Fig. 314.—Kelso Abbey. Crossing and North Transept.
Lord Roxburgh in 1599. The abbey still belongs to his successor, the Duke of Roxburgh, and the remains of the late Duke are buried in the south transept.
In 1649 a vault was thrown over the transept, so as to convert it into a parish church, and above this another vault served as a prison. This is shown in Grose’s view, made a century ago.
Fig. 315.—Kelso Abbey. From West.
During service on a Sunday in 1771, a panic was caused by the fall of a fragment of cement, and the church was thereafter abandoned. The ruins were partly disencumbered by the Duke of Roxburgh, 1805-16, and in 1823 the buildings were repaired by the noblemen and gentlemen of the county.[182]
After the many batterings and the long neglect the abbey church has endured, it is astonishing to find even the fragments which still exist.
The edifice has consisted ([Fig. 311]) of a choir or chancel of considerable length, with north and south aisles, and of a transept and nave, without aisles. The north and south divisions of the transept and the nave form three arms of equal length round the three sides of the crossing, above which rises the massive square tower.