Shetland and the Shetlanders; or, The northern circuit

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LIBRARY

SHETLAND

AND THE SHETLANDERS;

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By CATHERINE SINCLAIR,

Author of "Modem Accomplishments," "Modern Society," "Hill and
Valley," "Charhe Seymour," "Holiday House," &c. &c.

O Scotland! nurse of bravest men,
But nurse of bad men too !
For thee the good attempt in vain,
What villains still undo !

Robertson of Struan.

DEDICATED TO THE HIGHLAND SOCIETY.

NEW-YORK:

D. APPLETON & CO., 200 BROADWAY.

1840.

51055

UNIVERSITY PRESS.
JOHN F. TROW, PRINTER, 114 NASSAU- STREET.

PREFACE

The author having in a previous volume ventured
forward with some apprehension, she has been so
agreeably surprised by the success of her first shot,
in bringing down a large covey of readers, that she
feels encouraged now to discharge a second barrel,
trusting it may not be said that she has overshot
the mark.

The more deeply grateful the author feels to
those who have candidly, and only partially viewed
her present attempt to throw some additional light
and interest on the locahties of Scotland, the more
solicitous she is, not to draw too largely on their
forbearance, or to intrude too frequently on their
attention ; she now therefore concludes this work,
hoping that the very indulgent public may long
continue

'' To all its faults a little blind/'

^

SHETLAND
AND THE SHETLANDERS

DORNOCH

TO A SCOTCH COUSIN.

I've often wished that I had clear,
For life six hundred pounds a-year,
A handsome house to lodge a friend,
A river at my garden's end,
A terrace-walk, and half a rood
Of land, set out to plant a wood; '

Pope.

My dear Cousin, — When students are about to
leave Oxford, a list is given in of the books to
which their attention has been chiefly devoted, and
they are examined by a learned jury on the progress
and depth of their attainments. If we were all
obliged occasionally to render up before competent
examiners such an account of our time, it would be
amusing, in most cases, to see the miscellaneous list
of favourite authors presented ! Instead of Homer,
1*

b DORNOCH.

Cicero, and Herodotus, how often we should find
" Trollope, Dickens, and Hook," or perhaps " Byron,
Scott, and the Newgate Calendar," but of late your
more abstruse studies have been seriously impeded
by the incessant battledore and shuttlecock of our
correspondence, and the Post-office must wonder
what can be going on in the North, seeing so con-
stant a succession of letters pouring in upon you,
their seals strained almost to bursting, like the lock
of a trunk on a journey.

We are credibly informed, that the Empress
Josephine wore thirty new bonnets in a month ; and
really those who travel through the wind and rain
of this changeable summer would require to follow
the example, or to wear theirs of cast-iron. Mr.
M'Intosh ought to receive a petition from the ladies,
to invent something becoming for us to wear during
rain, as he certainly has sacrificed the ornamental
to the useful in respect to gentlemen, who are much
to be pitied for the sort of hideous domino they all
wear in a shower, though they might be envied also
for the impunity with which they can brave the

worst now. I often think A would rather have

a torrent of rain than otherwise, to prove how im-
pregnable, amidst the w^ar of elements, are his for-
tifications.

We had a delightful clearing-up towards eve-
ning for inspecting the neat little county town of

DORNOCH.

Dornoch, where I greatly admired the magnificent
donation of a fine cathedral presented to the city
some years ago, by the Duchess-Countess of Suther-
land, who expended £Q000 in renewing an ancient
ecclesiastical edifice which stood here, dedicated to
St. Gilbert, a saint with whom I was not previously
acquainted. The former building had been burned,
along with a large proportion of the town, by an
invading army, but her Grace caused the old pro-
portions and very elaborate decorations to be copied
with almost Chinese minuteness, and now it wants
only a few centmies of antiquity to be quite venera-
ble.

After this renewal had been successfully com-
pleted, the Duchess only once enjoyed the gratifica-
tion of attending public worship in that house of
God, where she now lies interred beneath a wooden
trap-door in front of the altar. There also sleeps
the Duke her husband, to whom the county of Suth-
erland owed, and has testified, almost unbounded
respect and gratitude. On the summit of a neigh-
bouring hill, a pillar, sixty feet high, surmounted by
a colossal statue, may be seen for thirty miles round,
" known to every star and every wind that blows."
It was raised by the personal labour and subscrip-
tions of his own attached tenantry to the memory of
this nobleman, originally a stranger to our heath-
covered mountains, who became so completely a

8 DORNOCH.

Scotchman by adoption, that he spent the whole
income of his Highland estates in improving them,
resided much in that remote district, associated cor-
dially with his tenantry, and chose his dukedom to
perpetuate his connection with this country and with
the ancient Earldom of Sutherland, the oldest title
in Britain.

The Duke's death was supposed to have been
hastened by the cold and fatigue of a steam voyage
to Scotland; and the Duchess, who survived him
five years, gave directions, on her death-bed, with
singular forethought, that her body should be con-
veyed to Dornoch by sea, but that any of her family
who were to be present at the funeral should avoid
the danger of a winter voyage, and follow by land.

Few persons have enjoyed a more remarkably
prosperous life than the Duchess-Countess of Suther-
land, gifted from her earliest youth with an eminent
share of beauty, talents, and fortune, which she lived
to enjoy, almost unimpaired, during a long course
of years.

It is well known that when Lord Trentham was
jilted by the beautiful but fickle Lady Caroline
Spencer, some friend reported to him that the young-
heiress of Dunrobin had expressed astonishment how
any lady could refuse one so deserving of happiness.
Upon hearing this, he instantly declared that she
could more than compensate for his recent disap-

DORNOCH.

pointment, — the result of which eclaircissement was,
an alhance most propitious to the best interests of
Scotland.

The Duchess-Countess, when about to be snatch-
ed from all that this world could bestow, testified
astonishing composure while she contemplated the
immediate approach of death. When alluding to
the prospect of her own impending dissolution, she
said, " It is quite as well now as afterwards ;" and
when advised to postpone some important business,
she rephed, "There is no time for me but the
present."

No subject excites such deep interest in every
human breast, as to ascertain how that last enemy
has been met by others, which must sooner or later
conquer ourselves ! It often seems to me, that du-
ring life, we are placed between two impenetrable
curtains, the one hiding from our sight all that is
past, the other all that is future ; but a death-bed
throws both, as it were, aside, — the door stands a-jar
leading into another world, — and w^e then see at
once, in solemn array, all the follies of our former
existence, and all the terrors of a future judgment,
which often so fearfully awaken those agonies of
conscience that beset the mind of a dying sinner.
Sir Henry Halford, who attended the final hours of
many an eminent individual, has recorded his own
surprise how many have no reluctance to die, — some

10 DORNOCH.

from impatience of suffering, others from passive in-
difference, but many from faith in our holy religion.
" Such men," he adds, " were not only calm and
supported, but cheerful, in the hour of death, and I
never quitted such a sick-chamber, without a hope
that my last end might be like theirs." It is very
remarkable to observe, how little our love of life is
proportioned to the external prosperity we enjoy in
it, and that whenever we fancy any individual hav-
ing more than a common share of happiness, he is
always some one of whom we know nothing, or
very little. You have heard of the poor bed-ridden
old beggar, who clasped his hands in an agony of
grief when told he was dying, and exclaimed, " Oh,
this is a pleasant world !" and you have seen others,
with scarcely a want unsupplied, who seemed
weary of their very existence, and endured it only
from a dread of futurity. Baxter said, he was all
his life tempted sinfully to wish that he had never
been born ; and those who have attained the most
that this world can offer, have greatest leisure to
look around-on the barrenness of the prospect, while
they might be apt to exclaim, like Caesar, when he
gained his empire, " Is this all !" A peaceful con-
science, that blessing which all might enjoy, who
rightly seek and value it, is the only support which
will avail in the end, and some Christians have at-
tained that holy faith which encouraged them to

DORNOCH. 11

feel a clam serene expectation, that when the veil
was drawn back which hides eternity from om-
sight, they were immediately to behold the glories
of Heaven. Yet how carefully must we discriminate
between a resigned death, and a prepared death.
Those who are most eagerly seeking the world's
honours, pleasures, and applause, would scarcely be
ready to acknowledge the wisdom of that last wash
expressed by the unfortunate Princess Caroline Ma-
tdda, who scratched these words with a diamond on
the window of her prison — " Oh ! make me inno-
cent— be others great!" Every living person is
born with desires which the world, and all it con-
tains, never can satisfy ; and though all the gifts of
fortune accumulated around us, were conspiring to
hide our Maker from our thoughts, we could not but
feel that there are higher pleasures, and greater
gifts, than any upon earth, which we are created to
seek, and without which we can reach no happiness
that deserves the name. It is astonishing how
many persons never pause, in the hurry of life, to
ask themselves in what their enjoyments consist,
and to what they tend, — who live in mere vague
sensations of either pleasure or pain, without ascer-
taining whether they acquire all the best and rich-
est blessings which might be procured. If we are
merely receiving change for a note, what a cautious
examination is made whether the full amount be

12 DORNOCH.

paid, and how carefully do we avoid being cheated
of the smallest fraction, yet how indifferent we are
whether the joys and hopes on which we spend our
lives be genuine, and whether they be such as will
certainly pass current in that future world to which
we all are hastening !

As riches and honours, then, neither increase the
love of life, nor diminish the awfulness of death,
we can scarcely form too low an estimate of their
intrinsic worth. When rightly used, however, not
as the end, but as the means of enjoyment, they add
so much to the usefulness and the influence of those
who desire to promote the glory of God, and the
good of mankind, that they surely become legitimate
objects of pursuit, though we read that Martin Lu-
ther, in his last will and testament, returned special
thanks to God that he had been born poor, and pos-
sessed " neither house, land, nor money to leave
behind."

The Cathedral of Dornoch has been built, unfor-
tunately, with so loud an echo inside, that part of
the congregation hear the sound only, but not the
sense, of what may be said ; and frequently, in fine
weather, Mr. Kennedy prefers preaching in the open
air. Even when talking to each other, we seemed
to hear double, but much might be amended by
hanging up curtains and draperies to deaden the re-
verberation. Nothing is so little understood in

GOLSPIE. 13

architecture as the building of sacred edifices to suit
the voice ; but it would be a useful invention if
churches could be built so that only good sermons
should be audible.

The Duke and Duchess of Sutherland establish-
ed, round the whole of their vast domains, a line of
fii-st-rate inns, each displaying for its frontispiece
their own crest, the cat rampant, certainly, next to
Whittington's, the most fortunate cat in the world.
It was alleged formerly to be a cmious peculiarity
of this country, recorded by Sir Robert Gordon, that
" ther is not a ratt in Sutherland ; and if they doe
come thither in shipps from other pairts, which
often happeneth, they die presentlie, how soon they
doe smell the aire of that cuntrey ; but there is great
store and abundance of them in Catheynes, the verie
nixt adjacent province." Some of that very pecu-
liar " aire" should be imported to London for the
House of Commons. One of the best hotels in Scot-
land may be found at this charming village of Gol-
spie, situated close to a fine trouting stream, and
near the noble park of Dunrobin, which is liberally
opened for a public promenade. Mrs. Duncan, the
landlady here, is sister to two clergymen, and a most
pious, excellent person herself, moderate in her
charges, and so cordial in her reception of guests,
that it seems like visiting some kind old aunt or
grandmother to arrive at the door. She hurried up
2

14 GOLSPIE.

to US immediately Avith a most liberal presentation
of wine and shortbread, that we might be " eating
while w^e ordered dinner !" Our hostess spoke with
tears of the late Duchess, who often stopped her
carriage when passing the inn, to ascertain what
travellers had lately been there ; and the good land-
lady is gifted with the faculty most useful in her
line, in which none but the Royal Family could ex-
cel her, of never forgetting any person. Mrs. Dun-
can had been completely perplexed by one guest,
however, last time I was here, who arrived at Golspie
in the mail, intending to pass on, but attracted by
the splendid scenery and excellent fare, he ordered
his baggage to be dismounted, and declared his in-
tention to remain there all night. Day after day
passed on, week after w^eek elapsed, and still the
gentleman occupied her best parlour, and lingered
on, entranced by new beauties in the landscape, till
the summer had passed entirely away. No name
appeared on his portmanteau, and he neither receiv-
ed letters, nor cultivated acquaintances ! The whole
inn got into an uproar of curiosity about this inter-
esting incognito ! According to all the rules of ro-
mance, he ought to have been handsome, but conceive
my disappointment at seeing a middle-aged, respect-
able looking man, in a brown bob-wig ! Even Mrs.
Duncan seemed quite mortified, that he was neither
a disguised Prince, nor a swindler, all the silver

DUNROBIN CASTLE. 15

spoons remained in their places, and at last he paid
his bill in quite a matter-of-fact way, put his trunk
on the mail again, and exit on the top of the coach !

Mrs. Duncan's reminiscences of former guests
are more disinterested than those of your old land-
lady at Brighton, who estimated travellers by the
length of bill they incurred, sa}dng, "He was an
excellent man, — always posted with four horses,
ordered his bottle of sherry for dinner, and seldom
went to bed without a hot supper at night !"

I never felt a sensation so like being in a bal-
loon as when gazing from the drawing-room win-
dow of Dunrobin Castle, perched like an eagle's
aerie on the summit of a lofty rock, and looking
down on the waving tops of the trees, the ocean
furrowed with sti'eaks of foam, and the far distant
prospect of Tarbetness, with its beacon-light

" Streaming comfort o'er the troubled deep."

A long hne of points and pinnacles terminates at
Trouphead, and if you can look on the whole view
without an ecstasy of admiration, shut your eyes
on nature for ever after, as you are unworthy to
behold her. The park, though not highly dressed
or ornamented, has the beauty of great extent, and
is abundantly wooded to the edge of the wnde and
intensely blue ocean. Every tree so exposed to the
wild northern blast must have a precarious existence,

16 DUNROBIN CASTLE.

and those planted nearest the ocean generally perish
on a forlorn hope ; but no species can brave the sea-
breeze half so hardily as the Huntingdon willow,
which has outgrown all its cotemporaries at least
twelve feet in height, and is covered with abundant
foliage, though all shaped like flags, with a bare
pole next the sea, and the long branches fluttering
and streaming towards the land.

The enormously fat housekeeper, well-known at
Dunrobin, was absent to-day, but w^e found a thin-
ner one who answered our purpose equally well in
displa^^ng the house, which is considered to be the
oldest inhabited residence in Britain. Do you re-
member a conundrum with which a friend of ours
once astonished the stately and dignified Duchess-
Countess of Sutherland, " Why is the proprietor of
this place, like a thief on the gallows ? Because
he has Done-rohhing P' The date is 1100, and the
name is of Gaelic derivation, signifjdng " the hill of
Robert," after Robert Earl of Sutherland, who built
it. In the court of this castle is one of the deepest
draw wells in Scotland, but we must hope that truth
does not lie at the bottom of it.

This remote old castle used to be filled, not many
years ago, with company as distinguished for rank
and consequence as the guests at Windsor Palace.
The first society in England was attracted by the
Duchess, who lived there like a feudal Princess, en-

DUNROBIN CASTLE. 17

tertaining often thirty guests at dinner, and lodging
sixty servants in the house. Since her lamented
decease, a pall of mourning is spread over the whole
county, and this venerable castle seemed to me now-
like an old friend in adversity, as I wandered through
its desolate halls, remembering the last time I dined
here, w^hen " the free and independent electors of
Sutherlandshire" were entertained at table, and her
Grace's two pipers effectually drowned all political
discussions, by performing pibrochs alternately,
equipped, the one in the Sutherland tartan, the other
in that of Lord Reay's country, which her Grace
had recently added to her vast possessions. Even
many of the old ancestors are vanished from Dun-
robin, having gone to London to be refreshed and
beautified, though copies of several still decorate the
steward's room ; and I could not but fancy, in look-
ing at the Duchess-Countess's mother, and her aunt,
the good Lady Glenorchy, that, hanging where they
do, they must lend their countenance occasionally
to scenes and conversation rather unsuitable to their
dignity. My grandmother. Lady Janet Sutherland's
portrait appears there in the character of a little
smiling old-fashioned infant, certainly rather formal,
with a cherry in her hand, looking very imlike the
venerable character she afterwards became, when,
such was the reverence felt for her in Caithness, that
a clergyman hearing she was to preside at an
2*

18 DUNROBIN CASTLE.

Edinburgh assembly, directed his letter to her as
" Moderator of the General Assembly, Edinburgh !"
Her nephew, the last Earl of Sutherland's likeness,
in full Highland garb, is to be seen on the staircase.
Judging from that, and the other portraits of him in
various splendid costumes, which decorate different
apartments, he must have had a very interesting ap-
pearance, and his Countess has so animated and
speaking an expression, that her mere picture en-
livens the room, and she must have been a delightful
companion. She and her husband having both died
young, within sixteen days of each other, w^ere buried
in one grave at Holyi^ood Chapel, and the Duchess-
Countess raised a monument to the memory of her
parents in Dornoch Cathedral. It consists of two
marble pillars, each surmounted by an urn, and
crowned with a coronet. This inscription is carved
underneath — " They were lovely and pleasant in
their lives, and in their death they were not divided."

A dismal likeness is here, representing the Duke
of Richmond, who never laid aside his mourning
after the execution of Charles I. ; and we admired
an interesting picture of Lady Glenorchy in her
childhood, teaching music to an orphan girl whom
she educated ; an early indication of that active be-
nevolent usefulness, for which, in more essential
things, she became afterw^ards so distinguished.

The Marquis of Hastings, and a gay party of

DUNROBIN CASTLE. 19

visiters at Dunrobin, once secured the whole mail
at Golspie, and wheeled themselves round to Thurso,
where they hired post horses to John 0' Groat's
house, taking refreshments along with them — a ruin
is, of course, nothing without a sandwich — and w^ere
back next night, making a circuit of 120 miles.
Most travellers must be grievously disappointed in
the far-famed John 0' Groat's house, of which not
a fragment remains. The downs in that place, how-
ever, are the most vividly and intensely green you
ever saw, and the clear w^hite waves break along a
beach composed, for many miles' extent, of shells
ground to pow^der ;

all beside is pebbly length of shore,

And far as eye can reach, it can discern no more.

During our progress along forty miles from Dun-
robin to Wick, we drove so close to the sea, that
but for the height of the hills, we might have kept
one wheel in the water all the way, and the journey
w^as like a voyage, without the discomfort or danger.
The distant sea gulls looked like a flight of butter-
flies, and the glittering foam was blown in feathers
along the ocean, " a moment white, then gone for
ever !" Many parts of this coast are bold and fine,
though the bleak and barren prevails elsewhere, and
several of the fields are so covered with large rocks,
some flat and others upright, that the appearance
was like that of a church-yard. One proprietor, to

20 HELMSDALE.

consume the superfluous stones, has built Httle towers,
resembhng chessmen, at the comersof several fields;
but if the whole had been gathered up, they would
make a perfect pyramid of Egypt.

The flourishing little sea-port of Helmsdale,
which now sends out a fleet of several hundred her-
ring boats, is inhabited by ci-devant cottagers from
the rural parts of Sutherlandshire, where forty miles
of country, once their home, looks now as if a vic-
torious enemy had laid it w^aste ; every little hamlet
in ruins, though the scorched and blackened walls
yet remain, the church w^here once a numerous con-
gregation assembled, now so nearly empty, that the
parish clergyman might address his clerk as Dean
Swift did, " dearly beloved Roger !" and the unten-
anted gardens, still partly enclosed, and more bright-
ly green than the surrounding common,

where once the garden smiled,

And still where many a garden flower grows wild.

The villagers long resented this arbitrary sub-
stitution of sheep, while they w^ere themselves driven
in flocks to the coast, and when any of the Suther-
land family appeared in that neighbourhood for some
time afterwards, they were followed by crowds an-
grily imitating the bleating of sheep ; but if the end
could sanctify the means, that measure has turned
out well, as the people, formerly steeped in poverty,
and sunk in the desponding indolence consequent on

ORD OF CAITHNESS. 21

hopeless penury, are now become industrious, cheer-
ful, and prosperous. We saw the Castle of Helms-
dale, looking like the ruins of an old band-box.
Once upon a time, however, it had inhabitants, when
an atrocious murder was committed there by Isabella
Sinclair, who poisoned the Earl and Countess of
Sutherland, and was condemned to death for the
crime in Edinburgh, but made away with herself on
the day of her execution, cursing her cousin, George
Earl of Caithness, whom she accused of having in-
stigated the crime, that her own son might succeed
to the title, a promising youth, who, unfortunately
for himself, brought a strange retribution on his am-
bitious mother, as he drank the poisoned cup she
had prepared for Lord Sutherland's only son, and
immediately expired.

The Ord of Caithness was formerly pre-eminent
for being the most dangerous bit of road in Scot-
land. Mr. Telford tamed it down, however, into
such perfect safety and insignificance, that modern
travellers can scarcely credit the difficulty and haz-
ard with which ten years ago it was crossed, imless
they are shown the old track, an almost perpendi-
cular line of loose stones at the edge of an airy pre-
cipice. On first beholding this mountainous road
since its metamorphosis, I felt somewhat like the
fairy whose tent was turned into a thimble ! Du-
ring the last century, whenever the late Earl of

22 ORD OF CAITHNESS.

Caithness, my grandmother Lady Janet Sinclair, or
any of the chief landed proprietors, entered that
county, a troop of their tenants assembled on the
border of Sutherland, and drew the carriage them-
selves over the hill, a distance of two miles, that
nothing might be trusted in such a scene to the dis-
cretion of quadrupeds. A pretty considerably nar-
row, perpendicular road skirted along the very edge
of a precipice rising twelve hundred feet abruptly
out of the ocean, without the smallest hint of a para-
pet, and many travellers, seeing this formidable ob-
stacle, turned their horses' heads without proceeding
to scale it. The accident-maker for the Dumfries
Courier should settle for life here, as there is quite
a treasury of untold stories to be heard in every
house, — how the mail was upset in one place, and
at another how Lord DufFus had only time to
spring out and save his life before his gig and horse
went over, and never spoke more. It appears to
me, that gigs all come to an untimely end. I never
yet saw a newspaper, without one or two having
run off, and if ever they are within reach of a pre-
cipice, they make a point of going over. The mail-
coach now rattles down the w^hole descent of the
Ord, scarcely deigning even to use a drag !

It is an old established superstition, that none of
our clan may cross the Ord on a Monday, because
on that day of the week, forty Sinclairs, command-

ORD OF CAITHNESS. 23

ed by the Earl of Caithness, ventured over to the
battle of Flodden Field, and not one survived ex-
cept the drummer, who was dismissed before the
battle began. The whole troop had dressed in
green, and since then it is likewise considered fool-
hardy in any one bearing the name of Sinclair to
wear green. I question whether w^e are entitled
even to eat green peas, or to drink green tea, and
W'henever a Sinclair loses his purse, it must of
course have been of the objectionable colour.

When my late father succeeded to his estate,
there w^as not a road, nor a single cart in Caithness,
and he introduced the first highway when only eigh-
teen years of age. Having been taunted wdth the
impossibility of carrying one over the hill of Ben-
cheilt, he went to the place in person, assembled
1260 labourers, assigned each a separate spot, where
tools and provisions had already been placed, and
in one single day, what had only been a rough
horse-track in the morning, became fit for carriages
before night. Soon after, he suggested the plan to
Lord Melville, of obtaining j£50,000 as a grant by
Parliament, from the Scotch forfeited estates, to make
roads and bridges throughout the ultra-northern
counties, where the drivers of cattle had to swim
with their droves across the rivers when taking
them to market ; and from the same fund he ob-
tained j£8500 for making a harbour at Wick.

24 EERRIDALE.

A sixth part of Caithness belonged to my father
when he came of age, and he represented the county
during more than thirty years. No lover ever felt
more anxious to decorate his mistress, than he did
to adorn the barren wilds of his native district. He
even persuaded himself it was beautiful ! As one
proof of his zeal, the romantic entrance to Caithness
is richly wooded, for he planted the hills of Berri-
dale to their very summits, and sold them afterwards
for little more than it cost to embellish them. Two
salmon streams unite here, and flow round the base
of these mountains, while the road winds circui-
tously down to the very bottom of a deep glen,
where a charmingly situated inn, built when the
trees were planted, hes embosomed in wood. Al-
most overhanging this resting place, but nearly two
hundred feet higher up the hill, stands Langwell,
now the residence of Mr. Donald Home. When
the late proprietor, after taking possession of his
recently purchased estate, first appeared at church,
the parish clergyman, being gratefully attached to
my father, looked full in the face of his new auditor,
and gave out for his text the fifth verse of the
seventy-fifth Psalm, " Lift not up your Horn on
high." The clergy in primitive times used to de-
light in selecting eccentric texts. One of Bishop
Bull's most interesting sermons is on that verse of
St. Paul's, " The cloak which I left at Troas, bring

NOTTINGHAM HOUSE. 25

with thee, and also the books, but especially the
parchments." A very admirable one was preached
once against lukewarmness, on the text, " Ephraim
is a cake untm^ned;" and a clergyman not long
since announced for his subject, '^What will this
babbler say ?"

Some miles north of Berridale, stands the bluff
old Castle of Dunbeath, which in old times was
garrisoned by the Marquis of Montrose shortly before
his death. It juts out into the ocean, with the sea
blast whistling through its walls, and the bold dash-
ing waves roaring and sparkling at its foot. A
spurious attempt at trees in front, scorched with
cold till they are perfectly threadbare, actually made
me laugh. Two rows had started in a straight line
from the road to the house, but about half way they
suddenly came to an untimely end. The tall, bare,
skeleton trunks, and the perpendicular branches,
were huddled all together, with a thin canopy of
foliage near the top, as if they were carrying a tray
of leaves on their heads. The effect was more
comical than you can fancy.

The next place we passed Vv^as Nottingham
House, a large bleak lonely mansion, belonging to
the male representative of the Sutherland family,
who would have inherited that ancient earldom,
for which his predecessors had a law-suit, endeav-
ouring to prove that the Earls of Sutherland for
3

56 WICK.

three centuries had all been usurpers, but like most
old Scotch titles, this was impartially settled in the
female line. Nottingham House used formerly to
be in sad disrepair, and the late proprietor was
overheard once, when a visiter unexpectedly arrived,
calling loudly to his servant, " Bring me a fork to
open the drawing-room door !" Many of the win-
dows were at that time built up, and a clergyman
who slept there one night previous to preaching in
the parish church, got up next morning and opened
his shutters, but seeing no light, he retired to bed,
wondering much what had disturbed him so early.
Unable to sleep, he watched impatiently for the
first glimpse of dawn, thinking that certainly a sleep-
less night was a very tedious affair, when at length
the clerk rushed into his room, saying that the w^hole
congregation were assembled in their pews, and had
waited impatiently for some time !

Wick is a sea-port, so fragrant with fish, that
when we entered I thought of your brother's voyage
in a herring smack, when the seats were barrels of
herrings, and the staircase from the cabin formed by
piles of casks. One year, many fields in Caithness
were manured with herrings ; but none of the pro-
prietors find the perfume so oppressive as strangers
do, because these fisheries are the chief sources of
their wealth, only reaped within the last half cen-
tury, when my father advanced money himself, that

WICK.

27

the inhabitants might try their first experiment of
fishing on these coasts, and now 14,000 Caithness
fishermen are in constant employment gathering in
their annual harvest of herrings. My very letter
will smell of fish, if I say another syllable about
it, but the flavour cannot be very injurious to health,
as I have this evening drank tea with an interesting
old lady who has lived here ninety-nine years.
During that period she has been a warm-hearted
friend to three generations of our family in succes-
sion, so you may suppose it was .with no ordinary
feelings that I went to the house. Her first recep-
tion of me was in the true Highland fashion, saying,
with an expression of touching retrospection, " Your
father's daughter is welcome ;" and after ascer-
taining that all our family were well, she added in
a tone of earnest feeling, " They cannot be better
than I wish them." There w^as something almost
Ossianic in the tone of her language; and it is
pleasing to see not only the faculties, but also the
affections, perfectly fresh and perfectly wide awake
at so advanced a period of life. It had all the so-
lemnity of a voice from the dead, when she spoke
of former days, and of friends long departed, whose
very existence seemed to me a tale of other times.

When the Romans cursed an enemy, it was in
these words, "May you survive all your friends
and relations." How often I have thought it would

2S WICK,

be the saddest feeling of extreme old age, to see
" friend after friend depart," — the lights one by one
extinguished which enlivened onr early days, and to
think that those connections on whose kindness we
are finally cast wdll seem cheerless and remote, if
none remain who can remember that we were ever
yomig, happy, and beloved, and who have known
nothing of us but the dark evening of a life so full
of sorrows and infii'mities, that it would scarcely
seem a duty to weep over its close ! The three mes-
sengers of death are accident, sickness, and old age,
all unwelcome w hen they come, but the last is that
w^hich requires most sympathy, and too often excites
the least, for the reverence paid in ancient times to
venerable years is not now universal, having given
place in a lamentable degree to indifference, and
even to ridicule, though in many instances, a satir-
ical feeling is excited, not without justice, against
those who will not grow old with a good grace, and
who never ask themselves, in the language of Scrip-
ture, " How old art thou ?" When I see aged persons
vainly struggling to keep up the semblance of youth,
that text sometimes occurs to my recollection, " Gray
hairs are here and there upon him, and he knoweth
it not." The celebrated wit. Lord Norbmy, de-
termined to have his laugh to the last, laid a bet of
c£100 with his cotemporary, the late Marquis of
Drogheda, which would survive. Both were taken

WICK. 29

ill at once, and Lord Norbury, who lingered longest,
gained the money, but remarked, that he thought
it would have turned out " a dead heat." The
average of human existence is said to be nearly
double in Britain what it is in Naples ! Old Mrs.
Butler, whom you remember in Edinburgh walking
often more than a mile to see me, was ascertained
to be one hundred and ten when she died, but life
at such an extreme age is like a flower without
root, the first blast lays it low : and in taking leave
of our aged and respected friend at Wick, I felt a
solemnizing consciousness that both shall pass into
another, and I trust a better world, before we meet
again.

There everlasting spring abides,
And never withering flow'rs ;
Death like a narrow sea divides
This heav'nly land from ours.

WICK,

I like the weather when it's not too cold,

That is, I like three months in all the year.

Byron.

My dear Cousin, — We may say here, like Lord
Dudley, that the summer has set in with its usual se-
verity ! July and August have forgotten themselves
completely, and turned a cold shoulder to all their
old friends and admirers. In this country the leaves
have at all times a short reign, but this year they
were frightened to death by a frost, soon after they
appeared, looking scorched and lifeless now, espe-
cially the fir tribe, which put up with cold blasts
w^orse than many that seem less hardy.

If travellers w^ould only condescend to forget that
there are such things as trees in the world, they could
not but admire the bold coast scenery of Caithness,
and we walked three miles from Wick this morning
in search of tw^o very strange and tottering old sea-
beaten ruins, which have bid defiance to the waves
for many centuries. The Castles of Sinclair and
Girnigo are but little known, though well w^orth
making acquaintance with, being so remote and so
retired from public life, that few tomists are aware

CASTLE GIENIGO. 31

of their merit. These time-worn remnants stand
side by side, and the oldest wears well, while the
other is a mere wreck, yet the entire mass is mag-
nificent, towering out of the broad ocean in a noble
and commanding style. The situation is very dig-
nified and impressive. A natural wall of perpen-
dicular rock, about sixty feet high, runs out like a
long pier into the ocean, surrounded on three sides
by a boiling foam of waves, struggling forward, and
lashing themselves in ceaseless fury at its base. On
the utmost verge of this point, and scarcely to be
distinguished from the natural masonry of rock, stands
the massy wall of Castle Girnigo, still about five
stories high, and looking almost habitable, the win-
dows, doors, and loop-holes, being faced "v^dth red
free-stone, conspicuously seen amidst the surround-
ing mass of sea-green walls. A curious subterra-
nean staircase descends far beneath the level of the
tide, and a narrow concealed passage under ground
leads to a creek where the waves beat in with angry
vehemence, and where a boat was formerly hid, in
which the family of Lord Caithness escaped when
the fortress was besieged and about to be taken.

A tall tottering fragment of Castle Sinclair rears
its venerable head on high, looking nearly as unsafe as
the pillars of brick built by children, which cannot
be balanced above five minutes, and yet not a stone
has fallen within the memory of the oldest man in

32 WICK. -

the parish. There is an "oldest man" in all par-
ishes, who remembers every thing, and vouches for
all remarkable facts.

The family motto of Lord Caithness is, " Com-
mit thy work to God." It seems rather inappro-
priate to an earl of ancient times, know^n as " George
the wicked," w^ho became chancellor of Scotland,
and lived a great part of his long and atrocious life
within the walls of Girnigo Castle, where we saw
the room in which his second son, William Sinclair,
was slain by his own eldest brother John, w^ho bruised
him to death with his fetters during his imprison-
ment there, and where the earl cruelly starved to
death his eldest son. He himself died at Edinburgh,
and his body lies interred at Roslin Chapel ; but he
desired that his heart — such as it was — should be
buried in a handsome cemetery, raised in honour of
his murdered son, and which still remains, forming
an ornament to the city of Wick, v^here so much
hospitality now prevails, that we saw little danger
of any one being starved in the present day. Caith-
ness piques itself on giving the best breakfasts in
Scotland, and I wish you could have accompanied
us to the manse this morning, where every guest
would require half-a-dozen appetites to achieve what
his knife and fork are expected to do. The lady
who said her appetite required to be amused, should
have taken her place here, surrounded by all the

WICK. 33

dishes peculiar to a Highland dijeune. You would
be much surprised at seeing the Caithness geese,
w hich are smoked and salted like Westphalia hams,
and are said to sharpen the appetite amazingly,
though a gentleman once complained that he did
not find it so, having picked the bones of one, with-
out feeling a whit more hungry !

In the parish of Wick may be seen the truth of
Dr. Chalmers's remark, that " a house-going minister
makes a church-going people." Nothing can ex-
ceed the reverence w^hich every Christian here de-
lights in testifying towards the zealous, able, and
loDg-tried servant of God who officiates among them.
It is anxiously hoped, that one so fitted to guide
others, may long be spared himself; but having been
lately in precarious health, Mr. Phin fainted twice
last Sunday in the pulpit. The use of restoratives
revived him the first time, and he resumed the ser-
vice, but a few minutes afterwards he had a more
prolonged attack, which obliged him to desist, and
the congregation dispersed, many of them in tears.
Next morning the manse gate was besieged by par-
ishioners, eagerly inquiring how^ he had passed the
night, and several old women forced their way into
the house, w^ith various infallible nostrums to cure
his disorder, but unanimous in only one point, which
w^as, in earnestly admonishing him to " take nothing
the doctor ordered !" Here the common people

34 WICK.

have a superstitious horror of the faculty, being per-
fectly convinced, that, like rat-catchers, they bring
the evil they profess to cure ; and three years ago,
an Edinburgh apothecary narrowly escaped with
his hfe, being suspected of importing the cholera to
Wick in his pill-box.

From the manse windows, Mr. Phin pointed out
to me a newly erected " Popish chapel," which he
looked at as if it were a mine dug under the town,
and ready to explode. If the rapid extension of
Roman Catholic influence were regarded with the
same salutary horror in quarters where it may yet
prove more dangerous, we might indeed rejoice, for
it is an alarming circumstance to a Protestant na-
tion, if anything can thoroughly alarm us, that such
edifices are arising in every part of Scotland, though
fortunately they are as yet only like traps set to
catch a congregation, — the casket without the
jewels, — not being yet, in most instances, supplied
with audiences. This very small chapellette at
Wick is only attended by a few soldiers' wdves from
Ireland, and the funds for raising it were in no de-

Since writing the above, this exemplary minister of Christ
has been called into the presence of that almighty Being, in
a better world, whom he so faithfully served upon earth.
His last hours were full of hope, peace, and Christian resig-
nation ; and amidst the heartfelt grief of his numerous con-
gregation, it may still be said, " He being dead, yet speaketh."

WICK. 35

gree contributed by Caithness. It has been conjec-
tured that the Papists wished to boast of their
dominion reaching to every extremity of Britain;
but I hope w^e shall never come quite to Archbishop
Magee's antithesis about the Irish, when he offended
all parties by saying, that they have " a church
without a religion, and a religion without a church!"
At the ancient house of Kilravock, which I have
already described, there is now to be seen a bull,
signed by the Pope's own hand, granting plenary
remission of all their sins, to Colonel Rose's family,
and to every branch of his house, from the date of
this document, to a period of which there are still
about forty years to run ; but I am happy to under-
stand that none of this family have yet taken any
very extraordinary advantage of their uncommon
privileges.

Tw^o ladies of rank in different parts of Scotland,
within the last three years, have each built a chapel,
entirely at her own expense, as large as the parish
church. One of them, raised by the present Duchess
of Leeds, I saw, the architecture of which, like that
of all Popish buildings, is beautiful. It should be
the ambition of Protestants, to out-church, out-pray,
and out-preach those zealous sectarians, for w^e are
too apt to regard Roman Catholic supremacy, and
Roman Catholic persecutions as a tale of other
times, totally extinct now, like the superstitions of

36 STIRKOKE.

ghosts and witchcraft, which I trust may be the
case ; but one would wish on such a subject, as
Shakspeare says, " to make assurance doubly sure,"
leaving those who advocate the worse cause.

To prove their doctrine orthodox,
By apostolic blows and knocks.

If we had a horticultural show in Caithness,
every prize ought to be gained by the gardener at
Stirkoke, where an unusual variety of flowers has
been enlisted into the service, and the proprietor,
Mr. Home, w^ages a perpetual and successful war
against the northern blasts. Rhododendrons are
there in splendid flower, dwarf rhododendrons in a
blaze of blossoms, and pansies equal to any I have
seen elsewhere. The Russian cranberry is expected
some time or other to produce fruit ; the camellias
are doing their very best to live ; the fir-trees are
not yet perfectly dead ; sixty acres of hard wood
in every variety are very thriving ; the forest trees

have grown so tall, that A could not touch the

top of them with his umbrella ; and a most beauti-
ful green-house is glowing with geraniums, fuschias,
passion-flowers, musk-plants, and balsams, besides
which, in the open air, we observed several exotics
from the south, such as wall-flowers, honeysuckles,
jessamine, &c. &c. In short, it is astonishing how
much embellishment may be effected by perse-

STIRKOKE. . 37

verance and enterprise, for the general aspect of
Stirkoke is quite verdant, the house not much over-
topping the trees, and the leaves almost as green in
July, as we generally see them in October. In
some places nearer the sea it was very different, for
the unhappy looking forests resembled an old broom
turned up, and a stranger remarked, there was not
a tree in Caithness on which any one who was tired
of life, could hang himself.

In the plantations at Stirkoke, we started a fine
covey of young pheasants, probably the most north-
ern colony of these birds in the world. A noble
looking red deer also was tethered in the park,
looking so quiet and domestic, that it seemed curious
to think what days of toil and sleepless nights a
sportsman would gladly have endured, to see the
mere tips of his horns, but there he stood safe from
every gun, though ready to be shot at the short-
est notice. A French cook in the Highlands some
years ago, sent up the most magnificent dinner, made
entirely of red-deer venison, and no one could have
found out how nearly all the various dishes were
connected, but the second course must have been
rather defective, consisting only of hartshorn jelly.
The fi^avour is rather powerful, but a Frenchman
can disguise any thing, or cook a white leather
glove into a palatable morsel, never being reduced
to quite such straits as the Scotch housekeeper you
4

38 STIRKOKE.

told me of, who, trusting to the impunity with
which her ungainly sicle-clishes usually escaped un-
tasted from the dining-room, and finding herself at
a loss to fill up one corner of the table, sent up a
finely formed shape of porridge under a white sauce.
Nothing makes cheerfulness flow^ in upon the
spirits more certainly than travelling, — the con-
stantly varying panorama of new ideas and new
subjects of interest, besides a fair opportunity for
grumbling whenever you feel in the humour, which,
I am convinced, is a great luxury to some travellers,
from the frequent use they make of it. We all
wish to be either envied or pitied ; and at present I
could make out a very good case either way, ac-
cording to the representation of our pleasures or
difficulties on the road ; but I am always for view-
ing the bright side of every thing, and never would
wish to look at the sun as philosophers do, merely
to discover the spots.

Having now sent you three sheets of the best
superfine Bath post, it is time to economize my
stationery, and to w4sh you a safe journey through
what I have already written ; therefore, with best
w^ishes, adieu ; and, as the poet, whoever he was,
very sensibly remarks,

** An adieu should in utterance die.

When written should faintly appear,

Only heard in the sob of a sigh,

Or seen in the blot of a tear.''

CAITHNESS.

To gain his purpose, he performed the part
Of a good actor, and prepared to start.

My dear Cousin, — Letter-writing brings forth
the dormant ideas that would otherwise slumber in
our minds, and arranges them before us, like nine-
pins out of a box. Mine tumble out so miscellane-
ously, that they will not be very easily drilled into
order ; but I hope you may be sufficiently interested
to grope your way on with me. As Bishop Hall
says, " curiosity is the appetite of the mind," so we
shall suppose you are perfectly dying of it now, and
require as much mental food as our travels can pos-
sibly supply.

One of the best farmers in this county, my
brother's tenant, Mr. Gunn, is the fifteenth in regu-
lar descent, from father to son, who has occupied
the same land ! He has six sons, all skilful agri-
culturists, several of whom have already made them-
selves comfortably independent, and his mode of in-
structing them in business is uncommon, as well as
extremely judicious. The beautiful and romantic
httle farm of Dalmore, which he rents from Sir

40 CAITHNESS'.

George, has been sub-let to each of his sons in suc-
cession as they grew up, and there they serve an
apprenticeship in the management of this small con-
cern, for which their father exacts the full value.
He annually purchases their stock, and drives as
close a bargain with his sons as if they were
strangers, until each is thoroughly versed in all the
mysteries of the field and of the market-place. Two
of these young men made six thousand pounds last
year in Sutherlandshire, by the sale of sheep and
wool ; so farmers need scarcely emigrate to Austra-
lia to make fortunes in that line : and affluence may
still be realized at home, by those who have pru-
dence and industry. It was the saying, long ago,
of a person who knew the world better than either
you or I, that " many succeed by talent, many by a
miracle, but most people by beginning without a
shilling !"

Since we arrived in Caithness, the eldest of these
promising young men has been suddenly cut off, at
the early age of twenty-five, by the small-pox, which
occasions a deep sensation of sympathy and sorrow
throughout the whole county ; and many of the
chief proprietors assembled at his funeral, as well as
an immense concourse of people, to testify their res-
pect and regret. Fifty years since the proprietors
in this county scarcely improved an acre a-year,
but now several East Lothian farmers have found it

THURSO. 41

worth while to take land in this neighbourhood for
feeding young cattle ; and one of them has brought
a sister with him to manage his household affairs,
who sets an example, that I hope may be followed
by all the pianoforte-playing farmeresses in Scotland,
as she personally assists in every variety of active
employment suited to her station. I was told that
all the milk in the dairy is taken to her every morn-
ing, and is never seen again till she has churned it
into butter ; and then the profits of her poultry-yard,
which amount in most places to considerably less
than nothing, are, by her skilful management, suf-
ficient to pay for all the tea and groceries used in
her brother's house.

The drive from Wick to Thurso is about twenty
miles long, through a highly cultivated country-,
where fields of the richest grain, and substantial
farm-houses, ornament the scene ; but the less we
say the better about beauty, for the road is as level
and as treeless as your drawing-room floor. A folio
page is now in existence, attested by the clergy and
gardeners in the county, containing an exact cata-
logue of all the trees growing in Caithness a hun-
dred years ago, in which even the currant-bushes
are recorded ; but since then, by the indefatigable
exertions of Mr. Traill, the late Earl of Caithness,
and my father, the woods and forests could not so
easily give a census of their population. Some of
4*

42 THURSO.

our own, at a distance, look very like tattered um-
brellas !

The first view of Thurso from the south, in a
fine day, is exceedingly striking and beautiful, in-
cluding the gigantic headlands of Orkney. The
" Old man of Hoy" standing a thousand feet above
the sea ; the Pentland Frith connecting the Atlantic
and German Oceans, and sprinkled with a multitude
of ships ; the tall abrupt rocks of Holbourn Head ;
the charming bay of Scrabster, considered the best
harbour on this coast ; the river sweeping through
the town ; the elegant bridge ; the new church,
larger than any north of Inverness ; the bright yel-
low sands ; the numerous villas and farm-houses ;
and though last, certainly not least, the ancient
towers of Thurso Castle, built by George Earl of
Caithness, in 1660, and belonging since 1718 to our
family, now represented by the county member. Sir
George Sinclair.

I was amused to hear that some English travel-
lers inquired once at the Thurso inn, whether there
were many fine pictures at this castle, when the
waiter, who had never beheld any others, confi-
dently replied, that the collection was first-rate,
very old, and well worth seeing. The connoiseurs
hastened over accordingly, their heads filled with
Corregios and Titians, when, melancholy to relate,
not so much as a single Sir Joshua Reynolds or

THURSO CASTLE. 43

Jameson rewarded their pains, but merely eight
generations of very formal looking ancestors, appear-
ing exactly like every other person's ancestors, the
most remote portraits exhibiting the smallest waists
and largest wigs, while they all became less exag-
gerated towards our own time.

A recent addition has been made to Thurso
Castle, planned and executed by Burn, the cobbler-
general of worn-out houses, by whom ancient edifices
are mended, cleaned, dyed, and repaired, to look
as good as new, or even better. When A per-
ceived flaws in the architecture of several old castles
lately, he wished they were all " Burn'd" like ours.
Certainly the situation here is somewhat uncom-
mon. In former times, showers of spray from the
ocean used to dash up to our drawing-room window,
when the waves, curling and grating along the
shore, sometimes struck at the foundation with ani-
mated vehemence, and rebounded among the rocks,
till at length a breakwater was raised to defend the
wall. My grandmother Lady Janet used to describe,
that many years ago, when sitting by her own fire-
side, a vessel was wrecked off the coast, so near the
turrets, that she could hear the people's voices, yet
though every effort was used on behalf of the crew,
" to yield them hope, whom help could never
reach," not a life was saved from the wreck !

You might have imagined, that in such a posi-

44 THURSO CASTLE.

tion as I have described, this house was near enough
to the sea, but my father hked the pecuUarity of
being so intimate with the wild winds and waves,
so he caused a strong pier to be raised between the
old castle and the water, on which Mr. Burn has
contrived securely to perch a terrace walk and an
appendix to the building. I hope it may turn out
as long-lived as the Irishman's railway, which was
to last for ever, and might afterwards be sold for
old iron.

Several very handsome new apartments are here,
from the windows of which I can at this moment
count a procession of twenty vessels in full sail,
some of which come so close, they are tacking into
the very room, while the stormy surge beats up so
near to where I sit, that it seems to undermine the
very floor. We had a dispute here once, whether
the bright blue ocean, sprinkled with white sails,
was not as beautiful an object, as a green park
dotted with trees, besides being fully more varied,
and I wish you w^ere present to award us the supe-
riority. The roughest and strongest tide on the
Scotch coast is through the Pentland Frith, running
at the rate of nine miles an hour. It is what our
old housekeeper calls " a contramaceous and cantan-
kerous sea ;" and on the opposite coast of Holbourn
Head and Orkney, where the time-worn rocks stand
up as straight as an arrow, the waves are leaping

THURSO CASTLE. 45

ten or twenty feet high, becoming so perfectly white
with foam, they look like apparitions starting out of
the w^ater, and vanishing again, while the vessels
flitting silently and tracklessly along, like wreaths
of mist at the horizon, are now and then lighted up
by a brilliant gleam of sunshine shed upon the
water, as if a path of glory were stretched across,
which it would be a long day's journey to pass
over.

On the beach of Thurso may now" be seen the
hulk of a ship wrecked under our windows last
winter, and many tragical accidents have occurred
at various times to the little herring vessels, foity of
w^hich pass this way in the evening, dancing on the
waves so perfectly joyous and safe looking, that last
night I had actually the courage to wish myself on
board of one. Nothing can be more like the life of
a gambler than that of a fisherman. Sometimes
they make ten pounds at a single haul, and often
not tenpence in a day. I was particularly sorry for
one Caithness fisherman this year, who had caught
sixty crans, each equal to a barrel of herrings, at a
single draught, worth about <£30, but wishing to
complete the hundred crans, he tried another suc-
cessful pull, which sunk his boat, worth jGIOO,
carried away his net, and left the unfortunate specu-
lator with nothing but his life remaining. How
constantly we are reminded, that " slow and sure"

46 THURSO CASTLE.

is the best rule in pursuing wealth, and that we
crush the butterfly by snatching at it too eagerly.

When the present Duke of Sutherland dined
many years ago at Thurso Castle, our fishermen were
eager to prove the productiveness of this coast ;
therefore two and tw^enty different kinds of fish were
placed on table at once, including salmon, cod,
turbot, ling, tusk, haddock, and every thing that
swims, besides an odd fish, called, from its resem-
blance to the feline species, the cat-fish, and consid-
ered a great delicacy, though not a veiy prepossess-
ing one. The salmon-fishing for this river was then
let for jGlOOO a year. It is recorded in the parish
books of Thurso, that in 1786, no less than 2560
salmon were taken out of the river at one sweep of the
net ! Such is the violence of the tides at sea, when
the billows get into a rage during stormy weather,
that cod and ling are, by the force of the waves,
frequently thrown alive upon the shores at Canisbay.

