KLKOSE ABBEY | NOTES Descriptive and Historical, BY M. W. FA I R B A I R N. SEVENTH EDITION-REVISED. SELKIRK: PRINTED AT THE "SOUTHERN REPORTER" OFFICE. 1884. MELROSE ABBEY NOTES Descriptive and Historical, BY M. W. FA I R BA I R N, SEVENTH EDITION-REVISED. SELKIRK: PRINTED AT THE "SOUTHERN REPORTER" OFFICE. 1884. JELROSE ABBEY, like all other churches of the olden time, stands almost due east and west. By keeping this in mind, these notes will be followed without difficulty. NAVE AND SOUTH AISLE. From the west entrance to the ABBEY until the rood screen is reached, little of the original structure remains, excepting the side chapels, which formed the outer portion of the south aisle. The first three of these chapels have been roofless for generations, and the separating walls have entirely disappeared. The roofs over the fourth and fifth are still entire. What remains of the rood screen, crosses the nave on a line with the division of the fifth and sixth chapels, and from thence to the transept the church is roofed quite over from north to south. The aisles, north and south, are covered by the original groined roof. The roof over the nave and the unsightly counterfort on the north side, reaching to and sup- porting the roof, date from 1618, when that part of the ruin was fitted up as the Parish Church. It con- tinued to be used as such until 1810. In each of the side chapels is the piscina in which the chalice was washed after mass. The first six of the chapels in the south aisle have been used, since the Reformation, as places of sepulture, by families of note in the neighbourhood. In the seventh, are carved representations of three heads. The central one, from its size, has evidently been the principal boss in the roof under the tower. Those at the sides represent the heads of David I. and of his wife Queen Matilda. Standing upright in the eighth, is an ancient kneeling stone, on one side of which is the likeness of four horse shoes ; and on the top, an inscription in Saxon characters. It reads thus f ORATE PRO ANIMA FRAT. PETRI. AERARII. That is, "Pray for the soul of brother Peter, the treasurer." SOUTH TRANSEPT. The charm of ST MARY'S, Melrose, lies as much in the exquisite delicacy of the carving and the beauti- ful proportions of the various parts, as in the graceful symmetry and grandeur of the entire structure. The finest specimen of carving, is pronounced by con- noisseurs to be that on the capital of the pillar which bounds the south aisle on the east separating the aisle from the nave. This carving represents the leaf of the "curly greens," or kale; and is as delicate almost as the natural leaf. The pillar, on which appears this specimen of monastic taste and skill, rises on the north side to another capital, at the spring of the lofty and beautiful arch, which, with three others, supported the central tower. From the south transept, where this carving is generally best seen, can also be observed a small round window, high in the wall of the north transept. This window, of which the tracery is quite entire, is said to represent the " Crown of Thorns." Along the wall, about three feet below the sill of the grand south window, is continued the narrow passage, or gallery, which, lighted by the clerestorey windows, led from north to south of the chancel, round the whole church. The bases of the balustrade of this part of the passage' are quaintly carved figures of musicians, said to represent the angelic choir. In the west wall of the transept, is a door, with the compasses and fleur-de-lis on a shield over the centre. At each side of these, and a little down the north side of the door, is the following inscription : SA GAES YE COMPASS EVEN ABOUT. SA TRUTH AND LAUTE DO BUT DOUTE. BEHALDE TO YE HENDE Q JOHN MURVO. Another inscription, higher on the wall, to the left, tells who this John was, and what he had to do with the Abbey at Melrose. It reads thus JOHN MOROW : SUM TYME : CALLTT : WAS : I : AND : BORN : IN : PARYSSE : CERTAINLY : AND : TTAD : IN : KEPPING : ALL : MASON : WORK : OF : SANTAN : DRUYS : YE : HYE : KYRK : OF : GLASGU : MELROS : AND I PASLEY : OF : NYDDYSDAYLL : AND : OF : GALWAY : i : PRAY : TO : GOD : AND : MARY : BATTH : AND : SWEET : ST : JOHN : KEEP : THIS : HALY : KIRK : FRAE : SKAITH : John Murdo, or Murdoch, as the name should pro- bably be, is claimed as the first master of the Free- mason Lodge at Melrose, which with