Plate XLV.
DRYBURGH ABBEY.
"ON the northern side of
the Tweed, and in the deep gloom of a wood," says Pennant, "stand
the
remains of this abbey, founded by Hugh Morville, Constable of
Scotland in the time of David I. and
Beatrice de Campo bello, his wife." It is at no great distance from
Melrose, which is rather higher up in
Tiviotdale. The Abbey was founded in the year 1152, and the church
was dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
In 1323 it was almost destroyed by fire, and plundered by the
English; but many of its records were
saved; and the cartulary, containing all the charters that were at
different times granted to the monks, is
now in the Advocates Library in Edinburgh. The monks were of the
Præmonstratensian order, and came
to Dryburgh from Alnwick in Northumberland. They were called so
from their principal monastery, Præ-
monstratum, in France. There were in Scotland six monasteries,
inhabited by this order. This abbey was
originally very extensive, and with the adjoining buildings
comprised every thing necessary for the ease,
comfort, and even luxury of its numerous inhabitants. Of the church
there remains only the great west
doorway, and some few broken pillars and walls; the ruins of the
convent, refectory, and other build-
ings, are however very considerable, among which a very fine
circular radiated window stands most con-
spicuous. Most of the arches are pointed. The whole of the
buildings were rather simple than rich, but
though not much ornamented, they are light and elegant, and the
scattered remains, mingled with some fine
trees, while the Tweed with its silver stream winds almost round
the Abbey, form a scene, in which both
nature and art have combined to render it equally grand and
beautiful. In the time of James VI, this
Abbey, with all its revenues, was given to the Earl of Mar, and was
made a temporal lordship in favour of
the Earl's third son, Henry Erskine. The present Earl of Buchan
purchased the Abbey, with the estate
surrounding it, from the heirs of Colonel Todd, to whom it belonged
by purchase from the Halyburtons of
Newmains, the old lairds of Merton, in which parish it stands.
Since it has come into the possession of
Lord Buchan, it is well taken care of, and not suffered to be
dilapidated. His Lordship has given a long
account of it in Grose's Antiquities.