From The Abbeys of Great Britain, by H. Claiborne Dixon, London: T. Werner Laurie (undated); pp. 185-188.
185
BY moonlight or starless dark, by dusk or full daylight, Melrose Abbey is a thing of beauty and romance. Built on the site of an ancient Columban monastery, the abbey, colonised by monks from Lindisfarne, flourished until the Reformers, instigated by John Knox, demolished it with many other religious houses.
The remains of this most beautiful structure of the Scottish Middle Ages are considerable, and demonstrate the former architectural beauties of the abbey. They consist of parts of the church and cloister. Of the former three bays of the nave, eight small chapels, with elegant traceried windows to the south of the south aisle, and portions of the central tower, and the transepts of the choir remain. Many architectural styles are shown, and a curious mingling of the old with later Decorated work is a noticeable feature. The arches which divide the nave from its aisles are remarkably beautiful and many excellent windows light the church. Those in the nave are Perpendicular, while the trefoiled four-light windows in the choir and 186 presbytery are Decorated or Early Perpendicular. Some of the vaulting still remains in the south aisle and also above the site of the high altar. This edifice was originally 215 feet long by 116 across the transepts. Joanna, wife of Alexander II.; the “wondrous Michael Scott”; and Sir David Brewster are buried here, and the heart of the hero, Robert Bruce, is interred beneath the site of the high altar. The cloister, containing some wonderfully rich carving of exquisite workmanship, was placed on the north side of the nave, and beyond, the garden extended to the river bank, a quarter of a mile distant.
Of the Anglo Saxon monastery founded in Melrose in 635, comparatively little is known. St. Cuthbert, then a dreamy shepherd boy, imagined he saw a vision of angels carrying a soul to heaven, and hearing subsequently that Aidan, Bishop of Lindisfarne, had died that same night, was convinced that he had been privileged to see his saintly soul. Wishing to join a religious community St. Cuthbert went to the monastic settlement at Melrose, then consisting only of a few log huts, joined the brotherhood there (A.D. 651), and in course of time became its prior. Bede says —
“Cuthbert’s skill in speaking was so great, his power of persuasion so vast, and the light of his countenance so angelic that no one in his presence concealed from him the secrets of his soul: all confessed their misdeeds, because they thought that what they had done could not escape his prescience, and atoned for them by such penance as he enjoined.”
When the mother abbey of Lindisfarne required a new prior, Cuthbert was appointed, and after fulfilling his religious duties here for twelve years retired to an island to live the life of a recluse. After eight years had elapsed he became Bishop of Lindisfarne, where at the end of three years’ work he was buried. 187 His shroud was made by the abbess of Tynemouth, and his tomb visited for many years by hundreds of pilgrims. When in 875 Lindisfarne was attacked by the Danes the monks fled for safety, carrying with them the relics of St. Cuthbert, and, after visiting many places, in the hope of escaping the enemy, placed them finally in the woods of Durham. The humble church, which in course of time was built there to guard the sacred remains, preceded the present magnificent cathedral of Durham “half church of God, half citadel, ’gainst the Scots.” In the meantime the settlement of Melrose had prospered, but in 839 was burnt down by Kenneth MacAlpine and remained a desolate ruin for nearly two centuries. Good King David I. “that sair saunt for the crown,” then founded the abbey, in which for several centuries the Cistercian monks laboured — cultivating the land and instituting law and order amongst the country folk of the district.
Dire as was the fate of the English abbeys, that of the Scottish religious houses was immeasurably more bitter. Robbed, ruined, sacked and burned, the once mighty edifices have fallen the prey to thrifty citizens, who, careful of their own future, assigned to themselves various portions of the land and buildings, with the result that in close proximity to many of these buildings, modern and inartistic huts, workshops and inns may be see. Melrose is particularly unfortunate in these vandalisms. Incredible as it may seem, the Abbey Hotel actually encroaches upon the hallowed nave, and a great amount of the space occupied by the former grounds and buildings is now disfigured by cheap dwellings and crowded gardens. The local presbytery of 1618 deserve even more contumely for their hideous disfigurement of the three bays of the nave that still remained, which were rebuilt, and walled in in most ruthless fashion.
The wonderful charm of Melrose Abbey as a building 188 is not its only feature. The remains lie here of King Alexander II. and his spouse; Douglases without number; and many other men and women who have loomed largely in the history of our island. A few of the numerous statues that adorned the walls still remain, although many were destroyed by the Presbyterians. A certain zealot climbed in 1649 to the buttress pinnacle to shatter the statue of our Lady with the Holy Child, upon which the first fragment split off, struck, and broke his arm. Since then the image has been left in peace. Strangely prophetic words are uttered in the inscriptions written in abbreviated Latin words on scrolls borne by monks in the south transept: “He suffered because He Himself willed it” and “When comes Jesus the Mediator, darkness will cease.”