Abbotsford House
Two miles to the west of Melrose is Abbotsford, home of Sir Walter Scott. It is very much his own creation and has many features copied from other places particularly the Abbey.
"I have selected for the hall chimney piece one of the cloister arches of melrose.... I have transferred almost all the masques from Melrose to my roofs...". Outside there are parapets and gargoyles, the main entrance is based on the porch to Linlithgow palace, the screen wall in the garden reflects the Melrose Abbey Cloister. Built into the garden walls are numerous stones 'rescued' from sites across sout-east Scotland.
Beginning with Virginia Woolf, many commentators have seen Abbotsford as an echo of the blending of ancient and modern that Scott attempts in his written works. It proved immeasurably influential on nineteenth-century building styles, sparking the Victorian revival of Scots-Baronial architecture.
The interior is filled with relics of both national and family history: heraldic devices, suits of armour, old weaponry (including Rob Roy's long-barrelled gun, pouch and dirk), and paintings, collected or commissioned, of Scott's forebears and his extensive library.