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About The west shore. (Portland, Or.) 1875-1891 | View Entire Issue (Aug. 1, 1887)
HAWICK AND ST. ANDREWS. as a seat of learning, was at the low-cat pitch of miserable neglect ami decay. Modern St Andrews dates from 1812, when Major Play fair, whoso name i significant, "begged and bullied and wheedled" away tho filth and ruinous neglect, which bade fair, it is said, to eucomb St Andrews as completely as tho lava did Herculaneum and Pompeii of old. Ho was knighted by Queen Vic toria, in 18.)(', for tho iranienso good ho had achieved in St Andrews, as well as for military servico in India. Tho pro vost and his doings aro proverbial, and the results aro that St Andrews is now tho Scarborough, tho fashionable sea side of Scotland, jwHsessing all the good requisites for a summer retreat It has its famous links, where " tho noblo and healthful game of golf" is extensively practised, lis commodious club house, containing billiard and reading rooms, bathing places for ladies, with their golfing green, croquet ground in tho cabtlo yard, archery within tho colh go grounds, and picturesque ruins ami nico scenery for sketching. Provost Piny, fair died in 1801, and his name will con tinue to bo associated with tho city that has so greatly benefited by his lalxr. St Andrews resembles a continental city, and its buildings of hewn gray stone, obtainablo ne ar the town, aro very handsome and ornamental. It is rare to find in a city of its si.o so much to please tho eye and gratify tho taste. Its fino ruins greatly enhanco its pic turesqao effect, to which tho bright, warlct robes and the four-cornead ta. relet! caps of tho university students lend an additional piquant charm. IU fall from tho meridian of its ecchsiastu cal splendor to tho ruthless fury of fa naticism, ami its restoration to proj-r. ity in tho leauty of its semi-ant quo res idences is interesting, but especially so is it in the olden aspect of iU library and historic public building. Of tho tower of St Hegulus, tradition relates, that when King llengist re ceived St Itegulua, who was wrecked here at tho end of the fourth century, bearing tho relics of St Andrew with him, ho built to him this masaivo square tower, one hundred and nino feet high, with its spiral stone staircase of one hundred and fifty.four rough atcs, in many parts perfectly dark and of most difl'icult ascent 1 can testify to its le iug tho severest "excelsior" of tho many I accomplished in Kuro Those who discredit so hoar an antiquity as fifteen hundred years, grant that tho tower can not of inoro recent date than tho ninth or tenth century. Uo that as it may, tho tower is crfect yet, and tho walls of a solidity and thickness sufilcl ent to bid defiance to half a acoro bun drod years or so more. In tho face of a cliff between tho castlo at d cathedral, is tho cavo where St Itegulua first lived, now worn shallow by wind and wave. Last century, they say, tho eccentric lady Dachau adorned it with shells ami fitted it up as a retreat, where she enter, tained her friends. Tho cathedral was founded in 11.10 and was ono hundred and fifty years in course1 of construction. In l'J7H a great part was destroyi-d by fire, and tho accident is nscriUi! to a jackdaw carrying ft lighted twig to i nest in tho eaves. In I.VJ'J it was sacked and destroyed by the Presbjte. rian party, uudr John Knoi, who kin died a firo that day that spread far and wide, Uyond tho jackdaw's llight Oldy ono of the turrets of tho west front is standing, but it is of delicate, and i hv gfint workmanship. Tho ancient oblong windows, with semicircular arch's, and tho two turrets of the east gable, are very kautifuL It must have --u very largo and magnificent, and wo aro moml in looking ujm what remains to . claim: MOh, urUrianUm! what crimes and follies aro committed in thy nam?!"