We came late to Aberdeen, where I found my dear mistress’s letter, and learned that all our little people were happily recovered of the measles.  Every part of your letter was pleasing.

There are two cities of the name of Aberdeen:  the old town, built about a mile inland, once the see of a bishop, which contains the king’s college, and the remains of the cathedral; and the new town, which stands, for the sake of trade, upon a frith or arm of the sea, so that ships rest against the quay.

The two cities have their separate magistrates; and the two colleges are, in effect, two universities, which confer degrees independently of each other.

New Aberdeen is a large town, built almost wholly of that granite which is used for the new pavement in London, which, hard as it is, they square with very little difficulty.  Here I first saw the women in plaids.  The plaid makes, at once, a hood and cloak, without cutting or sewing, merely by the manner of drawing the opposite sides over the shoulders.  The maids, at the inns, run over the house barefoot; and children, not dressed in rags, go without shoes or stockings.  Shoes are, indeed, not yet in universal use; they came late into this country.  One of the professors told us, as we were mentioning a fort, built by Cromwell, that the country owed much of its present industry to Cromwell’s soldiers.  They taught us, said he, to raise cabbage, and make shoes.  How they lived without shoes may yet be seen; but, in the passage through villages, it seems to him, that surveys their gardens, that when they had not cabbage, they had nothing.

Education is here of the same price as at St. Andrew’s, only the session is but from the 1st of November to the 1st of April.  The academical buildings seem rather to advance than decline.  They showed their libraries, which were not very splendid, but some manuscripts were so exquisitely penned, that I wished my dear mistress to have seen them.  I had an unexpected pleasure, by finding an old acquaintance, now professor of physick, in the king’s college:  we were, on both sides, glad of the interview, having not seen, nor, perhaps, thought on one another, for many years; but we had no emulation, nor had either of us risen to the other’s envy, and our old kindness was easily renewed.  I hope we shall never try the effect of so long an absence, and that I shall always be, madam your, &c.

XIX.—­To MRS. THRALE.

Inverness, August 28, 1773.

DEAR MADAM,—­August 23rd, I had the honour of attending the lord provost of Aberdeen, and was presented with the freedom of the city, not in a gold box, but in good Latin.  Let me pay Scotland one just praise! there was no officer gaping for a fee; this could have been said of no city on the English side of the Tweed.  I wore my patent of freedom, pro more, in my hat, from the new town to the old, about a mile.  I then dined with my friend,