A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland | Page 9

in
every faculty was commonly given or sold into other countries. The
ministers are now reconciled to distinction, and as it must always
happen that some will excel others, have thought graduation a proper
testimony of uncommon abilities or acquisitions.
The indiscriminate collation of degrees has justly taken away that
respect which they originally claimed as stamps, by which the literary
value of men so distinguished was authoritatively denoted. That
academical honours, or any others should be conferred with exact
proportion to merit, is more than human judgment or human integrity
have given reason to expect. Perhaps degrees in universities cannot be
better adjusted by any general rule than by the length of time passed in
the public profession of learning. An English or Irish doctorate cannot
be obtained by a very young man, and it is reasonable to suppose, what
is likewise by experience commonly found true, that he who is by age
qualified to be a doctor, has in so much time gained learning sufficient
not to disgrace the title, or wit sufficient not to desire it.
The Scotch universities hold but one term or session in the year. That
of St. Andrews continues eight months, that of Aberdeen only five,
from the first of November to the first of April.
In Aberdeen there is an English Chapel, in which the congregation was
numerous and splendid. The form of public worship used by the church
of England is in Scotland legally practised in licensed chapels served
by clergymen of English or Irish ordination, and by tacit connivance
quietly permitted in separate congregations supplied with ministers by
the successors of the bishops who were deprived at the Revolution.
We came to Aberdeen on Saturday August 21. On Monday we were
invited into the town-hall, where I had the freedom of the city given me
by the Lord Provost. The honour conferred had all the decorations that
politeness could add, and what I am afraid I should not have had to say
of any city south of the Tweed, I found no petty officer bowing for a
fee.
The parchment containing the record of admission is, with the seal
appending, fastened to a riband and worn for one day by the new

citizen in his hat.
By a lady who saw us at the chapel, the Earl of Errol was informed of
our arrival, and we had the honour of an invitation to his seat, called
Slanes Castle, as I am told, improperly, from the castle of that name,
which once stood at a place not far distant.
The road beyond Aberdeen grew more stony, and continued equally
naked of all vegetable decoration. We travelled over a tract of ground
near the sea, which, not long ago, suffered a very uncommon, and
unexpected calamity. The sand of the shore was raised by a tempest in
such quantities, and carried to such a distance, that an estate was
overwhelmed and lost. Such and so hopeless was the barrenness
superinduced, that the owner, when he was required to pay the usual
tax, desired rather to resign the ground.

SLANES CASTLE, THE BULLER OF BUCHAN

We came in the afternoon to Slanes Castle, built upon the margin of the
sea, so that the walls of one of the towers seem only a continuation of a
perpendicular rock, the foot of which is beaten by the waves. To walk
round the house seemed impracticable. From the windows the eye
wanders over the sea that separates Scotland from Norway, and when
the winds beat with violence must enjoy all the terrifick grandeur of the
tempestuous ocean. I would not for my amusement wish for a storm;
but as storms, whether wished or not, will sometimes happen, I may
say, without violation of humanity, that I should willingly look out
upon them from Slanes Castle.
When we were about to take our leave, our departure was prohibited by
the countess till we should have seen two places upon the coast, which
she rightly considered as worthy of curiosity, Dun Buy, and the Buller
of Buchan, to which Mr. Boyd very kindly conducted us.
Dun Buy, which in Erse is said to signify the Yellow Rock, is a double
protuberance of stone, open to the main sea on one side, and parted
from the land by a very narrow channel on the other. It has its name
and its colour from the dung of innumerable sea-fowls, which in the
Spring chuse this place as convenient for incubation, and have their
eggs and their young taken in great abundance. One of the birds that
frequent this rock has, as we were told, its body not larger than a duck's,

and yet lays eggs as large as those of a goose. This bird is by the
inhabitants named a