Excerpt from The Gallery of Modern British Artists: Consisting of a Series of Engravings From Works of the Most Eminent Artists of the Day Although this venerable structure was in a great measure defaced and demolished, in consequence of the civil wars and religious struggles that prevailed, especially at the period of the Reformation, yet the principal part of it was probably early used as a Protestant place of worship; and in the seventeenth century it underwent considerable additions and repairs, to fit it for a Presbyterian church. From this time it was the parish church till the year 1771, when a false alarm being spread, during public worship, that the building was falling, it was never again used. This alarm was the more easily excited as there was prew'ously a popular fear, grafted on a traditional prophecy of Thomas the Rhymer, that the Abbey would fall when at the fullest. From this time the building was neglected, till the late William, duke of Roxburgh, caused an unsightly aisle, and a portion of a wall, both of modern erection, to be taken down and. Subsequently many other deformities of a like nature have been removed, by which means the transept, and many windows and side arches of the original building, are displayed. The central tower of the Abbey was originally about ninety feet in height, but is now only seventy. The arches are clustered with admi rable strength and beauty, and those which support the lantern are truly magnificent. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.