Art Rambles in the Highlands and Islands of Scotland ... With ... sketches, etc

Preface

. ■*■ THE Author has hope that he who reads this volume will have a share of the pleasure which fell to his own lot while he visited the scenes he has endeavoured to describe and illustrate. He desires that his pictorial pages may aid those whose time is spent in* earnest labour, amid the disturbing influences of city life, to live over again the health-giving days spent in our mountain land, and is wish ful that his Rambles may prove an agreeable book com panion to all who make its acquaintance. He has not entered the fields of archæology, history, or science. As author and artist he has enrolled himself a tsraduate in Dame Nature's school. ■o The pictures were taken from our Highland and Island land and sea-scape, and drawn on the wood from his original sketches by his own hand. He gladly acknowledges his indebtedness to Messrs. Dalziel Brothers for their faithful and appreciative rendering of his drawings. 11 Broughton Place, Edinburgh.

August, 1877. BURNMDE, NEAR EDINBURGH. BRIDGE AT ABERFOYLE. CORRIE, DUNDONALD. CONTENTS 7HAPTER PAGE I. — THE FZRTH OF FORTH ..... 1 II. — TROSACHSWARDS, via STIRLING . . . . 1 3 III. — LOCHS KATRINE AND LOMOND .... 33 IV. — A TRIP TO ARRAN'S ISLE . . . . • S2 V. — AMONG THE ISLES . . . . . 66 VI. GLFNCOE AND THE GREAT GLEN . . . . So VII. — LOCHS MAREE AND TORRIDON . . . . 9 1 VIII. DAYS SPENT IN THE ISLE OF SKYE .... IOI IX. — LEWIS . . . . . . . 115 X. THE NORTH-EAST COAST OF SCOTLAND . . . . 132 XI. ABERDEEN, AND HOME Via BALMORAL AND THE BRAES OF MAR I45 XII. — EDINBURGH AND ITS SURROUNDINGS .... 155

Appendix

. . . . . . .165 SUTHERLAND MOUNTAINS. LIST OF VI EWS.

Opposite pace THE PORT OF LEITH 2 STIRLING CASTLE, FROM RAPLOCH 18 BRAES OF DOUNE 24 BEN LEDI AND LENNIE WATER 28 BREAD-WIFE'S COTTAGE, BRIG o' TURK,.; 32 THE TROSACHS 34 LOCH KATRINE, FROM SILVER STRAND 38 ACHRAY RIVER 42 LOCH ACHRAY 44 LOCH LOMOND 48 VIEW FROM THE TOP OF GOAT FELI 58 DUNSTAFFNAGE CASTLE 7° STAFF A 72 SCARAN1SH BAY, TIREE 74 FALL NEAR TOBERMORY, MULL 78 GLENCOE °2 SILVER BIRCHES, INVERGARRY' 84 ON THE GARRY, INVERGARRY 86 LOCH OICH, CALEDONIAN CANAI 88 CULLODEN 9° Opposite past LOCH MAREE 9*5 RAVINE, LOCH MAREE-SIDE 98 LOCH COIRUISG 108 INSIHE CUIRAING II2 CUIRAING, FROM STAFFIN BAY «4 WINTER SCENE, SKYE "6 CLIFF SCENE NEAR GRESS, LEWIS 120 GARRYNAHINE, LEWIS 122 CALLANISH STONES, LEWIS 124 BEEHIVE COTTAGE, LEWIS 126 BUTT OF LEWIS I28 LOCH MADDY, NORTH UI3T 13° LOCH OUSIE, NEAR DINGWALL 134 OLD MAN OF WICK '. 14° ABERDEEN HARBOUR H^ BALMORAL T5° BRAES OF MAR I52 BRIDGE OF CALLY r54 CURRIE BURN, NEAR EDINBURGH 160 VIEW FROM WEST I'RINCES ST. GARDENS, EDINBURGH 162 LETTERPRESS ILLUSTRATIONS Page DUMYAT I7 THE RIVER FORTH *8 ABBEY CRAIG x9 TEENIE 22 sweep's WAINS 25 ELLEN LAMB 2° DOUNE CASTLE 27 VENACHAR, FROM ABOVE CALLANDEK 29 DUNCRAGGAN HUT 31 CALLANDER BRIDGE 32 LOCH KATRINE, LOOKING TOWARDS STRONACHLACHAR 33 Page loch seaforth, lewis Head of Preface corrie, dundonald Head of 'Contents BRIDGE AT ABERFOYLE Foot of Contents Sutherland mountains Head of List of Views THE BASS ROCK * NEWHAVEN 2 INCH KEITH 8 SWEETIE STALL 10 EXCURSIONISTS RETURNING 12 WILD ROSE 13 ROAD SCENE -■ T4 L etterp rcss I I In st ratio n s.

