e support of the army. A Scotch army was in
those times very cheaply kept; yet the lead of two churches must have
born so small a proportion to any military expence, that it is hard not
to believe the reason alleged to be merely popular, and the money
intended for some private purse. The order however was obeyed; the two
churches were stripped, and the lead was shipped to be sold in Holland. I
hope every reader will rejoice that this cargo of sacrilege was lost at
sea.

Let us not however make too much haste to despise our neighbours. Our
own cathedrals are mouldering by unregarded dilapidation. It seems to be
part of the despicable philosophy of the time to despise monuments of
sacred magnificence, and we are in danger of doing that deliberately,
which the Scots did not do but in the unsettled state of an imperfect
constitution.

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

Elgin seems a place of little trade, and thinly inhabited. The episcopal
cities of Scotland, I believe, generally fell with their churches, though
some of them have since recovered by a situation convenient for commerce.
Thus Glasgow, though it has no longer an archbishop, has risen beyond its
original state by the opulence of its traders; and Aberdeen, though its
ancient stock had decayed, flourishes by a new shoot in another place.

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

FORES. CALDER. FORT GEORGE

We went forwards the same day to Fores, the town to which Macbeth was
travelling, when he met the weird sisters in his way. This to an
Englishman is classic 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 saw for a great length of road nothing but heath;
yet at Fochabars, a seat belonging to the duke of Gordon, there is an
orchard, which in Scotland I had never seen before, with some timber
trees, and a plantation of