Dryburgh Abbey

“ Surrounded on three sides by the Tweed, itself unseen from the Abbey precincts, and amidst a 'brotherhood of venerable trees,' in picturesqueness and seclusion it is perhaps the most charming monastic ruin in Great Britain. And here, in the lap of legends old, in the heart of the land he has made enchanted, and among his ancestral dust (for Dryburgh belonged to his forebears, and might have come to himself but for the stupidity of a spendthrift relative) , Walter Scott waits the breaking light of morn. ”

“ He will doubt no more.
Dryburgh Abbey is less than ten miles distant from Jedburgh, in a straight line. But there are marked features distinguishing it from its Teviotdale neighbour as well as from the Abbeys standing below and above it on Tweedside—Kelso and Melrose. It was planted in its corner of Berwickshire by baronial and not by kingly beneficence, its founder being the great Hugh de Morville, in David’s time Constable of Scotland 28 and Lord of Lauderdale, whose tomb is near the site of the high altar. ”

“ Two monasteries in Ireland, the abbey of Druin-la-Croix in the County of Armagh, and the abbey of Woodburn in the county of Antrim, acknowledged Dryburgh as their mother. A copy of the Liber S. Mariae de Dryburgh is in the Advocates' Library in Edinburgh, containing all its ancient charters. Such are the main points of history connected with Dryburgh; but, when we open the ballad lore of the South of Scotland, we find this fine old place figuring repeatedly and prominently.... ”

“ Melrose Abbey was especially the recipient of the royal bounty, and during the fourteenth century was, doubtless, in great measure rebuilt. It still retains much of the decorated work of that period, and is amongst our finest examples{56}
Fig. 24.—York Cathedral. West Front. (From Britton’s Cathedrals.)
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of the style. Dryburgh Abbey and Crosraguel Abbey were also encouraged in their works of restoration by King Robert, and still show partial specimens of middle pointed architecture. Glasgow Cathedral also still preserves, almost unimpaired, its fine nave of the fourteenth century. ”

“ Stones are preserved of an earlier church than the existing one. Dryburgh Abbey (p. 134) . Airth Church (Stirlingshire) dates from the period about the beginning of the 13th century, but only a small part of the early structure remains—a bay of what has been a nave arcade, opening into a north aisle. Lasswade Church, Mid-Lothian, had an old church, consisting of oblong chamber and tower. The S. wall doorway and tower reveal Transition work about first half of 13th century. Bathgate Church, Linlithgowshire, is now a ruin, being abandoned in 1739 for a new church. ”

“ On the south side of the church, at a lower level, stand the cloisters, about 100 ft. square, bounded on the west by the dungeons, on the south-west by the cellars and refectory, in the west wall of which is an exquisite ivy-clad rose window, and on the east by the chapter-house, on a still lower level. The chapter-house, a lofty building with vaulted roof, is the most complete structure of the group, and adjoining it on the south are, first the abbot’s parlour and then the library, the three apartments communicating with each other, and constituting the oldest portion of the abbey. ”

“ The circumstance of the nun, "who never saw the day," is not entirely imaginary. About fifty years ago, an unfortunate female-wanderer took up her residence in a dark vault, among the ruins of Dryburgh abbey, which, during the day, she never quitted. When night fell, she issued from this miserable habitation, and went to the house of Mr Halliburton of [Pg 244] Newmains, the editor's great-grandfather, or to that of Mr Erskine of Sheilfield, two gentlemen of the neighbourhood. ”

“ Fig. 419.—Dryburgh Abbey. Western Doorway.
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which would thus be about 77 feet in length by 27 feet in width. The west wall is almost all that survives. It is ivy clad, and contains a picturesque circular window, with radiating tracery (Fig. 416) . Adjoining
Fig. 420.—Dryburgh Abbey. North and South Ends of Transept.
this wall in the south-west angle of the cloister there is an arched recess in the west wall, apparently intended for a tomb and monument; but it is empty. Over the doorway in this angle is a large shield (Fig. 417) ,{461}
Fig. ”

“ The freestone of which the monastery of Dryburgh and the most elegant parts of the Abbey of Melrose were built, is one of a most beautiful color and texture, and has defied the influence of the weather for more than six centuries; nor is the sharpness of the sculpture in the least affected by the ravages of time. ”

