Page:The Lay of the Last Minstrel - Scott (1805).djvu/237



The Buccleuch family were great benefactors to the abbey of Melrose. As early as the reign of Robert II., Robert Scott, baron of Murdieston and Rankelburn (now Buccleuch), gave to the monks the lands of Hinkery, in Ettricke forest, pro salute animæ suæ.—Cartulary of Melrose, 28th May, 1415.

The cloisters were frequently used as places of sepulture. An instance occurs in Dryburgh abbey, where the cloister has an inscription bearing, Hic jacet frater Archibaldus.

The Borderers were, as may be supposed, very ignorant about religious matters. Colville, in his Paranesis, or Admonition, states, that the reformed divines were so far from undertaking distant journies to convert the Heathen, "as I wold wis at God that ye wold only go bot to the Hielands and Borders of our own realm, to gain our awin countreymen, who for lack of preching and ministration of the sacraments, must, with tyme, becum either infedells, or atheists." But we learn, from Lesley, that, however deficient in real religion, they regularly told their beads, and never with more zeal than when going on a plundering expedition.