14G The Pre- Reformation Churches of Beriuickshire. 



nature has dealt with the hallowed fane as he himself did with 

 the memories and traditions of eld, and made it scarcely less 

 beautiful in its decay than it must have been in its lordly prime. 

 Like his own genius, which quickened as with new life, and 

 clothed with its old pomp and glory the dead, half -buried past, 

 she has covered with her fairest forms the mouldering ruins, 

 and festooned 



"with lush woodbine, 

 " With sweet musk roses and with eglantine," 

 broken pillar and crumbling arch, ruined sanctuary and deserted 

 cloister. Standing beside the tomb of the Last Minstrel, and 

 gazing around on the remains of the once magnificent abbey — 

 all silent now, though on Fancy's ear there still seem to fall the 

 prayers and chants of its long forgotten inmates — one feels it to 

 be an act almost of desecration to subject to a minute scrutiny 

 the venerable ruins, or indeed to do aught but indulge in pensive 

 reverie. But we must try to forget the associations of the place 

 for a while, and endeavour, as best we may, to describe what 

 the ravages of war, of bigotry, of covetousness, and of time, have 

 left to us. 



It is unnecessary to do more than glance at the history 

 of the abbey, as the subject has been fully dealt with 

 in various well-known and readily accessible works, of 

 which we need only mention Morton's ' Monastic Annals of 

 Teviotdale.' Founded about 1150* by Hugo de Morville, 

 Constable of Scotland, whose charter was subsequently confirmed 

 by David I., Dryburgh was colonised by Prenionstratensian 

 monks from Alnwick. It was dedicated to St. Mary. There is 

 some reason to believe that an earlier religious establishment 

 existed on the spot, but the evidence, as is usual in such cases, 

 is far from being satisfactoi-y, and no trustworthy details can 

 be given. None of the existing buildings are assignable to an 

 earlier period thaa the middle of the 1 2th century, and most of 

 them are later. The conventual portions are very late Norman, 

 passing into First-Pointed; the choir and transepts of the church 

 are wholly in a fully developed phase of the latter style ; and 

 the scanty remains of the nave show that it has been of Second- 



* The Chronica de Mailros has the following entries : Anno 1150, Ordo 

 PrcBtnonstracensis venit ad Drueburch, ad fe-itiuitatem Sancti Martini (10 



November.) Anno 1152, Conventus venit ad Dribanjh die Sancte 



Lucie (13 December.) We may conclude that it was not till the latter 

 date that the buildings were ready for the reception of the monks. 



