Melrose Abbey And Lodge.

end of the fourteenth , or the beginning of the fifteenth century ; * Ave know this , not only from the above notices of the ravages of preceding structures , but also from the style of the architecture , which is late—not early—Gothic . The

tracery of the east windoAV has something of the English Perpendicular in it ; but ti'eated in a beautiful and rather novel manner . It is of this

window Sir Walter Scott says" The moon on the east orielf shone Through slender shafts of stately stone , By foliaged tracery combined ; Thou would'st have thought some fairy ' s hand 'Twixt poplars straight the osier wand ,

In many a freakish knot had twined , Then framed a spell when the work was done , Aud changed the willow wreathes to stone . "

The windows of the nave , again , are rather of the French "flamboyant'' style . In the south transept there is a fine doorway , with a really beautiful window above it , filled Avith chaste yet rich floAving tracery , and surrounded by niches , Avhich

are UOAV empty . "j" There is also another doorway whose arch being circular , leads many to suppose it Norman , whereas the style of the mouldings , & c , at once SIIOAVS it to be merely one of the many examples of the retainment of the circular

arch in Scotland all through the Pointed or Gothic period . The sculptures Avhich formerly stood on the brackets are almost all gone ; many of the brackets are sculptured as figures of men

supportingburdens , & c . Some Avag has taken an old displaced bracket , and jnlacing it upside doAvn on the top of another in situ , the pair pass as " the blind carrying the lame . " The fair Hebe—a fitting conductor for so fair a ruin—Avho was explaining the

curiosities , Avas not quite certain Avhat to make of our difficult-to-be-concealed Avant of faith about this and some other matters . One of the first

questions a stranger naturally asks of the guide is — " When Avas it built ? " Ans . " It Avas founded by David the First in 1136 , and finished in ten years . " " And has the present building stood all that time since then ? " " 0 ! yes , it is now above

700 years old ! " So said our fair conductor , with a look that defied contradiction , Ave had , therefore , to surrender at discretion , only as Ave got off

Avithout sealing our obligation by " kissiug the book , " Ave consider ourselves at liberty to speak our mind . Afterwards Ave had the pleasure of meeting , "the oldest inhabitant , " who was amember of the venerable Lodge "St . John ' s , Melrose ;"

this old worthy brother then informed us that " that old building which you have just seen , sir ,. Avas built in the reign of David the First , A . D . 1136 , by the Masons of the Melrose St . John ' s-Lodge , the oldest lodge in Scotland ! and that

structure , sir , has stood the ' battle and the breeze ' for more than 700 years . " - We tried to slip in a word about Robert the Bruce leaving money in the fourteenth century to build a new edifice , but it was no use , being completely

nonplussed by the statement " it is 700 years old , and was built by the Melrose St . John ' s Lodge , the oldest lodge in Scotland . John Murdo being our first Grand Master then ! " From the folloAving inscription upon a tablet inserted in the wall of

the south transept , it would seem that John was living about the fifteenth century , so he must have been very early at his trade to have been Grand Master in the first half of the twelfth , not to mention the difference between Grand Master

and " maister of werk . " John : Morow : sum : tym : callifc was : I : and : born : in : parysse : certauly : and : had : in : kepyng : al : masom : Werk : of : Santan droys : ye : hye : kyrk : of : glas

gw : melros : and : paslay : of : nyddysdayll : and : of : galway : + pray : to : god : and : mari : bath : And : sweet : Sanct : J ohn : to : keep this : haly : kyrk : fra : skaith : The abbey was dedicated to "Mari , " or St .

Mary , and "sweet Sanct John" seems to have been the patron saint of the Masons * . John Murdo seems to have had the " kepyng " or superintendence of whatever repairs or alterations were going on in St . Andrew ' s , Glasgow , Melrose ,

Paisley , Nyddysdale , and Gahvay . He Avas probably not born before the fourteenth century , whatever later . The Melrose St . John Lodge is certainly one of the last of the old independent lodges still extant , that has not as yet given in its