m THE WEST SHORE.
is heightened by the tradition that the with those of early times, before St An
lifo of the prisoner was sustained for drews gained the sad renown of its ru
some time by a woman's milk, conveyed ined shrines. Then, as now, when the
from her breaet through a reed. Scott, earliest group of buildings was the Cul
howevcr, in his novel of the " Fair Maid dean monastery at the east promontory,
of Perth," represents Catharine Glover the three chief streets radiated from the
and the gleeraaiden, Louise, who were cathedral precincts like the spokes of
confined in the castle at the same time, a wheel. The range of vision to the
as conveying to the unfortunate Koth- north is bounded by the Sidlaw and
say, by means of a cleft in the end of a Grampian hills. The opposite coast is
long willow wand, bits of cake soaked in Forfarshire, separated from Fife by the
broth, through a small fissure in the Frith of Tay. St Andrews bay is stud
wall of tho castle, which communicated ded to the east with distant sails on the
with the dungeon. Tho nourishment way to Dundee and other ports, the
came too late to save his life, as his more fortunate in having avoided the
death was accelerated, probably, by vio- east winds, very prevalent here, and
Icncn. Kirkaldy (Kirkoddy) and Cu- blowing directly from the ocean, accom
par havo each their one main street panied by a " haar," or thick mist, which
about a mile long, but the only attrac- wraps every object in an impenetrable
tion to mo of the former dull, prosaic cloud. Snow lies neither deep nor long
town, lay in its being the place where here,, the saline particles continually de
wau produced tho book " which undoubt- posited on its surface having the infalli
bly has done more for the good of the ble effect of rotting it like honey comb,
community than any other written in Our experience was, frosty weather, clear
Scotland;" "his last and greatest," says and and crisp but not very cold, an un
Chambers. Here, for the ten quiet, stu- usual one, we were told. St. Andrews
dious years, previous to 1778, while bay is very dangerous, and shipwrecks,
Adam Smith worked at his " Wealth of for many years, are said to have aver
Nations," tho philosopher lived in his aged over three per annum, notwith
mother's house; so does one in travel standing a first class life-boat crew of
come constantly upon some old, quiet, experienced men, rocket apparatus and
grass-grown place, memorable for some and all the appliances for saving human
great life which there opened to the life. From the records of the town I
light in the past, or departing, left bo- draw the following contrast between the
hind an unquenched radiance gilding condition of the place in 1830 and as it
the present now appears. Then there was no side
There is an air of dignity and refine- pavement in any of the streets; filth
went in tho quiet, academic town of St and squalor abounded unchecked; cows
Andrew, thin royal burgh and ancient and pigs grazed in front of the cottages;
hpwcop.il wht, very different from tho tho venerable ruins were fast going to
.bustling, thriving manufacturing places decay; the lines of the public streets
wo havo Leon in, and greatly more pleas- were broken by awkward abutments of
mg. It must in summer be agreeably ungainly houses; there were few visitors
cool and healthful, and its retirement even to the splendid links, which lay
renders it an admirable locality for its with all its vast capabilities almost un
many justlj r celebrated schools and uni- trodden, and generally, St Andrews,
venu les. Tho arrangement of its main considering the prestige of its antiquity
streets appears to bo nearly identical as an ecclesiastical capital, and its rank