RAY AND WILLUGHBY. 27 



being there. The laird of this island makes a great 

 profit yearly of the soland geese taken; as I remember, 

 they told us 1307. sterling. There is in the isle a 

 small house, which they call a castle; it is inaccessible 

 and impregnable, but of no great consideration in a 

 war, there being no harbour, nor anything like it. The 

 island will afford grass to keep thirty sheep. They 

 make strangers that come to visit it burgesses of the 

 Basse, by giving them to drink of the water of the 

 well, which springs near the top of the rock, and a 

 flower out of the garden thereby. The island is nought 

 else but a rock, and stands off the land near a mile; 

 at Dunbar you would not guess it above a mile distant, 

 though it be thence at least five. We found growing 

 in the island in great plenty, Beta marina^ Lychnis 

 marina nostras, Malva arborea marina nostras, and 

 Cochlearia rotundifolia. By the way we saw also glasses 

 made of kelp and sand mixed together, and calcined 

 in an oven. The crucibles which contained the melted 

 glass, they told us, were made of tobacco-pipe clay. 



'At Leith we saw one of those citadels built by the 

 Protector, one of the best fortifications that ever we 

 beheld, passing fair and sumptuous. There are three 

 forts advanced above the rest, and two platforms. The 

 works round about are faced with freestone towards 

 the ditch, and are almost as high as the highest build- 

 ings within, and withal thick and substantial. Below 

 are very pleasant, convenient, and well-built houses for 

 the governor, officers, and soldiers, and for magazines 

 and stores; there is also a good capacious chapel, the 

 piazza, or void space within, as large as Trinity College 