Page the hill road, glen finlas 35 ellen's isle .'. 37 a peep at loch katrine head 38 corrie at the back of ben venue 39 evening sketch of loch achray 41 view from the inn window, aberfovle 43 LOCH ARD 44 ABOVE LOCH ARD 45 AT THE BACK OF BEN LOMOND 46 LOCH ARKLET 47 LOCH LOMOND 47 THE COBBLER AND HIS WIFE 48 COBBLER IN MIST 49 COBBLER IN MIST 49 SHE MORE GLEN, LOCH LOMOND-SIDE 51 CLIFFS, WEST COAST OF ARRAN 52 THE BOAT-BOUSE, BRODICK, ARRAN 54 GLEN ROSA MOUNTAINS, FROM BRODICK BAY, ISLE OF ARRAN 56 HOLY ISLE 57 DAYDAWN, BRODICK BAV 61 COTTAGE AT LOCH RANZA, ARRAN 63 LOCH RANZA CASTLE, ISLE OF ARRAN 64 SAILOR'S GRAVE, WEST OF ARRAN 65 IONA 66 ROTH ES AY BAY 67 COTTAGE ABOVE CRINAN CANAI 68 CRINAN CANAL 69 FLADDA 71 LUNGA 71 Dutchman's cap 71 STAFF A 72 CTBAN SOUND 72 CROAG, ISLE OF MULL 73 ISLE OF COLL 74 A SANDY BAY, TIREE 75 DRUID STONE, TIREE 76 FISHER'S HUT, TIREE 77 TIREE FARMHOUSE 77 MULL, LOOKING SOUTH 78 AROS CASTLE, ISLE OF MULI. 79 DUNOLLY CASTLE, OBAN 80 MOUNTAINS OF LORNE 81 CORRIE AT GLENCOE 82 WELL OF SEVEN HEADS 87 CALEDONIAN CANAL 88 INVERNESS COTTAGES 89 INVERGARRY CASTLE, LOCH OICH go Paste ON THE CONON, NEAR DINGWALI 91 FROM CONON BRIDGE 92 BEN ALUGAN, LOCH TORRIDON 94 COTTAGE, LOCH TORRIDON 95 IN GLEN TORRIDON, ROSS-SHIRE 9-5 AMONG THE DUNDONALD MOUNTAINS IOO OPPOSITE THE CUIRAING IOI PORTREE BAY, ISLE OF SKYE i°3 COTTAGES, STORMY HILL, SKYE 104 STORR ROCK, ISLE (F SKYE I°6 GLAMAIG WATER, ISLE OF SKYE 107 SCOOR-NAN-GILLEAN, ISLE OF SKYE 109 OUT-STACK AND THE KILT ROCK, STAFFIN BAY, SKYE 113 STAFFIN BAV, SKYE "4 STORNOWAY CASTLE 1*5 CAVE NEAR GRESS, LEWIS 119 MAINLAND MOUNTAINS, FROM ISLE OF LEWIS 121 DRUID CIRCLE, NEAR GARRYNAHINE 122 CLIFFS, BUTT OF LEWIS 126 BUTT OF LEWIS LIGHTHOUSE 128 THE SHIANT ISLES 1?9 ULLAPOOL MOUNTAINS 130 LOCH MADDY, NORTH UIST, HEBRIDES 131 WICK BAY I32 BEN WYVIS, FROM NEAR DINGWALL T34 HOME OF THE TINKERS, WICK I38 NOSS HEAD I41 SINCLAIR BAY I42 ARCH ON THK THURSO COAST 143 CLIFFS TO THE WEST OF DUNNET HEAD 143 THE CLETT STACK, NEAR THURSO 144 THE GREEN MARKET, ABERDEEN .- 145 WRECK OF THE " DUNCHATTAN," ABERDEEN BAY.. 147 OLD ABERDEEN 148 BALGOWN1E BRTG, NEAR ABERDEEN 149 ON THE DEE, FROM BALLATER IfO CAIRN-NA-QUHEEN, BALMORAL 152 NEARING GLEN SHEE 153 GLEN SHEE 154 sr. Anthony's chapel, Edinburgh 155 CALTON HILL FROM ROSEBANK 157 A QUIET NOOK NEAR EDINBURGH I58 COTTAGE NEAR EDINBURGH, WITH PENTLAND HIILS IN THE DISTANCE 159 PEEP OF EDINBURGH FROM THE NORTH-EAST lfit A LITLTE BIT OF THE OLD TOWN OF EDINBURGH . 163 the tay above Dundee Head of Appendix NEAR BLAIRGOWRJE Foot of „ THE BASS ROCK.

