10 Mary Somerville. 



that I am happy to be able to give the description of it 

 in her own words. 



Burntisland was then a small quiet seaport town 

 with little or no commerce, situated on the coast of 

 Fife, immediately opposite to Edinburgh. It is 

 sheltered at some distance on the north by a high 

 and steep hill called the Bin. The harbour lies on 

 the west, and the town ended on the east in a plain 

 of short grass called the Links, on which the towns- 

 people had the right of pasturing their cows and 

 geese. The Links were bounded on each side by 

 low hills covered with gorse and heather, and on 

 the east by a beautiful bay with a sandy beach, 

 which, beginning at a low rocky point, formed a 

 bow and then stretched for several miles to the town 

 of Kinghorn, the distant part skirting a range of high 

 precipitous crags. 



Our house, which lay to the south of the town, 

 was very long, with a southern exposure, and its 

 length was increased by a wall covered with fruit- 

 trees, which concealed a courtyard, cow-house, and 

 other offices. From this the garden extended south- 

 wards, and ended in a plot of short grass covering a 

 ledge of low black rocks washed by the sea. It was 

 divided into three parts by narrow, almost unfre- 

 quented, lanes. These gardens yielded abundance 



