DRYBURGH, a village, in the parish of Mertoun,
county of Berwick, 1^ mile (w.) from Mertoun. It is
beautifully situated on the river Tweed, which forms the
southern boundary of the parish; and was formerly a
market-town of some importance, but is now chiefly remarkable
for the much-admired remains of its ancient
abbey. So early as the year 52'2, St. Modan, one of
the first Christian missionaries in Britain, was abbot of
Dryburgh; but from the circumstance of this original
institution being unnoticed by historians subsequently
to this period, it is supposed that the abbot and monks
were shortly afterwards transferred to Melrose, and
some centuries elapsed before the formation of a second
establishment here. Hugh de Morville, constable of
Scotland, about the middle of the twelfth century, with
the concurrence of his wife Beatrix de Bello Campo,
founded a new abbey, to which David I. granted a
charter of confirmation; and the establishment was afterwards
enriched by numerous benefactions from illustrious
personages. In 1544, the whole of the town was
burnt down, except the church, by the English army
under Sir George Bowes; and in the year following, the
monastery was plundered and burnt by the Earl of
Hertford. About the year 1556, David Erskine, a
natural son of Lord Erskine, and one of the sub-preceptors
to James VI., became abbot. That monarch,
however, soon after dissolved the abbey, and bestowed
it as a temporal lordship, under the title of Cardross,
on John, Earl of Mar, lord high treasurer of Scotland,
with the privilege annexed of assigning that title of
peerage, which the earl conveyed to Henry, his third son,
ancestor of the present Earl of Buchan, by a deed dated
13th of March, I617, and confirmed by the king and
parliament. In 1786, the abbey was purchased by the
Earl of Buchan from the heirs of Colonel Tod, who had
bought it from the family of Haliburton of Newmains.
Though not extensive, the remains are of very considerable
interest; they are romantically overgrown with
ivy, and consist chiefly of the chapter-house, north
transept, and St. Modan's chapel: some parts of the
ruins are of very early date, there being vestiges of the
Saxon and Norman styles as well as of the early English.
The environs are famed for their delightful scenery,
and are ornamented with various pleasing objects, among
which is a temple erected to the Muses, and surmounted
by a bust of Thomson, the author of The Seasons. A
colossal statue of Sir William Wallace crowns the brow
of an adjoining hill; and near the ruins of the abbey is a
remarkably light and elegant bridge for foot passengers
and led horses, consisting of a platform of wood, elevated
eighteen feet above the surface of the water, and fixed
to pillars on each side of the river by chains. Sir Walter
Scott was buried at Dryburgh.