Morning journal and courier., 1890-09-27

'sThe moon on the east oriel shone
Through slender shafts of shapely stone,
By foliage tracery combined.
Thou wouldst have thought some fairy's hand
'Twixt-poplars straight the osier wand
Then framed a spell, when the work was done,
And changed the willow-wreaths to stone"
Indeed the keynote of the wondrous art
exhibited in Melrose Abbey seems to have
been this very foliage tracery combined"
The pedestals for all statues, and there
must have been upwards of two hundred,
are composed of five members of cornice,
supported by palm-boughs, terminating at
the foot in point with triple roll. The
tracery of the window mullions is in foli-
age The pedestals and canopies of the
buttress inches are all ornamented in gar
, lands of flowers. In the arch of the door
/ once leading to the cloisters the work upon
, the fillet is of marvellous conception and
execution, the flowers and foliage being
separated from the stone behind and sus-
| pended in twisted garland. There is no
more superb stone-worki in all Europe than
| the mouldings, pinnacle-work and foliage
! of the remaining seats of the cloister.
The side-aisles are formed by light-clus-
| tered pillars, richly capitalized, with gar
lands of flowers and foliage disposed deli
cately in the mouldings. One might safe
ly say that the entire decoration of this
marvellous interior is simply an unsur-
|
flowers, wrought in stone to as accurate a
resemblance as though under the most
perfect representation by pencil. To my
mind solemn magnificence and splendor
has never elsewhere been more perfectly
welded to the very incarnation of the
beautiful through art. Setting entirely
aside the religious associations, those i'm
pressive emotions which ever rise at the
selulture of the mighty dead, or still thoss
more touching and exquisite emotions
which are the outgrowth of conscious
ness that the eyes and hearts of countless
men and women of transcendent genius
have feasted upon the splendid shrine, a.
have yours and mine, / know of no Other
spot in the three kingdoms where one may
come and so worship alone, with the i'm.
mortal soul of art whispering sweetly
through the silent lips of chiseled stone.
If Melrose Abbey furnishes examples OF
art almost as bewitcbing as the most deli
cate expressions of nature itself, Dry
burgh Abbey, but four miles distant,
down the Tweed, holds and fascinates the
wanderer with far more tender and sub
tie charm. The founding of Dryburgh ID
of remoter antiquity than even that of the
original Culdee house of Old Melrose
Before the advent of Christian missiona
ries the place was resorted to by the Dru
ids for the celebration of their mysti.
rites-as Darachbruach, or burgh, 18th,
, bank-cluster of sacred oaks" Dryburgh'
Celtic name, imnlies. Modan, Guide
! presbytef, set up the first Christian estab
iishment of Dryburgh in 522. For Sd,
: hundred and twenty-eight years thereafte
| | its history is Insignificant. Then monk
: | from Alnwick, under the patronage of 81
/ | HUGH de Morville, constable of Scotlan,
under King David l., founded here a Pre
8 monstratentian Abbey of splendid dimen
sions. This was burned along with Me-
' rose Abbey by Edward IL, and restore
! by aid granted by King Robert Bruce
4 Twice, in 1885 and in 1854, it was pillage
q and devastated by the English The N
n formation of doughty John Knox, sixtee
= wears later, did the rest. The ruins {
f Dryburgh Abbey show that the walls {
!; the completed ediice stood on difterel