enjoyments. Deeply did I regret that I had not taken another route; and more so, for the sake of Scotland, that Boswell had not conducted his illustrious companion through parts of his country better calculated to soften the rigour of his prejudices. However, the accommodations all the way are good.

After a long and tedious route, I was refreshed by seeing the capital of Aberdeenshire open upon me; and I entered it with the feelings of one who had escaped from scenes he would wish never to revisit.

As I entered New Aberdeen, I beheld, amongst the first objects, the active and liberal hand of improvement before me, and on every side.

I was the bearer of letters to Major-General Macdonald, the Commander of the district (whose military skill and gallantry in the Low Countries and in Holland would derive no additional lustre from any eulogium of mine), and to other gentlemen, who received me with characteristic politeness and attention. After having secured rooms at an excellent hotel, in my walks through this learned and celebrated city I was much gratified by observing that the streets were spacious, and the houses in general very handsome, being for the most part built of the same sort of granite as that with which the streets of London are paved; it is dug from a

quarry in the neighbourhood. This circumstance, and the encouragement which the talents of the Scotch receive in England, gave rise to the following epigram, as it appeared in 1764:

The new Scottish pavement is worthy of praise;
We're indebted to Scotland for mending our ways:
But what we can never forgive 'em, some say,
Is that they have taken our posts all away.

In consequence of the town being built in several places upon ridges, the tops of some of the streets are at the base of others. The cross, which is in the centre of Castlestreet, is much admired; it is an octagon stone building, richly ornamented with bas relievos of the Kings of Scotland, from James I. to James VI., with a Corinthian column in the middle, surmounted by an unicorn.

But, amongst the instances which may be adduced to shew the rapidly-increasing opulence of this city, the New Bridge attracts the earliest notice of the traveller, as he passes over it in his way from Perth. This noble structure was raised in 1803-4, and is built of the same granite as the houses, and consists of one principal arch, of 130 feet span, which springs over the Denburn Valley, in the line of the new south entry, called Union-street. The width is forty feet within the parapet walls. The view through this arch below, when I made a sketch, is extremely beautiful. The thin pyramidal ornaments upon the balustrades are unworthy of the taste and refinement of so distinguished a

city, and can answer no purpose that I could discover but to attract the attention of the lightning. This bridge was designed by Mr. Thomas Fletcher, of Aberdeen, engineer.

A more important but not so elegant a public work is the pier, close to the town, at the mouth of the river Dee; it well deserves the attention of the traveller. The harbour of Aberdeen is naturally what is called a Bar Harbour, in consequence of the easterly and north-easterly storms forming a ridge of sand at the mouth of it, which at low tide is seldom covered with water more than three feet deep. Frequent and dreadful used to be the shipwrecks of vessels riding at anchor in the roads in foul weather, until the flow of tide enabled them to find protection in the harbour. After many ineffectual efforts to remove so destructive an evil, the spirit and munificence of the town have triumphed over the difficulties of nature, and under the direction of the celebrated Mr. Smeaton, and at an expense of upwards of 20,000l., a pier one thousand two hundred feet in length, gradually increasing in thickness and height as it approaches the sea, where the head or rounding is sixty feet diameter at the base, and the perpendicular elevation thirty-eight feet, has been erected on the north side of the harbour; the expense of this is defrayed by doubling the harbour-dues. The whole is of granite;

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and some of the outside stones of this mighty piece of masonry are above three tons weight, with hewn beds; there are now seventeen fathoms at low water a little to the south of the bar, and from eight to nine fathoms at the harbour's mouth, where there were formerly but a few feet.

ratus.

New Aberdeen is chiefly celebrated for the Marischal College and University, situated in Broad-street, founded and endowed by George, Earl Marischal of Scotland, in 1593. It is a large sombre pile, and contains, besides lecturerooms for the different classes, the public schools for conferring of degrees, a common hall, the library, a small museum of natural history and antiquities, and an observatory well furnished with a very valuable astronomical арраThe government of this learned establishment consists of a principal, three professors of philosophy, one of divinity, and others for mathematics, chemistry, medicine, and oriental languages; and there are many bursaries for poor students. A bursar is a student, who, for a certain number of years, enjoys a small exhibition or allowance, called in Scotland a bursar, or bursary. A student who has no bursary is, with a similar misapplication of the word, as it is used in these times at Aberdeen, called a libertine. This college owes not a little of its lustre to the character and literary productions of the late truly amiable and elegant

Dr. Beattie, who, from having been usher to the grammarschool at Aberdeen, was most honourably elevated to the chair of moral philosophy in this college. Amongst the numerous works of this distinguished writer, his Minstrel, and his Essay on the Nature and Immutability of Truth, are entitled to pre-eminence. Poetry never had a more delicate and feeling votary, nor religion a more acute and fervid apostle. His refined modesty acted upon his rich and cultivated mind as a fine veil upon a beautiful face, increasing the charms which it rather covered than concealed. The piety of his Sovereign, captivated with the eloquence of the holy advocate, sought for the pleasures of personal conversation with him. Dr. Beattie had the peculiar honour of an interview with their Majesties, unrestrained by the harassing forms and depressive splendour of a court, who paid the most flattering compliments to his hallowed labours, and more substantially rewarded them with a pension. Such an application of resourses derived by a beloved Monarch from a loyal people resembles, as was once observed upon a memorable occasion, the sun, which extracts moisture from the earth, to replace it in refreshing dews. The writings and life of this unblemished man coincide with pure design and perfect execution. All that he inculcated he practised. He arrested the thoughtless, he fixed the wavering, he confirmed the good. His domestic sorrows were great and many; his philosophy, however, was