It is pleasing, in this remote country, to see so
universal a confidence in the safety of life and pro-
perty ! Not a door or a window is fastened at night,
nor a shutter closed, and no means of defence pro-
vided, not even so much as a red-hot poker. The
old alarm-bell is speechless, and Oliver Twist might
be thrust into the butler's pantry at any hour of the
night or day, without danger or difl&culty. No pro-
vision being made in Scotland for the maintenance

THURSO CASTLE. 47

and confinement of insane persons, an old woman
used, when I was here last, to haunt this house,
causing great annoyance to its inhabitants, by con-
cealing herself under the beds, or in the closets. A
lady on one occasion, hearing the drawers in her
dressing-room opening and shutting most unaccount-
ably, as it appeared, of their own accord, hurried in
to ascertain the cause, and found this poor maniac
nearly imdressed, and shaking out all her gowns to
select the one she liked best for herself This un-
fortunate creature on another occasion stole up to
the top of a turret, where the maids were assembled,
locked up the whole establishment, and threw the
key into Thurso river, intending to keep them in
perpetual imprisonment ; and thus no hour of the
night or day was secure from her incursions, some-
times in anger and sometimes in jest. These two
states of mind border very closely on each other, in
cases of derangement, of which I know one very

curious instance. When the Duchess of first

showed symptoms of insanity, she was sitting with
our friend Lady at dinner tete-a-tete, appa-
rently in great spirits and good humour, during which
she occasionally made little pellets of bread, and
fillipped them across the table at her companion,
w^ho at length took up the jest, and did likewise, on
observing w^hich, the Duchess instantly started up
with flaming eyes, seized the carving-knife, and

48 THURSO CASTLE.

hurried furiously toward her companion. Lady

fled for her hfe, and she used to make her auditors
tremble when describing her flight through the long

narrow passages of Castle, and how she saw the

tall figure of the Duchess in a white dress, striding
along and brandishing the knife in her hands. For-
tunately Lady reached a distant door, and

locked herself up, but there she remained in a state
of sieo-e for several hours before the servants came
to her protection. The Duchess remained ever
afterwards in close confinement, but no salutary
restraint is laid on our visiter from Thurso, who was
still alive on my arrival, but fortunately did not
hear of our being come in time to leave her card
for us.

In the old castle some years ago, we had an
aged housekeeper, who claimed the gift of second-
sight ; and when walking one evening near the shore
of Thurso, she suddenly gave a starthng scream, and
told the people near her that a boat had been upset
on the bar of the river ; naming three men who were
drowned, and one that she saw sw^imming to land.
The friends who accompanied her perceived nothing
of this, and laughed at her ; but next evening, about
the same hour, the boat she had described actually
was lost there, and all the three fishermen she had
named perished. How truly it has been remarked,
that " the veil which conceals futurity was woven

SCRABSTER CASTLE. 49

by the hand of mercy." This old housekeeper
insisted, also, for the honour of Thurso Castle, that
one room was haunted, though I never could exactly
ascertain who had been murdered there, nor in what
shape the apparition might be expected. She
always gave an impressively superstitious shake of
the head when speaking of this apartment, saying,
that once she had attempted to pass a night in it, but
what took place must never be told ; only, on that
memorable occasion, it was well known, that, after
an hour or two, she hastily vacated her position, and
would never return there alone after dusk. A gen-
tleman hearing these rumours, insisted once, when
visiting at Thurso Castle, on occupying this room,
and came down to breakfast next morning with a
large black patch on his forehead, gravely protest-
ing to the old w^oman, Avhen she waylaid him in
the passage, that the ghost had taken him out of bed
in the middle of the night, and tossed him three times
up to the roof of the room, till he was nearly killed,
adding, that he never would sleep there again, a
resolution very easily adhered to, as he was then
leaving the country for good.

This morning we walked to inspect Her Majesty's
Royal Castle of Scrabster. My father w^as the
hereditary high Constable there ; but it is to be
hoped no probability exists of a Royal visit, as the
accommodation would be somewhat deficient — there

50 THURSO.

being excellent grazing for a single sheep in the
only apartment of which any remains are visible,
and the small fragment of wall looks as if it could
be thrown over with your little finger. Here, in
former times a Bishop of Caithness w^as murdered.
The people in those days not being allowed a veto,
took the law into their own hands, and, with a degree
of cruelty which a New Zealander w^ould be ashamed
of, thrust him alive into a caldron, and boiled him
to death. It was perhaps in allusion to this tragical
story, that when your cousin dined with the Lord
High Commissioner, expecting to meet nobody but
clergymen in black, and saw, instead, only officers in
scarlet, he suddenly exclaimed, " You have boiled
all the ministers!"

The new church at Thurso, the chief expense
of building which, in a very superior style of archi-
tecture, was incurred by my father, is quite a little
cathedral, being the handsomest edifice north of
Inverness, partly formed of a very hard stone im-
ported from Morayshire. In the gallery here, the
congregation resembles in dress and appearance what
you might expect to see at any fashionable church in
London, with bonnets a la Carsan, scarcely a week
old, from Paris or London. Women in the lower
orders all w^ear clean white caps, or " mutches, ^^ as
they are called, and large blue cloaks, like bathing-
dresses, w^hich hide all deficiencies, and give to their

THURSO. 51

appearance an air of grave respectability. The ex-
pression of their countenance exhibits more than
common acuteness ; and one group of men in the
lower classes reminded me of Raphael's cartoon, re-
presenting Paul preaching to the philosophers at
Athens, their countenances wore so criticizing an
aspect of dubious approbation, apparently more in-
tent on discovering the preacher's fault than their
own. One aged female, most conspicuously atten-
tive, at last pulled the hood of her cloak entirely
over her face, and seemed WTapped in meditation ;
but I missed an old woman of former days, who al-
ways listened to the -sermon on account of our
family rather than on her own, and frequently held
up her finger to our pew when any thing was said
on the danger of riches and prosperity, or on the evils
of " Greek learning and Latin philosophy," a favour-
ite subject of declamation with the late incumbent
of this parish. Opposite to his pulpit, in those days,
sat a learned English scholar and skilful physician,
Dr. Torrens, for whom my father had obtained an
Excise appointment here, that he might be induced
by the emolument to settle and practise in so remote
a district. An irresistible smile often stole over his
intelligent features when hearing the new views of
history, chronology, and the classics, then promul-
gated by a clergyman who had been appointed at
the earnest request of the parishioners. Having, on

52 ' THURSO.

one occasion, allowed a young stranger to preach
for him, our parish minister was observed to be
restless and uneasy till the sermon was concluded,
and stopped the congregation, when about to dis-
perse, by standing up in his own pew, and saying,
" My friends ! you have this morning heard enough
about the law, let me give you a little of the
gospel !"

On another occasion he argued at great length
with an antagonist, as learned in divinity, and more
skilful in argument than himself, but after retiring
apparently confuted, he gave out, on the following
Sunday, a text suitable to the previous discussion,
and then supposed a dialogue between a Pharisee
and a Christian, wherein his opponent's reasoning
appeared to considerable disadvantage, while his
own replies were of course finally successful.

My late father, who valued what he possessed
only in proportion as it might benefit others, trans-
ferred the patronage of this parish, when it became
vacant, a second time to the inhabitants of Thurso,
allowing them again the free choice of their own
pastor, and in the present instance they have been
extremely fortunate. The first candidate who ap-
peared, Mr. Taylor, after delivering one very elo-
quent sermon, w^as elected almost by acclamation !
I accompanied my father out of church on that Sun-
day, when we were surrounded by a crowd in

THURSO. 53

perfect transports with what had been preached,
and their unanimous presentation was instantly
cordially acceded to. My father felt dehghted to
be so well out of" the scrape," as he considered it,
having been apprehensive of serious differences ;
but next morning a deputation of the parishioners
called at Thurso Castle to say, that upon further
consideration, they began to fear the election had
been rashly made, and it was thought desirable to
hear more candidates. Foreseeing the anarchy and
confusion this would occasion, my father replied that
the congregation must abide by their original deci-
sion. They accordingly did so, which the fifteen
hundred patrons at Thurso have never since had any
reasonable cause to regret.

Mr. Burn, the dissenting clergyman here, has
adopted an excellent plan to discourage backbiting
among his congregation. The moment any indivi-
dual begins gossiping out a story to the disparage-
ment of another, he gravely produces pen, ink, and
paper, desiring his visiter to write down all the parti-
culars, as they must be brought before the session.
Having repeatedly insinuated this threat, a panic has
been spread among informers and scandal-mongers,
so that no one ventures to say a word of his neigh-
bour which might not be printed. Besides the advan-
tage of checking ill-nature, this expedient will in-
crease his own efficiency, by proving his unwilling-
5*

54 THURSO.

ness to take up any evil report against members of
the congregation ; moreover it seems a most judi-
cious remark of Mrs. Fry's, that in addressing sinners,
it is always best to remain ignorant of their peculiar
failmgs, or the admonitions of a preacher become
inevitably too personal. Rowland Hill used to say,
that every sermon should have three R's in it.
Ruin by the fall, — ^Redemption by Christ, — Regene-
ration by the Holy Spirit, — and if to these be added
an earnest and affectionate application of gospel
truth, to the hearts and minds of a congregation, no
personal animadversions could improve the effect ;
yet I have knowm more than one preacher make
very marked allusion to individuals when present,
and an instance was pointed out to me once in Eng-
land, where a nobleman of perfectly unimpeachable
moral character had been literally preached out of
his own pew. Those who are ambassadors should
surely be careful that no private feelings of their
own interfere with the due delivery of their message,
but remember that they represent a Law^giver, w^ho
summons all, without exception, to come and hear
the words of eternal Hfe ; that the very presence of
any individual in church indicates a certain degree
of obedience, w^hich ought to be encouraged, and
that those who are not against us are for us. Unless,
therefore, an open breach be committed of any
known commandment, or an obvious desecration of

THURSO. 55

the Sabbath, all should assemble in church on the
same common ground of being sinners in need of
salvation, but the pulpit was never intended as a
place for inquisitorial commentaries on the details of
private life.

A stranger who preached last month at Thurso,
having heard that a charity ball had taken place
there, fulminated a vehement censure on all those
who attended. The sacrament being about to take
place, he said, among other remarks, that " those
who had gone to the tap-room were unfit for the
Lord's table," and this being considered in the light
of a prohibition, several residents who had attended
the ordinance unremittingly for thirty years were
thus hindered from appearing.

In respect to amusements for the young, I can-
not but advocate the temperate use of those that
seem innocent, rather than total abstinence, though
the frantic excess to which they are carried in some
houses, might make any Christian hesitate in doing
so, as we are bound solemnly to remember, that
those things which may be lawful when kept in due
subordination, are nevertheless not always expedient.
It has generally appeared to me, that the entire dis-
use of those relaxations natural to youth, too fre-
quently leads either to vice, or to slothful indolence,
or to hypochondriacal fancies about health. It is
the excess of all earthly things that is to be avoided,

56 THURSO.

and the highest exercise of Christian principle is,
to enjoy, without abusing, the gifts of Providence.
Men occasionally drown themselves in water, but
water is not on that account to be abjured; and the
exercise of dancing seems to have no more intrinsic
evil in it, than running or leaping, if kept in strict
moderation, and allowed to interfere with no essen-
tial duty. If we could get over what Lord Dudley
called the "national insanity" of late hours, so that
balls were to begin earlier, and end sooner, one of
the greatest objections to that amusement would be
obviated. A dance beginning at six, and ending at
eleven, instead of beginning at eleven, and ending
at six, might be equally agreeable, and could lead
to no such dissipation of mind, as is now to be
lamented in those who enter on the amusements of
life to an extreme which obliges all rationally dis-
posed persons to w^ithdraw from them entirely. The
ball at Thurso led to no excess either in hours or
expense, but some political estrangement having
previously taken place between near neighbours and
old friends, it was thought desirable that they should
meet on neutral ground, and associate once more on
terms of cordiality; therefore about forty persons
assembled, and danced off any feelings of irritability
which had existed, believing that in doing so, no
violation of duty was committed, while a restora-
tion had thus been made to sociabihty and good

THURSO. 57

neighbourhood, which it is so desirable always to
preserve inviolate among Christians.

If the world had been partitioned into cells, like
a honey-comb, and each individual's own sphere of
action limited vdthin a separate enclosure, none of
those admonitions respecting our conduct in society,
so lavishly scattered over the sacred pages, would
have been recorded ; but the miser who hoards his
time without spending it well, goes to one extreme,
while the spendthrift who wastes it on vain and
heartless amusement, falls into an opposite excess.
The true medium is found in Holy Scriptm^e, where
social intercourse among Christians is continually
alluded to, though alw^ays in subservience to higher
and holier duties, with the incessant observance of
which, neither the pleasures, nor even the affections
of this life, must ever be allowed to interfere.

There w^ere two county newspapers published
till lately in Caithness ; and in the far north, the
Court circular and the fashions are most assiduously
studied, for whether her Majesty be pleased to ride
in Windsor Park, or to drive towards Kew Gardens,
is fully as much discussed here as in the more im-
mediate orbit of her royal presence. In Ross-shire,
I was amused to hear of a book club, w^here one of
the farmers ordered the novel called " Almack's,"
being anxious, he said, to ascertain what the quality
were about ; and throughout the Highlands, every

58^ BARROGILL CASTLE.

on dit respecting Buckingham Palace travels 33
safely and expeditiously northwards as the last new
bonnet, being only a little enlarged, and a very little
more trimmed and embellished, during its progress,
though still in some degree resembling the original
pattern.

Connoiseurs in comfort would find it a perfect
study to see Barrogill Castle, belonging to the Earl
of Caithness, Lord Lieutenant of this county. It is,
as auctioneers often say, " every way suitable for a
nobleman of rank," with all the internal elegance
of a house in London, and all the exterior dignity
of an ancient Highland residence. Some admirable
improvements have been recently made by Burn ;
and the staircase, wliich was formerly outside, as
high as the drawing-room floor, is now thrown into
the house, w^hile several windows have been thrown
out, which w^ere greatly wanted. In those peaceful
times, when there is no longer any necessity for a
castle to be fortified, it is pleasing to see the gloomy
strength of former days exchanged for a more smil-
ing aspect; and here we found some first-rate pic-
tures by the best masters, a haimted apartment,
abundance of interesting family portraits, and a
forest of the very best trees that Caithness can
produce.

Apropos of trees, w^hen we went in a gig yes-
terday to see Castle Hill, belonging to Mr. Traill,

BARROGILL CASTLE. 59

the most persevering improver now in the North, I
was very nearly killed in consequence of our Caith-
ness horse taking fright at a tree ! He w^as evi-
dently unused to the chequered shadow of leaves on
the ground ; so he started in the well-planted
approach, pricked his ears, backed, and, when a
gentle breeze at length caused the branches to flicker
about, he fairly set off in a panic. If we had en-
countered so terrifying and unusual an object as
another tree, almost twenty feet high, in ahy more
dangerous part of our drive, the consequences w^ould
probably have been fatal ; but no successor having
appeared within ten miles, our Caithness quadruped
had time to compose his nerves, after witnessing so
extraordinary a phenomenon.

A celebrated tide runs near Barrogill Castle,
called "The merry men of Mey," very noisy and
obstreperous indeed, but no subject of merriment to
vessels, as they have to go off their track many
leagues sometimes to avoid the vortex, and, when
caught, are swept back on a stream, like the rapids
of a rapid river. This is said to have been the scene
of Grey's " Fatal Sisters," translated from the Norse
tongue.

Now the storm begins to lower,
(Haste, the loom of Hell prepare.)
Iron sleet of arrowy shower,
Hurtles in the darken'd air.

60 BARROGILL CASTLE.

When about to leave Caithness, we discovered
that the only post-chaise in this county had been
already bespoke to act in the capacity of hearse at
a funeral, which seemed to me like one of Harle-
quin's transformations. That this useful vehicle
nii^ht have time to be altered and dressed for the
melancholy occasion, and that the one only pair of
post-horses might have leisure to rest, we hastened
our journey, and with difficulty obtained leave to
hire it ; so I have at last been actually reduced to
travel, like Miss Pratt, in a hearse ! How multifa-
rious are the duties of this old chaise ! — the four
wheels must be all running off sometimes in differ-
ent directions ! All the happy pairs in the county
probably make their wedding excursion in it, if
they make one at all, — it takes the Doctor to his
patients, the boys to their school, sportsmen to the
moors, guests out to dinner, and the dead to their
last resting-place ! The horses, too, once probably
grandees in a well-groomed stable, giving some old
dowager her daily airing, or sharing the labour of
a dozen other hunters, are now reduced to be ser-
vants of all work, summoned at every hour of the
night or day, on every occasion of business, pleasure,
profit, or loss, and bound to be always, like soldiers
when they enlist, " free, able, and willing."

One of the most amusing stories of smuggling
I know, took place at Barrogill Castle, when the

BARROGILL CASTLE. 61

late Lord Duffus resided there as guardian to the
late Earl of Caithness. Having clandestinely im-
ported sixty hogsheads of claret for his own private
drinking, Lord Duifus thought it might be unsafe to
lodge them all in the house; therefore he built
fifty -eight of them up under so enormous a peat-
stack, that it became the astonishment and admira-
tion of the whole neighbourhood. He then carried
the remaining two hogsheads into Barrogill Castle,
and wrote an anonymous information against him-
self to the excise-officer at Thurso, who hurried
over immediately to investigate the case. Lord
DufFus received him as a friend, cordially invited
him to dinner, whispered confidentially that he could
give him a capital bottle of claret, and after dinner,
when the worthy man was nearly half seas over,
showed him the two hogsheads, and said they were
scarcely worth seizing, but he hoped his friend
would return often, as long as they lasted, and shai'e
the last drop with him; after which they shook
hands, and exit in mutual good humour.

JOURNAL

OF A

TWO DAYS' RESIDENCE IN SHETLAND,

FULL, TRUE, AND PARTICULAR ACCOUNT OF THE

HABITS, MANNERS, AND LANGUAGE OF THE

NATIVES, THEIR DRESS, APPEARANCE,

AND CUSTOMS :

NEW AND ORIGINAL DISCOVERIES RESPECTING THE GEOGRAPHY,

ASTRONOMY, NATURAL HISTORY, AND GEOLOGICAL

STRUCTURE OF THOSE ISLANDS ;

WITH A DETAILED ACCOUNT OF THEIR HISTORY, PAST,
PRESENT, AND TO COME,

Dedicated to the Royal Society.

"A most elaborate and deeply scientific work." — Philosophical Journal.
'• VVe earnestly recommend this admirable volume to all readers who wish

for profound views and erudite research."— Scientifjc Argus.
"We cannot but wish that Sir Isaac Newton and Sir Joseph Banks had

lived to see this day !" — Popular Phuosopher.

Ask Where's the north 7— at York 'tis on the Tweed —

In Scolland, at the Orcades, — and there,

At Greenland, Zembla, or, I can't tell where.

My DEAR Cousin, — Every new country is inter-
esting to visit once, though the real comphment is,
as you say, to go a second time. I like to ascertain
with my own eyes, what is, or is not w^orth seeing
in it, — whether it be better or w^orse than my own —

SHETLAND. 63

how people set about being happy there, and how
they succeed. At one time I expected quite as
much to visit the moon as the Shetland islands, but
I have lately indulged a sort of hopeless Avish to
venture on a voyage of discovery towards the ex-
treme verge of her IMajesty's dominions, that I
might pass the longest day of my life in that country
where two days are turned into one, by having no
intervening night.

Islands are troublesome articles to deal with,
especially as I have not the courage of a butterfly
by steam, therefore it was a considerable exertion
the first time I invited myself to go, but after talking
it over with myself during some weeks, it became a
matter of course, that wind and weather permitting, or
even not permitting ! the experiment should be tried;
consequently one cold stormy morning, to my own
great astonishment, we found ourselves on board
the Sovereign, a fine, large, wxll-grown steam-boat,
which touches at Wick once a week, in full boil, on
its route from Leith to Lerwick, and picks up all
those courageous passengers who may have sum-
moned up resolution and enterprise enough to ven-
ture almost within sight of the north pole.

Nearly every gentleman before whom I have
happened to mention Shetland during the last year
or two, has long intended to take a glimpse of these
stormy isles, but while swarms and clouds of travel-

64 SHETLAND.

lers are migrating to the most unattainable foreign
districts, our own northern Archipelago remains un-
known and unnoticed, wasting its sweets, if it has
any, on the desert air, and scarcely upon visiting
terms with a single individual. Pray, bring your
telescope here some day, and try, as we are doing,
to get a distant peep of Iceland.

Travellers are not seen to much advantage in
steam-boat costume, and it is certainly odd that,
wherever a crowd is assembled in a morning, they
all look vulgar ; therefore we glanced round at the
mob of miscellaneous beings assembled on deck, all
shivering, in cloaks of every shape, size, and colour,
little hoping to meet with the very agreeable so-
ciety which we soon afterwards discovered on board,
or indeed with any thing that could be called so-
ciety at all

The General Assembly of Scotland having re-
cently dispersed, we found a ship-load of divines re-
turning to their congregations in the north, some
apparently clever and eccentric, some extra-eccen-
tric, and others pious, learned, and communicative,
who added all that w^as in their power, and that
w^as a great deal, to the pleasure of our voyage, and
almost eveiy one of whom gave us most cordial in-
vitations to their fire-sides and manses in Shetland.
Mr. Hamilton, the very talented and agreeable in-
cumbent of Brassay, near Lerwick, became a per-

SHETLAND. 65

feet encyclopedia of information and entertainment
as long as we continued in the ultra-north, and Mr.
Watson of North Yell afforded us many curious de-
tails respecting his parish and people. He officiates
in two churches, divided by a broad and dangerous
ferry, where frequently on Sunday six rowers have
endeavoured in vain to carry him across, but after
pulling incessantly for three or four hours, and com-
ing in sight of his church and the assembled con-
gregation, he has been obliged to relinquish 'all
hope of landing, while it was about equally difficult
to reach the opposite shore. One of Mr. Watson's
elders, who had to travel eight Shetland miles, a
very vague measurement, besides crossing a wide
ferry before getting to church, was so exceedingly
zealous that never during many years did he once
miss divine service ! This venerable Christian was
unfortunately drowned lately while trying to save
the crew of another boat lost near his own house.
Mr. Watson says the people of Shetland, in general,
testify an extreme value for public ordinances, and
though his parish consists of only eight hundred per-
sons, he generally averages at the sacrament about
three hundred and fifty communicants. They are
all so indigent that the collection at church seldom
exceeds threepence !

The chief or only wealth of Shetland arises from
the fisheries, and from the manufacture of wool,
6*

66 SHETLAND.

which is of so very superior a quahty that stockings
are knitted by thousands and tens of thousands in
these islands, at all prices, and are sometimes fine
enough to be sold for two guineas a pair ! I find
it registered in the Rev. Mr. Sands' account of his
own parish Tingwall, near Lerwick, that " formerly
the stockings of Shetland were sent to Holland, but
the difference of their value, since they found their
way to other markets, particularly the English, is
said to be nearly equal to the land-rent of the coun-
try, and this difference must be ascribed to the pat-
riotic and benevolent exertions of Sir John Sin-
clair." During the eighty years of my father's life,
he published one hundred and six volumes, and
three hundred and sixty-seven pamphlets, written
with the one all-prevailing desire to benefit his na-
tive country, and while he has been called from his
labours to that rest which remaineth for the people
of God, it is pleasing in every part of Scotland to
trace the success of so enterprising and persevering
a patriot. The universal diffusion of English sheep
over our native hills, was an era in our national
history, and has nearly doubled the value of many
Highland properties, where, owing to ignorance
and mismanagement, the Scottish wool had become
so exceedingly deteriorated and scarce, that, on an
average, four millions of pounds had to be annu-
ally imported from Spain. In consequence of some

SHETLAND. 67

advantageous discoveries respecting wool, commu-
nicated by my father to the Highland Society, a
board of inquiry was instantly formed, of which he
became chairman, sparing neither time nor expense
to render it efficient, and presenting to the com-
mittee a hundred sheep, which he had collected from
the royal flocks of France, from Spain, Shetland,
and England, to the latter of which he gave that
name, now so universally known of " Cheviot
sheep." He travelled in person to every county
where the growth of wool was peculiarly successful,
and at an inn twelve miles from Edinburgh, he gave
the first sheep-shearing festival which had ever
taken place in Great Britain, where a multitude of
persons from all countries sat down to a collation,
each adorned with pastoral badges and emblems,
and where one of the amusements consisted in seeinsr
wool which had been shorn in the morning, spun,
dyed, wove, and formed into a coat during a single
day.

Nothing in D'Israeli's Curiosities of Literature
can be more singular than the origin, progress, and
termination of my father's single-handed efforts to
collect the Statistical Account of Scotland, a work
for which no precedent existed in the world, as
even the very word " Statistics" w^as invented by
himself, a fact recorded in the old contemporary
edition of Walker's Dictionary, who remarks that

68 SHETLAND.

no name had previously existed for a science now so
generally understood. To anatomize the society,
population, history, manufactui^es, and antiquities of
a great nation, required enterprise, perseverance,
and even enthusiasm; but unintimidated by obsta-
cles, he addressed separate letters to one thousand
clergymen, suggesting his plan and requesting their
aid. To some of the more indolent he wrote three-
and-twenty times, besides applying to their patrons
and friends, to gain their co-operation, and the last
effort he made to arouse any individual's exertion
w^as by forwarding him an epistle written with red
ink, explaining that this w^as a final attempt to rouse
his patriotism. After receiving many thousand let-
ters, he employed missionaries at his own expense
to collect the details of such parishes as were not
reported by the clergy, and wrote some himself.
In the course of seven years this arduous work was
completed, after w^hich the author used his influence
to obtain for a reward, nothing personal to himself,
but a grant from government, to the " Society for
the sons of the clergy," of .£2000, and presented
besides to that useful institution, the copyright and
whole pecuniary benefit of his labours. To himself
and his family remained only the gratification of
w^itnessing his entire success, and the honour which
he deserved for so vast and patriotic an undertaking.
Adam Smith remarks that there are three ways of

SHETLAND. 69

pursuing fame. " Those who wish to enjoy celeb-
rity, whether they deserve it or not, — those who
seek to deserve, but care not to enjoy it, — and those,"
Hke my father, " who seek both to deserve and to
enjoy it." Few ever loved his country more, — few
ever labom ed as perseveringly to serve it, — and few
ever more deeply valued its approbation. When
age and infirmity precluded the possibility of new
exertions, he often looked back on the difficulties so
laboriously surmounted in preparing the Statistical
Account of Scotland, with a pleasing consciousness
of having served his country so essentially. Even
when verging towards the grave, and turning his
thoughts to a better world, he heard with satisfaction,
though not consulted on the subject, that a second
edition of this great work was in progress. Before
long, volume after volume appeared, containing no
meed of praise for his exertions ! no tribute of grati-
tude for his liberality ! no mention even of his name !
A great edifice had been raised, and the original
architect, who planned the whole, incurred the ex-
pense, engaged the artisans, obtained a reward for
their labours, and generously claimed no recompense
for himself, was now entirely overlooked, but never-
theless could he have foreseen the end from the be-
ginning, his strong impulse to do good as he had
opportunity, would still have prevailed. From that
period, my father calmly but indignantly ceased to

/ U SHETLAND.

mention a subject once the source df so much plea-
sure, and latterly we avoided any allusion to it. Li
the volume which came out immediately after my
father's decease, a cold, late, and business-like ac-
knowledgment of his name appeared, but as no
copy of the new edition is forwarded to his family,
I did not borrow one to peruse it. The heart that
should have been cheered, and the eye that should
have been brightened by that page, were at rest for
ever, and even if ample justice had been awarded,
the praise that was due could have mattered little
then to him who was beyond its reach, or to us who
valued it only for his sake.

The Shetland accent is peculiarly pleasing, but
still retains so strong a tinge of Norse, that the
somewhat foreign pronunciation led me to imagine
several of the gentlemen w^ho spoke to us, were
either Frenchmen, Danes, or even Irish, much more
than Scotchmen. A rumour had reached us before
embarking in the steam-boat, that a great man was
on board ! No less a personage than the Danish
governor of the Feroe Islands, son of the prime min-
ister of Denmark ! His father had been ambassador
from that Court to England, a man of great abilities
and intelligence, who had educated our compagnon
de voyage with great care, and bestowed on him
this very inadequate appointment, merely from a
desire to improve that frozen region of ice-bergs
and whales.

SHETLAND. 7 1

The governor of Feroe, Mr. Ployen, had with
great difficulty obtained permission from his own
rulers to travel in Scotland, and had brought a
large detachment of his people to study agriculture,
in what region of the earth do you suppose ? In
Shetland ! ! There the spade husbandry, wooden
harrows, stone querns, and little hand-mills, are a
centur}^, at least, behind East Lothian, and the
world in general ! Miss Edgew^orth's Farmer Good-
enough, would have seen little cause to complain
of modern innovations, where Captain Hay's pa-
tent plough has never yet been heard of, and several
genuine Scandinavian implements of husbandry are
still in fashion, but " parmi les aveugles, un borgne
est roi /^ and the Shetlanders may, perhaps, be
some steps in advance of their more northern neigh-
bours.

Having no small curiosity to see Mr. Ploy en and
suite, we hastened dow^n to dinner, more eagerly
desirous to satisfy our curiosity than our appetite,
and I was considerably entertained to see the Cap-
tain ceremoniously place his Danish guest on his
right hand, and treat him, during the banquet, as
nearly with royal honours, as the small cabin of our
floating palace could admit, while the governor
himself seemed exceedingly bored at exciting so
much notice.

I have seldom encountered a more entertaining,

12 SHETLAND.

frank, well informed foreigner, than Mr. Ployen, a
tall, fair, and very dignified looking personage, who
spoke English as well as any native, — or better, —
and who seemed anxious to make the conversation
a means of giving and receiving as much informa-
tion as possible. When he sketched a lively graphic
description of his own desolate regions at Feroe, I
began to fancy it would be quite impossible ever to
get far enough north, as Shetland seemed a mere
every-day affair in comparison of the inameasurable
precipices now described, \vhen he laughingly con-
cluded his picture by saying, that we estimated the
height of our shore by hundreds of feet, and he by
thousands ! I must some day explore a north-west
passage for myself, and measure the rocks of Feroe.
Sumburgh-head, in Shetland, rises about eight
hundred feet abruptly out of the ocean, and at North
Yell, the iron-bound coast, stretching forty miles
along the shore, forms a gigantic barrier of tower-
ing rocks, as if the angry, ceaseless billows of the
great Atlantic had worn down, and bent the very
earth by their weight. What a mere insect man
appears in such scenes ; but here would be a place
for geologists to chip down the world with their
hammers, and to frame half-a-dozen theories, or to
draw from the rocks themselves a history of their
origin. In some parts of Scotland, the characters
of estates w^ere anciently carved in Gaelic on the

SHETLAND. 73

rocks, and here would have been abundant space
for such documents. A person ignorant of the law
once mentioned, that a gentleman had proved his
claim to an estate, and on being asked in what
way, confidently replied, "He has carved it on
stone!"

While sitting at dinner in the cabin, we heard
many interesting anecdotes of the dangers encoun-
tered by fowlers in scaling the rocks of Shetland
and Feroe, where fatal accidents are so frequent,
that the people sometimes say to each other, " Your
grandfather fell, your father fell, and you must fol-
low too." Others boast over their companions, say-
ing, " Your father died in his bed, but mine went
off like a man !"

The common mode of rifling the birds' nest is,
for the fowlers to suspend themselves over a beet-
ling cliff of many hundred feet, merely by a single
rope forty or fifty fathoms long, which is so fretted
and hacked by the sharp edges of the rock, that it
occasionally breaks, precipitating the unfortunate
adventurer from so great a height, that the body,
when found, sometimes retains scarcely a vestige of
ever having been human. From habit, they be-
come so reckless of danger, however, that frequently
more than one descends by the same rope, though I
scarcely know any occasion when it would seem
more desirable to have two strings to our bow.
7

/4 SHETLAND.

Captain Philips mentioned, that some time since,
a father and two sons were suspended in this way
over a deep chasm, when the youth who hung up-
permost hastily told his brother that the rope was
breaking, therefore it could no longer support them
all, desiring him to cut off the lower end, on w^hich
their father depended. The young man indignantly
refused thus to consign his father to death, upon
which his brother, w^ithout another moment's hesi-
tation, divided the rope below himself, precipitating
his father and brother both to instant destruction \
We had an eager discussion, after hearing this
shocking story, whether it w^as possible to have
acted better than the amiable son who fell a sacri-
fice to duty and affection, during which Captain
Philips suggested, that he might have leaped off the
rope, and left his father to be preserved ! This w^as
a flight of generosity beyond the imagination of any
one else, and we received it with great approbation.
Indeed, we could scarcely have applauded him more,
if the worthy Captain had actually taken the leap
himself.

A succession of similar stories ensued, all tend-
ing to prove that the Shetland rockmen are fit to be
rope-dancers at Astley's ; but nothing interested me
more than hearing a description of the cradle at
Noss. It was formed by a celebrated climber from
the Isle of Fowlar, who heard, that off the point at

SHETLAND. 75

Noss, a detached perpendicular pillar stood one
hundred and sixty feet high, and being perfectly
aloof from the shore, wa.s considered quite inaccessi-
ble. Determined to do the impossible, and establish
his fame for pre-eminence on the rocks, besides
being bribed with the promise of a cow if successful,
he with great difficulty scrambled from a boat to the
summit of this lofty point, where he fixed a pulley,
and suspended a basket, which could be drawn
across to the mainland, carrying sheep or men in
comparative safety over a chasm sixty yards wide,
and four hundred feet deep. Fancy yourself per-
forming an excursion, in this way, between the top
of St Paul's and the monument : but that is not
half high enough! Where shall we place you
then ? Suppose yourself swinging in an arm chair
between the summit of Snowdon, and the peak of
Cader Idris ! After this curious enterprise had been
successfully achieved, the poor man forgetting how
much more difficult it is to go safely down than to
ascend a precipice, unfortunately did not take ad-
vantage of his own spider-like bridge, but in trying
to [regain the boat, his foot slipped, and he fell
headlong down, where his body was never seen
again ! a hero dying in the arms of victory.

The Governor mentioned, that lately at Faroe,
a fowler descended safely by the usual conveyance
of a rope, but when about to be drawn up again,

76 SHETLAND.

owing to some awkward entanglement, he arrived
at the surface with his feet upwards. His alarmed
friends thought his head had been cut off, and felt
so relieved to discover their mistake, that the whole
party burst into a simultaneous peal of laughter,
while the adventurer was very glad he had any face
to put on the matter at all, and laughed heartily
also.

The upper part of these cliffs generally over-
hangs the base ; therefore the rockmen, w^hen desi-
rous to obtain a footing, are obliged to sw^ing them-
selves many yards out in the air, that the re-action
may shoot them back in contact with the precipice,
when they instantly cling to any little projection
that offers, and, after landing on it, anchor the end
of their rope to a stone, and proceed with a small
hand-net, stretched on a hoop, to spoon the eggs out
of their nests, depositing them carefully in a sack
which they cany behind ; and when the unlucky
bird sees her loss inevitable, by a curious instinct
she often pushes out the egg to save herself. An
enterprising fowler, standing on a projection once,
with a sheer precipice both above and below him
of several hundred feet, observed the end of his rope
become suddenly disengaged from its moorings, and
swing like a pendulum far into the distant space. If
it escaped entirely away, he knew that death, either
by a fall, or by the slower and more dreadful pro-

SHETLAND. 77

cess of starvation, must become inevitable ; there-
fore, perceiving that the rope, before it finally set-
tled, would swing once more almost within his grasp,
he earnestly watched the moment of its return, made
a desperate spring forward in the air, clutched it in
his hand, and was saved.

Travellers are in a perplexing p redicament when
relating what they see or hear, because every thing
is either so common-place as to be scarcely worth
mentioning, or so extraordinary, as to be quite be-
yond belief; and your credulity will take leave of
me altogether if I continue on my tight-rope any
longer. I shall merely describe one thing which
amused and astonished me exceedingly. Our steam-
boat passed near Coppensha, one of the Orkneys,
which presents a gigantic barricade of rocks, inhab-
ited by millions of birds, which we saw, though I
had not time to count them, sitting in rows like
charity children, with black heads and white tippets,
ranged along every crevice in the cliffs. Captain
Philips caused several guns to be fired, when an
uproarious noise ensued, which can be compared to
nothing but the hurraing of a whole army. It
seemed like a long loud roar, accompanied by the
echoing and re-echoing of guns, — a whole platoon
of cannon, till at length I fancied that the commotion
could scarcely have been more deafening from the
mob and artillery of London on the day of Her

78 SHETLAND.

Majesty's coronation. Above, below, and around,
the sea, air, and rocks seemed all one living mass of
birds, screaming at the full pitch of their voices,
rushing through the air, careering to the very clouds,
flickering in circles over-head, zig-zagging all
round us, and then dropping like a shower into the
ocean.

Nothing in the way of animal life ever amazed
me so much ! I wonder if any one on earth can
imagine it ? — no ! certainly not ! seeing is believing,
and nothing else will help you. When I thought
how many fish must be necessary to feed so count-
less a colony of feathered mariners, the miracle
seemed greater still. The poor sillocks and herrings
must have a sad time of it ! Shetland is the metro-
polis of birds, and the greatest ornithologist might
weary himself here. In this cloud of living creatures
are included kitty-wakes, cormorants, sea-larks,
gulls, white and black scarfs, sea-parrots, maws,
and a species of puffin, commonly called lyres, or,
as the natives pronounce them, " lawyers !" It
would occasion rather a sensation in the Parliament
House to hear hoAv coolly the Shetlanders mention
having shot a brace of lawyers in a morning ! We
could ill afford them a battu in Edinburgh !

Seals and otters abound on this coast, but I did
not observe a single mermaid, though these are the
bays where Sir Joseph Banks advised my father to

SHETLAND. ' 79

catch them, usmg for bait, a looking-glass and
comb ! Many interesting and " authentic !" stories
are told here of mermen and merwomen, which
would amuse you exceedingly, therefore, pray mus-
ter up a considerable stock of credulity, and listen.
Far below the region of fishes, these merladies and
gentlemen, who are of supernatural beauty, exist in
an atmosphere of their own, in which they seem
able to live with very tolerable comfort in coral
palaces, and sleeping on beds of oysters. WTien de-
sirous to pay us a visit in the upper regions, they have
power to enter the skin of any amphibious animal,
and shoot through the water, but no son or daugh-
ter of the ocean can borrow more than one sea-
dress of this kind for his own particular use, there-
fore, if the garb should be mislaid on our shores, he
never can return to his submarine country and
friends. A Shetlander once having found an empty
seal skin on the shore, took it home and kept it in
his possession. Soon after, he met the most lovely
being w^ho ever stepped on the earth, wringing her
hands with distress, and loudly lamenting that hav-
ing lost her sea-dress, she must remain for ever on
the earth. The Shetlander having fallen in love at
first sight, said not a syllable about finding this pre-
cious treasure, but made his proposals, and offered to
take her for better or for worse, as his future wife !
The raerlady, though not, as we know, much a

80 SHETLAND.

woman of the world, very prudently accepted this
offer ! I never heard what the settlements were,
but they lived very happily for some years, till one
day, when the green-haired bride unexpectedly dis-
covered her own long-lost seal skin, and instantly
putting it on, she took a hasty farewell of every
body, and ran towards the shore. Her husband flew
out in pursuit of her, but in vain ! She sprung from
point to point, and from rock to rock, till at length
bounding into the ocean, she disappeared for ever,
leaving the worthy man, her husband, perfectly
planet-struck and inconsolable on the shore !

In some of those islands, the rent is paid, as it is
also at St. Kilda, in feathers, which are sold for
ninepence per pound ; and one of my father's Caith-
ness farms had a clause in the lease, entitling him
to a pepper-corn rent of 1000 sea-birds' eggs every
year, though he never levied the tax.

The governor of Feroe mentioned, that, during
their fishing-season, his coast is so surrounded by
shoals of bottle-nosed whales, that the seamen go
out in a long array of boats, and drive them, like
flocks of sheep, towards the shore. When this cav-
alcade approaches land, a dreadful scene of carnage
ensues, while the terrified monsters become infuri-
ated, and, in attempting to escape, they frequently
upset one or two boats. The men become nearly
frantic with excitement on these occasions, the

KIRKWALL. 81

wounded animals bellow with pain, the ocean is
dyed red with blood, and troops of sea-gulls, which
always attend on these occasions, become so stained
with gore, that, before taking wing to depart, they
appear to be birds of scarlet plumage.

Escorted in great state by the governor of Feroe

and suite, A and I landed at Kirkwall, Captain

Philips having granted us leave of absence for an
hour and three quarters, but his one hour shrunk
into a miserably short one, and his three quarters
became nothing at all, as we were soon peremp-
torily summoned back on the shortest notice, by an
arbitrary little bell, rung most impatiently before
one-half our curiosity had been gratified. Travel-
lers who rashly apprentice themselves to a steam-
boat for a certain number of days, must expect less
attention to the picturesque than to the station most
convenient for taking in coals, or letting out pas-
sengers, as we experienced on this lamentable oc-
casion.

The very ancient and interesting cathedral of
Kirkwall, dedicated to St. Magnus, was begun
seven centuries ago, by Ronald, Earl of Orkney,
It is the most perfectly preserved in Scotland, and
looks almost as large as the whole city put together.
You would fancy it an arrival from Brobdignag
among the Liliputian buildings around, and the
whole structure would do honour to any Episcopal

82 KIRKWALL.

diocese in England, being in truth a sort of country
cousin to Worcester Cathedral, as they are in a sim-
ilar style of architecture, though the masonry of
Kirkwall is coarser, and the plan scarcely so digni-
fied. It is wonderful that the poor inhabitants, who
could scarcely rear dw^ellings for themselves, should
produce so magnificent a pile for Divine worship !
The roof is quite entire, but the lofty steeple was
most unfortunately struck down by lightning several
years ago, which causes a sad blank in the cowp
d^oeil at first, though much architectural beauty still
remains. The long and solemn ranges of pillars
and cloisters inside have at length become so per-
fectly green with damp, that they appear like some
wonderful cave, over which the sea had broken for
ages. Indeed the celebrated cave at Flamborough-
head is not very unlike it, and certainly neither
more mouldy, nor more weather-stained.

We entered this hoary pile with feelings of pro-
found reverence and admiration, preparing our
minds for a solemn remembrance of the great men
and the eloquent divines who once frequented those
sacred walls, generation after generation, many of
whom lie side by side in the last long sleep of death.
The first tomb-stone w^hich caught my attention was
exceedingly handsome, exhibiting a coat-of-arms
on one side, and bearing a long panegyrical inscrip-
tion on the other. While gazing at this impressive

KIRKWALL. S3

memento with all that profomid respect due to the
illustrious dead, our guide gravely informed us that
this tablet was raised in honour of the late dancing-
master at Kirkwall !

Not far off, lie the venerated remains of our
illustrious Scottish historian, Laing, w^hose memory-
is deserving of the utmost reverence and admiration
from all his countrymen; and a few steps distant
we were show^n a curious tomb placed under a low
heavy stone arch, like an ancient fire-place, w^hich
was built in this peculiar form by special desire of
the person underneath, because an enemy had once
threatened to dance on his grave.

We discovered the tombs of Bishops Murray,
Stewart, and a whole conclave of reverend fathers,
their names, arms, and mitres carved in stone, and
surmounted by inscriptions, some too long to be
read, and others with a great deal to say which had
become totally illegible, though none were, I trust,
what Pope calls " sepulchral lies, our holy walls to
grace." The child we are told of, who saw nothing
in a church but laudatory inscriptions, made a most
natural mistake when he asked, " where all the bad
people were buried ?"

I was astonished at the trouble taken by our for-
eign friend, Mr. Ployen, to decipher every epitaph
in which there appeared generally more sentiment
than feeling ; but he seemed to have a remarkable

84 KIRKWALL.

knowledge of heraldry, and being the first Dane
who had recently invaded Scotland, he was evi-
dently anxious to claim for his country some credit
in the founding of this Cathedral. With the patri-
otic hope of producing evidence to prove its Danish
origin, he left not a crevice unexplored, so that
even a rat could scarcely have enjoyed its hole in
peace, but all in vain, — the Cathedral of Kirkwall
gave no sign I

Mr. Ployen did not relish our saying, that the
Orkneys had been ceded to Scotland by the Danes,
but interrupted our discussion wdth a deprecating
bow and shrug, saying they were only mortgaged
for a small sum, and the money had since been ten-
dered by his government three times without suc-
cess. Rather an awkward transaction if true.

In the choir of this cathedral. Divine service is
yet performed, but the whole ancient edifice is soon
to be put on the retired list, and superseded by a
fine, vulgar, modern upstart, which is in full pro-
gress here. All that green baize and brass nails
can do is done, to look handsome, but I greatly pre-
fer the green mould and yellow rust of the old
school, and really w^ould not grudge the good peo-
ple of Kirkwall a few coughs and rheumatisms
rather than let them desert this fine old fabric,
which has ornamented the world so long.

Mr. Ployen expressed much surprise on seeing

KIRKWALL. §5

our square pews at church, with a table in the cen-
tre, saying it gave him the idea of our intending to
play at whist. No separation of seats was made
long ago in Scotland, and none is allowed now in
Denmark, where so strict an equality is preserved
in the house of God, that on one occasion a common
soldier found himself accidentally placed next to
the king. He hastily started up, but his majesty
stopped him, saying, " Stay, friend ! remember there
is no distinction here !"

The inhabitants of Kirkwall are intended never
to keep carriages, seeing a staircase runs across
their principal or only street, which is entirely
paved with large flags, and so narrow, that opposite
neio;hbours mioht almost shake hands from their
respective windows. Upwards of four thousand
w^omen are employed in plaiting straw for bonnets
at Orkney, and the annual value of what they make
is averaged at =£30,000. Girls of eight years old,
and even the very oldest men, can earn a livelihood
by this means ; and during the long winter even-
ings, little sociable parties of ten or twelve meet at
each other's houses, and work together, beguiling
the hours with a snug gossip, and a cup of bohe?.

The Castle of Orkney shelters one or two plar.e

trees cowering within the walls, and hanging out a

leaf or two, here and there, to prove that they a'^e

alive, which is almost a questionable fact, even with

8

86 KIRKWALL.

those few witnesses to attest it, and the country
round seemed clothed in sackcloth. The bishop's
" manse" has been very handsome in its day, though
now worn to rags, and the market place is neat and
extensive.

You may search round the world, and find
nothing more hopelessly ugly than the Isle of
Sanda, which lies so perfectly flat and bare, that it
might be taken for the whale's back on which
Sinbad the sailor landed. The ground, from a
very short distance, becomes quite invisible, there-
fore the few houses we saw seemed floating on the
surface of the sea, and the people seemed all walk-
ing on the water. It gave me a better idea of the
deluge than any picture I ever saw.

An alteration was made respecting the light-
house here some time ago, which produced most
disastrous consequences. The station formerly was
at North Ronaldsha, more than three miles off, and
many foreign ships, consulting old charts, were mis-
led in their bearings, and totally lost, though such
events used not to be imiversally deplored among
the Shetlanders formerly, when a stranded vessel
was considered quite as lawful a capture as a
stranded whale. One of our clerical friends men-
tioned, that some years ago three brothers sailed
from Hamburgh in different vessels on the same day,
and after cruising to various ports without meeting.

KIRKWALL. 87

they were all wrecked on the shore of Sanda at the
same time, and their ships completely lost ! What
a melancholy rencontre they must have had on this
desolate and fatal coast !

A Danish princess lies interred at our family
burjdng-place in Caithness, who met with her death
under somewhat similar circumstances. She had
married the chief of the clan Gunn, who passed
himself off, at the court of Denmark, for being a
considerably greater man than he really was, and
when she became desirous at length to see the
splendid residence he had described himself to pos-
sess in Scotland, he gallantly insisted on preceding
her there, to make the most magnificent prepara-
tions, but no Caleb Balderstone being then on the
spot, he was put to his wit's end one evening, by
beholding a fine vessel in the distance, containing
his bride and her suite in full progress homewards.
In an agony of consternation, he caused false lights
to be hung out along the coast, the consequence of
which was that the ship foundered, and her body,
richly dressed in jewels, having been washed on
shore at Clythe, is buried there with all the splendid
decorations she wore. It was unfortunate for the
princess, that she did not see some such conclusive
reason for refusing Mr. Gunn, as Lady Penelope
Primrose in more modern times, who declined the
addresses of a gentleman belonging to that clan,

88 KIRKWALL.

giving as an excuse that she could not tolerate the
idea of being called all her life " Lady Pen-Gun 1"
Persons afflicted with a name which admits of being
punned upon, must often Avish, in desperation, that
some friend w^ould leave them an estate, as an ex-
cuse for changing it.

Our Danish fellow-traveller was shocked beyond
expression at this tragical tale, and shrugged his
shoulders, till they nearly met over his head, on
hearing the catastrophe. I was amused at the un-
mitigated censure he bestowed on our country, for
allowing debtors a sanctuary within the precincts
of Holyrood Palace, where they enjoy unmolested
liberty to range through the park and hills around,
giving splendid entertainments, and receiving com-
pany, while the poor deluded creditors are in actual
starvation. As Paul Pry says, " I don't mean to
hint that there is any thing in it, only it seems odd !"
and we had very little to urge in defence of national
custom on this point. Mr. Hamilton mentioned that
the chief extravagance of his poor parishioners con-
sists in teaKlrinking to the most marvellous excess,
and that those who are starving would rather pur-
chase tea than bread. You never heard of tee-total-
iers on so large ^ scale ! the indulgence amounts
almost to an absolute vice, and the Shetlanders must
positively establish a toast-and-water society im>
mediately. About £'25,000 worth of bohea is an-

KIRKWALL. 89

nually entered at the custom-house in Lerwick, be-
sides which, a great quantity is smuggled by Dutch
fishing-boats. One poor man in the parish of Bras-
say, who had the expensive infliction of a tea-drink-
ing wife, was cheated, by her secretly selling his
goods to obtain tea! He was observed once to
purchase the same peck of meal three times over in
one week, being always assured that his children
had eaten it. A Highland laird once remarked, that
the Scotch peasantry were ruined by forsaking " the
good old porridge of their ancestors !"

