GRAVE OF SCOTT. 127
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 waving through it, is singularly picturesque.
Several stone coffins, or sarcophagi, of apparently great antiquity, have been discovered in these pre cincts, 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 com memorating the youngest of the thirty-three children of Kalph Erskine. In the chapter-house, which resem bles 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 anticipated, in a ruinous vault of Teviotdale, thus to meet Socrates and Cicero and Julius Caesar, Shakspeare and Locke and Brutus, the Abbot of Melrose, with his pastoral staff, John Knox, Charles Fox and the Ettrick Shepherd, Count Rum- ford and Benjamin Franklin and Watt of Birmingham, a strangely assorted and goodly company.
But the visitant of Dryburgh goes first and last to the grave, where, on September 2G, 1832, Sir Walter Scott was laid with the Haliburtons, his maternal an cestors. Around it are gathered many of the objects that in life he loved. Luxuriant vines, with their
�� �
