versities, except that of Edinburgh, where the fcholars are not diftinguished by any particular habit. In the King's College there is kept a public table, but the fcholars of the Marifchal College are boarded in the town. The expence of living is here, according to the information that I could obtain, somewhat more than at St. Andrews.

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 become a doctor. The title of doctor, however, was for a confiderable time bestowed only on physicians. The advocates are examined and approved by their own body; the minifters were not ambitious of titles, or were afraid of being cenfured for ambition; and the doctorate in every faculty was commonly given or fold into other countries. The minifters are now reconciled to distinction, and as it must always happen that fome will excel others, have thought graduation a proper teftimony of uncommon abilities or acquifitions.

The indifcriminate collation of degrees has justly taken away that respect which they origi-. nally claimed as ftamps, by which the literary value of men so distinguished was authoritatively

denoted.

denoted. That academical honours, or any others fhould be conferred with exact proportion to merit, is more than human judgement or human integrity have given reason to expect. Perhaps degrees in universities cannot be better adjusted by any general rule than by the length of time passed in the public profeffion of learning. An English or Irish doctorate cannot be obtained by a very young man, and it is reasonable to suppose, what is likewife by experience commonly found true, that he who is by age qualified to be a doctor, has in fo much time gained learning fufficient not to defire it.

The Scotch univerfities hold but one term or feffion in the year. That of St. Andrews continues eight months, that of Aberdeen only five, from the first of November to the first of April.

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 ferved by clergymen of English or Irish ordination, and by tacit connivance quietly permitted in separate congregations fupplied with ministers by the fucceffors of the bifhops who were deprived at the Revolution.

We came to Aberdeen on Saturday August 21. On Monday we were invited into the town-hall, where

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where I had the freedom of the city given me by the Lord Provost. The honour conferred had all the decorations that politenefs could add, and what I am afraid I should not have had to fay of any city fouth of the Tweed, I found no petty officer bowing for a fee.

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

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

The road beyond Aberdeen grew more ftony, and continued equally naked of all vegetable decoration. We travelled over a tract of ground near the sea, which, not long ago, suffered a very uncommon, and unexpected calamity. The fand of the shore was raised by a tempeft in fuch quantities, and carried to such a distance, that an estate was overwhelmed and loft. Such and fo hopeless was the barrenness fuperinduced, that the owner, when he was required to pay the usual tax, defired rather to refign the ground.

SLANES CASTLE. THE BULLER OF BUCHAN.

We came in the afternoon to Slanes Castle, built upon the margin of the fea, fo that the walls of one of the towers feem only a continuation of a perpendicular rock, the foot of which is beaten by the waves. To walk round the house feemed impracticable. From the windows the eye wanders over the fea that separates Scotland from Norway, and when the winds beat with violence must enjoy all the terrific grandeur of the tempeftuous ocean. I would not for my amusement wish for a storm; but as storms, whether wifhed or not, will sometimes happen, I may fay, without violation of humanity, that I should willingly look out upon them from Slanes Castle.

When we were about to take our leave, our departure was prohibited by the countess till we should have seen two places upon the coast, which fhe rightly confidered as worthy of curiofity, Dun Buy, and the Buller of Buchan, to which Mr. Boyd very kindly conducted us.

Dun Buy, which in Erfe is faid to fignify the Yellow Rock, is a double protuberance of ftone, open to the main fea on one fide, and parted from the land by a very narrow channel on the other. It has its name and its colour from the dung of innu

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innumerable fea-fowls, which in the Spring chufe this place as convenient for incubation, and have their eggs and their young taken in great abundance. One of the birds that frequent this rock has, as we were told, its body not larger than a duck's, and yet lays eggs as large as those of a goofe. This bird is by the inhabitants named a Coot. That which is called Coot in England, is here a Cooter.

Upon these rocks there was nothing that could long detain attention, and we foon turned our eyes to the Buller, or Bouilloir of Buchan, which no man can fee with indifference, who has either fense of danger or delight in rarity. It is a rock perpendicularly tubulated, united on one fide with a high shore, and on the other rifing steep to a great height, above the main sea. The top is open, from which may be feen a dark gulf of water which flows into the cavity, through a breach made in the lower part of the inclosing rock. It has the appearance of a vast well bordered with a wall. The edge of the Buller is not wide, and to those that walk round, appears very narrow. He that ventures to look downward fees that if his foot fhould flip, he must fall from his dreadful elevation upon ftones on one fide, or into the water on the other. We however went round, and were glad when the circuit was completed.

When