A VISIT TO BRAEMAR, 243 



accident. Occasionally my little friends would perch upon the balcony of 

 the room where I slept, and you may suppose that I was as still as a 

 mouse whilst I sat on the foot of my bed, breathlessly watching them quite 

 closely; what a privilege! without disturbing them. These were happy 

 hours. Give your children such a taste, the benefit is almost incalculable; 

 only those who have experienced it can realize its extent. 



Nor were their proceedings, when with us, the only interest that attached 

 us to them; there were the mental speculations I indulged in, with reference 

 to their journeyings to and fro, where they went, how they sped, etc.; and 

 as the same pair, I verily believe, came to us each year, what became of 

 the nine or ten young ones which they annually reared. All these were 

 great sources of mental occupation, and then the anxiety with which, about 

 the beginning of May, or end of April, I always looked for their return, 

 and they were pretty regular, within a few days usually, and I fancied 

 that they looked jaded and tired, but they soon recovered their good looks. 



In after seasons we had many pairs of these birds, besides those I 

 have adverted to, which bred on the ends of the plates of our outsheds and 

 in holes of trees, and do so still, but the woodbine got old and died, and 

 no nest has graced our porch for many a long year; but I have only to 

 shut my eyes to realize the by-gone scene of my childhood, and there 

 sits the little grey bird on the apple-tree, and as he flies towards the porch 

 with his store of nicest food, methinks I still hear the sibilous clamour of 

 his offspring, as he settles on the nest to distribute the meal. 



PemhrolcG Square, Kensington, May, 185G. 



A VISIT TO BRAEMAR IN 1855. 



BY W. SUTHERLAND, ESQ. 

 ( Concluded from page 229. J 



Glen Callater and Lochnagar, both stations of some note, lie in a 

 different direction from the places we have already visited. They may be 

 both most easily reached by following the course of the Clunie, the stream 

 which divides the Castletown into two distinct portions, and is indeed the 

 boundary between the two great proprietors in this district, until you reach 

 the farm of Ahallater, where, turning to the south, you enter a narrow 

 glen, which towards its upper end produces many of our best alpine plants 

 in great abundance. The journey along the Clunie will perhaps present 

 little of much interest to the mere botanical tourist, with the exception of 

 the following plants, which are in general abundant about the village itself: 

 — Cnicus heterophyllus, Galium boreale, Oxyria reniformis, Myrica Gale, 



