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academical education be very reasonably objected. A student of the highest class may keep his annual session, or as the English call it, his term, which lasts seven months, for about fifteen pounds, and one of lower rank for less than ten; in which board, lodging, and instruction are all included.

vchement as it was, raised an epidemical enthu- | present professors; nor can the expense of an siasm, compounded of sullen scrupulousness and warlike ferocity, which in a people whom idleness resigned to their own thoughts, and who, conversing only with each other, suffered no dilution of their zeal from the gradual influx of new opinions, was long transmitted in its full strength from the old to the young, but by trade and intercourse with England, is now visibly The chief magistrate resident in the univerabating, and giving way too fast to that laxity sity, answering to our vice-chancellor, and to of practice, and indifference of opinion, in which the rector magnificus on the continent, had commen, not sufficiently instructed to find the mid-monly the title of Lord Rector; but being ad dle point, too easily shelter themselves from rigour and constraint.

The city of St. Andrews, when it had lost its archiepiscopal pre-eminence, gradually decayed: one if its streets is now lost; and in those that remain, there is the silence and solitude of inactive indigence and gloomy depopulation.

The university, within a few years, consisted of three colleges, but is now reduced to two; the college of St. Leonard being lately dissolved by the sale of its buildings, and the appropriation of its revenues to the professors of the two others. The chapel of the alienated college is yet standing, a fabric not inelegant of external structure: but I was always, by some civil excuse, hindered from entering it. A decent attempt, as I was since told, has been made to convert it into a kind of greenhouse, by planting its area with shrubs. This new method of gardening is unsuccessful; the plants do not hitherto prosper. To what use it will next be put, I have no pleasure in conjecturing. It is something, that its present state is at least not ostentatiously displayed. Where there is yet shame, there may in time be virtue.

dressed only as Mr. Rector in an inauguratory speech by the present chancellor, he has fallen from his former dignity of style. Lordship was very liberally annexed by our ancestors to any station or character of dignity: they said, the Lord General, and Lord Ambassador; so we still say, my Lord, to the judge upon the circuit, and yet retain in our Liturgy, the Lords of the Council.

In walking among the ruins of religious buildings, we came to two vaults over which had formerly stood the house of the sub-prior. One of the vaults was inhabited by an old woman, who claimed the right of abode there, as the widow of a man whose ancestors bad possessed the same gloomy mansion for no less than four generations. The right, however it began, was considered as established by legal prescription, and the old woman lives undisturbed. She thinks however that she has a claim to something more than sufferance; for as her husband's name was Bruce, she is allied to royalty, and told Mr. Boswell, that when there were persons of quality in the place, she was distin guished by some notice; that indeed she is now neglected, but she spins a thread, has the company of a cat, and is troublesome to nobody.

The dissolution of St. Leonard's College was doubtless necessary; but of that necessity there is reason to complain. It is surely not without Having now seen whatever this ancient city just reproach that a nation, of which the com- offered to our curiosity, we left it with good merce is hourly extending, and the wealth in-wishes, having reason to be highly pleased with creasing, denies any participation of its pros- the attention that was paid us. But whoever perity to its literary societies; and while its surveys the world, must see many things that merchants or its nobles are raising palaces, suf-give him pain. The kindness of the professors fers its universities to moulder into dust. did not contribute to abate the uncasy remembrance of a university declining, a college alienated, and a church profaned and hastening to the ground.

nous.

Of the two colleges yet standing, one is by the institution of its founder appropriated to divinity. It is said to be capable of containing fifty students; but more than one must occupy St. Andrews indeed has formerly suffered a chamber. The library, which is of late erec- more atrocious ravages, and more extensive detion, is not very spacious, but elegant and lumi-struction; but recent evils affect with greater force. We were reconciled to the sight of archiepiscopal ruins. The distance of a calamity from the present time seems to preclude the mind from contact or sympathy. Events long past are barely known; they are not considered. We read with as little emotion the violence of Knox and his followers, as the irruptions of Alaric and the Goths. Had the university been destroyed two centuries ago, we should not have regretted it; but to see it pining in decay, and struggling for life, fills the mind with mournful images and ineffectual wishes.

The doctor, by whom it was shown, hoped to irritate or subdue my English vanity, by telling me, that we had no such repository of books in England.

