Spottiswoode Society > History of the affairs of the Church and State of Scotland from the beginning of the reformation to the year 1568 > Volume 1

xlviii BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE
where a street is still called the Exchequer. This and other
buildings erected in William's reign were subsequently de-
stroyed or dilapidated by the English ; but David II. re-
established the mint in the same part of the town at which
William built his Exchequer. The money coined at Aber-
deen in his reign consisted of silver groat pieces, many of
which are preserved, having the inscription, as in Bishop
Keith's letter — david : dei : gra : rex : scotorum, with
a rude crown on the head of the King and a sceptre in his
hand. Bishop Keith's letter to Principal Blackwell on the
subject is dated Edinburgh, 28th November 1752, and is as
follows : — " Sir, I received your letter of the 18th, contain-
ing thanks from yourself, and the Society you represent, for
the silver coins, &c. deposited in your Marischal College by
me and two of my brethren. As several of these coins are
already become, through length of time, exceeding rare, and
seldom to be seen at all, and the rest will come to be so in
a proportionable run of time, we thought it was doing some
service to our native country to deposit those few in our
Alma Mater, for the satisfaction of curious persons after we
shall be dead and gone, and we are pleased enough that
your Society has put a mark of esteem on them, as to take
all possible precaution to preserving them from being lost or
dissipated. How coarsely soever our Scottish coins appear
to have been wrought, yet I think I can assure you that, by
inspecting those of the neighbouring nations at the different
periods, our own are not much inferior. I return you, Sir,
my personal thanks for your polite letter, and for having
been pleased to impart to me the alteration you have already
made in the fabric of the College, which I remember very
well how it formerly stood ; and the alteration you are in-
tending to make in the future education of your students.
I thank you also for a letter you gave me above a year and
a-half ago, to which I was diverted from giving a return at
the time by some incidents ; and beg you will be so good as
to receive this excuse now from, Sir, your most humble and
obliged servant — Robert Keith."
In 1755, when in his seventy-fourth year, Bishop Keith