A faithful friend is he who will give me one loaf when he has but two.

Whilst we live, let us live well: for be a man ever so rich when he lights his fire, death may perhaps enter his door before it be burnt out.

It is better to have a son late than never. One seldom sees sepulchral stones raised over the graves of the dead by any other hands than those of their own offspring.

Flocks perish; relations die; friends are not immortal; you will die yourself: but I know one thing alone that is out of the reach of fate, and that is the judgment which is passed upon the dead.

Praise the fineness of the day, when it is ended; praise a woman, when you have known her; a sword, when you have proved it; a maiden, after she is married; the ice, when once you have crossed it; and the liquor after it is drunk.

Peace between malicious women is like to a horse, which is made to walk over the ice not properly shod; or to a vessel in a storm, without a rudder; or to a lame man, who should attempt to follow the mountain goats with a young foal, or yearling mule.

Never discover your uneasiness to an evil person, for he will afford you no comfort.

Know, that if you have a friend, you ought to visit him often. The road is grown over with grass, the bushes quickly spread over it, if it be not constantly travelled.

Be not the first to break with a friend. Sorrow gnaws the heart of him, who hath no one to advise with but himself.

Dispute not with the wicked. The good will often give up a point, when the wicked are enraged and swollen with pride.

Accustom not yourself to mocking; laugh not either at your guest, or a stranger; they, who remain at home, often know not who the stranger is that cometh to their gate.

Where is there to be found a virtuous man without some failing? or one so wicked as to have no good quality?

Laugh not at the grey-headed declaimer, nor at thy aged grandsire. From wrinkles of the skin, often proceed words full of wisdom.

FRAGMENT OF PARISH ANNALS.

AMONG the papers of the Anstruther family, there is an old fragment of a manuscript, which records two acts of humanity to foreigners in distress, highly honourable to the people of Scotland, though as yet scarcely if at all known to history. The objects of commiseration in the first instance were some

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unfortunate survivors of the Spanish Armada, after its wreck and destruction on the western and northern shores of the island None of our historians appear to have been aware that any part of that armament ever appeared on the east coast of Scotland; far less, that one, of its principal commanders had begged relief in the Frith of Forth. The second class of sufferers were the Protestant refugees from France, in the years 1585 and 1586, whose numbers were so great, that notwithstanding the liberality they experienced in England," they were compelled to seek relief from Scotland also." The chronicler of these events is Mr. James Melvill who was minister of Anstruther at the time, (but afterwards of Kilrennie) and who, in his style and manner, presents a very exact prototype of the celebrated Micah Balwhidder of fictitious story. The following is a literal copy of the fragment :—

"At Anstruther, the 10th day of August, in the last year of the age 1600, written by James Melvill, minister of Kilrennie.

"The year 1588 is well known in history for the providential destruction of the Spanish Armada. The news of it had been blazed about for a long time, and this island had found the fearful effects of it, to the utter subversion both of kirk and . policie, if God had not mercifully watched over the same. Sometimes we were told of their landing at Dunbar; sometimes at St. Andrew's and in Tay; and now and then at Aberdeen and Cromarty friths. Within two or three months after the rising of the General Assembly that year, by break of day, one of our baillies of Anstruther came to my bedside, quite in affray, and told me that a shipful of Spaniards was arrived in our harbour, not to give mercy, but to ask it; that the commander had landed, and he had commanded them to their ship again, 'till the magistrates of the town had advised, and they had humbly obeyed. I got up, and after assembling the honest men of the town, we met in the Tolbooth, and after agreeing to hear them, there came to us a very reverend man, of big stature and grace, of a stout countenance and greyhaired. After much and low courtesie, bowing with his face near the ground, and touching my sleeve with his hand, he began his harangue in the Spanish tongue, whereof I understood the substance; and being about to answer in Latin, he having a young man with him to be his interpreter, the youth repeated what the other had said, in good English.

"The sum was, that king Philip, his master, had rigged out a navie and army to land in England, for just causes, and to be avenged of manie intolerable wrongs he had received of that nation; but God for their sins had been against them,

and by storm of weather had driven their navie by the coast of England, and him, with certain captains, (being the commander of 20 hulks) upon an isle of Scotland, called Fair Isle, where they were shipwrecked; and as many as had escaped the merciless seas and rocks, had for six or seven weeks suffered great hunger and cold, 'till getting the bark they were in, they had sailed from Orkney till 'they arrived here, and were come to their special friends and confederates to kiss the king's majestie's hands of Scotland, (here he beckoned to the earth,) and to find relief thereby to himself, and the gentlemen captains, and the poor soldiers, whose conditions were for the present most miserable and pittiful.

"I answered, in short, that howbeit our friendship could not be very great, seeing they and their king were friends to the greatest enemy of Christ, the pope of Rome, and our king, and we defyed him; nor yet their cause against our special friends and neighbours, the English, could procure any benefit at our hands for their relief and comfort. YET, NEVERTHELESS, they should know by experience, that we were men, and so moved by compassion, and Christians of a better religion than they, which should kyth in the fruits and effects, plain and contrair to theirs. For whereas our people resorting among them in a peaceable manner, and for lawful affairs of merchandize, were taken violently, cast into prison, and their bodies committed to cruel flaming fire for the cause of religion; yet they should find nothing among us but nothing, Christian pity and works of mercy and alms; leaving to God to work in their hearts as it pleased him.

