which have a good effect in fo bare a country. The prospect commands the fine meadows near the town, the fmall but wellbuilt fishing town of Down, the great promontory of Troophead, and, to the North, the hills of Rofsfhire, Sutherland, and Caithness.

Duff houfe is a vaft pile of building near Bamf, affording fome pictures, of which our Author gives an account. There is alto a fhrubbery, with a walk of two miles, leading to the river. At Cullen-house, alfo, he faw fome pictures by Vandyk, Kneller, &c. This houfe is feated at the edge of a deep glen, full of very large trees, which being out of the reach of the fea winds profper greatly. The country round about CulJen has all the marks of improvement, owing to the indefatigable pains of the late noble owner, in advancing the art of agriculture, planting, &c. His Lordhip brought near 2000 people to his new town at Keith, by fauing; i. e. giving in perpetuity, on payment of a flight acknowledgment, land, fufficient to build an houe on, with a garden, &c.

Aug. 13. Pating through a fine open country, full of gentle rifings, and rich in corn; with a few clumps of trees, fparingly fcattered over it; he arrived at Caftle Gordon, of which, with the pictures, &c. he gives a brief account. Here are fome large well-grown woods; and here the Duke of Gordon All keeps up the ancient diverfion of hawking.

The next day he reached Elgin, a good town, remarkable for its ecclefiaftical antiquities. Hence he came to the rich plein of Murray, fertile in corn. The view of the Firth of Maray, with a full profpect of the high mountains of Rofsfhire and Sutherland, and the magnificent entrance into the bay of Cromartie, between two lofty hills, form, fays our Author, a fine piece of fcenery. At Forres he had alfo view of a rich country, interipe fed with groves; together with a prospect of the bay of Findorn, a fine bafon, almost round, with a narrow ftrait into the fea.'

Aug. 15. Cross the Findorn, and arrive at Tarnaway Castle, the ancient feat of the Earls of Murray. After defcribing, in his compendious but judicious manner, which does not afford the reader time for laditude, he reaches Calder Caftle, or Cawdor, as Shakespeare calls it, once the property of its Thanes. Here he explored the woods, containing fine birch trees, and a ders, a few oaks, great broom, and juniper. Thele give helter to the wild roes, which are numerous in fome of the Scottish woods.

Croffing the Nairn, keeping due North along the military road from Perth, and paffing along a low piece of land, projecting far into the firth called Arderfier, forming a ftrait scarce a mile over, between this county and that of Cromartie,―he

arrived at Fort George, fituated at the end of this point. This is a strong and regular fortrefs, built fince the year 1745, as a place d'ames. It is kept, vir. P. fays, in excellent order; but, by reafon of the happy change of the times, is almott delerted. The barracks are very hand lome, and form feveral regular good ftreets.

Aug. 16. Paffed over Culloden-Moor, the place that North Britain owes its prefent profper ty to, by the victory of April 16, 4746.' Mr. P. gives a short account of Cullodenhouse, with fome anecdotes of the young pretender's defeat, &c. Hence he conducts us to Invernets; a large, well-built, populous town; the laff, of any note, in Scotland. He defcribes this town, with its not unplealant environs; and then, coffing the Nefs, he proceeds North, and has a fine view of the Firth, which widens from Keflock into a large bay, fome miles in length. The hills ope down to the water fide, and are finely cultivated; but the diftant profp & is of rugged mountains, of a tupendous height, as if created as guards to the rest of the island, from the fury of the boiftrous North.'

Castle Dunie, once the feat of the late famous Lord Lovat,' is the next object of our Traveller's notice. From hence he goes on to Caftle Braan, the feat of Lord Fortrofe; a good bufe, pleafantly fituated; where Mr. P. met with fome pictures, of which he gives an account. He next paffes through Dingwall, a fmall town, the capital of Rofsfhire, fituated near the head of the Firth of Cromartie. This Firth affords a bay, the most capacious and fecure of any in Great Britain. Our whole navy, we are told, might lie there with eafe; the entrance is narrow; and the projecting hills defend it from all winds: fo that it justly merits the name given it of Portus Salutis.

