life. Upon inquiry, I found, that this was the family of a gentleman in this part of the country, of a very peculiar turn of mind; who, having lost a beloved wife, the mother of the children I had seen, was soured with his loss, and became extremely anxious about the education of these children. Being in easy circumstances, and having a large garden, or rather field, including a garden, surrounded with a high wall, he resolved to call in teachers to instruct them in all the branches of knowledge, but that they should never go without his premises till they were grown up, and could think and act for themselves. This he actually did; for, during near twenty years, they scarcely ever went beyond the limits of his garden. But though his children were thus confined, their health was no less an object of his care than the improvement of their minds.

At length, having scarcely seen any human face but their teachers, they were permitted to sally out and see whether the world and men were what they are represented in books. The truth is, that the young ladies, the one about seventeen, and the other not much younger, though they knew music, dancing, geography, astronomy, chronology, history, &c. &c. astonishingly well, and were accomplished in a variety of important points, when they saw a handsome young man, could not help standing and gazing at him; as their brothers did at the young women. Though handsome, and endowed with an uncommon share of natural sagacity, yet, so extremely childish were these young ladies, that they asked me why I did not wear knee-buckles, and how much the narrow riband that tied my shoes might cost. Their

brothers desired me to take off my hat in the streets, which I did, and shew them the inside of it, as it happened to be not exactly the shape of theirs; and they could not conceive how, though larger, it could be so much lighter than theirs. In the mean time, the young ladies were importuning me, to explain this and the other sign over the shop doors; and I observed, that when they bought any fruit, or sweetmeats, they desired the persons from whom they bought it to allow them to taste it beforehand.

A young man, without any fortune, who had access sometimes to their father's house, took an opportunity of taking one of these young ladies by the hand, and whispering in her ear, "will you marry me?" to which she readily answered, "yes, I will." An elopement to Edinburgh was concerted, and made. They were married; and the affectionate father soon reconciled to the marriage.

There are very few fish to be found in the inner part of the bay of St. Andrews; owing, I suppose, to the tremendous waves that are generally continued here for several days after a storm has subsided; and, owing to the same cause, scarcely any at the mouth of the Eden, a considerable river that runs into it. So that the fishers are obliged to go a great way out, and commonly as far as Fifeness; but then as seals, in crowds, are often to be seen sunning themselves on sand banks in this neighbourhood, it is surprizing, that some method is not entered into for catching them. In places where bears, lions, tygers, wolves, and the like are to be found, the hunters, covered with a skin, and imitating the appear

ance, gestures, and motion of the animals, they wish to catch, often attack them, having a sword concealed and the Chinese, when they go after wild geese, ducks, &c. in the sea, or lakes, swim among them, having only their heads above water, and on it the appearance of a swan, goose, duck, or something the fowls are habituated to see afloat among them; and thus equipped swimming, or wading among the fowls they wish to catch, they pull them. one by one quietly by the feet, below the water; and handing them to another person equipped like themselves, or filling their other hand, thus carry off multitudes, without disturbing the rest. Might not our people, in like manner, some how or other, put on the appearance of seals, and when the seals come ashore to bask themselves in the sun, which they often do, in multitudes, get between them and the water, and then, as seals cannot run fast, knock great numbers of them on the head? Not only do seals resort in vast numbers to the banks at the mouth of the Tay and the Eden, but to those of rivulets, and even brooks. They sometimes venture to come a little way into the two rivulets that fall into the sea; the one on the south, the other on the north, side of St. Andrews.

The charter of the city, here, is a small bit of parchment, not bigger than one's hand, and signed Malcolm III. The city keys are of silver.

The spot in Magus Muir, a few miles west from St. Andrews, where archbishop Sharp was murdered, has lately, by general Melville, been inclosed and planted; and a suitable monument, with an appropriate inscription erected on the spot.

I was astonished to find, that a barbarous and cruel custom was so long kept up in this place. Towards the end of every summer, the inhabitants here, and all around this part of the country, are in the habit of assembling to see what they term a cat race. The cat is inclosed in an old cask, which is suspended by a rope from the middle of a pole, each end of which is fixed at the top of two others. From this transverse beam, the cask is hung like a man from a gallows, and every person on horseback is at liberty, as he rides briskly below the cask, to reach up, and try to knock the end out of the cask, in which the cat is, so as to make her fall down among the multitude; several thousands of whom are generally assembled to behold this savage spectacle. He who either kills the cat, or makes her fall among the people, is said to gain the race. Nor is this all the poor cat, which, like all others, generally lights on her feet, is chased, taken by the tail, and thrown up into the air, perhaps an hundred times, till she dies; and the poor animal, thus tost up into the air, glad, and yet afraid to light among so many people, some of whom she generally wounds with her claws in her fall, seems to afford the people of this place, forgetting that cats have feelings as well as themselves, a high degree of amusement.

Nor is their goose-race, as they call it, less a mark of their inhumanity. The poor goose is hung by the feet from a gallows, similar to that from which the cask with the cat is suspended, and its neck being denuded of the feathers, and well soaped or greased, to make it slippery, the savages riding below it raise

themselves from the horses as far as they can to get hold of the gooses head, which it naturally raises up to avoid them. In this manner, while they ride under it, they try to get hold of its head; and he who pulls off the goose's head, is said to gain the race. To see the poor animal wreathing its neck, and trying to avoid the savage hand that is about to pull off its head, seems to afford the people in this part of the country a high gratification.