muft fee many things that give him pain. The kindnefs of the profeffors did not contribute to abate the uneafy remembrance of an univerfity declining, a college alienated, and a church profaned and haftening to the ground.

St. Andrews indeed has formerly fuffered more atrocious ravages and more extenfive deftruction, but recent evils affect with greater force. We were reconciled to the fight of archiepifcopal ruins. The distance of a calamity from the prefent time seems to preclude the mind from contact or fympathy. Events long paft are barely known; they are not confidered. 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 fee it pining in decay, and struggling for life, fills the mind with mournful images and ineffectual wishes.

ABERBROTHICK.

As we knew forrow and wishes to be vain, it was now our business to mind our way. The roads of Scotland afford little diverfion to the traveller, who feldom fees himfelf either encountered or overtaken, and who has nothing to contemplate but grounds that have no visible boundaries, or are feparated by walls of loofe ftone. From the bank of the Tweed to St. Andrews I had never feen a fingle tree, which I did not believe to have grown up far within the prefent century. Now and then about a gentleman's house ftands a small plantation, which in Scotch is called a policy,

policy, but of these there are few, and those few all very young. The variety of fun and fhade 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 nakednefs, except that in the road between Kirkaldy and Cowpar, I paffed for a few yards between two hedges. A tree might be a fhow in Scotland, as a horfe in Venice. At St. Andrews Mr. Bofwell found only one, and recommended it to my notice; I told him that it was rough and low, or looked as if I thought fo. This, faid he, is nothing to another a few miles off. I was ftill lefs delighted to hear that another tree was not to be feen nearer. Nay, faid a gentleman that ftood by, I know but of this and that tree in the county.

The Lowlands of Scotland had once undoubtedly an equal portion of woods with other countries. 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 paffed in waste without the least thought of future fupply. Davies observes in his account of Ireland, that no Irishman had ever planted an orchard. For that negligence fome excufe might be drawn from an unfettled ftate of life, and the instability of property; but in Scotland poffeffion has long been fecure, and inheritance regular, yet it may be doubted whether before the Union any man between Edinburgh and England had ever fet a tree.

Of

Of this improvidence no other account can be given than that it probably began in times of tumult, and continued because it had begun. Eftablished custom is not easily broken, till fome great event shakes the whole fyftem of things, and life feems 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 leaft expenfive of all methods of improvement. To drop a feed into the ground can coft 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 fome difficulty in places like thefe, where they have neither wood for palifades, nor thorns for hedges.

Our way was over the Firth of Tay, where, though the water was not wide, we paid four fhillings for ferrying the chaife. In Scotland the neceffaries of life are easily procured, but fuperfluities and elegancies are of the fame price at least as in England, and therefore be confidered as much dearer.

may

We stopped a while at Dundee, where I remember nothing remarkable, and mounting our chaise again, came about the clofe of the day to Aberbrothick.

The monastery of Aberbrothick is of great renown in the history of Scotland. Its ruins afford ample teftimony of its ancient magnificence: its extent might, I fuppofe, cafily be found by following the walls among the grafs and weeds, and its height is known by fome parts yet ftanding. The arch of

one

one of the gates is entire, and of another only so far dilapidated as to diverfify the appearance. A fquare apartment of great loftiness is yet ftanding; its ufe I could not conjecture, as its elevation was very difproportionate to its area. Two corner towers particularly attracted our attention. Mr. Bofwell, whofe inquifitivenefs is feconded by great activity, fcrambled in at a high window, but found the ftairs within broken, and could not reach the top. Of the other tower we were told that the inhabitants fometimes climbed it, but we did not immediately difcern the entrance, and as the night was gathering upon us, thought proper to defift. Men fkilled in architecture might do what we did not attempt: they might probably form an exact ground-plot of this venerable edifice. They may from fome parts yet ftanding conjecture its general form, and perhaps by comparing it with other buildings of the fame kind and the fame age, attain an idea very near to truth. I fhould fcarcely have regretted my journey, had it afforded nothing more than the fight of Aberbrothick.

MONTROSE.

Leaving thefe fragments of magnificence, we tra velled on to Montrofe, which we furveyed in the morning, and found it well built, airy, and clean. The town-houfe is a handfome fabrick with a portico. We then went to view the English chapel, and found a finall church, clean to a degree unknown in any other part of Scotland, with commodious galleries, and what was yet lefs expected, with

an organ.

At

At our inn we did not find a reception fuch as we thought proportionate to the commercial opulence of the place; but Mr. Bofwell defired me to observe that the innkeeper was an Englishman, and I then defended him as well as I could.

When I had proceeded thus far, I had opportu nities of obferving 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 fmaller places it is far greater than in English towns of the fame extent. It muft, however, be allowed, that they are not importunate, nor clamorous. They folicit filently, or very modeftly, and therefore, though their behaviour may ftrike with more force the heart of a stranger, they are certainly in danger of miffing the attention of their countrymen. Novelty has always fome power; an unaccustomed mode of begging excites an unaccustomed degree of pity. But the force of novelty is by its own nature foon at an end; the efficacy of outcry and perfeverance is permanent and certain.

The road from Montrofe exhibited a continuation of the fame appearances. The country is ftill naked, the hedges are of stone, and the fields fo generally plowed, that it is hard to imagine where grafs is found for the horfes that till them. The harveft, which was almoft ripe, appeared very plentiful.

Early in the afternoon Mr. Bofwell obferved that we were at no great distance from the house of lord Monboddo. The magnetifm of his converfation eafily drew us out of our way, and the entertainment which we received would have been a fufficient recompence for a much greater deviation.

The