The Helena independent. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1890-09-28
SCOTLAND'S OLD ABBEYS.
Thoughts Inspired by the Old
Ruins at Melrose and
Dryburgh.
One Noble Old Pile Contains the
Heart of King Robert
Bruce.
The Other Holds the Ashes of Scotia's
Great Minstrel, the Author
of Waverly.

st. BOsWELLS, ScOtlAn0, Aug. 2S.-Wnen
you stand among the ruins of great tenn
pies of the past, whether those temples
we're the outorowth of hero worship, of
pure patriotism. or of religious alteration
and zeal, your entire consciousness is
swept by overwhelming though almost in
definable emotion. From the harmonies or
discords of these effects there is sometimes
caught and crystalized from a thrill of feel
ing an emphatic perception and conviction.
Melrose Abbey. roofess to the sky, and
Dryburgh Abbey, 80 nearly leveled that
great trees spread strong arms from ita
crumbling wallis above all else tell you this;
That which art tears from natures arms
with which to yainly typify endlessness
nature inexorablJ demands again.
The ideal, the spiritual, in art
will have this flashed upon you al
Melrose the moment you see the old CLOCK
in its tower and hear its sadly-solemn bell
measuring off the hours of irrevocable de.
cadence; and you will know it at Dry
burgh when you contemplate the fact that
SO little remains of the vast and magnifi
cent pile that the very tomb of Scott must
soon be obliterated through the march Of
surrounding decay. Both of these one,
tremendous structures are at the threshold
of humiliation. Only the spiritual aspira.
ton, in kind, that created them remains
Scott's dust mingles with Dryburgh's yer
dure- covered heaps of crumbled sandstone
But the intellectual. the spiritual, legac,
he left to the world is immortal. And thi
is not preaching, unless you wish to call b
that name that which flashes in upon 70
from out the very shadows of these gloriou
old abbey ruins.
There is no doubt that Melrose Abbey /
yearly visited by more strangers and pi
Rrims from foreign lands than any otht
great abbey, castle or palace in Scotlan,
not excepting Holyrood palace, in Edir
burgh; and briefly recalling its environ
ment and history will have interest
vely heart of the valley of the Tweed, iu
below the confluence of Gala Water, Il
Yarrow. Etrick Water and the river Twet
is perhaps seven miles long. The Twee
gently curves around it from Abbotsfol
on the west to the vicinity of Drygrans
trail spaces of about mile in breadth. 50
passingly rich in pastures. groves, orchard
hamlets. and mansions These are protec
ed by heights picturesquely diyersifs
with tender Iecesses and woode
blaes, while Immediately behind the tow
montium of the Romans, the Eldon hill
Tradition has it that they once formed
single cone, which was cleft in three, du
ing an ecstasy of rage on the part of Soc
landss once famous wixard-a real chara
ter of desh and blood and authenticate
biack-art power-Sir Michael Scott. TIL
are noble heights, around and betwe
which banners of mist are forever foatiu
al if still signaling the old Roman hos
the wizards. the Picts and the Druids tn
once knew. Sixteen grand terraces !
their lofty sides, recalling those marvelo
nature riddles Of ths north. those weird q