Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland .. - National Library of Scotland

'———;;;——MELEOSEMEMSIEin 1787 during liis Border tour, a little before his time inadmiration of Gothic architecture as in so many otherthings, calls it 'that far-famed glorious ruin,' and yethe must have seen part of it wlien it was by no meansat its best. 'On opening the door,' says Grose, orrather Mr Hutchinson for him, ' it is not to be expressedthe disagreeable scene which presents itself ;theplace is filled with stalls, in the disposition of whichirregularity alone seems to have been studied ;some areraised on upright beams, as scaffolds, tier above tierothers supported against the walls and pillars ; ne twoare alike in form, height, or magnitude ;the same confusionof little and great, high and low, covers the floorwith pews ; the lights are so obstructed that the placeis as dark as a vault ; the floor is nothing but the dampearth ; nastiness and irregularity possess the wholescene.' Dorothy Wordsworth, who visited Melrosewith her brother during their Scottish tour of 1803,when they were guided over the ruins by Scott himself,makes similar reference to the want of neatness aboutthe church, and indeed she seems to have thought theruin overrated. It'is of considerable extent, butunfortunately it is almost surrounded by insignificanthouses, so that when you are close to it you see itentirely separated i'rom many rural objects ; and evenwhen viewed from a distance the situation does notseem to be particularly happy, for the vale is brokenand disturbed and the abbey at a distance from theriver, so that you do not look upon them as companionsto each other.' This is somewhat captious, but it isprobably a vague expression of the disappointment feltby most on a first visit to the place. This disappointmentis an undoubted fact, though why it should existit is more diflicult to say. Possibly it may partly arisefrom too great expectations, but probably more fromthe surroundings and the heavy and ungainly 17this made to the former in some lines of Sir Walter Scott's,in the Lay of the Last Minstrel, which describes thisBorder country :" They sat them down on a marble stoneA Scottish monarch slept helow."And then when Deloraine takes the book from the deadwizard's hand, it says"He thought, as het;ook: it, the dead man frowned."Most truly does Walter Scott say"If thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright.Go visit it by the pale moonhght."It looks very ghostlike, and reminds me a little ofHolyrood Chapel. We walked in the churchyard tolook at the exterior of the Abbey, and then re-enteredour carriages.See also Milne's Description of the Parish of Melrose(1743) ; Grose's Antiquities of Scotland (1791) ; Bower'sDescription of the AVbeys of Melrose (Kelso, 1813) ; Mor-ton's Monastic Annals of Teviotdale (1832); Chronicade Mailros (Bannatyne Club, 1835) ; Liber Sanete Mariede Metros (Bannatyne Club, 1837) ; Scott's Lay of theLast Minstrel, Monastery, and Abbot; Washington Irving'sAhbotsford and Newstcad Abbey; Mrs H. B. Stowe'sSunny Memories ofMany Lands ;Billings' Baronial andEcclesiastical Antiquities of Scotland (Edinb. 1852); J.D. Wade's History of St Mary's Abbey, Melrose, etc.(Edinb. 1861); and F. Pinches' The Abbey Church ofMelrose, Scotland (Lond. 1879).Melsetter, a mansion in Walls parish, Hoy island,Orkney, at the head of Longhope Bay, 18 miles SW ofKirkwall. Its owner, John George Moodie-Heddle,Esq. (b. 1844 ; sue. 1869), holds 50,410 acres, valued at£3527 per annum.Melvich, a scattered village in Eeayparish, Sutherland,on the left side of the mouth of the Halladale, near thehead of a small bay, 17 miles W by S of Thurso. Ithas a post and telegraph office under Thurso, a goodinn, and a public school. Immediately NNW is thefishing-village of Portskerra. Pop. of the two villages(1871) 414, (1881) 646, of whom 259 were in Melvich.