NORTHERN MEMOIRS. 229 



and every merchant in his peculiar pew ; where 

 every society of mechanicks have their particu- 

 lar seats, distinguished by escutcheons, sutable 

 to their profession ; so that confusion seldom or 

 rarely happens amongst them, in quarrelling for 

 places ; where strangers are unsuspected for in- 

 formers and intruders, and the civillity of the 

 people such, that no man is left destitute of a 

 seat to sit on, but every one entertained answer- 

 able to his quality ? 



Theoph. This is something like ; for it far ex- 

 ceeds the custom of England, where a man may 

 stand in some churches till his feet are surbeat, 

 yet nobody proffer him a remove, or a stool to 

 sit on. 



Arn. But this is not all neither ; for here you 

 shall have such method in their musick, and 

 such order and decorum of song-devotion in the 

 church, as you will admire to hear, though not 

 regulated by a cantor or quirister, but only by 

 an insipid parochial clerk, that never attempts 

 further in the mathematicks of musick, than to 

 compleat the parishioners to sing a psalm in tune. 



Theoph. You have concisely characterized 

 Aberdeen, with her inhabitants ; but what have 

 we here ? Cawses uncartable, and pavements 

 impracticable, pointed with rocky stumpy stones, 

 and dawb'd all over with dingy dirt, that makes 

 it impassible ; and the fields, as I conceive, are 