Mr. Hamilton says, the kindness of all his very
poor people towards each other is astonishing. Like
the widow's cruize, their last mouthful is shared
wdth those who are more necessitous than themselves,
and no single individual will ever starve, unless the
whole population perish together. Poor and des-
titute as most of them are, he deprecated any plan
of assessment, because it would destroy all those
feelings of mutual sympathy and independence which
are the sole remaining comforts they possess. It
certainly is one of the deepest mysteries in this per-
plexing world, what system is best for relieving in-
digence, because while our almighty Creator has
ordained, for wise and holy purposes, that the poor
shall be always on the earth, he has at the same
time laid a deep responsibility on the rich, to do the
very utmost which liberality and good sense can
8*

90 KIRKWALL.

dictate, to relieve the weight of wo and painful
endurance laid on our suffering brethren. I believe
it would be an act of mercy to sweep from the face
of the earth most of those large charitable institu-
tions which encumber it, except such as are for the
blind and the incurable. If a hospital were insti-
tuted, where every living being could receive, on
application, a dish of porridge, a flannel petticoat,
and a bed, there w^ould probably be an end of all
exertion in the world. There must be, as a motive
to industry, the apprehension of that misery, Avhich
it is nevertheless our business to relieve when it
comes, by encouraging and teaching lessons of pro-
vident economy. I know many places at present,
where industrious women can get no needle-work
at their own firesides, because they are so completely
under-sold by large institutions, in which the ex-
pense of house-rent and coals not being paid by
individuals, the work can be done much cheaper.
If a general distribution of clothes w^ere made to the
poor, in three days more than half those gratis
v/ardrobes would be lodged at the pawnbroker's ;
and in considering the failings and defects of every
human scheme for the general advantage we can-
not but mournfully exclaim in the language of
Scripture, " Who will show us any good V* The
two most eminent philanthropists in Scotland, Dr.
Chalmere and Dr. Alison, are completely opposed

KIRKWALL. 91

in Opinion respecting the most eligible plan for the
poor; but while we lament the difficulty of ascer-
taining what is best, nothing, at the same time, can
exonerate any Christian from anxiously studying
this important subject, and conscientiously expend-
ing time and money, according to his utmost ability,
and according to the best of a carefully formed
judgment, on the great Christian object of succour-
ing those whom our Divine Saviour has so solemnly
committed to our care, measuring the degree of our
devotion to Himself by our diligence in " feeding
the hungry, clothing the naked, and administering
to the sick ;" yet the great scriptural rule of letting
charity be so private, that the left hand shall not
know what the right hand is doing, w^ould forbid
those great public establishments, which are in many
instances pernicious to the real interests of those
whom they are intended to benefit ; and the Bible
surely does not recognise or inculcate any general
and arbitrary assessment, which is to be deprecated,
for the sake of the poor, whom it would degrade and
demoralize, more than even for the w^ealthy, on
w^hom it would become every year more oppressive
and severe.

Mr. Hamilton mentioned, as an instance of the
generous feelings engendered by sympathy in dis-
tress, that, during the late scarcit}^, almost amount-
ing to a famine, an indigent old woman, having

92 KIRKWALL.

been presented with a boll of meal, divided it
equally with her starving neighbours. It always
appears to me, that, in this world, those who have
real miseries bear them well, and those who have
none invent some petty grievance to grumble at ;
for some people endure the pleasures of life less
cheerfully than others bear its greatest calamities.
A very indigent girl, not long since, after suffering
all the saddest privations of poverty, met with an
unfortunate accident, which made it necessary for
the doctors to amputate her leg; but when they
cautiously imparted this frightful prospect, she
calmly replied, " Then I shall now have a leg the
less to endure cold from !"

It was grievous in many places to hear a most
heart-rending description of w^hat the poor High-
landers suffered last season, when every thing short
of actual starvation was uncomplainingly undergone.
It lowered the value of the property so much to
have these circumstances knowTi, that in some
places where estates were to be sold, the proprietor
forbid any application on behalf of his tenantry to
the relief Committee, in consequence of which, the
funds, raised by a liberal subscription, were, I fear,
very unequally distributed.

Another destitution, of yet greater importance, is
deeply deplored in Scotland, and became a subject
of serious discussion among the clergy as we ap-

FAIR ISLE. 93

proached Fair Isle, a bright green spot, like an
emerald on the wide ocean. This place is quite a
little world in itself, covered with grass of a most
vivid and luxuriant verdure, but distant twenty-
four miles from the nearest shore, being exactly-
half-way between Orkney and Shetland, — and there
four hundred of our countrymen live and die with-
out the instructions or consolations of any clergy-
man. The parish to which they belong lies in a
far distant island, whence Mr. Thomson, the incum-
bent, used to visit them once in a season, to per-
form all the marriages and christenings ; but now,
being eighty years of age, he is unable to encoun-
ter the fatigue of such a voyage ; and it was men-
tioned, that the last time a clergyman arrived there,
several of the children requiring to be christened
were quite old and iminstructed, while one boy,
when the service was performed on himself, swore
most violently. The anxiety of these neglected
people for ministerial teaching is so extreme, that
they will laboriously row their boat any distance to
bring a preacher, and only ask their expenses for
taking him away, as it is considered ample remu-
neration for a voyage of fifty miles to hear a single
sermon ; and Mr. Watson of North Yell told us,
that once, when detained accidentally beyond Sun-
day the whole population crowded round him to
hear the gospel, and listened with fervent attention.

94 FAIR ISLE.

Many rich people disapprove loudly of foreign
missions, confidently saying, " let charity begin at
home ;" and for them here is a noble opportunity.
Neighbours and brethren of our own, who have lit-
tle to enjoy here, and no one to tell them of happi-
ness hereafter, suffer the most urgent want, while a
small subscription might supply the moderate wishes
of some resident clergyman, who would be wel-
comed with eager and grateful delight, bringing
them the knowledge which they seem all to be
thirsting for.

The deputations sent by charitable societies
travel sometimes now at a most preposterous ex-
pense. A lady assured me that once a barouch
and four arrived at her house in the Highlands, con-
taining four gentlemen, who requested leave to see
her pictures, and mentioned that they w^ere a com-
mittee of clergymen from England, collecting funds
for some religious object. Next day her old poul-
try-woman found several tracts scattered along the
approach, and this expedition cost several hundred
pounds, besides taking more than one clergyman
away from his own charge. This is a wide world,
in which there certainly is a great deal of good to
be done, but as none of us are like the tortoise, who
could carry the whole world on his own shoulders,
men who would really be useful must measure the
utmost extent of their own individual ability, and

FAIR ISLE. 95

do the very most which is possible, without attempt-
ing more, and too many parish clergymen would
wander about like Wesley, who during fifty years
never travelled less than 4500 miles annually. It
was no bad jest on a certain itinerating rector of
this kind, who frequently transferred his own work
to a substitute, and preached in any parish rather
than his own, that he should be nicknamed " Eng-
land, because he expected every man to do his
duty."

These poor Shetlanders can afford no expensive
deputations, but the half of what W£is paid for that
one excm^sion which I have described, would place
them permanently under the blessed influences of
gospel light ', therefore I beg to move a resolution,
which you shall second, that our next foreign mis-
sion shall be established at Fair Isle. How much
I should like now to send round a plate for your
subscriptions ! In that case, a missionary need not
laboriously acquire any difficult language, nor has
he either a new religion to introduce or an old su-
perstition to destroy, while he would be gratefully
welcomed by a people, many of whom are mourn-
fully sensible of their unhappy religious privations,
and those who are not, need only the more urgently
to be made aware of them. We find more excite-
ment in sending to foreign heathens, — and they
require all we can do, — but there are heathens at

96 FAIR ISLE.

home with a yet nearer claim to pity, though less
attractive to the fancy. I heard of a missionary
meeting lately, at which a Cherokee chief was pro-
duced, covered with tatooing and feathers, to pray
in his own unknow^n tongue, before a numerous
congregation, and to make a speech extempore, or
extnnnpery as you say. Our poor Zetlanders would
have no chance in comparison, yet the time and
money expended by a foreign missionary on his
long journey, besides studying Malabar or Hindos-
tanee, and diving into the depths of Brahmin mytho-
logy, might be occupied with far more immediate
advantage if he set forth at once with the English
Bible in his hand, to teach a people nearly as igno-
rant as any barbarians, but far more willing to
learn ; and those who contributed to so desirable an
object, might hope to reap a harvest of immediate
success, and to be blessed by the prayers of many
whom they had assisted to rescue from darkness,
and to place in the marvellous light of the gospel.

In old times, the Duke of Medina Sidonia's ship,
the Invincible, commanding the Spanish Armada,
w^as wrecked off Fair Isle, when most of the crew,
amounting to tw^o hundred men, landed in fishing-
boats. So numerous a swarm of guests would soon
have occasioned a famine, therefore the natives
murdered several, and hospitably entertained the
rest. If supernumerary guests could be lawfully

FAIR ISLE. 97

disposed of in this way, what a massacre would take
place at some dinner parties we have seen. Both
hosts and visiters were rescued from approaching
starvation at last by the appearance of a ship from
Lerwick. On that occasion, the Duke appeared
near the shore to welcome his deliverers, in the
splendid costume of a Spanish nobleman, but Mal-
colm Sinclair, a sturdy Presbyterian, w^ho had come
to entertain these foreign papists with all the rites
of hospitality-, nevertheless remarked, on being in-
troduced to his distinguished guest, " I have seen
many prettier men hanged on the Burrow-muir !"

These long twihghts are very enjoyable, and I
often wish that those who have more time than they
know how to use, could transfer a few superfluous
hours to those who find every day too short for half
what they wish to do ; but now^ that the stars are
lighting their lamps it is time for me to extinguish
mine. Since paper pillows are in fashion, you will
know how to dispose of too lengthy a letter, so I
must beware of being reduced to atoms, though it
would sound extremely civil to tell a long-winded
correspondent, that you never lie down without pla-
cing her letters under your head, — pray do not sub-
join that they put you to sleep. " We're a' noddin'."

LERWICK.

1 hope there's none offended
At me for telling this ;
For it was not intended
To be ta'en amiss.

Burns.

My dear Cousin, — Can this possibly be me at
Lerwick ! I begin to think it may not be a dream !
You once said, in an extravagant moment, that any
letter was worth any money, so I hope you will re-
tain the same opinion, while I now dip the pen of
astonishment in the ink of veracity, that, since you
have never been sufficiently enterprising to travel
so far, you may become proud of being related to
any one who has, after hearing all our adventures
by flood and field.

"When a gentleman once mentioned having gone
to see the lion at Exeter 'Change, a friend satirically
inquired, " What did the lion think of you 1" rather
a perplexing question ; but I hope our lions here are
as much pleased with us as we are with them, see-
ing I am already more than rewarded for taking
this very long step towards the Arctic circle, and
planting my standard on the Castle of Lerwick.

LERWICK. 99

A lady in Caithness, during one of our most un-
favourable summers, when every thing looked
brown, parched, and barren, became astonished to
hear a stranger talking in raptures about the richly
verdant thriving appearance of all the scenery in
our country. Of course she supposed him in jest,
till it turned out, on inquiry, that he was a native
of Shetland ! Certainly here we see little beside
grass and rocks, yet I admire beyond measure the
bold massy features of the landscape, glittering be-
neath a rising sun ; and there is something in it of
unadorned magnificence very striking to a stranger.

Lerwick is one of the oldest-looking towns I
ever remember to have inspected, and appears like
a small burlesque upon Venice, a range of houses
being drilled along the shore, all standing up to
their knees in water, while the sea washes six feet
deep on their foundations ; and instead of dark gon-
dolas, like coffins, floating about on the crj'stal
waves, we have light graceful skiffs ghding rapidly
along, bending their large white sails almost into
the surf.

Last week sixty-three Dutch fishing-vessels
sailed at once out of this beautiful and commodious
harbour in the Sound of Brassay; and residents
here all keep a boat instead of a carriage or cart,
being their only means of conveyance. No seaman
but a Zetlander could manage these very small

100 LERWICK.

canoes, like wherries from the Thames, with the
sails of most disproportionate magnitude ; but they
manoeuvre about in beautiful style, and the natives
seem all nearly amphibious, looking as if they sat
upon a dolphin, and holding the sail by a rope,
which is let fly the moment a blast rises, throwing
the sheet instantly at Hberty. Accidents, however,
do happen only too frequently on these rough and
dangerous seas ; and it is a singular custom, that
drowned persons are always buried far from the
ocean, as if their spirits might still be disturbed by
the horrors attending their decease. Do you remem-
ber Lady , when she heard the sudden intelli-
gence that a gentleman had been accidentally
drowned in the river, close to her windows, instantly
inquired, as her very first question, " Was he hand-

some I

7"

This is the first year that a tolerable inn has
been established at Lerwick, which is considered a
most remarkable era, and the style is about equal to
that on board a second-rate steam-boat, being con-
ducted by a most respectable landlord from East
Lothian. If any wealthy traveller, wishing to be
remarkably comfortable, had brought his own car-
riage and horses to Lerwick, he could not have
penetrated beyond the- pier, and by no possible con-
trivance could his equipage have been available in
driving up to the hotel, which is in so narrow a

LERWICK. 101

street, that A could easily have made a long

arm to touch the opposite house. I remember once
meeting an English lady going by steam to Staffa,
who said it was her intention immediately on land-
ing to order a post-chaise, and drive all round the
island, but neither there nor here would the plan be
very feasible, as not a wheel is stirring in the noise-
less streets. That pe6vish Mrs. , the morning

after her arrival at Venice, complained that she had
been so disturbed by " the noise of carriages !" it was
impossible to close an eye ; but the streets at Ler-
wick are about equally carriageless, being a curious
assortment of courts, connected by lanes, and inter-
sected by stairs, one of which divides the High
Street quite across, and some of the streets are even
arched over at the top.

The only road in Shetland goes six miles to-
wards Scalloway Castle, and we were told that but
one gentleman ever had a carriage here, when he
used to drive his wife several times up and down
the whole distance, to give her an idea what a
journey means. It might be said of him, as your
old friend used to remark of her English relation,
with a look of great importance, " He is the rich-
est man in London ! he keeps his chariot !" The
short road to Scalloway is, like all short cuts, nearly
impassable, leading over a peat-bog, to be cleared
in a succession of leaps, but if any one wishes to
9*

102 LERWICK.

see a Shetland pony shine, he should mount on his
back, the heavier the better, and perform a steeple
chase over all the chasms and walls which lie in the
way along the fine " corduroy road." Walking is,
of course, a most necessary accomplishment in this
country, where the shoes are made of materials so
very substantial, that an old gentleman used to say,
he w^ore in the morning three rows of nails on the
sole,. but for full dress only two row^s.

Some spirited proprietors projected great im-
provements here in road-making, and w^ould have
summoned M'Adam himself from the deep ; but un-
luckily one landlord, a soi-disant baronet, has, with
short-sighted economy, put a spoke in all their
wheels, refusing to let a stone be broken unless
some very extravagant terms be conceded. This un-
fortunate impediment must be a great annoyance to
all the residents, and I wish they could be delivered
from it, " To be disposed of, — an old established
grievance, — going very cheap !" Nothing but an
act of Parliament can lay down a road here now,
such as had been projected, not that the ambition of
Shetland pointed to a mail with four horses, attended
by a guard blowing his horn, and flying round the
islands to carry tourists round Noss and Scalloway ;
but no one can tell what half a centuiy may pro-
duce, and on my next excursion to this region, I
have promised to bring my chariot, while our friends

LERWICK. 103

have undertaken to provide a suitable road. Per-
haps you may Hve to see some time a railv^ray, hke
a great iron hoop, surrounding Great Britain, with
the whole population circling round at full speed, as
we see children at a fair, wheeling along on a " turn
about."

The introduction of a weekly steamboat to Shet-
land has begun a new era in this country. For-
merly all communication w^ith other places became
so tedious and uncertain, that none could be safely
depended on. A few years since, one of the princi-
pal merchants here, who possessed more than twenty
*ships of his own, became so anxious for letters, that
he sailed oiFto inquire for them personally at Edin-
burgh. There the postmaster objected to deliver
any, saying, it would be too great an advantage to
give him over the other mercantile houses at Ler-
wick, if he obtained his correspondence so prema-
turely, and it was not until after the greatest diffi-
culty, and legally proving his identity, that he could
obtain the packet.

The lower orders in Shetland seem rather be-
neath the middle size, especially when compared to
the tall Dutch skippers, stalking about in loose
tunics, high caps, and heavy wooden clogs, which
seem a most uncomfortable article of dress, being
excavated in a solid block of wood, as if the foot
had supernaturally forced its way in. We used to

104 LERWICK.

read in the Richmond play bills, of a hornpipe to be
danced on the stage in wooden shoes, but here it
could neither be light nor fantastic, as these slippers,
liable to be shuffled off at every step, seem made to
impede walking. The Dutch sailors exchange
shoes mth the Shetlanders for stockings, so that
their traffic is easily set on foot.

The sheep in these islands look like goats or
greyhounds, having long legs, and lank bodies, and
their colour is of that peculiar brown and blue
which the Shetland stockings usually exhibit.
Some are speckled of various hues, and go by the
name of Jacob's sheep, though not lineal descend-
ants of that flock. All the ladies here employ their
long evenings in knitting ; and even the hard-work-
ing women, when carrying on their backs the enor-
mous heavy " creels" which are used here instead
of carts, yet contrive to have a perpetual stocking
on hand. I met one cleanly dressed chatty old gos-
sip, the sort of looking personage who hobbles on
the stage at the beginning of a farce, exclaiming,
" How my old bones do ache !" and she assured me
with great exultation, that she manufactured a stock-
ing per day, and that every article she wore was
entirely of her own spinning. I liked to see her
honest pride, and if the gown had been French cam-
bric, she could scarcely have expected me to admire
it more.

LERWICK. 105

Before inns were invented at Lerwick, the pro-
prietors and merchants kept open house for all
strangers without exception, and must often, I should
guess, have found occasion to look over the inven-
tory of their plate, when exercising such boundless
hospitality. A party of well-dressed, plausible
looking foreigners arrived here once, and having
previously ascertained the names and connections of
all the chief inhabitants, they passed muster during
several weeks, living at the principal house on the
island. One Sunday, however, their hospitable host
was privately beckoned aside by a friend, who had
observed his companions in the pew at church, and
recognised them as a party of well-known black-
legs from Paris! He recommended their being
ejected from the house, in the most expeditious man-
ner possible, but their entertainer replied, with
characteristic liberality, that, " though he would
now be on his guard against imposition, yet while
his guests continued to behave like gentlemen, he
would persevere in treating them as such." Previ-
ous to departing, the ungrateful visiters attempted
some swindHng transactions, which were, of course,
counteracted, owing to this timely detection, and
they were opprobriously dismissed from Shetland ;
but, unfortimately, their schemes prospered better
in Orkney, where they afterwards cheated some
merchants to a large amount ; and it was a curious

106 LERWICK.

termination of the whole aifair, that upon leaving
Kirkwall, they very handsomely transmitted to the
parish clergyman £5 for the poor ! This was an
amusing sort of Robin Hood generosity, but some
w^ho deem it right to refuse money collected for
charitable purposes, unless they approve of the
means by which it has been raised, would be rather
perplexed how to dispose of such a donation.

Among countless instances of peculiar hospi-
tality, it may be mentioned, that a Mr. Bruce re-
ceived into his house some years ago, forty Russian
shipwrecked sailors, maintained them during the
whole winter, and sent the entire crew, at his own
expense, back to their native country. He dechned
receiving any recompense, but the Empress Cathe-
rine privately obtained an impression of his family
seal, sent it over land to China, and ordered a mag-
nificent dinner service of the finest porcelain to be
manufactured for him without delay. By some un-
fortunate oversight, the box containing this precious
gift was seized at the custom house, and sold to a
Mr. Reid, in whose possession it still remains, though
I cannot but grudge him every dinner he eats off it.
Mr. Bruce, while he lived, lighted a large fire every
winter night close to the shore, and had a barrel of
meal ready to be cooked into porridge, for distribu-
tion among any number of poor sailors visiting those
distant shores. They were also allowed clean straw

LERWICK. 107

to sleep on at night, when unable otherwise to pro-
cure a bed.

The gentry at Lerwick are still so extremely
kind to strangers, that our landlord should lock up
his guests, as the only chance of keeping any, or he
may perhaps be provoked at last to act like the inn-
keeper at Luss, who, finding himself nearly ruined
by the parish clergyman beguiling away all his
visiters, at last one night carried his sign to the
manse and nailed it over the door.

One of the most uncommon subjects for aston-
ishment, to a stranger, in Shetland, is, when he
first discovers the very near neighbourhood of every
gentleman's town and country house. The two are
generally within sight of each other ! We w^ere
shown Mr. Mouat's elegant residence in Lerwick,
and looking full in its face, from the opposite side
of a narrow bay, stands Gardie House, his country-
seat! It is a large, handsome, well-windowed
house, which seems to be staring about on every
side and wondering when the trees will come up.
Mr. Ogilvy has, what Robins the auctioneer would
call a most magnificent and desirable country resi-
dence, surrounded by gardens, terraces, and offices
on an extensive scale, but, by the help of a speaking-
trumpet, you might deliver a verbal message from
his drawing-room in the country to his drawing-
room in town ; and Mr. Hay's rural retreat is ex-

108 LERWICK.

actly a ten minutes' walk from his mansion in Ler-
wick. All the principal families here make a
regular " flitting" every season, from town to
country, probably leaving their P P C cards for each
other, and, after taking a pathetic leave of the me-
tropolitan gayeties, set out, by easy stages, changing
horses as often as may be necessary, and plunging
into the wilderness of rural enjoyment within half a
mile. In London, those who have no estates often
close their front windows for the siunmer, and with-
draw out of sight, while etiquette forbids their being
visible in town, and to the Shetland gentry the
change is scarcely greater. If a Court Circular be
ever established at Lerwick w^e shall read a hst of

FASHIONABLE CHANGES.

Mr. Mouat, for the summer, from the north to
the south side of Lerwick Bay. Mr. Ogilvy and
family, half a mile west, for change of air. Mr.
Ployen, from Feroe, on a southern tour in Shetland
and Orkney !

Fort Charlotte, at Lerwick, — an imposing old
fortification all bristling round with guns, — is in
good repair, and serves partly as a jail, where we
saw four youths under fourteen, one of whom was
a gentleman's son, confined in solitary cells, for a
burglary committed at Orkney, when they robbed
an old man of eighteenpence. They all maintained

LERWICK* 109

that the money was immediately to have been re-
turned, as they merely intended a jest, but the law
does not understand such practical jokes. The
jailer's wife said, within hearing of the young crim-
inals, while tears started to her eyes, that she never
had seen more excellent boys, and pronounced their
panegyric in terms so glowing, that a gentleman
present thought it full time to remind her and the
prisoners that such unqualified praise could scarcely
be merited by young gentlemen placed under her
husband's lock and key.

A stranger, who had landed with us from the
steam-boat, was much entertained by a corporal
who accosted him, when wandering about the fort
alone, and announced with great official importance,
that he was " the Governor !^' adding the important
fact, that four thousand pounds of gunpowder were
placed under his charge, but on inquiring it came
out that he has no authority to fire, even if an enemy
appear, and that he has the command of no garrison
but himself. A party of mischievous boys at Ler-
wick, on one occasion, alarmed the whole surround-
ing country, by privately loading one of the super-
annuated cannons at Fort Charlotte and firing it off!
Some part of the wall was shattered, in consequence
of an extra charge having been thrust in, and a sen-
sation was occasioned by the explosion like that
caused to Sir Walter Scott's Antiquary when the
10

110 LERWICK.

beacon-fire at Fairport was lighted. The whole
population of Lerwick flew to ascertain what en-
emy had landed to take possession of the island, and
we can scarcely wonder at some panic being ex-
cited, considering that the nearest naval force which
can be summoned to protect any part of Scotland is
stationed at Chatham. If Paul Jones had a suc-
cessor, he might land in Shetland any day, as he did
once in Galloway, and take the very tea-pots off the
breakfast-tables.

On the last birth-day which George the Fouilh
lived to see, the flag-staff at Lerwick Castle fell
prostrate to the earth, which was afterwards con-
sidered a prophetic omen. The very same pole is
now so insufficiently propped up that all well-
wdshers of her present Majesty should subscribe to
raise one, which shall promise, by its firmness, to see
out the present century, or longer, if possible. Loyal
as the inhabitants of Shetland are, how^ever, their
woods and forests could scarcely supply so much as
a pair of Dutch clogs, and still less a new flag-staff,
but we must suppose the trees were all cut down to
show the sea views, which are so very fine. The
tallest and grandest tree I saw during my stay on
the island, was a stalk of rhubarb nearly seven feet
high, w^hich had rim to seed, and waved its head
majestically in a garden below the fort, looking quite
shady and ornamental. It had been planted by

LERWICK. Ill

some officers, and really did them great credit. The
Arabians have a proverb, which I wish we may all
live to see realized here, " Be patient, and the mul-
berry-leaf ^^dll become satin."

I expected to observe Shetland ponies galloping
in every field, but they are chiefly running wild
among the distant unenclosed hills, where, in most
instances, the fore-legs are manacled together.
Nothing is trusted to the honour of a Shetland
poney, but they are all shackled in a most uneasy
manner, hobbling along like rabbits, which incon-
venient contrivance ruins their paces afterwards.
When well fed from an early age, they grow nearly
to the height of a donkey, but some years ago, Mr.
Hay reared a perfectly well-formed poney, which
measured only twenty-six inches high. Not so tall
as a moderate-sized hobby-horse ! I have heard
sportsmen talk in praise of a horse that would can-
ter round a cabbage-leaf, but here was one literally
capable of doing so. The veiy largest men ride
these tiny little creatures at full speed, looking from
a distance as if they had merely hooked on a pair
of additional legs, being scarcely raised a foot off
the ground, and yet racing rapidly along. How
would a regiment of calvary look, mounted, or low-
ered rather, on these stout little chargers !

Many very curious arctic birds stray over to
this country, and I have seen one most beautiful

112 LERWICK.

snow-owl, wliicli had been killed in this neighbour-
hood, as large as an eagle, and the colour of a swan-
down muff. Eider ducks are veiy abundant, and
eagles so very destructive, that five shillings a-head
used to be given for shooting them. Swans appear
in great flocks during spring. I dare say you have
not forgotten our friend, who said he had very near-
ly sent you a swan-down muff from the Highlands,
and when we asked an explanation of the reason
why so welcome a present never came, it turned
out that he had merely " seen a flight of wild swans
over his head, and wished he had a gun !"

Of course all the birds here must live on the
ground, having neither hedges nor trees in which
to form a colony, but the plovers and other unam-
bitious kinds make themselves quite at home. I am
told the crows build their nests of fish-bones, as a
substitute for sticks, which shows a great deal of
genius, equal to that of the Greenlanders, who form
their houses of whalebone. It is interesting thus to
observe how nearly instinct can approach to reason,
in adapting means to an end, but the one is born at
once to its utmost perfection, and the other is culti-
vated or destroyed by the possessor, according as he
employs it, and may be advanced, if used in a Chris-
tian spirit, to higher and higher perfection every
day, stretching from earth to heaven, till it reaches
the ceaseless progress of an eternal existence.

LERWICK. 113

Nature is outlined along this coast on so mag-
nificent a scale, that we scarcely miss the softer
touches, which give grace and beauty to a land-
scape. All that rock and water can do, is done ;
and while ornamental vegetation is entirely wanting,
that which is useful seems abundant, especially in
the valley of Tingwall, where grain and vegetables
ripen in their utmost perfection ; the pasture is so
excellent, it would have transported an Argyleshire
laird, who was asked some time since whether he
had been disappointed in his first view of StafFa,
when he replied, " Quite the contrary ! I was told
the island pastured only tw^enty sheep, and I counted
fourscore !"

The labour and expense to which several pro-
prietors have gone, in cultivating trees and gardens,
do prodigious honour to their perseverance, patriot-
ism, and taste ; but in a climate where gooseberries
scarcely ripen on the wall, and apples are unknown,
what can be done ? We have all a tendency to
that respectable weakness of thinking our own
country the best in the world, and the enterprising
cultivators here, may console themselves about their
unproductive soil, by saying, as the Duke of Wel-
lington said of his army, " It is given to me to make
the best of !"

The youngest children in Shetland can make an
income of twenty shilhngs per annum, by catching
10*

114 LERWICK.

the small fish named "sillocks, or pars," abounding
in swarms here, which owe their value to the oil
extracted from them, two thousand barrels of which
were manufactured in one year, from those diminu-
tive fry, not measuring above four or five inches
long. Thus food and light become easily accessi-
ble in a comitry where grain is scarce, and where
the days are not over long.

In the churchyard at TingAvall, this inscription
appears on an old tomb-stone, " Here lies an honest
man !" It seems like an implied imputation on all
those bm'ied near him. There is more truth perhaps
in that simple memorial, than in a panegyrical epi-
taph I was busy reading at a certain cathedral
lately, wondering how so great and good a man
could ever have been spared out of the world, when
the beadle, observing my occupation, quietly said,
*' He w^as the very reverse, ma'am, of all you see
there !"

We had an excellent sermon at Lerwdck from
the parish clergyman, Mr. Barclay, formerly pro-
fessor of elocution at Aberdeen. He gave us so
edifying an address, that if I could attend church in
Shetland without crossing the sea, it would give me
pleasure to go often. The innkeeper conducted us
to his own pew, and I had scarcely time to settle
myself comfortably, before the clerk, a most res-
pectable man in black robes, began publishing, in

LERWICK. 115

an easy gossiping tone, the banns of several mar-
riages ! Not seeing any objection to the proposed
alhances, I forbade none of them, but began specu-
lating how it could possibly happen, that in this
strange place, the clerk's voice and physiognomy
seemed quite familiar to me. He sung particularly
well, being one of the best " precentors" I know,
and after a moment's perplexity, it flashed across
my recollection, that this was actually " mine host"
from the bar ! We almost expected to find a charge
for the pew in his bill, but our expenses from be-
ginning to end in Shetland could scarcely cover the
point of a pin.

Nothing could exceed the hospitality and kind-
ness we received from Mr. Hay, w^ho is quite a
northern lord of the isles, his name being as inti-
mately connected w^th Shetland as Bonaparte's wdth
St. Helena, and his house becomes a home to every
stranger who reaches these shores. A great dis-
tinction is made here between " Scotchmen and
Shetlanders ;" but the Scotch hospitality, for which
we are justly celebrated, is almost outdone by our
northern neighbours, many of whom were most kind-
ly urgent that we should measure our visit by wrecks
rather than by hours. I have promised, if any wind
blows me here again, to remain as many days as
will enable us to see every thing thoroughly ; so,
considering what scarce commodities good days are,

1 16 LERWICK.

our visit may probably extend throughout a whole
season.

On Monday we discussed in long and anxious
debate with Mr. Hay how that one only morning
we had for seeing all Shetland, could be most ad-
vantageously disposed of, and he entered into our
case with the same mature deliberation as if I had
consulted him about the investment of my whole
fortune. The day threatened every thing ! wind,
rain, mist, and cold ! nothing could look more un-
propitious, but still some adventure must be achieved,
and as we could not visit both Scalloway Castle
and Noss Cradle, we weighed the castle against the
precipice, balancing and re-balancing their merits
with the most careful precision, and puzzled beyond
measure which must kick the beam. At last it sud-
denly occurred to me that I can see a castle any day,
but such a cradle as that of Noss never, therefore
the scale began to preponderate greatly, when Mr.
Hay being summoned on business to Lerwick, com-
mitted us to the custody of his son, ordering ponies
to the door in case w^e preferred Scalloway, and a
boat if we determined to try a second childhood in
the cradle.

As Burns remarked, " the plans of mice and
men are liable to go awry." Nine hours after-
wards, when Mr. Hay returned, he found us still
seated in the drawing-room, having seen neither the

LERWICK. 117

one place nor the other, as unfortunately a squall of
wind, with bitter torrents of rain, had come on, ac-
companied by a fog, which cut the head off every
precipice and hill. It was the sort of rain that never
stops, being dogged-looking and obstinate, proceed-
ing from large mountainous clouds, hanging heavily
down, as if Ben Lomond and Schiehallion had
mounted overhead, therefore we resigned ourselves
to a very pleasant chat in the house, with the
agreeable family circle of Mr. Hay, joined by Mr.
Hamilton, who had crossed from Brassay to meet us
again. As Chateaubriand desired a friend to inscribe
his name on the pyramids of Egypt, that posterity
might never guess he had actually left the country
without inspecting them, we must get our signatures
engraved on the cliffs at Noss.

It has been long remarked, that the gentiy in
Shetland use their long winter evenings to great
advantage, in reading most extensively, which be-
comes so obviously the case in conversing with them,
that I began almost to regret our own days not being
equally short. Perhaps also the cold winds here
assist in sharpening people's intellects, a propos
to which I am about to start a perfectly new philo-
sophical theory on this veiy subject ! Warm cli-
mates certainly do enervate the mind, as we see that
the lowest scale of intellect prevails in Africa, China,
and the West Indies. Italy and France are greatly

118 LERWICK.

inferior to England ; — Scotland excels them all, and
even our great magician, Sir Walter Scott, before
writing his Pirate, or his jom^nal, took a sharpening
in Shetland. Now, this all combines to prove, on
undoubted premises, like Phrenology or Animal
Magnetism, that peculiar acuteness should be ex-
pected in minds nearest the pole, and if you think a
course of popular lectures on the subject would
" take," perhaps I could sketch out the prospectus.
Common phraseology favours my discovery, as every
man who makes too clever a bargain with his neigh-
bour, is said to be " too far north for him !" and,
besides, the most brilliant magazine in Scotland is
edited by Christopher North ! Need I say more ?

Instead of travelling over Shetland with us, Mr.
Charles Hay very obligingly showed me a chart of
it, on so large a scale, that three inches are given to
each mile, and not a single peat-stack seemed want-
ing, therefore we made a leisurely tour over the
wide expanse, pausing occasionally to hear elabo-
rate descriptions of the curiosities we ought to have
seen, and of the accidents we might probably have
met with 3 all very interesting, but also rather tan^
talizing.

During a short promenade, we inspected one of
the primitive mills frequently used here to grind
corn, exactly similar to those of Norway, and I wish
the whole board of agriculture had accompanied us

LERWICK. 119

to be diverted at the sight of this antediluvian ma-
chinery. It consisted of four very low dykes, with
a turf roof, beneath which, a small stream running
in a trough not four inches deep, tm^ned a wheel
placed horizontally instead of perpendicularly, so
that half the force was neutralized, and there you
have the whole concern !

Near the Cleik'em-in-Mill, w^e w^ere shown a
most amusing little miniature cottage, containing
one window behind, one before, one in the roof, and
a door, but there are five apartments inside. Burn
or Gillespie might have been proud of laying out
the accommodation to so much advantage, but it
was all planned and executed by the proprietor, a
custom-house officer, on hospitable thoughts intent,
who washed to have spare beds for his friends. The
dining-room is so very small that any one sitting at
table, must rise and stand quite upright against the
wall, if the door be opened ; but this superb resi-
dence rejoices in a name larger than itself, being
called " Glenspleuchen," and the owner may always
keep up his dignity like the gentleman described in
an old ballad, —

" Stately slept he east the wa',
And stately slept he west."

The finest remnant of a Teutonic Castle which
ever enchanted the society of antiquaries may be
seen on the island of Mousa, twelve miles distant

120 LERWICK.

from Lerwick. It stands about forty feet high, look-
ing externally like a small pyramid of Egypt, — or
some pre-Adamite conformation, — or an old glass
house — -take any comparison you like best. It is
composed of two circular w^alls, one within the
other, like the ivory balls from China, leaving a
passage about five feet wide between. This inter-
val is said to have been used for a place of safety
during war, and as these retreats, from their wind-
ing about, w^ere called dragons or serpents, it has
been conjectured that an allusion to such ancient
sanctuaries may have originated the allegorical ro-
mances, afterwards so popular, relating to beautiful
Princesses who w^ere guarded by monsters, and res-
cued by dragons.

There is, in most well-constituted minds, an in-
stinctive respect for rank, which certainly ought to
exist in a high degree, if, as in many cases, it only
adorns w'hat is in other respects pre-eminent, and
acts as " the guinea stamp" on that which is already
gold. In a country like Shetland, without any resi-
dent nobility, I scarcely think, that if all the pleas-
ing, w^ ell-bred people we conversed with had been
insensibly transformed into dukes and duchesses, it
could have made our evening circle more agreeable
or entertaining ; but at present, the great theme of
conversation in every house, and the most deserv-
edly popular person in the far north, seems to be a

LERWICK. 121

young nobleman, the first English peer who ever
penetrated into Shetland. It certainly is most grati-
fying to a part of the world, usually forsaken and
neglected, even by those who are its natural resi-
dents, that the inhabitants have been repeatedly
visited, on terms of cordial kindness and intimacy,
by one who might choose his own society in any
part of Great Britain, and whose estates are almost
equal in value to any one of the three northern
counties in which, for the last two years, he has
resided. The young men in Shetland expected
nothing but luxurious indolence from an " English
Lord" possessing unbounded wealth, whose guar-
dians had recently purchased an addition to his vast
estates to the value of j£900,000, but they were as-
tonished at his arriving across these dangerous seas,
having performed a voyage of one hundred miles in
an open fishing-boat, and still more, that being an
accomplished scholar, and accompanied by one of
the most pious and learned tutors at Oxford, he
nevertheless excelled in all the field-sports and
athletic exercises to which they were accustomed.

The three predecessors of Lord Ward were each,
in their day, pre-eminent for something. The first
was so distinguished for his personal appearance,
that in the well-know^n print you have seen, repre-
senting Lord Chatham's death, his figure was made
the most prominent of all. My grand uncle, Lord
11

122 LERWICK.

Dudley and Ward, who succeeded him, expended
so many thousands every year in building churches,
and in the most lavish charitable benefactions, that
he w^as justly called " the rich man's model, and the
poor man's friend ;" and his son, the late Earl Dud-
ley, Secretary of State to George the Fourth,
though his great abilities v/ere tarnished by an ex-
traordinary degree of eccentricity, was, nevertheless,
one of the most brilliant wits and accomplished
scholars of his time. Though an only son, yet from
infancy he never knew the happiness of domestic
life, having been, at the early age of six months,
placed by his rather whimsical parents in a separate
house and establishment, where they occasionally
visited him, but his education w^as entirely superin-
tended by a succession of nursery governesses and
tutors, and he always declared that his only experi-
ence of a happy home was when placed at last
under the roof of Professor Dugald Stewart, at
Edinburgh. His life of early solitude engendered
those peculiar habits which occasionally clouded the
lustre of his shining abilities, and among other
strange customs, he acquired so unconquerable a
habit of thinking aloud, that his intimate friends
used to say, in allusion to his tw^o titles, that " Dud-
ley was speaking to Ward." The ludicrous effect
produced by these public meditations during his
Majesty's cabinet councils, became a principal cause

LERWICK. 123

of his retirement from office. On one occasion,
when a gentleman obUgingly took him home in his
carriage, to avoid a shower of rain, he conversed
diUgently with himself during their progress, saying,
" I suppose he will expect me to ask him to dinner !
I'm afraid it must be done." His companion being
fond of a jest, instantly commenced an accompani-
ment, muttering to himself quite audibly, " If he
asks me to dinner, I shall certainly not go !" Upon
hearing this. Lord Dudley laughed heartily, made an
apology, and insisted on the invitation being both
given and accepted, w^hich accordingly it was. A
fall from his horse, on the continent, seems to have
occasioned some disease of the brain, which brought
a melancholy cloud over his latter years, and at his
own express desire, all his papers were destroyed,
leaving no record behind worthy of his great intel-
lect, before it darkened into the gloom of night.

The steam-boat being about to sail from Shet-
land, we were now called on to decide either on
leaving the island immediately, or staying an entire
week. If we could have lingered on from day to
day, I might probably have enjoyed myself there
for a month, but it is a serious thing to accept an
invitation from strangers for seven long days ; and
though the hospitable inhabitants appeared to think
that those w^ho once came there should never go
away, while we were surrounded by more agreeable

124 LERWICK.

friends than I ever made in so short a time before,
each of whom we were sorry to leave, yet we ad-
hered firmly to our original plan of departing, " much
and justly regretted." Meantime the weather had
become stormy, the wind cutting like a scythe, and
the atmosphere moreover so hazy, that I felt almost
tempted to settle for life in Shetland, rather than
encounter the very formidable voyage before us.
We wished it had been possible now to summon
the obliging genii who carried Prince Camaralza-
man a thousand leagues without disturbing his slum-
bers ! I envied every bird that flew past, and
scarcely dared even to look at the sea, thinking
how much too intimately acquainted we should
soon become ; but after a P P C dinner with Mr.
Hay, we embarked, escorted by all the kind friends
we had acquired at Lerwick, on board the steam-
boat, or Damp-skiff, as it is appropriately named in
our friend the Danish governor's language.

Having been always hitherto accustomed to
consider Thurso Castle as the ultima thule, I could
not get over the oddity of receiving the good wishes
of om* companions for a pleasant voyage south to
Caithness, and certainly the prospect of its being
safe or agreeable seemed momentarily diminishing.
The captain expressed great surprise at my em-
barking on such a night of fog and wind, while a
poor woman, who had brought three ponies to be

LERWICK. 125

transported, said the evening was too rough for
them, and led her Httle flock ashore. I very nearly
determined to accompany them back, and had not
quite made up my mind on the subject, when sud-
denly the vessel started off in full career, the skiff
containing our convoy of friends gradually vanished
in the fog, the waving of handkerchiefs ceased, and
Shetland was no more.

I felt much amused at a sailor, when we came

on board, observing to A , " I thought you

would not stay long. Sir ! the climate is too cold for
any gentleman !"

What a night this was ! I dared not go below
at all, but turned two days into one, by remaining
on deck, watching the endless twilight, while our
tottering boat wrestled through the long sweeping
waves, which tilted us up as if we had been placed
on an enormous swing, and then away we dashed
into the very bosom of the ocean, casting up a sheet
of spray which drenched all the deck. Never were
mountains so easily ascended ! we sprimg up the
side of Ben Nevis or Snowdon at a single bound,
and then rushed down a Montague Russe to the
bottom, —

While evVy mad wave drown'd tlie moon,
Or whistled aloft its tempest tune.

The sun set, looking dimly and coldly through dark

stripes of grey cloud, as if enclosed within a large

11*

126 LERWICK.

iron grate, and burned to embers, but at last it went
entirely out, so the world remained, with nothing
visible by the cold wan twilight, but the moon, the
stars, and myself. The whole creation seemed like
a dream, so solemn and indistinct, as if the world
were in a trance, but for the stormy wind which
blew with unabated vehemence. Nothing brings
to my mind so awful an idea of the wrath of God,
as that sustained exhibition of His mighty power, to
be traced in a hurricane. Even a thunder-storm is
scarcely so impressive !

Morning was at last ushered in by the crowing
of a cock most vociferously, and the sun himself
emerged from the ocean like a globe of liquid fire,
blazing over sea and sky, till both were illuminated
with a flood of splendour. I should have liked, for
the moment, to be an Italian improvisatrice, and
apostrophized the sun, moon, stars, ocean, and all
the grand objects which had so recently delighted
me ; but the true sublime of their existence is only
to be fully appreciated in connection with their
great originator. I could not but think, if the sun
were an eye visibly watching all we do or think, it
would cause a most solemnizing restraint over all
our actions. " What scenes that orb has look'd
upon, since first its race began !" Yet this bright
luminary is but one manifestation among thousands
gloriously testifying the perpetual presence and un-

LERWICK. 127

ceasing watchfulness of that omnipotent Being who
created us and it, — whose eye is in every place,
" beholding the evil and the good." Why do we
not more constantly remember that great and holy
Being, who " compasseth our path and our lying
down, and is acquainted with all our ways ?"

I contrived to stand on deck, grasping hold of
a rope, and clinging to the gangway, while Captain
Philips traced the whole scene of Sir Walter Scott's
Pirate, and treated me to a running criticism on its
merits, which might have made a valuable article
for the Quarterly Review. He had lately comph-
mented the novel by a second perusal, and pointed
to where once stood the ruins of Jarlshof Castle, and
where the towering precipice of Fitful Head still
keeps its station, looking almost supernatural. It
rises four hundred feet perpendicularly out of the
ocean ; and, at the moment w^e passed it, was
crowned by fantastic wreaths of mist, blown into
strange unearthly peaks, the w^hole of w^hich looked
so perfectly solid, that you might have fancied they
were all actual rocks.

Captain Philips is a most fearless navigator,
having once attempted the nearly impossible exploit
of sailing through " the Roost of Sumburgh," a boil-
ing sea, w^hich dashes tumultuously up to the base
of a headland, towering bold and erect nearly one
thousand feet high, thus raising its head to heaven,

128 LERWICK.

while storms and tempests rage unheeded at its foot.
There the Atlantic and German oceans meet, on not
very peaceful terms, and the waves break up with
such gigantic strength, that the spray is sometimes
thrown several hundred feet over the rocks, falling
back in a perfect Niagara of foam; and a long
stream of turbulent billows may be traced three
miles into the ocean, caused by this concussion of
tides. Vessels inadvertently entering its vortex
during a comparative calm, have been tossed, with-
out hope of escape, for three or four days, w^ith the
waves washing almost in a stream over the deck.
This description reminded me of the young lady
who suddenly changed her mind about going to
India, and gave, as her reason, that she was told,
" every vessel, in crossing the line, remaiuf d three
days imder water !"

On the occasion of trying his powers in the
Roost, Captain Philips penetrated forwards, till the
Sovereign was literally boring through the weaves,
and being at length wdthin a few buckets of be-
coming quite ingulfed, she w^ith some difficulty
wheeled about, not quite drowned, and all but
swamped. Since then, no audacious paddles have
intruded within that very respectful distance at
which we kept from Sumburgh-head, which has
presided over some fearful shipwrecks. Many a
noble vessel has there sunk to rise no more, and

WICK. 129

many a despairing eye has fixed its last glance on
those mighty cliffs ! In 1595, the Earl of Orkney
made a law, that if any man attempted to relieve
vessels in distress, he should be punished in his per-
son, and forthwith severely fined, at his Lordship's
own pleasure, a discretionary power, exercised on
so very extensive a scale, that he was finally exe-
cuted at Edinburgh for his tyrannical and rapacious
conduct. It was rather an awkward superstition
among the lower orders long ago, that whoever
rescued a drowning man, might depend upon re-
ceiving some mortal injury from his hand ; but I
hope the Humane Society can give a diflferent report
in modern times, and return a favourable verdict of
" not proven."

The harbour at Wick is considered, during an
east wind, the most dangerous part of a voyage
from Shetland ! therefore, seeing the wind riotous,
and the waves tossing up their white curly heads
in the bay. Captain Philips recommended that we
should trust ourselves in preference to a small boat
in Sinclair bay, w^hich accordingly we did, landing
near the ancient walls of Ackergill tower, after a
nineteen hours passage from Shetland ; and really,
considering all we had come through, I felt rather
astonished to see myself alive and w^ell. When did
you ever hear of a voyage in w^hich people were
not within an inch of their lives 1 The innkeeper

130 WICK.

at Wick proved himself quite a genius in his Une,
having actually shown so much forethought, as to
place a gig in waiting for us close to the surf, in
which we deposited our heavy baggage, and
walked to the town, two miles off, where, even on
these desolate heaths, I could have exclaimed, like
Gonzalo, " Now would I give a thousand furlongs
of sea for an acre of barren ground." I would say
of such a voyage, as Lord Chesterfield did of hunt-
ing, " Do people ever go a second time !" It cer-
tainly is a wonderful infatuation, and every excur-
sion I make is always " positively for the last time,
and by particular desire ;" but again and again
some dire necessity occurs, and I become " an invol-
untary voluntary" once more on the sea.

If you are desirous to have a letter answered
immediately, write always to the busiest persons
you know, for they are always the most punctual,
of w^hich my epistle to-day is an undeniable instance.
In considerable haste, and with a one-»legged pen,
yours, &c, &c,

FERRYTOWN.

Though to the west retreating,
Daylight may soon be fleeting;
Welcome ye darker hours,
Our sunshine is within.

My dear Cousin, — K our correspondence con-
tinues to be kept up so diligently, we shall both soon
resemble the Spanish author, who w^rote three times
as many pages as he lived days in the world ; and
though he was considered a wonderful man in those
primitive times, it is quite an everyday case now,
for there are many hving authors who can make a
ream of paper " look foolish" in a month. Easy
writing is said to be very hard reading, but we have
weekly and monthly opportunities of trying the ex-
periment now, as many w^ho might become stand-
ard authors, if they did themselves any justice, pre-
fer writing against time. Such works come out in
a galloping consumption from the first, published,
bought, read, buried in oblivion, and succeeded by
a fresh progeny from the same pen, all within the
period of a Quarterly Review, and we are scarcely
allowed time to form a more accurate estimate of
their value than the student who hurried through

132 FERRYTOWN.

Euclid in a week, and said it was very amusing, but
he could make nothing of the pictures. Formerly
the world was said to be divided into three classes.
Those who Hve to read, — those who live to act, —
and those who live to talk, — but you will allow we
have a fourth class now, more numerous than all
the others united, — those who live to write. I re-
member hearing of a whimsical pubhsherjwho used
at his dinner-parties to make authors take precedence
according to the bulk of their works. The folios
walked first, the quartos followed, the octavos came
last, and, I suppose, the duodecimos dropped in to
tea, but if your correspondents have rank on the
same scale of measurement, this letter will promote
me to a place of great distinction, as I mean it to be
perfectly endless.

