layer of earth, not wholly bare of grafs, and very fertile of thiftles. A fmall herd of cows grazes annually upon it in the fummer. It feems never to have afforded to man or beast a permanent habitation.

We found only the ruins of a small fort, not fo injured by time but that it might be easily reftored to its former ftate. It feems never to have been intended as a place of ftrength, nor was built to endure a fiege, but merely to afford cover to a few foldiers, who perhaps had the charge of a battery, or were ftationed to give fignals of approaching danger. There is therefore no provifion of water within the walls, though the fpring is fo near, that it might have been easily enclofed.

ftones had this infcription:

One of the

"Maria Reg.

"1564." It has probably been neglected from the time that the whole island had

the fame king.

We

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We left this little inland with our thoughts employed awhile on the different appearance that it would have made, if it had been placed at the fame distance from London, with the fame facility of approach; with what emulation of price a few rocky acres would have been purchafed, and with what expenfive industry they would have been cultivated and adorned.

When we landed, we found our chaise ready, and paffed through Kinghorn, Kirkaldy, and Cowpar, placés not unlike the fmall or ftraggling market-towns in thofe parts of England where commerce and manufactures have not yet produced opulence.

Though we were yet in the most popu lous part of Scotland, and at fo fmall a distance from the capital, we met few paffengers.

The

'

The roads are neither rough nor dirty; and it affords a fouthern ftranger a new kind of pleasure to travel fo commodiously without the interruption of toll-gates. Where the bottom is rocky, as it feems commonly to be in Scotland, a fmooth way is made indeed with great labour, but it never wants repairs; and in those parts where adventitious materials are neceffary, the ground once confolidated is rarely broken; for the inland commerce is not great, nor are heavy commodities often tranfported otherwife than by water. The carriages in common ufe are fmall carts, drawn each by one little horfe; and a man feems to derive fome degree of dignity and importance from the reputation of poffefling a two-horse cart.

ST. ANDREW S.

At an hour fomewhat late we came to St. Andrews, a city once archiepifcopal;

where that university still fubfifts in which philofophy was formerly taught by Buchanan, whose name has as fair a claim to immortality as can be conferred by modern, latinity, and perhaps a fairer than the inftability of vernacular languages admits.

We found, that by the interpofition of fome invisible friend, lodgings had been provided for us at the houfe of one of the profeffors, whofe eafy civility quickly made us forget that we were ftrangers; and in the whole time of our stay we were gratified by every mode of kindness, and entertained with all the elegance of lettered hofpitality.

In the morning we rofe to perambulate a city, which only hiftory fhews to have once flourished, and furveyed the ruins of ancient magnificence, of which even the ruins cannot long be vifible, unless fome care be taken to preferve them; and where

is

is the pleasure of preferving fuch mournfulmemorials? They have been till very lately fo much neglected, that every man carried away the stones who fancied that he wanted them.

The cathedral, of which the foundations may be still traced, and a fmall part of the wall is ftanding, appears to have been a fpacious and majestick building, not un fuitable to the primacy of the kingdom, Of the architecture, the poor remains can hardly exhibit, even. to an artist, a fufficient fpecimen. It was demolished, as is well known, in the tumult and violence of Knox's reformation.

Not far from the cathedral, on the mar gin of the water, ftands a fragment of the castle, in which the archbishop anciently refided. It was never very large, and was built with more attention to fecurity than pleasure. Cardinal Beatoun is faid to have had

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