For the fake of brevity, we must omit the mention of feveral cafles and gentlemen's fears; with many agreeable and entertaining remarks and anecdotes; and quitting our fenfible Traveller's Company, for a little way, while he continues his tour through the country of Sutherland*, we rejoin him upon that vaft proinontory, the Ord of Caithness. There is a good road winding up the steep fides of this lofty cape, impending in many parts over the fea, infinitely more high and horrible than our Penmaen Mawr: (a conceffion which, from a Welchman, cannot be too much admired) Beneath were numbers

This country, as well as Caithness, abounds in cattle, and fende out annually above 2500 head. Stags are here fo numerous, in the hrills, that it is faid there are not lefs than 1600 on the Earl of Sutherland's eftate. Befides thefe, there are roes, grous, black game, and ptarmigans, and water-fowl, in plenty.

of feals floating on the waves, and fea-fowl fwimming among them with great fecurity.'

At Dungby-bay (the ultima Thule of Wallace +) our Author had a full view of feveral of the Orkney Islands, to the West the Skerries, and, within two miles of land, Stroma, famous for its natural mummies, or the entire and uncorrupted bodies of perfons who had been dead 60 years. Mr. P. was informed that they were very light, had a flexibility in their limbs, and were of a dufky colour; but it does not appear that he saw them.

Having thus penetrated to the northward extremity of the British ifland, our Tourist returned by the fame road; and meeting with multitudes of gannets, or folan gcefe, in vaft fccks, on their paffage farther North, he has given us a good print of this fowl.

Returning by many of the places he had vifited before, till he came back to Invernefs, he now entertains his readers with his remarks on the various cuftoms of the country, and the manners of the inhabitants. Thefe parts of his Journal are, undoubtedly, very entertaining; but we cannot pretend to give any abftract of them, without lengthening this article beyond the bounds which must be affigned to it: although we perceive that it will, almoft unavoidably, exceed the ufual limits.

After a ride of about fix miles from Inverness, he reached Lough Nes, and enjoyed along its banks a moft romantic and beautiful fcenery, generally in woods of birch, or hazel, mixed with a few holly, white-thorn, afpin, afh and oak, but open enough in all parts to admit a fight of the water. Sometimes the road was ftrait for a confiderable diftarce, and refembled a fine and regular avenue; in others, it wound about the fides of the hills which overhung the lake: the road was frequently cut through the rock, which on one fide formed a folid wall; on the other, a fleep precipice. In many parts we were immerfed in woods; in others, they opened and gave a view of the fides and tops of the vaft mountains foaring above: fome of these were naked, but in general covered with wood, except on the meer precipices, or where the grey rocks denied vegetation, or where the heath, now glowing with purple bloffoms, covered the furface. The form of thefe hills was very various and irregular, either broken into frequent precipices, or towering into rounded fummits cloathed with trees; but not fo clofe but to admit a fight of the fky between them. Thus, for many miles, there was no poffibility of cultivation; yet this tract was occupied by diminutive cattle, by fheep, or by goats: the laft were pied, and lived moft luxuriously on the tender branches of the trees. The wild animals that poffeffed this picturefque fcene were flags and roes, black game, and grous; and on the fummits, white hares and ptarmigans .'

fort.

Orkney Ifics, p. 33.

A kind of grous; and feems, from the print, to be of a large

The

The north fide of this lake, our Author fays, is far lefs beautiful than the south. The hills are not fo high, but very fteep, and, in general, quite naked, from the fliding of the ftrata down their fides.

Foxes are here fo numerous and voracious, that the farmers are fometimes obliged to houfe their theep, as is done in France, for fear of the wolves.

The mention of thefe beafts of prey has drawn from our Author a note, which may have fome tendency to excite a degree of fcepticifm, in the minds of many readers, with regard to the authenticity of the poems afcribed to Offian. He exprefies his furprize that no mention is made, in thofe celebrated poems, of our greater beats of prey, which, he thinks, must have abounded in Offian's time.