ART RAMBLES IN THE HIGHLANDS AND ISLANDS OF SCOTLAND.

Chapter I

On the morning of Saturday, the 15th day of July, 1876, I drove to the West Pier ot Leith, hoping to find the Stirling steamboat there. Her place was vacant, and I learnt that she had sailed an hour and a half before, and that the next, the one o'clock boat, could only reach Alloa that night because of the tide. I had misunderstood the company's time-bill, and was a week too soon for the sailing I had read of in the advertisement. The morning was fine, and all persons and places wore a glad aspect : sunshine lit up the cloudlets, At Newhavcn. shimmered on the wavelets, sparkled on the windows of the house-lined shore, and transformed even the " reek " of our famed " Auld Reekie " into a feature of beauty. Haze veiled the extreme distance, Granton basked in warm sun light, and the fishing village of Newhaven, with its houses, its pier, its boats, and its rocks, was pleasant to look upon, while the seaward and the sunward view was all aglow with exquisitely delicate passages of colour and tracings of form, revealing in dreamy mystery the shores of Fife and the island of Inch keith.

I was ready for my ramble, having on my back a knapsack well charged with stores for the soul, the mind, the brush, and the body, and carrying with me a large sketching umbrella, a camp-stool, a waterproof case to hold a folio for drawings, fourteen inches by ten inches in size, and a small courier bag for the colour-box, a brush-case, and a water-flask. I need scarcely tell any fellow-pilgrim who, thus laden, has tried a walking tour in the High lands, that my helps hindered me, and that after the NEWHAVEN. first ramble I was glad to diminish my pack, retaining only the knapsack (minus many items), such materials for sketching as my pockets could hold, and in place of the umbrella " Goliath," a small friend which served also as a staff. To utilize the waiting hours, I sought out a quiet nook on an undershelf of the pier, and took a jotting, in colour, of Newhaven.

For a time I enjoyed a measure of seclusion; but towards noon there were many pleasure sailings afloat, steamers came alongside, my quiet nook became a scene of bustle and confusion, and made sketching no easy task. Many dozens of bottles of soda water and ginger-beer and other stores were shipped ; bells rang loud and long, THE PORT OF LEITH. The Woods of Aberdour. excursionists of every age hastened on board, a gangway was pulled ashore, the hawser fell with a plash into the water, and the Aberdour party had started. In half an hour they reached the Fife shore, and landing on the new pier, each gathered to his own company and sought pleasure after his own liking. Some joined the bathers at the " silver beach ; " yachters looked out for the " Mary Jane," the " Bertha," or the " Star," and were soon cruising at will over the waters ; many took to the small boats and steered towards Inchcolm,* listened to the boatman's tale about " Mortimer's Deep," where a company of monks drowned the sailors who attempted to convey for interment in a barge the remains of Mortimer, between the island and Aberdour; they explored the ruins of the abbey founded by Alexander I., and were refreshed by a drink of good new milk they got at the shepherd's house ; others visited the picturesque ruins of old Aberdour Castle.

