Description of Dunfermline.

THIS thriving town is situated in the western part of Fife, about three miles to the north of the Firth of Forth. The greater part of it lies on a rising ground about 190 feet above the level of the sea; it declines however into a plain, on which is what is called the Nether Town, This situation gives it a very commanding view, extending on one side to Soutra hill and Lammermoor in Berwickshire, and on the other to Benledi in Perthshire. The town is, upon the whole, well-built, and considerable attention has been paid to paving and cleaning the streets.

Dunfermline is of great antiquity, and was a frequent residence of the Kings of Scotland. Malcolm Canmore, son to Duncan, who was mur dered by Macbeth, with Margaret his illustrious queen, spent most part of his reign there: and when he was slain at Alnwick, in Northumberland, on the 13 September 1093, his body was conveyed to this place. He resided in a tower or castle, situated ca a peninsulated hill in a neighbouring glen. This is called Malcolm's tower, and some remains of it are still to be seen. At a subsequent pero, which cannot now be precisely ascertained, a palace was built, a little to the uth-east of the tower, and in a very

noble situation. The south-west wall still remains, and, in it, tradition points

out the chimney of the apartment in which the unfortunate Charles I. was born. This edifice is said, by Mr Grose, to have been rebuilt by Anne of Denmark; but this appears to be a mistake: that princess only built another house near it, which was in good repair long after the palace was in ruins; and has lately been sold, barbarously enough, in order to serve as a quarry.

The most remarkable ruin in Dunfermline, however, and that which forms the most prominent object in the view exhibited on our frontispiece, is the Abbey. It held the first rank among the religious houses of this country, at once for wealth, sanctity, and the favour of successive sovereigns. Its first foundation is usually ascribed to Malcolm Canmore, and its completion to his son Alexander I. It certainly existed as a sacred edifice in the elcventh century, as appears from its Chartulary. It is assigned, by the universal voice of tradition, as the burial place of Malcolm, and of five other kings, his successors. These are stated, by Sir Robert Sibbald, to have been Alexander I, David I, Malcolm, IV, Alexander III, and Robert I. Different members of their families, and distinguished noblemen, are also said to have been interred in the same

place.

pect er view. Mithan is the diminutive of Midh, or Mith, and has been formed, according to the English idiom, in the same manner as Aldie and Rossie, aforesaid.

The next object worth attention to the eastward is the Cearcac Head, erroneously written Caercock Head. Cearcac is the diminutive of Cearc, and signifies a little diver, or cormòrant. This same head has two other names, viz. 1mo, Cuithal, i. e. the entrenched rock.-2do, Prile Castle, probably so denominated from its then proprietor. Thus, in the different names of this head, we can in some measure trace its history. It was called Cearcac Head (head is evidently a translation of the Gaelic word corresponding to it,) when it had no other circumstance to distinguish it than its being frequented by a number of cormorants. It afterwards received the name of Cuith-Al, when it was secured on the land side by a fosse and rampart. And lastly, it was called Prile Castle, when the entrenchment received the addition of a castle. And it is not a little singular, that all these characteristics still remain. It is frequented by a number of cormorants, provincially called scarts. The fosse and rampart are very distinct, and the foundations of the castle can still be traced.

Next is the Red Head, the Promontorium Rubrum of Boethius, and the other Scottish historians, principally remarkable as the landing place of the Danes. On its summit is an entrenchment, but far inferior in point of strength to that on Cearcac Head.The only other head I notice is the

impracticable. Al that they meant was, that they landed near it, and tradition points out the southern extremity of Lunan Bay as the actual landing place. This tradition is strongly corroborated by an artificial tumulus, which still retains the name of the Corbie Know. The Raven and Corbie are synonymus, and as the Raven was the Danish standard, it is more than probable this was the eminence on which they erected it, after their landing.

Having made this digression from the old line of road, it is necessary to return to Kinaldie, a little to the north of which is situated Cairnton, so denominated from a Cairn, which can still be traced, but whether of the Sepulchral or Druidical kind cannot be determined.

The next object worth attention is Chance Inn, built in the 17th century by the family of North Esk, only remarkable for the following apo propriate inscription, viz. Non nobis solum nati sumus.

You now reach the Keilor, which separates two farms, named Muckle and Little Inchock, so named from their being in a manner peninsulated by streamlets which nearly surround them. The original word is Inisac, the diminutive of Inis, i. e. A Peninsula or Inch. Inis is pronounced Inish, and Inisac, Inishac, so that the original pronunciation is nearly retained, though the orthography is considerably altered by writing it Inchoch. 21st Feb. 1810. (To be continued.)

tory.

MILO.

When our historians inform us that the Danes landed at Red Head, the expression must not be literally understood, for a landing at Red Head was

March 1,-20. NOTHING remark

able in the natural history department occurs this month. The weather has not, upon the whole, been unfavourable for the operations

operations of sowing; but vegetation has been considerably checked by nightly frosts.

21.-26. The fish-market is at present copiously supplied with fresh cod, ling, halibut, and turbot, taken off the East Neuk of Fife, by boats from Cellardikes, Craill, and other towns on the coast. Scarcely a single haddock comes to market. On the 23d, smelts, or spirlings, appeared on

the stalls.

Botanic Garden. This unfortunate garden, on the neglected state of which we have, for the last two years, been Occassionally commenting, has sus tained an additional misfortune in the loss of its superintendent, Mr Thomas Sommerville. This promising young man, after having lingered for many months in a gradual decline, died on the 17th instant, at the early age of 27. He possessed very considerable abilities, both as a professional gardener and as a botanist; and had he lived, would doubtless have distinguished himself in this latter respect.

While the situation of superintendent is thus vacant, it can give no offence, we should suppose, if we remark upon the insufficiency of the salary. Forty years ago, the keeper of the Botanic Garden may have found himself "passing rich with forty pounds a-year." But that such a pittance must now be utterly inadequate, is too evident to require illustration. In this country there is little difficulty in finding men of merit in the gardening profession: indeed Scottish gardeners are held in repute all over the empire. Several excellent cultivators and keen botanists have, during the last ten years, issued from the Edinburgh Botanic Garden itself. To become Superintendent of the Physic Garden of Scotland is justly accounted a horticultural and botanical honour. But it is hard to ask a person to leave a situation where he receives from L.60 to L.100, and to offer him L. 40 a-year. The feather in his

cap" will not, in these times, male up for the deficiency. The perquisites of the place are very trifling and uncertain, and, we understand, cannot be reckoned worth more than L.10 a-year.-We must repeat our conviction that a pressing representa. tion of the real state of matters, made in the proper quarter, would procure a grant of L.600 or L.800 per an num, for the maintenance of this Royal Establishment; and out of this sum a suitable salary might be awarded to a superintendent. If the larger sum were obtained, several additional workmen might be kept; and there would, we are certain, in a garden of such extent, including several stoves and green houses, be found constant employment for at least five or six. At present, we believe there are seldom more than three. This want of hands we ascribe only to the want of funds; for certainly that number must be found inadequate to the ordinary duty of the place. We may add, that the hothouses remain in the same ruinous state formerly complained of: and that unless the roof of the dry-stove be speedily raised, the fine dragonblood tree, the largest and most elegant specimen in Europe,-must push its head through the glass; when it will probably perish by the united in

fluence of the cold and wet.