An Italian proverb says, " Every road leads to
Rome," but here the most northern highways in
Scotland are like the spokes of a wheel, all center-
ing at Inverness. Though I would gladly sweep
round a hundred miles, to avoid revisiting the same
place, no other outlet presents itself towards the
south, and therefore we resigned ourselves to a
tiresome da capo. An Irishman got himself once
into the greatest perplexity while counting on his
fingers a party of three with whom he had dined the
previous day : " There were the two O'Flanagans
one, myself tw^o ; but who was the third ? The

FERRYTO^^^. 133

two O'Flanagans one, myself two ! !" — now in the
same way, to save repetition, my two visits to Inver-
ness shall be reckoned for one, though, pre^vious to
our arrival, the journey of one hundred and twenty
miles is w^orth describing, as we were pursued the
whole way by the same hurricane which escorted
us from Shetland. I enjoyed it now most comfort-
ably, however, on shore, admiring the picturesque
effect of ships in a storm, and feeling most thank-
ful not to be on board. Some travellers are in such
haste, they would sacrifice their lives to save half an
hour, and a gentleman who wished to proceed by
the mail yesterday from Golspie to Inverness, find-
ing it full, embarked in an open boat, which was
instantly blown out to sea, carried off the contrary
way, and finally dashed to pieces, but he was him-
self picked up almost alive, as far north as Helms-
dale, by a Frenchman who w^as passing by chance,
and arrived safe this morning at the point from
which he set out.

When we reached Ferrytown the sea w^as cov-
ered w^th a drifting foam, so that even the mail
could not think of crossing, and the ferryman's wife
told us that, though he usually crosses in ten min-
utes, her husband had been at sea six hours during
the morning vainly trying to get over. She was in
tears most of the time, expecting him every instant
to go down, but there he stood now perfectly safe ;
12

134 FERRYTOWN.

and it would have made you smile to see the little
ordinary looking old man who had been the object
of interest and affection so intense. Her feelings
were rather more pleasingly testified than those of

Lady for her husband, when he nearly fell

overboard from a steam-boat, and she called out to
a sailor, " Take care of that man, for he belongs to
me !"

The ferryman seemed quite ready to try an ex-
perimental trip across, if any of us had the least
curiosity to go. He wore a silver snuff-box, given
him for saving the lives of fifteen persons on a for-
mer occasion, which was some encouragement, and
he seemed quite anxious for another opportunity of
distinguishing himself. I saw the spot where a boat
was upset thirty years since, when ninety-nine per-
sons were lost, and w^e were shown the very wave
in which an English gentleman, an admirable swim-
mer, was drowned some years ago, so that seemed
quite warning enough ! I prefer, at any time, avoid-
ing a danger to escaping out of it, and, therefore,
when we heard some time afterwards that a boat
was actually in preparation to carry the mail across,
I proposed a resolution and seconded it myself, that
A and I should remain a day at the Ferry-
house, which question was triumphantly carried by
a Whig majority of one.

It was an interesting moment when we stood

FERRYTOWN. 135

on the shore, accompanied by several other travel-
lers as prudent as ourselves, watching with strained
eyes the little enterprising vessel tossing and tumb-
ling on the angry billows as if it had been mad, but
the letter-bags landed in triumph at last, having
been blown over in nine minutes ! Those who re-
ceived their correspondence that day, httle knew at
what hazard these epistles were punctually for-
warded.

. A boatman who conducted us to the little cot-
tage-inn at Ferrytown, informed me that the land-
lady only admitted "very particular people," but
our reception was favourable, and she even conde-
scended to cook some excellent hot cakes, as we
were quite in the humour of taking what your friend
calls " a big tea." This was the smallest inn I
ever entered, but remarkably tidy, with table-cloths,
sheets, and damask towels, as fine as in any gentle-
man's house. How unfortunate that the good old
spinning days of Scotland are over : aged women
no longer find a cheerful companion in their wheels,
the busy hum of which used to beguile their lonely
hours. Every cottage then amassed its treasures of
home-made linen, so that while the younger women,
like our landlady, added to the comfort of their
household and children by active industry, the aged
used very frequently to occupy their latter days, with
a melancholy satisfaction, in preparing their own

136 INVERNESS.

-winding-sheet, and the perfect pride and pleasure
with which the dying now talk of having their
" dead clothes" ready, would sometimes almost
startle you.

As one of the greatest agricultural meetings in
the north was taking place at Inverness, and two
hundred gentlemen had assembled to dine here,
from all parts of the coimtry, we were quite aston-
ished at our own good fortune in obtaining comfort-
able apartments at the Caledonian Hotel, where I
scarcely expected to find standing room. Many
years ago, my father succeeded in establishing a
yearly wool-market at Inverness, w^here no one can
say there is " much cry and little wool." The sales
are so extensive, that more than 100,000 sheep
generally change owners here annually, besides an
incredible quantity of wool. From the window of
our sitting-room, I can see at this moment a solid
mass of several hundred people belonging to every
rank and degree, who have stood immovable there
during two successive days! English cloth mer-
chants, Scotch proprietors, farmers,., factors, and
shepherds, all evidently with their brains wool-
gathering, are so busy making bargains, that they
mind a shower of rain no more than the sheep do
they are selling, while the weather is hopelessly
dismal, and the sky of one universal leaden hue, as
if our whole world were under the canopy of a tin
dish-cover.

INVERNESS. 137

We are amused with observing how much char-
acter may be traced in the different ways those in-
numerable people set about transacting their busi-
ness. Some are swaggering along, taking every
man by the button, and looking as patronizing and
consequential as possible, — others are sneaking about
as if they had picked a pocket, or intended doing
so, — some look so sharp and acute, that I would
feel sure of being overreached by them, if they so
much as exchanged civilities with me, — one or two
look as if they could cheat another, if he only tossed
up with him for sixpence, and others seem perfect
images of dulness and stupidity, remaining as still
as if they had been turned into lamp posts.

I expected to have passed through miles of
sheep on the road to Inverness, and to have encoun-
tered myriads in the town ; but not at all ! every
free and independent flock sends a representative in
the shape of a drover, who attends to the interests
of his constituents, and sells them for what he can
get. Several of these Highland shepherds are very
'* primitive formations," and one I observed, from
our own country, so large and athletic, he might
have brought, without much difficulty, a sheep in
each pocket. This very respectable man, John
Paterson, who is a well known character in the
north, began the world as a herd-boy on my father's
property, and when he drove our flocks from the
12*

138 INVERNESS.

Highlands formerly to market, always managed to
billet them every night on the fields of our friends
or relatives. Proprietors were occasionally thunder-
sti'uck in a morning to behold a shower of sheep
scattered over their meadows, apparently quite at
home, while worthy John Paterson thought it a
perfectly sufficient apology to say they were " Sir
John's !" He has repeatedly been heard to mention,
that his own fortune originally amounted only to
3s. 6d., but now, by honest industry and skilful
management, it has multiplied into ^£25,000 !

Several other instances were pointed out to me,
in which the rearing of sheep had become an equally
eucessful speculation, and formerly, my father used
to tell me, that about the year 1790, he had de-
clined an offer from Mrs. Mackay, the proprietor of
Bighouse, who wished him to give her an annuity
for life of j6300 a year, and to take her estate in
exchange, which was sold not many years after-
wards for j£50,000, owing to the success of the
British Wool Society, which he originated and es-
tablished. The value of Highland property was
thus so greatly enhanced, that the estate of Reay,
which previously produced only ^£1500 a-year, was
purchased by the late Duke of Sutherland for
^450,000 !

Sheep have their merits, and they now certainly
fulfil the prophecy of old Thomas the Rhymer six

INVERNESS. 139

hundred years ago, that " the teeth of the sheep
shall lay the plough on the shelf." A whole flock
must have changed their names to mutton for the
dinner to-day, as two hundred hungry gentlemen
drew in their chairs at six, with Mr. Donald Home
to preside, one of the most popular and convivial
presidents for such occasions in the north, and he
filled the chair, or perhaps I should rather say, the
woolsack, with great eclat, till a late hour.

It often amuses me to calculate the many years
of preparation w^hich all necessarily combine to
produce the grand result of a perfectly well-ordered
dinner party. In the first place, the veiy servants
Avho wait at table require a long apprenticeship of
drilling and practice, before they acquire the sort
of legerdemain and discipline, absolutely essential
on their part, — then the cook must have been initia-
ted in the deepest mysteries of his art, and the very
guests have been taught from infancy, not to eat
with their knives, and how to conduct a conversa-
tion in which there must neither be ignorance, pe-
dantry, flippancy, or dulness. The four quarters of
the globe also send contributions to the entertain-
ment, and the wines perform at least one voyage to
India before Messrs. Cathcart and Ferguson think
them fit to be issued from their cellars at Leith.

We hear much discussion now, respecting a
railway through the vale of Strathmore to Aber-

140 INVERNESS.

deen, so the forests may be trembling on their
native hills, as a few strokes of the axe will soon
degrade them into sleepers for the railroads. The
Duke of Sutherland is said to have gained more
than .£100,000 by taking a tenth share in the rail-
way between Birmingham and Liverpool, which
cost five millions ; but where will money be found
sufficient to bore tunnels through the great mountains
of Aberdeenshire, or to raise viaducts between them ?
We now proceeded on our journey eastward,
passing Castle Stewart, a tall, narrow, square house,
built by the Regent Moray, and still most comforta-
bly habitable, having descended by inheritance to
the Earl of Moray, who is proprietor of so many
fine places, he must be at a loss sometimes to re-
member all their names. A group of thriving old
cherry-trees flourishes near the castle, transplanted
from Kent 150 years ago by Alexander Earl of
Moray. Buchanan mentions, in writing of the
" Good Regent," that " his house was like a holy
temple. After meals he caused a chapter of the
Bible to be read, and asked the opinions of such
learned men as were present upon it, not out of
vain curiosity, but from a desire to learn, and re-
duce to practice what it contained." The fruits of
such a fife were exhibited in the truly Christian
spirit of forgiveness with which he met his death,
on the tragical day of his murder at Linlithgow.

NAIRN. 141

When changing horses at the neat httle city of
Nairn, I saw, near the inn, that singularly unfortu-
nate being, James Mitchell, now forty-five years old,
the son of a clergyman, respecting whom Professor
Dugald Stewart read an interesting paper once be-
fore the Royal Society. He is quite an anomaly in
nature, being born without the faculties of speech,
sight, or hearing, yet displaying some glimmering
intelligence of countenance and conduct. His ex-
istence must be a dreary blank, a living death,
without ever having enjoyed any of the sights or
sounds of life, and scarcely having known any of
its affections. The most persevering and generous
kindness has been shown him by an amiable sister,
who invented several ingenious devices for communi-
cating what she wishes, by the touch of her fingers,
and she has deservedly obtained considerable influ-
ence over his naturally passionate and wilful dispo-
sition. To her he is docile and obedient, but all
his actions being regulated by mere impulse, no
idea of duty or principle can be conveyed to his
mind, his intellect, if he has any, being buried in
impenetrable darkness. How strange it would be,
to know what are the thoughts and feelings of such
a being ! He is said to have an almost preternatu-
ral acuteness of touch and smell, and his greatest
delight seems to be derived from handling carriages
when they stop near the inn, trying the elasticity of

142 NAIRN.

their springs, and stroking the horses mth great
caution. He touches and feels whatever is near
him, and seems gifted with astonishing curiosity, as
w^ell as some invention, one instance of which is,
that when he wishes to ride, he places his hand
under his foot Hke a stirrup. He kneels during
family prayer, and when his father died, having
been led forward to touch the corpse, he shrunk
back with obvious horror, which may lead us to
suppose that he has some instinctive apprehension
of death. From that hour he never would sleep in
the bed where his father's body had been laid, but
some time afterwards, he took a stranger into that
apartment, and laid his own head back on the pillow
for a moment, having done which, he hurried his
companion towards the churchyard, and patted his
father's grave with his hand. How gratefully we
should enjoy, and carefully improve the faculties
given to ourselves, when we contrast the blessings
they bring us, with the mournful state of this poor
outcast, consigned to perpetual darkness, solitude,
and silence. We are often apt to think the blind
more cheerful than the deaf, not considering that
those who have lost their sight can only be amused
in society, and are then seen at their best, while
those who are deprived of hearing, may forget their
affliction over a book, but are reminded of it perpet-
ually in company. Did you ever hear of the Irish

NAIRN. 143

clergyman who preached for the Bhnd Asylum for-
merly, and began by gravely remarking, " If all
the world were blind, what a melancholy sight it
would be !"

After passing through Nairn, we crossed ''• the
witches' moor !" where Macbeth had his interview
with the withered old hags. Their dancing days
are over now, and besides, we were rather too early
for their cantrips, or for being favoured with any
predications of coming greatness to ourselves. No
grass ever grows where a witch's foot has trod, and
this " blasted heath" seems bare enough to prove for
certain, that on the very identical spot we saw they
appeared, and no other. We carefully kept our
gravity here, as you are probably aware, that if
any one smiles on a witch in the Highlands, his
mouth remains awry for ever afterwards.

In discussing, for the hundred-thousandth time,
the marvellous genius of Shakspeare and other ima-
ginative waiters, I could not but lament that many
sensible persons consider it essential now, in edu-
cating children, to exclude entirely all works of
fancy, even when written for sacred purposes, ad-
hering rigidly to matters of fact, and preserving the
body without the spirit of thought. All depends,
no doubt, on the use made of that powerful faculty,
which may be degraded to vicious purposes or ex-
alted to the highest, and it was well observed, that as

144 NAIRN.

the swan sings before it dies, it would have been
well if some poets had died before they sung, but
still, the abuse of a gift in some instances or in many,
does not warrant its utter extinction, and there are
uses for the imagination, important, not only to our
interests in time, but in eternity. The muse of
poetry has been degraded often to the \dlest pur-
poses, and is yet so consecrated by Milton, Cowper,
Montgomery, and others, that I could not but com-
pare the contrast thus afforded, to the vulture's wing
soaring as high as that of the eagle, but while the
one shuns the brightness of meridian day, and
keeps his grovelling eye on earthly objects, the
other scans the very heavens and fixes his unflinch-
ing gaze on the dazzling orb of light. Religion
itself is directed more to the imagination than to the
senses, and I have often thought, in attending the
last sufferings of a Christian's death-bed, how glori-
ous is the triumph of that which is unseen, over that
which is endured, when all the agonies of dissolution
are superseded and nearly forgotten amidst the faith
and hope with which an unseen eternity has been
joyfully anticipated, and in the vivid conception of
that blessedness which " eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man
to conceive."

We admired beyond expression the pine-covered
hills, like those of Norway, and the five miles of

BRODIE CASTLE. 145

forest around Darnaway Castle, where the richly
wooded grounds exhibit trees enough to make a
railroad round the world. I never now see a plan-
tation without thinking of the saw-mill, and it is a
melancholy connection of ideas, like Xerxes weeping
over his followers, because in fifty years they could
exist no longer.

The park round Brodie Castle is charmingly
wooded. One half of the house is old, like the
family pedigree, and an elegant new front-breadth
has been added, giving all the light and comfort
which very ancient houses so seldom afford. I re-
cognised Burn's touch at once, for architects, like
painters, have a style not to be mistaken. The re-
cent appendix is rapidly assuming an appearance of
antiquity, and dressing itself up in festoons of ivy,
which will cause it to harmonize admirably with the
rest, so that, before many years, they will appear a
very suitable match.

The ceiling of one beautiful old room here is
adorned by the richest dark oak carving in Scotland.
It would make the fortune of a dozen sideboards
and cabinets, being sculptured with the minuteness
of seal-engraving, and there are eagles, cupids,
unicorns, flowers, and fruit, all in full relief, the
whole effect being so handsome, that I am scarcely
surprised the fashion of ornamented roofs has been
13

146 BRODIE CASTLE.

restored, and that people expend more on their cor-
nices than on their carpets.

The family portraits here possess an additional
interest to us, respecting ancestors from whom we
ourselves are descended, but the first of my progen-
itors to whom I was introduced, Emilia Brodie, made
so extraordinary a grimace at me, that I shall never
forget it. The painter had evidently intended a
bewitching smile, and hazarded a distortion of fea-
tures, such as might probably be the elFect of eating
the sourest of all lemons. In another apartment ap-
peared the beautiful portrait of a young girl about
sixteen, with whom I hastened to claim kindred,

when A , in a most provokingly matter-of-fact

manner, investigated the case, and discovered that it
was a plain elder sister who married into our family.

A very animated, but by no means beautiful,
Flora Macdonald was there, looking like a clever
schoolmistress, but not by any means realizing my
previous conception of that celebrated heroine.
Here also we admired the twentieth original of
Charles the First, by Vandyke, which I have seen,
and the monarch must certainly have sat vis a vis
to the artist all his life, to produce so interminable
a succession of portraits, — generally representing
Charles the First with his head on, and riding a
melancholy gray horse. It was a strange circum-

BRODIE CASTLE. 147

stance, recorded by Lord Southampton, that the
night after his Majesty's execution, having been
permitted to watch beside the body, he heard at
midnight the heavy tread of some one coming up
stairs, the door then slowly opened, and a man,
muffled in his cloak and concealing his face, but
strongly resembling Oliver Cromwell in air and
voice, approached the bier, gazed at it for some time,
shook his head, sighed, and withdrew, saying, in a
melancholy tone, " cruel necessity !" How extraor-
dinary was the combination of enthusiasm and
hypocrisy in the Protector's character, " Forced,
though it grieved his soul, to reign alone !"

Our connoiseurships thought very highly of one
fine picture by Murillo, representing, as usual, a boy
laughing, so extremely natural that you would have
listened to hear the burst that seems coming. Some
children were frightened one day while looking at
it, and said, " that man is always laughing at us !"
How very early in life, the terror of being laughed
at commences, and, like most other instincts of
nature, though useful in moderation, it becomes per-
nicious in excess.

Rembrandt was the greatest admirer of wrinkled
old women who ever held a brush, but in one of his
pictures here, he condescended to paint a young
man not yet in the vale of years, and another ex-
ception to general rule was a portrait actually un-

148 BRODIE CASTLE.

faded, by Sir Joshua Reynolds, of a beautiful lady
and child.

In the spacious dining-room at Brodie Castle,
modern portraits and landscapes are hung promis-
cuously, like a morsel of Somerset House arrived in
the Highlands, and the subject of one picture in the
entrance-hall, was what no other artist before or
since appears ever to have thought of selecting.
You remember the story of King John ordering a
Jew's teeth to be all successively drawn, till he con-
fessed where his treasures were concealed, and here
he is, in the very act of endurance, represented so
naturally that I almost heard him scream. If
Hutchins or Nasmyth had been the operators, he
might have kept his secret for ever, as patients have
declared they scarcely knew when the deed was
done, while some even protest it is almost a plea-
sure, but this painting commemorated tooth-drawing
in the old school, and seemed so horribly true to life,
I should soon have felt a toothache with looking at it.

I have often wondered how it happens that den-
tists are almost invariably great encouragers of
sculpture and painting ! We lately heard, that
when Cartwright, who makes one of the largest
professional fortunes in London, bespoke a picture
by Landseer, he enclosed him in payment a blank
order on the Bank of England, to be filled up a dis^
cretion ! and the wife of a celebrated dentist, some

FORRES.

149

time since, out-bid every competitor, for some beau-
tiful work of art, which was long and keenly con-
tested, but I could not help laughing when told, that
in the triumph of success, she exclaimed, " It will
be of great use to divert our patients in the opera-
tion room !" I scarcely think even Hogarth could
succeed there ; but this representation of the Jew
would serve as very appropriate scenery and deco-
ration for such a torture chamber.

"How far is't call'd to Forres?" Shakspeare,
hem ! The town of Forres may be recognised at
any distance, or in any picture, by the round, hedge-
hog-shaped hill of Clunie, which raises its dark
well-covered head immediately behind the streets,
sm-mounted by another of the many ugly monuments
by wliich Nelson's memory has been commemo-
rated. I wish people had more taste ! We toiled
up twice in one day to admire a splendid view from
the summit of this eminence, and, when the sun was

setting in brilliant style, A had the barbarity

to propose a third expedition, but there are limits to
what a rational being can undertake, and I sighed
over the hill instead of ascending it.

Not quite half a mile from Forres, stands pro-
bably the most ancient piece of history in Great
Britain. To commemorate the final retreat from
Scotland of the Danish king Sueno, a dark gray
stone was erected, measuring about twenty feet
13*

150 FORRES.

perpendicularly above ground, and supposed to
penetrate almost equally far underneath. The
whole shaft is in one unbroken piece, and must have
travelled from some unknown distance, as no such
stone can be found in all that neighbourhood. On
the surface is carved a hieroglyphic representation
of the whole Danish army, some on foot and others
on horseback, some with heads, and others without,
the drawing and execution being nearly equal to
what may be seen on cakes of gingerbread at a fair.
The material is so very hard a granite, that those
who executed the devices must have possessed strong
hands and good chisels. Few works of man have
remained so long unchanged on this earth, where
" monuments themselves memorials need," while the
frail beings who raised it, could scarcely have anti-
cipated how many ages would roll over their for-
gotten graves, while this only record should remain
of their ever having existed at all.

Being much interested in this very ancient relic,
I hurried to the landlady at Forres, with a multitude
of questions about her venerable neighbour, but she
civilly repHed, with a look of indifference, " I've
often he'erd tell of that auld stane, but I never saw

it !" A wished her to start oif instantly, as the

evening was fine, that not another day might be
added to the many she had already lost, but we
could not light up a single spark of interest or en-

SANQUHAR HOUSE. 151

thusiasm ! A dish of whipped cream would have
excited her curiosity ten times more ardently, and
the hoary pillar of Forres may stand there as long
as it has stood already, before she moves a yard to
behold it ! Our hostess would make an exemplary
quaker, as one of their superstitions is never to go
sight-seeing, probably thinking, that after female
curiosity having done so much harm originally, it
should always now be kept in check. I once asked
a quaker lady, recently returned from Orkney, what
she thought of the fine cathedral at Kirkwall, when
she replied, with a cold reproving look, " I believe
we passed it!" The quakers have a rule also
against dressed dishes, and their whole dinners con-
sist of plain joints, apparently on the plan of your
friend who always ordered an additional chicken for
every additional visiter, till at last sixteen hungry
guests sat down to sixteen roasted fowls ; but this
would not have suited om* good landlady, who is by
no means of the Mary Stedman school, but was
quite a " professed cook." She had acted the part
of Mrs. Couch or Pouch for many years at Brodie
Castle, and sent us up for dinner a complete page
of Mrs. Glass, or Meg Dodds, copied to the very
hfe.

Sanquhar House, near Forres, the property of
Mr. Fraser Toiler, is veiy charmingly situated, com-
manding a fine view of nearly a whole county, and

152 DARNAWAY CASTLE.

of a rich landscape, reaching even to the Caithness
liills. The house itself is rather too much in the
gable-end school of architecture to suit my fancy,
but it may perhaps please other people. A former
proprietor of this estate became bankrupt, sold the
estate, and, in his old age, wandered as a beggar to
that very door w^here once he had been proprietor !
Many would rather have starved.

We remained all Sunday at Forres, and next
morning hired horses for the day, to see how much
of this neighbourhood they could contrive to show
us. You may remember the old lady who used to
say that " if she killed a pair of post-horses with
fatigue one day, they came alive the next morning,"
and really ours achieved wonders yesterday, though
I forgot to ask whether to-day they had been re-
suscitated or not.

When we were about to proceed, under a bril-
liant sunshine, towards Darnaway Castle, notice was
brought, that during the late hurricane, so many
trees had been blown down across the new approach,
the road w^as impassable. This threatened a com-
plete discomfiture, but fortunately we were driven
by an old experienced post-boy — drivers remain
always boys — who had plied backwards and for-
wards here during thirty years. He took us towards
a gate, flanked by a large arbitrary ticket, forbidding
all access for carriages in that direction, but he

DARNAWAY CASTLE. 153

pointed at it contemptuously with the end of his whip,
saying, in a triumphant tone, " We'll get through
for a' that !" Accordingly our daring wheels rolled
on uninterruptedly, and the very difficulties added
to my enjoyment on finally succeeding. The park
scenery is here magnificent — such immeasurable ex-
tent, and such an unbounded profusion of trees,
though none are of very pre-eminent size, and is
framed in by a great fir forest, by the ocean, and by
the distant mountains of Sutherland and Caithness.
Lord Moray's family motto is a key to all reli-
gion, " Salvation through Christ the Redeemer ;"
and it is a remarkable circumstance, that the late
earl had his coffin prepared, and constantly kept in
his bed-room, during many years previous to his
death, which must certainly have acted as a per-
petual admonition, though one of the greatest mys-
teries in our nature is, the impossibility, almost, of
realizing that we are ourselves to die, even though
w^e make it our daily duty to reflect on it and to be
ready. It seems easily said, and frequently talked
of, that death is inevitable, but to feel the actual
consciousness that this busy world shall go on as
busily for ages after we are buried, as it did for the
ages before we were bom — ^that our bodies shall be
imprisoned for centuries, perhaps, in dark and dreary
separation from the soul, and that our spirits, in the
meantime, shall awake to instant consciousness,

154 DARNAWAY CASTLE.

amidst a scene unutterably wonderful, where we
must for ever and ever exist — all this bursts upon
our thoughts occasionally, with that awe and aston-
ishment which it is fitted to create, but amidst the
varied occupations of life, how often it seems as new
and surprising in all its solemn reality, as if we had
never before imagined that death could be to us in-
dividually, as real as it has been to others, and that
we are hurrying along on the irresistible tide which
shall plunge us into eternity.

Darnaway Castle is about thirty years of age,
and no great beauty in external aspect. Though
built of the very finest freestone, in a situation ex-
ceedingly magnificent, yet taking it as a house, this
large pile of building is more handsome than beau-
tiful. The front is Grecian, the ornaments over the
windows Gothic, and the turrets are like eau-de-
Cologne bottles. The point of chief interest at
Darnaway Castle is Randolph's Hall, built by the
celebrated nephew of Robert Bruce, a fine baronial
apartment five centuries old, in magnificent propor-
tion, being more than a hundred feet long. It is
canopied thirty feet high by an arched roof of oak,
like that of Westminster Hall, perfectly blackened
by time, and it is floored \\4th stone flags. The in-
ternal appearance resembles that of a fine old parish
church without pews, and the only seats consist of
some very antique benches, with richly carved sides,

DARNAWAY CASTLE. 155

and various extraordinary oak chairs, all of differ-
ent shapes, and carved in a variety of whimsical pat-
terns. These seats were assuredly used before the
word " comfort" had been invented. If such chairs
were still in universal fashion, few^er country gen-
tlemen would become sleepy and apoplectic after
dinner, as, instead of spring cushions, the very seats
are elaborately carved, and looked by no means
inviting to sit upon.

Lord Randolph's table is also in a very unso-
phisticated style, being nearly as it came originally
from the neighbouring forest, and every thing with-
in this primitive old hall is formed of these two ma-
terials, wood and stone. Most unfortunately the
architect who spoiled the new house, thought it ne-
cessary to spoil the old one also, and he has exhib-
ited his taste by modernizing the windows into
something very like those of a dissenting chapel,
and, dreadful to relate, the grand sweep of an arch,
which once formed the chimney, and where a car-
riage might almost have been turned round, is now
lowered and narrowed, so that an ox would find
some difficulty in being roasted whole there. Very
few architects are fit to be trusted in an ancient
house, for the new parts too often say no to the an-
tiquity of the old. A painter might as well have
attempted to touch up a Raphael, as a modern builder
to improve Randolph's Hall, but builders all run

156 DARNAWAY CASTLE.

mad whenever they get into an old house, and either
knocl^down, mutilate, or disfigure it.

The ancestors at Darnaway Castle have a more
aristocratic air than in most other places, all having
sat, apparently, to the best artists, in the full dress
trappings of their rank and station, stars, ribbons,
robes, and garters, looking " every inch a peer."
Some of the ladies wore large elaborate ruffs, so
white and stiff, you might have fancied their heads
were placed on silver salvers, and one collar, in
particular, we noticed, which a modern milliner
might have despaired of imitating, while the lady's
face who wore it, had faded so much, that she
seemed sitting in a fainting fit.

The most curious portrait of all was Queen
Mary, disguised, by way of a frolic, in boy's clothes !
She wore long scarlet stockings, black velvet coat,
black kilt, w^hite sleeves, and such a ruff! Her
Majesty was looking as grave and serious upon
this extraordinary piece of jocularity, as if she had
been receiving the reproof she merited from John
Knox.

We ended our inspection of Darnaw^ay Castle
as usual on the roof, which displays a perfect map
of Scotland, from the best authorities. I dare not
guess how many counties we saw at once, including
fifty miles of hilly coast, a world of w^ood extending
tw^enty miles, the sea, and a circle of snow-speckled

DARNAWAY CASTLE. 157

mountains. On an eminence like this, we ought to
borrow the eyes of an eagle.

A very celebrated and beautiful heronry belongs
to Lord Moray near this, on the Findhorn, and when
I stood upon the towering pinnacles, two hundi'ed
feet high, from which the birds may be watched to
most advantage, the river, rocks, and wood, seemed
an exact counterpart of Wyndcliff on the Wye, quite
magnificently romantic. A shouted and clap-
ped his hands, after which more than a hundi^ed
herons took wing, and soared through the air at so
slow and dignified a rate, that they might easily
have been shot, though herons are so tenacious of
life, that they have generally to be fired at twice, or
even oftener. After being wounded, these birds are
very unsafe to deal with, because they fly at a
sportsman ^dth fury, endeavouring to peck out his
eyes, and their strength is considerable, as a heron
can carry with ease to his nest, a fish, weighing up-
wards of a pound. Each nest seemed almost large
enough to hold a moderate sized man, and I counted
above twenty nests in one elm, which must be apt
to break down the branches, some of which are so
festooned with them, that you might fancy a fishing
net had been suspended over all the trees. The
whole colony interested me extremely, and I felt

quite sorry when A came up at last, like one

of the London pohce, desiring me to " move on."
14

158 ALTYRE.

Our next step was through a scene of almost
unearthly beauty, to Altyre, the most lovely and
loveable place you can conceive, belonging to Sir
William Gumming Gordon, chief of the clan Gum-
ming, and representative of the old Lords of Bade-
noch. The house is a perfect cluster of arbours and
green-houses, apparently meant for the muses and
graces, for pleasure, gayety, and romance, but never
intended for the mere vulgar, ordinary purposes of
life. Within, without, and around, you see nothing
but flowers rushing in at every window, and beset-
ting: all the doors. This is the court of Flora her-
self, and you would suppose we had come for a hor-
ticultural show !

The approach commences through a dark fir-
wood, springing up amidst purple heath ; and grad-
ually, as we advanced, the grounds became enriched
with evergreens, varied by forest trees, and bor-
dered with turf round the house. The green lawn
is hke Genoa velvet, studded with fuschias, gerani-
ums, carnations, every flower, in short, that has a
name, overshadowed by graceful walnut trees, and
the entrance hall emits the fragrance and atmos-
phere of a conservatory. Your friend, vrho said she
could not sleep for three nights after seeing a better
garden than her own, would never have closed an
eye had she visited at Altyre. What do the quakers
think of Nature for dressing in such gaudy colours ?

ALTYRE. 159

But, as Dr. Johnson says, " a man who is unfit for
a better world in a blue coat, is not very likely to
go there in a gray." It is a perpetual miracle cer-
tainly, to see the dark, dingy earth, hourly produ-
cing those brilliant and fragrant blossoms with
which such a scene is decorated, like our own
barren minds, in which there is no good by nature,
and which require the seed to be sown in them, and
the sunshine of heaven to nourish those flowers of
excellence, and those fruits of holiness, which can
alone render them lovely or attractive.

In the garden of Eden, probably, the flowers
never would have faded, but they suffer the penalty,
like all creation, of our frailty and guilt. It is very
remarkable, that no flower is perfectly black ! they
are the toys and gems of nature, given as an inno-
cent recreation, suited to every age and every rank,
equally calculated for our seasons of joy or of
sorrow — of sickness or of health. Though the
moral lesson that they teach speaks of short-lived
prosperity, decay, and death, for truly " the loveliest
things on earth are those that soonest fade away ;"
yet these touching recollections are brought to mind
under an aspect of beauty and cheerfulness, calcu-
lated to testify with how much bounty and goodness
the pleasures of life are sent to alleviate its sorrows.
Those w^ho find the thorns of life unembellished by
its flowers, may generally blame themselves for

160 ALTYRE.

seeking in the artificial dissipations of the world,
what can be found only in those natural enjoyments
provided for us by our wise and beneficent Creator.
Moral writers have often remarked, that the gay
and transient flowers are scattered on the world's
surface, while the more precious and durable metals
must be laboriously dug for ; but, while the deepest
mines should be explored, the lovely blossoms need
not be neglected, and I never enjoy a flower-garden
like this, without feeling convinced it affords one of
the few amusements of which it would be impos-
sible to tire. The bee sipping its draught in every
flower, scarcely obeys the instinct of nature more
naturally than we do when inhaling their fragrance,
and admiring their lovely forms ; and the Bible re-
peatedly directs our devout attention to flowers.
How truly may we say, when contemplating a
richly decorated garden, " Solomon, in all his glory,
was not arrayed like one of these !"

" How happily, how happily the flowers die away !
Oh ! could we but return to earth as easily as they ;
Just live a life of sunshine, of innocence, and bloom,
Then drop without decrepitude or pain into the tomb."

This busy day seemed a fortnight long, we said,
did, and saw so much. I pity every body who has
not seen Altyre, and was shocked to hear that a
situation has been fixed on for a new house ; but if

MOY HOUSE. 161

the old one be deserted, the Queen of the Fairies
will certainly take possession, as it seems already-
fitted up on purpose for her summer residence.

We dined ^vith the Miss Cummings at Moy
House, where the old garden enchanted me, being
ornamented with the finest "g-mw," alias wild
cherry, trees in Scotland, which had attained the
size of respectable forest trees, and were bending
beneath the weight of their fruit ; and here, during
last summer, by no means commendable for being
either warm or dry, peaches ripened in abundance
on the open, unflued wall ! The gardener at Moy
gained a prize this season for that curious plant, the
Hoya Carnosa, the large clustering flowers of which
resemble a ready made honeycomb, with a drop of
honey hanging from each petal, the whole being
modelled in a substance so exactly resembling wax,
that you might almost make it into candles. The
bees would give over working if they saw this
flower, and no plant was ever more easily propa-
gated, seeing that a single green leaf, carelessly
stuck in the ground, will take root, and become fit
for a horticultural show before the following year.

Moy House belonged, in the previous generation,
to an old humourist, who became so indignant at his
next heir, Mr. Grant, then of Red Castle, for calling
on him one day, in a carriage and four, that he
altered his will, bequeathing his property to a per-
14*

162 MOY HOUSE.

fectly different Mr. Grant, who was probably satis-
fied with a chaise and pair. We heard of a more
prudent and successful heir presumptive elsewhere,
w^ho always left his equipage at the neighbouring
inn, put on a shabby coat, and walked, stick in
hand, to the house, a plan much to be recommended
where an eccentric old gentleman is in question.
Wills and marriages are both generally so very
whimsical and unaccountable, that I have ceased to
wonder at either ; and if ever wealthy old people
are to exhibit caprice and bad feeling, it seems
chiefly reserved for the last will. There must be a
great degree of infidelity in those w^ho leave behind
them a testament w^hich they would be ashamed
while alive, that the world should see, not apparent-
ly reflecting, that when this posthumous deed is
read, the testator shall be already in the presence
of a Holy God, who condemns every angry feeling,
and who will make us responsible for the conscien-
tious disposal of all we have, and all w^e leave
behind.

A gentleman who had been whistling by the
fireside for an hour one day, beside a numerous cir-
cle of visiters, at last exclaimed, as if brino:ino: forth
the result of his meditations, " I wonder nobody
ever left me any money !" This is a subject of
wonder often, I dare say, to others who say less
about it, but, like all epaihly pleasures, even a legacy

MOY HOUSE. 163

has its drawbacks, as it implies the loss of a friend
whose attachment was far more precious, and, there-
fore, even for the most mercenary this is the last
way in which one could desire to grow rich. When
a lady remarked once, what a pleasure it would be,
succeeding unexpectedly to some rich relation whom
you did not care for, another very coolly replied,
" Or to one you do care for ! it would be all one in
a month ! look at the sons and brothers who inherit
estates !" It certainly would be curious if, by
magical agency, the hue of people's dress could be-
come in exact accordance with the hue of their
spirits ! Then it would be seen that those who
seem gay, cheerful, and reckless, are frequently suf-
fering under the darkest despondency, while in the
case of successions it would often become obvious
that there had been more bombazine and crape than
real sorrow ; but I wish the old proprietor of Moy
had seen us arrive in our humble chaise, and be-
queathed me this smiling place, so well-wooded, so
highly cultivated, and altogether so enjoyable.
Perhaps what contributed most of all to make me
like this house might be, the pleasant circle within
doors, which would make any residence delightful j
but the curtain has dropped over it, and the sunshine
of that evening must live only in my memory, where
it will always remain as a pleasing remembrance.
The motto of our family, " J'aime le mellieur," is

164 MOY HOUSE.

certainly my case in respect to the society we meet,
and we have hitherto been very fortunate. A
coachmaker once, by mistake, altered, most distress-
ingly, the meaning of these words on our shield, by
substituting an inscription with which our carriage
drove about for several years, but I believe the poor
man did not really mean any jest when he painted
it " Jamais le mellieur !"

I remain,

For self and partner,

Yours.

MORAYSHIRE.

The braes ascend like lofty wa's,
The foamin' stream deep roaring fa's
O'erhung wi' fragrant spreading shaws.

Burns.

My dear Cousin, — As there are said to be fif-
teen days more of summer in Morayshire, than in
any other part of Scotland, we seem to have ob-
tained a lease of them all at once ! The weather
has been most enchanting lately, and is altogether
doing the civil thing by us, being exactly such as
we require for perfect happiness. I remember the
time, when you and I used to wish the weather of
the whole world might be regulated so as to suit
our one solitary geranium in a flower-pot ; and how
apt I am still to think, if the fields be burned as dry
and brown as a slice of toast, that it matters little,
provided my own bonnet escape a shower, though,
I dare say, the farmers would vote me a new one,
rather than do without rain another day. It is
lucky we are not allowed a voice on the subject,
for even sunshine itself might be indulged in to
excess.

We have this day enjoyed, at Reluglas, the

166 MORAYSHIRE.

highest perfection of glen scenery, quite an exag-
geration of Roslin, formerly belonging to one of our
leading Whig orators, and the author of several
very popular works. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder, but
recently purchased by Mr. M'Killigan, a native of
this neighbourhood. We were told, that from his
earliest years, he had almost hopelessly desired to
possess this exquisite place, and after realizing an
adequate sum, during one successful voyage to
China, by a happy coincidence he returned at the
very time it was sold, and realized his juvenile cas-
tle in the air. Who would not go to China to-mor-
row for so delightful a result ? It is seldom men
gain so precisely the point they aim at, and I hope
the new proprietor may long continue to enjoy it
as he does now, and to embellish the place as taste-
fully as he has begun. The grounds are covered
wdth a perfect eruption of roses, besides being studded
over with rare plants of great value, and of most
uncommon aspect, imported by Mr. M'Killigan him-
self. The Horticultural Society of London, when
vainly trying to naturalize the beautiful variegated
azalia, of which we saw several plants quite at
home here, expended no less than jG300, while Mr.
Wright, a nurseryman, paid jBIOO for one speci-
men, and has since realized jEIOOO by propagating
and selling it.

The interior of this house is beautifully fitted up

RELUGLAS. 167

with English comfort and Asiatic decorations, but
the collection of corals alone might occupy agreea-
bly more hours than we could spend on the entire
place. They resemble the minutest carvings in
ivory, some representing a little forest of plants,
while others were little circular worlds, formed by
a combination among myriads of living atoms, which
thus raise habitations for themselves, and increase
their number, till at last they gradually expand to
such a bulk, that they become islands large enough
for man himself to exist on ! What will not perse-
verance do ! One coral island, examined by Cap-
tain Beechy, was thirty miles in diameter, and many
of the South Sea islands began their existence in the
world on a scale not larger than those masses of
coral which we v/eighed in our hands. What a
lesson this might be on the importance of httle
things ! drops make the ocean, moments make the
year, and trifles life.

At Reluglas, the small remains of an ancient
vitrified fort, served as a treat to antiquaries formerly,
but the gardener once, in a fit of ingenuity, thought
he could improve this old relic by building a massy
wall round the spot, over which he scattered a top-
dressing of the vitrified material, looking like frag-
ments of broken bottles, and now the whole is me-
tamorphosed into a perfect deformity.

Travellers who merely skirt along the highroads

168 RELUGLAS.

of Scotland, can form no conception how much they
miss by not tracing up such glens as those of the
Findhorn and Divie, bounded by banks, hills, forests,
and heath-covered mountains, without one barren
spot to disfigure the landscape. The whole scene
is enlivened too, by places which are the very ro-
mance of Highland residences, every one fit to form
the frontispiece to any poem you ever read. We
might imagine the house of Reluglas had wandered
over from Switzerland, with its overhanging roof,
like a slouched hat, and its deep casements, trimmed
with flowers, while the elegant mansion of Dunphail,
built on a plan by Playfair, seems inside and out as
if it were imported ready-made from Italy. Do you
remember our being diverted once at a lady who
had spent a summer at Naples, and came home,
completely Italianized, saying to you at dinner,
soon afterwards, in a tone of disgust, "Fancy me
with my Italian appetite, set down to roast beeef !"
But here she might have lived in happy content-
ment, surrounded by books, pictures, ornaments,
every thing, — even the very sky, Italian.

Nothing is more surprising, in these glens, than
to observe the clever way in which trees contrive
to root themselves on stones, when they have liter-
ally nothing but the rifted rocks to hold by, and to
live upon. The fibres are at first no larger than
bits of thread, penetrating every crevice, and grad-

DUNPHAIL. 169

ually enlarging into cables, till at length they be-
come strong enough to elbow the very rocks from
their stations. Many large blocks of stone have
thus been precipitated downwards, while the trees,
clasping and riveting their arms around the remain-
ing rocks, look down into the abyss beneath, and
cling to their places with the tenacity of a states-
man.

The grounds at Dunphail are of a softer and
more English character than those of Reluglas; the
verdant hills, opening with a graceful sweep on
each side, and charmingly varied by a crowd of dis-
tant foliage, while near the house we admired
groups of prodigious forest trees, as round and gi-ace-
ful as ostrich feathers. When the wind blew over
their lofty tops, and bent them towards the earth, I
could not but think, how apt an emblem they ex-
hibit of our own minds, so easily agitated, so soon
almost prostrated by the sweeping blast of sorrow or
misfortune, yet so speedily restored again to that
comparative rest and peace which are habitual to
those who can rightly apply that sacred text, " The
wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest the
sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh,
and whither it goeth : so is every one that is born
of the Spirit."

The river here is truly enchanting, and we saw
from the house of Dunphail, a beautifully situated
15

170 DUNPHAIL.

luinous castle, surrounded by a deep ravine, to which
belongs a fine old tradition, worth its weight in
gold. The story has been potted and preserved so
long, that you must try a taste of it now ; and I
liked beyond measure thus to read the book of his-
tory, in folio, by standing on the very spot where all
its events actually occurred, and almost beholding
the very individuals living, acting, and dying, as
they did many centuries ago. I often think, what
an extraordinary picture gallery it would make, if
a representation w^ere supernaturally to appear on
the silent walls of every old building, showing the
strange scenes they have witnessed since the hour of
their being built. The very rooms we ourselves
daily inhabit, could testify of joys and sorrows, now
for ever forgotten, which once agitated the hearts
of many lying at rest in the tomb ; and those w^alls
which have echoed the laughter or the grief of those
V, ho are no more, and of those who yet survive, will
hereafter be the property of unborn generations, to
whom our existence will be a tale of old times.

These thoughts on our own unconsciousness of
what once passed within the walls around us, were
particularly impressed upon me some years ago,
when we heard that a family who had hired a coun-
try residence near Edinburgh, where they enjoyed
many cheerful hom's round the fireside, having oc-
casion once to lift the drawing-room hearth-stone,

DUNPHAIL. 171

were startled and shocked to find immediately under-
neath, the ghastly spectacle of a skeleton in chains !
This house had belonged to Chesely of Dairy, who
was hanged for assassinating Lockhart of Carnwath,
the president of the Court of Sessions, and the crim-
inal's own family having stolen the body off the
gallows, had privately buried it there. So frightful
a spectacle was like some apparition from another
world ; but nothing so terrifying appeared in the
old castle of Dunphail, formerly the scene of many
bold and daring actions.

The Cummings were among the greatest and
bravest of all the Highland clans ; and King Robert
Bruce, w^ho washed to exterminate them, created
Randolph, his own nephew, Earl of Moray, and
being in a generous mood, granted him this estate.
Old Gumming of Dunphail, not seeing the ehgibihty
of that arrangement, resisted the transfer, and sus-
tained a long siege within this castle. Meantime
his son, Alister Bane, a young man of extraordinaiy
enterprise and courage, preserved the famishing
garrison alive, by seizing opportunities occasionally
to throw in sacks of oatmeal across a deep fissure in
the rocks which we were shown. The enemy vainly
endeavoured to detect the place of his concealment,
until they brought a bloodhound to the spot, which
tracked him through the woods. Here we traced
every step of the ravine ourselves, till we reached

172 DUXPHAir,.

the fatal cave where he was overtaken, the entrance
being no larger than that of a dog kennel, and there
his enemies lighted a fire that he might be smoked
to death. The young hero, seeing his fate inevita-
ble, attempted to come forth, saying, " Let me out
to die like a Camming, sword in hand !" But Lord
Randolph cruelly thrust him back, and replied, " No !
die like a wolf as you are !"

The head of Alister Bane was cut off, and car-
ried to a rock opposite, where old Gumming stood,
expecting the arrival of his son with provisions, and
there the enemy threw it at his feet, calling out, in
an insulting tone, " Here's beef for your bannocks !"
The wretched father recognised his son, and ex-
claimed, in an agony of rage and grief, " This is a
bone to pick that you shall rue !" Discouraged,
however, and subdued by so frightful a calamity, the
old man struggled no longer, but yielded to his
fate, and was put to death, with his forty faithful
clansmen. Their heads were stuck up in terror em
at Elgin, and their mutilated bodies thrust into a
cairn near the spot where they fell, which was
shown ever afterwards as " the tomb of the headless
Cummings." A few years since, the parish clergy-
man caused the skeletons to be dug up, and carefully
buried in a distant church-yard, at the risk of des-
troying the evidence of this melancholy tale. Not
a single skull was found on that occasion, and I am

DUNPHAIL. 173

always glad when proof can be brought, that tradi-
tion really has spoken the truth, though I cannot
but wish that the massacred clan had remonstrated
as successfully with their murderers, as the Baron of
Leys, " My head is a thing I cannot well want."

It is curious, that after a lapse of five hundred
years, this beautiful estate has again returned to the
rightful clan, while the names of both contending
parties are now united in the present proprietor,
Mr. Gumming Bruce.

The same glen at Dunphail became afterwards
celebrated as the refuge of a daring robber, whose
well selected abode, in the cleft of the rock, we in-
spected ; and this valley is now inhabited by a
couple of white fairies, who glide gracefully about
at night among the plantations, and the belief of
their existence diffused around the neighbourhood
is more effectual than either man-traps or spring-
guns for keeping off poachers.

Strangers in this neighbourhood may be some-
times perplexed to hear how familiarly the inhabi-
tants talk of what happened to themselves " before
and after the flood !" not perhaps recollecting the
extraordinary inundations in Morayshire eleven
years ago, when houses, bridges, castles, villages,
and inhabitants were all nearly swept from their
foundations, and involved in one common ruin.
Many people wish to be en\4ed for their good for-
15*

174 DUNPHAIL.

tune, but if that be out of the question, then the next
pleasure in hfe is to excite very great pity, and for
that purpose a calamity like this ought to be made
the most of. Sir Thomas Dick Lauder's volume did
wonders, and really plunged me into a perfect cold
bath when I read it ; but he has got into consider-
able disgrace with one family, for having rather
spitefully under-stated their losses, and though he
nearly drowned them all, it is by no means consid-
ered satisfactory.

The scene at Dunphail on this occasion was de-
scribed to me as being like a great shipwreck. The
tumultuous Divie rushing like a wall of water down
the glen, and sweeping away in its mad career
bridges, mills, trees, cattle, and cottages, to the
value of .£5000. The very house itself was besieg-
ed by the raging stream, and though its foundation
is high and rocky, the inhabitants were advised to
hasten out for safety, which they all did with the
exception of a Highland dairy-maid, who insisted
with great courage on remaining, because it is con-
sidered " unlucky" to desert a house entirely. No
persuasion could induce her to move, so she was
forcibly ejected, and the proprietor himself remained
alone, to garrison the w^alls and to watch over the
fate of his beautiful residence. The water rose
higher and higher, the night had closed in darkness,
and the rock was crumbling fast away to within a

BALGOWNIE. 175

few feet of the corner wall, when suddenly a distant
bank broke dow^n on an opposite side of the stream,
the current was thus unexpectedly drained off, and
the half-drowned house has now been restored by
the Humane Society to all its former life and love-
liness. At Ballindalloch, on the confluence of the
Avon and Spey, Sir George Macpherson Grant
found a carpet of gravel laid down in his dining-
room, and Spey salmon actually swimming about
alive in the kitchen ! In one village all the inhabi-
tants had to save themselves on rafts, and in many
farms the soil and crops sailed away, like floating
islands, to the ocean, which also received on that
day a valuable and unexpected cargo of hay-ricks,
sheep, chairs, eight-day clocks, tables, and every
variety of household furniture, moveables and fix-
tures. Nothing was half so remarkable in this ex-
traordinary calamity, as the courageous activity with
which the bold Highlanders met their misfortune,
testifying a heroic degree of Christian resignation
amidst unexpected ruin, and even in some affecting
instances encountering death itself. One poor man
risked his life to regain his spectacles, "because
without them he could not read his Bible !" The
brave old bridge of Balgownie, on the Don, five
hundred years old, put all younger structures to
shame, being almost the only one that withstood the
shock. It was built by Bishop Elphinstone, and

176 BALGOWNIE.

endowed with a benefaction of £2 per annum,
w^hich has accumulated, under the trusty manage-
ment of the good magistrates at Aberdeen, to no
less a sura than .£8000. I wish they would take
your affairs and mine in trust also ! It is a curious
Highland superstition, that friends or lovers who
part on a bridge never meet again ! If my letter
were to stop on the bridge of Balgownie you would
probably never hear from me more, so I must add
one little appendix to this subject.

