enclosing wall there is a large square tower, three stories in
height in the inside, and four stories on the outside, owing to the
fall of the ground. The two lower floors are round-vaulted, and the
cape-house on top is said to have been removed during this
century.[448] The building adjoining the tower to the east was
called the Regality Court-house, and had a groined ceiling. The
abbot's house is on the south side of the cloister, and is the best
preserved abbot's house in Scotland. It is three stories high, and
the two upper floors have been converted into a modern private
dwelling-house. It has been altered externally and spoiled of its
ancient internal fittings, with the exception of two fine carved
panels, one representing the Virgin, and the other a large Scotch
thistle. The kitchen has central pillars supporting a groined
roof,[449] and the other offices connected with the kitchen are all
vaulted. The abbey suffered from fire in 1272 and in 1380, while in
1350 it was injured "from the frequent assaults of the English
ships."[450] Service was up to 1590 conducted in the lady chapel
"stripped of its altars and images."

_Melrose Abbey (Roxburghshire)._--The editor of the _Liber de Melros_
has said in reference to this abbey:--

"The incidental mention of the condition of the abbey itself at
different times strongly illustrates the history of the district and
the age. At one time powerful and prosperous, accumulating property,
procuring privileges, commanding the support of the most powerful,
and proudly contending against the slightest encroachment; at
another, impoverished and ruined by continual wars, obliged to seek
protection from the foreign invader: in either situation it reflects
back faithfully the political condition of the country.

But the political events of a country of so narrow bounds and small
resources as Scotland are insignificant unless they are associated
with the development of principles and feelings that know no limits
of place or power. How rich Scotland has been in such associations
is testified by the general sympathy which attends her history and
her literature, and gives a pride to her children that forms not the
weakest safeguard of their virtue. It is in recalling freshly the
memory of times in which the proud and virtuous character of her
people