CHAPTER XII. 



LIFE AND STAR-GAZING AT AUCHLEVEN AND 

 TULLYNESSLE. 



THE Gaelic,* or Gaudie, is one of the classical streams of 

 Scottish poetry, heard and sung of by many who have 

 never seen the region through which it flows, and who may 

 have little idea that it belongs to the north. The beauties 

 that poesy has woven round it breathe more of the sunny 

 south, with its "bud and blossom," " licht o' gowd and 

 leaves o' green," " its bloomy heaths and yellow whins," 

 amidst "its bosky linns," than cold Aberdeenshire. But 

 the refrain sufficiently reiterates where it runs " at the 

 back o' Benachie," the hill that appears so much in our 

 story. 



The north side of the Vale of Alford is bounded by 

 an elevated ridge stretching from the Coreen Hills on the 

 west to Benachie on the east, where it abruptly termi- 

 nates in its striking peak. Along the north side of this 

 ridge, runs a quiet, pastoral hollow with gentle slopes, 

 generally well cultivated, which are watered by this famous 

 stream. It is itself only a small burn, which rises in the 

 parish of Clatt, to the north of the Coreens, and flows east- 

 ward along the northern base of Benachie, into the Ury, 

 which joins the Don at Inverurie. 



* Pronounced Gaadie, with a long, broad a, as in far. 