The former proprietor of Reluglas wishing very
naturally to commemorate the wonderful height to
which the Findhorn and Divie then rose, placed a
stone at the proper place, with an inscription to tes-
tify that there the two streams actually met, but a
mischievous traveller lately rooted up the stone and
carried it to a perfectly incredible eminence, where
it now stands gravely informing us that here is the
level to which the water rose. I make a point of
beheving every thing, but was certainly rather as-
tonished how a living being had escaped ! Since
then, however, that difficulty has been solved on the
best authority, and the stone turns out to be some-
what of the nature of a tomb stone, which is apt to
exaggerate.

People who journalize their travels generally
become unsupportably dull, by attempting the sub-
lime, but I have rather kept to the ridiculous on

BALGOWNIE. 177

this occasion, though with a more ambitious pen
the Morayshire floods could have been worked up
to a perfect Niagara. Pray consider yourself as
owing a \'isit to this neighbourhood until you have
paid one, which will not be your last or only de-
scent on a county so truly interesting, with its proud-
looking castles, its cottages of gentility, and all the
triumphs of nature and of art, with which it is
adorned. As the old song says, " I'll make you be
fain to follow me !"

CASTLE GRANT

There needs na' be sae great a phrase
Wi' droning dull Italian lays :
I wad na gi'e our ain strathspeys

For half a hundred score o' 'em.

Burns.

My dear Cousin, — Your life seems as uniform
at present as the pendulum of a clock, but from
your description it must be nearly as useful. In fact,
without meaning to be vain, I am like the minute
hand, making a complete circle, during the time
you take to revolve an inch or two, though the
chief interest of my movements arises from knowing
that you are behind the scenes to partake of them.

We this day diverged twenty miles off our road,
to inspect that strange old place, Castle Grant, be-
longing to the Earl of Seafield ; a prodigious chief-
tain-like edifice, surrounded by grim-looking moun-
tains, and grim-looking fir trees, and filled with
grim-looking ancestors. Truly as " the dark build-
ing o'er the valley frown'd," it looked like the
stronghold of some great freebooter, which you
might feel terrified to approach after dark. Mrs.
Radcliffe would have been quite at home here, and

CASTLE GRANT. 179

I could wi'ite a melo-drama myself on the spot;
— " Enter Rudolpho, cautiously, with pistols —

Hark! P^ now fancy the rest, one or two

murders, an apparition, plenty of poison, and sev-
eral executions.

We were hurrying along the high-road to take
a glance at this ancient fossil of a castle, when a
respectable looking old man stopped us, touched
his bonnet with a soldier-like air, and said to

A , in a most deferential manner, " Would you

be offended, sir, if I were speaking to you ?"

We both looked extremely encouraging, so he
added in a still more earnest voice, " I have served
in the four quarters of the globe, sir ! at St. Helena,
St. Jago, South America, Corunna, and the West
Indies !"

My purse now began to quiver in my reticule,
thinking of course this was a case of begging, and
I even settled that it would be impossible to get off
respectably under a shilling, when he added, " I
was wishing to ask a small favour of you, sir ! my
cottage is only a step off. If you and the lady will
come in to take a taste of whiskey and a biscuit,
that would be a great honour to the like of me. No
offence, sir, but it is our way in the Highlands !"

We thanked him cordially, though I could not
resist a gentle hint against what the Highlanders
call " a spark of whiskey," adding a short panegy-

180 CASTLE GRANT.

lie on teetotalism, but he said in reply, " It would
be a disgrace to any Macintosh, ma'am, who could
not take a glass or two without being the worse."
I suppose he was like the witness in court, who
said he had never seen his friend the worse of drink,
but often the better of it. You have heard of the
M. P. who, some years ago, inadvertently astonished
the House of Commons, by beginning his speech
against the flogging of soldiers for intoxication, by

saying, " Mr. Speaker ! you get drunk, I

get drunk, we all get drunk !" ^

The cottage pointed out by our old soldier was
very neat, but by no means so near as he hospitably
w^ished us to think, therefore, with a civil apology,
on account of being limited in our allowance of time,
W'C politely suggested that he might accompany us
along the approach to show the way, w^hich he
very obligingly did, and moreover pointed out some
of the battle-fields and hills, which otherwise we
should not have discovered. That of Cromdale in-
terested us especially, where the cause of James II.
received its final blow in Scotland, and the old sol-
dier informed us, that there the bones had lately
been dug up of " a person of respectabilit}\" How
the deceased's respectability had been ascertained
we did not hear.

A was so much pleased by the communi-
cativeness and simplicity of our military volunteer,

CASTLE GRANT. 181

that when taking leave he offered him a handsome
donation, but the old soldier drew back, and actually
swore a solemn oath on the spot, that nothing could
induce him to accept it, not being apparently of so
persuadable a nature on this score as the pew-opener
at your church, w^ho is forbid to accept any douceur
from strangers, but always whispers w^hen declining
it, that they may place what they please under the
seat, where she will find it next morning.

What prodigious entertainment travellers lose,
who do not converse frankly and kindly with the
country people ! Our old cicerone seemed as fond
of Castle Grant as if it had been his own, and said
with a look of delighted anticipation, " You'll see
some things to-day, ma'am, that you little expect !
The armory is a grand place ! you'll be surprised ! !"

In the approach, we were stopped by a poor
maniac, who fancies herself owner of this property,
and walked with great dignity, holding up her drag-
gled petticoats, and calling herself" Lady Watson !"
After a short parley, she condescended to let us
proceed ; and I could not but think how fortunate
it is, when madness is not of a melancholy kind, for
this pitiable being enjoyed a sort of happiness nearly
allied to that of persons who habitually build castles
in the air, but while we are deeply responsible for
any such voluntary waste of intellect. Lady Watson
may continue blamelessly to enjoy her imaginary
16

182 CASTLE GRANT.

consequence, and to confer her imaginary favours,
unless it be true, as a French author once main-
tained, that men are answerable even for any sin
they may fancy themselves committing in a dream.

An American would say, that we could not
easily " ditto" Castle Grant ! I have seldom seen a
more striking coup d^oeil than this very stern-looking
old place, though the ancient towers have been
cruelly injured by a modern addition, like a cotton
manufactory, the blame of which lies upon Adams.
The venerable antique tower, rising 118 steps from
the ground, looks down with solemn contempt on
this vulgar excrescence, and seems heartily ashamed
of the connection.

We laboriously ascended, to enjoy from our
usual station on the roof, a grand wild view of the
Grant country, Cairngorum studded with snow, the
frowning heights of Ben Nevis, challenging the very
clouds, and endless plantations of sombre fir-trees,
so close and thick, they seemed as if we might walk
on their tops. I have a hearty respect for those
primitive old forests which planted and raised them-
selves from nothing !

The furniture here, which I expected to find
almost coeval with the forests, is, on the contrary,
quite gay and modern; chairs which run so lightly
along the floor, they might be entered for the St.
Leger, and sofas in the very newest extreme of

CASTLE GRANT. 183

luxury and taste. The ancestors Here are worth
traveUing any distance to visit. In this very long
line, it is amusing to trace a family likeness among
so many successive generations, all remarkably
handsome, while we perceived a gradual moderni-
zing of dress and attitude. None were so beautiful,
however, as the young heiress of Rossdhu, Miss
Colquhoun, painted by Ramsay, in a rich white
satin dress, and carrying a wreath of flowers. She
was forcibly carried off by a second son of this fa-
mily, who proved, when on trial for the offence, that
the lady sat in front on the horse, and must there-
fore have run off with him ! This plea being con-
sidered satisfactory, the gentleman was acquitted,
and became afterwards laird of Grant, on which his
second son succeeded to the beautiful and extensive
domain of Rossdhu on Loch Lomond. We saw
here a miniature portrait including the three indi-
viduals who descended from that marriage. Sir Lu-
dovic Grant, Sir James Colquhoun, and Colonel
Colquhoun, all dressed exceedingly fine, and looking
very much bored, as if they were listening to some
very prosing talker.

Here we beheld about the twentieth copy I have
observed in Morayshire of the same painting. At
Brodie, Gordon Castle, Dunphail, Altyre, Castle
Grant, and probably every other house I did not
visit, there is a picture of the Sybil, which, as you

184 CASTLE GRANT.

were once in this county, you must of course recol-
lect, with a pen in her hand, a turban on her head,
and her eyes turned up to the ceiling, exactly as we
all do, when much at a loss for an idea.

The Seafield family attached themselves appa-
rently, in a most amiable degree, to every person in
the remotest manner connected with them, and here
we saw five or six portraits, in full clerical costume,
of the various clergymen they were accustomed to
hear, the family piper full-length, and even the old
hen-wife in a kit-kat! Nothing, however, in the
way of painting, ever amused me so much, as the
good humoured whim of an old Laird of Grant, who
brought to the castle an artist named Waitt, and
caused about thirty portraits to be done, exhibiting
the formidable likeness of each gentleman belonging
to his clan. It was a fine, chieftain-like idea, and
has been most comically executed ! You never saw
so fierce looking a collection ! The Kings of Scot-
land at Holyrood are nothing to it ! !

If any family of Grant wishes for an ancestor,
he has only to come here and make a choice !
A took down a memorandum of all their ex-
traordinary designations, but I only remember Grant
of Ballindalloch, and Grant of Tullochgorum, well
known for the reel which goes by his name, and
even now he looks quite ready to start from his
frame, and set off to the piper opposite. In the

GRANTOWN. 185

centre of all, hangs the patriarch of the clan, exhi-
biting a most venerable aspect, and wearing a pro-
fusion of gray hair, like white cotton. Unluckily
there are no Mrs. Grants ! I should have liked
beyond measure to see the ladies who matched
such gentlemen ! the power of painting could no
farther go !

An old Laird of Grant formerly despatched one
of his clan to the Earl of Findlater w^ith a present
of chickens and venison, but the Highlander not
being a good linguist, delivered his message in a
most deferential manner as follows : — " The Laird
o' Grant's compliments to the Laird o' Fin-laater,
and sends him sickness and vengeance. If he
wants more he can have them !" The two
neighbouring families of Findlater, or Fin-de-la«
ten-e, and Grant, are now merged into one, under
the more modern title of the Earl of Seafield.

Grantown is the most perfectly Highland village
I have seen. Here the men all sport their clan tar-
tans and kilts, while the young women wear a
graceful plaid, and the snood in their hair, looking
all neat, clean, and cheerful, " contented wi* little,
and cantie wi' mair." Our old soldier spoke in
raptures of the chief's family, saying, " they never
wish to change tenants, and we never wish to change
landlords." Undoubtedly it might surprise a stran-
ger, seeing no great manufactories in the village,
16*

186 BALVENY CASTLE.

to observe, nevertheless, an appearance of almost
unaccountable prosperity. The granite houses, so
nearly similar in age and size, they seem all to have
been built at once, the streets spacious, and every
thing denoting comfort and competence ; but when
we heard how liberally and judiciously the very
poorest tenants on this estate are attended to and
watched over, my perplexity on this subject was
ended, and I could wonder no longer, that the good
old times are still extant here, of boundless attach-
ment to the " reigning family."

We ought certainly now to have danced down
the glen of Strathspey, for we proceeded through
that charming valley, passing many fine seats in the
Grant country, among which Ballindalloch, belong-
ing to Sir George Macpherson Grant, is one of the
most ancient and beautiful, finely situated, richly
wooded, and exhibiting that air of indescribable
cheerfulness and good order, which testifies the care
of a resident proprietor.

Balveny Castle is a considerable ruin which be-
longed to a celebrated heiress, " The fair maid of
Galloway," who succeeded the Earls of Douglas,
and Dukes of Touraine, by the cruel slaughter of
her two young brothers, whom the Chancellor
Crichton, without pity for their youth, the eldest
being only eighteen, or any scruple on account of
having promised them protection, treacherously in-

GLENLR'ET. 187

velgled into Edinbui'gh Castle, and beheaded. The
young lady first bestowed herself and castle on the
Earl of Douglas, her cousin, whom King James the
Second stabbed in Stirling Castle, when he arrived
there by invitation, bringing with him a safe con-
duct under the great seal. The disconsolate wddow
next married, by special dispensation, the brother
and successor of her husband, who was forfeited
soon after, and fled to England ; but not wishing
to share his fortunes — or misfortunes — she got her
second marriage annulled, and his Majesty gave her
in marriage to his own half-brother, the Earl of
Atholl, who probably rebuilt the Castle of Belveny,
as the motto which he adopted is carved in immense
letters over the massy iron gate. When King James
the Second sent Lord Atholl against Macdonald,
Earl of Ross, his parting benediction was given in
these few words, which have ever since continued
to be the family motto, " Forth fortune, and fill the
fetters !"

The estate of Balveny escaped after all, however,
from the descendants of this frequently married
heiress, and went, by some odd mischance, to her
husband's son by a subsequent marriage, and after
remaining w^ith the Earls of Atholl during five gene-
rations, and meeting with various other vicissitudes,
now belongs to the Earl of Fife.

A few miles above Ballindalloch is the vale of

188 GLENLIVET.

Glenlivet, famous in modern times for its whiskey,
and in ancient times for its battle, generally known
as the battle of Balrinnes, where the young Earl of
Argyll, though only in his eighteenth year, acted as
generalissimo for the king, commanding an army of
12,000 men, which was defeated by Lord Huntly at
the head of 300 horse. In those days, every com-
mander carried a witch, or a professor of second-
sight with him, as regularly as his ADC, and Argyll
had been promised that, on the day after this battle,
his harp should be played in Buchan, and the bag-
pipe at Huntly's chief seat in Strathbogie, which
prediction w^as certainly fulfilled to the ear, though
not exactly as Argyll expected, for the notes were
not those of triumph, and he was not there to enjoy
the sound, having retreated to a distant refuge.

A little farther up is the late Duke of Gordon's
delightful shooting lodge of Glenfiddich, the w^ell
known head-quarters for deer-stalking. The late
floods have rendered it almost unapproachable for
the last three miles, as the road has been washed
away, and the river must be forded eleven or twelve
times to reach the spot, but it is thought that the
present noble proprietor prefers encountering these
difficulties himself, rather than throw this preseiTe
more open to idle tourists, like ourselves, who
" frighten the deer," as it was objected to steam-
boats on the Thames that they " frightened the fish."

ELCHIES. 189

Between Elgin and its flourishing port Burgh-
head, stands the large baronial house of Gordonston,
well wooded, but otherwise in a featureless flat. It
is a plain, square, town-like pile, now beginning to
show symptoms of disconsolate neglect, since the
Gordon baronets failed, and it fell to the Gumming
family, who possess the far more captivating resi-
dence of Altyre, in the same county. Within this
house is a subterranean cell, in which a peeress was
formerly imprisoned by Sir Robert Gordon, that she
might be induced to surrender her patrimonial rights,
but the lady held out with great spirit, and w^as at
last liberated triumphantly. This family of Gordon
were all so clever, that they gained the reputation
of being, in several instances, wizards, and the prac-
tice of witchcraft was kept up in Morayshire longer
than in any other part of Scotland. Sir Robert
Gordon, being the premier Baronet of Scotland, was
very jealous on the score of precedency, and having
met once at dinner a neighbour recently promoted to
an Irish peerage, who was smilingly taking his
place first in the procession down stairs, the tall,
gaunt Sir Robert stalked hastily after his Lordship,
grasped his shoulder, and twirling him round, an-
grily exclaimed, " Na ! na ! my Lord ! ye maun
gang to Ireland for that !"

Near Elgin we passed the estate of Elchies,
from which one of our Scotch judges formerly took

190 ELGIN.

his title. Nothing perplexes English strangers more
in Scotland, than our bishops without mitres, and
lords without coronets. I remember seeing a great
genealogist, who met one of our fifteen judges at
dinner, suffering agonies of perplexity on hearing a
frequently repeated title, the date and patent of
w^hich he could not call to mind, till at last he turned
anxiously to Lord , who had observed his em-
barrassment, and said, in allusion to the number of
peers elected to Parliament, " Might I ask, my Lord,
if you are one of the sixteen ?" " No," replied his
Lordship with grave dignity, " I am one of the fif-
teen !" The strangest choice of a designation I
ever knew, was made by one of our judges, who
called himself " Lord Unthank !"

Elgin is a beautifully varied little city of eccen-
tric old houses, and charming new streets, built of a
stone which surpasses all praise, being exactly of
the hue that Cheltenham wishes to appear, a pale,
delicate, nankeen colour, and the longer it is exposed
the harder it becomes. This is more particularly to
be admired in the grand old ruinous cathedral, com-
monly known as " the Lantern of the North," which
looks so perfectly imtarnished by time, that it seems
more like a building about to be finished, than an
aged veteran, whose work is done. The Bishop's
house, too, a few yards off, has considerable remains
of grandeur. I was recently amused to hear, that

ELGIN. 191

the late Lord Dalhousie, not being able at once to
understand the difference between St. Peter's and
the Vatican, a friend made it plain by saying, " Why,
my Lord, only recollect that St. Peter's is the kirk,
and the Vatican the manse."

At Elgin cathedral, the celebrated carvings have
edges as sharp and distinct as the day they were
chiselled, and nothing in sculpture can be more
beautiful than the arched door of entrance, with eight
fine pillars, surmounted by WTeaths of roses in full
relief The octagon chapter-house is also orna-
mented on the roof with a perfect garden of flow^ers
turned into stone.

The old guide here, a well known character, is
commonly called "The Bishop of Moray." His
enthusiasm respecting this noble specimen of sacred
architecture renders him a desirable cicerone through
the old walls, which are in fully better repair than
himself, as he can scarcely totter along. The old
man leaning on his oaken staff, feels an honest pride
in boasting of the diligence with which he has
cleaned and arranged the ruins, since he was ap-
pointed guardian, and he signalized his reign by
moving away 2866 carts of rubbish, which had ac-
cumulated in the lapse of ages, concealing some of
the steps, and several prostrate fragments of beauti-
ful workmanship. Here " men of marble piecemeal
melt away," and our guide has composed a laugh-

192 ELGIN CATHEDRAL.

able medley of the broken and mutilated statues,
which he arranged in groups according to his own
fancy, putting noses on wherever they were want-
ing, and placing heads upon bodies for which they
were never intended. The party which he particularly
piqued himself upon, consisted of a face with an ex-
pression of suffering, which he called Dives, a good-
humoured complacent-looking head near, represent-
ed Lazarus, and he had found a colossal dog's head,
which w^as supposed to be licking the sores. A
scolding physiognomy, which he discovered beneath
a mountain of rubbish, he has stuck up on a tower
opposite to another representing the celebrated Wolf
of Badenoch, who once did penance here, standing
barefoot at the great gate, and who not only robbed
and massacred this noble edifice, but finally set it on
fire. John Knox generally gets the blame wherever
we see a roofless church, but you must acquit him
on this occasion, as he can prove an alibi j not having
yet been born. The old guide informed me that
there were on this establishment formerly, two-and-
twenty canons, which he thought it necessary to
explain were not military but ecclesiastical.

Besides many fine old tombs of bishops and war-
riors now crumbling to dust, like those they were
intended to commemorate, we were shown the coffin
of King Duncan, but could hear no account of where
his bones had been placed. I am told that, when

ELGIN CATHEDRAL. 193

the burying vault at Lord K 's was opened

some years ago, one of the coffins, which had been
evidently burst open, was empty, and a skeleton lay
at some distance, leading to the fearful conjecture,
that the unfortunate person had been interred alive.
At the English burial vaults in Munich, each de-
ceased person has a bell placed beside his body, in
case he should come alive again ! a most desirable
precaution in a sultry climate, where the funeral
follows so immediately after death. Our cicerone
showed us where the last two very popular and
talented Dukes of Gordon are interred, and his voice
faultered with emotion when he spoke, yet in any
less solemnizing situation, you could scarcely have
resisted a smile, at the free and easy tone with which
he mentioned them as " my people," generally com-
mencing his stories, of which he related many, by
saying, " The Duke and I were talking here one

day" but he did not get so far as to say, like

your friend, " I and the Duke !" How astonished
noblemen would sometimes feel, if they could sud-
denly behold a collection of all the intimate friends
who speak of them, in remote districts, with a de-
gree of famiharity highly impressive, to country
cousins and provincial neighbours ; for many aspi-
ring youths, who have dined once in company with
a man of rank, or even passed hira on the street,
think it incumbent on them, ever afterwards, to
17

194 ' ELGIN.

forget his title ; and if it makes them happy, why
not ? One remarkable phenomenon in the natural
history of fashionable life, which I really do pique
myself upon having discovered, is, that any gentle-
man who invariably gives an absent peer his title in
mixed society, may, in all probability, have the pri-
vilege of dispensing with it if they actually meet ;
but those who un-Lord a nobleman supposed to be
at a safe distance, are obliged, when by ill-luck he
unexpectedly appears — if on speaking terms at all,
which is improbable — to make such an expenditure
of Lordships in his presence, as might pay off, with
interest, all previous deficiencies. A young lady
from the country, some time ago, when taking a
romantic leave of a school companion, the daughter
of an Earl, exclaimed in a paroxysm of affection,
" Do let us correspond, and may I call you Fanny ?"
To which the particular friend replied, " Call me
what you please, but spare me the letter-writing !"

I must conclude my long epistle with an amu-
sing story in the Scotch dialect, which, though
known in this neighbourhood, being related of a
celebrated character who resided not far off, may
probably be new to you ; and even at the worst, it
is one of the very few I could venture to tell twice,
therefore, try if you can understand it without a
glossary.

The Laird of Bonymoon was extremely hospi-

ELGIN. 195

table, but so exceedingly lazy and indolent, that his
sisters could scarcely ever entice him from the fire-
side; but one morning they entreated him with
great anxiety to take a ride for the good of his health.

" Hoot !" said he angrily, " what should gar me
gang bumping on a horse, when I can sit quietly
here wi' my glass o' toddy !"

" But, brother," answered they, " if anything
should ail you, what would become of us ? Pray go
for our sakes."

" Weel ! ony thing for a quiet life ! I'll e'en
tak' this weary ride. I'm sure, I wish it was o'er ;
but mind ! 'gin I meet ony body coming this way,
I'll bring him back to his dinner ; if no', may be I'll
dine with some neighbour. John, saddle the horses."

Accordingly off went the laird on a jog-trot
awkward-looking horse, boxing the compass with
his head to see if any human being were coming his
way, as a pretext for turning ; but meeting nobody,
he arrived at last near the house of an intimate friend.

" Ah, Bonymoon, is this you ? I'm very glad
to see you ! What wind brought you here ?"

" Never mind that ! I'm come to dine wi' you !
What ha' ye got ?"

"A bubbly jock and a grilse."*

"John, tak' the horses! Aye, neighbour, ye
live weel ! Is there ony body wi' ye ?"

♦ Turkey and salmon.

196 ELGIN.

" Only an English gentleman."

In they went, and the host taking his stranger
guest aside, whispered, " I think it necessary to in-
form you, that I mean to play the laird a trick.
He is said to have neither taste nor smell, and I
wish to try him with cherry brandy instead of port."

After dinner, wine being put on table, the laird
exclaimed, " But what's a' this ! you've sent me a
diiferent bottle from your own !"

" This is claret, and you like port."

" Aye ! aye ! give me nane o' ye're washes. Gie
me something that'll take a grip o' the stamach."

He then filled a bumper to the King. " Honest
man ! I like him weel aneuch ! Oh ! neighbour, hae
ye muckle o' this wine! it's the best port I ever
tasted ! oh! man, it's fine !"

Bumper after bumper was tossed down with in-
creasing relish, till at last the bottle was emptied.

" My guid friend," said the laird, " though you hae
few o' thae bottles, will ye treat me to anither ?"

" Certainly, Bonymoon ! Sandy ! another bottle !
be sure it is the same."

The laird became more and more captivated
with this new vintage of port, but after finishing
the second supply, he made an attempt to rise, say-
ing, " Weel, neighbour ! we've spent a very pleasant
evening thegether, and had a great deal o' sensible
conversation."

ELGIN. 197

"You're not going already?"

" Aye ! aye ! the lasses at hame'll be wearying."
Saying this he made a second effort to get up, but
stumbled and fell back, angrily exclaiming, " Hoot !
canna' ye mak' the carpet straight ! thae runkles
might throw down ony body."

With the help of his obliging neighbour, the
laird was mounted on horseback, when the Eno-hsh-
man anxiously remonstrated, saying, " Surely you
will not send the gentleman home in such a state !
he will meet with some accident !"

" No ! no ! he is accustomed to it ! only let us
run up the approach, and hear him pledge the gude-
wife at my lodge in a dram."

The two listeners arrived in time to hear the
laird making many kind inquiries for a' the bairns,
and the dialogue concluded by the gate-keeper
saying, " It's an unco' raw night ! your honour wad
na' be the war o' a drap whiskey !"

" Deed no, gudewife ! The laird's port sits
unco' cauld on my stamach. Fill it up !"

Bonymoon having thus primed himself, rode on
with some spirit, but soon after, in crossing a small
stream, the laird vainly tried to balance himself,
but his head proved heaviest, and he slid down into
the current.

" John !" said he, " What's that I hear splashing
in the water ?"

198 ELGIN.

" I'm thinking it's your honour," answered John,
getting off his horse to assist his master, who was
with great ditficulty remounted, but soon after, in
passing over a wide moor, a sudden gust of wind
carried away the laird's hat and wig, which he or-
dered John to find immediately.

" It's impossible, your honour ! I might as weel
look for a needle in a haystack !"

" Never mind that, John ! I winna stir without
my wig !"

John got down, grumbling loudly, and groping
about, until, by good luck, he found them both,
when the laird attempted to put his wig on, but
having placed the part that should have been be-
hind, in front, the cue hung over his nose.

" Stop, John ! this is no' my wig,"

" Your honour maun just be doing then, for
there's nae wail o' wigs here !" rephed John, coolly
mounting his horse, and in this plight the laird ar-
rived at home, where he staggered straight into the
drawing-room, when his sisters, not at first recog-
nising him, screamed aloud with alarm.

" Hoot !" said he, " what are ye bawhng at ?"

" Brother ! is that you !" cried they eagerly.
" What in the world has happened to you ! Make
haste in to the fire, and change yourself. Quick !
I'm sure it will be long enough before we again
recommend a ride for your health."

SPEY BRIDGE.

My dear Cousin, — To do you justice, I scarcely
know any one who stands the expense of postage
in a more magnanimous spirit than yourself, and ac-
cordingly I shall now put you to the test. I often
think no vice carries its own punishment along with
it so obviously as the love of money — it interferes
with every thing — especially on a journey, for there
can be few greater annoyances than to be surrounded
by grumbling post-boys and discontented landladies ;
besides which, it impedes all sociability with our
friends, all liberality to the poor, poisoning every
meal we sit down to, embittering sickness itself on
account of the expense, and even diminishing the
pleasures of a friendly correspondence like ours ; in
short, it meets you at every corner. However,
where necessary, I admire and respect judicious
economy, but there can be no consolation for those
who practise it in excess without absolute occasion.
Those who have a liberal spirit and a limited income
know, that what they save in one thing, will be
added to their expenditure in something else of more
absolute importance, but I cannot sufficiently won-
der at those who make money the end of their

200 SPEY BRIDGE.

being, merely for hoarding sake — merely that a
cipher may at last be added to their book in the
bank ! It seems to me the most unaccountable of
all infatuations ! I have come to the conclusion,
after long and careful observation, that the very
highest attainment of human good sense is, to
proportion your expenses, both charitable and do-
mestic, precisely to your income ; for when we see
that rich people become almost invariably avaricious,
and that when the poor have little, they think it
not worth hoarding, and become extravagant, I
leally think a testimonial should be voted to any
man who can be proved to have kept the balance
exactly for a certain number of years, duly consid-
ering the claims of his children, his dependents, his
religion, and even his own comfort. It is a curious
phenomenon how many rich people wish to live as
if they were poor, and how many poor people con-
trive to live as if they were rich !

We this day crossed Spey Bridge without acci-
dent or mishap, which is more than the late Duke
of Gordon did, who was standing on it during the
great flood, eleven years ago, when hearing a sudden
crack, he had barely time to flee, before, with the
rapidity of lightning and a noise like thunder, a
mass of water, piled with full-grown trees and with
floating rubbish, swept forward in irresistible power,
and buried the noble bridge in a dark and boiling

GORDON CASTLE. 201

torrent. His Grace, on that occasion, found his re-
treat cut off towards Gordon Castle, having hurriedly
escaped to the wrong side of the river, W'here he
was charitably fed and clothed during several days
at Orton, the hospitable residence of Mr. Wharton
Duff. A new arch of wood has been since built, a
single span, 200 feet wide, w^hich really makes a
tolerably long arm across the water.

We still continue at full speed, hopping from
castle to castle, and from mountain to mountain, at
a rate that would carry us very speedily round the
world. It certainly is a great privilege to take
possession of all these magnificent places for an
hour or two, enjoying the landscape, pictures, and
furniture as if they were our ow^n, and to-day wx
made a most agreeable and fatiguing house-tour in
Gordon Castle, till my eyes became perfectly glassy
with exhaustion. I w^onder that people ever survive
seeing the Louvre I A week at Florence w^ould
kill me outright.

Though the grounds of Inverary, Blair Athol,
and Hopetoun House, are perhaps more exquisitely
lovely than those of Gordon Castle, yet, this seems
to be, on the whole, the finest ducal residence in
Scotland. I am told that the largest mansion in
England, Wentworth House, covers the eighth of
a mile, but this is also of vast extent, being five
hundred and sixty-eight feet long, and built of the

202

GORDON CASTLE.

splendid Elgin free-stone : " A world of a house !"
It is curious that every thing more magnificent or
more beautiful than common, is apt to make us
melancholy ! Music or poetry, or even an unusually
generous action, bring tears starting to the eyes,
and I have even know^n instances where the first
surprise of beholding a very majestic edifice has
produced this effect, and I could perfectly fancy it
arising in such a scene as this. Probably the tears
we shed for the moral sublimity of a fine action,
may partly be caused by a transient sense of what
our nature was originally before the fall.

The park at Gordon Castle is bounded only by
the horizon ; the trees are gigantic, every thing, in
short, appears on the grandest scale, and the great
antiquity of this ancient family adds interest and
dignity to all we admire. Every page in the history
of Scotland seems mingled with the names of Huntly
and Gordon, always brave, generous, and loyal, —
the first to take arms for their king and country,
remaining always true to the family motto, " By
courage not by craft." They flourished and reigned
here since Robert Bruce transplanted them from
Berwickshire, during two-and-twenty generations ;
but this noble estate has recently been divorced from
the title, and alienated from a name so long supreme
among those glens and hills of Strathspey. Can it
be possible that the long line of Huntly and Gordon

GORDON CASTLE. - 203

has actually vanished from the halls of their fathers!
This was indeed a nice little succession for those
who have inherited it ! In ancient days the land
frequently carried the title along with it, and, indeed,
the time w^as once when a Marquis of Huntly might
have unfurled his standard, rallied his clan around
him, and bid defiance to an English successor, but
perhaps in these days one could scarcely recommend
such an experiment. It was an old rule in Scottish
law, to claim all you can, and you may be certain
to get more than you have a right to.

One fine old tower of the ancient castle, far sur-
mounting the rest, has remained steadfast, like a
monument of past generations, through all the vicis-
situdes of time, and still continues, greatly excelling
the adjoining edifice of more recent date. When
I merely say a building is old, let that be considered
equivalent to a panegyric, being, as you know, so
fond of antiquities that I would any day prefer a
Queen Anne's farthing to a good modern guinea. I
only wished this venerable tower had been roofless,
because we had so toilsome an ascent to the top,

where A should have sung the popular song,

"Sic a rinin' up stairs !" We were amply repaid,
however, at last by a view which it would take me
a folio volume to describe ; but never rest in peace
till you have stood in an ecstasy of delight where

204 • GORDON CASTLE.

we did to-day, and astonished the very stars with
your exclamations of rapture.

The entrance hall is decorated with every des-
cription of elegant lumber, among w^hich w^e admired
several beautiful busts and statues copied from the
antique, particularly the Apollo Belvidere and the
Venus de Medici, the grace and expression of which
can scarcely be excelled, I should imagine, by their
great originals at Florence, which have so long con-
tinued to " enchant the world.''

Cosmo, Duke of Gordon, received his not very
Highland name in compliment to Cosmo, Duke of
Tuscany, whose exceedingly ugly bust stands in the
entrance-hall, and from his foreign godfather the
Duke seems to have derived a truly Italian taste for
sculpture, as the entrance-hall w^ould remind you of
a marble-cutter's show-room. The stair-carpet here
is of Gordon tartan, dark green and purple, which
looks rather sombre, but is considered one of our
handsomest Highland plaids. I always feel soriy
for the family pictures in an empty house, they look
so lonely, cold, and forlorn, but here each individual
ancestor seems to have been handsome and distin-
guished-looking. In the dining-room hangs a com-
plete wreath round the wall, representing Earls,
Marquisses, and Marchionesses of Huntly, all look-
ing their very best, as they appeared in the olden

GORDON CASTLE. 205

time ; and the worthy housekeeper seemed to think
every grim-looking personage on the walls must
have possessed the same title, as she created, with-
out scruple or hesitation, a long succession of Mar-
quisses on the spot.

The first Earl, who had three wives, looks as if
he had wept his eyes out for them all, and the first
Marquis is a grand aristocratic-looking personage.
On his first attending court, being censured for not
bowing when introduced, he proudly replied, " I am
accustomed to live in a country where every body
bows to me !"

George, second Marquis of Huntly, a melan-
choly-looking man, was beheaded for his attach-
ment to Charles the First. His two eldest sons
were considered the most amiable and distinguished
youths of their time, but the first was killed under
Montrose, and his brother died of grief for the ex-
ecution of Charles the First. How enthusiastic was
the attachment which that monarch created !

Ladies were sometimes very strange beings long
ago ! only very long ago, not now, — and we looked
with some awe yet, at the ancient Countess of
Huntly, who was a most terrifying character in her
time. About the year 1590, during her husband's
absence, she received the chief of Mackintosh on an
embassy of peace, and angrily declared, that there
should be no reconciliation till his neck was on the
18

206 GORDON CASTLE.

block. The unwary visiter jocularly laid his head
on a table in pretended submission, seeing which
one of the attendants of the Countess instantly
grasped a carving-knife, and severed it from his
shoulders. This unhappy victim was nephew to the
Earl of Moray. His followers she afterwards im-
prisoned, and fed them like swine out of a trough ;
but for these cruelties, and many more, her title was
forfeited, though subsequently restored.

The son of this ferocious lady being condemned
to death, she begged his life in vain, and found no
more mercy than she had shown. Being consid-
ered the handsomest man of the age. Queen Mary
became accused of partiality to him, and was forced
against her will to witness his execution. Nothing
in the way of fortune-telling could be more curious
than that which occurred to this Countess's husband,
Lord Huntly, who had been warned that he should
certainly die at Corraighie. The name sounded to
him like Creigh, a place near Aberdeen, which he
always afterwards carefully avoided, but when dan-
gerously wounded at the battle of Corraighie, he
anxiously inquired the name of the place, on hear-
ing which, he repeated it thrice before he died,
" Corraighie ! Corraighie ! Corraighie ! then God
be merciful to me !"

Two beautiful representations are extant here of
the celebrated Duchess of Gordon, whose witty and

GORDON CASTLE. 207

eccentric sayings are the favourite theme of every
jest-book. Sir Joshua Reynolds had the honour of
having executed the very lovely one we first ob-
served, with the finest eyes that ever lighted up a
face, but the portrait was not at all characteristic,
being drawn with that pensive, languid, not-partic-
ularly-clever expression observable in most of the
female portraits by that artist. The other, by An-
gelica KaufFman, had so noble an aspect, that I
should feel proud only to be the nail that it was
hung upon. Her Grace's countenance appeared
radiant with all that spirit and vivacity for which
she was long distinguished, while you could per-
fectly imagine her uttering some startling and pi-
quant hon mot, such as those with which she fre-
quently enlivened the dullest society. There are
persons who seem formed for the situations they
occupy, and when I remember Jane Duchess of
Gordon's queen-like majesty of appearance and
commanding manner, it seems as if by nature she
could never have been otherwise than the leading
person in every circle, even without the adventitious
aid of her exalted rank.

Her Grace, when dying, desired to be buried at
her own favourite and romantic residence, Kinrara,
on the Spey. She ordered that for her epitaph the
names and titles of all her daughters should be en-
graved on the tombstone, where I am told they may

208 GORDON CASTLE.

now be read at full length. Among' the number
are included three Duchesses and a Marchioness.
Certainly no one ever played more successfully at
the game of" catch honours."

The Duke, her husband, lived to the age of
eighty-four, and is represented in every stage of ex-
istence, from childhood to the most advanced period
of life. It w^ould have been amusing to arrange
the whole series close together ! He is exhibited
first on the staircase, when two years old, as Cupid,
equipped with wings and a quiver; but to these
customary decorations a light tartan scarf is super-
added, while the mischievous little sprite looks
highly entertained at his extraordinary transforma-
tion into a Highlander.

Five other portraits of his Grace hang else-
where ; the first painted at Rome, where he has
evidently returned from a capital day's sport, being
surrounded by tired looking dogs and dead game.
In another frame, he sports a fancy dress ; and this
likeness w^as said to have been painted by Raeburn
at the time of his marriage. His Grace next looks
down from the wall in his Lord Lieutenant's uniform,
and last, in extreme old age, with his star and rib-
bon, which I remember his invariably wearing in
the evenings, being of the now exploded opinion,
that such honourable decorations should occasionally
be seen, and need not be reserved only for a corona-

GORDON CASTLE. 209

tion. The Duke was an excellent performer on
the violin, and delighted so peculiarly in Scotch
music, that if every one felt as keen a national par-
tiahty, the Italian Opera-House would soon be
deserted.

There are three pictures at Gordon Castle of
the celebrated Lord Peterborough, looking very
spirited and consequential, as if " a thousand hearts
w^ere great within his breast ;" and certainly few
heroes have merited a larger leaf of laurel. As a
lady once impatiently remarked of her husband,
" cats have nine lives, but he seemed to have ten."
In one of Lord Peterborough's portraits, he wears
a wig waving in billows over his shoulders, which
five ordinary heads of hair could scarcely have sup-
plied. He would have made an excellent frontis-
piece for Rowland's macassar oil ; but in these days
a wig must have been almost as expensive as an
estate, when a country girl received ^£60 for her
ringlets, and an old woman's gray hair was sold
for £50 !

Lord Peterborough said, after visiting Fenelon,
" If I had stayed with him any longer, I should have
become a Christian in spite of myself!" How un-^
fortunate for him now, that he did not ! His cour-
age in the field was only excelled by the firmness
with which he sustained the long agonies of a pain-
ful death, but his was the stern endurance of a
IS*

'210 GORDON CASTLE.

Stoic, not the enlightened resignation of a Christian.
Even when folding his mantle around him to fall
with dignity, he was coldly sarcastic in talking of
Christianity, and merely said, that " he made a
point of being civil to all religions," a species of
compromise only too common now ! It is curious
that Lord Peterborough's daughter, the Duchess of
Gordon, introduced the Protestant faith into this
family, previously bigoted Roman Catholics, but
being left guardian of her son, while a minor, she
brought him up in her own creed, which was, for-
tunately, less accommodating than that of her father.
When we see a cold, hard, stern, disposition like
his, united to such great natural endowments, it re-
minds me of a frost-bound garden, where no flowers
nor fruit can flourish ; and till the good seed be
sown, till the dew fall, and the sun shine from
heaven upon the baiTen waste, how cheerless and
desolate a sight it must ever remain !

We admired much, a very handsome portrait, in
full Highland garb, of the late very popular Duke, —
the last heir of his long line ! The world has been
so accustomed for centuries to have Dukes of Gor-
don successively appearing, that it seems quite
strange now without one ! In the same room hangs
a picture, such as you seldom see, representing the
Duke of Perth, so dignified, so animated, and so very
intellectual looking, that the whole expression was

GORDON CASTLE. 211

in character with the history of one, who was " as
brave as he was bonny." The dress consists of a
graceful plaid thrown over his Highland uniform.
What a misfortune to gentlemen of taste, being-
born in the present century, when their whole
genius must limit itself to a blue coat and black
neckcloth ! The worst portrait in this collection is
one of George IV., presented by his Majesty to the
late Duke, but it is a most unworthy representation
of " the first gentleman in Europe," looking more
like some country actor performing a burlesque, and
exactly in the attitude of Lord Bateman's " proud
porter."

We were considerably entertained by a full length
portrait of James the Second's Queen, when in exile.
She is consoling herself by feeding a pet lamb,
while her crown is laid on the ground in a garden,
her dog lies a her feet, her flowers are scattered
about, and a book is in her hand, so she is apparently
resolved to find comfort in something, and her Ma-
jesty looks so fat and good-humoured, that the cares
of abdication have evidently sat very lightly on her
brow. She seemed by no means in the vein of ex-
claiming, like the celebrated John Home, when
vexed by some trifling disappointment,

" Let petrifaction stop this falling tear,
And fix my form for ever marble here !"

A very antique portrait of Queen Mary is at

212 GORDON CASTLE.

Gordon Castle, said, of course, to be original, and I
almost believe it. The date is 1568, the last year
of her liberty, and it has the brilliant look of health
and animation, which vanished, after every gay
vision of power and glory had been blotted out by
her tears.

I have no song of youth and hope,

That does not close in care ;

[ have no tale of woman's love

That ends not in despair ;

I only breathe the name of joy

To tell how soon it dies ;

I only sing the songs that suit

Thy notes, my harp of sighs.

In the same collection is shown the portrait of
a young beauty, who might certainly have rivalled
Queen Mary herself. She was the favourite friend
of a former Duchess, who must have been superior
to envy or jealousy, but the name of this lovely
vision is forgotten by our cicerone, so she must re-
main anonymous. Any young lady, with one fea-
ture of her face, might set up for a beauty, for they
are all equally perfect. The Magazine des Modes
would describe her dress as " a robe of rich white
satin, a scarf of torquoise blue, and her chesnuthair
simply combed back off her forehead." The lovely
countenance was painted so much to the life, that
she seemed to blush when we looked at her.

One of the ancient pictures in this collection

GORDON CASTLE. 213

represents Herodias carrying the head of John the
Baptist in a charger; but the artist has given
her much too gentle and feminine an expression,
though, certainly, the sweetest countenances do
sometimes conceal the sternest minds; and when
you see a fixed unalterable smile in any face, with
a particularly subdued manner, the probabilities are
ten to one that this habitual aspect has been assumed
as a necessary veil to hide the real temper.

The only cheerful portrait of Charles the First,
that I ever beheld, is here! He has undeniably
relaxed into a smile, and looks as if he might, occa-
sionally in his life, have enjoyed a happy moment.

Connoiseurs all agree in saying, that the finest
painting in this collection is that of St. Paul rebuking
St. Peter. The colouring and expression are so
exceedingly forcible, that I could not get far enough
off to catch the general effect advantageously, but
it looked too hard and distinct, having very much the
effect of a tableau vivant, without the gauze curtain.

I could not but reflect, in looking around on
those ancient walls and pictures, what a busy
interesting world this has been before we entered
it ! So many distinguished men ! so many beau-
tiful w^omen ! so many fine painters ! so many ven-
erable books, in black letter, and in white letter !
so many banners now idly waving over our heads,
and so many broad-swords rusting in their scab-

214 GORDON CASTLE.

bards, which wanted only the heroes who wielded
them, to become as bright and as powerful as
ever ! Ours is a busy world still, but how different !
What a sordid money-making activity bestirs us
now ! Men were formerly estimated according to
their heroism, their bodily strength, or their talents,
but now the standard of every thing is w^ealth — not
even the use that is made of it, but the mere pos-
session ! We examined in the armory Charles Ed-
w^ard's leathern purse, with a silver clasp, which he
presented to the then Duke of Gordon. It is
scarcely more empty now, than it w^as when he
owned it; but where would any one find in the
present day, partisans as ready on a chivalrous im-
pulse to forfeit their wealth and estates ! The first
question now, preparatory to engaging in any new
undertaking is, " What per cent, will it bring ?"
Men are flocking to Australia for twenty per cent.,
or to be devoured by the cannibals of New Zea-
land for thirty, while even sportsmen no longer carry
their guns on the moors, without an eye to profit,
but make money by their very amusements. Many
become poulterers now, and sell the birds they kill,
or have them potted for the East Indian market ! or
exchange them for shot ! What old lady can ever
hope now, to receive her annual box of grouse with
any body's compliments, when, as Dr. Johnson
wisely observes, " Few men give what they can sell?"

GORDON CASTLE. 215

It has been often remarked, that the richest and
most extravagant Enghshmen generally turn ex-
tremely saving when they enter Scotland, probably
imagining that we are not accustomed to see much
expense ; but among those who contract to supply
dealers with game at so much per head, from our
Highland moors, are found the young heirs to some
of the highest honours and most extensive proper-
ties in the south. Grouse are, however, the uncon-
scious benefactors of Scotland, by gathering the
best company round them, as, without their attrac-
tions, we should be almost entirely deserted.

A charming sheltered garden lies close behind
Gordon Castle, very tastefully laid out, the gravel
walks meandering like a chain round a brilliant
patch-w^ork of flow^er-beds, which are thus cut into
diagonal squares, with here and there a morsel of
smooth turf to vary the colouring. At some distance
may be seen a still more beautiful parterre, which
has been laid out in a stone quarry. The soil is, of
course, all artificial, but you can imagine nothing
more picturesque than the strange irregularities of
ground. It would almost weary you to look at the
steep walks leading towards precipices, sloping
banks, and shady recesses, varied by moss-houses,
stone basins hewn from the quarry, jets d'eau, Egyp-
tian obelisks, and a miniature Parthenon carved in
the same rock on which it stands. At the gate are

216 GORDON CASTLE.

placed some inimitable old sculptured stones from
the ancient parish church of Fochabers, which be-
stow a look of great antiquity on the entrance, and
the w^hole is enlivened by a brilliant profusion of
showy flowers, and by the most emerald-coloured
grass you can fancy. This is a small fragment of
fairy land, wanting only the talking bird, the golden
water, and the singing apple. After leaving the
quarry, we entered a walk, shaded by enormous
natural hollies, which must be magnificent when the
dark varnished leaves are enlivened by their scarlet
berries like bunches of coral. Many are more than
forty feet high, with stems five or six feet in circum-
ference, and some being grouped together in clus-
ters of a dozen large trunks, I almost mistook for
moderate sized beeches. It is a curious provision of
nature for the protection of hollies, that all the lower
leaves, within reach of cattle, are furnished with
strong prickles to serve as a defensive armour, but
the upper branches are not.

We were misled, on many occasions to-day, by
the uncommon size to which several species of trees
have enlarged themselves. You were diverted for-
merly, by the little girl at her lessons, who said,
" How can I make a mistake now, when I am
four years old !" but w^e, at a still more advanced
period of life, made a few to-day, during our wan-
derings through the park. Two fine aspen trees

GORDON CASTLE. 217

passed themselves off upon me, at a distance, for full
grown oaks, till I observed them in a quiver of agi-
tation. Their stems were fourteen feet round, and
before severing into branches, the solid trunk rose
thirteen feet high. The bark was of so uniform a
tint, and the arch of leaves so perfect, that they
looked like two pillars of Elgin Cathedral come out
to take the air. Sir James Hall once planted a
cathedral of trees at Dunglas, the long aisles rep-
resented by the tall white columns of the poplar
trees, the branches of which formed, at one end, a
fine Gothic window.

Near those aspens at Gordon Castle, we saw a
noble ash tree, living in a most critical situation.
The massy trunk had been split from top to bottom
in the late hurricane, but both halves were yet
standing. At every breeze they yawned asunder,
and closed again, creaking and groaning in a most
fearful manner, as if haunted by some troubled
spirit. The leaves were still flourishing as gay as
ever, unconscious of their impending fate, but this
hoary patriarch of the forest is evidently struggling
with a mortal wound, though we hurried to a gar-
dener with information of the catastrophe, hoping
that an iron bandage might, for some time longer,

preserve it alive. When Lord S n, some years

ago, intended cutting down several ancient ash

trees, a friend induced him to grant them a reprieve,

19

218 GORDON CASTLE.

by saying, in a tone of remonstrance, " Surely you
will not d sturb the ashes of your ancestors !"

The chief ornament of this ducal park is a
graceful lime tree, beneath which stood the favour-
ite seat of Duchess Jane, when surrounded by her
chosen companions. We sat under the vast shadow
of this forest chief, surrounded by a wall of leaves
which swept to the ground on every side, forming
an arbour of 200 feet circumference, and there we
recalled the gay spirits and joyous scenes which
once enlivened this solitary bower. The Hama-
dryad who presides here, must then have enjoyed a
merry time of it ! Her Grace might almost have
worn the bracelet of another equally celebrated
Duchess, who, rather whimsically, desired this in-
scription to be set on it in diamonds, " I shall never
lose my spirits !" How happy for those who can
keep such a resolution, but the power to do so re-
quires a more secure foundation than our own most
resolute intentions.

One of the lodges in this park looks so exactly
as if built of parliament cakes, that it has been
called " The Parliament House." It is an excellent
imitation of a Jager's house in Switzerland, and
produces a very striking effect here. The old
gamekeeper who kept it was so eager for sport,
that the late Duke laughingly said to him one day,
*' You would shoot your own grandfather, if he fell

GORDON CASTLE. 219

in your way !" It used to be amusing long ago,
before moors were " let furnished," to discover how
very little conception the English had of game being
ever preserved in the Highlands, as they fancied it
was only necessary to land at Dundee or at Aber-
deen, and to load their guns. A Scotch proprietor,
some years ago, met a large party going north, fully
equipped with guns and dogs, but could not precisely
ascertain what moors they had leave upon, till at last
it came out, that they were merely at random, " going
to shoot in the north !" The rent of a barren moor
is now almost equal to that of the best arable land !

