Anniversarij Address. 135 



The Club met at Melrose on Thursday the 28th July. Present, 

 the President, the Eev. J. Dixon Clark, the Pev. W. Darnell, 

 Robert Home, J. Macbeath, Wm. Boyd, S. Sanderson, Pev. J. 

 Baird, Pev. Thomas Leishman, Major Elliott ; and the Pev. W. 

 Murray, Melrose, Mr. Curie, and C. J. Langlands as visitors. The 

 members proposed at the last meeting were elected, and the Pev. 

 J. D. Clark proposed Charles Bertie Pulleine Bosanquet, Esq., of 

 Pock ; and Mr. Macbeath proposed Wm. Melville Lomas, Esq. of 

 Horbury Hall, Wakefield, for election. 



The distant position of Melrose, and railway arrangements, 

 made it late ere the members could assemble : after a hasty 

 luncheon, they proceeded to the Abbey — the finest specimen of 

 the Decorated style of which Scotland can boast. Amidst the ruins, 

 close by ''the marble stone" where "a Scottish Monarch slept 

 below," the interesting historical sketch of this famous foundation, 

 drawn up for the meeting by John Stuart, Esq., E.A.S., Edin- 

 burgh, was read, to the manifest gratification of some fair tourists 

 who were present, as well as of our members. The beauty of 

 this ruin is well known ; its most minute ornaments retain their 

 sharpness, and seem as entire as when newly wrought, after 

 having resisted the weather for so many ages. Leaving the Abbey, 

 the party separated ; some to visit Abbotsford — the realization of 

 the great author's dream of territorial acquisition ; some, on a 

 ramble to the pretty little valley, about two miles west of Melrose, 

 *'The Fairy," or "nameless glen," remarkable for the ^^ Fairy 

 Stones'''' which are found after falls of rain, washed out of the 

 bouldei^tlay, throvigh which the little brook cuts its downward 

 course. These concretions contain about 30 per cent, of lime, and 

 are probably segregations of the lime, originally difiused through 

 the clay ; the lime in the course of its separation from the mass 

 has attracted to it certain quantities of the earthy matter. The 

 cause why this occurs is obscure, but we know that certain minerals 

 do separate from others ; ironstone nodules from shale — flints from 

 chalk — and chert out of the limestone on the Tweed, are examples 

 of this fact. I state this on better authority than my own — that of 

 Mr. Tate. This little glen is also interesting, as being the scene 

 where many of the events of the great novelist's romance of "The 

 Monastery" are supposed to have taken place. Another party 

 climbed the three picturesque Eildon Hills, to insjoect the remains 

 of the ancient camps, on the eastern hill; and to enjoy the glorious 

 prospect which embraces such a ^dde extent of the borders. Sir 

 Walter Scott used to say, that he could point out from this hill 



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