Kilwinning claims to be the oldest in Scotland. East of this transept, and separated from it by three pillars, is an aisle called St Bridget's Chapel. A statue of that saint, is still to be seen standing on a pedestal beside one of the windows. In this chapel, one, at least, of the noble race of Douglas was interred. Between St Bridget's Chapel and the chancel is another aisle, which was also used as a separate chapel. It is "supposed that there were originally sixteen altars in the Abbey. In this corner, is, according to the " Lay of the Last Minstrel," the grave of the famous wizard, Michael Scott. At the foot of the grave is a figure, the head of which is one of the old bosses ; this, the uncritical are pleased to regard as the very likeness of the wizard himself. The grave next to the wizard's is believed to be that of Sir Ralph Ivers, one of the English commanders slain at the battle of Ancrum Muir. Beyond a footpath at the head of these graves, on the north-east side of a heap of fragments, is a stone, which was a favourite seat with Sir Walter Scott, when he came to feast on the grand and varied beauty of the scene. THE CHANCEL. Under the floor of the chancel repose the ashes of many of the illustrious dead. Alexander II. was buried here, as was also Waldevus, the second abbot of the monastery. "Waldevus was a man of holy life, and much beloved for the gentleness and leniency of his dis- position. The body of Douglas, the dark knight of Liddesdale, otherwise called the Flower of Chivalry, who was slain by a kinsman while hunting in Ettrick Forest, during the reign of David the Second, was brought here for interment, after having lain one night in Lindean Kirk. James, Earl Douglas, slain by Hot- spur (Earl Percy) at the battle of Otterburn in 1388, was also interred here with great military pomp, and every honour that could be paid by the abbot and monks. The English spoiled the tombs of the Douglases in 1544, and for this, in the following year, they suf- 'fered severe retribution at the battle of Ancrum Muir. But the chief deposit in the Abbey, and that over which the ruin may well be considered a fitting and appropriate monument, is the " Heart of Robert the Bruce." In the king's last letter to his son, written about a month before his death, he commanded that his heart should be buried in MELROSE ABBEY. But, subse- quent to that, he wished rather that it might be sent to Palestine, and buried in the Holy Sepulchre. Sir James Douglas, entrusted with the sacred deposit, set sail with a numerous and splendid retinue. In Spain he encoun- tered the Saracens ; and being too brave to retreat, he was overpowered by numbers, and fell. The body was recovered, and brought back for burial ; and the heart of the master he loved and served so well was interred, agreeably with the former wish of the king, under the high altar of MELROSE ABBEY. The roof of the chancel is ornamented with beauti- ful caning. On the keystones are figures representing Scripture history. On the centre stone is one support- 8 ing the crucifix ; and on the surrounding stones are figures with swords and staves, and some with crosses. The intersections of the groins are ornamented with large beautiful knots of flowers. From the chancel can best be seen the west (the only remaining) side of the central tower. It is supposed that the pillars supporting the tower on the east, were torn down by the English during the incursion of the Earl of Hert- ford, in 1545. The chancel is lighted by three beauti- ful windows : the one to the east is that of which Sir Walter Scott has thus written The moon on the east oriel shone Through slender shafts of shapely stone, By foliaged tracery combined : Thou wouldst have thought some fairy's hand, 'Twixt poplars straight, the osier wand In many a freakish knot had twined ; Then framed a spell, when the work was done, And changed the willow wreaths to stone. The window on the south of the chancel is singularly beautiful. Seen from the north of the choir, the three crosses represented in the tracery suggest to the memory that scene on Calvary, at once the sweetest and the saddest of all history. On the north, as on the south side, there are two aisles between the chancel and transept, which were also used as side chapels. The outer corner of the first has been replaced by a wall of modern masonry. While there, and looking westward, the fine pointed arch of the