"'T was but a mournful sight to see
Trim Abbotsford so gay."
When we visited Abbotsford, it was rich with a profusion of roses and ripening fruits. Embosomed in shades, it presents an irrégular assemblage of turret, parapet, and balcony. The principal hall is hung with armor, and the emblazoned shields of border chieftains. It is about forty feet in length, and paved with black and white marble. It leads to a room of smaller dimensions called the armory, where are multitudes of antique implements of destruction, and curiosities from various climes. Scott's antiquarian tastes are inwrought with the structure of the building. Here and there is a wall or pannel, richly carved from the oak of Holyrood, and the old palace of Dunfermline. We were also shown a chimney-piece from Melrose, and told that there was a roof from Roslin Chapel, and a gate from Linlithgow. In the drawing-room, dining-room, and breakfast-parlor, are many pictures, and gifts from persons of distinction. There are chairs presented by the Pope and by George the Fourth, an ebony writing-desk, by George the Third, and ornaments in Italian marble, by Lord Byron. The magnificence of the library strikes every eye. It is sixty feet, by fifty, and contains more than twenty thousand volumes, beautifully arranged. It has a bold projecting window, commanding a lovely view of rural scenery and the classic Tweed. Shakspeare's
