This Abbey has been always particularly favoured by the Bruce. We have
already seen his extreme anxiety that each of the reverend brethren
should be daily supplied with a service of boiled almonds, rice and
milk, pease, or the like, to be called the King's mess, and that
without the ordinary service of their table being either disturbed in
quantity or quality. But this was not the only mark of the benignity
of good King Robert towards the monks of Melrose, since, by a charter
of the dale 29th May, 1326, he conferred on the Abbot of Melrose the
sum of two thousand pounds sterling, for rebuilding: the church of St.
Mary's, ruined by the English; and there is little or no doubt that
the principal part of the remains which now display such exquisite
specimens of Gothic architecture, at its very purest period, had their
origin in this munificent donation. The money was to be paid out of
crown lands, estates forfeited to the King, and other property or
demesnes of the crown.
A very curious letter written to his son about three weeks before his
death, has been pointed out to me by my friend Mr. Thomas Thomson,
Deputy-Register for Scotland. It enlarges so much on the love of the
royal writer to the community of Melrose, that it is well worthy of
being inserted in a work connected in some degree with Scottish
History.
LITERA DOMINI REGIS ROBERTI AD FILIUM SUUM DAVID.
"Robertius dei gratia Rex Scottorum, David precordialissimo filio suo,
ac ceteris successoribus suis; Salutem, et sic ejus precepta tenere,
ut cum sua benedictione possint regnare.
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