north aisle cannot fail to attract attention. From the second aisle, which was a chapel dedicated to St Stephen, the statues of St Peter and St Paul, high on the west wall of the north transept, can very well be seen St Peter to the right, with book and keys ; and St Paul to the left, with a sword in front. They and their canopies are in a good state of pre- servation. Three pillars separate this aisle from the NORTH TRANSEPT. On the west side of the centre pillar, a little above the foliated capital, is the likeness of a left hand lightly grasping a bunch of flowers. It forms the bracket for supporting the groins of the roof. Of this hand Lock- hart has thus written " Were it cut off and placed among the Elgin marbles, it would be kissed by the cognoscenti as one of the finest of them all. It would shame the whole gallery of Boissere's." In the north wall of the transept, are two doorways with the rounded arch. The first, which is on the floor, leads down by two steps into the sacristy. Partly concealed by the lower step, is the tombstone of Johanna, queen of Alexander II. The other door, formerly reached by stairs, the marks of which are on the west wall, was that by which the monks came into the church. An oblong niche in the north wall, one corner resting on the doorway last mentioned, is orna- mented with running flowers of great beauty, and has fourteen pedestals for statuettes, supposed to have represented our Lord, the Twelve Apostles, and the Blessed Virgin. This church, like all of the Cistercian order, was dedicated to Mary, the " Blessed." NORTH AISLE. The carving in the north aisle is also worthy of much attention. The capitals of the pillars, the corbels, and the keystones of the roof, are beautifully carved, 10 and as fresh as if the sculptor had newly laid clown the chisel. On the wall, beyond the cloister door, which is reached immediately on entering the aisle, is an ancient inscription, which was justly admired by Washington Irving. It reads thus HEIR LYIS THE EACE OF YE HOVS OF ZAIE. THE CLOISTERS. The cloister door is that by which the aged monk in the " Lay " is said to have brought Sir William of Deloraine, when he came, at the request of the Lady of Buccleuch, to take the book from the grave of the wizard. The cloisters are much admired for the chasteness and beauty of the carving. In the Gothic, nature alone was imitated; hence the endless variety and beauty of the designs. In the orna- mented frieze, running along above the arches on the east wall, uo two of the ornamental figures are alike. Regarding this part of the edifice, we can- not do better than again quote from Mr Lockhart. " There is one cloister in particular, along the whole length of which there runs a cornice of flowers and plants, entirely unrivalled, to my mind, by anything elsewhere extant. I do not say in Grothic architecture merely, but in any architecture whatever. Roses aud lilies, and thistles, and ferns, and heaths, in all their varieties, and oak leaves and ash leaves, and a thousand beautiful shapes besides, are chiselled with such inimitable truth, and such grace of nature, that the finest botanist in the world could not desire a better hortus siccus, so far as they go." 11 At the top of the east Avail, about five feet from the outer corner of the building, is represented the head of a negro grinning with unmistakable satisfac- tion and delight. On the corner itself, is the likeness of the figure of an angel in the act of flying away with a message from the church. The roof that covered the cloister stalls, is quite gone. Two rows of holes in the walls, east and south, show how the roof has been supported. Seven of the stalls which were used by the higher dignitaries of the church still remain. These are covered by a panelled arcade of great beauty. Beyond the arch west from the door- way is an undivided seat, which was used by the common monks. The ornamented arch at the west end of this seat, is supposed to have been the centre of the range. From this point, looking through the upright windows high in the wall that bounds the cloisters on the east, a fine view is obtained of the ornamented clerestorey windows, in the east wall of the north transept. In the cloisters there is less than elsewhere to divert the eye ; and the beholder's sense of ruin and desolation is, consequently, greater there, than in any other part in or about the Abbey. It is said that the stones of the floor in front of the seats on the east, cover the ashes of mauy of the departed. The pillared arches over their head Beneath their feet the bones of the dead. It would be difficult, indeed, to say whereabouts in the Abbey, the dead have not been buried. 