St. Andrews seems to be a place eminently adapted to study and education, being situated in a populous, yet a cheap country, and exposing the minds and manners of young men neither to the levity and dissoluteness of a capital city, nor to the gross luxury of a town of commerce, places naturally unpropitious to learning; in one the desire of knowledge easily gives way to the love of pleasure, and in the other, is in danger of yielding to the love of money.

The students however are represented as at this time not exceeding a hundred. Perhaps it may be some obstruction to their increase that there is no episcopal chapel in the place. I saw no reason for imputing their pauc the

ABERBROTHICK.

As we knew sorrow and wishes to be vain, It was now our business to mind our way. The roads of Scotland afford little diversion to the traveller, who seldom sees himself either en countered or overtaken, and who has nothing to contemplate but grounds that have no visibl

boundaries, or are separated by walls of loose | found by following the walls among the grass stone. From the bank of the Tweed to St. and weeds, and its height is known by some Andrews, I had never seen a single tree, which parts yet standing. The arch of one of the gates I did not believe to have grown up far within the present century. Now and then about a gentleman's house stands a small plantation, which in Scotch is called a policy, but of these there are few, and those few all very young. The variety of sun and shade is here utterly unknown. There is no tree for either shelter or timber. The oak and the thorn is equally a stranger, and the whole country is extended in uniform nakedness, except that in the road between Kirkaldy and Cowpar, I passed for a few yards between two hedges. A tree might be a show in Scotland, as a horse in Venice. At St. Andrews, Mr. Boswell found only one, and recommended it to my notice; I told him that it was rough and low, or looked as if I thought Bo. This, said he, is nothing to another a few miles off. I was still less delighted to hear that another tree was not to be seen nearer. Nay, said a gentleman that stood by, I know but of this and that tree in the county.

is entire, and of another only so far dilapidated as to diversify the appearance. A square apart ment of great loftiness is yet standing; its use I could not conjecture, as its elevation was very disproportionate to its area. Two corner towers particularly attracted our attention. Mr. Bos well, whose inquisitiveness is seconded by great activity, scrambled in at a high window, but found the stairs within broken, and could not reach the top. Of the other tower we were told that the inhabitants sometimes climbed it, but we did not immediately discern the entrance, and as the night was gathering upon us, though proper to desist. Men skilled in architectur might do what we did not attempt; they migh probably form an exact ground-plot of this vene rable edifice. They may, from some parts ye standing, conjecture its general form, and perhaps by comparing it with other buildings of the same kind and the same age, attain an idea very near to truth. I should scarcely have regretted my The Lowlands of Scotland had once undoubt-journey, had it afforded nothing more than the edly an equal portion of woods with other coun-sight of Aberbrothick. tries. Forests are every where gradually diminished, as architecture and cultivation prevail, by the increase of people, and the introduction of arts. But I believe few regions have been denuded like this, where many centuries must have passed in waste, without the least thought of future supply. Davies observes in his account of Ireland, that no Irishman had ever planted an orchard. For that negligence some excuse might be drawn from an unsettled state of life, and the instability of property; but in Scotland possession has long been secure, and inheritance regular, yet it may be doubted whether before the Union any man between Edinburgh and England had ever set a tree.

Of this improvidence no other account can be given than that it probably began in times of tumult, and continued because it had begun. Established custom is not easily broken, till some great event shakes the whole system of things, and life seems to recommence upon new principles. That before the Union the Scots had little trade and little money, is no valid apology; for plantation is the least expensive of all methods of improvement. To drop a seed into the ground can cost nothing, and the trouble is not great of protecting the young plant, till it is out of danger; though it must be allowed to have some difficulty in places like these, where they have neither wood for palisades, nor thorns for hedges.

Our way was over the Firth of Tay, where, though the water was not wide, we paid four shillings for ferrying the chaise. In Scotland the necessaries of life are easily procured, but superfluities and elegances are of the same price at least as in England, and therefore may be considered as much dearer.

MONTROSE.

Leaving these fragments of magnificence, we travelled on to Montrose, which we surveyed in the morning, and found it well built, airy, and clean. The townhouse is a handsome fabric with a portico. We then went to view the English chapel, and found a small church, clean to a degree unknown in any other part of Scotland, with commodious galleries, and, what was yet less expected, with an organ.

