Elgin is the eighth chapter of Samuel Johnson's book Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland, about a trip he took in 1773. The previous chapter was Bamff and the next is Fores, Calder and Fort George.
Finding nothing to
detain us at
Bamff, we set out in the
morning,
and having
breakfasted at
Cullen, about
noon came to
Elgin, where
in the
inn, that we supposed the best, a
dinner was set before us,
which we could not
eat. This was
the first time, and except one,
the last, that I found any
reason to
complain of a
Scottish table;
and such
disappointments, I suppose, must be
expected in every
country, where there is no great
frequency of
travellers.
The ruins of the cathedral of Elgin afforded us another proof of
the waste of reformation. There is enough yet remaining to show,
that it was 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 borne so small a proportion to any military expense, 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, which the Scots did not do but in the
unsettled state of an imperfect constitution.
Those who had once uncovered the cathedrals never wished to cover
them again; and being thus made useless, they were, first
neglected, and perhaps, as the stone was wanted, afterwards
demolished.
Elgin seems a place of little trade, and thinly inhabited. The
episcopal cities of Scotland, I believe, generally fell with their
churches, though some of them have since recovered by a situation
convenient for commerce. Thus Glasgow, though it has no longer an
archbishop, has risen beyond its original state by the opulence of
its traders; and Aberdeen, though its ancient stock had decayed,
flourishes by a new shoot in another place.
In the chief street of Elgin, the houses jut over the lowest story,
like the old buildings of timber in London, but with greater
prominence; so that there is sometimes a walk for a considerable
length under a cloister, or portico, which is now indeed frequently
broken, because the new houses have another form, but seems to have
been uniformly continued in the old city.