ing and conversing with intended, particularly young communicants. The elders, in the mean time, make reports concerning their neighbours, and warn the minister to be very cautious how he admits such and such an one to the table, without sifong line to the bottom: in which reports they are supposed frequently to granty their private resentmenis, or other malignant passions. Meanwhile, the news of the approaching occasion at Abernethey spreads far and wide. Travellers in every direction, fast, west, south, and north, inquire at the inns where they stop, into the cause of so many people, men and women,, trudging along the roads for the space of ten or twenty miles. Even the ferryboat between Strathorne and the Carse of Gowrie, the latter but little tinctured as yet with religious zeal, is unusually busy. The glen of Abernethey, hearing the tread of unusual feet, is astonished at this invasion of his solitary reign! The "By Wednesday night the street, with the little lanes or closes about Abernethey, is in motion. farm-houses in the neighbourhood ` too are full of friends and brethren from distant parts of the country. The barns also are full of men and women, young and old: much in the same manner we may suppose that Jerusalem, with its environs, was crowded at the Passover. The period of nine months from this date sometimes produces sad memorandums of the barns of Abernethey. the covenant and field conventicles. The same spirit that assembled the covenanters on Loudon-hill in reign of Charles II. draws together the Seceders at this day, annually to the Muckle Binn, at Abernethey, which is held generally in June or July, when the labours of the spring are over, and those of the harvest have not commenced (for there is scarcely any thing of what is called in England hay-harvest, in Scotland), and when the days are long, and the nights short. "When the anniversary of the occasion draws near, the sermons for some weeks are animated with more than usual zeal and fervour. The Sunday immediately preceding that of the Sacrament Sunday, may be considered as the actual commencement of the religious campaign, which is continued, either in reconnoitering, as it were, and various movements, or in hot action. On that Sunday, the minister states the duty of communicating; but, at the same time, the danger of communicating unworthily, and of "eating and drinking damnation to themselves," in such strong language, that it is a great wonder that any one, believing as they do, should venture on the consecrated elements. In fact, some modest and ingenuous spirits, as well as those of a melancholy cast, do hang back from the communion, while others of a more sanguineous temperament and greater presumption, boldy advauce to the communion table, rejoicing in some motion of the animal spirits, or emotion, which they call the faith of assurance. The Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays, are employed by the minister in examin "Thursday is the fast-day pre ceding the sacrament. Three or four different ministers preach from ten o'clock to about six or seven in the evening, 3U 2 This was written in 1776. Perhaps the zeal of the Seceders has, in the lapse of thirty years, been somewhat cooled down. But still this description is, in the mair, applicable to the annual conventicle at Abernethey, at this day. evening, with an interval of only one -hour for refreshment. The minister of Abernethey himself is a silent auditor: but, when all the strangers have done, he mounts the pulpit, and recapitulates to the audience the substance of their sermons, adding exhortations of his own. An equal or greater number of ministers continue the work of preaching in a tent on the Muckle Binn for an equal length of time. "On Friday, there is a cessation of preaching. On Saturday it is resumed, but not till about one o'clock; it is continued, however, till about eight. On the dismissal of the congregations, I mean that within and that without doors, suth of the intended communicants as had not been furnished with tickets, which they call tokens, for the communion table, receive them now from the ministers and elders. On Saturday evening, the voice of some one who has retired for secret prayer, is heard here and there, behind a hillock or a furze-bush, or in the thickest part of the standing corn. A dog here and there stands barking at a noise, which indicates that some stranger is near, though he cannot see him. "At last the occasion Sunday it self arrives. The church is crowded more than it is easy to imagine. Even the little black gallery, on which penitent offenders against chastity sit, called the cutty stool, is crammed full: there is no disgrace in sitting in this seat on this occasion. Pregnant women faint. For their recovery, sympathetic females loosen or cut the laces of their stays, and move them for air to the windows. But the windows are beset with dense columns of people, cager to catch some of the words of the minister, who is serving at the communion table; nor is it with out much difficulty that they can be persuaded to fall back even for a minute or two. "In the mean time, the work of preaching, praying, and singing psalms, goes forward at the tent. I have heard, that in the time of old Culfargie, it was sometimes necessary to have two lents, as no human voice could extend to the whołę multitude which resorted to the occasion at Aberuethey in those days; but I never saw more than one. "The space occupied by the multitude in front, on either wing, and at the back too of the tent, may