ROXBURGHSHIRE. — JEDBURGH ABBEY. — MELROSE. 197 



retainers, and the kind benefactors of the poor. Their churches and conventual 

 buildings, raised with consummate art and skill, and profusely adorned with 

 carving and painting, were the chief architectural ornaments of the country. 

 Their halls were the seats of splendid hospitality, where princes and distinguished 

 persons were entertained, and where minstrels and professors of the liberal arts 

 were ever welcome guests.* The example of the order and economy of their 

 establishments must have had a beneficial influence on domestic life. The 

 deference and respect which they were bound to observe towards each other, could 

 not but contribute greatly to soften the harsh manners of a rude age, to introduce 

 elegance, and to disseminate urbanity and politeness throughout the intercourse 

 of society. History presents few changes of fortune more sudden and complete 

 than that which befell the monastic communities at the period of the 

 Reformation. Within a few years, their wealth, their honours, their avocations, 

 their establishments, were swept away. The unfortunate monks, often per- 

 haps deeply wronged — though many of them were doubtless loaded with some 

 just accusations — were driven from their ancient seats ; their magnificent edifices 

 — if the chance of war had not already desolated them — were either demolished 

 by the Wind rage of the populace and the barbarous ignorance of the government, 

 or left to crumble into premature decay. 



Jedburgh Abbey, when entire, must have been one of the finest buildings 

 in Scotland. It appears from its remains to have formed a large cross church, 

 comprising a nave with side-aisles, a cross with transepts, and a choir with 

 chapels. The altar, or east end of the choir, is completely gone, as well as 

 the cloisters and chapter-house, which appear to have extended to the south 

 side. Three or four difierent styles of architecture are observable in these 

 ruins, each characteristic of the period when it was employed, and exemplifying 

 the pecuUar taste of the age. In the choir there are massive Saxon columns, 

 or piers, with deep splayed circular arches; and over these the Norman style 

 is employed. Again, in the superstructure of the nave we have the old English 

 character, beautifully exemplified in the long range of narrow pointed windows, 

 and in the blank arches at the west end. Over the cross rises a lofty square 

 tower, with angular turrets and projecting battlements. The west end of the 

 nave has been barbarously remodelled into a parish church, which has completely 

 destroyed the character of this part of the edifice. At the west end, the 

 principal entrance to the church, in the south wall of the nave, are two 



• In monasteriis ea vigebat charitas, et hospitalitas, ut omnes sine discrimine ad ea diverterent; in 

 quibus tanto ordine omnia erant disposita, ut, sine religiosse disciplinae impedimento, non modo principes 

 viri, sed et ipsi Scotiae reges in illis subinde hospitarentur. — De Ant. Christ. Re!, apud Scotos. Morton. 



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