28 NATURAL HISTORY. 



(in Cambridge) great court. This is one of the four 

 forts. The other three are at St Johnston's, Inverness, 

 and Ayre. The building of each of which (as we were 

 credibly informed) cost above ioo,ooo/. sterling; indeed, 

 I do not see how it could cost less. In England it 

 would have cost much more. 



'In Edinburgh we went to the principal public build- 

 ings. These are : ( i ) The castle, a very strong building 

 on a precipitous solid rock; it is one of the king's 

 houses, but of no very great receipt; in it are kept 

 the crown and sceptre of Scotland. There was then 

 lying in the castle yard an old great iron gun, which 

 they call Mount's Meg, and some, Meg of Berwick, of 

 a great bore, but the length is not answerable to the 

 bigness. (2) Heriot's Hospital, a square stone building, 

 having a large turret at each corner. It hath very 

 spacious and beautiful gardens, and is well inclosed. 

 There is a cloister on both sides of the court, on each 

 hand as one goeth in, and a well in the middle thereof. 

 At our being there it maintained three-score boys, 

 who wore blue gowns ; but they told us it was designed 

 for other purposes. It would make a very handsome 

 college, comparable to the best in our universities. 

 Over the gate, within-side, stands the figure G. Heriot, 

 the founder thereof, and under him this verse, 



Corporis hsec, animi est hoc opus effigies. 



(3) The College, for the building of it, [is] but mean, 

 and of no very great capacity, in both comparable to 

 Caius College, in Cambridge. Most of the students 

 here live after the fashion of Leyden, in the town; and 



