising ruin of to-day. Its origins
l. completion was the most ardent desire c
Or Scotland's greatest hero-patriot, Kin
1, Robert Bruce. who, in 1926, granted to ii
L abbot "all the feudal casualties and crow
n issues of Teyiotdale''; and on the death 0
to Bruce at Cardross in 1893. his heart, who
le was embalmed to be carried by Sir Jane
st Douglas to Palestine. was rescued from th
40 Moors, who slaughtered the chivalrou
ed Douglas. and brought to and sepulture
ID H. the noble abbey which Bruce 50 lovet
ID 1t is authenticated that while the structul
e itself, covering the outlines of area exlstln
u and traceable at the present time, was cor
r pleted in ten years after its spoliation
ID, Edward H., the Cistertian monks, who
+ skill in that age in architecture and stat
ed airy will remain the wonder of all time. al
ID who regarded lavish ornamentatlon OF
n, clesastic edifces as one of the highest g
e. pressions of religious feeling, were xealou
s. " employed over 800 years upon its decor
a tons. OF all the religious edihces creat'
r. during the period of the Middle Point
IT. style, which prevailed from the thirteen
C. century to about the middle of the tifteent
ed or to the time of the Reformation in SEQ
ey land, Nelrose Abbey was incomparably t
en- most magnificent and stately, exquisite
10, CHRISTIE and marvelously beautiful.
to, SurpassinR in its day and time of ms
ey sive feudal piles and vast religious stru
rib tures, it still holds the same royal prom
ms nence among all the countless impressi
nd ruins throughout Gseat Britain The il