Several years since, an English stranger, who
had never probably seen grouse or red-deer even in
the zoological gardens, returned from an excellent
days's sport, saying he had shot eight head of deer !
They all turned out to be goats !

I was much amused to hear a narrow escape
made by Sheridan when he was deer-shooting once
in the north -, but his ingenuity was equal to every
emergency, and delivered him on this occasion.
The Duke of Atholl having furnished him with an
escort of Highlanders, besides a luxurious and very
substantial luncheon, he began the day's sport by
sitting down to finish the wine and refreshments,
during which unusual commencement of the cam-
paign, his companions, after consulting aside for
some time, came forward in a body, and sternly
asked whether he were any relation to " that

220 GORDON CASTLE.

^vicked fellow Sheridan of London, who had dared
to abuse Lord Melville ?"

" What do you take me for ?" answered Sheri-
dan, with well-feigned indignation. "Related to
such a fellow as that ! If I could only catch the.
rascal, I would hang him on the spot !"

" So should we, as soon as look at him !" re-
plied the trusty escort, confidentially, and poor
Sheridan, who frequently told the story afterwards,
lost no time in making a pretext to hurry home.

If Gordon Castle degenerate into a mere shoot-
ing box, it has at least the attraction of a splendid
deer-forest, which has become a more fashionable
scene for sportsmen now, than even the moors. We
were shown the horns of a red-deer, shot by Alex-
ander Duke of Gordon after his Grace was eighty.
A circle of deer's heads is placed round the room,
each carrying an inscription to commemorate the
history of his own death, how, when, where, and by
whom he was massacred. Thus every skull be-
comes in itself a monument and an epitaph !

We ought to believe any thing on sufficient evi-
dence, and the very incredible fact seems now as-
certained, that the deer eat their own horns ! It
was proved to the satisfaction of a learned jury once,
that a man had bit off his own nose, but this achieve-
ment of the deer seems nearly as difficult. Game-
keepers, to whom the horns might be a valuable
perquisite, hardly ever find any stray antlers during

GORDON CASTLE. 221

the season at which they are shed, and fragments
have been discovered occasionally in the animal's
throat when dissected. One red-deer was found
dead, having apparently committed suicide, as it was
choked by a bit of its own horn. People who bite
their nails, must have a somewhat similar propensity !

A lady remarked lately, that she felt thankful to
be born in an age when worsted work was in
fashion, as she never knew the real happiness of hfe
till she tried it, but nothing shows more obviously
the tedium suffered by gentlemen at home, than to
observe the hardships they will gladly endure in
search of what is called sport. A soldier would de-
serve to be covered with military glory for encoun-
tering as many privations and difficulties to defend
his country, as a drawing-room fine gentleman will
cheerfully welcome in pursuit of a single red-deer.
He spends nights in watching on the hills, days
standing up to the knees in water, springs over peat-
bogs, lies perdu for hours among the heather, crawls
along the bed of a burn, or wades across a river,
reckoning every thing a pleasure that promotes this
fascinating amusement. A gentleman, lately, ac-
customed to all his comforts, gravely remarked, after
a few days' laborious experience, " How pleasant it
was, to lie all night under a plaid upon the hill-side,
and to hear the rain pattering around !"

We had rain " pattering" in abundance all the
19*

222 GORDON CASTLE.

way from Gordon Castle, for now a ceaseless busy
drizzle began. The foliage, however, formed so
thick a canopy along the approach, that we scarcely
remembered to raise an umbrella, though on reach-
ing the high road, it had become, like the Nile, a
river of mud.

In passing, we made a leisurely survey of the
fruit and vegetable gardens, containing six acres
within the wall ; and I took a turn also in the hot-
houses, to remind myself of what summer used to be,
when we had warm weather occasionally. Here
we saw, in the richest perfection, figs, pines, gi*apes,
peaches, nectarines, — every thing in short, except
people to eat them, and around us were bowers of
blooming plants, — cactusses drooping unnoticed,
heaths looking beautiful in vain, and roses of a hun-
dred varieties " wasting" ^no ! that hackneyed

quotation is, like many others, worn to rags, and
must positively be left off. There ought to be a se-
vere fine against every person now, who " sits like
patience on a monument" — who " drags at each re-
move a length'ning chain" — who " blushes unseen"
— who " flies from grave to gay" — or who " hints
a fault and hesitates dislike," — but I shall not con-
clude my letter, as you expect, by saying, that my
heart is " untravelled," for with my whole heart I
enjoy travelling, and regret every mile we leave
behind, as if I were losing an estate.

FOCHABERS.

Lord Harry has written a novel —

A story of elegant life ;
No stuff about love in a hovel,

No sketch of a clown and his wife.
But full of such elegant touches !

Our lips in derision we curl,
Unless we are told how a Duchess

Conversed with her cousin, the Earl.

My dear Cousin, — The unfortunate man who
had his choice of working in the mines, or reading
through a foUo volume, preferred the bodily to the
mental labour ; but you shall herewith be con-
demned unheard to endure several folio pages this
morning, and to work out a perfect mine of infor-
mation, therefore, put on your spectacles of criticism,
and accompany me through my hfe and adventures
during a long and busy day.

At Fochabers, Murray the innkeeper, w^ho retired
from business this year, was originally a foundung,
and never had a guess of his own history, but all his
life he annually receives a blank cover containing
^50. Now, there is a ready made novel for you at
once ! According to all the rules of romance, he
must some day find himself out to be, at least, a

224 FOCHABERS.

peer. I wonder what titles and estates will unex-
pectedly prove to be his.

The inhabitants of this little hamlet should all
become literary characters, seeing, that besides the
many academies already in action, a native of Foch-
abers, recently bequeathed .£20,000 to establish
schools here ; and Mr. Dick left so large a fortune
to increase the salaries of schoolmasters in the
counties of Aberdeen, Banff, and Elgin, that here the
alphabet might be printed in letters of gold. At the
little inn of Grantown, our plates displayed the
alphabet an inch long marked all round the margins,
that travellers may lose no time in exercising their
intellects while eating ; and I heard of lessons being
taught in poHtics lately, by having political senti-
ments written in pastry across the tarts for dinner ;
but now, even while washing and combing their
hair, children are taught appropriate verses ; and
when I hear a mob of ragged boys singing, " This
is the way we wash our face,'* it gives me pleasure
to know that the ceremony is ever performed at all.

Infant schools would be a most beneficial inven-
tion for both parents and children in the lower ranks,
even though it involve the Spartan principle of a
separation between them, if we could only obtain a
concession on behalf of those very juvenile students,
that there shall be half the quantity of lessons ad-
ministered, and double the quantity of play allowed.

FOCHABERS. 225

The mechanical, and ahnost regimental exercises
which these baby scholars go through, under the
misapplied name of amusement, amount to so strict
a restraint on mind and body, that they should, in
fairness, be ranked in the class of lessons, because
nothing but perfect natural freedom can be a com-
plete relaxation to children, and so incessant a drill-
ing as the little creatures undergo must prove mju-
rious and exhausting.

We inspected one infant school near Fochabers,
v.'here ninety-five children under eight years old
were improving their minds. I certainly never saw
a more beautiful group ! Ninety of them at least
were pretty, while all, without exception, looked
clean, w^ell-dressed, and healthy. The day having
proved wet, none of them got out to play, but the
pains-taking schoolmistress kept up, in a close hot
room, a succession of singing, marching, and coun-
termarching, mechanically, till the whole juvenile
party were at last allowed to sit down, suffering
agonies of drowsiness. When w^e entered, three or
four had fallen back on the laps of those behind,
others required a rousing like Baron Trenck, several
were singing, the eyes rolling in their heads, a few
had made a desperate struggle and cried themselves
awake, while many approached as nearly to som-
nambulism as Lady Macbeth. The continual sing-
ing is in itself somniferous; a certain degree of

226 FOCHABERS.

monotony becomes quite unavoidable in the lessons ;
and even the clapping of hands and beating of feet,
though excellent as an occasional exercise for very-
young pupils, cannot fairly come under the desig-
nation of play, which must be the dictate of sponta-
neous instinct and buoyant natural spirits.

It is most true, as the well known proverb says,
that " an idle mind is Satan's favourite workshop,"
and poor children, when left at home are lamenta-
bly neglected, while they cannot but thus acquire
confused notions of right and wrong, being more
punished by their busy hard-working parents,
for being merely troublesome, than for the
worst moral offences, besides becoming hope-
lessly idle, ignorant, and slovenly, impeding the
labours of those who support them, and learning
neither habits nor principles in accordance with re-
ligion. During the few years of childhood, there-
fore, when, being too young for any profitable la-
bour, they might have time to learn the reading of
their Bibles, it is indeed a blessing that they have
the opportunity to acquire all such knowledge of
holy Scripture as human teaching can impart ; and
certainly it has been a useful discovery of modern
times, that when children are taught to read, they
can be taught also to understand what they read,
therefore, much gratitude is due to those who, by
the institution of infant schools, rescue young fami-

FOCHABERS. 227

lies from the ruin of both body and soul, which
must, too probably, result from the unavoidable ne-
glect which awaits them at home. Yet even the
very best things may be overdone, so that the
forced intellects and forced spirits of infants should
be allowed a very large proportion of entire, uncon-
strained relaxation, to recover their natural tone.
Before seven or eight years old, the disposition,
feelings, and principles, can successfully be regulated,
but very little knowledge can be safely instilled at
so feeble an age, without overstretching the facul-
ties, as much as if a tottering child attempted to
carry a burden intended for a man. The heart is
capable of being trained before the head, but all
that can be gained by unnatural stimulus in unripe
age, is lost to mind and body afterwards.

The four elder children at Fochabers exhibited
astonishing powers of memory, and a knowledge of
the Bible which a divinity student could scarcely
excel. It was perfectly amazing ! No spectator
could have been otherwise than delighted, as w^e
were, and all I would advocate while discussing the
system of early training among poor children, is,
that for every hour of lessons, they should be al-
lowed an hour of real undeniable romping, and be-
come initiated occasionally in the mysteries of hide
and seek, or blind man's buff. One of the most
learned and accomplished scholars I ever knew^,

228 CULLEN HOUSE.

used to mention that he was formerly very partial
to chess, but finding it more a study than a game,
it did not afford sufficient relaxation to be consid-
ered a mere amusement, nor was it useful enough to
be followed as a pursuit, therefore, he unwillingly
relinquished that interesting employment of time,
but I saw him soon afterwards engaged with a joy-
ous young party of children, playing at battledore
and shuttlecock, which seemed thoroughly to unbend
for the time, a mind long and successfully exerted
for the best interests of man. We are all aware
that, as the bow requires to be often unstrung, the
more pliant it may be, the more absolutely necessary
that reaction becomes.

Jipropos of very juvenile precociousness, I was
greatly diverted lately to read an advertisement, of
anew astringent application for the gums, beginning,
" Children cutting their teeth are respectfully in-
formed !"

We had a charming drive from Fochabers to
Cullen House, one of the most splendid places in
Scotland, formerly the seat of Lord Findlater's family,
as long as there was a Lord Findlater to inherit it,
but now belonging to the family of Grant, Lord
Seafield. It might be exercise enough during winter
to walk every day through all the seven dravnng-
rooms, and to stir the seven fires ! You would be
quite charmed by the magnificent suite of apartments,

CULLEN HOUSE. 229

and by the beautiful entrance-hall, decorated with
rare exotics and marble busts,— the one being the
most evanescent, and the other the most durable
ornaments with which w^e can adorn our abodes.

There are several battalions of pictures here, both
foreign and domestic, many of which are extremely
interesting. In the first room we saw such a con-
gress of kings, that one would require Hume's His-
tory of England to bring them all to mind. The
fine full-length likeness of James the Sixth, by
Mytens, encountered an odd adventure in its day, —
a riotous mob, during the revolutionj t«re it down
from the walls of Holyrood House, and were kick-
ing this royal portrait ignominiously along the street,
when Lord Findlater, then Chancellor of Scotland,
made a spirited attack on the angry multitude, and
successfully rescued his Majesty from so degrading
a situation.

The extinct line of Lords Findlater inherited
great talents, and were all considered supremely
handsome, particularly the Earl who flourished when
the Union was signed. The portrait of him at Cul-
len House fully justifies his reputation, being of a
most noble and commanding aspect, very unlike the
flippancy of character he displayed, when, after
signing the roll which put an end to the indepen-
dence of Scotland, he coolly tossed away his pen,
saying, " There is the end of an old song !"
20

230 CULLEN HOUSE.

Six years afterwards, however, Lord Findlater's
dormant patriotism was awakened by beholding
various acts of injustice to Scotland, in consequence
of which, he tried to get a new edition of the old
song, having made a motion in the House of Lords
to dissolve the Union ; and he divided the votes,
fifty-four against fifty-four, but was ultimately de-
feated by four proxies.

Another Lord Findlater we saw who distinguish-
ed himself as an agriculturalist, and introduced tur-
nips in this neighbourhood, for which he will scarcely
be thanked by the epicures in milk and cream. A
poor criminal was condemned to severe punishment
once, for stealing a turnip, because, as the judge
sternly remarked, " turnips lead to legs of mutton."

One family portrait in this gallery is admirably
painted, and the hand has been thought so perfect
a chef (Tcmvre, that an artist once came from Italy
to study it. The countenance looks more alive
than many living men ! This picture represents
the most accompHshed and highly gifted of all the
Findlater family, who overstrained his great intellect
imtil at length he became deranged, and died in the
most melancholy of all ways. His expression of
countenance looks excited, though indicating ex-
treme talent, and his dress appears remarkably pic-
turesque, but you will not easily suppose it graceful,
when I mention that he is equipped in a loose yel-

CULLEN HOUSE. 231

low dressing-gown and a white nightcap ! By a
curious coincidence I mistook his portrait for one of
Cowper, who serves as another melancholy evidence
how often " great wit to madness nearly is alhed."
The ladies in this family seem all to have been
less good-looking than their lords, arid if a " Book
of Beauty" had been published in those days, would
scarcely have been as well entitled to fill a page.
The last Countess of Findlater was a foreigner, and
became blind during many of her latter years. The
portrait of her predecessor was hung up, as a mark
of extraordinary respect, in the county rooms of Ab-
erdeen,— a public testimony to female excellence
almost unprecedented. When this Lady Findlater
was told that, owing to the embarrassed condition
of her husband's affairs, the estate must be sold, she
firmly replied, " No ! not an acre !" and by extra-
ordinary management she saved the whole of this
beautiful property, besides which, she has signal-
ized her memory by leaving a magnificent evidence
of her taste and liberality. The house formerly
stood in an almost unapproachable position, being
nearly surrounded by a broad and very deep chasm,
the sides of which were equally difficult to ascend
or to descend, and almost impossible for a carriage,
but Lady Findlater erected, at the expense of her
own privy purse, a noble bridge of one splendid
arch, sixty feet high and eighty-two feet wide,

232 CULLEN HOUSE.

Avhich springs across the widely separated precipi-
ces, and forms a beautiful object from the windows,
as well as a most convenient access.

The trees which adorn this glen are particularly
fine, and the river scenery most enchanting, with an
abundant flow of crisp clear water, and the green
sloping banks charmingly wooded and gayly peo-
pled by a musical colony of birds. One great de-
light of the country arises from the intimacy we
form with all the animal species, which soon be-
come our familiar friends j cattle, horses, dogs,
sheep, deer, cows, and every living creature, be-
come a source of interest, whose habits of life, tem-
per, manner, and conduct, it is a perpetual amuse-
ment to study. Even a bee-hive is equal to any
rout in a city, being as crowded, hot, and noisy,
while each individual carries a sting which may or
may not be used as he pleases. I could sit for an
hour giving language to their busy hum, or, hke
Gil Bias, making dialogues for the birds.

Over all the windows of this venerable pile may
be seen eyebrows of handsomely sculptured stone,
with initials, dates, coats of arms, and grotesque
heads, in addition to which, several moral and re-
ligious sentences are inscribed in very antique char-
acters. Two of these which I deciphered contain
very sound divinity, and convey a pleasing testimony
to the spirit of piety in which this ancient house was

CULLEN HOUSE. 233

originally founded, and for v/hich, in the existing
generation, it is still pre-eminent, — "Faith is the
ground of our hope," we find engraved beside one
window, and near that which adjoins it, " Hope is
the anchor of faith."

Our drive towards Banff led through a rich
granary, where, not many years ago, the whole
country was a wide wilderness of bog. Here the
poor can scarcely be called poor at all, they are so
liberally attended to by Lord Fife, the chief proprie-
tor in this neighbourhood, who is said to employ
above three hundred persons on the grounds of Duff
House alone, giving work to those who will work,
and money to those v/ho prefer being idle. The
daily distribution which takes place here of gold and
silver coin would astonish even Dr. Alison, and out-
run his utmost wishes, but the system produces many
practical illustrations of that old German proverb,
" a shining earned is worth tv/o shillings begged."
It is a pleasure, at the same time, to know that all
who will obey the fourth commandment, which as
imperatively orders people to labour during six
days of the week, as to rest on the seventh, may
there find employment ; and I was much amused to
hear, that when children are at work on the gravel
Avalks, a shilling is frequently concealed under the
stones, that the first who rakes it up may receive
this welcome j-eward for diligence and activity.
20*

234 BANFF.

"WTiat a curious contrast might be drawn be-
tween the munificence of Lord Fife, who is said to
distribute a larger income on gratuitous charity than
any nobleman in Scotland, and the parsimony of his
predecessor. Lord Braco, who picked up a farthing
on his own approach once, and being earnestly im-
portuned for it by a beggar, hurried the treasure into
his pocket, saying, " Fin' a farthing to yoursell, puir
body!" This old nobleman was so celebrated a
miser, that I felt much inclined to sound the pannels
and floors at Duff House, in search of hidden trea-
sure.

Several very primitive customs are still observed
in this part of the countr)\ When farmers come
to market, they pay nothing at the inn for being
lodged or entertained, but some time afterwards,
" mine host" performs a tour of visits among all
those who favoured him with their company, and
then he graciously accepts presents, according to
the wealth or the gratitude of his ci-devant guests,
who load him with hay, cheese, butter, eggs, or
poultry, till, like the lady in Roman history, he is
almost buried beneath the weight of gifts and offer-
ings heaped upon him. A very convenient custom
is also observed by poor people, when about to
marry upon nothing, who have what is appropriately
called "a penny wedding." The happy couple
call on each of their neio^hbours to announce the

BANFF. 235

propitious event, and to inquire at the same time
what the friends are willing to subscribe towards
increasing and prolonging the comfort of their
wedded life. At these marriages two hundred peo-
ple sometimes assemble, w^hile no guests are ex-
pected to appear without an offering in some shape
or other, a loaf, a cheese, a bottle of whiskey, or
even, in cases of extreme poverty, half-a-dozen
eggs. The entertainment which ensues is kept up
occasionally for several days, and instead of bottle-
sliders, on which to pass the bottles, they are fre-
quently placed on blue bonnets.

Every mortal is weary of listening to accounts
of the melancholy festivities which take place at
Highland funerals, but I could not help being
amused to hear, that when three Strathspey lairds
set out to attend the burial of the late Rothiemur-
chus, one of them gravely remarked, " How drunk
we shall all be this time to-morrow !"

At a great chieftain's house where guests used
formerly to be over the mast-head in claret and
champagne, but where modern sobriety and decorum
have been introduced by the present proprietor, an
old Highland laird was heard indignantly muttering
to himself as he left the table, " Oich ! if this isn't
the first time she ever dined at Castle Grant, and
was able to go up the stairs by hersell."

I was shocked to hear that an old clergyman,

236 BANFF.

well known for his convivial propensities, who died
last year, wishing his funeral to become peculiarly
jovial, bequeathed a large stock of claret for his
friends to finish on the occasion, and his old boon
companions standing in a circle round the grave,
filled their glasses to his memory, and afterwards
poured a share of the contents on the earth beneath
which he was interred.

The neat and cheerful town of Banff is proverb-
ially alluded to by the iScotch as Coventry is in
England. If one of the common people be angry
at another, he exclaims in a tone of bitterness, " Go
to Banff!" I felt perfectly well satisfied, however,
to visit this very respectable town, though often ex-
tremely indignant formerly, at being told by our old
nursery-maid to go there. The streets were clean
and airy, though not particularly remarkable in any
way, but probably the inhabitants contrive to be
very happy here, and if not, we cannot help them.

The object of chief interest in this neighbour-
hood is Duff House. The park seems many miles
in circumference, beyond which, we admired in
every direction the fine fields brought into cultiva-
tion, and the flourishing hedges planted by Lord
Fife, who has resided here uninterruptedly for some
years past in strict seclusion, occupied in benefiting
the place and people around. The style of archi-
tecture here, is, like most of Adams's plans, quite

DUFF HOUSE. 237

French, a tall, square, handsome edifice, of massy
proportions, ornamented with Corinthian pilasters,
and externally scattered over with stone vases and
statues, but the house is greatly in want of wrings to
give it lightness. Within we found it perfectly
Louvrized with pictures, all remarkably interesting,
and many first rate works of art, at which criticism
may vainly level her eye-glass.

You never saw walls so crowded as these with
heroes, statesmen, authors, and beauties of former
days, every body, in short, who ever lived, and a
great many more. We might have called over a
muster-roll of all the celebrated names in Scotland,
or elsewhere, and the answer would be, " Here l"
It appeared like living a century in an hour, when
we paraded through ten or twelve large rooms^
glancing along the line of celebrated personages,
w^hose names had once resounded throughout the
world. How many stories and remembrances rushed
into our thoughts as we contemplated the features
with which they had passed through life, and tried
to trace an expression suited to their well-known
characters and adventures. It was a singular pano-
rama ! The great, the good, the wicked, and the
profligate, all side by side in a strange equality, that
seemed like that of the grave itself! Among other
odd combinations, we observed one uncongenial
quartette, consisting of Dr. Dodd, Dean Swift,

238 DUFF HOUSE.

George Buchanan, and lastly, John Knox, of whom
the Regent Morton said in his funeral panegyric,
" There lies he who never feared the face of man."
He was, indeed, one who, to use the language of
Shakspeare, " took the buffets and rewards of for-
tune with equal thanks," being singly and solely
devoted to the cause he had embraced ; but in the
collision of opposite opinions, how carefully should
the very best of Christians guard against excess !
Our venerable Scottish reformer was far from de-
siring that wide devastation among our churches for
w^hich his own words seemed to give a license,
when he said, " Pull down the nests, and the rooks
will fly," and for uttering which, Dr. Johnson said,
he should have been buried in the highway ; but
those who once rouse the multitude to violence,
might as w^ell throw down the bars of a menagerie,
and expect still to master the powerful and danger-
ous inhabitants. In the one case as much as in the
other, the weak govern the strong by intellectual
superiority, but the moment mere animal force
comes into play, this aspect of affairs is entirely
reversed.

The old housekeeper here, a well-known per-
sonage, who has been sixty years in office, having
learned by rote, a Hst of the pictures and artists,
makes most amusing havoc of the foreign names,
" Sir Francis Kennawlis for Knollys, and Sir God-

DUFF HOUSE. 239

frey Kenna\Yler," but she was peculiarly perplexed
by the approximation of names between a fat laugh-
ing Moliere, and a dark Spanish-looking Murillo.
The good woman would have a poor chance of tol-
eration from the gentleman who broke off his mar-
riage with a young lady, because she betrayed such
ignorance as not to know the difference between
Mrs. Montagu and Lady Mary Wortley Montague !

One of the best pictures here, a miniature in oil,
of a philosopher contemplating a skull, was painted
by the celebrated blacksmith, Van Eyck — not Han-
del's harmonious blacksmith, but one of still greater
notoriety.

We admired, in one room, a conclave of bloom-
ing beauties, all associated together without very
special reference to rank or character, but each ap-
parently balloted for on the score of pre-eminent
loveliness. No eastern harem described by Lady
Mary Wortley Montague could produce a group of
Sultanas at all to be compared with Lucy Waters,
Lady Carlisle, Jane Shore, Lady Castlemain, the
Countess of Coventry, Queen Mary, the Duchess of
Portsmouth, or Nell Gwyn — a pretty set in every
sense ! What some people would call mixed soci-
ety— or rather unmixed, where none were quite
respectable.

Ah ! Shore could tell what ills from beauty spring,
And Sedley curs'd the charms which pleased a king.

240 LUFF HOUSE.

Several of these ladies wore hoops, expanduig
their dresses till they looked like a tent, covering
half an acre of carpet, but though costumes invented
by the caprice of fashion become, in a few years,
ludicrous even in the eyes of those who wore them,
such lovely features, moulded into beauty by nature's
own magical touch, are admired alike in every suc-
ceeding age, and in every varied rank.

One of the most curious portraits here, is a full-
length in black, representing the Duchess of Rich-
mond, by Vandyke. Her Grace looks as if she had
lived on nothing more solid all her life than po-
etry and sentiment, reading an elegy for breakfast,
and a sonnet for dinner. The matrimonial part of
her histoiy is much more extraordinary than fiction I
She married first a wealthy man of low origin, who
very complaisantly died soon, leaving her a rich
widow. Having been next engaged to Sir George
Rodney, he w^as treacherously jilted for the Earl of
Hertford, on which occasion her disappointed lover
penned a farewell letter in his own blood, and killed
himself. Her second husband, the Earl, having in
due time expired, she mounted another step in the
ladder of preferment by marrying the Duke of Rich-
mond, and being once more set at liberty, her am-
bition aspired to a crown, and she set her widow's
cap at old King James the I., who actually proved
invulnerable, and thus cruelly stopped the career of

DUFF HOUSE. 241

her promotion, when she had probably often sohlo-
quized, like Lady Macbeth, " Glamis and Cawdor I
the greatest is behind !"

We admired much a lovely picture of the young-
Chevalier St. George when a boy, dressed in crim-
son and gold. The Chevalier D'Eon appeared also,
in full uniform, his face like the knocker on a door;
and not far off Colonel Gardiner, the hero of Pres-
tonpans, a fine military-looking figure in full capar-
ison for battle, wearing a pair of jack boots so
enormous that you wonder how^ he ever got into
them, or is ever to get out. There never died on
the field of battle a braver soldier or a better Chris-
tian, and most heroically did he realize his word,
that " having one life to sacrifice for the good of his
country, he would not spare it !" His own regi-
ment fled, but he cheered on another which had
been deprived of its colonel, and was twice severely
wounded before receiving the mortal blow of which
he died. Then having finished his earthly duties,
we may believe and hope, that his emancipated
spirit experienced the truth of that faith in which
he had a short time previously said, " Let me die
when it shall please God ! I am sure I shall go to
the mansions of eternal glory, and enjoy my God
and my Redeemer in heaven for ever."

A portrait is here of George the Second, who
seems intending to be dignified, but looks as if he
21

242 DUFF HOUSE.

were beginning a minuet ; and the first Earl and
Countess of Fife are represented in robes as if
walking at a coronation. The Admirable Crichton
makes a noble appearance in the crowd — that hero
possessing almost fabulous gifts and accomphsh-
ments, who was treacherously assassinated at the
age of twenty -two, by his pupil, the Duke of Medi-
na's profligate son. There is a wonderful intensity
of expression, like life itself, in all the portraits of
this remarkable being, and his conversation was so
brilhant and captivating that people held in their
breath when he spoke.

The Constable of Bourbon's is an interesting
portrait ; and Lord Chesterfield is here, looking
polite even on canvass.

If I might assume the appearance of any one I
chose, you would see me return v^th the countenance
of Mrs. Abingdon, who is represented archly glancing
out from behind a curtain, with so animated an
expression, and such a glow of youth and loveliness,
that it would enliven any one to look at her. Even
the great moralist Dr. Johnson found this lady irre-
sistibly fascinating, and when rallied by a daring
friend for having gone to the theatre once when she
acted, he replied, " When the pubhc cares the
thousandth part for you that it does for her, I will
go to your benefit too !" Madame de Montespan's
portrait might be an imaginary houri in paradise, it

DUFF HOUSE. 243

is of such unearthly beauty, but without a spark of
intellect, and not at all likely to have captivated
Lavater.

Two peeresses might dispute the palm here of
personal pre-eminence. The notorious Duchess of
Cleveland, full length, in blue velvet, and the late
Duchess of Gordon, wearing her robes of state, and
looking like majesty personified. I could WTite on
for ever about this gallery, which might comprise a
history of all mankind, and womankind also, but
you will begin to complain that my letter is all vel-
vet gowns and damask curtains.

" Lastly, and to conclude," as clergymen say in
their sermons, we observed a portrait in Raeburn's
best style, of Lord Fife himself, wearing his undress
military uniform, when he commanded the Inver-
ness-shire militia, and so like that any old soldier
in passing must have saluted. But an extin-
guisher has fallen over my paper, and it is time to
cut myself short, though that is scarcely possible
now, after covering nearly a yard and a half of let-
ter paper. You have seen the sympathetic ink
w^hich becomes visible only when held to the fire,
but I wish mine may disappear as soon as you begin
to think me " dull, stale, flat, or unprofitable." As
people say that a letter should be a sort of family
newspaper, you may now consider my name as re-
corded among the fashionable departures from Banff.

FYVIE

Now planning much, now changing what we plann'd,
Pleased by each trial, not by failures vexed,
And ever certain to succeed the next ;

Gluick to resolve, and easy to persuade .

Crabbe.

My dear Cousin, — ^If you ever wish to study
" the greatest happiness principle," make a tour in
the Highlands, and be not over particular about ac-
commodation, for the instant travellers become too
anxious about comfort, all comfort is at an end, and
I care little for the vicissitudes of carpets or no car-
pets, arm-chairs or thi^ee-legged stools, as long as
every thing is clean, and we get no practical illus-
trations in our sleeping apartments of entomology,
— or damp-ologj, the greatest bugbear of all on a
journey.

Without meaning a disrespectful thought of any
other county, I must say there are none superior to
Aberdeenshire for interest and grandeur, both natural
and architectural. Fyvie Castle, built in the time
of Robert Bruce, being considered one of the most
extensive, picturesque, and ancient edifices in Scot-
land, A resolved, coute qui coute, to take a

glimpse of it, little anticipating what the cost would

FYvre. 245

be, for it turned out an adventure of first rate annoy-
ance and difficulty, but " all is well that ends well."
A stage-coach passes daily within half a mile of
the little village of Fp^ie, about dinner-time, so we
resolved to be dropped there one morning, and to
be picked up the next, thus allowing time to scruti-
nize the Castle before proceeding to Aberdeen.

After making a good start from Banff, there
came on such a down-pour of rain, that it was quite
a natural curiosity for heaviness, and continued to
fall with unremitting diligence till night. In short,
it was what Matthews described as " a dreepin' wat
day," and when we paused at the turnpike to alight,
I could not but hesitate about being drowned alto-
gether in attempting to gain a glimpse at Fyvie
Castle. The road seemed one unfathomable depth
of mud, and we had half a mile to wade before
reaching the inn ! No rational being would have
attempted it, but I had seen a most eccentric look-
ing porter's lodge, which excited my unbounded
curiosity, as a sample of what might be seen, and
several persons strongly recommended us not to be
easily discouraged, and made light of the distance —
made still lighter of the rain, and when I inquired
what sort of inn we were likely to find at Fyvie, a
factor who lived near, protested it was " clean and
tidy, though not veiy large." All this sounded exr
ceedingly plausible, till I discovered, on alighting,
21*

246 FYVIE.

that this personage, who had been shivering outside,
wished to fill up our vacant seats within, and hurried
off, wishing us " a pleasant evening !"

After a most fatiguing promenade beneath a
perfect cascade of rain, we reached the village,
and looked about in vain for any sign, or signs to
indicate the Royal Hotel of Fyvie. No " Red Lion,"
or "Blue Goat," or "Aberdeen Arms" could be
seen, but I was at last directed to a small cottage,
looking hke the wing of an adjoining grocer's shop.
Here we found the landlady drinking tea, and sur-
rounded by a numerous family of untidy children,
and the whole party seemed to be struck speechless
with consternation at the unwonted apparition of
travellers. Chaucer tells us, the Queen of the
Fairies once positively promised, that no woman
should ever, on any occasion, be at a loss for an
answer, but her majesty was faithless on this occa-
sion, as none seemed to suggest itself now, when
we requested the worthy hostess to provide us with
rooms, and, indeed, the case at first wore a most un-
promising aspect. The only suite of apartments in
her house consisted of one sitting-room, containing
a sort of contrivance which called itself a bed, and
across the passage was a closet, about six feet
square, with a borrowed light, and containing a
small sofa-bed, into which a traveller, whatever his
dimensions might be, must contrive, like a soldier

FYVIE. 247

forcing on regimental shoes, to fit himself, whether
they fit or not.

Even these apartments it would have been too
much happiness to find disengaged, but a stranger
had arrived some hours before, and secured the par-
lour-of-all-work, where he was now drinking tea !
What an idea of unspeakable luxury and comfort it
gave me at this moment to hear of any one in the
full enjoyment of a fire and a cup of hot tea ! I
never knew their value before !

You are acquainted with a gentleman w^ho
locked his door, and pretended to be asleep one
night at an inn, when he saw a party of ladies
arrive, who could not, he was aware, be accommo-
dated, and for whom he had determined not to dis-
compose himself, but Mr. Menzies, the fortunate
occupant of the first and only floor at Fyvie, was
quite of a different school, and having accidentally
heard of our arrival, he, with the most chivalrous
politeness, insisted on relinquishing the whole house,
and hurried off in the rain, saying he could depend
upon being welcome at the clergyman's hospitable
manse, where he intended now to remain.

We had scarcely time to express our thanks
before he vanished, leaving not a trace behind, and
w^e proceeded without loss of time, to examine into
the capabilities of the larder at Fyvie, where the
bill of fare for dinner being a total blank, we found

248 FYVIE.

it would be imprudent to quarrel with our Lread and
butter, and sat down with the best of all appetites
to tea. You know of one gentleman who lets an
inn near his moors, on condition that the landlord
shall make it too uncomfortable for any traveller cr
sportsman to think of remaining there ; and I can
bear testimony in favour of the worthy host there,
that for breakfast we had tea without cream, salt
butter, oatcakes, and porridge, but if there be ever
a vacancy in the management of that concern, I
could recommend a very efficient successor not a
hundred miles from Fyvie.

We were in the act of laughing over all our
discomforts, when the door opened, and our good
genius Mr. Menzies appeared, accompanied by the
parish clergyman, who, the moment he heard of our
predicament, had " cloaked, umbrella'd," and hur-
ried over to us with so cordial an invitation to his
fireside, that before half an hour elapsed, we were
comfortably domesticated with our reverend friend
and his sister, in their pretty little sitting-room,
leaving to Mr. Menzies the luxurious accommoda-
tion of the inn.

This evening passed away most enchantingly,
though my happiness was rather impaired by one
very teasing perplexity. No imaginable device
could enable me to discover the name of our very
hospitable host ! I clandestinely examined the

FYVIE. 249

title-pages of two Bibles on the table, thinking his
designation must be inscribed there, but the only
information conveyed I knew already, as the inscrip«
tion was, " Manse of Fyvie !" The silver forks and
spoons at supper were equally imcommunicative ; I
could not see the cover of an old letter in any quar-
ter to assist me I In short, my ingenuity was
balked on every side, till next morning, when it ac-
cidentally occurred to me, that I had not yet exam-
ined the corner of a towel, on which, to my great
relief, I discovered the name of our friend and ben-
efactor, Mr. Manson, which we shall certainly not
forget, connected as it is with the recollection of
such a deliverance, followed by so agreeable an
evening.

Dr. Patterson, author of " The Manse Gai^den,"
might see his book reduced to practice here, where
the flower-beds are in brilliant order, and the vege-
tables fit to gain the prize at any competition. The
perfection of order around this " glebe," is said to
be quite in harmony with the good order of a whole
parish under similar superintendence, for in every
thing belonging to any individual, we generally
trace the same spirit of activity or of indolence,
and I have often observed, that as a straw tells how
the wind blows, even the aspect of a gentleman's
lodge may be considered a tolerably fair criterion
of how the whole estate is managed. The concerns

250 FYVIE.

of others are not likely to meet with the best atten-
tion from any one who is lazy about his own, or
who must use, on mere temporal affairs, the melan-
choly language of Scripture, " Mine own vineyard
have I not kept !" but in this small district we found
three schools in admirable order, which were in-
spected by Mr. Menzies, the trustee appointed to
examine the three counties in which Mr. Dick's
legacy to schoolmasters must be distributed, and
w^ho reported them all to be extremely efficient.

I crossed the village churchyard, through a wil-
derness of wet grass, and sheltered by an umbrella,
to visit the grave-stone, adorned with hour-glasses
and skulls, of Annie Smith, a miller's daughter,
who was heroine of that much esteemed old ballad,
" Tifty's Annie." This young lady, having been
admired by the Laird of Fy\de, who offered to marry
her, she unfortunately preferred the trumpeter of the
Castle, and perseveringly discouraged his master's
suit. Her brother, after vainly endeavouring to ex-
tinguish her disinterested preference of this long-
W'inded lover, at last became so furiously irritated,
that, in a paroxysm of rage, ke struck her violently.
The fair Annie, being of very sensitive feelings,
never recovered the shock, but pined away and
died. During her last moments, she entreated to be
turned towards the tower of Fyvie Castle, where
her favoured lover was usually to be seen blowing

FYVIE. 251

his trumpet; and after his decease, the generous
Laird of Fyvie himself erected a leaden image of
his more successful rival, which is now conspicu-
ously to be seen blowing his trumpet towards the
mill of Tifty, and thus commemorating that melan-
choly tragedy. The old ballad is extremely inter-
esting, and several of the verses show off the aris-
tocratic lover to immense advantage.

" Her father struck her wondrous sore,
As also did her mother ;
Her sisters always did her scorn ;
' Bat woe be to her brother.

Lord Fyvie he did wring his hands,
Said, ' Alas ! for Tiflie's Annie,'
The fairest flower's cut down by love,
That e'er sprung up in Fyvie.

0 woe betide Mill o' Tiftie's pride,
He might hive let them marry ;

1 should have giv'n them both to live
Into the lands of Fyvie.

Ye parents grave, who children have,
In crushing them be canny,
Lest when top late you do repent, —
Remember Tiflie's Annie,"

In the same churchyard we saw a beautifully
sculptured monument to the Honourable General
Gordon, representing a phoenix rising out of the
flames, w^hich might have been considered a fine

252 FYVIE CASTLE.

Christian emblem, but I was disappointed to observe
only an inscription from Ovid in Latin. Our sym-
pathy with the dead is only perpetuated w^hen we
find a record of that Christian faith and hope, which
must ultimately bring all who really felt it, into one
happy and everlasting home, but a heathen poem,
beautiful as it may be, speaks of nothing beyond the
grave, and is, therefore, unsuitable on a tomb-stone,
that solemn memento, closing over all the earthly
concerns of a mortal being, and intimating, whether
in the language of Scripture or not, that his spirit
has been summoned into the awful presence of our
eternal Creator.

Next morning we laid siege to Fyvie Castle,
w^hich looks like the Methuselah of old houses, and
ought to be placed in the Antiquarian Museum.
The gate is a perfect cluster of steeples, and the
same pointed towers adorn the edifice itself, each
surmounted on its lofty pinnacle by fantastic leaden
figures, placed in every variety of attitude. They
give it somewhat the look of a magician's enchanted
dwelling, where the prisoners have been turned into
stone, and I suppose any daring knight who can
blow a blast on the trumpet of Tifty's Annie's lover,
will see the whole crumble into powder.

Large as this magnificent old castle is, a perfect
romance in stone and mortar, the more ancient half
was taken down some years ago, having become

FYVIE CASTLE. 253

ruinous, and threatening a downfall. The entrance,
through a wall nine feet thick, is defended by an
outside door, studded with massy knobs of iron, and
within that powerful defence stands a cross-barred
gate of singular construction, so complicated in
workmanship, that the neighbouring blacksmith con-
fessed he could not divine how it was manufactured.
We hazarded about six guesses, which were all proved
to be wrong ; and as no one living is in the secret,
I " gave it up I" In the lower part of the south-
western tower, there is said to be an arched room,
which, having neither door nor window, is totally
inaccessible; but under such circumstances there
can only be a conjectural knowledge of its exist-
tence at all.

What was formerly the prison at Fy vie Castle is
now metamorphosed into the wine cellar, where
people must be locked out, instead of being locked
in. W^e were not, of course, made free of the cellar,
but I became greatly interested in seeing the fire-
proof charter-room, quite an appalling dungeon, en-
tirely lined with iron. A second closet within was
exhibited, the iron door of which requires the strength
of two persons to open ; and when the housekeeper
desired me to walk in, I thought, with a shudder, of
" The iron shroud," and of " The mistletoe bough."
If ever I am afflicted with a nightmare, I shall cer-
tainly fancy myself shut by a spring-lock in that old
22

254 FYVIE CASTLE.

dungeon at Fyvie Castle ! Our cicerone observed,
with some humour, in allusion to a certain very re-
cent robbery, " This is a safer place than the bank
at Aberdeen !"

In all my experience of housekeepers, which has
not been small, I never met with one so shrewd and
intelligent as the lady in waiting here. The Aber-
deenshire people are noted in Scotland for being
alarmingly clever, very much as the Yorkshiremen
are in England, therefore, I supposed at first, that
our mistress of the ceremonies might be considered,
perhaps at the ordinary average of Aberdeen talent ;
but we were afterwards told, that her case is pecu-
liar, even in that neighbourhood. If ever we hur-
ried past any thing worthy of notice, she eagerly
summoned us back, repeatedly begged me to be
more at leisure, and when I admired a quantity of
beautiful coloured silk embroidery, adorned with
flowers, which actually beat nature out and out,
done by the Countess of Aberdeen, remarking, at the
same time, that ladies were scarcely so industrious
in the present day, she complaisantly replied, that
" ladies now have many better occupations."

When our visit drew towards a close, the good
woman insisted beyond measure, that we should ac-
cept a glass of wine ! A flight of fancy quite be-
yond the imagination of any ordinary housekeeper ;
and though we positively declined the offer, yet I

FYVIE CASTLE. 255

very gladly availed myself of a pressing invitation to
inspect her own room. Here the walls were hung
round with a perfect General Assembly of clergy-
men, as large as life, dressed in their full canonicals,
and positively you have often paid your shiUing for
seeing a worse exhibition. It was pleasing to be-
hold so numerous a collection of Scottish worthies,
though in general I admire the principle expressed
by a Swiss clergyman, who declined sitting for his
portrait, even at the earnest request of an attached
congregation, on the ground of that text, " We
preach not ourselves, but Jesus Christ the Lord."
Owing to the affectionate partiality of many parish-
ioners, we see in almost every exhibition of pictures
a large proportion of clergymen, — then follows the
advertisement of a print, price £1, Is. — and some
years afterwards appears a posthumous memoir and
frontispiece, edited by the son or nephew, who feels
called upon to publish a " private diary," professedly
intended for no eye but those of the writer and his
own children. It is" a great pity that persons who
write such very confidential documents never seem
to hit on the only sure plan of keeping them private,
which can be very easily accomplished by the ap-
plication of a taper, or by a short cut into the fire-
place. Nothing should be more avoided, by those
who profess Christian integrity, than to record
thoughts and actions, under pretext that they shall

256 FYVIE CASTLE.

remain unseen and unknown, when all the time a
consciousness is felt, that the whole world shall
hereafter be invited to peep over the author's shoul-
der, and read what has been said. The first attempt
wc find in the line of public privacy, was made by
Horace Walpole, in his entertaining letters, and
since his time, those who stood the very highest for
talent, and even for piety, have not disdained to wear
the same flimsy veil, avoiding the responsibility of
their own act, by throwing the blame upon survivors,
and, as Dr. Johnson said, leaving a loaded gun be-
hind them, which they have the inclination but not
the courage to fire.

The broad fine staircase at Fyvie Castle is con-
sidered quite unique, and might be a study for any
architect. It is ornamented with armorial bearings,
and built in a succession of lofty arches, all placed
at right angles, each flight of steps forming an arch
over the flight beneath, so that we seemed to be
ascending a pyramid of tunnels, caves, or bridges,
all carved in nearly solid stone. The effect is most
sin2:ular.

It has been unhandsomely alleged, that tartan
was first invented by the poor of Scotland, who
could find nothing but rags of various colours to
clothe themselves in ; and it has also been conjec-
tured, that a clan-tartan is like a coat of arms, dif-
ferent colours being peculiar to different families, so

FYVIE CASTLE. 257

that those who were allied to the Stuarts adopted
a stripe of red, and when they intermarried with
the Bruces, a stripe of black w^as added ; but all
these assertions seem fabulous. Tartan is not sup-
posed to be a very ancient manufacture, as none is
to be seen on the oldest pictures. The Gordon
plaid is one of the handsomest, and makes admira-
ble furniture in some of the rooms here, enlivened
by the family badge of a thistle on every chair. I
like heraldic furniture, wdth as many coronets, crests,
andquarterings as can be reasonably introduced, and
quite admired the King of Wirtemberg for mount-
ing regal crowns on his birds' cages.

Every genuine Highland clan w^ears some pe-
culiar plant as a badge of distinction; and you
should always see the Macdonalds,on state occasions,
mount a sprig of heather, the Macgregors carrying
the pine, the Grahams and Gordons with a thistle,
the Sinclairs living upon clover, and the Buchan-
ans still armed with a birch rod, which they adopt-
ed, I suppose, in commemoration of King James'
tutor.

Fyvie Castle changed proprietors frequently in
former days. Originally the property of Sir Henry
Preston, one of the many lowlanders whom Robert
Bruce transplanted to this neighbourhood, it after-
wards escaped to the Meldrum family, and then
settled for some time in possession of the Chancel-
22*

£58 FYVIE CASTLE.

lor, Earl of Dunfermline, whose arms are sculptured
on the Castle in every direction, inside and out, with
full length inscriptions to commemorate his reign.
This estate was finally purchased by the present
proprietor's grandfather, Lord Aberdeen, when he
married for his second wife the Duke of Gordon's
(laughter, and the property was given to her eldest
son, General Gordon, w^hose portrait w^e greatly
admired, being one of the best visible in this house,
or perhaps in any other. The frame is hung round
'vvith the standards of his regiment festooned in loose
draperies, which add greatly to the effect of his
liandsome uniform, and fine military aspect. He is
equipped in full Highland garb, his plaid streaming
in the wind, his cap raised in his hand, and his
broad-sword extended in the air. Nothing can be
more spirited and striking ! This fine picture seems
meant to illustrate the family motto, " Follow For-
tune." The General has evidently kicked down
the Coliseum in passing, for it lies in ruins behind
liim, and he is rapidly ascending over broken pillars,
cornices, and columns, to where Fortune sits aloft,
ready to crown him with her choicest gifts, among
which we must acknowledge, that Fyvie Castle was
not the least I

You w^ould be in ecstasies w^ith the park, varied
by a river, a lake, a forest of noble trees, and flocks
of sheep, which seem to understand the picturesque,

ABERDEEN. 259

they scatter themselves so judiciously over the slo-
ping banks, and in short, the only fault that can be
invented for this never-to-be-enough-admired place
is, its being so outrageously difficult to reach.

During our journey from F}-A'ie to Aberdeen, we
saw several stony fields, most of which have now
been improved into fertility, at a vast expenditure
of labour, while others being perfectly paved across,
no labour could improve. You might fancy in some
parts of this country, that it rained stones instead of
w^ater ! and towards the west, where rocks abound
most, the superfluous stones are swallowed up in
what is called an " Aberdeenshire dyke," built about
six feet high, and twenty or thirty feet broad, fit for
a wagon to be driven on, and looking as if mate-
rials had been collected for erecting a village.
The operation of extracting these rocks from the
ground, is like drawing teeth out of their sockets,
but after inflicting so painful a process, the agricul-
turist must have more than common pleasure, in
seeing the best entertainment for man and horse,
turnips, wheat, oats, and barley, all flourishing
around him.

In Aberdeenshire, the enthusiasm lasted longer
than in any other country for Charles Edward's
family. The gardener at Lord Saltoun's proved so
stanch to the cause, that when some officers on the
Protestant §ide were visiting his master, a bet was

260 ABERDEEN.

laid that nothing could induce him to drink King
George's health. Accordingly he was sent for, and
the senior captain making him a handsome present,
said he had heard much of his high character, and
proposed that they should unite in pledging a bum-
per to King George's health. The sturdy Jacobite
raised his glass and drank it off, saying emphatically,
'• Here's to our rio-htfu' and lawfu' Kino^ !" The
Captain started up in a rage, saying, " Why, you
rascal ! that's not King George !" To which the
other slyly replied, with a nod, " I'm vera muckle
o' your way o' thinking. Sir !"

Dr. Johnson remarks, " it seems like frivolous
ostentation to write a solemn geographical descrip-
tion of any city in our own island, as if we had
been cast on some newly discovered coast." Here
we are now at Aberdeen, the Oxford of Scotland,
where, during many centuries past, whenever stran-
gers pre-eminent for rank or learning arrived, the
magistrates called in procession, and presented them
with a bumper of wine in the ancient and illustrious
" Cup of Bon Accord," but either the custom is
now discontinued, or they have not yet heard of our
arrival ! ! This town is equally celebrated for its
haddocks and its professors, both being incompara-
bly excellent in their line, and having long enjoyed
great and deserved popularity. Diplomas are not
given so promiscuously here as forrn^erly ; but I

ABERDEEN. 26 1

once knew three English schoolmasters who had
been created doctors at Aberdeen ; and Dr. Johnson
said of one Scotch university, that it had got rich
" by Degrees." My late father, who, besides re-
ceiving diplomas from twenty-five foreign societies,
was member of almost every literary and scientific
institution at home, once received a humorous letter
from his old cotemporary, Sir Adam Fergusson,
directed to him as usual, and then followed
" A.M.— F.R.S.— TUVWXYZ."

In the college here may be seen the most ter-
rifying portraits of our 106 Scottish monarchs, from
a period cotemporary with the time of Abraham, to
the present day, the whole succession being painted,
I believe, by one artist, who should have been hung
instead of his pictures.

