A Town of Beggars

Here Mr. Gordon showed me a great curiosity. Near the top of the opposite hill a new town is built, containing, I suppose, a hundred houses, which is a town of beggars. This, he informed me, was the professed, regular occupation of all the inhabitants. Early in spring they all go out and spread themselves over the kingdom; and in autumn they return and do what is requisite for their wives and children.

Monday, 27.--I paid a visit to St. Andrews, once the largest city in the kingdom. It was eight times as large as it is now, and a place of very great trade; but the sea rushing from the northeast, gradually destroyed the harbor and trade together; in consequence of this, whole streets (that were) are now meadows and gardens. Three broad, straight, handsome streets remain, all pointing at the old cathedral; this, by the ruins, appears to have been above three hundred feet long and proportionately broad and high. It seems to have exceeded York Minster, and to have at least equaled any cathedral in England. Another church, afterward used in its stead, bears date 1174. A steeple, standing near the cathedral, is thought to have stood thirteen hundred years.