12 From the cloisters, the ornamentation on the central tower can best be seen. It has been said that Oliver Cromwell attacked the Abbey with his cannon from Gattonside heights, on the opposite side of the Tweed. By some this is disputed, but, whether true or not, there are certainly marks on the north wall that would very well bear out the supposition. Re-entering the church by the " steel-clenched postern " of the " Lay," the carving on the capitals at the sides of the door should not be overlooked. The foliage is so finely undercut, that in many places a straw can be passed through underneath it. This entrance to the church was in ancient times called the Valley Gate. Since our beloved Queen, escorted by the late noble proprietor of the Abbey, His Grace the Duke of Buccleuch, came in by this entrance, the flower-bordered walk leading north from the cloisters has been called the Queen's Walk. In crossing the church to the grand south entrance, the visitor is supposed to have the eye intent on all the beautiful surroundings the flying buttresses stretching from point to point of the ruins; the " pillared arches ; " the pillars themselves, like "bundles of lances which garlands have bound;" the windows, with their rich and varied tracery ; some with grand flowing lines, branching out into beautiful shapes and forms ; and others with the prin- cipal lines all stretching heavenwards, by " foliaged tracery combined," light as the " ozier wand," and is thus taking in, at every step, another aspect of all 13 that is chaste, imposing, and sublime, in the Gothic architecture of Christian churches. EXTERIOR VIEW. Leaving the church by the south entrance, the best thing for the visitor to do is to go to the extreme west of the building. On the buttress farthest west, are the royal arms of Scotland, bearing date 1505. Above these, on the bracket for a statue, are the letters $. |j. &. "Jesus the Saviour of Men." Other coats of arms adorn the buttresses east from that. Enclosed by an iron railing, opposite the fifth window, east from the end, is the tomb of Sir David Brewster, with the beautiful and appropriate inscrip- tion, which Sir David himself had chosen "THE LORD IS MY LIGHT." In the corner formed by the nave and the south transept, is the stair tower. It is octagonal in form, pierced with niches, and ornamented with curious figures. At the upper cornice, are beautiful flowers, and faces with leaves in their mouths. The pinnacle, too, is ornamented to the very top. Forming the bracket of the under niche on the buttress facing the west, beside this tower, is a figure or figures, much admired by the curious, representing the blind carrying the lame, the lame seemingly in great pain from his position. On the buttress west of the south entrance, the pedestal of the lower niche is supported by an 14 earnest-looking monk holding a scroll, with this in- scription : Ctr : $cnii : |ts : Htq : Cessabil : ttmbrn : which means " When conies Jesus the Mediator: darkness will cease." A half-length effigy of John the Baptist is over the centre of the doorway, bearing an inscription (Sect filias glei "Behold the Son of God." Under this figure are the royal arms of Scotland. At the spring of the arch of the grand south window, are two finely carved busts, from which a chain rises, and terminates in a face, at the very top of the edifice. The inscription held by the figure of an aged monk 011 the buttress east from the doorway, reads thus Bassos : JE : q : $pse : $oluii : which is, " He suffered, because He himself willed it." On the adjoining buttress east from this, is the figure of a monk with a placid-looking countenance, the right hand up to the ear, and a rosary in the left. West from the south entrance, are eight windows, all of which, excepting the one next to the stair tower, have a carved head at the spring of the arch on each side. Eastward, the windows are more highly orna- mented. Some have the figures of saints, richly dressed ; and by the sides of the windows of the transept, facing the east, are the figures of musicians, with much pleasantness in their countenances, playing on different kinds of instruments, among which the guitar is conspicuous. 