once magnificent. Its whole plot is easily traced. On the north side of
the choir, the chapter-house, which is roofed with an arch of stone,
remains entire; and on the south side, another mass of building, which we
could not enter, is preserved by the care of the family of Gordon; but
the body of the church is a mass of fragments.

A paper was here put into our hands, which deduced from sufficient
authorities the history of this venerable ruin. The church of Elgin had,
in the intestine tumults of the barbarous ages, been laid waste by the
irruption of a highland chief, whom the bishop had offended; but it was
gradually restored to the state, of which the traces may be now
discerned, and was at last not destroyed by the tumultuous violence of
Knox, but more shamefully suffered to dilapidate by deliberate robbery
and frigid indifference. There is still extant, in the books of the
council, an order, of which I cannot remember the date, but which was
doubtless issued after the Reformation, directing that the lead, which
covers the two cathedrals of Elgin and Aberdeen, shall be taken away, and
converted into money for the support of the army. A Scotch army was in
those times very cheaply kept; yet the lead of two churches must have
born so small a proportion to any military expence, that it is hard not
to believe the reason alleged to be merely popular, and the money
intended for some private purse. The order however was obeyed; the two
churches were stripped, and the lead was shipped to be sold in Holland. I
hope every reader will rejoice that this cargo of sacrilege was lost at
sea.

Let us not however make too much haste to despise our neighbours. Our
own cathedrals are mouldering by unregarded dilapidation. It seems to be
part of the despicable philosophy of the time to despise monuments of
sacred magnificence, and we are in danger of doing that deliberately,