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ELGIN.

Finding nothing to detain us at Bamff, we fet out in the morning, and having breakfafted at Cullen, about noon came to Elgin, where, in the inn that we supposed the best, a dinner was fet before us, which we could not eat. This was the first time, and except one, the laft, that I found any reafon to complain of a Scottish table; and fuch disappointments, I fuppofe, must be expected in every country, where there is no great frequency of travellers.

The ruins of the cathedral of Elgin afforded us another proof of the wafte of reformation. There is enough yet remaining to fhew, that it was once magnificent. Its whole plot is eafily traced. On the north fide of the choir, the chapter-houfe, which is roofed with an arch of stone, remains entire; and on the fouth fide, another mass of building, which we could not enter, is preferved by the care of the family of Gordon; but the body of the church is a mafs of fragments.

A paper was here put into our hands, which de duced from fufficient authorities the hiftory of this venerable ruin. The church of Elgin had, in the intestine tumults of the barbarous ages, been laid waste by the irruption of a highland chief, whom the bishop had offended; but it was gradually reftored to the state of which the traces may be now difcerned, and was at laft not deftroyed by the tumultuous violence of Knox, but more fhamefully fuffered to dilapidate by deliberate robbery and frigid indifference. There is ftill extant, in the

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books of the council, an order, of which I cannot remember the date, but which was doubtless iffued after the reformation, directing that the lead, which covers the two cathedrals of Elgin and Aberdeen, fhall be taken away, and converted into money for the fupport of the army. A Scotch army was in those times very cheaply kept; yet the lead of two churches must have born fo fmall a proportion to any military expence, that it is hard not to believe the reafon alleged to be merely popular, and the money intended for fome private purfe. The order however was obeyed; the two churches were ftripped, and the lead was fhipped to be fold in Holland. I hope every reader will rejoice that this cargo of facrilege was loft at fea.

Let us not however make too much hafte to defpife our neighbours. Our own cathedrals are mouldering by unregarded dilapidation. It feems to be part of the defpicable philofophy of the time to defpife monuments of facred magnificence, and we are in danger of doing that deliberately, which the Scots did not do but in the unfettled ftate of an imperfect conftitution.

Those who had once uncovered the cathedrals never wished to cover them again; and being thus made ufelefs, they were firft neglected, and perhaps, as the ftone was wanted, afterwards demolished.

Elgin feems a place of little trade, and thinly inhabited. The epifcopal cities of Scotland, I believe, generally fell with their churches, though fome of them have fince recovered by a fituation convenient for commerce. Thus Glasgow, though

it has no longer an archbishop, has rifen beyond its original state by the opulence of its traders; and Aberdeen, though its ancient ftock had decayed, flourishes by a new fhoot in another place.

In the chief street of Elgin, the houfes jut over the lowest story, like the old buildings of timber in London, but with greater prominence; fo that there is fometimes a walk for a confiderable length under a cloister, or portico, which is now indeed frequently broken, because the new houses have another form, but feems to have been uniformly continued in the old city.

FORES. CALDER. FORT GEORGE.

We went forwards the fame day to Fores, the town to which Macbeth was travelling, when he met the weird fifters in his way. This to an Englishman is claffick ground. Our imaginations were heated, and our thoughts recalled to their old amusements.

We had now a prelude to the Highlands. We began to leave fertility and culture behind us, and faw for a great length of road nothing but heath; yet at Fochabars, a feat belonging to the duke of Gordon, there is an orchard, which in Scotland I had never feen before, with fome timber trees, and a plantation of oaks.

At Fores we found good accommodation, but nothing worthy of particular remark, and next morning entered upon the road on which Macbeth heard the fatal prediction; but we travelled on not interrupted by promifes of kingdoms, and came to Nairn, a royal burgh, which, if once it flourished, is now

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in a state of miferable decay; but I know not whether its chief annual magiftrate has not ftill the title of Lord Provost.

At Nairn we may fix the verge of the Highlands; for here I first faw peat fires, and first heard the Erfe language. We had no motive to stay longer than to breakfast, and went forward to the houfe of Mr. Macaulay, the minister who published an account of St. Kilda, and by his direction vifited Calder Caftle, from which Macbeth drew his fecond title. It has been formerly a place of ftrength. The draw-bridge is ftill to be feen, but the moat is now dry. The tower is very ancient. Its walls are of great thicknefs, arched on the top with ftone, and furrounded with battlements. The reft of the houfe is later, though far from modern.

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We were favoured by a gentleman, who lives in the castle, with a letter to one of the officers at Fort George, which being the moft regular fortification in the island, well deferves the notice of a traveller, who has never travelled before. went thither next day, found a very kind reception, were led round the works by a gentleman, who explained the use of every part, and entertained by Sir Eyre Coote, the governor, with fuch elegance of converfation as left us no attention to the delicacies of his table.

Of Fort George I fhall not attempt to give any account. I cannot delineate it fcientifically, and a loofe and popular defcription is of use only when the imagination is to be amufed. There was everywhere an appearance of the utmost neatness and regularity. But my fuffrage is of little value, because

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this and Fort Auguftus are the only garrifons that I ever faw.

We did not regret the time spent at the fort, though in confequence of our delay we came fomewhat late to Inverness, the town which may properly be called the capital of the Highlands. Hither the inhabitants of the inland parts come to be fupplied with what they cannot make for themselves: hither the young nymphs of the mountains and vallies are fent for education, and as far as my obfervation has reached, are not fent in vain.

INVERNESS.

Inverness was the laft place which had a regular communication by high roads with the fouthern counties. All the ways beyond it have, I believe, been made by the foldiers in this century. At Inverness therefore Cromwell, when he subdued Scotland, ftationed a garrifon, as at the boundary of the Highlands. The foldiers feem to have incorporated afterwards with the inhabitants, and to have peopled the place with an English race; for the language of this town has been long confidered as peculiarly elegant.

Here is a castle, called the caftle of Macbeth, the walls of which are yet ftanding. It was no very capacious edifice, but ftands upon a rock fo high and steep, that I think it was once not acceffible, but by the help of ladders, or a bridge. Over against it, on another hill, was a fort built by Cromwell, now totally demolished; for no faction of Scotland loved the name of Cromwell, or had any defire to continue his memory.

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