were on when I entered. I begged they would notbe interrupted on my account. One of them, who had been at the church courts, and heard their decision, argued that they were wrong. He had argued in these church courts, that as the woman, who was dead, had no children, the bond of connection between the sister and him was at the death of his wife completely broken; that had she had children, the case would have been otherwise; and that he saw no reason, either in a civil or religious point of view, to prevent the man from marrying, since they were both willing, and in all probability would do worse if they were not permitted. He told me, he had argued the matter freely before the clergy, and told them, that in different ages and countries there had been different notions respecting matrimony: that Abraham, the father of the faithful, seems to have had no check of consci ence for marrying Sarah, his brother's daughter, whom the translators of the Bible have called his sister; that Jacob married two sisters, Rachel and Leah; that, among many of the Tartar tribes, the fathers marry their own daughters, and send their mothers, when they arrive at forty, to labour in the kitchen; and that Cimon, the son of Miltiades, which was allowed by the laws of Athens, married his own sister. I was not a little astonished at the learning or reading of this man on the point in question. He was, it seems, an elder of the kirk. He did not seem to think the business ended, but that it must have another issue one way, as he said, or other.

Upon inquiring if there was any thing very remark

able in this parish or neighbourhood, they spoke a great deal about the house and extensive plantations and park of Panmure, belonging, since the death of the earl, to the honourable William Ramsay Moule, his nephew. This gentleman is, I believe, the most opulent commoner in Scotland, his annual income being forty thousand pounds.

On my way to Aberbrothic, I overtook a rather shabbily dressed young man, somewhat lame, but seemingly very happy. Having asked me, without much ceremony, what I was, I replied, I would be obliged to him, by way of preliminary, if not inconvenient, to tell me what he was. He immediately replied,

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Why, Sir, I am master of a large parish in this neighbourhood." Master of a parish! How can that be?"-" Why, Sir, I am master of the children, the children are masters of their mothers, and their mothers are masters of their fathers; hence I am master of the parish." Having heard this logical definition and inference, and my poney being disposed to go a little faster than this country schoolmaster, I bade him adieu. He had, it seems, somewhere met with the anecdote of Miltiades, who said what was similar to this of his little daughter.

ABERBROTHIC.

Having put up at the best inn at Aberbrothic, which is opposite to the church, I set out with my letters of introduction, and to make my observations. Though there are several others, I find the staple manufactures here are osnaburgs, or

brown linen, and sail cloth. This town, like many others, has increased much of late, and the people here are also much divided in their opinion about religion. The abbey is a noble building, and is less in a state of decay than any deserted monasteries I have seen either in Scotland or England.

Being introduced to some of the inhabitants here, I found that they pique themselves much on their privileges, since a freeman of this burgh has certain rights and privileges all over the kingdom; these peculiar privileges having been granted to one of the abbots of Aberbrothic, and all the burghesses, on account of his and their steady adherence to the crown during the rebellion of the nobles in the reign of James III. king of Scotland,

Paul Jones, the daring pirate, was, it seems, extremely troublesome here during the late American war; nay, so much so, that he fired many shots at the town, which were almost red-hot after they had lighted in the streets. However, though the inhabitants were dreadfully alarmed when they first saw and heard the cannon-balls whizzing over their head, and many had run to coal cellars, &c. to hide themselves, yet, like soldiers, after a first and second engagement, they became not so much afraid. Indeed, one of the weavers was so little affrighted at them, that, wishing to have one of them, he followed it after it had lighted running into the streets; but it was so hot when he came up to it, that it not only burnt his hands, but a hole in his apron, as had happened to others, while he was carrying it home. Mr. Bruce, the Church of England clergy

man here, was, I find, in imminent danger; for, while he was but at a little distance, a ball broke in pieces the spade with which, but a few minutes before, he had been digging in his garden. The marks of the balls on some houses are to be seen at this day.

Near the harbour here I saw the bones of a whale. A few years ago, as some fishing-boats were out about eight or ten miles at their usual fishing ground, they saw something of an uncommon appearance afloat at a distance, which they found to be a dead whale with its belly uppermost, about forty feet long. Instead, therefore, of proceeding to their fishing, they fixed they hooks into their prize, and towed it to this harbour. The fishers knew the whale to be valuable, but they did not know how to cut it up and reduce it to oil, as there are no whalers belonging to this place, and it was some time before they found any that could do it. In the time, the whale began to stench intolerably; and the magistrates, before it was all cut up, lest it should produce some disorder in the place, gave orders that the remains of it should be pushed out into the sea. The people, who, standing on it, and cutting it up, knew its value to well to comply quickly, as they might have done, with this order of the magistrates, drank plenty of brandy, and seemed perfectly at their ease, for there was nobody that could come near them to compel them to desist. The whale brought them sixty or seventy pounds, and the remainder of it having been pushed into the sea, the intolerable stench gradually

went off.

There is, at St. Vigean's Church, within a mile or thereabouts of Aberbrothic, which repeats distinctly every word of a moderate sentence. A gentleman lately happened to be angry with his servant, while he was at the point where the echo is best heard, fell a scolding him, and heard every word distinctly repeated in his own tone of voice; which, it being in the dark, he thought repeated by his own servant. The gentleman became extremely angry, still continuing his abusive language, under the idea that his servant was mimicking him; but on the servant coming up to him, he discovered his mistake, and instead of being angry could not help laughing,

ACHMITHY.

From viewing the seat of lord Northesk, a few miles east from Aberbrothic, where I found some elegant rooms, substantial furniture, and venerable trees, as well as extensive pleasure grounds, and an inscription in large capital letters over the servants' hall door, "Let neither want hor waste be here." I set out for Achmithy, a fishing village in the neighbourhood, to procure a boat, in order to view the famous promontory called the RED HEAD. Though I had never been there before, a few minutes after I reached the village some dozens of people came into the room where I was writing, and, taking me by the hand, said, they were glad to see me; and numbers, who had been drinking in another part of the house, said, that if I would come and taste with