At our inn we did not find a reception such as we thought proportionate to the commercial opu lence of the place; but Mr. Boswell desired me to observe that the inkeeper was an Englishman, and I then defended him as well as I could.

When I had proceeded thus far, I had oppor tunities of observing what I had never heard, that there were many beggars in Scotland. In Edinburgh the proportion is, I think, not less than in London, and in the smaller places it is far greater than in English towns of the same extent. It must, however, be allowed, that they are not importunate, nor clamorous. They solicit silently, or very modestly, and, therefore, though their behaviour may strike with more force the heart of a stranger, they are certainly in danger of missing the attention of their countrymen. Novelty has always some power; an unaccus tomed mode of begging, excites an unaccustomed degree of pity. But the force of novelty is by its own nature soon at an end; the efficacy of outery and perseverance is permanent and certain.

The road from Montrose exhibited a continuation of the same appearances. The country is still naked, the hedges are of stone, and the fields so generally ploughed, that it is hard to imaWe stopped a while at Dundee, where I re-gine where grass is found for the horses that tili member nothing remarkable, and mounting our them. The harvest, which was almost ripe, apchaise again, came about the close of the day to peared very plentiful. Aberbrothick.

Early in the afternoon Mr. Boswell observed, The monastery of Aberbrothick is of great that we were at no great distance from the house renown in the history of Scotland. Its ruins of Lord Monboddo. The magnetism of his conafford ample testimony of its ancient magnifi-versation easily drew us out of our way, and the cence: its extent might, I suppose, easily be entertainment which we received would have

been a sufficient recompense for a much greater | grees separately, with total independence of one deviation. on the other.

The roads beyond Edinburgh, as they are less frequented, must be expected to grow gradually rougher; but they were hitherto by no means incommodious. We travelled on with the gentle pace of a Scotch driver, who, having no rivals in expedition, neither gives himself nor his horses unnecessary trouble. We did not affect the impatience we did not feel, but were satisfied with the company of each other, as well riding in the chaise, as sitting at an inn. The night and the day are equally solitary and equally safe; for where there are so few travellers, why should there be robbers?

ABERDEEN.

In Old Aberdeen stands the King's College, of which the first president was Hector Boece, or Boethius, who may be justly reverenced as one of the revivers of elegant learning. When he studied at Paris, he was acquainted with Erasmus, who afterwards gave him a public testimony of his esteem, by inscribing to him a catalogue of his works. The style of Boethius, though, perhaps, not always rigorously pure, is formed with great diligence upon ancient models, and wholly uninfected with monastic barbarity. His history is written with elegance and vigour, but his fabulousness and credulity are justly blamed. His fabulousness, if he was the author of the fictions, is a fault for which no apology can be made; but his credulity may be excused in an age when all men were credulous. Learning was then rising on the world; but ages so long accustomed to darkness, were too much dazzled with its light to see any thing distinctly. The first race of scholars in the fifteenth century, I received the next day a very kind letter from and some time after, were, for the most part, Sirxander Gordon, whom I had formerly learning to speak, rather than to think, and were known in London, and after a cessation of all therefore more studious of elegance than of truth. intercourse for near twenty years, met here pro- The contemporaries of Boethius thought it suffifessor or physic in the King's College. Such un-cient to know what the ancients had delivered. expected renewals of acquaintance may be num- The examination of tenets and of facts was rebered among the most pleasing incidents of life. served for another generation. The knowledge of one professor soon procured Boethius, as president of the university, en me the notice of the rest, and I did not want any joyed a revenue of forty Scottish marks, about token of regard, being conducted wherever there two pounds, four shillings, and sixpence, of sterwas any thing which I desired to see, and enter-ling money. In the present age of trade and tained at once with the novelty of the place, and the kindness of communication.

We came somewhat late to Aberdeen, and found the inn so full, that we had some difficulty in obtaining admission, till Mr. Boswell made himself known: his name overpowered all objection, and we found a very good house, and civil treatment.

To write of the cities of our own island with the solemnity of geographical description, as if we had been cast upon a newly-discovered coast, has the appearance of a very frivolous ostentation; yet as Scotland is little known to the greater part of those who may read these observations, it is not superfluous to relate, that under the name of Aberdeen are comprised two towns, standing about a mile distant from each other, but governed, I think, by the same magis

trates.