The wolf, fays he, was a peft to the country fo late as the reign of queen Elizabeth, and the bear exited there at leatt till the year 1957, when a Gordon, for killing a fierce bear, was directed by the king to carry three bears heads in his banner. Other native animals are often mentioned in feveral parts of the work; and in the five little poems on night, compofitions of as many bards, every modern British beaft of chace is enumerated, the howling dog and howling fox defcribed; yet the howling wolf omitted, which would have made the bards night much more hideous.'

The fail of the river Fyers, near Lough Nefs, furnishes a fcene horribly romantic:

It is a vast cataract, in a darkfome glen of a ftupendous depth; the water darts far beneath the top through a narrow gap between two rocks, then precipitates above forty feet lower into the bottom of the chafm, and the foam, like a great cloud of fmoke, rifes and fills the air. The fides of this glen are vast precipices mixed with trees over-hanging the water, through which, after a fhort space, the waters difcharge them felves into the lake.

About half a mile fouth of the firit fall is another, paffing through, a narrow chafm, whofe fides it has undermined for a confiderable way over the gap is a true Alpine bridge, of the bodies of trees. covered with fods, from whofe middle is an aweful view of the water roaring beneath.'

Fort Auguftus, which the rebels deftroyed in 1746, is feated on a plain at the head of Lough Nefs. From an eminence near this fort, is a full view of the whole extent of this beautiful water, which runs perfectly ftrait, from Eaft to Weft. It is 22 miles long, and from one to two broad; except near Caftle Urquhart, where it fwells out to three. Its depth is very great, in fome places 140 fathoms. Hence it is, that this lake. never freezes. Our Author reports that, during cold weather, a fleam rifes from it as from a furnace; and he adds, that ice brought from other parts, and put into Lough Nefs, in

This cafle ftands on a rock projecting into the lake,
L 4

ftantly

ftantly thaws. Yet no water freezes fooner than that of this lake, when brought into an houfe. It is eftcemed fo very falubrious, that people come or fend 30 miles for it. In proof of the excellence of this water, or of the air of thefe parts, or of both, he mentions, as a fact, that for feven years together, the garrison of Fort Auguftus had not loft a fingle man.

A circumftance which nuft add confiderably to the beauty of the profpect of this lake, in the winter, is, its being frequented by fwans, and other wild fowl.

Lough Nefs is fubject to violent agitations from the winds; fo that, as times, the waves are quite mountainous. Mr. P. has recorded fome extraordinary agitations of its waters, which happened in 1755, at the time of the great earthquake at Lifbon. We have an indeterminate recollection of somewhat fimilar accounts from other parts of the globe.

Lough Lochy is another fine piece of water, 14 miles long,

and from one to two broad.

Arriving at Fort William, at the weft end of what is called the Chain of Forts, from fea to fea, Mr. P. defcribes this place, and endeavours to give us an idea of its vaft furrounding mountains. And here our Author's countrymen, zealous for the honour of Cambro-Britain, will meet with a fecond mortification, from his laudable impartiality, in fairly yielding the fuperiority to Benevifht. He confeffes however, like a true and honeft fon of St. David, that his candour, in this inftance, coft him a pang. As an ancient Briton, fays he, I lament the difgrace of Snowdon, once esteemed the highest hill in the island, but now muft yield the palm to a Caledonian mountain."

The badnefs of the weather, Mr. P. fays, prevented his vifiting the celebrated parallel roads in Glen Roy; but he has given, in his Appendix, the best account he could collect relating to thofe amazing works.

After defcribing Lochaber, and its inhabitants, our Traveller advances towards Argylefhire. At a place called Hamilton's Pafs, in an inftant burft on a view of Lough-aw, which makes a beautiful appearance; is about a mile broad, and fhews ar leaft 10 miles of its length; but its whole extent is 30 miles. It is prettily varied with ifles, fome fo fmall as merely to peep above the furface; yet even these are tufted with trees; fome are large enough to afford hay and pafturage; and in one are the remains of a convent.'

Inverary, the town and caftle, with Lough-Fine, in which they are fituated, are next defcribed. The caftle is the feat of the Dukes of Argyle; the lake is remarkable for its great herThe height of this mountain, from the fea, is faid to be 1450 yards.