Mackray's hotel would be a perfect paragon of
comfort, Vvxre it not for a set of noisy travellers re-
cently arrived, who never tire of ringing the bells,
so we have a merry peal from morning till night,
and all night besides. Those who are least accus-
tomed to have servants at command, become most
arbitrary at an inn, and like to agitate the waiters,
who are flying about the house like lamplighters to-
night, and have burst into our quiet room several
times by mistake in the hurrj' of hearing so many
conflicting bells. You have not probably forgotten
the old housekeeper who used to tell us formerly,

262 ABERDEEN.

that she had saved money all her life in order to be
a lady for one week, and the chief part of her pro-
jected dignity seemed to consist in arriving at a
hotel, dressed in a silk gown, and in ringing for
the waiters as often as she pleased ! I have never
since observed people particularly severe on the
bell-ropes, without thinking that they must have as
short an allowance of consequence and authority.

Being informed on Sunday, that Bishop Skinner
intended to preach at the Episcopal Chapel, I went
to hear him, but was shocked on entering, to be-
hold, near the door, a fine full-length monumental
statue in white marble, by Flaxman, bearing the
solemn inscription, " Sacred to the Memory of
Bishop Skinner!" I stood petrified with astonish-
ment at this very sudden catastrophe ! How could
it have escaped the waiters, who had all combined
in assuring me he was to preach ! Not many min-
utes afterwards, however, a clergyman, exactly re-
sembling the marble image, stood face to face before
it, gravely taking his station in the reading-desk,
and commenced divine service, but it was not till
the whole had been concluded that the mystery was
cleared up. I then ascertained, that the episcopal
dignity has continued hereditary in the same family
for two generations, and that the venerable father
of the present Bishop is commemorated by this mon-
ument. The surprise was as great to me, but not

ABERDEEN. 263

quite so unpleasant, as that of a gentleman who
lately observed a beautiful macaw sitting so im-
moveably on a pole, that, never doubting the bird
was stuffed, he walked close up, to examine the
p4umage, and only discovered his mistake, when it
seized him by the nose.

Aberdeen has alw^ays testified peculiar partiality
for the Episcopalian church, and the inhabitants
have recently erected a very handsome chapel,
which cost je6000, with a painted glass window,
copied from Carlo Dolci's picture of our Saviour
blessing the sacred symbols. In the Rev. Edward
Ramsay's very interesting sermon on behalf of the
Scottish Episcopal Church Society, w^e find a pic-
ture drawn of clerical poverty and privation, not to
be imagined or believed without such testimony as
he brings. One clergyman in the north derives at
present, from two congregations, an income of only
jESO, another receives only .£20 per annum, a third
announces his professional income to be jG2, another
had a living, if it could be called a living, of ^612,
and the last I shall mention was starving on £6 ! !
Some of these worthy divines have congregations
sufficiently w^ealthy, but I have generally observed,
that the two professions to which we owe the deep-
est obligations are those that people feel most un-
W' illing to remunerate, the doctor and the clergyman.

In one church at Aberdeen, we heard the most

264 ABERDEEN.

distorted attempt at English ever promulgated from
a pulpit. It was very little easier to understand
than if the preacher had been speaking on the plan
recommended by an Irishman to a Highlander who
addressed him in Gaelic, " Can't you turn you
tongue the other way, and spake English!" No'
a single vowel got fair play on this occasion, for
Scotchmen who wish to be peculiarly correct, gen-
erally omit them entirely; and the preposition
which puzzle our northern grammarians more thau
can be conceived, w^ere all on duty in the wrong-
place. If public speakers would only deal in plain,
honest, broad Scotch, as the late Lord Melville used
to do, it becomes perfectly comprehensible even to
a cockney, but the distorted dialects people invent
for themselves to conceal a provincial accent, be-
come, to most listeners, quite an unknown tongue.

Several streets in the venerable town of Aber-
deen are exceedingly handsome, but being built of
granite so very hard, that iron instruments are fre-
quently broken in attempting to work it, the build-
ings are almost entirely without ornament, in what
architects would probably term " a severe style."
No trimmings are to be seen around the w^indows,
w^hich look as if they were merely patched on the
surface of a bare w-all, — no decorations or porticos
over the doors, but high, naked-looking piles of
stone arise on every side, of a cold bluish white.

DUNOTTAR CASTLE. 265

which it chills one to look at. How different from
the rich warm tint, like oiseau de paradis, on the
free-stone of Elgin ; yet certainly Union Street is
undeniably magnificent, and the bridge of a single
arch stupendous.

The late M. P. for this county, Mr. Fergusson
of Pitfour, used to give the result of his Parlia-
mentary experience in these words, which would
astonish statesmen of the present day, who are all,
we hope, so very different — " I have represented
Aberdeenshire for half a century, during which, I
never was present at a debate I could avoid, nor
absent from a division I could get to. I have heard
many speeches that convinced my judgment, but
none that ever influenced my vote. I once, and
only once, voted on my own opinion, but that was
the most erroneous vote I ever gave. He who
would be easy in Parliament, must always support
administration, but never take ofhce."

Fourteen miles south of Aberdeen may be found
the picturesque and extensive ruin of Dunottar Cas-
tle, seat of the Keiths, Earls Marischal of Scotland,
w^hose origin is so lost in antiquity, that they are
conjectured to have been Princes of the Catti in
Germany, before the Bourbon or Austrian dynasties
were heard of. The catastrophe of 1715 caused
this ancient title to be forfeited ; but the last Earl
nobly represented his long line of ancestry, for he
23

266 DUNOTTAR CASTLE.

became the chosen and distinguished friend of Fred-
erick the Great, and his brother, Marshal Keith,
need only be named, to recall the most chivalrous
recollections of bravery and generalship. The Em-
press of Russia presented him with a sword valued
at .£1500, as a small testimony of her esteem, and
after a life of warlike achievements, he died victo-
riously on the field of battle. These were two of
the most distinguished brothers Scotland ever pro-
duced. The site of Dunottar Castle is in the ocean,
perched on a high peninsula, nearly the whole of
w^hich is covered by the walls, which surround a
spacious court.

A gentleman once remarked of a dull visiter,
" what a pity he is not ill-natured, as that would be
an excuse for turning him out of the room ;" and
you may probably begin to think, if this rather dry
letter goes on much longer, that, spiced with a little
peevishness, it might be quite fit for the fire; so
leaving you to make the best of it, as you always
do of every thing, I remain — at Aberdeen, as much
as anywhere else — ^your affectionate cousin.

CASTLE FRASER

Lady Percy. " What is it carries you away ?"
Hotspur. " Why ! a horse, madam, a horse.''

My dear Cousin, — It occurs to me at this mo-
ment, as being curious, in how many different things
people can be identified. When present by their
features, when absent by their voices, and even
when out of both sight and hearing, by their hand-
writing. All are so peculiar to the individual, that
I begin to think the collecting of autographs a per-
fectly respectable pursuit, as they certainly give
some insight into character ; therefore, next time
you WTite to me, take your best pen, in case of ap-
pearing in my album. I suppose the Duke of Wel-
lington and O'Connell never accept an invitation to
dinner, or are sorry that a previous engagement
prevents them, without imminent danger of their
being afterwards carefully embalmed on a folio
sheet of paper, beside specimens of scribbling from
Grace Darling, Joseph Hume, Dr. Chalmers, Lady
Blessington, Lockhart, Wilson, Captain Hall, Han-
nah More, Wilberforce, Mrs. Couch, and the whole
Bench of Bishops.

I never could have guessed half the annoyance

268 CASTLE FRASER.

endured in society by the race of lions, unless I had
happened often to see Sir Walter Scott suffering
under it, who would frequently have been thankful
to put on a domino, or to adopt invisibility, as every
body pricked forward their ears if he merely asked
what o'clock it was, and ceased to breathe when he
made a remark on the weather.

After leaving Aberdeen, we proceeded, in our
usual touch-and-go style of travelling, through the
chai-ming valley of Strathdon, to inspect a large as-
sortment of castles, new, old, and middle-aged, which
embellish the rivers Dee and Don, two rival streams,
the comparative merits of which are keenly disputed
by lovers of the picturesque ; and as I actually do
not claim to be a perfectly infallible judge on these
subjects, you shall have the impartial verdict of a
poet, who thinks he has settled the point by an
elegant couplet :

" One foot of Don's worth two of Dee,
Except it be for fish and tree."

Among the best remaining specimens of old
Scottish fortresses, we admired none more than
Castle Fraser, which seems in perfect preservation,
with a curious old French court behind, and possess-
ing a noble round tower, nearly a hundred feet
high, quite a model of ancient architecture, being
surrounded by handsome balustrades, and defended

CASTLE FRASER. 269

by stone cannon. I had unluckily obtained false
information respecting this place, being assured that
no access could possibly be obtained to see it, and
an exaggerated representation was drawn, of its
having been fortified inaccessibly against the intru-
sion of idle curiosity. I merely ventured, therefore,
to station our carriage as a cor]^s de reserve at the

gate, and with A — for an advanced guard, stole

upon tip-toe along the approach, concealed myself
in an ambuscade behind a large plane tree, and from
thence took a hasty survey of the premises. After
having counted the windows, estimated the height of
the towers, guessed the thickness of the walls, ad-
mired the curious gable-headed windows, wondered
at th*e number of projecting little turrets, and ascer-
tained for certain, that the castle is a very great
deal larger at the top than at the foundation, my
curiosity having been rather increased than satiated,
I took courage, and asked a servant boy in livery,
who was passing towards the castle, whether we
could possibly see the house, but he appeared panic-
struck at the sight of strangers, stared as if we had
been apparitions, and suddenly absconded at full

speed ! A was amused beyond measure, but

this castastrophe completely intimidated me, and I
slowly retreated in good order, almost expecting the
cannons to fire upon us.

The country round this neighbourhood exhibits
23*

270 CASTLE FRASER.

infallible symptoms of resident proprietors, the fields
being all thoroughly drained, hedged, planted, cul-
tivated, and presenting a general aspect of pros-
perity. Our drive was delicious, till we reached the
splendid modern, spic-and-span-new castle recently
built by Mr. Gordon of Cluny. It is still quite damp
from the press, and wall not be habitable for some
months. The plan is designed by a young unpro-
fessional artist, who, wonderful to relate, omitted
neither door, \vindow, nor stair-case, and has been
altogether so successful, that he deserves three
rounds of applause. The granite is so very hard,
that it w^ould almost need to be cut with a diamond,
but after years of laborious chiseUing, a magnificent
front of exquisite masonry has been completed,
though, I dare say, to calculate the expense might
puzzle Cooker himself.

I must now give you a "graphic sketch,"
painted expressly for the occasion, of this extensive
building. The style is very peculiar, and must be-
long, I should guess, to no particular order, and to
the class specio-cissima, A high circular tow^er at
one end, four stories high, is surmounted by a square
ditto three stories higher, which seems to have
grow^n out of the other, and which is curiously
flanked at the summit by a pointed turret, stuck on
apparently by accident. This lofty pile is a grand
exti avaganza in stone, reaching nearer the moon

MONYMUSK. 271

than any modern tower I know, while the main
body of this edifice abounds in cheerful, air}*, well-
proportioned rooms. The castle wants nothing now^
but good fires, furniture, and inhabitants.

The park displays abundance of grass, and is
embellished with middle-aged trees, but has not a
drop of w^ater to show in the whole landscape, —
not so much as a canal or a horse pond. Some of
the ground lies so flat, as almost to defy draining,
and after great expense incurred to improve the
soil, Johnston the drainer was brought to inspect it,
and questioned w^hether the ground did not now
look " rather parkish ?" to which he dryly answered,
" No ! it is rather lakish."

Next in this world of ancient feudal castles, we
passed the snug, tidy, quaint-looking old place of
Monymusk, better situated than most of the others,
near the Don. Not far off, we admired the solemnly
pleasing shades of a fine forest, rather w^himsically
named Paradise. The proprietor of this little for-
tress unfortunately took the key in his pocket, when
he went to the Continent, so on our inquiring
whether it might be seen, a maid, who w^as sitting
with closed doors, showed her profile through a
small crevice, and gave us warning to quit. You
see, therefore, the proverb is not alwuys true,
'* Chateau qui parte, et feimne qui ccoute, va se
rendre /"

272 MONYMUSK.

The little village of Monymusk is quite a model
of neatness, built in the form of a large square, with
a grass common in the middle, enclosed by a fence
of rough stakes, and by a luxuriant inner hedge of
thorn. Here many of the villagers were strolling
about with a look of cheerful indolent leisure, as if
they had worked enough for the day, and felt enti-
tled now to be happy. Nearly all the common
people in Scotland walk with their hands in their
pockets, — better certainly than in any other person's
— but it gives them an anxious forlorn appearance,
as if in chase of their last shilling.

The Priory here has been handsome, and still
preserves some remains of grandeur, though six
hundred years old. The ancient Saxon arches at
each end are entire, and look as if they might last
six hundred years more ; or perhaps as long as the
earth continues spinning on her axle.

The small inn-parlour at Monymusk is decorated
with a little fancy print, which, though the subject
be melancholy, might make the gravest person
smile. It represents Prince Leopold and Britannia
mourning at the tomb of Princess Charlotte — he,
appropriately costumed in a flowing black tragedy-
cloak, the very image of a second-rate actor, and
she, w^eeping in a rose-coloiu-ed dress, yellow body,
and pink feathers, over an urn, very like the glass
globe in an apothecary's shop, or as if she were in

CASTLE FORBES. 273

the last agonies of sea-sickness. The very lion at
her feet seems wiping his eyes with his paw, look-
ing more like a lion in distress than any thing I
ever witnessed before.

We passed Pitfichy, a ruin w^hich belonged to
the family of the well known General Hurry, of
the Parliamentary army, and Tillyfour, which Avas,
I hope, in better repair W'hen Queen Mary inhabited
it for one night only, and by particular desire. Our
carriage wheels then turned themselves towards
Castle Forbes, belonging to the premier Baron of
Scotland. This is a finely situated modern house,
exhibiting, of course, a majestic round tower, which
is quite the newest fashion in building. The oppo-
site tow^er is square. Formal and regular plans are
now quite out, and every thing in the free-and-easy
style of architecture, with as few of the windows,
doors, or turrets to match as possible. We admired
this place exceedingly, and the Castle has a beauti-
ful effect in the distance, peeping out through a
mass of w^ood, about half-way up the bank, as if it
had stopped in ascending, to take a look of the
country, and remained stationary to admire it for
ever. No wonder ! The Don flow^s gracefully
through a gay panorama of plantations, castles,
farms, and distant hills, a correct inventory of which
w^ould fill the rest of ray paper.

You must one day visit the seven tall towers of

274 KILDRUMMY CASTLE.

Kildrumray Castle, formerly considered impregnable,
but which a sparrow now may take possession of.
They were built by St. Gilbert, in the twelfth cen-
tury, and all enterprising tourists should positively
make a digression off the road, to ascend the dark
ghosty-looking stairs, and to fight many battles over
again on the spot which once steeped those W'alls
in the blood of heroes. Every stone has had its ad-
ventures; but Kildrummy Castle was finally be-
trayed to the English army by a blacksmith, bribed
to this treachery with the promise of as much gold
as he could carry. In pursuance of his engagement,
he threw a red-hot bar into the hayloft, w^hich set
the castle on fire, and during the consequent confu-
sion, it was taken, but the mercenar}^ traitor suffered
a frightful punishment from his own recent allies,
who, detesting his crime, kept their promise in a
literal sense, by pouring melted gold down his
throat ! Our old Scotch proverb truly says, " better
a little fire that warms, than mickle that burns."

I am now about to adopt a grand historical tone,
and to tell you a little more, for even if you know
my tale already, yet, like Sir Christopher Hutton in
the Critic, you will be better of hearing it all over
again.

Kildrummy Castle, formerly the chief seat of the
powerful Earls of Mar, always distinguished itself
greatly in Scottish history. When Robert Bruce

KILDRUMMY CASTLE. 275

first asserted his claims to the crown, and met with
reverses, he lodged his Queen and daughter here,
under charge of his brother Sir Niel. Being threat-
ened with a siege, the ladies fled to a sanctuary,
where they w^ere betrayed by the Earl of Ross ; and
after a brave defence for some time, they were only
captured through the treachery of Osborn, an Eng-
lishman, who blew up the powder magazine. Thus
the ladies had only saved themselves from Scylla,
and plunged into Charybdis, or, to use a vulgar
phrase, they were " out of the frying-pan into the
fire." By the w^ay, Hume or Ahson would blot
such an expression out of their pages, and I wish at
present to be quite upon their model, so try to for-
get it.

Kildrummy Castle was again beleaguered in
1335, when the misfortunes of David Bruce had left
this kingdom, during three years, in the hands of
Edward Baliol and his partisans. It held out
bravely against the Earl of Athol, who being sm'-
prised by a very inferior force, and killed, in the
forest of Kilblain, the tide of fortune turned, and
swept away the whole English party from the en-
tire kingdom of Scotland, which now, as on all oc-
casions, proved unconquerable.

A third siege in 1404 is quite romantic, when it
was assailed by a band of robbers, commanded by
Alexender Stewart, natural son of the notorious

276 KILDRUMMY CASTLE.

character, infamous in our Scottish annals, "The
Wolf of Badenoch," whose real title was Earl of
Buchan, being third son of King Robert the Second.
Though he burned and robbed Elgin Cathedral, ill
treated his wife, a Countess in her own right, and
distinguished himself by every species of atrocity,
yet on his tomb-stone in Dunkeld Cathedral, we find
him complaisantly stated to be " of good memory !"
How different will be the record kept on earth, from
that which shall be heard at an eternal tribunal !

The adventurous young freebooter and his gang
attacked Kildrummy Castle when it was occupied
by the hereditary Countess of Mar in her own right,
then a widow\ He stormed it, gained possession,
made a mockery of delivering up the keys and pa-
pers into her own hand at the gate, and finally
obliged her to declare that she voluntarily took him
as her husband, for better or worse, — indeed he
could hardly be worse. The successful adventurer
now styled himself Earl of Mar, and became, as
times go, quite a respectable man ! He was ambas-
sador " extraordinary !" to England, fought in a
tournament wdth the Earl of Kent, commanded a
Scottish army against the Lord of the Isles at Har-
low, was generalissimo to the Duke of Burgundy in
support of the Bishop of Liege, and retaining the
Earldom, though his wife died without children, he
finally married Lady Duffyl an heiress in Brabant.

CRAIGIEVAR CASTLE. 277

We caught, in passing, a distant glimpse of
Craigievar, a singular old Castle, the lower-half
being a plain square tower entirely without orna-
ment, and so narrow, you might suppose it had worn
a strait-waistcoat, but above it juts out on all sides,
in a strange, any-how-fashion, with little gable-ends,
little turrets, and little windows, as if a whole vil-
lage had scrambled up and clustered on the roof.
Supreme above all, waved a large showy banner,
which the post-boy, with an approving nod, pointed
out, informing me it was " A Reform flag, and had
never been taken down since the passing of the
bill !" The ancestor of this family obtained his
baronetage from King Charles, against whom he
soon afterwards took arms. In an old ballad of those
times, describing the death of " Bonny John Seton,
a baron bold," in memory of whom the family still
bear on their shield a heart dropping blood, we find
these lines, showing w^hat mixed motives often dic-
tate extreme measures:

"Oh, spoil him, spoil him ! cried Craigievar,
Him spoiled let me see ;
For on my word, said Craigievar,
He bore no good will to me."

If you have a laudable curiosity to see Macbeth's

cairn, he was decidedly killed near this, at Lumpha-

nan, three miles beyond Kincardine O'Neil, and

though most of the monumental pile was pilfered

24

278 CRAIGIEVAR.

formerly to build cow-sheds and pig styes, yet enough
still remains to identify the spot.

As Shakspeare says, " the property of rain is to
wet ;" so, as we were treated in the evening to a
mixture of showers and wind, with a few scruples
of Scotch mist, we first attempted a stoppage at the
Bridge of Alford, but finding only a curtainless, car-
petless, dingy apartment, pre-occupied by sportsmen
for fishing, we merely snatched a chop, looked for
the field where the battle of Alford was fought, and
where Lord Huntly's eldest son was killed, and then
proceeded, by the beautiful banks of the Don, to this
little perfection of a Highland farm-inn at Kincar-
dine O'Neil, kept by a cordial, hearty old landlady,
who w^ould have served me up three courses at tea,
if I had not barricadoed the table against any thing
more. After bringing up six kinds of tea-bread,
eggs, and marmalade, she made a desperate attempt
to force a dish of chops or chickens upon us, but I
would not hear of so much as a biscuit being added
to the liberal entertainment, having adopted the
opinion of an old gentleman, who remarked, that
supper is " an insult to dinner, and an injury to
breakfast."

The landlady presented me next morning with
a beautiful bouquet, containing all the best flowers
in her garden, and though none were exotics, the
good old native wall-flowers and thyme, with their

CRAIGIEVAR.

279

fragrant perfume, come back like the familiar friends
of by-gone days, and revive many "thoughts too
deep for tears." Who does not remember the period
when one little enclosure, frilled round with box-
w^ood and flaunting with sun-flowers and daffodils,
gave him more real joy than the gardens at Kew
could do now if he had them ? and as the simpler
we can keep our tastes, the more easy they are of
indulgence, I would not exchange my partiality to
honeysuckles, violets, and roses, for all the scent-
less rarities that ever adorned a green-house, direct-
ing their attractions to the eye and not to the heart.
It was in honour of our good old landlady, Mrs.
Gordon, that these very beautiful lines were penned,
containing an eloquent and deserved panegyric, writ-
ten with so much taste and feeling, that we have
scarcely yet decided whether the style resembles
most that of Moore or Mrs. Hemans.

Of all the hosUeries so fair,
Built for the traveller's dwelling,
On Dee-side, far beyond compare,
Kincardine is excelling.

LOCH-NA-GAR.

Years have roll'd on, Loch-na-gar, since I left you !

Years must elapse ere I tread you again,
Nature of verdure and flow'rs has bereft you,

Yet still are you dearer than Albion's plain.

England ! thy beauties are tame and domestic,
To one who has rov'd on the mountains afar !

Oh ! for the crags that are wild and majestic,
The steep frowning glories of dark Loch-na-gar.

BVRON.

My dear Cousin, — Here we are, in the scene of
Lord Byron's early days, where, before " splendour
had raised, but embittered his lot," he joyously ran
over the lofty hills, without his hat, and where,
again to use his own expression, he " clasp'd the
mountain in his mind's embrace," a stretch of imag-
ination certainly ! Near the snow-covered summit
of Morven, he imbibed a taste for those cloud-capped
mountains, thundering torrents, and pathless forests,
which owe their subsequent celebrity to his pen,
and you could not wonder here that Byron became
a poet, but would be apt rather to wonder that
every one is not.

We drove to-day through moors purple with
heather, and sprinkled with birch, the pyramids of

LOCH-NA-GAR. 281

hills growing bolder as we advanced, and the beau-
tiful Dee dancing beside us most of the time, while
a magnificent confusion of mountains hemmed us in
on every side, rock above rock, and one precipice
looking over the head of another, in endless succes-
sion, some as bare as a turnpike road, and others
crowded with trees to their highest pinnacles.
Here we gained a momentary glimpse of Aboyne
Castle, covered with a sheet of white-wash, a fine
feudal-looking edifice, embosomed in fir-trees, and
rather shy of showing itself.

The inn at Ballater is charmingly situated at
one end of a bridge, w^ith the swiftly flowing river
rushing along at the extremity of a neat little
flowxr garden. This was quite a place to spend
the summer at, instead of merely changing horses
as we did. Here the sole, engrossing business of
every body's life seemed to be trout-fishing, and I
pity every gentleman not fond of that fascinating
sport, which becomes often an inexhaustible re-
source to the half-pay world, many of whom occupy
their whole mornings in angling, and their evenings
in dressing hooks. I like to see a hat like some
we passed to-day, stuck over, inside and out, with
flies, as if a bee-hive had swarmed on it. Many
ladies in the Highlands wield the rod, though rather
perhaps out of their element on such an occasion.
I was amused to hear of a chieftain, accustomed

w

282 LOCH-NA-GAR.

only to angling, who arrived in a hunting country,
where a kind neighbour, finding he had never before
seen this sort of sport, gave him a mount on a
spirited steed, which, of course, ran off with him,
but as he flew past his friend at full career, vainly
trying to hold in the reins, he was heard to exclaim,
with a true Highland drawl, " I like fishing much
better!"

I receive daily lessons against indulging an ex-
cessive partiality to open carriages, but it seems
quite incurable. We discovered a most enticing
little britchska to be hired at Ballator, and, con-
gratulating myself on such a piece of good fortune,
I took possession, and proceeded the first three
miles of our beautiful journey in the most unalloyed
state of enjoyment, but gradually the mist hung in
festoons almost down to the road, and at last came
such a burst of rain that travellers must have been
drenched before they could raise an umbrella. In
this bold, romantic scene, it became most tantahzing
not to know a cloud from a hill, but they must, in-
deed, at all times be near neighbours on very inti-
mate terms.

Besides the gray precipices, hoarse waterfalls,
towering hills, and inconceivable profusion of birch
and fir trees, this noble scene displays another beauty
which you w^ould scarcely anticipate, being quite
the kingdom of wild roses. We saw thousands by

LOCH-NA-GAR. 283

the road side, — 2. perfect army of red and white
roses drawn up in battle array, and scattered all
around in dazzKng abundance. You perhaps fancy
I mean mere hedges, but there were wild unculti-
vated fields of them, giving so flushed and full-
dressed an aspect to the landscape, that the road
seemed ornamented for a gala, and several branches
had straggled so far across our path that I could
almost have plucked them as we drove along. If
you wish to know how a dress of green velvet and
roses would look, nature certainly wears one here.
As Bishop Home remarked of a Christian's afflic-
tions, " every thorn is accompanied by a flower !"
Sometimes while contrasting the simple delight of
living in a scene like this with the artificial enjoy-
ments of a towTi career, I have thought the differ-
ence might be aptly illustrated by comparing the
feelings of a wearied, haggard, and worn-out vota-
ry of dissipation, with faded looks and exhausted
spirits, hurrying home from a ball-room at the
dawn of day, and meeting the joyous school-boys
and market girls, fresh from their country homes,
with buoyant spirits and unimpaired health, untar-
nished by the heat, glare, and dust which have ac-
companied unnatural excitement. It is astonishing
how many prefer gas light to sunshine itself, which,
like the light of religion, cheers every moment of
joy, interfering vrith no pleasure that deserves the

284 ABERGELDIE CASTLE.

name, and least of all with our interest and delight
in contemplating the works of creation and Provi-
dence.

Abergeldie Castle, which we passed, is a tall
white house, like a spectre among the dark moun-
tains, quite romantically beautiful in situation, and
properly furnished with bartizans and turrets com-
plete. Burns wrote a song on the " birks of Aber-
feldie," but the great original birches were those of
this place, which we now admired, and the more
ancient ballad begins with an invitation which I
would recommend every one to accept who admires
a fascinating country, —

Bonny lassie, will ye go
To the birks o' Abergeldie 1

The river Dee flows, broad, deep, and silent, be-
neath the walls of this old building, and the inhabi-
tants being obliged to make a circuit of some miles
for a bridge, have suspended a cradle here, from
tree to tree, across the rapid stream, in which en-
terprising travellers may venture a flight on a slack
rope in the same way as at Noss Head. Here the
foundation is more secure than that of Shetland,
where, in default of trees, large poles are merely
stuck in the ground, but, nevertheless, I was truly
glad not to be going in that direction, because, after
engaging to use whatever conveyances the country

BALMORRAL. 285

afforded, I should have been bound in honour to
suspend myself here. The last accident which oc-
curred on the swing-bridge was when a gamekeeper
and dogs were emptied into the water, and had to
swim for their lives ; but a more tragical catastrophe
took place several years ago. An excise officer
having fallen in, crowds assembled, eager to rescue
a fellow-creature in distress, but when the sufferer
was unluckily recognised, they left him to his fate,
exclaiming, "It's only the guager !" If a High«
land jury had been summoned to the inquest, they
w^ould have been apt to return a verdict like that
given lately on the trial of a man for violently beat-
ing his wife. When the jury re-entered, after long
deliberation, and the judge solemnly asked for their
decision, it was unanimously delivered in these words,
" Sarved her right !"

A bride and bridegroom once, w^hen attempting
to cross by this fantastic contrivance, on the day of
their marriage, were precipitated into the rolling
current, and perished. Such melancholy and unex-
pected catastrophes bring to my mind sometimes the
homely remark of a rural preacher, " Death is like
a cow in a daisy-field, cropping here, and there, and
everywhere, by turns !"

We next observed Balmorral, a beautiful place
of Lord Fife's, who seems fortunate in a tenant, as
we were told that it has been long occupied for

286 INVERCAULD.

shooting quarters by a sportsman, who adds a new
wing or tower to the house ahnost every year, and
gathers a perfect battu of excellent shots round
the neighbourhood. If it be any consolation to die
by noble hands, the whole House of Lords seemed
in full progress here for the ensuing campaign,
w^hen the country will be fragrant with gunpowder,
and resounding with shots. We saw one noble red-
deer standing by the road side, and staring at us
while we passed, as if he meant to " take down our
number." He seemed to have no idea of making
way for intruders in his native forests, and I am told
these animals scarcely notice a carriage at any time,
therefore the best w^ay to shoot them w^ould be to go
out in one.

The next place on our muster-roll of houses w^as
Invercauld, which has for many centuries belonged
to the ancestors of Mrs. Farquharson, the present
chieftainess of that clan. Here magnificent forests
clamber up the mountain sides, and stately old trees
enrich the valley, which, surrounded by a ring of
lofty pinnacles, can be compared to nothing but
Sinbad's valley of diamonds, to which birds alone
could find access. You w^ould be quite perplexed
to imagine how a carriage ever w^ound its way into
this beautiful park, or is ever to get out again.
Loch-na-gar rushes up w^ith a fine sweep towards
the sky, where it indents the very firmament above.

INVERCAULD. 287

The Lion's face is a noble craggy precipice, and
another mountain opposite the house of Invercaukl,
displays flowers at the base and snow on the sum-
mit.

You can dream of nothing comparable to the
effect by moonlight on Ben-y-bourd and Loch-na-
gar, looking blacker than night, as if carved in ebony
or jet, varied by solemn forests of fir, and the dark
foaming current of the Dee. It was in this romantic
district that a native, brought from the featureless
flats of Buchan, was asked what he thought of the
scenery, when he remarked in a tone of diverting
perplexity, " Oh ! it's very fine scainery, — but its
a' scamery together I nothing but scainery ! — feint
a flea but scainery ! !"

We enjoyed a charming drive next morning,
with Mrs. Farquharson, through several miles of
natural forest, in w^hich every thing appeared wild
and uncultivated, as if not a human being had ever
interfered with the course of nature. Aged fir trees
bristled against the sky, their furrowed gray stems
looking as old as the mountains they covered, while
clustered together for miles, their strange fantastic
arms were thrown out in every curious contortion
that can be imagined, beneath which, the whole
ground was embroidered with a wild profusion of
heather, cranberries, thyme, roses, myrtle, fox -glove,
and the old original blue bells of Scotland. Who

288 INVERCAULD.

could attempt to describe such a scene ! it is impos-
sible ! the gigantic outline, and the minute finish-
ing,— the hills of a thousand years, and the blossoms
of an hour ! all that is majestic, and all that is lovely
in nature, glowing beneath a flood of sunshine, and
fdling the heart with enraptured gratitude towards
that Great Being, who, in embelhshing our world
with beauty, has given us one earthly pleasure, in
which there is no sinful excess, no disappointment,
and almost a foretaste of that felicity which we look
for in a still brighter and better w^orld.

The road, gently undulating up and down the
mountain side, might have been supposed merely a
track formed by accident, but in other places it
whirled round the hills like a corkscrew. We drove
in a light open carriage, drawn by spirited young
horses, which, in any other circumstances, would
have engrossed my most anxious attention, but such
was the elevating effect of this sublime scene, that
I actually forgot to be frightened ! The proud
Lord Abercorn, used to drive his thorough-bred
horses over hill and dale, with no other reins than
blue ribbons, the trappings he delighted in for him-
self, but having tried the experiment once too often,
they ran off, when he leaped out and broke both
his legs.

These roads through the tangled forests were
made by a regiment formerly quartered in the old

INA'ERCAULD. 289

Castle of Braemar, a square tower ornamenting the
park of Invercauld, which once belonged to the
Earls of Mar. Colonel Farquharson, seeing those
soldiers falUng into idle habits, like a second Mar-
shal Wade, employed them in cutting and carving
their way over the mountains, to so great an extent ,
that it would occupy many days now, to drive over
all the highways and byways they formed. One
very rare species of tree was pointed out during our
drive, " The gallows tree," on which the chief of the
clan Farquharson, without thinking it necessary to
consult any jury, exercised the privilege of suspend-
ing his retainers when disobedient. We abandoned
the carriage at one impossible ascent, and scrambled
up to admire the stream of the Gan*awalt, falhng n
a loud, roaring cascade, which foamed and tumbled
impetuously onwards. It was surmounted by a
singularly elegant rustic bridge of rough stakes, so
very light and insecure looking, that some visiters
race across on tiptoe, expecting it to snap in two.
The distant effect is charming.

In a tasteful and elegant moss-house, ^^•here we
sat down to relieve our feelings by a cannonade of
exclamations, while admiring the tormented river
tumbling passionately about on its rocky bed, and
then passing away, like the course of time, our at-
tention was called off by observing that the whole
roof and sides of this retreat had been grotesquely
25

290 MAR LODGE.

disfigured by a party of strangers from Aberdeen,
\vho arrived there in the morning, and who had
most ungraciously occupied their time in spoihng
this romantic seat, by strongly fastening up with
wires tickets exhibiting their own insignificant
names, which had probably never appeared else-
where, except on a shop-board.

To-day I got my first glimpse of Mar Lodge.
Its best friends cannot call the house a beauty, being
rather of the cotton-mill school, but as Cinderella's
sisters observed of their ugly dresses, " to make up
for that," all around is magnificent. The situation
is not only superb for natural beauty, but also for
affording every variety of sport. The newspapers
resound each successive season with a list of killed
and wounded at Mar Lodge. Among grouse, red-
deer, trout, salmon, and every living creature that
has the misfortune to be called game, or that it is
any pleasure to kill, I suppose more deaths take
place here annually, than in any other corner of the
known world. Even the trees at Mar Lodge are
slaughtered on a great scale ! The better half of
this venerable forest, once the ornament of Scotland,
now lies prostrate in the dust. The saw^-mill has
done its work, and a few hundreds only remain to
tell of the thousands that are no more.

As a colony of trouts in the Bruar once employed
Burns to write a poetical complaint of wanting

LYNN OF DEE. 291

shade, the fish in the Dee should engage Campbell
or Wilson, the only living poets of Scotland now,
to assist them with a few verses. It is curious to
observe how very much poetry has gone out ; and
we shall soon have nothing left but the embers,
unless a little fresh fuel be put to the imaginations
of the rising generation.

At the celebrated Lynn of Dee, this capricious,
frolicsome stream is imprisoned within a contracted
chasm of rock, and rushes out like splintered light-
ning, dashing with an impetuous violence, the thun-
dering sound of which can be heard nearly a mile
off. This need scarcely be w^ondered at, when we
see a broad river decanted through a narrow neck
of solid stone, which so nearly meets over the top,
that many fool-hardy people have leaped across.
When driving towards the Lynn, I had observed,
for about two miles, a ragged boy racing at full
speed after the carriage; and at this moment he
hastily descended towards the gorge, with an evi-
dent intention to exhibit before us, by taking this
desperate leap. We most peremptorily summoned
the little urchin back, at which he seemed consider-
ably astonished, having been accustomed to receive
a premium, rather than 'a reprimand, from tourists,
for risking life and limb, to afford them diversion,
but I would have given him double price to be sta-
tionary.

292 LYNN OF DEE.

The fust chief of the clan Farquharson was
drowned here ; and no one seeing the frightful pool,
supposed by the country people to be bottomless,
could fancy that a bone of his body remained un-
broken. A poor man last month, who succeeded in
springing over, missed his aim in attempting to
return, and fell back into the foaming caldron !
Now, what do you think was the consequence ?
" Drowned of course !" No ! by a sort of miracle,
he was washed on to a rock perfectly unhurt, and
lives to tell the tale himself.

Last, not least, Lord Byron very nearly died
here in a manner worthy of his poetical taste.
Some heather having tripped up his lame foot, he
rolled helplessly down towards the precipice, but on
the very brink of destruction, he was preserved by
an attendant, who with difficulty saved his life —
that life, a scene of so much fiery passion and intense
agony, that he could scarcely afterwards rejoice at
its having been prolonged. The world's loud
plaudits could not drown the still small voice of an
inward monitor, the witness for God in every mortal
mind, reminding us that nothing on this earth can
suffice for happiness 3 and the more intellect or sen-
sibility frail man may be gifted with, the more
empty, vain, and disappointing to his never-dying
spirit w^ill appear the vanishing pleasures of time.
That the solemn and unspeakable importance of

LYNN OF DEE. 293

Christianity was at one period impressed on the
mind of Lord Byron himself, may be hoped, from
reading the well-known lines inscribed on his own
Bible :

Within this awful volume lies
The mystery of mysteries.
Happiest they of human race,
To whom their God has giren grace,
To read, to fear, to hope, to pray,
To lift the latch, to force the way ;
And better had they ne'er been born,
Than read to doubt— or read to scorn.

25^

BLAIRGOWRIE

Panting time toils after us in vain.

JOIINSOX.

Mv DEAR Cousin, — Wherever travellers are
going, if there be a particularly bad road, narrow
and hilly, without parapets, bridges, or inns, you
may feel certain that for some insuperable reason,
they ought to prefer it, and accordingly, though we
were recommended for comfort to proceed from
Invercauld by the Blairgowrie road, I exceedingly
wished to have gone up Glen Tilt, that we might
see how dreary and wild the world would have
been without inhabitants. There the long desolate
ridges of Scarsochare 35000 feet high, the hill of
Ben-na-muich-duidh has a name all but unpro-
nounceable, and the forest of Dalmore is noted as
producing the finest natm'al pine trees in Europe,
both in respect to their size, and the quality of the
timber. Some of these trees measure from eighty to
ninety feet in height, without a lateral branch, their
diameter at the base being four feet and a half, but
in spite of all these attractions, and fifty more be-
sides, we submitted to advice, and plodded on
towards Blairgowrie,

CRAIGHALL. 295

My miseries began with a ford across the Dee,
v.-hich had been for several days before impassable,
but the post-boy from Castleton of Braemar pro-
tested we might venture through, so I closed my
eyes to avoid being frightened, and could not but
remember at that moment, the not very consoling
advice of a servant once in similar circumstances, to
his master, " If it comes to the worst, Sir ! hold
down your head, and drown as fast as possible !"

There was once upon a time a public-spirited
Lord Breadalbane, who erected thirty-two stone
bridges, and if any one ever proposes a monument
to his memory, my subscription, after this day's ex-
perience, shall be doubled. Bridges are certainly
most convenient things, but those along this road
are so singularly narrow, that you might fancy the
carriage wheels had been exactly measured, so as to
graze the parapet on both sides. I must attend,
however, to the grateful old proverb, " Let every
one praise the bridge he goes over."

The Spittal of Glen Shea, — or rather the Hos-
pital, as it used to be called, was our first stage, and
after having driven through a wild looking desert,
we here found a green expanse of excellent pasture,
with something that called itself an inn, where a
covey of Irish sportsmen annually assemble for the
shooting season, and occupy the best rooms. It is
surprising that gentlemen do not oftener pitch a

296 BLAIRGOWRIE.

tent upon the moors, which would be attended with
the most romantic degree of discomfort. A party
came to Scotland some years ago in this Arab fash-
ion, and they brought, moreover, a long narrow
carriage, which could be metamorphosed occasion-
ally into a boat. Thus they lived, according to the
beau-ideal of Lord Byron, " My tent on shore, my
galley on the sea."

Craighall showed itself for a few moments as
we passed, a romantic old castle, which had once
the honour of being besieged by an Earl of Athol,
who had married a daughter of the Rattray family,
and intended, by killing all the male representatives
of that house, to bring in his wife as the heiress, but
he had no more success than he deserved, as the
gentlemen proved " too many for him."

After pausing at the gay pretty towm of Blair-
gowrie, we skirted along a complete chain of small
lakes — or lakelets — not very illustrious for beauty.
In the loch of Clunie, almost rising out of the
water, stands an old castle, scarcely deserving a
second glance, till you hear that it claims the hon-
our to have been the birth-place of the Admirable
Crichton, the wonder of his age, and of every sub-
sequent age besides. I sometimes wish a scale
could be invented for measuring the extent and
depth of men's attainments — not as they seem to
others, or are estimated by themselves, but according

DUxNKELD CATHEDRAL. 297

to the real weight of metal they carry. How grand
and unexpected the sum total would appear in some
cases, and how marvellously others, who fill up a
large space in the public eye, w^ould shrink to an
atom ; but such a genius as the Admirable Crichton,
w^ould then, perhaps, be found to outweigh a whole
college.

We drove at length through the lofty barriers
of the King's Pass, which forms a grand entrance to
Dunkeld, and arrived to dinner at Grant's very
beautifully situated inn, near one end of the bridge,
where the broad, deep, majestic Tay floats beneath
the windows, clear as the glass through which we
were gazing at it. I cannot but wonder that any
traveller can ever tear himself away from this en-
chanting neighbourhood in less than a month, he
must find so much to enjoy in strolling through the
Duke's magnificent grounds, where the thing per-
haps most to be admired of all, is the liberality with
which they are thrown open, so that any tourist
may feel here, as if he had suddenly succeeded to a
large estate of his own, and were come to enjoy it.

The old Cathedral of Dunkeld, founded by Rob-
ert Bruce's protege Bishop Sinclair, five hundred
years ago, stands within the grounds, and is consid-
ered quite an architectural gem, being a curious
omnium gather'em of various styles, forming a beau-
tiful whole, though sketchers and engravers have

298 DUNKELU CATHEDRAL.

made sad havoc of its graceful Saxon and Norman
arches. Most of the building is a mere shell, but
we attended Divine service in the choir, which is
yet in its premier jeunesse, on Sunday, and observed
a handsome marble tablet, raised by the congrega-
tion in testimony of heartfelt and unanimous regret
for the death of their pious and beloved clergyman,
Mr. Robb, drowned on board the Forfarshire steam-
vessel, some months ago. In reading their expres-
sions of deep lamentation, I could not but remember
that this excellent man, when presented to the
Church two years ago, encountered a universal veto,
and the very doors were barricadoed against him,
by the identical persons now so entirely conciliated
by his extraordinary zeal and ability. The patron
has since presented this living to Mr. Mackenzie,
who at once rendered himself acceptable to the
whole parish, and it is confidently anticipated, that
patronage will again be honoured in its protege.

None of the parishioners attempted a veto on
this occasion, with or without rendering a reason,
and I hope it may be long before here or elsewhere,
it shall become a sufficient cause for rejecting a
clergyman, to repeat those well-known lines, which
used, at one time, to be reckoned rather ridiculous j

I do not like thee, Dr. Fell,
The reason why 1 cannot tell ;
But I do not like thee, Dr. Fell.

DUNKELD. 299

A very fine statue, representing the late Duke
of Atholl, stands in the chancel of this cathedral,
dressed in his robes of state, and extremely hke,
though merely copied from a small portrait of Land-
seer's, by an artist who never saw his Grace. Close
beside it, w^e perceived a very handsome monument
to the Marquis of Atholl, emblazoned wath the quar-
terings of his many great connections, and few fam-
ilies ever had more to boast of, as they were once
related to every crow'ned head in Europe, except
the Grand Signior.

The climate here must be tolerably healthy, as
there used to be at Dunkeld " an eighty-four club,"
no member being eligible till he attained that age.
The late Duke used to say, that w^hen young he
made walks, and when old he made rides over the
hills of Dunkeld, and both have now been most
effectually done, as the greatest pedestrian might
fatigue himself here, perambulating over the eighty
miles of gravel walks and drives ! It must require
a Bank of England revenue to keep the place in
such admirable order ! I scarcely knew how to
stop my peregrinations, for every turn of the w^ay
disclosed some new^ and incomparable beauty in the
landscape. My feeling was like yours when inter-
ested in some very engrossing novel, every page
rendering it more impossible to leave off. Mile
after mile leads you on to more fascinating scenes,

300 DUNKELB.

and every step discovers something not anticipated
before. In one day the wearied guide led us, at a
sort of race-horse pace, to Ossian's Hall, and we
climbed successively to the summit of Craig Vinian
and Craigybarns, yet I felt as if we had done
nothing! Like Lord Chatham, we " trampled on
impossibilities," and after walking sixteen miles up
and down hill, I could have begun it all over again
with pleasure, if the daylight had only been pro-
longed.

The grounds of Dunkeld are supposed to exhibit
nearly the most beautiful specimen of landscape gar-
dening in Europe, being as well wooded and highly
dressed as any in England, with the advantage of a
broad rapid torrent like the Tay glittering among
the forests, and the towering rocks and mountains
adding grandeur and dignity to their singular beauty.
A curious contrast may be remarked between the
wild untameable magnificence of His Grace's more
Highland residence at Blair, and the rich verdant
fertility of Dunkeld. No expense was spared to
embelhsh both ; and as long as we have national
vanity or national taste, all Scotland must gratefully
remember, that those scenes were adorned, not for
himself alone, but for the use and enjoyment of all
who possessed eyes to admire them. Many a de-
lightful hour has been spent in the groves and gar-
dens of Dunkeld, by strangers of all classes, and

DUNKELD. 301

of all nations, welcomed as if they had been the
Duke's own relatives ; and it is, indeed, a privilege
to ramble at large among the secluded walks, the
gigantic trees, the flowers, the arbours, the river's
banks, and though last, not least, the hills covered
to their summits wdth larch. That was well known
to be the Duke's favourite tree, of which he planted
twenty thousand acres ; and a Perthshire gentleman
once remarked, that though the county could not
boast of an Arch-Duke, they had at any rate a Larch-
Duke. AMien Wilkes came to this neighbourhood
he protested that " the greatest vagary of Shak-
speare's fancy was, to imagine a wood on Birnham
Hill, where there never was a shrub." Certainly
when the trees marched to Dunsinane they were
very long of returning, as that mountain used to
stand conspicuously bare among its wooded neigh-
bours, like a great hay-stack in a garden, but the
taste of the late Sir John Stewart of Murthly has
enriched the scene by covering it with thriving
plantations.

Last time we were here, A had the amuse-
ment of lionizing the present Duke of Orleans all
over these grounds, after which we dined in his
company with the Duke of Atholl, w^ho made a
speech to his royal guest, saying he had formerly
raised five hundred men to make war on foreign
enemies, but he was now employing an equal num--
26

302 DUNKELD.

ber in preparing a residence, where, if he did not
live to practise hospitality himself, he trusted it
would be done by those who came after him. He
finished by proposing the health and prosperity of
Charles the Tenth, who had visited him at Blair
during banishment from France, when the last
words he said to the royal prince at taking leave
w- ere, " The kindest wish I can offer your Highness
is, that I may never see you here again."

The employment afforded to his tenantry by the
Duke of Atholl, became a source of so much opu-
lence and comfort to all around him, that his death
was felt as a family misfortune in every cottage on
his w^ide domains. Five hundred men were em-
ployed till the hour of his decease, in building that
palace of almost royal splendour, which will prob-
ably never now be finished. When the news
arrived of his Grace's demise, a mournful dispersion
of the work people instantly took place, and from
that hour not a stroke has been heard among the
deserted walls. A more strange and melancholy
spectacle than it now presents, you can scarcely
imagine. It is not a ruin ! it is not a house ! all
seems fresh, new, and magnificent, yet in the sur-
rounding desolation, you feel conscious that some
great calamity has occurred, and speak almost in
w'hispers, while pointing to the splendid arches,
windows, and doors, some of which have been tern-

DUXKELD. 303

porarily closed in for protection, — the half-chiselled
stones, the bare red bricks, and the workmen's sheds
surrounded by long grass and weeds, which grow
all untrodden in the deep solitude and silence of this
death-like scene.

The Duke, during his life, caused a small glass
pavilion, like a lantern, to be erected near the new
palace, in w^hich he sat for hours every day, watch-
ing the growth of this noble pile ; and having
taken an English stranger once there, he laughed
at his guest's long reach of imagination, who ex-
claimed, on beholding what looked like the founda-
tions of a city, " This will be a noble ruin hereafter I"
Little did his Grace or the admiring visiter then
foresee how nearly that hour was at hand, when the
rain and the wdnd would beat unheeded through
these roofless untenanted apartments ! A few short
months would have completed this promising young
palace, now so prematurely cut off. Two floors are
nearly finished, as well as a gallery ninety-six feet
long, besides an elegant private chapel, a spacious
staircase, and several noble gothic windows, which
were to have been emblazoned with all the family
shields and quarterings, carved in stone.

We were shown a miniature model which cost
^£500, of the whole edifice. Will any future Ala-
din arise to accomplish the whole of this superb plan?
If so, the power of stone and lime could no further go !