Old Aberdeen is the ancient episcopal city, in which are still to be seen the remains of the cathedral. It has the appearance of a town in decay, having been situated, in times when commerce was yet unstudied, with very little attention to the commodiousness of the harbour.

New Aberdeen has all the bustle of prosperous trade, and all the show of increasing opulence. It is built by the water-side. The houses are large and lofty, and the streets spacious and clean. They build almost wholly with the granite used in the new pavement of the streets of London, which is well known not to want hardness, yet they shape it easily. It is beautiful, and must be very lasting.

taxes, it is difficult even for the imagination so to raise the value of money, or so to diminish the demands of life, as to suppose four and forty shillings a year an honourable stipend; yet it was probably equal, not only to the needs, but to the rank of Boethius. The wealth of England was undoubtedly to that of Scotland more than five to one, and it is known that Henry the Eighth, among whose faults avarice was never reckoned, granted to Roger Ascham, as a reward of his learning, a pension of ten pounds a year.

The other, called the Marischal College, is in the new town. The hall is large and well lighted. One of its ornaments is the picture of Arthur Johnston, who was principal of the college, and who holds among the Latin poets of Scotland, the next place to the elegant Buchanan.

In the library I was shown some curiosities; a Hebrew manuscript of exquisite penmanship, and a Latin translation of Aristotle's Politics, by Leonardus Aretinus, written in the Roman character, with nicety and beauty, which, as the art of printing has made them no longer necessary, are not now to be found. This was one of the latest performances of the transcribers, for Aretinus died but about twenty years before typogra phy was invented. This version has been printed, and may be found in libraries, but is little read; What particular parts of commerce are chiefly for the same books have been since translated exercised by the merchants of Aberdeen, I have both by Victorious and Lambinus, who lived in not inquired. The manufacture which forces an age more cultivated, but perhaps owed in part itself upon a stranger's eye, is that of knit stock-to Aretinus that they were able to excel him. ings, on which the women of the lower class are visibly employed.

In each of these towns there is a college, or in stricter language, a university; for in both there are professors of the same parts of learning, and the colleges hold their sessions, and confer de

Much is due to those who first broke the way to knowledge, and left only to their successors the task of smoothing it.

In both these colleges the methods of instruction are nearly the same; the lectures differing only by the accidental difference of diligence, or

622

A JOURNEY TO THE

ability in the professors. The students wear scarlet gowns, and the professors black, which is, I believe, the academical dress in all the Scottish universities, except that of Edinburgh, where the scholars are not distinguished by any particular habit. In the King's College there is kept a public table, but the scholars of the Marischal College are boarded in the town. The expense of living is here, according to the information that I could obtain, somewhat more than at St. Andrews.

of Errol was informed of our arrival, and wa had the honour of an invitation to his seat, called By a lady who saw us at the chapel, the Ead Slanes Castle, as I am told, improperly, from the castle of that name, which once stood at a place not far distant.

and continued equally naked of all vegetable decoration. We travelled over a tract of ground The road beyond Aberdeen grew more stony, near the sea, which not long ago suffered a very of the shore was raised by a tempest in such quantities, and carried to such a distance, that uncommon and unexpected calamity. The sand an estate was overwhelmed and lost. Such and so hopeless was the barrenness superinduced, that the owner, when he was required to pay the the usual tax, desired rather to resign the ground. SLANES CASTLE. THE BULLER OF BUCHAN,

The course of education is extended to four years, at the end of which those who take a degree, who are not many, become masters of arts; and whoever is a master may, if he pleases, immediately commence doctor. The title of doctor, however, was for a considerable time bestowed only on physicians. The advocates are examined and approved by their own body; the ministers were not ambitious of titles, or were afraid of being censured for ambition; and the built upon the margin of the sea, so that the doctorate in every faculty was commonly given walls of one of the towers seem only a continuWe came in the afternoon to Slanes Castle, or sold into other countries. now reconciled to distinction, and as it must is beaten by the waves. The ministers are ation of a perpendicular rock, the foot of which always happen that some will excel others, have house seemed impracticable. From the winthought graduation a proper testimony of uncom-dows the eye wanders over the sea that sepamon abilities or acquisitions. To walk round the rates Scotland from Norway, and when the winds

