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exceeding beauty of the view, for when the church was 

 restored, the Gothic style of architecture had reached 

 its finest development. The original church must 

 have been a rude erection, when the whole monastery 

 was built in ten years, for work was not done at rail- 

 way speed in those days, but it would not be easy to 

 say how many years were required to build the one 

 whose very ruins delight every eye. 



In the year 1384, the English, under Eichard II, 

 made an inroad to Scotland, and on their return the 

 King lodged one night in the Abbey, and set fire to it 

 in the morning. He made several grants to the Abbey 

 afterwards, which leads us to hope that his majesty 

 repented the ungrateful and sacrilegeous act. It may 

 be that the chancel of the church was destroyed at that 

 time, for the style of architecture there is the perpendi- 

 cular Gothic, which commenced in the reign of Richard 

 II. The stone used in this part of the building is 

 different from that in the transepts. The transepts may 

 well be considered as the oldest portion of what now 

 comprises Melrose Abbey. The monastery at Melrose 

 was destroyed in 1545 by the Earl of Hetford. There 

 is a tradition that the English, on their way back to 

 England at that time, had actually passed the monas- 

 teries of Melrose and Dryburg, when the bells at one 

 of these places were rung to express the joy of the 

 inmates. The English, hearing the sound, were not slow 

 to come back, when the joy was changed into mourning. 

 The Scottish Reformation following shortly after, the 

 Abbey never recovered from the destruction perpetrated 

 at that time. 



After the Reformation, James Douglas, commendator, 

 took down a great part of the ruin to build houses. The 

 date on one of the windows in 1590. The statues were 

 demolished in 1649 ; and for a long period the Abbey 

 was used as a quarry by the people of Melrose. It is said 

 that there is not an old house in the town, but has, in its 

 walls, a stone from the Abbey. Since the Abbey came 