304 DUNKELD.

We traced real genius in the bold variety, as well
as in the graceful arrangement of the whole out-
line, and I must say, that the architect, Mr. Hopper,
may go proudly down to posterity, carrying, as evi-
dences of his taste, Penorhn Castle in one hand, and
Dunkeld Palace in the other ! What profession in
the world can compare to that of an architect for
leaving permanent memorials behind ! Sir Chiis-
topher Wren will need no monument as long as St.
Paul's keeps its place ; a marble tablet could add
little to the celebrity of Inigo Jones ; and who can
ever forget Sir William Adams, while the barracks
on Edinbrn^gh Castle continue to be frightful 1

It is a singular coincidence in this neighbourhood,
that the twin-houses of Muithly and Dunkeld, which
were in progress at the same time, have both lost
their founders, and remained ever since desolate and
forlorn, though Murthly, with its towers crowned by
glittering weather-co cks, and its temporary windows
of painted w^ood, puts a much more cheerful face
upon the matter than this extensive young ruin. We
daily experienced how wise and merciful an appoint-
ment it is, that no one can tell the year or the hour
when his labours on earth shall for ever cease. All
exertion would at once be paralyzed in such a case,
and it requires energy of mind certainly in those who
cannot reckon on a day, to begin what must occupy
years to complete. " Man proposes and God dis-

KILLIECRANKIE. 305

poses ;" but we seem best to fulfil the intentions of
Providence, when each individual continues active
and diligent in his own vocation ; and few have left
greater memorials behind them than the late Duke
of Atholl, whose forests, bridges, roads, and houses,
w^iile they ornamented his estate, spread industry
and cheerfulness, where formerly there had been
idleness and w^ant. A great political economist has
discovered that the prosperity of a country depends
on every man exerting himself in the utmost degree
to promote his own interest, and while the Duke
metamorphosed his own barren heaths into fruitful
fields, he also changed an indolent peasantry into
active, diligent, and happy labourers.

The attachment his Grace inspired was such,
that the Highlanders w^ould admit nothing that they
thought to his prejudice, and w^hen a stranger for-
merly asked one of the Duke of Atholl's foresters,
if his master spoke Gaelic, the man, having recently
returned from attending his Grace in a shooting ex-
cui-sion to the hill of Keichnacaapex, confidently
replied, " Och, yes ! the Duke speaks Gaelic fine !
'Twas only t'other day, when I was following him
to the hills, his Grace turned round to me, and
pointed with his finger, saying, * Keichnacaapex ^
Donald /' Och, yes ! he speaks Gaelic fine !"

The weather was as beautiful as the scenery,
when we drove next morning towards the noble
26*

306 KILLIECRANKIE.

hills and castle of Blair-Athol, along miles of
aged ash trees, oaks, and beeches, admiring and
criticising a rapid succession of beautiful seats, and,
to sum up all, threading through the very essence
of Highland beauty, the pass of I^lliecrankie, which
every individual should see, who has an eye in his
head. The landscape is so enchanting, I could
scarcely believe my eyes when I looked at it. How
many of our countrymen once expired on this battle-
field ! and it might almost add a pang to death itself,
when the eye gazed its last on scenes so bright and
attractive. The rapid Garry roaring fiercely along
its rocky bed, the cultivated fields, the wooded hills,
the towering mountains, the gay little gardens, and
the recriment of villas, are beautiful enouo;h to make
one dream for a moment, in spite of precept and ex-
perience, that there might be such a thing on earth
as perfect happiness. In the most romantic part of
this magnificent glen stands an old gray stone,
raised in memory of" The bloody Claverhouse," as
one party name him, and " The bold Dundee," as
others insist he should be called, who died here,
like Nelson, in the moment of victory, both con-
quering and conquered. It was an amusing scene
which took place once, when a very aged Lady
Elphinstone being introduced to Claverhouse, he
politely remarked to her, " You must have seen many
ii;iteresting things in your day, Madam ?" To which

LUDE. 307

she drily answered, '- 'Deed no, Sir, except when I
was young, that we had one Knox deaving us wi'
his clavers, and now^ we have a Clavers deaving us
W'i' his knocks !"

In the most romantic part of our drive, we met
an elegant young lady, in a riding habit, hat and
green veil, mounted — no ! not on horseback, but on
the top of the mail ! clinging to the coach-box, and
gazing about, evidently in so fine a frenzy of delight
that, could poetry possibly be inspired on the top of
a coach, she had certainly found a rhyme, — at least
if there be one in the world, — for Killiecrankie.

Among the fine plantations at Lude, an elegant
new house is rapidly growing up a la Burn, which
promises to be a very successful hit. The spacious
windows command a superb view of the Garry for
several miles, and of many rugged hills, with totally
unspellable names. Here Mr. M'Inroy showed us
the finest bowling-green I ever beheld, on w^hich the
lovers of bowls and other "gymnastic exercises"
may amuse themselves. Games out of doors seem
so wholesome and exhilirating, that the old grow-
young, and the young forget to grow old when
practising them. Active habits prolong the enjoy-
ment of boyish spirits, long after a man of mere
clubs and newspapers has subsided into his fire-side
arm-chair, as a fixture for life, and every man who
wishes w^ell to himself, should cultivate a taste for

308 LUDE.

whatever energetic amusement takes him off the
hearth-rug. A clergyman in the Highlands lately
objected so strongly to a cricket-ground being es-
tablished in his parish, that the party of gentlemen
who had begun the plan relinquished it, but if more
innocent recreations were encouraged for all classes
in Scotland, there would probably be fewer vices.
It is amazing how creditably some persons get
through their lives, without exertion of any kind,
by rising late, dozing in the evening, and lounging
all day, actually doing nothing ; but the very es-
sence of health and usefulness is found in the activity
with which we devote a due portion of time to all
things that can lawfully occupy it, not allowing re-
laxation to interfere with business, and least of all
with religion, but making it consistent with the rest
which our minds require for entering on the duties
of both.

The late proprietor of Lude, General Robertson,
who waged incessant legal warfare against the late
Duke of Atholl, was particularly annoyed at his
Grace for claiming a right to hunt deer over all this
estate. When Prince Leopold visited at the Castle
of Blair, the Duke gave his vassal warning that he
intended next day to exercise his privilege for the
entertainment of his royal guest. Accordingly the
deer were driven down, and every thing promised a
dehghtful day's sport, when, under pretence of doing

CASTLE BLAIR. 309

all honour to the illustrious stranger, the General
fired off a grand salute, which scattered the herd to
the farthest Hmit of the forest.

The massive old Castle of Blair, the ancient
fortalice of the Earldom of Atholl, has seen its best
days, having been dismantled in 1745 by order of
government, when the towers, pinnacles, and battle-
ments were thrown down, and the elevation, which
was seven stories high, became lowered to four,
having been literally beheaded. Such was the
thickness of these venerable walls, and the adhesive-
ness of the cement, that this barbarous act could only
be perpetrated by successive explosions of gunpow-
der, but e\ery thing that makes a castle ornamental
was perseveringly destroyed. The first sensation of
tourists on beholding this once pre-eminent building,
must now be disappointment, but within, sufficient ac-
commodation remains for the exercise of princely hos-
pitality, and one of the apartments is embellished by
a peculiarly handsome ornamented ceiling.

In "the '15," the only date remembered here
except the " '45," the Duke of Atholl took the safe
side, while his heir apparent, the Marquis of Tulli-
bardine, zealously engaged himself with the opposite
party, and joined the Earl of Mar. Having been
attainted, he took refuge in France, and his politic
father got an act of parliament to disinherit him,
securinc: the estate and title to the next brother.

310 CASTLE BLAIR.

The Marquis, now rendered desperate, became so
eager in the cause, that four years afterwards he
joined the Spanish invasion, when, being defeated
at Glensheil, a high price was offered for his head,
but .he escaped. A third time, in '45, he joined in
that attempt which ended so calamitously for him,
but so happily for us protestants, long life to us !
The Marquis made his escape from Culloden, but
his horse failing, he surrendered in broken health
and spirits, was imprisoned in the Tower during
the rest of his unlucky days, and died in less than a
month. Who does not feel for so spirited and heroic
a nobleman, who, from a mistaken sense of duty,
forfeited his birthright as Duke of Atholl in Scot-
land, Sovereign Lord of Man, and Lord Strange in
England ! When the Castle of Blair became, during
his life, the property of his junior brother the Duke,
it was attacked by a still younger brother, Lord
George Murray, but withstood the siege successfully.
The fortifications were again proved invulnerable
during the celebrated defence of them, made with a
mere handful of men, by Sir Andrew Agnew ; but
it was at last finally, as we have seen, cashiered,
broke, disarmed, and dismissed His Majesty's ser-
vice.

The lucky Duke who had superseded his elder
brother, acquired also, in a somewhat questionable
way, the estate of his cousin Lord Nairn, who be-

CASTLE BLAIR. 311

came ruined in the Stuart cause. A general under-
standing prevailed in those days, that when a for-
feited estate was put up to auction, a friend ought to
bid for the proprietor, and no rival should compete,
that it might thus be restored literally for an old
song. The Duke, as head of the family, stood osten-
sibly forward, got the property knocked down to
himself for a trifle, and having a good notion what
a bargain means, either made no previous agree-
ment mth Lord Nairn, or did not find his cousin's
money forthcoming, so, one way or other, Strath-
aird, near Perth, has remained stationary w^ith the
Dukes of Atholl ever since, and is likely to con-
tinue so.

Lord George Murray, whom I already men-
tioned, was forfeited for the Glensheil affair, but par-
doned, and afterwards perseveringly joined in the
attempt of '45, when he became Prince Charles's
Lieutenant-General. He was again attainted, but
dying before his brother the Duke, his son's claim,
as heir to the uncle, w^as ingeniously carried through
the House of Lords, by means of the great Lord
Mansfield ; and having married his uncle's only
daughter, " the Lady of Man and Baroness Stramge,"
their son became the late Duke, of honourable mem-
ory. You will think I have torn a leaf out of
Burke or Debrett this morning, but I do like to un-
ravel and wind up the long line of an ancient fam-

312 CASTLE BLAIE.

ily, especially when standing on the spot which has

been commemorated by their deeds from age to age.

In case the Herald King at Arms should become

jealous of my poaching on his manor, I shall now

conclude, however by referring you to the History

of Scotland, where " for further particulars inquire

within."

The editor of a fashionable magazine having

said, when reviewing a lady's book lately, that he
could not help falling asleep over it, was surprised
to receive, some days afterwards, an elegant night-
cap, with her best regards, and I might as w^ell en-
close one to you now, in case of accidents, as this
last epistle is rather a heavy article, and may prove
equally somniferous.

LOGIE RAIT.

I won't describe — description is ray forte ;

But ev'ry fool describes in these bright days. Byron

My dear Cousin, — This letter is begun inside the
trunk of an ash tree at Logic Rait, measuring fifty-
three feet in circumference, and here I should like
to imprison for hfe all travellers who deny that
Scotland can produce fine timber. Another of
nearly equal magnitude stands on the opposite side
of a broad river, and A is at this moment boat-
ing across to do homage at its shrine, while a dis-
tant glimpse quite satisfies my enthusiasm. I would
not wish to be censorious on other countries, or
very partial to my own, but the ash trees at Rich-
mond might be placed in a flower-pot beside these !

The road from Blair in this direction, crossing at
the Bridge of Pitlochry, is as up and down, as narrow,
and as totally without parapets, as if we were travel-
ling round the rim of several great mill-wheels, but
we had a pair of worthy old Dobbins to draw us, and
it became well worth the fright to see so lovely a
country, though, if we had encountered cart or carri-
age, we should have been like the Highlanders meet-
ing on a plank, one or the other must have gone over,

I am weary of admiring! something superla-
tively ugly would be almost a relief to the eye, but
27

314 LOGIE RAIT.

that is not to be had in Perthshire. Our post-boy
was remarkably attentive in pointing his whip to-
wards every object peculiarly deserving of notice,
and at one place I was about to extemporize a
very sentimental story for an exceedingly romantic
and really elegant villa to which he directed our
notice, when he spoiled all by mentioning that it
had been bought as the rural retreat of a well-
known hotel-keeper and coach-proprietor in Edin-
burgh, who left this neighbourhood w^hen a boy,
with only half-a-crown in his pocket, and who, by
persevering industry, gained enough to return here
as a landed proprietor. He must greatly have
missed the mail coaches, and did not long survive
this experiment of rural felicity, the estate having
descended, on his death, to a nephew.

Here the hedges of brilliant roses, the rocky
precipices, and larch-covered hills, form a combina-
tion of indescribable beauty, varied by a foaming
stream, which gives life to the whole. After pass-
ing Logic Rait, however, the country became more
English, with rich undulating meadows, massy trees,
corn fields, and a perfectly level road, though en-
closed within a double range of green hills and ditto
v/ooded. We now passed another succession of
small properties, too thickly studded to be extensive,
in consequence of which it has been humorously re-
marked of one place, that the house is as broad as

LOGIE RAIT. 315

the estate. These residences are all chiefly inhab-
ited by the royal clan of Stewart. When the pres-
ent Duke of Orleans overheard some Highlanders
once, in a steam-boat, discussing their different clans,
he came good-humouredly forward and said, " I am
of a greater clan than any of you I I am a Stuart !"
The historian of the Highland regiments. General
Stewart, who had concentrated many branches of
the family in his own person, used sometimes to be
heard reflecting, in a truly Celtic tone, on the alarm-
ing diminution of the still numerous clan, saying,
" There's very few Stewarts in the country now !
There's Stewart of Garth ! I'm Stewart of Garth !
There's Stewart of Drummacharry ! I'm Stewart
of Drummacharry ! There's Stewart of Kynnachan !
I'm Stewart of Kynnachan ! !" The letters in this
neighbourhood meet with so odd a reception when
they arrive, that I do not intend to correspond with
any of the inhabitants. We observed at Clochfoldie,
and other places, that a hollow stone, conspicuously
white-washed, is built into the park wall, contain-
ing a narrow slit, which serves as a letter-box, and
the post-man, running along the road, blows a blast
on his horn and there deposits all the news and
gossip of the day, in so quiet a receptacle that the
whole packet may lie dormant for weeks till some
one has leisure or curiosity to extricate it from this
cold imprisonment. A similar plan is still adopted
in the eastern parts of Yorkshire, where I saw last

316 WEEM.

year something which resembled a lamp-post, sta-
tioned on the road-side near every farm-house, car-
rying a wooden box on the top to receive the family
despatches. Letters have lost all their rank and
aristocracy now, by the abolition of franks, which
also diminishes the importance of a seat in Parlia-
ment more than you or other sensible people would
believe. The first thing a new M. P. did formerly,
was to rehearse the pattern of his frank, how to
distort his hand-writing so that the signature might
be sufficiently unreadable, and whether to sign it in
the north-east corner of his cover, or in the south-
west, or to arrange it, as a certain M. P. did, in a
semi-circle, like the bow of a Cupid. We never
used to be in company formerly with a Member of
Parliament at dinner, without a general whisper
being circulated round the room that an opportunity
had at last occurred for securing a frank, while he
had a daily opportunity of conferring favours on
ten eager applicants, all volubly grateful on behalf
of themselves and their country correspondents ;
but Members of Parliament need scarcely learn to
write now unless they please.

The village of Weem has become a model of
cheerfulness and comfort under the active and be-
nevolent care of Sir Neil Menzies, the proprietor.
Instead of pursuing those sudden and violent schemes
of improvement which, even when successful, occa-
sion much intermediate distress, he has gradually,

WEEM. 317

but with admirable effect, encouraged industry, and
rebuilt by degrees, as the old tenants died or removed,
every cottage on the estate, now almost unrivalled,
for its thriving well-ordered aspect, throughout a
circuit of many miles. We were told that Sir Neil
enables his tenantry to manufacture the whole pro-
duce of their farms in the neighbourhood, which en-
sures them a certain market. For -this purpose he
has established two distilleries to consume the grain,
and besides, to dispose of the wool, a most success-
ful carpet manufactory^ w^hich might put Kidder-
minster out of countenance. I admired particularly
one carpet made here, which displayed the colours
of the Menzies' tartan, the pattern being branches
of scarlet geranium on a white ground.

Not a drain or an enclosure seems wanting on this
vast estate, where the hedges for miles around are like
-walls of leaves, and the cattle appeared of such first-
rate excellence, that I heard without surprise of their
having gained the highest prizes in succession at the
cattle shows of Stirling, Aberdeen, and Inverness.

The extreme attachment of the people here to
their chief, is quite of the old school, and founded
not merely on ancient associations, but on the daily
and hourly experience of almost parental liberality
and kindness in promoting the interests, and even
the amusements of old and young, which are en-
couraged and patronized with unceasing attention
27*

318 CASTLE MENZIES.

to their happiness. Here, too, the sick are person-
ally visited and assisted with such unsparing zeal,
that none seem neglected in the wide circuit of this
very extensive estate. I was particularly interested
in seeing an old man of ninety-eight, a pensioner
of the family, who walks daily from the village to
the castle for work, and seems to think the world
could scarcely get on without him, and least of all
the chief's family ; an agreeable delusion in which
he is allowed to continue, though often there is great
difficulty in inventing any employment suited to his
very limited powers.

Near the venerable old house of Castle Menzies
grow the finest sycamore trees in Scotland, over-
shadowing the beautiful park, which is barricadoed
round with wooded hills and lofty mountains. Close
behind the castle rises a singularly tall abrupt hill,
almost a sheer precipice from top to bottom, and
charmingly varied by trees, which have grappled
hold of the rocks, and manage, in a w^ay of theii
own, to keep their stations, but you and I would be
very sorry for ourselves, if we seemed as precariously
situated as many of them are.

Near the door of Castle Menzies may be seen
" The Chieftain's Stone," a large round block of
granite, weighing more than I venture to guess,
which the next heir, on succeeding to the supremacy
of this clan, was always expected to carry in his

CASTLE MENZIES. 319

arms up stairs to the dining-room, where his health
was drank. It would be almost as easy to lift the
house, or to run away with Schihallion at once ;
but if this achievement would have puzzled Hercu-
les, there is a Bacchanalian's cup in the Macleod
family, almost equally defying ordinary power,
formed to contain a bottle and a half of claret, w^hich
each successive chief is expected to drain at a
draught. I think such an achievement would have
made Bacchus himself become mortal.

Castle Menzies is one of the few very large old
houses in Perthshire, — " Long has it stood — still
honoured let it stand." The w^alls are ten feet thick,
being proof against the assault of a foe, but always
open to a friend, as the scenery around is not more
truly Highland than the welcome within. Some
centuries ago, the yet more ancient family residence
stood on a different site, but the clan Menzies hav-
ing peacefully assembled once in great numbers for
a christening festivity, the ancestor of Stewart of
Garth marched down with a host of retainers, be-
sieged the old fortifications, barricadoed the doors,
and set fire to the house, on which occasion a hun-
dred Menzies perished ! Murder was committed in
those days, both wholesale and retail, particularly
by smoking, but in many Highland cottages now,
the inhabitants appear so thoroughly seasoned with
peat and tobacco, that it would be no easy matter

320 CASTLE MENZIES.

to put them out of their usual atmosphere. Many
old women Ave saw during our tour, who looked
themselves like cigars ready to be lighted.

The new Castle, if it can be called new, was
built in 1573, by the same architect who reared one
at Taymouth, since razed to the ground, and it is
said that these two edifices occupied eleven years in
building. An elegant modern addition, uniform with
the old edifice, is now in progress under the eye of
Burn, who has all the quarries in Scotland at work.
The windows here exhibit very handsome gabled
ornaments on the exterior, and within we saw closets
cut in the thickness of the w^all, quite a la Mrs.
RadclifFe. After the family papers had narrowly
escaped the fire and ravages consequent on Garth's
attack, they were deposited here in a safe, like that
of a bank, or more like a square stone wall, entered
by a trap door from above, and inaccessible to fire,
air, earth, or water — as secure, in short, as the man-
uscripts of Pompeii.

In the sitting-room here, the embrasures of the
windows are so deep, that with a curtain let down,
they form a comfortable and commodious apartment,
so cheerful and bright sometimes, I could fancy my-
self living in the sun itself, though, perhaps, the
cheerful society within adds a beam or two of viva-
city to those venerable walls. It is astonishing in
so antique a Highland residence to hear nothing of

GLENLYON. 321

a ghost ; Mr. Burn should certainly be requested to

supply the deficiency by building a haunted room,

Where the curtains will shake of their own accord,
And the raven croak at the window board.

Near one extremity of the park at Castle Men-
zies, the Tay and the Lyon meet in a scene of such
marvellous beauty, that I sat down for half-an hour
to be in ecstasies, and to pity at my leisure all those
who live elsewhere. Through a long range of richly
cultivated meadows, these two broad rivers rush
violently into each other's arms, and the mountains
are all gathered round to witness the scene. One
tall peak of Schihallion had caught a side glimpse
of sunshine, which lighted up its usually frowning
aspect, and the waving forests on every neighbour-
ing hill were tipped with golden light.

We drove seven miles through the narrow
mountainous vale of Glenlyon, an exqiusite specimen
of Highland beauty, being enlivened by the sparkling
river, and hemmed in by hills glowing with heather.
It might have made a schoolboy tremble to see how
the birches were waving over our heads ; and here
the mountains are so lofty that villages lying at their
base are three or four months every year without
seeing the sun. The river Lyon, which now looked
like a flood of light, once ran red with the blood of
the slaughtered Macgregors, when, after a fierce con-
flict, the conquerors washed their swords in the stream.

Not a feature in this landscape could be altered

322 GLENLYON.

without injury, and a painter might advantageously
spend his whole life in taking views, every one of
which would appear completely different. In some
places you seem to have discovered an unknown
world, never trod by human footstep, then comes an
old ruin, hiding its decay in wreaths of ivy and roses,
next appears a smiling village, afterwards a long
colonnade of superb plane or ash trees, then a thriv-
ing farm, here and there a church; and the old
burjdng-ground at Fortingal, is particularly interest-
ing. Go where you will, " we cannot leave the
footsteps of the dead," and I often think how strange
it is to consider, that for several thousand years, hun-
dreds of men have died every day, and hundreds are
as regularly born to succeed them. It has been a
long and ceaseless procession for centuries, from the
cradle to the grave, in which year after year new
actors appear and vanish ; but our turn to walk for
a time along the busy scenes of life has now come,
and then, like the millions who have preceded us,
w^e shall plunge into the gulf of eternity, making
way for those in rapid succession who follow.
None can stay his own progress — none can choose
w^hen he shall be summoned upon the stage of life,
or torn away from its fleeting scenes ; but the Chris-
tian need fear no evil, as there is prepared for us a
holy garment to wear during our progress, the robe
of our Saviour's righteousness, sheltered in which we
may safely and peacefully pass from the vicissitudes

GLENLYON. 323

of time, into the glorious mansions of eternity. His
followers and disciples may confidently go forward
to join the many who have preceded them into the
regions of glory, and there wait for the many who
shall yet be called to join the heavenly host in their
songs of everlasting joy and praise.

In this church-yard many ancient graves were
overshadowed once by the largest yew tree ever
known, which could have furnished bows for her
Majesty's whole body-guard of archers. It measm^ed
fifty-six feet round, and, until lately, carriages at-
tending a funeral used to drive through the hollow
trunk. There only remains now one little monu-
ment of its existence, in the shape of a small stunted
fragment, not larger than a tombstone. Seeing this
forlorn leafless relic, one might be apt to forget that
it ever was young and flourishing, as children who
behold the aged survivors of a past generation,
look upon them often with a sort of contemptuous
pity, and fancy they are made only for decay and
death. There are three distinct stages which we
must expect to experience in the attachment of those
around us. The fond and partial affection of our
parents in childhood, is exchanged in after life for
the companionship and confidence of cotemporaries,
but when these early associates are swept into the
grave, if we live to see that painful hour when the
closest and dearest ties of an earthly existence are

324 GLENLYON.

severed by the tomb, then comes the time when we
must be satisfied with the compassionate sympathy
of a subsequent generation. When memory, instead
of hope, becomes our only Hnk to the world, an
aged Christian must fervently long for that hour
Avhen " the weary springs of life stand still at last,"
and when he shall be born into a new and better
world, there to regain the long lost friends, forgot-
ten perhaps by all but himself, whom once he loved
and knew. In such a case, who would not envy
the weary pilgrim, when closing his eyes on the
sorrows and infirmities of a present life, in the be-
lieving hope that his sufferings are over, and the
victory won for him by a once crucified and now
glorified Redeemer ?

" Oh, mourn not for them, their grief is o'er ;
Oh, weep not for them, they weep no more ;
For deep is their sleep, though cold and hard
Their pillow may be in the old kirk-yard."

Along this glen, we passed the scene of a tragi-
cal event, in which there certainly seems to have
been almost an instance of second sight. A most
promising and intelligent young man, Mr. Campbell,
factor to Sir Neil Menzies, was most unfortunately
killed here five years ago, by his horse taking fright,
and leaping over the parapet of a bridge, when
both the animal and his rider were dashed to pieces.
On examining his papers, it w^as found that, in the

GLENLYON. 325

morning of that fatal day, he had risen particularly
early, and made his will, leaving every article he
possessed to different friends. Even his wardrobe
and pocket-handkerchiefs were specified, and not a
single thing omitted, except the clothes he rode
out in.

We must not claim second-sight, however, for
the well-known General Stewart of Garth, whose
residence, Drummachariy, being in the glen, he
gave a farewell-dinner here to all his neighbours,
on the occasion of his departing to take a command
in the West Indies, and made a speech, inviting the
whole party to reassemble at the same table that
day three years ; but, alas ! before as many months
had elapsed, that brave and talented officer fell a
victim to the climate. His estate has been sold to
Sir Archibald Campbell of Burmese celebrity, but I
did not hear w^hether he fulfilled his predecessor's
promise, of a dinner on the day specified. It is cu-
rious that no hospitable hon-vivant ever thought of
instituting an annual dinner, with ices, turkeys, and
champaign, in commemoration of his own memory,
to be continued as long as any one survived who
had personally known him. It would be some-
thing new, and might ensure his not being forgotten
under a certain number of years, which is by no
means a very easy object for any one to accomplish
in these busy stirring times.
28

TAYMOUTH

He saw apartments where appear'd to rise
What seem'd as men, and fix'd on him their eyes-
Pictures that spoke ; and there were mirrors tall,
Doubling each wonder by reflecting all.

Crabbe.

My dear Cousin,— It is not always true, as
writing masters persist in telling their pupils, that
" Familiarity breeds contempt." On the con-
trary, every day, as it increases my intimacy with
the Highlands, increases also my respect and admi-
ration for them, so that I wish to learn by heart
every nook and cranny throughout their wide extent,
and feel convinced that life is too short for studying
thoroughly, and enjoying sufficiently, their inex-
haustible beauties.

We this morning treated our eyes to a sight of
Taymouth, anciently Balloch, one of the chief
glories of Scotland, belonging for many centuries
past to the ancestors of Lord Breadalbane, the
present proprietor, whose family motto has this pe-
culiarity, that such of the Campbells as are branches
of the same stem, all carry a sentence which replies
to their leader. The Marquis says, " Follow me ;"
to which one family answers, " I follow ;" another,

TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 327

" Thus far ;" a third, " I bide my time ;" a fourth,
" Victory follows the brave j" and a fifth, " I follow
what is right ;" a most judicious limitation to their
allegiance. The late Peer somewhat perplexed the
ignorant Highlanders, who had been accustomed
from time immemorial to call their noble landlords,
" Breada-a-albane," by insisting on the more mod-
ern appellation of " My Lo-o-ord," to which they
are now becoming somewhat accustomed, though it
still seems to them a great diminution of dignity.

The Emperor of Russia once declared that if he
were not Alexander he would be a British country
gentleman, but I go far beyond him, being convinced
that Taymouth Castle would be incomparably pre-
ferable to the Imperial palace at Petersburgh, and
you will think the same as soon as you have seen
both, which, by the way, I have not yet done
myself.

The rushing Tay devolves from its parent lake
at the west end of the park, which is varied by fine
specimens of forest trees in every variety, and situ-
ated between two ranges of mountains, wooded to
their summits, and torn asunder to make way for
the broad expanse of pleasure grounds between.

With a few architectural faults, this house is a
noble baronial pile, which has few rivals in the
Highlands, but the nearer any thing approaches to
being a ne plus ultra, the more inclined people are to

328 TAYMOUTH CASTLE.

exhibit that most universal of all talents, a taste for
fault-finding, of which I must now give you a speci-
men. Those who are so fastidious that they cannot
exist without perfection, should leave this world as
soon as possible : but while the objections of critics
are often frivolous and vexatious, I like to hear the
opinions of judges, who keep all their eyes open for
beauty, and only look askance at defects ; accord-
ingly, I agree with those who object to a wing of
the old house having been allowed to survive, which
is obviously incongruous with the modern castle,
and breaks the line in a plan decidedly meant to be
formal. This excrescence, w^hich has baffled the
united taste of the present proprietor and of the
modern architect, was retained by the late Mar-
quis as his home while he reared this elegant castle,
and he became so attached to it that the addition
would at last have been thrown down by him rather
than the original. The new edifice forms a large
solid square, flanked by handsome round towers at
each corner. One wing on the right contains an
elegant private chapel, embellished with a highly
ornamented tower, and the corresponding wing, —
which does not, however, correspond at all, — is a
long gothic edifice containing the stables and oflfices.
If any description could do half-quarter justice
to this unsurpassable place, you would say my sketch
must be "_p/w5 helle que la vcrite.^^ Only fancy its

TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 329

terrace winding by the river side, its three miles of
beeches, its Ume trees, — forming a gothic arch of
nearly a mile long, — the forest glades, the flowery
meadows, the rocks, and wooded hills ! If a fairy
offered to add whatever we might propose to em-
bellish the scene, what could you ask for more ?
The gardens are delicious, and nothing enchanted
me more than a fancy dairy, built some years ago,
of transparent spar, like rough blocks of ice, pro-
jecting so as to catch every sun-beam, and to reflect
back all the prismatic colours of the rainbow. It
looks as if an ice-berg had been stranded here and
excavated for the occasion, or as if the Empress
Catherine had sent over a specimen of her celebrated
frozen-palace to astonish the Highlands.

Under a grove of trees, I suddenly observed a
noble herd of red-deer, and it would have driven
any sportsman crazy with delight to see these grace-
ful creatures all starting up at our approach. They
stared for some time, then trotted away in a line,
tossing their branching horns with inexpressible
dignity, and after performing a sort of military
movement round the park, they formed in a half
circle, wheeled rapidly past us, and took up a com-
manding position on a high bank very near where
we ^tood, appearing there to the utmost advantage.

At this moment I began to have a glimmering
recollection that this was the very spot where, two
28*

330 TAYMOUTH CASTLE.

years ago, one of these very animals attacked Mr.
Fox Maule's carriage-horses, and killed one, besides
severely wounding the other. This caused me some
little panic on beholding the regiment of antlers
bristling in formidable array so very near, and on
turning a sharp corner we found ourselves close to
one tall stately -looking hart. He seemed perfectly
tame, and allowed me to pat him, becoming gradu-
ally so propitiated by our friendly attentions, that
he turned to join the party, and actually walked at
least a mile in our company, evidently much pleased
with his new associates, and looking so intelhgent
that he seemed to understand all we said. The red-
deer are very dangerous, however, in this half-tame
state, and one transported lately to Ireland, became so
furious that after killing one man and attacking a
second, he had to be shot. During our progress,
therefore, I wished it had been possible civilly to get
rid of our new companion, as I did not particularly
enjoy walking in this way, arm and arm with so
formidable a stranger, but he behaved extremely
well, and seemed really sorry to leave us, when

A slammed the gate in his face, on our quitting

the park.

Several bisons from South America were like-
wise grazing near the house at Taymouth, so we
were in a perfect zoological garden, without the ad-
vantage of cages, which are, on the whole, rather

TAYMOUTH CASTLE. 331

desirable under such circumstances. I was after-
wards informed that these far-travelled foreigners
are, even in their own country, exceedingly fierce,
but in the rich pastures of Perthshire the bisons be-
come still more irritable. They did not, however,
take the trouble of tossing us !

The Baron's hall, at Taymouth Castle, with its
cathedral-hke door, is a splendid room, the wain-
scot of richly carved oak, the windows of painted
glass, emblazoned with the family arms, and the
oak floor so extremely slippery that only a skilful
skaiter should venture across.

In the drawing-room hang two portraits alleg-
ed to be Vandyke's best. That artist's great patron,
with whom he frequently resided, was Rich, Earl of
Holland, one of the handsomest men of the age ;
and ample justice has been done here to the chival-
ric appearance of that nobleman, so admired at court
that Charles the First became jealous, and caused
him to be imprisoned within his own house. The
Earl's politics, like the Vicar of Bray's, were most
accommodating, but nevertheless, he died on the
scaffold at last, for making one final effort in behalf
of his royal master. That melancholy end is what I
always expect to hear of, when admiring any fine
chevalier-looking portrait of a distinguished man in
those turbulent days. The costume of this picture
is too splendid for almost any court in the present

332 TAYMOUTH CASTLE.

time. What would Louis Philippe's mud-bespattered
courtiers say to Lord Holland's white boots trimmed
with point, a dress of white and gold, and a scarlet
cloak flowing down behind, while his magnificent
armour, which seems to have been that moment put
off, is glittering beside him ?

The other Vandyke represents Lord Holland's
elder brother, the Earl of Warwick, High Admiral
of England, and a steady supporter of Cromwell's.
In those days he kept open house for the clergy,
saying, "I make merry with them and at them."
This picture is very animated, the dress beautiful,
and the silken hose so exceedingly pink that they
would put a rose to the blush, but in those days
silk stockings were borrowed even by a crowned
monarch, and few noblemen being rich enough to
have any, the painter has shown them due attention.

Here also we observed several pictures by
Jameson, the Scottish Vandyke, whose prices would
be an excellent example to modern artists, for we
might all sit, if portraits of first-rate merit cost only
£1, 3s. 4d. per head ! Most of the Taymouth an-
cestors are now in London, getting themselves re-
freshed, re-gilt, and re-varnished, but we saw the
first Lord Breadalbane, one of the cleverest men in
his day, who married the daughter of Lord Holland,
and, when she died, he gained large estates in Caith-
ness, by espousing a widow, heiress to the ancient

GLAMMIS CASTLE. 333

Earls of Caithness. Having occasion to conquer
his newly acquired territory, he caused a ship, laden
with whiskey, to be purposely stranded off the coast,
and when the people assembled to plunder it, he
surprised them in a state of intoxication, and de-
feated the revellers with great slaughter.

In the new addition to Taymouth Castle, some
of the sitting-rooms appear only to be accessible by
passing through the chapel ; and the ceiling of the
library has already cost jGSOO. It is most elaborately
decorated in the antique style, with deep cornices,
and a profusion of curious devices ; but in order fully
to examine and appreciate all the ornaments, a
visiter would require to prostrate himself for some
hours on the floor.

About twelve miles beyond Cupar, in the rich
valley of Strathmore, stands the beautiful castle of
Glammis, a tall building nearly one hundred feet
high, with a world of spires, towers, turrets, and
battlements ; but its greatest peculiarity is the shape,
having four wings projecting like spokes of a wheel,
towards different points of the compass. It has for
ages past belonged to the Earls of Strathmore, who
must have been, if painters did not flatter in former
days, as they sometimes do now, a singularly hand-
some race. The most interesting event in this fam-
ily was the tragical fate of the young, innocent, and
beautiful Lady Glammis, publicly and ignominiously

334 GLAMMIS CASTLE.

burned to death for witchcraft on the Castlehill of
Edinburgh. She was sister to the Earl of Angus,
whom James the Fifth, his step-son, hated, and his
royal detestation against the house of Douglas, led
him to accuse this amiable lady of " spelling away
his life." His Majesty certainly contrived to shorten
hers I Lady Glammis's son, a mere child, was for-
feited, imprisoned, and condemned to be executed,
but after the king's death he was restored. His
eldest son, the chancellor, was slain by accident,
in consequence of a feud with the Earl of Craw-
ford ; and his second son was the gruff Master of
Glammis, who kept the door against King James
during the famous raid of Ruthven ; and when the
young monarch burst into tears, he dryly remarked,
^' Better that children weep than bearded men," a
view of the subject which his Majesty never forgot.

In later times there were six brothers in this
family, who, each in succession, became Earl of
Strathmore, and the last died a very amiable death
when endeavouring to pacify some angry combat-
ants in a brawl.

As we are homeward-bound now, I expect soon
to exchange writing for speaking, and narrrative
for dialogue, which will be a most welcome improve-
ment in our intercourse, and I hope our two minds
w^ill often strike a light between them. I have
sometimes thought how curious it would be, if a

GLAMMIS CASTLE. 335

volume were supernaturally to appear at the end of
men's lives, containing all they have ever spoken.
Some would be seen to have scarcely uttered so
many words altogether as would fill a small duode-
cimo, while others have rattled out more in a day
than most people in a year ; but, as Pope says, the
tongue is a race-horse, that runs the faster the less
it carries. We shall both of course hit exactly the
happy medium between taciturnity and volubihty ;
meantime wishing you joy of having so voluminous
a correspondent, I bid you once more, a very short
adieu.

Lost in earth, in air, or main,
Kindred atoms meet again !

BLAIR-ATHOL.

Give ear unto my song,

And if you find it wondrous short,

It cannot hold you long. Goldsmith.

My dear Cousin, — This is the only letter I have
yet felt any regret in sitting down to write, being
my P.P.C. It is always unpleasant to do any thing
for the last time, — even when finally stepping out
of an old hack-chaise. 1 could almost muster up
some fine feelings for the occasion. Conceive then
my emotion, on parting w^ith this veteran pen, split
up to the hilt, and on giving it a final dip into ink
as thick as a pudding; but one great secret of writing
is, to know the proper time for stopping, and I
agree with a very sensible French writer who
remarks, " C^est le role d'un sot d^etre impoHun.
Vhomme sage, scait disparoitre le moment qui pre-
cede celui ou il seroit de trop.^'

A gay annual meeting takes place in Perthshire
at this season, for the practice and exhibition of all
those athletic games and exercises for which the
Highlanders used formerly to be so pre-eminent, and
as it is held this year close to Blair-Athol, at the
bridge of Tilt, we thought our best compensation
for not seeing Lord Eglinton's Tilting would be, to

BLAIR-ATHOL. 337

join this rendezvous at the Tilt meeting, especially,
as we were invited to accompany a party with whom
it would have been a pleasure to go anywhere, and
accordingly we proceeded to what an English
stranger called by mistake " the kilt meeting."

Here, as well as at the Ayrshire tournament, the
spectators would all have required the Humane So-
ciety's apparatus to recover drowned persons, for the
rain fell in such torrents, it really was a natural cu-
riosity worth coming all the distance to see. Though
wind and weather did not permit, however, crowds
remained many hours on the ground, and in full stare,
and certainly a more curious exhibition can scarcely
be fancied than those Olympic games of the North.

On a grassy plain, like a magnified bowling-
green, surrounded by a ring of wild and wooded
mountains, we saw a brilliant circle of carriages,
filled with ladies — all young and beautiful, of course
— wearing arches of feathers over their heads, and
gardens of flowers underneath their bonnets. Within
this wreath of beauty and fashion, was collected a
multitude of tall, fine-looking Highlanders, showily
dressed in the gay tartans of their various clans.
Here kilts^, philabegs, plaids, dirks. Highland bon-
nets, and eagles' feathers were all mingled in one
dazzling medley, varied by the animated counte-
nances of those who wore them, all glowing with
health, excitement, and good humour. The scene
29

338 BLAIR-ATHOL.

was greatly enlivened by the warlike bagpipes, dec-
orated with magnificent banners, and long streamers
which floated like rainbows in the air ; and without
doubt the most dignified looking human being who
steps upon the earth, is a Highland piper in full cos-
tume, his feathers waving like cedar trees in his bon-
net, while he blows through his pipe till he almost
blows his head off, and struts about, as if he were
leading all his clansmen to victory. We have
never been distinctly told what was " the tune the
cow died of," but I am convinced it could only be a
Highland pibroch.

The chieftains, noblemen, and gentlemen in gen-
eral, wore the undress tartan livery of their clans,
exactly similar to that of their tenants, servants, or
dependents, and we were expected to distinguish the
aristocracy from the democracy, not by any advan-
tages of dress and ornament, but by a native superi-
ority of air, manner, and appearance. In some cases
this was very easily done, for we could trace a dig-
nity of exterior in those accustomed to authority and
distinction, carrying " pride in their port, and defi-
ance in their eye," which announced at once a man
of birth and rank, but, on the other hand, there were
many illustrious individuals, who relied on our pen-
etration rather too implicitly. Among so many fine
soldier-like men, practised in fencing, dancing, and
other manly exercises, it required something very

BLAIR-ATHOL. 339

nearly superhuman to cause an instinctive recogni-
tion of any person's real rank and consequence. If
the officers in a regiment were all equipped exactly
like the men, and indiscriminately mingled together,
it might puzzle even a Field Marshal, or a Lord in
Waiting to discriminate the difference ; and even a
Highland chief, in coarse tartan plaid, and blue bon-
net, looks sometimes, to an ordinary eye, not very
unlike a Highland drover.

I have heard of such a contradiction in terms as
" an aristocratic democrat," which may do in poli-
tics perhaps, but can scarcely be hit off in dress ;
and it is such voluntary levelling of their own exter-
nal distinctions in the higher classes, which produces
Radicalism and discontent among the lower orders.
If noblemen and landed proprietors, instead of
" hiding behind the veil of insignificancy," would
take the trouble — for a trouble it certainly must be —
to appear on all public occasions in a degree of state
suitable to their dignity, we should hear less about
the feelings of equality and insubordination, which
are now so rapidly increasing among those who,
being unable to estimate moral and intellectual pre-
eminence, know nothing of great men but their out-
ward aspect, and who observe little in that respect
very obviously superior to themselves. You have
often seen the sun, when shorn of his beams, look
very like the moon, and I could fancy how conve-

340 BLAIR-ATHOL.

iiient it would be to a peacock, if he could go about
occasionally quite incog without his tail, but then
he must not be surprised if other birds think them-
selves as good as he. The old proverb is really
mistaken in saying, that " pride feels no pain," be-
cause it is often put to a great deal of inconvenience
by the external trappings of magnificence, which
nevertheless it is unfair towards all ranks of society,
entirely to lay aside.

A tall grand looking Highlander in full costume
was pointed out to me at the Tilt meeting, who held
himself particularly erect, and walked with a free
and graceful step. My companion whispered that

he was the eldest son of Lord S n, and I never

guessed, of course, that there could be any mistake,
till several minutes afterwards, when he appeared
in the ring as a competitor, instead of a judge, and
he turned out to be an innkeeper, celebrated for his
prowess and activity. It must be difficult for men
making so astonishing a display of agility and power,
which they probably occupy years in acquiring, to
remember always the admonition of the Holy Scrip-
ture, not to " glory in their strength."

Each performer successively carried the well-
grown trunk of a larch tree, nearly twenty feet
long, quite erect in his hands, and after running a
few steps, threw it violently forward with so strong
an impetus, that the top struck the ground, and it

BLAIR-ATHOL. 341

wheeled completely over, describing a half-circle in
the air. As one competitor after another attempted
this Herculean feat, a pause of intense interest took
place, but the greatest success did not elicit a soup-
gon of applause. If the audience had been com-
posed of Madame Tassaud's wax- work figures, they
could scarcely have remained more passive. Except
a glance of surprise exchanged between those who
stood nearest each other, no external symptom of
approbation appeared ! It is so commonly the case
in Scotland, that orators, musicians, and other pub-
lic performers, become discouraged and abashed by
the solemn silence which follows their most bril-
liant efforts, that I mean to invent a machine, and
take out a patent for it, which shall make a sound
like the clapping of several hundred hands, when-
ever any single individual touches the spring,
which will thus fill up the pauses of orators, while
searching for an idea, and afford the encouragement
necessary for carrying on eveiy display of ability
with proper spirit. The only speech I have heard
of lately which excited sufficient enthusiasm, was
that of a political candidate to a Radical mob, when
he began by saying, " Gentlemen !" and not one of
the audience having ever been thus addressed before,
the burst of applause became so deafening, that not
another word of his speech was audible.

Highland dancing displays incomparable execu-
29*

342 BLAIR-ATHOL.

tion, and requires a rapidity of movement which the
eye can scarcely follow. One of the- performances
would have amused you much, on account of the ex-
treme precision and neatness w^hich it required, being
quite in the hair-breadth style. Two walking sticks
are laid on the ground in a horizontal cross, within
the four angles of which a dancer undertakes to per-
form with matchless rapidity a series of the most
intricate steps, but the instant his foot accidentally
touches one of the sticks, he is obliged to stop. For-
merly two sharp swords supplied the place of those
inoffensive poles, and they so effectually disabled a
performer, after the slightest /az^ pas, from contin-
uing to exhibit, that he might as well have executed
his hornpipe among red-hot ploughshares. The
dance gets quicker and quicker, the music more
rapid, and the steps more intricate every instant,
while the competitor passes with ceaseless activity
over the prostrate sticks, springing so lightly across,
that his feet seem only pointing at the ground, with-
out ever resting on it. All that feet can do, these
Highlanders did, and more than I ever saw any feet
attempt before, but we all looked on in solemn
silence, as if witnessing an execution.

Nothing ever looked more like insanity than the
reels at last ! Four stout Highlanders, in full dress,
raised on a wet slippery wooden platform, and
dancing in the open air, under a torrent of rain,

BLAIR-ATHOL. 343

cracking their fingers to imitate castenets, shuffling,
capering, cutting, whirhng round, and uttering a
sort of sudden yell, customary here, during a very
animated dance, to encourage the piper. In tolera-
ble weather this would have been all very enlivening,
but I felt grieved for the beautiful tartans, which
grew dim as we looked at them, and such joyous
merriment, under a canopy of mist, rain, and east
wind, seemed quite delirious.

The wives, sisters, and daughters of the perfor-
mers were all anxiously looking on from beneath
their cotton umbrellas with sensations of interest
and excitement, such as the greatest gambler on a
race-course might have envied, and my chief diver-
sion arose from watching their eager countenances,
while frequently, in a burst of uncontrollable excite-
ment, they broke through the lines, and advanced
within a few paces of the competitors. At one
moment, when the rain poured down with pecuhar
vehemence, a crowd of dripping-wet clansmen, to
save their gay tartans, put up a multitude of umbrel-
las, and cowered so near our carriage for shelter,
that we saw nothing of the dancing. My teasing
dilemma being observed by one of the judges who
happened to pass, he obligingly resolved to befriend
me, and called out to the men in a tone of indignant
astonishment, " Put down these umbrellas ! ! Who
ever heard before of a Highlander with an umbrella!"

344 BLAIR-ATHOL.

Down dropped every umbrella on the spot, and
the poor men looked like convicted criminals, quite
humbled at the very idea of being considered effemi-
nate, while I really sympathized in their mortifica-
tion, aware that, to a Celt, no accusation could have
been more unwelcome.

As a learned philosopher once judiciously ob-
served, " every thing that has a limit must come to
an end ;" and now having introduced you to the
scenery, machinery, and decorations of the High-
lands, while the whole dramatis personcE are col-
lected on the stage in a state of perfect happiness, I
must remember that, under such circumstances, it is
customary for either a comedy or tragedy to con-
clude, after which the manager makes his final
speech, filled with humility on account of his own
deficiencies, and of gratitude for favours received.
According, therefore, to established prescription, I
shall finish now, in the appropriate words of Shak-
speare :

Thus on your patience evermore attending,
Nev/ joy wait on you ! Here our play has ending.

Flourish of trumpets, drums and bagpipes, —
enter a procession of Highlanders. They form a
group, and the curtain gradually drops, amidst
thunders of applause. [Exeunt.

THE END.

INDEX

Aberdeen,

College of, .

Episcopal Church at
Abergeldie Castle,
Altyre, approach to, :
AthoU, Duke of,
Barrogill Castle,
Berridale, '.
Brodie Castle,

Portraits at,
Balgownie,
Balveny Castle,
Ballindalloch,
Banff, .
Balmorrall,
Blairgowrie, .
Blair-Athol,

Tilt-meeting at,
Caithness,

Ord of.

Fishermen of, .
Castle Grant, .

Portraits at,
Cullen House, .

Portraits at,
Castle Fraser, .
Castle Forbes,
Craigievar,

Castle,

Page
259
261
263
284
309
309
58
24
145
146
175
186
186
234
285
294
336
337
39
21
27
178
183
228
229
267
273
278
277

346

INDEX.

Craighall,

Caslle Blair, ....

Castle Menzies, .

Dornoch, ....

Cathedral at,
Duke and Duchess of Sutherland, .
Dunrobin Castle,

Portraits at,
Dunbeath, Castle of,
Darnaway Castle,

Portraits at,
Dunphail, ....

Gumming of,

Great flood at,
Duflf House,

Portraits at, . .
Dunottar Castle, .

Dee, River, ....
Dunkeld, ....

Cathedral, .

Grounds of,
Elchies, ....

Elgin, . ...

Cathedral at, ;

Fowling, Anecdotes of, .
Fair Isle, ....

Singular Religious destitution of,

Recommended as a Missionary Station,

Treatment of a shipwrecked crew at,
Fort Charlotte, ....

Ferry town,
Forres, ....

Ancient Monument near,
Fochabers, ....

Infant Schools at,

INDEX.

Fyvie.

Castle,

Park of,

Portraits at, .
Golspie, .
Girnigo Castle,
Grantown,
Glenfiddich, .
Gordon Castle, .

Portraits at, .
Glenlivet, .
Glenlyon,

Large yew-tree at,
Gordon, Duke of.

Duchess of,
Glammis Castle,
Helmsdale,

Castle of,
Huntly, Countess of,
Inverness,

Wool market at,
Invercauld,

John O'Groat's House, .
Kirkwall,

Cathedral of, .
Kildrummy Castle, .

History of,
Killiecrankie,
Lerwick, .

Hospitality at,
Laird of Bonymoon,
Lynn of Dee,
Lude,

Logle Rait,
Lady Glammis, tragical fate of,

348

INDEX.

Mitchell, James,

Moy House,

Morayshire, .

Monymusk,

Macbeih's Cairn,

Mar Lodge,

Nottingham House, .

Nairn, . . . ■

Pitfichy,

Reluglas, .

Sinclair Castle,

Stircoke, .

Second Sight,

Scrabster Castle, .

Shetland,

Road in.

Manufactures of.

First Steam-boat to,

Sheep of.

Ponies of,

Birds of.
Sir John Sinclair,
Sumburgh-head,
Sanda, Isle of,
Sanquhar House,
Spey Bridge,
Sir Neil Menzies,
Thurso, .

Castle of,
Tay mouth.

Castle,

Portraits at,
Wick, .

Popish Chapel at,
Weem,

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