No More Learning

Come up the Garrie--Falls of
Bruar--Daldecairoch--Dalwhinnie--Dine--Snow on the hills 17 feet
deep--No corn from Loch-Gairie to Dalwhinnie--Cross the Spey, and come
down the stream to Pitnin--Straths rich--_les environs_
picturesque--Craigow hill--Ruthven of Badenoch--Barracks--wild and
magnificent--Rothemurche on the other side, and Glenmore--Grant of
Rothemurche's poetry--told me by the Duke of Gordon--Strathspey, rich
and romantic--Breakfast at Aviemore, a wild spot--dine at Sir James
Grant's--Lady Grant, a sweet, pleasant body--come through mist and
darkness to Dulsie, to lie.

_Tuesday. _--Findhorn river--rocky banks--come on to Castle Cawdor,
where Macbeth murdered King Duncan--saw the bed in which King Duncan
was stabbed--dine at Kilravock--Mrs. Rose, sen. , a true chieftain's
wife--Fort George--Inverness.

_Wednesday. _--Loch Ness--Braes of Ness--General's hut--Falls of
Fyers--Urquhart Castle and Strath.

_Thursday. _--Come over Culloden Muir--reflections on the field of
battle--breakfast at Kilravock--old Mrs. Rose, sterling sense, warm
heart, strong passions, and honest pride, all in an uncommon
degree--Mrs. Rose, jun. , a little milder than the mother--this perhaps
owing to her being younger--Mr. Grant, minister at Calder, resembles
Mr. Scott at Inverleithing--Mrs. Rose and Mrs.
Grant accompany us to
Kildrummie--two young ladies--Miss Rose, who sung two Gaelic songs,
beautiful and lovely--Miss Sophia Brodie, most agreeable and
amiable--both of them gentle, mild; the sweetest creatures on earth,
and happiness be with them! --Dine at Nairn--fall in with a pleasant
enough gentleman, Dr. Stewart, who had been long abroad with his
father in the forty-five; and Mr. Falconer, a spare, irascible,
warm-hearted Norland, and a nonjuror--Brodie-house to lie.

_Friday_--Forres--famous stone at Forres--Mr. Brodie tells me that the
muir where Shakspeare lays Macbeth's witch-meeting is still
haunted--that the country folks won't pass it by night.

* * * * *

Venerable ruins of Elgin Abbey--A grander effect at first glance than
Melrose, but not near so beautiful--Cross Spey to Fochabers--fine
palace, worthy of the generous proprietor--Dine--company, Duke and
Duchess, Ladies Charlotte and Magdeline, Col. Abercrombie, and Lady,
Mr. Gordon and Mr. ----, a clergyman, a venerable, aged figure--the
Duke makes me happier than ever great man did--noble, princely; yet
mild, condescending, and affable; gay and kind--the Duchess witty and
sensible--God bless them!

Come to Cullen to lie--hitherto the country is sadly poor and
unimproven.

Come to Aberdeen--meet with Mr. Chalmers, printer, a facetious
fellow--Mr. Ross a fine fellow, like Professor Tytler,--Mr. Marshal one
of the _poetae minores_--Mr. Sheriffs, author of "Jamie and Bess," a
little decrepid body with some abilities--Bishop Skinner, a nonjuror,
son of the author of "Tullochgorum," a man whose mild, venerable manner
is the most marked of any in so young a man--Professor Gordon, a
good-natured, jolly-looking professor--Aberdeen, a lazy town--near
Stonhive, the coast a good deal romantic--meet my relations--Robert
Burns, writer, in Stonhive, one of those who love fun, a gill, and a
punning joke, and have not a bad heart--his wife a sweet hospitable
body, without any affectation of what is called town-breeding.