102 ANDREW JACKSON HOWE. 



The inclosing walls of the Abbey are nearly en- 

 tire, and a part of the roof, supported on the arches of 

 Gothic columns, still shelters the foot of the crucial 

 nave. The body of St. David was buried near the head 

 of the auditorium. To the left of the King's grave 

 was placed the embalmed heart of Robert Bruce. 



Adjoining the ruin on two sides is a burying 

 ground, whose moss-covered head-stones can scarcely 

 be seen, and whose graves are level with the inter- 

 vening ground. The most ancient of English letter- 

 ing is on the more pretentious monuments; and 

 the curious among tourists spend days and days in 

 attempts to decipher the epitaphs. Nearly all the 

 interments are centuries old. A few families of the 

 neighborhood possess rights in the grounds, and there 

 are some recent burials made by them. Fragments of 

 sculpture, half overgrown with grass, are to be seen 

 here and there, but whether wrecked by time or icono- 

 clastic hands is left to conjecture. A few statues still 

 hold their places on the cornices of the Abbey, 

 and serve as samples of what might have been the 

 original ornamentation of the architects. The first- 

 stanza in Canto Second, of The Lay of the Last Min- 

 strel, is a metrical and rhymed description of the 

 famous ruin : 



" If thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright, 

 Go visit it by the pale moonlight; 

 For the gay beams of lightsome day 

 Gild, but do not flout, the ruins gray. 

 When the broken arches are black in night, 

 And each shafted oriel glimmers white ; 

 When the cold light's uncertain shower 

 Streams on the ruined central tower ; 

 When buttress and buttress, alternately, 

 Seem framed of ebon and ivofy ; 



