The True State Of Every
Nation Is The State Of Common Life.
The manners 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 the 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.
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