ers of a people are
not to be found in the schools of learning, or the palaces of greatness,
where the national character is obscured or obliterated by travel or
instruction, by philosophy or vanity; nor is public happiness to be
estimated by the assemblies of the gay, or the banquets of the rich. The
great mass of nations is neither rich nor gay: they whose aggregate
constitutes the people, are found in the streets, and the villages, in
the shops and farms; and from them collectively considered, must the
measure of general prosperity be taken. As they approach to delicacy a
nation is refined, as their conveniences are multiplied, a nation, at
least a commercial nation, must be denominated wealthy.

ELGIN

Finding nothing to detain us at Bamff, we set out in the morning, and
having breakfasted at Cullen, about noon came to Elgin, where in the inn,
that we supposed the best, a dinner was set before us, which we could not
eat. This was the first time, and except one, the last, that I found any
reason to complain of a Scotish table; and such disappointments, I
suppose, 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
waste of reformation. There is enough yet remaining to shew, that it was
once magnificent. Its whole plot is easily traced. On the north side of
the choir, the chapter-house, which is roofed with an arch of stone,
remains entire; and on the south side, another mass of building, which we
could not enter, is preserved by the care of the family of Gordon; but
the body of the church is a mass of fragments.

A paper was here put into our hands, which deduced from sufficient
authorities the history 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 restored to the state, of which the traces may be now
discerned, and was at last not destroyed by the tumultuous violence of
Knox, but more shamefully suffered to dilapidate by deliberate robbery
and frigid indifference. There is still extant, in the books of the
council, an order, of which I cannot remember the date, but which was
doubtless issued after the Reformation, directing that the lead, which
covers the two cathedrals of Elgin and Aberdeen, shall be taken away, and
converted into money for th