Page:Witty and entertaining exploits of George Buchanan (15).pdf/35

            O F  G E O R G E  B U C H A N A N.    35 a place in the weſt of Scotland, where, if you will tether a horſe at night, againſt the next morning you will not ſee him. What a pox will take him away, ſays the Engliſhman? Only ſuch people, ſays George, as will take away your crown-piece. O ſays the Engliſh nobleman, You know what I mean. Then ſays George, You talk much of towns you have in England, I know three towns in poor Scotland, for properties you have none ſuch. Pray, ſays the gentleman, What are theſe properties? Why, ſays George, I know one town where there are a hundred bone-bridges in it; another town, where there are fifty draw-bridges in it; another town, tho' a man commits murder, treaſon, or owes ever ſo much money, if he runs to that town, and gets in below a ſtair, no law nor juſtice can harm him. The nobleman offered immediately to ſtake a hundred pounds, that there were no ſuch towns in Europe, beſides in Scotland. They deſired George to tell him the names of theſe towns, for they would find them out, and know whether he was a liar or not. So he told their names, and two men were ſent to Scotland to ſee them; the firſt was Duddingſton near Edinburgh, where they came and aſked for the bone-bridges there; the people ſhewed them ſteps almoſt between every door, of the ſkulls of ſheep-heads, which they uſed as ſtepping-ſtones. The ſecond was a little country village, between Stirling and Perth, called Auchterarder, where there is a large ſtrand which runs thro' the middle of the town, and almoſt at every door there is a long ſtock, or ſtone, laid over the ſtrand, wbereupon they paſs to their oppoſite neighbours, and when a flood comes, they lift their wooden bridges in caſe they ſhould be taken away, and theſe they call their draw-bridges. The third was a village near Stirling called Cambuſbarron, which they paſt thro' from one end to the other, but there was not a ſtair in it all; ſo they returned to England, and told what manner of bone and draw-bridges they were, and how there was not a fair in all that place, therefore no man could run below it. As George was on the road travelling to London, the weather being very rainy and cold he alighted at an inn to refreſh and warm himſelf, but the fire-ſide being ſo ſurrounded with people he could ſcarce ſee the fire, George finding this to be the caſe, calls to the hoſtler, and orders