NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 97 



There is also a market-place, such an one as 

 it is, and a kind of a thing they call a tolbooth, 

 which at first sight might be suspected a prison, 

 because it's so like one ; whose decays, by the 

 law of antiquity, are such, that every prisoner 

 is threatned with death before his trial; and every 

 casement, because bound about with iron bars, 

 discovers the entertainments destined only to fe- 

 lons. Now the market-place is less worthy of a 

 description than the tolbooth ; for no man would 

 know it to be such, were he not told so. 



There is also a kirk, or something like it ; but 

 I might as reverently call it a barn ; because so 

 little to distinguish betwixt them, and the whole 

 town reads daily lectures of decays ; so do her 

 ports, her avenues, and entrances. Where note, 

 I call her the child of antiquity, by reason of her 

 ruins and irreparable decays. It's true, I was not 

 murdered, nor was I kill'd outright, yet I nar- 

 rowly escaped as eminent a danger, when almost 

 worried to death with lice. 



Arn. However, I am glad you escaped with- 

 out scars ; and advise for the future, that you 

 examine your lodging before you make your for- 

 mal entrance. In the mean time, let me resti- 

 tute some part of amendment, by an easy, tho 

 solitary journy over this mountanous country, 

 to sweeten your entertainment. And, in regard 



