NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 219 



fields ; whose spacious ports surround a cathe- 

 dral, blotted and blurr'd by the dates of time. 



TJieoph. However it appears that some emi- 

 nent characters are left yet to evidence the foot- 

 steps of superannuated curiosity, and inform us 

 the antiquity of her original lustre. 



And that is all ; but not lustre enough left 

 to vie with the gaity of those famous imbel- 

 lishments of Westminster-Chappel : that oracle 

 strikes all structures dumb, and is the nonsuch 

 of Europe, nay, all the world ; models of it have 

 been transported into foreign parts, and equally 

 admired, with Oliver's medals. 



Theoph. Elgin was once a beauty, nor is it 

 now an artificial deformity ; yet such is the un- 

 constancy of men and times, that this fabrick is 

 defaced, and prelacy thrown down : methinks I 

 could almost lament her ruins ; these marginal 

 notes on the frontispiece of Elgin intitle her ca- 

 thedral a northern beauty. 



Am. But not to parallel that unparalleFd cu- 

 riosity, the illustrious Chappel-Royal of King's- 

 Colledg in Cambridg. 



Theoph. Yet is there a beauty in Elgin's an- 

 tiquities ; therefore it's a vanity beyond igno- 

 rance, and a presumption beyond pardon, should 

 any pretend to outvie it in Scotland. 



Arn. I must confess that irnbelish'd fabricks 

 are more my admiration than perplexed contro- 



