ST. ANDREWS
At an hour somewhat late we came to St. Andrews, a city once
archiepiscopal; where that university still subsists in which philosophy
was formerly taught by Buchanan, whose name has as fair a claim to
immortality as can be conferred by modern latinity, and perhaps a fairer
than the instability of vernacular languages admits.
We found, that by the interposition of some invisible friend, lodgings
had been provided for us at the house of one of the professors, whose easy
civility quickly made us forget that we were strangers; and in the whole
time of our stay we were gratified by every mode of kindness, and
entertained with all the elegance of lettered hospitality.
In the morning we rose to perambulate a city, which only history
shews to have once flourished, and surveyed the ruins of ancient
magnificence, of which even the ruins cannot long be visible, unless some
care be taken to preserve them; and where is the pleasure of preserving
such mournful memorials? They have been till very lately so much
neglected, that every man carried away the stones who fancied that he
wanted them.