Anniversary Address. 397 



"We now returned to Melrose, very well satisfied with the 

 results of our explorations ; and with our minds impressed 

 with a certain grandeur that surrounds the classic scenes, 

 which we either traversed or had contemplated. For this is 

 not only a beautiful land, it is also a region of renown. Here 

 religion early planted her seat, and grew up into great ecclesi- 

 astical establishments that flourished, culminated, and fell, 

 and were replaced by others still vigorous and apparently 

 destined to last. Fierce battles have been waged on its fair 

 plains ; the harvests have been ravaged ; and town, and cot, 

 and sacred edifice given up, one time after another, to be 

 consumed by the flames of war; and here those grim men who 

 strove with each other in the madness of hot blood, lie entombed 

 together side by side, — alas ! how impotent now. Patriots 

 too, and kings and princes, some of Scotland's best, and chief- 

 tains who in history's rolls have almost overshadowed kings, — 

 the great Douglas race — the hero of Otterburn — how peace- 

 fully they rest ! their tombs undistinguishable among those 

 of the forgotten generations of lesser men. Comparatively 

 little noticed till the present age, to one man above all, Melrose 

 owes its celebrity. Scott touched it with his magic wand 

 and it became famous to all time. It is his acknowledged 

 monument ; for, though Dryburgh holds his ashes, it is to the 

 valley of Melrose that the "pilgrims of his genius" repair to 

 catch the living spirit of his woiks. Scarcely less universal 

 in his own domain of scientific truth, Melrose is also the 

 mausoleum of Brewster, in whose writings, as in those of 

 Humboldt, science walks forth never but in her majesty ; and 

 on a higher platform than the German sage ever attained, 

 divested of all sceptical doubts or misgivings, and devoted to 

 the best interests of humanity. For my own part, I never 

 walk over the scenes where the great events of past history 

 have been transacted, or which may wear the impressions of 

 the works and lives of men of ability and worth, without a 

 feeling of deep reverence. Such spots have special attributes, 

 and acquire almost a moral dignity; so that amongst them it 

 is no metaphor to say — 



"Where'er we tread is holy ground." 



