REPORT OF MEETINGS FOE ItiOT 165 



St. Bride on the South side. The unsightly tunnel-vaulting 

 in the nave dates from 1618, when this part of the building 

 was fitted up as the parish church. It ought to have been 

 removed long ago, but it has been said that to do so might 

 endanger the stability of the structure. I cannot pretend to 

 offer an opinion on the point ; but everyone must feel what 

 an immense gain it would be in all other respects could the 

 beautiful nave be shown unencumbered by this singularly 

 ungainly product of an inartistic age. 



"The window tracery in the South transept and nave is 

 evidently late Second Pointed, with a decided leaning to 

 Flamboyant, which may be accounted for by the political 

 relations which existed between Scotland and France at the 

 time. The Eastern limb of the Church cannot be earlier 

 than the end of the fifteentli century or the beginning of 

 the sixteenth, and is noteworthy as containing perhaps the 

 nearest approach to the Perpendicular style to be found in 

 Scotland. The mullions of the great East window, the ' east 

 oriel ' of Sir Walter Scott's immortal verse, rise in straight 

 lines from the sill to the crown of the arch in the head, and 

 Perpendicular forms are apparent in several of the smaller 

 windows of the Sanctuary, as well as in the South transept 

 door, which is an insertion obviously later in date than the 

 window above. 



"The extreme length of the Church is about 250 feet, and 

 it may be interesting to compare it with that 

 Structural of some other well-known churches in Scotland. 

 Dimensions. Melrose, then, is, roughly speaking, 90 feet 

 longer than lona, 60 feet longer than Dryburgh, 

 35 feet longer than Dunblane and Kirkwall, and 30 feet 

 longer than Jedburgh. On the other hand, it is 20 feet 

 shorter than Arbroath, 25 feet shorter than Dunfermline, 

 15 feet shorter than Elgin, 35 feet shorter than Glasgow, 

 and 100 feet shorter than St. Andrews. Length of nave to 

 rood screen, 93 feet ; width of nave, aisles and chapels, 

 69 feet; spread of transept, 115 feet, by 44 feet wide. 

 The height of the tower is 84 feet. The Sanctuary is 

 quadrangular, measuring 24 feet each way. The great East 

 window measures 37 feet by 16 feet, and the superb Soutl^ 

 transept window 24 fe?t by 10 fe^t, 



