240 ylNGLERS' EVENIXGS. 



point of distance — though properly it should be mentioned 

 last — is Dryburgh Abbey. Along the whole length of 

 the back of the village there runs a pleasant path, sloping 

 steeply to the water's edge, from which the most pic- 

 turesque and charming views of the Tweed may be had ; 

 and right across on the left bank of the river, the vener- 

 able ruin of the Abbey is seen, embosomed among 

 stately trees. To get to it, one must either go by the 

 highroad or the river-side as far as the Suspension 

 Bridge, and then cross. Interesting as a relic of antiquity 

 (it was founded about 1150,) it is rendered doubly so as 

 the burial place of Sir Walter Scott, who was interred 

 there, in St. Mary's aisle, on the 26th September, 1832, 

 in the tomb of his ancestors, the Haliburtons of New- 

 mains, who at one time owned the Abbey. It seems 

 fitting that he who in his lifetime touched with his magic 

 wand the towers and streams, the hills and glens for many 

 a mile around, giving to them an interest at once historical 

 and romantic which we would not willingly let die, should 

 be laid peacefully to rest amid the scenes he loved and 

 sung, and with " Tweed's silver stream " flowing silently 

 near him. Melrose Abbey, also near the Tweed, lies 

 about four miles from St, Boswells. If the visitor wishes 

 to see it at its best, he will view it at the time Sir Walter 

 recommends in his admirable poetical description : — 



*' When the broken arches are black in night, 

 And each shafted oriel glimmers white ; 

 When the cold light's uncertain shower 

 Streams on the ruin'd central tower ; 

 When buttress and buttress, alternately 

 Seem framed of ebon and ivory ; 