A few drouthy customers spent the afternoon in the inn parlour ; but the greater number climbed the brae that leads to the woods at the east of the town, and when in the woods had rather a jubilant time of it. "In the woods of Aberdour" vividly recalls picnicing parties gathered under the overarching boughs of stately beech, the waters of the Firtli beyond, the melody of birds, rustling leafage, glints of sunlight falling on the green sward, the merry laughter and the frisky playfulness of children, the joyous sportive repartee of young men and maidens, and the glow of happiness that, like the genial warmth and the bright tints of an Indian summer, gladdens the older people. They forget about the grey hairs and the failing strength, and are almost persuaded that the winter of age has left them, and that the summer of youth has come back again.

Let us return to Leith Pier, where we find another boat advertised to visit (weather permitting) the Bass Rock. " Dread rock ! thy life is two eternities, — The last in air, the former in the deep First with the whales — last with the eagle skies : Drowned wast thou till an earthquake made thee steep Another cannot bow thy giant size ! I remember seeing the Bass to great advantage one evening as I sailed past in a steamship going to London. Dark rain-clouds lowered overhead, and gave an inky blackness to the sea, whose waves lashed themselves into foam at the * Appendix. Note A. The Bass Rock. base of the cliffs, noise-some myriads of sea-birds were on the wing ; they filled the air, and in loud ecstacy drowned the voice of the wind with their wild screaming. ' The air was dirkit with the fowlis.

That cam with yammeris and with yov. lis. With shrykking, screeking, skrymming, scowlis, And meikle noyis and showtes." It seemed a gloomy rock, a cheerless isle, a melancholy home, a dreary prison-house for those faithful men who were exiled for years there, and for the most part confined to the dark, lonesome, and unwholesome dungeons, the ruins of which are still to be seen. The isle looks doubly dark when we thus link it with the miserable men who have used it as a place where they might in deeds toward their fellows make manifest the evil of their own hearts. Hugh Miller has given from one of his early diaries a few jottings he noted down as he first viewed the island. " We are bearing up the Firth in gallant style, within two miles of the shore, and shall in a few hours, if the breeze fail not, be within sight of Edinburgh.

Yonder is the Bass, rising like an immense tower out of the sea. Times have changed since the excellent of the earth were condemned by the unjust and the dissolute to wear out life on that solitary rock. My eyes fill as I gaze on it ! The persecutors have gone to their place : the last vial has long since been poured out on the heads of the infatuated race who, in their short-sighted policy, would fain have rendered men faithful to their princes by making diem untrue to their God. But the noble constancy of the persecuted, the high fortitude of the martyr, still live ; there is a halo encircling the brow of that rugged rock ; and from many a solitary grave, and many a lonely battle-field, there come voices and thunderings like those which issued of old from within the cloud, that tell us how this world, with all its little interests, must pass away, but that for those who fight the good fight and keep the faith, there abideth a rest that is eternal."

I cannot refrain from quoting what he further adds as he unfolds to us the sermon of the Bass : " It is not uninstructive to remark, from facts and feelings such as these — and the instances on record are very great, — how much more permanently good connects itself with matter, in the associations of the human mind, than evil. The wickedness of the wicked cannot so enfeoff itself, if one may so speak, in even their contrivances of most diabolical design, — screws, and boots, and thumbkins, dolorous dungeons, and scaffolds hung with the insignia Solan Geese. of disgrace, — but that the virtues of their victims seize hold upon them, and so entirely appropriate them in the recollection of future generations, that the claim of the original possessors is lost. What a striking comment on the sacred text, ' The memory of the just is blessed ; but the name of the wicked shall rot ' !

