which they were placed, and
ornamented with pinnacles and carved work, gave a variety and lightness
to the building. The roof and western end of the church were completely
ruinous; but the latter appeared to have made one side of a square, of
which the ruins of the conventual buildings formed other two, and the
gardens a fourth. The side of these buildings which overhung the brook,
was partly founded on a steep and precipitous rock; for the place had
been occasionally turned to military purposes, and had been taken with
great slaughter during Montrose's wars. The ground formerly occupied
by the garden was still marked by a few orchard trees. At a greater
distance from the buildings were detached oaks and elms and chestnuts,
growing singly, which had attained great size. The rest of the space
between the ruins and the hill was a close-cropt sward, which the
daily pasture of the sheep kept in much finer order than if it had been
subjected to the scythe and broom. The whole scene had a repose, which
was still and affecting without being monotonous. The dark, deep basin,
in which the clear blue lake reposed, reflecting the water lilies which
grew on its surface, and the trees which here and there threw their arms
from the banks, was finely contrasted with the haste and tumult of the
brook which broke away from the outlet, as if escaping from confinement
and hurried down the glen, wheeling around the base of the rock on which
the ruins were situated, and brawling in foam and fury with every shelve
and stone which obstructed its passage. A similar contrast was seen
between the level green meadow, in which the ruins were situated, and
the large timber-trees which were scattered over it, compared with the
precipitous banks which arose at a short distance around, partly fringed
with light and feathery underwood, partly rising in steeps clothed with
purple heath, and partly more abruptly elevated into fronts of grey
rock, chequered with lichen, and with those hardy plants which find root
even in the most arid crevices of the crags.

"There was the retreat of learning in the days of darkness, Mr. Lovel!"
said Oldbuck,--around whom the company had now grouped themselves while
they admired the unexpected opening of a prospect so romantic;--"there
reposed the sages who were aweary of the world, and devoted either to
that which was to come, or to the service of the generations who should
follow them in this. I will show you presently