It is faid to be capable of containing fifty ftudents; but more than one must occupy a chamber. The library, which is of late erection, is not very spaci ous, but elegant and luminous.

The doctor, by whom it was fhewn, hoped to irritate or fubdue my English vanity, by telling me, that we had no fuc h repofitory of books in England..

Saint Andrews feems to be a place eminently adapted to study and education, being fituated in a populous, yet a cheap country, and expofing the minds and manners of young men neither to the levity and diffolutenefs of a capital city, nor to the grofs luxury of a town of commerce, places natu rally unpropitious to learning; in one, the defire of knowledge eafily gives way to the love of pleature, and in the other, is in danger of yielding to the love of money..

The ftudents however are reprefented as at this time not exceeding a hundred. Perhaps it may be fome obftruction to their increase that there is no epifcopal chapel in the place. I faw no reafon for imputing their paucity to the prefent profeffors; nor can the expence of an academical education be very reasonably objected. A student of the highest clafs may keep his annual feffion, or, as the English call it, his term, which lafts feven months, for about fifteen pounds, and one of lower rank for lefs than ten; in which, board, lodging, and inftruction, are all included.

The chief magiftrate refident in the univerfity,

answering

answering to our vice-chancellor, and to the rector magnificus on the continent, had commonly the title of Lord Rector; but being addreffed only as Mr Rector in an inauguratory fpeech by the prefent 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 faid, the Lord General, and Lord Ambaffador; fo we still fay, 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 ftood the houfe of the fub-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 had poffeffed the fame gloomy manfion for no less than four generations. The right, however it began, was confidered as established by legal prefcription, and the old woman lives undisturbed. She thinks, however, that fhe has a claim to fomething more than fufferance; for, as her husband's name was Bruce, fhe is allied to royalty, and told Mr Bofwell, that when there were perfons of quality in the place, fhe was diftinguished by fome notice; that indeed fhe is now neglected, but the fpins a thread, has the. company of her cat, and is troublefome to nobody. Having now feen whatever this ancient city offered to our curiofity, we left it with good wishes,

having reason to be highly pleafed with the attention that was paid us. But whoever furveys the world must fee many things that give him pain. The kindness 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 feems 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 univerfity been deftroyed two centuries ago, we fhould not have regretted it; but to fee it pining in decay, and ftruggling for life, fills the mind. with mournful images and ineffectual wifnes.

ABERBROTHICK.

As we knew forrow and wifhes 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 himself either encountered or overtaken, and who has nothing to contemplate but grounds that have no visible boundaries, or are se

parated

parated by walls of loofe ftone. From the bank of the Tweed to St Andrews I had never seen a fingle tree, which I did not believe to have grown up far within the prefent century. Now and then about a gentleman's houfe ftands a fmall plantation, which in Scotch is called a policy, but of thefe there are few, and thofe few all very young. The variety of fun and fhade is here utterly unknown. There is no tree for either fhelter or timber. The oak and the thorn is equally a ftranger, and the whole country is extended in uniform nakedness, 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 fill 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 country.

The Lowlands of Scotland had once undoubtedly an equal portion of woods with other countries. Forefts 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 wafte without the leaft thought of future fupply. Da

vies 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 state of life, and the inftability 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 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. Eftablished cuftom is not easily broken, till fome great event fhakes the whole system 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 these, where they have neither wood for palifades, nor thorns for hedges.

Our way was over the Frith of Tay, where, tho' 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 same price at least as in England, and therefore may be confidered as much dearer. We stopped a while at Dundee, where I remem

ber