15 In approaching the east window, the visitor is less intent on the grand ornamentation, which abounds everywhere, than in hastening to gaze on the beautiful window itself. The view of this window, when at all possible, should be taken in the early part of the day, and the most favourable point of observation is a little beyond a fine granite monument, about forty yards from the ruins. The two sitting figures above the arch, with an open crown over their heads, are said to represent David I. and his queen Matilda. The best general view of the Abbey, is from the south-east corner of the churchyard. About midway to that point, from the granite pillar mentioned above, is a small red tombstone, erected on a base of the same colour. The inscription on the west side of this stone, may be read by the visitor. It is as follows : THE EARTH GOETH ON THE EARTH, GLISTRING LIKE GOLD ; THE EARTH GOES TO THE EARTH SOONER THEN rr WOLD. THE EARTH BUILDS ON THE EARTH CASTLES AND TOWERS, THE EARTH SAYS TO THE EARTH ALL SHALL BE OURS. This inscription is of a much earlier date than that on the opposite side of the stone. A little further on, to the left, is a large red tombstone ; the largest of that description in this portion of the churchyard. It was erected by Sir Walter Scott, in memory of his faithful and attached servant, Tom Purdie. It 16 bears an inscription on either side, that on the west being as follows : IN GRATEFUL REMEMBRANCE OF THE FAITHFUL AND ATTACHED SERVICES OF TWENTY-TWO YEARS; AND IN SORROW FOR THE LOSS OF A HUMBLE BUT SINCERE FRIEND, THIS STONE WAS ERECTED BY SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART., OF ABBOTSFOKD. The inscription on the east side runs thus HERE LIES THE BODY OF THOMAS PURDIE, WOOD FORESTER AT ABBOTSFORD, WHO DIED 29TH OCTOBER, 1829, AGED SIXTY-TWO YEARS. THOU HAST BEEN FAITHFUL OVER A FEW THINGS; I WILL MAKE THEE RULEK OVER MANY THINGS. Matthew, chap. xxv. v. 21st. Let the spectator, viewing the Abbey from the south-east extremity of the churchyard, now endeavour to shut his eyes to its present unlovely surroundings. Let him imagine the roofs, flying buttresses, and Gothic pinnacles all entire ; the tower whole, surmounted by its pierced parapet, and reverberating with its harmonious chime of bells : let him imagine the windows perfect, and filled with their many- coloured glass ; and then he has before him what was, in former ages, an object of unbounded reverence and admiration, to the brave, the good, and the true of the land which Bruce rescued from the hand of the destroyer ; the land on which Wallace had trod our own beloved Scotland ! In returning to the Abbey, the visitor should keep by the south fence until opposite the grand south entrance. From this point is obtained the south view 17 of the Abbey, and from here also the "Crown of Thorns" window can be studied to the greatest advan- tage. It will be noticed that the niches above the south window, and on the adjoining buttresses and pinnacles, are all empty, with the exception of two. One of these, on the second pinnacle from the south transept, contains a statue of St Andrew holding his cross. On the third pinnacle is a statue of the Virgin and Child, sadly mutilated. The canopy over this statue is beautifully carved in the form of a miniature temple. The niches on the buttresses on each side of the doorway, and round the top of the grand south window, in former times held the statues of our Lord and the Twelve Apostles. The zeal of the Scottish Reformers impelled them to pull down the statues. The exquisite canopies, however, are left; some of them as fresh and entire as if they had been finished but yesterday. Projecting from the eaves of the high roof east from the St Andrew statue, is the famous gargoyle a pig playing on the bagpipes. HISTORICAL NOTES. Melrose Abbey was founded in 1136 by David the First, and consecrated ten years afterwards, with all the pomp and ceremony peculiar to those times. It was granted by royal charter to the Cistercian Order of Monks, which had a short time previously been instituted in France. In the charter occur these words : I, David I., by the grace of God, King of the Scotts, . . . . have granted and given to God, and to St Mary of Melrose, and to the Monks of Rievalle, serving God at that place, and to their successors, for a perpetual possession, the 18 lands