152 SCOTLAND ILLUSTRATED. 



so mysterious a calamity was too well calculated to strengthen. The rifles of 

 the party were found twisted, as if from the effects of lightning ; but the bodies 

 of the men themselves appeared when found as if they had been suffocated in 

 bed ; only one of the party was found a little way beyond the spot where the 

 hut had stood. 



In this, as in almost every country where the ancient barons or feudal chiefs 

 were much given to this pastime,* the superstitious belief of invisible hunting 

 seems to have prevailed. Speaking of this, as popularly received in the neigh- 

 bouring country of " woody Ross," the author of " Albania" has the following 

 highly poetical passage : 



" There oft is heard at midnight, or at noon, 

 Beginning faint, but rising still more loud 

 And nearer, voice of hunters, and of hounds, 

 And horns hoarse-winded, blowing far and keen : 

 Forthwith the hubbub multiplies, the gale 

 Labours with wilder shrieks, and rifer din 

 Of hot pursuit ; the broken cry of deer 

 Mangled by throttling dogs ; the shouts of men, 

 And hoofs thick beating on the hollow hill. 

 Sudden the grazing heifer in the vale 

 Starts at the noise, and both the herdsman's ears 

 Tingle with inward dread. Aghast he eyes 

 The mountain's height, and all the ridges round, 

 Yet not one trace of living wight discerns; 

 Nor knows, o'erawed, and trembling as he stands, 

 To what to whom he owes his idle fear, 

 To ghost, to witch, to fairy, or to fiend j 

 But wonders, and no end of wondering finds." 



The town of Elgin stands in an open, alluvial, and fertile valley, skirted by 

 low terraced banks on the margin of the Lossie. It is a flourishing town, 

 having a well conducted weekly print, an extensive public library, with the 

 benefit of an excellent academy ; and is much resorted to by families in easy 

 and affluent circumstances, who find in Elgin most of those rational pleasures 

 and advantages which attend a residence in the capital. The buildings of a 

 public nature particularly the new church are of chaste design and able 

 execution. The church, in the Grecian style, is considered the finest specimen 



* For an account of, perhaps, the most gorgeous hunt on record, the reader may refer to that given in 

 file to James V,, by the earl of Athol, 1528. LINDSAY, page 266. And also " the hunting given by the 

 same nobleman for the entertainment of the queen," 1563, in which were killed three hundred and sixty 

 deer, five wolves, and some roes. Barclay. Logan, vol. ii. p. 49. 



