Melrose is a picturesque and historic town beside the River Tweed in the Scottish Borders. Historically it was in the county of Roxburghshire. John J. Marshall attributes the naming of Melrose Avenue and Melrose Street to enthusiasm for the works of Sir Walter Scott, specifically the narrative poem "The Lay of the Last Minstrel" (1805), in which Melrose features (Marshall, Belfast Telegraph, 26/02/1941). Melrose Abbey is also the setting for Scott's The Monastery (1820), one of the Waverley novels. In 1811 Scott purchased land nearby, where he built a house which he named Abbotsford.
If thou wouldst view fair Melrose aright, Go visit it by the pale moonlight; For the gay beams of lightsome day Gild, but to flout, the ruins grey. When broken arches are black in night, And each shafted oriel glimmers white; When the cold light's uncertain shower Streams on the ruin'd central tower; When buttress and buttress, alternately, Seem framed of ebon and ivory; When silvers edges the imagery, And the scrolls that teach thee to live and die; When distant Tweed is heard to rave, And the owlet to hoot o'er the dead man's grave, Then go --- but go alone the while --- Then view St. David's ruin'd pile; And, home returning soothly swear, Was never scene so sad and fair.
This is quoted by John J. Marshall under the entry for Melrose Avenue from The Lay Of The Last Minstrel (Canto Second) by Walter Scott.