ME LOS 



MELTON-MOWBRAY 



127 



cultivated in Britain, is highly esteemed and much 



cultivated in almost all warm countries. It is a 



native of the warm parts of the Old World. It has 



deeply lobed and gashed leaves, and a large round 



fruit with smooth dark-green spotted 



rind, and pink or white flesh, less 



sweet than the melon, but much 



more juicy or watery, and therefore 



much prized in many warm countries. 



In America it is only the water 



melon that is ever called simply 



melon ; for the other the old Eng- 



lish name is retained where ' canta- 



loupe' is not used. In South Caro- 



lina the water melon has reached 



45 Ib. South Africa has another 



species of Water Melon ( C. Coffer ), 



v.'i-y valuable to the inhabitants. 



The Chate ( C. C'hate ) is a native of 



Egypt and Arabia. The Kaukoor 



( ' '. nt His*;, ii a * ) is a native of India, 



and much cultivated in some parts 



of that country ; it has oval fruit, 



smooth, variegated with different 



shades of yellow, and iilxmt 6 inches 



long, with much the flavour of the 



melon. The fruit will keep for 



several months, and is much used 



both raw and in curries. The half- 



grown fruit is pickled. The seeds 



contain much farina and oil, and are ground into 



meal ; the oil is also expressed, and used Ixith for 



food and in lamps. The seeds of others of this 



genus may !> ntil in the same way ; and they are 



said in be useful as a diuretic medicine. 



Mclos (Ital. Milu), a Greek island, the most 

 south westerly of the Cyclades, 13 miles long by 8 

 broad, with 4200 inhabitants. The island is volcanic, 

 and produces sulphur, salt, pumice-stone, stucco, 

 millstones, and a little oil and wine. Amongst 

 the ruins of the ancient city of Melos, and near its 

 theatre, was found the priceless antique, the 

 Venus de Milo, now one of the chiefest treasures 

 of the Louvre. See VENUS. 



the ' wondrous Michael Scott ; ' and Sir David 

 Brewster all these are buried here ; else, the 

 annals of Melrose have little to record. A burgh 

 of barony since 1609, the town possesses a market- 



Melrose Ablwy. 



cross (1642), a suspension foot-bridge over the 

 Tweed (1826), a hydropathic ( 1871 ), and half a 

 dozen hotels, it lieing a great tourist centre, as 

 well for its ahlx-y as from the vicinity of Abbots- 

 ford, Dryhurgh. &c. Pop. ( 1841 ) 893 ; ( 1891 ) 1432. 

 See the Chroniea de Mai/rot, 731-1175, ed. by Joseph 

 Stevenson ( Bannatyne Club, 1835); the Liber .s'. Marie 

 de Mrlros, ed. by Cosmo Innes (Bannatyne Club. 1837); 

 Scott's Abbot and Lay of the Latt Minstrel; and works 

 by Wade (1801 ) and Pinches ( 18711). 



M rll i im-poiii t. The following are some of the 

 most important melting-points, which may also be 

 regarded as the freezing-points of the corresponding 

 liquids : 



('the singing one'), one of the 

 nine MUM'S, the representative of Tragedy. 



MHro*<>. a pleasant little town of Roxburgh- 

 shire, on the south bank of the Tweed, and at the 

 north base of the triple Kildons (q.v. ), 37 miles SSE. 

 of Edinburgh by rail. At Old Melrose, 24 miles 

 farther east, was founded aliout 635 the Cofumban 

 monastery, of which St Ciithbert (<|.v. ) became 

 a monk. It was burned by Kenneth MacAlpine 

 J7i s:i!, and hail been ijiiite deserted for upwards of 

 fifty years, when in 1136 the great Cistercian abbey 

 f Melrose itself was founded by David I. Twice 

 burned by the English, this was slowly rebuilt on a 

 .-ale of increased magnificence between 1322 and 

 I. ">0.~>, only forty years after which date two fresh 

 English invasions commenced the destruction that 

 wa< speedily completed by the Reformers. The 

 abbey was in the Second Pointed style, with 

 approaches to Third Pointed, and was beyond 

 doubt the most lieautiful structure of which Scot- 

 land could boast in the middle ages. What now 

 remains is the ruined conventual church, 215 feet 

 long by 116 across the transept*, with some frag- 

 inputs of the cloister, which seems to have been 

 a square of 150 feet. The carvings and traceries, 

 hewn in a stone of singular excellence, are scarcely 

 surpassed by any in England. Melrose shines in 

 Scott's pages with a splendour its meagre history 

 fails to sustain. The second abbot, St Waltheof, 

 the royal founder's stepson ; Alexander II. and 

 Johanna, his queen ; the heart of Rol>ert Bruce ; 

 the good Sir .lames, the Knight of Liddesdale, the 

 hero of Otterbum. and others of the Douglas line ; 



Melting-points beyond about 900 or 1000 F. 

 are merely approximate and relative. 



Ml'lton-Mowforay, a town of Leicestershire, 

 in the centre of a great hunting district, is seated 

 on the river Eye near its junction with the Wreak, 

 15 miles NE. of Leicester, and 104 NNW. of 

 London. It has a fine cruciform church, mainly 

 Early English, and is famous for its manufac- 

 tures of pork pies and Stilton cheese, chiefly for 

 retail in the London, Manchester, and Leeds 

 markets. Near the town in February 1644 a severe 

 engagement took place between parties of royalist 