The indiscriminate collation of degrees has beat with violence, must enjoy all the terrific justly taken away that respect which they ori-grandeur of the tempestuous ocean. I would ginally claimed, as stamps by which the literary not for my amusement wish for a storm ; but as value of men so distinguished was authoritative-storms, whether wished or not, will sometimes ly denoted. That academical honours, or any happen, I may say, without violence of humanity, others, should be conferred with exact propor- that I should willingly look out upon them from tion to merit, is more than human judgment or Slanes Castle. human integrity have given reason to expect. Perhaps degrees in universities cannot be better departure was prohibited by the countess, till we adjusted by any general rule, than by the length should have seen two places upon the coast, When we were about to take our leave, our of time passed in the public profession of learn- which she rightly considered as worthy of curi mg. An English or Irish doctorate cannot be osity, Don Buy, and the Buller of Buchan, to obtained by a very young man, and it is reason-which Mr. Boyd very kindly conducted us. able to suppose, what is likewise by experience commonly found true, that he who is by age qualified to be a doctor, has in so much time gained learning sufficient not to disgrace the title, or wit sufficient not to desire it.

The Scotch universities hold but one term or session in the year. That of St. Andrew's continues eight months, that of Aberdeen only five, from the first of November to the first of April.

Yellow Rock, is a double protuberance of stone, open to the main sea on one side, and parted Don Buy, which in Erse is said to signify the from the land by a very narrow channel on the dung of innumerable sea-fowls, which in the spring choose this place as convenient for incuother. It has its name and its colour from the bation, and have their eggs and their young taken in great abundance. One of the birds body not larger than a duck's, and yet lays eggs as large as those of a goose. This bird is by the that frequent this rock has, as we were told, its inhabitants named a Cool. That which is called Coot in England, is here a Cooter.

In Aberdeen there is an English chapel, in which the congregation was numerous and splendid. The form of public worship used by the church of England, is in Scotland legally practised in licensed chapels served by clergymen of English or Irish ordination, and by tacit could long detain attention, and we soon turned connivance quietly permitted in separate congre- our eyes to the Buller, or Bouilloir of Buchan, Upon these rocks there was nothing that gations, supplied with ministers by the succes-which no man can see with indifference, who sors of the bishops, who were deprived at the Revolution.

We came to Aberdeen on Saturday, August 21st. On Monday we were invited into the town-hall, where I had the freedom of the city given me by the Lord Provost. The honour conferred had all the decorations that politeness could add, and, what I am afraid I should not have had to say of any city south of the Tweed, I found no petty officer bowing for a fee.

has either sense of danger, or delight in rarity.
on one side with a high shore, and on the other
rising steep to a great height above the main
It is a rock perpendicularly tubulated, united
sea.
a dark gulf of water which flows into the cavity,
through a breach made in the lower part of the
The top is open, from which may be seen
enclosing rock. It has the appearance of a vast
well, bordered with a wall. The edge of the
ad-appears very narrow. He that ventures to look
downward, sees that if his foot should slip, he
Buller is not wide, and to those that walk round,
must fall from his dreadful elevation upon stones
on one side, or into the water on the other. We

The parchment containing the record of mission is, with the seal appending, fastened to a riband, and worn for one day by the new citicu in his hat.

WESTERN ISLANDS, &c.

however went round, and were glad when the circuit was completed.

are all of wood. They are more frugal of their
totally forgotten. The frames of their windows
glass than the English, and will often, in houses
not otherwise mean, compose a square of two
pieces, not joining like cracked glass, but with
one edge laid perhaps half an inch over the
other. Their windows do not move upon hinges,
but are pushed up and drawn down in groves,
yet they are seldom accommodated with weights
and pulleys. He that would have his window
open, must hold it with his hand, unless what
may be sometimes found among good contrivers,
there be a nail which he may stick into a hole,
to keep it from falling.

What cannot be done without some uncom
mon trouble or particular expedient, will not
often be done at all. The incommodiousness of
the Scotch windows keeps them very closely
shut. The necessity of ventilating human ha
bitations has not yet been found by our northern
neighbours; and even in houses well built, and
elegantly furnished, a stranger may be sometimes
forgiven, if he allows himself to wish for fresher
air.

