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I proceeded to the ruins of the cathedral alone, which are very fine, and highly interesting. The commencement of its fall arose from an order of the Privy Council of Scotland in 1568 for stripping off its lead, an act in which the cathedral I described at Aberdeen was also a participator, for the purpose of being sold in Holland, to raise money for paying the troops. The ship which contained the sacrilegious spoil sunk soon after it had left the port of Aberdeen, not without many a shrewd comment from the superstitious, who distinctly beheld the avenging retribution of Heaven in the event. The architect and the antiquary may perhaps be gratified by the following description of this beautiful and venerable pile, in its perfect form, by Shaw :-"This church, when entire, was a building of Gothic architecture inferior to few in Europe; it stood due east and west, in the form of a Jerusalem cross, ornamented with five towers, whereof two parallel stood on the west side, one in the middle, and two on the east end. Betwixt the two towers at the west end was the great porch, or entrance. This gate is a concave arch, twenty-four feet broad in base, and twenty-four in height, terminating in a sharp angle. On each side of the doors, in the sweep of the arch, are eight fluted pilasters, six feet and a half high, adorned with a chapiter, from which arose sixteen pilasters, which meet in the key of the arch. There were porticoes on each side of the church eastward, for the traverse, or cross, which were eighteen feet broad without the walls. To yield sufficient light to a building so large, besides the great windows in the porticoes, and a row of attic windows in the walls, each six feet high above the porticoes, there was in the west gable, above the gate, a window, in form of an acute-angled arch, nineteen feet broad in the base, and twentyseven in height; and in the east gable, between the turrets, a row of fine parallel windows, each two feet broad and ten high. Above these are five more, each seven feet; and over all a circular window,' near ten feet in diameter. In the heart of the wall of the church, and leading to all the upper windows, there is a channel or walk round the whole building.

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"The grand gate, the windows, the pillars, the projecting table, the pedestals, cordons, &c. are adorned with foliage, grapes, and other carvings. Let us, after describing the body of the church, take a view of the chapter-house, commonly called "the Apprentices' Aisle," a curious piece of architecture, standing on the north side of the church, and communicating with the choir by the vaulted vestry. The house is an exact

octagon, thirty-four feet high, and the diagonal breadth within the walls thirty-seven feet. It is arched and vaulted at the top, and the whole arched roof supported by one pillar in the centre of the house. Arched pillars from every angle terminate in the grand pillar. This pillar, nine feet in circumference, is crusted over with sixteen pilasters, or small pillars, alternately round and fluted, and twenty-four feet high, adorned with a chapiter, from which arise sixteen round pillars, that spread along the roof, and join at the top with the pillars (five in number) rising from every side of the octolateral figure. There is a large window on every side of seven, and the eighth side communicates with the choir. In the north wall of this chapter-house there are five stalls cut, by way of niches, for the bishop (or the dean, in the bishop's absence) and the dignified clergy to sit in. The middle stall of the bishop or dean is larger, and is raised a step higher, than the other four. They were all lined with wainscot. The length of this cathedral is two hundred and sixty-four feet, and its breadth thirty-five feet; the length of the traverse is one hundred and fourteen; the height of the west tower, not including the spire, is eighty-four feet; the height of the spire in the centre was one hundred and ninety-eight feet, and the height of the eastern turrets sixty feet. The height of the side-walls is thirty-six feet. The spires of the two west towers are fallen, but the stone-work remains. The great tower is gone. The two eastern turrets, being winding staircases, and vaulted at top, are entire. The walls of the choir and the chapter-house are tolerably entire, but the walls of the nave and traverse are mostly fallen."

The family mausoleum of the noble house of Gordon is within the walls of this cathedral. Although history informs us that the ecclesiastical buildings in the north were not assailed with the ferocity which the Reformers directed against similar structures in the south, yet the cause before stated, and the unsparing hand of Time, have rendered the Cathedral of Elgin much less entire than the Abbey of Melrose, and even a greater sufferer than that of Jedburgh.

The food of the farmers' servants is very simple in this, as well as in all the northern counties in Scotland. On weekdays their ordinary breakfast is porridge made of oatmeal, ate warm with milk or small beer; their dinner a kind of flummery, called sowens, which I saw for the first time used in the Lunatic Asylum at Aberdeen, made from the bran of oatmeal, and generally eaten with milk; and for supper greens or cab.

bages, either cut small or mashed, and afterwards boiled, with an addition of oatmeal and salt; at each meal they use bread made of oats, bere, and peasmeal. Broth made of pot-barley, with greens and roots, and a little butcher's meat, "solemnize the Lord's."

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CHAPTER XVIII.

The Danes-road to Forres-Forres-the Weird Sisters-Shank's naggy -peasants' civility-Nairn-peasants' humanity-Fort St. GeorgeCulloden-the battle-Prince Charles-an honourable rogue—the three robbers-anecdotes of the Pretender-royal magnanimity-family anecdotes of Flora Macdonald-Inverness-the prison-the academy-national delicacy.

