It has been stated that the arcade of the cloister formerly extended 150 feet each way. The cloister wall is now reduced to the portions which abut against the nave and transept—50 feet on the east side and 80 feet on the south side. "The former side contains a wall arcade of seven arches. These are of the form called drop arches, with crocketed ogee hood moulding, and have plain spandrils above, over which there runs a straight cornice, enriched with flowers and shells of all descriptions very beautifully carved."[473] Of these Sir Walter Scott said:—
Nor herb nor floweret glistened there
But was carved in the cloister arches as fair.
The tower was doubtless erected about the same time as the transept.[474] In the south transept are two inscriptions that have given rise to much speculation and continue to exercise Border antiquaries. One of these is carved over the doorway in the west wall which gives access to the wheel stair, and part of the inscription is carried down one side for want of room. It is the following:—
Sa gays the cumpas evyn about,
Sa trouth and laute. do but duite.
Behald to ye hende q. Johne Morvo.[475]
The other inscription is carved on a tablet in the wall on the south side of the same door:—
John Morow sum tym callit was I
And born in Parysse certanly
And had in kepyng al masoun werk
Of Santandroys ye hye kyrk
Of Glasgw Melros and Paslay
Of Nyddysdayll and of Galway
I pray to God and Mari bath
And sweet S. John kep this haly kirk frae skaith.
In the centre of the former inscription is a sunk panel containing a shield with two masons' compasses, arranged somewhat like a saltier, and beneath a figure resembling a fleur-de-lys.
The late Dr. John Smith, in the Proceedings of the Antiquarian Society of Scotland, considers these inscriptions as applying to one man, who may have been the master mason of the building. But Mr. Pinches, in his account of the abbey, mentions that John Murdo, or Morow, was engaged in building a church in Galloway in 1508. It thus seems likely that these inscriptions are not earlier than that date, and have been added to the building after its completion.[476]
An interesting view regarding John Morow will be found in A Mediæval Architect, by Mr. P. MacGregor Chalmers. He believes that the south chapel of the transept was that of St. John, and as John Morrow's tablet is opposite this chapel, his prayer to "sweet St. John" is most appropriate. Mr. Chalmers also points out that the chapels at the east end of Glasgow Cathedral are dedicated to the same saints and in the same order as those in the east aisle of the transept at Melrose.[477]
Immediately beneath the site of the high altar at Melrose is the resting-place of the heart of Robert Bruce, and to the south of it is a dark-coloured polished slab of encrinital limestone said to mark the grave of Alexander II., who was buried near the high altar in 1249. Others maintain, however, that it marks the burial-place of St. Waltheof or Waldeve, who was the second abbot of the monastery founded by King David, and that it is the slab placed here by Ingram, Bishop of Glasgow (1164-1174).