When we came down to the sea, we saw some boats, and rowers, and resolved to explore the Buller, at the bottom. We entered the arch, which the water had made, and found ourselves in a place, which, though we could not think ourselves in danger, we could scarcely survey without some recoil of the mind. The basin in which we floated was nearly circular, perhaps thirty yards in diameter. We were enclosed by a natural wall, rising steep on every side to a height which produced the idea of insurmountable confinement. The interception of all lateral light caused a dismal gloom. Round us was a perpendicular rock, above us the distant sky, and below an unknown profundity of water. If I had any malice against a walking spirit, instead of laying him in the Red Sea, I would condemn him to reside in the Buller of Buchan. But terror without danger is only one of the sports of fancy, a voluntary agitation of the mind that is permitted no longer than it pleases. These diminutive observations seem to take We were soon at leisure to examine the place with minute inspection, and found many cavities which, as the watermen told us, went back-away something from the dignity of writing, ward to a depth which they had never explored. and therefore are never communicated but with Their extent we had not time to try; they are hesitation, and a little fear of abasement and said to serve different purposes. Ladies come contempt. But it must be remembered, that hither sometimes in summer with collations, life consists not of a series of illustrious actions, and smugglers make them storehouses for clan- or elegant enjoyments; the greater part of our destine merchandise. It is hardly to be doubted time passes in compliance with necessities, in but the pirates of ancient times often used them the performance of daily duties, in the removal as magazines of arms, or repositories of plunder. of small inconveniences, in the procurement of To the little vessels used by the northern petty pleasures; and we are well or ill at ease, rowers, the Buller may have served as a shelter as the main stream of life glides on smoothly, from storms, and perhaps as a retreat from ene- or is ruffled by small obstacles and frequent inmies; the entrance might have been stopped, terruption. The true state of every nation is or guarded with little difficulty, and though the the state of common life. The manners of a vessels that were stationed within would have people are not to be found in the schools of been battered with stones showered on them learning, or the palaces of greatness, where the travel or instruction, by philosophy or vanity: from above, yet the crews would have lain safe national character is obscured or obliterated by m the caverns. Next morning we continued our journey,pleased nor is public happiness to be estimated by the with our reception at Slanes Castle, of which we assemblies of the gay, or the banquets of the had now leisure to recount the grandeur and the rich. The great mass of nations is neither rich elegance; for our way afforded us few topics of nor gay; they whose aggregate constitutes the conversation. The ground was neither unculti- people, are found in the streets and the villages, vated nor unfruitful; but it was still all arable. in the shops and farms; and from them, colOf flocks or herds there was no appearance. I lectively considered, must the measure of genehad now travelled two hundred miles in Scot-ral prosperity be taken. As they appproach to land, and seen only one tree not younger than myself.

BAMFF.

ences are multiplied, a nation, at least a comdelicacy, a nation is refined; as their convenimercial nation, must be denominated wealthy.

ELGIN.

We dined this day at the house of Mr. Frazer, Finding nothing to detain us at Bamff, we set of Streichton, who showed us in his grounds some stones yet standing of a Druidical circle, and what I began to think more worthy of no-out in the morning, and having breakfasted at tice, some forest-trees of full growth. At night we came to Bamff, where I remember nothing that particularly claimed my attention. The ancient towns of Scotland have generally an appearance unusual to Englishmen. The houses, whether great or small, are for the most part built of stones. Their ends are now and then next the streets, and the entrance into them is very often by a flight of steps, which reaches up to the second story; the floor which] is level with the ground being entered only by stairs descending within the house.

The art of joining squares of glass with lead as little used in Scotland, and in some places is

Cullen, about noon came to Elgin, where, in the inn that we supposed the best, a dinner was set before us which we could not eat. This was the first time, and, except one, the last, that I found any reason to complain of a Scottish table; and such disappointments, I suppose, must be expected in every country, where there is no great frequency of travellers.

The ruin of the cathedral of Elgin afforded us another proof of the waste of reformation. There magnificent. Its whole plot is easily traced. On is enough yet remaining to show that it was once the north side of the choir, the chapter-house, which is roofed with an arch of stone, remains

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