IN this county (Murrayshire) are to be seen many monuments of the Danes, who are mentioned by the Scottish historians to have landed in Moray about 1008, when Malcolm the Second marched against them, and was defeated near Forres; after which the invaders brought over their families, and retained their conquests for some time, until, by several signal victories obtained over them at Luncarty, Barrie, and Mortlich, they were obliged to quit the country. Buchannan mentions, that Moray, from its pleasantness, and the profit arising from its fruit-trees, surpassess all the other counties in Scotland. The best orchards are often found about deserted castles and the mouldering fragments of religious houses. However fruit might be cultivated here in the time of Buchannan, I believe it to be now much neglected, for in the capital of the county I could procure none.

Upon leaving Elgin I rambled over ground which the Muse of Shakespeare has rendered so celebrated. Just before I quitted the inn, I made my landlord smile, by asking, in the language of Macbeth, "How far is't call'd to Forres ?" (my next stage, which I found was about twelve miles.) He wanted much to detain me, to hear him explain, with an apparently copious.

knowledge of dramatic geography, the various places in Morayshire in which all the wonderful events so sublimely described by Shakespeare occurred to Macbeth. The road to Forres is extremely dull and uninteresting, and I should have felt little objection to have had its monotony relieved even by some of the weird sisterhood, however withered and wild in their attire. The town stands on a gently-rising ground, near the bay of Findhorn; it is very ancient, gloomy, and dirty. Poverty seemed to hang over it as an evil spirit. In the street I saw several qualified figures, who induced me to think that the race of Macbeth's witches was not quite extinguished; and I was glad to take my departure for Nairn, distant about eleven miles; on my way to which I passed very near Dyke, in the parish of which, conjecture has placed the scene which 1 leads to the catastrophe of Shakespeare's tragedy.

It is thought that Hardmoor, on the western side of the park of Brodie-house, was the spot where Macbeth and Banquo were first saluted by the weird sisters

"-Each at once her choppy finger laying

Upon her skinny lip.”

Holinshed says, "It fortuned as Macbeth and Banque journeyed towards Fores, where the King (Duncan) then lay, they went sporting by the way, without other company, save only themselves, when suddenly, in the midst of a laund, there met them three women, in strange and wild apparel, resembling creatures of the elder world."

At Forres the only chaise in the place was engaged, and it was with difficulty I procured a horse, and that appeared to be nearly half starved; at first I had every reason to apprehend that I should be obliged to ride what the Scotch call "Shanks' Naggy," that is, proceed on foot.

This equipment enabled me to observe the natural kindness and civility of the lower people, which with pleasure I record. A few miles before I reached Nairn I came to a gloomy heath, from which two roads diverged, and I knew not which to take: the night was advancing, I was alone, and all was silent. In this dilemma I rode back to a little black town, which I had passed, consisting of some miserable turf hovels, the inhabitants of which had all retired to rest. After knocking at the door of one of them for some time, a tall athletic peasant, whose slumbers appeared to have been as sound as health and innocence

generally unite to render them, addressed me with the usual salutation, "What's u wull ?" Upon my telling him my situation, instead of giving me any directions, he came out, and, with no other covering than a shirt, insisted upon walking by the side of my horse for a mile, till he had seen me out of the possibility of mistaking my road, which he did with the most perfect good humour, and at parting refused to accept a douceur for such extraordinary attention: indeed he appeared to be hurt that I should have offered it.

As I approached Nairn the country seemed very much to improve in picturesque beauty, as it was displayed under a clear star-light and brilliant moon, which faintly unfolded the shores of Cromarty, whilst the waves of the Frith of Murray quietly murmured along the sands upon which I moved, and Fancy seemed to hear

"Airy tongues, that syllable men's names,
On sands and shores."

With

After crossing a bridge over the river Nairn, I entered the capital of Nairnshire, which is small, but tolerably neat, and agreeably situated on a rising bank; and met with every comfortable accommodation which an excellent inn could afford me. the exception of an agreeable and picturesque prospect, there is nothing to detain the traveller at Nairn. Upon the Castle-hill, on the south side of the town, once stood a royal fort, of which the Thames of Cawdor were hereditary constables.

In the small county of Nairn there are no manufactures; the people are generally poor: many of them in the summer and harvest visit the southern districts, and maintain themselves at home in the winter with the money which they receive from their summer labours. The Frith of Murray abounds with small herrings, which, with potatoes, constitute the principal food of the lower classes.

Having been informed, but, as it proved, erroneously, that I should see Macbeth's Castle at Inverness, instead of proceeding to Calder-castle, from which the sanguinary usurper derived his second title, and some of the ancient parts of which are still remaining, I went direct to Fort George. Nairn may be considered as the eastern boundary of the Scottish language: upon my quitting it I found the Erse every where spoken. The male children wear philibegs, and the women and children go without shoes and stockings; the transition was not a little striking.