of Melrose and the whole land of Eildon, and the whole land of Deruick, .... all the fruits, and pasture, and timber in my land, and in the forest of Selkirk and Traquair, and between Gala and Leadir water, besides both the fishery on the Tweed everywhere, on their side of the river as on mine I have given and confirmed to them, in addition, the whole land and pasture of Gattonside. The monastery at Melrose was a mother church to all of the Cistercian order in Scotland. In the retreat from Scotland of Edward II. in 1322, the English wreaked their vengeance on religious houses, and they despoiled the fair shrine of Melrose. In order to repair the Abbey, King* Robert Bruce made a grant to the Abbot of Melrose of 2000 for rebuilding the church of St Mary. This shows that the church itself had been destroyed. It is to this destruction that we owe the exceeding beauty of the ruin ; for when the church was restored, the Gothic style of architecture had reached its finest development. The original church must have been a rude erection, when the whole monastery was built in ten years for work was not done at railway speed in those days ; but it would not be easy to say how many years were required to build the one whose very ruins delight every eye. In the year 1384, the English, under Richard II., made an inroad to Scotland, and on their return the king lodged one night in the Abbey, and set fire to it in the morning. He made several grants to the Abbey afterwards, which leads us to hope that his majesty repented the ungrateful and sacrilegious act. It may be that the chancel of the church was destroyed at that time, for the style of architecture there is later than other portions of the sacred edifice perpendicular Gothic, which commenced in the reign of Richard II. The stone used in this part of the building is different from that in the transepts. The transept may well be considered as the oldest portion of what now comprises MELROSE ABBEY. 19 The monastery at Melrose was destroyed in 1545 by the Earl of Hertford. There is a tradition that the English, on their way back to England at that time, had actually passed the monasteries of Melrose and Dryburgh, when the bells at one of these places were rung to express the joy of the inmates. The English heard the sound, and were not slow to come back, when the joy was changed into mourning. The Scottish Reformation following shortly after, the Abbey never recovered from the destruction perpetrated at that time. After the Reformation, James Douglas, commen- dator, took down a great part of the ruin to build a house, which may still be seen north of the clois- ters. The date on one of the windows is 1590. The statues were demolished in 1649 ; and for a long period the Abbey was used as a quarry by the people of Melrose. It is said that there is not an old house in the town but has in its walls a stone from the Abbey. Since the Abbey came into possession of the noble house of Buccleuch, much has been and is being done, to keep the ruin from further decay. The monastic buildings were all on the north side of the church. The wall enclosing the precincts of the monastery was more than a mile in circumference. The rules of the Cistercian order were very strict, and for a long period were rigidly enforced. When a time of laxity came, there were vigorous efforts made to return to the strictness of discipline and holiness of life inculcated at the first. But wealth flowed into the monasteries. The nobles, stimulated by the ex- ample of the king, heaped benefits upon them; and the monks, like Jeshurun of old, " waxed fat," and kicked off the restraints of godly discipline ; and holiness of life was forgotten. The Reformation became a necessity. The monasteries did good work ; and while such work 20 was needed, they were, in the good providence of God, the repositories of religion and centres of learning; and if they suffered from the common enemy there was sufficient vitality in the nation to restore them. But the art of printing being discovered, learn- ing was diffused among the people, and in this country the monastery was set aside as an effete institution. The very name of monachism has long been with us a byeword and a reproach. But is Protestantism, with her many divisions, able thus to throw a stone at her elder sister the Papacy? Nay. Let the true-hearted in both companies make confession of the common sin, so shall