large commodious bay near this place, to which ships often run in distress. The town is but small, and very irregularly built; it has, however, some foreign and domestic trade.

Having found a church door open, and seeing people going into it, I went in with the rest, and found the clergyman, who, though a man of a decent appearance, was literally a thumper on the cushion, commenting on that passage, "Thou shalt not seeth a kid in its mother's milk," and vociferating against the abominable barbarity of those who were so void of feeling as to think of such a dish. He seemed zealous enough, and to be perfectly acquainted with rant and declamation, but totally destitute of logical deduction and biblical knowledge, an acquaintance with Jewish antiquities, and indeed common sense; for neither have the people of Inverkeithing any kids; nor, if they had, would they ever think of seething them in their mother's milk.

Having seen Sir John Henderson's pretty seat, Aberdour, the earl of Morton's, and the earl of Moray's vast improvements, and been much pleased with the beauty and variety of objects occurring almost every where in this part of the country, as well as Burnt Island, the great emporium of the herring fishery, I came to Kinghorn.

While at Kinghorn, I learnt that Mr. S- H— some time ago had a hairsbreadth escape there. He was impatient to be at Edinburgh, as he was in hopes of an excellent place; and his obtaining it depended entirely on his being there before the post. He waited for hours, but, the weather being stormy, no boat would venture out. At length

one was about to sail out. Having occasion to retire, he stepped aside about a minute, and before he returned the boat was off, and all his persuasion could not prevail on them to return, though they were but a few yards off when he began to entreat them. Vexed and irritated that he was obliged to stay, he passed a sleepless night; but his heart was filled with gratitude to Providence when he heard in the morning that every soul had gone to the bottom. Having passed through Kirkaldy and Dysart, renowned for the possession of three good things, fish, coals, and salt, I came to a fishing village of considerable extent, called Buckhaven, originally peopled by some men and women, (for women in the north go a fishing,) who, more than a hundred years ago, were driven on the Fifan shore, in an open boat, from the coast of Denmark. Having been allowed a small portion of ground by the earl of Wemyss, the lord of the soil, they built huts about the harbour where they landed; and, as it was their employment in their own country, they became fishers, and both men and women went out every day to fish as they had been accustomed to do.

This colony of fishers were a rude and simple pcople, as their descendants in fact are at this day. They have never intermingled much with the neighbouring inhabitants, but associate with one another. In manners, the pronunciation of words, in some words themselves, and in dress, they still bear marks of their seafaring and Scandinavian origin. They are a common subject of laughter to their more polished neighbours, and being aware

of this, they eye every stranger with not a little jealousy and suspicion, that he has come among them only to spy their ways and laugh at them. There is also a colony of shipwrecked Danes in the marshy grounds on the sea side, in the parish of Leuchars, between the mouths of the Tay and the Eden, that is, between St. Andrews and Dundee. This colony is on a much greater scale than that at Buckhaven, but exactly resembling them in all the characteristic features just mentioned; with this addition, that whereas the Buckhaveners confine themselves to fishing, the Danes (for so they are still called) of the moors or marshes of Leuchars, are not only fishers, but are, or lately were, employed in the smuggling trade. They adhere, like the colony at Buckhaven, to the sea-shore, nor have the farmers in that corner of Fife been able to allure them to any kind of agricultural labour. They do not live in one town or large village like the fishers of Buckhaven, but are scattered over a wide and poor tract of land in separate hamlets or huts constructed of earth and stones, with a small garden, and a few acres of arable land around each. The common marsh or moor affords pasturage to a few sheep, and small and half-starved cattle.

When men are assembled together in towns, they become confident in mutual aid, bold, saucy, and offensive. Scattered in small villages and hamlets, they retain the simplicity, the modesty, and the innocence of uncorrupted nature. It would seem, that the vices of mankind are more contagious than their virtues. The Danes of the moors are a simple people; and when any of their neighbours among

the Fifans, or what I shall here call the aboriginal inhabitants of Fife, happen to go amongst them, and call at any of their houses, they take it as a compliment, and do every thing in their power to testify their good will and their sincere regard and affection. Not so the Buckhaveners: who are jealous of strangers, whom they are apt to view in a hostile light, as already mentioned.

This race of mortals are said to have scarcely any other ideas or words to express any ideas besides those relating to their own condition and occupations. Though they suffered the ministers of the parish to come to their houses and baptize their children, or to perform the ceremony of marriage, it was not till very lately that any of them could be persuaded to go to the kirk: not that they had any prejudice against the church of Scotland, or predilection in favour of Lutheranism, the established religion of their own parent state, but that they were equally ignorant and indifferent to all systems of religion. They would not have had the smallest idea of what the minister was discoursing about if they had gone to hear a sermon. They had, however, some reverence for the Sabbath and for Christmas-day; but the religion that really had a hold of their minds, and of course had its influence, was a very great number of omens and superstitious observances. When urged to go to the kirk, some of them would say they were ashamed, others, that the men of Fife would mock them; and others, that they must bait their fishing-hooks. The late amiable, polite, and accomplished Dr. Spens, known as the translator of the Republic of Plato, their mini

ster, was the first among their spiritual instructors who was able to communicate to their gross and contracted minds any tolerable notion of either natural or revealed religion. During the ministry of one of his predecessors in the pastoral office, two young people, a man and his wife, suffered themselves to be persuaded by one of the elders, who was not only a religious but an honest and well-meaning man, to go with him one Sunday to church; but they could never be persuaded to go again. It was formerly usual with the ministers of the church of Scotland to preach very much on the more awful and terrific subjects; and whatever the subject was, there was an earnestness and vehemence in their manner much greater than is usual in England, or at the present day even in Scotland. The good elder went to express his regrets to the newlymarried couple, and remonstrate against their neglect and contempt of the kirk-" Was not that an excellent sermon the minister gave you? Is he not a good man, and so carefully concerned for all your souls?

again to the kirk?"

What for did you not come

The woman said, "that she was afraid to come, he scolded so;" the man-" Sink me, gin I ken what he would ha' been at."

Dr. Spens, proceeding from objects and ideas that were familiar to their minds to others with which they were unacquainted, but to which those familiar ideas bore some resemblance or analogy, succeeded in communicating some notion of a creator, a redeemer, and a future judgement. The obstacles he had to encounter in this pious and