288 Four-in-Hand in Britain. 



We had time while at Kinross to walk along Loch 

 Leven and see the ruined castle upon the island, from 

 which Douglas rescued Queen Mary. What a question 

 this of Mary Queen of Scots is in Scotland ! To intimate 

 a doubt that she was not purity itself suffices to stir up 

 a warm discussion. Long after a "point of divinity" 

 ceases to be the best bone to snarl over, this Queen 

 Mary question will probably still serve the purpose. 

 What matters it what she was ? It is now a case of 

 beauty in distress, and we cannot help sympathizing 

 with a gentle, refined woman (even if her refinement 

 was French veneering), surrounded by rude, coarse men. 

 What is the use of " argie bargieing " about it ? Still, 

 I suppose, we must have a bone of some kind, and this 

 is certainly a more sensible one than the " point of 

 divinity," which happily is going somewhat out of 

 fashion. 



To-day's talk on the coach was all of the demonstra- 

 tion at Dunfermline, and one after another incident was 



recalled. Bailie W was determined we should learn 



what real Scotch gooseberries are, and had put on the 

 coach an immense basketful of them. " We never can 

 dispose of so many," was the verdict at Kinross ; at 

 Perth it was modified, and ere Pitlochrie was reached 

 the verdict was reversed and more wished for. Our 

 American friends had never known gooseberries before, 

 friend Bailie, so they said. 



Fair Perth was to be our resting-place, but before 



