ing before him, found that their horses' heads were directed up the gentle but rugged ascent of an apparently endless stretch of moorland, with hills rising here and there in lumpish and unshapely masses. Here, then, his thoughts were left undisturbed by external objects, save when occasionally interrupted by the sudden rising of a moorcock, as he started away with his covey behind him from among their horses' feet, and wheeled his flight to some knoll, where alighting, and carrying his red comb erect, he repeated his sonorous bell of defiance, or by the conversation of his companion, which, however, chiefly passed unheeded by him, except when politeness made him give a reply, not always exactly to the purpose.

A lake of several miles in extent, bounded by high barren hills, sweeping down to its edge with bold outlines, but without a tree to cheer the eye, now opened at some distance to their left. The scene was loneliness itself. An islet near one side of it, entirely covered with the extensive ruins of a castle, tinged of a grey and orange mixture of colours from the lichens, time, and the humidity of the situation, had engendered on its walls, was the only feature suggesting the idea of

man, but rather bringing with it reflections adding to the surrounding dreariness. It was the haunt of myriads of gulls and other waterfowl, skimming in many a circling maze, and producing waving lines of transient silvery light, against those raw, cold, hazy clouds, half concealing the farther boundary of the sheet of water. It seemed as if man had been forced, by the inhospitable climate of this region, to relinquish his dominion to those inhabitants of the storm.

But after leaving this gloomy scene, and climbing for several miles towards a group of hills forming the ridge of that part of the country, the view of a range of grandly-shaped and very lofty mountains, their sides blue with the air of distance, and their summits clothed in a glazed covering of snow, broke upon them through a bold

pass.

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"Behold the Cairngorums!" said his companion; we must be near those white-headed gentlemen before we sleep, Mr Oakenwold. Let us

put on a little, if you please."

Amherst readily complied, and urging on Brisk, they rattled down the rocky path, wound over the knolls beyond it, and after a long and dreary ride,

2

descending through a dull moorland country, they reached a sod-built cottage, on the bank of a clear and rapid stream, running among rocks, and fringed here and there with a few alders and birches,

The ground plan of this curious erection presented a number of outshots and to-fa's, as such periodical additions are called in the language of Scotland. A broom from the top of one of the chimnies, was the sign that it was a place of entertainment, and here they halted to procure some refreshment for themselves and their horses.

Lochandhu was saluted by the landlord, a redfaced little man, in a coarse blue jacket and tartan kilt, who answered his inquiries without leaving the place where he was standing, with his back leaning against the wall of the house, and without withdrawing his hands from the otter-skin purse hanging from his middle, nor did he betray any sign of his profession, but even permitted the horses to be led off to the turf stable, without offering the smallest assistance.

"Can we have anything to eat, Mr Macphie ?" said Lochandhu, nodding to him familiarly.

“Ou, nae doubt, nae doubt ye may that, Sir,"

replied he.

Stap your ways in-I'se warrant ye'll get some venison, an ye get naething else." And without altering his position, except only in so far as to turn his face in the direction of the entrance, that he might be the better heard by those within, he, in a loud imperious tone, issued his orders in Gaelic. They were no sooner announced, than a woman, in a grey worsted shortgown, imperfectly concealing her bosom, and a dark-blue petticoat, so short as to exhibit to the knees a tolerably well-turned, but very dirty pair of limbs, bareheaded, and her black hair, that no comb seemed to have divided for many a day, hanging in matted locks over her face, appeared at the door. Leaning with one arm against the door-post, and giving her head a shake, so as in some degree to remove the natural veil from before her eyes, she displayed a very fine set of features, though partaking of the general dirt, every where begriming the rest of her person. On perceiving Amherst and Lochandhu, she stepped forth to one side, and laying her hands over one another in front, she dropped a low curtsey, and saluted them in Gaelic. Lochandhu replied to

her in the same language, as he stooped to enter the house followed by Amherst.

They groped their way through a long passage, having various doors branching off from it, into holes or dens, to right and left, all put in requisition during the fairs and markets, and not unfrequently on ordinary occasions; this place being situated at the union of two of those great military roads, constructed by Government, to facilitate the passage of troops through the solitudes of the Highlands. They entered a little chamber at the end of this passage, lighted by one solitary pane of glass, ingeniously inserted among the sods of the wall, and furnished with a wretched little firtable, lame of a leg, and propped with a peat, and an old arm-chair, and two stools of similar materials. The place was so small, that there could have been room for no more. An odd sort of apartment this, thought Amherst, to eat venison in !

Lochandhu, with his usual attention to the ceremonies of life, insisted upon Amherst taking the arm-chair, as the place of honour, whilst he, with some difficulty, seated himself on one of the stools, with his back to the window, and thrust