and unbroken by a single tree, bush, weed, or stone; sheep hanging along the sides of the ac clivities, and here and there a shepherd-boy wrapped up in his plaid ;-nothing to interrupt the sameness and stillness, but the little stream bustling along each valley, over a bed of round pebbles. The road following these streams was singularly good and level; and, upon the whole, there was much simple grandeur and beauty in the scene. As the hills became lower, and the vallies wider, fields and meadows, and extensive plantations of firs and larches succeeded, all very flourishing, but the cottages miserably dirty, and a sad contrast to those of Wales, so white and so neat, and adorned with flowers. The Scotch are said to be more industrious and more thrifty than the Welsh. They cannot afford leisure, I suppose, to be comfortable, and certainly do not ruin themselves by luxuries. Children, in health and in rags, with fair hair and dirty faces, swarm on the dung-hills at each door. An old barrel stuck through the thatch serves for a chimney. The stable and dwelling are under the same roof; one door serves for both,-and the dark runnings from the heap of dung, and the heap of peat, piled up against the house, drain under the floor, and some upon it. The climate must be healthy indeed, where all this does not

breed infection. The fields of potatoes and oats seem in the best state, and the people are making hay everywhere.

We meet with strings of light one-horse carts, driven by only one man,-a much better contrivance than the English heavy waggons. The men along the roads have generally the plaid thrown across their shoulder, and over one arm. Some wear it like a Spanish cloak, or an antique drapery, and with their short petticoat and naked knees, might be mistaken for Roman soldiers, if the vulgar contrivance of hat and shoes did not betray the northern barbarian. The females have their extremities more classical, for they go barefooted and bareheaded, and only fail by the middle, covered with vile stiff stays and petticoats. We see them at the fords of their little brooks, exhibiting, very innocently I believe, higher than the knee, unmindful of the eye of travellers.

August. 10.-Edinburgh, by Selkirk, 47 miles. We have crossed to-day the Tweed, the Ettrick, and the Yarrow, the names of which sound poetical in our ears. There is a beautiful spot in Tweeddale, rocky and wild, in the middle of which a Mr Pringle has spread his lawn, and planted his house by the side of the first-mentioned river. Walter Scott lives in that neighbourhood. After this we came to an extensive

tract of uncultivated moor, to appearance fit for cultivation; here and there plantations of firs, larches, and birch, flourishing, but not beautiful, being square compact bodies, protected with a stone wall;-they are like black patches on the back and shoulders of the mountains. About ten or twelve miles from Edinburgh we began to discover something we conceived to be the castle, on an insulated rock. A beautiful plain lay before us, varied with inequalities, groves of trees, and country-houses; a hollow road with rocks. and hanging wood on each side, and a murmuring stream, brought us to that plain. We soon perceived that what we had taken for the castle, was the bare summit of the mountain called Arthur's Seat, near the foot of which the Castlehill could now be distinguished. It rained and it blew, and the sun shone bright, alternately every quarter of an hour; and we had thus an early sample of the tempestuous and variable climate of Edinburgh. Houses became more numerous; and we drove into a populous suburb, by a good-looking street full of shops. Six magnificent columns on the left attracted our curiosity; they belong to a large edifice half-finished, -the College. By means of a bridge of only one arch, we passed over a deep subterranean street, then to another bridge long and lofty, traversing a sort of valley, like the bed of a river

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