It seems to throw a gleam of light, too, athwart a deeply mysterious subject. It was a greatly worse time than the present in this country, when the dungeons of yonder rock were crowded with the country's most conscientious men. And yet how intense the interest with which we look back upon these times , and on the rock itself, as a sort of stepping-stone by which to ascend to their scenes of ready sacrifice, firm endurance, and high resolve ; and how very poor would not the national history become, were all its records of resembling purport and character to be blotted out ! The evil of the past has served bui to enhance the good. May there not be a time coming when the just made perfect shall look back upon all ill, moral and physical, with a similar feeling ? when the tree of the knowledge of good and ei'il shall grow once more beside the tree of life in the Paradise of God, but when its fruit, rendered wholesome by the transmutative power, shall be the subject of no punitive prohibition; and when the world which we inhabit, wrapped round with holiest associations, as once the dungeon-house and scaffold of a Divine Sufferer, shall be regarded — disreputable as we may now deem its annals — with reverence and respect, as the Bass of the universe, and its history be deemed perhaps the most precious record in the archives of heaven ?

" In favourable weather a day may be well spent visiting the island by a small boat, which may be had of the keeper of the Bass at his house, Canty Bay near Berwick, and "The Bass Rock"* — the book from which I quote the above remarks of Hugh Miller, and those which follow in a different strain — will be an agreeable companion. We are quaintly told — " the most ancient inhabitants of this island (the Bass) in all probability were the solan geese." Mr. Darwin has doubtless found extra ordinary instances of rapid evolution in the remarks of early writers concerning their development. In a History of Scotland by Hector Boece, published in 1526, translated by Holinshed, we have a very particular account of "soland geese," and, read in the light of his after-remarks, it is not strange that he should pave the way for the reception of his teaching with these words : " Certes ! * Appendix.

Note B. Evolution with a witness ! there is nothing in this rocke that is not full of admiration and woonder ! " Maintaining that the procreation of the solan geese is not made upon trees, but is engendered by the sea, he tells us : "All trees cast into that element in processe of time become wormeaten, and in the holes thereof are the said wormes to be found, though verie little and small (in comparison to that they be afterward) to be perceiued at the first. In the beginning these worms doo shew their heads and feet, and last of all their plumes & wings. Finallie when they are come to the just measure and quan tise of ge'ese, they flie in the aire as other foules doo. "This was notablie prooued in the yeare of Grace 1490, in sight of many people, beside the castell of Peslego, whether the bodie of a great tre'e was brought by working of the sea.

This tre'e being taken, it was carried to the lord of the soile, who soone after caused it to be slit in sunder with a saw : which being doone, it is incredible to see what a multitude of wormes came out of their holes. Of these also some apeered as if they had be"ene but new shapen : divers had head, foot, and wings, but no feathers, the rest were formed into perfect foules. At last when the people had gazed thereon by the space of an whole daie, they carried it to Saint Andrewes church beside Tire, where the said blocke remains still to be seene. Within two yeeres after there hapned such another tree to come into the Firth of Tay beside Dundee, wormeaten and full of yoong ge'ese after the same manner : the third w*as seen in the hauen of Leith beside Edinburgh : and also within a few yeeres, in like sort, a ship named the Cristopher, after she had lien thre'e yderes at anchor in one of these lies, was broght to Leith, where bicause hir timber was found to be rotten, she was taken in sunder, and in hir keele were found infinite holes, as if they had been eaten with wormes, or bored with a wamble, and each one of them filled with such creatures as I have said before.

" He'ere if any man will alledge that the Cristopher was builded of such timber onelie as grew in these lies, and that all roots and trees there growing are of such nature as in their corruption doo turne into these foules, I will disprooue his assertion by one notable example showed before mine eies. Maister Alex ander Galloway, parson of Kinkell, was with vs in these lies, and giuing his mind with attentiue diligence to search out a full resolution with vs of these obscure and hidden matters, it hapned on a time that he took vp a branch of Alga, called in Scotish, seatangle, which hanged full of muskle shels from the root euen to the verie top. Being also desirous to se'e what was in them, he The Start. grew to be more astonished than before : for when he opened one or two of them, he saw no fish, but a foule perfectlie shapen, fullie answering to the capacitie of the shell.

