gree above them; and because they cannot bishop, they proclaim they never heard of any. The scriptures, say they, speak of deacons and elders, but not a word of bishops. Their discourses are full of detraction; their sermons nothing but railing; and their conclusions nothing but heresies and treasons. For the religion they have, I confess they have it above reach, and, God willing, I will never reach for it. They christen without the cross, marry without the ring, receive the sacrament without repentance, and bury without divine service; they keep no holy days, nor acknowledge any saint but S. Andrew, who, they say, got that honour by presenting Christ with an oaten cake after his forty days fast. They say likewise, that be that translated the Bible was the son of a maulster, because it speaks of a miracle done by barley loaves, whereas they swear they were oaten cakes, and that no other bread of that quantity could have sufficed so many thousands.

They use no prayer at all, for they say it is needless; God knows their minds without prattling, and what he doth, he loves to do it freely. Their sabbaths exercise is a preaching in the forenoon, and a persecuting in the afternoon; they to church in the forenoon to Fear the law, and to the crags and mountains in the afternoon to louse themselves.

They hold their noses if you talk of bear-beating, and stop their ears if you speak of a play. Fornication they hold but a pastime, wherein mans ability is approved, and a woTans fertility discovered. At adultery they shake their heads; theft they rail at; murder they wink at; and blasphemy they laugh at: they think it impossible to lose the way

For the lords temporal and spiritual, temporizing gentlemen, if I were to speak of any, I could not speak much of them; only I musț let you know, they are not Scottishmen, for as soon as they fall from the breast of the beast their mother, their careful sire posts them away to France, where, as they pass, the sea sucks from them that which they have suckt from their rude dams; there they gather new flesh, now blood, new manner, and there they learn to put on their cloaths, and then return into their countrys to wear them out; there they learn to stand, to speak, and to discourse, and congee, to court women, and to complement with men.

They spared of no cost to honor the king, nor form or complicated curtesie to welcome their countrymen; their followers are their fellows; their wives their slaves; their horses their masters, and their swords their judges; by reason whereof, they have but few laborers, and those not very rich. Their parliaments hold but three days, their statutes three lines, and their suits are determined, in a manner, in three words, or very few more, &c.

The wonders of their kingdom are these, the Lord Chancellor he is believed; the Master of the Rolls well spoken of; and the whole counsel, who are the judges for all causes, are free from suspicion of cor

ruption.

ers,

ruption. The country, although it be mountainous, affords no monsters, but women, of which the greatest sort (as countesses and ladies) are kept like lions in iron grates; the merchants wives are also prisonbut not in so strong a hold; they have wooden cages like our boar franks, through which sometimes peeping to catch the air, we are almost choaked with the sight of them. The greatest madness amongst the men is jealousie; in that they fear what no man that hath but two sences will take from them.

The ladies are of opinion, that Susanna could not be chast, because she bathed so often. Pride is a thing bred in their bones; and their flesh naturally abhors cleanliness. Their breath commonly stinks of pottage; their linen of p-; their hands of pigs t; their body of sweat, and their splay-feet never offend in socks. To be chained in marriage with one of them, were to be tied to a dead carkasse, and cast into a stinking ditch. Formosity and a dainty face are things they dream

not of.

The oyntments they most frequently use amongst them are brimstone and butter for the scab, and oyl of bays, and stavessacre. I protest, I had rather be the meanest servant of the two of my pupils chamber-maid, than to be the master-minion to the fayrest countess I have yet discovered. The sin of curiosity of oyntments is but newly crept into the kingdom, and I do not think will long continue.

To draw you down by degrees from the citizens wives to the country gentlewomen, and convey you to common dames in Seacoal lane, that converse with rags and marrow bones, are things of minerall race; every whore in Heundsditch is an Helena; and the

greasie bawds in Turnbal-street are Greekish dames in comparison of these: and therefore to conclude. The men of old did no more wonder, that the great Messias should be born in so poor a town as Bethlem, in Judea, then I do wonder that so brave a prince as King James should be born in so stinking a town as Edenburg, in lousy Scotland.

Proceedings of the Wernerian
Society.

T the meeting of this society

on 22d February, a communication from the Reverend Mr Fleming of Flisk was read, describing the mineralogical appearances which occur on the north bank of the frith of Tay from Dundee up to Kingoodie quarry. The rocks are claystone, claystone porphyry, felspar porphyry, greenstone, sandstone, and amygdaloid. The sandstone occurs in bason-shaped cavities in the porphyry, and contains subordinate beds of greenstone ; but he deferred giving any decided opinion concerning the geognostic relations of these rocks, till he should examine the south shore of the Frith of Tay.

