27 May 1776 – 2 June 1776

I paid a visit to St. Andrews, once the largest city in the kingdom. It was eight times as large as it is now, and a place of very great trade; but the sea rushing from the northeast, gradually destroyed the harbor and trade together; in consequence of this, whole streets (that were) are now meadows and gardens. Three broad, straight, handsome streets remain, all pointing at the old cathedral; this, by the ruins, appears to have been above three hundred feet long and proportionately broad and high. It seems to have exceeded York Minster, and to have at least equaled any cathedral in England. Another church, afterward used in its stead, bears date 1174. A steeple, standing near the cathedral, is thought to have stood thirteen hundred years. What is left of St. Leonard's college is only a heap of ruins. Two colleges remain. One of them has a tolerable square; but all the windows are broken, like those of a brothel. We were informed that the students do this before they leave the college. Where are their blessed Governors in the meantime? Are they all fast asleep? The other college is a mean building but has a handsome library newly erected. In the two colleges, we learned, were about seventy students, nearly the same number as at Old Aberdeen. Those at New Aberdeen are not more numerous, neither those at Glasgow. In Edinburgh, I suppose, there are a hundred. So four Universities contain three hundred and ten students! These all come to their several colleges in November and return home in May! So they may study five months in the year and lounge all the rest! Oh, where was the common sense of those who instituted such colleges? In the English colleges, everyone may reside all the year, as all my pupils did; I should have thought myself little better than a highwayman if I had not lectured them every day in the year but Sundays.