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, whe 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

laudable work, and the means by which he surmounted them, was a subject of philosophical speculation to the worthy and ingenious doctor, who would sometimes amuse his friends with an account of both.

I had heard of a pamphlet, which sells for a penny, describing the village of Buckhaven, and the manners, customs, and notions of its inhabitants. I wished to see it, and told the landlord of the inn that I would, as he had it not himself, pay him well if he could get me a sight of it. I heard no more of it till about an hour after, when, as I was mounting my horse, I saw a number of savage-looking men and women gathering around me, demanding who and what I was? In order to get the pamphlet, my hostess had set the bell through the town, offering a shilling for the book: and as it represents them in a ludicrous point of view, and they think nobody reads it but with a view to laugh at them, they had determined to give me a drubbing. The truth is, I was obliged to stop, and it required all my address, as well as the aid of my purse, to get off with a whole head; which I at length effected by distributing money among their children, and giving them plenty of porter.

Journeying eastward along this charming coast, I came to the town of Levin, situated at the mouth of the river Levin; which, issuing from Loch Levin, empties itself into Largo Bay. It is a clean little town, and apparently in a thriving situation. There is a salmon fishery here not inconsiderable, and a good deal of trade in coals; and, what is not every where to be found in the numerous

towns and villages that skirt the Fifan shores, a very good inn, where I passed the night. Having crossed the river in a ferry-boat, I was now in the east nook of Fife, comprehending the tract of country from Largo Bay, by the village of Largo, Colinsburgh, the Ely, St. Monan's, Pittenweem, Eastern and Western Anstruther, and Kilrenny, to Craill; and from Craill, in a north-westward direction, to St. Andrews and the Eden. An imaginary line from St. Andrews to Largo forms this famous nook into a kind of triangle, to which a person, who should never have been out of Scotland, might well apply the lines of Horace, speaking of Tarentum

Ille terrarum mihi preter omnes
Angulus ridet.

Hor. Carm. Lib. ii. Ode vi.

The attention of the eastward traveller, on crossing the Leven, is first solicited by Largo. Law, situated about a mile north of the village of Largo, a high but gently rising hill, verdant to the top, which is elevated to the height of nine hundred feet above the level of the sea, and from which there is a very rich, beautiful, and extensive prospect: a great part of the interior of Fife; the Forth, beautifully winding along the southern coast, often agreeably diversified with ships of various burdens, and sometimes with squadrons and fleets; the opposite coast of the three Lothians, from Dunbar to Borrowstownness, a great part of Stirlingshire, and part also of Lanerkshire and Berwickshire. The Scottish metropolis, with the picturesque and sub