In the reign of Charles I, this place had 30 or 40 trad ing vessels belonging to it, and carried on a very con siderable herring and white fishery ; but after the Re formation it gradually decayed; and though some spi rited individuals have of late done much for its improve ment, it is still far short of its former opulence and splendour.
The university of this place was founded in 1410 by bishop Wardlaw, and soon after confirmed by a bull ob tained from Benedict MIL It consisted once of three colleges; St Salvator's, founded by bishop Kennedy in 1458; St Leonard's, founded by prior Hepburn, in 1512; and St Mary's or the New College, completed by arch bishop Hamilton in 1553. These three colleges were at one time quite independent of one another, and the same mode of education was pursued in each. Their revenues consisted partly in tithes, and partly in pro perty lands. In the reign of James VI, St Mary's was new-modelled by bishop Adamson, and the celebrated George Buchanan, and appropriated solely to divinity. It was the original seat of the university, and, even long before \Vardlaw's time, the site of a schola where several eminent clergymen taught gratis the lan guages and sciences. It was called the New College, because of its late erection into a divinity college, as above stated.
The revenues of St Salvator's college consisting most ly of tithes, became nearly exhausted by the augmenta tion of ministers' stipends in the church, and it was found necessary to petition parliament to unite this and the college of St Leonard into one. A petition to this ef
fect was presented by the professors of both in 1747; and since that period the two have constituted only one society, under the designation of the United College. The university, therefore, as before stated, consists now of only two colleges. The buildings of St Leonard were sold, and St Salvator's is now the seat of the United College. In the chapel of this college is a tomb of bi shop Kennedy, erected by himself during his life time, of which the gothic work is uncommonly elegant. He died, an honour to his family and his country, in 1466. Within this tomb, according to tradition, were discover ed, about 120 years ago, six magnificent maces, which had been concealed there in troublous times. One was presented to each of the three other universities of Scot land, Glasgow, Aberdeen, and Edinburgh, and the re maining three are preserved here.
Here also are to be seen two silver arrows, with large silver plates affixed to them, on which are inscribed the arms and names of the noble youth, victors in the annual competitions in the generous art of archery. But these competitions have now been disused more than half a century, and the reigning amusements of the place are golf and toot ball, games which, in the reign of James II., were prohibited by act of parliament as unprofitable and hurtful. Population in 1801, 3263. (a)