"the kingdom of fife." 3 



to their coast-hives; and across the said firth the county, 

 better known as the Kingdom of Fife, stretching from 

 the Ochils eastwards to the German Ocean ; then the 

 isles of Inchkeith and Inchcolme — a physical landscape 

 somewhat resembling the Saronic Gulf and its sur- 

 roundings ; whilst, turning southwards, his thoughts 

 may rest with absorbing pleasure on Edinburgh itself, 

 in recalling its roll of scholars, historians, and men of 

 science, who helped in days gone by to unravel the 

 ancient philosophy, and whose successors, consistently 

 with the age of Progress, are now seeking to outstrip 

 the Past in a more glorious Present of discovery, en- 

 lightenment, and philanthropy. 



Upon the shores of Fife the Pict, the Roman, the 

 early Christians and Norman ecclesiastics all played 

 their part and left their impress ; and when Fife en- 

 joyed the proud distinction of being a Kingdom, the 

 warlike Thanes, in daring and defeating the Norsemen, 

 exhibited faithful types of a stern Caledonian medise- 

 valism, — so admirably adduced by Shakspeare in his 

 Macbeth, one of the greatest dramatic and intellectual 

 conceptions ever given to the world of letters. As 

 Fife was a marked theological arena for John Knox, 

 the rude citizen of Queen Mary's Court, the roost- 

 (lestrovcr of the Papacy, and albeit the mighty builder 

 of a " Reformed Faith," so was it one of the cherished 

 localities of the Covenanters, whose religious fever 

 burned for martyrdom and death.* Fife being almost 



* Nearly two-thirds of the population of Anstrather, it is said, perished in 



til- cause of tin' CovciiantiTH :il Kil iytl) and Slnri Mimiir. 