—Ord. Sur., sh. 115, 1878.Melville Castle, the seat of Viscount Melville, inLasswade parish, Edinburghshire, on the North Esk'sleft bank, 1 mile NNE of Lasswade village and 1^- W byN of Eskbank station near Dalkeith. Built in 1786 fromdesigns by John Playfair, it is a castellated three-storyedifice of fair white stone, with round corner towers andtwo-story wings. The grounds are of great beauty.' Melville's beechy grove ' is celebrated in Sir WalterScott's Grey Brother; and 11 of its beeches, 9 of its oaks,are described in Trans. Highl. and Ag. Soc. for 1881 asamong the ' old and remarkable trees of Scotland. ' Melvillebarony, originally called Male-ville, from Male, anAnglo-Norman baron, who was governor of EdinburghCastle in the reign of Malcolm IV., remained in possessionof his family till the time of Robert II., when itpassed by marriage to Sir John Ross of Hawkhead.century vaulting of the nave. It is only by closer studyand familiarity with all the beautiful details— quite lostin a general first view—that the feeling is removed.The Queen visited the Abbey in 1867, during her With his descendants, the Lords Ross, it continued tillstay with the Duke of Roxburghe at Floors Castle. 1705 ; and, being afterwards purchased by David Kennie,The visit is thus described in More Lmves from the it passed, by his daughter's marriage, to the eminentJourivxl of a Life in the Highlands —' We went by the statesman Henry Dundas (1742-1811), who was createdside of the Eildon Hills, past an immense railway Viscount Melville in 1802. His grandson, Robert Dundas,fourth Viscount (b. 1803 ; sue. 1876), holds 1158viaduct, and nothing could be prettier than the road.The position of Melrose is most picturesque, surrounded acres in Midlothian, valued at £3618 per annum. Ord.by woods and hills. The little village, or rather town, Sur., sh. 32, 1857. See Lasswade, and John Small'soi Newstead, which we passed through just before coming Castles and Mansions of the Loth.ians (Edinb. 1883).to Melrose, is very narrow and steep. We drove straight Melville House, a four-story mansion of 1692, with extensiveand beautiful grounds, in Monimail parish, Fife,up to the Abbey through the grounds of the Duke ofBuccleuch's agent, and got out and walked about the 3 miles N by W of Ladybank. It contains portraitsruins, which are indeed very fine, and some of the of Gustavus Adolphus, King of Sweden, and Sir AlexanderLeslie, General of the Covenanters, Field-Marshalarchitecture and carving in beautiful preservation.David I., who is described as a "sair Saint," originally of Sweden, and first Earl of Leven. Sir Robert Melville(1527-1621), a distinguished diplomatist in thebuilt it, but the Abbey, the ruins of which are nowstanding, was built in the fifteenth century. We saw reigns of Mary and James VI., in 1616 was raised to thewhere, under the high altar, Robert Bruce's heart is peerage as Lord Melville of Monimail ; and George,supposed to be buried ;also the tomb of Alexander II., fourth Lord Melville, who played an active part in theand of the celebrated wizard, Michael Scott. Reference Revolution times, in 1690 was created Earl of Melville— a title conjoined with that of Leven since 1713. Atthe death in 1860 of the eighth Earl of Leven, the estate—2157 acres, of £3090 annual value—went to his eldestdaughter, Lady Elizabeth Jane Leslie-Melville, who in1858 had married Thomas Cartwright, Esq. An ancientstanding stone, \ mile SW of the house, rises upwards of9 feet from the ground, and measures 6 feet in circumference.—Orci. Siir., shs. 48, 40, 1868-67.Memsle, an estate, with a 17th centui-y mansion (afarmhouse now), in Rathen parish, NE Aberdeenshire, 4miles SSW of Fraserburgh. The estate, which belongedfor more than three centuries to the Eraser family, wassold in the early part of the present century to LordSaltoun. Three cairns stood on Memsie Moor, to the Nof the mansion. One of them, now removed, had a considerableextent of vitrified base ; another, also removed,contained a peculiarly shaped funereal urn and a shortiron-handled sword ; whilst the third, still standing,rises to a height of 15 feet, and measures 60 feet in circumferenceau the base. Ord. Sur., sh. 97, 1876.27