StC, 17. fHE COtJNTV Of FIFE. j$ 



\vhere they stood, did not tradition or ancient 

 record direct us to the place. 



Ruins so extensive and magnificent, and, in 

 proportion to the narrow extent of territory to 

 which they are confined, so numerous, while 

 they serve to give us a very high idea of the 

 splendor and opulence. of this county in former 

 times; and of the dignity, rank, and consideration 

 of its ancient proprietors ; must, at the same time, 

 spread a melancholy gloom over the mind, while 

 contemplating them, a* d lead irresistibly to se- 

 rious 'reflection. The time was when these 

 mouldering fabrics stood firm and complete, 

 adorned with all the elegance known in ruder 

 times, and many of them inhabited by the first 

 families in the kingdom. In them all the pomp 

 of power and riches was displayed ; there hos- 

 pitality spread the sumptuous board ; the voice 

 of health and festivity resounded through the 

 halls ; and the gates were crowded with nume- 

 rous retainers and dependents. But now these 

 once stately mansions, unroofed, stripped of 

 their ornaments and deserted, are mouldering 

 away in solitary silence, under the ravaging 

 hand of time. The powerful, the flourishing, 

 and wealthy masters, whom they onqs boasted 

 of, are long since gone and forgotten in the 

 dust. The names of but a few, and the deeds of 

 still fewer, have reached the present times. What 

 they and their habitations are now, we, and our 

 still Jess durable dwellings, in the revolution of 

 a few ages, must certainly be. 



Immortality is the natural wish of the human 

 heart ; and though too many give themselves 



