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?!"