" Finallie, knowing that I was verie inquisitiue of these and the like rare nouelties, he came hastilie with the said hearbe & shewed it vnto me, who found no lesse by experience than I before reported. By these and many other reasons & examples I cannot beleeue that these Claiks (or Barnacls as I call them) are producted either by the qualities of the _x€__ or the roots thereof, but onelie by the nature of the sea, which is the verie cause and productrix of so manie wonderfull creatures. Furthermore, bicause the rude & ignorant people saw oftentimes the fruits that fell from trees, which stood neuer in the sea, con uerted within short time into ge'ese, they bele'eued that these geese grew vpOn tre'es, hanging by their nebs as apples and other fruit doo by their stalks, but their opinion is vtterlie to be reiected.

For so soone as these apples or fruit fall from the tre'e into the sea, they grow first to be wormeaten, and in processe of time to be conuerted into ge'ese." Referring my reader to further gleanings concerning this interesting rock to the Appendix,* I proceed to tell my own story. A few minutes before one o'clock I formed a unit of the crowd that filled fore and aft decks and the bridge of the " Lord Mar." I unshouldered the knapsack, and placed " Goliath " in a safe corner. Representatives from the workshop, the counter, the desk, the school, and the drawing-room hastened on board — some only to have a sail, and return with the boat in the afternoon — others to join " the family " at sea side quarters ; lag-behinds arrived in breathless haste ; another and yet another bell was rung ; the captain was patient, and stayed some time after the sailing hour.

After the last runner jumped on board, we steamed slowly between the long wooden piers out into the Firth, and I took a look back at the point from which, sixty-five years before, my grandfather waved farewell to my father, then a very young midshipman, starting for India on his first voyage. We soon left in our wake the martello tower erected in war-times to protect the town, and Inchkeith,t once used as a place of exile for those stricken with plague. In the reign of James IV. two infants, under the care of a dumb woman, had this strange home assigned them : thus isolated, it was hoped their mode of speech would discover to the men of letters of that day the origin of language or the t Appendix. Note D. * Appendix. Notes B and C. The Firth of Forth. original language. It is reported that when the infants were of age, they spoke good Hebrew.

We have a blue sky and sunshine overhead, and the peaceful sea reflects alike the ethereal blue and the solar brightness. Does the holiday tourist, who sails so sweetly over the gentle waves, imagine that our proud Firth is always tame ? —always reflecting sunshine and blue sky ?— always lulling to slumber or en chanting with faery pictures of pearly hues those who pay her court ? — ever seeking the homage of fine-weather land-lubber seamen? I have gazed for hours— ay, days — on her in her sweet slumberings, in her Sabbaths, in her INCHKEITH. meditative moods, and when the freshening throbbings of her life were exqui sitely hushed and tender ; but I have also seen her roused, and in mad fury come with her million of foam-crested billows, and charge with the noise of thunder the shore she is wont to lave so calmly.

Those whose windows over look her bed know well how the spirit of the storm inspires her ; and some times, too, she nurses in her bosom the spirit of the tempest, and is heedless alike of the infant's cry and the mother's tears : she heeds not the promise her stillness and her beauty gave to the trustful fishermen at sundown, as they spread their sails and were wafted eastwards. In the darkness of such a midnight the wind wails mournfully, and sends an icy chill through the hearts of the awe-stricken toilers of the deep, and each surging thud on the doomed boat sounds as a knell of woe. Death is there ! — 'mid the seething waters, the Cramond. moaning and the sighing of the winds — the straining, the filling, and the sinking of the bark, and the clinging, the praying, and the anguish of the fated men — he calmly claims his own : "All heavily rolled the surges, and swept o'er the fated ship, While bosoms grew cold and silent, and mute was each pallid lip ; One cry of despair and anguish rose high o'er the roaring wave, Then all was quenched by the ocean, and hid in a yawning grave, Only one wail.

