indiscriminately mingled with notes upon the plants, animals, or fossils met with, or quaint observations upon men or manners. One might quote endlessly from this olla podrida of scientific, antiquarian, and social observations; but it will suffice to take, by way of specimen,

Ray's account of his journey from Dunbar to Edinburgh, on which occasion he paid a visit with his companions to the Bass Rock.

'August the 19th, we went to Leith, keeping all along the side of the Fryth. By the way we viewed Tontallon Castle, and passed over to the Basse Island, where we saw on the rocks innumerable of the soland geese. The old ones are all over white, excepting the pinion or hard feathers of the wings, which are black. The upper part

of the head and neck, in those that are old, is of a yellowish dun colour; they lay but one egg apiece, which is white and not very large. They are very bold, and sit in great multitudes till one comes close up to them, because they are not wont to be scared or disturbed. The young ones are esteemed a choice dish in Scotland, and sold very dear (1s. 8d. plucked). We eat of them at Dunbar. They are in bigness little inferior to an ordinary goose. The young one is upon the back black, and speckled with little white spots; under the breast and the belly gray. The beak is sharp-pointed, the mouth very wide and large, the tongue very small, the eyes great, the foot hath four toes webbed together. It feeds upon mackerel and herring, and the flesh of the young one smells and tastes strong of these fish. The other birds which nestle in the Basse are these: the scout, which is double-ribbed; the cattiwake, the cormorant, the scart, and a bird called the turtle-dove, whole footed, and the feet red. * There are verses which contain the names of these birds among the vulgar, two whereof are :

The scout, the scart, and the cattiwake,

The soland goose sits on the lack,

Yearly in the spring.

'We saw [some] of the scout's eggs, which are very large and speckled. It is very dangerous to climb the rocks for the young of these fowls, and seldom a year passeth but one or other of the climbers fall down, and lose their lives, as did one not long before our

* The 'scout' is the razor-bill; the 'cattiwake' is the kittiwake gull; the 'scart' is the shag; and the 'turtle-dove' is the black guillemot.

being there.

The laird of this island makes a great profit yearly of the soland geese taken; as I remember, they told us 130% sterling. There is in the isle a small house, which they call a castle; it is inaccessible. and impregnable, but of no great consideration in a war, there being no harbour, nor anything like it. The island will afford grass to keep thirty sheep. They make strangers that come to visit it burgesses of the Basse, by giving them to drink of the water of the well, which springs near the top of the rock, and a flower out of the garden thereby. The island is nought else but a rock, and stands off the land near a mile; at Dunbar you would not guess it above a mile distant, though it be thence at least five. We found growing in the island in great plenty, Beta marina, Lychnis marina nostras, Malva arborea marina nostras, and Cochlearia rotundifolia. By the way we saw also glasses made of kelp and sand mixed together, and calcined in an oven. The crucibles which contained the melted glass, they told us, were made of tobacco-pipe clay.

'At Leith we saw one of those citadels built by the Protector, one of the best fortifications that ever we beheld, passing fair and sumptuous. There are three forts advanced above the rest, and two platforms. The works round about are faced with freestone towards the ditch, and are almost as high as the highest buildings within, and withal thick and substantial. Below are very pleasant, convenient, and well-built houses for the governor, officers, and soldiers, and for magazines. and stores; there is also a good capacious chapel, the piazza, or void space within, as large as Trinity College

(in Cambridge) great court. This is one of the four forts. The other three are at St Johnston's, Inverness, and Ayre. The building of each of which (as we were credibly informed) cost above 100,000l. sterling; indeed, I do not see how it could cost less. In England it would have cost much more.

'In Edinburgh we went to the principal public buildings. These are: (1) The castle, a very strong building on a precipitous solid rock; it is one of the king's houses, but of no very great receipt; in it are kept the crown and sceptre of Scotland. There was then lying in the castle yard an old great iron gun, which they call Mount's Meg, and some, Meg of Berwick, of a great bore, but the length is not answerable to the bigness. (2) Heriot's Hospital, a square stone building, having a large turret at each corner. It hath very spacious and beautiful gardens, and is well inclosed. There is a cloister on both sides of the court, on each hand as one goeth in, and a well in the middle thereof. At our being there it maintained three-score boys, who wore blue gowns; but they told us it was designed for other purposes. It would make a very handsome college, comparable to the best in our universities. Over the gate, within-side, stands the figure G. Heriot, the founder thereof, and under him this verse,

Corporis hæc, animi est hoc opus effigies.

(3) The College, for the building of it, [is] but mean, and of no very great capacity, in both comparable to Caius College, in Cambridge. Most of the students here live after the fashion of Leyden, in the town; and

wear no gowns till they be laureat, as they call it. At our being there (being the time of the vacancy), there was not a student in town; the premier also, as they call him, was absent in London. In the hall of this College, the king's commissioner, Middleton, was entertained by the citizens of Edinburgh.

(4) The parliament house, which is but of small content, as far as we could judge, not capable of holding two hundred persons. The Lords and commons sit both in the same room together. There is also a place which they call the inner house, in which sit fifteen lords, chosen out of the house, as it were a grand committee. There is an outer room like the lobby, which they call the waiting-room; and two other rooms above-stairs, where commissioners sit. We saw Argyle and Guthry their heads standing on the gates and toll-booth. At the time we were in Scotland, divers women were burnt for witches, they reported to the number of about one hundred and twenty.'

In 1660, after the Restoration, Ray was ordained; but two years later his direct connection with the Church of England came to an end, in consequence of the passing of the Act of Uniformity.' By this act, as is well known, every clergyman was required to declare his assent to everything contained in the Book of Common Prayer, to take the oath of canonical obedience, and to abjure the Solemn League and Covenant; and there is no reason to doubt that Ray, an attached son of the church, would willingly have signed these articles. A declaration was, however, further