Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1908-10-16
AT OLD MELR0SE ABBEY
Said to Be the Most Beautiful
Ruin in Britain.
1T WAS TWICE DESTROYED
Built. Twice Rebuilt and Time Did
the Rest.
DUKE OF BUCCLEUCH OWNS IT
Famous Old Dryburgh Abbey and
Sir Walter SCOTS Tomb-His-
toric Country ALI Around.
DUKE OF BUCCLEUcH OWNS IT
BY WILLIAM f.. CURTIS.

BY WILLIAM e. CURTIS.
| Special Correspondence Of The Star and the
Chicago Record Herald
| FELROSE, Scotland. October To- 1908.
AS everybody will agree Merose Abbey
is the most beautiful ruin in the British
! empire. and many think it is unsurpassed
in the entire world Every stone and leaf
of ivy, every lichen and cluster of moss
is sacred because of historical associations
and the memories of Sir Walter Scott
who was here almost daily through the
greater part of his life, who loved the old
abbey more than any other thing on
earth, and who has described it's beauties
| repeatedly in his novels and his poems.
1t is in The Lay of the Last Minstrel"
l think, that he gives us the picture of
procession passing up the aises to the
altar. 1t is one of the most glorious pas
sages in English literature. When you
| read it you can almost see the hooded
monks and the priests with their gorgeous
vestments, and hear the clatter of the
| armOr of the knights that followed in
! their train. Scott ought to have been
buried there instead of in Dryburgh Abb
hey, six miles over the hills, but he Sc
| lectedl his own sepulcher. and when he
buried his wife among the bones of his
ancestors ten years before his own de-
mise he made provision for a resting
/
10 have been buried here in Melrose AD-
! hey. No other place would have been
appropriate and no one could have chosen
a more glorious tomb
Was Twice Destroyed.
| The abbey dates back to the twelfth
century, when it was founded by King
David I of Scotland that sair sanct"
| (queer saint was almost wholly destroy
ed by Edward II of England. rebuilt by
| Robert the Bruce i'm the fourteenth CEN
| fury. and once more destroyed and rebuilt
| a hundred years later. 1t is now roOf1esS
and the monastery is almost gone. but the
! walls Of the church are nearly perfect, and
present one of the finest examples of the
| late Gothic schools of architecture in ex-
| istence, with slender shafts, richly carved
capitals, elaborate vaulting and windows
filed with the most exquisite tracery OF
stone.
town. 1t attracts hundreds of thousands
of tourists every year-several hundred a
day during the season and sometimes
thousands. The railway often runs spe-
cial trains for their accommodation on
holidays. The visitors spend great deal
OF money in hotel bills. hiring carriages,
buying photographs, postcards. cata-
logues. guide books, souvenirs. etc. The
post office receipts from the mailing of
postcards alone during the tourist season
are very large.
You have to pay only a sixpence to
enter the sacred place. which is quite a
concession. Because there is an admis-
sion fee everywhere in the United King
dom. and it is-Msually shilling.
Belongs to the Duke Of Buccleuch.
The abbey belongs to the Duke Of Buc-
cleuch. the third richest man in the king
| DOM He owns large part of Scotland.
His London palace stands on Whitehall