Nyddysdale : and : of : Galway :
I : pray : to : God : and : Mary : bath :
And : sweet : St. : John : keep : this : holy :
Kirk : frae : skath :”
He is said to have been the first Grand Master of the Freemason lodge of Melrose.
Just east of this transept is St. Bridget’s chapel, where is still to be seen a statue of that saint beside one of the windows. In a corner between this chapel and the chancel is according to the “Lay of the Last Minstrel,” the grave of the wizard Michael Scott.
Just beyond this grave is a flat stone which was the favorite resting place of that other wizard, Sir Walter Scott, when he came here to feast on the mournful beauty of the scene. To the magic influence of this noble ruin we may be indebted for many of the beautiful thoughts he has given us. Doubtless that wonderful imagination of his peopled those silent chapels and dim shadowy aisles with a host of illustrious dead. In speechless dignity and beauty they passed in review before him, a glorious company of the departed whose names, brightened by his magic touch, will live forever. But the chief place of interest is the chancel, under whose floor lie the ashes of those long, long dead. Alexander II. and Waldevus, the second Abbot of Melrose, a man of holy life, much loved for his exceeding gentleness, lie here.
The “Flower of Chivalry,” the famous Black Douglas, who was killed by his kinsman while hunting in Ettrick Forest, was buried here. Another Douglas, James the Earl, killed by Harry Hotspur, was here buried with the greatest pomp and ceremony.
But the most precious deposit, and the one for which these magnificent ruins seem a fitting tomb, is that right royal heart which once beat high with truth, valor and bravery, but which “feels its pulse no more,” the heart of “King Robert the Bruce.” It was the wish of the king that his heart should be buried in this abbey. However, subsequent to that, he expressed a desire that it should rather be interred in the Holy Sepulchre in Palestine. To this end Sir James Douglas set sail with the precious burden, but in Spain encountered the Saracens. Bravely refusing to retreat he fought and fell, but the king’s heart was saved, brought back to his nation’s land, and after such fitful fever was laid to rest at last in fair Melrose. The chancel is lighted by three superb windows, the one to the east being the one of which Scott wrote:
“The moon on the east oriel shone