be, including the booths and beer-stands of publicans, about three quarters of a mile in circumference. When a very popular preacher holds forth, the hearers sit fast, or seize the moment when they think that they have been wrought into a suitable frame of mind, to repair to the church, and press forward, as soon as they are able, to the communion table. When it is the turn of one less gifted to fill the tent, as they call it, they beckon to their acquaintance, and retire in crowds to booths or beer-barrels to take a refreshment. From about two o'clock in the afternoon to about six or seven, when there is an interval of an hour, the people passing to and fro, between the preaching tent, the church, and the booths of the suttlers, forms the whole, when viewed at a distance, into one compacted scene. "This scene is seen to great advantage on the north, and opposite banks of the Erue, near the Rhynd. The white linen caps and red cloaks, or red or striped plaids of the women of the lower and most numerous classes; the silk cloaks and hats of others; and the blue bonnets or the hats of the men, make altogether a very striking as well as motley appear ance. ance. The singing of psalms by so where, as it was long the capital of great a multitude, with Stentorian Scotland, he recollects some striking voices, to the number of twelve passages in the Scottish history. He thousand, reverberated from the hill, passes on through the Carse of Gowis heard at a great distance, like the rie, the Campus frumento nobilis of hum of bees. Had this scene been the celebrated Buchannan, stretching viewed by the Danes encamped on along the left bank of the Tay, the eastern slope of the hill of Mon- to DUNDEE: from Dundee, by Arcrieff, they would, beyond all doubt, broath, and the promontory of the have mistaken it for the camp of the Redhead, a most stupenduous rock, enemy, engaged in some awful in- to Montrose : from Montrose up to cantations. the banks of the South Esk, to Bre“ Thé Monday after the sacra- chin; from Brechin, by Stonehaven, ment is a thanksgiving-day. There to Aberdeen: from Aberdeen, round are two preachers, both in the church by Peterhead and Fyvie, lo Bamff: and at the tent; but the whole ser- from Bamff, by Portsoy, to Fochavice is over by four o'clock, when all bers. And now, having arrived at the ministers and elders repair to the the banks of the Spey, where be forminister's house, and enjoy a very merly, before his coming to Engplentiful, though perbaps I dare not land, passed seven years, in the venture to call it, a very hearty, din- course of which he made many exner; for even now the intensity of cursions to different places; he prothe religious tone is not wholly re- ceeds to describe objects, and relate laxed. Immediately after dinner, matters of fact, without troubling his which is preceded by a very long readers, in every instance, with the grace, there is again singing of circumstance of time, or the partipsalms, and a very long prayer. cular spot from whence he set out to “ The pilgrims who had come to another. His excursions extend to this holy city, after visiting, that is, different parts in the interior, and , taking a near view of Culfargie, the mountainvus parts of Banffshire and residence of their first and great mi- Aberdeensbire, and over the whole nister, return to their respective course of the Spey, on both sides, counties and parishes. Travellers almost up to its source, and into who meet them on their return, as some of the straths (vallies) and travellers in an opposite direction glens that discharge their waters in had done before, inquire at the first that spacious and rapid river. The inn they alight at, “ What the deuce circumstances, character, and modes can be the neaning of so many peo- of life of the inhabitants are deple here and there all along the road scribed, and illustrated by particular for so many miles, as silent and examples. Natural objects too are downcast as if they were going to described, with some curious phenothe gallows?"_" Oh! it has been mena and facts in natural history. the sacrament at Abernethey." On a fine day, our traveller went to From the bridge of Erne our tra- climb Belrinnis, a high mountain bor. veller crossed the country, northward dering on the valley of the Spey, to Perth, which he represents as a about twenty miles from the Murray very utiful and fourishing, bu Frith. It rises 3000 feet above the remarkably inhospitable place, and level of the sea; and is the first land that a that is seen by mariners coming from the Northern Ocean. "Though the day was extremely clear before I reached the top, I found myself enveloped in a cloud, whence I could see any object distinctly only at a few yards distance. Perceiving a fine breeze, as I was ascending, I hoped the cloud would disperse, and therefore, though I felt it extremely cold, and myself extremely hungry, having foolishly put nothing in my pocket, I resolved to remain there some time. But, to my astonishment, while I was stepping about to keep myself warm, on the top of the hill, I perceived something of an uncommon appearance through the mist at a distance. I approached it, indeed, not without fear, and at length found it to be a phalanx of wedders, or sheep three years old, on the top of the hill, ready to defend themselves from every attack. They were arranged in a line, forming a blunt wedge, with an extremely large one in the middle, having a large black forehead, and a pair of tremendous horns. There were about a hundred in front, and about fifty