they be enabled to withstand the common enemy, " cruel as the grave," who meditates an attack on the Christian life wherever it may be found. The struggle will be short and severe; but the reward is sure and certain. For hearken to the voice sound- ing and resounding throughout the entire Christian era, and growing in power and intensity as the "moment" approaches " BEHOLD I COME QUICKLY, AND Mr REWARD is WITH ME, TO GIVE EVERY MAN ACCORDING AS HIS WORK SHALL BE." " EVEN so COME, LORD JESUS." POSTSCRIPT BY C. M., AUTHOE OF Pagan or Christian? &c., &c. ilii" THE ETYMOLOGY OF MELROSE generally ac- cepted is the Keltic Mutt, bare (?) and Ros, a promontory. Like most " generally accepted " etymologies of a slipshod time passed, it will not bear examination. It was no doubt invented by some not too perspicacious writer, and has lived merely by being copied from one book to another. This part of the valley is naturally prolific of vegetation, of timber and bush. The site of the first abbey is sur- rounded on three sides by the Tweed, being thus fed with perpetual moisture; and is alluvial. It is not conceivable that this particular spot should have been notable in the centuries past as being, above all neighbouring spots, bare of the rich growth which must then have covered the river banks, when land under tillage was sparse. All tradition refers the foundation of the first abbey, at " Old Melrose," to the Culdees. But the etymologist (who- ever he may have been) attributes to them also the origin of the name. This is no more conceivable than the other. The Culdees were, above all things, missionaries. If they founded an abbey, it would be amongst a population. But was ever a settled population heard of that had not a name for their place ] Not only the population, but obviously also the name must have anteceded the Culdees. And the name would naturally arise from the most obvious and striking characteristic of the neighbourhood. To them who have eyes to read it, the name Melrose is written full and fair on the fair face of all this reach of the valley. The name is anciently spelled Mailros, and later Malros; (never Mulros.) Ros is Rose. The forms meal, mol, imply great quantity, or number. Thus Malros means the place of many roses, the place where roses are unusually abundant. ' UCSb LIBKAKY 22 This is precisely the notable characteristic of the neighbour- hood. The wild rose is indigenous. There is no nook nor cranny, no bank nor brae, which is not in the time of roses ablaze with their exuberant loveliness. In gardens, the cultured rose is so prolific that it spreads literally like a weed. The ancient Cognizance of the town confirms this ety- mology beyond doubt, with customary heraldic precision. The shield bears a Rose ; with a Maul, as the exact phonetic equivalent for the expletive. If the herald had needed to express " bare promontory," quite certainly he would have managed it somehow. Not only this, the Earls of Had- dington were first created Earls of Melrose (1619) ; and their Shield, quarterly, is charged, for Melrose, in 2nd and 3rd (fesse wavy between) three Roses gu. Beyond this ground of certainty, we may indulge in a little excursus into lingual affinities of wide range. The root mol is clear enough. It is of the same stock as the Greek mala, Latin mul (turn), and Hebrew m'la. But, Rose ? We call her Queen of Flowers, and since before the Persian poets made much of her, she was every where Ret/ina Florum. Why should not the name mean simply the Queen, the Chief? Now, so few who kno wKeltic know also Hebrew, and so few who know Hebrew know also Keltic, that few know the surprising extent of the affinity that exists clear as day between the Keltic and the Hebrew vocabularies. That the word Rose may be a case in point is hazardously speculative. But it is worth suggestion that it may be of the same stock as the Hebrew rosh (transliterated ros by the Septuagint), meaning chief, principal. But it is also the name of some flower; but of which flower is now unknown. Affinities of rosh are not far to seek ; Sanskrit, Raj(a). Ra(ja.)ni ; Latin, Rex, Reg(ma.). MELKOSE, however, means HOSE-BEDECKED. MEASUREMENTS. Length of the Ruin, 258 ft.; Breadth, 75 ft. Length of Transept, 130 ft.; Breadth, 44 ft. Height of Remains of Tower, 84 ft. Daylight of East Window, 36 ft. by 1C ft. Daylight of Grand South Window, 24 ft. by 16 ft. Breadth of Mullions, 8 inches.