"In Dryburgh's solemn pile."
Dryburgh is among the most beautiful of the ancient abbeys of Scotland. The effect of its ruins is heightened by their standing forth in solitary prominence, amidst a charming landscape. The Tweed sweeps around them like a crescent, and the lofty back-ground is shrouded in rich foliage, where the oak, the beech, and the mournful yew predominate. Among other noble and striking points of the structure, the windows are conspicuous. One large one, in the southern part of the transept, divided by four mullions, rises to a lofty height, and is seen majestically in the distance; another, of a circular form, in the western gable of what was formerly the refectory, with the dark foliage seen through it, is singularly picturesque.
Several stone coffins, or sarcophagi, of apparently great antiquity, have been discovered in these precincts, and are shown with their venerable coating of green moss and mould. In the place appropriated to the burial of the Erskines, or Earls of Mar, we observed an inscription bearing date in 1168, and another commemorating the youngest of the thirty-three children of Ralph Erskine. In the chapter-house, which resembles a spacious cellar, we were surprised by a vast assemblage of figures and busts, in plaster of Paris. They seemed a deputation from every age and clime. We could scarcely have anticpitated, in a ru-