Ah ! God heard it, then all was over and still, And the sea and the breezes thundered : it was the Almighty's will." — Jessie M. Saxby. The " Lord Mar " paddled her way westward right merrily, leaving in her wake a trail of cream-toned foam, while to the right and left of us we had a variety of coast views and bits of seascape, enlivened with busy shipping. Newhaven again attracted the eye, and brought to mind " child pictures " of rare beauty, and many glimpses of .the home-life of that hardy race ; the place and the people is as an unworked quarry of subjects for the brush, guided by an appreciating eye and a poetic soul, from which only a few surface chippings and one or two larger lumps have as yet been taken. I scanned anew our old crouching lion (Arthur's Seat), and the Calton Hill with its monumental deckings.

The castle graced well its queenly throne of time-stained rock ; and as the eye wandered over fair Edina, my mind revelled in associations soul-stirring and sacred. Granton passed, we had a peep at Cramond, a humble seaboard village, divided from the richly wooded grounds of Dalmeny by the Almond, a stream whose course abounds in features of a picturesque character : steep banks, a rocky bed, rich tracery of woods and weeds, old mills, weather-tinted bridges of antique build, rustic cottages, and still, still pools. In winter or summer this stream-scooped glen merits a visit. A good wetting and a thorough mud bespattering is not too high a price to pay for a treat so refreshing ; though an English artist whom I led hither on a December day, when the frost of the morning gave place to showers of rain and sleet, was so fully alive to the dis comforts by the way as to lose heart, and altogether failed to appreciate the varied and beautiful scenes we passed; however, he had the satisfaction of administering to me a pithy scolding on our way home for my ignorance re garding the characteristics of such trees as the " the /Soaks, the //ashes, and the //elms."

I attended the parish church of Cramond one Sabbath many years ago, when Queen Victoria and her royal consort, the late Prince Albert, came Bdncss. to worship there, and have a vivid recollection of the peaceful joy in their faces that seemed to echo back the gladness of the sun's rays, which lighted on them as they sat in the front gallery of the quaint kirk, and I doubt not that Sabbath will remain a red letter day in the memories of the homely farmers and the villagers of that country-side. While we sailed up the Firth, I lived over again many hours and days plea santly rambled away on shore in bygone seasons, while my fellow-passengers were either conversing or listening to Jacobite airs and songs of " Scotland's hills," and " Scotland's vales," and " Scotland's bonny lassies," sung with em phatic expression by our compagnon de voyage, a fiddler not unlike Neil Gow,* the famed violinist and composer, as we know him from his portrait painted by Sir Henry Raeburn.

To make up for so many digressions, permit my pen to jump at one leap from Cramond to Bo'ness (Borrowstowness). There a large flat-bottomed boat waited on the passing call of our ship. Bo'ness looked so invitingly old-fashioned, that I was drawn to it, and jumped into the shore-bound boat in company with a grey-clad baker returning from a pie-selling expedition with a pie-box of prodigious size. One of our boat men was " jolly sou," and turned a ridiculous backward somersault as he was preparing to handle an oar. The square, amply turretted, and many quaint-windowed town house, with its exalted clock-tower, kept guard over the harbour, whose stony arms shel tered a number of ships of various nationalities. Railway goods trucks lined the piers ; many canvas-covered stalls, for the sale of sweeties, ginger bread, fruits, and toys ; a height-and weight stand, a strength-testing ap paratus, a shooting range, and like sweetie stall. attractions gave a fair-day look to the town : little children wandered from stall to stall, all eyes and ears, but trade was very flat.

It was the last of the annual Appendix. Note E. Bo'ness Well. three days of holiday, and in the morning excursion boats sailed with the majority of the Borrowstownessians to Leith, that they might spend the day feeding the Edinburgh lions. I was glad to see a house of ancient build, with lettered on its upper flat — Temperance Hotel. The accommodation was limited, but as I was the only patron that day, it proved sufficient — though I was warned, " If two gents come the way — and we 're half expecting them by the evening train — ye '11 need to seek a bed somewhere else." In this homely home I might in a short time have graduated as a well-primed temperance lecturer, there was so much of the literature of that school on the side-table ; and the public well, on which the front window looked out, spoke volumes on Mr. J. B. Gough's favourite text — " Water is best." the "Herald of Health" advises — " Use the plainest food, Drink the pure cold water; You will then keep well, Or, at least, you oughter."