At the same meeting the secretary read a communication from Mr Macgregor, surgeon 25th regiment, giving an account of the mineralogy of the country around the town of Lanark, particularly at the celebrated falls of Cora Lin and Stonebyres. Near the former, porphyry slate and felspar porphyry occur. At the latter, the waters are poured over beds of fine grained sandstone, which, in descending, gradually becomes coarser in texture, till it passes into a conglomerate, consisting of masses of quartz, jasper, splintery hornstone, flinty-slate, and clay-slate. Near Nethan Bridge, the traces of a coal deposition, and a portion of a coal field, make their appearance;

appearance; many alternating beds of sandstone, bituminous shale, and clay ironstone occurring, along with thin beds of slate-coal and cannelcoal. Mr Macgregor stated it to be his opinion, that the sandstone exposed on the banks of the Clyde, and of the Mouse river near Lanark, belongs to one and the same formation; and that the Mouse has gradually scooped out its present channel, in the same way as the Clyde is supposed to have done; and that there are here no marks of any violent convulsion of nature, as some have imagined.

An extract of a letter from Lieutenant Huey, of the 73d regiment, was also read, mentioning the circumstance of a large marine animal, supposed to be about 30 feet loug, and shaped like a snake, having been observed from a ship in lat. 38° 13′ S. and long. 5o E.

SCOTTISH REVIEW.

A

of investigation. In point of population, it holds the third rank; and whether we consider it in regard to commerce, learning, or connection with the events of Scottish history, it wil be found to hold a respectable place. We are therefore somewhat surprised that the task of recording its history should have been deferred to the present period. The deficiency, however, has now been very fully supplied. No city, perhaps, in proportion to its magnitude, has received so ample an illustration as it has now done. Mr Thom's researches to have been very appear He has traced the ample, indeed. progress of the city from the earliest ages; he has connected with the account an outline of the history of Scotland in general; and has taken occasion, whenever the subject suggested, to indulge in various speculations relating to questions of political economy. In the very brief analysis to which our limits confine us, it will be impossible to enter into so wide a field; all we can undertake is, to notice a few of the leading facts connected with the immediate object of our attention.

The city of Devana, capital of the Taixali, who inhabited the territory now included in the province of Aberdeen, was situated on the Dee, at a small distance from the sea; but antiquaries are not agreed as to the precise spot. Mr Chalmers contends, that it was in the parish of Peterculter, at some distance from the town of Aberdeen; while Mr Thom endeavours, by a variety of arguments, to prove, that the city of Devana occupied precisely the site of Old Aberdeen.

The name of Aberdeen is derive ed, by our author, from Aber, a marsh, and dun, a castle. This name, originally applied only to the latter, is said to be entirely descriptive of its ancient situation. The

spot

spot on which the town now stands, appears, by various unequivocal indications, to have been formerly covered with moss. The first mention of it in modern history occurs under the reign of Greig or Gre gory, who ascended the Scottish throne by the murder of his predecessor. It is generally asserted, that Aberdeen received from this monarch a charter, which erected it in to a municipal jurisdiction. Mr Thom, however, seems to have satisfactorily proved, that no such occurrence could have taken place in that age. The ignorance of writing was too general, and every question too uniformly decided by the sword, to allow of the supposition that such a document should have been framed till several centuries after. Gregory, however, who, before ascending the throne, was Maormor of the county of Aberdeen, may probably have granted privileges to this in fant town, which raised it to a distinction above the villages in its neighbourhood.

We find no farther mention of Aberdeen til 1154, when David removed thither the see of Mortlach, which had been founded in 1810, by Malcolm III. This monarch granted to Nectan, the first bishop, a charter, by which the whole village of Old Aberdeen, together with the parishes of Clatt, Deviott, and Raine, and various other emoluments derived from the sea, or from neighbouring rivers, were granted for the support of the establishment. The number of prebends was originally thirteen, but four were afterwards added. The whole rent of the bishopric at that time is estimated at L.3519. 3s. 8d. Scots.

The first charter granted to Aberdeen was by William the Lion. It is without date; but a variety of circumstances concur in referring it

to about the year 1178, or the 13th of William's reign. There is no document to ascertain what was the magnitude or importance of Aberdeen at this period. The tithe, however, of ships, called snows, arriving in the port, is mentioned as a considerable source of revenue; and it also appears, that William, who was repeatedly obliged to repair to the north, for the purpose of quelling insurrections among his turbulent subjects, dated many of his charters from Aberdeen. It must, therefore, have been his frequent residence, and must not only have been a place of some importance, but have possessed, with regard to that part of the kingdom, somewhat of a metropolitan character.

In the end of the 13th century, it appears that Aberdeen had become distinguished as a mart for fish. This article was even exported to England in very considerable quantities; and Edward I., when setting out on his expedition against Wales, procured a large supply of it for provisioning his army. The salmon were sold for 3d. each; the stockfish for somewhat less than 1d.; and the half last of herrings for 30s.

At the time of the usurpation of Edward I., Aberdeen, like other strong places of Scotland, was at first surrendered without resistance. Wallace, in the course of his victorious career, attacked the castle, but without success. There is a report of his having burned the town, but this does not appear to rest on any sufficient foundation. Subsequently, however, after the overthrow of Lord Buchan by Robert Bruce, the citizens gallantly exerted themselves to regain their independence. They attacked the castle, took it by storm, and completely defeated the Eng lish, who had collected a body of troops for its relief. We are sorry to observe, that these patriotic atchievements