"This being truly repeated to him by his interpreter, with great reverence he gave thanks, and said he could not make answer for their kirk, and the laws and order of it, only for himself; that there were divers Scotsmen who knew him, and to whom he had shewn courtesy and favour at Cadiz, and as he supposed, some of this same town of Anstruther.

"I shewed him that the baillies had granted him license, with the captains, to go to their lodgings for their refreshment; but to none of their men to land, 'till the overlord of the town was advertised, and they understood the king's majestie's mind anent them.

"Thus, with great courtesy, he departed.

"That night, the laird of Anstruther came, and accompanied with a good number of the neighbouring gentlemen, gave the said general and captains presence; and after speeches, in effect as above, received them into his house, and entertained them humanely; and suffered the soldiers to come shore, and lye altogether, to the number of 260, for the maist part young bairdless men, silly, traiked and hungered.

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"To them, for a day or two, the inhabitants gave kail, pottage, and fish. My address to them was conform to the prophet Elisa to the king of Israel in Samaria, "Give them bread and water."

"The names of the commanders were Juan Comes de Medina, general of 20 hulks; Capitan Patricio, Capitan de Legaretto, Capitan de Lustera, Capitan de Maurítio, and Seignior Sejano.

"Meantime, all the while my heart melted within me for thankfulness to God, when I remembered the pridefull and cruel nature of these people, and how they would have used us in case they had landed with their force against us; and saw much of the wonderful works of God's mercie and justice, in making us see the chief commander of them making such deugenet and courtesie to poor seamen; and their soldiers so abjectly to beg alms at our doors, and in the streets.

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Meanwhile, they knew not of the wreck of the rest, but supposed their army was safely returned; 'till, one day, I got in St. Andrew's a printed account of the wreck of the gallies, with the names of the principal men, and how they were used in Ireland, and our Highlands, in Wales, and other parts of England; which, when I told to the general, he cried out for grief, and bursted and gratt.

"This commander, when he returned to Spain, shewed great kindness to a ship of Anstruther that was arrested at Cadiz. He rode to court for her, and highly commended Scotland to his king. He took the seamen to his house, and inquired for the laird of Anstruther, for the minister, and his host, and sent many commendations home.

"But we thank God that we had seen them among us in this sort.

"In the years -86 and -87, the Protestants of France were charged away against such a day, under pain of loss of life, goods, gear and land; so that the number of the banisht in England was so great, and their poor so many, that they were compelled to seek relief in Scotland also; and to the glory of God, in the poor bounds I had under my charge at my first entry to the ministry, we had above 500 marks. The sum of the whole collection from the French kirk, extended to 10,000 marks, thro' the whole of Scotland, as their acquittances and letters of thanks bear witness, whilk I have in my custody."

THE FRAGMENT OF PARISH ANNALS ILLUSTRATED.

THE following account of the shipwreck of the duke of Medina, on the coast of Fair Isle, and of his subsequent adventures, made up from the traditions of the country, by a native of Shetland, will throw some additional light on the annals of Anstruther. It appears from this, that the duke and his followers leaving Anstruther, reached Ostend in safety; and that the ship which conveyed them belonged to, and was commanded by one Andrew Humphrey, of the Fair Isle, who was probably the young man mentioned in the minister of Anstruther's account as having officiated as interpreter to the duke:

"One of the ships of the Spanish Armada, on board of which was the duke of Medina, was wrecked on the east side of the Fair Isle; the duke and part of the crew were saved, and were compelled, by bad weather, to remain in the isle so long, that a famine arose, so great, that a piece of bread was sold by the inhabitants to the Spaniards for as many ducats as would cover it.

"As soon as the weather permitted, they crossed over in boats to the south part of the main land of Shetland, and were hospitably entertained by Malcolm Sinclair, laird of Quendal, a considerable time; after which, they embarked in a vessel belonging to, and commanded by Andrew Humphrey, of Berry, (at that time proprietor of the Fair Isle) who carried them to Ostend; for which service having received a handsome reward, he returned home, and lived afterwards in great affluence during life.

"Another evidence of this wreck at Fair Isle is, that one captain Jacob Row, employed by the right honourable earl of Morton, to drag on it, took up two brass cannon, having the Spanish arms on them, in the year 1728.

Our tradition likewise informs us, that two ships of the Armada came to an anchor about two leagues west from Fitfield-Head, (the south west point of Shetland) and there rode down.

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Of this we have still more convincing evidence, viz. the fishermen hauling up with their lines, in the place, pieces of iron, ropes, and other things belonging to a ship; particularly three years ago, (1769) a copper boiler, while fishing for cod and ling; and on that account they call the place" The Ship.”