“ The church of Berwick, a peculiar of the dean and chapter of Durham, stands on the north side of the parade. It was rebuilt between 1642 and 1652, at the cost of £1400. It has no steeple. It consists of three aisles, and several galleries, all handsomely pewed. The Worshipful Mercers' Company, in London, founded a lectureship here. David I., King of Scotland, The church and convents. founded here a convent for Cistertian Nuns; and Robert III, granted its revenues to Dryburgh Abbey. The convent of Carmelites originated with Sir John Grey, in 1270. ”

“ The quarry from which it was taken is still successfully worked at Dryburgh; and no stone in the island seems more perfectly adapted for the purpose of architecture, as it hardens by age, and is not subject to be corroded or decomposed by the weather, so that it might even be used for the cutting of bas-reliefs and of statues." ...
As the remains of the abbey have since been carefully preserved, they present still much the same aspect as at Grose's visit in 1797. When I visited this lovely ruin and lovely neighborhood in 1845, I walked from Melrose, a distance of between three and four miles. ”

“ He communicated an account of the old abbey of Dryburgh to Grose's ‘Antiquities’ (i. 101–9) . In 1791 he instituted an annual festival in commemoration of James Thomson, at his birthplace, Ednam, Roxburghshire, and on his grounds at Dryburgh erected an Ionic temple, with a statue of Apollo in the inside, and a bust of the poet surmounting the dome. ”

“ The house of Lord Buchan and the Abbey stand upon a large flat peninsula, a green holm almost covered with fruit-trees. The ruins of Dryburgh are much less extensive than those of Melrose, and greatly inferior both in the architecture and stone, which is much mouldered away. Lord Buchan has trained pear-trees along the walls, which are bordered with flowers and gravel walks, and he has made a pigeon-house, and a fine room in the ruin, ornamented with a curiously-assorted collection of busts of eminent men, in which lately a ball was given ”

“ But, as the possessions and revenues of the benefices became thus intermixed with those of the laity, any attempts rigidly to enforce the claims of the church were usually attended by the most scandalous disputes. A petty warfare was carried on for years, betwixt James, abbot of Dryburgh, and the family of Halliburton [xciv] of Mertoun, or Newmains, who held some lands from that abbey. These possessions were, under various pretexts, seized and laid waste by both parties; and some bloodshed took place in the contest, betwixt the lay vassals and their spiritual superior. ”

“ Scottish monasticism exhibited the expansion of the two main streams—the Augustinian and the Benedictine, and each subsequent order is to be regarded as an endeavour towards reform. Space will only permit us to deal with the Augustinian establishments at St. Andrews, Holyrood, and Jedburgh; with the Premonstratensian abbey of Dryburgh; with the Benedictine abbey of Dunfermline; with the Cluniacensian abbey of Paisley; with the Tyronensian abbeys of Kelso and Arbroath; with the Cistercian abbey of Melrose. ”

“ Sir Walter’s tomb is a plain block of polished Peterhead granite, inscribed only with his name and the dates of his birth and death. The next aisle is the burial-place of the Erskines of Shielhill and the Haigs of Bemersyde. ”

“ Mr. Dryden dying on the Wednesday morning, Dr. Thomas Sprat, then bishop of Rochester and dean of Westminster, sent the next day to the lady Elizabeth Howard, Mr. Dryden's widow, that he would make a present of the ground, which was forty pounds, with all the other Abbey-fees. The lord Halifax likewise sent to the lady Elizabeth, and Mr. Charles Dryden her son, that, if they would give him leave to bury Mr. Dryden, he would inter him with a gentleman's private funeral, and afterwards bestow five hundred pounds on a monument in the Abbey ”

“ The humble church, which in course of time was built there to guard the sacred remains, preceded the present magnificent cathedral of Durham “half church of God, half citadel, ‘gainst the Scots.” In the meantime the settlement of Melrose had prospered, but in 839 was burnt down by Kenneth MacAlpine and remained a desolate ruin for nearly two centuries. Good King David I. “that sair saunt for the crown,” then founded the abbey, in which for several centuries the Cistercian monks laboured—cultivating the land and instituting law and order amongst the country folk of the district. ”