on each side of him. A number of weaker ones were in the rear, and not one of them eating, but looking sternly at me. I was not afraid, knowing them to be sheep; yet I was not quite easy, as, if any fox had appeared at this time, in attacking him and even chasing him, they might have killed me. These wedders are sent up into the hill in the end of April, er early in May, and the proprietors never look after them till about the end of October. It is well known they never sleep all at a time, but, as is the case with crows, geese, and other gregarious animals, there is always one at a distance on the Look out. They never rest in a hol low, even in the most stormy night, but upon a rising ground, where they can see all around; and when they are attacked by a fox, or dogs, their assailants never fail to be killed, When furiously attacked, they form themselves into a circle, their heads all outward, and the weaker ones in the centre; and if, as it sometimes happens, that a fox takes a spring, and leaps in among them, they instantly turn, and boxing him with their head, and stamping him with their feet, and tossing him with their horus, never fail to kill him; his ribs being generally all broken. When domesticated, animals generally leave their protection to man; but, when left to themselves, both instinct and experience teaches them how to defend themselves. When these sheep on the top of the hill saw me retire, they grew more careless, and did not keep their ranks so straight; but whenever I turned, and was approaching them, they looked more steadily at me, and stood closer together, and formed their ranks more regularly; and I verily believe, had I attempted to attack them, they would have resisted. I had once a mind to try it, but I confess I was afraid, as I observed them seemingly bending their knees, to make a spring at me. I began to be so extremely hungry, that I would have given five shillings for a halfpenny roll; and it being about four in the afternoon, I had thoughts of descending; when, all at once, as I was looking towards the east, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eye, the clouds went off from the mountain, and fields, hills, rivers, and other objects, thirty miles distant, all at once appeared to view. The sight was grand in the extreme, and called up immediately to my mind that omnipotent being who makes the clouds his chariot, and rides on the wings of the wind. Instead of the sensations of hunger and fatigue, which the moment before made me uneasy, I perceived a secret enjoyment, a calm satisfaction, and a glow of love to God and to the creatures of his hand, which no language can express. When I saw Peterhead on the east, at the distance of near sixty miles, and thousands of variegated intervening objects; on the north, the wide extended ocean, as far as the eye could reach; and towards the west, Inverness, the hills of Lovat, Urqu hart, and all the beautiful county of Murray, with villages and towns, scattered here and there; appearing no more than small specks, astonishment seized upon my mind, and I stood long motion less admiring the grandeur of the scene." Not many miles from Castle Grant, Mr. H. found a gentleman who was not displeased that a couple of eagles, whose nest Mr. H. went to see regularly every summer, built one on a rock in a hill, not far from the gentleman's house. There was a stone within a few yards of it, about six feet long, and nearly as broad, and upon this stone, almost constantly, but always when they had young, the gentleman and his servants found a number of muir fowl, partridges, hares, rabbits, ducks, snipes, ptarmacans, rats, mice, &c. and sometimes kids, fawns, and lambs. When the young eagles were able to hop the length of this stone, to which there was a narrow road hanging over a dreadful precipice, as a cat brings live mice to her kittens, and teaches them to kill them, so the eagles, I learned, often brought hares, rabbits, &c. alive; and, placing them before their young, taught them to kill and tear them to pieces. As the eagles kept what might be called an excellent larder, when any visitors surprized the gentleman, he was absolutely in the habit, as he told me himself, of sending his servants to see what their neighbours had to spare; and that they scarcely ever returned without something very good for the table. It is well enough known, that game of all kinds is not the worse, but the better for being kept for a very considerable time. Mr. H. pursues his journey by Rothes, Elgin, and Forres, to Inverness. At fort Augustus, he crossed Lochness, and landed on the north side at castle Urquhart, once the seat of the Cummings, situated on a promontory of solid rock, jutting into the lake. From thence he proceeded to Cromarty, Dornoch, and by Wick and Thurso, to Cape Wrath, the north-west point of Scotland, through a country, of which, among other observations, he says, that "Were the British legislature to enact that delinquents from the parish of St. Giles, in London, and other parts, to be transported there instead of Botany Bay, it would be an improvement in our code of laws." The hardiness of the people in the most northerly counties of Scotland, and the hardness of their fare will scarcely appear credible to any other than a Scotchman. At Cape Wrath they have a foot post, who, weekly, summer and winter, though it be near sixty miles, runs between the cape and Thurso: which he often does, wading to the middle in snow. "The people of Caithness," says Mr. H. "are stunted creatures with sharp |