134! Bestoration of Jedburgh Abbey. By Jas. Watson. 



Jedburgli Abbey does not exhibit that richness of detail so 

 characteristic of Melrose and other buildings of the later periods, 

 but it possesses a grandeur in its simplicity that few can equal, and 

 that certainly none can surpass. At the foundation of the mon- 

 astery the church, it would seem, consisted only of a choir of two 

 bays on each side, with side aisles, and probably an apse towards 

 the east ; two transepts, and a tower. Some of the old work still 

 remains, and is a fair specimen of the period. One thing worth 

 noting is the arrangement of the lower arches, which spring 

 from the sides of the round pillars instead of from capitals like 

 the zigzag moulded arches above, suggesting the idea that this 

 may have been the residt of an after thought. Something 

 similar is to be seen in Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford, and 

 also in Eomsey, Hampshire. 



The nave, which is an exquisite example of Transition Nor- 

 man, is the grand feature in the Abbey. It is 130 feet in length, 

 and 50 feet from the ground to the wall-head, the composition of 

 the various parts being light and graceful. There are nine bays 

 in all. The basement story consists of clustered pillars which 

 support deeply moulded pointed arches ; in the triforium are 

 semicircular arches subdivided by pointed ones, the latter being 

 supported by slender shafts ; while the clerestory is a detached 

 arcade of thirty-six arches, all pointecL. In the lower story the 

 pointed bowteU is the chief moulding ; all the capitals are more 

 or less foliated; and the abaci, with only one exception, are 

 square ; in the clerestory the mouldings are round, the capitals 

 plain, and the abaci have lost their square edges. The west 

 front is a very good composition of the same period, but has 

 suffered considerably by the slow tooth of time, and the still 

 more cruel hand of men. The doorway is deeply recessed, and 

 the enriched mouldings of the semicircular arch are principally 

 the chevron, the chain, and the fish bone. The sides are greatly 

 injured, and seem to have been fired ; the shafts that formerly 

 supported the capitals, which still remain, have disappeared ; 

 and much of the ornamentation has been obliterated. Sufficientj 

 however, remains to show how very elaborate the carving must 

 have been. On each side of the doorway is a round headed 

 window, nine feet two inches in height, and two feet five inches 

 in width ; while in the centre of the gable is another window, 

 also with a semicircular arch eighteen feet ten inches high by 

 five feet eight inches wide. At the sides of this window there is 