“ As soon as he heard of Dryden's death he ‘undertook to remit all the fees and offered himself to perform the rites of interment in the abbey,’ but the larger inscription intended for Shadwell's bust in the abbey was suppressed by him, as some of the clergy had objected to its terms as ‘too great an encomium on plays to be set up in a church,’ and the lines in Dr. ”

“ The extruded canons were placed at Auckland and Darlington, and the Evesham Benedictines occupied the mother-church of the diocese.
It was all done in haste. It was repented of, no doubt, at leisure. In the enthusiasm of the moment Bishop William founded the one and only abbey in the Bishopric of Durham. His successors, we may well believe, deplored what was politically and ecclesiastically a great mistake. But what was done could not be undone by anything less than a revolution. The Abbey of Durham grew and was strong. The magnificence of its buildings tells of the wealth of the builders. ”

“ Rising amidst green, folding meadows, on the right bank of the Severn, the ruined Abbey forms the central feature in a beautiful, tranquil scene; and, set amidst rich, dark foliage, with the river rolling by, and cattle standing knee-deep in the shallows, has exercised the brush of many a landscape artist.
Founded by Roger de Clinton, Bishop of Chester, early in King [Pg 142] Stephen's reign, Buildwas Abbey is built in a plain, severe style, offering a striking contrast to its more elegant rival at Much Wenlock. ”

“ Some trifles, indeed, he had the prudence and discretion to bestow upon the monks of Dryburgh; but trifles they were, truly, when compared to the valuable legacy he left to himself.
When the dying laird had disposed of everything he had, the scene closed. The discomfited monks returned to their monastery—the notary and the witnesses departed—and Thomas Dickson, in due time, stepped into a comfortable living, and defied the monks of Dryburgh, on the peril of their good name, even to dare to hint how he had come by it. ”

“ Fire played havoc here as elsewhere, and we find Abbot Geoffrey lamenting over the intolerable ruin of his church. This was at the close of the twelfth century, and some reparation was affected, while, during the time of his successor, Hugh Grylle, prosperity dawned upon the Abbey, and the number of monks was soon after increased. Increased wealth tempted the rapacious, and the abbey had to withstand a siege. A noted abbot was Simon de Albo Monasterio, or Whitchurch, who did much for his monastery. He rebuilt the Lady Chapel, enlarged the chapter-house, and began the present choir. ”

“ The walls of the cathedral still stand firm and unshaken as the Rock on which they are built. There is no nobler ruin in Great Britain. The abbeys of Melrose, Dryburgh, and Holyrood are contemptible when compared with the Rock of Cashel. Even in its fallen state it has the lofty bearing of a king. ”

“ The history of York Abbey is heartbreaking to lovers of art—for from every standpoint St Mary’s church stood as a perfect type of English work. How few people realise that within a few hundred yards of the world-famed minster are the remains of what was architecturally a far more glorious structure, and which, though not so great in length, possessed more beauty of workmanship than the venerable minster. English Gothic was at the height of its perfection{40} when, in 1270, Abbot Simon of Warwick rebuilt the Abbey. ”

“ In front of Dryden’s monument, is an ancient stone, on which, by the marks indented, has been the image of a man in armour. This covers the body of Robert Haule, who, at the battle of Najara, in Spain, in Richard II.’s time, together with John Shakel, his comrade, took the Earl of Denia prisoner, who, under pretence of raising money for his ransom, obtained his liberty, leaving his son as a hostage in their hands. Upon their coming to England, the Duke of Lancaster demanded him for the King ”

“ He is represented kneeling, in his proper habit. He died in 1601.
The Tombs in the open parts of the Abbey.
1. At the corner of the last mentioned chapel is a plain neat monument to the memory of Mr. Dryden, adorned with no other ornaments than an elegant bust of that great poet. It was erected by the late Duke of Buckingham, who thought no inscription necessary to transmit the fame of that great poet to posterity; we therefore only see these few words, J. Dryden, born 1632, died May 1, 1700, and underneath, John Sheffield Duke of Buckinghamshire erected this monument, 1720. ”